The week leading up to the convention was crazy. Work was blowing up (not literally) with issues and I was batting a pretty good average on things but man, the paperwork has been killer to document everything and get hardware moving. And then we get home on Thursday to pack up the car and there is a gas leak somewhere either in our house or our neighbors so SWGas had turned it off. Luckily Elinor was awesome and stayed until it was resolved (not our issue, the neighbors) but that was some added stress to us getting to the convention in time to get our passes on Thursday night. We got to our hotel and ate dinner in their restaurant which was a bit drama filled with the hostess. The chef was faboo and got our order right (finally) and got us free dessert. We had an issue with Benton finally going to sleep…he was excited and just wouldn’t settle down until about 1030pm. And then he woke up with the Sun on Friday morning. Oof.

So Friday was early. None of us had enough sleep but we managed to get ourselves to the light rail station, get tickets and get to the convention to get our passes pretty quickly. Just as we were heading into the convention we ran into Mughi and friends. It was pretty awesome. We got the first picture of awesome cosplay by a guy who was doing Bruce Lee. Wow. We hit the exhibit floor for a while before standing in line for the Avengers Assemble Kids stuff.

Benton was uber excited to see these TMNT girls and had to show them his TMNT shirt, backpack, shorts, sunglasses and then told them he was wearing TMNT underwear (which was true...he insisted).


We ran into Magdalen, Don Brendan, Artemis and Wife and a few others at the Avengers thing. Benton had a great time with the activity and then we got together with the college crew for lunch at Hero Factory which is a great NY Deli with a sassy, open carry, gal. The clientele is a lot of PhxPD so cops are always welcome and since we were with 3 folks with badges and regulars it was good. At this point Benton had a meltdown. He was tired, cranky and didn’t want to eat his salami sandwich. Mel was a trooper and took him back to the hotel and I went to the exhibit hall to look around and then Ari and I had our picture with the dreamy and cuddly John Barrowman. In the mean time Benton was a crabby butt but he finally settled down just before I got there. I got changed and we had dinner from the hotel restaurant, got a bath and then I put him to bed with the lights off so he would settle down. I read on my phone and he settled down after 12 minutes. Mel went out to dinner and drinks with the college crew and I relaxed and read. Mel stayed up and finished Skin Game when he got in about 930pm. Yay!!!

Saturday Benton and all of us slept in a bit. We were trying to make it to the a photo op with Steve Amel but were running late so we headed directly to Jim Butcher’s Panel. It was packed but we ended up sitting with the college crewe and had a nice time. Jim is a big ol’ geek and it showed. It was very neat to hear about his writing process and how he got to where he is. About half way through the question session I got up to get in line. The girl in front of me was going to be the last question but Jim and the MC wanted my question because I was dressed as Molly Carpenter, as close to cannon as I could get her from Proven Guilty. It was my truly first time cosplaying and the fans loved it and later when I got to talk to Jim he did too. My question at the panel was "Are we ever going to find out who MacNally used to be?" Jim's response "Yes, but probably not until the last 3 books." Now, remember, The Dresden Files is a 20 book series with the last 3 being the final trilogy. After the panel, Benton and Mel headed off to do kids stuff and Ari and I headed to get Jim to sign books. This was a cluster if there ever was one. The signing line was already full. We were some of the first people to make it to the signing from the panel. It was just nuts.

Ari and I were persistent and hung around against orders from the staff to chat with people we knew and I got to meet cosplayers of Harry, Nicodemus and Rashid. It was cool. Plus we got to chat with lots of people and when they decided to add 12 more people we got picked out randomly from the crowd. Yay!!!! Cosplay for the win! Ari was awesome and got one guy's book to be signed for him. His movie made it to the short film portion of the con and he wanted to tell Jim he was the inspiration.



After signing our books Ari and I trolled the floor for a while getting pictures and doing a bit of shopping. We hit up Steam Crow and I got an poster for work and a Raven "AUTHORITY" pin. Its cool. I also got Shield, Cobra and a Raven sticker for the cars as well as ordering my buttons from Epaul for my Baroness Cosplay. They are going to be epic. Expensive but epic. By this time we were hungry and we got food and then parted ways. I tried to get in touch with Mel to switch off Benton time but we finally got together about 4pm for a hand off. Benton had a good day and was tired but did awesome. We headed out cause I was done with being in costume. I promised Ben that we would go swimming for a bit and I had a shandy before we headed down. It was nice. Mel got back to the hotel in just in time to pick us up and head out to dinner. We went to Thai Basil and it was SO GOOD! We seriously need to figure out what a good Thai place is in Tucson cause man I love the food. Benton was bushed by the time we were done and I hopped the light rail with the boys for a bit before getting off and heading to the Sheraton to have drinks with Willa, Dom and Sioux. It was nice to sit and chat and see Charlaine Harris and Seanan Macguire hanging out with other lady writers. I got escorted back to the light rail stop and then home. I was tired and just read for a bit before falling into bed.


Sunday we got up about 730 and both got showers before Benton even stirred. It was so cute. He still was tired and he was tired most of the day but he did so good. We got packed up into the car and then took the train to the convention. We looked around the expo and Benton was enamored by the light sabers. He was awesome and cute in line for our picture with Nathan Fillion, but he was looking away on the picture...oh, well. I did some shopping while the boys looked at the Lego exhibit and I met back up with them. We tooled around just a bit more and then we headed out. We took the train back to the parking garage for our hotel and then off to Cornish Pasty Company for lunch. We were all foot sore and tired and the food was tasty. We spoiled Benton by getting him the PBJ and Banana pasty with ice cream. We were surprised that he didn't fall asleep on the way home and continued to spoil him rotten when we got home and let him watch TV. He was still talking about Star Wars so we put in the theatrical version into the Xbox for him to watch. We got to where Han shoots Greedo before getting him into a bath and bed. We were tuckered and got showers etc. We were smart and put on coffee for Monday morning. It was a good weekend.

My Personal Pictures of the con can be seen at: My Con Album

Cool Cosplay I saw at the con can be seen at: Cool Cosplay

All good.