Today is the first day I’ve had in weeks where I didn’t have anything planned. And so I’m hoping to take best advantage of it and catch up on a ton of R&R. Not only that, but I got an extra hour due to the time change!
Last weekend was fully action packed, because I attended the MileHiCon 40 sci-fi and fantasy convention. I was fully immersed, and even got a room in the convention hotel Friday and Saturday night so I could just go crash whenever I wanted. That ended up being pretty convenient and nice. It was almost like a vacation, getting away for a weekend. The con’s mainly for fans, but there were a few writer oriented seminars. I probably sat in on 6 or 7 discussion sessions, total. Plus, I saw a presentation on the history of computer graphics in film/video by someone who’s done it all. I saw a few contests, some awesome costumes, did some shopping, and spent a fair amount of time in the bar drinking with writers. Plus, I had several hours in my hotel room to just write, which was nice.
Even though going away to the con was a nice break, it’s nice to have this weekend at home. Friday night Beth and I went to see Ballet Nouveau Colorado’s production of Garrett Ammon’s Rock Ballets. It was three acts of contemporary ballet set to the music of INXS, Queen, and David Bowie, respectively. It was really impressive. Parts of it were so good, it made me weep. Based on an awesome show by that same ballet company I saw last year I got season tickets this year, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the performances. Beforehand, we had pizza at Virgilio’s Pizzeria Napoletana. It routinely gets awards for the best pizza in town, and has an astoundingly high ranking on Google Local. The service was haphazard, bordering on lousy. But the pizza was indeed exceptional. So, since we were out for dinner and a show Friday night, we didn’t buy any Halloween candy this year.
Saturday morning I went to the grocery store and worked on my Halloween costume for Saturday night’s party. Saturday during the day I had my gaming friends over and we played Dungeons & Dragons all afternoon. It was fun, but I was the game master which means doing a lot of talking, and my ear problems make it very uncomfortable to talk much. So I’m handing the game over to Chris to run for the next few months until after I’m recovered from my surgery next year.
Then, after all my friends went home I finished putting the costume together, and we went to the party. I was Tim the Low Budget Enchanter, inspired by Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Beth was a flapper girl, using a costume she bought off the rack. The party was a combo birthday party for Nick and Halloween party. They warned that if you didn’t come wearing a costume, a costume would be provided for you. But I think everyone arrived with a costume. Some were great, like Buttman (a take on Batman) and his sidekick Swallow (a variant of Robin). And the hosts were Princess Leia and Han Solo, which was cool. There was also a Nurse Ratchet that looked good. The party started to fizzle earlier than I expected (no fault of the awesome food and drink) and I think we were home by midnight.
And that brings us up to Sunday morning! Here I am updating my blog and downloading the latest software updates for my new MacBook Pro, which arrived yesterday. (woo hoo!)