Hot babes, cold steel, oh my!

After actually getting something akin to a full night's sleep, I pulled on some shorts and a shirt and went down one floor to the SFF.Net suite, where Selina entertained us all with her stories "I Look Good" and "Flatulence, Halitosis, Incest and Ned." Damn, that woman is funny.

Afterwards, I bopped over to the Hynes Center for the EMF Auction -- after all, there was a doll with my name on it just waiting for my money. Of course, she also had Harriet Culver's name on her, since Harriet had won the first Musketeer doll last year, so I knew I was in for a pitched bidding war. I just didn't know HOW pitched.

Got in, waved at Laura Anne and Lawrence Schoen, and sat down to knit and wait patiently for the doll to come up. Harriet came in and sat next to me -- she was spinning some lovely silver-grey fiber, and we chatted about handwork while Lawrence and Peter Heck worked on the various auction items.

And then, it was time. Laura Anne announced that she was NOT going to be running this doll -- she would be walking it most carefully, starting with an opening bid of $80. I responded with a hundred dollars, Harriet riposted with $150, and it just started spiraling up from there. People were telling me later, "It was amazing to watch -- you two were just firing out bids and you never dropped a stitch!").

The price quickly went past $300, and I rashly decided to set a new upper limit of $800 (that being the cash money I had set aside for the room -- this, by the way, is the reason why I don't gamble). Thanks to the skilled urging of Laura Anne and our mutual lust for the doll, we hit $800 within a minute or so of bidding. The room had gone quiet by then, and there was an audible gasp when Harriet calmly said, "Eight hundred." Laura Anne tried to urge me up to an even grand, but I figured I'd hit my limit -- if Harriet wanted the doll that badly, she deserved it.

Once that was decided, I slipped out and headed to the dealer's room. If I couldn't have the doll, that meant I had extra money to spend on sparklies, and I damn well intended to pick some up right then. And ohboy, I did -- the Opal Guy was there with his cabinets full of stunning opal and precious stone jewelry, and I faunched over all kinds of pretty pendants and earrings. And then I noticed the trays of rings set out behind the booth -- it turned out that he was running a 2/3 off sale on all silver rings, so something that normally cost $225 only cost $75.

WEELAH! I found a beautiful ring with blue and green opal inlay that just screams speculative fiction -- you could easily imagine some all-powerful space empress wearing this puppy. There was another ring that was just as pretty, if not quite so spec-fic, but it wasn't in my size.

The Opal Guy noticed and came over. "I can make another ring like that in your size and the same color pattern," he purred. "For the sales price, of course."

Yeah, like I was going to walk away from THAT. He sold two rings that day, and I danced away from the booth with my beeyoutiful new ring. I'm such a slut when it comes to opals.

By that time, however, it was time to start thinking about heading back to the room and get my fencing gear ready for the Musketeer bout that afternoon. I stopped off for a quick lunch at the hotel restaurant, then went up and climbed into my gear (for the third time this con, mind you -- good thing I brought extra shirts), carefully leaving my new ring on my computer (opals aren't very strong, and I wasn't about to wear it in a situation where a blade could smack into it).

Bopped back to the Hynes, found the room (in the same cavernous area as Registration -- ooooookay), and got my equipment set up with the wranglers. Since we were in the bowels of the convention center Elizabeth asked some of us to go up to the main floors and shill for the demo, so Laura, John Hemry and I walked around yelling, "Cold steel! Hot Babes! Come see the Musketeer Demo!" in the dealer's room and hallways. I think I may have said something about our first male Musketeer and his manly sword, I dunno. :-D

The demo itself was brilliant -- Esther came in with her new gown and tiara, looking every inch a queen, and bantered with James and his henchwenches before sitting in the Comfy Chair to watch the demo. Various Musketeer accoutrements were sold (mainly blue and red ribbons to show your allegiance -- blue for the Musketeers and red for the Cardinal. The leather-clad wenches sold a large number of red ribbons, dunno why), and we spent a good hour poking and whacking each other with various implements, including both a rubber chicken and rubber rat this year. Bill Seney was also awarded a promotion to Sgt. Major of the Auxiliaries for all of his hard work (playfully interrupted by Leslie, who tearfully accused him of being ungentlemanly and peering up her skirt during an apple-picking excursion -- long story), and we wound up the demo hot, sweaty and with a thoroughly entertained audience, so it was all good.

Immediately afterwards, Elizabeth (who was going to be presenting the Best Novella Hugo that evening) snagged my services as handmaiden and makeup girl, and we headed back to her room so that she could shower and get ready for the Hugos. Selina, Laura and Julia tagged along soon afterwards, and we spent some time sprawled around the room in bras and leggings (because we were damn HOT and SWEATY, after all) while Elizabeth made her preparations. Once she was begowned, maquillaged and off to the pre-Hugo reception, I headed down to take my own desperately needed shower (have I mentioned recently that I love the hot water pressure in the Sheraton Boston? Whee. . .) and joined Julia, Selina and Laura down in the lobby afterwards. They decided to head off in search of food, so I went back to the convention center and watched the first half hour of the Hugos.

By then, however, the events of the con were really catching up with me, so I decided to go back to the room and stretch out for a bit. This turned out to be a mistake, because I 1) fell asleep and 2) slept through my 10:00 PM panel on Genre Erotica. Oops. Woke up around 11:00 PM, smacked myself on the head for being an idiot, then figured what the heck, I might as well do the party rounds. Finally met up with Lyndon in the SFWA Suite (he got in by himself, I have no idea how), and after hitting the Rhode Island SF party and the Meisha Merlin party, we decided to call it a night.

It WAS our 11th wedding anniversary, after all. Heh, heh, heh. . .