11 January 2002

I did not clean out the shoes - or anything else, for that matter - last night. Instead, Matt and I went over to visit Braz and Kris and Emma. Jeremy and Elizabeth were there, too, and we all took turns holding the baby, and had pizza, and after Emma finally went to sleep, we played a couple of rounds of Scattergories, which was, I must say, more fun than watching Braz try to get his laptop working, or playing video games.

Elizabeth and I talked about Neopets for a while. (She's been playing for quite a while, and I found the site through her webpage.) Matt teased us a little for being addicts.

While we ate, Kris put Emma in her swing and turned on their Baby Mozart DVD - that is, soft, relaxing Mozart music playing while on the screen, a variety of brightly colored things happen. A large percentage of them were close-up shots of perpetual motion machines, or the kinds of visual toys that you can buy in specialty stores like Spencer's. It was mesmerizing - especially for Matt and I, who hadn't seen this video yet.

All in all, it was a relaxed, enjoyable evening. I hope we can do it again soon.

MarsCon is this weekend. It's held, conveniently enough, less than a mile from where Matt and I live. MarsCon used to be billed as a "Relax-a-Con" - that is, they didn't try to draw big-name authors or artists, they didn't have much in the way of panels and discussions, and they didn't particularly strive for a large crowd of people. What they did do was have the best Con Suite (free food and drinks, for those of you who aren't Con-goers) in the country. It was, in essense, a big party.

In recent years, it's gotten more and more crowded - and more and more expensive - and the quality of the food in the Con Suite has gone downhill considerably. (Which isn't entirely their fault. When the number of attendees is 50% more than you were expecting, the good stuff goes fast.)

Matt and I have a certain amount of loyalty to MarsCon, but because we live so close and because of the decline in quality, we've taken in the last year or so to only getting one-day passes. Really, all we want to do is see the friends we don't see except at cons, and to catch the show Saturday night.

This year, our friend Rachel is coming down to go to the Con with us. I'm looking forward to her visit, but - oh, no! - I'm going to have to take down and put away the Christmas decorations tonight, to clear off the guest bed for her!

The horror...

--Liz