Going so dark grey it's indistinguishable from black until Aug. 4th. I'll be in Oregon visiting friends and family with a special side trip to SEATTLE!! Have a good week.

May I please have some of the patented Buffista jobma and life-ma sent towards the Southeast over the next few days?

DH has an interview in Orlando on Monday morning. Getting this job means we can go home. For as much as I love the Baltimore-istas, I can't stand another winter here. I will go stark raving mad. Plus my m-i-l is getting old (76 this year), and DH and I both feel we should be close to her. Many thanks for the vibes.

Going dark shortly. Out of town this weekend for a wedding, then dark gray craziness the following week, followed by more dark as I hit ScaperCon in Chicago Aug 1-3.

Don't know if I'll have time, but if any Chicagoistas wanna mini-f2f it, try my profile addy.

Até logo.

I'll be dark tomorrow, and Sunday until later on. I'm driving down to Cooperstown with a pal to see Gary Carter's inauguration into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Bad News: Man, I wish I was at Gen Con (the U.S.'s biggest gaming event). It's this weekend, and pictures from it have been driving me nuts.

The Good News: I just got a call from a friend whose there -

I just won the Inquest award for Favorite Artist!

Yup, finally managed to snag the award after several years of being 2nd, 3rd or nowhere. Heeee! Now I really wish I was at Gen Con.

eta: Thanks to any Buffistas who voted.

I've been pretty grey of late, but now I go black. Tomorrow, to Albany, to take the bar exam Tuesday and Wednesday-- then to NYC for the weekend (I'll be back there a couple weeks later, so there's no urgency to Doing Something).

If I were the superstitious type, I'd demand Barma.

I'm going from dark gray today to pitch black until Wednesday while I'm off at a conference in Colorado Springs.

OK, here we go: posting this here and in F2F.

BBQ!

The Big Bay Area Buffista-B-Q is next Saturday, 2 August, at Chez Grabien.

Time: Early afternoon, about one-ish. People can wander in anytime around then, but please, not too much earlier unless you let me know first; I'll be setting up outside.

The menu: will include ribs (beef and pork), salmon, chicken, grilled portabella mushrooms, corn, caprese salad, either caesar or green salad, chips, salsa. Consuela will be bringing pie, Java Cat will be bringing beer, I'll provide wine and soda (diet) and homemade ice tea; if Hec will provide tortilla and/or basic chips, I'd be grateful. Dessert will be Consuela's pie and I'm likely going to add either a tequila lime tart, a chocolate decadence, or both, depending on time available.

The guest list at the moment:

Local - Consuela, Java Cat, Katerina, Beth, Matt, Karl, Alicia, Hec, Emmett and JZ. If I've missed anyone, please let me know, and I'll ping locals I haven't yet pinged to double-check.

LA-istas - Sean, Perkins, NoiseDesign, Aimee and Joe.

Perkins and NoiseDesign are staying with me. Sean is at his parents' place here in the City, and Aimee and Joe are (I think) fixed up - if not, let's arrange that and make certain that it's set up.

I'll be sending out directions to our place later in the week.

Have I missed anyone, or anything? Please let me know.

Just a note that my darkishness (which admittedly hasn't been that dark) will continue until Aug 16th or so. I don't plan on returning to town between now and then.

I'm off to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to my family reunion. There will be much fun and frolic, but no internet access, so I'll see you all on Monday!