Weekend Update
Hello out there in LJ land! Well, we're back from Arisia. Everything went smoothly (with minor snags - see below), and a good time was had by all.
Highlights include:
* A lovely Shabbat dinner hosted by chaiya and hakamadare, with actual tables and chairs - and even a sofa :-)
* An opportunity to watch Shaolin Soccer with a crowd... accompanied by many shrieks of laughter
* Watching sdavido run teams of eager volunteers through the Dr. Who Alien Challenge (and then watching several contestants show off their creations at the Masquerade)
* A midafternoon fire alarm which was caused by a basement leak (any drop in pressure in the sprinkler system summons the fire department)
* A concert by edstauff on a real, live organ
* gnomi's birthday party
* Dinner and conversation with folkmew and edstauff
* And, of course - the snowstorm! The div-heads started laying out a contingency plan as soon as we realized people might be staying at the hotel longer than they'd intended. Fortunately we were able to move things around into available space to keep people entertained. The gamers kept gaming, the filkers kept filking, the video-watchers kept watching videos, the dealers kept dealing, and assorted groups of people gathered on the mezzanine or in the consuite to hang out and chat. At a (total) guess there were probably 400 people in the hotel over Sunday night. Once the dust settled it was actually really nice - we got to relax and catch up with some people we only saw in passing during the weekend.
Tomorrow, back to reality! There is a lot of snow out there... the heaps by the sidewalks are shoulder-high, and the streets are narrowed as a consequence, and fairly messy. I hope I don't have any trouble getting to work in the morning!
Highlights include:
* A lovely Shabbat dinner hosted by chaiya and hakamadare, with actual tables and chairs - and even a sofa :-)
* An opportunity to watch Shaolin Soccer with a crowd... accompanied by many shrieks of laughter
* Watching sdavido run teams of eager volunteers through the Dr. Who Alien Challenge (and then watching several contestants show off their creations at the Masquerade)
* A midafternoon fire alarm which was caused by a basement leak (any drop in pressure in the sprinkler system summons the fire department)
* A concert by edstauff on a real, live organ
* gnomi's birthday party
* Dinner and conversation with folkmew and edstauff
* And, of course - the snowstorm! The div-heads started laying out a contingency plan as soon as we realized people might be staying at the hotel longer than they'd intended. Fortunately we were able to move things around into available space to keep people entertained. The gamers kept gaming, the filkers kept filking, the video-watchers kept watching videos, the dealers kept dealing, and assorted groups of people gathered on the mezzanine or in the consuite to hang out and chat. At a (total) guess there were probably 400 people in the hotel over Sunday night. Once the dust settled it was actually really nice - we got to relax and catch up with some people we only saw in passing during the weekend.
Tomorrow, back to reality! There is a lot of snow out there... the heaps by the sidewalks are shoulder-high, and the streets are narrowed as a consequence, and fairly messy. I hope I don't have any trouble getting to work in the morning!