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!

Here's a plea for continued jobma. The Big Boss, aka the guy who made sure the journal I work on got funding, is stepping down. We've no idea if the person replacing him in six months or so will want to keep publishing us or not. I absolutely love my job, and I really want to keep it. So any -ma Buffistas could send my way would be deeply appreciated.

Anyone who can spare jobma for my DH, please send some, especially starting at 3:30 PM Pacific time today. He has a job interview at a gaming company. The overtime would reduce our facetime together, but the money would rescue us from a far worse stressor. Thanks!

I'm going #999999, if not completely #000000, for the next few days, due to general meatspace stuff. I've left a steamer trunk full of -ma here for Calli, Lysana & DH, and anyone else who may need it.

Cheers!