As in recent years, this report commences with the first day of my vacation.
Saturday, 5/21: Dinner at The Outback with hubby, and best friend J and her hubby. I go back with J. We load up my luggage in The Outback’s parking lot. It always feels like some sort of prisoner exchange.
Sunday, 5/22: Errands with J, see Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Decent movie, best of the first three. Dialogue still mostly sucks. Hayden Chirstensen proves he has the acting chops, though. His transformation to the Dark Side was well played. Also watched Charmed season ender, which had a nice, satisfying though surprising ending.
Monday, 5/23: J and I worked on our door decoration – “Hero Sandwich.” How she figures out how to do this stuff is beyond me. Yet it was my idea to use green crepe paper for the lettuce. She then decided to wet the wad to bleach out some of the green. Who knew crepe paper could be such a strong sponge? Not us. She suggested I start drying it with a hair dryer and we had “dancing lettuce” on her kitchen counter, spinning off drops of green dye everywhere. We laughed til we hurt. But it looked great on the foam sandwich.
Saw Revenge of the Sith again, this time with her hubby along. End up redoing two of the ImPRESS Books publications with oopsies in ‘em.
Tuesday, 5/24: Finish the door decoration and play with our new spy characters. Watch season enders of NCIS and House. Both were great.
Wednesday, 5/25: My birthday, as often happens, is on the road. Rain on and off in Pennsylvania. Patches of blue sky tease us. First rest stop restroom had auto toilets, auto sinks, and auto towels. Pretty soon, machines will do everything for us. Orange traffic barrels (no cones this year) are out in force.
Tunnels, in order, going west: Blue Mountain, Kittatinny, Tuscarora, Alleghany (We always forget the order, which is why I’m including it here.)
Thirty-five minutes outside of Willard, we hit Detour Hell. First was the detour up to the next road running parallel to the one we wanted. But it, too, had a detour, where we had to go slow behind a buggy with a runaway horse. Finally, heading back down to the road we wanted, we were stopped by the longest freight train I’d ever seen, carrying new cars.
Thursday, 5/26: Breakfast at Comfort Inn – Cinnamon French Toast. Yum. At an antique store, I find brass mini decanter and goblets. Then we hit the Western Store and I buy 2 pairs of boots. Will have to ship them home, as they’ll be too much to lug home on Amtrak.
Arrive at Con hotel, the Holiday Inn Convention Center South, in E. Lansing, MI. Have dinner in the hotel’s wonderful restaurant, Hummingbird’s, with J, E, and V.
Had a very tasty meatloaf open sandwich. Get my belated, yummy, chocolate “birthday” cake :), but I forgot to take a picture. :(
Later, J, E, and V set up the Dealers’ Room tables while I set up my art and J’s in the Art Show.
Friday, 5/27: Gophered in Art Show, checking in artists and showing newbie gopher how to do it. End up staying later than I’d planned because no other gophers showed up.
Dinner at The Outback with the RRG (Rowdy Restaurant Gang: me, J, J2, J3, E, and V; aka Joyce, Jan, Jo, Eileen, and Vivian).
Had our annual gift exchange (used to be just b’day prezzies for me, but we all have b’days, so for the last few years, we’ve been exchanging cheap yet fun gifts with everyone).
Had a scrumptious 9 oz sirloin. We had the usual Bloomin’ Onion and Cheese Fries, plus shrimp, for appetizers. Had my annual beer, a Sam Adams. And shared desserts included the Chocolate Tower (pictured) and the Thunder Down Under.
Hall crawled (going from room to room) a bit, bought stills from one of the room dealers, ran into a wandering group with a blow-up “Mary Sue” doll. The smutty dialogue was true performance art. Bravo.
Saturday, 5/28: No hamburger on Dealers’ Room lunch menu. :( Theory: Dragons ate all the cows in MI, no more meat. J and I shared a tasty club sandwich, instead.
Alternated between checking out the Art Show and helping in Dealers’ Room. Dealers’ Room shenanigans this year included the flying (stuffed) pigs and stuffed monkey toss (J and Tamie across the aisle).
Dinner with Suze, Bert, Janet, Gayle, and J in Hummingbird’s. Had Chicken Alfredo. A different chocolate cake for dessert, but again, forgot to take a picture because I was so eager to eat it.
Hall crawled and took photos of cool door decorations. This time, we hit all the floors. Lots of clever ones this year, but my fav is House: Snark on a Stick, picutred below.
Also visited Ursual's Dragon Hatchery and adopted another one. It's similar to one I have at home (a tigerish dragon), so I'll bring it to work.
And as is now tradition, J and I, along with E and V went swimming, then soaked in the hotel’s hot tub. E was pooped after, but J, V, and I went to Denny’s after (2:00 a.m.!) with Josee (another J!) and Misto, a new acquaintance of mine. We all had a blast, telling odd pet and animal stories. I told the one about the squirrel in the library staff room story, one of my all-time favs. Had a chocolate root beer float.
Sunday, 5/29: J and I set off the smoke detector with our morning showers. Talk about an adrenalin rush to bring a person to full wakefulness.
Some folks drop off a rose for J in the "heirloom mug.
Dealers’ Room again. J and I share another club sandwich for lunch. Business slows while folks go bid on art. Sunday tends to be slow in the “Hucksters’ Room.” We close early to go help shut down the Art Show and do breakdown for the auction. Art staff and gophers get treated to the traditional pizza dinner and snacks. Lots of new Dark Chocolate M&Ms at this con. I’m in food lust. J and I leave before things are finished to get ready for the auction. We’re official “hecklers.” We change to nice clothes. I wear my new red boots. J spikes my hair with temporary red gel stuff. It shows on my dark hair, but not so much. Still, looks cool. I do my nails with red glitter polish.
E is auctioneering again and Mike is back this year. Paula and Karen continue as auctioneers. So this year, instead of the Three Auctioneers, we have the Fantastic Four! According to Paula, that is. And as usual, the auction is the highlight of the con for me and J. Three of my pieces are in the auction and one of J’s two made it. Hers sells for much more than all 3 of mine combined, but except for one of my pieces, all our Art Show art sold.
E bumps Mike and they have a stare down. Then Mike grabs her and dips and kisses her. Then Paula wants a kiss and Mike obliges. Then Jesse, who runs the auction, got one, then Karen, then Scott (a big guy, an artist, and a former auctioneer before he hurt his back) came out of the audience for a kiss, too. When Scott was auctioning, he and Mike had a real routine going. Scott almost always got the slash smut art to auction and feigned horror and well, the two of them could put on quite a show. Scott’s been laid up the last couple of years resting his back in his hotel room (he spends the days in the Dealers’ Room with his wife who does wonderful glass work), so it was great having him at the auction. And so, while he and Mike had a near kiss and settled for a hug, Scott goosed him. Ah, the good times are back.
J and Bert got into a battle of the bid sheets in the show over one of Bast’s pieces – an NCIS picture holder – and continued to do battle in the auction. Their posturing was great fun, since they’re friends. And I got the Kate/Sally Gandolf drawing/etched glass piece I’d been lusting after. I’ve wanted one of their collaborations for a long time and was so glad to finally win one as the ones I like always go to auction and sell for more than I can usually afford. This one was best portrait in the show.
A Miss Piggy head was auctioned for the Fan Fund and J took donations to bid on it when Paula, who was auctioning it, said she’d put it on for a higher bid. J got cashed tossed at her when she bid $31. She won it, and someone bought it from her for a costume. And Paula was true to her word, as the picture shows. I whited out art on the chair, for copyright purposes.
And Jesse and KarenK agreed I could be official Art Auction photographer.
We got back to our room to find a note that “Hero Sandwich” won Best Multi-Media Door Decoration.” Sweeeeet.
HERO SANDWICH, in all its glory:
Monday, 5/30: Last day of the con. J and I pack, do our last bit of selling, pack up the dealers’ room stuff, load the van, say our goodbyes, and head out. It’s odd to think we have so many good friends we see just once a year (some we get to see twice or more!), but that’s how it is. After all these years, there are many folks we care about and have fun with at this con. I’ve been attending it for 17 years, and J has come with me for the past 13. MediaWest really is family, even with some folks not going anymore and lots of new folks.
J and I have yummy bacon cheeseburgers at Hummingbird’s (they make some of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten), then hit the road. Overnight, as usual, in Willard, OH.
Tuesday, 5/31: No dead skunks on the way, but two on the way home, both in Ohio. Outside Willard, our detour hits a detour farther east.
Undated: At J’s, I help her with inventory, building books, cleaning out sample books, etc. We pack up my stuff for shipping home, and see Madagascar. Very funny. And I finally get to see The Incredibles on DVD. Loads of fun.
All in all, a wonderful vacation.
Copyright Shelly, 6/5/05.