Fort Collins, Colorado

Things have been quite lovely up here. We've been catching up with family (and "friending" all of Curtis' family on facebook). Curtis is now on facebook, if anyone wants to send him a friend request.

Yesterday was mostly spent hanging out, with a great dinner outside in the perfect weather (although the bees were out enjoying themselves as well). Today we're planning on heading up to Rocky Mountain National Park for some sight-seeing.

This will also give Curtis a chance to try out his new camera. He was out shopping with his brother yesterday, and couldn't resist the temptation. (To be fair, he called me to give me a chance to talk him out of it, and I really couldn't. I was feeling a bit sad about not taking pictures at WorldCon too.)

The only slightly worrying thing is Tropical Storm Edouard, currently bearing down on our house back in Houston. It's not currently projected to become a hurricane, so the house itself should be fine, but we're a bit worried about the dogs in their boarding kennel. I'm sure they'll be fine, but they've never been away from us in these kinds of conditions, and I'm just like a parent, worrying.

There's one other funny bit in this: the week before we left we pushed to get plywood cut for all the windows, so that when a hurricane hits we'll have everything ready. We finished the boards for all but three windows, which cleared up the garage enough that we could get the car back into it. However, now all the lovely storm-worthy plywood is sitting safely in the garage, with no one to put it up now that a storm really is heading for us. C'est la vie.

Prepping for WorldCon

It's hard to believe that I'll be leaving for Denver in only 3 days. The plan is: we drive out of here Friday after lunchtime and see how far we get. Then we drive the rest of the way to Fort Collins, CO on Saturday, there to spend time with Curtis' wonderful brother, sister-in-law, and three nieces Sunday - Tuesday. We'll show up at WorldCon on Wednesday.

I'm not sure how much online stuff I'll be able to do while I'm on the road. My brother-in-law has plenty of 'Net access, but I imagine I'll have more important things to do. Once we check into the hotel at WorldCon, there's no telling how much Internet access will cost, so we'll play it by ear. I've got several things in draft form right now. I'm hoping to post one before I leave (a review of Geoff Ryman's Mundane issue of Interzone), and get one or two polished up to post automatically while I'm away (a review of Stephen Baxter's Flood, if nothing else).

I probably won't be able to contribute much to the WorldCon photo bonanza - while we're lucky that our digital camera weathered our trip to England, it died soon thereafter. (Much better to die in Houston than at Leeds Castle before we'd seen Cantebury Cathedral and St. Pauls.) We're on the fence as to whether to get one before we leave--right now I think we're leaning towards taking our time and getting my pro-photographer brother to find something for us instead of rushing to get something right now. Although there's the risk that Curtis might explode if forced to watch the Masquerade without taking pictures, so that will have to be weighed.

At WorldCon itself I'm currently slotted to be on two panels (my first EVER, wish me luck!) One is: "Book Reviewers: The Missing Link of the Publishing Industry," currently schedule for 11:30 on Friday. The other is: "Popularity vs. Critical Acclaim," scheduled for 4pm on Saturday. My co-panelists will include such luminaries as Graham Sleight, Jonathan Strahan, Farah Mendlesohn and James Morrow. Come see all the brilliant people that I will be sitting next to!

Anyway, we'll be shaking off our post-Hugo hangovers and starting the drive home lunchtime-ish on Sunday, and probably getting home Monday evening. I will have my cell phone with me, and I'm considering experimenting with Twitter (John De Nardo showed that it can be done when he went to the Nebula award banquet this year). If so, I'll post details here before I go.