amezri | shore leave 29

Shore Leave 29: July 13-15, 2007 in Hunt Valley, MD

Report for my first visit to this convention. I'd been to the hotel before for Farpoint earlier this year, though.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Left at 8am - drove and stopped a ton of times so I could have a wee :-P Got in to Hunt Valley at about 2pm. During the drive down, I started to lose my voice. Not good. Checked in at the front desk. Picked up our badges. Got all our crap in and called Dion to let him know we were here. Annalisa and I got in our Friday costumes -- I was Stargate chick and she was.. uh.. space pirate?

We wandered down to the dealer's room and ran into Dan, Mindy, and Kitha. I had flyers and cards for Dan's table (as well as the ScifiHero one) so we headed over to it and put some out. After that, we just sort of wandered around the dealer's room until Dion & Tanya arrived.

After they got their stuff into the room, Andres & Bonnie came down to our room and we headed out for dinner. Hm. I can't remember where we ate, but they had a rather unique menu... There were some dinner hijinx, and I think Annalisa got along with everyone all right.

When we got back to the con, I think we headed over to the dealer's room again before going to the Valley room to wait for Dean Haglund & Gary Jones' show to start. We had a look at the tables to see who would be sitting where and saw the funny sign on Colin Cunningham's table. (He told me Sunday that he wrote it himself.) There wasn't anyone else down there really (some other talk was going on still) and so... when we were approached by some guy with a pocket full of Tribbles, we were a bit freaked out. Now I understand he really was a guy selling Tribbles for charity and if I knew that, maybe I would have gotten one.

Anyway, the Gary Jones/Dean Haglund's Star Hole 1.5 show was HIGH-larious. (Dean has a DVD of the show on sale at his site.) The first section was mock Stargate SG-1 scene that turned into a Star Trek parody with their usual Whose Line-like improv. Colin Cunningham went up on stage as a volunteer and ended up as Teal'c. I put some clips up at youtube.

After the Star Hole show, we sort of waited around for the Star Trek: New Voyages "World Enough in Time" showing. I had spotted Camera Alex slipping in during the Star Hole show so I said hello. We chatted a bit; he flashed his iPhone around. Annalisa and I watched about 15 minutes of WEaT before bailing. I'd seen it before and she wasn't interested and headed back to the room.

Annalisa & Tanya headed to the pool. I stayed in the room for a few before heading down myself. Didn't stay too long there as it was almost closing time. We all headed back to the room. After Annalisa got changed, we headed to the bar. We ended up chatting with a vendor (Chris Orlando?) I saw Aaron Douglas, Paul McGillion, and Colin Cunningham sitting at a table on the far side of the room. Pretty cool that they could just come and hang out and not have anyone bother them.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Didn't really sleep well. I was getting up and coughing all night. Blech. Still can't really talk and I feel like crap. Got dressed in my Doctor gear. Went downstairs and sort of swept by Dean Haglund's table. Said hello and that we'd be back later. Headed to the ScifiHero table to see what was going on there. I'd brought my Garrison BDUs for them to put on display.

I had a minor wardrobe debacle as I couldn't remember how to tie my tie. Tanya gave it a try and couldn't do it, so then Nate did it. Good enough for now! Went back and got Gary Jones' signature and I gave him a print of "Deliquesce." I had a chat with him about how Walter never went through the 'gate except in "200," and he says, "yeah, but did you see me go through the gate? NO!"

Went over to Dean Haglund next, who was right next to Gary. I bought the DVD of last night's improv show, which Dean signed. Had a bit of a chat. I gave him a print of "Atene," and mentioned that I had given him artwork at ICON, but I didn't know if he remembered. He said he did and it was on his shelf and that he'd put this one there too. Cool :)

Annalisa needed coffee and I figured I could do with some tea (as a couple people already suggested) so we headed to the cafe. After that, we went back to the dealer's room for a few minutes. I asked Dan if he could try to tie it and he couldn't get it either, so I was kind of flailing and ended up being helped by a guy named Kevon who we ran in to several other times during the weekend. Got some photos with Annalisa and Bonnie.

After that, I had to get in line for the photo op with Paul McGillion. By the time I got there, the line was pretty long. Had I known you could line up that far ahead of time, I would have gotten there earlier. Oh well. I did have a chat with some cool people in line. About an hour in, Colin Cunningham came by and sort of grabbed my shoulder as he went by and said, "I love your outfit." XD He came back the other way a few minutes later, asking who had a ticket for a photo op with him. He was concerned that the line was so long that people wouldn't be able to get in before they had to go do other stuff so he was just snapping photos with people while in line.

Finally got in to the room. The line was pretty much a rather efficient assembly -- hand over your ticket, put your bag on a table, pose, go on your way. Paul was lovely, though, and said a few words to everyone. He said he liked my outfit; that I was very hip. Hahaha. It sort of happened pretty quickly, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

After the photo op, I met up with Annalisa and we sort of wandered out and around and ended up in the hallway we liked to take photos in. Filled out some Masquerade paperwork and then decided to get some photos of us in our Doctor Who outfits. Funnily enough, this is where we ran into Meg, Nate's girlfriend. We needed someone to take photos of us and she just happened to be coming by. She was decked out in a BSG pilot uniform, courtesy of Dan. She even had some ScifiHero cards to hand out! I didn't really know who she was at the time though, so it was kinda funny to figure it out later.

I think after that we were back at the fan table for a little while having gone to the Masquerade table to sign up. Took some photos with people. Talked with Nate, who wants to build a full scale Tardis replica. That would be pretty cool.

We were both hungry by then and decided to head to the room to see what we could find. On the way back to the room, we were stopped by two people, one of which I had met at Farpoint where he was dressed as the 7th Doctor. Today he was dressed as a Dementor. We all had in impromptu photo session. It was pretty fun doing silly poses. We finally made it back to the room. I grabbed a PB&J for lunch (thanks to Dion & Tanya for the foods!) but then went with Annalisa to the cafe to have a sandwich.

After foods, we wandered back into the dealer's room so I can buy photos of Paul McGillion and Aaron Douglas to have signed. Also made a stop at the Who booth and ended up buying toys... got Martha Jones, a Clockwork Man, and a Tardis keychain. I was able to get a teenie tiny deal on everything. Annalisa headed back to the room while I went to see if my photo op with Paul had been printed already; it hadn't.

So... I wandered back to the fan table area to see who was signing. Paul McGillion was at his table and there wasn't really a big line there, so I scooted over. Chatted with a guy in front of me who was the Fourth Doctor. When I got up to Paul, I chatted (as much as my dying voice allowed) and gave him a print of "Atropos II." I mentioned sending the packages a couple years ago and he said that they get sent so much stuff all the time and didn't remember. Which is totally fine, I understand. Anyway, he made another comment about my outfit and signed the photo, "very sexy." Ahahaha! XD

Then I went over to Colin Cunningham, who had no line. He was so completely awesome. Seriously my favorite guest of this con. He was all, "I love your outfit!" And I said, "oh, I'm the Doctor." He looked confused and said, "you're a doctor?" and I said, "no! I'm the Doctor, from Doctor Who!" Heh. I gave him a print of "Deliquesce" and he seemed to really love it. I explained that it was digital art and he looked it over and asked if it was signed. There was a bit of a to-do about it actually as he didn't know if it was a photocopied signature or if I hand signed it. I wanted to get one of his photos signed and he said it was a fair trade and just signed it for me :D Dawww. I also get a photo with him which came out pretty nice. I was about to walk away when another fan came up and asked him about his movie, which I noticed but didn't really look at. Well, I can't resist new and unusual cinema, so I got a copy, which he also signed.

When I headed back over to the ScifiHero table, they'd already packed everything up. I chatted with the gang a bit. Dion, Andres, and Bonnie went off to the room while Tanya and I stopped at Colin's table to say hello. Heh. They chatted a bit and he said he wanted a picture with her.

Tanya & I went to see if my photo op had arrived it; it had, so we tried to see if Paul was still at his table. Seems he'd wandered off to a panel or dinner or something. So I stopped at Claudia's table to give her a print of "Dark Light." I apologized for my voice and she said that was all right, it was very sexy. Haha! XD As I was leaving her table, she told me to hold on a second and she grabbed a card off her table and signed it for me. Aww :)

We went back to the room to rest for a bit. Dion, Tanya, Andres, and Bonnie headed out to buy food for their parking lot barbecue while Annalisa stayed in to relax before Masquerade. A little while later, while we were freshening up and getting ready to head down, Tanya came in to tell us the food was ready. I helped her bring the cooler outside and grabbed a hot dog to go. As Annalisa and I were headed to the Green Room, we ran into Kevon again who showed us the Doctor Who toys he'd bought. I was eyeing his Doctor/Slitheen/Rose set which has the New Earth Rose figure I wanted (the single Rose figure is pretty horrible). Definitely made a stop at that vendor before we headed to the Green Room for Masquerade. There was a bit of confusion as to where we were supposed to go and what was going on with Workmanship judging, but we finally got sorted into our dens and got it figured out.

There was a lot of waiting... which was made a bit better by watching some of the other participants. There was a cute BSG family and the "fraking toaster" group next to us was cool. Meg had been recruited to go up with them and we also met Natalie, who was playing Six and also is a member of Luna-C. We had a good time talking with Meg, actually. She's really cool. There were some cool costumes in the waiting room with us, like the Ghost Hunters/Ghostbusters group and the Beauty and the Beasts group. I really wish I had my camera, but Andres & Bonnie were nice enough to come get our bags so we didn't have to worry about our stuff. After festering in the Green Room for a while, we were finally called to go out. Uh... unfortunately they had grouped us and a couple other groups in the children's section. Oops. Debacle! It got fixed and we went up with Den #2. The whole walk on stage was so weird and fast. I remember just walking to the "x" and posing before pulling out the sonic screwdriver and posing some more. I honestly have no idea what Annalisa was doing. She told me later that she heard one of our friends say, " they didn't fall," and that everyone laughed at the "transmogrifier" line. Once off stage we were led to the photo pit where everyone sitting there could take a ton of pictures of us. That was majorly weird.

We went back into the ballroom to watch the rest of the Masquerade. Very cool stuff. I loved the Beauty & the Beasts skit (which included Disney's Beast, Vincent, and Hank McCoy) and the Ghost Hunters/Ghostbusters skit was funny too. Jack Sparrow? Was totally the best. During intermission, we just moved out into the hall and chatted with people. I really wish I had my camera... of course, I wished even more that I could stop coughing up a lung. Blech. We went back in finally to find out the results. We didn't win of course, but I think we were a fair bit out of our league; the other participants were pretty awesome.

Back to the room to change into something way more comfortable. All of us went down to Ten Forward, which wasn't quite set up yet so Annalisa and I decided to head up to the hotel bar. Stood around with my ginger ale. I noticed Aaron Douglas and Paul McGillion come in for drinks at one point. Dan and Mindy also showed up and we chatted with them for a bit. There was some band playing in the bar. We also met some kid named Brett. When we headed back to Ten Forward, Brett came with us. Our friends were sitting outside the ballroom, so we just ended up chatting. A woman who was sitting near by told Annalisa that we were robbed and that we should have won workmanship because the Rose dress was spot on (except it wasn't, but okay...) and while she completely ignored me, her friend said that I had the Doctor's stance down. Woohoo! At some point we went and got our photos taken with Jack Sparrow and then later with Meg, who was dressed as Tomb Raider and speaking with a fabulous British accent. Shortly after that, we all headed to bed.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Woke up about 9am and got showered and dressed. Felt like death. Packed up our stuff, deflated the bed, and moved everything to the car for the noon check out. We headed to the dealer's room to see what was up. Meg was in her Aeryn gear, so I had to take a photo of that. Said goodbye to Andres & Bonnie, who were heading out shortly.

I left Annalisa in the dealer's room and went downstairs to see what was going on. Colin and Aaron weren't there yet and they hadn't called my number for Paul's signing. Wandered back over to the fan tables.

Possibly wandered back over to Colin about that time. I gave him a Moo card with "Propective" on it and told him it was just a small one until I could get him a larger print. Camera Alex and Liz showed up then and I asked Alex if he had his iPhone and Colin totally lit up and asked about it. Alex did his much-practiced iPhone demonstration and he actually let Colin hold it. Hahaha!

Wandered over to Aaron Douglas' table where he wasn't yet. I talked with his handler and found out he'd definitely be there soon before his official signing session. I was pretty amused at this "Creation Cons Stink" sign on his table. The guy said Aaron is pretty vocal about his hatred of them and we both bashed Creation a bit.

My number section was called for Paul's signing so I headed to the back of the line. The air conditioning was killing me and I think I stood in line for an hour while listening to fans bitch and complain about whatever. When I finally made it to the head of the line though.. omg. I said hello and his handler remembered me from yesterday. Paul said hello. We chatted a bit and he signed my photo op picture.

I moved on to Aaron Douglas then, who was finally at his table. There was a tiny line, but not too big of a deal. First thing he did was to say he loved my shirt and take a picture of it (Dark Side of the Garden) while saying, "it's just an excuse to take photos of breasts" XD Hahahah! I gave him a print of "Paleo." Then had him sign the 8x10 I bought. After he signed it, he explained that the picture was actually not take during a scene but Jamie Bamber was off to the side and he'd just made some snide remark (I can't remember what it was) and then plopped down on the deck. Then of course I got a photo with him :D

It was getting to be time to go. Annalisa went back to Dean Haglund's table to get a picture with him. Then we talked to Meg before we left as well as Natalie. We snapped a few covert photos of Paul McGillion continuing to sign. Right before we left, I stopped and talked to Rich Newman, one of the producers for Star Trek: New Voyages. Did a final tour of the dealer's tables in the hall (Annalisa got herself a sonic screwdriver). Then we finally got in the car and headed home.

Uh. A couple of missed exits and 9 hours later, we both got to our homes and I collapsed dead.

All my photos are here.
Clips of the Star Hole 1.5 improv

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