So, My Talk, It Happened

Er, yeah. So in addition to being in an awkward last-minute placement AND at 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday, my Ever So Helpful Chair (Snort!) didn't inform the other panelists I'd be on there as well. So there was this whole thing where I go in and the other three people are sitting there and then I sit down, and one of them is like "I thought there were only three papers on this panel!" and another is like "Yeah, I did too!" and the Chair is sitting there all awkward going, "Uh, yeah, there was an error on my part, and there's four papers now." And they're all, "Oh."

Like seriously. I had refrained from coffee and had promised myself to be on Good Behavior and all, so I just smiled pleasantly and was all "O hai." But wtf, people?

Once it actually got going though, my talk went very well, I thought. For one thing, I woke people up (I know because I could see, being in front of the room and all), and people chuckled at my jokes, and I got several questions and comments. Which also led to some frozen smiles in the hallway afterwards from the erstwhile Mean Girls.

Then I went to a Star Trek panel, and it was fun and interesting. I'm going to go for coffee in a bit, and Candy and I were contemplating going to hunt for a bookstore, but it's all drizzly and gray outside so we'll see.

More Milwaukee Aventures

So we went exploring a little bit this evening. We found a nice used bookshop, the kind that's several stories of books, most for only a couple dollars each, all higgeldy-piggledy and yon. Lo, and here are my treasures:



I got several Bradley paperbacks, a few Star Trek novels, a TOS photo-zine, a random 1970s "Witch" zine, and "The Phoenix Trilogy" that I had never heard of but that she deemed as must-read.

Then we went to dinner at Mader's, one of the oldest pubs in the city. It opened in 1902 and was uber-German. I got the pork shank and a black forest cherry cake. Num!!





Afterwards Candy and I walked back to the hotel, randomly discussing superhero movies.

Me: And Thor comes out next summer. Chris Hemsworth in tight shirts! Sign. Me. Up.
Candy: Yeah, you're not shallow at all.
Me: Nope. I have layers. Lots of 'em. (pause) Like an onion really.
Candy: Yeah, totally. There's the Chris layer, the Karl layer, the other Chris layer...
Me: Any resemblance I may have to that statement there is completely accurate.