wombat_socho

Weather was okay on the way down to Las Vegas, and acceptable when I arrived in Nashville, which is to say it was mostly overcast, occasionally rainy, and mostly in the high 40s. I slept through most of my flight thanks to the assholes next door at the Strat, who apparently fell asleep with the TV on so that it played about a minute of some annoying rap song, stopped, and restarted. That kept me from getting any sleep, so I got up at 0200, and waited 20 minutes in vain for an Uber before giving up and driving to McCarran, stopping along the way at the McD's on Paradise halfway there for a Diet Coke and a couple of Big Macs, because I figured nothing would be open at the airport and if it was it would be hella expensive. 

Having said that to myself, I left the Kia in the 4th deck's long-term parking, checked my suitcase, made my way through security, and promptly bought $36 worth of cables and earbuds from a robot along the way. It was worth it since one of the cables was a USB-C splitter that allowed me to keep the phone charged and listen to music at the same time, which I did, falling asleep to Klaus Schulze before takeoff and snoozing all the way to BNA. On arrival, I felt rested enough to be safe behind the wheel, and since Priceline couldn't find me any wheels, I went through SWA and got a mid-size car from Alamo for about $90/day after taxes and insurance. Mid-size apparently includes the Ford Exploder these days, and to my horror, that's what they gave me. I had to RTFM to figure out where the parking brake release was, but once I managed that, I cruised on out of BNA and hit I-40 East to Lebanon, stopping along the way at a Waffle House for an excellent All-Star breakfast. Got to the hotel early, but that was no problem; they let me check in anyway, and the room was pretty nice, with a nice little desk and plenty of power outlets, and right near the elevator. 

The Exploder came in handy, since I needed to get stuff from the nearby Walmart: cream, cables, yogurt, and a few other things which came in handy since I never managed to get up early enough for the hotel's complimentary breakfast. I spent a lot of time in the consuite talking to folks, bought a couple books from Kelly Grayson the morning after the "No Shit There I Was" panel during which he regaled us with various EMT tales. Don't remember what I ate for dinner on Friday; probably just a couple hot dogs, cheese, meats, and crackers from the consuite, even though I could have gotten something at or near the Walmart. Saturday I devoured the Danish I'd bought at Walmart with the in-room coffee for breakfast, and later went out for lunch at Whataburger  (triple with onion rings) and Sonic (pretzel and a couple Route 44 Sprite Zeroes) which got me through the day and into the evening thanks to the consuite, Sunday: yogurt and coffee for breakfast, dead dog/lunch at O'Charley's, and when I refueled at Mapco I picked up a couple bags of jerky, which I ate on the flight home when I wasn't reading En Route or sleeping. 

As usual, while some of the panels were interesting and the Baen Roadshow excellently informative (Toni drove several hours from her NC home to do it for us) I mostly spent my time in the consuite talking to people and enjoying their company. I got some very useful advice from Jess about domain providers and security, talked to some folks about Son of Silvercon, and just had a good time in general. 

Coming back, I turned in the Exploder, walked the ungodly long distance from the rental car area to the main terminal (stopping a couple of times to rest), turned in my suitcase, and took some time to hammer out the FMJRA in the C terminal while listening to Woods Weston, a gal with a voice very like Dolly Parton's. Hope she manages to make a career in Music City. When I got back to McCarran, I got my suitcase, got the Kia out of hock ($54, ouch) and went back to the Strat, where I quickly checked in at the counter (it was too early in the morning for the robots) and arranged for a noon checkout. Took me a little longer to get my act together, but by 1230 I was on my way to the Omelet House, where I had the 38 Special with extra broccoli plus a short stack of pancakes. Then I hit the road for Murphy's on Craig, got the car washed and dumped some trash, and headed north on 95. I had made the executive decision not to bother with Sam's Club or Walmart on this trip because after hitting Provo the week before Nashville, I was mentally exhausted and just wanted to go home. 

Made the obligatory stop at Indian Springs for acquiring & disposing of fluids; stopped again at Amargosa Springs for more trash & fluid disposal, and after that I was driving straight home - well, one more urination stop in Goldfield, where it was actually snowing, but the snow went away before the Gemfield turnoff and it was just cold when I got home. Unpacked everything, plugged in the external drive, did Rule 5 Monday, and then went to bed. 

I finally got the Friends of Fission-chan domain (fission-chan.org) registered, had John P. assist me in getting the website set up, and am stull fumbling with it. Not ready for prime time just yet. 

Day Job let out ~1500, so I swung by Harris Teeter and picked up shrimp & hush puppies for dinner. Original plan had been to dine out with RS and his SO before attending an informative lecture downtown this evening (NSFW) but all the places near the lecture site seem to start at "Ungodly Expensive" and proceed directly to "OMFG Why Are There No Prices On These Menus" so I'm going to eat at home and maybe have a Diet Coke or something.

There's a couple of articles I saw online today that I want to comment on at length, but they'll wait until tomorrow.

EDIT: I should have noted this yesterday when I did the post, but the link above is NSFW.

Personalized Bollywood holiday cards. You know you want one. :)
(Colby Cosh)

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Now that I'm slightly more conscious and sensible than I was at 0300 this morning, some more words about last night's entertainment.
First thing I have to say is that unlike Rockville, Frederick seems to have preserved a lot more of its historical downtown and not subjected everything within two miles of the town center to the sort of Brutalist urban renewal that makes so many of America's cities look like shit. It also appears to have quite an active night life, with a lot of bars open until 0200, tons of restaurants (including some surprisingly upscale ones), and an active theater scene.
Brewer's Alley, conveniently located near the Church Street Ramp - which, BTW, is tastefully tucked away in the center of the block - is the kind of place I probably would have appreciated more a few years ago when I was still drinking, but the food is good enough and varied enough (to say nothing of plentiful enough) to be a very good value. They do a very good pulled pork sandwich, and the sweet potato fries I had as an appetizer while waiting for Brian and Brenda were head and shoulders above the crap I endured at Red Hot and Blue a year ago.
Maryland Ensemble Theater's production of "Incorruptible", about a medieval abbey that falls on hard times after the resident saint's relics cease producing miracles and what the abbot does to solve the problem, is wickedly funny and well acted. There's a love triangle subplot which is subtly revealed, a sibling rivalry between the abbot and his sister, the termagant abbess of the nunnery in the next village over, and the cheerfully thick Brother Ulf. Good fun, well acted; a couple of hours well spent.
I'm of two minds about improv comedy. Like standup, it's all in the timing, but unlike standup (unless you're Don Rickles or somebody like him) it relies a lot on audience participation. Fortunately, the Comedy Pigs have enough of a following that there's no lack of participation. One of their acts is to encourage the audience to leave ideas on the sticky side of Post-It notes during intermission, which the audience then sticks on the floor so that the blank side is up. On their return, the Pigs wander about the floor, pulling notes off the floor and keying off the ideas as they improvise comedic scenes. Very well done, almost as fun as the "Twenty Questions"-esque storekeeper skit, during which the audience was encouraged to come up with unlikely items such as a banana-firing shotgun, a jello wrench, and a diesel-powered vibrator through the use of Madlibs by the MC. Looking forward to seeing their Christmas show, I am. :D

In the meantime, I'm heading out to Fox Way to deal with laundry and pick up something that needs to be faxed over to Arlington. Since Carlos is currently working 72-hour weeks up at Towson, I'm going to pack a book and try not to make much noise, since he'll probably be crashed by the time I get there.