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I had no idea that Neal Stephenson writes out his books by hand using a fountain pen. I think my hand would fall off after just a few paragraphs. Anyway, I have a post about the event up on Inkygirl, for those interested.
I'm excited about tonight. It's the first time I'll be handing out candy at Halloween at my own house since I moved to Toronto over 20 years ago. I've put up some Halloween decorations, and I'm stressing out about running out of Halloween candy before the end of the night. Sure, my neighbors said we don't tend to get many trick-or-treaters because of our location, but what if there's a sudden surge of trick-or-treaters this year?
What if some little toddler dressed up in an oversized Winnie the Pooh costume ends up on my doorstep after I've handed out the last chocolate bar?!? I've been looking over my Halloween stash and doing calculations in my head, trying to figure out how many chocolate bars I should hand out to each child to minimize the chances that I'll be left with a pile of candy at the end of the night but also avoid running out too early.
And that brings me to my Halloween survey. What are you planning to hand out tonight? How much candy do you give to each child? Or are you planning to turn off the lights and just pretend you're not home? Will you be at a Halloween party instead? Or just ignoring the event altogether?
Getting to wear my mom's kimono to the banquet. I didn't know how to tie an obi so I sewed one on the night before we left for Columbus, and used VELCRO as a fastener. Velcro isn't exactly traditional, but it worked. I'd like to think Mom would have been amused.
Photo by Walter
Seanan's demonstration of how a Cone Snail devours its prey. Seanan knows WAY too much about poisonous animals.
Performing Starsoul in open filk with Brooke Lunderville.
Open filk on Sunday afternoon and evening. All the open filks were fun, but I enjoyed Sunday's filk the most. The atmosphere seemed more laid-back. Sunday's afternoon jam was WAY fun -- this is one of my favourite kinds of circles, where everyone's just playing and singing along for the pure fun of it.
Photo by Walter
Hearing Erica sing Elektra's Song (by Chris Malme).
Hanging out with Erin and Rand in our hotel room. Loved hearing Erin sing. We also got in some serious girltalk.
Photo by Walter Sib's improvisation workshop. I was too busy trying to avoid being assassinated to take any photos, sorry.
Photo by Walter
Singing Magic In The Air to Sue and Tom (part of our wedding present to them earlier in the year) and seeing them make up actions.
The Guests of Honor at OVFF were Annie and Tim Walker. I first met Tim and Annie when Urban Tapestry were guests at the UK filk convention in 2000 and saw them perform with Phoenix. At OVFF they performed as Wilderwood, accompanied by friends (see Annie's LJ post for details).
Photo by Walter
I've seen Annie in rocker chick mode before (wild hair, black leather) and loved how much energy she poured into her performance. At OVFF, she was in Wilderwood garb but put just as much enthusiasm and joy into her singing.
Photo by Walter
My strongest musical memory of Tim was when he performed a hilarious Elvis style song. He plays a huge number of instruments and has a voice that makes a fangirl melt at the knees.
I picked up "Dancing Through The Past," Wilderwood's newest CD. For some reason it won't play on my laptop :-( but I'm going to bug Allison or a Jodi for a recording from theirs so I can feed my Wilderwood fangirl soul.
Photo by Allison
Becca and Graham Leathers were excellent Toastmasters. Allison, Jodi and I were paying special attention since we're going to be Toastmasters / Filk Waifs for the first time next year at FilKONtario! I loved the interaction between these two during their concert.
So great to see these two again! And Graham's jacket tastes just as good as when I first met him years ago.
Photo by Walter
Graham has a new CD out, by the way: GRAHAM LEATHERS BEARS ALL. :-D And I also enjoy a CD by Becca's group, Riverfolk, which gets regular play in our home.
Photos by Walter
Sibylle Machat was the Interfilk Guest this year. I first met Sib when Allison, Jodi and I were guests at Filkcontinental in Germany some years ago, and was immediately drawn to her wonky sense of humor and contradictory extrovert/introvert personality (we have a lot in common that way); we've been friends ever since. Hearing that she was the Interfilk Guest at OVFF was a huge factor in my deciding to attend the convention.
Photo by Walter
I'll continue my OVFF report soon.
Photo by Walter
Above: Spot, Jan DiMasi's Ball Python. Jan was the Honored Listener guest at OVFF, and started traveling with Spot a little while back.
I woke up this morning hearing "Barracuda" in my head this morning, and it's the fault of Michelle Dockrey and Jeff Bohnhoff.
But I digress. Got back home from OVFF last night. Allison, Jodi and I had a fantastic time. It's been years since the three of us have attended a convention at which we had zero commitments. Next year, our only filk convention as a group will be FilKONtario and we'll be busy Filk Waifing, so it will likely be at least a couple of years before we'll have a relaxed weekend like this.
We took advantage of the situation, therefore, to have a wonderfully low-key few days. I had a huge amount of fun just wandering around the convention catching up with friends I haven't seen in a very long time. I loved the creative atmosphere -- everywhere you looked, there were people writing and playing music, involved in needlecrafts, drawing, and conversations of all sorts.
I opted to leave my heavier camera at home and just take my little point-and-shoot. It was much easier to carry around but wasn't nearly as good as my Rebel for low-light conditions. As a result, I didn't take nearly as many pics as I usually do, but you're bound to see a ton start appearing in Walter's Flickr account eventually, plus many others. I'll be gradually uploading some of my photos to my Flickr account over the next few days.
Part 1 of my personal highlights (I'll cover guest concerts in a future Blathering):
- Stroll with Andrea, outside in the sunlight and fresh air one afternoon.
- Monopolizing Sib while she was taking a brief break from her Interfilk Guest duties.
- Artsytalk with Vixy. We aim to catch up on each other's art goals and progress (but inevitably end up talking about other stuff in our lives as well).
- Erin Bellavia's decadent and totally addictive salty caramel chocolate chip cookies. My Nerd Ninja Doll (see above) was very sad that he didn't have a mouth.
- Listening to the hallway filk circle on Sunday night, especially Mary Crowell and Teresa Powell.
- Ice cream at the North Market. Thanks so much to Jim and Andrea for taking us!
- Seeing Stone Dragons do their first OVFF concert!
- Brooke Lunderville's reaction when I gave her a handmade sock monster. I only started making these this past weekend (I made two). I'm not a great hand sewer, so the little guy was sort of lopsided with less than neat stitching. He had also caused me problems because I kept making mistakes as I got distracted while listening to the wonderful concerts, so had to unpick stitches a LOT. But Brooke's obvious delight made it all worth it. :-) Sadly, I forgot to take pics of either of my two sock monsters before I gave them away. The other one went to Sib.
- Breakfast with Larissa. I woke up way too early one morning and went wandering down to the hotel restaurant, hoping to find someone to chat with. Happily, Larissa had woken up even earlier than I did! Great conversation. I love Larissa's frank honesty and benevolent outlook.
You can see other Nerd Ninja Doll portraits in my Flickr set (I'll be uploading photos over the next few days)/
- Seeing Wild Mercy perform. I'd never seen them perform before, and they were pretty amazing.
- Mini Irish session on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Mary for starting this. I -so- need to practice before the next one!
- Watching Allison get a haircut, courtesy France.
- Seanan McGuire. I just wanted to pack her up in my suitcase and take her home with me.
- Seeing Andy Eigel take a Pegasus Award for his song, "Uplift." All the nominees in the category were deserving but Andy's wonderful song has been nominated many times before but never won.
- Dinner conversation at the Pegasus Awards banquet. Unlike many weddings where you're seated with people you don't know very well and have to endure smalltalk, conversations at filk conventions are rarely boring. Especially at the table where Walter and I were sitting! Conversation ranged from musical creativity, AI and computer programmed music, copyright issues, Tolkien scandals and Babylon Five. And HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE PUNS from Blind Lemming Chiffon.
Kudos to the concom and the amazing guests for helping to create such a wonderful weekend. I still have to unpack and a ton of catching up to do, so it will likely be a few days before I'm able to post a more detailed con report. Autographedcat has been kind enough to compile a list of OVFF-related entries here.
Meanwhile, though, I had to share the lyrics to an Evil Song written by my friends Vixy and Jeff; apparently Vixy wrote it ages ago and finished it recently with Jeff's help. They sprung it on me at the Dead Dog filk on Sunday night with the help of Maya. It was a brilliant performance, but I'm still going to get my revenge. :-)
Anyway, here are the lyrics....
DEBBIE OHI Lyrics: Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey and Jeff Bohnhoff To the tune of "Barracuda"
So this ain't the end - I saw you again today Chatting in the hallway Smile like the sun - photos of everyone and blogs - her daily logs!
CHORUS You looking oh so harmless and sweet I bet you gonna ambush me You'll have us down, down, down, down on our knees With laughter-- Debbie Ohi
Back at the con, we were all on for Toast You set your phasers on 'roast' So right, so wrong, your little song of fame ...and middle names.
CHORUS And if the real facts won't do the trick You're gonna make up something quick Your little lies, lies, lies, lies, lies are gonna stick Oooh, Debbie Ohi
BRIDGE Let me tell you what she will do Write down deep dark secrets on you She'll draw you in her cartoons, too
Her inky heart will never rest Dark as Swiss chocolate Don't you mess with this girl-- silly, silly squirrels.
CHORUS And if the real facts won't do the trick Nope, she's gonna make up something quick She'll make you laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh until you're sick Ooooh, Debbie, Debbie, Debbie Ohi
As I mentioned a while back, we recently had renovations done that would enable us to switch our bedroom and Jeff's office upstairs. Jeff and I also switched closets, and my new closet got turned into a walk-in closet.
In the photo below, you can see what used to be Jeff's closet. Part of the renovations added the extra wall and a door, creating a second small room on the outside:
A friend asked me last night if it was big enough to dance around in. I told her that yes I could, as long as I danced in one spot. :-) It might be small compared to some walk-in closets but it's LUXURY to me! What I love most about it: when I get up in the morning, I can get dressed without worrying about waking Jeff up. In our old bedroom, I had to fumble for my clothes in the dark, tiptoe out of the bedroom carrying my clothes and anything else I needed, closing the door quietly behind me (often dropping clothes and other items in the process), then get dressed in the bathroom.
Jeff spent much of this past weekend putting in custom-made shelves and hooks and other closet accessories. One brilliant idea he came up with: he covered the wall on the right with pegboard so I could place hooks where I wanted them.
You can get a closer view of the pegboard in the photo below:
Many thanks to Luisa for making me these hangers. And they are NOT hokey! I love them. :-) :-)
To finish off the closet, Jeff surprised me with a wooden letter 'D' that he had painted himself; he put it on the outside of my closet door.
Yay for handyman technonerdboy husbands. :-) When he finished moving his stuff into his new closet, I couldn't help but be struck by the contrast in our closet organization. Jeff's clothes are all perfectly folded on the shelves and hanging on the rack, edges and shoulders lined up neatly. I tend to be a tad more...er...random.
I took advantage of the closet move to purge a bunch of clothes I never wear anymore, and as I sorted through the chaos in the back of my old closet I was surprised to find some stuff I thought I had lost. (So THAT'S where that top went.) Anyway, I'm giving the purged items to Goodwill, though I opted to keep a few at the last minute because I liked the material -- I figure I can reconfigure them with the help of my serger. :-)
Sold a painting, a mug (pottery by Luisa and me), and a bunch of cards yesterday, woohoo!
Friday, October 31, 2008 at 7:48AM 
