Thanks to a well-timed invitation to speak at a meeting of $EMPLOYER's Oregon chapter, held in Bend, I was able to make it to Saturday and Sunday of Conflikt. I had a great time, but the weekend was one big experiment in sleep deprivation. For various reasons, my best choices for flights were all early departures - 8:20am, 6:15am, and 8:05am for the IAD-to-RDM (via SFO), RDM-to-SEA and SEA-to-IAD legs, respectively. Which meant I had to wake up at 5:30am, 4:15am and 5:30am to make each of those. The things I do for both my job and my hobby (*grin*).

The con was excellent. It was great to see AJA, Cecelia and Toyboat again (even if Gundo did make sure to play "Wagon Wheel" *twice* for me). And of course all the fine Northwest folks like Jeffrey and Jeri Lynn, CD, JT, Andrew, Dawn, Betsy, Sunnie, Char and Randy, Vixy and Tony, Steve, Colleen and Naomi, and Dara. Plus Kathleen, Judith and Dave, Harold, Josh and Lisa, Bill and Carole, and Paul and Beth. And a long list of other folks I'm probably forgetting. Got a decent amount of singing in, including a 2-fer. Picked up a cute handmade stuffed Totoro from the Interfilk auction and a catnip toy covered with Star Trek logos (titled a "DiNipium Crystal").

My offering was accepted by Nova within five seconds of my tossing it on the bedroom carpetin front of her. A few minutes later, she was batting it around and chomping on it out in the hallway outside when Luna came creeping upstairs. She stopped about a foot away from her sister and immediately started rolling around on the floor. Contact high! Obviously they make some good nip in Washington State. 8-)

Meanwhile, Boskone was somewhat of a mixed bag, and not just because of the snow and chilly temperatures. I enjoyed myself, participating in two panels (songwriting and performance tips) and a re-run of the Fantasy and the Sea Shanty panel. The filk circles were a little smaller than usual but still quite fun, and I was able to catch up with lots of friends. At the same time, between three program items in four hours and an early Valentine's Day dinner on Saturday (to accommodate a Concertino meeting), I missed several program items I would have liked to attend with authors I would have liked to have seen, of which there were unusually many at this year's con. (For example, I totally missed James Cambias, whose A Darkling Sea I enjoyed). We were able to catch Fran Wilde (who Sheryl knows from Buffistas.org) on a Fantasy Bestiary panel and I caught Max Gladstone's reading. We also snuck away from the Saturday filk to catch the Silly Cover Poses session - at which I saved one attempt to recreate a fantasy cover by grabbing one of the plastic trays the hotel had put out for empty glasses and offering it to one of the participnts to use as a shield.

Meanwhile, I was able to escape the cold and snow for a couple of days by flying out to San Diego for a workshop on resilient construction and communities. Took a red-eye home Thursday night since we supposedly had some commitments for today and I didn't want to get home later on Friday. As it happened, our commitments got cancelled due to the snow. Oh well. Took care of a few other things that Needed To Be Done and knocked several items off the DVR.

Home from OVFF. Tired cat is tired. Mini-con in the airport; Ellen Weingart and Mark were on our flight (connecting thru BWI to Islip), Tony Parker, Judy Bemis and Kathy Mar all showed up at the same gate just before our boarding time.

The two catnip pads made by janmagic that I picked up at the Interfilk auction have been strategically placed in the house - one in the living room, one in the computer room. Nova has already discovered the one in the living room (*grin*). Photos on G+.

Confluence pictures here. For the first time, played around with photo editing on some pictures using the software that came with my camera. Mainly, I was trying to bring up the brightness levels. In a few cases it actually worked.

Also, with all that's going on in DC these days and elsewhere, seems like a good excuse for a cute cat picture. I've been meaning for a while to post the shot of Nova below and the ones behind the cut:



( More Nova-KittyCollapse )

ETA: The link to the Conflunece pictures has been fixed

Came through the front door this evening to find three small piles of barf on our nice, recently cleaned hardwood floors. Obviously, somebody small and furry (or two somebodies) were not happy we spent the weekend at FilKONtario.

Ah well. A little cat puke won't detract from the fact we had an absolutely wonderful weekend. Will post more as the week progresses, including lyrics to the two new songs.

Oh, and we did manage to get across the border without having the box of contraband Interfilk donations impounded. Took some explaining though...

We sleep now.

Both in that I need my morning caffeine, and in that a certain Nova-kitty likes to try and drink out of my glasses and mugs.

(I'll note the kitteh in the picture looks more like Luna, however.)

I wonder...if I could strap a pedometer on our kitty, how many steps would she record in a day?

(Nova is currently scrambling around the bedroom playing with the left-over cup from a bottle of cough medicine.)

Because with the way Nova-kitty keeps leaping in my lap WITH CLAWS EXTENDED, I'm going to need contact Honor Harrington's tailor to make me some padded pants... 8-P

Well, after more than three years on LJ, I'm gonna try posting a picture or two.

( And of course, we start with furballs!Collapse )

Yes, I am happy to report that the_sheryl and I are once more staff to felines. The Animal Welfare League was having an adoption day at the local Petsmart, at which we adopted (or were adopted by?) two four-month old sisters, Luna and Nova. The sisters were two of a brood of seven kitties found at a farm. All seven had celestial names--the others were Orbit, Cosmos, Starla, Zora, and I'm now forgetting the seventh.

Luna is black and white, somewhat similar to Sugar in the pattern around her head. Of the two, she's just a bit smaller and the much shyer one. This despite being the one who just about fell asleep in my arms at the store. She spent various parts of the afternoon under the downstairs futon behind the dryer and under the heat pump supply vent. Nova is mostly white with a light brown tail and light brown spots on her head, at the nape of her neck, and around her haunches. She's been the braver and more sociable one, hopping up on tables, sniffing at our VCRs, watching kitty TV out the sliding door, and catloafing next to us while we watched Doctor Who.

For today we have them confined to the basement level (rec room, utility room, and stairs). Tomorrow we'll let them explore the rest of their new home.

Home from Confluence, pretty smooth drive, had to bail off I-70 for a bit near Hagerstown due to traffic. Much fun was had, many books bought (including the new Valor book, woo-hoo!), many songs sung.

Unfortunately, as many of you already know, we've returned home to an empty house

This time I'll do the smart thing and type Conrep Part II off line. Just in case I decide to go to sleep before I finish.

( When we left our intrepid heroesCollapse )