Early morning awakening, to break out the ironing board and get my chef's outfit neat and crease-free for its appearance in public. It's my 'work uniform' both in the regular job and and at Anthrocon, and if i may say so, it looks good on me. Been on me in some form since.. 2002? 2003?. The outfit needs a hat to complete it, and as paper disposable ones run about 25-50 cents each.. I rely upon the kindness of strangers. Chef Greg from the Westin's Orchard Cafe nicely provided me one, we talked a little shop in the process. With that completed, I got breakfast at his restaurant with the newly mustacheless 
tchall.
On to registration, and the morning push.. After some discussion with Leo and Bennie, we decided to handle all pre-reg in one room, and it worked swimmingly with the modest morning traffic. Around 11 o'clock it had slowed down, and with few enough registrations left.. we did the final condensing of all new registration into pre-reg. After a sudden rush after opening ceremonies got processed, and at Buran's urging, I made the escape to the convention center. It is indeed a solid walk, but the weather was nice indeed, and bumped into rcoony and some others along the way. Out went the sketchbooks! Out went the badge commissions! Away went my money! By about 4pm I'd managed effective distribution and purchase.. of the first two rows of the dealer's room It was.. large. Checked back at the reg table, and then scampered for dinner at 5:30 or so with Clyde, Slick, and Buran at a nice lowbrow pizza joint. .. Still in my chef's outfit, complete with cap, which tends to be a smidgen intimidating when I wear it in a restaurant. Sometimes that's good though.
Back to the con for 2_gryphon's show, which I wanted to catch this year, after consciously avoiding it for several a year. Now, this may seem foolish, but I'd had the impression that I might be annoyed and offended at his show, and want to leave. I don't waste time at AC being where I don't want to be. But my the same token, to leave a show partway through is unspeakably rude. and I would not want to do that either. So rather than risk that dilemma, I've dodged. This year, though, I'd met 2 on SecondLife, and he seemed a reasonable person. With that, I could see his show, because I'd be going to see 2-the-guy, not just 2-the-performer, and I could handle that even if the show sucked.... don't tell me this is convoluted logic. This is time management, I get to make my own rules.
But the show didn't suck! It was entertaining, funny, ofttimes coarse but.. in an energetic Sam Kinison/Dennis Leary sort of way. The only downside was Buran's inability to hear during initial seating.. so I led her to the Super-Sponsor seats. I think I managed it without disruption, though had to explain to unclekage in passing.
After the show, people got separated, and I headed off with Clyde for a while for some booze and talking. Nice bit of relaxation there, a moment away-from-the-con. I don't get too many of those. By the time I got back to the Westin there were a ton of messages and people hunting for me. Notably the trio of raptor_midway (Fossil), scullyraptor (Scully), and iron_raptor (IR) whom I caught in the Zoo, and lured upstairs.yiffer was tempted but not lured, though did give to me this picture, which more than made up for it. I felt ready to host a 1982 cartoon show.
Then, Apples to Apples commenced. Buran and I had played before, but everyone else- Warphammer, Slickpuppy, and the three raptors- were new to the game. Fun, fun time was had, given the properly devious minds involved and the ability to play to the judge. Or play cards just to make IR laugh, and Fossil screw up his face in befuddlement. "My love life isn't 'fantastic'... ... it's very real." "Awww!" That took us to 2am, and with a few good rounds of the game, some more booze, and a running toilet from earlier int he day fixed.. sleep was easy to fall to.
Miscellaneous SMS:
[talking about registration] "Heh. There's a line already?" --Valent, 9am
"I'm near the entrance. Haven't managed to drop off any books yet." --Valent, 1pm
"Mmmm. Boss on fire." --Buran
"*chwirks* --Warphammer
"*cawcawcawcawcaw*" --Warphammer
"You didn't respond to chirping. :> how you?" --Warphammer
"Hey, am upstairs.. wanna find a few people and play Apples?" --Buran
"Moving now. Allow for elevator delay." --Warphammer
"How is the con? Any hanky panky with bu?" --my overly nosy sister Kristen.
