We’re BACK!

We have returned!  The travel for the most part went smoothly, with the exception of the last leg flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Raleigh which was delayed, so we got in around 2 AM instead of midnight as originally anticipated.  The cats have forgiven us for deserting them and I’m heading out in a few minutes to give the garden a good drink.  It seems to have weathered the weekend pretty well.

From my perspective the con was AWESOME.  I didn’t spend a lot of money on toys, as we got a great set of commemorative toys as part of our admission.  They’re collector’s grade and beautifully made and painted.  I shipped them home separately with a lot of our other stuff as we had limited room in our bags. 

Tiernen tolerated us and he had fun swimming and staying in the hotel.  I guess the next trip will be for him.

I did get to see most of my Comics in Disguise friends who are all delightful.  We had lots of fun sharing rooms and meals and just generally geeking out together.  And I basked in the Transformer-yness of it all.  I got to meet all the special guests and get autographs and we took TONS of pictures.

Here are a few.  I’ll put them behind a cut to save your bandwidth.

Here’s me with Prime.  I also got to meet his voice actor, Peter Cullen and only cried a little bit from hysterical nerves when he signed my book.  Chromia has the pictures with me and Peter on her camera, so I have to wait for her to get home to get them.

Here’s me rocking out to The Touch on Guitar Hero. It’s not available for Rock Band yet. *sigh*.  It’s a fun song to play, especially once you practice a few times.  Stan Bush (the original singer) was on hand to play with people later, but I think he was signing autographs while we were playing. 

Here’s me with the Ironhide truck on the Paramount lot.  The truck was very shiny and we couldn’t touch it, but they let us come right up and take lots of pictures.

Here’s me with Tyrese Gibson aka Sgt Epps.  They had a contest where people who were going to the party could submit a question for Tyrese to answer.  Mine was one of the three questions they asked, so once he had his appearence on stage I got to come to the side of the stage and meet him and get a picture with him.  He was very pleasant and seemed very happy to be there.  He’s really popular with the fans, too.  As I was walking away from getting my picture taken, Mr. Cullen (who was also there as a surprise guest) came up to me and the other two question people and shook our hands and said “Thank you”.  He’s SO sweet and wonderful.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of that *le sigh*.  He’s got a very soft and gentle handshake :).

And here’s me with Ratchet.  Tyrese Gibson came in driving Ratchet with all the lights flashing and the fans went NUTS!  Even after he left, the vehicle stayed on site for pictures.  The engine stayed warm through most of the party, you could feel it when you stood up close, nice. 

Here’s me with David Kaye.  He’s a bit of an old Hollywood buff and he was very nice and gracious.  He’s kind of like a cool uncle with lots of fun stories.

And here’s me with Weird Al.  He’s very funny and was just hanging out by the pie table so fans could chat and take pictures with him.  The tall guy was one of the Hasbro staff people.  Yes, I know I look surprised.  It was kind of an overwhelming day.

Here’s me with the girls at the Santa Monica Pier.  We went out after the convention wrapped up on Sunday and had fun despite the brisk weather.   Tiernen was very gracious about being our photographer.  He did get steak later, so it wasn’t a total loss for him.