Labor Day weekend!

[mckitterick]

I did not end up going to WorldCon this year, despite initially having planned to do so; the educational track didn't come together as hoped, so I saved my pennies and simplified the start of the semester by not heading to Chicago for the weekend. Which is too bad, because on Sunday night new KU creative-writing prof Kij Johnson won the Hugo Award for best novella for "The Man Who Bridged the Mist"! This is the same story that also recently won the Nebula Award. That's what I call starting one's teaching career with a bang.

Instead, I had a real vacation weekend. This included writing, of course (further progress on The Adventures of Jack and Stella), tinkering with the vehicles, reading (right now it's the first book of the Harry Potter series and something called, Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos), hanging out with friends, and two more events.

The first, on Saturday, was this year's Greaserama. For the first time at this punk-car-culture event (and its second car-show ever), I drove the hot-rod Newport. Friends Matt and AJ drove over with me. Here we are at the show:



Lots of photos from the show on my website (let me know if you have issues with the gallery - experimenting). At nightfall, we watched a double feature at the Boulevard Drive-in theater where the event is held: "Boulevard Nights" followed by "The Warriors," both circa 1979. Just as the first movie was about to start, everyone fired up their rods' engines and made as much noise as possible. It's not just parental pride when I say it was the loudest bastard out there on Saturday. How do I know? Because not only did Matt and AJ have to back away while I revved the hell out of it, but the roar was actually painful enough that it forced me to cover my ears, and afterward I could hear nothing but a muffled hum for a while: 747s on takeoff have nothing on this beast! Also, one of the car-club members who runs the event, "Weirdo Harold," fell in love with it and invited us to park in their row.

A beautiful (after the rain broke) day out with good friends, awesome cars and bikes, turkey legs and corn dogs, delicious tequila at a double feature in an old-school drive-in... happy-making.

On Sunday, after getting a bunch of work done, I got together with a bunch of friends to celebrate a birthday. Said friends then headed over to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival on Monday, where we practiced archery (only Matt hit the bullseye in 7 shots):



And tested our Mjolnir skills (I rang the bell!):



Then we went to everyone's favorite event at Faire: The Royal Smoker, where ten bucks gets you two drinks, a cigar (or soda), finger-food, and entertainment ranging from baudy humor and music to belly-dance (courtesy Chernobylred). Super-fun weekend!

Yesterday saw another cluster of meetings at work plus class, and same for today. This weekend? I'm going to get SO MUCH WRITING DONE on The Adventures of Jack and Stella, I tell you what!

What'd you do on Labor Day weekend?

Chris

Comments

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Dean got an epidural shot on Thursday, so we stayed home and vegetated all weekend long. Since we had just acquired a new flat screen TV and a blue-ray player, we indulged in many movies!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Sounds great!

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a BLAST! I envy you that Ren-Faire. Eric talks about it every year. The one nearest me has gotten so crowded, it's not even worth going. :(

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

KC RenFaire gets crowded, but it's so BIG you can always get away from the crowds.

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you couldn't make WorldCon work out! It was an historic occasion for sure. Maybe they'll fix the education track for a future con and you can go rock their socks off. I saw that next year is in San Antonio, and then I remembered when you and Kij and I were there in, what, 1997? and now I'm all nostalgic.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

We almost got the WorldCon AboutSF program off the ground this year... but they have so much going on there and so few programming people, I wasn't surprised when nothing was actually scheduled.

Geez, it's been a while. I've enjoyed most other cons more (it's so BIG), but WorldCon is where the Hugos are....

Hi McCartterick!

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

No issues with the gallery, a bit slow loading a couple of the pix, but mostly it was all smooth sailing. My favorite cars are the the ones that are the most butchered. That one sorta wine-colored motorcycle was pretty cool, too.

Also, it looks like Debb has a lot of fun at the Body & Speed shop, maybe the chicks-mobile could stop by and pick her up.

Labor Day weekend: fiddled with pix.

Re: Hi McCartterick!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Fiddling with pix sounds like a great weekend.

[hdsqrl.livejournal.com]

I love it when the world gets smaller - Weird Harold is a friend of ours, and has done most of the work on my husband's back. :) Awesome!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Cool beans! He seems like a really fun and kind guy.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I think it's awesome that the same boots went with your Greasarama get-up *and* your KCRF get-up (complete with kilt!).

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Glad you think so! They are my primary footwear. In fact, I think I need to get a second pair that I keep clean and polished for dress-up occasions. These see quite a bit of wear.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

I was at WorldCon. Loved it. I saw Barbara and Dennis Bengals, and had dinner with Betty Ann. Did some volunteering, went to some events and hung out in interesting places.

It was great to see Kij win.

Maybe you need to run the ed track. If KC takes 2016 you'd best be prepared! Maybe you and Susan Satterfield could be the victims of choice. >:{

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

If we get it that year, I'll certainly want to help with that!