My Gasts Are Flabbered

After Westercon closing ceremonies, Lisa and went over to Trader Joe's again and got food to take back to the suite, where we could take advantage of the microwave oven and such. We had a relatively relaxing meal -- maybe the first one this weekend -- as we had no commitments. We then wandered back down to convention space, where we volunteered to help move cases of tech gear from the ballroom down to the trailer in the parking lot where it was all to be packed away. After that it was up to the Fanzine Lounge -- the "Happening Place" of Westercon, where all the Cool People hung out -- and the MythCon party in 3099 almost next door. We had earlier that day donated our remaining few bottles of soda to this party.

I was wearing my WSFS Armadillo polo shirt, and on a whim, I decided to switch from the fez I've been affecting most of the weekend to my WSFS duty hat. This makes what I was wearing the "casual dress" uniform for WSFS.

After a while, we made our way down to the room that had housed the Art Show, which had been turned into the Dead Gnome Tiki Party sponsored by next year's Westercon in Las Vegas. Over on one table, several people were gleefully smashing away at the little gnome statues with which the con has been festooned. I joined the line of people dishing up food and drink and sat down with Lisa at one of the tables. Lisa -- not surprisingly, given how hard she's worked the past few days organizing parties -- was feeling a bit poorly; she fears she has picked up a sinus infection.

While I was eating my sandwich, the convention officers got the room to settle down because they wanted to hand out some "Hero of the Con" Awards. They had handed out some before I got there as well. After announcing a few, chairman Michael Siladi called out my name and awarded me a Hero of the Con for my work in organizing PR 2 and the Site Selection Ballot mailing. Here's a photo of me wearing the ribbon and a detail of the ribbon itself, both taken by Lisa.

( Photos behind the cut )

I wasn't speechless -- that's a really rare event, as most of you who have met me know -- but I was quite surprised and pleased. I did go up after the presentation and thank Michael personally.

After another pass through the upstairs parties in the Fanzine Lounge and 3099, and a final wave through the Dead Gnome Party, it was time for us to head in, although it's taken me much longer than I thought it would to process these photos and write this message. Guess I'd better get some sleep now. Fortunately, we have no commitments at all tomorrow morning and will be here Wednesday night as well, so we can take our time about things. What luxury!

Scan We Must

Having this afternoon available, Lisa and I have run up to my office -- which is of course mostly deserted -- so we can scan some pages out of her Japanese dictionary so she can make a custom phrasebook for herself for use in Japan.

We're still considering opening our suite this evening for the Really Dead Gnome Party. If we do, it will be the second time I've done such a thing. At ConAdian in 1994, I had a one-bedroom apartment with kitchen, and I had a Deadest of the Dead Dogs party on Tuesday night following the convention.

Last Gnome Standing

...is the name of the party that Lisa and I decided to hold tonight. I had to run up to my office for a while this afternoon and took the opportunity to toss together a flyer.

So far, our goal of getting rid of all of the leftover food and drink is failing, for we're taking on food as people bring us their surplus!

We'll take a break about 9:30 to go out the front balcony of the hotel to watch the fireworks, then head back and hang out for a while this evening.