This is your Norwescon 41 Wrap-Up!

I can’t believe it’s already time for Norwescon! Or at least, I couldn’t believe that last week when I was scrambling to get ready for it. For the first time in 5 years, I wasn’t a panelist or vending. For once, I was attending as an attendee, a fact that my husband very much appreciated as it meant that we got to actually see each other for longer than 30 minutes at a time.

This was also the first time we were leaving the kitties with a cat sitter since DiNozzo’s epilepsy diagnosis, which made me a nervous momma. (Our house/cat sitter was amazing though, so I didn’t stress for long!) Besides getting everything ready for the house/cat sitter, not to mention packing for our hotel stay, it was also time for a color change.

This little guy came to visit me while I was getting pretty colors put in my hair.

Picture of the new colors, which I’ve had before but not for a while.Thursday morning dawned way too early, but I was happy to be heading to Norwescon!
DiNozzo was ready for breakfast before we were apparently.Once we arrived at the Doubletree Hilton and checked in, we found our balcony had a nice view of the airport. Once the clouds cleared a bit, it was a pretty day for Day 1 of Norwescon. This is the view from the glass elevator heading up to Maxi’s to play Magic the Gathering.This is my husband, Erik, trying to figure out his next move.This is me, wishing I had more creatures for all my mana. After a little Magic, we went through the Dealer’s Room to see what was what. I stopped at Matt Dinniman‘s booth because I have wanted to buy some of his art for a while. (I went back later and bought two prints–one with a corgi riding a velociraptor, and one with Abraham Lincoln riding a T-Rex.) I could buy so many of these!

We also stopped by Jennifer Brozek’s booth to say hello, as well as Elizabeth Guizzetti’s table. Then we swung by a few other booths run by friends and check out what else was in the room.

Next, we went to a panel on 3D printing and cosplay, which was really awesome. They had some great examples of things you could do with a 3D printer, including this crown for a Queen of Hearts cosplay.Sorry for the low quality photos, but Ronnie took them and Instagram squished them some more. We went to the Betsy Tinney concert Thursday night, followed by Shubzilla‘s concert. While I enjoyed Betsy’s show, it just made me really want to see Zoe Keating in concert again. Shubzilla was amazing as always. <3

Tired me got up early on Saturday and got into my steampunk outfit. I didn’t get a photo, but Erik and I met with friends Elise, Jennifer Brozek, Kat Richardson, and PJ Manney. One of the best parts of conventions is seeing folks you don’t normally see–folks from out of town particularly. After breakfast, we played more Magic and then participated in a draft. Yes, we played a lot of Magic. A bit later, we finally made it down to the photo area to take a few photos. Below is a great pic of my husband and me.Below is a picture of Elise (the chainmaille side of Books & Chains) and me!Friday night, we participated in the Drink & Draft, which is a Magic the Gathering draft where most of the players are drinking and eventually drunk. I think I was the only sober one playing. It was a lot of fun, though by 1 AM, I was pretty tired. The early AM was catching up with me! Saturday morning, we slept in a bit and then I hopped into my Kaylee cosplay. Originally, we had a group of us cosplaying Kaylee, Jayne, Captain Mal, Zoe, and Wash from Firefly, but Zoe and Wash fell through.

Captain Mal needed some cosplay help.When I couldn’t quite get it, Janka stepped in to help as well!Kaylee, Jayne, and Mal…finding themselves in an Alliance Bar on Unification Day. Well, we found ourselves in the hotel bar/restaurant, where we had drinks with Darryl Gregory, Jack Skellingstead, Nancy Kress, Dwayne from UW Bookstore, Elizabeth Bourne, Amy Sundberg, and briefly, Todd Lockwood.After getting “kicked” out of the bar and being rescued by our ship (I kid, I kid. Everyone left to go to the Clarion West party), we found this Dalek named Clara. 😉We’re “too damn pretty.”One last shot from the photo screen. Alas, you can’t see the bear patch on my outfit. Later that evening (post-party), Mal and Jayne ended up back in our room where we suddenly had a very shiny Jayne.After Jayne and Mal left, Erik and I went back up to Maxi’s for the Cards Against Humanity Tournament, where we got these shiny ribbons for being horrible people. I almost made it to the second round, but Erik did! He almost made it to the third round. I guess we aren’t horrible enough.After another late night of gaming, we got up on Sunday, the last day of the con, and had a nice leisurely breakfast.We made another pass through the Dealer’s Room, where we picked up a new dice bag for me as well as some more dice for Erik from WholeHearted Geek. These were custom painted in rainbow and are gorgeous. (I’ll have to post a photo later.) I also snagged a Wonder Woman trash can for my car from SewCherie. It’s pretty cool. While in the room, we ran into Ronnie of Sci-Fi Monkeys again. He snagged a selfie with a very tired me, which my husband photobombed.After the shopping, we swung by the art room to snag Elise’s purchases, then we went back up to Maxi’s for the gaming drawing. We did not win the awesome dice tower they had a drawing for, but it was fun to participate. Thus, the sun set on another Norwescon!Once we got home, we found the kitties curled up on the bed. They gave us a look that very much said, “What? You were gone?” It wasn’t until a few hours later that they seemed to realize that we were really home. They zipped all over the house, then played with us a bit before curling up to sleep.Happy Kitties!

I lost track of how many people I got to chat with at Norwescon–which is what happens at a large convention of science fiction & fantasy fans. I greatly enjoyed it and spending yesterday (Monday) chillin’ at home.

Until next time!