Gee Whiz, Slow Again!

After renaming my blog a few weeks back, I haven't posted in nearly a month. I was somewhat overwhelmed by getting ready for Noreascon IV, this year's World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. While I'd changed jobs in the course of convention planning (resigned from being the Exhibits division director to taking a less stressful job as the FANAC exhibit area head and general Exhibits staffer), I was still pretty busy.

Over the last two weeks, while I was pretty much happy by how the convention went, I've been surrounded by the deaths, illnesses, and bad luck of friends and family members. Longtime Boston fan George Flynn died just before Worldcon. I've known George since my early days in fandom, and enjoyed his writing and appreciated his proofreading work on many NESFA and MCFI publications. My sister-in-law lost her job just a few months after my brother lost his, and her brother is terminally ill. My mother landed in the hospital after she couldn't walk one morning (she has a knee problem and it sounds like she may need surgery). And, yesterday, when Jim and I visited a shop we hadn't visited in a few months, we heard of the sudden, tragic death of the store's co-owner earlier in the summer. We'd been going to Mellinger's a few times a year since we found it just after we moved to Pittsburgh eleven years ago.

I'm not chronically sad or depressed, but my insomnia continues to be bad, which means my concentration is bad, I work very slowly, and I'm unbelievably forgetful. I hope to upload lots of Worldcon photos and even write a report. This will probably take some time. I also hope to help organize the many photos we collected for the fanac.org Web site over the next few months.

Worldcon, while busy and frazzled at times, was mostly pretty pleasant. I was thrilled by how well The Mended Drum worked out - while I can't take design credit, I can take concept credit! The Art Show was about the best since MagiCon. First Night and the Friday Night Events were different events that both went very well. While the Hugos ran much longer than I expected, Neil Gaiman did a fine job as MC. I hear the Program was great - at least the items I was on went very well. We also had some lovely meals out with friends (at Brasserie Joe's, Leagal Seafood, Summer Shack, and the Pour House), and I got to take my Dad out for his 75th birthday (Durgin Park) and my youngest brother out for his 40th birthday (Marche Move-n-Pick).

Jim and I spent a few days up in Gloucester after Worldcon, a nice break before returning home that I really appreciated. We had an elegant dinner at Ocean View Inn (where we also stayed) and lovely breakfasts at Sugar Magnolia. We also drove and walked around Gloucester and Rockport, and hiked through Halibut State Park up in northern Cape Ann.

Greetings from Boston

We're up in Boston, attending a planning meeting for Noreascon IV.

During the Exhibits meeting, we came up with another rough draft on
Hall C design:



Jim and I had a fabulous dinner out at Locke-Ober last night, to celebrate our 27th anniversary. When I mentioned that to my mother, she said she'd had memorable swordfish there over 50 years ago. I can report that the swordfish is still quite memorable. Tonight, we joined friends for a dinner at a Persian place, Lala Rokh in Beacon Hill. Another great dinner (and not nearly so expensive as Lock-Ober).

Progress!

Well, I got my cholesterol retest results today.
In three months, my total cholesterol went from 253 to 215,
and triglycerides went from 270 to 181. I celebrated by having my first onion rings in three months (OK, I know that's wrong, but at least I walked there...)

We had a nice time up in Boston, attending an N4 planning meeting. There's now an Irish pub about three blocks from the convention center.

Greetings from Snowkone!

Yes, Boskone happened in Boston for the first time since 1987. There were either one or two fire alarms, but the hotel didn't take them personally... ;-> The con went pretty well, and Sharon Sbarsky now holds the record of running the world's longest Boskone.

This morning, to the surprise of absolutely no one, flights out of Boston were cancelled due to the closure of airports due to the Presidents Day Blizzard. At about 9am, it finally started to snow here. Then, after more than 12 hours, we had more than a foot of snow in downtown Boston.

This has turned Boskone into Snowkone, since there are about 50 of us at the Sheraton who couldn't leave Boston today. We have a con suite (Sharon's room), a flyer (in progress), possible badges, a day-long program in the bar, et.c. We might have some photos as Del Cotter, John Lorenz and Bill Jensen all had cameras.

Staggering Back to Blogdom

Gee, has it been six weeks already? Time sure flies... ;->

Anyway, between having a rough time with sinuses, moving to a mostly
full-time job, and working on conventions and Web sites, I haven't had
much time for blogging. I'm still reading other people's and enjoying,
but I haven't had the time to be motivated about my own.

I am excited to be working on Noreascon 4 as
the Exhibits/Fixed Functions Division Director. I'll probably post some of my ideas here as things progress. If you have exhibit ideas for the 2004 Worldcon, feel free to send me E-mail, or talk to me in person at Con Jose.

We Spent an Enjoyable Three Days Up in Boston

Jim and I help to run science fiction conventions. Last year, we managed the Program division for the Millennium Philcon. So now that we're starting to emerge from the burn-out from last year's Worldcon, we're starting to work on the 2004 Worldcon. We really don't know what we'll be doing for the next Noreascon. Jim has been somewhat more definite than I've been; I have some ideas of what I'd like to do, but I'm mostly trying to be very flexible and open-minded.

While we lived in Massachusetts from 1982-1993, we only spend about a week a year up there now as we're settled in Pittsburgh. Boston is really bustling, despite the high tech bust. I saw at least eight different limos in the Back Bay last Saturday night. We visited friends and family and had some terrific meals. We highly recommend Tapeo, a suburb Spanish Tapas restaurant about three blocks away from the Sheraton (home of next year's Boskone and N4 in 2004).