Superheroes, Storm Troopers, and Fairies, oh my!

Note: I wrote this weeks ago but never got around to finishing it. Now that so much time has gone by, I've completely forgotten anything else I was going to tell you about ComicCon, so I'm just going to publish this as is.

When you spot a group of half a dozen Storm Troopers in the Gaslamp of San Diego, you know it's ComicCon once again. This annual event attracts nerds, dweebs, dorks, the women who love them (there are some), and people who make their living selling stuff on eBay. In addition to the Storm Troopers (and Darths, Boba Fetts, Luke Skywalkers, and gold bikini Leias), there are also lots of anime characters I don't know, fairies, Lara Croft-looking women (picture tightly clad women with guns strapped to them), and other things I can't even begin to identify. Steve and I were finally not the palest people in the room.

Festivities got started Wednesday night, and lasted through Sunday. I had the pleasure of attending the show twice, and let's just say, a few hours is all you need. Or at least all you can take.

I was able to take advantage of Steve registering as a "professional" and tagging along on his dual pass. I don't know what we were supposed to be professionals of exactly, but at least we had a *free* full conference pass that allowed us to go to the exhibits and programs. We went to the preview night Wednesday - only open to professionals and full-conference registrants - and wandered around gaping at the not-quite-full-scale-but-pretty-darn-big Pirates of the Caribbean pirate ship, huge Golden Compass polar bear, life-size LEGO R2-D2 and C3PO, vintage Batmobile, Speed Racer's racer, and loads more. We snagged Harry Potter bags (these are the same promotional bags I mentioned in an earlier post) from Scholastic, a Homer Simpson fan from Harper, and other little things from the other trade publishers who were exhibiting. We only attended the show for about two hours that night, but it was plenty.

We went back on Friday right when the exhibits opened at 10. This time, we took more time and went up and down aisles browsing at the wares on display. There are lots of toys, oh excuse me, collectibles, for sale. Other items include pop-culture t-shirts, artist prints & originals, posters, and of course the heart of the show, comic books and graphic novels. The movie and television studios have enormous expensive booths that are all about lights, loud videos, and not much else. The studios also have celebrities autographing but the lines are always huge. I saw someone from Heroes, but since I don't watch the show I didn't have a clue who he was. We did stop at the Golden Compass booth to look at costumes from the movies (Nicole Kidman's dress was on display and she's freakishly thin), and discovered they were taking pictures of people in front of a green screen. The picture printed out almost instantly and you now had a picture of you digitally inserted in the Golden Compass movie poster. It looks like the polar bear is hugging you. Aw. Steve and I did this and now we have a very cheesy--but free--souvenir of ComicCon.

We also stood in a very long line to get autographed DVDs from Nick Frost and Edgar Wright - one of the lead actors and director/co-writer, respectively - of Hot Fuzz. In case you haven't seen this wickedly over-the-top violent and hilarious movie, you have to add it to your Netflix queue today. Now. Have you done it yet? Hot Fuzz is another film made by most of the guys who also did Shaun of the Dead. Add that one to your queue, too.

After the marathon autographing line and wandering the exhibit hall aimlessly, my eyes started to glaze over and a skull-cracking headache set in. It was time to go home.

So this is how it all ends

I won't give anything away here, so it's safe to read this even if you haven't finished HP7.

I finished the last installment of the Harry Potter saga yesterday. Part of me wanted to read this book as fast as I could because I was just dying to find out how it ended, and part of me really wanted to slow down since I knew it would be the last time I'd read a new Harry Potter. I think I could have read faster, but I made myself do things. Such as . . . I made myself go to bed. I made myself eat and not read at the same time. I made myself talk to Steve. We even went out to dinner Saturday. I made myself go grocery shopping. All those things interrupted reading and helped me savor the book from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Still, I guess that's pretty fast to get through about 750 pages, although I know others got through it faster. I didn't take a shower on Saturday, and that may have bought me about 20 minutes of reading time. :)

So what did I think of it? Well, I don't want to say until everyone is done.

Instead, I'll tell you about the midnight release party I went to on Friday. Steve and I rolled into La Jolla about 10:45, and made our way to Warwick's. I managed to find the person one person in the mob distributing line numbers and received the fantastic number or 243. Yes, that meant I was the 243rd person in line. Great. Warwick's staff didn't get us lined up until about 11:30, so the rest of the time we spent people watching. (People watching and going to Von's - a grocery store - that was only a couple blocks away. I was out of cat food.) The store had set up various activities and food items along the sidewalk. Each booth had a HP theme. Professor Trelawney was there to tell fortunes, there was a quill shop where people could write their names or whatnot, a joke shop, ice cream, etc. I was quite amazed to see how many people were in costume. It really felt more like Halloween. The age range was extremely varied. It seemed all ages were accounted for, the bulk being older high school kids who were probably the same age as Harry when the first book came out. There were plenty of adults there without any kids in tow, and many adults were dressed up, too. Women in witch hats, men in capes. Everyone was very excited.

When we finally got the call to get in line, the process was surprisingly smooth. I think I was just about in the middle of the pack because I saw some numbers that were over 400. Warwick's staff kept morale up by raffling off promotional bags provided by Scholastic featuring the jacket art. These bags were all over ALA and BEA, and I wasn't surprised to see them at the event. The woman right ahead of me - #242 - won one of the bags and she was so thrilled. She kept showing it off to everyone.

There was the obligatory countdown during the last 10 seconds and a cheer went up from the line. And then we stood there. It was rather anti climatic. I think it was a good ten minutes after the doors opened before we moved two feet. For some reason, those ten minutes were far less productive than the second ten minutes, during which we moved forward regularly and I was in the store by 12:30 or so. Since I had already paid for my book, I turned in my voucher and got a book and t-shirt. Steve took my picture outside the store after I got my book. I'll post that pic soon. I am such a geek.

I was home by 1, when I promptly started reading. I really, really, really wanted to peek at the end of the book, but I managed not to. I had told myself that I would stay up reading as long as my eyes would allow. That was only another hour and half. By 2:30, I was in bed. But I woke up at 8:30, and couldn't go back to sleep because that book - which I had left in the living room - was calling.

And that was the weekend. I read and read. I took a nap. I read some more. I didn't shower. I didn't do the dishes. Cleo loved having me on the couch all day. The timing of the book couldn't have been better though. I already had an excuse to stay at home all weekend - it was gay pride weekend and the epicenter for the events was at Balboa Park. Which means, parking in my neighborhood becomes very difficult. I didn't want to move my car all weekend. People got very creative with their parking and most of it was illegal - parking in fire zones and crosswalks. Steve came over Sunday morning to pick me up so I could get my weekly grocery shopping done. We got back from the store right before the crazy parking started and managed to find a small parallel spot around the corner of my place. We lucked out. On Saturday night, as I said previously, we did go out for dinner, but we walked rather than drove. We walked up to Hillcrest - about a mile and half one way - for some Thai.

This has probably been a pretty boring post to read. Sorry. This was my weekend. I really enjoyed it but I will be glad to have a bit more freedom next weekend. Between Harry and Pride, I felt like a shut-in.

Let me know when you're finished!

14 hours and counting!

In case you missed it, there is a little book coming out tonight called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Or HP7, aka DH, in fan-speak. Here are what the other titles are in shorthand, not that it takes a rocket scientist to figure them out:

SS - Sorcerer's Stone

COS - Chamber of Secrets

GOF - Goblet of Fire

OOTP - Order of the Phoenix

HBP - Half-Blood Prince

I wanted to get a good night's sleep last night so I could read a bit tonight after I get my book at midnight, but I seem to have a sudden bout of insomnia this week and wound up getting about 5 hours of sleep before I was rudely awakened by the cat TWO lousy minutes before my alarm was set to go off.

Last week, I saw a licence plate that said, "MUGGLZ."

Like I said, I'm picking up my copy of HP7 tonight at Warwicks at their midnight release party. Tomorrow, the UPS guy is going to be the most popular guy in the neighborhood.

Fourth of July in Big Sky Country

Hello all. I can't believe my last post was back in April. Actually, that's a lie. I can believe it. Things have been so busy and blogging hasn't been on the agenda.

I'll start with the most recent events because let's face it, who really cares what happened two months ago.

Steve and I flew to Great Falls to spend last week with Susan & Pat. They moved about a month ago from Choteau - NW of Great Falls - to Moore, which is NE of Great Falls. Moore, if you look it up on a map, is quite literally smack dab in the middle of the state. And there ain't much there. Moore is very small and surrounded by hay and alfalfa fields. It was also hay harvest and most of the fields were cut, being cut, or already baled. Steve's allergies acted up a bit but he kept them controlled with some Claratin. I thought all the freshly cut hay smelled wonderful - the epitome of summer.

We flew up on Monday so we all could drive to Choteau on Tuesday for a *free* Willie Nelson concert, courtesy of David Letterman, the "anonymous" donor. Dave has his big ranch near Choteau and he provides gifts to the town and residents every year. This year, he got Willie Nelson to play at the Choteau Rodeo Grounds for free. Three thousand tickets were given out to residents. Willie played with the sunset and a huge Texas flag behind him. My favorite Willie song, "Pancho and Lefty," was the third song he played. The concert was fantastic and we didn't even realized it was 2 1/2 hours long even though we were standing the entire time.

We slept that night at their friend Ian's house. Ian's house has decor that features lots of animals. The biggest elk rack I've ever seen dominated one wall. A mountain goat pelt hung on another. We had to move his ammo around in order to make enough floor space for our sleeping bags in his finished attic. Before the concert, Ian and Pat grilled up blue cheese elk burgers for dinner.

On Wednesday, we got up to go to the Choteau 4th of July parade. The parade consisted of classic cars, home made floats, local charities and businesses, women on motorcycles, lots and lots of horses, fire trucks, and of course, Shriners in their mini Corvettes. They were hauling ass up and down the street in those things. Ian was also in the parade leading the Forest Service black pack mule train. Another one of Susan & Pat's friend was driving the Forest Service's fire truck.

Later that day, we attended the Choteau Rodeo. It was Steve's first rodeo and he seemed a little dumbfounded by what he saw. After, I asked him which event was his favorite, and he like the team roping. Of course, our favorite was actually the unofficial event of "wild cow milking." This chaotic event consisted of six teams of three guys (some drunk) wrestling a beef cow for control and milking her enough to pour it out of a beer bottle. The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has the calf scramble, and Choteau has wild cow milking. Many of the rodeo participants were from Choteau, and many of them were still teenagers. Even the bull riders.

We took it easy on Thursday back in Choteau. We drove home on Wednesday, and made it to Lewistown (the closest "big" town to Moore doing city fireworks) for the fireworks show. I was a little skittish by the do-it-yourself fireworks that were being set off in the parking lot. Fireworks were going off everywhere. On Thursday, we attempted to spend some time at Crystal Lake, a mountain lake in the Little Snowies, but we were chased out by huge biting horseflies. It was very pretty and I would have liked more time there to hike and maybe dip a toe or two in.

We flew home Friday and spent the weekend recuperating from the oppressive heat we had in Montana. Susan's car had broken AC, so we did all the driving in the heat. More accurately, Susan, Conner (her dog), and I did the driving in the heat. The boys rode in air conditioned comfort in Pat's truck to and from Choteau. Men.

The Montana countryside is gorgeous. East of Great Falls towards Moore, the land is rolling. Mountains are visible in every direction. The fields are all green and gold. We saw whitetail and pronghorn deer many times. No other wildlife other than some birds.

So what else has happened since April? Here's the rundown:

Movies I've seen: Spiderman 3, Ocean's 13, Shrek 3, Pirates 3. Bottom line review: They all suck. They all disappoint. Of course, what was I expecting.

Places I've gone for work: San Antonio, Toronto, Washington D.C.

People I've seen (other than Susan and Pat): Amy Schumacher, Auntie

Friends who have had babies: Jason & Corrie - a preemie baby girl! (Keep those updates coming J!)

Friends who are going to Uganda later this month: Katrina!

Friends who bought an iPhone and I sat in line with them but I didn't buy one: Steve!

Baseball games I've gone to this season: six - two on my dime, four on the company

Championships the San Antonio Spurs have won: FOUR!! Go Spurs Go!

Books I've read: uhhh, I can't remember all of them. I've read several manuscripts for work purposes, and I started Special Topics in Calamity Physics during my trip to DC (I was stuck in airports and on airplanes for 12 hours trying to get home). Currently, I'm rereading Harry Potter #5, to be followed by #6, before the release of #7. I went to Warwick's, an independent bookshop in La Jolla, over the weekend to prepurchase my copy and to get a spot for their midnight release party on the 20th. I've never gone to a midnight release party and I figure this is the last one. Call me a nerd, but I'm very excited.

Guess that's enough information for now, chillens. When Steve goes through all his pictures, I'll post a few.

Have fun out there!