From Potter to Mars

Well, Tropical event Tammy decided to change plans for all in Salem this weekend. As a city resident, I'm pretty bummed because if we had sunshine then there'd have been quite a few more people walking around shops and such. As a participant in the Potter fandom, I'm double-bummed because my fellow fans didn't really get to spend October in Salem as it was meant to be - the cool, crisp air, the crinkly, colorful leaves, the smells of woodburning smoke, kettle-cooked popcorn, and incense....alas.

Meanwhile, Chez DeLong was filled with the sound of good friends playing with The Little Man (tm), (wkdelong) and relaxing from their hectic lives. Kirky, (kiekre), made some awesome 3-Cheese Baked Italian Pasta that actually got devoured instead of ordering out Indian. Same with the Cooks Illustrated Congo Bars she made for Jon, (jdbryce) - good thing she made extra just in case.

As you may recall, I was supposed to go to two days of Red Cross Disaster Instructor Specialty Training. The person I was working with to sign up for the course didn't realize I had Adobe Acrobat and a digital scan of my signature. She was waiting me to come in and had her the form. I had also expressed uncertainty in my experience to her as I haven't done much Disaster Services. She took it to mean I wasn't doing the training and had no clue I was coming. I showed up and started following instructions but when they started to pair us up, THAT is when I found out I wasn't on the list. It was very embarassing - yet another example of how overwhelmed the Red Cross is. Drives me crazy. They're planning on offering it again next month. However I'm not sure I'll have time once the new company gets launched as we secured our first contract last week(!).

They'll offer the course next month and it was a mixed blessing because it actually let me spend the weekend with my friends visiting - Melissa (melissatlc), Arabella (arabellasq), Mrsronweasley (mrsronweasley), Spinjock1978 (spinjock1978), and prettyannamoon (prettyannamoon). Others stopped by - from nearby at The Witching Hour (TWH) including Leaky Lounge moderator Darcey darcey321, and her husband, Lisa Bunker & Belinda Hobbs from The HP Lexicon, along with Belinda's daughter, and AleonInc (aleoninc).

Being a TiVo-heavy house, we watched a bunch of House and a Little Britain episode. Then we headed out to Best Buy to pick up some mics for the live Pottercast at Finz Restaurant. Does anyone else find the concept of a live podcast odd? I suppose it's like "being filmed before a live studio audience" for later broadcast. TLCer Heidi Tandy (heidi8), Jeff from HPANA.com, and Chris Rankin were on the Pottercast. I poked my head in but felt like a fish-out-of-water :)

Darcey and Lisa did a Leaky Lounge Modcast, and we had MIT Professor and chair of the Comparitive Media Studies department, Dr. Henry Jenkins as a guest. He and Kirky worked together on the Virtual Screening Room project at the MIT Center for Educational Computing Initiatives. Anyway, I kept sneaking off to grab bites of my late-lunch, missed-breakfast, early-dinner - so I wasn't as engaged as I should have been.

Upon our return, Tammy poured on and we decided to watch one episode of Veronica Mars. That, as they say, was the end of that. We were all exposed yet-another-addictive-fandom. Melissa, (melissa_tlc, brought Season 1 with her courtesy of one of our favorite Slytherins and Hogwarts Gallery curator Milly, (ixchelmala). 12 episodes later, I'm hunting for the rest of Season 1 and setting the TiVo for Season 2. It's part Nancy Drew and part Buffy the Vampire Slayer though strangely addicting.

The house has emptied out so now it's time to clean up, play with the boy, lounge around, find more Veronica and prepare for beginning the first contract of my new job - details to be announced soon. ;)