Conflikt Day 1/2

Had a good night's sleep after the residual feeling of being on the train subsided.  Had breakfast at about 10:30, very sweet rum raisin french toast with turkey sausage. It said sausage on the menu, but they were patties. Not the same thing and certainly not worth $6.  Very expensive meal, I'll have to brave the cold and eat elsewhere tomorrow.

At 1, I went the mile or so to the con site. I'm staying at the Hilton, and the con site is the Hilton Convention Center, but our rooms are the furthest ones from the convention center, and the con is at the far end of that.

They said they were only registering VIPs, general reg would be at 3. The hike back to the room reminded me that my left knee is acting up too much for this kind of walking, so I went to the light rail station and took the train to Westlake where there is a Bartell's drugs, which I figured ought to have the three things I needed:
A cane
A folding knapsack
Reading glasses (I scratched the pair I had been using, and though I have a spare that would leave me with no spare....)

Found the cane right away - a nice folding one, quite solid.
Found the glasses hidden at the end of an aisle near the photo dept.
No travel knapsack.
I also found a small sewing kit and a dark chocolate salmon.

went across the street to the shopping center and did not find a folding pack, but did find a knapsack which looked like it was by Maurice Sendak, and paid way too much for it in a boutique. Kind of like this one:

Back on light rail to the airport, by now it was late enough to register, so I unfolded the cane, put on the pack and walked to the con.

Went to the con suite, a floor above my room, and was disappointed in the lack of diet coke and munchies. There were crock pots of soups and such, maybe 4 of them, but they didn't look that appetizing.

Stuffed the pack with some auction items & my camera and walked to the con at about 5:30, expecting the room for the 6:30 opening ceremonies would be open. But I forgot this was Conflik, where they set up all the audio for the evening before letting any of the fen into the room. As usual, it was not open by 6:30 either.

They started with announcements, not too many of them, then we sang the Bonhoffs' "Knight's in White Satin" spoof for the con CD. That went very well, it was done in on practice and one take.

we had a break, in which time I donated one of my calendars, the Bloggess' book and the chocolate salmon to the Interfilk auction.

Next up was a concert by a trio from Iowa, "Cheshire Moon". They were adequate musically, but their songs were tuneless, the lyrics utterly forgettable, and I was bored with them quickly.

Then came "burnt Toastmaster" bluesmancd aka CD Woodbury who turned things completely around with a wide variety of pieces and astounding guitar skills. Great showman, knew his audience (brought down the house by starting with a chat about blues, and then launched, blues style, into Code Monkey.). He started out with a Seattle theme. There was a patter song about coffee which drove the sign language interpreter up a wall. There was a lovely tune which described an octopus hunting and killing a shellfish from the shellfish's point o view. A couple of numbers I lost because his guitar drowned out his voice, but it was great guitar playing. He did a touching rendition of Tom Smith's Fantasy Lives and made me cry with a number I had never heard before - Uncle Bonzai's Just One Angel. That alone could have made the con for me. He also did a very scary version of Monsters Under Your Bed. And stuff I don't remember.

From there I went to the Bonhoff's workshop on parody writing, where they basically described exactly the way I write parodies. It was good to hear Anne Prather praising one of lemmozine's classic parodies.

Back to the room, dumped my stuff, hit the con suite because I am very hungry but all I got was a bowl of not quite cooked soup. Back to the room again to get the laptop and bring it to the area with free wi-fi. to write this.

Name dropping dept:
Chatted for a couple of hours last night with Anne Prather. hsifyppah arrived while we were chatting. Also Bill & Carole and Admiral Naismith.
 
walked back to the room with quadrivium aka Dr. Mary, chatted with lemmozine at the concert break, we'll get together for lunch or something. Good to see Frank Hayes here. Betsy Tinney and her daughter were in the con suite the first time I was there. They tell me Seanan is here but I haven't seen or heard her so it's probably not true yet. Chatted in the con suite with Fleetwolf,  whose sketch book is remarkable. Talented guy. He said he wanted advice on what guitar to get as a beginner, and i suggested asking lemmozine, whom I asked at the concert break,and I relayed the suggestion to rent something, but Mr. Fleet lives in Whidbey island, so no chance of that. Saw filkferengi in the con suite too.

Dr. Kathleen was at the workshop with the same pack as mine. She got it at the Chicago Field Museum.

Plans for tomorrow:
Have too much fun at the lunch (used to be a brunch, I like it this way better)
Phone my sister to find out why she hasn't replied to my email about dinner Sunday.
Concerts
Interfilk Auction
Maybe go to the international district for Chinese dinner. Tempted to invite susandennis to join me. I'm not sure what time I'll get there, though. I'd leave here 5:30 or 6, depends on how lucky I am with light rail schedules. And not sure which restaurant to go to.
quadrivium said she has a concert at 10, but I don't see it on the program. I'll be there anyway.