Capclave went rather well. I ended up doing more of my usual routine of settling into the con suite/game room and less panels than I'd originally intended, but I had a good time introducing a few people to Kingsburg (I ended up playing three games over the weekend, making it about the only game from the traveling collection that saw any real use, if you don't count bringing the Revolution box to protect a couple prints and a sketch from the Erfworld party).

Saturday night was a bit abbreviated because starmalachite hadn't been sleeping well, so we left as soon as I acquired the aforementioned sketch (a two-part sketch, actually, part by outgoing artist Jamie Noguchi and part by incoming artist Xin Ye). On the other hand, we returned Sunday (originally, we'd been planning to make one last visit to the Maryland Ren Faire for the season, but between the mud and starmalachite not really feeling up to that long a drive, we decided to catch the rest of the con instead). That gave us a chance to see a panel on the significance of the Civil War (featuring author GoH Harry Turtledove, of course) and get in one more Kingsburg game.

The con also gave me a chance to experiment with the video camera we got last week. So far, the results look good; now I need to figure out how to do format-conversion and turn the pictures sideways. (I held the camera sideways, figuring that that would better frame a single standing person; this may have been a mistake.)

Now to get ready for OVFF (first step, review this example of How Not To Deal With Airport Security).

Last weekend, starmalachite and I went out to the Maryland RenFaire. Along the way, somebody suddenly cut across to the exit, producing a chain reaction of braking and collisions -- we were at the tail end of it. We almost avoided it completely, but the last car that took a serious hit bounced back and fishtailed a corner into our front end. The car was still driveable, with a dented and slightly bent hood, but we were delayed until about noon while the police came and took a report.

Once we got there, things went rather well (but more crowded than I've seen it any other time).

Most of this weekend we were at Capclave. There were some pretty good panels (I remember one on alien communication in particular), and the evening filk was fairly good for a con that's trying to get it going as a new activity (the room kept going for about two hours each night, peaking at about a dozen people, including several newcomers). One moment I recall was starmalachite springing "Self-Inflicted" on a few people who hadn't heard it before.

With all that, I didn't do as much gaming as usual, but I did get to play (and win) Thurn and Taxis and Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. I was especially pleased with the former, as I hit the trifecta of 1)first eight-city route, 2)first player with all colors, and 3)first (and only) player to gain all of Prussia (if you don't know the game, suffice it to say that each of those is worth a relatively large point score).

We skipped the last day of the con to catch the last day of RenFaire, without adventures en route this time. The highlihgts were two of the featured musical performances from the Mediaeval Baebes and Volgemut; starmalachite also got some of our Christmas shopping done. After a minor mixup (we forgot to set a place to meet when I went to the final joust while she went to the closing pubsing), we had dinner at Red Robin and headed home.

Give the old white cat her subcutaneous fluids and go to sleep now.....

I just booked flights to OVFF for me and starmalachite and double-checked that I have everything set for the rest of my con plans: TCEP this weekend, possibly day-tripping T-MODE next Saturday, Capclave (likely skipping Sunday for the last day of Maryland RenFaire), OVFF, Philcon, and Darkover.

See some of you there!