truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
[personal profile] truepenny
Yes, I have been Off The Grid for an entire week. If something happened which you want to be sure I know about, please leave a comment here.

I wrote up Cupcakecon as I went, in a somewhat elliptical fashion. Thusly:

Cupcakecon: Prologue

Arrive Madison airport -- Curse Delta for charging $25 to check a bag. -- Reading With Custer's Cavalry. -- Photograph of Comanche, (allegedly) the only living thing found on the battlefield after Little Big Horn. -- I buy a book of logic puzzles in Minneapolis. -- Tucson after dark. -- Five miles is longer than you think. -- The dithering dance of the juvenile rabbit. -- Having not been eaten by grues, I arrive safely at Endicott West.

Cupcakecon Day 1

Scenic horses. -- I startle a ground squirrel. Twice. -- The implausibility of the Tucson Mountains. -- Carriages at the Tucson airport. -- Arrival of Bear and Leah. -- Food, food, and more food. -- The Horrifying Habanero Incident. -- We encounter a stunningly gorgeous Malamute. -- Portrait of four authors in a hot tub.

Cupcakecon Day 2

We decide it is not a smoke detector, but a sin detector.

Cupcakes! -- Chocolate chipotle OMG. [N.b., for those of you in the Tucson area, this is the Red Velvet Cupcakery, which I cannot recommend highly enough.]

Gates Pass. -- Entish saguaros. -- Sonora Desert Museum. -- Do not feed the coyotes. (Also, do not teach coyotes to operate motor vehicles.) -- Petting a gopher snake. -- Mountain lions. -- Black bear. -- Mexican wolves. -- Can you spot the screech owl in this picture? (Hint.) -- The coati is busy and does not wish to see you. -- Otter. -- Beavers. Plural. -- Bighorn sheep. -- Small creatures sleeping underground. -- Cold hummingbirds. -- RAIN.

Beth's ponies. -- Nefer accepts my adulation. -- Saguaros with rainbow. -- Portrait of the author as a scale referent.

Dinner out.

Concerned Cat Is Concerned.

Cupcakecon Day 3

A white tree with a weeping habit.

Bisbee. -- Sacramento Pit and Lavender Pit. -- Delving too greedily and too deep. -- Quest for lunch. -- Leah and I learn about horchata. -- The Copper Queen Hotel. -- Angel gates and fluffy kitty. -- Stairs and steep places. -- French bulldog.

Tombstone. -- Clydesdales & Percherons. -- The Crystal Palace. -- Astonishing roulette wheel. -- We embrace the kitsch. -- Not Doc Holliday. -- I buy books.* -- Leah buys a parasol. -- Bear buys a wallet. -- Emma Explains The Gunfight. -- The Bird Cage. -- Still not Doc Holliday. -- Also not Josie Marcus. -- Tombstone's gilded Black Mariah. -- Duelling organs. -- Mrs. Fly and her Great Danes. -- Victorian racy photos w. Very Patient Dog under the pool table. -- Prostitutes named Cuckoo and Copperhead. -- Not Josie Marcus' crib. -- STILL not Doc Holliday. -- Oh John Ringo no!

The language of squirrels is entirely made up of profanity.

Portrait of three authors in a hot tub.

Cupcakecon Day 4

It is good to have wings. -- Coyote and javelina tracks.

Colossal Cave. -- A bull for Bull. -- 70 degree cave. -- Nineteenth century vandals. -- The C.C.C. -- Treacherous stairs and bad jokes.

Beth's ponies, part 2. -- Portrait of the editor as a scale referent. -- Beth longes Cai; Cory licks Bear. -- Bear rides Surprise; Cory licks me. -- I ride Surprise; Cory licks Bear. -- Surprise is 16.2 hands. A strapping wench. -- Beth is The One True Biped; I am a mere encumbrance. -- We hinder in a helping way. -- Volunteer Dog gets biscuits.

On the way home, my sunblock tries to kill us both, but fails.

Ravening Wolverine Is Ravening. -- Alarmed Cat Is Alarmed.

Portrait of four authors in a hot tub.

Bear and Mole were sisters.

Cupcakecon Day 5

Croissants! om nom nom. -- Nancy Drew lit crit. -- The awesomeness that is ZZ Top.

The Chevy Diva. -- We achieve an Amanda.

New Mexican cuisine FTW. -- Inferior cupcakes. -- We go in search of a climbing gym. -- A brief and unintentional tour of the old barrio. -- South Toule Street is well hidden, but we penetrate its mysteries. -- At higher elevations, it is harder to go up walls without DYING. -- We provide climber groupies for a woman we have never met.

I resurrect old skills and enact a lady's maid.

Quiet evening in for Mole.

Cupcakecon Day 6

The Tucson Festival of Books. -- Signing. -- Airedale with saddlebags. -- Sun. -- Corgi with saddlebags. -- Food. -- Panel. -- Signing. -- Signing. 4 p.m. In a tent. Facing west. -- The yellow face it burns us.

And yet, I am not sunburned. Neutrogena 100+ sunblock FTW.

Guatemalan cuisine also FTW.

Portrait of three authors in a hot tub and two authors in deck chairs. -- Short stories these days: "They lie there limply, twitching a little." "With their eyes shut, audibly chanting England, England, England."

Cupcakecon Day 7

Awake at 4:45 in the morning. -- Almost but not quite worth it for the stars. -- We drive to the airport. -- They call it a blind spot for a REASON, dipshit. -- The airplane does a good imitation of a sardine tin. -- Reading about Doc Holliday, as I do not want to start shouting at Wyatt Earp in public. -- Amazingly good babies. -- HOME.

---
*Gary L. Roberts, Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend; Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend; Allen Barra, Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends. One begins to sense a theme.

Date: 2010-03-15 03:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com
Land sakes, child, I'm beat just reading about it.

*waves*

Date: 2010-03-15 03:09 am (UTC)
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)
From: [personal profile] larryhammer
The coatis never want to see you today. Ever.

We stopped at the Red Velvet Cupcakery as we left Gentle Bens. It was indeed a pretty good cupcake.

---L.

Date: 2010-03-27 12:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ashnistrike.livejournal.com
I don't think I knew that saguaro cacti got that big!

-Nameseeker

Date: 2010-03-27 01:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] truepenny.livejournal.com
Neither did I! They are huge. And they weigh several tons apiece.

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