Yeah, I've taken Amtrak over to Toronto before, although I can't get there from here now. It looks like the Adirondack goes to Montreal: [link]

Yeah, apparently it's a 10 hours trip one-way from NYC, or 8 hours from Albany. Between that and the flight and leaving time for the airport-to-train change, I would have to take way too much time off. And flying into Burlington, VT is not really any cheaper. (Though the train does look lovely and scenic! If this were just random vacation I'd probably consider it, but am trying to get to and from a convention)

Strix, that is so awesome -- you met both Westley and Skinner! How lovely!

I went hiking with my sister today and we did 7 strenuous miles (including a stretch of hill that looks vertical on the altimeter on my phone--crazy steep!), and then had yummy sausage sandwiches, and now I'm baking a lemon-almond pie for dinner. (5 eggs, 1.5 cup sugar, 1.3 Tbsp corn starch, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, peel of one lemon, and 1/3 cup ground almonds, bake for 50 minutes at 325F.)

Oh, wait, must go move laundry. Bah. Between today's hike and my runs on Friday and yesterday, I've done 17 miles since Friday morning. Ow?

Looking like I'll be offering on another house tonight - just awaiting word from my realtor after she checks with the selling agent. I do know the selling agent is reviewing offers tonight, so it won't be another long wait to see if mine makes the cut.

Good luck, Suzi! I shall hold my thumbs for you.

It was effing crazy -- I knew Mitzi was a handler for celebs at cons, and she's tight with Wil Wheaton, but this year, she was responsible for ALL hotel, air tranpo, everything to do with celeb guests, be they actors, creator guests, or cosplay guests, and managing their handlers.

More tidbits from the con:

I, um, didn't recognize Sean Gunn, and ended up hanging out at an ages-old KC jazz tradition, The Musician's Foundation, listening to and talking about jazz with him and 2 guys I'd met at the Marriott party. He was introduced as Sean, from LA, and I just kinda hung, and we were all just into the music and talking about it between sets. It was awesome set of musicians just jamming -- at 4:23, we were all like "We gotta be at the con tomorrrow, time to go."

Alll walked out together, and I was saying good night; they wanted to make sure if I needed to walked to my car. I asked them what they were there at the con for and Sean said "I'm an actor."

I was like, "Hey, cool; I'm a total geek girl -- what have been in?"

"I'm Sean Gunn, I was in Gilmore Girls and Guardians of the Galaxy"

And then I realized I'd been hanging out with James Gunn's bro, and the guy who was Kraglin in GotG, AND he told me he did the motion capture work for Rocket Raccoon, and Bradley Cooper did the voice.

I was all, "Wow, I am a bad nerd! It was fun tonight; and a pleasure to meet you. I hope you enjoyed the Foundation."

And he said he'd loved it, and he HAD been totally into it.

Today, I went to his line with Dan; he'd JUST come back from a break and there was no line yet. I went up and introduced Dan and told him what a pleasure last night had been, and I was glad he enjoyed KC. He was super nice, and he was like, do you want a picture?

I laughed and said we were completely broke, but thanks anyway, and he was all, "Seriously, don't worry about it." He had a totally cute one of him a cat that we wanted, but we decided to get a GotG pic of him as Kraglin. He asked if we wanted to him to sign it, and we sure like "Um...sure! Thanks, that's really nice of you!"

So he signed it "To Micah -- Captain's Gotta Teach Stuff" which is AMAZING, since he had no idea MY nickname is Captain!!!!

It was FUCKING. COOL. And Micah is going to be super-jazzed.

Oh, and the guy I talked to at the Marriott party that brought up going to the Foundation, and who I talked with quite a bit was Jai Nitz, whose the writer and co-creator of "The Dream Thief" and writer of "Grimm: The Warlock."

Good luck, Suzi!

You are winning this weekend, Strix!

Go you with the 17 miles, Consuela!

I am doing laundry and I have a pot on the stove that eventually will be red beans and rice.

Offer submitted. Actually pretty calm about it this time. Maybe cause I should know if it is accepted or not later tonight.

This place would need different furniture and it is kinda time for me to let go of a few pieces I've been holding onto forever. Like my china cabinet that has been wrapped in packing blankets in the garage for the last 7 years. Will see...no rush.

The townhouse we saw today was cute, but not right for us. The "third bedroom" was a postage-stamp sized room with no closets, and the stairs were incredibly steep and narrow (not just potentially dangerous for the kids but really uncomfortable to walk down!) And what I thought was a backyard turned out to be a parking space in the back. But still good to see what's on the market.

Jess, sound really like it is an early version of my hood. My third bedroom, you can get a twin into. In basically one space only. It has a tiny corner closet (that someday I'm going to just convert into a little cabinet: cabinet bottom, shelves top.)

Got everything done but a shipping run, which can wait.

Senior review is tomorrow, thank god, so I can stop having nightmares.