In the autograph session I didn't get any autographs. Normally I don't but this time I wanted Ms Leick to add "Happy Birthday Michael" to one of Marty Slater's paintings that he had her sign in Toronto. But I chickened out. I just couldn't bear to go up there and ask that, since we're not supposed to request anything other than a signature. And I didn't have a picture of Willa O'Neill for her to sign (the autographs are done on one session so you go from one guest to the other) and I thought it'd be rather rude to ignore her and go straight to Ms Leick's end of the table -- but that's just another rationalization to justify my cop out.

This time I actually stuck around for the photo session, well I had to give a ride to Sarah and she definitely wanted to stay. It was a long wait because the autographs have to be done first and that takes forever. Eventually though Ms O'Neill and Ms Leick did photographs. Both were playful and conversational throughout the session, occassionally dancing to the piped-in music. Ms Leick is a bit more daring in photographs, letting people carry her and doing some rather suggestive poses. Ms O'Neill also seemed to be having fun, though not quite as uninhibited as Ms Leick.

After a full day I drove Sarah to her friend's place and drove home. It was a great first day but I had to eat and get to sleep. Tomorrow was the Sunday Breakfast which started at 10:00 which meant getting to San Francisco before 09:00 so that I can pick up Sarah then drive to Belmont and pick up Christine then get to Palo Alto in time for the breakfast. I did miss the Xena episode which everyone was talking about the next day. Sigh, I'll watch it on tape later.

Sunday Breakfast

Sunday started out much too cold and early for me. San Francisco is eerily quite in the morning hours, especially if you're used to seeing it only in the daytime or at night when it's full of people and you can't find parking. I picked up Sarah, drove to Oracle and called Christine to get directions, then went and picked her up and we got to the breakfast at 10:00.

The room was long and narrow, with ten circular tables, each seating ten people, and the buffet table at the back of the room. It was already full when we got there so we got to the last table in the back which ended up with seven people. Sure we couldn't see what was going on at the front of the room (where there was a podium and a large screen television) but it did mean that later on we had less people talking when the guests dropped by.

The people at my table were Sarah and Christine, Chance and his friend who drove 13 hours from Phoenix to be here and had to leave after the breakfast to drive back to Phoenix, Nicole who lives in Fremont and works at a garden center, and a woman who lives in Montana and flew here for the Con. It took us a while to get to the buffet table, which had the usual scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, home-cooked potatoes, donuts, fruits, pancakes. I didn't really notice anyone going back for seconds, especially once the activies started. I didn't get any more food either.