I don't suffer from insanity,

As usual, our good friend Shaun came over from Arizona and spent two fun weeks with us. We went to Scarborough on Memorial Day. We ate out at Razoos (say Zaideco Dancer!), and watched LOTS and LOTS of Anime:

Chobits
Gankotsuou
Bubblegum Crisis 2040
Death Note
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki
El-Hazard
Noir
X (series)
Ergo Proxy (just the first disk)

Luckily, for A-Kon itself, we scored passes from my cousin Conrad (yay!), so we got in free. It's the only way to go, that's for sure!

Lots of gaming this weekend, plus the beginning of the anime craziness. ^_^

The Thursday game is going great. I'm really enjoying the setting and arioch1970 is doing an excellent job of telling the story. Our Friday GURPS Fantasy/Conan is really coming along, too. We're finally getting our grasp of the GURPS rules again, so combat should flow more smoothly each time. I remember really liking GURPS from way back when, so it's nice to rediscover why I liked it so much.

Saturday was really busy in spite of the Saturday game at my brother's being canceled. Matt and I got up early-ish and took care of some banking stuff (which took forever), then I went to my sister's and picked up a bodice and visited with spar30 for a while. He's working on lorica segmentata, which Matt has wanted to make for quite some time, heh. So I envision some evenings spent over at Annie's place. Fun, fun! ^_^ Matt gets to play with metal, I get to play with cloth. And Lex. Of course. :D

Anyway, after hanging out there for a bit, I ran to Love Field and picked our friend Shaun up. Shaun stays at our place every year for the past oh, I dunno. Six years now? He comes over every year during A-Kon and we watch anime all week. Heh. I first met him in the early days of playing Dark Age of Camelot (an MMORPG), and we've been friends ever since. So I'm taking half-days this week and watching anime with my friends. Fun! Anyway, we started the anime fest with Full Metal Alchemist and watched like the first five disks on Saturday, and the next several on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday we braved the rain and went to Scarborough. I had a ton of fun with the hubby, my sister, the Lex, and Shaun in spite of the rain. We were wet, muddy, and tired by the time we got home, but I think fun was had by all. It was awesome to hear Lex sing the Dark Side March, heh.

And Monday had me back at work, but only half days all week. Whee!

It's been like three weeks since my last update and I was going to lock this because it's so boring, but then just decided to not. Beh. There weren't a lot of changes, so I just didn't post. Life is good. Faire season is over, so my Saturdays will be open again for other social-type things, as well as hobbies and chores, etc. Heh.

With A-Kon looming, I have my friend Shaun over for his annual visit. I picked him up on Friday after a comedy of errors with us missing each other like some Chaplin movie. After a quick very late lunch, we went out to McKinney and picked up a fridge, then a late dinner at IHOP. I need to remember to stick to breakfasts there. The fish and chips were very, very "meh."

Saturday was great. Matt and I went to a dealership to look at a truck for his mother, after which we went to Glen & Jeanette's house for a surprise birthday game for Glen. We finally concluded our Phlan game fighting a 400+ year old demon-possessed bronze dragon, which Shaun played. It was quite the finale! Since my little sorcerer couldn't land a spell on the critter to save her life, she stopped time and buffed the party a lot. And go go creative use of Forcecage! So, next up for Matt will be AGOT. I'm really looking forward to that.

So far, the anime I've watched while Shaun has been here: Deeper Samurai Kyo, Ghost in the Shell (which I'd never seen before and really enjoyed), and Peace Maker. And still, my all time favorite is Rurouni Kenshin. Next up, more Ghost in the Shell, and um... I forget the name of the other one.

The social game has been postponed, and postponed again. I'm not especially sad about it, although as always once there I have fun. I have four other games aside from the social one that are always waiting to be scheduled, with people I know better. Two D&D games, my Thursday group (which I've missed like three weeks in a row! :-/ I'll be back next week for sure, though!), and Warhammer RPG. Soon one of the D&D games will go away when the DM moves to go to law school, which is sad but it'll be nice to be down to three games, I think.

In WoW, things are moving along nicely in our cobbled-together group. We're in our early 40s and moving forward. Kevin wants to check out the Horde side, too, so maybe one night a week we'll try that out. Matt rolled a tauren warrior named Charro, and I ran a lil orc shaman out to do all our newbie quests together. It's neat seeing everything with new eyes. I have too many level 30 to 45 Alliance alts, heh.

So, yeah. As usual, nothing odd or exciting to report. Although having a functioning full size refrigerator is awesome. Heh. Thanks, fuzake!

On Tuesday, I did the standard work thing. Matt showed me a Star Wars fan film called IMPS, the second installation of TROOPS, and I loved it. Theoretically they are going to produce eight (total) twenty-ish minute films, one at the beginning of each month. When I got home, I watched another fan film called Revelations that Matt put on DVD for me. It was pretty good for a fan film. The effects were nice, the acting was ok, but the sound was all off and a little distracting. I also watched Episode IV. I watched those while I helped finari work on her skirt - I did the pleats though. Later I showed her how to set a waist band, so I won't be able to teach her much more, heh.

Wednesday morning started out with a twist when I narrowly avoided an accident with an SUV whose driver didn't know how to drive. She pulled out of a driveway and promptly did a 180 across Swisher because she slid through some water and didn't know how to control a skid. Dork. Luckily I saw it in plenty of time, and although I had to slow down rapidly, I didn't have to slam the breaks. I got to have lunch with annawick and Lex (Yay!), which is always fun.

Our roommate moved out after not occupying our spare room for months and not paying rent for two of those months. She got four - I gave her Oct & Nov rent-free while she was looking for a job, and she didn't pay April or May. Although in all fairness, I told her if she moved her things before the end of the month I'd call May a wash. I don't think I'll ever see April either. /shrug. It's better off this way, regardless. She never stayed at our place, anyway.

We have our house again. I'm thinking we won't have another roommate, maybe. Of them all, half have been on time with rent, the other half slid and got several months rent-free. It's partly because we don't really need the money or a roommate, so we've let friends on difficult times stay. Actually, it's been family that have slid on rent. Hm. Friends have always come through.

After she left, I spent the evening with Matt. While he watched Schindler's list, I read a book. It was a comfortable, cozy evening.

Thursday day was a normal work day, but Thursday evening I went dancing. Since some of the artists joined us, we decided to really dress up. I wore my floor-length white and silver jacket, plus leggings and boots. Lots of fun was had.

I took Friday off to get some things taken care of around the house. That morning I went fabric shopping, and found an awesome deal on some black cotton twill and white cotton gauze for the jedi costume that Matt's making. We'll be dying the gauze since the only colors in cotton gauze we could find were pastels, heh. I helped finari finish up her skirt, which looks marvelous, as I knew it would. That evening we played Star Wars d20. Matt made an adjustment in time period, so we're now playing during Episode I rather than 4000 years before. Should be interesting...

Saturday morning I cleaned house a bit, then that afternoon I picked up the guys at the airport. We hung out, and I made the guys watch Revelations and IMPS and went through Shaun's anime to pick out what to watch this year. We're going to watch Trigun and Witch Hunter Robin. We started with Witch Hunter Robin while Matt made machine-gun noises with the sewing machine in the TV room. Witch Hunter Robin is very cool so far - one I may consider picking up.

Sunday was very mellow, as usual. I went to church, then hung out with the guys (there will be a lot of that coming up this week) and watched more Witch Hunter Robin. Matt finished his outer robe.

It is now Monday. All my friends are off work today. I guess it's fair since I took Friday off, but still. :P

Well, that's done. It wasn't bad - no where near as busy as I'm used to conventions being for us. We broke even, which is as much as I hoped, all things considered. Our booth was not near any RPGs, we did not get any advertising in their on-site or pre-registration books, we did not have any presence on their website, etc. The fact that our expenses equalled our income is acceptable, although not thrilling.

However, there should be some big changes with our presence there next year. It's interesting to hear from some of the con reps that they really want to grow the RPG side of it, then hear the total indifference from other con reps. We'll see. I imagine we'll give it at least one more go.

On the positive side, I love working cons in spite of all the stress. This one was not really all that stressful because of the slower pace for our booth, and the close vicinity of our shop when we forgot items.

I got to see some old friends, and hang a bit with my sister. Hanging with the sis is always good. I was mistaken for her at least once, and she was mistaken for me once, as well. Hehe.

The only major unsatisfying thing for me about A-Kon was the constant nagging knowledge that I had asked for those days off, had them approved, and did not get them. /sigh

The Fianna gathering on Saturday was as nice and laid back as I expected. I met a lot of DAoC names, had a chance to hang out with some old friends. One of the highlights was meeting Dellerane, Syntaix, Qithos (he has such blue eyes!), Manogen, and Griffon.

I really missed having Tracy here, though.

Today was really busy, as I knew it would be, having to catch up with two days of missed work. Tomorrow I take Sanji & Darryl to the airport, and the A-kon fun will be officially over. /pout. I won't get to hang out with them until this time next year. Ah, well. It's good to have friends, and even better to be able to spend time with them. ^_^

I had a fabulous weekend. It started on Thursday, as the owners gave my husband and I a four day recovery weekend because of the working weekend during our convention. I told them that rather than paying me for working conventions, that in the future extra vacation days are definitely an option they can consider.

Thursday and Friday were very lazy, as my hubby and I played City of Heroes pretty much the whole time until our brains turned to mush. We also discovered a wonderful new little chinese delivery/buffet place. Super yummy! Friday night we played Werewolf, though again it seemed a little distracted.

Saturday finari, lolafae, one of their co-workers Denise and I went to Scarborough Faire again and had a blast, as expected. We're all getting Royal Season Passes next year. Saturday night we played Matt's D&D 3.5 game, and he managed to almost kill three of us. He was pleased. ^_~

Now that our convention is over, it's time to start working on our appearance at A-Kon 2004. This week will be meetings and prep work because set up is Thursday June 3. I've decided that although I am not going to work the whole convention, I will be there manning the booth both Friday and Saturday mornings for a quick four hour shift. That way I will be there if anything goes horribly wrong or if the employees manning the booth need help or have questions.

So not only are we doing A-Kon, but I have friends coming in from out of town that I am hosting in my home. I am so excited to see them. Two are flying in this coming Saturday, and I'm not sure whether or not tracy144 is coming (I hope he is, though!!).

Oh, on that line of thought, fuzake, are you and sixtyten coming? If so, when do you expect to arrive?

Anyway, next week is going to be busy with working A-Kon and entertaining friends, then I'll have two weeks respite before heading out to work Origins. After that, things will hopefully calm down, heh.