Anthrocon 2007 Highlights; Part Three
Okay, last entry for this I promise. If you missed it, Part One is here, and Part Deux is here.
Now, on to Anthrocon 2007;
Part Three: Sunday, Monday & Tuesday!
After getting home and in bed late, Sil and I got up early again Sunday morning. Our plan was to catch a bite of breakfast at Steel City and I’d get in Ashes for the “Advanced Fursuiting” panel and she’d head to the dealer’s room to check up on some commissions she was having done. We were a little late getting downtown and Steel City was packed and short staffed. FoxChild had joined us for breakfast, but after 15 minutes of sitting there without anyone seeing to some coffee let alone our order, I knew if I stayed I wouldn’t have time. So I excused myself and headed back to the hotel to catch what I could in the SuperSponsor lounge for breakfast.
Two boxes of cereal later I was back in Ashes and headed down to the only panel I had planned to attend, beside my own, for the weekend. I interacted with Dex and Aiden Raccoon and Jaeger Fox along with a couple dozen furs out of suit while Lucky Dog and JD shared some insight with us. We went over posing for photos, some handy hand signals for communicating with your handler, dealing with problem children and pacing your self…High energy antics need to be followed by twice as much low activity movements.
From that panel I grabbed a trail mix bar and headed for the fursuit games where I caught up with Sil again in the convention center and posed for a few more pictures.
The fursuit games were brief for Ashes. There had to be nearly a hundred fursuiters turned out for the fursuit games because I swear we had two dozen fursuits on our team. The first game was “Tug of War.” Okay, I knew this was a bad choice in my gut when I heard it proposed and the event confirmed it. Let me explain. First, fursuit paws aren’t meant to have the kind of gripping power to hold onto a piece of ½” nylon rope. Second, rope burns are a very real reality in tug of war. Friction from rope running through faux fur, a synthetic material, will MELT the fur.
As it was, during the first of three pulls, one of the other suiters stepped on my right paw and ripped the outside digit away from the shoe. I was a trooper though…a more careful trooper now…and tied a knot on the end of our side of the rope so Streia could have a better purchase point on the anchor of the rope. Perro’s team took the last two pulls and I drifted out of the games, foot paw in hand and Sil and I walked back to the room and a waiting hot glue gun to repair Ashes’ foot paw.
Foot repaired and set, I put Ashes back on and Sil and I wandered down to the convention center again to see about getting involved in the games again but they were pretty much over so instead we went back to the Dealer’s Room as one of the commissions Sil was waiting for wasn’t quite done yet. So I wandered up and down the rows interacting with folks and just plain being a goof.
It was probably 4:00 in the afternoon when I finally doffed Ashes and grabbed a well earned shower. After cleaning up and getting dressed again Sil and I caught a late lunch at Fernandos. After that we walked back over to the convention center for Closing Ceremonies. 2,800 + furs and almost $6K raised for Animal Friends. I’m impressed by the first number and confused by the second. Anthrocon is a great con and all, but for its size, I dunno, shouldn't it naturally be raising more money for their charity? Okay ‘nuff said.
We snuck out of closing ceremonies as they started taking complaints…er I mean suggestions so we could be in the second floor lounge to meet folks for the Alt.Lifestyle.Furry dinner. By 6:30 we had 8 folks together, but six others were running late after getting involved in Closing Ceremonies and later a television interview. So I sent Sil on ahead with the 8 who were on time and I stayed behind to wrangle up the other half dozen. It was 8pm before we all sat down for a 7pm dinner at Buca di Beppo. (Thanks everyone for being patient.)
Ran into Herbie Hamill at Buca, drawing a picture of Yappy with a steaming plate of pasta on the sidewalk in chalk. He stopped by for a few minutes and chatted with the folks at the table. I acted like this was just a regular occurrence to prevent myself from going all fanboi on him. :)
Dinner was excellent even if the wait staff wasn’t. We followed dinner up with a trip up to the top of Mt. Washington, to view the evening skyline of Pittsburgh, and then stop at a cozy little ice cream shop up there for dessert.
Made it back to the hotel again at about 11:30pm and I was getting antsy to get into Ashes for one last fling around the hotel. I took my plush Dalmatian Ashes with me which worked out perfectly for a last hoorah for the pup before it was time for bed. :) (Next time I’m gonna have to take my 101 Dal sleeper with me for that last walk around…or maybe convert my old Sear’s one for suiting in. :) ) At any rate, I got some great parting shots with many of my friends and other fursuiters. Vixx, I’m sorry you had to go back to your room before we could get a pic together.
"Ashes is a tuckered out puppy"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was sad taking Ashes off early on Monday morning to pack him up to take the last bit of stuff out to the car from Javi’s room. We did manage to sleep in until 9am Monday morning which was filled with putting things away, starting the laundry, airing out the fire coat and giving Ashes a once over with a few shots of Endbac and leave his crate open to air out.
He’s such a cutie and me being the sentimental sap I am couldn’t help but look him in the eyes and say, “Good job pup. We definitely had some magic together this weekend and we had a ball doing it.” I gave him a gentle hug and put him upside down in his crate. *wipes a tear away.* I have a small tear at a seam near the back of his lower jaw that needs a quick spot stitch, but all in all he’s holding up well.
Oh! Something I should note. When scratching Ashes, or anyone else in suit for that matter. Go easy. It’s not going to matter how hard you scratch Ashes’ head…I’m not going to feel anything but the head rocking back and forth and it creates excess wear on the fur and stress on the seams. Ashes loves the scratches, just be gentler with him. K? THNX. :D
Midway through our grocery run Furp called to tell us he was ready to be picked back up and brought back to the house. After picking him up and trying not to get waylaid by a ton of good byes again, we headed to Best Buy to get him a replacement phone and then the grocery store before we hit home again.
Innerwolf stopped by with Firewing shortly there after and the five of us headed to Chili’s to grab dinner and catch up…something we hadn’t had the chance to do at the con surprise, surprise. We bade our friends from Chicago a safe trip and headed back to the den. I had fire department minutes that I needed to get typed up, along with the calendars and other incidentals but by 8:30 I had that completed. I had promised Furp a ride in the fire engine and since I had a membership package that needed to be mailed last week, I’d kill two birds with one stone and used Engine 2 to conduct department business and drive down to the post office.
When we got back we made a quick run over to Dave and Andy’s for an ice cream.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, after work Sil and I took Furp out to the airport to catch his flight to Philly so he could make his connecting British Airways flight to Heathrow and from there Kurdistan. That in itself was a trick, considering his return US Air ticket was lost with his baggage last week, they were being pricks and charging him the one way fare again because he didn’t have his paper ticket, even though they had his reservation in their system. Furp was going to try to extend his stay in the States by bumping his reservations on British Airways, but there are only three flights into Kurdistan and the Saturday and Monday flights were booked. The earliest he can get a flight is next Wednesday! So we run back to the US Airways counter, Furp pays the one way fare to Philly while we listen to folks around us trying to work out several flight cancellations to other airports on the east coast.
Things back in order, we gave Furp a last round of hugs and let him know that if he got stranded in either Pittsburgh or Philly to give us a call and we’ll pick him up or pull some strings to make sure he was taken care of. He called about 10:30 that evening as he was boarding the British Airways flight to England.
He called yesterday evening to let us know he arrived safely although he lost yet another piece of baggage. *face paws*
Oh well. Great con thanks to everyone on staff from CEO on down to the volunteers, and thanks to everyone I met, talked to and/or interacted with! YOU ALL ROXXORS MY SOXXORS!!
*SUPA-FOXIE HUGS!*
Swifty and Ashes.
Now, on to Anthrocon 2007;
Part Three: Sunday, Monday & Tuesday!
After getting home and in bed late, Sil and I got up early again Sunday morning. Our plan was to catch a bite of breakfast at Steel City and I’d get in Ashes for the “Advanced Fursuiting” panel and she’d head to the dealer’s room to check up on some commissions she was having done. We were a little late getting downtown and Steel City was packed and short staffed. FoxChild had joined us for breakfast, but after 15 minutes of sitting there without anyone seeing to some coffee let alone our order, I knew if I stayed I wouldn’t have time. So I excused myself and headed back to the hotel to catch what I could in the SuperSponsor lounge for breakfast.
Two boxes of cereal later I was back in Ashes and headed down to the only panel I had planned to attend, beside my own, for the weekend. I interacted with Dex and Aiden Raccoon and Jaeger Fox along with a couple dozen furs out of suit while Lucky Dog and JD shared some insight with us. We went over posing for photos, some handy hand signals for communicating with your handler, dealing with problem children and pacing your self…High energy antics need to be followed by twice as much low activity movements.
From that panel I grabbed a trail mix bar and headed for the fursuit games where I caught up with Sil again in the convention center and posed for a few more pictures.
The fursuit games were brief for Ashes. There had to be nearly a hundred fursuiters turned out for the fursuit games because I swear we had two dozen fursuits on our team. The first game was “Tug of War.” Okay, I knew this was a bad choice in my gut when I heard it proposed and the event confirmed it. Let me explain. First, fursuit paws aren’t meant to have the kind of gripping power to hold onto a piece of ½” nylon rope. Second, rope burns are a very real reality in tug of war. Friction from rope running through faux fur, a synthetic material, will MELT the fur.
As it was, during the first of three pulls, one of the other suiters stepped on my right paw and ripped the outside digit away from the shoe. I was a trooper though…a more careful trooper now…and tied a knot on the end of our side of the rope so Streia could have a better purchase point on the anchor of the rope. Perro’s team took the last two pulls and I drifted out of the games, foot paw in hand and Sil and I walked back to the room and a waiting hot glue gun to repair Ashes’ foot paw.
Foot repaired and set, I put Ashes back on and Sil and I wandered down to the convention center again to see about getting involved in the games again but they were pretty much over so instead we went back to the Dealer’s Room as one of the commissions Sil was waiting for wasn’t quite done yet. So I wandered up and down the rows interacting with folks and just plain being a goof.
It was probably 4:00 in the afternoon when I finally doffed Ashes and grabbed a well earned shower. After cleaning up and getting dressed again Sil and I caught a late lunch at Fernandos. After that we walked back over to the convention center for Closing Ceremonies. 2,800 + furs and almost $6K raised for Animal Friends. I’m impressed by the first number and confused by the second. Anthrocon is a great con and all, but for its size, I dunno, shouldn't it naturally be raising more money for their charity? Okay ‘nuff said.
We snuck out of closing ceremonies as they started taking complaints…er I mean suggestions so we could be in the second floor lounge to meet folks for the Alt.Lifestyle.Furry dinner. By 6:30 we had 8 folks together, but six others were running late after getting involved in Closing Ceremonies and later a television interview. So I sent Sil on ahead with the 8 who were on time and I stayed behind to wrangle up the other half dozen. It was 8pm before we all sat down for a 7pm dinner at Buca di Beppo. (Thanks everyone for being patient.)
Ran into Herbie Hamill at Buca, drawing a picture of Yappy with a steaming plate of pasta on the sidewalk in chalk. He stopped by for a few minutes and chatted with the folks at the table. I acted like this was just a regular occurrence to prevent myself from going all fanboi on him. :)
Dinner was excellent even if the wait staff wasn’t. We followed dinner up with a trip up to the top of Mt. Washington, to view the evening skyline of Pittsburgh, and then stop at a cozy little ice cream shop up there for dessert.
Made it back to the hotel again at about 11:30pm and I was getting antsy to get into Ashes for one last fling around the hotel. I took my plush Dalmatian Ashes with me which worked out perfectly for a last hoorah for the pup before it was time for bed. :) (Next time I’m gonna have to take my 101 Dal sleeper with me for that last walk around…or maybe convert my old Sear’s one for suiting in. :) ) At any rate, I got some great parting shots with many of my friends and other fursuiters. Vixx, I’m sorry you had to go back to your room before we could get a pic together.
"Ashes is a tuckered out puppy"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was sad taking Ashes off early on Monday morning to pack him up to take the last bit of stuff out to the car from Javi’s room. We did manage to sleep in until 9am Monday morning which was filled with putting things away, starting the laundry, airing out the fire coat and giving Ashes a once over with a few shots of Endbac and leave his crate open to air out.
He’s such a cutie and me being the sentimental sap I am couldn’t help but look him in the eyes and say, “Good job pup. We definitely had some magic together this weekend and we had a ball doing it.” I gave him a gentle hug and put him upside down in his crate. *wipes a tear away.* I have a small tear at a seam near the back of his lower jaw that needs a quick spot stitch, but all in all he’s holding up well.
Oh! Something I should note. When scratching Ashes, or anyone else in suit for that matter. Go easy. It’s not going to matter how hard you scratch Ashes’ head…I’m not going to feel anything but the head rocking back and forth and it creates excess wear on the fur and stress on the seams. Ashes loves the scratches, just be gentler with him. K? THNX. :D
Midway through our grocery run Furp called to tell us he was ready to be picked back up and brought back to the house. After picking him up and trying not to get waylaid by a ton of good byes again, we headed to Best Buy to get him a replacement phone and then the grocery store before we hit home again.
Innerwolf stopped by with Firewing shortly there after and the five of us headed to Chili’s to grab dinner and catch up…something we hadn’t had the chance to do at the con surprise, surprise. We bade our friends from Chicago a safe trip and headed back to the den. I had fire department minutes that I needed to get typed up, along with the calendars and other incidentals but by 8:30 I had that completed. I had promised Furp a ride in the fire engine and since I had a membership package that needed to be mailed last week, I’d kill two birds with one stone and used Engine 2 to conduct department business and drive down to the post office.
When we got back we made a quick run over to Dave and Andy’s for an ice cream.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, after work Sil and I took Furp out to the airport to catch his flight to Philly so he could make his connecting British Airways flight to Heathrow and from there Kurdistan. That in itself was a trick, considering his return US Air ticket was lost with his baggage last week, they were being pricks and charging him the one way fare again because he didn’t have his paper ticket, even though they had his reservation in their system. Furp was going to try to extend his stay in the States by bumping his reservations on British Airways, but there are only three flights into Kurdistan and the Saturday and Monday flights were booked. The earliest he can get a flight is next Wednesday! So we run back to the US Airways counter, Furp pays the one way fare to Philly while we listen to folks around us trying to work out several flight cancellations to other airports on the east coast.
Things back in order, we gave Furp a last round of hugs and let him know that if he got stranded in either Pittsburgh or Philly to give us a call and we’ll pick him up or pull some strings to make sure he was taken care of. He called about 10:30 that evening as he was boarding the British Airways flight to England.
He called yesterday evening to let us know he arrived safely although he lost yet another piece of baggage. *face paws*
Oh well. Great con thanks to everyone on staff from CEO on down to the volunteers, and thanks to everyone I met, talked to and/or interacted with! YOU ALL ROXXORS MY SOXXORS!!
*SUPA-FOXIE HUGS!*
Swifty and Ashes.