3,200 kms, Two Cons and One Swamp Later...

The past two weeks have been rollicking crazy fun.  Roomy and I started off by going to the My Little Pony Fair in Providence, Rhode Island.  (She's the collector. I'm the enabler, the ride and the booth bunny!)  We started off our stay in Providence with a Lovecraft tour.  For the poor souls amongst you who are not aware, H.P. Lovecraft spent quite a bit of his life in Providence.  So did Edgar Allan Poe, while he courted the lovely poet Sarah Whitman (who ultimately rejected his boozy advances). 

Providence is really steep, really humid, and really hot.  It's a miracle Roomy and I survived.  Actually, it was all thanks to the frozen lemonade.  Bless those entrepreneurs who never give up on the lemonade stand dream.

See?  Steep.  Well, okay, you can't really tell, but trust me, it's steep and full of death!  Says so right there on the sign.

Cemetery where Lovecraft and Poe gained much inspiration.  After spending a cheerful sunny morning wandering its messy ranks of tombstones crumbling since before their time, I understand why.

... The Shunned House.  Aaah!  See the kitchen door behind the tree, opening onto the street...

The Shunned House is for sale!  Get your creepy real estate today!

Providence lines from the great floods which would have covered Roomy whole and swept her away.  Sad.

The Providence Athenaeum, where Lovecraft spent many an hour and Poe courted Sarah Whitman.

Lovecraft memorial, erected in 1990.

After a day wandering the streets after Lovecraft (and eating at the Cheesecake Factory with friends, mmm, cheesecake), we trekked off to Hasbro the next day.

This was the fourth My Little Pony Fair I attended.  The first was in Memphis, Tennessee, three days ride away (and two to come back when doing 90 mph through Kentucky.  Ah, you unbridled spirit, you.)  I had just bought my lovely car, Maude, when Roomy mentioned that she couldn't afford to go to the Fair that year.  Roomy was sad and I had a car, so I figured: road trip!  Ergo, one of the first things I did with my new (used) car was to drive it three days away. It was awesome.

So this was my fourth Fair (still a sucker for a road trip).  I helped Roomy build a diorama (last year, I constructed a model of the Kentucky Derby's Winner's Circle).  This year we went for a Fair theme.  The centrepiece was a carrousel, which used up all of my swear words several times.  A grand time was had by all.

Hasbro is fun.  They have a Lite Bright Lane. I can't show you any pics since their suited muscle forbade it (they had a lot of muscle), but it was neat.  Trust me.

Roomy's booth.  Lotsa ponies.

Carrousel that used up all of my swear words.  Cellophane is not the sturdiest material.  We made it there okay, but on the way back a large piece of luggage tipped right on top of it.  We heard its crinkly cry of death and laughed.

Roomy's custom entries.  My Little Cthulhu was very popular!

Cake.  Large slab cake.  I put this here to confess that I didn't have a piece.  I was on sugar overload from being in pink land already, so I feared diabetes would sweep me away right there and then.  Kind of like the flood waters of Providence might have swept Roomy away, many decades ago.

And a good time was had by all.  Roomy and I headed back to Ottawa through the Adirondacks.  There are some haunted buildings in those hills, I'd be willing to bet my nephew's favourite pair of socks on it. (Not mine.  He might not notice if he lost his favourite pair. I'd go into shock. Don't worry - I'd buy him even cooler socks. I'm a good aunty, thank you very much.)

Then I was off to the cottage!  I hung out with my family, including my cute drooly niece and my non-drooly nephew. It was relaxing, which is always lovely. I'm not a fan of posting pictures of my niece and nephew on my blog, but trust me, they're adorable.

Following a nap in the swamp, an inability to find a frog (possibly due to nap) and my brother's heroic and nearly leechy dive for a turtle, I decided to attempt kissing the shelled reptile to see what would happen.  Turns out the stories are true.  It's the frogs that turn into princes.

I went straight from there to Polaris 25.  Wait, first I dropped my mom off at the Toronto Union Station.  Toronto drivers?  Like, regular, day of the week, let's drive downtown Toronto drivers?  You're crazy.  Don't argue. You know as well as me that it's true.

Polaris was an awesome time. I hung out with lots of cool folk, mostly fellow author Erik Buchanan and his lovely lady at the Dragon Moon Press table.  Thanks to everyone who came to say hi and buy books, and to everyone who came to the launch of When the Hero Comes Home!  I still grieve having missed the ice cream social.  Next year, I'll just host my own. Oh ya, like I'll remember.  I'd manage to miss that, too!

Thanks to so many people, including Karen Dales, Violette Malan, J.M. Frey, my bus buddy (Thought Admiral Korath), K.W. Ramsey, Eric Choi... and so many others who made this con memorable!

I'd likst you (okay, I left this open for a second to run after a bad cat, and I have no idea what I was going on about, but it makes me sound drunk and bossy, so I'm leaving it in.  I think it's a good end to this post, too!)

Love,

Marie