Orycon: The con actually started today. I made it to
three panels, and also poked around the dealers' room for a while.
The panel on critiquing stories did not add anything to my knowledge.
Oh well.
"Flirting 101" by Sonia Lyris (who Ayse once smooched at a room
party) was entertaining, although it did not make me less doomed. She
did funny voices. Also, the good line: "Flirting is all about plausible
deniability." Surprisingly, there were females there, some of them even
young and attractive. I moved my stuff off a chair so a late-entering young
attactive female could sit down, but then reverted to my usual
feebness.
I was a little late to the city planning panel, but got to hear about
how waste disposal is the foundation of civilization. Also, even very
large cities can shrivel up and die in just a few decades if the
resource they were built to exploit dries up.
Kittygirls: One, but in a very skimpy
version of a schoolgirl outfit. However, now that I look on the web, I
see that the age of consent in Oregon is 18, so she probably wasn't
legal.
Food: Sushi Takahashi was open for lunch! Success!
(Except Marith couldn't eat anything there, for unclear reasons.) The sushi
was not great, but it was okay, and it was about a third the price of only
slightly better sushi in the Bay Area.
After considerable disagreement and spastic lack of organization, the
four of us dragged Carl to Wildwood, a restaurant that serves fancy (ie,
mostly French) food using local ingredients. It was expensive, but so
good! Chantarelle mushroom bread salad! Cardoons with grapefruit!
Rare duck breast! Mushroom pasta! Apple brandy ice cream! Pumpkin
roulade! Swooning!
Books: Bought too many books in the dealers' room!
Then, after dinner, bought too many books at Powell's! (Thus
demonstrating the danger of having a list.)
Cats: I'm sure they're
okay! I hope.
Writing: VACATION.