The Dog is Nearly Dead

After my last post, I went to the Chaps room, where the historical exhibits of past Hyatt/Quality Inn/Radisson-based cons were on display. (For several years, the hotel was split in two, with one wing being a Quality Inn. I stayed there once, and not for a con, but from a trip to Seattle that Lisa and I made for tourism. Not a happy weekend; someone broke into Lisa's van and stole my briefcase. But I digress.) The other half of the room was the "casino night," which was a do-it-yourself affair. I ended up helping organize a Texas Hold-Em tournament. Alas, not enough people were willing to play for money; not even $5. So we played for fun, but that changes the dynamics.

Lisa turns out to be a decent player, at least under these circumstances, and ended up winning the tournament. (No prize except pride of course.) The evening was still young, so we put out a call for another tournament and got a full table of ten people. Big blind progression was 2/4/10/20/50/100 (every 20 minutes), with people getting 205 in starting chips. At just the 2/4 level, mayhem erupted. Five players were eliminated on the same hand. It took about ten minutes, it seemed, to work out all of the side pots, but in the end it didn't matter, as the same person won all of them. I was one of the people eliminated. My "wheel" (A-2-3-4-5 straight) lost to a 3-4-5-6-7 straight -- and one of the other eliminated players had a "wheel" as well. I would have bailed out of the hand, except that I was the one who pushed the action with a big bet and found myself pot-committed. Oh, well.

I stuck around and acted as tournament director until they were down to two players, but realized that it was getting on to 11 PM and I had not had anything significant to eat since about Noon. Bad Boy. I went and found Lisa, who had gone back to the room shortly after the first tournament, and we went down to Denny's for a late dinner.

Tomorrow morning is the "Survivors' Brunch," and then it will be done; the final chapter in a significant piece of Pacific Northwest fannish history.

Bad Kevin

The wages of not sticking to my usual meal pattern: a blood sugar level of 210. That's the first over-200 reading I've had since October. I'm not happy with myself. I wonder if it might have been better to not have dinner at all than to have that meal and generate such a big "bounce."

It is much easier to maintain my blood sugar levels during my normal work week, because I can stick to the routine and have the food around me at the right times.

One Way to Deal With a Problem

Yesterday in the Con Suite, our conversations were disturbed by the smoke alarm, which at approximately ten-minute intervals began to sound for a couple of seconds. Linda Deneroff took the initiative and called the front desk to ask them to do something about it. Presently, a maintenance man arrived and examined the alarm. "Nobody is sleeping in this room, right?" he asked, and we we confirmed that, he simply yanked the thing out of the wall and left. Hey, the hotel closes in four days; they'll never rent that room again, so why bother fixing it?

The 24 hours of internet connectivity I bought runs out in less than an hour, so this is probably my last post before the Survivors' Brunch and check-out, etc. I intend to ask for a delayed check-out, but don't expect that to be a issue this week. There are also two earlier flights to Oakland this afternoon, so I hope there's a chance I can get on one of them.

Alas, after that monster blood sugar spike last night (and a 117 this morning, which is still high although not as bad), I can't approach the Brunch as a challenge. I don't know if I'll have time to get in a walk afterwards, although of course if I go to the airport and cannot get on an earlier flight, I'll have plenty of time to examine the halls there.

Final Final on the Radisson

As I mentioned in a reply elsewhere, I ducked out of the Survivors' Brunch a little early in order to go put in a mile on the treadmill, and got a satisfactory blood sugar reading for my efforts. I incidentally weighed myself when I got home, and I somehow seem to have managed to lose almost ten pounds in three days, which seems hard to believe. (Update: It was.)

During the Brunch, we toasted the many memories of the hotel, and many of us (including me) stood up to say a few words. I have relatively few memories of the property, having only attended Norwescon's Alternacon and CascadiaCon in it. As I've mentioned, I've stayed there twice when it wasn't hosting a convention -- once when bumped off an Alaska flight after a Doubletree-based Norwescon, and once when Lisa and I visited Seattle just for tourism reasons. I thanked the organizers for putting on this event, and confirmed that I was the most-out-of-town attendee, having been the only one who flew in. (Lisa, who drove from Mehama, was second-furthest. She also had attended more cons in that hotel than I had.) I understand the sentiment, however; it's roughtly the equivalent to what Bay Area fandom would feel if the San Jose Doubletree (ex-Red Lion) was to be closed and leveled so as to build a light rail branch into San Jose Airport (which, although unlikely, isn't impossible).

After getting out stuff out of our hotel room, Lisa and I made a last walk through the halls of the hotel, so sort of say a final goodbye to it. While doing so, we encountered some debris left behind from the Democrats' meeting over the weekend, and we now have a PELZ political campaign lawn sign. I expect I will find a reason to bring this to Anaheim with me.

Then it was time to put away our con badges and check out. The convention name badges had a picture of a tombstone on it, labeled "Here lies..." and the name of the member. A nice touch, that. I appreciate good badges.

( Heading home, and a gripe against Alaska Airlines )

I got home just before 10 PM, a bit later than I'd hoped, tired, but relatively relaxed. And hey, it was a relaxacon, right?