The weekend has been spent in the delightful company of Heide and her family (three of them are in this photo--the two blondes and the brunette in the center back). They, along with Kelly & Emma, had plans to go to Sakura-con, a Japanese animation convention in Seattle. Kelly and Emma went down to sign in at the pre-registered line on Saturday morning, which was blissfully shorter than the un-registered line on Friday, where Heide and family spent five hours waiting in line to register. This was due to the painfully slow data entry system that was garnering seemingly endless amounts of information for each attendee, printing out badges, and the cut-off of pre-registration two weeks prior to the event. There has *got* to be a better way...and knowing one of the organizers, maybe I can make a suggestion. If pre-payment is cut off, they should at least allow people to continue to make reservations online and pay upon arrival. That would significantly speed up the process. Name badges should have been "Hello my name is..." and a black magic marker.
Emma and I went shopping at the local costume store (aka Goodwill) and found among its treasures a linen shirt and silk vest. The shirt was marked at a whopping $5 (I think), and the vest, still new with tags, marked down to $6. The thing originally cost $58 at a local swanky department store (which I won't mention, but it rhymes with "bored some"), which then spent some time incubating in some rich lady's closet until it was released to the donation bin to find a new life as a costume piece. Score! The necktie is just a length of twill tape from my costume ribbons bin, and the sunglasses she already owned. Likewise, the skirt and tights she wore were already in her collection, although I may have to invest in some new shoes for her--those ones weren't comfortable for a long day of standing and walking. Here's Emma's close-up photo...
This is the character she was dressing up as...she's called "Shizu-chan". No idea what her story is, but it appears she's fairly strong. The smoking this is not appealing to her (for a number of reasons, thankfully). I must ask her the story about the Do Not Enter sign...was it something she ripped out of the ground, or is it something she found? And is she a waitress at the local casino? I dunno.
Emma waited in line for some two hours to see this guy and get his autograph. What?! Don't know who he is? Me, neither. Steve Blum is his name, and he does voices for cartoons and games. Kelly said he was a really nice guy, very friendly and made lots of conversation and jokes with the people coming to see him. Most of them said things like, "I've been following your work all my life," to which he said, "Wow...it's like I've raised you all...like I'm your father..." One of the fans got the autograph he waited for and said, "Thanks, Dad." He replied, "You're welcome, son!"Heide was there at the convention waiting in line on Friday, but opted not to return for the weekend, but to hang out with me, Cammie and Ben for the day. All that waiting is really hard on the body, especially if you have pre-existing medical conditions which can cause days or weeks of recovery. Even though they had the much shorter pre-reg line, Kelly's foot is going to ache for some time, too. A3, who is autistic, tolerated the wait for a while, but like most guests, grew weary and ended up lying down on the floor and took a nap. After being barked at by the security folks, a man standing behind them defended them, and they were moved to a shorter "handicapped" line. The wait was still five hours long...waaaaay too long for the amount spent on a weekend. Seriously--it's a three day event, but you spend half of one day standing in line just to check in. Ridiculous.
We went to the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby Race--district championship. He won at his Pack level, so this was the winner's circle races for the district. After six races, and all the times compiled, he placed 8th out of 33 racers. He was pretty proud of his placing, or at least didn't appear disappointed...or maybe he was just excited about going out for sushi for lunch to celebrate. His appetite certainly picked up--he polished off 10 plates of sushi from the conveyor belt. Heide and I went out for dinner at the local pizza/pub/restaurant. We ate in the bar, eating bar food (steak flatbread pizza and nachos), and watched the second half of the Sounders game. They tied 0-0...I think I was the only one in there in my Sounders t-shirt, though...a little unusual for game day, although it was an away game. I guess I'm a bigger fan than they are. I wasn't sure if they were actually watching the game, though--they seemed rather reserved and there was a baseball game on another one of the TVs. It wasn't until near the end of the game when Burch (#8) nearly made a goal that the room erupted in sound that I realized that we were all there to watch the same game. Except maybe Heide, who politely tolerated my interest...or maybe she enjoyed it too. (I'll hope for the latter.)
On Sunday morning, while my kids were hustling around looking for eggs and baskets, Heide and family packed up and headed back home. We said our goodbyes, and I went back to bed for an hour or so while Kelly took Emma back to the con. The weather was beautiful, but Cammie woke up with a fever. Poor kiddo. A little Tylenol took the fever down and she spent a relaxing day playing in her room. I went to the store and got a small turkey and made a mini feast for dinner.
In all, a great weekend! More posts on arts next time.
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