I’m on the road, so today you get a funny video of a cat. Click here to be highly amused.

more animals
I am a total sucker for baby animals of all kinds — okay, so not amphibians. I “aww” when I see puppies or kittens, always feel a tug toward any sign that says “free puppies” like I saw while driving through Texas last week, and I could spend a lot of time on Cute Overload if I let myself.

Today, in my freelance journalist persona, I went to a dairy farm in East Tennessee where they make their own cheese. They have 800 cows that get milked three times a day. While taking the walking tour, we passed the sheds where the newborn cows are kept. They were so cute! I wanted to pet one, but understandably we weren’t allowed to. There’s a two-fold reason — if they got petted by all the tourists who come through on the tours, they’d become pets instead of dairy cows. Also, that contact would pose germ-transfer risks. Still, it was fun to stand outside the pens and look into those big brown eyes.

Just a quickie post tonight to let you all know about a couple of site updates I’ve done this week. I added some new pages, one detailing what I’m currently reading (because I liked that feature whenever I was blogging on Blogger) and links to the two versions of an essay I wrote in hopes one would be included in an anthology about the show Supernatural, which I believe I’ve mentioned here before. Unfortunately, neither version made the final cut, but I thought Supernatural fans might enjoy reading them anyway.

The What I’m Reading has its own page link on the left. The Supernatural essays are accessible through the Fun Stuff page.

This has got to be the best wedding-related video ever. It starts out pretty traditional, but keep watching.

Revisions still ongoing. And I’m heading out to Atlanta tomorrow for a conference. If any of you are in the Atlanta area, the book signing with several authors, including moi, is open to the public on Saturday from 4:00-5:30 p.m. at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast in Norcross.

I just got back from my first Dragon*Con tonight, and I’m already planning to go back next year. Not only did I get some writerly exposure to people who might never have heard of me otherwise, but my fangirl self had a fantastic time. What follows is a rundown along with lots of fun pictures. Be sure to go through the whole post — it’s worth it.

So, Thursday I drove down to pal Tanya Michna’s (aka Tanya Michaels’ house) so we could get the jump on arriving the next day. In preparation, we watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a Joss Whedon project that was an Internet hit this summer and which Tanya’s seen many times and I had yet to see due to my crazy schedule. Anyway, as with all things Joss, I loved it. Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible) and Nathan Fillion (Captain Hammer) were hysterical. My two favorite new sayings, quotes from Dr. Horrible, are “What a crazy random happenstance” and a Captain Hammer quote I can’t say on the blog.

On Friday, we arrived at our hotel, unloaded our stuff in our room and headed down to the Hyatt to register and get on with Day 1. Tanya had obligations on the writer track that day, but I went to see Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk (from Firefly and Serenity) speak. Had to wait in line for an hour and a half, but it was worth it. When my spot in line ended up so far back that I was on the outside of the hotel, I figured I wouldn’t get in, but I was miraculously on the sixth row. Nathan and Alan were really funny as they answered audience members’ questions. Later in the afternoon, I had a signing but since I currently don’t have any sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal books out, I only signed things for two people — one book cover and one DragonCon program. Oh, well.

That night, Tanya and I attended first the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog live performance, which was several people in costume lip-syncing the show while the show played to the side on a big screen. Very funny, and the guy who played Dr. Horrible was really good. Afterward, we hopped over to another hotel to hear part of the performance of the Brobdingnagian Bards. After that was the Buffy Sing Along, which was the same format used in the Dr. Horrible Sing Along but with the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Once More with Feeling.” I’d wanted to attend this for a long time, so I was glad to finally get to see it and sing along with a room full of people who loved Buffy too.

We started off Saturday with a program by Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies. I’ve heard him interviewed before on the Pottercast podcast, but it was fun to see him in person. Here’s Matt, looking a lot different than he did when Neville first came on screen.

That afternoon, I was on a panel about YA fiction along with several other authors, including Rachel Caine, whose Morganville Vampires series I’m really enjoying. I told her this and that I love her Weather Wardens series too. She was very nice and signed the first Morganville book for me. Next up was a reading by me. Again, because I don’t yet have huge paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy cred, no one showed up. I sat at read Rachel’s book while I waited to see if anyone showed up. When I was still alone after 15 minutes, I took off for the line that was already forming for the Firefly panel with Nathan (Captain Mal), Alan (Wash) as well as Jewel Staite (Kaylee) and Morena Baccarin (Inara). They were very entertaining, and you could tell they all loved working together. Here’s the lovely cast members, from left: Alan, Jewel, Morena and Nathan.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel to rest for a bit and drop off the promo materials we’d been lugging around during the day. But we were back down at conference central at 10 p.m. for a panel on Supernatural. We were able to announce we’re in the Supernatural anthology, In the Hunt, that’s coming out in March (which incidentally is now up on Amazon.com here). After that, we headed over to the ballroom to see dark wave band Cruxshadows play. Again, the line stretched outside and wrapped the building. We didn’t know the band’s music going in, but we really enjoyed it and ended up both buying a CD. I met almost all of the members of the band. Here’s me with JoHanna Moresco, a violin player.

Here are dancers and singers Jessica Lackey and Sarah Kilgore.

Me with violinist David Wood and keyboardist Jen Jawidzik (aka Pyromantic).

And with lead singer Rogue.

On Sunday morning, Tanya and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 despite having gone to sleep after 3 a.m. so we could get a good spot for the Dollhouse talk with Tahmoh Penikett (who also plays Helo on Battlestar Galactica). Dollhouse is a new Joss Whedon show starting in January. We got front-row seats! Here’s Tahmoh talking about his new character, FBI agent Paul Ballard. Lots of the info on the show online shows the name as Paul Smith, but Tahmoh revealed it’d been changed.

A lot of the rest of my Sunday consisted of getting three very exciting professional photos taken. Prepare to squee, people!

Here I am with Tahmoh Penikett. Love his Helo character on BSG; can’t wait to see Dollhouse.

And with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk.

Okay, brace yourselves. Here I am with James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Milton Fine/Braniac on Smallville, and Captain John Hart on Torchwood).

They were all really nice, but because of the long lines you didn’t get more than a few words with each. Which I understand. They were probably really, really tired by the end of each day. Oh, funny moment from when I was standing in line to get my photo with Tahmoh. I had on a shirt that had “WTF — What the Frak?” on it (See above. For those of you who don’t know, that’s a saying from BSG). Michael Hogan, who plays Col. Tigh, saw it, chuckled and said, “What the frak? That’s great.” There were other BSG cast members in the room too — Edward James Olmos (Adama), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), and James Callis (Baltar).

Jewel and Morena weren’t doing photos, so I wasn’t able to get one with them. The only other person who was that I thought about getting one with was Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor on Smallville, but I figured I’d done enough. I did see him, however, in the Walk of Fame room. I didn’t meet anyone in there because you had to buy an autographed picture to meet them, but I just walked through to see who I could see. Among the other notables: George Takei, Walter Koenig, Lou Ferrigno, Jake Lloyd, Yancy Butler, Beau Bridges, Avery Brooks.

More than 30,000 people attend Dragon*Con, and a huge portion of those dress up in costumes. Here are some of the many I saw.

With Jedi Shaak Ti and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Ironman

Giselle and Prince Edward from Enchanted

With Number Six from Battlestar Galactica.

With Professor Snape and Sirius Black from the Harry Potter series.

Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett

A fantastic Tia Dalma and Gibbs from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

I better stop there before I make the blog post explode. If you ever have the chance to go to Dragon*Con, I highly recommend it.

No, I’m not talking about the weather. First coolness of today, pal and fabulous Aussie author Anna Campbell has mentioned me and my first release on her lastest Web site update. Check it out and all the other fun stuff Anna mentions.

And the second coolness of the day — I’m headed to Dragon*Con! Will come back with lots of photos and fun tales, I promise.

Okay, just for the record, I hate summer colds. Other than running a couple of errands, I’ve been pretty useless today. I’ve basically read e-mail, watched Olympic coverage and read some more of Breaking Dawn. Please, no spoilers! I’m not done yet.

Now on to more pleasant things — more pictures from my trip! And today, we’re featuring the Romance Bandits (aka my Banditas). We had a wonderful dinner at Annabel’s across the street from the hotel on Tuesday night before all the craziness of the conference really got under way.

Here we have (from front to back) Caren Crane, Donna MacMeans, Joan Kayse, Suzanne Welsh and Jo Lewis-Robertson.

On the opposite side of the table (also front to back) were Cassondra Murray, Jeanne Adams, Christine Wells, Kirsten Scott, Susan Seyfarth, and Nancy Northcott.

Two of my tablemates, Beth Andrews and Tawny Weber. I missed a few Banditas who were up taking photos of their own.

Wednesday night was the huge Literacy Book Signing held each year. Totally fun to see the Bandita balloons flying above our six signing Banditas.

Here’s Beth Andrews…

And Jeanne Adams…

And Anna Campbell…

And Donna MacMeans, being visited by fellow Bandita Anna Sugden…

And Christine Wells and Tawny Weber, who through the miracle of alphabetical seating were sitting next to each other.

After the signing, we hosted a crazy, fun party called the Bandita Bash. Even the Golden Rooster made an appearance, probably eying the ginormous cake we hand on hand. The top of the cake said, “Have you spent the night with the Golden Rooster?”

I have more Bandita pictures, but they will come under different posts because they are related to other conference week events. So stay tuned!

Okay, time for three weeks of book winners:

From the week of July 21-27, Keri Mikulski wins:

The Burning Point by Mary Jo Putney
Pagan Bride by Tamara Leigh
Too Many Bosses by Jan Freed

From the week of July 28-Aug. 3, Marianne wins:

The Saint by Kathleen O’Brien
Daniel’s Bride by Linda Lael Miller
Sarah’s Son by Tami Hoag

Remember to send me your mailing info via the Contact page on this site.

And up for grabs this week are:

Fever by Katherine Sutcliffe
His Case, Her Child by Linda Style
Lauren’s Eyes by Norah Wilson

And now on to more trip pictures.

Part of the guided tour included the Japanese Tea Garden.

While visiting another stop on the tour, I decided to act like a giant goofball.

Here I am with fabu agent Michelle Grajkowski at the foot of Lombard Street, the famous super-curvy street in San Fran.

Postcard Row was another stop.

And finally, we had a walk through Chinatown. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed with Chinatown, and I wanted to be. Something smelled really bad, and it was way junkier looking than I expected. Sad since I really like Chinese culture (and thus really liked the opening ceremonies of the Olympics tonight). These street lanterns and street names in Chinese were cool though.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some fun pictures from the Romance Bandits dinner.

Someone sent me this link this morning. Even though I’d heard this before, I still think it’s hilarious.

I got the following from one of those e-mails that get sent all over the Internet, but always think these are pretty funny.

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

6. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

7. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.

8. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

9. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

10. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

11. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

12. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

13. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

The Washington Post’s Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

3. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

4. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

5. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

6. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

7. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease.
(This one got extra credit.)

8. Karmageddon (n): it’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

9. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

10. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

11. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

12. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

13. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

14. Caterpallor (n.): The colour you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.

There were some others that I thought were funny, but I try to keep this at PG blog.