![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Okay, I'm back to where I can type more or less normally. Amazing how screwed up your hands can get from being wrapped around a steering wheel for a few hours.
Got up at 6 AM on Saturday, carefully packed up everything that couldn't be packed the night before (except, somehow, the glasses-cleaning cloth I'd bought for travel purposes...anti-glare coatings suck, and it sucks more that they finally fixed the 'impossible to clean without special tools' aspect a month AFTER I got mine). Realized I never bought more travel toothpaste after ditching the expired tube last August. Aha! Excuse to hit Wal-Mart on the way. In Topeka.
Rolled out of the apartment parking lot at 8 AM exactly, stopped at a convenience store for a soda on the way out of town, pulled into the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on the northwest side of Topeka at 9:03...it's kinda scary how it takes me almost exactly an hour of travel every time for that jaunt (and, out of curiousity, I did time the soda stop...three minutes). After picking up toothpaste and not finding any new Transformers, it was back on the road. AAA told me there was construction on the tollroad part of I-70, so I went for US-24 instead. The $2 toll isn't beyond my means, but if I'm going to go just as slow due to construction and pay for the privilege, I'll pass on the tollway.
Dim memories of driving along US-24 in April 2002 (when I came to town to apartment hunt in advance of moving) told me there were Sonic restaurants along that stretch of road, so I figured I'd stop for a nosh if I got hungry. There were, in fact, three Sonics. All on the left side of the road. And at each, I told myself, "No, I'm positive there's one on the right, I'll wait for that one." Bzzt.
Anyway, got into the EconoLodge across the highway from the convention hotel just before 11, they let me check in early and I dumped my dumpables then set out to walk to the Con. Wasn't really sure about the parking situation, and hey, it wasn't far. In fact, it was only an 8 minute walk in pleasant weather. Well, cloudy and threatening, but I find that pleasant walking weather. Decided to try and bum a ride back to the Econolodge that night if it was raining, though...promised to be a windy rain, and my little travel umbrella is useless in wind.
Picked up my registration pack and called![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
robotech_master (henceforth to be referred to as R_M), who was still at tbutler's house. So I had some time to kill while they got up and drove over. Did an intial sweep of the dealer's room, and immediately spotted ezrael's book, so I snaffled it up. Otherwise just poked around for a bit, checking out the cheapo weapons booth and the mid-quality weapons booth, various publishers and booksellers. Yard Dog Press had a table, they're the people who put out "Shadows in the Green" by a friend of mine, Rich Dansky (who probably has a blog I can link to, but I'm lazy right now). As I already own a copy of that, I didn't buy there. :) As mentioned in the previous post, I found not even a cruddy McDonalds Transformer in the dealer room. The only Transformers content I spotted (other than that worn by me or R_M) was a t-shirt worn by some guy who didn't seem aware of what he was wearing. Also poked around the art show, where someone (or several someones) was making a lot of balloon art. A "Bun Bun the Bolo" from the Alldenata books was made at one point, I guarded it that evening. Pictures maybe later.
Also prowled around and found the gaming rooms, including the area Reaper Minis had set up. I like Reaper Minis. I decided to try to get in on the Speed Painting competition after lunch. Lunch was good, Minksy's Pizza makes good calzones. No new Transformers at the Wal-Mart across the way (and, to end the suspense, I found exactly zero new Transformers toys all weekend, although I did get some knockoff Beast Wars toys at Odd Lots). Lunch was also at 2 PM, a bit later than I'm accustomed to, but it turned out to be a weirdly stretched day anyway.
Sadly, no one else showed up for the speed painting contest, so I won by default. The judges were impressed, however, and felt I probably would have won against competition. Reaper's own brand of paint is nicely smooth and even, but takes longer to dry than I'm used to. I painted an elfin sorceress type in a long dress...and gave her maroon skin, just to be different.
I was walking around, my mini on a plate and slowly drying, when the tornado warning went off. Oops. We all crammed into the basement for about 20 minutes or so, and lost track of R_M's friend in the mess. Never did get back together with him that night, as his cellphone number had been changed (pay-as-you-go plans have the annoying tendency to take away your number if you run out of minutes, a big reason I never went that route). After the all clear, R_M and I did a last rush of the dealer's room (snagged some MythAdventures books myself) and then went up to watch the weather reports and the 1/4-mile-wide twisted running around ten miles north of us. We both called our parents to let them know we weren't in the path of the thing, and kept trying to get ahold of Travis. And then it was off to the art auction, as R_M had a piece he wanted that had gone up to bid. He won it, and we headed off for supper and sightseeing.
We headed down to Union Station in downtown Kansas City in R_M's car. Given how we ended up meandering a bit, I'm glad I insisted on not taking two cars...I'd have ended up in Olathe or something. We walked around a darkening Union Station for a while, checked out the various museum-ish parts, the fountain that shoots water in reverse, and so forth. Everything had closed down by that point (8:30 or so) and the one restaurant open was hosting a private party, so we got on the skywalks and headed for Crown Center Mall (much of downtown KC is 0wn3d by Hallmark, so lots of crown imagery). It was your basic twisty layout upscale city center mall, and most of the shops were closed by the time we got there. A toystore called ZOOM was just closing, but I managed to snag some robot toys called X-Joints before we were kicked out. We had dinner at a burger/sandwich place in the mall named A Streetcar Named Desire, sitting in booths in the streetcar part. Dinner was over at 10, which was REALLY late for me.
Back to the hotel. R_M has a character he tries to get drawn by various artists at cons and stuff, and he suggested earlier in the day that I do a Transformer version. So, while winding down to Cartoon Network, I sketched it. Probably won't get it inked or colored for a few days, though. Spaceship Transformer based VERY loosely on the Serenity from Firefly. Hit the sack at midnight, leaving a wakeup call for 10 AM (11 AM checkout).
Woke up at 8 AM and after half an hour of not falling asleep decided to get up. The "continental breakfast" at the Econolodge was donuts and coffee, so I hit a BP next to the convention hotel and grabbed a quart of milk and some cookies to round out pseudo-breakfast. Called R_M from the convention to let him know about the drawing, so we could try to meet for lunch before I left. Did some more wandering around the con, made one last purchase of a propellor-topped baseball cap, chatted up many people, etc. Then off to lunch at Planet Sub (their Italian Sub is VERY hot and spicy!). I consulted R_M's aging map to figure out the fastest way out of town, then set off.
IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.
Fortunately, the road I was trying to get to intersected the road I was on twice: once in the east and once in the west. So I ended up going 5-6 miles east, then getting on the highway. Also fortunately, there as a clear "This way to Topeka" sign at the ramp, so I got turned the right way. Still blew about 20 minutes of the afternoon on that (although I did see some nifty "rich people's neighborhoods" stuff when going in the wrong direction, like rubble cemented into cubes for use in retaining walls). Had another minor navigation glitch at the I-435/US-24 intersection, but that only cost me a couple of minutes. Spent the afternoon shopping around town in Topeka and filling up my front seat with bags, ate dinner at CiCi's Pizza (next to a Planet Sub), made it home without falling asleep at the wheel (although it was a near thing in the last few miles). And while there was a little spattering of rain here and there over the afternoon, it only made my car dirtier.
And now, after having taken a bit longer than planned on this entry, I go to bed. To sleep in, since it's Memorial Day.
May 31 note: Why is it that local stations feel compelled to break in every 5-10 minutes with weather updates at 1 AM? My tape of the Enterprise finale (shown locally at 12:30 AM Saturdays) was riddled with weather breaks, so I missed something like ten minutes of the ep...naturally, no commercials were covered by weather breaks.
Got up at 6 AM on Saturday, carefully packed up everything that couldn't be packed the night before (except, somehow, the glasses-cleaning cloth I'd bought for travel purposes...anti-glare coatings suck, and it sucks more that they finally fixed the 'impossible to clean without special tools' aspect a month AFTER I got mine). Realized I never bought more travel toothpaste after ditching the expired tube last August. Aha! Excuse to hit Wal-Mart on the way. In Topeka.
Rolled out of the apartment parking lot at 8 AM exactly, stopped at a convenience store for a soda on the way out of town, pulled into the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on the northwest side of Topeka at 9:03...it's kinda scary how it takes me almost exactly an hour of travel every time for that jaunt (and, out of curiousity, I did time the soda stop...three minutes). After picking up toothpaste and not finding any new Transformers, it was back on the road. AAA told me there was construction on the tollroad part of I-70, so I went for US-24 instead. The $2 toll isn't beyond my means, but if I'm going to go just as slow due to construction and pay for the privilege, I'll pass on the tollway.
Dim memories of driving along US-24 in April 2002 (when I came to town to apartment hunt in advance of moving) told me there were Sonic restaurants along that stretch of road, so I figured I'd stop for a nosh if I got hungry. There were, in fact, three Sonics. All on the left side of the road. And at each, I told myself, "No, I'm positive there's one on the right, I'll wait for that one." Bzzt.
Anyway, got into the EconoLodge across the highway from the convention hotel just before 11, they let me check in early and I dumped my dumpables then set out to walk to the Con. Wasn't really sure about the parking situation, and hey, it wasn't far. In fact, it was only an 8 minute walk in pleasant weather. Well, cloudy and threatening, but I find that pleasant walking weather. Decided to try and bum a ride back to the Econolodge that night if it was raining, though...promised to be a windy rain, and my little travel umbrella is useless in wind.
Picked up my registration pack and called
robotech_master (henceforth to be referred to as R_M), who was still at tbutler's house. So I had some time to kill while they got up and drove over. Did an intial sweep of the dealer's room, and immediately spotted ezrael's book, so I snaffled it up. Otherwise just poked around for a bit, checking out the cheapo weapons booth and the mid-quality weapons booth, various publishers and booksellers. Yard Dog Press had a table, they're the people who put out "Shadows in the Green" by a friend of mine, Rich Dansky (who probably has a blog I can link to, but I'm lazy right now). As I already own a copy of that, I didn't buy there. :) As mentioned in the previous post, I found not even a cruddy McDonalds Transformer in the dealer room. The only Transformers content I spotted (other than that worn by me or R_M) was a t-shirt worn by some guy who didn't seem aware of what he was wearing. Also poked around the art show, where someone (or several someones) was making a lot of balloon art. A "Bun Bun the Bolo" from the Alldenata books was made at one point, I guarded it that evening. Pictures maybe later. Also prowled around and found the gaming rooms, including the area Reaper Minis had set up. I like Reaper Minis. I decided to try to get in on the Speed Painting competition after lunch. Lunch was good, Minksy's Pizza makes good calzones. No new Transformers at the Wal-Mart across the way (and, to end the suspense, I found exactly zero new Transformers toys all weekend, although I did get some knockoff Beast Wars toys at Odd Lots). Lunch was also at 2 PM, a bit later than I'm accustomed to, but it turned out to be a weirdly stretched day anyway.
Sadly, no one else showed up for the speed painting contest, so I won by default. The judges were impressed, however, and felt I probably would have won against competition. Reaper's own brand of paint is nicely smooth and even, but takes longer to dry than I'm used to. I painted an elfin sorceress type in a long dress...and gave her maroon skin, just to be different.
I was walking around, my mini on a plate and slowly drying, when the tornado warning went off. Oops. We all crammed into the basement for about 20 minutes or so, and lost track of R_M's friend in the mess. Never did get back together with him that night, as his cellphone number had been changed (pay-as-you-go plans have the annoying tendency to take away your number if you run out of minutes, a big reason I never went that route). After the all clear, R_M and I did a last rush of the dealer's room (snagged some MythAdventures books myself) and then went up to watch the weather reports and the 1/4-mile-wide twisted running around ten miles north of us. We both called our parents to let them know we weren't in the path of the thing, and kept trying to get ahold of Travis. And then it was off to the art auction, as R_M had a piece he wanted that had gone up to bid. He won it, and we headed off for supper and sightseeing.
We headed down to Union Station in downtown Kansas City in R_M's car. Given how we ended up meandering a bit, I'm glad I insisted on not taking two cars...I'd have ended up in Olathe or something. We walked around a darkening Union Station for a while, checked out the various museum-ish parts, the fountain that shoots water in reverse, and so forth. Everything had closed down by that point (8:30 or so) and the one restaurant open was hosting a private party, so we got on the skywalks and headed for Crown Center Mall (much of downtown KC is 0wn3d by Hallmark, so lots of crown imagery). It was your basic twisty layout upscale city center mall, and most of the shops were closed by the time we got there. A toystore called ZOOM was just closing, but I managed to snag some robot toys called X-Joints before we were kicked out. We had dinner at a burger/sandwich place in the mall named A Streetcar Named Desire, sitting in booths in the streetcar part. Dinner was over at 10, which was REALLY late for me.
Back to the hotel. R_M has a character he tries to get drawn by various artists at cons and stuff, and he suggested earlier in the day that I do a Transformer version. So, while winding down to Cartoon Network, I sketched it. Probably won't get it inked or colored for a few days, though. Spaceship Transformer based VERY loosely on the Serenity from Firefly. Hit the sack at midnight, leaving a wakeup call for 10 AM (11 AM checkout).
Woke up at 8 AM and after half an hour of not falling asleep decided to get up. The "continental breakfast" at the Econolodge was donuts and coffee, so I hit a BP next to the convention hotel and grabbed a quart of milk and some cookies to round out pseudo-breakfast. Called R_M from the convention to let him know about the drawing, so we could try to meet for lunch before I left. Did some more wandering around the con, made one last purchase of a propellor-topped baseball cap, chatted up many people, etc. Then off to lunch at Planet Sub (their Italian Sub is VERY hot and spicy!). I consulted R_M's aging map to figure out the fastest way out of town, then set off.
IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.
Fortunately, the road I was trying to get to intersected the road I was on twice: once in the east and once in the west. So I ended up going 5-6 miles east, then getting on the highway. Also fortunately, there as a clear "This way to Topeka" sign at the ramp, so I got turned the right way. Still blew about 20 minutes of the afternoon on that (although I did see some nifty "rich people's neighborhoods" stuff when going in the wrong direction, like rubble cemented into cubes for use in retaining walls). Had another minor navigation glitch at the I-435/US-24 intersection, but that only cost me a couple of minutes. Spent the afternoon shopping around town in Topeka and filling up my front seat with bags, ate dinner at CiCi's Pizza (next to a Planet Sub), made it home without falling asleep at the wheel (although it was a near thing in the last few miles). And while there was a little spattering of rain here and there over the afternoon, it only made my car dirtier.
And now, after having taken a bit longer than planned on this entry, I go to bed. To sleep in, since it's Memorial Day.
May 31 note: Why is it that local stations feel compelled to break in every 5-10 minutes with weather updates at 1 AM? My tape of the Enterprise finale (shown locally at 12:30 AM Saturdays) was riddled with weather breaks, so I missed something like ten minutes of the ep...naturally, no commercials were covered by weather breaks.
