SMOFCon Saturday Night

The wireless connections -- or my computer -- were more wonky than ever last night, and by the time I got back to my room (nearly 3 AM), I was unwilling to go back out and try to find a working connection, so I posted no more updates last night. Summary now, details when I get a chance:

The Fannish Inquisition happened. I don't think there were any big surprises. I took notes that I might be able to clean up and post later. Lisa recorded the presentations. If I can break the recordings down to small enough pieces to be uploadable, I will do so.

( Future SMOFCons )

After the Fannish Inquisition and SMOFCon site selection, fans scattered to the winds, some heading up to the Con Suite, and others gathering for the Texas Hold-Em Tournament. After some fussing around and room resetting, 19 people stumped up $10 and we spread them among three tables.

( More Poker Talk )

I had to stick around to the bitter end of the tournament, of course, being the organizer. After everyone was paid and the chips were stowed, Lisa and I took everything back to the room, I returned the Boardroom key to Kim Williams, and went to bed as quickly as I could manage.

Update, 17:10: Fixed error in the years for SMOFCons 28 and 29 noted in comments.

Winding It Down

The SMOFCon wrap-up session was decently attended. Con Chair Kim Williams announced the membership at 117 people. She invited the hotel's general manager in to get feedback. We gave him both positive and negative feedback (much more of the former), and he said he was glad to have us.

Karen Meshke from next year's SMOFCon in Austin was there taking notes as people talked about the good and bad parts of this year's SMOFCon. I'm not really in the mood to do a point by point analysis, but I'm happy that people were willing to be honest with their negative feedback without making it sound like a lynch mob.

Lisa and I gave copies of the raw video footage of the Fannish Inquisition to those people with a computer onto which we could transfer it and who had the ten-plus minutes it takes the copy.

Now the usual goodbyes have been being said for those people with flights today. The rest of us staying tonight are starting to think about getting dinner. Lisa needs to do some laundry tonight; fortunately, there is a coin laundry (only one washer and one dryer, alas) up on the 8th floor.

The only place I can get a reliable connection is on the wired connection in the hotel's business center, so that's where I am now, but I'm done now. Thanks to those of you who pointed out the (now fixed) typo on the dates in the SMOFCon site selection.

Exercise in the Snow Doubles Calorie-Burning Value

Lisa and I headed toward a restaurant shown in the guide a few blocks south of the hotel. It was cold, and the sidewalks had ice and snow on them. The restaurant had lots of room, but was full of loud music. So instead we decided to walk to the Spaghetti Warehouse, which I assume is a former Old Spaghetti Factory, because it looks just like it, down to having an old trolley car in the center of the restaurant. This sort of place was just right for the two of us.

The restaurant is about 2.5 km from the hotel, and we got pretty cold, even bundled up. Even I was feeling it. But I hoped that the cold made the work we did walking worth more.

Now we're getting the laundry done, sitting in the Con Suite with the die-hards and going up to the laundry room every 25 minutes to check the progress of our loads.