All-Con: Day One

I attended All-Con for the first time this year. I've avoided it in the past because it looked boring. I don't want to learn about Asian ball-jointed dolls, how to vacu-form things, or anything about robotics. What I wanted was to help my husband with his various duties at All-Con, as well as spend time with some friends.

We started out by setting up the 501st Legion booth:




Soon after, Steven led a forum on building dioramas:




Steven had stuff to do after this, and I was officially bored, so I nipped out for a little shopping. I'd passed a Goodwill on the way to the hotel where the con was held, so I headed there. I'd been looking for a wooden cassette-tape holder in thrift stores and hadn't found one yet; a lot of crafters have repurposed them as ink-pad holders, which is why I wanted one. Score! Not only did I find what I was looking for, but it was only $1.99:



After my little shopping excursion, I went back to the hotel and found my husband. We wandered around a bit and chatted with people. The people-watching at these cons is fascinating. I saw a grown man walking around cradling one of those Asian dolls like a baby and talking to it. Crazy.

The 501st Legion took Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films, to dinner. Getting everyone there was like herding cats. It was a big group:



I sat across the table from Peter's wife, Angie. She's a native Texan, which automatically earns her cool points. Plus, she's really nice:



Steven took my picture with Peter:



We headed back to the convention after dinner for a 501st Legion meeting. All-Con is a good time for a meeting because so many members drive in for it from other parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. I felt like such a poser sitting in on an official meeting of a group I'm not in, but I guess no one really minded, seeing as I let the stormtroopers hang out at my house a lot. Part of being married to the Empire:



They presented Scott "Niktom" Horne of Yak's Pub with...something. I think it was an honorary membership into the 501st. (I'd ask my husband, but as I'm typing, he's already sacked out in bed from an exhausting weekend. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.) In my defense, we walked in on this part of the meeting, so I didn't quite catch what was happening:



The 501st discussed business, remembered a member who'd recently passed away, showed off a super-cool hockey shirt being given to actor Aaron Douglas, then broke up for the evening. We chatted with people for a while, then I headed home to get some sleep.