Vegas was... Vegas. Hilariously enough, I went to the Imperial Palace (because I wanted to check out the classic car show; and yes, I bought a book on Chevy Impala & SS from '54-'72). Oh, man. That hotel is the tacky that just won't die! Brought me back to the first writercon. Dealertainers, people. Dealertainers!

And now we're planning writercon again, for July 30-Aug 2 2009. But this time, I don't have to fly! (I just woke up from a Vegas->Minneapolis red-eye; I have a keen appreciation for not flying, at this very moment.)

Flying, driving, or walking, I do hope that you consider coming. We located it in the middle of the country this time, after '04 in Vegas and '06 in Atlanta, so I realize that will make it worse for some but hopefully better for others. (And I assure you, Minnesota's not a frozen tundra in the summertime. It's actually hot, just not Vegas-hot or Atlanta-hot.)

And gah, it was almost impossible to find a weekend without a conflict. We deliberately kept it off Comic-Con weekend, but we can't help butting up against those dates whilst a) trying to avoid other convention conflicts b) trying to keep it during the "school's-out" period and c) trying to find a weekend where a hotel has meeting space, room block space, and reasonable prices. In theory if someone were going to consider spending money on two cons at all, it will at least be physically possible to attend this one and another.

So, Writercon 2009: Minneapolis! A multifandom fanfic convention by fans, for fans. A chance to meet half your flist ('cause they'll want to come too). Are you with me? :)

Happy birthday to the incomparable superplin! Hope it was lovely.

This morning, I got two tickets to see Bob Dylan on Election Night. Main floor, section 4 (a side section), row 11, seats 5 and 6. Those? Are some damn good seats.

Funny story, though... yesterday, I got two tickets in the balcony. All they had left from the pre-sale were singles, and they were willing to ignore the fact I'm not a student and sell me two aisle seats, one behind the other. I bought them to hedge my bets in case this morning didn't go well. I think the show's sold out now, so I suppose I won't have too hard a time reselling them...

Okay, in mere minutes I'm leaving to visit my sister in Vegas. Or, well, leaving for the airport, where I will doubtless be bored enough to pay for the wireless. Give me your ideas about what I should see there! I don't like to gamble and don't want to spend $$$ to see some show; I plan to see the Hoover Dam and eat at Lotus of Siam. What else is a can't-miss?

( Supernatural 4x03; episode spoilers only )

Eid Mubarak to those breaking their fast; note to self: we'll go back to having the ESL class break at a regular time instead of increasingly early. And happy birthday to herowlness! May Dean show up in the Metallicar and whisk you away for an evening of fun. ;)

Whilst semi-watching NFL Live, I found myself wondering at the vast amount of canon in sports fandom. They were playing a September highlights vid set to a terrible new Metallica song (from the Wants To Be Master Of Puppets release) and I found myself wondering how many of the catches and TDs any given fan would have actually seen. ironchefjoe had only seen a few clips. It would be weird to be in a fandom where you'd only seen a little of the source material, I think.

I may have given up on Gossip Girl (having only bothered with one or two episodes this season) and Heroes (since I haven't watched Monday's episode and don't particularly care). I do plan to watch Fringe, though. It's hard to have time to watch TV when I'm busy with Important Convention Business (next summer's not that far away!) and canning (last night: green tomato relish and salsa verde, each in 6 12oz jars & 6 8oz jars). (Note my WWII-vintage canning icon, btw!) Catalan grew the tomatoes, and she and ironchefjoe canned them with me.

Tomorrow, ironchefjoe leaves on a camping trip. Friday, I head to Vegas to visit my sister. Yuletide brainstorming has started, and I'm plumb out of ideas. Actually, stoney321 gave me one. I kinda want to write about canning! Maybe I'll offer the Little House on the Prairie books. :)

Tags: canning, football, short attention span

1. Happy birthday to trollprincess!

2. I found tonight's Sarah Connor Chronicles fascinating. More later.

3. L'shanah tovah to my Jewish friends! Hope your High Holidays go well. :)

4. Apparently the economy is collapsing; is it time for canned goods and shotgun shells yet?

5. Okay. Bed. Tomorrow, I'm canning those green tomatoes. And not because the Dow is in freefall, but because Catalan spent a lot of time growing them and I want to turn them into yummy relish & salsa.

Happy belated birthday to miggy. :)

So, I don't have any Dylan tickets yet. ( The best-laid plans... )

And I only ended up buying tickets to one show of the Nordic Roots festival. Triakel is my favorite in the entire lineup, so I went and enjoyed them yesterday afternoon. The rest of the weekend is just too packed.

I did watch the season premiere of The Office; I'm just not excessively fannish about that show, so I always forget to post. ( Office season opener spoilers. No, I have no idea what season this is. )

Friday, I headed to the food co-op to pick up the CSA box and do a little grocery shopping. I was driving (since cycling is wrist-affected), and getting outside my air-conditioned office I found that it was like 85deg out. So I shucked my professional-looking tan-and-white-striped collared shirt in favor of the semi-transparent white tank-top I was wearing underneath. With my black bra, it looked pretty trashy, but I figured I'd be in and out of the grocery store in a jiffy. I'm sure you can imagine what happened... ( Note to self: never do that. )

So yesterday, in between running hither and yon, I made raspberry jam with a home-made applesauce base providing the pectin. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet followed minim_calibre's advice and picked up a food mill. And my wrist isn't strong enough to effectively press cooked apples through a strainer, so ironchefjoe had to do that part, but what little I did was exceptionally tedious. Next time I've got a chance to get near Fleet Farm, I'm definitely picking one up. At least the jam's scrumptious!

Okay, now to plug away at the to-do list.

* Drink every time Obama shakes his head and says, "That's not true."
* Drink every time they don't answer the question.

What else? :)

ETA: Is "the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate" supposed to be an insult? Because it made me cheer aloud. :) *is a socialist*

( Supernatural 4x02; episode spoilers only )

Hey, look at that - it was harfang's birthday yesterday. Happy birthday, chica. Glad to have you around another year. And today is the birthday of wolfling, who said she was brushing the dust off her LJ... hope today's happy. :)

I saw the wrist specialist today. She ordered more x-rays, and pronounced my bones Definitely Not Broken. My muscles and tendons are fine, since I have a full range of motion. No ligaments are torn, since my carpal bones are all lined up perfectly. So, verdict? I stretched a ligament and have a sprained wrist.

I'm supposed to take 800mg of ibuprofen 3x/day if my stomach will take it; that seems excessive, but I can manage taking *some*. I should wear the brace for typing and lifting stuff as needed, but she said go ahead and ride my bike without it if the pain's not excessive. (Effective biking with metal holding your wrist still is almost impossible.) She thought I might be able to type without the brace in a few weeks, but that it might be a few months before I can bench-press.

So, okay. Slow, and frustrating, but my prognosis for a full recovery is excellent. *breathes* Thanks for the well-wishes. :)

You know, there are a lot of awesome things about fandom.

Anonymous haters? Not so much. If you can't sign your name to your opinion, then your opinion isn't worth the pixels it takes to display it. And I'm not talking about snap-cup anonylove or postsecret here... I'm talking about those horrid "anon" comms that plague fandom and quickly move from "my unpopular opinion about character X" to "let's bash Fangirl Y".

If anyone who reads this on friendsfriends or whatever (hopefully none of my flisters) uses those comms for entertainment, try to remember that Fangirl Y has feelings just like you theoretically do, and that you're making your entire fandom look bad.

Tags: displeased

( Heroes 3x01 )

( Heroes 3x02 )

( Sarah Connor Chronicles 2x03 )

Oh, hells yeah. I know how I'm spending Election Night. Bob Dylan's playing in Minneapolis. Eighty gazillion times better than chewing my fingernails off whilst watching CNN, y/Y?

(Now I just have to score tickets when they go on sale...)

hearing: "Masters of War" - Dylan, baby. Dylan.

( Supernatural 4x01; episode spoilers only (plus spoilers for Buffy S6 and a whited-out spoiler for Babylon 5 S4) )

Happy birthday to the lovely harmonyfb! I will now celebrate by going and sleeping this cold off. And then we'll see if they've found a sub for tonight's ESL class; I don't really want to go and infect the students with whatever I've got, but I also don't want them to be instructor-deprived.

In political news, um. You know how I've been saying that I'm voting for Obama because he actually knows the rest of the world exists? So, apparently McCain forgot about Spain... I must be psychic. Also, according to OK Cupid, I'm a socialist. I'm surprisingly okay with that.

Oh, and this morning I drove across the new 35W bridge. A hole in my city's been patched, and I'm so glad.

I'm very much looking forward to watching the Supernatural S4 premiere tonight (which I will be watching even if I'm conked out on cold meds). Oh, boys. Oh, car.