The parade ended on the basement level of the Marriott, which was perfect for me to run and find my wig lady. Cathy of God Save the Queen Fashions saved my bacon--the wig I'd originally ordered on eBay got lost in the mail, and she was able to special order one for me in time for the con. The bacon-saving came at a price, of course--I think I spent more on that blasted wig (and the lost one besides) than I did on the whole rest of the costume. :P

I also went by Peter Beagle's table and introduced myself as the person who'd emailed him about having Last Unicorn costumes to show him. He was quite anxious to see them, and I confirmed that he'd be at his table Sunday evening.

Then it was time to slip into something less comfortable. Back in the hotel room, Aaron helped me through the 97 steps involved in becoming the Elizerator. Shift, kirtle, bumroll, farthingale, (none of those latter three are recognized by my spellchecker, btw), makeup, hair, partlet, bodice, sleeves, jewelry, attifet, veil...I realized I'd forgotten to put on my shoes, and had to get Aaron to do this for me, since I couldn't reach them over all the gear!

I had planned on hitting the corset panel (which I plan on *every year* and somehow never get to), but ironically, it took so long getting me into the Lizgown that I ended up missing it. Instead, we simply took a walk, with the sole purpose of being seen and photographed. Aaron broke trail for me and held my purse while I posed for pictures, and my ego was amply fed. We tried to go hear Abney Park's acoustic set on the concourse of the Hyatt, but it was mobbed, and since I was unfairly taking up enough space for three people (and was exhausted), I decided to exercise the better part of valor and not stick around.

The 4-5 pm slot had had me in agonies of indecision ever since the program came out. An hour with Diana Gabaldon, talking about her wonderful Scottish time travel romances? "Buffy Frame by Frame" with the artist and writers of the Buffy Season 8 comics? Or Stephen's evil genius panel, with demonstrations of maaad SCIENCE? Oh, the agony!

On the logic that I was already in the right hotel for it, I opted for Diana Gabaldon--but like Jaqueline Carey a few years ago, they had underestimated her popularity and put her in a teeny tiny room, so when I got there, it was full up and there were people peeping around the door to listen. This was probably my biggest disappointment of the con--I'd really hoped to hear her talk about her books, and her other panel was opposite my Bujold translation panel on Sunday. :(

But, hey, I had options, right? So I went over to the Marriott and tried out the Buffy panel. The panel title had led me to believe that we would be looking at actual frames of the Buffy comics, and the artist and writers would talk about the artwork, the writing, the production process, etc. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have much prepared to say, and opened it up mostly to audience questions, which meant it rapidly devolved into "what's your favorite plot thread" and "who's your favorite 'ship?" Bleah. I could get that on LJ.

The paragraphs above describe a very common pattern at Dragoncon--you walk around for what seems like miles, and end up doing nothing. The first thing you try is full, the second one turns out to be lame, and the third thing is over by the time you get there. In this case, Stephen's panel was all the way over in the Hilton, and I knew I'd never make it in time to see much of his talk, so at this point I gave up and went back to the room to divest myself of the 12 lbs of costuming and make dinner plans.

Whew!

By the end of yesterday, I'd already done more at this Dragoncon than I managed to take in all weekend last year. I want to go into detail, but it's the middle of the night, and I need to be up at the crack of dawn to feed Z, so I'll give you the basic summary:

Friday - Pirates, Marsters, Star Wars, BSG, Bob Asprin, Laurell Hamilton, Buffy

Z and I got lots of cooing and awwwing as mommy and baby pirates. He had the skull and crossbones patterned Babylegs that skellington gave us, and a onesie that said "Surrender the booties!" He has been, for the most part, a paragon of charm and delight all weekend, and it seems the whole con is enchanted with him.

James Marsters is nine kinds of hot (though rslatkin insists hers goes to 11). Z sat through the whole panel with nary a peep--well, of course for Marsters he'd be an Angel. ;) Tried to get into the Firefly panel immediately after him, but the line went up the stairs, out the door, around the block, and halfway to Augusta. So I went over to the Marriott and caught the second half of a Star Wars panel with Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, the old and new Boba Fetts, and the kid who played young Anakin Skywalker in Episode 1.

After that I managed to snag a seat for a BSG panel with Edward Olmos and a bunch of the rest of the cast. Aaron met me here, we traded off baby duty, and went to dinner w/ rslatkin and vatavian, who then accompanied me to a panel remembering fantasy author Bob Asprin. I jumped out of that one halfway through and went next door to see what Laurell Hamilton and Chelsea Yarbrough had to say about vampire fiction.

Then over to the Sheraton for the Buffy Horror Picture Show. Actually stood in line for that one, though the room didn't fill up anyway--and I was so far back that I couldn't see without standing up. Then back to the room to collapse and take over baby duty while Aaron went to the Abney Park concert.

Saturday - Parade, Potter, Abney Park, Pern, FIREFLY!!! Bujold

This morning I met rslatkin, vatavian, zudaru and ahhhnahhh for breakfast and to watch the parade. I've never done the parade at Dragoncon before, since it takes place at 10am, and who's up that early at Dragoncon? Anyone with a baby, that's who.

After the parade, I tried to catch a panel with Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, but Z started to get fussy, and I had keep going out to jiggle him without disturbing the panel, so finally I gave up and got myself a seat on the concourse for the Abney Park acoustic concert. He was quiet all through this, until Aaron showed up to take over baby duty so he could get Z into his dragon costume for my Pern panel.

The Pern readings went very well, and we had a good discussion of translation and language differences and such. I was afraid the panelists would outnumber the audience! But with some tens of thousands of con-goers, even the most obsucre stuff draws a couple dozen people, so we had a nice audience. Which reminds me, we got written up in a Daily Dragon article. And Z in the dragon costume was just the cutest thing EVAR.

Then I caught the very tippy tail end (like, the last 10 minutes) of a panel with Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in the LoTR movies. Directly after this, I actually managed to get into a Firefly panel (despite those afore-mentioned lines), which was fantastic. Nathan Fillion: also several kinds of hot, though the jury is still out on whether he is more kinds than Marsters.

Then down to the bowels of the Hyatt for my Bujold panel, which really went quite well. I may have a future as a moderator of fan panels. The Cordelia costume went over well, though I really wasn't in it very long--just for that panel and then to get some dinner.

So that's the high level overview. More details later. Have I mentioned how nice it is not to be pregnant??