It wasn't a stressful day, but it sure was busy for a while.

Note to James: if you use the alarm with the the cellphone's clock, it doesn't shut off after you use it, but just rings at the same time the next day. (I use Alarm Clock Plus; you have to reset it every day unless you deliberately set it to be recurring.) So we were woken up at 6:45. Groan. But we shut it up and went back to sleep until 9:30.

James took Tucker out and he had a successful trip. :-) A breakfast for all later, we had to go to Kroger to do the grocery shopping, and we stopped at Publix on the way home to get some Smart Balance, more BelVita breakfast bars, and some bread for my sandwich this week. Once the groceries were put up, we took Tucker to Petsmart for a little while. Yeah, we bought him a few more soft toys, and I finally replaced Snowy's millet. I've only forgotten it three times already. We also stopped at the dollar store for a couple of things. I bought Tucker a tug toy that was basically a ball and a rope; he had shredded the covering of the ball and then crushed it by the time supper was over. Even the cheap stuff in Woolworths lasted longer.

Oh, we did check out the dog park; it looks like it's well fenced. But it will have to be a morning thing; it's going up to the 90s. Tucker saw two dogs coming out of the park and wanted to get out to play. He did schmooze with several dogs at Petsmart and was disappointed that he couldn't play with the dogs in the play room of their Pet Hotel.

Came home and tossed balls and toys for the puppy, and watched The Poseidon Adventure. During the intermission we had to take so Tucker could have a bathroom break, I ran the vacuum cleaner and put up some coupons. Also washed a shawl that has been out for months because it had a couple of spots on it. We had soup from Kroger for supper.

Something funny did happen about nine o'clock! I went into the kitchen with Tucker right behind me. All of a sudden I heard this deep growl, and then a sharp bark. I looked down. We had just the light over the stove on, and Tucker could see his reflection in the oven door! He started growling and barking at it, and I had to squat down and show him I too had a reflection before he would stop.

Labels: birds, dogs, food, humor, movies, pets

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:50:00 PM

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Surprise! Fog!

Of course when you've designated one day for a boat ride, and it's foggy on that morning, you are naturally taken aback. Except when we checked the weather report, the fog appeared to only be over our area. Very odd, but good news. And of course we were paying particular attention to the weather this morning, because of the reports on Hurricane Sandy. It looks like we are lucky to be leaving when we are, as the forecast for early next week is primarily "wet."

We were awake fifteen minutes early so we would be certain to get to Hampton on time, and indeed we did, fifty minutes early. We should have parked in the free lot, but we didn't know when boarding time was, so we just parked in the hotel garage next door. Turns out we still had over a half hour until they would let us embark, so we made a "pit stop," then walked to the park between the cruise center and the Air and Space Museum, where there was a monument to the founding of Hampton and four panels chronicling the history of the city.

We almost had to immediately turn around to return to the dock to board the "Miss Hampton II" (I never did ask what happened to "Miss Hampton I," but it was in the souvenir book we bought after the cruise. They only used her a year and then she was sold to someone in Panama.). This was set up just like "Victory Rover" yesterday, with an enclosed compartment below and open decking on top with a partial cover, except that the pilot's cabin is up front on the top, and the tour guide, Dave, conducted the tour on the top deck.

This was a super cruise! The only overlap in material we had with "Victory Rover" yesterday was touring the piers at the Naval Base. This tour started with an overlook of the berthing area, which included the beautiful old buildings and clock tower of Hampton University and also the spot where the head of Blackbeard the Pirate was spitted after his capture on the Outer Banks. Dave also pointed out Strawberry Banks, where the Jamestown expedition first landed after their Atlantic crossing. They found strawberries there, which helped with the scurvy aboard, but found no fresh water. So they went on up the James River, ending up...well, you know. :-)

Next we passed the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel and the Chamberlin, which was once a hotel on the grounds of Fort Monroe, but is now a retirement home. The original Chamberlin was the first hotel in the United States that had electric lighting throughout. Fort Monroe was closed last year, but originally was the place where the Army manuals were written. It's the only fort in the United States with a moat around it! At various times both Robert E. Lee and Edgar Allan Poe were stationed at Fort Monroe.

Also in the area is the Old Point Comfort lighthouse, which was dedicated by Thomas Jefferson in 1803. It looks so tiny from shore!

After entering Chesapeake Bay, the tour stops for a half hour at Fort Wool, originally named Fort Calhoun until the Civil War. (It's "Wool" after a general, not in reference to sheep.) As we approached it, cormorants dotting the piles around the dock area took wing, leaving only one of the long-necked birds to check us out It was begun in 1819 and Andrew Jackson once had a summer home there (this later used by John Tyler, after which it burned down). It was used during the Civil War, enlarged during the Spanish-American War, once again occupied during World War I. Its last hurrah was during the second World War, and the island is a strange conglomeration of 1898, 1917 and 1941 fortifications. Most of the crannies and storage rooms are chained up, and you can no longer climb the WWII-era tower, but there is one wall you can scale via wide granite steps, and it was there Dave told us some of the history of the fort after giving an introduction on the parade ground.

Then we wandered about the tiny island, checking out the 1898 old battlements, with uneven stone and stains, and the more regular concrete put up during WWII. We even saw the grave of Lady, a German Shepherd who was the camp mascot during the war. She died in 1945 and was buried with military honors.

Once back on "Miss Hampton II," we went on to the piers at the Norfolk Naval Base. We headed into the area from the opposite direction from yesterday, starting with the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, and went down the line. Dave had taken care to familiarize himself with the ships and named them all off as we went by. However, we saw something cool before we even reached the piers: as we turned away from Fort Wool, we saw a submarine (Los Angeles class, like in Hunt for Red October, heading for us). At first Dave thought it was heading for one of the piers, then he spied one of the tugboats zipping in the direction of the sub with some Naval midshipmen aboard, and military police boats shooing civilian craft out of the way of both the tug and the sub. It turns out the submarine was probably from Annapolis, and it would "trade" middies out in the harbor, the sailors aboard the tug going on the sub and the ones from the sub transferring to the tug!

We had an even better view of the ships than yesterday (this boat went in closer) and aircraft were doing maneuvers overhead, so we were kept busy taking pictures. I stood at the rail for most of this portion of the trip, enjoying the cool breeze and the briny scent. We didn't see any dolphins this time, but at one point "Victory Rover" came steaming toward us and the boats traded horn beeps. We passed her going back as well.

Dave said Jen's ship, Truxton, had probably been berthed at Piers 5, 6 or 7, so I waved at them. Too bad they couldn't make it back in time from Jacksonville. (I wonder if the tropical storm will just keep them in port down there.)

The last "sight" we didn't actually visit, but it was pointed out to us, and that was the encounter between the Monitor and the Virginia (or the Merrimac, as it's still referred to in some history books). The ships were actually evenly matched, and Virginia lost the battle because she did not have the specially-designed metal-piercing shells designed for her guns, since they only expected to encounter a regular wooden warship, not the Monitor.

And then it was just a nice cruise back, with Dave telling us funny stories about silly questions he'd been asked, like "Why is that fence around the ships?" and the dumbest one, "How is that so many significant battles have happened at National Parks?" (This is akin to the lady who called up the talk show saying they should move deer crossing signs from the freeway where they are getting hit to safer places so the deer won't think they can cross there.) We also saw the little tug heading back with her fresh "middies," and the submarine was nowhere to be seen.

We were as hungry as bears from all that sea air once we were back at the dock, so we followed several other passengers who had asked Dave what was a good place to eat. Just across from the Air and Space complex, there was a street lined with little eating places and boutiques, and one of the places he recommended, "Marker 20," after one of the buoys in the harbor, was located there. It's just a little sports bar/eating place, but we enjoyed it. We both had crab cakes, and I was really wary about this because every other time I've had a crab cake it's been highly peppered. Well, this one wasn't and was quite delicious. There were also nicely done French fries and cole slaw so good that I finished all of it.

Dave was having his lunch here and walked by our table asking if we were enjoying the food. We nodded and then I asked curiously, since he said the boat's last tour would be on Wednesday and then they close until April, what he did on the off season. Well, he's a student and he'll wait tables until it's time for the tours to start up again. He makes a good tourguide, that's for sure: he has the tour facts down pat, he enjoys talking to people, and his gags are amusing. We learned a lot and it was well presented.

After lunch we headed east on I-64 to something called the Military Aviation Museum James had read about before we left, and the gentleman we talked about at Air Power Park recommended it as well. This is a collection of World War I and II aircraft: the WWII units are all authentic craft from the war and the WWI aircraft are reproductions. But they all can fly (well, one can't anymore because it's Russian and they can't find parts; it would fly if it could); they aren't just exhibit shells in a building as in most aviation museums. Twice a year they have air shows and at one time or the other all the aircraft in the building have flown.

We had to wind our way quite a distance in the Virginia Beach countryside to get there, but it was quite neat. The Navy planes are in one hangar and the Army ones in another, and they are all in beautiful condition, even if some of them are less than beautiful: there are at least three Russian aircraft, vintage 1930s, that are pretty ugly, painted mud brown as they would have been at that time. They also had a vintage MG, an old Jaguar that had lines like something out of a 1940s cartoon, some small tanks, an authentic British telephone box, a Wright "Vin Fiz," a 1940s motorcycle with sidecar and trailer, a Nazi staff car, a tiny car that looked as if it would hold only one passenger (made by Messerschmidt; yes, the Messerschmidt—there was a Messerschmidt sewing machine upstairs as well), and an amphibious car.

We had come on a day when one of the hangars was being used for an event, so several of the Navy planes had been rolled out back. There was a big band gearing up to play and the scent of delicious food was everywhere. What a neat idea: much better than going somewhere for the rubber chicken!

We also wandered about upstairs, where there were cases of memorabilia, including service uniforms, reconnaissance cameras, and an Enigma machine. At the back there was a gallery of aviation art. Of particular interest were paintings by Henri Ferre, who fought in World War I. Some of these were of night raids, and had a distinctive impressionist look. Some of his charcoal sketches were also included.

We finally checked out the gift shop (it's a state law...LOL) and then headed back toward the hotel via a detour: we drove past NAS Oceana, where James was stationed for a year when he was in the Navy. You can't see a lot of the base from the road, but we did see the control tower and James was able to pick out the building he used to work in. After that we headed west as guided by the GPS.

Now, I appreciated the GPS's directions tonight. There was a six-mile backup at the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel and we pretty much skirted most of it by avoiding I-64 westbound. But...why? We didn't ask the GPS to avoid the traffic, it just took us on a different route...in fact the same route it brought us through  yesterday, in both directions. Is this GPS getting kickback from Tidewater Road? Does it just like the street?  LOL!

You can see the piers at the Norfolk base from the bridge part of the bridge/tunnel, so we had a last, final surprise: we could see that another aircraft carrier had pulled into her berth since we had passed there on the tour, and another ship was on its way out, plus a cruise ship was heading for one of the docks at Hampton. But finally all was obscured by the lowering sun before we descended into the tunnel.

We had food back at the hotel, so we just ate in tonight, watched two older Big Bang Theory episodes and the newest episode (Raggedy Ann and Raggedy C-3PO indeed!), plus Ask This Old House and Mysteries at the Museum.

Labels: history, humor, television, vacation, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:11:00 PM

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Weird Things Written on Resumes

Labels: humor, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:33:00 PM

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From Mugglenet.

Labels: Harry Potter, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 2:30:00 PM

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Doctor #4! Your new scarf is ready!

Labels: comics, humor, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:36:00 PM

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Marvelously not exhausted because of not standing in line last night, we were up rather early: I forgot to shut off my alarm clock, and we got up with that instead of my phone alarm. Ah, well, gave us time to interact with the fids and refill the bird feeders.

We left a bit early to swing back a mile or two to take our friend Alice and her daughter Aubrey downtown with us. Alice's husband Ken was working today and this way they wouldn't have to drive two cars home.

Eeek! The garage was up to $20 this year, but it's so convenient, and it's not even as high as the parking rate at the host hotels—most of them are over $25.

So Alice and Aubrey hied off to registration and we had breakfast in the Peachtree Center Food Court. Years ago they were open on Friday and Saturday and then closed on Sunday and Monday. These days they've gotten hip and do a roaring business all weekend (except for Chik-Fil-A, which always closes on Sunday). We ate at Chik-Fil-A, as we sampled some of their oatmeal earlier this summer and it was quite good. They have an oatmeal and fruit cup deal that can't be beat (and you can substitute milk for coffee).

Our first panel was small, devoted to the Gerry Anderson series UFO. It was quite enjoyable, and panel moderator Anthony Taylor even telephoned Matt Gratzner, who is planning to do a UFO movie in 2013.

Now James and I parted at the ways, not to see each other until evening. I trudged out of the Marriott and all the way to the Westin, hoping against hope to get into the Back to the Future panel which was taking place in some ballroom upstairs. The line snaked gamely through the main floor of the Westin, and, finally, began to move, winding in a serpentine through the floor and then across floors and up stairs. We weren't halfway through the route before they told us the room was full. Rats.

So it was tramp, tramp, tramp back to the Hyatt. The Sylvester McCoy panel still had room, so I slipped into the delicious coolness after the sticky heat outside, and joined Sylvester's bouncing off the walls in progress. I had seen him before years ago, but he seems more manic than ever, smothering himself every time he started to mention "The Movie That Shall Not Be Named" (he's in The Hobbit and not supposed to talk about it), talking about the beginnings of his career, where he played the spoons and shoved ferrets down his pants (one night someone brought a second ferret...), and then bounced down in the audience to take questions and play the spoons (he carries his in a nice wooden case). Later, while talking about Doctor Who, they had him read some lines from an upcoming script involving Stonehenge.

One of the big advantages in the last few years has been the new skywalk from the Hilton to the Marriott, and especially the shortened skywalk from the Hyatt to the Marriott where you avoid going through the Peachtree Center Mall. I was going to take the latter to the Marriott—but the escalator going up to the bar level and the skywalk was broken and foot traffic piling up. So, it was back to the old route, down the steep stairs of the Hyatt (we don't call this convention "the DragonCon exercise program" for nothing), into the back of the Marriott and into Friday cacaphony.

So I went to the Gareth David Lloyd panel and had a few laughs. Most of the material had been talked about in previous years, like Ianto's sad, sad death which involved John Barrowman dripping spit and tears onto him. There was a sweet moment where a woman asked if he would pass a message on to someone who was sick, and he took her phone and texted the person.

I slipped out early because I simply could not resist the thought of McFarland being downstairs in the exhibitor's hall. I found three books—one with essays about Back to the Future, another with Torchwood essays, and a third with Doctor Who commentary. Looked at a book about British sci-fi media, but needed to think about it.

My next panel was about Young Adult classics, a pleasant hour spent listening to panel members and members of the audience offering favorites, not just science fiction and fantasy, but others as well. We spoke about books that were special to people (Harriet the Spy was a favorite), others that were loved (but not by the panel), etc. It's nice talking about young adult books with other people who appreciate them.

Following was another panel I was particularly looking forward to: last year James Marsters, best known for his bad boy roles as Spike and Captain John Hart, played Buzz Aldrin in a movie about Apollo 13, Moonshot. The panel was, as the notation said, only for conversation about Moonshot. So, I had to search out the Crystal Boardroom in the Hilton, having never been there before.

This was fantastic panel. Marsters showed different clips from the film, and then told us something about them: how they were filmed, or the background of them. It was evident from the audience that many of them were younger people who had not experienced the moon landing and a lot of the info was new to them. I really enjoyed his enthusiasm about the entire project—he came all prepared with a rebuttal for any naysayers who didn't believe in the moon landing, but no one there fell into that camp! He also talked a little about the monkey that was used in the film; they shot the movie in Lithuania and the monkey appeared to be frightened of his Lithuanian trainer.

And then it was off at a trot to get back to the Hyatt in time for the "WKRP in Atlanta" panel, featuring Howard Hesseman and Loni Anderson. I just made it into this one; in fact, I had to station myself against the wall for about half the panel, until a seat freed up. In a way, this was a homecoming, because WKRP in Cincinnati was based on a real Atlanta radio station, WQXI ("Quicksy," as James always calls it) which did convert from being very conservative to hard rock music. Many of the characters were based on the WQXI personnel, including the sales manager, who, like Herb Tarlek, wore loud suits. (The disastrous turkey drop was a real event, too.) It sounded as if, of the cast, Richard Sanders was the oddest one. They told a story about the cast being on Dinah! where there was a strange gentleman in a full tux in the green room with them. When they were introduced, it turned out to be Sanders. In fact, the one cast member that was 180 degrees away from his character was Hesseman himself, who was painted as much more conservative than Dr. Johnny Fever!

Also tales of three-camera filming, once with and once without an audience (no laugh track used ever), and, of course, someone asked Hesseman to say "Boooooger!" which he did with relish. :-)

James and I reconnected at tonight's Atlanta Radio Theatre Company performance. Friday night was for comedy, and we got it "in spades." The production led with another installment of Ron Butler's Rory Rammer, Space Marshal, a sendup of 1950s space opera, about a murder at a Soviet Union re-enactment get-together. This was followed by an encore presentation of the chuckle-and-cringe sketch "The Most-Pierced Man in America," and finally Sketch McQuinor's hilarious Sherlock Holmes spoof, "Game the Third: The Tick Tock Dick," with "Grimpen Meyer" and his friend and chronicler Dr. Basil Parsley Sage Rosemarythyme. This was the first of two ARTC plays with a steampunk twist: a clockwork woman detective. All delightful.

Our final panel was in the Sheraton, where the BritTrack was presenting "British TV You Should Be Watching," with suggestions from both the panel and the audience. There are so many riches this needs to be two hours or be in two parts! They presented by category (comedy, drama, etc.) and there still wasn't time for every suggestion.

By now it was 9:30 and I had the beginnings of a filthy migrane, but did manage to drive home safely. After prepping for tomorrow morning, pecked a bit at the computer, cooed at Schuyler, and then wandered gratefully off to bed. Had fun though!

Labels: books, conventions, humor, media, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:38:00 PM

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After thirty-six hours of work this week, a couple of purchase orders, numerous advertisements, and too many e-mails, I feel like I've accomplished nothing. It's so bloody frustrating!

Which is probably why I woke up on my compressed day off feeling under the weather, nose stuffy, headachy and feverish, although there was no sign of a fever. I really wanted to curl back up and go to sleep, but that wouldn't have done me a bit of good. So I got my library book and returned it, then went to MicroCenter for one last set of narrow six-DVD cases. Got some four-DVD cases as well, which will work well for Ask the Manager, Brooklyn Bridge, Doctor Who, etc. Plus I realized I could put Connections and The Day the Universe Changed in the same case. Cool.

By this time Borders was calling me. Since it won't be able to send me subliminal messages much longer, I listened to it. I bought two gifts, a Rick Steves London book, a book about the British, Mary McDonough's autobiography, The Wild West on 5 Bits a Day, and a sociological book about how advertising affects our lives, Ad Nauseam. Then I came home to have some vegetable soup for lunch and cool off until James arrived home. We went to supper at Folks, had Baskin-Robbins for dessert, then went to Barnes & Noble for a while. Guys, you need to ramp down your background music so it's really in the background...and what's with the ants on the bookshelves? Yuck. Bought a David Crystal book. Um, why are your linguistics books with sociology and psychiatry? Too odd.

(Oh, Mark Stein has a new How the States Got Their Shapes book out, The People Behind the Border Lines. The first chapter's on Roger Williams.)

This morning we were awakened at the break of eight by the alarm and the dog; the guys had arrived to replace the pine straw. They'd finished by the time we were ready to go to the Farmer's Market. Definitely better than last week; it was mostly overcast and there was a breeze.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

We brought our food home, then went to Costco. Money-saving guru Clark Howard was autographing his new book there this morning. Since we enjoy Clark's show, and his website, and his books, we figured we'd get the new one. They were still setting up when we arrived at ten, but soon a line formed. I let James go through the line with the book while I stood across from where Clark was signing to snap a couple of pictures.

Next to me a red-haired man in a red-striped shirt was talking on his phone, explaining to someone who Clark was. Several times he mentioned WHJJ, which is what WJAR radio in Providence morphed into. I don't usually speak to strangers, but this was too tempting. When he hung up, I said, "Excuse me for being nosy, but are you from Rhode Island?"

Well, he was. His name was Derek and he's been living in Georgia for three years. He even went to Cranston High School West...I went to CHS East...our traditional enemies! His dad went to Cranston East, though. I felt bad for the Telemundo lady who was trying to do a broadcast next to us, because we were jabbering away about RI...Buddy Cianci...Borders closing...

(I called to James, "This guy is from Rhode Island" and he just rolled his eyes. It was a long-running gag between my mom and my dad that no matter where he went, he could find someone from Rhode Island. Whether it was Florida or Lake George or Virginia, he'd get this look in his eyes and say, "See that guy over there? He looks familiar." He'd go talk to the guy, or the couple, and come back about twenty minutes later. "They're from West Warwick, but he has family in the Lake [the Silver Lake neighborhood, where he grew up] and she's related to the Cataldos who own the bakery..." Apparently I've inherited this to a minor extent. James remember the time we were at the Air Force Museum and the man taking the reservations for the Air Force One hangar noticed his Mystic Seaport t-shirt and asked him if he was from New England. James answered, "No, but my wife is from Rhode Island." The guy asked me where was from in Rhode Island, I said, "Cranston," and he stuck out his hand and said "Barrington." James blinked at both of us, and said, "What is it with you people?" LOL.)

James finally got to the head of the line and I snapped a pic of him with Clark Howard.

Miss Emily Baldwin was right: "The nice thing about life is that you never know when there's going to be a party."

So we finished our purchases, including a pair of jeans for me that I bet will be too long (they only had "average" in my size), and took the milk home, then went out to the hobby shop. Business is very slow and they are struggling. :-(

We were up for lunch after this, as it was around one o'clock. We headed for either Olive Garden or Red Lobster for a cheap lunch, and then decided to detour and see if Cracker Barrel was not crowded. And, surprise, it wasn't—but then it's not Sunday morning after church, either. :-) Cracker Barrel is a restaurant with a country store attached, so after we finished our lunch, we wandered around looking at the different things for sale. They had apple-themed things, the fall and Hallowe'en things were already out, and a corner was even given over to Christmas. They usually sell Christmas things with a cardinal/chickadee motif. This year's birds are highly stylized, like simple paper cutouts. Not sure if I like all of them, but one serving plate looked a lot like a postage stamp design.

Since we had no other plans, we went to Kroger to do the grocery shopping, so that is done, done, done! We did see a welcome sign on the way there: the "Ditch" is opening next Wednesday.

(About two years ago, they started carving a ditch at the edge of Jim Miller Park. A big ditch. It turned into an underpass in the park, and a road elsewhere; it's a shortcut route to connect the intersection of Windy Hill Road/Austell Road and the intersection of Macland Road/Powder Spring Road. Every week we'd cut through Jim Miller Park on the way to Kroger to see how "the Ditch" was doing. And now it's nearly finished.)

We arrived home to gathering clouds, rumbling thunder, and a few spatters of rain, but the storms were running south, so I don't suspect we'll get any real precipitation.

Oh, and I found two fall-themed magazines at Kroger! There is a light at the end of the hellish tunnel that is summer!

Labels: DVDs, events, food, health, humor, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:45:00 PM

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Daniel Radcliffe on The Graham Norton Show singing Tom Lehrer's "The Elements":

Labels: humor, music

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:19:00 AM

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Usually Sunday's "Gasoline Alley" is some blather between Joel and Rufus, but this one is actually quite funny:

Labels: comics, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:04:00 PM

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Yesterday's "Family Circus." Heck, I feel like this every weekday.



I believe the Forth family lives near Atlanta, judging by this forecast:

You mean cockroaches aren't already in political office?

Labels: comics, humor, news

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:55:00 PM

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Labels: comics, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:39:00 AM

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World War II on FACEBOOK

Tip o' the hat to Biz!

Labels: history, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:00:00 PM

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The shorter version was linked by one of my friends on her Facebook page. Very funny.

Mark Gungor - Men's Brain, Women's Brain

Dang, I think I knew that nun...

Labels: humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:25:00 AM

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:-)

Labels: cartoons, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:02:00 AM

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Ah, yes, it's back to what James calls "the Bataan death march of science-fiction conventions."

In the past years, since the convention proper didn't open until 1 p.m., we've been showing up around 11 a.m. In the last couple of years, D'Con seemed to get their registration problems ironed out. Last year, we walked right in and had our badges within 15 minutes. The longest time it took was finding the room because the signage was incorrect. It was a little longer the year before, but it wasn't the hour-long wait it was in the past.

Well, I wanted to get there in time for the 10 a.m. panel with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, so we got up at 6:30 and were on the road by seven, grabbed breakfast at Burger King, and were at the Sheraton—new venue for registration—at quarter to eight. Dumbfounded, we saw the line outside the building stretching all the way down the hill and around. So at eight they opened the doors and started letting people in and we thought we'd wait for the end of the line.

At eight thirty people were still walking up the hill. Yow.

By this time the milk I had when I got up was working on me, so we walked to Peachtree Center to use the john. Then we walked back to the Sheraton. This took fifteen minutes. The line was gone.

It was instead snaked inside, like the line for Space Mountain in midsummer. We were in line for 65 minutes. About a half hour into the wait, someone got so bored they inflated a beach ball and people were punching it around the room. Unfortunately this was a ballroom and had crystal chandeliers. The third time the beach ball hit the chandelier they made us stop.

It was totally stupid. The alphabetical lines should have been divided into more subgroups, so the majority of the people weren't stuck in A through D or whatever the first line was, and the remainder were sometimes half-empty while people with that last name languished in the line.

Anyway, we did get to see Shatner and Nimoy, at least 45 minutes of it, but only on closed-circuit TV. It was as hilarious as I had expected, with them bantering back and forth with the easiness of old companions. Shatner played fake petulancy when he didn't get asked a question and Nimoy parried with faked sobriety while poking fun at Priceline. They talked about the blooper reel by talking about their reaction to it, Shatner plugged Raw Nerve and ribbed Nimoy about a telepathical youngster he was exposed to while doing In Search of..., and also talked about a movie he did in Esperanto, and I laughed until I almost cried.

Bill and Leonard on the "Jumbotron":

James went off then for one of the Apocalypse track panels and I went back to the Sheraton for the Torchwood panel, which featured Gareth David Lloyd and James Marsters. [hormonal drool alert] Gareth has grown a beard like Orlando Bloom's and while I've never liked OB much, Gareth looked reallllly nice in the beard. [hormonal alert over] Very good-natured panel with Lloyd talking about keeping his demise in "Children of Earth" a secret and Marsters telling about his son's search for the perfect guitar. One really funny moment: audience member asks Lloyd what his least favorite question at conventions is. He retorted "'What's it like to kiss John Barrowman?'" LOL. That one brought down the house. Another audience member looked at him and said "Sorry you're dead." Even more LOL. There was also a Ianto Memorial Film.

Gareth David Lloyd:

James Marsters:

At this point I was going to a scheduled panel with John Billingsly and Anthony Montgomery, but it turned out the panel was for Garrett Wang, so I tramped from the Sheraton to the Hilton, took the new trans-street bridge, and went to the Dealer's Room just as it was opening. Since no one was coming out, the guard at the exit door was letting some folks in temporarily, and some lady on the staff came over rudely bellowing at him and the people that I was in line with—we were almost at the door—that he shouldn't be doing this and that was an out door only...sheesh, how rude can you get? Couldn't she just say quietly and politely, no, the door had to be reserved for an exit, and please go to the entrance there rather than screaming like a banshee?

Didn't see anything I wanted; even the Pocket Dragon supply seemed thin this year. Suits me. I did get a laugh at one table that had books. The young woman running it said brightly to me, "Are you a book person?" Honey, you have no idea! Also got through one of the two exhibition halls. I might want to buy the Disney book about the Gremlins, which is only $5. Lots more Steampunk items this year, I notice.

I blew off the other hall to get back to the Sheraton for the "Behind the BBC" panel, which featured Louis Robinson, whose Sherlock Holmes/Hound of the Baskervilles panel I so loved at Timegate. There was another gentleman on the panel who had also worked at the BBC, but it's late and I've sadly forgotten his name, but they both chatted about the ease of getting some programs through in the past compared to the difficulty now, the relative freedom BBC radio has compared to BBC television, the little rivalries between the different regional BBC entities (BBC Wales, BBC Birmingham, etc), the surprising reappearance of Doctor Who, etc.

Louis Robinson:

From the Sheraton I trucked back to the Hyatt, via the Courtland Street Garage (which was full!) and across the "Luke Skywalk" as James and I call it to Peachtree Center, for Dean Haglund's improv panel. I expected it to be SRO as always, but this afternoon edition was only half full. Everyone's loss. He basically postulated a story that was a prequel for the last X-Files film, where, as his Lone Gunman character Ringo Langly, he had to talk Mulder and Scully out of moving in together. The only problem: I need to quit going to these things. I laughed so much I got a headache, my back hurt, and several times I couldn't catch my breath. I was wheezing at one point and when it was over had to retreat into the ladies' room to take three ibuprofin.

Dean Haglund in improv mode:

I joined James downstairs at the Hyatt after finding the artists' room (they put it next to the art show finally—wow, go figure) and visiting Andy Runton's table. There was a new "Owly" collection out and I also wanted the "Starry Night" t-shirt. And then as Andy was autographing my copy of the book I saw the print. An Owly and his friends in the forest print. In the autumn forest. Talk about something that had "me" written all over it! Of course I bought it!

James and I finished our day at two writers' panels. One was about "the red-haired stepchildren" of media publishing: professional writers who also do tie-in media books. Peter David, Terri Osborne, Robert Greenberger, Timothy Zahn, and Josepha Sherman, who have all done media novels, were on the panel. It was a lively, fun discussion of whether these novels were "real books" or just pushing "real" books off the shelves, about the challenges of writing for them, publishers' whimsies, etc.

"Red-headed stepchildren" (LOL):

The second panel was about what made certain science fiction novels classic, are the "golden years" of science fiction over or are they still with us, is a classic more subjective than objective, etc. I wasn't familiar with the panel members, but it was an excellent, intelligent panel.

By now it was 8 p.m., and as much as I wanted to see that 8:30 panel on Britcoms, I was pooped. We're planning on a later start tomorrow, maybe with breakfast at the Hilton or at Peachtree Center. There are places there with fruit cups and bagels and things.

I can't wait until I go back on telework. I always get out of shape in the summer and I had just started walking before starting work in the morning before we got pulled off telework for end of fiscal year. I really, really want to start walking again. This is ridiculous; I shouldn't be so sore just from walking back and forth between hotels.

Labels: books, conventions, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:17:00 PM

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LOL! Uncle Jay Explains: 2008 in Review! (to Christmas carols to boot!)

Tip of the hat to Kat from Texas in "Christmas to the Max."

Labels: humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:33:00 PM

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(Thanks to Wendy on "Christmas to the Max")

 1. I will not stuff craft supplies in every corner of my house.
 2. I will not keep nine projects going at one time.
 3. I will not pick up more buttons, lace or fabric when I have a ton at home.
 4. I will not let my crafting area look like a condemned area.
 5. I will not relegate the kitchen table to crafts.
 6. I will not attend craft shows just to pick up more ideas.
 7. I will not stock up on more craft supplies just because they are on sale.
 8. I will not go off on a tangent when anyone mentions that little word "import."
 9. I will not let my crafting distract me from fixing dinner.
10. I will not stay up all night crafting.
11. I will not save dryer lint, empty cereal boxes, detergent scoops, etc.
12. I will not buy every craft magazine I see.
13. I will not make promises I cannot keep.

Labels: humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:36:00 PM

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James always jokes about the glaze I get in my eyes whenever I see a software package of fonts.

Which explains why this had me on the floor. ROFL! Wicked brilliant! (Rodney, you'll enjoy this one.)

Font Conference

(Header can be translated in...what else?...Wingdings...LOL).

Thanks to Alice for forwarding!

Labels: humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:04:00 PM

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I've gone back in time somehow...right now my telephone at work says it's "Jan 1 12:21am."

Labels: humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:31:00 PM

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Ever eaten oatmeal or whipped yogurt with a fork?

Ever since someone stole my oatmeal bowl and one of the spoons from our silverware set out of the bathroom at work, I've been eating out of my mug using one of those heavy duty Wendy's chili spoons. Last Tuesday the spoon broke and I was going to bring in another one that James had stashed in the truck. I forgot. So I was "tine one on" this morning. :-)

Labels: humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:50:00 AM

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