I'd like to say that I the first Spocon was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable conventions I have ever attended.

Beyond issues with our "dorm" apartments being double booked and no linens, it was great.  Lots of walking, but the weather was great.

Meeting Timothy Zahn was great.  I never really paid attention to his works beyond the Star Wars: Dark Force Rising trilogy, but I learned he's a pretty good writer.

Had a blast hanging with John Dalmas.  Spocon assigned to charming women to be his "keepers".  Lucky S.O.B. I tell ya!  I relieved them of their duties in the late evening.  I think John wore them out.  Yet another convention where I make sure John gets back to his room after a good night at the convention parties.  Starting to become a habit.

I am so looking forward to next year.

I bought more art at the Miscon auction. This is starting to become a habit. The last 3 cons (other than Radcon) I have made moderately expensive purchases. I really should refer to these as investments. I am now the proud new owner of some pieces from William R. (call me "Bill") Warren, Jr., including "Safe Sex" which I am so happy to own. Bill said he was happy that the ownership went to me. There are no prints of this. I'll have to get a professional photograph done sometime to get a picture of it to Bill. I also snagged two prints from Alan M. Clark.

Did a Sunday 2 AM breakfast run with Bill Warren, Dragon Dronet, Illuminati Rob, Edgar Lincoln, Jane Fancher, Sharon Reynolds, Uncle John and myself. That was very memorable. Sharon Reynolds is a bad buffalo and was forced to renounce her vow from the earlier evening. No quarter left her hand though, and thus it was allowed. (Note to self: Edgar is a hard ass.)

I actually gamed for the first time in years at a con this weekend. I was actually late to the Radcon room party. But since I wasn't making waste it didn't bother me really.  Illuminati Rob helped me play my first game of Munchkin (and I won!!!).  Next year I think I'll actually learn how to play Illuminati.  I tried out some new D&D 4th edition.  Quite different.  Also played some Red Dwarf RPG.  Very fun time.  I think we rolled dice maybe 5 times total. The rest was just straight up mayhem and roleplaying.

On the way home, we passed a sign just before milepost 44 in Montana that read "40 Foot Bridge for Sale".  I guess people really do sell those.

Wrapping up day and it's time for bed.  Bill Warren told the story about the steam powered airplane tonight.  Fascinating story.  I don't think I could do it justice here so I'm not even going to attempt to duplicate any part of it here.

Opening ceremonies was great.  Many memorable moments.

Did not attend much today.  Spent the better part of the day completing a job application for the Washington State Department of Ecology that was due today and shopping for Radcon Roomparty.  Being a state job it was a lot of paperwork.

I am not making Toxic Waste, either.  But that's another story.

Got to Miscon successfully.  Checked in, unloaded, and set out to socialize.

Cthulu Bob was BBQing up some food out back to feed Keith Baker (GOH) and other some food.  Bob phoned someone at Marcon on Ohio and told them to take good care of John Dalmas... and to get him a bottle of peach brandy.  He then phoned John and he and I both spoke with him.   John is doing well.  His tremors are making writing hard, but he's pressing on.

Headed over to Rowdy's Restaraunt and Bar.  They had great pizzas and Big Sky brew on draught.  Scratch that... they closed the restaraunt 4 months prior.  Grrr...  Hey, beer.  Ok, so beer is food right?  2 pints later on an empty stomach and I'm happy.  Ok, across the street to Joker's for food.  What's that? The kitchen closed 30 minutes ago?  Of course it did.  Hungry.  What's that down the road?  Golden Arches?  McD's here I come.  500 mile trip and I'm eating McDonalds.  At least it's an authentic Montanna McD's complete with authentic deer antler chandeliers.

Ended up back in the room with Bill Warren and a few drinks.  Bill told great stories, including one about Ted Sturgeon and Harlon Ellison.  Bill drew a picture of us in the room.  Funny stuff.  He promises to tell the stories of him capturing a Martian and about the steam powered airplane.

About time for bed.  So tired.

Today, I got John Dalmas' flight booked out to Radcon.  I'm always excited to see John and this year will be no exception.  For anyone that doesn't know, we do some fund raising for the John Dalmas fund that keeps flying John out to Radcon and Miscon since he moved away from Spokane to Ohio.

This year at Radcon there's going to be a fun event to raise funds involving multiple Toxic Waste mix-masters.  The proverbial gauntlet has been thrown down.  More to come soon.

We'll also be auctioning off some stuff for the fund as well.

By the way, check out his fine website: http://www.johndalmas.com/

... on my Kindle.

Browsing today I found Into the Gardens of Sweet Night (Kindle Edition) and having never read the story that got him the Hugo nomination (and other nominations) I quickly snatched this up.

Good story Jay.  I can't believe I haven't read this yet.

In short, the Kindle rocks!

Of course I'm a good company man and support the product (literally), but I'd buy this thing even if I wasn't. Apparently a lot (I can't divulge numbers) of others like it too.  Ignore the 254+ reviewers that only gave it a 1 Star rating that won't buy it.  Their reviews are mindless drivel that are great for insomniacs needing a laugh.

Good stuff to look at on Slashdot about Kindle. Lot's of links.  Skip this idiot though.  13:56 of your life better spent walking your cat or something.

So, what I've found that's cool for my Kindle in the last couple of days...

Baen free library books. Very cool. I can get books in Mobi format which Kindle support with no conversion.

I bought some works by Ken Rand today from published by Fictionwise.com and for sale on the Kindle Store. I already owned a book copy of "The 10% Solution: Self-editing for the Modern Writer", but for $1.27 I couldn't resist getting a copy for my Kindle.

I hope a lot of small press folks start publishing now of the Kindle.  I'll buy.  BTW, save me a call or two and just go here to find out more on how to publish for the Kindle.

TTFN

I have just spent the entire weekend for one BBQ party for our Radcon Convention Committee.  Bob Brown and I went shopping on Saturday.  That took over 3 hours.  Trip to Costco, Cash n' Carry and Winco.  Of course Bob did shopping too.  Well, a car load of groceries later and around 5PM I start on dinner and then start the long work of prepping the marinade and relish for the Tri-Tip.  I made the garlic and cheese butter for the grilled garlic bread.  By the time all this was done and the roasts were on marinade, it was 9PM or so, most of Saturday eaten up by shopping and some prep work.

Then it was staying up till nearly 4AM watching Season 1 of Sliders on DVD.  I never loved that show, but I enjoyed it.  Couldn't stop watching it though.

Sunday morning, up at 9:00 AM.  Had a terrible dream that I overslept and missed the BBQ.  Awoke to find that I hadn't.  Finally got there after prepping the chickens with rub and mop sauce for chicken.  By the time set up is done, coals are hot and grill is ready it's all read after 2PM.  BBQ was from Noon to 5PM.  Meat starts coming off at 3PM and it's time to chow down.  Next thing you know, everyone is going home.  OMG, it's over?  Where the hell did all the time go?

Big thanks to folks like Matt and Terry who always seem to stick around to help clean up.

I'm not complaining about the amount of work I put into this.  I just want people that don't know how much time, money and effort goes into something like this to understand.

Lessons learned from this?  Next time I make this recipe I won't buy twice as many Limes as I need.  I won't contemplate doing more than one marinade, I'll make sure my bread buttering assistants apply more to the bread and I'll make sure we have a better carving knife in the hands of someone that can slice thin.  Other than that, it was great.

On the subject of too many limes left over, I think I'd better make limeade.  The amount of tequila I'd have to consume to get rid of them would kill me.

It was fun gearing up for this.  I had a lot of build up personally.  I mean I really was looking forward to it.  I invested in new supplies I was going to need anyway.  It was an excuse to get serious about cooking again.  Something I used to do a lot of.  Now that it's over, I'm a bit down. 

My next big BBQ project will be to smoke a brisket.  No mean feat to do it right.  Probably will eat up most of a weekend too.