All is quiet. Squiddle is napping in his high chair. Wonderful Husband is napping on the bed. And, judging by the faint tang of tar in the air, someone within a half-mile south of us is getting a new roof today.

Survived the rehearsal dinner for my cousin's wedding, despite Squiddle spending most of it melting down due to lots of people, lots of noise, and a vanishing pacifier. Survived the wedding and reception as well, despite two things that hurt me (one - family not coming to find me and Squiddle for the family photo, and two - my uncle going back on his promise to give me a certain book of my grandfather's) and Squiddle having slightly less of a meltdown due to us packing more pacifiers. Everything was lovely, otherwise. Just that a crying infant makes things less fun.

Saw How to Train Your Dragon 2, which I think I have mostly processed at this point. I was not expecting certain things that happened, and overall it was a lot darker/more serious a movie than the first. Possibly Dreamworks' most grown-up film to date? I don't think it was quite as good as the first one, but I do like it and I think I need to see it again, to untangle a few more things about it in my head.

I also day-tripped to Botcon, where I had a wonderful day de-stressing and hanging out with my geekish galpals. Thanks, okami_myrrhibis, tainry, and Jecca, whose LJ account name I forget! The day with you was just what I needed.

The day after Botcon, Wonderful Husband, Squiddle, myself, and Wonderful Husband's parents drove eight-ish hours north to Lake Tahoe! Which is a gorgeous, gorgeous place. I'd never been there before. And as a bonus, I got to meet up a couple of times with my childhood friend Cody, who lives/works in the area and had just returned from a trip to Brasil. Alas, though, his wife had to work late, so I still haven't met her.

After Tahoe, our intrepid party went west to Monterey, where we saw seals and sea otters at the Fisherman's Wharf and went to the Aquarium, which was lovely. Then, south to Solvang, stopping en route at the sea lion vista point, and at the Madonna Inn for dinner. We arrived home Saturday and are getting back into routine.

While in Solvang, I picked up a children's crochet book in a thrift shop and started a project last night. Except the jacket panel that was supposed to be 13" long is somehow 20" long, so I'm going to put it aside for now, and instead sew Squiddle a quick hoodie for the trip to Portland/SeaTac in a week, which is what the jacket was supposed to be for.

Anyhow, laundry to do, errands to run, sewing to finagle.

Botcon is going to be a kinda-sorta thing for me this year. Luckily, it's local, so I can drive it! Because I just checked dates of things (including dates of my inlaws' travel, and of our potential travel with them...) and discovered my cousin's wedding is in the late afternoon the Saturday of Botcon! Fortunately, the wedding is even more local (like, ten miles from home), so I can do a half day of the con.

Also working out well is that my friend who lives near Lake Tahoe will be returning from his trip to the World Cup in Brazil a few days before we theoretically end up in his area. Of course, given that California is in a major major drought and he's a fireman and it will be summer then, he may not be available for a meetup regardless, but that's not something that anyone can plan anything about.

okami_myrrhibis found me a backdoor way to purchase the TFCC membership, so I went and bought that and then the BotCon membership as well. Wonderful Husband wandered back into the room while I was doing the purchase, and boggled at the price. Which is why, I told him, I don't pay for it myself. Because the con justifies the cost by the exclusive toys, and I don't care about the toys.

Anywho, BotCon GET!

Botcon announces their when and where.

My friendslist promptly explodes with "Shyeah, right. No way. 2013 anyone?"

:)

For Botcon I commuted in every day, since the convention was just about 40 minutes from home. I'm doing more conventions than usual this year, and keeping the costs down by paying $36 in parking fees + ~$20 in gas instead of $27 in parking fees + 3 nights' share of a hotel helps me afford all of them. While this did mean I missed a little more of the con due to coming in later in the mornings (other benefits: I got to sleep in my own bed and didn't have to pay restaurant prices for breakfast), it appears that several of the friends I was hanging out with have come down with con crud. :( Which, who knows, may be as associated with airplane travel as with the actual conventions.

I haven't.

Fortunately.

Dental stuff is quite enough to deal with, TYVM. (Report: minimal pain; very easy procedure, during which I amused myself by thinking the different drills or whatever sounded like different kinds of airplane engines. Have not been in any pain afterward.)

Things that are amusing: a Circle K has opened this year just down the street and over from my house. I will forever and always associate Circle K (and San Dimas) with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Every time I pass it, I reflexively check for a time-travelling phone booth. None spotted yet.

Just finishing filling out my BotCon survey. They ask for ideas for a future toy set. My submission: Prowl, Nightbeat, Sideswipe, Swindle, Rattrap/Rattletrap, and Smokescreen. Story: Prowl and Nightbeat are Iacon cops trying to break up a smuggling/gambling ring led by the other four. They are thwarted and it seems the ring has gotten away scot-free. Swindle organizes an auction... and tries to auction off his partners. Fortunately, Prowl and Nightbeat crash it, due to Smokescreen having looked at the odds and turned Primus' Witness. He gets immunity, Sideswipe gets a light sentence due to youth (and a suspicious lack of evidence), Rattrap/Rattletrap scurried away before he could get cuffed. Swindle gets sent to prison... where he first meets the other Combaticons.

After dealing with ishish car things this morning, I spent most of the day at Botcon. I got to meet and hang out with a slew of wonderful internet acquaintances, many of them from here on LJ. I participated in the tf_speedwriting challenge, my one-hour result of which I posted here earlier today. I added two more autographs to my G1 season 1 boxset (no more room on the front now; all future signatures must be on the interior!)... Neil Ross and Morgan Lofting! I also got to attend the script reading, which was brilliant... and the absolute to-die-for moment of which was the "commercial break" which had Gregg Berger (G1 Grimlock) and David Kaye (Animated Grimlock) doing a duet of "Anything you can do, me can do better / Me can do anything better than you!" It was golden. It was brilliant. It had the entire audience dying of laughter. In a neat twist, one of the voice actors was the late Chris Latta's (aka Starscream) daughter! The character Dead End (grr, don't remember who was voicing him at the reading) was unsurprisingly a fan favorite. I loved it so much, I had to get the t-shirt. :)

I didn't really get a chance to explore the dealer's hall today (I am in quest of: one toy. One. TFA Prowl.) but I did note that they had not only Optimus and Bumblebee's vehicles there, but also Ironhide (and holy f*ck is the Topkick a big truck; I'd forgotten that since '07), Ratchet (new movie version, probably the same for Bee), and Sideswipe. And oh is Sideswipe's alt mode a yummy vehicle. Also parked across the street were a fan Bumblebee Camaro (attention to detail: exquisite) and a fan G1 Ratchet (detail at same level). So awesome!

There was also a lot of incredible cosplay today, most of which I sadly did not get pictures of. Among the ones I saw, though: 8' tall Ultra Magnus, 12' tall Grimlock and Devastator, and human-size TFA Blackarachnia, G1 Wheelie, Swindle (unsure which version), and TFA Jazz. That doesn't include anyone doing "humanized" costumes; there were tons more of those. No, these were just the boxes/foamcraft people. Brilliant, all of them. Tomorrow I shall be less shy about asking for pics.

Had both hoshikage and femme4jack stay over last night pre-Botcon. After I hastily planted my late-ordered roses, we went out to dinner and then returned home and mocked Transformers Prime for a couple hours. Good times. BC stuff starts tonight. Looking forward to meeting people and hopefully finding a TFA Prowl in the dealer's room to complement my TFA Jazz.

Yes, the rumors are true. I will be attending Botcon 2011.

Back from Fanime. Paused, waiting for BotCon.

Fanime was pretty cool this year, and also kind of weird. People in the ConOps department were, for the most part, awesome to work with, as always. Well, with one exception but that person shouldn't be a problem henceforth. Shifts were long and I didn't see much of the con, but that was actually all right with me. I don't like going alone into crowds. And I'm actually ridiculously proud and happy about the fact that I took sixteen flights of stairs to our hotel room Sunday night... twice... rather than deal with the crowd at the elevators. Healthier for me and my nerves/patience both. Healthier, I say, after Wonderful Husband and I carted up three batches each of chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies for ConOps.... Both our flights were extremely uneventful, and the flight back was actually coming in to land at John Wayne just as the fireworks at Disneyland were going off, so I got to watch them from the air, which was cool. Got a bit of embroidery done between the airports and convention, and read the Transformers: A Veiled Threat novel during the two flights. Let us say that my review of it shall likely not be overly complimentary.

(My review of P.N. Elrod's The Devil You Know, which I read today, is going to be much more visceral and mixed.)

Wonderful Husband set up the sawhorses out in the garage after dinner and he and I spent an hour or two painting all the remaining crown and base moulding and doorframes, so that's one thing done. I still have not seen (1) X-Men, (2) Star Trek, or (3) the last episode of Transformers Animated. And that's about the size of everything.