Except that's "a number of things done" rather than a musical bit.

I'd had a bad night because I completely forgot I had sausage for lunch yesterday, and ate popcorn afterward. This, as my body determined a week ago, is Not A Good Thing. I was awake for several hours with stomach pains, but didn't want to go back in the bathroom because it was freezing in there; it never heats properly and was probably about 56°F in there. Willow's the one sleeping in the warmest bathroom in the house.

However, we had things to get done this morning. James loaded the dishwasher and then we brought my old work rolling cart (the red one) downstairs and swapped it for the other one (the "birch" color) that basically sits in one place and holds the old server James brought home years ago. (It still has Win2000 on it, which tells you how old it is.) This meant I could finally put all my work things away and put the desk back in the bedroom, and finally vacuum!

About one we left for Anachrocon, which was being held this year near Perimeter Mall. We registered just in time to see most of a Science panel about time travel. It was pretty interesting, but it was straight science; if you were looking for little asides to what the panelists thought were the best time travel methods used in film/television, you didn't get it. James stayed for a panel about the evolution of the hand gun, but I took a turn around the dealer's room. This is mostly steampunk-style clothes, but someone was selling Christmas ornaments, another vendor electronic cigars, several jewelry vendors were there, and also someone selling electronic cigarettes. Then I joined James back in the panel room and read "Reader's Digest" on my tablet.

Well, I was going to a panel on the Crimean War at four o'clock, but no one was there, not even the panelists. So we went to opening ceremonies instead. Next year: three more tracks: Doctor Who, classic animation, and classic American sci-fi television, plus a new hotel, the Marriott at Century Center, which we've been to for cons years ago, back when it was a Holiday Inn or somesuch (hotels around here change owners so often you can't tell them without a scorecard).

Anne and Clay arrived while we were there, so we met them in the lounge. Mostly ended up talking about Willow and their three dachshunds. We finally ate supper there: good, but expensive! Then we took a turn around the dealer's room. Anne and I both bought a small stuffed sheep from the Christmas people, Clay looked at dusters (like Harry Dresden wears), and Anne saw a butterfly mask made of wire that she loved. We bought Valentine chocolates from the chocolate people from Michigan, and then went to the USO show that followed the Valentine's Day dinner and dance, where everyone attended dressed in 1940s finery (I was having a great time watching them walk back and forth while we ate in the lounge; one woman had a wide-brimmed scarlet hat that would have looked at home on Remember WENN's diva, "Miss Hilary Booth, of course") (The theme of the convention this year is veterans.) We saw a Bugs Bunny cartoon, "Super Rabbit," and a newsreel about VJ Day before the show began, and then there was a salute to veterans. We sang "God Bless America" and then "the Andrews sisters" sang all the service songs and people in the audience stood up when their service was announced. The USO show had a fellow imitating Bob Hope on a USO tour of Georgia, with his guests Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Josephine Baker, Ethel Merman, Veronica Lake, Ava Gardner, and Marlene Dietrich. The ladies all did a bang-up job, with lovely voices, and "Ethel" had a great set of pipes on her! "Bob" needs work; it's very hard to do Bob Hope, with that split second timing, and he wasn't quite up to it, but he did his best, and some of it was quite funny.

By then it was 9:30 and we "old people" were all feeling tired, so they went off to their hotel room and we decamped. Willow had been very good when we got home, and when I called her came down the stairs wagging her tail. She'd eaten a little of the chili and rice mixture this morning (she wouldn't eat it until James put cheese on it) and ate a little more when we were out, and another mouthful or two when we got in. It's all mouthfuls. Sigh.

Apparently we had an earthquake here tonight, a 4.2 with an epicenter in South Carolina. There were reports all over the news about people feeling it, but we didn't at all.

Labels: chores, conventions, dogs, food, friends, music, pets

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:45:00 PM

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