Baycon came and went...

[figmo]

...and I came and went at Baycon. Given that the hotel was outgassing, I'm glad I not only commuted to the con but wound up sleeping through large parts of it. I missed some programming I really wanted to catch, but I figured the 17+ hours of sleep I got between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were much-needed. I'd have posted this sooner, but my Internet access has been sporadic due to flakiness on Comcast's part.

I ran into lots of friends. It'd been years since I'd seen cat_herder. She, howeird, and several other folks whose names I'm blanking on chatted for a while. Saturday night I had dinner with the Starship Ada folks and special guests Keith Henson and Arel Lucas, both of whom I also hadn't seen in years. Keith was in amazingly good spirits, especially after all he's been through.

The Monday afternoon surprise party for capplor and kids came off well. I was relieved when it was all over. While I'm perfectly capable of keeping a secret, trying to execute a "double-jeopardy" surprise has its ups and downs. On one hand, Fred expected there to be a party, so going around and conspiring looked perfectly natural to him. On the other hand, trying to keep him in the dark about what was really going on without making him panic was tricky.

I was also grateful to get lots of help with putting the party together. Folks came out of the woodwork. In addition to dimakoi, lisa_marli and her Harolds helped, as did Lucy Stern, the Saidaks, and other folks who I'm blanking on because I was busy trying to decorate the going-away cake. After the big SURPRISE I could finally relax.

The last couple of days I've had a sore throat and a minor headache. I feel physically like I spent ten minutes in the office of a certain previous employer....

Comments

[mdlbear]

Sorry I wasn't able to get to the party -- I was taking cflute to the airport at the time... Glad it came off well, though.

[howeird]

Great seeing you, as always, and much fun to chat with you and cat_herder in the same place at the same time. The two of you are certainly major league fan magnets.

Glad to hear the much-anticipated surprise party came off well.

Disappointed I did not get to meet Lucy Stern, as I've performed several shows in her theater. :-)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, that sounds great. See you in Denver!

[capplor.livejournal.com]

You'll be there? Good, so will we. It's been too long since we've had face time.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that the Surprise Party went off well.

Given that the hotel was "outgassing" (from paint, or from carpet glue and the like?), I'm hardly surprised you missed a lot of the con ... and that you are feeling like you are currently. Hope you feel better sooon.

I helped a friend move into his new abode a week ago, and I'm helping another friend move this week. Common denominator is that both the new places (being moved into) are in the middle of painting or have just finished same. At least, in this move, the new occupant is keeping the windows open, and the weather has co-operated by being sunny and dry. [Of course, the day the furniture will be moved is on the weekend, with a forecast of pouring rain.]

I still hope to get a stable job and look forward to being able to come out and visit the Bay area sometime next year ... but that is still up in the air.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Yes Lynn, you pulled it off, and I've publicly thanked you on our blog.

Bet you can't do it again next year. ;P

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Appropos of nothing in this current post -- your e-mail is bouncing: "mailbox full". Hard to send you a party invitation if it keeps coming back.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Try again. I just cleaned out a bunch of crud.