ISPCON wrap-up and news
May 31st, 2006 @ 8:22 by NormMonkey
From the ispcon-2006 department:
As usual, many moons have passed and the blog was left on the curb like that poor, sad lamp in the old Ikea commercial.
The blog is hungry. It wants to be fed.
In today’s issue:
* Wrap-up for ISPCON
* Cottage May 24 weekend
* Upcoming vacation
WRAP-UP FOR ISPCON
I’ll try and keep this short ’cause we all know how much drivel I can, unchecked, spew upon these pages of teh intarweb. AZROLB will be pleased.
Basically, our time *in* the convention center involved me breaking out of my shy little shell and actively seeking out conversations with lots of people. I hope I get sent to more of these for that reason alone. Apparently it takes a +5 Work Commitment charm to break a Shyness spell.
ASIDE: Yeah, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. The only Role Playing Game I’ve ever been in on is when I sat in on another group’s game to take the place of a no-shower. Uh, a no-show-er, that is. I’m pretty sure everybody there had a shower. I hope they did. Anyways, All the fun was from hanging out with the friends; the game itself didn’t do much for me. I guess it doesn’t help when you know nothing about the world or the game or anything and you’re jumping in with a group that knows all. Meh.
Right. Keep it short; AZROLB is becoming fidgety.
Basically, our time *out* of the convention center involved drinking, eating, shopping or wandering around the Baltimore harbor area (and a little bit of Little Italy, which we should have walked to so we could’ve avoided the Worst Cab Ride Ever — we walked back).
Thursday was the last convention day. Very few actual visitors wandered by. Mostly other exhibitors. It was very quiet. I wandered over to the Geotrust booth and stole three of their little globe-schwags so that I could juggle. I also wandered around and found these booth babes to take a picture with me (picture of a polaroid picture, so apologies for the quality):
The A.L.I. Cats. Mrowr.
I wandered around to find schwag. I got some pens and flashy blinky LEDs. I wanted to get a particular pen with a blue LED in it from a booth down the row, but the guy there was keeping them hidden. I asked him where I could get one. He said, “I think they’re around here somewhere. They’re pretty popular.” As he said this he was holding one in his hand. The name on the pen matched the name on his booth. Assclown. Next time I will remove my “exhibitor” badge in the hopes of scoring better schwag.
On Thursday evening after dropping Derek off at the airport for his flight home, Wayne and I headed to Philadelphia for a meeting the next morning. Wayne insisted that I drive d:) Over $10 in tolls on the I-95. Ridiculous. We wandered around downtown Philly to take many pictures of historical stuff. There is much that is interesting there; I need to go back someday to let loose the little shutterbug that lives inside me.
Friday morning, our meeting went well, and I drove home.
AZROLB sighs. Part one, done.
COTTAGE MAY 24 WEEKEND
I invited many helpful slaves friends to the cottage for a weekend of beer, fun and deck-building. I didn’t bring my camera but Scott did, so here’s a link for you:
As per this earlier post, We had already done some of the demolition for the old deck. As you can see in the picture (”There Is No Deck”) we left some of it in place for stability.
On Saturday morning we completed the demolition. Dave’s Indian Native American name is “Rushes With Hammer”. As we took the old deck totally apart, we discovered places where the cottage was rotting because of water seeping between the deck and the cottage. All in all, fixing all the rot required a consultation with Lorne, a family friend and the Buckshot Lake Construction Guru, a trip to the lumberyard, and just over a half a day’s work between Saturday and Sunday.
By the time all the slaves revolted and ran away on Sunday evening, the frame and joists for the deck were firmly in place, along with perhaps 1/3 of the decking. I spent Monday morning cleaning the cottage, doing many dishes, stripping all the linen and packing up my stuff. I am happy to pay the price of cleaning up after a monkeyfest in exchange for great company and slave labour d:) Monday afternoon I finished 3/4 of the deck-planking, but I had to leave for home before I could totally finish the job.
What’s left? 1/4 of the deck (the bit that leads to the stairs near the Bedroom By the Fireplace, for those playing along at home) still needs decking. The stairs need to be repaired and then attached to the deck. And finally, the railing cool seating which doubles as a railing needs to be rebuilt and attached.
UPCOMING VACATION
On Thursday afternoon (tomorrow! woohoo!) I’m flying out to Winnipeg, where I will join my family (minus The Bostonian Branch) for a vacation in the Dakotas. We’ll be taking The Fifth Wheel, which attaches to my cousin’s truck, plus my Aunt’s car. We’ll be wandering through North and South Dakota from the 2nd ’til the 11th.
There will be seven of us: My cousin and her family (2 adults, two young kids), my aunt, my mom and myself. In an RV. I’m told that we aren’t allowed to have a tent. I think I might get one anyways. I love my family to death and they’re all wonderful people but I also like sleeping through the night and getting some alone time now and again.
I’m bringing my camera and hopefully will be able to update the blog once or twice (although we saw how well that worked in Baltimore, eh?). It’s been a long time since I traveled down that way and I look forward to seeing much carved rock, badlands, caverns, etc.
Happy happy joy joy!
