Jean and I attend TusCon each year in Tucson in November. This year was no exception. We usually do dinner with a friend and his wife in a suburb first, but he passed away from cancer just a month ago. Instead, we headed directly to the con hotel.

For those not familiar with Arizona geography Tucson, a former territorial capitol, is about 120 miles southeast of Phoenix, the last territorial capitol and only state capitol. It is about 2000 feet above sea level in elevation while Phoenix is about 1100 feet elevation. So there is a difference of opinion between those who live in Tucson and those in Phoenix. Both residents indicate they are "going down" to visit the other city. Tucson is south of Phoenix, thus, down on the map. Tucson prefers the elevation reference. There is also a political difference. Tucson tends to be Democratic while Phoenix Republican. For our international friends who probably don't care, liberal versus conservative. Tucson got the first state university (University of Arizona) while Phoenix got the State Mental Hospital (more money in it). Now that Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, has Arizona State University (originally Tempe Normal School and founded the same year as UofA), there is yet another rivalry. Tucson is more of a desert community concentrating on desert plants. Phoenix has some of this, but lots of imported plants. Phoenix is also much larger (5th largest city in the US now, surpassing Philadelphia most recently as I recall) as well as the larger metro area. Between Phoenix and Tucson they comprise about 75% or so of the population of Arizona.

TusCon is smaller than LepreCon or CopperCon (the latter cons held in the Phoenix area). Most recently it has been held at the Inn Suites (now the Tucson City Center Hotel, a boutique Inn Suites) near downtown. They have nice, affordable two room suites in addition to the traditional rooms and the tower rooms. We like the suites and for $79/nt this year. Some have back doors to the parking area with the front door leading to the grassy areas between buildings while others have two front doors only leading to parking. This year's TusCon had about 260 members.

We left home early afternoon Saturday November 14 and arrived about 3pm MST. Although the con started Friday the 13th, we generally go down Saturday and back Sunday to prevent petsitter issues. Now we board our dog and the cats entertain themselves until we get home. Once we got our suite I registered us, spoke to several friends, visited the Dealers Room and returned to the suite since Consuite was closed for a couple of hours. MythosCon folks were next door and they borrowed most of our chairs for their party. After some online time (free wired internet) Jean and I headed out for teppanyaki at Takamatsu for dinner on Speedway. The three locations in Phoenix offer Korean and Sushi only; the one in Tucson also offers the other which we prefer. They were so slow that we had our own table and chef. Turns out the chef was another native Arizonan and we had a great time chatting with him. After that we returned to the hotel. I spent some time at the MythosCon party (I'm their Hotel Liaison, Jan 2011, Tempe, AZ) and then hit the DarkCon (Jan 2010) party in another part of the hotel. After making a round of the hotel lobby I visited the Art Show where some staff were hanging out, then I headed back to the MythosCon party before crashing.

Sunday we checked out of our room after retrieving our chairs from next door, helped them move some stuff as they checked out, hit Consuite and visited the Dealers Room again. We had a nice chat with Toastmaster Ed Bryant after he was interviewed by a fan podcaster. Jean and I left the hotel for lunch and bookstore shopping. We left Tucson for home, but ended up at Half Price Books in Mesa instead with a discount coupon. Getting that sucker printed was a real challenge. I took the PDF of the coupon over to the various staff areas who had no printers. I tried the business center (at the hotel before we left) which had the computers hidden. I discovered they were behind the wooden barriers and plugged in my USB drive, printed copies, and reset the barriers. We ran into friends at HPB and did half price appetizers at TGI Fridays in Mesa with them after shopping. From there we headed home for chores.

Monday we retrieved the dog from boarding and was she happy to be home!

It's kind of interesting to compare cons in the area. This was TusCon 36. Later this month is LosCon 36 in Los Angeles. Next May is LepreCon 36 in Mesa, AZ. Freaky :-)

<== Mike ==>

Because of an unavailable petsitter, I attended World Fantasy Convention 2009 in San Jose, CA, without my wife this year. I flew from Phoenix to San Jose on Wednesday October 28 and returned Monday November 2. The convention ran Thursday through Sunday. It was held at the Fairmount Hotel in downtown San Jose.

I left home mid-morning on Wed and departed early afternoon. The flight was 2 hours non-stop with only 62 of 137 seats filled. I managed to get some reading done before we landed. Once I retrieved my checked baggage I caught a taxi to the hotel for $21.00 including gratuity. The con rate for the hotel was $130/nt single/double plus tax. I got my room and dropped off my luggage. The television had one of the largest selections of channels I've seen in a hotel. Many of them were of no interest (NFL Channel, Tennis Channel, etc) while others were more interesting (Food Network, Syfy, etc) with only one movie channel (HBO). They did have a number of HD channels, too. The wireless internet was free if you were a member of the President's Club. The bandwidth was ok, but not great. It wasn't until later in the weekend that I found the ethernet connection and started using that instead. I called my local friend with whom I was scheduled to do dinner. We settled on Gordon Biersch Brewery nearby later that evening. I visited the Ballroom Floor (second floor) and found Registration. I picked up my badge and bag of books as well as Jean's. Returning them to the room I next wandered over for dinner. We had a great time and I returned to the hotel to find folks, search for parties, etc. I hung out in the lounge near the lobby and chatted with folks before another dinner with a friend and his wife at the Old Wagon before returning to the room to work online and watch tv before crashing.

Thursday I got cleaned up and met another local friend for a late lunch after wandering around the function space. We took a ride north to Japantown for sushi, but the restaurants had closed down after lunch. We ended up in a ramen joint which was quite good. Returning to the con hotel I visited with dealers, staff members, folks in the lobby before Opening Ceremonies. Hospitality Suite on the 20th floor was good with great conversations all weekend. Hospitality was popular and other parties were going on, so there was plenty to eat and drink, but I still went out to Hanuman for Thai for dinner. I finished the evening online after my roommates showed up. One I had never met, but it took about 5 minutes to become friends.

Friday I had a board meeting for the World Fantasy board of directors. This meeting was mostly dedicated to seated convention updates and future bidders. 2010 will be in Columbus, OH. 2011 will be in San Diego, CA. 2012 only had Minneapolis express interest in bidding in absentia due to an illness. 2013 only had Salt Lake City willing to revisit their previous bid. DC is interested in 2014 due to Robert Aikman's 100th anniversary. Brisbane, Australia, wants to do 2015. I did lunch alone at the Tandoori Oven across the street, then conversed with many con members until dinner in the hotel at The Grill with friends. I nibbled later at the Autograph Reception, chatted with folks signing and hit the MythosCon party (Jan 2011 Tempe AZ) before Hospitality, online and crashing.

Saturday I slept in. Lunch was at the Asian Express buffet nearby. A visit to the Dealers Room after the Art Show produced a bag of books, conversations with dealers, etc. Dinner was with fellow fans at the nearby Brazilian Steakhouse, Maceio, which was yummy. More parties, conversations, etc. kept me busy all evening.

We had another board meeting on Sunday, this one mostly closed, where we discussed board related stuff. Afterwards most went to get ready for the banquet and awards ceremony. I did lunch again at the Tandoori place. After getting t-shirts at the merchandise table I packed up my free books and brought them down to the Postal Room for mailing home. My roommates had checked out, so I hung out in the room until my other local friend called for dinner. We ended up going into Santa Clara for Japanese at Midori which was excellent. Returning I hit the Brit party, Dead Dog, etc. I finally crashed late.

Monday I packed up and checked out, met a fellow member for lunch at Billy Berk's Restaurant, then we shared a cab back to the airport. I managed to get on an earlier flight home, notified my wife and read more in flight. After arriving I waited for a long time before my wife finally made it. Seems she got caught in traffic because of an accident, construction, etc. We had dinner before going home where our dog and cats welcomed me with open paws.

I had a great time at WFC this year. I conducted business concerning World Fantasy, World Horror, Raleigh's NASFiC, MythosCon and ASFA as well as made new friends, saw old ones. It's a great place to network for professional and personal reasons. Don't miss it if you can :-)

<== Mike ==>

Because Leprecon Inc sponsored both FiestaCon (Westercon 62) and North American Discworld Convention this year we decided to scale back LepreCon 35 to a fan gathering or relaxacon. In the past when other groups have run Westercons in Phoenix (1982, 1988, 1992 and 2004) the attendance at LepreCons those years was lower than average. So rather than plan on a lower attendance and do lots of work a little over a month prior to W62 we opted to move into the fall and just relax.

So this year we were Friday October 2 thru Sunday October 4, at the Mesa Marriott Hotel (marketed as Phoenix Marriott Mesa or some such combo). We rented the Sedona Suite on the first floor for Consuite (hospitality) and the Cabana Room on the second floor for Programming. It went well and we had 43 members, most of whom showed up at some point over the weekend. I was on one program event, Saturday night, on punning. We had about 6 folks attend and covered some of my personal history with the topic. We also watched MythBusters, some anime and a few movies. My wife and I also did lunch with friends from out of town before they returned home.

LepreCon 36 (2010) returns to May also at the Mesa Marriott. Next year there are 5 weekends in May so we're the weekend after Mothers' Day and two weekends before Memorial Day, thus avoiding several other cons in conflict. Artist GoH will be Charles Vess. Author GoH will be George RR Martin. Local Artist/Author will be James Owen. We'll have our usual large art show, dealers room, programming (art, literature, science, costuming & masquerade contest, etc.), anime room, gaming, all that stuff. Please visit http://www.leprecon.org/lep36 for more details or ask away here.

I'm also currently visiting sites for LepreCon 37 (2011). We are going through the Phoenix CVB and have already received over a dozen proposals, many of which are from sites we've never received proposals from before. More later on that issue.

<== Mike ==>

September 4-7, 2009, ran the North American Discworld Convention 2009 in Tempe, AZ, USA. The site was Tempe Mission Palms Hotel which also hosted HexaCon 14 (2004), World Fantasy Con 2004, HexaCon 15 (2005), Nebulas 2006, CopperCon 26 (2006), and FiestaCon (Westercon 62 in 2009).

NADWCon came about in a strange way. Discworld has been held in the UK every other year (even years) for some time. Some American fans, Anna Caggiano and Emily Suzanne Whitten, tried to get one going on this continent a few years ago (2005?) with no success. Fast forward to the Phoenix Book Festival 2007 where Anna asked me, and later Lee Whiteside, about our interest in Discworld and Terry Pratchett. Lee discussed the con in detail with Anna, then got me involved to find a hotel. From there we approached Leprecon Inc, sponsoring host for WFC2004, Nebulas 2006 and Westercon 2009, about sponsoring NADWCon. Lep Inc agreed, we obtained a hotel contract at TMPH after Mr Pratchett was on board, and it gained momentum from there.

The only weekend the hotel would give us that we could afford was Labor Day Weekend. One reason was because it is an affordable weekend for us and is not usually busy for them. Another was that we were considered a first-time event despite the history in the UK. Since it had never been held in North America their history was considered non-history. Some folks who always attend DragonCon and occasionally Discworld UK were upset at this choice, but there was no real choice for us. The hotel would only give us LDW in order to prove the concept here.

Due to the limitations of TMPH (largest single room was Palm Ballroom ABCDEF at 9400 square feet) we decided to limit attendance at 900. For various reasons it ended up at about 1000, but that worked fine as some members didn't attend while others didn't attend the large functions or at least not every large function. This limitation caused some confusion when we cut off membership sales on July 31 and some folks who booked airfare couldn't get memberships. Others just waited too long despite asking for vacation time off from work. In the end so many members couldn't make it for one reason or another that transfers were hot and heavy in August. Pretty much everyone who wanted to get a membership was able to get one.

Another interesting anomaly was with the hotel's online reservation system. By booking online, then cancelling online, we discovered that the cancelled rooms were not returning to our room block. So when the hotel notified us that they were full we only had 80% of our rooms filled. They researched this and discovered a system problem: online reservations didn't talk to offline reservations. Although their software guru came up with a solution, it couldn't be implemented in time for our event. This resulted in utilizing an overflow hotel for a significant % of our members. Because of a dynamic wait list the hotel ended up with 3 or 4 spare rooms during the con. We received some perks due to this anomaly and we thank them for doing so.

The con itself went very well and everyone had a great time. We took possession of some of the function space on Thursday with a special pre-reg only event that evening (social mixer), but the bulk of the con started on Friday. That evening was the Seamstress Party, then Saturday brought the Maskerade. Sunday was the banquet and Monday the con ended in the afternoon. At Closing Ceremonies Sir Terry Pratchett announced that it was the best Discworld Convention ever!

On Tuesday Sir Terry did a book signing and talk at Glendale Public Library which we attended. That's where I actually got to meet him finally as he was pretty busy during the con with other folks. Returning to the hotel we had some load-out after taking two VIPs to the airport: Diane Duane and Peter Moorwood. My wife, Jean, was their Guest Liaison and we had a nice dinner with them on the previous Tuesday when they first arrived. Mexican food was appreciated after their trip from Ireland :-)

The con was successful because of the plethora of committee and staff that worked the con. Being the first NADWCon it wasn't smoothe sailing behind the scenes, but everyone pitched in and made it work well to the members. Some folks had never worked a con before. Others had only been involved with Discworlds in the UK. Yet others, like myself, had never been to the ones in the UK and generally work other cons in the US and Canada. Rather than go through the large list of committee/staff please thank everyone on the list at www.nadwcon.org who did their part.

So what now? There's talk of NADWCon moving around the continent. I'm sure it will also depend on Sir Terry's health as his early onset Alzheimers is going to be a factor. At one of the events he mentioned that he'd like to come back in two years for another NADWCon! So we'll see.

I only took a few photos, but many many fans took more and posted them online. I encourage you to visit those sites and review those photos as the costumes and events were awesome.

Thanks to everyone who showed up, who worked it pre-con, at-con and post-con. You all made a positive difference in Sir Terry's and the rest of our lives!

<== Mike ==>

My wife and I successfully returned from a trip to Montreal and Worldcon (World Science Fiction Convention). We drove 5700 miles is just over 16 days, averaged 40.4 mpg and fuel costs ran about $375. Accommodations averaged about $75/nt until Montreal which averaged about $167/nt. We stayed with a friend in west Montreal two nights which helped.

We started out around 6pm on Sat Aug 1 from Scottsdale, AZ, and made it to Albuquerque, NM, the first night. The second night we stayed in Tulsa, OK. In St Louis, MO, we visited a friend of mine from a Europe trip in 1980, then stayed overnight in Terre Haute, IN. The next night we made it to London, ON, then arrived in Montreal on Wed Aug 5. We dropped our car off with a friend who I also knew from the same Europe trip and she dropped us off with our stuff downtown at the con hotel. After the con was over we transferred back to her place to stay before heading out for home.

Our trip back took us into VT to visit King Arthur Flour, then overnight in rural NY. From there we hit Kansas City, MO, to visit an online friend which didn't happen. The next night was in Tucumcari, NM, then back home on Mon Aug 17. The only hotel problem we had was in Tucumcari where the franchise La Quinta refused to honor the online rate because we walked in. We highly recommend that folks avoid that location. The front desk staff was very apologetic, but they admitted the owner was not negotiable on that issue, so we went across the street to a Days Inn instead for less money :-)

The night before Worldcon started had us checking in and I hit a couple of early parties. Thu Aug 6 I visited the convention center, got my registration stuff and hit the nearby Dealers Room. It was small and I made the pass through quickly. I tried to use the Voodoo (Message) Board to coordinate dinner plans with the Compuserve folks, but only one was available so we punted. Jean was having knee problems so she remained in the room for the day except when we met a friend for lunch at a Portuguese restaurant uptown. That night were many parties in our hotel, Delta Centre-Ville, and the ASFA Suite opened up. Since I'm the current President of ASFA I wanted to make sure they had everything they needed to host the suite and apparently did. Raleigh's NASFiC 2010 Bid party was going next to the Reno in 2011 Worldcon Bid party. They and the Consuite were on the 5th floor. The ASFA Suite was on 13. The rest were on 28. Texas in 2013 Worldcon Bid party announced San Antonio as the bid city.

Fri Aug 7 had Jean and me taking a taxi to the convention center. She got her reg stuff and we visited the Dealers Room together. The ASFA Annual Meeting was in the early afternoon and Jean is the Secretary. We had a few members turn out, so we had good input to what we should do to better advertise the org after we gave folks an update to what was happening. We did an early dinner downstairs at a Middle Eastern restaurant. Next came the Chesley Awards Ceremony. It went pretty well and afterwards we hit the Artists Reception in the Art Show. From there we returned to the Delta so she could rest while I hit parties and the ASFA Suite. Chicago in 2012 Worldcon Bid party was happening as were Raleigh, Reno, many others. I helped out at the Raleigh party.

Sat Aug 8 was the last day to vote for NASFiC 2010 and Worldcon 2011, so we voted. We did lunch downstairs, then returned to the hotel as Jean was getting tired. Site Selection closed so I was tapped to represent Raleigh to count ballots. We had enough folks that both counts were done in 30 minutes. Granted, there was little opposition, but it went smoothly. Raliegh, NC, will host NASFiC in August 2010 and Reno, NV, will host Worldcon in August 2011. Melbourne, Australia, already won the bid to host Worldcon 2010. Afterwards was to hit more parties and to start celebrating the Raleigh win. Hung out more in the ASFA Suite.

Sun Aug 9 I was actually on programming. One item was on fantasy media and the other was on Harry Potter movies vs books. I'm not sure why I was on programming as I never completed a participant questionnaire of any kind, but I did my part to help the con. Raleigh didn't need much help on upgrades or at their party, but I chatted with folks and hit up potential participants. I hung out in the Baen party awhile and tried to get their laptop to talk to the LCD TV to no avail. I did hit many of the other parties and of course the ASFA Suite.

Mon Aug 10 I actually tried to get to some programming, but mostly just wandered around and say bye to folks. Attended the Gripe session and spoke to some Canadians who were upset at how things had gone. One may join the team for Raleigh's Programming. I'm the Program Division Head and was hunting for additional program consultants. Ran into some friends and we all hit a nearby restaurant for dinner; Jean didn't want to go out, so I took something to her instead. There were a few parties, Consuite had Montreal smoked meat, but no ASFA Suite. We began to prepare for our Tue departure.

Tue Aug 11 we packed up and checked out. Our friend's friend was supposed to take us to her house, but he got stuck in a meeting and brought a car too small for all our stuff. So we took a van cab out west and settled into our friend's house. She got home and we went out to dinner with some of her friends to a nice seafood restaurant.

Wed Aug 12 our friend was unable to work Jean into the dental clinic where she worked, so we ran a few errands nearby and hung out otherwise. I went to a tennis competition with our friend, her son and another friend.

Thu Aug 13 Jean rode with our friend into another clinic while I packed our car and left. I picked up Jean after she was done, then we took off for VT.

Overall it was a long driving trip, but we got to listen to lots of audiobooks. We also got to see some country we hadn't seen before, visit a couple of friends along the way and spend quality time together. We boarded our dog, but had a petsitter visit daily to take care of the cats. It was a rewarding trip :-)

<== Mike ==>

Jean and I worked Comic Con again this year in San Diego, CA. We've been volunteering for them since 1988. She has always worked in Artists Alley, although up until this year her job was primarily handling the paperwork for the now defunct Art Auction, formerly the Charity Auction, which had nothing to do with the Art Show Auction. I have worked in Pro Reg, Security, Front Office, Artists Alley, but mostly Programming. I think this was my 16th year in the latter department.

We drove over Tuesday July 21 and arrived in time to try dinner at El Indio, a Mexican restaurant open over 60 years in San Diego. It had been featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It was ok food, but not the best we've ever had. We then checked into the Manchester Hyatt and got settled into our room for the week.

Wednesday July 22 we met local friends for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, Wong's Golden Palace. It was pretty good. Our friends used to be our petsitters when they lived in Phoenix, but being from there he wanted to move back to look after his folks and she went with him. We returned to the hotel and then walked to the nearby convention center so Jean could start working at checking in artists. First we had to get our staff badges and holders which went quickly. I then wandered upstairs to Room 11A, Program Office, to find out what was happening. I chatted with some of the veteran staff and returned downstairs to hang out with Jean in the Exhibit Hall before Preview Night. Around 7pm I met some other local friends for dinner at the fast food fish restaurant across the street in the Gaslamp District while Jean continued to work. We all hit preview night together, then I headed upstairs for my mandatory programming team meeting. We got to see some of the veterans return and some new staff arrive. After discussing the plan for this year I returned to the hotel with Jean.

Thursday July 23 I had a pgm team mtg at 8am, then got my staff grey polo shirt for the day, got my radio and headset, then checked out my room for the weekend, Room 6A, right across the hall. I introduced myself and my assistant, Mo, to the MSI Tech Team and the Elite Ushers and the Elite Security and the temporary light green shirted Line Control Team and the Elite Orange shirts (not really sure their function other than handing out bathroom passes). Once we were all on the same page I opened the room to let the line in. 6A seats about 1000 folks, comes with risers and tables and microphones and video screen with projector and risers at the back for cameras. We had seats with special colored backs for handicapped assistants (with several chairs removed next to them) as well as green reserved and yellow deaf / interpreters. We had a full room for every event until the last one of the afternoon. There was a separate volunteer crew handling evening programming after we were off duty. Once done I turned in my radio, dirty shirt, room count sheet (yes, they keep rooms counts for years) and off I went downstairs to join Jean. Once the hall closed at 7pm we headed off to the hotel to get the car to meet a friend from Escondido at Appertiv (Italian tapas) which was ok but expensive. We crashed after returning from dinner.

Friday July 24 was about the same with different events, slightly smaller crowds, dinner with my Publications Director for FiestaCon to deliver program books for her use and to buy her dinner. It was supposed to be coffee, then liquor, then she settled for dinner. Cheap date, so to speak :-)

Saturday July 25 was a repeat except for dinner with Mo at JV's Mexican restaurant which was quite good.

Sunday July 26 was the final repeat except the hall closed at 5pm, we did dinner with the Artists Alley team at the Butcher Shop for prime rib and old time fancy atmosphere.

Monday July 27 we packed up, met friends for a late lunch at Athens Greek restaurant which was yum, then headed back home. Upon arrival around 10pm we found the heat pump had failed and it was 97F in there, so we left to find a hotel and called the voice mail to the a/c repair folks.

Tuesday July 28 I went home to meet the repair guys, found our elderly cat, Heidi, had passed away while we were gone (she was in the cold side of the house, not where we sleep), took her to the vet, met a friend to fix a problem after lunch, got mail and packages from when we were gone, and are waiting for the bedroom to cool down.

Highlights of the weekend include: Claudia Black, Ben Browder, Brian Henson and Rockne O'Bannon from Farscape; Stan Freberg from Warner Bros cartoons; Pat Oliphant political cartoonist from Australia; voice actors from old and new cartoons; J Michael Straczynski spotlight where we talked about writing philosophy, Babylon 5, etc. Pat Tallman, Leta Alexander from B5, was also in the room and was a pleasure to chat with prior to Joe's arrival. Marvel and DC held panel discussions. Video games were demonstrated. Pilot for Eastwick tv show was shown. On and on and on.

I think I'm tired. Now I get to prepare for our trip to Worldcon (World SF Con, www.worldcon.org) in Montreal next month!

<== Mike ==>

After 4 years of launching the bid, running the bid, losing the bid, running the follow-up bid, winning the bid, planning the convention and running the convention, FiestaCon / Westercon 62 is now over. Preliminary numbers suggest we had 800 total membership with about 650 warm bodies. I'll know more once I can plow through the paperwork and remaining badges to determine more exact numbers.

Thanks to all who attended, supported, staffed and volunteered for this event. Everyone I spoke with had a great time. Reviews I've seen have been very positive. Lots of fans were worried that Westercon is dying, but I hope we've convinced them that's not the case.

Next year's Westercon 63 (Confirmation) will be held in Pasadena, CA. The following year Westercon 64 will be held in San Jose, CA. Seattle, WA, is bidding for Westercon 65 in 2012.

Much to my surprise I was selected as the Fan Guest-of-Honor for Westercon 64 in 2011! Thanks go out to Glenn Glazer, Chair, and his team for that wonderful honor. I hope I can do you proud :-)

If you have any questions, comments, input, feedback, complaints, whatever about W62 please email us using the address found at www.fiestacon.org as we'd like to pass them along to W63's team for analysis and consideration.

W62 was a mixture of exhaustion, exhiliration, rewarding, challenging, and many other words that I can't think of right now. It's the third convention I've chaired (World Horror Con 2004 & World Fantasy Con 2004 being the first two). Time to rest for awhile...

<== Mike ==>

I have been spending lots of time on FiestaCon for obvious reasons. Program Book is done and at the printer. Just received the Dealers Room layout with table assignments. Also received copies of the latest memberships. Met with the hotel to discuss banquet event orders and tweak the room layouts.

Heat Pump in main house is dead. Cleaning up around the outside and inside units before calling for repair. Had to trim weeds that had grown up around the outside unit. Moved a few boxes, too.

Stocked up pet supplies for the duration of FiestaCon. Picked up lots of freebies sent for the con. Now I have a full shed of stuff not including all the things that the Freebies Director will bring.

Time to pay bills and go through other mail.

<== Mike ==>

Recently I was invited to run the Program Division for NASFiC 2010 in Raleigh, NC, should they win the bid this year in Montreal at Worldcon (Anticipation). Raleigh is the only official bidder, but the WSFS Constitution allows for it as an optional event when Worldcon is off of North America. Since next year's Worldcon will be held in Melbourne, Australia, this option is voted on this year.

The first division head meeting was scheduled for Saturday June 20 in Raleigh. So I booked a flight from Phoenix, booked a rental car, and the folks there arranged for me to share a room with my assistant division head, Kerry Gilley, from Kentucky. I flew out Friday June 19, stopped for a plane change in Nashville, and arrived early evening. My rental car had the GPS built in, so I entered the address for the hotel and away I went. Thanks to some construction downtown I went into pizza delivery mode and arrived at the Marriott.

Besides the convention center to the west of the Marriott (they attach in the basement of the Marriott, 2nd floor of the center) we plan to use the convention center to the west and the Sheraton Hotel to the north. They are all pretty close together. I did dinner with the bid co-chair and a couple other division heads, then met my roommate so he could get into our room. The reservation had my last name misspelled, so I had to give them the confirmation number. Despite adding Kerry's name to the same reservation, he couldn't get a key until I arrived. Go figure.

Saturday we started out at the Sheraton, then visited the CVB office for a continental breakfast. From there we went to the convention center for a site tour. We discussed which rooms were available per the contract, ironed out a few details on what's going where, then visited the Sheraton's rooms and function space. From there we saw the Marriott's rooms and space before returning to the Sheraton for a staff meeting. We ordered food from the take-out menu of a nearby BBQ restaurant, and started the staff meeting. We discussed stuff needed to be done prior to Worldcon, ate lunch, talked about staff stuff, then shrank into the division head meeting where we pounded out the org chart and who gets what space.

After the meeting I did some sightseeing around Raleigh and elsewhere. Returning to the hotel late I crashed quickly. Sunday came quickly. Kerry took off early to drive back home. My flight home wasn't until mid-afternoon, so I took my time getting to the airport, dropping off the rental car and getting through security. For some reason the kiosk at the hotel to print out my boarding passes didn't work right, so I got sucky seating on Southwest Airlines. It all worked out in the end as I still got aisle seats. I had several conversations on the way back that were enjoyable. Once home my wife, Jean, picked me up and we went out to dinner before returning home for chores and con stuff.

All in all it was a good trip. I got to meet nice folks that I'll get to work with, enjoyed the food, survived the heat and humidity, and learned more about a city that I've never visited before.

For those who are going to Worldcon this year, please remember to vote for Raleigh in 2010 for NASFiC!

<== Mike ==>

Jean and I signed up to attend a green career seminar at UCLA on Sunday June 7. We were going to anyway, but in our email came an offer for a lower price, so we jumped on it. We also decided to meet up with friends from San Diego at Disneyland on Monday June 8.

We drove over from Phoenix to LA on Saturday June 6 and stayed at a small hotel near LAX. Searching for discounted accommodations near UCLA was fruitless, so our pick was just under 10 miles away. We arrived late in the evening, unloaded the car, got the laptop connected to the wireless internet and crashed. 6am we got the wake-up call, packed the car after cleaning up and wound our way to UCLA near Beverly Hills. We pulled up to the info station where they gave us directions on the parking structure we should use, how much and how to pay, and where to find the building housing the seminar. Even got a spiffy map! We found it easily enough on the north side of campus, paid the attendants and found the seminar easily enough next door. They offered us fruit, bread and muffins, coffee or tea. I hunted down a vending machine for a soda and we sat in the audience to hear the speakers. After the organizer made his speech we heard the keynote speakers in turn, two of them. The first was more interesting than the second. After that they had two panel discussions, both of medium interest on the state of green industries, job opportunities, what they were doing in those industries, etc. Lunch break was interesting. Although they had a buffet restaurant in the basement, you had to visit another hall nearby to pay. What they didn't tell you is that it was locked and you had to wait for someone to let you in, then pay. What they also didn't mention was that you could purchase a BruinCard in the lobby of our seminar building using the ATM-style kiosk. I took care of our payment early and we went downstairs (elevator, actually) to a horde of kids at Sunday brunch. We got there about 1210pm and I didn't even get an omelette until 1248pm. Jean settled for salad and I went back for more stuff post rush, forgetting the start of the afternoon breakouts at 1pm until we were finished eating. We headed off to separate breakouts with me starting with the non-profit and grant writing one. It was almost over by the time I got there, but I learned a few things. The second one was of nominal interest about green jobs; we spent the first 10 minutes (after a 17 minute delay) just introducing ourselves and why we were there. It was pretty boring. The third and last one was starting when a fire alarm went off. I was in the restroom and came out to find Jean carefully going down the stairs. I asked her where the backpack was she brought and she said a nice gent took it downstairs for her. I helped her down and the guy from the first breakout was guarding it! We thanked him, stepped outside, got hassled by the UCLA staff for standing too close to the doors, so we just left.

We decided to find M&M's Soul Food restaurant north of LAX. I was contacted by a friend in LA who saw my post on Facebook about our premature departure and asked to meet up for dinner. So we ended up visiting with him and his wife at their house, going to M&M's (they were out of peach cobbler much to Jean's horror), had fried chicken (well, mine was smothered baked chicken), and talked until we left their place. We had a reservation in Anaheim near Disneyland for convenience and checked in, unloaded the car, set up the laptop, connected to the internet and crashed.

Monday we got up late, cleaned up, headed towards Disneyland. Our friends were already in the park, so we parked and caught the shuttle in only to be turned away at the security checkpoint because Jean had a Leatherman tool clipped to her purse. I had already passed through carrying a pocket knife, but she had to turn around so I left with her. Because we were meeting friends inside I returned to the car with the terrible devices and we finally entered the park. It's gone up in price since we were last here. Parking was $12, 1-park / 1-day pass was $69 each, and renting a wheelchair because of Jean's knee problem was $12 ($32=$12+$20 deposit, refundable upon return). Lunch (pizza, salad, two drinks) was $27. We went on the Innovention ride (remember the Carousel of Progress?), Star Tours, and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster. By then our friends' kids were getting tired, so we headed out of the park to meet them at Pirello's Restaurant in Buena Park. We tried their hot dog, salad, Italian beef and chicken sandwiches, fries, etc. There was a problem with my chicken sandwich and they had to recook it, then the fries were delayed. All in all it was ok, but not great. It's a chain out of Illinois with some in Indiana and California. Our friends took off for home and we returned to the hotel for rest and internet work.

Tomorrow we head home.