CONvergence!

[toadnae]

Look!  A real post!  It's turning out to be really long, so I'll put a couple of cuts in.

I had a lot of fun at CVG this weekend.  This is the first time since 2002 that I wasn't working the convention, and it was good to be reminded of why I enjoy the con.  I got to see lots of people I don't see often enough, lots of people I love hanging out with, and got to know some other people much better!  The Art Show had a great crop of new artists -- it was great to see so many names I didn't recognize.  I managed not to kibitz much.  Actually, I kept accidentally putting my exec hat from AI on -- vanaabegra was very good at reminding me that this wasn't my con.  :)  It did take an effort of will a couple of times not to promptly follow people with radios who were running. 

We had an odd convention schedule this year, as we weren't able to get the dogs into their kennel.  :(  This meant that one of us had to go home each night.  Fortunately, my brother is easily bribeable with beer, so he took care of the dogs Saturday afternoon.  Friday night was my night to stay at the convention, and I indulged thoroughly!  Before the drunkening began, I headed out to really excellent Thai food at Ketsana's with stephanieb, redbird23, vanaabegra, Jon, and Rob.  We had good food and even better conversation.  Once we got back to the hotel, vanaabegra and I made at least two full rounds of the poolside parties, although we never did make it up to fourth floor.  I don't think I've ever been quite that inebriated.  :)  Most of you know that I'm quite the lightweight, and I was nearly keeping up with vanaabegra!  Apparently I was taking great delight in announcing the fact of my inebriation to many people.  Eventually I settled at the Supercon party, where I got to see all kinds of fun people.  kalmn and lthomas987 were well into their whiskey sours (lthomas987 sobers up much better than I do), so there was much flirting and silliness.  As kalmn has posted, it looked like she got in some excellent smooching!  I talked with lots of people, too many to list here.  It was a riotously good time.  It was after 3 am when I finally staggered up to bed. 

Saturday I actually went to a panel -- the Firefly was very good.  It's always nice to go to a panel that is that popular that manages such a good balance between discussion by the panelists and the audience.  There was a lot of laughing and some thought-provoking points.  I enjoyed the panel thoroughly.  I had lunch with lthomas987, kalmn, and vanaabegra.  Eventually I made it into the hot tub for a nice long soak, which is always a goal of mine.  After changing clothes, I grabbed a quick dinner and then it was time to change clothes again for the evening.  :)  I watched most of the art auction, which went pretty well.  Unfortunately, lthomas987 had forgotten to eat dinner (I think she was having too much fun in the Con of the North party), so I eventually had to put her to bed, as she wasn't feeling well.  Then I headed out for more social time!  I made a stop by the Nick Atoms performance, which was an absolute blast.  I was so glad to see them have a positive experience at CVG.  I wasn't drinking on Saturday, so there was more conversing that night.  I had some lovely conversation with badger2305 and James from Ames.  There were a couple of "who threw the world in the dryer" moments, but those are always fun.  :)  I also had an excellent conversation with belmikey, which apparently made both of us feel much better.  :)  Suddenly I realized it was 4 am and the poor puppies needed to get out!  So I headed home.  I made it into bed right before 5 am.  Sadly, EdGrr needed to go out again at 5:45 and 8:30.  Then lthomas987 called at 10 am to confirm that she was alive (mostly).  So I got myself back to the hotel. 

When I got to the hotel, I finally managed to see a panel I've been wanting to see for years.  Iron Artist was great!  The innovation of judges this year was very good -- it is always good to start your day by laughing that hard.  I also got meet wiredferret's brother Mattoo.  I stopped by the art show, where I was pleased to discover that I'd gotten the lone piece of artwork I'd bid on -- a Kill Bill/Opus parody by Mike Cole that I lost to one of my subheads last year.  :)  Then it was time to continue the shopping theme in the dealer's room, where I found a great necklace at the Dragon's Den table.  Wooo more pretties!  Eventually there was a very late lunch with vanaabegra.  I got to help onecheshire shop the dealers room for her subheads, which is always fun.  Then I took Kitten to closing ceremonies so she could watch her mom announce the numbers.  Eventually, lthomas987 and I headed home.


Fortunately, we stopped for dinner first, because we needed the sustenance to face what we found at home.  lthomas987 was really sick last week, and ended up sleeping on the couch downstairs a couple of nights.  When she got up Thursday morning, she noticed a damp spot on the carpet right in front of the couch.  She assumed she'd spilled her water bottle in the night and blotted the spot.  Friday morning, we both noticed that the family room was smelling strongly of cat pee.  This is very unusual, as Shiva generally signals her discontent with the state of her litter box by peeing in the shower (I love my cat).  However, we were headed for the convention and didn't have time to cope with it.  Well, when we finally got home on Sunday, LT went to move the couch so I could thoroughly clean the suspected cat pee spot.  From the basement, I was suddenly ordered to go check on the outside faucet RIGHT NOW.  I flew to do so and was horrified to discover a stream of water about an inch wide running from the bottom of the outside faucet down the outside wall to the foundation.  This had been happening since Wednesday at least. 

We assessed the damage.  The carpet was soaked about 5 feet out from the wall.  Two skeins of yarn for Lina's baby blanket soaked and ruined.  Green mold on two floor pillows and the carpet they were sitting on.  Feet of table my dad made for me as a baby and end table wet.  LT headed off to kalmn's place to borrow back the dehumidifier we'd given her last week.  I was planning to shop vac up what water I could, but the shop vac was full of dust and trash and set up for dry mode, and I didn't know how to change it.  A call to LT gave me a change of plans.  I began calling around to see who I could get to help us move furniture around to make room to tip the couch over so it could dry, etc.  vanaabegra was a saint and drove all the way up to our house (with a second dehumidifier even!) despite being just as con-drained as we were, and he'd even gone to kickboxing.  I worked on moving all the little stuff that I could into the back bedroom/soon to be library.  lthomas987 and vanaabegra moved the big stuff around.  Then they pulled up the carpet and cut away the wet pad underneath.  We propped the carpet up on buckets and wastebaskets, set a fan to blow under the carpet and turned on the dehumidifiers.

By this point, I was very thoroughly wheezy, as mold/mildew is one of the strongest triggers for my asthma.  So we headed upstairs for some beverages, I took my inhaler and then was loopy and silly for awhile.  Eventually, vanaabegra headed home and we collapsed into bed.


Monday the fourth we slept in LOTS.  Eventually we started trying to sort out everything that needs to get done soon, as lthomas987's dad is talking about coming up and helping with the flooring replacement project, which means her mom might come, and they have furniture to bring us, and that means that my effective mother-in-law is coming and will see the house ....  After the obligatory freaking out about my horrible skills as a housekeeper, we got some stuff done.  :)  Then we were off to Dave & Amy Haddy's for a barbecue.  It was very good to see them, and we even found our missing ladder!  We left their house way too late.  It was very hard to get up this morning. 


Wow -- that was really long, but it wasn't a quiz!