crawdad pad

Phew!  We're finally home from our week-long Chicago convention. 

It's always exhausting, but great to see old friends!  :)

It was a TON of work, but we had help from some amazing people, and we had our best show ever!

I enjoyed seeing the costumes, as usual.

Here's an unusual one.  This guy...

...is supposed to be THIS guy...

...from some obscure 1978 holiday special.  Major points for creativity! 

The weather was awful.  It snowed almost 7 inches at O'Hare and the airport shut down.  Meanwhile, in Indiana, spring came.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the windows are open!  But we've definitely been too busy to hike.  Not only have we been swamped with pre- and post-convention work, but we've got just over a week until closing.  We've got millions of contractor quotes to get before then, because we're planning major renovations in the first 6 weeks.  Todd has already been over to the house to meet with roofers and returned with a mystery.

"These were in the yard and in one of the barns," he said, puzzled.  "The homeowner has no idea what made them."  Having grown up in the country, I immediately recognized them as crawdad, er, crayfish holes.  But they weren't anywhere near either pond.  Doing a little reading, I discovered that sometimes crayfish seek out an underground water source, not just surface water like a pond.  Interesting!  I'm so excited to resume my "property walks," as I made so frequently in South Carolina, to find these little oddities.  Todd also mentioned that there's already a resident barn cat (!!!) that the homeowner was hoping that we'd continue to keep and feed.

Another cat!?!? 

Need I say more? 

It's a whirlwind of activity around here, punctuated by long periods of glazed-eyed couch slouching.  We don't have the luxury of our usual post-convention pajama week, but at least the work we're doing is exciting and moving us toward something amazing.  Little farm, here we come! 

Livin' La Vida STAR WARS

Today is my second day of comfortable slippers and fuzzy pajamas.  I'm going to read, and eat chocolate oatmeal, and nap. Why the life of leisure?  Well, I'm recovering from Star Wars Celebration 8, of course!

I left my professional career several years ago to ramp up a hobby business that Todd was running on the side.  Originally meant to be a stopgap until I finished a master's degree, it's taken on a life of its own now.  My business is mainly online, but we always go to Star Wars Celebration, even when it's 3000 miles away!

While we love seeing our friends in the hobby, Celebration is WORK.  First there's the pre-show prep of sorting and pricing items...then loading the cargo van and driving 10 hours to the convention center.  Here it is, west wing.
 

Our booth was 10' x 10', but thankfully we were able to spill over into the empty space next to us.  It was a real lifesaver, because we always bring a lot of stuff.  The evolution of unpacking:

Seventy thousand people attended this year, and I think every one of them came to our booth!

We were swamped from the moment we arrived at the booth in the morning until closing time at 7 p.m.  Then we stayed after for 2 hours (or more), tidying stock and pricing additional merchandise. Then it was up again at 7 a.m. the next day, and we did it all over again.  For four days!  Phew.  These conventions are always really lucrative for us, but speaking as an introvert who gets worn down quickly by the ambient noise and constant crush of customers, I am glad they only occur once every two or three years!

We get great feedback from people, though.  They love to see the vintage items they played with as kids.  From our booth space, too, we get to see a lot of cool costumes.

This is a light saber handle.

Lots of Princess Leias.

And...some other guys.

Four days of chaos, and then, at the end of day four, the six-hour process of tearing down the booth and packing things up.

The convention center seemed so small after people started moving out!

After packing up and a few hours of sleep, another 10 hour drive and then another unload of the cargo van.  Counting travel time, 6 days of moving boxes, little sleep, junk food, and chaos took their toll.  Todd and I were so sore and exhausted on Tuesday morning that we could barely move.  Today is a little better, and although I will certainly stay in my pajamas, work will begin again.   I'm looking forward to healthy food (I never thought I'd say this, but I'm absolutely sick of pizza) and SILENCE. It takes about a week to recharge!  Meanwhile, I'll wear pajamas, cuddle kittens, and enjoy our peaceful green space, where nary a light saber or ill-advised Princess Leia bikini can be found.

Have a great week!