Thursday, 5/25. After leaving yesterday morning and staying overnight in Milan, OH, J and I arrive at the Holiday Inn Convention Center South. We register, put up our door decoration (photos of Mal), then join E and V for dinner at Hummingbirds, the hotel’s wonderful restaurant. I have the open meatloaf sandwich which doesn’t taste the same or as good as last year.
Mal, J, and I arrive.
A nasty thunderstorm starts while we’re eating and rain starts coming through the glass ceiling over our table, onto me and Mal! Richard, the manager of Hummingbirds, moves tables and chairs for us. He’s our hero.
Dessert is a wonderfully yummy birthday cake (chocolate with marshmallowy white icing) in E and V’s room. After, J and I set up the dealers room and I help set up the art show panels which arrived late, as usual.
Our table.
Friday, 5/26. A dreary morning greets us. Cinnamon french toast for breakfast helps perk me up. I set up my art show display and am chagrined to discover there’s no table reserved for me. I find an unassigned one near one of the back corners, far from an ideal spot. Grrrrrr. There doesn’t seem to be much need for me to help check in artists, so I head over to the Dealers’ Room where the opening feeding frenzy has begun. The miracle is that registration started on schedule.
My crafts in the art show.
Dinner at the Outback, with the RRG (Rowdy Restaurant Gang: me, J, E, V, J2, J3). We order (I have my now-usual Sam Adams), then exchange gifts. One of us gives out stuffed microbes. I get e coli. He’s so cute. I gave out rubber duckies.
Appetizers are the usual cheese fries and bloomin’ onion, plus shrimps or some such for those who like them. I ordered the new and very yummy Cyclone Pasta, and split it with J and take part of her sirloin steak. Chocolate Chocolate Tower and Chocolate Thunder Down Under for dessert. I never plan to diet on this trip, with very good reason.
The couple at the next table seemed to enjoy our antics, but their replacements didn’t seem as pleased. The folks across from us seemed to enjoy our fun, too, and the young woman there came over to ask us what we were celebrating. We told her we were celebrating 9 years of friendship. Though, of course, J and I have a friendship that’s now legal; it was 21 years back in February and still going strong.
J and I went to the hotel hot tub/jacuzzi and ran into some of the UNCLE crowd. Back in our room, J and I watch the Poseidon (original) DVD on my laptop. There was no hot water for showers, so we smelled from chlorine.
Sat. 5/27. Breakfast, showers (with warm water), and I check out the art show. One of my boxes (one of the 2 big trunks) has a bid, so I relax. People are finding the table back there. I don’t like sitting in the freezing Dealers’ Room and I hate selling, so while J conducts business, I go back up to the room to blog because there’s no room to sit in the atrium. After, I use the basement gym and get in a half hour on the treadmill (which actually worked this year!) and the stationary bike.
J and I indulge in actual fan activity (fanac) by watching vids: some movie trailers and Mosquito which is a Firefly spoof. Character names included Cal for Mal, Dry for Wash, Tome for Book, and Susan for Jayne. And I loved this lyric from the parody of the Firefly theme music: “Take our doctor, make him squeal...” along with this bit of dialogue, when Cal says, “I have to ask you to not rape our doctor.” Priceless and you can download it for viewing at: http://www.mosquitoverse.com/
Dinner was back at Hummingbirds, 9 (E, V, J, me, S, B, M, G, and another J and all are ITB readers!) of us enjoying good food and camaraderie. We knew we couldn’t go to Denny’s for a late night ice cream run because it had a fire and was closed, so we ordered ice cream sundae cups at Hummingbirds that we could keep in our room fridges (in the tiny freezer section) for later. The waitress went to check and came back to tell us something I doubt I’ll ever hear again: “He’s out walking his ferret.” We teased him later, but apparently, he really does have ferrets.
Our door decoration.
After dinner, we went on our traditional hall crawl, starting on the fifth floor and working our way down to 2, taking photos of the decorated doors we like and popping in to see the wares of the room dealers. Ran into Ken, MWC’s Harrison Ford lookalike, who arrived late. It’s just not a MWC without seeing him. Photos of door decorations can be found here.
Pool and hot tub with J, E, and V after, then the ice cream cups at E & V’s room. No spoons! So I scooted down to the con suite, which was fortunately for me on our floor, and picked up plastic spoons. Before bed, J and I check the art show and I have more bids. For once, J has no art or jewelry in the art show. Feels weird.
Sun, 5/28. Breakfast, Dealers’ Room (I buy filk CDs), check art show, register for next year. J and I worked on the next ITB stories, plotting out 10 of them, when things slow in the Dealers’ Room. Then our final run-through the Art Show before it closes at 4 pm so we can defend our bids. I have 6 pieces going into the auction and another 2 I’m bidding on that are also going to auction.
Dinner at Hummingbirds. J’s back is bothering her so we don’t do the art show breakdown as we’ve done in the past few years. I have the Oriental Chicken Salad which is much different than in the past, but tasty enough.
J and I dress up for our roles as official Art Auction Hecklers. E is auctioneering again, along with Mike, Paula, and Karen. No Scott, though, because he has an art project he needs to work on. The usual fun time, though nothing outrageous this year. The Mag 7 fans on the right side, who brought their hubbies with them, start a cheer each time one of them wins an item: “Go, right side!” The left and center (where J and I are sitting with V and some other friends) get competitive and try out our own cheers, but most of the bidding action and noise is over on the right.
Me dressed up.
My boots.
E and V join us in our room after for the rest of the ice cream sundaes. And yes, we all saved our spoons.
Mon. 5/29. Check out, wait on art pickup (buyers and sellers) for ONE F’IN HOUR. At least, they put chairs outside this year for folks on line, though not enough. Last minutes in Dealers’ Room, then pack up. Since I made more money in the art show than I spent, I celebrate by buying a thumb ring.
Ken
Jesse, the art auction mistress.
Puppet and friend.
Hummingbird's extraordinary manager.
J and I said our goodbyes to friends and acquaintances, then fueled up on bacon cheeseburgers in Hummingbirds for the drive (well, ride, for me, since I don’t drive) back. Stayed in new place, for us, in Willard, OH, overnight. Had to stop first at a discount mall in MI to pick up a short-sleeved shirt to change into because it had gotten HOT.
And so, the prep for next year’s con begins.