Thursday morning, stirred awake and started the shower march with 5 people taking their turn.Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was watched and declared quite the best thing on TV at that hour, and I learned that Mr. Rogers got his start in Pittsburgh.. so it seemed most appropriate. Parted company with Daliwolf and Clyde for the time being; Slick, Buran and I achieved some breakfast, moved the car, our stuff, and ourselves to the Westin. Rather than take a 6th-floor room at 'sometime before 3', we took a 17th-floor immediately[*1], unloaded stuff. Buran got a bit of naptime in after we unpacked, and I headed down in fairly short order to start the fine art of confirming identification and issuing badges for previously registered and paid attendees, aka, Pre-Reg.

Since 2004 I've been in charge of Pre-Reg, and since 2004 it has been a discontinuous staff. This year seemed be all new folks, including the helpful derechodragon and the always-pleasant Grandma Kage. With bags already stuffed and the room already set, we were ready to roll quite on time. even early. Allegheny I, where Pre-Reg was stationed, was spacious enough to handle quite a solid line of people. With most of the crew remaining though the vital 3pm-6pm hours of processing, and some staying the whole day.. Pre-Reg moved. I spent most of the time instructing new volunteers how to work the tables, and fixing issues with bad ID, no ID, lost registrations, and other issues. Tried to keep an eye on Sponsor/Super-Sponsor Pre-reg, but as they were a floor downstairs it proved impossible to check there often. Buran came down to help after her nap, and I got to say howdy to Rhenessa/Kefkah, yiffer, murakozi, and several others who passed through the registration, or just by to see the mongoose working all day.. warphammer stopped by at 8 and graciously brought food.. though received noogies for his earlier wishywashyness over an airport pickup. (Thankfully, gryph0n was able to get him). We kept going right until 10, and past that a bit as well... up to the room quickly, and then back down for the staff meeting, which lasted until nearly midnight. Whew. After that I headed to hang out with Dari, Warp, Valent (who was captured just before a shower and bed), Hydra over in Dari's room for a bit. Good chatting was had and Valent's equipment was drooled over. .. his radio equipment, that is.

Oh, and I cannot forget mention of bigtig, my boss as Director of Registration, and drleo, the other Assistant Director. Both are fine gentlemen who I rarely get enough time with at Anthrocon, because they're at New-Reg and I'm at Pre-Reg. Thursdays especially, my contact with them is "Please reprint a badge for this gentleman." and "I'm passing this case up to you.", which only happened.. twice this year I think.

SMS excerpts:
"Latest is "*sigh* I wish I knew." Skan's waiting for 41,00 cards to arrive at his place." --Warphammer.
"When Dealer's room is up, btw, very curious to see if Aura is selling Six prints as she threatened. :)" --Six_True_Words
"Hey, Tim says all the signboards at the airport say Welcome Anthrocon. I will get pics." --Warphammer
"Registration is running at mongoose speed!" -Valent "Longest Super Sponsor line evar. :)" --Valent 20 minutes later [*2]
"Do I have an imminent time limit? Other than you're starving." --Warphammer

--Chiaroscuro

[*1] Which turned out okay, as Dari's room was 1604 and Valent's on 1606, just a floor below down the stairs.
[*2] We're working on plans to make this better next year. Sponsors deserve speed. New hotel, new situation, all that.