Not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, but a bit of coffee and I was I alright. We met up with Cory around 1 and took him over to Panera Bread for lunch. Unfortunately I don’t think he particularly cared for it, probably because the seasonal salads have changed since I was last in and there weren’t any salads with fish. Still he was nice about it.
Back at the con, Michelle & I got a change to poke around the art show and dealer’s room. In the dealer’s room, there was one table that had a display backed by black cloth. And laying on a shelf of that display was a black cat, nearly invisible (but still very cute). There were a few items of interest around (Michelle bought a new pendant for herself and she got me a pretty cunning hat). We spent most of the day wondering around the con, saying hello to people and what not.
Then when it got to be almott time for Cory’s first panel of the con; he was initially in hiding1, but he showed up in time. It looked like the room was packed for the panel and from listening to the end of the panel, I’d say people enjoyed it.
Oh, where was I you ask? Cory had indicated a preference to go to dinner with Joe & Gay Haldeman; so Michelle & I were tracking them down, calling a restaurant, making reservations, going out to pick up another car to make sure we could fit everybody and basically running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
In the end, it all worked out. We didn’t get to take them to our normal sushi place (too far away for the time constraints we were under); but the nearby place turned out to be fairly decent. As a bonus, we got them to the restuarant, fed and back all inside the hour we had before Cory’s next panel (opening ceremonies). Additionally, we got to sit in and listen as a couple of superb storytellers caught up with one another.
1Actually he was just getting more espresso from his travel kit.