We got out of town at 8:30 AM which I thought was pretty good overall. Katie was pretty well-behaved during the trip, although she still gets tired of the car seat. We managed to grab lunch at Shapiro's where Katie decided she wasn't interested in the potato pancake. She was interested in the cream cheese frosting left over from my carrot cake, but I only let her have a little bit of it.
Despite a forecast of rain, the roads were clear and dry. The only real problem was an accident in the construction zone on I-70 near Dayton. I watched a bunch of cars pull off on I-75 South and told
daisy_knotwise to bail too as I dug out the Rand McNally and figured out what the fastest bypass route was. It only took us about eight miles out of our way, all on four-lane highway, so that was a major win. We got the car unloaded and catalana came by to help us set up the table -- which was good, as Katie wanted a goodly amount of attention after that much time in the car seat! We gave up short of finishing as we all had to leave and change for the Pegasus concert at 8 PM. (But it was only about 15 - 20 minutes to finish up in the morning, so that was fine.)I got to sing The Destroyer, Black Davie's Ride, and Go Home in the concert, the last along with Gretchen, all of which were great fun. Afterwards, we went out to Max and Erma's for the traditional-of-late post-concert dinner. Then Erica went to count ballots, Gretchen went to put Katie and herself to bed, and I wandered down to a Dorsai-heavy sing where I spent a little over an hour, sang Crystal Dance and Midnight Girl, then headed off to collapse myself.
After breakfast at the hotel buffet, I ended up spending most of the day camped out at the table, which wasn't too great a surprise. Gretchen took Katie for a nap (more or less) in the afternoon, but Erica helped out from time-to-time and I had a good chance to chat with folks. Then we went to the Pegasus Banquet where we spent time minding Katie in shifts so the other parent could get a plate of food and eat. Eventually, she'll be old enough for the kids pizza party, but not nearly so at the moment. :)
Gretchen wanted to take Katie up and try to get her a nap so that she could see more of the evening's singing, so I grabbed my guitar and went down to Erica and
tollers room so that Erica and I could swap our new songs. Then it was off to the Interfilk Auction where Erica was wenching and I was running the Dodeka charge machine. This year's auction seemed less well-attended than last year's. I'm not entirely sure why.Once the auction cleared, I settled in the main filk room with many people, including Dr. Bob,
min0taur, Steve and Dorotha, unkbar, blueeyedtigress, Debbie, Gretchen, and Erica. Unfortunately, Katie was being too fractious to stay in the room, so Gretchen ended up retreating to the hall, which wasn't an entirely satisfactory place to listen to filking from (he said, engaging in a bit of understatement). The room was being a bit aggressive, not a surprise in the main room, I'm afraid. I sang Nine Things and Dinner Party, the latter in response to an earlier request from Lori that I went to honor when I realized that it could follow Barry's performance of Chicken on a Raft. Hey, it's all about food, right? And I got to hear Dorotha and Steve do Dorotha's new song, Coin of Freedom, which I hadn't had a chance to hear earlier during their concert because I was at the table. (You choose to be a dealer and a parent, you make your choices...)But despite the efforts of various folks (including the fellow who debuted a song about a very Dorsai Christmas ;) ), the mood of the room was pretty stubbornly down. Now there's serious and there's down. This room could depress a hyena. And Erica realized that she wasn't going to get a song in edgewise without a crowbar and started grading.
And I, frankly, wasn't interested in using any more crowbars by that point in the evening. Figuring that the current situation wasn't working well for any of me, Gretchen, or Erica, I suggested that we retreat to the room, swap songs, and see if Katie wanted to quiet down. This worked reasonably well, although we put up the guitar fairly early, as Katie was showing definite signs of tired, eventually falling asleep on the floor. We chatted until a stupid hour of the morning, then sent Erica off to her room and fell into bed.
The next morning, we got breakfast. I sent Gretchen and Katie off to the table while I finished packing us out of the room. There was more good conversation, Katie was being suitably cute, and a generally good time was had by all, save for Katie, who was in serious teething mode. A bottle of formula laced with baby Motrin eventually assisted her in a much-needed nap that gave us time to get almost completely packed out before she woke up. And during that nap, there was also time for me to give Wulf a session on the portable recording gear that I loaned him to record Juanita with and to confer with
ladyat about the villain's part in the operetta that she's putting together for WindyCon, so these were also good things.After packing up, we headed to Max and Erma's again along with Erica,
filker0, and spiritdance, and their kids for dinner, then hit the road for home.You know, if it weren't for the fact that I have friends who live there, I could completely dispense with Indiana. :) Just yank Ohio closer to Illinois so we could get home sooner...
But we got home a bit before midnight and eventually fell into bed. Way too late...
