back home from the browncoat ball
i had a fantastic time in austin and at the browncoat ball!
sparky77 arrived in chicago and we headed out to austin together on thursday. we picked up the rental car she had reserved (and now i totally want a dodge charger now), we stopped by her friend zuleikhajami's house for a bit (where i met her husband - they make such a cute couple!) and then went to a little coffee shop for a bite to eat. she dropped me off at the hotel and went to pick up arriving NSPs. a little while later we were all together - me, sparky77, sffan, emungere, justblue0162, janeeyre17 and puffgirl_two.
we headed to magnolia for dinner and i had pancakes! the most delicious pancakes ever! they put the banana (or other fruit) directly into the batter! i have not had pancakes like that since my mom would make them for us for breakfast. we ate at magnolia pretty much every day and i had banana pancakes almost every time (except for the time i had enchiladas). *sigh* wish i could have them again... we also went quite frequently to a stand which had some very delicious cupcakes.
there was much chatting and hanging out the whole time we were in austin. we watched iron man (which i hadn't seen yet - it was awesome!) and on other nights we watched about 8 eps of the middleman...and a documentary...
friday afternoon we headed to the mall where there was much sucessful shopping, then back to the hotel to pick up our registration packets and get ready for that night's gathering.
the badge and ship's papers were inspired! really cool stuff! and in the program booklet there was a welcome letter from jane espenson herself! - the writer of the episode shindig which inspired the ball. that was pretty awesome!
friday evening was the meet-n-greet with crafts and i made myself a bracelet. they had strips of leather, some suede cords to tie them with and there was a block of marble to lay the leather down on. There were some letters and symbols that we could impress into the leather by hammering them into the leather strip. justblue0162 got her craft on by kindly making the bracelets for a couple of those in our group. there was also another table where you could make a dance card and other stuff but i don't think any of us did that.
there was a chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows, pretzel sticks and platters of fruit. we got there a little late so we missed most of the appetizers.
i caught up with ammy_fury and then ammy, sparky77 and i talked a bit about the final choice for the 2009 browncoat ball. we had left if so last minute 'cause we were having a hard time choosing the city... our committee was tied in voting but we made our decicion and needed to announce it at the ball on saturday.
after the meet-n-greet we headed back to our room to hang out.
saturday morning was the track portion of the bcb. i had tai chi - and the instructer was fabulous! she was fun and really tied her class into the firefly universe. she referred to us as companions in training and made examples of certain things inara had done, etc. it was very enjoyable.
then, off to mah jong with puffgirl_two. we learned to play a pretty simple version and puff won the first game! go puff! and then, they raffled off the sets we were using and i won one! woo!!!
meanwhile
kernelm and
virtualinsomnia arrived :)
i went back to the room and had planned on going out to explore a bit but the late nights had gotten to me and i took a nap instead. others went off to the mall and other stuff. i ended up skipping the podcasting track 'cause i was still so sleepy.
i started getting ready for the ball and my roommates arrived and when we were all ready we headed down to pick up the rest of our gang... when we arrived at the ball and very friendly official photographer took a picture of our group and of us individually. i can't wait to see the pictures. kernelm was dressed as mal and vitualinsomnia was dressed as simon! (some of us decided we had to make mal and simon make out at some point :) ) everone was dressed really wonderfully in theme with the 'verse (except for me, i wore something much more regular) we headed in to the ball and as i thought about how i wanted to be announced (like in the shindig episode of firefly) i remembered that i had been mrs simon tam the last few times so, that's what i did again :)
there was a game to be played during the ball, but we didn't realize we had to be the quickest to hand the stuff in. so while we collected stuff, we didn't win since it was already too late due to the freakishly fast browncoats who got their stuff in first. sparky77 and zuleikhajami took charge of our "loot" and traded with fellow browncoats. they got people to bring them food and bring us the other types of loot found at the other tables. one lady even tied a cherry stem with her tounge for us!
after dinner and some dancing we headed up to the room for middleman and hanging out. i made a lot of progress on the socks i was knitting.
sunday morning brunch was good and we got to say final goodbyes to some of the browncoats we knew :) and kernelm and virtualinsomia headed off to pick up their puppy and head home...
then, another trip to magnolia for dinner and then a few of our group headed off to a "so you think you can dance" event while the rest of us hung out at the hotel, relaxing - although i had a scare when we arrived at magnolia - i tripped and fell against a handrail and gave myself a pretty big lump on my head. luckily the fall wasn't too bad since i hit the railing and not the edge of the concrete the handrail was cemented into! we went in to magnolia's and they gave me a bag of ice which helped tremendously to keep the swelling down - and of course, i had pancakes. later that night i realized that my leg was hurting quite a bit and checked to find pretty huge bruise on my thigh. i also realized that i had bumped myself on my temple too when i found a little bit of blood... my bruise is huge now and very dark purple. ow...
monday, breakfast at magnolia and then back to the hotel to finish off packing and head to the airport (slight detour to whole foods).
i miss austin already - and i miss the gang even more...
oh! the browncoat ball will be in portland, oregon in 2009. i plan on going... how about you?
eta: pictures to follow soon. i'm not sure i'm happy with the pictures my fancy new camera took...
eta2: forgot to say again thank you so much to the NSPs who were with me when i fell...they made sure i was alright :)
sparky77 arrived in chicago and we headed out to austin together on thursday. we picked up the rental car she had reserved (and now i totally want a dodge charger now), we stopped by her friend zuleikhajami's house for a bit (where i met her husband - they make such a cute couple!) and then went to a little coffee shop for a bite to eat. she dropped me off at the hotel and went to pick up arriving NSPs. a little while later we were all together - me, sparky77, sffan, emungere, justblue0162, janeeyre17 and puffgirl_two.
we headed to magnolia for dinner and i had pancakes! the most delicious pancakes ever! they put the banana (or other fruit) directly into the batter! i have not had pancakes like that since my mom would make them for us for breakfast. we ate at magnolia pretty much every day and i had banana pancakes almost every time (except for the time i had enchiladas). *sigh* wish i could have them again... we also went quite frequently to a stand which had some very delicious cupcakes.
there was much chatting and hanging out the whole time we were in austin. we watched iron man (which i hadn't seen yet - it was awesome!) and on other nights we watched about 8 eps of the middleman...and a documentary...
friday afternoon we headed to the mall where there was much sucessful shopping, then back to the hotel to pick up our registration packets and get ready for that night's gathering.
the badge and ship's papers were inspired! really cool stuff! and in the program booklet there was a welcome letter from jane espenson herself! - the writer of the episode shindig which inspired the ball. that was pretty awesome!
friday evening was the meet-n-greet with crafts and i made myself a bracelet. they had strips of leather, some suede cords to tie them with and there was a block of marble to lay the leather down on. There were some letters and symbols that we could impress into the leather by hammering them into the leather strip. justblue0162 got her craft on by kindly making the bracelets for a couple of those in our group. there was also another table where you could make a dance card and other stuff but i don't think any of us did that.
there was a chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows, pretzel sticks and platters of fruit. we got there a little late so we missed most of the appetizers.
i caught up with ammy_fury and then ammy, sparky77 and i talked a bit about the final choice for the 2009 browncoat ball. we had left if so last minute 'cause we were having a hard time choosing the city... our committee was tied in voting but we made our decicion and needed to announce it at the ball on saturday.
after the meet-n-greet we headed back to our room to hang out.
saturday morning was the track portion of the bcb. i had tai chi - and the instructer was fabulous! she was fun and really tied her class into the firefly universe. she referred to us as companions in training and made examples of certain things inara had done, etc. it was very enjoyable.
then, off to mah jong with puffgirl_two. we learned to play a pretty simple version and puff won the first game! go puff! and then, they raffled off the sets we were using and i won one! woo!!!
meanwhile
kernelm and
virtualinsomnia arrived :)
i went back to the room and had planned on going out to explore a bit but the late nights had gotten to me and i took a nap instead. others went off to the mall and other stuff. i ended up skipping the podcasting track 'cause i was still so sleepy.
i started getting ready for the ball and my roommates arrived and when we were all ready we headed down to pick up the rest of our gang... when we arrived at the ball and very friendly official photographer took a picture of our group and of us individually. i can't wait to see the pictures. kernelm was dressed as mal and vitualinsomnia was dressed as simon! (some of us decided we had to make mal and simon make out at some point :) ) everone was dressed really wonderfully in theme with the 'verse (except for me, i wore something much more regular) we headed in to the ball and as i thought about how i wanted to be announced (like in the shindig episode of firefly) i remembered that i had been mrs simon tam the last few times so, that's what i did again :)
there was a game to be played during the ball, but we didn't realize we had to be the quickest to hand the stuff in. so while we collected stuff, we didn't win since it was already too late due to the freakishly fast browncoats who got their stuff in first. sparky77 and zuleikhajami took charge of our "loot" and traded with fellow browncoats. they got people to bring them food and bring us the other types of loot found at the other tables. one lady even tied a cherry stem with her tounge for us!
after dinner and some dancing we headed up to the room for middleman and hanging out. i made a lot of progress on the socks i was knitting.
sunday morning brunch was good and we got to say final goodbyes to some of the browncoats we knew :) and kernelm and virtualinsomia headed off to pick up their puppy and head home...
then, another trip to magnolia for dinner and then a few of our group headed off to a "so you think you can dance" event while the rest of us hung out at the hotel, relaxing - although i had a scare when we arrived at magnolia - i tripped and fell against a handrail and gave myself a pretty big lump on my head. luckily the fall wasn't too bad since i hit the railing and not the edge of the concrete the handrail was cemented into! we went in to magnolia's and they gave me a bag of ice which helped tremendously to keep the swelling down - and of course, i had pancakes. later that night i realized that my leg was hurting quite a bit and checked to find pretty huge bruise on my thigh. i also realized that i had bumped myself on my temple too when i found a little bit of blood... my bruise is huge now and very dark purple. ow...
monday, breakfast at magnolia and then back to the hotel to finish off packing and head to the airport (slight detour to whole foods).
i miss austin already - and i miss the gang even more...
oh! the browncoat ball will be in portland, oregon in 2009. i plan on going... how about you?
eta: pictures to follow soon. i'm not sure i'm happy with the pictures my fancy new camera took...
eta2: forgot to say again thank you so much to the NSPs who were with me when i fell...they made sure i was alright :)