Sunday, August 19th
Well, last day. Green dress with corset in bag so I can get it put on and have Steve learn how to do it at the same time. Luggage ready to go and bursting at the seems with stuff. We checked out and then had the option to hold our bags in the lobby, but Steve decided that we should just drag the stuff to the garage he found that was cheap and load up now.
This was a fun trip.
I must have damn near tripped five times and landed on my face, the bags kept slipping, and even though it wasn’t that hot, the sweat was dripping of me by the time we got to the garage, only to discover that it was closed and you had to access the cars through the ramp in the front.
I was about ready to kill Steve.
We did get everything loaded and then tried to get breakfast at Cinnabon again only to discover it was closed. Stupid Sunday. Einstein’s was packed, but food is needed.
We got to the hall and I dragged Steve off to the corset place where he learned how to tie me up. He actually said it is pretty simple. Easy for him to say, he doesn’t have steel boning digging into his ribs!
We were wandering around the hall just looking when a woman came up to me.
“I just want to say you look lovely and to thank you for wearing a costume.”
And then she hands me a Gen Con 2009 Floor Costume Contest Ribbon.
I just about fainted.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
This wasn’t even my best outfit and it gets a ribbon! Heck, I wasn’t even planning to wear a costume on Sunday!
Needless to say in kinda made my Con.
Steve finally broke down and bought two of the Dwarven Forge sets. I subtly convinced him to only get the two and then got Lowell to get rid of him while I bought the third for his anniversary gift. Hehehehehehe!
We hung out with Lowell and Abe at the Rio Grande booth as they did their end-of-the-Con-drawing and that was actually fun. I almost broke down and bought all of PS3238 but decided not to as I had dropped a bunch at the Nene Thomas booth. Two of the prints will be donated to Babes With Blades, and one shall come home with me.
At this point it was starting to wind down, and even though the hall was more packed than I have seen it (attendance was apparently up this year despite the economy) things had been done, people seen, and, as much as we hated to admit it, it was time to go back to the real world. Abe, Lowell, and Steve also had BAD memories from last year when they were coming home and caught the traffic from the end of the Air and Water Show.
So home we headed.
The pictures were placed carefully next to my feat and the corset removed. We hit an Arby’s on 65 for late lunch/early dinner where I changed into normal clothes, and we are slowly making our way north on 231. I took a nap and now see storm clouds on the horizon…glad we didn’t get much more stuff, because tying it to the roof would have been a bad idea!
Home we go to Kitty!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Gen Con 09 Day 3
Saturday, August 18th, 2009
Gorgeous jewelry? Check. Slightly annoying wings that need to be re-done? Check. Hair freshly washed and up? Check. Insane and amazing make-up (including hand-drawn dragon scales) that feels like it needs to be scrapped off by the end of the day? Check and check…
Saturday of Gen Con ladies and gents: the largest of the four days, where the dealer hall is jam packed and the number of nerds swells Indy’s population to amazing numbers.
The Copper Dragon has been a work in progress for a couple of years, ever since Steve made a comment that I looked like the Copper Dragon in the 3.5 Dracinomicon. I’ve even met the artist that did the picture, and even though, technically, Copper’s can’t polymorph into humanoid shapes, I look elegant as hell.
I look especially elegant trying to eat Cinnabon, which is what we had for breakfast. Yummy yummy gooey gooey and didn’t get a drop on the outfit.
We still managed to get to the Hall early so I could pop over to Aradani Designs to get my ears attached (which they will always do for you). They were also selling a Battlestar Galactica Officer’s jacket which, if it hadn’t been $300 (they hand make most of their pieces) I would have bought. While I was getting my ears put on, people came wandering by and watched, which of course led to questions, which in one case led to a sale (one of the reasons they don’t mind putting the ears on you for free). It was also the start of the usual “hey, can I get your picture” which always happens on Saturday. Walking with me on this day can be time consuming and very stop and go.
Steve and I then proceeded to finish up the Hall (we had missed one row on our stroll yesterday) and I found a great button about “Forget the knight in shinning armor, I want elves in tight leather”. Hehehehehe…
We also at this point were trying to find the shrieking Cthullu we had spotted for Willow yesterday, but neither of us could remember which isle it was or which booth. We did eventually find one, but I am sure it was not the place we had originally seen it. I hope she enjoys it after all the trouble we went through.
I also broke down and bought this AMAZING silk scarf from one of the stalls that accented the outfit beautifully. She did this draped thing that made it look very exotic.
We also kept running into people we knew: old bosses, former cast mates, fellow Chicagoans…
During all of this, we kept swinging by two booths: Cloud Kingdom Games, who do amazing riddles, and Dwarven Forge, who do, basically, Lego’s for grown-up gamers. That description is way too basic: these people make amazing pieces that can be constructed into taverns, caves, underground rivers, dungeons, ancient temples, dens of evil priests…and that’s just the “older” stuff, as they do sci-fi sets as well. They are expensive, but they really are artwork and the detail is amazing and can add to a game a lot. There were three sets that Steve was looking at, but as I had an evil plan to get him one for our anniversary, I kept pushing him to only look at the two sets that could be used to build an ancient temple.
We ran into our room mates at some point and went off to the Rio Grande demo room where not only were there board games galore, but there was free food and drink!
I did not stay long when the guys started playing another version of Carcasonne (there are about 20), instead heading off to try and catch the end of Patrick Rothfuss’s talk. They had moved from the Very Important Gamer’s Lounge (who schedules a talk in there…idiot Gen Con) and into the bar in the lobby of the Marriott. I caught the very tail end, but I did get a Flavored Fortune Cookie (not a red one, which were the raunchy ones) he was giving out.
Coming back from that to hook back up with the guys, I watched the Costume Contest Parade. I have to say, the quality this year was not up to the usual standards, but there were some good ones. Steam Punk seems to be making a big surge this year.
The game was just wrapping up when I got back into the room. Of course, I was with Steve long enough to walk up to the Sagamoore Ballroom to get in line for the Players Guide to Ebberron for free and signed by Keith Baker. It was something like the first 50 people, so I was there insanely early and was still not the first in line. I took the opportunity to start reading James Wyatt’s “Dragon War”, the third and final book in the Storm Dragon Trilogy. SO GOOD! It took me a little to remember everything from the previous books, but it started coming back after a bit.
Keith was right on time…in fact he was early, and snapped my picture (dragons are a major part of Eberron, and the costume is very exotic)…but the artist who works on the books was late. Those of us at the front chatted with Keith (who is seriously one of the nicest guys). The artist finally showed up and the line started moving and Keith wrote “Where’s Lei?” in my book. Now, if I hadn’t run off to meet Steve after his seminar, then I would have read that and asked back “I don’t know, you tell me” as he well knows my love of Lei d’Cannith in his Dreaming Dark Trilogy, the sequels to which he has yet to touch.
He needs to be careful. Steve has nearly run him over once…it can happen again…mwuhahahaha…
Anyway, I planted myself outside the room where Steve was in his writers’ seminar and continued to plow through “Dragon War”. I was more than half done by the time they got done. My primary reason for waiting outside the seminar was to catch Steve, but I also wanted James to sign the book. After he did that, we started walking and talking and then my stomach was rumbling and then James asked if he could join us for dinner.
GAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! YES!
Steve’s boss, author of some of my favorite books, works at WOTC, and an all around great guy and he has to ask us if he can come to dinner with us? BAH!
It unfortunately had to be a quick dinner as he had a came to get to (Apocolypse, which we found out later was being run by Monte Cook) so it was off to The Noodle Bowl. Turns out his wife is a red-headed actress who likes Twilight as well…and they live, like, three hours away from Forks…
I think the universe is poking me…
After a quick dinner we scampered off to Jon and Laura’s hotel room for games with them, Lowell, and Nate.
Next to dinner with James, it might have been the best part of the weekend.
With the need for sleep becoming desperate, we wandered back to the hotel where I did some basic backing and then crawled into bed.Side Note: Despite the fact that I broke my previous record of 21 requests for pictures with about 34 today, STILL NO ribbon from the floor costume contest. THAT SUCKS!!!
Gorgeous jewelry? Check. Slightly annoying wings that need to be re-done? Check. Hair freshly washed and up? Check. Insane and amazing make-up (including hand-drawn dragon scales) that feels like it needs to be scrapped off by the end of the day? Check and check…
Saturday of Gen Con ladies and gents: the largest of the four days, where the dealer hall is jam packed and the number of nerds swells Indy’s population to amazing numbers.
The Copper Dragon has been a work in progress for a couple of years, ever since Steve made a comment that I looked like the Copper Dragon in the 3.5 Dracinomicon. I’ve even met the artist that did the picture, and even though, technically, Copper’s can’t polymorph into humanoid shapes, I look elegant as hell.
I look especially elegant trying to eat Cinnabon, which is what we had for breakfast. Yummy yummy gooey gooey and didn’t get a drop on the outfit.
We still managed to get to the Hall early so I could pop over to Aradani Designs to get my ears attached (which they will always do for you). They were also selling a Battlestar Galactica Officer’s jacket which, if it hadn’t been $300 (they hand make most of their pieces) I would have bought. While I was getting my ears put on, people came wandering by and watched, which of course led to questions, which in one case led to a sale (one of the reasons they don’t mind putting the ears on you for free). It was also the start of the usual “hey, can I get your picture” which always happens on Saturday. Walking with me on this day can be time consuming and very stop and go.
Steve and I then proceeded to finish up the Hall (we had missed one row on our stroll yesterday) and I found a great button about “Forget the knight in shinning armor, I want elves in tight leather”. Hehehehehe…
We also at this point were trying to find the shrieking Cthullu we had spotted for Willow yesterday, but neither of us could remember which isle it was or which booth. We did eventually find one, but I am sure it was not the place we had originally seen it. I hope she enjoys it after all the trouble we went through.
I also broke down and bought this AMAZING silk scarf from one of the stalls that accented the outfit beautifully. She did this draped thing that made it look very exotic.
We also kept running into people we knew: old bosses, former cast mates, fellow Chicagoans…
During all of this, we kept swinging by two booths: Cloud Kingdom Games, who do amazing riddles, and Dwarven Forge, who do, basically, Lego’s for grown-up gamers. That description is way too basic: these people make amazing pieces that can be constructed into taverns, caves, underground rivers, dungeons, ancient temples, dens of evil priests…and that’s just the “older” stuff, as they do sci-fi sets as well. They are expensive, but they really are artwork and the detail is amazing and can add to a game a lot. There were three sets that Steve was looking at, but as I had an evil plan to get him one for our anniversary, I kept pushing him to only look at the two sets that could be used to build an ancient temple.
We ran into our room mates at some point and went off to the Rio Grande demo room where not only were there board games galore, but there was free food and drink!
I did not stay long when the guys started playing another version of Carcasonne (there are about 20), instead heading off to try and catch the end of Patrick Rothfuss’s talk. They had moved from the Very Important Gamer’s Lounge (who schedules a talk in there…idiot Gen Con) and into the bar in the lobby of the Marriott. I caught the very tail end, but I did get a Flavored Fortune Cookie (not a red one, which were the raunchy ones) he was giving out.
Coming back from that to hook back up with the guys, I watched the Costume Contest Parade. I have to say, the quality this year was not up to the usual standards, but there were some good ones. Steam Punk seems to be making a big surge this year.
The game was just wrapping up when I got back into the room. Of course, I was with Steve long enough to walk up to the Sagamoore Ballroom to get in line for the Players Guide to Ebberron for free and signed by Keith Baker. It was something like the first 50 people, so I was there insanely early and was still not the first in line. I took the opportunity to start reading James Wyatt’s “Dragon War”, the third and final book in the Storm Dragon Trilogy. SO GOOD! It took me a little to remember everything from the previous books, but it started coming back after a bit.
Keith was right on time…in fact he was early, and snapped my picture (dragons are a major part of Eberron, and the costume is very exotic)…but the artist who works on the books was late. Those of us at the front chatted with Keith (who is seriously one of the nicest guys). The artist finally showed up and the line started moving and Keith wrote “Where’s Lei?” in my book. Now, if I hadn’t run off to meet Steve after his seminar, then I would have read that and asked back “I don’t know, you tell me” as he well knows my love of Lei d’Cannith in his Dreaming Dark Trilogy, the sequels to which he has yet to touch.
He needs to be careful. Steve has nearly run him over once…it can happen again…mwuhahahaha…
Anyway, I planted myself outside the room where Steve was in his writers’ seminar and continued to plow through “Dragon War”. I was more than half done by the time they got done. My primary reason for waiting outside the seminar was to catch Steve, but I also wanted James to sign the book. After he did that, we started walking and talking and then my stomach was rumbling and then James asked if he could join us for dinner.
GAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! YES!
Steve’s boss, author of some of my favorite books, works at WOTC, and an all around great guy and he has to ask us if he can come to dinner with us? BAH!
It unfortunately had to be a quick dinner as he had a came to get to (Apocolypse, which we found out later was being run by Monte Cook) so it was off to The Noodle Bowl. Turns out his wife is a red-headed actress who likes Twilight as well…and they live, like, three hours away from Forks…
I think the universe is poking me…
After a quick dinner we scampered off to Jon and Laura’s hotel room for games with them, Lowell, and Nate.
Next to dinner with James, it might have been the best part of the weekend.
With the need for sleep becoming desperate, we wandered back to the hotel where I did some basic backing and then crawled into bed.Side Note: Despite the fact that I broke my previous record of 21 requests for pictures with about 34 today, STILL NO ribbon from the floor costume contest. THAT SUCKS!!!
Gen Con 09 Day 2
Friday, August 17th, 2009
SHOPPING! Now, you would think that a gaming convention wouldn’t necessarily have a lot to offer someone of the female persuasion, as a general rule, there are far fewer girl gamers. However, (1) the girl gamers that are out there, such as myself, like all females, do like to shop and (2) the number of female gamers has increased recently, mostly because it is becoming cool to be a nerd…especially a nerd in a scanty costume that embodies what so many male gamers only see in their guidebooks.
I swear, Gen Con is like a great big ego boost that lasts a good year…
The general plan (as is usual with Friday at Gen Con) is to start at one end of the Hall and just go up and down the isles. This is of course for shopping purposes, but also to scope out what (if any) free swag is being offered by people who want you to come play their game. This can take anywhere from just a few hours to the entire day depending on what is being offered and any distractions that might pop up (one year it was the girl who was the model for Mara Jade).
But I digress. This year started with hanging out in the front of the crowd to get into the exhibitor hall as it was imperative for us to get our hands on one of the last 30 copies of the Pegasus expansion, and also to hang out with Jon, Laura, and Evangeline, the last of whom was at her first Gen Con (she is only 11 months old). The minute the doors opened, I blasted my way to the Fantasy Flight booth, where anyone who wasn’t at a register was pointing to a corner where two other people were handing out copies. I was the second person in line and $40 later, Pegasus was MINE! MWUAHAHAHA!
Sorry, I’ll stop now.
After Steve and I reconnected (he was after a Balrog…sorry, Balor) we started at one end and just started wandering, stopping every once in a while so I could get my picture taken (Gondor Coronation outfit). We weren’t looking for anything in particular except something for Willow, and the choice eventually was whittled down to a lab rat with tentacles coming out of its mouth or a shrieking Cthullu. Decision to be made later.
Maybe it was the fact I spent so much money yesterday, or maybe I am just becoming more discerning, but the credit card stayed put away.
In the midst of all of this we swung by a booth where they were doing demos where, in about ten minutes, you made your own grassy, treed hill with a rocky out crop. They let you keep the sample, and it was much fun.
We got most of the way through the hall when we realized that the 25th anniversary talk of Dragonlance was coming up. We got to the room and discovered a huge line. Turns out that even though it was free, you needed to get a ticket and the event was “sold out”. WHAAA!? We hung around anyway. Margaret Weiss came out and just had a look on her face that told you she was not happy with the whole “ticketed/sold out” thing. They did manage to get everyone in, and even into chairs. Margaret and Tracey Hickman talked about how they came to work for Wizards (or TSR as it was known) and how Dragonlance was eventually given to them to write not only the modules, but the novels as well. There were definitely some tears. The biggest shock was that Wizards will not be re-launching Dragonlance into 4.0, but rather Dark Sun.
There was a rather unhappy murmur at that.
Once the talk was over, we were walking across one of the walkways when we ran into Madelyn and Justin, two of my friends from college who are also gaming geeks. We hung out with them when Patrick Rothfuss came our way.
Patrick Rothfuss is the author of “The Name of the Wind”, book one of the Kingkiller Chronicle, a so far amazing series that I love. He invited us to hang out in the lobby of the Marriott later, which we gladly accepted. First, Lowell, Steve and I hung out with Madz and Justin and played Small World, a game about taking over and holding territories. Steve ran into some bosses at the Starbucks and talked to them a bit before we played the game, which I kind of won…by a lot.
After that, we found Patrick and talked about the book and other stuff. I expressed my distrust of the main female character, and he said I was not the first female reader to do so, and asked if maybe that was because I was a little protective of the main male character. I answered that he was probably right...but I still didn’t trust her.
Now Midnight, we swung by Steak and Shake to get some food and then made our way back to the hotel for a little bit of sleep.
SHOPPING! Now, you would think that a gaming convention wouldn’t necessarily have a lot to offer someone of the female persuasion, as a general rule, there are far fewer girl gamers. However, (1) the girl gamers that are out there, such as myself, like all females, do like to shop and (2) the number of female gamers has increased recently, mostly because it is becoming cool to be a nerd…especially a nerd in a scanty costume that embodies what so many male gamers only see in their guidebooks.
I swear, Gen Con is like a great big ego boost that lasts a good year…
The general plan (as is usual with Friday at Gen Con) is to start at one end of the Hall and just go up and down the isles. This is of course for shopping purposes, but also to scope out what (if any) free swag is being offered by people who want you to come play their game. This can take anywhere from just a few hours to the entire day depending on what is being offered and any distractions that might pop up (one year it was the girl who was the model for Mara Jade).
But I digress. This year started with hanging out in the front of the crowd to get into the exhibitor hall as it was imperative for us to get our hands on one of the last 30 copies of the Pegasus expansion, and also to hang out with Jon, Laura, and Evangeline, the last of whom was at her first Gen Con (she is only 11 months old). The minute the doors opened, I blasted my way to the Fantasy Flight booth, where anyone who wasn’t at a register was pointing to a corner where two other people were handing out copies. I was the second person in line and $40 later, Pegasus was MINE! MWUAHAHAHA!
Sorry, I’ll stop now.
After Steve and I reconnected (he was after a Balrog…sorry, Balor) we started at one end and just started wandering, stopping every once in a while so I could get my picture taken (Gondor Coronation outfit). We weren’t looking for anything in particular except something for Willow, and the choice eventually was whittled down to a lab rat with tentacles coming out of its mouth or a shrieking Cthullu. Decision to be made later.
Maybe it was the fact I spent so much money yesterday, or maybe I am just becoming more discerning, but the credit card stayed put away.
In the midst of all of this we swung by a booth where they were doing demos where, in about ten minutes, you made your own grassy, treed hill with a rocky out crop. They let you keep the sample, and it was much fun.
We got most of the way through the hall when we realized that the 25th anniversary talk of Dragonlance was coming up. We got to the room and discovered a huge line. Turns out that even though it was free, you needed to get a ticket and the event was “sold out”. WHAAA!? We hung around anyway. Margaret Weiss came out and just had a look on her face that told you she was not happy with the whole “ticketed/sold out” thing. They did manage to get everyone in, and even into chairs. Margaret and Tracey Hickman talked about how they came to work for Wizards (or TSR as it was known) and how Dragonlance was eventually given to them to write not only the modules, but the novels as well. There were definitely some tears. The biggest shock was that Wizards will not be re-launching Dragonlance into 4.0, but rather Dark Sun.
There was a rather unhappy murmur at that.
Once the talk was over, we were walking across one of the walkways when we ran into Madelyn and Justin, two of my friends from college who are also gaming geeks. We hung out with them when Patrick Rothfuss came our way.
Patrick Rothfuss is the author of “The Name of the Wind”, book one of the Kingkiller Chronicle, a so far amazing series that I love. He invited us to hang out in the lobby of the Marriott later, which we gladly accepted. First, Lowell, Steve and I hung out with Madz and Justin and played Small World, a game about taking over and holding territories. Steve ran into some bosses at the Starbucks and talked to them a bit before we played the game, which I kind of won…by a lot.
After that, we found Patrick and talked about the book and other stuff. I expressed my distrust of the main female character, and he said I was not the first female reader to do so, and asked if maybe that was because I was a little protective of the main male character. I answered that he was probably right...but I still didn’t trust her.
Now Midnight, we swung by Steak and Shake to get some food and then made our way back to the hotel for a little bit of sleep.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Gen Con 09-Thursday
August 13, 2009 9:39 Indy time
FIRST DAY!
After being awakened at 6:00 AM Indy time (5:00 AM Chicago Time), I decided not to go back to sleep, but instead got my butt out of the very nice bed from under the very comfortable sheets and get ready. Most of the six other people in the room got on the way before Steve and I left, but, then again, they didn’t have a costume to get in to: Lei d’Cannith!
Not having to get up at dawn to get your badges is a good thing, too.
We actually made it to the hall nice and early and were camped right at the front of the crowd when they opened the doors. We made a bee-line for the Wizard’s of the Coast booth. Unfortunately, they were only doing demos for Magic and D&D 4.0 this year, and no real swag. Stupid economy. Steve and I scoped out some of the displays (new mini set and a series of Jones Soda with fantasy-themed pics and names) and then decided to check out Author’s Avenue and The Art Show.
Not finding Patrick Rothfuss, we started wandering the art booths where we saw some cute, some scary, and some both: My Little Demons instead of My Little Ponies. Steve left the Christmas shopping in my capable hands and headed off to one of his seminars. I grabbed WAY too much stuff, but it was all beautiful, and this is the one time of year I do kind of splurge, so feh!
I continued my one-woman quest to fix the economy by buying all three of The Lost Chronicles, the interim books for The Dragonlance Series. I then had them signed by Tracey Hickman and Margaret Weiss, who are, by the way, two of the coolest, nicest people in the gaming world, and the cover artist.
Now, by this point, a large bag was becoming necessary, so I had a weighed-down blast to the Fantasy Flight booth. Every year, FF gives out these huge bags that are perfect for carting stuff around; they enjoy having numerous walking adds around the convention hall. I ran into one of the employees that I met the years my Friend won one of the three advance copies of Marvel SuperHeroes, and he slipped me a bag without me having to buy anying, but since I have been wanting to see the movie version of their gaming system, Midnight, I grabbed to DVD.
FF also puts out the Battlestar Galactica Board Game, and they had an expansion this year called Pegasus, but the 100 or so copies they had at the booth were gone in the first two hours. They have 30 left that they are pulling out tomorrow first thing, so guess where I shall be at 10:02…
Further wandering led me to Timeless Threads, where I broke down and let one of the sales girls put me in an honest to gods corset. And it looked great. And it felt great. And they had one in green. And for the construction (all steel boning) and warranty (lifetime), it became too good an offer to pass up. Now, two hours later I needed to get it off me, but its also been about 10 years since I had to wear one with any regularity (Amadeus), so it should get better.
I also managed to get over to the Future of Eberron. I missed the first part about the upcoming novels (damn it!) but Keith and James always make for a fun time, so it was worth it. I will probably be tracking one or both of them down later anyway for various nefarious purposes…mwuhahahaha!
Hooked back up with Steve and bought James’s third Draconic Prophecies book and the 4.0 version of the Eberron Campaign setting. By then I was tired and needed to get out of the corset, so we went back to the room (HORRAY for being close to the Con Hall) where I changed into street clothes and took a nap while Steve went back to hook up with some friends. I called to be the good overly concerned mommy and found out that Willow was fine. Then it was dinner at Mikado, a sushi and steak house (wrap your head around that one). It was good, it a bit pricey.
We hit the Circle Mall so Steve could find a pair of swim trunks. We stopped into Pacific Sun, where (and this ONLY happens to Steve) the cashier was not only moving to Chicago, but was attending classes at an Art School right down the street from Steve’s work and whose “aunt” and “uncle” (i.e. close family friends) were the parents of Nick Brenner, an actor friend of Steve and mine who was in Twelfth Night when we met and died just a few years ago…FREAKY!!!
The pool here at the Omni was one of the first to be installed in a hotel in Indy and was lovely and warm and calm.
We are turning in early…well, early for GenCon…and await a TRUE day of shopping tomorrow as we walk the entire floor….my poor Credit Card…
FIRST DAY!
After being awakened at 6:00 AM Indy time (5:00 AM Chicago Time), I decided not to go back to sleep, but instead got my butt out of the very nice bed from under the very comfortable sheets and get ready. Most of the six other people in the room got on the way before Steve and I left, but, then again, they didn’t have a costume to get in to: Lei d’Cannith!
Not having to get up at dawn to get your badges is a good thing, too.
We actually made it to the hall nice and early and were camped right at the front of the crowd when they opened the doors. We made a bee-line for the Wizard’s of the Coast booth. Unfortunately, they were only doing demos for Magic and D&D 4.0 this year, and no real swag. Stupid economy. Steve and I scoped out some of the displays (new mini set and a series of Jones Soda with fantasy-themed pics and names) and then decided to check out Author’s Avenue and The Art Show.
Not finding Patrick Rothfuss, we started wandering the art booths where we saw some cute, some scary, and some both: My Little Demons instead of My Little Ponies. Steve left the Christmas shopping in my capable hands and headed off to one of his seminars. I grabbed WAY too much stuff, but it was all beautiful, and this is the one time of year I do kind of splurge, so feh!
I continued my one-woman quest to fix the economy by buying all three of The Lost Chronicles, the interim books for The Dragonlance Series. I then had them signed by Tracey Hickman and Margaret Weiss, who are, by the way, two of the coolest, nicest people in the gaming world, and the cover artist.
Now, by this point, a large bag was becoming necessary, so I had a weighed-down blast to the Fantasy Flight booth. Every year, FF gives out these huge bags that are perfect for carting stuff around; they enjoy having numerous walking adds around the convention hall. I ran into one of the employees that I met the years my Friend won one of the three advance copies of Marvel SuperHeroes, and he slipped me a bag without me having to buy anying, but since I have been wanting to see the movie version of their gaming system, Midnight, I grabbed to DVD.
FF also puts out the Battlestar Galactica Board Game, and they had an expansion this year called Pegasus, but the 100 or so copies they had at the booth were gone in the first two hours. They have 30 left that they are pulling out tomorrow first thing, so guess where I shall be at 10:02…
Further wandering led me to Timeless Threads, where I broke down and let one of the sales girls put me in an honest to gods corset. And it looked great. And it felt great. And they had one in green. And for the construction (all steel boning) and warranty (lifetime), it became too good an offer to pass up. Now, two hours later I needed to get it off me, but its also been about 10 years since I had to wear one with any regularity (Amadeus), so it should get better.
I also managed to get over to the Future of Eberron. I missed the first part about the upcoming novels (damn it!) but Keith and James always make for a fun time, so it was worth it. I will probably be tracking one or both of them down later anyway for various nefarious purposes…mwuhahahaha!
Hooked back up with Steve and bought James’s third Draconic Prophecies book and the 4.0 version of the Eberron Campaign setting. By then I was tired and needed to get out of the corset, so we went back to the room (HORRAY for being close to the Con Hall) where I changed into street clothes and took a nap while Steve went back to hook up with some friends. I called to be the good overly concerned mommy and found out that Willow was fine. Then it was dinner at Mikado, a sushi and steak house (wrap your head around that one). It was good, it a bit pricey.
We hit the Circle Mall so Steve could find a pair of swim trunks. We stopped into Pacific Sun, where (and this ONLY happens to Steve) the cashier was not only moving to Chicago, but was attending classes at an Art School right down the street from Steve’s work and whose “aunt” and “uncle” (i.e. close family friends) were the parents of Nick Brenner, an actor friend of Steve and mine who was in Twelfth Night when we met and died just a few years ago…FREAKY!!!
The pool here at the Omni was one of the first to be installed in a hotel in Indy and was lovely and warm and calm.
We are turning in early…well, early for GenCon…and await a TRUE day of shopping tomorrow as we walk the entire floor….my poor Credit Card…
Gen Con T-Minus 1 Day
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:40 Chicago Time
So, here we are on the way to nerd fest, gaming mecca…GEN CON!
It has not started out well, as FedEx ground has lost my badge and then gave me the run around on what had happened to it. Hopefully, the nice lady at Gen Con Customer Service did not lie to me when she said they could pull up the tracking number and re-print the badge when it shows I have never received it.
Other than that, trip seems to be going OK. We got out of the city in good time and 65 seems to be behaving. On top of that, badge pick-up and customer service are now open later, so we are not in as much of a rush thais year as opposed to last year when we missed closing by two minutes.
In the car are Lowell, Abe, myself, and Steve. We are approaching the jump off onto 231 to bypass the horror that has been 65 recently.
There are, of course, concerns about leaving work for two days and then a weekend, but it has been dead recently, so hopefully there will be fewer fires to put out when I get back!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:30 Indy Time
There was a slight traffic snafu in Hebron on 231, but we found 431, and followed that all the way to 65. After a tense phone call from my mom (my grandma fell on her walk, but she seems to be OK), we landed in Indy and managed to somehow stumble onto our hotel. After getting checked in and checking out the intense swankiness of the hotel, Lowell, Abe, and I headed over to the Hall while Steve went off to find parking. I got into the line at Customer Service, which actually started moving not long after I got into the line, but after another guy had gotten impatient and left. My shirt (“Sex, Drugs, and Dungeons & Dragons”) got laughs and started conversations with other people in line. Gamers unite!
Steve found us, picked up his badge in a no-line Will call (jerk) and then was able to hand off the folder of papers I had left in the car, including the FedEx log showing they lost my badge. The guy helping me when I got to the head of the line was SO nice and very helpful and very quickly confirmed my badge had not been delivered and hand printed a new one for me. WOHO!
While I was getting helped, I looked over and saw Steve et al talking to someone who looked vaguely familiar, so I waved, and he looked at me strangely. Walking over after I had my badge, I saw the nametag: Mike Merles, Steve’s boss for his freelance work at Wizards. And I was waving at him like an idiot. GAHHH!
He and Steve were touching bases and made plans to get a drink. We then wandered off and I got swag bags (puny this year) and then PF Chang’s for dinner. We had a lovely waitress and a wonderful dinner, including an accidental order of crab wontons. Leaving the restaurant we heard someone say “And speaking of Steve Townshend…” and turned to see Steve Schubert, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt, otherwise known as the power and brains behind most of the stuff Wizard’s of the Coast puts out. James even hugged me (probably remembering me from previous years and the Keith Baker attempted vehicular homicide incident). I confessed I had not been able to get my hands on the third book in his trilogy on Eberon, but he said that was OK and it was most likely on sale at the Wizard’s booth. A quick talk and it was back to the hotel room where costumes were unpacked, settling in done, alarms set, and games are being played. I am missing my kitten, but tomorrow holds the opening of the best four days in gaming!
So, here we are on the way to nerd fest, gaming mecca…GEN CON!
It has not started out well, as FedEx ground has lost my badge and then gave me the run around on what had happened to it. Hopefully, the nice lady at Gen Con Customer Service did not lie to me when she said they could pull up the tracking number and re-print the badge when it shows I have never received it.
Other than that, trip seems to be going OK. We got out of the city in good time and 65 seems to be behaving. On top of that, badge pick-up and customer service are now open later, so we are not in as much of a rush thais year as opposed to last year when we missed closing by two minutes.
In the car are Lowell, Abe, myself, and Steve. We are approaching the jump off onto 231 to bypass the horror that has been 65 recently.
There are, of course, concerns about leaving work for two days and then a weekend, but it has been dead recently, so hopefully there will be fewer fires to put out when I get back!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:30 Indy Time
There was a slight traffic snafu in Hebron on 231, but we found 431, and followed that all the way to 65. After a tense phone call from my mom (my grandma fell on her walk, but she seems to be OK), we landed in Indy and managed to somehow stumble onto our hotel. After getting checked in and checking out the intense swankiness of the hotel, Lowell, Abe, and I headed over to the Hall while Steve went off to find parking. I got into the line at Customer Service, which actually started moving not long after I got into the line, but after another guy had gotten impatient and left. My shirt (“Sex, Drugs, and Dungeons & Dragons”) got laughs and started conversations with other people in line. Gamers unite!
Steve found us, picked up his badge in a no-line Will call (jerk) and then was able to hand off the folder of papers I had left in the car, including the FedEx log showing they lost my badge. The guy helping me when I got to the head of the line was SO nice and very helpful and very quickly confirmed my badge had not been delivered and hand printed a new one for me. WOHO!
While I was getting helped, I looked over and saw Steve et al talking to someone who looked vaguely familiar, so I waved, and he looked at me strangely. Walking over after I had my badge, I saw the nametag: Mike Merles, Steve’s boss for his freelance work at Wizards. And I was waving at him like an idiot. GAHHH!
He and Steve were touching bases and made plans to get a drink. We then wandered off and I got swag bags (puny this year) and then PF Chang’s for dinner. We had a lovely waitress and a wonderful dinner, including an accidental order of crab wontons. Leaving the restaurant we heard someone say “And speaking of Steve Townshend…” and turned to see Steve Schubert, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt, otherwise known as the power and brains behind most of the stuff Wizard’s of the Coast puts out. James even hugged me (probably remembering me from previous years and the Keith Baker attempted vehicular homicide incident). I confessed I had not been able to get my hands on the third book in his trilogy on Eberon, but he said that was OK and it was most likely on sale at the Wizard’s booth. A quick talk and it was back to the hotel room where costumes were unpacked, settling in done, alarms set, and games are being played. I am missing my kitten, but tomorrow holds the opening of the best four days in gaming!
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