The tortilla roll-ups not withstanding, the routine worked this year: we had everything ready to go at night for the next day. When we got in at night, I pulled the battery out of the camera and swapped it out with a charged one and put the used one in the charger, put the PDA in the charger, fastened my badge and my watch to the strap of the camera bag. Then went into the kitchen, emptied out the lunchbag, put what I could in it for next day. Clothes were laid out on the chair in the bedroom. We got up in time for me to have oatmeal, milk and yogurt as always, since the rest of the weekend my diet is radically changed. Seems to have helped.

I was the one with the 10 o'clock panel this morning, but we got there in time to register for next year, then for James to head to the Marriott for a panel. I went upstairs for the Arthurian panel and found the room locked and people milling around outside. The moderator for the panel didn't have a key to the room.

So we started the panel outside the room, talking about our favorite printed versions of the Arthurian mythos and also some complaints about Merlin's diversions from the mythos. Our main objection to the Guinevere character, for instance, is that she's a commoner. She shouldn't even be Morgana's lady-in-waiting, and she can't marry Arthur!

The nice Sheraton man opened the door for us and we continued the conversation inside, talking about films and even the series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (which starred William Russell, who later did Doctor Who)—and more creebing about inconsistencies on Merlin, although most people admitted they loved Anthony Head as King Uther (it's a very good role, even though he's an asshole...LOL) and that Colin Morgan is cute.

I was fun and fancy-free for the next panel period, so I strolled over to the Marriott and just took one more turn around the Dealers' and Exhibitors' rooms. I did buy three stills from Jerry Ohlinger's stall—goodness, I just realized I've been buying stuff from Ohlinger for thirty years now!: a nice black-and-white of Darren McGavin in Kolchak, and color pics of Nathan Fillion and Molly Quinn from Castle. Also stopped at the ARTC table to say hi.

And that was my last taste of the hue and cry. I crossed back over and headed to the Sheraton for the rest of the day.

I love being with the BritTrack folks; they're certifiably crazy. And even though there were two more panels before the "Dead Dog" wrapup panel, the craziness had already started. Alan Siler was giving away key lime cupcakes and some weird "shrimp cocktail" potato chips, and a bag of jelly babies was passed around. Notwithstanding, the first panel was actually "Torchwood: CSI Cardiff," with Alan, Rob Bowen, and Caro McCully (and Rob Levy, not shown):


The chief discussion was about who the panel, and also the audience, thought was the most underappreciated character on the program, and also things that folks liked or didn't like about each of the characters. More than a few folks didn't like Gwen, who is supposed to be the "everyman" character. It was agreed that Tosh was quite underused; some voiced the opinion that she spent too much time mooning over Owen—and then got a great backstory before her own ended! No one liked Owen's backstory much.

By the "Everything Doctor Who" panel, mania was in full swing. More food was passed around, and an impromptu game of volleyball with four white balloons broke out. (I was getting flashbacks from registration...LOL.) They had been giving away little goodies all weekend—DVDs, T-shirts, even British-made food—and Rob Bowen started a scavenger hunt...there was this young woman in the front row; it was her first convention and she was still full of energy, and he would give her his camera and ask her to go out and ask people to do something, like do "YMCA," and when she came back with the photo, give her a prize. (Several other folks did it, too, including one guy who was sitting next to me, but it was mostly this one kid...it was such fun to watch!) The balloon volleyball was fun, too.

The final panel: Alan Siler, George (who was in an Underdog costume much of the weekend), Rob, Caro, Rob Levy, and the other Rob:


Caro discussing the annoying schedule changes as Rob Levy looks on:


...and Alan and George:


The distractions continued, but some of the newer fans kept the panel mostly on target by asking about favorite episodes and companions, and which episodes of the classic series a person who only watched the new series should try. This panel blended seamlessly into the next, James arrived from his wrapup panels, and the happy chaos continued.

Rob Levy read a list of "Top Ten Reasons" that Caro was the greatest. The running gag about the "French track" which has been going on all weekend proceeded apace, as they planned a Jerry Lewis film festival, a wine-and-cheese event, an Agincourt dance (no, wait, they thought that was "too soon"), and other silly events. Rob Levy proposed that it could be held at the Westin...but later when the panel settled down they popped the surprising news that there is an actual rumor that they are going to use the Westin in the future. Are they kidding? The Sheraton's only a two-block walk...the Westin is...gawd, in sight, but still "out there." Gad.

Caro was talking about the difficulty of setting the schedule since the rooms were changed almost until the last minute, and also they got Terry Gilliam as a last-minute guest. We talked about possibly having two rooms next year, one for games or film, other for panels. It was wonderful that we got the ballroom for the larger panels this year. I remember previous years, not last year when they first moved to the Sheraton, but before that, when the British panels were packed to the rafters in those tiny panel rooms in the basement of the Hyatt. This is heaven after that!

Finally they got down to giving the posters off the walls away, and we reluctantly decamped for home. We had planned to go to Longhorn for dinner, but it was already after five. We got a pizza from Kroger along with the usual suspects (bread, milk, bananas, etc.) and had that for supper while we got lunches ready, did the laundry, and put things away to go back to the routine tomorrow. Schuyler burbled and Willow leaped into James' lap at the first opportunity.

Magic time over. Time for bed. Aloha. :-)

Labels: chores, conventions, events

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:54:00 PM

Comments:

Wow, Linda! Sounds like you had an exhausting but fun weekend as well! Too bad about the crowds! But it looks like you got quite a few good pictures at the panels anyway!

# posted by  niferjen : 11:43:00 AM

 

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