Update on the All-Con Situation

Okay, after months of asking about one-day tickets and being ignored, and then being told that there will be no one-day tickets, and then even some people were told that they were being a problem for only coming to All-Con on the one day and having the bizarre thought that they should only pay for the one day that they attend the convention, All-Con will now be selling Sunday only tickets for $15.

You still can't buy a one-day ticket for Friday or Saturday, when the stuff that most of us want to see is going on.

What the frak???

So I don't know if at the last minute they've figured out that they screwed up and just can't do anything about it because they didn't have any one-day tickets made up and so the only thing that they can do is sell left over badges on Sunday, or if they don't think that they screwed up but they might as well try to make a few extra bucks on Sunday.

The person who told me about the Sunday tickets is really, frakking mad.

Still not going. If somehow there had been a Saturday only ticket, I'd have gone. If somehow there had been a Friday only ticket, maybe. Okay, Friday is tomorrow, and I have stuff to do, and this is short notice, so probably not. But at least there's stuff that I want to do on Friday, so I would have had to seriously think about it, even if I ended up decided against it.

Anyway, if you're out there and you're not totally mad like my friend, and Sunday is the day that you really wanted to go anyway, now you can go for $15. Just thought I'd pass that on.

Don't go to All-Con this weekend

Unless, you have already bought the $40+ ticket, or you were planning to buy the three-day ticket, or you don't mind paying the $40+ for just one or two days. Apparently, this year you can't buy a one-day ticket.

Attempts to find out about one-day ticket prices were at first ignored. Some people persisted, and were finally told that there would be no one-day tickets, and that if you just wanted to come for the one day you would still have to pay $40+ for the whole weekend.

The last people to inquire about one-day tickets reminded All-Con that some of the people wanting one-day tickets could only get one day off from work or other responsibilities, and if one-day tickets were not offered people would stay home rather than purchase $40+ tickets, an amount unfair and charging for events that they mostly would not be attending.

These people were told that "the higher demand put upon us by the people who support us the least (one day)that was the basis for the decision to do away with the discounted tickets."

I'm not sure how to interpret that.

For one thing, I've never thought of the one-day ticket as a discount. You go for one day, you pay for one day, and that's fair enough. That isn't a discount. You go for three days, and if you pay for a weekend pass ahead of time, the three-day pass is usually less than the prices of the individual three days added together. So buying the three-day pass is the discount. Like, maybe a Friday ticket is $10, a Saturday ticket is $20, and a Sunday ticket is $20, but a weekend pass is $40, making either Friday free after paying for Saturday and Sunday, or Sunday half-price after paying for Friday and Saturday.

I'm not sure about this "higher demand" part either. If it's just that they sell more one-day tickets, maybe they should be nicer to people buying one-day tickets instead of acting like they are some sort of burden. If a bunch of people were buying $20 tickets, and you do away with the $20 tickets, that's a lot of twenty dollar bills that will be spent somewhere else. And I can't quite picture what extra work the one-day customer is causing for the convention, unless maybe the customer actually had a good time and decided to come back the next day and pay for another ticket, and the cashier had to do the same job twice for that customer instead of just once for the customer buying a three-day pass.

If read another way, it just sounds like the one-day customer is just somehow more trouble to have at the convention. Like, people who just come for one day to get an autograph and buy a couple of things somehow make trouble for the convention and require more security than the people who stay out partying and such for three days.

Anyway, not much of it makes any sense. Several of us have just decided not to go. A few people are going cause they already bought tickets, but probably wouldn't have bought tickets if they had realized their friends were going to be treated like this. And then of course they will not get good word of mouth advertising, cause people this year either won't go or will go and get really mad cause either they were overcharged or they didn't get to meet with friends who had planned to buy one-day tickets. Bad experience this year means less people next year.

It's sad. I only went the one year, for the one day. I thought it was a good convention, and I missed some things that I would have liked on Friday, and I wished that I'd bought the three day ticket instead. I was planning to go the next year, but life happened, and I didn't go the next year, and so forth. I could have gone this year, probably just Saturday, but I currently have a limit of about $20 for such things, and so I am not going, and my $20 will be spent at another convention later that doesn't sound as interesting.

If All-Con hadn't made this stupid decision, they might have sold some one-day tickets to people who liked the convention enough to make plans to come back. But people who make stupid decisions are usually quite attached to them and usually keep them. So I don't expect that our complaints will do any good.

Next year, when the club is voting to move things around to accommodate All-Con, I'll vote that we not move anything, and that we might not want to bother with it at all.

Yesterday's convention

I suppose everything went as well as could be expected. At least it was for me. I think other people might have had different feelings on the subject.

G picked me up at my place, on time, and drove me to a restaurant where he liked to have breakfast. I had never been there before. I liked the place, though what I ordered was not the best for a person trying to lose weight. Even after having breakfast, we were still a bit early, as I had been told that the general admission people would not be allowed in til 11:00, and they wouldn't even be sold tickets til 10:15. So we had time for G to run an errand, and we still arrived around 10:30. Not in any hurry, we spoke to a few people in the parking lot, and then a friend came to tell us that they were letting people in a bit early. So I told G that I would see him later, and I went off with my friend. By the time we found where to buy a ticket, there was no line at all.

At least, there was no line for buying a ticket. There was a long line for getting autographs. I wasn't sure that I wanted any because a.) getting an autograph costs a lot more than it used to, and b.) I wasn't sure if I wanted to stand in this line. So I went off in search of something else to do, thinking that the line would go down some and I might do it later.

My club had a table, somewhere. I looked around, but I didn't see it. I went in the dealer's room, not so much looking at the dealers, but looking around for my friends in case they had been moved to this room. I didn't see them. I ran into a few more friends and talked for a bit, then walked around looking again for the club table. I had walked back and forth the entire length of the place twice without seeing it. I found another friend, who pointed out the table for me. I hadn't seen it before because of all the people in the autograph line in front of it. Okay, mystery solved.

So after figuring out where most everything was, I went back to the dealer's room. I didn't see much that I wanted, which was good, cause I didn't want to spend much money. The main thing that I wanted was Nichelle Nichols' autograph. Getting Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) to autograph a picture would cost $30, and I wasn't even sure that included the picture.

There were other people there besides Nichelle Nichols. I had met Anne Lockhart (original Battlestar Galactica) before. Erin Gray from Buck Rogers was there. The girl who had played Batgirl in the 60s was there. The medtech from the now cancelled Stargate Universe was there. But I think most of us wanted to see Nichelle Nichols, Morena Baccarin (Firefly and the new V), and Trisha Helfer and Katee Sackhoff of the Battlestar Galactica remake.

Now, at about $30 each, getting all the autographs would have cost me over two hundred dollars. I already have autographed pictures of Anne and Erin, so that would bring it down to $180. Not much of a Batman fan, so I didn't really need that autograph either. And as much as everyone else loved the new Battlestar Galactica, by the end of it I was mainly still watching cause everyone else loved it so much I just wanted to keep up so I'd know what everyone else was talking about. So the remaining three autographs would have cost me $90. And even if I'd had $90, that's just too much. And really, while I'm still a fan of Stargate Universe, I don't really feel that I need that autograph either. If I spent all the money I had I could get two autographs, and it would have been really nice to have Morena Baccarin sign something, but no.

It did not used to be this way. When I first started going to conventions, the actors who did autographs did them for free (or at least, we did not pay them directly, it was included in the price of the ticket). So either the actors would autograph stuff for everybody, or they would autograph stuff for a limited amount of time they had been paid to do that, or they didn't autograph anything for anybody (I was shocked the first time I paid to see Leonard Nimoy and he didn't do autographs, and DeForest Kelley didn't do autographs at public appearances because he had arthritis), depending on how much the convention had paid them and how long they were scheduled, etc.... So if the actor was doing autographs, the only additional money you had to spend to get an autograph was maybe five dollars for a photo for them to sign, but if you didn't have that they might still sign your convention program.

Then came the VIP tickets and the Gold tickets and the preferred seating tickets, etc.... You had to pay to get autographs, and they probably weren't going to do autographs for everyone, so if you really wanted an autograph you should buy a special ticket that put you at the front of the line and such. I have never done that, but some of my friends always do that. The price of getting an autograph went from free to five dollars to ten dollars to twenty dollars.

I pretty much stopped getting autographs then, though I did still purchase a few, and I got five free for volunteering at a Stargate convention. But it's been about ten years since I've done much of this sort of thing. I miss it sometimes. (But I don't miss it enough to spend a lot of money and/or drive to the other side of Dallas.)

Someone from my club stood in that long line and spent $120 getting three autographs. He wanted two more autographs, but Trisha and Katee were late and he'd have to get them later. He ate lunch and then got back in line.

I talked to a few more people and then had another look at the autograph line. It was about half the size it had been, but it was still a line. And that was just the line to get into the room. You had to stand in line again for each autograph.

And the people with VIP tickets got to go to the front of the line, whenever they happened to arrive. So you could stand in line for a long time, nearly get to the front of the line, and then have dozens of people just walk in front of you. And the preferred seating group was also supposed to go before the general admission people, but there seemed to be some confusion about that. Anyway, I thought that maybe most of the VIP group had already gone through the line and there wouldn't be that many of them walking up to the front. But I still had to seriously think about standing in this line and spending $30.

While I was standing there thinking about it, one of the volunteers was trying to explain how the line was now being split into two separate lines, because Trisha and Katee still were not there. If you were waiting for either of them you stayed where you were, but if you just wanted one of the other autographs, you got to move forward quite a bit. You still had to stand in line again once you got into the autograph room, but still, if I got in line right then that cut the wait time by more than half. So I got in line.

Once I got inside the room and found out which line I was supposed to be in, it was okay. There were people waiting for Trisha and Katee. Nichelle and Morena both had long lines, but not near as long as the line outside. There was a very small line of people waiting to get Batgirl's autograph, and a few people talking to Anne and Erin. There was no one waiting for the Stargate Universe medtech. I felt sorry for her. If I wasn't so short on money I think I might have gotten out of line and gone to her table for a bit. It didn't stay that way forever, but she never quite had the line the the actors around her had.

When I was halfway through the line to get Nichelle's autograph, I saw Katee come in. Stuff happens. Planes are delayed, and there are accidents on the freeway, and people are late. It is annoying for them, and it is annoying for us.

I got Nichelle's autograph. I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. I had seen all of the other original cast members in person; she was the last.

Now that I had my signed photo, I went back to the dealer's room to buy a photo protector. I probably had several at home, but I forgot to bring any. It's been a long time since I've gone to a convention. I'm just not organized.

A bit later I see the guy from our group still in line in the hallway, waiting to get autographs from Trisha and Katee. That surprised me, as I had seen one of them come in and I thought the other one was just behind her. But just before he could get into the room, one of them was called away to do a photo op, and not only are photo ops scheduled for a very short time, they cost more than autographs, so the photo ops were not delayed anymore than necessary. He was still waiting in line when I went off to get a seat to hear Morena speak.

The schedule had been changed. There should have been someone else speaking in the main room when I arrived, but the room was nearly empty. There had been an announcement, but I had missed hearing it in the autograph room. But it was not important.

I went to look for G, and did not find him. This worried me a bit, that I would not find him before the other stuff started, and maybe he would want to leave as soon as Nichelle finished speaking but couldn't find me. I spent about twenty minutes looking for him, gave up, and went back to the main stage room. There were a few more people there now, so I did not have the perfect seat that I gave up, but I still had a good one. K came to join me, and I saved G a seat just in case.

Now there was confusion as to where the preferred seating people were supposed to sit. The VIP sections were clearly roped off, but I didn't see anything that said preferred seating. Someone sitting behind me had paid the extra ten dollars for the preferred seating, and she thought that she the general admission people would be asked to wait outside until all the VIP and preferred seating ticket holders were seated, and that this would be repeated again between speakers. I expected that since no one had asked me to wait that other than roped off areas it was first come first served, and I had a good seat and I would be there for the next three hours or so.

Morena spoke for almost an hour, and then Nichelle spoke. At that point I found G, who was not concerned one way or another when we left. We stayed to hear the last panel, which was Trisha and Katee. The other actresses did not speak that day, and most of them were not scheduled to speak on Sunday.

G and I left. I do not know when or if the other guy from our group (who paid a bit extra for the preferred seating ticket) got his autographs from Trisha and or Katee. Except for lunch the only time I saw the poor guy he was standing in line for something.

I was tired by then, and mostly glad that G was ready to leave. Others were going hang around for a bit and then head to a restaurant. It would have been nice, but I didn't need it, and I'm eating quite enough non-diet type food as it is.

I got home and thought how this wasn't my life anymore. I kind of miss it, but on the other hand I kind of don't. I wish I had something else entirely, but I haven't a clue what or how to get it.

But I am very glad that after all this time I have finally seen all of the original Star Trek actors.

New plans for today

At rather the last minute, I decided I might want to go to a convention today. I've known about it for several months but didn't think that I'd really want to go. It's in Plano, which is not the other side of the world, but it is the other side of Dallas and way north of my comfort zone. So I thought I'd just see if I could get a ride. I was pretty sure that I could get a ride with K, but I'd heard earlier that he was driving S, and S has become a ranting atheist and I wasn't sure that I wanted to be in the car with her for that long.

As expected, when I asked the question K offered, and the offer was repeated my someone else going with him, but I decided against it, not because of the ranting atheist, but because it just sounded really inconventient for K in addition to having to run an errand before the convention in addition to already having to pick up S before meeting the other guy. And S lives nowhere near me, and arranging to meet up with the other guy (which the other guy did suggest) would have had the other guy driving in the wrong direction.

But at the same time as the guys offered, G also offered, and he isn't driving anyone else, he just wants someone willing to go to the thing early enough to get breakfast at a certain place near the convention. G and I are not friends, so it was very nice that he offered at all. I accepted his invitation. So far no one else is meeting us at the restaurant.

The diet is pretty much shot for the month now. For breakfast I will probably order something that is more calories than I normally have for both breakfast and lunch. And then tomorrow there is pizza at the meeting, and then the next two weekends there's other things going on which also involve eating stuff that one shouldn't eat while trying to lose weight. So I guess for now I'll just try not to gain anything back rather than stick to the diet and not participate.

Back to the convention.

It isn't much of a convention. It sounds like the Creation Cons I used to go to, with the only point of being there is to see Nichelle Nichols (and debate if I should spend that much money to get her autograph). Nichelle Nichols is the only one of the original group that I haven't seen in person. There will be other actors there, and it will be nice to see them, but I just can't seem to get that excited about seeing actors, or at least not the way I used to. And that's all there will be at this convention, or at least that's all that has been scheduled, so there's no contest or fan-run panels, and there's only the dealers room and the main stage.

Got to go now. Must get ready early today because of the breakfast plans.

Week three

Okay, so at the end of week one I was trying to keep myself from jumping up and down, that I'd had some weight-loss but probably not as much as it seemed. But that first week was pretty much perfect, with me eating only what I was supposed to eat and not drinking any regular sodas.

The next two weeks were not perfect. By the second week I should have been doing the whole eight glasses of water per day thing, and then on the third week I should have been paying more attention to the whole 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables thing. Well, I'm only just now getting around to the drinking enough water thing. I have lost some weight, but either it isn't much more than that of the first week, or else I just read the scale wrong the first week. I've stayed away from the regular sodas, but it has been a while since I've written down what I was eating. And in an attempt at keeping my husband from going totally nuts with the food, about half the time I eat what he is eating. And his diet isn't about losing weight, so sometimes this is bad.

Sometimes he eats something that is in the 200-300 calorie range, and that's fine and I eat that too. Other times he eats something that is more than 500 calories, plus it has side dishes that aren't very low-cal either. The first few times this happened I ate half a serving of his food, and that seemed to go okay. But the last few days have been bad. We had this little fish, which I thought would be good, but I guess there was something high calorie on the fish, and then the fish came with potatoes. It was small already, so eating half didn't work. And then after that there was this small Asian chicken salad, and it was just too small, but it still had about four hundred calories. So not only did I eat the tiny salad, but then I was still hungry and ate a cereal bar. So that probably didn't do the diet much good.

After getting upset and having this discussion about the expensive food that he would probably end up throwing away, we have gone shopping again, and I guess he just doesn't get it. Yesterday we threw out what looked like a pound of spinach. And the frig is full of food, and I doubt that he will cook most of it before he heads out of town again.

Also my mother took me to Burger King, cause we hadn't seen each other for a bit and she had this coupon. The coupon was buy one get one free stuffed Whooper. The stuffed Whooper is 600 calories. My mother wants to lose weight too, so she asked for the sauce on the side.

A stuffed Whooper with sauce on the side is still a stuffed Whooper.

Anyway, at the time I was still being very good with the diet, so I ate half of the Whooper and took the other half home for breakfast the next day.

I think that soon I will have to stop eating stuff from my husband's diet, but the social stuff is still going to be a problem. There is a lot of stuff coming up soon. Saturday, I might go to a convention, and I guess that I'll have to pack lunch, and then there might be a dinner after and I have no idea where so I can't prepare much for that. Sunday is the annual meeting. I'd totally forgotten about the annual meeting, and of course I will be going, and I'm pretty sure that I will be eating, and it will be pizza this year.

More about the annual meeting on a later post.

Then there is the usual monthly stuff next month, plus a party, plus another party. Two parties. Two parties where the main thing I do is eat.

Here is how we ended up with two parties, and I forgot that it was two parties.

Some friends had a party in February. I don't think it had a Valentine theme or anything, but it was in the middle of February and there's dancing and dressing up and such (though this is a group of Trekkies, and our idea of dressing up is a bit different). The second year they invited more people, and I went either the second year or maybe the third year. And then one year they had scheduling problems and the party ended up being in August. I thought August was better anyway. So they've had this party four or five times and I've been to two or three of them.

In this group of friends there is C. One year C had his fiftieth birthday party at the same place as the other party. I think that his actual birthday is in January, but they decided to have the party a bit later so that it was on the same day as his son's birthday party, and that way they could just rent the room for the whole day and the kids could have their party at noon and C's adult party would be in the evening. For C's party we were asked to wear black. C had such a good time that the next year he had the "Goth Ball" again.

So it was pretty much the same group of friends at the same place, but they are two different parties. But now the first party has moved from February to August and now back to February. So now C's party is the first weekend of February and the other party is the second weekend. Somehow in my mind I'd forgotten that they were two separate parties, and that C's party wouldn't necessarily be cancelled just because the other party was the same month. And the other party is partially a fund raiser for a local charity, and you have to buy tickets, and I've already bought one, not realizing that I'd be going to parties two weekends in a row.

And this is in addition the usual stuff the weekend after that.

Also, there is the crew dinner, which is the day after one of the parties. I don't always go to the crew dinner, but this one is in Irving, and it is at Souper Salads, and they are pretty much expecting those of us on diets will want to go.

Maybe not so much.

I am sure that you can go to Souper Salads and eat something very sensible, but I never do. I can eat something sensible that tastes better and cost less money at home. My husband wanted to go there last week, which we did, but I really didn't see the point. He mostly ate sensible stuff that we already had at home. I ate a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I ate much less that I normally do, but I still still think it was way too many calories. After we got home I looked up the nutritional information. Some of the prepared salads were like a hundred calories per serving, but sometimes the serving was listed as 1/3 cup. I'm pretty sure that I didn't eat anything that small, and I had at least four salads. And that was me trying to be good, instead of eating what I usually eat, which also involves bread and dessert and seconds of everything.

Anyway, for the next four weekends, I have something to do socially, sometimes more than one thing, and probably all of the things will involve me buying and eating food with too many calories.

After that will be the end of my husband's six week experiment, and if he quits he'll be back to suggesting we go out for ice cream and such.

I'm going to have to give this whole diet thing some thought.

Getting close now

Okay, as someone pointed out earlier in the comments to my last post, it now really is two weeks til Christmas. Not even two weeks now.

I'm screwed.

Okay, not really that bad, just it doesn't seem right either. There's still a bit of stuff to do, and I don't quite seem to get it through my head that the deadline for a lot of it is here. Like the day after tomorrow here. And like, there won't be time to do anything for it the day of the thing on Saturday, cause it needs to be done before lunch, and so I don't want to be rushing around trying to do anything then. And tomorrow I have plans for going to a movie and such, so except for shopping that I have put off until Friday knowing that I would be in the same general area, I shouldn't plan on having much time to do anything tomorrow.

Which means that a lot of it needs to get done today.

Okay, what I have done so far is buy and wrap some DVDs for the charity thing, and knit a scarf for the charity thing. I have started a knit hat for the charity thing, but a hat isn't something that I committed to, so if it doesn't get done I won't really worry too much about that. Also, I meant to do some ornaments for the charity thing, but again, that wasn't something that I committed to, so if it doesn't get done it is not really a big deal.

For the official gift exchange, I've almost decided on a Darth Vader ornament and a ten dollar gift certificate to Half-Price Books. The thing is that I'm always going to Half-Price Books and forgetting to get the gift card, or else putting it off on purpose til I'm sure of the amount. So now I've put it off and put it off again, and I need the thing before lunch Saturday, so I'd better remember to get it tomorrow. I could still go by and pick up the thing Saturday morning, but if I do that I'll have to wrap the gift in my car, which is possible (especially if I just put the thing in a gift bag) but I'd rather not. Besides, someone might see me.

That leaves the question of whether or not I'm getting a gift for K, or if I'm just getting him a card, or both.

Last weekend we went to dinner. The pilot had us over. Some of us thought it was just for dinner, some of us thought we were supposed to exchange gifts, and some of us thought that we were supposed to exchange cards but save the gifts for later. I had some of the stuff ready, and some not. So I was going to bring some, and print out IOUs for the rest on this nice holiday paper that seems made for just that purpose. I had a gift for G, a gift for D, and Miss Allergies gift was made last year and she already knows what it is. So I wrapped those and put them in the car. And then I was making cards, but I only got two of them done, so I decided to only give to J and R (who said card exchange only), and to the pilot (cause we were at his house and he made the dinner, plus I'm still not sure if his gift is going to work out). I started another one for K, but I'm having a bit of trouble with it, and it still isn't done. So K didn't get a card, and I found out that the gift I originally planned for him won't really work for this year. So I either need to figure out how to finish this card, or else maybe he can have fudge as a present, or maybe I'll knit him a hat.

Then besides the usual bunch there were two other people at the dinner, and I didn't get them a card or anything. I didn't know that they were coming until just a couple of days before, and I wasn't going to try to make them one of these cards (especially at the last minute like that), and I don't do cards usually anyway.

So it ended like this: the two other people gave me a card, and I didn't give them one, and some of the other people did not give them one either cause they either did not know they were coming or did not know that it was meant for us to exchange cards that day. Miss Allergies did not want to unwrap her gift, cause she hadn't brought mine and she wants us to exchange gifts at the same time, so it remained in the car. I gave D her gift, because while we usually exchange gifts we usually are not together the day we exchange gifts, so the gifts are exchanged through messenger service (the pilot). And I wanted to see her open her gift for a change, so I did. And then G was getting the same gift (a Gryffindor scarf), which I thought that she might want to wear to the charity thing, so I went ahead and gave it to her then. I gave one card to J and R, and one card to the pilot. The pilot seemed to really like the card, and he probably thinks that is all he's getting, so he went and gave me the gifts he'd bought for me, though he's saving everyone else for later. And that left K, and I did not even give him an IOU, cause then I thought that the two extra people would wonder why they didn't get anything, not even an IOU, when everyone else got something. So poor K probably thinks that he isn't getting anything.

I really need to finish that card.

Anyway, everything is weekend is screwed up. The charity thing is supposed to be on the Sunday after the Saturday of the meeting. That way, the people not going to the charity thing themselves can still give things to the charity, and we gather all the stuff together on Saturday. There were two problems with that this year. The charity family is going out of town, and they want to start driving on Sunday morning, so they don't want to wait around for us to stop by Sunday afternoon.

The other problem is the damned Cowboys are ruining my life. We were told that going to the charity family's home would not be a good idea, as they live in a trailer, and there are other problems with that we'd really rather not deal with. So it was decided to meet at the apartment of a relative, and the apartment is on Fielder. The stadium is on Collins. Fielder is a major street that parallels Collins, but there are other streets in between them, like Cooper, so I would have thought that Fielder might have some traffic problems before and after the game, but not during. But apparently people will park their cars as far away as that and walk to the stadium rather than pay for parking, so we were told that Sunday would be a bad day to be in the area because of a noon game, even at 2 or 3 as far away as Fielder.

I am not in anyway someone who helps plan this charity thing. In fact, I'm just not that into the charity thing at all, I just sort of feel bad if I don't participate at all while other people are going out and buying really nice things for them. But I don't see how it gets to be this difficult and this complicated. Find us someone who wants free stuff, but not too much, who wants people in their home for a few minutes on the Sunday after the third Saturday of December. (And now add don't have them live anywhere near the stadium if the Cowboys have a home game that day). Is it really that difficult. Find someone who doesn't have much, likes people in costumes, and wants a little bit of free stuff.

Anyway, that is all the stuff that I need to get done for this weekend. And then there is Christmas Eve. And then there's a bit more for New Year's Eve.

I don't even have a tree up.

What smells like beer?

Before I get too much into the boring details, let me say that I mostly had a good weekend.

And if you were planning to eat your spaghetti dinner while watching the latest episode of Being Human, alter your plans a little bit.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make some cookies. I don't think that I have made any cookies from scratch since I have lived here, but I thought that it might be a good idea after I found this recipe online, and I remembered that I would have three things coming up that would require me to bring food.

So I took the new mixer out of the box and I went and spent five bucks on a new cookie sheet (cause it had been so long since I made any cookies I couldn't find the old ones) and I got together the ingredients that I already had and went out and bought what was missing. The new cookie recipe was not that great, but now that I had this new cookie sheet and all the ingredients for making cookies, I decided to try making an old recipe except to substitute whole wheat flour. That wasn't great either, so I went and bought some regular flour and tried again.

The cookies weren't bad, just not like I remembered. They are sort of tall and fluffy. I don't know what I did wrong. Also, I don't taste the baking soda. Chocolate chip cookies have baking soda, and I am quite sure that I put in the baking soda, but I can't taste it. Does baking soda get old or go flat or something?

Again, the cookies aren't bad, and in fact I am starting to like them, though I sort of doubt that anyone else will. I just can't figure out why they are different. Anyway, I took some of the whole wheat ones to the annual meeting, cause I had to take something, and most of them did not get eaten, which is okay cause that left more for me. I took the regular flour ones to the party, and again not many were eaten, so again I have leftover cookies for me, which I am not complaining about. But I think that I will give up on making the cookies for anyone other than me, and I will figure out something else to take to the last thing, and in fact there is no reason that I have to take anything to that at all if I don't want to. But I'm thinking that I will just purchase some candy instead.

All day Friday and Saturday, I had been very careful to read any emails from the group, in case it had something to do with the party that I would need to know about. Not that there was much, just people asking other people if they were going, and what are you bringing, and once in a while what are you wearing, etc.... And there was this new guy that hasn't been to a regular meeting yet, though he's already officially a member of a club, just that most of us hadn't met him yet and didn't know who he was. And he was asking about the party, and no one else answered him, and I didn't quite know what to tell him. But I thought that somebody had to say something. It wasn't an official club function, just that someone had invited pretty much everyone in the club. If he had joined a few weeks earlier, he would have officially been invited already. I didn't think that it would be a problem if he came, but I really couldn't invite someone I didn't know, and I thought that he should talk to the couple giving the party, though by that time it was too late. He already knew where the party was, so I told him the time and a little more info, hoping that someone else would chime in and say whether he was or was not officially invited, but again no one else said anything.

So after all this wondering what I should take to the party and what I should wear to the party, I have bought a black blouse and this sort of black thing that is not really a shawl and yet another black dress, and then I decided that it was too cold to wear any of that and just gave up and decided to wear what I wore last year. Except that I couldn't find what I wore last year. So I ended up wearing some really dark blue stuff and black boots and this black thing that used to be part of a Masonic costume.

I was getting ready to leave early, cause I hate driving in the dark, when I realized that I forgot to charge my phone. So I wait a little while to put some life into the phone, and then I head out, and as I am just nearly there I realize that with moving things from one bag to another and getting my keys sorted out and everything that I have somehow not transferred my wallet and do not have my driver's license or any money or a debit card or anything. Not that I expect to need any money or anything, but it would be very upsetting if something happened and I needed to show my driver's license. I didn't expect that would happen, and I was nearly there anyway, so I kept going, and nothing bad happened. But it was still very annoying.

So I got there at about the same time as a couple of friends, and we were all about twenty minutes later than we had intended, but we were still the first there from our group, and the parking lot was mostly empty. And I have been to this place several times before, but I am always surprised by the layout when I get there. There is this sign that says something like "Lake Ahead", and literally, the lake is right there after the sign. Not that the parking lot I'm looking for is ahead, but the lake is ahead. By the time I read this sign I have already missed where I meant to go, and I have to turn around and go back a little bit.

So we go in and see all empty tables, as everyone who is already there is in the back helping our hostess. So we are relieved that we are not late.

More people come in and bring food, and I am surprised how many of them are not wearing black. A few more of my friends show up, and some of us sit down and eat. And then this guy comes in by himself, and I think that's probably our new guy, and then I restrain myself from blurting out something like "Are you the new guy?" and he looks around a bit and goes to the back of the room. So maybe he isn't our new guy. But a bit after that someone brings him over and says something like these are some of the people in your group. And then there is a discussion between the four guys about steampunk stuff, and then the new guy and the other guy wander off to meet other people.

I get up to get some more food, and I'm wondering what smells like beer?

Probably beer.

I don't drink alcohol, but I do like several things that are made with alcohol, mainly beer bread and beer chili and beer cheese soup. But there was none of that, just beer.

So there was a lot of talking to people I don't really know and whose names I can't even remember. And I talked to the new guy some more. And I talked to M.

This is not M my friend the Klingon, this is the other one, and I see him once in a while, and I have finally decided that it isn't weird and running into him a couple times a year is not a problem. So that's what I thought, so I kept talking to him. I was wrong.

I had a few items of clothing that I decided I needed to part with, though I would rather give them to someone I knew would appreciate them and make costumes from them, so I brought them to the party. I gave a t-shirt to my host, who thought it was such a cool picture that it didn't bother him that it was started to tear. And I looked around the room for women who might fit into the dresses, and I asked a few if they were interested, and they said no. And then I noticed a certain person I did not want to have any of my things, so I did not make an announcement like I had planned. But then another friend arrived, and she said that she wanted the whole bag, so that worked out. I'm glad I thought of it instead of just dumping the stuff at Goodwill with the rest of the clothes I got rid of.

I talked to the new guy some more, and it is always nice when someone attractive is paying attention to you. He made suggestions, and though he said upfront that it would not be a date, I'm afraid that he didn't really mean that so I declined. It seems like the guys that I have known for a while who suggest something that is "not a date" really mean that and totally get that it is not a date and is not going to lead to anything resembling a date, but guys that I have just met are thinking that the "not a date" will either somehow become a date or at least end with me agreeing to a date later. So no more "not a date" type things with anybody I don't already know. I will be happy enough to talk to you when we just happen to be at the same place at the same time, which is probably going to happen a couple of times later in the month anyway.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, M has reached a whole other level of stupid. And it is hard to believe that anyone is really that stupid, so he must just enjoy making other people uncomfortable. I am thinking that if I have anymore trouble from him, I will start a new blog totally devoted to answering the question, is M really that stupid?

The party ended a bit after that, and I waited for certain people to get their things together so that I could walk out with them and not be around either M or the new guy, even though the new guy was being totally nice.

I managed to drive home without anybody finding out that I didn't have my license in my purse.

Sunday we ate at Taco Bell, after my husband saw a commercial for something he wanted but they hadn't had for a while. And then there was the Superbowl, which he watched, and I watched commercials in between Googling stuff.

Yesterday we went to various thrift stores, but I didn't buy much, and it got cold and rained and we came home earlier than we might have and watched Caprica and Being Human.

And then we got some bad news about this job he was applying for. He had read somewhere what the pay was, but then he couldn't find where he had read that, so he sent another email. And we can only hope that they misunderstood the question. Surely no one gets paid that little. We were only thinking about the job because he read that it was a lot of money, and we wanted some clarification on if that was the most you could make or if that was an average or what. And on top of that you had to provide your own transportation to the interview, which was out of the state and would require either plane tickets and cab fare, or would require driving a lot and get a couple of motel rooms. And then you had to provide some of your equipment and buy somewhat of a uniform, plus nicer clothing was sometimes required.

Anyway, that is the end of that. We would have serious problems with paying to get to the interview even if we thought it would mean a good paying job. There is no reason to even waste the time if it is really such a low paying job. It was about half or less of what we have read about similar jobs, and even those do not seem to pay enough. So that was disappointing, but at least that particular discussion is over.

We are expecting snow today

I wouldn't believe them, except that it snowed on Christmas Eve. Yesterday was a fine day, though we found out it was a bit cool to spend much time in the park after we did not bring our coats. But today it is supposed to start snowing at about lunch time. We must remember to go out and buy a few things first, like lottery tickets.

My husband has bought about five or ten pounds of this gourmet Italian bacon stuff. While I would have no problem eating about five or ten pounds of regular bacon, given enough time, I think that I'm already getting a bit tired of this stuff. It is really good for some stuff, but it isn't what I am used to, so I guess that I would rather not have it for breakfast. Anyway, we will go to the grocery store and buy a few things so we can eat this fancy bacon the way it is supposed to be prepared.

I did not find the matching yarn yesterday, so I will put the current scarf aside and start on a completely new one. I have three skeins of soft white yarn, and if I run out I will keep the label so that I can buy more matching yarn. After all of this practice, I should end up with a really nice scarf, though at this rate the pilot will get his Christmas present for Valentine's Day, which would totally be the wrong message.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, that is when the club usually has a fundraising auction, so it is about time that I start looking around to decide if I am going to put anything into it.

I had better get dressed now if I plan to go anywhere before the storm.

Gift exchanges

That went well enough, though we did not have all seven of us together at once. Five of us went to dinner, and we saw the other two later. Two of the people at dinner got an IOU, but they didn't seem to mind it that much.

I got baked goods from somebody, though not the somebody I thought. She seemed surprised that we all thought we were getting cookies or something. Some of us got cookies, and some did not. But she still liked the fruit basket.

I received a necklace with a dragon on it. I have several that I don't really wear anymore, but not one like this. And I have this personalized thing coffee/tea thing, and while I don't drink coffee I am trying to drink more tea cause of the whole antioxidant thing. I have some Bath and Body Works stuff and a little digital frame and a really cool watch.

In the official gift exchange I got some DVDs, but after closer inspection they do not quite appear to be what I thought they were. And they are used, which I wouldn't mind so much (especially if they were what I had thought that they were), but these already look used, so now I'm a bit worried that they won't play. My artwork went to someone I don't know very well, but as with the earlier party it made me feel good that what I gave was "stolen." So it seemed to be wanted by someone, and I hope he will be happy with it.

Someone else gave me a DVD of something I like, but I was warned that it might not play on my machine. That's okay, if it doesn't work on my machine I'll find someone else who can use it. This wasn't really a like a Christmas present, this was just, here, someone take this, I don't want it anymore. No problem, I will take it.

Several people left the gift exchange with phasers. Don't mess with us, we're armed now.

I somehow ended up staying out past three in the morning. Most of this year I have tried to stay up til ten and ended up falling asleep at nine or earlier, so I didn't expect to stay out that long, and in fact I had somehow gotten it into my head that it was two hours earlier. Time flies and all of that. Anyway, at some point I thought that it was eleven, and then we watched the new Star Trek movie after that, so I was thinking it was one or so, and then I got into my car and saw that it was after three. So I wasn't in bed until after three-thirty.

Still, I managed to wake up around five and a bit before six I gave up trying to get back to sleep.

Okay, most of the Christmas stuff over for now, except for wrapping a couple of presents. And finishing up the two scarves for the people who received IOUs.

The big day is tomorrow, sort of, maybe...

I can't sleep. After several hours of not being able to sleep, I get up and try to do something quiet. If I had the place to myself, I would just watch some TV until such time as I feel like trying to roll over and sleep again. But I don't have the place to myself, so it is either try to be quite in bed and hope that I will fall asleep again, or get up and try to find something quiet to do someplace else in the house.

And for a bit I tried to knit, but as it turns out this early in the morning I tend to make mistakes, and I have now spent more time trying to correct those mistakes than I have spent actually making progress on the piece.

I have run out of yarn. I have new yarn that I thought matched, but now that I have it on the machine I can see a slight difference between the old yarn and the new yarn. Maybe no one else will notice. Before I put it on the machine, it looked the same. Maybe on the finished piece it will look more the same? Anyway, it would be difficult to find any yarn that matched more than this one. I don't know what else to do except keep knitting with what I have.

I am not going to finish this on time anyway. I don't even know why I am still working on it.

And I still have to finish the scarf for Miss Allergies today. I still have several hours of work to do on that. Today I also have to make and wrap a fruit basket.

Other than that, J's gift is wrapped, R's gift is wrapped, and the gift for another friend is wrapped. The gift I will probably give for the official gift exchange is now painted and mostly dry, though it still smells. I will wait a bit more before I wrap that, and I will find something else to take and wrap, just in case I am talked out of giving this particular gift, as homemade gifts are not encouraged in the official exchange.

Anyway, all this stuff needs to be done before about one o'clock tomorrow. At least, I think that is when it needs to be done, but I can't get a straight answer on the exact plan for tomorrow.

In most of the years that this little group has exchanged gifts, we have gone to dinner as usual and then given each other gifts after dinner. Once in a while, this doesn't work out for everyone, as sometimes someone is sick or out of town or something. So maybe the rest of us go on as usual, and the missing person gets their gifts later, maybe at the New Year's Eve party. That has always seemed a bit awkward to me, to give gifts to one or two friends while the rest of the group is there, and the rest of the group isn't part of the gift exchange. Just sort of screams, yes, we are all friends, but I don't care enough about the rest of you to get you a gift. So I would prefer not to give anyone a gift during the meeting or during the New Year's Eve party or anything like that.

So exchanging gifts apart from the rest of the group is best, and we would usually do that after dinner. Except that this year J and R probably won't go to dinner with us, since they have invited the whole group to their place later that evening, and they probably just won't have time for dinner with us.

So, I need to know what we are doing. After much discussion on the subject earlier, we did confirm that the seven of us would be exchanging gifts this year, though if things do not get better, it might just have to be an exchange of cards next year. (I don't do cards, but that's another story.) So I am quite sure that we are all going to exchange gifts, I just don't know when and where. And I need to know that, so I wrote an email, and so far only one person has answered. She didn't really know, but she thought maybe we were just going to dinner as usual without J and R.

I don't like that idea.

It seems to me that we could all be at the meeting place early and exchange gifts before most of the other people get there. Or that we could stay at the place a little later than usual and exchange gifts after most everyone else has left. Or, since J and R have invited everyone over to their place anyway, maybe they can just invite a few of us to come over before everyone else and do it then. But it isn't my place, so I can't suggest that and invite myself over.

Anyway, one of the gifts that I am giving is a fruit basket, and it needs to be given tomorrow, and if necessary I will give it to the person at the meeting and in front of everyone else, cause fruit baskets just don't keep til later.

So I don't know what is going on, and I don't know what to do. And I don't suppose that it is really a big deal to put all this stuff in the car just in case, except that I'd worry about someone breaking into my car in an attempt to steal presents.

In addition to all of this stuff, I was planning to put a bunch more scarves in the car, so that the pilot can pick out one for me to give to his wife. I don't think that I have ever given her a scarf, and if we are probably not going to give gifts next year, I guess I should give her a scarf this year if she is ever going to get one. I just don't have a special one in mind for her. I just have a few that look good, and he can pick which one he thinks she would like best.

Anyway, I wish the rest of them would answer the damn email.

Halloween Party 2009: and the Oscar goes to....

Well, I spent most of the day not doing much. I woke up earlier than I wanted, tried to go back to sleep but did not succeed. So I was just trying not to do anything much that would make me tired.

At some point I tried to deal with the weird food. Do to technical difficulties, the weird food did not work out. I tried three times to make it work, but it just wouldn't do. I have an idea now why it didn't work, so I will make one more attempt (for future reference, cause I might want to make that same thing for next year's party), and then I will just give up on the idea. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

Anyway, I don't guess that it matters that much. I don't think that there were cash prizes this year.

After I decided that the weird food wasn't going to work out, I started thinking about putting some flowers in my hair. My costume just didn't look that much like a costume, it was just clothes. I thought that it needed something. And I had bought flowers, thinking that I had wire and such at home to make a wreath, but I couldn't find the wire when I needed it. I tried using something else and then gave up.

Next I thought about props. I was going to make a fake menu and complain about a missing waitress (or, if someone showed up in that costume, complain directly to the waitress), but I changed my mind and put the bar's name on a wine glass. I know, most of the time the name isn't on a wine glass. On a shot glass, sure. On a beer glass, maybe. On a wine glass, not so much, though I suppose they do have them sometimes, and I used to have a souvenir brandy sniffer from a local landmark.

Anyway, I fixed my hair without flowers, put on makeup, but on a necklace that I had added a bull's head with permanent black marker, put on my black almost dress and headed out.

I got to the party and pretended to be Maryann Forrester, the maenad from True Blood, and then I asked people to guess who I was. Only one person could guess. I had clues. I had the bull's head necklace and the wine glass with the Merlotte's logo on it. Still, only the one person guessed right.

I took off my shoes and sort of danced around the place, thanking people for coming to my party. People still couldn't guess. I decided the costume contest might be a waste of time if no one could guess who I was.

I went around the room, telling people that they should loosen up and have a drink. Someone I didn't know said that she couldn't drink because she was the designated driver. I told her she shouldn't drive anyway, just stay at the party.

She thought I was already drunk.

I don't drink. At all. Ever.

It is called acting.

Anyway, we weren't supposed to open the bar until nine, but since no children came, we opened the bar at seven, and people just thought I had a few too many.

More fun. Still didn't tell anyone who I was. They would just have to guess.

A couple of guys tossed coins at my cleavage. One of them actually landed on target.

About this time I decided to do the costume contest anyway. Then I could tell everyone at once who I was supposed to be.

Taking the shoes off seemed like a good idea, but my feet really started to hurt right before the contest. I took a break.

Then we lined up for the contest, and without assigned numbers it was just whoever got in line first got to go first, so I was third. Which meant that I got to sit down sooner and rest my feet some more.

The judges went off to debate who won what. There was more dancing (without me) and door prizes giving away (I didn't win any), and then the judges came back out to announce the winners.

Without much in the way of a costume, and there not being a special award for staying in character, I did not really expect to win much if anything. I hoped I would get an honorable mention, but, no.

Miss Allergies got Most Beautiful. A chupacabra got Most Disturbing. There were about four or five other awards given away before they got to Best In Show, which I assumed would go to the pilot, since he didn't win anything else. The pilot and his wife came as these old toys where you move metal "hair" around a face with a magnet. So we spent the evening giving the two of them interesting hairdos.

So I just knew that the pilot would get the last award, until the head judge started saying something about drinking and such. I don't quite remember what he said or who he was quoting.

I got Best In Show. I have never won Best In Show at the Halloween Party, and my one time winning Best In Show at a con must have been fifteen years ago. So I was totally surprised.

Some other people were also totally surprised, and maybe not too happy. The pilot was happy for me, but people who just didn't get it, well, they just didn't get it.

So it was explained to someone that I (and a couple of other people who also won awards) had stayed in character all night until the contest (almost three hours for me), and that even though they didn't have a special award for staying in character that they decided those of us who did should get extra points for our efforts.

And here I had almost decided not to enter the contest.

So I had fun at the party, even if the rest of the Halloween season was a bust.

More about the Star Trek movie weekend: Part III

Okay, so now it is Friday, May 8th, the day that the film officially opened. I have already seen the movie, and someone in our group had already seen it before I did and watched it again, and someone else had already seen it four times before I did. And I had spent two hours on Wednesday dressed as a Vulcan, and I had spent Thursday evening dressed as a Starfleet Deep Space Nine science officer.

So I already had the science officer uniform top in the car, and I already had the green robe and gold dress in the car. And I had my makeup and such in the car, which I forgot and left in the car so I had to go and get it out of the car and put it on, and then I put that stuff back in the car. So I thought that I had everything that I would need in the car, and I would be ready to go whenever.

But the thing was that I was supposed to go to someone's house first, so that she could make me up as a Vulcan before I went to the the theater. At first I was scheduled to be at the theater from twelve til eight, but then they changed that to four til ten. So that was fine.

And then someone my husband worked with asked us to lunch.

Okay, so should I go to my friend's house first and get the Vulcan ears put on and then just hide them during lunch? Or should I go to lunch first and then go get the Vulcan stuff done after lunch. I was totally okay with doing the first, except that I didn't think I should just show up at my friend's house that early unless she asked me to. By the time we were figuring out what to do for the day, it was almost time for lunch anyway, so we decided that after lunch would be better.

My husband's friend was a bit late, but not that late. Still, by the time I got to my friend's house I seemed to be an hour behind schedule. She told me not to worry, that putting on the ears didn't take that long. But I didn't want her to rush anything, cause I wanted to pay attention to everything so I might get the ears on by myself in the future.

So in between explaining things to me, she has to answer the phone and do her normal business, in addition to talking to other people about the weekend and what costumes they should wear and such as that.

So we get all done with the ears, and they don't look bad at all, and they don't feel bad either, which was a surprise to me. I thought gluing something to my ear would feel just as bad as the tape, but it didn't. Great. So then we deal with the eyebrows.

Wednesday, I had just put lots of brownish eyeshadow over my own eyebrows, but this time I was going to shave them off. Or, at least, I was going to shave half of them off. The funny thing was that while I was out buying stuff on Monday, I found a thing especially made to shave off parts of eyebrows. I don't think Vulcan makeup is what they had in mind when they made the thing, but I found it on clearance and I bought it anyway. So right amount of eyebrow was easier to remove than I had imagined.

It was also a bit later in the day than I had imagined. It was about an hour before I was supposed to be at the theater. It usually takes me about an hour to get there from my house, but I wasn't at my house. But then I couldn't think why I should have to go back to my house, and maybe there was an easier way to get there.

My friend suggested that at three in the afternoon the traffic wasn't that bad, and I could just go straight through Dallas on 35.

I hate Dallas.

No way. No Dallas on 35. But I did figure I could get there another way. And all went fine and I was making good time until I was nearly at the theater and I was supposed to made a left exit.

And then I somehow missed wherever I was supposed to go and ended up way north of the place before I found something I recognized and could turn around.

So I did not quite get to the theater by four, and whoever would have been able to see me then missed out. Sorry about that.

So I'm at the theater, and I'm wearing black pants and a black t-shirt, and I take in the green robe and gold dress inside and I fix my hair a bit and put on my costume.

And then I remember that I left my good shoes at home.

Well, we had a lot of discussions about what was appropriate to wear at this event, and I'm sure that my shoes would not pass inspection. But I wasn't going to go home for better shoes, and the green robe hid them most of the time anyway. And they were still black shoes, they just were just old and at some point I was wearing them while working on some project and got a bit of paint on them. I borrowed a black marker and covered up the spots of paint. Not great, but better.

So we were there greeting the customers for the seven o'clock and seven thirty shows. The woman who had seen the movie four times before I did went in to watch it for a sixth time.

I had wanted to get something from Burger King between shows, but there wasn't one around. The Klingons fed me nachos instead.
My friend who put the Vulcan ears on me had planned to come in green makeup, but something went wrong and she washed it all off. So she came by after the seven thirty show in one of the Starfleet uniforms, and she brought some of us cheeseburgers.

I can haz cheeseburger.

So we had some fun with that. And we asked people trivia questions, and the theater manager is all into it. The theater manager wants us to come back for Harry Potter. It will be fun.

One Halloween I made a sleestak costume. Well, not really a sleestak, but an Enik, so close enough. It could be better. Anyway, someone said that I should wear the costume for the opening of the Land of the Lost movie.

Not going to happen. First off, the costume is damned uncomfortable and I can't stay in it very long. And second, I have no intention of promoting that Will Ferrell movie. I want no one to pay to see this movie. I almost want to say that I hope no one sees this movie, but that isn't quite true. What would really be nice is if everyone figures out how to get to see this movie without paying for it (I have suggestions), so that they can still make fun of it without the people responsible for making the awful thing being able to make any money from it.

Okay, so we got that discussion out of the way, and went back to talking about Star Trek. And then we also talked a bit about Fringe and Terminator and Day of the Triffids. So that was fun too.

And then after the ten and ten thirty shows, I was just tired. I'm afraid that I didn't even wait for other people to pack up their stuff. I just told everyone that I'd probably see them the next day and just left.

When I got home I had to take off the Vulcan ears. Getting them off was easy enough, but that left spirit gum on my ears. And I forgot to ask if mineral oil would help with that, so I didn't buy any, and I didn't see any just already in the house. So I'm picking this dried glue stuff off of my ears before I try to get some sleep.

Saturday, I wasn't scheduled to be at the theater, but I planned to be there anyway, because there weren't as many people on the schedule for Saturday and Sunday. Still, since I hadn't promised any particular part of my time, I just stayed around the house and watched TV most of the morning and part of the afternoon. I got there in time for the four and four-thirty shows, and I decided to watch the four-thirty show myself. So that was my second time to see the movie.

Someone in my group watched it four times before I saw it the first time, so now she has seen it at least six times.

This time I was wearing the green robe, but I wore it closed without the gold dress. You wouldn't think that the gold dress would be warm at all, but somehow I wasn't that comfortable in it to start with, and later the theater had some trouble with the air-conditioner. And while the ears had been perfectly comfortable on Friday, I had rubbed my ears raw trying to get off all the dried glue, so they were a bit sensitive. So I didn't feel great on Saturday, and I left right after the ten-thirty show started and didn't help with the packing up and such.

Saturday and Sunday we had some problems with people wearing odd things. If you have ever been to a convention, you have probably seen some odd things. You have probably seen some costumes that just aren't that good, or costumes being worn when they don't fit anymore, or parody costumes. I have a parody borg costume, which I have worn to every other Star Trek movie premiere weekend since I made the thing in 1993. But I did not wear it this time because a.) I have gained some weight since I last wore it and wasn't sure how I would look in it, and b.) we were all sent emails asking us to wear only really good costumes that fit and looked like what was actually worn on the screen. So I took that to mean that we should not wear parody costumes.

Like I know this guy who wears half a Klingon costume with a kilt. He's been wearing it like that for so long, I don't think he still has the pants that originally went with it. So he got the message that his costume didn't count as a "real" Star Trek costume, and he wasn't invited to participate without pants. We have a lot of stuff like that going on. If we hadn't been specific, we would have had a lot more Klingons at this thing, but the four or five that we did have looked just perfect.

Still, other people did not take the hint. I just wanted to strangle someone who kept saying he was going to wear this shirt that was like a Starfleet uniform (only it really wasn't that much like a uniform at all). And then he wanted to wear this other thing that was just like a uniform, only it was something that they only used for Star Trek V, and I don't think that anyone would recognize it as a Star Trek costume. Finally, it is agreed that he can come dressed as Mr. Scott. Only (except for them both being fat) he doesn't look anything like Mr. Scott. Again, he doesn't have a real uniform, just some regular clothes that sort of look like some Mr. Scott wore once, and then he's wearing the next gen badge instead of the one that Mr. Scott wore. So except for the people who read the email, no one knew that he was supposed to be Mr. Scott.

And then there was a group of three who were sort of doing this parody thing of a group of people who were in an episode of the original series.

At least, I thought it was a parody. Apparently, one of the women thinks that she's really hot, and wasn't trying to make a joke. We later found out that in certain light her dress is very see-through, and you get this same problem whenever someone takes a photo with a flash.

So we found out that not only does this woman think that she's all that, she wasn't wearing a bra either. And all of these people that we had hoped to impress with our authentic costumes now have pictures of this woman in a not so great costume that is see-through and doesn't have a bra.

So some people got into it with her. But I'm sure she still doesn't get why people were upset.

Saturday night I had less glue to take off of my ears, and I had mineral oil to help with that, so Sunday my ears were not giving me any trouble. Again, I wasn't on the schedule, but there weren't that many people signed up for Sunday because it was Mother's Day. So I wanted to be there, but because it was Mother's Day, I thought that I would probably be going to lunch with some of my family, which I did.

To save time with getting my costume on after lunch, I put the Vulcan ears on before lunch and just brushed my hair in such a way that they would probably not be seen.

So I went to lunch with my family, and my brother knew that I had the ears on, but I don't think that anyone else could tell. But during lunch my mother is really looking at me, and I think that she sees them. And my brother sees us and he's laughing. But she doesn't see the ears and doesn't know what he is laughing about. She just hasn't seen me since the haircut, and she really likes it.

So my brother is still laughing, and I pull back my hair so my mom can see what he's laughing about. She tells me to put my hair back down.

My mother hates Star Trek. Odd that. My dad was all into science fiction, and she just hates it. I never got what my parents had in common before we came along.

But a long time ago, my mother didn't hate Star Trek. She didn't like it as much as my dad did, but she didn't hate it and she watched it with him. In fact, way back then, my mother did like some weird stuff, and her favorite show was One Step Beyond. But now she just really hates all of that stuff.

So we finished lunch, and she asked if I'm going with them to see my grandma for a bit. Only I have to go home and put on the costume right away if I'm going to get to the theater in time for the four o'clock show. So then I ask if she thinks I should show Grandma the costume. But then I think that is silly, since my grandma can't see that well, and I then think I should just skip it and see her later. But no, my mom says that will make her laugh and I should do that.

So I go home and put on the brown dress that I wore Wednesday night, and then I put my hair up and go to Grandma's house. Only when I get there she isn't feeling well and she's gone to sleep. But I get to see three other relatives, who all tell me how nice I look.

My mom and my brother are like, no, really look at her.

So then they see the ears and the eye makeup and are impressed. So I'm getting ready to leave, and my mom comes and grabs one of my ears. "Is it glued on?"

"MOM!"

Really, I put the ears on hours before so I be done in time, and now she's pulling on one of them and it might come off.

But I guess that she's so happy that I'm wearing a nice modest dress instead of the borg thing or some other thing that she really hates. So I don't have time to go home and check on the ear, and I think even if it does come off that someone else at the theater will have something to fix it.

I get to the theater, and the friend with the makeup kit isn't there, but everyone else assures me that the ear damage minimal and no one will notice it.

Some people left to go to the dinner. I decided to stay at the theater. I had practically just come from lunch anyway.

The original plan for Sunday was to pack up after the seven-thirty showing, so I was going to help them do that. But then they decided to stay til ten-thirty as usual. I wasn't up for that. I went home.

We are now planning stuff to do to promote the Harry Potter film in July. We are all tired and have decided to tone it down a bit and limit it to three days.

Monday Morons--at least try to keep up with what is going on with your own little group of fellow nerds

No, I am not through writing about the Star Trek movie weekend. But I thought that I would take a break and write about something else for a bit. And I haven't written a Monday Morons post in a very long time, so you may not be familiar with this particular thing that used to be a regular feature.

Anyway, it has been a busy time for my little group of friends. Last weekend we had three things going on at once. Most of us were involved with promoting the new Star Trek movie, and that Sunday was our regularly scheduled dinner (which we didn't think in time to move to someplace closer to the theater), and Sunday was also Mother's Day. So some of us were trying to squeeze in this Star Trek stuff in addition to doing something with mom, which is hard to do that weekend if your particular mom isn't into Star Trek and doesn't want to do any of this other stuff on Mother's Day. And while we were recovering from the busy weekend of that week, the next weekend was our annual picnic, and some people had a lot to do to get ready for that.

I don't do most of the stuff that goes on at the picnic. I was never into outdoor sports, and I would think that even if I was that I would be getting a bit to old for this sort of thing. Still, unless I really need to be doing something else, I at least make an appearance at the thing and bring something and eat a hotdog or two.

So that is what we were supposed to be doing Saturday. Only we saw on the news that it was probably going to rain. And we have been talking about what we would do if it did rain. And we talked about having the picnic or not having the picnic on and off throughout the week, but especially on Friday we discussed it a lot, and we must have had twenty emails on the subject. And we decided that we needed to make a final decision on it by about nine in the morning on Saturday.

So just after nine it was announced (by email) that the picnic was canceled, and then there were about eleven more emails discussing either meeting at someone's house or just meeting for lunch at the regular meeting place, and then either trying to reschedule the picnic for the next day or maybe even the same time next month.

So we were supposed to check the email again after eleven to see if we were going to the regular meeting place (because we didn't know if we could get the place since we didn't have a reservation), and that all worked out, so by about eleven thirty or so anybody who cared enough to check their email knew that the picnic was canceled and we would be at the regular meeting place at two.

So at two o'clock, a lot of us were at the regular meeting place, mostly talking about the new movie, cause we hadn't planned anything for the day because we had expected to be at the picnic. There were a few people who weren't there, but there are always a few people who aren't there anyway.

So that night we all got an email from someone who saw that it was raining and decided not to go to the picnic because it was raining and he wasn't sure if anyone else would be there.

And it's not like he didn't have computer access, or he couldn't have sent us the email.

There were at least thirty emails on the subject that he just decided not to read, so then he couldn't figure out if anyone was going to be at the picnic.

It was this guy that I complained about in October for sending the large emails. So I don't get why you send emails and expect everyone to read your emails when you don't stop to read anyone else's emails. I understand when people who do not have computers are out of the loop sometimes, but this guy either has a computer himself or borrows someone else's on a regular basis, and he skips over the part that says "you have 31 unread messages" so he can send us a message on the very same subject.

I know that to varying degrees we are all a bit weird in our little group, but there are a few that even I just do not get.

More about the Star Trek movie weekend: Part II

Thursday morning I didn't do much, cause I didn't want to get too tired. Some of us were going to meet at the theater at about four, which meant I would be leaving the house around three. I decided that the gold trim I had added to the green robe needed going over again, but that was all I had time for. Someday I will probably make that other white piece to go over it, but it will have to wait.

Then I remembered that I had a gold dress, so I got that out of storage to see how it would look worn under the green robe. It wasn't quite as I remembered. I thought it had a high neck, but I guess that I was thinking of the silver dress. I buy a lot of stuff to use for costumes, and then I forget what I have. So I tried on the gold dress with the green robe, and decided that I should keep on the black t-shirt under the gold dress because the neck was too low, but other than that it should work.

So at three I put my gold dress and my green robe in the car, along with a Deep Space Nine science uniform shirt that someone had loaned me, and I headed out to the the theater. I stopped somewhere to grab a taco, cause I thought that I wouldn't get another chance to eat til after ten. Getting the taco took a bit longer than I thought, so I was a few minutes behind schedule, but no big deal.

None of the others were at the theater when I got there, but I noticed that our main props were already put up. So some of us had already been there, but apparently they had already left.

The assistant manager told me they would be back about 5:30.

That sucks. The reason for meeting at four was so that some of us could get into alien makeup and such. Someone was going to put Vulcan ears on me, or at least, that had been the plan. So now I had no Vulcan ears, and an hour and a half to kill.

I got a soda and went in to various theaters to watch previews. I could have gone to dinner, but I was hungry after rushing to eat that taco.

A few other people started to show up a bit after five, and weren't happy to find that I was the only one there. And then the first group that had been there came back, saying that they had left to try to fix problems with the props. So the problems were all fixed, and at about six most of us were all there ready to go.

And there wasn't time for anyone to put the Vulcan ears on me. Glad that I hadn't shaved my eyebrows yet. I tried on the gold dress and green robe, just so that my friend could see what it looked like, but then I took it off because it would be silly to wear that without the Vulcan makeup. I already had on the black pants and t-shirt, so I just put on the science uniform top. Not the greatest costume, but it works, and I was glad that someone had thought to loan it to me.

News people came and took pictures and video, as they did the night before, but I don't think that I am in the final cut of anything. Thursday night I did not have the best costume, and Wednesday night the guy kept trying to get pictures of me while I was wearing my glasses, and I kept trying to wave him off or get him to start over, which I guess that he didn't want to do. But friends of mine are on tape saying this and that, and we all had a good time bugging the customers with trivia and such. We ended up with four Klingons, two Vulcans, a Romulan, and lots of people in Federation uniforms. We even had some of the new uniforms.

The manager was very impressed with us, and he wants us to come back later and help promote Harry Potter.

We stayed til about ten or eleven, and then it took some time to get the smaller props and such packed away. I wasn't very helpful with that, since none of the props are actually mine and I didn't want to move anything without being instructed to. But I stayed that first night until everything was put away, so I didn't get home til after midnight.

More about the Star Trek movie weekend

This will probably go on for a while. And then when I finally get tired of posting about the events of the weekend, I'll go back to writing about Kellogg's stuff and toys from Burger King. And then maybe by that time I'll have the novelization and I can post something about that.

Probably, I should go back to the beginning.

It was Wednesday afternoon, and I had put a collar on my brown dress and attempted to add some fabric to the skirt to cover a slit that went to about my knee. The skirt didn't look good with the added fabric, so I removed it. I will just have to work on that later, and until then I'll wear boots to make the dress more modest. I gave up trying to decide what to do with the rest of the fabric and just sort of draped it over my shoulder.

I had added a hood to the green robe, along with some gold trim and some additional green fabric. I was trying to make it look a bit less like a bathrobe. I had wanted to have this white piece to go over it, sort of like the Vulcans wear in the first and third movies, but I decided that I didn't have time for it. Maybe later.

I went and bought some things for my hair, and some mounting tape. I had these really stiff elf ears which I trimmed down and attached to my own ears with the mounting tape. Then I put this mostly elastic hair thing on, and that covered part of the ears so that the cut part didn't show. This is how I used to wear the alien ears that I had twenty years ago that looked really good, but I didn't remember the tape being so uncomfortable. And the elastic thing was too tight, so my head hurt. And the brown dress was a bit warm, so I was uncomfortable in general. But the place I was going was like two miles from my house, and I was only planning to stay for a hour or so. I figured that we would talk to people til about six, and then they would go in to watch the movie, and there wouldn't be much to do after that and I would go home.

I wanted a friend to see me in the brown dress so she could tell me if it was good enough to wear on Thursday. At six she still wasn't there, so I decided to wait ten more minutes. And then she still wasn't there, and I decided to wait a bit longer, and then she still wasn't there, etc....

So while I was waiting for my friend, the head of our group got a call from the other theater manager saying that our sneak preview was back on. Earlier that day, he had told us that he couldn't get one of the film reels opened. But now that the problem was fixed, we were invited for a 9:30 show, if we could still make it.

So I went home and posted the information and sent out emails. And then I took off those ears and the brown dress and put on jeans and a T-shirt. And no one replied to my email, which surprised me a little, cause I at least thought people would ask if I was sure and want to confirm the location of the theater or something. But no one said anything about it, and I ate dinner. And then I checked the email again, and still no one replied. So I replied to it myself, thinking that would at least get the title of the email to pop up again so maybe if they missed it the first time someone would see it. And still no one replied, so after a few minutes I left. The theater was an hour drive away from my house, and I hadn't been there in a long time and wanted to make sure I could find the place, so I left half an hour early.

Right after I left, someone replied to the email saying that they hadn't gotten the message that there was to be a sneak preview.

Was I not clear? That was the message. But, I guess for them it would have been too late anyway. I think people had time to get there, but they didn't have time to eat first or hire a babysitter or finish whatever else they were doing. Still, everyone who wasn't there complained that they weren't told, why weren't they called, etc....

So I had no problems finding the place, and I was there half an hour early, by myself, with nothing to do. I left to go buy some ice cream. I came back. I was still by myself.

So at about 9:25 I was starting to worry that I would be the only one there and that the manager would not show the movie just for me by myself. But then two people came in and said they got my message and were a little surprised that no one else was there. And then people started coming in from the other theater, in costume, which we were not supposed to do. But it was a Wednesday night, so it wasn't like a lot of people saw us to wonder what was going on.

So there were less than twenty of our group there, and I was surprised that most of them were in costume cause they had been at the other theater, and most of them had bought tickets at the other theater to watch the second and third and forth movies, but they left the theater after watching Wrath of Khan so that they could watch the new movie. I don't think that I would have left the other theater if I had paid ten or fifteen dollars to watch the other films. But they did, so we had three Klingons and five people in various Federation uniforms.

So whatever complaining I might do later about things not being quite right and not matching up with what happens in the original series or the animated series or any of the other series, I just want to say that it is a good movie and that for the most part I liked it. So everyone should go see it, unless you are one of those people who just cannot stand remakes.

Okay, so that is enough for this post, and I'll write some more later.

My sneak preview of the new Star Trek movie

First we were getting to see it, and then we weren't getting to see it. And then when most people had made other plans for the evening we were getting to see it again. And then we were about a half hour behind schedule, so some of the people who said that they couldn't make it at 9:30 probably would have gone if they had known it wouldn't actually start until almost ten.

I was the second person to hear that it was back on again. And I was the closest person to a computer, so I was the one who sent out the email. I was surprised when almost an hour later no one had replied. I expected some reaction. I expected someone to at least ask if I was sure and to confirm which theater we were supposed to meet at. So I replied to my own email, just so that the title of the first email would show up for a second time, but that didn't seem to help much. So I didn't want to be late for the show myself, and I left. Hardly anyone got the message in time, except for those people who got the message in person right after I did.

We weren't supposed to bring a lot of friends, but we were allowed to bring a few. I tried to invite a couple of people in my family who were interested, but again they didn't get the message in time to get to the theater at 9:30. So there were less than twenty of us there.

The odd thing was that one guy had already seen the movie somewhere else, and one lady was watching it for the fifth time.

The fact that someone would want to watch the same movie for the fifth time should tell you something.

The sneak preview was supposed to be sort of a secret, but most of our people had just come from another Star Trek event where they were watching the second and third and fourth movies in costume. I had time to go home and change, but most of them didn't. So we had with us three Klingons and five people in various Starfleet uniforms.

I don't want to give any of it away to those who haven't seen the movie yet, but I wanted to say something to the people are wondering whether or not to bother with it since it doesn't have the original actors (except for brief appearances by Leonard Nimoy). Remember The Next Generation episode "Rascals" where Picard and three of the crew become children in a transporter accident. So that was an episode where other actors were playing the characters, and it still works. And it's funny when you watch the actors do or say something just like the character should say, and it's even funnier when they say or do something that is just the opposite of what the character should say.

I don't feel great at the moment. I tried wearing the brown dress last night, and it was a lot warmer than I expected. And I wore the not so great Vulcan ears and an even less comfortable hair ornament. I wanted out of it almost as soon as I put it on, but I decided to go and make an appearance. I thought that I would stay for about an hour, but the main person that I wanted to see me in the costume was running a bit late. So I thought that maybe I could stay for two hours. In the middle of the second hour we learned about the sneak preview, so I waited another ten minutes or so and then went home and peeled everything off, except that I did not wash off the excessive eye makeup.

I wondered if everyone would stare at that. But since I spent most of the rest of the evening with three Klingons, I guess no one really noticed.

Wardrobe and other malfunctions

It is probably going to rain some more today. It looks like it will be nice and sunny next week, but I'm not sure how long it will take for everything to dry out so that I can get back to the gardening.

Later today and tomorrow and Sunday, my friends will be going to a convention. Right now I am not planning to go, even though with the weather I have no plans for anything else. The convention is run by a group that I found to be a lot of fun the one other time I went, but there's no one in the guest list that I'm just dying to see, though Aaron Douglas will be there, and I'm sure that a lot of my friends are looking forward to seeing him. I hear that he's a nice guy.

The convention itself reminds me of bad things that started that same week three years ago. That really shouldn't be held against anyone at the convention, but as it turns out I haven't been back since then. Also, they moved to a different hotel, since the roof leaked at the one I went to. The new hotel is nowhere near the other one, and I would either have to drive on the freeway going through Dallas, or I would have a very long drive on surface roads. I don't care to make such a long drive there and back, especially since it is likely to be in the rain and it would end up with me being in an unfamiliar area.

But the real deciding factor is that I have no money.

Of course I have no money for tickets to the thing or buying autographs or cool sci-fi stuff from the dealer's room. That's just a given that I don't have money for that. And I really don't have money to eat out, so I would have to take peanut butter sandwiches, and if anyone asked me to go out anyplace afterward I would have to say no. And I have nothing cool to wear, so it would be just me in maybe a club t-shirt and jeans, and even the jeans are against me at the moment, and I have no money to go out and buy new ones.

But the really sad thing about the lack of money situation is that I don't even feel like I have enough money to volunteer to work at the thing. I have the day off and nothing planned. In fact, I have the whole weekend off and nothing planned. But last month someone made a point of saying that they still needed volunteers, and that if I worked enough hours it would get me a free ticket for next year. That's a good offer, one that I don't remember getting before.

But I don't think that I should spend the money even for just gas and a couple of sodas.

So that's a bit sad. I've just been reminded that a friend of mine has a serious entry in the costume competition, and I won't be there to cheer him on.

Speaking of costumes, it has recently occurred to me that I have nothing to wear on May 8th. Staying home on May 8th is not an option. My friends will be out in force (and of course, in uniform) to promote the club and the new movie.

Right now, I don't really have a uniform. The old ones either just don't look good or don't fit me at the moment. I'm not even sure that I have any decent black pants should someone offer to loan me a shirt.

The borg costume would not really be good for this occasion, though if I looked better I would probably wear it anyway. I probably still have a Centauri dress or two around, but no bald caps or head wear to go with them, and that stuff is Babylon 5 anyway. I have tons of costume stuff, but most of the stuff that still fits is either Harry Potter or an old Halloween costume. I just don't have anything Star Trek related that I can wear two months from now.

So I'm surfing the web, looking for pictures. With the economy and my current personal lack of funds, my other personal problems, and having less than two months to come up with something, making a new costume should be the last thing on my mind. Still, I'm looking. If I found the right picture, I might try it anyway.

I've decided that trying to get something that looks like the new uniform is out. One of the designs is simple enough, but the fabric is some odd polka dot thing that I probably won't be able to match. Plus that dress would require me to go out and buy new boots.

I'm thinking that the best thing as far as a new costume would be some Vulcan robes. But that would also require wearing Vulcan ears and probably plucking my eyebrows. And then there's the glasses. I am blind without them, and they tend to look out of place on an alien face, so I spend a lot of time getting the glasses on and off to pose for pictures and hoping that I don't actually lose the glasses at some point when they are off.

But there are some costume designs that aren't too bad, if I could just find a decent picture of what I want. The glasses would still be a problem, so I would have to add a pocket somewhere just for them. And depending on the color I could use some things that I already have around.

Still, it seems a totally silly thing to be worrying about right now, and I have zero funds to spend on such a thing. But somehow that doesn't stop me from looking at the pictures.