Still No Time

3 AM again and no entries from today. Frankly, I was having too much fun to come back to the room and spend time writing about it. We actually got a chance to walk around an look at a few things (just as they were being torn down), we had a late lunch with fr_john, and then went to the Closing Ceremonies. While we were sitting waiting for them to start, I learned only then that Nippon 2007 wanted all of the committee to come on stage during their part of the ceremony. I left Lisa with Father John and headed back stage. The rest of that story will need another entry.

After that, we went back to the room. Lisa was still not feeling that well and needed to rest for a few hours. I changed into more comfortable clothes and headed back downstairs and hung around for a while. I ran into cherylmorgan in the bar and we both went and had something to eat. I then went back to my room, where Lisa, after three or so hours of rest, was feeling well enough to head to the Former Worldcon Chairs' Party. Again, that needs an entry of its own.

After 90 minutes or so, Lisa was fading out again and went back to the room, but told me to stay as long as I liked. As I was starting to leave just after Midnight, I got a phone call from David Clark pinning me back into the room at least long enough for us to hold an impromptu BASFA meeting. (It was Monday, and it was dark outside...) At 12:52, I raised a Question of Privilege saying that if I waited much longer to leave, my wife might kill me, which acting Chair David Gallaher interpreted as a motion to Adjourn, and I went back to the room.

By now, Lisa was hungry -- remember that at dinnertime she was sick and in bed. So we walked down to Denny's for a late dinner.

Returning to the hotel, we were both awake, so we took the opportunity to move most of the boxes of stuff to the van. This means we'll probably only need two trips in the morning. However, now we need to get some sleep so we can get moving in the late morning. We don't want to be driving during morning rush, and we want to be clear of the LA metro area before afternoon rush begins.

( A not-so-secret master of fandom )

Edit, 8/29 9:20 PM: Added photo.

Strike the Set

We have until Noon to check out of the hotel room, and thanks to moving the large, bulky, and boxed items from the room last night, we now only have the bits and pieces, although they take at least as much time -- maybe longer -- to pack. Just as my alarm went off at 9 AM, Cheryl (via Gigi -- Cheryl's US phone had run out of charge and I'd neglected to include her charger in her Box of Stuff, and ever since I bought a new phone, we no longer have compatible charging equipment) text-messaged me saying that the boxes of stuff I'm carrying back to the Bay Area for her were ready to go, so I bounced on up there. As I taped up the boxes, cherylmorgan said, "Are you okay? You look terrible!"

I said, "I just got up a few minutes ago."

She apologized, saying she had to be up and ready to take a shuttle for her flight that will eventually return her to Darkest Somerset. I waved off apologies. The fact that I'm driving home and have allocated two days for the trip means that I don't have to rush.

However, now I do have to shut down the computer and pack the many bits and pieces that are piled up around it so we can get out of here.

Total damage for the hotel room, including parking, internet access, and net of that gift card I got for The Monster Project, but not including any meals (none were charged to the room), is $1018. Frugality is indicated for a few months, I think.

Today's journey is to Paso Robles, where we rebooked our mid-point stay on account of how much we liked the hotel on the points stay coming down.

I have a huge number of photos and quite a bit of video shot of the convention, thanks mostly to Lisa's work; unfortunately, I've had no time to process or upload any of it. I'll do what I can when I can, and yes, I will eventually give y'all my take on the Saturday WSFS Business Meeting.

Deja Vu

We left Anaheim around 12:30 PM, and managed to avoid most of the bad traffic. We counted as a carpool, but on the other hand, traffic was flowing so freely that even at 65, I was still driving slower than much of the traffic in the mixed-flow lanes. The carpool lane on I-405 did help a bit north of LAX when traffic slowed for a rear-end accident in lane 2. The carpool lane only slowed for about five minutes.

We stopped several times along the way, and at one point Lisa insisted on driving because I was falling asleep. We stopped for a late lunch a Pea Soup Andersen's again, and we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express Paso Robles just before 8:30 PM. It's much quieter tonight than it was a week ago Friday on our trip south. Lisa told the desk clerk about our decision to rebook our trip here from a competing chain after our stay on the southbound trip. The clerk then upgraded us to a mini-suite. By coincidence, it was the exact same room as when we came south, so we know it well.

I've pulled the last photos and videos off the camera, but again don't have time to work on them. Among the material Lisa shot was the entire Closing Ceremonies, but it is again too large for YouTube. I guess I'll need to get some sort of video-editing software to allow me to break large recordings into smaller pieces.

Update, 8/29, 08:15: Corrected typo pointed out in comments.

Oh, Dear

If I'm understanding Mike Glyer's comments in my post about the Former Worldcon Chairs' Party, it appears that L.A.con IV neglected to actually invite the chair of L.A.con III to the party.