Shortly

It's an early post because it's not much of day, journali-wise. Had another low Hgl at 6 am, cured it with Klondike bars. Back to sleep, up at 9, sort of. Dressed and ready to go at 10:30.

Took the two flagpoles out, and now have the USA flag on the top bracket and the Thai flag in the bottom bracket, but that makes it hang as a banner, and it blocks my view backing out of the driveway, so I may have to re-think it.

Drove all the way to El Camino, hitting every red light on Fair Oaks, behind lots of people who were either texting or having trouble finding the gas pedal. And so many bozoids who bought manual shifts for the power have never learned how to put it back in gear smoothly when the light goes green.

The mission was Safeway, where a friend said Girl Scout cookies were on sale. I have the cookie finder app (yes, there really is one) and it said there were no sales anywhere in Sunnyvale but I trusted friend and past experience. And I was wrong.

So, all the way back to 101 and San Jose for the second day of Potlatch. First session was on cities in science fiction, three of the five people on the panel I know from BASFA, two of them I actually like. One has a ton of self-published books which are all rip-offs of her favorite TV shows and movies. On the one hand I admire the amount of typing she has done, and am awed by how much $$ this must have cost her SO, but on the other hand there's nothing original, and Amazon reviews by people who know the subjects pan her roundly. And she is very full of herself in person. But strangely not in a way that makes me hate her, I just feel very sorry for her.

Potlatch is mostly an audience participation con, and there was a ton of that, a lot of it useful, informed, books and authors I had never heard of but would probably enjoy reading.

The second session was on food in books, and I had brought two of a fiend's cookbooks, which have as much writing about the culture around the food as about the recipes, but the way the moderator aimed the discussion we never got around to cookbooks, except for compilations of sci-fi writers' favorite recipes. And she pooped out well before the time allotted. And that was the last item on the agenda.

I went to the con suite, which is usually a good place for further conversation and nibbles, but the folks who had re-arranged the furniture made a circle completely blocking the food, and there were no seats left, so I bailed.

Took out my cookie finder and it said to go to Lowe's out behind the airport, so I did. It's a straight shot from downtown SJ, on Coleman which is what Market turns into as you go north.

I scored the 4 thin mints I wanted, but they did not have the chocolate chip shortbread cookies I thought I saw on the web site. They had caramel chip, so I got one and they had Samoas, which have chocolate so I got one of those. This is 2 more boxes than I usually buy, in my effort to counter the tea party cretins who are spreading vicious rumors that GS is pro-abortion. And the same cretins don't like the GS stance allowing gay scouts.

So here I am at the Starbucks across from the Lowe's, with a view of planes lining up to line up to take off. Moderately busy place.

No plans for the rest of the day. It's beautiful and sunny and almost 70. Maybe I should find a park.