It is so close! Nicona and I will be leaving early Sunday for Pittsburgh. Early! Well before sunrise. Will be in Effingham, Ill by dinner time and Pittsburgh by Monday afternoon. Still so much to do though.

Will I see any of you this year?

Yesterday was my 10th anniversary here on FA. I discovered the fandom shortly before that. But, as I discovered, I have been a furry all my life. I just didn't know there was a name for it till I saw the infamous CSI episode. There is so much wrong with that show, but it inspired my husband to do some research. That's when we truly discovered the fandom. And now we are assistant director and director of registration at Anthrocon. Who'd have thought?

Yep. It's my birthday today. Got pretty spoiled this year. Got a very nice Breville toaster oven (been wanting one for a while), the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, a whole bunch of cookbooks and, from my son, an album to organize my coin and currency collection. Also, a very nice dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant. And Nicona is fixing dinner tonight.

Still, going to be hard to really celebrate after what happened yesterday. One of the Vegas fatalities was a local. And we had several survivors in the crowd. I bet most cities around Vegas will have survivors and victims. Everyone is in my thoughts and prayers right now. Such a senseless tragedy and we may never know why.

Today is packing day. Still so much to do for us too. Then, bright and early tomorrow, we hit the road, making a stop tomorrow evening in Effingham, IL. Then onto Pittsburgh Monday afternoon.

Tuesday is our fun day. We're going to the zoo and then having dinner on the Gateway Clipper Fleet. Then, Wednesday the work begins.

Don't know if any of you are coming to AC. If you are, make sure and stop by pre-reg and say Hi!

Today, I have been married to my wolf for 26 years. We will be celebrating on the Gateway Clipper dinner cruise in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I can't believe it's been 26 years. I love him more today than the day I married him.

Thorfax could use some happy thoughts or prayers or whatever you do. He's in a real dark place right now and I don't know how else to help him. As a mother, the feeling of helplessness is the worst. I wish I could help him right now, but I can't. All I can do is show him my love and support. I wish I could go into details, but I want to respect his privacy. Let's just say it's bad.

A German shepherd named Rumor just won Best in Show at Westminster. It's only the 2nd time in history that a German shepherd has won. The last time was in 1987. And she almost wasn't there. She retired after last year's competition, but her owner decided to put her back in competition in January. And she takes it all!

This has been the worst year in recent memory for celebrity deaths. And they all seem to be icons from my childhood. David Bowie, Gary Marshall, Gene Wilder, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, George Micheal. Just to name a few. I'm so ready for the new year.

I'd like to wish all my friends a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all get what you want for Christmas.

Go to www.anthrocon.org/registration to register for Anthrocon 2017. You will notice a new registration system this year. It's really nice. And, cool enough, it's called Reg Fox. Like it was made for us. I hope to see some of you there.

Today, I am 46. I had a great weekend! Yesterday, my in-laws took us to the Broadmoor for brunch. It was so good. Then we walked around their lake and had drinks at the bar. Such a nice morning. Tonight, Nicona is taking me to dinner at the Bonefish Grill. I will be having coconut custard pie for dessert. That is absolutely my favorite pie and they do it very well with Myer rum sauce on top.

Only downside for the day. I'm leaving soon for my annual physical. Not going to be pleasant. Some of my blood work was bad. But, hopefully if I can lose weight, that will change.

I am just sick about this. We had 2 Amur tigers at our zoo. The male, Ivan, was fairly new. He was brought in as a mate for our 8 year old Zoya. They had been showing that the really like each other. Lots of rubbing and rolling and chuffing The had mated several times since February without problems. Wednesday, they were brought together again. Something went terribly wrong. Zoya suddenly attacked Ivan. He defended himself and fatally wounded her in the neck.

I have watched her grow up since she was a newborn. I have at least one photo of her in my gallery (I haven't looked recently). The only good out of this is that she will still be a mother. They harvested her eggs some time ago and they will artificially inseminate another female. Zoya's DNA is very highly coveted by the Species Survival Plan.

I just want to cry.

Anthrocon was great this year. Lots of new responsibilities. Pre-reg was my department and it went great! I had the best volunteers. They worked so hard. I was so proud of them. Pre-reg went smoother than it has in years. The only problem I had, that everyone had, was ID for minors. Luckily, I only had a few without any ID, but their parents were with them, so I was able to work with that with a little creativity.

I am sorry for those of you who had to stand in the on-site line on Thursday. We had printer issues. Poor Nicona ended up missing the board dinner, but the board was nice enough to bring him food. We are working on things so, hopefully, we won't have the same issues next year.

For the first time since attending AC 8 years ago, I was able to actually watch the masquerade. And it was amazing! I have seen the practices and have never seen such talent. I was totally impressed.

I got to talk to guest of honor Joaquin Baldwin (layout supervisor for Zootopia, among others). He gave me a little figurine of a voodoo doll from his award winning animated short "Sebastian's Voodoo". I have it sitting on my alarm clock. He is such a nice guy and came across very quiet and shy. All our guests said they had a great time.

Now, it's time to get ready for next year's AC. Our work is year round.

Today is my 25th wedding anniversary. Wow! I can't believe it's been that long. And I love Nicona so much more today than I did the day I married him.

Anthrocon. We will be leaving very early Sunday morning and getting to Pittsburgh Monday afternoon. It's a long drive from Colorado. Tuesday, we play tourist. It's our one time to really relax before the con, cause Wednesday starts all the hard work. This year, we are staying an extra day. We will be going on the Gateway Clipper dinner cruise for the Fourth of July. Should be a great way to see the fireworks.

If you're attending AC, come by registration and say hi. I know of 2 people who aren't going to make it.  captainfurry and  hypr won't be coming this year. I'm sure going to miss both of them. It will be weird not being in the masquerade.

Today is a special day in my family. Not only because of Memorial Day and my family is full of veterans, but it is also my dad's birthday. We are going to Ft Logan National Cemetery in Denver today to visit my dad, mom and grandpa. The cemetery is beautiful this weekend. They line the streets with American flags and all the gravestones have small American flags placed in front of them. We don't go every year, but because of dad's birthday, I wanted to go this year.
I hope everyone has a wonderful unofficial start to summer today!

That is a totally sarcastic title. I am not having fun at all. First of all, I started with the nasal pillow mask. That's a mask that covers the nostrils and is relatively small. Big problem with it. I can't breathe through my mouth. I open my mouth, air rushes out of it. I need to be able to breathe through my mouth. I have asthma and at times it feels like I don't get enough air through my nose. I actually had a panic attack because I couldn't breathe. Needless to say, I took the mask off and the next day called my provider. I decided the full mask would be better since I can breathe through my mouth. I've been on the full mask for a few days now and am not sleeping well yet. I know I will get used to it, but waiting to do so is a pain in the ass. I haven't had a full night's sleep since April 7th. But, at least I can breathe better.

My worst feels have been realized. I had a sleep study last night to try to find out why my O2 levels drop at night. I just found out I have sleep apnea. I may have to sleep with a bipap machine on. Got a little taste of one last night and it was terrible. Will not be fun sleeping with one of those. Hopefully, I can just do with the straight O2 and not the mask. Will have to see what my doctor says.

For the weekend. ;) For those of you who don't already know, Nicona was appointed the new director of registration at Anthrocon. This weekend is the board of directors meeting in Pittsburgh. He's leaving early tomorrow morning and will be home late Sunday night.

This will be a hard weekend for me. We haven't been apart for this length of time for probably 12 years or more. I will be taking sleeping pills, otherwise there will be no sleeping. At least I have my in-laws to keep me company Saturday. We'll be going to our local zoo. Thorfax will be at work for the most part, so except for the zoo, I will be alone (except for my dogs, of course). I hate being alone.