leaving columbus

Sorry, no photo today (Note at 4 pm: Home now, so posted some photos :-)). Found out yesterday that my brief long distance call yesterday cost about US$7!! I'll be posting Marcon photos in Blatherings over the next week or so, off and on. Jodi was kind enough to let me use her computer and local online access again today. We're meeting Rand for breakfast, then he's dropping us off at the airport before he goes to visit relatives.

It was strange being at the hotel after the convention ended and most people had left; I'm so used to having to be one of the first people to leave on Sunday. Rand, Jodi and I had some downtime in the late afternoon while Jodi did online stuff and read a book, I napped, and Rand watched the Harry Potter DVD on my laptop (he had never seen the movie before! Thanks again for the DVD, Scott).

Some more brief highlights from the convention (more in future Blatherings):

While checking out the massive dealer's room, I came across a table run by a glass-blower named Steve Scherer. His display case held many beautiful little glass miniatures, and he occasionally did glass-blowing demonstrations. I watched him for a while, then started asking a lot of questions about the process. Ever since seeing some gorgeous glass-blowing projects done by my friend Andrew, I've been highly intrigued by the whole concept of glassblowing.



After the zillionth question, Steve asked me if I wanted to try glassblowing myself. I said yes, of course! I sat beside him and he went through the basics; safety around the flame, how the glass reacted in the flame and as it's cooling, how to rotate the glass rods as they heated up, and the steps in creating a very simple mouse creature.

By the time we finally switched chairs so I could give it a go, I was hyped. Once I actually started, however, I felt incredibly clumsy, even with Steve sitting right beside me telling me what to do. His movements had been graceful, quick, easy. I felt like an elephant trying to tiptoe through a crowded glass shop.

Steve was super-patient, however, and I ended up with my own hand-blown glass mouse. The little guy is sort of lopsided and he looks a bit as if he's been beaten up by the other mice, but I MADE HIM!! I'll post a picture of him in a future Blathering.

If glass-blowing wasn't such an expensive hobby, I'd be sorely tempted to give it a try in Toronto. There's something magical about the whole process, turning a rather dull-looking piece of glass into a fairy tale creature. My friend Andrew also used different colours of glass to create gorgeous pieces.

Anyway, I'm grateful to Steve for his patience during the lesson, and for giving me the opportunity. He says he'll have a booth at Torcon (the World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto next year), yay!



Ended yesterday with what was another Marcon highlight for me; Jodi and Rand and I hung out with Erica Neely, Zander Nyrond, and Melissa and Daniel Glasser in Erica's room. There was a little bit of music (Daniel played Solar Flare, one of my favourite Sam Baardman songs, and I noodled on flute) but we mostly just hung out and talked until Erica kicked us out so she could go to bed. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to end the convention. :-)