starmalachite  and I got home about 3 AM today and crashed out; I took today off to recover.

Kennywood conditions were just about ideal; the weather was mild for July and the crowds were very thin for most of the day. (A few more people trickled in during the evening, but it was still very light.) We got in a couple rides on each of the four coasters and a bunch of the other rides -- I'm not really a good judge of details, but according to starmalachite  the coasters were in particularly good form.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel near the park (after straightening out a minor billing snafu; the original bill had the rate for "room plus tickets" applied to both days) and headed for the Confluence hotel. zsero  was already checked in; we moved out luggage up to the room and settled in for a while before the con got underway.

Mostly, we spent our time at the filk concert track; the con had a very impressive lineup. In particular, this was the first I'd heard Lord Landless, the con's Featured Filkers. The con also put on the traditional play; this one centered on "Dr. Sarcophagus", the host of a local horror-movie show. I brought along some of the travelling game collection, but the opportunity never arose -- the next convention on my schedule is TCEP, a local gaming-specific Labor Day relaxacon, so I'll have plenty of opportunities then.

There was one snafu unrelated to the con itself; the touchscreen on starmalachite 's Wing died. Fortunately, it's still under warranty; T-Mobile is shipping a new one. When we got home, I dug out one of our old cell phones and transferred the SIM chip so she'd have a phone until it arrives (should be by Wednesday; I decided to pay $15 for express service).

Before we left, we found out that zsero's flight was cancelled and he was stuck in Pittsburgh until today. He found crash space; I hope he got home OK.

Heading for Kennywood and then Confluence as soon as the current round of thunderstorms blows over. See some of you there!

The two smarter cats have figured out that the humans are preparing to desert them again, and even Satin seems to have realized that something's up.

We set out Wednesday night for our usual pre-Confluence trip to Kennywood, arriving at the hotel at o-dark-thirty and crashing. We spent Thursday at the park -- as luck would have it, the crowds were particularly thin (thunderstorms had been predicted, but never materialized) and we were able to go on all the interesting rides two or three times each before closing time.

In general, Kennywood is a survivor of the old-fashioned type of amusement park. One exception that we remembered not-so-fondly from last year was the "old mine" ride, which had been rebranded as "Garfield's Nightmare" and converted into a 3-D day-glo ad for Frito-Lay products. We rode it once to refresh our memories of how tacky it was.

For some reason (I blame residual dizziness), I was inspired to create an Erfworld fanmix around a set of visual puns, which I whipped up and posted to the site forum after we got back to the hotel. Afterwards, I crashed out, my work here being done.

Friday morning, we packed up and headed for Confluence. There was a slight complication when it turned out that we hadn't printed out directions from the Kennywood hotel to the Confluence hotel, and the "PrintMe" system that was supposed to send documents to the hotel desk didn't work as advertised. I ended up copying them the old-fashioned way with stone knives and bearskins pen and paper, and we hit the road.

We made it to the con without incident, and as luck would have it a place called "Primanti's" that starmalachite wanted to search out for lunch turned out to be right across the road. We ate, got settled in, registered, and enjoyed the con.

Other than one or two of William Tenn's panels, I mostly alternated between the concerts, open filking, generally hanging out with people, and occasional Web surfing. A good time was had until we headed home Sunday evening and arrived at o-dark-thirty Monday morning.