If there is at least one person in your life who you consider a close friend, and who you would not have met without being part of an online fandom, post this sentence in your journal.
Meanwhile… judiang has photos of Paul McGann up on her website. I’ll send you to her journal where you can click on the link to the page. (And yeah, I did a quicky code for the page. If I’d had a couple more minutes, I’d’ve switched the font to Verdana, at least.)
Today was a wonderful day. It’s late at night and I’m working on my second amaretto sour of the evening, so I don’t know how much I’ll actually talk about tonight. But first, a photo of Paul McGann!
judiang treated me to Room Service Breakfast today – a luxury neither of us has had before. Thank you Judi! I had French toast (which wasn’t as good, actually, as the stuff from the cafe that we went to the day before) and ham and a glass of milk. It was a fun experience – and no dishes to wash, either!
I attempted to get online downstairs without success (their DHCP server was kaput, so I received no IP address and couldn’t go anywhere online). After I gave up, we both went to get our badges for the convention. (Badges? We don’t need no steenkin… Nevermind!) It was awhile yet before the dealer’s room opened, so we returned to the room. Judi napped and I read. elsaf called when she was nearly at the hotel, so Judi and I went to meet her. It was nearly noon.
Other folks were arriving and we got to see many familiar faces and put other names to faces. I’d try to rattle them all off, but I know I’ll forget many people. Lance, as always, was a hit with folks. hergrace and family arrived soon after, and we all, with PMEBers campion7 and Mona, went to Chili’s for lunch. I had grilled shrimp Alfredo – yum!
Back at the con, there was more waiting around. Paul was rumored to arrive around 4pm, so I had some time to kill and went to see Peter Purves (Stephen Taylor from Doctor Who) in his panel. Then I went to the lobby to wait with other PMEBers and members from the McGann Library. Sure enough, “Himself” arrived and there was much (quiet) squeeing. The whole mass of females converged on the open bar after awhile, and Paul soon joined in. (That’s where my photo came from. Hopefully judiang will be able to post her superior photos tonight.)
We kept Paul busy until nearly 6pm when the Opening Ceremony was to begin. We meandered to the ball room and I found my seat. I’m one seat from Teri, another McGann fanatic. Judi and miz_em, alas, are on the other side (but also the second row). But I should still have fun with the panels.
Elsa, Judi and I went off to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for supper with 3 other McGann fans, Julie, Chaz, and Trish. We had a nice dinner (I had BLT, fries, and fudge brownie sundae) and even nicer conversation. When we got back, it was time for the McGann Library/PMEB party up in a business class suite.
The party was lovely with lots of fun conversation and Lance working the room like a pro. I took many photos and hopefully will get a page made up after the convention to display them. Alas, Paul was down in the bar getting plastered, so he was unable to attend. But that didn’t stop us from having a good time! And now, Steph, Judi and I are down in the con area on our laptops and writing things up about the day. Tomorrow will hopefully be another great day of friends and good looking British men (or at least, one man). 🙂
Well, if all goes well, I’ll eventually get an IP address from the hotel and can post these photos.
Here’s Lance and I sitting down for a spell.
The Thanksgiving Feast!
And the Thanksgiving Turkey!
Trina’s plate o’ plenty! Note the surrogate dark_pheonix eyeing my dinner.
Lance gets a piece of the action!
Trina’s plate o’ empty!
Let them eat cake! And then waddle off to the hotel…
As you can see, it was a wonderful dinner. And we did manage to eat some cake before the evening was out. Then we took a cab to the hotel (Lance included) and got into our 8th floor room. Judi and I sat down in the lobby for awhile, Lance getting hugs from complete strangers, and Judi and I playing around online. Unfortunately, this morning I couldn’t get an IP address from their wireless server, but hopefully will connect later and be able to post this.
We’re now registered for the con. Judi’s #32 and I’m #41 – so we won’t get to sit beside each other. Alas! We’ve seen a few friends so far, and that’s wonderful. Indeed, friends are the main reason I came to this con in the first place.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate or wish you celebrated it! I got up in time to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (and see some of Chicago’s parade getting ready – just outside judiang‘s apartment!) While the Today Show and then Macy’s Parade were playing, I made the cheese ball and then the souffle (though I still needed to mold the balls and bake the souffle) and cleaned up as I went. Judi got up sometime after 10am and took Lance for walkies. Breakfast was Special K Vanilla Almond cereal (yum!). Judi made the cake and soon she and I started work on the stuffing.
As I mentioned yesterday, barbthebrazen gave Judi a recipe for wild mushroom stuffing and we did our best to follow it. And it tastes great, so we must have done something right. 🙂 We stuffed the smoked turkey (which was full of smoked turkey juice) with the stuffing, and wrapped it in foil and it’s now “reheating.” The souffle is in the oven as well – hopefully that will turn out well! My reputation is on the line! 😉
Unfortunately, Marion will be unable to attend our feast, so it’s just me, Judi, and Lance to eat all that food. I’d say “alas!” except it’s gonna be good eats and so I can’t complain there! (I am sorry, however, that Marion cannot attend – I’ll miss her at the con!)
Like elsaf, I’m going to take some time to write what I am thankful for.
I am blessed with a wonderful family (parents & little sissies) that is funny, loving, open-minded, loving, silly, kind, generous, and loving. 🙂
I have wonderful friends at work and online (virtual and real).
I have Leo, who is the greatest cat in the universe!
I have a job that I love that pays me enough so that I’m independently wealthy (or at least spend money as if that’s the case…)
I can travel all over the place and meet my friends, see my favorite actor perform, catch the sights, and make new friends.
I am healthy and happy and have been losing and/or maintaining my weight now for nearly a year.
This weekend, I’ll get to see many of my online friends and hopefully strenghthen some of those friendships.
I love that IRC, e-mail, Usenet, and LiveJournal have led me to many of these online friends.
Thanks to all of you for making my life wonderful! 🙂
Mmmmm, we’re gonna have a wonderful feast! Only another hour or so to go – woohoo!
I got up damned early this morning to fly off to Chicago to stay with judiang for Thanksgiving before going to ChicagoTARDIS later this weekend. I sent a text message when I boarded the plane, when we landed, and when I was at the baggage claim where I was to meet Judi. Nada… My flight was nearly half an hour early, so I waited half an hour and still no sign of Judi. So I called her cell phone – nada. Then I called her home phone – ah! There she was! Still in bed! Poor thing overslept!
No matter, Judi loaned me a hat once we got to her place. After a short rest, we went off to have brunch. Hackney’s and Bar Louie were both still closed, so we went to a local cafe for breakfast. (They know Judi by name. She introduced me.) I had French toast and hashbrowns and a tall glass of milk. Yum!
We returned to Judi’s to plan our grocery shopping. Tomorrow we’re doing Thanksgiving dinner. One of our friends from Canada will be joining us (so her second Thanksgiving dinner of the year), so that’ll be lovely. Judi bought a smoked turkey and she’ll make dressing using a recipe from barbthebrazen. She’ll also make bean greens & bacon, broccoli & cheese sauce (frozen in a bag), and a chocolate cake. I’ll make sweet potato souffle and a cheeseball. We worked on two other lists – one for Target and one for the tasks she has set upon me.
Outside again where we experienced Snain – a cross between rain and snow. And damn, was it blustery. Politics my ass, they call Chicago the Windy City cuz it’s so damn windy! 😉 With Judi’s hat snug on my head and my lovely new coat and gloves, I was warm. But my pants and shoes got soaked.
No matter, while we shopped at Jewel, I managed to dry off somewhat. We bought a load of stuff and tomorrow’s going to be a great spread. (Lots of leftovers for Judi!) The way back, OTOH, was worse than the way there. Even more snain and wind and this time we were walking in the wind. Bleh! I was doubly soaked that time.
No matter, once we put away the groceries, we sat for a bit. Lance loved the attention (as always – wait til he gets a lot of the PMEBers at the convention!) Once we were rested and somewhat drier, we moved onto Target. This is a new store that has opened in the area. It’s two stories and Judi wondered how it compared to the Target Mahal (pronounced Tar-zhey ma-hal) that’s in Minneapolis. Actually, I’d say it was the Target Mahal South. 🙂 More walking in the blustery snain, more soaked trousers & shoes, and back to Judi’s flat. I dumped the packages in the apartment and we moved onto the Thai place for dinner.
Judi and I got pot stickers, pad see eiw and tofu pad thai. Yummy! It was warm, I was sort of drying, and we watched the snain as it died out some. After the lovely dinner, we ambled (stumbled?) back to the pad. This time, with my shoes on the heater and my gloves, hat, and pants (that’s jeans for you Brits, not undies) in the dryer, I sat and read some e-mail.
The jeans out of the dryer, my shoes practically dry, and the hat & gloves still damp, Judi and I walked the couple of blocks to the theater and watched The Incredibles. Wonderful movie! Definite DVD purchase and we want to see the sequel already. 🙂
When we got back to the flat, Judi had more things for me to do. First, reformat her oldest laptop. There was no way to do the 1s & 0s format and she has no magnets (I know, I was shocked too – actually, I just remembered that I gave her a magnet for Xmas last year and she doesn’t have it on her fridge! The BITCH! er, um, nevermind…) We just ended up doing a straight “format c:” style format.
Next we moved her dining room table over. Not as easy as it sounds because it’s completely made of glass and damned heavy. But we managed it.
Then it was time to put new bulbs in her huge moon light. Putting the bulbs in wasn’t the problem, but rehanging it on the wall was. I finally figured out a way to do it and then she didn’t have any masking tape. *sigh* I stood on the sofa and waited while she finally found some scotch tape and we got the light hung.
The next job was to get her closet door back in. It’s another odd job which I did figure out, but didn’t do it well. Judi just informed me that it’s back out of its socket again. Ah well!
There are still things on the list to do. Hook her stereo back up, hook up her new VCR (which we got at Target tonight), and do Judi’s t-shirt transfer. And to bake the cake and make the cheeseball. Thankfully we can sleep in somewhat tomorrow. (Though I must watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.)
Apparently it’s now snowing for REAL – it looks very pretty. If Judi wasn’t so tired, she says she’d head on out with Lance and walk in the park. I love her snow enthusiasm. 🙂 (I have it too, but not as strongly as she does.)
I received an e-mail from Scientific American Book Club and they seem to have sorted things out. Their reasoning for needing my e-mail and password was because they’re customer service and to get the techs involved would take more time. Not a good reason, but it’s a reason. They deleted my original online account and when I created a new one, things worked OK (as far as I can tell). They even went ahead and put in my order that was on the site – though one book is no longer available – alas! Still, they’re giving me free shipping on it despite the new order being less than $59 (the cost for free shipping on orders). So I’m pleased for now. If the other books arrive OK, I’ll be even pleased-er. 😉
Today is the 41st anniversary for Doctor Who – woot! I haven’t done anything special for the occasion (too busy doing other things) but I’m off to Chicago tomorrow for Thanksgiving with my big sissy, judiang, and then the Chicago TARDIS convention this weekend. With Paul McGann in attendance, there will be many PMEBers and other friends there. If you’re going to be at CT, look me up! Shirts that I will be wearing include my Metric Avenger shirt and my “Sylveste is the Real McCoy” shirt. I’m also bringing my McGann as Doctor sweatshirt – though I probably won’t need that in the hotel. Looking forward to the con!
Since it was the last day for school this week, several of us teachers went to BW3s (an act known as “B-dubbing”) where I had an amaretto sour (no surprise there) and some wings. A bit of conversation, and then home again to pack. (While out in Troy today, I also picked up the latest Harry Potter DVD. Made arrangements with the parentals units for Dinner and a Movie after I return Sunday. Woot!)
(gordon_r_d, I think I picked up “Woot!” from you. I’ve been using it all day… Seems to be working OK. 😉 )
Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with the journal while I’m away – I need to keep up my pattern of “100% posts for the odd numbered months” just a little while longer. Then I’ll have done it for a year and won’t need to worry about continuing the trend next year if I don’t wanna. 😉
I eat with the “boys” at lunch each day. But tonight, I went out with the “girls” for a pre-Christmas shopping spree. Last week, the Special Ed teacher invited all the ladies out for a day of shopping and fine dining. And I can’t pass up either of those, or a chance to hang out with my co-workers (I have a lot of cool co-workers). Turns out five of us were able to go tonight and at 3:15pm we left the school and met at the Little Professor Book Store.
I got a peppermint steamer at the Winan’s coffee shop which is attached to the bookstore, then perused the books. I found some possible gift ideas for folks on my list and even found one for me. But I was a good girl and didn’t buy anything (yet). Next was the Hallmark store, where I purchased two CDs of Christmas music, an ornament (Santa & Rudolph from the Rankin/Bass production), and some candles and a holder. We then headed off to a little gift shop in Troy, which turns out isn’t open on Mondays. No matter, we had plenty of shops to check out in Tipp City.
The first stop in Tipp City was fun to look at, but I didn’t buy anything. I bought some Hot Pepper Peach Preserves from the next place. (Both places were several shops all in one store – rather cool.) One of our party had to go off to feed her little one, but the rest of us headed to the toy store in Tipp and I FINALLY found a proper dark_pheonix proxy! It’s a little penguin (that moves, even). She’s got a hat & scarf (so a bit warm for an Aussie at this time of year) but is perfect for travel. She’s got a yellow bill and feet, too. (I’ll get a photo later.) We then checked out a clothing store that was going out of business. (It had some interesting clothes selections – though none of us fancied buying the leather pants that were on sale.)
We moved on back to Troy to La Piazza, an Italian restaurant, where the fifth member of our party caught up with us after feeding her son. There was a wait for our table, so I bought everyone a round of drinks. Amaretto sour for me, wines for the other girls. They were eventually ready for us, so we got to our table and eventually got our food. (I ordered manicotti stuffed with cheese – yum!) We talked and talked and talked and by 9:30pm, we were ready to leave. I was really impressed because we didn’t talk about school until we were walking across the street towards the restaurant. That’s very impressive for a group of teachers!
We really enjoyed the evening out and have decided we’ll need to do this from time to time. A little retail therapy between co-workers is a good thing. 🙂
Picked this one up from kkglinka:
1. My Journal is Called trinalin thinks things through. I like aliteration. I couldn’t think of a better name for my journal than that. And I haven’t come up with a better title for it.
2. My Subtitle is an emoticon :-). It’s ONLY purpose is because my journal title has letters that go below the main line (descenders, I believe they’re called) and get cut off by my Component theme. (It doesn’t show up on my friends page, but as you’ll see, it doesn’t need to.)
3. My Friends Page is Called trinalinks, which has no descenders in it. I use “trinalinks” on my website too, to link to my friends websites (and it’s sorely out of date). I thought it was rather a clever name and guess I can’t give it up.
4. My Username is trinalin. This is the handle I’ve used online since I started in 1995. But I had the nickname even before then. My senior year in HS I got a REALLY bad ear ache. And one of the medications that the doctor put me on was “Trinalin.” Wow, I thought, a medication named after me! (My full name is Trina Lynn Short.) So since 1989, I’ve used “trinalin” as a nickname or handle. (And to distinguish me from the medicine, I ALWAYS write it lowercase.)
5. My Default Userpic is Sylvester McCoy, of course. Heck, one of the things that kept me playing with LiveJournal was the fact that I could make Sylv icons. I haven’t filled up all 50 userpix spots, though I’m getting closer all the time. *sniff*
I love a good lazy Saturday and today was one of those. After a nice, slow morning, I headed to Troy to wander around the downtown area. I got a vanilla steamer from Winan’s Chocolates (& coffee) at my first stop. Then lunch at the Bakehouse (a wonderful bakery) which consisted of a grilled ham sandwich on sour dough and some broccoli cheddar soup. I ended my trip in downtown Troy at the Night Sky cafe where I had to get an egg nog steamer. (Hey, I had to see who had the better steamers. It was 25cents more at Night Sky, but damn, that egg nog syrup they use is PERFECT.)
I slowly drank the second steamer as I made my way back “uptown” to Staples and then Walmart. Haircut at Famous Hair and finally a stop at the Little Professor Book Store which was having a 20% off sale for the holidays. I got myself 3 books, but didn’t know what anyone else wanted, so it was a missed opportunity for getting some Christmas presents. The books were the latest Murder, She Wrote novel and The Princess Bride and my “traditional” Christmas book. I started a tradition a few years ago where I would buy one children’s Christmas book each season. I never know going in what I’ll get. But there’s always one that will catch my fancy. Some of my previous picks have been Olive, the Other Reindeer, Auntie Claus, If You Take A Mouse to the Movies, and last year, How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow. Looks like a fun read to me!
I returned home, triumphant, and then goofed off the rest of the day. Thanks to akadriver‘s suggestion, I’ve been reading the classic webcomic Sluggy Freelance the past few days. I started with the first comic and am now in February of 1999. So I have a ways to go before I’m caught up, but I’ve been enjoying the comic. When I’ve mentioned the comic to friends of mine on IRC, they’re usual response is “You’ve only just discovered Sluggy???” The answer is, yes. I’ve found a few other comics to read regularly thanks to my earlier post on webcomics and the folks who responded with suggestions. Thanks, friends! I knew I could count on you!
So now I’m listening to Christmas music on Rhapsody and reading webcomics and generally goofing off. (My brain suffered a Blue Screen of Death on Friday and hasn’t recovered yet, so webcomics & Christmas music are just the thing for it.)
This story was posted to one of my physics teacher mailing lists. Oddly enough, it’s not a physics joke. But it’s still funny. (You’ve probably read it before, but no matter…)
A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.
John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to “clean up” the bird’s vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer.
The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”
John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, “May I ask what the turkey did?”