1a) Met
nihilistic_kid face to face for the first time after a long Internet acquaintance, which was nice, and actually got to hang with him (and other nice folks) in the bar in a manner which I rarely do at cons, so that was a big plus.1b) got to touch base with
jennifer_brozek in the dealer's room and then briefly later at the bar, too, which, again, was Good.1c) This was a HORROR CON. As such, rather different than the ones I more usually frequent. The first sight to greet us at the arrival at the hotel: a couple of hearses (one of them playing mournful muzak through wound-down windows...atmospheric... we later saw a mechanic lying under it with spanner in hand and I said to
rdeck, can you think of a more ludicrous thing to happen to you than to have a mechanical breakdown of your hearse on the way to your own funeral...? The Dealer's Room was literally in a crypt - in a sort of subterranean basement space with a floor full of open piping of the manner last seen in abandoned warehouses in your common or garden monster-of-the-week X-Files episode. Stuff on offer tended to be festooned with fake cobwebs and lots and lots of fake blood; there was a place where you could have your picture taken in a coffin for ten bucks;at one of the dealers' tables you could purchase the Yorick of your choice, with or without the lower mandible attached, some with the top part of the cranium removed and the inside of the skull upholstered in leather so that you can keep your keys and loose change in it; half-carved-up zombie mannequins, and living counterparts wearing gallons of body paint and make up and yet more fake blood, littered the corridors; the hotel foyer had a large scarecrow-type monster with an illuminated jack-o'-lantern head which bore an expression which was half "UUUUOOOOOOOOAH, I'm terrifying you, I'm scary..." and half "Waitaminit, what am I doing here again??!" It was... different.1d) Overheard in the restaurant as one group of conventioneers sat down for dinner: "It's a HORROR CON. Cthulhu's minions might be roaming the halls, you never know. It takes a brave man to order calamari here."
2) In unrelated but oddly congruent news, we have FLIES. They're in the house. They're all over the place. I can't smell anything dead but it's the only thing I can think of - some mouse died in the wall somewhere and now all these flies are... oh, GOD, I don't even want to think about it. And I am at a loss as to what to DO about it. I have no idea where they are coming from.
3) And while we're on the subject of mice... I'm told traces of mices have been seen in the house. Again. ARGH. *I vant vermin out!*
4)
rdeck is celebrating his seventh re-birthday tomorrow. It's seven years since the stroke. I always find it hard to sleep on this night every year. Wish me luck, and him a happy re-birthday...5) In more pleasant news, I have peonies. Mine are just about ready to pop. I love those things. There will be a stem cut from the garden and gracing the house tomorrow...
