This weekend was so uberly relaxing that the degree of relax should be illegal in most states. It was definitely a really nice one.

Ruthie and I went to her very smashing hometown of Louisville. It’s a pretty kickin’ lil city, for sure. Before this past weekend, I had only been through there on I-65 on the way to Chicago. As far as cities go, I guess it’s about the size of Denver.

On Friday, we got there. I took the day off, and we spent the morning & afternoon on the road. It was quite the pleasant trip. There wasn’t any rain to speak of, and traffic was fairly light. I have definitely seen worse. When we arrived in Louisville, we stopped off at the very spiffy B & B at which we were staying for the weekend. It was a really nice one, although it was my first B & B experience. It’s just like a hotel, only it’s in a house in your average & typical neighborhood.

That night, we had dinner on the river on a riverboat. It was a nice southern meal of fried chicken, green beans & potatoes. I really liked, of course, being the chicken aficionado that I am 🙂 Both her parents were there and made very awesome company for the meal and the little cruise.

Saturday was quite busy. We started out at the zoo, where we saw the lorikeets, an albino alligator, a polar bear and a bunch of monkeys. The lorikeets were quite content on resting on my head. After the zoo, we hit Six Flags. It was amazing, because the lines were infinitely shorter than those of Six Flags in Georgia. The coolest ride, besides all of the roller coasters, was the sky coaster. I think it’s probably the best $30 that one could ever spend, and I recommend it to anyone. Quite the thrill ride. There was a Stargate ride there, too, that was a bit cheesy. It was good to see some of that at Six Flags, though, despite the cheese.

That night, we had dinner at Le Relais at the airfield, a French restaurant. It began with a very awesome appetizer of cheesy-type bread that tasted a lot like Goldfish crackers. The appetizers continued twice thereafter until we finally got to the main course of steak. It had to have been the greatest steak I have ever tasted. It was a perfect medium rare. After the main course, we adjourned to the patio where there was a balloon glow happening on the airfield. It was amazingly kewl. It was something I hadn’t seen since I was about 11 years old.

After the balloon glow, we went on a flight in a Piper around the city. It was definitely quite the shiznit. It has inspired me to start ground school in the spring, and perhaps get my pilot’s license by the end of next summer. It’ll be a good way to ease myself into grad school, too, since UAH gives ground school classes. Of course, after I get that, I might be tempted to do some more adventurous things, like get scuba certification 😀

All-in-all, it was an extremely wonderful weekend. Her hometown is awesome, and I can’t wait to visit it again–there’ll be plenty of other things to do the next time we’re there. It makes me realize how boring Huntsville can be sometimes. Most of the time, it’s alright. It’s definitely no Chicago, by any stretch of the imagination.

I found out, too, that my brother got his first real job in Milwaukee. He is going to be starting next Monday, so this weekend will be spent moving him up there into a hotel room. The next week, we’ll go back up there to help move him into an apartment–hopefully he’ll have found one by then. I’m definitely going to miss him, but I know that he’ll be a helluva lot more happy there than here. Cumulus really does treat him like crap, and it’ll be good for him to get some experience before getting his dream job at WGN radio. Anyhoo, if anyone listens to internet radio much, he’ll be on WISN doing the morning show (5:30-8:30). He’s a producer, but they’ve said he’ll definitely get airtime.

meme-fulness

Kingdom of Loathing

Oh, this D*C was quite magnificently kewl 🙂 I got a few pictures–not as many as I figured I would. They really were anal about pictures in the Hyatt for some reason. It really sucks, because that’s one of the better parts of D*C; taking pictures of costumes.

Anyhoo, the pictures I did get were quite kewl in themselves; they were characters, for the most part, that I didn’t get pictures of previous years. The Willy Wonka character was really kewl; they were in the food court, of all places.

Next year, I may do the Sith thing. I’ll have to get a red blade for the saber, and I’ll have to either get ahold of some black material. I think I could get away with using the same pattern that the Jedi outfit was.

The panels were pretty kewl today. The more popular panels were in the Hyatt in the Courtland room. The panels in those smaller rooms are really frustrating because, even if you get there early, that’s just not early enough. There was a line going all the way down the hall for an SG panel. We didn’t stick around, but went to another.

Tricia Helfer (Number Six) was on a Galactica panel today–she substituted for some others, I don’t know who, and did really well. I knew I had to see at least one Galactica character at this D*C.

The Klingon Beauty Pageant was kind of lame this year. It was extremely disorganized and the performances from the participants were trite, at best. It also lasted 30 minutes longer than it should have. The girl who won this year was one that I really liked last year, but didn’t win.

Alas, it came to an end too early. If D*C lasted a week, I would be one happy camper 🙂 I should find some cons closer to home so that I can have an excuse to put on the Jedi garb.

So, the first day of D*C was really quite awesome. Nah, awesome doesn’t even describe it. It really is an addiction, coming here year after year–and it’s only my 3rd. I hope I keep this enthusiasm through the decades.. Because, of course D*C will never end. lol.

I put a couple of pictures up on the site today–I’ll probably get some more this evening if we happen to wander around the Hyatt. I saw pictures saying “No Photographs”, but it seems that people are taking them anyway. It doesn’t look like the bouncers are giving anyone crap about it, either, so I think I’ll snap a few.. Quite a few.. Alright, a whole slew.

In the morning, the first panel we saw was Kevin Sorbo. I haven’t watched much Andromeda or Hercules, but he was a pretty kewl guy to listen to. Next, we saw Robert Jordan. I have never read “Wheel of Time” but I think that after hearing him and everything all my friends have had to say about him, I think it’s about time I got on the ball and got to reading 🙂 The last panel we saw was this “Whose Line is it, Anyway” panel. It was pretty frickin hillarious.

I got a lightsaber with a blue blade to go with my Jedi outfit. I’ll probably be wearing that again this evening at the Hyatt.

I saw Val in the Dealer Room. We happened to bump into each other just after I got my Jedi toy. It was kewl to see a familiar face 🙂

Anyhoo, off to geek the night away..

So, D*C is today & this weekend. w00t!

For the past couple of days, I’ve been debating whether or not to go. It all came to a head last night when I totally had to make a final decision–so that I could cancel the room (or not).

Gas has been really funny this week; it’s gone up $0.50 in the past two days–it’s holding steady at $2.99/gal. The really odd part is that it’s $2.99 all over town, with no variation. Even Wal-Mart, which is usually the least expensive, is set at that price. It’s very ominous–a combination of that, warnings from the folks, and calls for conservation made me second-guess going.

But, I think I’m gonna risk it. My main concern was getting stranded. Gas prices are still generally tolerable. I don’t drive much as it is and, when I do, it’s usually to go across town or to carpool to work with my dad. Shortages would definitely be an uber bad thing, and getting stranded because of it would be extremely lousy.

Anyhoo, after totally deciding not to go, I changed my mind–for the last time. I don’t think things are necessarily so dire to miss out on such an awesome event (especially since it’s all paid for).

I’m going to fill the gas tank after using 1/4 of it, just so I have a big just-in-case buffer. Then, I think I might fill at the state line (since I think I can make it from the state line to Atlanta on around that same amount of gas).

Anyway, I’ll probably post a little from D*C–I don’t think internet is all that expensive (it may be free *shrugs*). But, if I don’t, a few postings will follow after I get back.