Society for Aesthetic Deletions

Sunday

Sunday morning dawned bright and early, as we were both playing in the 8:00 FUDGE: Bunnies in the Big City game (aka Bunnies and Burrows, which is basically the RPG of Watership Down). Breakfast went much better with the earlier game time, so we were able to eat at our leisure and make it to the game with plenty of time.

The game was full, in fact it was overflowing. We had 8 people, with the age gamut from what looked like grandparents to a young girl, probably about 9 or so. We all played bunnies who had to go to the Big City and get something back to prove we'd been there. It was really all Horseradish's fault (played by Lou), but that was at the dictate of the GM. But it didn't help that he bought down his smarts and also picked the flaw of Gullible. I played Quickleg, who had extraordinary speed, but wasn't that perceptive.

Two hours later, our bunnies had a pretty crinkle flower (a small potato chip bag, emptied and licked clean of its salt) as well as a bunny to come back with us who was so rich and powerful she owned her own boy! And the boy gave us peanut butter, which was oh so much better than truffles (the mushroom kind, of course). It was an awesome 2-hour game for a Sunday morning GenCon, and we all had a blast.

Then it was onto seminars for me, while Lou headed to his session of the WitchCraft game that I had played on Thursday. I had an 11:00 writing seminar with Kij Johnson, this one on World-Building. I love her Mist Bridge idea and would love to see it worked into a full novel someday. It was a good seminar and I got a few good ideas out of it.

Then it was onto my RPG Troubleshooting seminar, with Robin Laws and a few other folk. It was in the same room that Holly and Tony had just been in to do their "Are Fairies Real?" seminar, and they had a trunk of "relics" from their Spiderwick books and tour. The relics were really cool, and I could tell Tony had packed and unpacked the trunk a few times, as he put everything away quickly and with little muss.

I turned my attention to troubleshooting, which wasn't the hour-long seminar I thought it was, but nor was it the five hours(?!!!?) listed in the program book. We ended at just an hour and a half, for it had been scheduled for two hours and we ran out of steam before then. Alas, it was not well attended, but I did get some good ideas on how to inject subplots into my game. Or rather, to get my players to give me subplots for their characters.

Then it was after 1:00, and I had told Lisamarie I would meet up with her some time that day, but time ran away from me. I headed to Lou's WitchCraft game, which was just nearing its end, and found the lovely mother and her son (sans husband/father) from the previous night's Renaissance Supers game. We discussed said disruptive player's behavior, and talked about our husbands' reactions to it after their game was done. She was quite the pleasant lady and I would definitely have enjoyed gaming and talking with her more. I'm sure we'll meet her next year, as we seemed to have had similar tastes.

We decided to hit the DR one last time, whereupon he bought some dice (I had done so earlier, I believe. Saturday? Earlier on Sunday morning? I forget.) and we bought a few more miniatures. I managed to find a Sophia one (female monk) and he found a good Yasha one (young male wizard, one without a BEARD!), along with a few monsters. Now I just have to get back into painting again!

After that, we headed back to the room and rested up. We had 5:00 reservations at Ruth's Chris Steak House, continuing our GenCon tradition of a really nice (expensive) meal on Sunday night of GenCon, usually at a steak house. We basically hung out, and Lou managed to convince me to do a little bit more roleplaying. No, not THAT kind, get your minds out of the gutter! We had some Sophia and Yasha conversations to do for ATD, since our group had all winter to hang in our home valley before heading out again in the spring. We had a lot of fun and Sophia learned a lot about the GM's NPC.

Then we got cleaned up, looked warily at the sky and hoped it wouldn't rain like it looked as if it was threatening, and headed out and down the street a few blocks.

The meal itself was excellent. I felt slightly underdressed in my t-shirt, but other gamers came in (and had gotten caught in the downpour that had thankfully come after we entered the restaurant!), which made me feel better. Having never been to a Ruth's Chris, we were pleasantly surprised at the proportions, which our waitress had thankfully told us about ahead of time. But we still ordered too much food, and the bill would have been much smaller had we had other folk with us to share our huge portions, or decided to split something. We did skip the appetizer and split the salad, and I had the filet while he had the steak. We ordered three vegetables - asparagus (sans hollandaise sauce), potatoes au gratin, and he had the sauteed mushrooms, as fungus is not a favorite of mine. The food was cooked perfectly and was oh-so filling. I had two glasses of a Shiraz, I think (might have been a Merlot, but I don't think so), and then we decided to order dessert.

If only we had known that the desserts were also built for two! I had a chocolate moose cheesecake, and he had a caramelized banana cream pie. OMG, they were to DIE for, but I practically had a miniature cheesecake all to myself! I simply could not finish it all, though Lou helped when he was done with his mini-pie. I also had my usual hot tea while he had coffee that he said was quite tasty. (ick)

We lingered a bit, since our next scheduled event was Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life at 7:30. But eventually we wandered over to the mall to stand in line and get our tickets, then it was into the theater (thankfully they were seating already) to watch Ms. Jolie take on the big-chested adventuress role for the second time.

I've heard a lot of reviews in the blogosphere that this movie sucked much donkey balls. Lou and I had a blast during the movie, enjoying it quite a bit. It's been a while since we saw the first one, but I thought that this one was a lot more like the games with its puzzles and events, though not as much jumping and shooting (except in short bursts, pun not intended). Pan it all you want, we had a blast and it seemed like the rest of the audience did too.

Then we waddled back to the hotel (still full. We didn't even have room for popcorn during the movie, though I wanted some because it smelled so good), and packed up a bit more. We had packed during the afternoon rest, you see. Our flight left at 11:30ish, so we had some time to kill.

Monday

The morning came pretty early, and we finished packing and headed down to breakfast. Lou went to get back our $30 deposit, since we hadn't used the phone at all, while I got us a table. This was when we found out that we had had the internet the whole time we stayed at the hotel, and we ended up paying $12 instead of getting our refund. *shakes head* Ah well, next year we'll either budget for it, use it more, or just not pay at all.

Breakfast was pleasant and filling yet again, but eventually we needed to head out. We had one of the doormen wave a cab in our direction, and loaded our now-very-heavy suitcases and backpacks into it. The cabbie seemed really delighted at GenCon, so he must have done great business. We had pleasant chatter all the way there, which really isn't that far. Then it was check in at the airport, security scanners, and then the interminable wait.

Luckily, I had a fully charged iPod and a romance novel to finish. I polished off the novel while we waited (I think), and once in the air I pulled out American Gods, to give it a start. That kept me company all the way back, including the wait for the Logan-Providence shuttle and the bus ride back. Lou's mother picked us up at the bus station, and then it was back to their house for a transfer of luggage to the Matrix, and then I dropped Lou off at his Star Wars game on Monday night at the comic/game store (no, he hadn't had enough gaming! He still needed more!), and I headed home.

Later that night, he returned, and we both finally slept in our own bed, another GenCon down, and looking forward to next year already! And next year we may drive. We'll need to save our pennies for the swag we'll be able to take back, since we won't have to worry about weight limits and suitcase space. Just car space!

Hmm...maybe taking the Matrix IS a better idea than the minivan...