breakfast at the Hilton

You know you haven't been off con staff long enough when you wander around the hotel lobby after breakfast scoping out the function spaces and thinking out loud about where the best place to put Registration would be. I think P and I both need some more time away from conventions, but in my case that's not happening, so...

For a change of pace (and because P really really needed to get some more of her boxes out of my living room) we did breakfast at the Alexandria Hilton's Finn & Porter restaurant, which is a pretty classy joint and serves a decent eggs/sausage/taters buffet for $13.50, coffee & juice included. Smoked salmon, cold cuts, fruit and cheese are also available on the main buffet, and there are also the usual Continental breakfast components on hand, not to mention hot oatmeal with additives to taste. Finn & Porter's also has a very nice view of the pocket lake to the rear of the hotel, which is bonus.

Cheap keyboard is fail; it started acting wonky on me last night and was replaced by the old Compaq keyboard - which apparently lost the "0" key on the keypad somewhere along the line but otherwise works just fine, thanks. You get what you pay for, and you'd think at my age this would've been internalized by now.

No time to run over to Fox Way for laundry and cataloging before I go off to Chantilly; it'll have to happen this evening. For now I'm just chillin'.

breakfast at the Hilton

You know you haven't been off con staff long enough when you wander around the hotel lobby after breakfast scoping out the function spaces and thinking out loud about where the best place to put Registration would be. I think P and I both need some more time away from conventions, but in my case that's not happening, so...

For a change of pace (and because P really really needed to get some more of her boxes out of my living room) we did breakfast at the Alexandria Hilton's Finn & Porter restaurant, which is a pretty classy joint and serves a decent eggs/sausage/taters buffet for $13.50, coffee & juice included. Smoked salmon, cold cuts, fruit and cheese are also available on the main buffet, and there are also the usual Continental breakfast components on hand, not to mention hot oatmeal with additives to taste. Finn & Porter's also has a very nice view of the pocket lake to the rear of the hotel, which is bonus.

Cheap keyboard is fail; it started acting wonky on me last night and was replaced by the old Compaq keyboard - which apparently lost the "0" key on the keypad somewhere along the line but otherwise works just fine, thanks. You get what you pay for, and you'd think at my age this would've been internalized by now.

No time to run over to Fox Way for laundry and cataloging before I go off to Chantilly; it'll have to happen this evening. For now I'm just chillin'.

not tonight either

Well, the Romans Mark B and I were running lost to Paul's Late Hellenic Spartans on points after three hours, though I think if things had gone on for another hour his pikes would have been dog food along with the middle of his line. They didn't, and that's that. Paul's opinion was that we lost from the get-go when he won the aggro roll and got to choose mountainous terrain, but I think we would have been better off swapping our cataphracti and medium cavalry for some more light cavalry and skirmishers. Not that it mattered since Mark didn't have any more of those, or left them off the army list at any rate. Anyway, it was three hours of fun, and it gave me some idea how the mechanics of the game work. It's not too different from PRESTAGS, really - you spend most of your time trying to force morale checks so that you can wear down the enemy and eventually inflict losses, which further lower morale and eventually break the group you're attacking. I'm going to start shopping around for a legion and auxiliaries; maybe some Maccabee-period Jewish allies as well, because it amuses me.

Never made it over to Fox Way - just too tired after getting up early and running out to Chantilly. Fortunately I managed to get in and grab one of the washers, so I'll actually have clean shirts for tomorrow. Must remember to pick up laundry detergent at Walmart tomorrow so I can do the white laundry Monday night.

Adding to the day's discontents, the Omniplex shut down completely while I was out and won't go back on long enough to boot up, so I guess that'll be going into the shop tomorrow as well.

not tonight either

Well, the Romans Mark B and I were running lost to Paul's Late Hellenic Spartans on points after three hours, though I think if things had gone on for another hour his pikes would have been dog food along with the middle of his line. They didn't, and that's that. Paul's opinion was that we lost from the get-go when he won the aggro roll and got to choose mountainous terrain, but I think we would have been better off swapping our cataphracti and medium cavalry for some more light cavalry and skirmishers. Not that it mattered since Mark didn't have any more of those, or left them off the army list at any rate. Anyway, it was three hours of fun, and it gave me some idea how the mechanics of the game work. It's not too different from PRESTAGS, really - you spend most of your time trying to force morale checks so that you can wear down the enemy and eventually inflict losses, which further lower morale and eventually break the group you're attacking. I'm going to start shopping around for a legion and auxiliaries; maybe some Maccabee-period Jewish allies as well, because it amuses me.

Never made it over to Fox Way - just too tired after getting up early and running out to Chantilly. Fortunately I managed to get in and grab one of the washers, so I'll actually have clean shirts for tomorrow. Must remember to pick up laundry detergent at Walmart tomorrow so I can do the white laundry Monday night.

Adding to the day's discontents, the Omniplex shut down completely while I was out and won't go back on long enough to boot up, so I guess that'll be going into the shop tomorrow as well.