I should have worn heels -- life at 5'3"

04:22 pm - Live at Locus Awards Weekend + Baby Stuff

Ken and I are hangin' at the Locus Awards this weekend.  We're grabbing some writing/rest time in our room before heading back out into the crowd.  It's been a pretty cool weekend so far, though I missed all the fun last night.  Babies decided mommy was too tired to party (but still gave her insomnia!) so we hid in the room.  But Ken seems to have carried the Fun Torch for all of us.  Hopefully tonight will be a different matter.  The girls really enjoyed the awards banquet.  I think they thought the applause was all for them, because whenever everyone claps - which was every few minutes - I got a good kick, punch or squirm.  I think they thought they could accept awards for people.  They're already so ambitious!  :)

Had a lovely first breakfast with kenscholes , Kelly Young and Jenna Pitman.  Happy birthday to Kelly!  Then had a delightful second breakfast with bhagwanx and frabjouslinz up in Ballard.  They also introduced me to a great cupcake store.  Alas they did not have the cupcake onsies I was looking for.  So I had to move along.  It's probably a good thing that I didn't impulse buy, but I may have to go to their website at a later time to see if they've restocked.

I have been very lax in posting about the babies and the baby showers... or anything else of late.  I'm not sure if this is due to busy-ness or lazyness, but I'm going to opt for the former.  I still have so many thank yous to send out.  I must get on that.  And I do have much heartfelt gratitude for all of our friends, family and co-workers who have come out to share in the celebration of these two little ninja princesses. 

So a couple of things... our friends Kalle and Angus were clever and found a new acronym for the Scholes Family.  We are now the J.E.R.K.S.  (Jen, Elizabeth, Rachel and Ken Scholes).  Very clever.  We got a good laugh out of that.

Then... ta da!  I went and got a henna tatoo on my belly!  Most of you have seen it in the flesh already, because I've been practically flashing everybody my belly since I got it, but here are some pics, too.  This is with the paste still on, so it's very dark.  The artist, Melanie Schwartz, did such a great job.  She's local to Portland and is also at the Saturday Market.  You can view here stuff on her website at  http://www.bluelotushenna.com/index.html.  And here are a few samples of the art she did (free hand!) on me...

  

10:37 pm - cuz y'all asked so nicely

So for those of you who I didn't see this weekend, but who mentioned interest in seeing what shade of crimson I dyed my hair, I present you with these photos... also, back at Worldcon, I mentioned that I'd bought a corset for the first time, but didn't have a picture.  Now you get a two for one deal.



(Yes, I realize that I'm being a total ham.) 



There must be dancing whereever we go.  The frabulous frabjouslinz here.

I didn't get many other photos at Orycon.  I get so busy chatting, I forget to take my camera out! 

On Thursday, kenscholes and I were at Powell in Beaverton for a group sci-fi/fantasy writers group signing.  And the members of the 501st showed up!  There was no way that I could leave without a pic with my favorite Star Wars character. 

06:05 pm - Con Report - World Fantasy 2008

Whew!  We're back.  Now if you're keeping track of my status on Facebook, you're probably thinking, "OMG!  That's the longest layover EVAR!"  I assure you, we made it back to West Scholes Manor before midnight, went to sleep, and I (not kenscholes , cause he was smart enough to take Monday as a vacation day) got up bright and early at predawn to haul my tired ass into work on Monday morning.  And discovered that I would now be working overtime to make up for the vacation time I took.  Ugh.

World Fantasy was awesome, of course.  I don't think I've ever been to a non-awesome con.  Maybe I carry the awesomeness with me in the form of a terrifically brilliant, plaid wearing, trailer boy.  (Did anyone notice his non-plaid attire by the way?  He was uber-smashing in his new "Charlie" shirt and the new black textured shirt.  And he picked them out his own self.)  Speaking of trailer boy, he was so shiny and sparkly this con.  And always so gracious with everyone.  I think that's one of the things I love most about him.  That, and he has said lots of nice things about me and the work I did this con.  Some other folks mentioned that as well, to which I'm very grateful - and even slightly blushy - for the compliment.  This con WAS more work than usually for me.  But I enjoy it.  In fact, the few hours I wasn't managing Ken's schedule, I didn't know what to do with myself, so offered my gophering services to lasirenadolce , whom I decided really needed to NOT skip lunch to babysit her camera equipment.  And I got some nice lunch company as well.  So everyone wins.

As for Ken's schedule, this is the second time I've really taken on that project, and I think it's a smart way to go.  I think we got to see way more people that way, because it was planned out in advance.  So I think we're going to keep doing things that way at future cons.  So if there are meals or other things any of y'all want to do with either Ken or I, please don't hesitate to contact me.  I promise, I don't bite... often.

So, cool events at the con... met lots of cool new people.  Got reacquainted with others.  Hung out with old friends.  Missed the friends who couldn't be their, but understood that the miles were many and children in Halloween costumes sometimes come first.  After all, the kids are only at that adorable age for a brief few years.  But still, you were missed.  Hopefully, you know who you are.

Went to dinner with kenscholes , casacorona and Patti at this cool restaurant near the Hotel. I'm not sure if it's really French, but the food was reminiscently French, and the waiter was really cute with his French Canadian accent... so we'll go with French.  I wish that we could've done the whole 2-3 hour 5 course chef select dinner thing.  But truth be told, we barely got through the shorter 3 courses and were practically rolling out of the restaurant.  It was an experience.  And the company, of course, was lovely as always.

Went to jaylake's Guerilla Cheese party.  For those who don't know me, I go weak in the knees for cheese.  It truly is the food of the gods. Worthy of worship.  And the fact that I'm lactose-intolerant has never stopped me from worshipping at that altar.  My favorite cheeses were the peppered goat cheese and the parmesan.  And the brie.  Big thanks to Jay for putting that on.  And he even booked mystery musical guest.... kenscholes!  Ken entertained the party with some crowd-pleasing hits on a 6-string guitar borrowed from lasirenadolce and threw in some harmonica at the same time.

I also managed to do some business of my own.  Yay!

maryrobinette created "Stealth Halloween" for the convention that takes place over Halloween, but has a no costume policy.  Several of us dressed as characters that could pass for "normal" humans -- that's a broad definition.  Mary made for a very convincing Dana Scully (X-Files) and Diana Rowland was a dead ringer for Sarah Palin (the scariest costume indeed!).  And there were a couple of demon possessions and others.  Me, I went as a much older Kim Possible.  (If you don't know who that is, ask your 10-year-old daughter.)  :)  There was some trick-or-treating for those of us wearing the "Stealth Halloween" sticker, but I ended up disposing of most of my candy at the book launch party.

Lots of barcon.  A fun pasta dinner out with tbclone47 , nayad , bravado111 , jaylake , and others whom I don't have LJ links for - but they are just as cool! 

A front and center seat at the World Fantasy Awards with the Tor and Locus folks.  (wow!)  BTW, Tad William's speech was damn funny.

And last but not least (cuz I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff in the haze that is a con), please see pictures at my brand new Flickr account! 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenwestscholes/sets/72157608694883249/

11:13 am - To Calgary!

We're sitting in the PDX Stanford's fooding up before our flight to Calgary.  Lists have been checked, double checked.  We've only had to return to the house twice this morning - once to go out and bring back more cat food for the fur-balls and once to collect our camera that was hiding amongst those black, re-usable grocery bags.  

We dropped off our ballots at the ballot box at the courthouse.  Have you all remembered to study up on the candidates and measures and cast your vote?

I came in 1 lb under the max weight for luggage.  I'm not sure what I have in the suitcase that's so heavy.  I didn't bring nearly as many pairs of shoes as I did to Worldcon.  I have been questioned by someone-who-shall-remain-nameless as to why I need so many pairs of shoes.  To which I reply, do you even need to ask?  Oh, well, I guess if I get stuff at the con, I'll have to talk Ken into letting me stuff them into his suitcase (which was a trim 32 lbs). 

Very excited about seeing everyone.

Current Mood: excited

01:03 pm - Count Down to World Fantasy

I'm alive!  I've been in the head-down-nose-to-the-grindstone position for the last several weeks (months?).  But I've come up for air to say a quick, "hiya!" to all my LJ peeps. 

Amongst the million other things that seem to eat up my time faster than Cookie Monster at the Nestle Tollhouse Cookie factory, I'm also working up kenscholes ' schedule for World Fantasy next week.  (Ack! It's less than a week away! Yeesh!) 

WFC Agenda (tentatively anyway)

• Anticipate lots of barcon (hope any of y'all who are there will wave, wink, air kiss, hug, etc.  -- simple hellos are great too)
• Ken has a reading at 3 p.m. on Saturday (I think he's going to read from Lamentation - sneak peek at the novel coming out in Feb. 2009)
• Ken will also be signing his collection Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Strange Journeys at the Fairwood Press table potentially Friday afternoon - still waiting on confirmation on the time. 
• TBD - You tell me... what fun thing should go here?

Current Mood: busy

03:38 pm - Back from Radcon

kenscholes and I just got back from Radcon a short while ago.  We are absolutely exhausted, but I think this has been one of the most fun cons we've been to.  Radcon goers, you rock.  I loved hanging out with y'all, laughing with y'all, dancing with y'all, instigating moments of hilarity with y'all and other STUFF!.

The small press party rocked with the guitar stylings of kenscholes and Nick Layne.  I think they should be the regular entertainment for that party from here on out.  Who doesn't like a sing-a-long to great songs?

Opening ceremonies were hysterical.  Being a jaylake-clone is dangerous work.  And how apropos that my own dear hubby got to kill us in order to save Jay from himself.  :)  The two then followed that up with the entire room singing a rousing serenade of "This Bob is your Bob" to our own dear Bob Brown.  Another sing-a-long -- I think I see a theme developing.

One thing -- we so need a dance night that is not a teenage rave night.  An 80s night that lasts later than 11:00 p.m. perhaps?  We need it.  We want it.  We must dance to good music.  Pretty please? 

Okay, I'm off to sleep for about a week.  (Huh, yeah, in my dreams.)

Next month - Norwescon!  Who's up for Round 2?

Current Mood: tired