Back to Reality- CONvergence Is Over

We’re back from CONvergence, and I'm still exhausted. Thanks again to my amazing family for watching Caitlin.

rarelylynne and I were immersed in geek culture for four days. Lynne got lots of work done, and I made it through 8 panels. It’s too hard to write a con report, so here are some of my favorite things from the weekend:

1- The many fun meals with our peeps, including seanmmurphy, lyda222, kellymccullough, Laura McCullough, Lars Pearson and christapolis. It was fun to watch our worlds mix together.

2- We got to hang out with many of our Minnesota friends. It was great geeking out with dewey921, jklumpp, weasel_king, michaellee, fizzixrat, frozendragon, Christopher Jones, Melissa Kaercher, Steve Manfred, and so many more. I hate it that we live so far away.

3- Lynne got groupies! :)

4- Toast!

5- “The Event That Didn’t Happen” was awesome!

6- Feeling 17 again after meeting Trace Beaulieu and Mercedes Lackey.

7- The Masquerade.

8- The wonderful TARDIS Tea Society once again acting as our party home base.

9- Hundreds of people coming to our panels.

Next year can't come too soon, especially since our friends Kelly McCullough and Pat Rothfuss are Guests of Honor.

Big Trade and a Win

In spite of some late-inning shenanigans, the Cubs win 7-3. After taking two out of three in St. Louis (it should have been a sweep), things are looking much better.

Of course, the big news of the day is that the Cubs responded to Milwaukee’s big pick-up of C.C. Sabathia with the additions of Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin for a sack of magic beans that included fringe players Matt Murton and Eric Paterson, average starter Sean Gallagher, and catching prospect Josh Donaldson.

Wow.

Harden is an amazing pitcher when he’s healthy. Of course, that’s the rub. He’s much like Ben Sheets, Mark Prior, and Kerry Wood. If he holds up, that’s a solid 1-2-3 punch in the rotation. If he breaks down, we’re still basically the same team as we were before the trade.

The team’s getting healthier, and we have seven players playing in that dump in the Bronx in a few days.

Things are good.