Friday and Saturday are a bit of a blur. I spent most of the day times at the bid table. Took a few preambles around the Dealers room. Never did make it to the Art Show or any Programming.

Friday night, I tried the parties at the Hilton and found them to be a bit of a bore. I hung out in the Hotel bar for part of the evening and watched the fans go by. The Real Ale bar reduced its prices from the night before but I didn’t indulge in many over the course of the night. Maybe I am beginning to burn out?

Saturday Night was the Masquerade and Kent and Mary were going to be in it as GNOMES. A symbol of the Denver2008 Worldcon Bid. Our other symbols are Winged Buffalo and Hershey Kisses. I figured the Masquerade would be late as normal so I popped in on a re-showing of “Gamerz”, a Scottish movie of about D&D Gamers. I only saw a short bit of it and found the half I understood to be very funny, very well done. But I had to run to the Armadillo to catch the Masquerade and so left. I really would like to see the whole thing on DVD some time.

The Masquerade was running smoothly and on time, so much for Fannish Tradition. I arrived for the half-time show, “The Iron Costumer”, which pitted NA and EU teams of costumers against each other to make the best costume from a pile of scraps in 45 minutes. I have seen an episode of “The Iron Chef” so I realized what they were trying to do. I still think the NA team’s costume was better but the judges awarded the prize to the EU team.

And the Masquerade results were announced shortly thereafter and Kent and Mary actually won the Audience Appreciation Prize so I did get to see them in the little gnome costumes cross the stage to collect their award.

I caught a double-decker shuttle bus over to the Hilton afterwards and wandered through the Saturday night parties. I had some interesting conversations with people in passing but didn’t really get that party buzz going.

Chicago is the home of Tootsie Rolls, so they had a lot of Tootsie Rolls in their party. Maybe I will vote for them. I should at least support them to pay for my Tootsie Roll habit.

I lasted longer Saturday night and then wended my way back to CairnCross.