AC was a great convention for us financially, it helped with a lot of old bills. Cost a lot to be there, but made up for it. Just need to settle up with PA taxman now :)

Califur is done and gone, met a very nice "leather lady" there. AC is too far for "Sign of the Hawk", but I loved her stuff so much I made a bulk order, and will be selling some of her pieces at my table for AC and taking it on also to EF.

Califur was a bit of a bust business wise, but I am counting on AC to make up for it! Stop by Lagarto's Lamination for toys, dvds, doorhangers, pins, the latest from kaa, and other cool stuff :)

We're at table G12, right in the center of the first row of tables as you walk into the dealer area. Hope to see you there!

Just about to pack up the computer before leaving the Embassy Suites in Huntsville Alabama... Did not do very well for sales, but it did pay for the hotel entirely. Sold 2 pieces in auction, of 3 listed. All at minimum bid, but oh well, I set the min high enough to cover costs. Kaa's "Underwater" sold at $50, and the Heathen City "Hero" sold at $35.

Looking forward to Califur, folk here in Alabama are too poor to buy even the $2 items we had. Countless times, we heard "I can't afford that, I need to buy food". And they were fondling a $2 pin. Oh well!

Staying with friends in Oklahoma on the way to California, Hyper and I are about to embark on a 2000+ mile trip over the next 10 days. Wheeee!

I will be attending RCFM in Huntsville Alabama next weekend. If anyone wants to visit, please come by my dealer's table, Lagarto's Lamination :)

FCN Convention Report (disclaimer: if I spelled your name wrong, put in your name and you did not want it here, left your name out, or did any other dumb stuff, please tell me so I can fix it!)

Arrival, Wednesday
Flight was mostly uneventful from Houston to Detroit, with the exception of some turbulence near the ground. The pilot told us ahead of time that it might be rough. It was not a bounce out of your seat type of rough, but definitely pitched the aircraft around a bit. The wing extension was at full, which made for an interesting view *through* the wing itself

My luggage took a while to come up on the belt, but it was among the first bags out, which was nice. I bundled my massive load in excess of 180 pounds to something I could move by myself with no cart, and then found the raptor, who had arrived just a short while earlier. He was in stealth mode, as most raptors are, wearing a cap and sunglasses, lurking in the periphery of the baggage claim. He lumbered over with his fursuit tub, as it has no wheels of its own. A formidable carry, I commented, but he said it was nothing special, given his work.

We both noted the complete lack of adequate signage, directing us to the rental car shuttles. DTW does most things right, but on signs for ground transportation, one still must consult with staff to find anything. The dollar shuttle was the second to the last one, naturally, as we both had a great burden to lug.

Once on the shuttle van, the driver tried his best to figure out why my car was not sensibly waiting for me. I was told I would have to go inside and work it out, the third time since joining the dollar express program that there would not be the *get in and go* treatment. DOH! But alas, by the time we pulled up, they figured it out, and said that I would have a free class upgrade. I had reserved an economy (caliber), but none were to be had. The driver pointed to a red 300 (I hate red cars, must be the same issue that guy had in the Kurt Russel film "used cars" from the early '80s). But a 300 as a free upgrade was ok, I guess ;)

After we loaded it up and got the gps suctioned to the windscreen, ready to go, the gate guard told me I was in the wrong car. Thanks, shuttle van driver. Double DOH! All was not lost, though. The gate guard pulled up the correct vehicle next to ours, and we moved all the stuff from one to the other. The new ride was a silverish white Dodge Charger. A bit the worse for wear, at 33k miles on the odometer, and no power seats as the 300 had, it was decent. I rolled my seat back, telescoped the steering wheel all the way out, and got ready to cruise. I wouldn't say it is a car I would choose to own, but it was quite capable of hauling our scaly butts to the hotel where a weekend of fun and frolic (and other things beginning with an "f" sound) awaited.

Check in at the Novi Sheraton was interesting, a rookie clerk at the desk could not locate my reservation. His associate, a far more seasoned individual, located it with just a bit more effort. Turns out my change of Wednesday check in had not been registered properly. I was told it was no problem to add a day to the stay, at the convention rate. I got my two room keys and woke up the sleepy raptor who stayed to guard the car. Parking was a bit annoyingly far from the elevator, but it was only a problem because heavy luggage on wheels over carpet has more resistance. We got all our stuff inside with just one trip, since it was the same load as we had in the airport.

I was quite glad I had requested a low floor. The room had a strange location right next to the ice/vending area, and was located in a crooked nook of the central hallway. It was very close to the stairs, which was good. There were only 2 elevators for a 7 floor building, and as experience dictated, there would be long waits for a lift. Stairs up one or two flights are never a problem, even in suit. Our view out the window was of the air-conditioning units for the event space, and the rock covered roof above them. Not particularly scenic, however, the window was tinted with silver film and very low light transmission. This made all day blinds open quite nice. It also had a northern exposure, so no direct sun warming the room too much.

As much as I wanted a nap, I knew it would be better to eat a proper meal and get some shopping out of the way, so Thursday would be less hectic. Both of us were pretty hungry. Raptor dozed while I researched. I used my mobile internet to locate something resembling chinese food, the closest place was *Noodles Inc*, a very odd restaurant. As we drove over there, I passed every single shop I needed: office supply, Home Depot, Target, Costco, Meijer. Some of these shops I would abuse a tiny bit for *rentals*, others for groceries and supplies that I would keep to consume or dispose. After Noodles, we went to Target and Costco. I got a cooler and all the groceries we'd need for the entire stay. Target also provided some very nice display items, like green baskets and lamps for the table. Their grocery section is pretty decent, and had about 80% of what I needed to buy.

Back at the hotel, we got all the purchases in with just one trip. I sorted some stuff, and raptor found good hiding places for all the boxed food/beverages. It was nearly 10pm, so I knew I needed to get my customer service taken care of for yiffing.net - internet was a bit odd. Our room happened to be just above the bar area, where free wifi is provided to lobby guests for one hour. A room stay includes no internet access, and I really wanted to avoid paying $10 per day for it. Turns out we had plenty of signal to hit the lobby wifi, so I used that for the rest of the stay. At times it could be frustrating, having the connection just drop, but it worked ok, so long as I kept the hour limit in mind. And signing up for another free hour was about a 2 minute task. I chatted with hyper and a few other folk while I finished up my computer tasks. After finishing my luggage sorting, I was pretty tired. I took a shower and slinked off to bed. I was not alone, it was nice. I had never before used my own cum as a lubricant for another penis to be inserted inside me. You should try it some time ;)

Thursday morning, the day began somewhat sticky, so a shower was in order. Then some breakfast cereal with soy milk. The hotel had kindly provided a couple of large bowls and two nicely wrapped silverware sets from their restaurant service. Raptor enjoyed his captain razorblades, while I noshed on cinnamon life. I made my lists complete, found the tools I needed, and set out with my helper to shop. First stop was Office Depot for biz card holder, rack to hold lamination film, and a couple other items.

Next, Home Depot. There, we assembled all the odd items I would need... a hand held work light for video illumination, extension cords for the table, and painter's tape for the wall display. I spent less time than last time choosing my PVC and fittings, having done it before. I mapped out my joints and lengths on a piece of cardboard cut from a pipe fitting box. I had brought my own PVC pipe cutter, which proved again to be quite useful. After checking out, the clerk was puzzled and amused as she watched me cut each piece to precision. Raptor helped with the borrowed tape measure as I ratchet cut each segment. That clerk was pretty cute, and she was definitely taking note of sexy Raptor. If I had more time, and she had no christian boyfriend, I think I could have made a video with her. Boy's build and haircut, cute face...

Anyway, turns out a dodge charger has no seat pass through for skis or lumber or whatever is too long for the boot. BUT, longest segment at 6 feet, the pvc went below raptor's seat and stuck just to the corner rear post. tight fit initially, but no problem. Next stop was a liquor store, for the much needed 1.75 liter Sauza Tequila. Finally, Meijer, for the rest of the groceries and some upholstery thread.

At the hotel again, parking ever further away each time we left (more people showing up), we unloaded everything and dumped it all on the bed. I sorted some more, got all the stuff that needed to go to the dealer's room in the two big rolling cases, and then took a break for lunch. I love soy dogs, even with buns at room temperature, and cold dogs. They just work, when properly motivated by honey mustard and claussen pickle wedges. After all that was done, we went to the lobby to see what was what. Folk were slowly assembling, and we had conversations to kill time before registration was open. I located the dealer room and Basil, the very friendly dealer room manager. Turns out they needed NO help running power cables, and the union hotel workers were doing all the tables and table draping. Hey, I offered to help :)

I was pre-registered, so I got my badge and packet at 7pm, but raptor had to wait because he was not already in the system. The registration price was held at $30, which surprised me. I was expecting them to enforce the price increase to $40. After the tables were ready in the dealer room, I brought in all the PVC segments and started setting up the Lagarto's Lamination banner. That took about 90 minutes in all, because of all the tying of string and centering and fitting joints. I decided to wait on setup of the rest until the next day, because I did not want to leave a bunch of valuables in a mostly empty room. At around 10pm, I was in fursuit prowling the con space. The dance floor was set up, and the dj's were tuning... no lighting yet, just dim room light, but I started a trend when I shook my tail. About 8 others joined in the gentle gyrations, and it was about this time that I met Shale.

Shale I had seen earlier in the lobby, and I noted then how I thought he would be perfect for a video. When I saw him in costume, I did not know for sure it was the same person. He was in his lycra suit with egyptian elements, a cool wooden staff, and a blond wig covering most of his panther facial prosthetic. Quite an interesting getup. We danced in a naughty way for about half an hour, and then retired to a little sofa in the hallway. I sat first, and then he right in front of me. We petted each other and received interesting responses from all passers by. By midnight, I asked him to retire with me to the room. I will spare both you, gentle reader, and Shale, any lubricated details of what precisely transpired. Suffice to say, he spent the night, and we woke up earlier then we got out of bed.

Friday: Shower and roll luggage, I was somewhat under the gun to get it all neatly displayed. Raptor was quite helpful in sorting glowsticks, pin clips, and neatly setting it all out on the table. I fussed over lamination sheets, Heathen City books, and lanyards at the other end of the table.

Dealer room open at 1pm was a good thing, as it turned out. I needed all the time I could get to prevent another MFF style disaster. At that earlier convention, I was constantly behind in organizing or displaying anything correctly for the first day. not a problem here, just a few things out of place or not as pretty as they should be. I did have a tiny problem with pricing signage not being ready, but most people are patient and ask about prices if they don't see one posted. By 2pm, the table was in quite good shape. Sales were slow but interest was high for this friday opening. Raptor covered the table for me while I had my lunch in the room. We did not miss out on much, just some pins and glowsticks sold in my absence. Lamination was very slow on this first day, I hoped that trend would not continue. By the close of day 1 dealer room, the take was under $200. A bad start, but I had hope, that just as with FWA, once the locals showed up Saturday, it would be much better.

When I got back to the room, I re-iced the cooler, sorted some stuff, and made plans to video with Shale and Raptor. There were some delays and miscommunications, but everything moved along ok. It was first time video for Shale, so he was understandably nervous. The shoot was a bit choppy, and as it turned out, I fucked up when recording one sequence, pausing when I thought I was rolling, and recording when I thought I was pausing. Pity, it was some nice action that was lost. At about midnight, we all went down to what was left of the dance. I had a fun prowl. I came back to a shower and an empty bed. I was a bit unfulfilled, but would make up for that later in the weekend. Raptor stayed out all night, but a buddy of his, Mix, was using the bed.

Saturday:
I showered again to wash my hair, did my customer service checkup, and headed down to the dealer's room. My mate Hyper had a mini-meltdown trying to figure out why I was late getting to the table, and it set a bad tone for our communication for the rest of the weekend. I arrived about an hour after the room opened, but my table was covered with sheets, so no problem there. From the moment I arrived, I was flooded with lamination requests and pin sales. I also sold one of the lion toys, and a few copies of Heathen City. I closed the table for the fursuit parade, which took about an hour. I ate lunch and came back down to finish the day. The table did pretty good business, about $750. This exceeded my expectations very nicely.

After the close, I told Shale and Raptor to be ready to video asap. We needed a completion shot and also a pickup of the lost video of doggy style. It was a bit like herding cats for a while there, but 4 or 5 sms later, all were present and doing what they needed to do. At about 8pm, I wanted dinner, but could not find everyone, so I went just with Raptor to Noodles again. On the way back, a quick stop at Target for another cord and some MONSTER drink. Raptors gotta stay awake somehow, it seems! As soon as I returned to the hotel, I put on my swim suit and joined Rhari and her little group of invitees to the pool. That was great fun for about an hour, after which I went back to my room and showered. The chlorine was so very high in that pool. I put on my spandex, then gator, and went prowling again. The dance was ok, but the music was too experimental. I stayed for about an hour with my laser and played in the fog. I found Raptor equally bored of the dance, and we set out to find a room party. In one room, I met Croco in person, for the first time. I had seen him walk by in the dealer's room with his plush croc hat, but never talked with him. Well, in this room party, he was I suppose a bit sloshed, or just plain slutty, because he started something I finished. I put my claw down his pants and was quite amused to find him commando. Also, I noticed quickly that his pants were hiding some massive equipment. I beckoned to raptor to put a claw down there too, and he was happy to comply. I think he was even happier with what he found down there, the response was something like "murrrrrs".

More groping ensued, and raptor slinked off I don't know where, but as he was leaving it crossed my mind that he'd be hard pressed to find more fun than I was about to have. I stayed with my croco until the party was officially broken to bits. The hosts wanted some sleep, and 10 drunk visitors were impeding that progress. It was pretty late by now, maybe 3am. Croco invited me back to his room, and his two roommates followed also. There was a king bed waiting, they amused themselves on the right side while croco laid down on the left. Standing there beside him and his massive tool, I removed my gator suit. I found just how much extra width limits depth of the tonsils area, but enjoyed it just the same. When I had as much gag as I could take, I put back on the gator head and assumed the position. What happened next I can only describe as "intense"; so much so, I was only able to cope, not so much participate. A while later, when I had recovered my ability to process oxygen and reduce my heart rate, I climbed on for a final wild ride.

It was now about 4am, and everyone was just dead tired. I gathered up my garments and said goodnight to a mostly sleeping croco. When I took the elevator down to my room, I noticed that I had neglected to collect my hat (keeps perspiration under control under a gator head). Not wanting to forget this useful and difficult to replace piece of suit, I attempted to regain access to the executive level from my recent deaprture. Sadly, security was passive and difficult to penetrate. I found the stairwell door to 7 locked tight, and the elevator required authentication beyond the capabilities of an abused gator. Next stop: lobby. I found Shale amongst a group of other overnight talkers in the lounge. I regaled them with my tales of tail, and put it to the group - "how do I get back to the 7th floor?". One of them just happened to be a holder of a 7th floor key card, and he happily accessed the appropriate button for me in the elevator, while not joining me on my journey. It was like a small magical spell cast to speed me along one way only.

I had to knock twice, fortunately I had the correct door. A very groggy roommate permitted me to enter, and I found my missing hat just under the edge of the bedspread, under the bed. I gave a final goodnight kiss on the cheek of the croco, and let him again slumber mostly unaware of my departure. In my room, a shower, and a bed were kindly ready for me to use. Raptor was back this night, once again spending it with Mix in the other bed.

Sunday:
I'd made the executive decision to awake whenever my body was ready, not succumbing to the electronic whims of any devices. Approximately 6 hours of uninterrupted slumber elapsed, and I found myself in a state I would not call rested, but indeed, better. A giant bowl of life cereal helped start my day, and I was glad to have it. Beginning this late in the dealer's room, just around noon, I would not be able to take a lunch break. All of my morning tasks were complete and I was off to operate again the hot laminator.

Business was steady, some folk who had contemplated on the earlier days came with the awareness that this was their last chance to take home something nifty, sexy, or both. Lamination was quite steady too, as the artists were finishing up their tiny treasures for waiting clients. The pace was brisk, money quite decent, and I was not once bored or wanting for anything to do. When it was time to break down, the raptor clawed his way free of friends and attention to assist me in packaging everything neatly. We were out of there about an hour after closing time, and were able to take it all in one single trip to the room.

Sorting out the luggage from the merchandise... the stuff I needed tonight from the used and forgotten items, I busied myself for another hour at least. And then I got the phone call I was hoping to receive: Croco wanted to do a video :)

I made arrangements for him to come by later, after I was all finished with sorting and packing. Raptor was also brought in on the plan, and times were set. I finished the last of the odd food that was about, since I had no time to drive anywhere. It was just as well, soy dogs are amazingly inert food stuffs - they are filling, easy to digest, and not too lacking in flavour. The hummus was also polished off, another item that would not keep once the cooler was gone.

At about 11pm, I had tamed the wicked pile of crap, and was ready to roll. Or rather, Croco was ready to roll. I gave the crash course in suit wearing for this purpose to our new star, and we did a few run-throughs. What transpired over the next two hours was breathtaking. Not exactly a real time encounter, but when you see the finished product, you'd never know. It all distilled down to just under 20 minutes of some serious stuffing.

When all was done, we wrapped up the shoot and made the most of what was left of the night. The dance was all but dead, the room was closing just as I arrived there. No problem, I found a straggler who was also seeking something to do, so we went in search of the elusive dead dog parties that were not closed yet. Second floor, no room party, but a staff party that I could not enter. No problem, up to the 5th. There I also found raptor had hunted and captured the last of the night life. This room party had a fog machine, bubble maker, red laser emitter, and about 10 other cool illuminated devices to make a party in a small room. My green laser with kaleidoscope was a whole lot of fun to use too, the fog and bubbles especially caught its beams in interesting ways. About 90 minutes into this stay, I was sitting on the bed and next to a random happy furry person. He was laying down and enjoying scritches on his leg. I noticed he became somewhat stiff. Not stiff in the neck or posture, but in another way. Manipulating my green claws with clever dexterity, I whispered in his ear: "are you a tail raising pillow biter?" He said that he was, to which I replied "then I have a specific use for you. Come with me."

There was an excursion to my room, and he did indeed raise his tail. Well, since it was already up, I followed suit (out of suit now) and made the most of the situation. Intertwined afterward in his belly and chest hair was an incomplete genetic puzzle of completed actions. A shower was definitely in order, fortunately there were plenty of extra towels, my closet stash was holding out nicely. Nice and clean again, I donned my shiny green slut suit and set out for the remainder of the dead dog party. OOPS! again, closing time, sleep for the hosts, guests be gone. No problem, my room was empty, so all of the ones leaving there came back to my room. It started with 8 of us and slowly they dwindled away, leaving me, Rhari, Raptor, and Mix. Rhari and I talked about all that was keeping her from the ultimate heterosexual happiness, and I imparted some of my wisdom to her. She was welcome to stay the night with me in a completely platonic way (though, a shiny bisexual green gator in a slut suit is tempting for anyone, to be sure). As the hour grew even later, she decided she wanted to be close to her boo, the object of her affection. She left with a fond good night, and sleep was soon after for all.

Monday:
Awake again, at the early hour of 9, I realized I still had some tequila slowing my mind. I had let that thief in through my mouth last night to steal my brain, and he was not giving it back (thank you Mr. Mamet for that bit of poetry). It is a pity, after all, to let perfectly good tequila go to waste. Though I do recall dumping the last bit out of my cup when I knew I was not enjoying it any more. I stumbled about, organized the final pieces of the luggage puzzle, and loaded the car. Raptor was quite sleepy still, he'd not gotten out of bed. Mix had left early, so it was just the two of us. I looked about and saw there was little urgent to do, and I was somewhat ahead of schedule. There was just enough time for me to abuse the raptor before we had to check out. Croco's impression had a lingering effect, something I truly enjoy... a nice stretched and flexible furry/scaly.

Now pressing more for time, I scrambled the last of the returns to the car and handled all of those on my own. I told raptor to meet me back in the lobby at around 12:45. My final run of luggage to the car was problematic, one of two elevators had failed, and the other one was in heavy use with full car each time. I did not want to carry down 70lbs of baggage, so I let my pelican case do the hard part... slide... bam! Good thing no one came running into the stair well. I feel bad for that door, but nothing lasting was impressed upon it. Go pelican ;)

Round up after the returns was tricky, as Rhari and Malaki were coming along. We stuffed ourselves and all our massive amounts of baggage into the Dodge Charger. Final hugs, goodbyes, and pickes were distributed. Room in the rear was limited, luggage took the place of one normal person. The boot was completely filled. Carry on bags were on laps. I did not think to get my gps attached again for the airport return, so I was carelessly using my iPhone nav to plot a course to the avaition station. Sadly, I turned too early, and found myself going around the detroit highway loop the wrong way. Six miles into this folly, I re-routed, and back-tracked. It cost about 10 minutes, but not so much fuel as fate would have it. The fuel filler neck on the Dodge was dodgy, it would not accept petrol in the normal way. Click. Flow. Click. Flow. Click. Repeat about 100 more times. It just did not want to fill. Ok, no problem, $4 in total from two different pumps. What could I do? I knew the car was not THAT efficient. Anyway, it was not a worry, the guage was reading "full enough".

I checked in at Continental, leaving the other three with the car. I got my monster bags away, and realized I still had the car key. Good thing the Detroit PD was not on the case this afternoon. No hassling, fortunately. Raptor decided to disembark when I got back, since Northwest was just next to Continental. We said our goodbyes, time was too short for me to see him again at either of our gates. I drove the other two with me to the rental car counter, where we disposed of the Dodge, and headed back to my departure terminal. Turns out they had hours before they needed to fly, and their terminal was 2.8 miles from mine (or something silly like that). So I left them in the van to find their own way, free of charge. I do like a rental car shuttle, they are so nice to abuse from time to time. Hugs and 1.5 bagels later, I was on my own, flying back to Denver. The saga of what happened when I landed is food for another meal.

Ok, so my attention span is pretty short for any social networking, but twitter has my keystrokes lately, because I can send them and monitor inbound tweets easily from my mobile phone (ok, it's an apple product, but I ain't braggin').

If you'd like to follow my cumings and goings, look for BurmesePython over there on the twitmeister. If you need instructions, what century are you living in? hehehe

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Got a proper accountant to solve the tax mess I created for myself
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I avoid resolutions, I prefer goals of a sensible type throughout the year
3. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
standing in my back garden by our pond, watching the neighbors insanely expensive fireworks displays explode all around, high in the sky.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
My grandfather on my mother's side. My last living grandparent, he was 93. He was 2 days shy of seeing 2009. He went very peacefully.
5. What countries did you visit?
USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium. It was a slow year. 2009? Japan, for sure.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Stability of income. 2008 was a kick in the balls, a couple of times!
7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Sunday, 31 August - The return drive from EF - 3.5 hours stranded on a dangerous part of the German autobahn, because of a blown engine on a FIAT car with only 12000km on the odometer!
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting my business back on track, and away from the brink of disaster
9. What was your biggest failure?
Allowing my relationship with my mate to deteriorate. We fixed it, we think!
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Cooties - bronchitis, but after the super antibiotic, no more cooties! Not sure if it was con crud or not.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Bicycle to replace the one that was stolen in Utrecht. Damn thieves! Well, the new one is fabulous. The brakes are cables to the hub, no more calipers on the rims. It's dreamy.
12. Where did most of your money go?
Travel, conventions. Worth every penny.
13. What song will always remind you of 2008?
LOW by Flo Rida - heard it first at Rainfurrest. That dj was awesome!
14. What do you wish you'd done more of?
cuddling with my mate. He needs it constantly.
15. What do you wish you'd done less of?
wasting time buying useless shi* to sell at conventions ;)
16. What was your favorite TV program?
The Wire
17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I avoid teh hatez
18. What was the best book you read?
Heathen City. It changed my life (really, it did!)
19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
modern dance music - I want to dj now, but have to fit the time in for editing songs with everything else I am doing.
20. What was your favorite film of this year?
Sweeney Todd - and so surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did!
21. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
This year was a bust, nothing special. 37. What a magical age. meh
22. What kept you sane?
Danes. They caused some insanity too, but wow. Dainty! She's the trouble maker. Minnie dane, she's my steady rock of cuddles.
23. Who did you miss?
Kensaro - I never hang out with him anymore. We used to be really good friends, but only when we lived nearby.
24. Who was the best new person you met?
Raptor Red. Exciting, friendly, generous *hugs*
25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Don't let important things slip through the cracks. Avoid the trivial when it blocks out the important things.

RBW Convention Report

What the heck does RBW stand for anyway? is it someone's initlals? an acronym? Is it a strange naming convention for a convention? (Shep tells me it stands for "red blue white - the colors on the union jack")

This was not a concern for me, as I found out about this new furry convention during Eurofurence. They were going into their second year. The chaps down at the other dealer's table were quite friendly, and I have been wanting to return to London for quite some time. My last excursion there was on my first trip to Europe - I could not get an inexpensive airfare directly to Amsterdam, so I contacted a Scottish friend, and had him meet me there on my 36 hour layover. I flew in and out of Gatwick airport from Las Vegas, when I still lived in the USA - and then used british airways to fly from London to Amsterdam as an internal round trip. During my 36 hours in London, back in 2004, I hired a car (car rental) and made sure it was a manual transmission. It was a Sunday, so I was not blocked from touring the entirety of central London - no congestion charge to pay.

For this new trip, I only had a couple of days to spare. Cranphin, my dog-sitter, works until friday evening, and then has to be out very early on Monday. I left the dogs home alone from my Friday super early tram ride, the first one picks up at 6:06am - and that just barely gets me to Schiphol Amsterdam airport in time for my 8:30am KLM flight. My luggage is reasonable for the first time in my life. I am totally spoiled by Continental Airlines baggage policy. With them, because I am elite status frequent flier, I get 2 checked bags, up to 70 pounds each (32kg). Plus, I can stuff a giant carry on rolling bag, AND still take a stuffed backpack too. On the last flight with Continental, I had all that PLUS a tube for rolled paper, 28 inches long, weighing another 15 pounds.

KLM, like most other european carriers, limits checked baggage to 20kg total, and only one or two pieces checked total. Carryon with KLM is limited to 12kg, and only one piece. I was able to fudge this a tiny bit by having a German cloth grocery sack as my "man purse", and I avoided the mistake of my Chicago trip by avoiding bringing the huge winter coat. I wanted to bring the "treasure chest" as a dealer table display piece, but did not have any duffle bags with an opening wide enough to put it inside. So, I roughed it and grabbed an ikea pillow case, and stuffed the stuffed chest inside it. The chest was full of glowsticks, LED keychains, lamination film, badge clips, the compact dye sublimation printer, extension cord, and a few other table related items. My fursuit hard case, now getting it's second big journey, was additionally filled with clothes, sex toys, scissors, and my empty backpack. I was planning on moving the stuff from the tote bag to the backpack after I landed, making my journey through the London Underground easier on my hands.

Check in with KLM was interesting, and disorienting. I am accustomed to the blue carpet treatment (Like red carpet, only blue) with Continental, so the cattle call check in was very annoying. I had to queue to a kiosk, amid the ocean of confused people. I finally spotted an open kiosk to my right, which no one in the queue had seen - because of the disorganized lines. Scan my passport, type in my One Pass number from Continental, and it brought up my itinerary. I changed my seat from 10d to 8d, as there was no one scheduled in the middle seat for that row. I printed a new boarding card, so I could throw away the laser printed one from home on the A4 paper.

Ok, now to the baggage check queue. Another mess of disorienting lines and slow human behavior. My first line choice had no one move in 5 minutes, so I moved to the right and found that line to be moving a bit faster. I was close enough to the employee handling the queue to hear "oh, my, you are 24 kilos. You are only permitted to have 20 for free. Is there anyone traveling with you where you can move some items from this case to theirs?" "No? ok, how would you like to pay for the extra weight?"

This scam must be a super cash cow for the airlines now. Oil is back below $50 a barrel, yet all the summer time tricks to raise revenue are still in place. KLM charges 12 euro for each kilo of luggage over 20kg, and this is for EACH final destination. So expect to pay it twice on a round trip. I only had one issue to resolve for my luggage when I got to the front of the queue, "is it permitted for me to lock my luggage for this trip from NL to the UK?" Yes, it was, so I used my shiny new keys and secured both front buckles. Weight for my hard case? 19.9kg, thanks to my shipping scale at home.

I was now on my way with just my treasure-chest-in-a-pillow-case, plus a rolled tube of banner paper, and a small cloth shopping bag. I went through passport control, and was happy to see Schiphol is kind enough to provide free hand luggage carts. I used one to get me all the way to the gate itself, which was quite a long way away. Another dumb KLM queue awaited me, no priority lane for frequent fliers or business class passengers, just a blob mob at the security line. And once past that, again, no priority boarding call that made any sense - "anyone flying with Sky Team Elite status or in business class can board now" - and a mob of 50 people trudged up to the entrance, and were simply waved through without any ticket verification. Luckily, I was sitting with my treasure-chest-in-a-pillow-case right near the front of the poorly assembled queue, so I jumped most of it.

I got my seat, and then the guy on the window recognized a colleague (or friend, I could not really tell which), and this person took the middle seat. DOH! The rest of the flight was me getting my left elbow bumped by flight crew and careless passengers. No one apologized for it, and the flight crew did not even bother looking back to see the damage they inflicted with their hips. Drink service was free, but a micro-can. I have never seen coca-cola products packaged in 5 ounce cans before, I think they must make them just for the airlines. I finished my OJ in about 2 seconds, and shoved the cup and can into the seat pocket. I slept for most of the flight, or at least rested, in-between elbow and shoulder bumps. I made errors on both of my attempts to fill in the landing card for passport control, but on the second one, the mistake was minor, and flight crew told me the UK is NOT like the USA, a correction does not invalidate the entire form. I did forget to keep the hotel address handy, however, and after I got off the plane, I had to dig in the treasure chest for the right paper.

I got through control with minimal hassle, and I was one of only 4 people using the non-EU lane. The rest of the passengers, apparently, were either Dutch or UK residents. Luggage was a bit of a problem, my bag was not on the belt at first. Or at last, either! I asked at the counter if all bags were up from my flight... "yes" "f**k"

"Your bag is not lost, it is tracking on the next flight". My next question was obvious, and also a waste of time: Why? Their next question after that was "what does your bag look like?" They had a laminated page of baggage types, but none of them were equipment cases, only standard types of luggage and duffels. I described my bag in detail on the form, both dimensions and appearance. I was told that after the flight arrived with the bag, it would be less than 6 hours before I was reunited with my luggage. This would put it at around 19:00 - just in time to miss the dealer's room entirely on the first day, and also late enough to be annoying for my Lagarto suit and evening activities. Oh, and this was my only convenient set of wheels, so it meant carrying the treasure-chest-in-a-pillow-case through the tube. AND my backpack was in there too, so hand carrying the German-cloth-grocery-sack too, along with my rolled tube of paper. Oh joy. KLM? you suck.

Heathrow terminal 4 also has free hand luggage carts, so my journey to the tube was not entirely miserable and full of burden. It was good that I had the cart, as the signage for "this way to the trains" is very poorly referenced. Arrows lead to places that have no follow up signs, so you can easily end up in the wrong place, and have to double back. I did manage to locate the underground, and the tickets window, after about 3 tries down the wrong ways. I had to leave my little cart behind by the ticket window, there were bars preventing it from continuing its journey as my companion.

On the tube, Terminal 4 is a dead end roundy stop for the London Underground, so seats were plentiful. I put the chest on the seat beside me, the bag and roll on top of that, and proceeded to wait an hour for my stop. 23 stops later, I was at Russel Square. This was an interesting station. After climbing two sets of stairs, there is a warning sign posted by the third flight. It states that there are 175 steps to the street level, and passengers are requested to use the lifts instead, as during congested times, this 175 steps can cause a safety hazard. Ok, the lift was not too bad, it holds 35 people or 4000kg. Up at the gate, I was surprised that the machine was broken, and the employees were waving everyone through, just looking to see if people had tickets, but not taking the one way tickets as the machine would. I could not tell which way to walk out of the station, so when it looked like I was going the wrong way, I asked a street cleaner which way it was to the russel square park. I was indeed going the wrong way, and that would sadly happen another 2 times before I arrived at the hotel. It doubled my distance, and by the time I got to the registration table for RBW, my arms were just dead.

Convention day 1: Carrying the chest around was tough... and the dealer's room was upstairs, too. I headed straight there, and found hyper a bit manic. He had everything he'd carried the day before neatly laid out. The room opened an hour late, and I was just in time to get in there before the throng of attendees was allowed in. I added my chest to the table, though it only had one sad lonely toy - the one that would have put the checked bag overweight. The glowsticks and pins also went on display, and the laminator got plugged in with the newly arrived extension cable.

Sales were very brisk initially, but tapered off after the first 3 hours. When it slowed down, I went to the hotel desk and notified the porters that my bag was lost, and would be arriving. I gave them a description of it in case the paperwork did not make sense, and said that I would be checking in to the hotel after 14:00. The bag had still not arrived by 15:00 when I checked in, but was there a short time later. The toys went out, but missing the initial rush, none sold on day 1. I was very relieved to have my Lagarto back, though, I was very nervous that he would be missing the entire weekend. Lunch was nice, Hyper found a convenience market around the corner that sold vegan sandwiches and wraps. he got me a very tasty felafel and hummus wrap, plus a banana, half liter can beer, and a bag of crisps.

I was so tired that at 16:00, I borrowed hyper's temporary room with Yote, and slept for an hour. The wake up call at 17:00 was mere seconds later, in my mind. One more hour was spent in the dealer's room. The end of the day was a bit disappointing, but mostly because it started out so strong. There were at least 2 other laminators in the room, and only one artist doing badges, so lamination sucked. But glowsticks, pins, and gadgets were all strong sellers. We checked in to our room, and found it to be two sad little single beds, on opposite sides of the room. I fully re-arranged the furniture, and pushed the two beds together, at a 90 degree angle to their starting point. Walkway space around the end of the bedwas narrow, but similar to our bedroom at home, so no big deal. Then, the hunt for food began.

Dinner was amazing. We asked the concierge where to find a nearby chinese eatery, and were told there was one in the same building, around the corner from the main entrance. The hotel complex is massive at the Royal National, and each of the outside corners has a different restaurant occupying space. We de-furried and went inside "China City" at 50 Woburn Place. We were seated right away, and our hostess took our drink order. I had a single Drambuie and hyper ordered a beer. Our waiter was, we think, in the know about or relationship :) The busboy was a 40 something asian guy, quite swishy like the modern George Tekai. He had the goth hair bangs on his right side, angle cut, and constantly swept it out of his eye ;) Watching him handle empty wine glasses and other tablewear, it was 100% obvious to both me and hyper that he was quite poofy. This was like an added bonus for our meal, I would have paid extra to be sure he was available for future dining appearances!

Oh, and the food was excellent. Hyper caved in a bit, and agreed to go vegan, so we could share all the dishes. We got 3 entrees - fried salt & pepper tofu with mixed vegetables in sweet and sour sauce, aubergine (eggplant), and japanese tofu with fresh asparagus. I asked for white rice, hyper got the fried (so his was not vegan). All the dishes there were simply amazing. Presentation was excellent, pace of the meal was good, and service was extremely attentive. It was one of the nicest chinese restaurant experiences I have ever had. And the price was quite reasonable too, only 39 quid. I would definitely return there to eat again, and certainly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

We headed back to the hotel room and I donned Lagarto. There were many hotel guests to impress with him. I heard Italian, French, German, and middle eastern tongues being spoken around me. And the reactions were awesome - children stopping to point and gently squeak, adults commenting "crocodile wow" or "alligator, cool!" There were simply a lot of mundane furry breeders staying at this giant hotel, and many of them did stop and stare. The fursuiters were mostly keeping to the convention areas, so few were out in the lobby or hallways near the rooms. 400 rooms per floor, on 6 levels, plenty of new faces to impress :)

Down at the main meeting hall, and dance floor, staff was still busy setting up the lighting and sound equipment. I strolled around for a while and talked with a few furs through the Lagarto teeth. The room was comfortably cool, so I was able to stay in suit just about the entire time. I interacted a bit with a white wolf fursuiter, who squeaked constantly using a little tube from his mouth. The dance stared a bit later, and hyper changed into his fox suit. We danced as much as we could stand, but the music selection was terrible. 80's stadium rock, mostly - bon jovi, europe, def leppard, and other non-dance tunes. There was the occasional bright spot, but half the songs were duds. Despite the musical selection, I had a super fun time with my kaleidoscope green laser, shining it on the floor and also on other dancers. It was about 10 times the fun of the 15 inch glowstick! The next day in the dealer's room, I would have not fewer then 10 people ask me if they could buy it, or where to find one like it.

Hyper and I were chilling in the headless lounge waiting for a good song, but exited the dance after the 4th really bad one in a row. We went back to the room for a relatively early night (23:00), but before sleeping, I managed two really good shots of white. The glowstick and glowing LED snow ball made some interesting lighting effects and served as excellent mood lighting under hyper's tail. I am not sure what it was exactly about that, but it kept me hard as a diamond. I passed out so dead tired, that I was not aware of hyper trying to retrieve his top blanket. I was sleeping right on top of the fully made single bed, using only the top blanket from the other single as cover. he made it through the night with the rest of his bedding. When I woke up 7 hours later, I said "why were you not snuggling me last night?" and he replied "because I could not wake you up to move you". At this point, I also noticed I was sandwiched between the two top blankets and had not crawled into the sheets. OOPS! I certainly needed the sleep, though, it was epic.

There was plenty of time for a relaxing shower, but not for shower fun. I did the basics and got down to the main feeding area, where the "free" breakfast was being served. I only had 20 minutes or less to eat, before the dealer room opened again, so I skipped the meat and eggs line, and cheated over to the cereal, bad fruit, and toast area. I snagged 3 pieces of white toast, a glass of something that can't be called orange juice, and a bowl of peeled canned orange slices. It was all pretty awful, but the worst was using a spoon to spread jam, because I bypassed the main line and could not find a knife. I was functional, though, and quick. Hyper forgot the room receipt which was needed to show for the meat/eggs feature, so he stormed off to find it. It sucked, because he had already been in line for more than 8 minutes. I saw the other diners eating grey sausages and boring eggs, realizing I was missing out on nothing.

Convention day 2: Back up to the dealer room, sales were ok, but sluggish all day. Our sales pitch resulted in finding homes for plenty of lanyards, all the lasers, a few pins and stickers, plus a copy or three of Heathen City. There was a major hard sell to move just one toy, it came down to a coin toss for the buyer to decide. He got a good price, though, as it was bundled with a book. Lunch was similar, but this time, I opted for Guinness instead of the generic ale. 20 pence extra? um, yeah, give me the Guinness tall boy. Dealer room ended a bit early because of the boat party, so we were all packed up by 16:15. We dumped everything in the room, sorted a tiny bit, and then headed out for dinner.

I forgot to bring my jacket, hoping we would be eating indian food in the hotel restaurant. However, the place was not open yet, starting their service at 18:00, not 17:00. We went again to the concierge and asked about indian cuisine in the neighborhood. Once outside on our way there, I maged to get quickly across the street, but Hyper got stuck waiting for cars to cease coming at dangerous speed and trajectory. I thought I had already seen him cross the street and make a wrong turn, but when I saw he was not there anymore, and instead, was still way back, I got angry and yelled at him. This mistake on my part carried over into a string of panic for hyper and anger for me, which took nearly 30 minutes to quell. It was very unfortunate, the only reason I was upset is I was cold. Bad timing, misunderstanding, and old habits clouded the evening.

We did find the place, but there was another just two doors down from it that looked better. We settled on "The Vegetarian's Paradise" at 59 Marchmont Street. We again decided to share dishes, so vegan was great for me, and acceptable for Hyper. It began with some pompadons, and the food was excellent, but the restaurant was completely empty, and it was small too, so the waiter spent more then half of our meal staring at us. That creeped the heck out of Hyper, I just ignored it, but was aware, certainly. No hand holding or petting legs under the table at this place, as we had the night before. Finally, about three fourths of the way through our meal, a pair of chatty older english ladies came in and broke the waiter silent restaurant tension. He finally had something else to do other than stare at us while we ate spicy potatoes, peas, spinach, garlic, and rice. We ordered one dish too many, and double the rice we needed. But the check was even less here, only 28 quid. We really got stuffed, because we knew there would be no food on the boat tour.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to buy some food for that night. I got a fridge magnet at the first shop which had a big sign "beer and wine", but they sold neither. I guess they lost their off license! The second shop was well stocked with all we needed, including more pint sized Guinness :) The thing I love about vegan food, is that it is very long lasting without refrigeration. What is there to spoil?

I again donned Lagarto, but then there was more bad communication back at the hotel. We started playing "beat the clock" to get to the boat dock on time. First, I forgot the room key. Then the laser, then the camera. By the time we were in the lobby, we were very worried. Tube was not a good option any more both for making connections on time, and also because someone said the tube was down for maintenance or something similar. We wanted a cab, but had a bear of a time finding one. This taxi-tension led to Hyper's panic attack.

I was trying to stay in Lagarto character, but had to take off the head to work on the taxi problem. There is no taxi stand at the hotel, and none queueing outside. You have to hail one in the street, but with me in my gator suit head off (or on, probably), none would stop for me. And since there were also a lot of other guests seeking cabs, it was complete chaos. I found one at a light and tapped on his window, asking him if he could radio his dispatcher for us. He said it was not permitted for them to do that. What crap! I managed to hail another one, and when he asked where I was going, I said "blackfriars pier", he said refused to go there, and drove off! What a cock. If I had been in possession of something nasty or heavy, I would certainly have lugged it at his window.

After that point, I told Hyper he was our only hope of finding a cab, he panicked, and looked like a lost child at the giant shopping mall. He spotted one at long last, and managed to hail it before any other assholes stole it from us. It was a close call, too. We piled in and THEN told the driver where we were headed. He grumbled at the relative closeness of the destination, repeated it like it was wrong, and then shut up and drove. He went mad speed through the narrow streets, as if his ass was on fire. I guess they don't pay enough to these drivers of black cabs. On the dock finally, and seeing a pile of other furries, we knew we were at the right place. I asked to have a photo of Lagarto exiting the cab for this report and general fun later. I did not notice until after seeing the picture the next day, that our cab was purple-blue with little poofy water droplets icons on it. Hardly a black cab, but oddly appropriate for the gay-tor :)

We were just in time for the normal cut off, but only half of the people had shown up already, and the boat was not even there yet. So all that rushing was for nothing. No big deal, the cab ride was 8 quid, and the tube for 2 would be, well, 2.40 per person anyway. It was just lousy that for all of our rushing, none was needed. We could have walked and made it in time. I got some more pictures as Lagarto, with LondonEye in the background, and we waited to board the boat. I was one of only three fursuiters that arrived with head on, the rest all brought their suits in cases and bags, hiding them away from the London public.

The boat party was awesome. Triple deck, middle level is a dance floor and bar, with outside space both stem and stern. The top level was all open, and was quite nice up until about 21:00, when it got a bit cold. The dance floor was pretty short, if I jumped or even stood on tip toes, Lagarto head would hit the ceiling. Just tall enough, though, for tons of fun. Whenever I was overheated from dancing, I could simply step to the front of the ship, out one door, and enjoy the cold breeze. The boat moved along much faster then I thought it would, so the scenery was constantly changing. You had about 2 minutes to grab a shot of a monument or bridge before it whipped past and was but a memory.

At one point early in the evening, a tiny little guy came up to me and started grinding on my leg. As if he were a stray dog, I pet him and returned a grope or two. He firmed his position, and I mine. He said something to the effect of "I must stop now or else I will lose complete control". Hyper arrived with two beers, notably miffed at my random encounter with the stray furry. But I had trouble controlling myself, I could hold him easily off the ground completely with just my hands, and when his legs wrapped around my scaly tail, it was a feeling I can not quite adequately convey for a general audience. A beer and a half later, I was ready to dance. Hyper found his fox in a bag, and became that fox.

Kittiah was doing an amazing job spinning tunes. He was even controlling the disco lighting to enhance the effect of his music. Until now, only the Rainfurrest DJ had impressed me - but Kittiah was better. After a solid hour of complete perfection, he ended his shift. What replaced it can only be described as horrible. Imagine Enya, but with even less of a beat. Good music for a massage parlour, but NOT for a furry dance! After about 20-30 minutes of this, and numerous complaints by the patrons, Kittiah reprised his set and came back for an encore performance. Stunning, simply fantastic tunes continued to pour from the loudspeakers. The windows all fogged up completely, and only colorful light was emanating from the glass enclosed cabin. Hints of furry gyration were barely discernible, shadows bathed in light. A movie production company would have to pay dearly to reproduce such a glorious effect. This spectacle I enjoyed again and again, as I took brief breaks from the thumping grinding dance that I enjoyed so thoroughly, out on the bow of the ship.

At one point early in the music, my little stray returned for a spin, and I tried to pick him up for a photo opportunity. I must have miscalculated, or he bumped my head, but in any event, Lagarto's head came completely off and crashed nose first to the floor. He lost two of his front teeth on the right side, and shattered one other, which was sitting at an angle for the rest of the time. I quickly collected the fallen head, and grabbed up the giant teeth. I noticed the fracture lines were right along where the airline had broken them before, and the superglue had not held enough. Nothing is lost, and I can fix it, but for the rest of the night, Lagarto had a distinctly british smile ;) And my little stray was either horrified or embarrassed at being the center of this, so he did not speak to me again for the rest of the tour.

More photo opportunities has me wondering who all the photographers were, perhaps some of them will be kind enough to make their efforts available to the community. One well equipped canon got a shot or two of me with Big Ben in the background. Our tour was coming to an end, and with it the most memorable dance I have ever had the pleasure to experience. The fursuiters all gathered to doff their suits, hiding them away from the inevitable public carelessness or worse, scorn.

I made the brave decision to continue my journey and photo opportunities, in part because there was a group of 10 of us going back to the hotel via the tube. I changed the green feet with indoor soles for my regular shoes, tucked in the legs of my suit, and went out to seek adventure. Andy Squirrel was one of the photographers in tow, he got about 8 pictures of me in various poses, including some pole dancing on the hand rails. This is something I would absolutely NEVER do as a regular human. Somehow, in a fursuit, even one who is obviously male, it was just fine. Hyper kept telling me "turn this way" or "they want a picture". The age of the camera phone leaves even regular citizens ready to document the unusual in their daily lives, and I was certainly unusual.

Everything was moving along swimmingly well, until our first tube train change, and a pack of chavs fresh from the pub approached me. I at first I thought, "ok, this is just a group of loud and excited people who think green is cool, different, or weird". Well, then two of the rather short and petite women began to steamroll me. They locked arms and hunkered down low like american football defensive linemen. They began to push. There were lots of folk behind me, helping backstop my movements, but after about 5 seconds, I knew I had to respond. I braced back with one leg, and pushed back hard. I tossed the two cunts off with smooth force, and that instantly stopped my backward motion. One of them then instantly re-engaged me, and tried to roll me as a wrestler would. I was concerned more with losing my head again, then having her actually succeed in her physicality. She was so much shorter, she could not get any force on my shoulder to move me. First, I broke her hold, then I reached out with one flat hand and pushed her chest back. Hyper had made his way through the crowded platform by now and got inbetween us, keeping her from re-advancing on me. I stayed well back from the edge of the platform, preferring instead to get in the center of my group along the wall. I was sure as hell not going to let any of those idiots push me near the rails.

Fortunately, our train was first, and the chavs all stayed behind for the next line. From that point on, all was smooth and without incident. This is when I did my most provocative pole dancing, and had the most pictures taken of me. I now better understand street performers and strippers: you don't think of them as human, keeping your eyes on the wall. Sing it, Tina. Three different tubes to get back to Russel Square, fun all along the way. I am so very glad that I risked my safety for the thrill. I realized that evening I wanted more, and in every major city with iconic landmarks I can do it. My feet must change, so they are green with shoe cores. This will give me maximum comfort, stability, and good looks. An alligator in athletic shoes does look a bit off. Funny that, given the absurdity of an anthropomorphic fuzzy alligator in public spaces.

Once back at the hotel, we bid goodnight to Andy the Squirrel. We took the lift to our floor and again navigated the catacombs of the Royal National, this time with increased speed and efficiency bred from familiarity. After removing all the exceedingly sweaty clothing, I noted that my suit was mostly dry, though one of the paws had retained some filth from the tube. I changed into some dry clothes, and put on the feet. I was too tired to suit more, but wanted to retain some green for our trek to visit with LupusWolf & AlfaFox. We spent about 2 hours in their room, chatting about modern happenings and furry related topics. There were 8 of us in all, including one heavy set but younger and cute girl furry. I spent at least 45 minutes massaging her crotch with my gator paw. I love big girls, they are so easy to please.

The vodka was kaput, Hyper was dead tired, and I was feeling the need for sleep also. We bid our companions good night, and found our door once again. I knew I needed a shower before bed, but even before that, felt the need to couple. No problem getting dirty before getting clean :) Sleep was bliss, though I knew I had an early-ish flight, so a wake up call was needed. On with the lights again, to find the phone and make that request. The next thing I knew, it was 105 minutes after my intended wake up time.

SH**! Ok, pack quickly. Pack QUICKLY. I had left everything to the morning, and now there was little of it left. Hyper was quite groggy, but I sorted everything and managed to keep mostly out of his way. Lagarto with the broken teeth went back in his super tough case, and I knew the toys would not put the weight of the case over 20kg. I also put a few clothes and other items in there, but kept out the backpack for the tube trip to Heathrow. I scarfed down the one open wrap and can of Guinness, then grabbed up the remaining vegan wrap sandwich, crisps, banana, and two cans of guinness. I fully expected to have to throw the guinness away, because there would be little if any time between my airport arrival and boarding the flight.

I knew exactly the way to the underground station, but double checked with the concierge if there was a faster way to Heathrow. There apprently is not a big savings in time going on the express from that hotel, because first you must take a taxi to another station (paddington?). But they said the tube was just one hour to Heathrow. This would have been useful, had I remembered with certainty which terminal I was using. I knew it was not 1,2,3 - but I remembered incorrectly that it was terminal 5. The tube train I boarded went directly there, and I was making good time. I was horrified on arrival, though, to find it looking distinctly more modern and clean then when I left. This put the big seed of doubt in my mind that I was not at the right place.

Heading upstairs, I realized more fully that I was fuc**d. Time was growing ever shorter, and there was no easy signage or helpful employee to guide me to the KLM departures area. I finally found someone to ask about it, and they confirmed that I needed terminal 4. "Take the Heathrow express train", she said, "it boards down at the bottom of all these escalators". That would have been good advice, if I had an extra 45 minutes to blow. I got to the train platform and it was to be 12 minutes before the train would even be leaving, and that was to go to 1,2,3 - not 4. There would be ANOTHER train to do that. FU**!

Ok, back now to the helpful employee to complain and emo on him. "You can take the bus, it is faster", he said. Anything was preferable at this point to waiting 30 minutes to arrive, I was less then 1 hour away from boarding time now. Flight departure at 11:50am, it was now 11:02. I made my way to the bus stop, confirmed the line was going directly from terminal 5 to terminal 4. 11:20, we arrived. I made the long walk to the baggage check area, and saw two employees working the counter. Not another soul in sight. Not good! At the counter, I confirmed my fear. "It's too late for you to check your bag". I asked "can I check the bag for the later flight and still make this one? That happened accidentally before anyway!". She said "no, you have to fly on the same flight as your baggage". Yeah, right, unless KLM decides this is not necessary, apparently. I suppose the random nature of it prevents any acts of a disagreeable nature.

I went to the ticket counter to argue about getting on the later flight, and was again rebuffed by uncaring and unsympathetic minions of KLM. I had lost my entire return flight, and was approaching them as any passenger with no previously booked arrangements. Their best rate was 229 pounds for a one way ticket, and it was the same price if I wanted a 30 day return trip. I had paid 286 dollars for my round trip already, and this was at a major premium because of the sunday departure. Hyper's fare for the following day was only 235 dollars. I asked if there were any other airlines flying out of Heathrow with direct flights to Amsterdam, and they told me only two others: British Airways and British Midland. Two other carriers fly from London to Schiphol also, but not from Heathrow. The KLM agent told me BMI had a fare of 129 pounds, but could not confirm the rate, and suggested I go directly to their ticket counter.

The train to get from one terminal to another is free, so I headed to Terminal 1 for BMI. At their counter, I was told the rate was 205 pounds for today, or if I could fly tomorrow, only 85 pounds. DOH! I decided to eat my lunch, before going any further, so I consumed the banana, a pint of Guinness, and my bagel with houmus (hummus). The tomato I had with me was a plastic one, acidic and mealy. But it added bulk, and did somewhat enhance the enjoyment I had for the bagel dip meal. Then I called Cranphin to see if he could find out more about fares for EasyJet and Ryanair. By SMS, he told me he found fares of around 100 euro for a one way, but only flying out of Luton or Gatwick airports. After a few more messages, I settled on the EasyJet from Gatwick at 18:55. I was not about to miss two flights in the same day, and thought getting to Luton by 15:30 was extremely risky. Also not worth it to save about 10 euro. I resigned myself to the knowledge that I would be home by late evening, and made an adventure out of it. I was still carrying my trash around in the little shopping bag, completely unable to find a bin anywhere. I have no idea why, but Heathrow must really abhore the presence of rubbish bins. I finally abandoned my bag with beer can and banana peel on a cafe table from another restaurant. On the way down to the trains, I noticed more trash articles placed neatly about. I must not have been the only one unable to find a proper receptacle for my unwanted items!

The train tickets counter guy was quite helpful, he asked me "do you want to get to Gatwick fast, or cheap?" I replied that I had 5 hours to get there, so "cheap please". 10 pounds 50 was all it cost, and one ticket gets me all the way there. Change tube lines from Picadilly line to District line, and then at Victoria Station, take the southbound train with a stop at Gatwick. No problem, my rolling luggage and strapped on treasure-chest-wrapped-in-a-pillow-case was no burden today. And I still had my backpack carrying the other articles, remaining can of Guinness, and the rolled paper. The tube was the same, until I changed lines. The station I chose was crammed, the other train was severely delayed. I was there about 15 minutes myself, until it finally arrived. By this time, the platform had filled with people, and everyone blob queued for the doors. I was lucky to get in at all with my giant case and chest, it was so tight that I had to stand with my back to my rolling case, just so the backpack overlapped the airspace above it. Two more guys jammed in after me, so I was unable to turn around. It felt very japanese. Not fewer then 30 people were standing on the platform after the door closed, just in the queue for that single entrance. I needed the Victoria station, just two stops down, and realized a problem at the first stop - the doors opened on the OTHER side of the train. There were about 8 rows deep of people between me and those other doors. About 3 people got off at that next stop, no one got on. I geared up for an adventure of body slamming.

At the next stop, fortunately, since Victoria station is massive, and a major change point, about two thirds of the people exited the rail car. I was able to get off too, only rolling my case wheel over one person's foot - despite my stern verbal warning "watch your feet!" Then the stairs. I was very glad I had secured my chest with two bungee straps, because I had to LIFT the case entirely to get up these 3 flights of stairs. After navigating some terrible signage, I found my proper area for the next train. I was still plenty early for my arrival, so I found another easy-grocery shop and bought a couple more sandwich wraps. They had a nice deal for 3.59, including a sandwich, half liter water, and bag of crisps. I selected one with potato, the other with houmus and spicy chipotle. I could totally see surviving on these things long term. I wish I could find them here in the Netherlands! The clerk tried to cheat me out of 40 cents by bundling the lower priced sandwich with the deal, but I re-arranged the items and asked him to ring it that way. He grumbled and complied.

Gatwick southbound train was delayed for some unknown reason, but I was in no particular hurry. It gave me time to snap a picture of the uncrowded station and little grocery market. About 20 minutes passed, and the train pulled up. I got an excellent seat by the door with my giant luggage, and then relaxed in a half awake state for the 45 minute ride. I do like the british rail system for its notifications of which way you are going, and all the stops coming up, including the "next stop". Say what you will about its on time performance, the rider is never misinformed about where or how they are going there. A ticket checker with no uniform, a sturdy voice and even sturdier frame was kind enough to inform each person he checked, of how much further it was to their intended stop. I mused for a moment that he might just be insane and overly helpful, but not in fact working for the rail system.

Once inside the bowels of Gatwick, I made the long trek to the ticket counter for EasyJet. They were not yet taking baggage, but said they very soon would be. I queued with a couple of younger dutch women, who were also waiting to check in. When I got to the counter, I asked about baggage policy, and was told that I had the normal 20kg for my bag. No issue on dimensions, though my case barely fit in the tube they had around their luggage conveyor belt. 18.5kg - room for more stuff! The employee complained that I was permitted precisely one carry on piece, and I had 3 - the treasure-chest-wrapped-in-a-pillow-case, the tube of paper, and the german-cloth-grocery-sack. She said weight was no problem, but ALL items had to be in one. I stuffed a few things in to the big case, and let the other passengers check in while I sorted there kneeling on the floor. I stuffed the back pack back in the rolling case, along with some clothes. I still had my last Guinness and sandwiches. I was barely able to put ALL remaining pieces in the pillow case beside the chest, but did manage it. Leaving the luggage drop and check in counter, I balanced all of these objects and wandered out with a wide legged stance. I found a nearby chair and set it down, to re-arrange it all in a sensible fashion. Further down the terminal, on the lower level, I found another cafe. I sat there for about an hour, slowly enjoying the final Guinness and sandwich. This time, there was a waste bin just a few meters away. Gatwick is not afraid of its trashyness.

Noting that it was about 75 minutes to departure time, I went in search of my gate. The airline, or airport anyway, simply refused to post this information on the monitor until the very last moment possible. Nearly 30 more minutes elapsed before it was shown. By this late time, there was a discernible mad dash by all the passengers in the direction of the gate. And the flight was at the ass end of the terminal, too. It took more than 15 minutes to walk there from the central hallway. We began boarding almost immediately, and I was fortunate to be in the "A" group, going first. I found an awesome seat right by the aircraft door, on the window. There was no one occupying the middle seat, and the flight was about 80% full. When they finally closed the door, I had to move my foot to the right, as the cabin door intrudes about halfway in front of that seat. I had an interesting show with the two flight attendants, the older male one could have been a stand in for Ricky Gervais. The younger female attendant was, as I would find out from eavesdropping, only 23 years old, and in a rocky relationship with her boyfriend, who refused to commit. The comedy coming out of these two was very much like watching a brit-com, only done live and without their knowledge. Beverage service was not free, they wanted 80 pence or 1 euro for a mini-can of tomato juice. I had 62 pence in my wallet, the last of my small change. He said that was enough, go ahead. I had that with the last vegan wrap sandwich from my bag.

We landed in a short hour after take off, to a very moist Netherlands. I don't know why, but we had a stairs gate. And once inside the terminal at Schiphol, up a flight of stairs again. How dumb! I found another free hand luggage wheely cart, and dumped the treasure-chest-in-a-pillow-case on it, along with my rolled paper and german-cloth-grocery-sack. My case was shuttling toward me on the baggage belt just a few minutes after I arrived. I was very pleased to see Lagarto again. And how nice that I did not have to wait hours for misdirected baggage! No customs agent once again, I surely do love Schiphol for that. I caught my Utrecht train, and was on the final way home. I was very glad to see the dogs were doing well, and that Cranphin had fun with them over the weekend. Wouter kept them all company, and prevented cranphin from going stir crazy. Cran picked me up from the nearby tram stop at City Plaza, saving me the moist walk home. We talked for about half an hour, and he packed up his stuff to return to his home.

Despite being screwed by KLM's inflexible ticket change policy, I rather enjoyed the adventure of it all. RBW? Do it for the boat party alone, it was ab-fab.

The full wednesday in Chicago left me the opportunity to organize all my stuff, and stretch/frame the canvas pieces for the MFF art auction. It was a pretty late night, Hiway dozed off while I was still stapling for another 4 hours. The next morning, I awoke to an empty house, and proceeded to load the car. It was stuffed to the gills, and I still needed to pick up my MFF roommate Caladon Dalimar at O'Hare - with his two pieces of luggage. I really need to learn how to travel lighter!

Convention day zero, Thursday: We checked in to the hotel, and required two full cart trips, plus all we could carry as rolling luggage, even with Raptor Red's help too. Wow, a lot of stuff. Yes, that Dodge Caliber was full. I parked it out of the way, and went in to sort. Cal and I went out to Chipotle (do you see a pattern here?), and then to Staples office supply, for me to get the color laser printer. We also stopped at Target for some other items, and then back to the hotel. It was about 19:30 when I finally made it down to the art show setup, where I volunteered to build the panels. I did not leave there until after 11, when the art show lead determined enough was done for the night, and they all wanted to quit working on it. I reserved my panel space, which is sort of unprecedented, as it is "first come, first placed", but I was given this privilege for my trouble. I feared I would not have time to place the canvas pieces until later in the morning, since I needed to drive to Midway Airport in the morning. I realized friday morning commuter rush would suck horribly, so leaving at 8:30 was not advisable. I had red in my bed, so that was additional motivation to sleep in.

Even with a warm raptor in bed with me, I could not sleep to save my life. 2+ hours of tossing and turning later (in small part because of Cal's sleep apnea rip snorting), I gave up and opened my laptop to work on the bid sheets for the art pieces. Luci in the other bed was apparently also awake and unable to sleep, and when we started talking, it pissed off Cal a bit. He kicked us out because HE was able to sleep quite soundly ;) I can't fault him at all for that, if I wanted sleep, and was being kept up by chatty folk, I would kick them out too!

I went down to find out if the business center was available for printing my sheets, and was told by lobby staff that the business center did not in fact open until after 7am. I did not feel like making a lot of noise installing a laser printer in the room, of course that would have been easier, but I knew the noise would be bad. So, I just sat on the lobby sofa and chatted with Luci while I formatted the 13 bid sheets and also the master bid record.

When I was there, a fursuiter with no room to go to was wandering around, I encouraged him to sit at least, and relax. Sleeping in the lobby is a no-no if you are a single transient person, but in a group, no staff gives a shi* about it :) He was a cute husky in need of a place to go, but our room was no option, it had sleeping people already, and who knows what kinds of problems strays can cause. He managed to stay completely in character for an entire two hours, until someone came up and asked to try on his head. This struck me as quite odd, both inappropriate and a bit weird, but the husky actually consented to the request. I guess he did need some air eventually.

7am came and went, I asked if I could access the business center. The supervisor told me that the business center had no pritner (what?), but that if I e-mailed him what I wanted to have printed, he could do it for me. Ok, odd and annoying, but workable. I sat back down and compressed all my files as PDF, shot off the e-mail, and when I checked in 3 minutes to see if he had received it, I was greeted with a stack of printed sheets. Efficient, even if not convenient.

I went back to the room, crawled in bed exhausted, and set a wake up call for an hour later. As much as I tried, I still could not sleep. I knew that would mess me up later in the day, but there was nothing I could do about it. At least my raptor provided plenty of comfort. It was a very relaxing morning.

Convention day 1: Friday. Deciding it was far better to enter the canvas early, and not chance bad traffic, I got Red and Luci to help me hang the pieces, and scooted out quickly after to Midway. The drive was speedy, no traffic congestion at 9:30 - and I figured I would only be a little bit late. It was very handy that Kaa's flight was late by nearly a half hour, and I was very glad I had already done the art show hanging. We got back to the hotel at 11:30am, just enough time to run to the room and grab dealer room items for the noon opening... or so I thought. The dealer room in fact, was to open at 15:00 - the oddest hours I have ever heard of. 15:00-20:00 was the opening time for today. YUCK!

It did give us plenty of time to set up, there was absolutely no rush. Unfortunately, I was dead tired by this stage, and Kaa also was suffering massively from fatigue - he had worked the swing shift, and not slept either, in preparation for his trip. We both zombied it through the day, not being very productive. It was very poor planning on my part, not having everything printed a full day earlier. This contributed to my poor sales figures, and the table was kind of a mess. I had no signage for pricing, or the toys, so a lot of opportunities were lost. And because of the late closing hour, I did not have enough evening left to do what I needed either. I wanted to print the Heathen City book o' pr0n, but did not have time. When we got back from Chipotle and Staples (rut, I know), and I set up the printer, I was horrified to find out that the HP 1215 does not work with a mac! F***! Kaa does use a PC, but I did not want to hijack his laptop, nor ask him to print a hundred sheets. So, I asked him to work with it to print a few of his own pieces, while I caught up on work a bit.

The printer also did a rather poor job of highlights with color, so everything was coming out kind of flat. This was a big disappointment. We gave up at midnight, and went to sleep. No energy for the dance, no energy for anything. Sleep was very much needed for both of us, we slept soundly and completely until 8:30am. After a very relaxing shower, we had breakfast of cereal and soy milk, and headed back down to the dealers room.

Convention day 2: Saturday. Dealer hours today? 10-20:00 NOOOO! That is too long to enjoy. There was internet service, but barely. I bumbled through the day, not getting much done except for treading water. I had a steady lamination business, and it was very good that I had the new 12 inch wide machine. More than 60% of my jobs were oversized, they would not have fit in the old 4 inch wide machine. Business was again very sluggish overall, partly for my poor organization, partly for my lack of printed matter, and most importantly, because the economy is sucking right now. Too many are worried about tomorrow to spend today. By mid day, I had finally gotten the two part scan of Lagarto's Lamination art from Kaa the way I wanted it, and I had him print out my fliers on green card stock. I took them to the artist alley to distribute. Kaa was mostly bored on Saturday, my fault entirely, I was too busy with my own stupid projects to organize sketchbooks for him. Heathen City was not selling very well either, which added to my frustration. Glowstics, pins and other small items were steady sellers, so was the Kaa cd and a few of his prints.

Fussing over the art auction, I was disappointed to see very few bids on most of the show. My entries were doing minimum bids only, save for 2 of them. My nervousness deepened seeing this, but there was not a lot I could do about it. We closed the table at 20:00, and tried to hook up with Depony for dinner, but he was busy with the pawpet show. Kaa and I had not eaten much all day, so we went to Buca de Bepo and had a nice relaxing meal. The portion sizes were massive, the new "american restaurant format". Their "small" was enough food for 4 of my normal portions. Wow, not a bad deal for the price, but "why?" It made plenty of extra meals for me, at least.

Kaa and I donned our fursuits, and began to prowl. Croc and gator went to the dance, got some attention from photographers and drunk women, and found their way to the headless lounge. Kaa was not able to be in suit with head on for more then about half an hour at a time, and the dance floor was quite warm. It was still a lot of fun, and both of us danced again for at least an hour, with a few breaks outside for a cool-off in the chicago wind and cold.

We went back to the room around 2:30am, later then usual for us, but ok given the excellent sleep we had before. I am not quite sure what time it was when I woke up, but our activities did not disturb our room-mates (much), and a lot more sleep was had afterward.

Convention day 3: Sunday. New hours - 11-15:00. WTF? ok, short and sweet. Finally, the dealer table was in order, and we had a good day. No, it was an excellent day. Kaa was taking sketchbooks, and I managed to clean up all the mess behind the table. I managed Kaa's time, so he would not be overwhelmed with commissions, and he was really enjoying the work. Kaa cranked out 3 super awesome pieces, and was also working on a piece for me, a pose of croc and gator in an embrace. I had a Luci snap a photo of us in the pose I wanted, so Kaa would have a reference. It was about 50% finished the last I saw it. Lamination business was quite good on Sunday, more giant con-badges to do. I met with Gideon, and worked out a plan to work with him on the flip-book of moods, for Furry Weekend Atlanta.

Book sales were not so hot, only 18 from my table, and another 10 from FurPlanet, but that is somewhat to be expected, as the interested wane or have already purchased. It doesn't help that the russians finally got a scanned copy up - arrrrr...G! Kaa sold 10 of his cds, and everyone who bought one got a super bonus - a hand drawn sketchie and signature, right on the liner notes! BONUS :)

Dealer room hours were a short 4 hours, and at 3pm, we broke down and headed back to the room. We had just enough time to box up the laser printer, find the receipt, head to the office supply store, and get it returned, along with the unopened spindles of cds/dvds, and extra toner cartridges I thought I needed. Well, because that printer did not work with my Macintosh, and because the colors were so flat, we decided it would not work very well for us. Back at the hotel, plans were made to visit RAM, the beer-barn micro brewery with an excuse for food. It was me, Kaa, Lucifur, and Caladon. In the lobby, RedFox found us, and tagged along too. Dinner was interesting, there were some bartending mistakes which led to a bit of drama, but they were worked out and by the end, everything was pretty good. I had a veggie stir fry, the only thing on the menu that was not fried or contained meat. Fried is fine for me, but they used only one fryer for EVERYTHING, so yeah, forget about that.

After dinner, it was the last of the fursuiting, in the dead dog dance. No dance floor or special lighting, but a decent crowd, and some huge balloons to kick about. Luci was also snapping pics with his nice canon 50D, bounce flash so it still looks like a dance... and I got some nice images form him with the Darth Vader suit, and also with Mr.Lean and Kaa. We worked up a good sweat with the dance, chilled for a bit in the headless lounge, and roamed the halls getting photos with drunk people.

At around midnight, I knew I did not have the energy to pack everything, so after some sorting I gave up and went to bed. I had a very nice snuggle with Kaa, and set a wake up call for 8am. I bought my 2 other roommates breakfast so they would give us some privacy, and after, proceeded to stuff and sort and painstaikingly puzzle the luggage. I ended up with 4 boxes not coming with me, to be set aside or shipped. I had to remove the remaining foam blocks from the ballistic pelican cases to make space and eliminate weight. I also shoved the 2 gallons of hot sauce in the fursuit luggage, as it was bulked up but not heavy. I tried to reach Akita to ask about him shuttling boxes, but his phone went straight to voice mail. Time was running very short, but things went neatly into all the cases. I knew the car would be too full for an extra passenger, but I tried anyway. In the lobby, I was able to find Akita just at the right time, he was also loading his truck. I gave him the 4 boxes to drop with Hiway, and jammed the Caliber with cases. We got out of the hotel with barely enough time to spare, certainly not enough to have found a post office for shipping anything!

I got my cases dropped at O'Hare, and paid the $150 for the 70 pound extra case. I had to remove 10 pounds of stuff from each of the huge ones, they were both over. The fursuit case was 58lbs, but chock full with volume. I added a few things to my carryon load (bad idea), and left the 10 pounds of 11x17 lamination film with Kaa to put in his bag. He only had 45 pounds before that went in, so there was plenty of room. While I was inside fussing with my luggage, the police hassled Kaa and said move it or we tow it, so he drove around. But my phone was on the window as a nav system, and he had a bit of a panic attack when he tried to call me. I was waiting patiently when he returned, in tears, worried out of his skull that something terrible could have happened, or that I would be mad he was not there. I fully knew what needed to happen as soon as I saw the car was gone, and I gave him pets and reassuring words that he had been an enormous help, and that it was sweet he was so concerned for ME. I took over the wheel, and drove him to the bus/shuttle area, where I got him on a van headed to Midway airport. I just did not have enough time to drive him there, get back, dispose of the rental car, and still make my flight time.

After dropping him off and saying final goodbyes, I hunted for a fuel station. There were NONE to be found anywhere convenient. I whipped out tomtom AGAIN, and found one 3 miles away! Was a good find, thouigh, only 1.99 per gallon - dollar wanted 6.99 per gallon if it was not full. Um, yeah, I think I will fill it myself, as**oles! I had a bit of trouble finding the rental car row, because when I put in the point for gps return, I did it from the parking lot, where tomtom barfs and says "no route found". I made a mistake when I moved the point, putting it on the interstate instead of rental car road, and had to drive a couple miles extra because of that. But check in was super fast, shuttle van was already waiting. No extra charges, thank you dollar!

On the van back to the airport, I jettisoned some trash, consolidated the boxes and other stuff I removed from my checked bag, and then stuffed it all in my backpack. The pelican hand luggage was stuffed to capacity, and super heavy. My backpack was the same situation, and I also had the art tube, giant winter coat, plus a small bag with food stuff. Wow, I was overloaded. When I went to the security line, they said "um, no", and walked me back to the ticket counter. The airport was pretty quiet at that time, and we were very close to boarding time cutoff. I was severely lucky that continental is easy to deal with. They forced me to check the pelican case, though they did not charge me after I whimpered that I had already spent 150 eXTRA for the third piece. They took my bag with all the cameras and other expensive stuff, checked it. 55 pounds, and no wheels, and barely bigger than a rolling carry on bag. I was actually relieved they did, I did NOT want to carry that thing around. Chalk up another reason why I really like flying with continental airlines! Their counter staff is awesome, and flight crews equally so.

Now back through security with my much lighter load, I had to run for the gate. I heard my name over the loudspeaker "last call". I arrived and was the last one on the plane, they shut the door right after I boarded. squeak! The changeover in Houston had a 2.5 hour dead spot, so I got on the phone with Hyper. He blasted me for not having any time in the morning to talk with him, but I explained the crazy day, and we worked out a lot of other issues. After that call, he apparently had some very insightful conversations with other people, and it gave him a lot of perspective on our relationship. This was all a very good thing, and it led us to have a nice meeting when he picked me up at Schiphol. My flight from Houston to Amsterdam was uneventful. No passenger in the middle seat, but I did not have the whole row to myself. I was able to sleep for about 4 of the 9 flight hours.

Schiphol, I love you. No customs agents, no trouble with my 4 giant plastic cases, plus backpack and coat and extra little bag of stuff. That luggage cart was carrying nearly 300 pounds of crap! I rolled it all the way out to the passenger pickup area, and had to avoid some giant hole the crews had dug in both sidewalks. Hyper arrived about 15 minutes later, and I was on my way home. We had a huge conversation in the car, where we both re-dedicated ourselves to each other. There were tears, it was a very good talk. Sleep that night was very enjoyable, and quite deep.