The Return Of San Diego

We went down for the San Diego Comic Convention. Getting to be a wee bit of a habit with us. It's kind of dorky but fun. And J. Michael Straczynski has 3 panels this year.

(Yes, I know it's weird to be a puppyish fan at a convention when I saw this guy every time I went into the office, but...)

We drove down and picked up Lance at San Diego airport. Lance came down sans Ceej, who reportedly is off doing something else.

After lunch, we walked to the Con.

   A FAN carrying a box packed full of Japanese robot 
   toys passes DIANE, DARIN, and LANCE.
   
   DIANE watches him go.
   
            DIANE
        You think he's buying
        or selling?
   
            LANCE
           (laconically)
        Worshipping.

Please note that everything Lance does is laconic. There was a time I thought Lance thought I was stupid because he always paused before answering me and said everything in kind of a deadpan way. Darin pointed out to me that Lance treats everyone that way. And Ceej pointed out to me that Lance likes to think before answering, an admirable if rare trait.

We went to the Con and split up. Darin went to the Image presentation, Lance went to see one of his favorite artists, and I went to the Vertigo presentation. This presentation made me a little nervous about the rest of the Con, because

1. the presentation had something like 13 speakers and at the start time, only 2 showed up;
2. the dais was set up with 6 seats;
3. the 2 speakers did not have their slide show presentation set up;
4. all 11 other speakers showed up together and the show staff had to scramble to get seats while everyone talked.

After this, which finally turned out all right, I ran into Lance in the hallway and together we went to see the hour of trailers for movies like Steel, Spawn, Starship Troopers, and Alien Resurrection.

The three of us went to dinner at Star of the Sea, an upscale seafood restaurant by the Star of India sailing ship. It was a good restaurant: recommended. After dinner, the three of us walked by the ship and checked it out. It was originally a emigrants vessel. I would never have made it to America.

Darin and Lance talked about Patrick O'Brien.