Excitement, adventure, and really wild things

I am thrilled to announce the birth of Zachary Forest Searle to my brother and his wife. Zachary was born April 19th at 3:19 PM, weighing 7 lbs and 10 oz. He is healthy, and he and his mom are well. avt_tor, mvt, and I are amused and pleased that they named him after Alex's father, who we lost last year. They didn't know Alex's father's name, so this is serendipity; they had wanted an "F" name to honor our mother, Florence.

I am pleased and excited to be able to announce that Michael Swanwick has accepted our invitation to be the Author Guest of Honour at the inaugural SFContario. Our confirmed guests are:

Michael Swanwick Author GoH
Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden Editor GoHs
Geri Sullivan, Fan GoH
Karen Linsley Filk GoH

And a note: Registration rates will increase December 9th so now's the time to register at the SFContario website.

SFContario is a go, with a hotel and guests of honour and everything.

The inaugural convention will take place November 19-21st 2010 at the Ramada Plaza in downtown Toronto. It's a lovely hotel that overlooks Allan Gardens, beautiful greenhouses and gardens that even many Torontonians have yet to discover, and is a stone's throw away from all the restaurants and attractions downtown Toronto has to offer.

While an announcement for Author Guest of Honour is yet to come we're thrilled to be able to announce that Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden have agreed to be our Editor Guests of Honour, Geri Sullivan has agreed to be Fan Guest of Honour, and Karen Linsley has agreed to be our Filk Guest of Honour. We're pleased, honoured and excited to have every one of them.

SFContario is looking at a hotel proposal. Does anyone have any tips on talking them down in price?

I went riding with janeg and Andre. I find it truly amazing that an hour or so from downtown Toronto, we are in the country amid horse farms. Fortunately the rain held off and we were able to go trail riding. I was riding Cookie, who is a wonderful horse but who doesn't seem to take to horseback riding as a sport. I have explained to her, to no avail, that her hooves eliminate most of the sports that she might find more entertaining: I seriously doubt that we could find a baseball glove or hockey skates that would fit, so she is pretty much stuck with horseback riding.

But on the trail she is a different horse: she not only walked without having to be threatened with a crop coaxing, she trotted and even cantered! To put that into perspective, when Jane had asked me what I would do if Cookie started trotting, I said something like "fall over in shock." In fact I have good reflexes and balances, so I was fine even when she started trotting and cantering with no warning. More than fine; it was awesome!

Now that it's summer and the days are longer, I should be able to ride after work.

Oh, I don't actually have a pony of my own, but I did get to pet Pearl, who is an adorable foal, and Toy, who is an actual pony.

FKO is one of my favorite cons. It's got a wonderful, family, huggy atmosphere. And I was registration staff, which is so much less work than running the con suite (which mvt and I did for the past two years), plus everyone comes over for hugs. Not to mention that the con chair makes sure to publicly praise the concom and staff at the banquet and closing ceremonies, and everyone makes sure that everyone really feels appreciated.

I got to spend time with people I love seeing, and I got to meet new friends, and get to know people better. The concerts were wonderful.

Unlike Ad Astra, I was not expected to entrust my car to people about whom I have heard several horror stories, and there were decent restaurants across the street and good restaurants a short drive away.

But filk takes much more work than general sf. Sure, you can be a listener, but to really participate you have to be able to sing, play an instrument, write songs, and/or perform. And I like to be an actual participant in my hobbies. When ann_totusek discovered a couple of years ago that I actually could carry a tune in a bucket, I started taking singing lessons.

Two years of lessons later, I know I'm barely C-list on my best day; my delusions of adequacy (at this point I aspire to delusions of talent, but am not *that* deluded) allow me to hope that my singing is no longer cringe-worthy. I haven't written any songs of my own, nor do I have any amusing performances. There is no reason why anyone would want to listen to me with all the talent in the room. If people would rather hear the better singers, I'm fine with that. But the mixed message of people telling me I should sing more but then not actually letting me have a turn was extremely off-putting.

http://www.expedia.com/daily/mars/flights-to-mars/default.asp?mcicid=Mars_us

About a month after Arisia, avt_tor and I are in Chicago for Capricon. Capricon is in the northern suburb of Wheeling, but we are in downtown Chicago, because the idiot cab driver listened to me give the hotel name and street address, and respond to his "Chicago?" with "Wheeling." I foolishly assumed that what he put into his GPS bore some resemblance to what I actually told him. Well, it did bear *some* resemblance--apparently the same street address in downtown Chicago is an apartment building. I noted what the meter said as we passed O'Hare on the way back, and when we finally got to the hotel, I got our bags out of the trunk before suggesting that we owed the cabbie what the meter said less the amount it was reading at O'Hare. He claimed that the usual fee to Wheeling was about double that. Alex didn't want to spend the rest of the evening arguing about it, so he gave him most of what he wanted.

Friday afternoon, we had lunch plans with ann_totusek, madtechie2718, and a couple of Ann's friends. Ann, Alex, and I were in Ann's car, with the others following behind us. We were sitting in the left turn lane when a car comes out of a parking lot, speeds up across two empty lanes of traffic, and t-bones us. No one was hurt, and the other car followed the car that hit us when it looked like they might not stop. They stopped in a different parking lot, so we missed seeing the driver hauled away in handcuffs (no license or registration), but at least our friends got to see it. We did see the car being readied for towing to the impound lot, where the driver will probably abandon it and buy another beater. It's not like he'll get points on his license or have his insurance go up, not having either.

One good thing: while we were standing around surveying the crunched passenger doors (Alex had to get out on the driver's side), someone called out from a car on the street, asking if we were OK. The guy was an off-duty cop, and he had been a couple of cars back and had seen the whole thing. In fact, he saw the whole thing unfolding, and said "Bang!" out loud. As his wife was asking him why he'd said "Bang!", there was a Bang!

So instead of lunch, we went to the police station. The police were pleasant and helpful (the off-duty cop had already submitted a report). The chief popped his head in and said hi, and a couple of the cops mentioned that they'd be walking through the con.

Instead of the interesting restaurant Ann had been planning, we had lunch at Buca de Beppo, which is always good. Then Ann had to arrange a body shop and car rental. Fortunately, her car was able to be fixed.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?, the con went well. A good con, good programming, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

It still hurts too much to write about. I (and so many others) put so much time, effort, and energy into the Seattle bid, and we had our facilities yanked out from under us a week before the filing deadline. A month before, and we'd have been able to find other facilities. After we'd filed, we'd have been able to find other facilities. But that week, and we couldn't file.

I don't usually post whiny, depressed rants, but lately, if it weren't for bad news, there'd be no news at all.

On January 16th, avt_tor and I were in a car accident on the way to the airport, on our way to Arisia. A guy having a heart attack veered into our lane on the highway and knocked us into the guardrail. We were very lucky to have walked away. Alex wasn't hurt at all. I had a bruised rib and was in pain for a couple of weeks, which is trivial considering what might have happened. I also bumped my head. Alex tried to convince me to go the ER and get it checked out. I know the signs of concussion, though, and I didn't have one. If we got a rental car and continued on to Buffalo, we could get rebooked and hopefully make most of Arisia. If I went to the ER, that window would close. Missing the con would add further injury to injury--also, Boston has lobsters, and I was pretty sure that the ER does not.

So we gave our report to the policeman at the scene, got towed to the body shop where my husband met us, transferred everything from my car to my husband's, had him drive us to the rental place, and got a rental. Which we couldn't take out of Ontario without permission from my insurance company. Which was closed by now. Andre graciously offered us his car, and took the rental.

We continued on to Buffalo, managed to rebook for early the next morning, and found dinner and a motel room.

Arisia was a bit of a blur. I had called the hotel to explain that we needed to cancel for Friday, but wanted to keep our reservation for Saturday. Given the reason why, they graciously allowed this without penalty. But because we were on the party floor, the hotel liaison heard about it, and word spread that we'd been in an accident. When we got there Saturday afternoon, people were glad that we weren't dead. Always gratifying to hear.

My car was totaled though. Sure, it's only money, our health is what matters. Except it's money I don't have, and with Andre unemployed, it's non-trivial.

Car shopping is stressful when you need something NOW. I'd already narrowed it down to a Toyota Corolla, a couple of years old, low mileage and in good shape. That was already more than I wanted to spend, but take long road trips in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, and I need something reliable.

There were so many similar cars on the Internet that it was overwhelming. I tried the dealer near work, where I'd gone for a couple of oil changes, since they're near work and open late. I browsed new cars, and was completely ignored--I was apparently giving off "poor" vibes. When I looked at used cars, a salesman immediately accosted me. Unfortunately, he was one of "those." He asked me three times if I really wanted a stick (though he mentioned during the test drive that in his country, everyone drives standard except the really rich). So apparently my boobs will get in the way of my shifting gears...I wonder how they deal with that in his country? He also asked if I was going to be the decision maker...um, do you see anyone else? It was subtle, but I doubt he'd have asked a man that question, or doubted what he'd said he wanted.

I took the test drive anyway. The only standard they had was an '03 (too old) with 97,000 km (too high). It had a new clutch (really? He fucked up the clutch in only 97,000 km?), and the gears ground (what else has this guy fucked up?). So, not the right car from me, and not the dealer I wanted to buy from.

I went to my dealer, the one I bought my old car from. Night and day! They didn't have any standards, but I found a nice 2006 with 56,000 km, and they treated my like a person, and worked to make me happy.