hot
Worldcon 76 has a table here. Lisa and I drove down with a box and the banner you see here in the minivan for San Jose's use, and we'll spend some time sitting at the table ourselves. Westercon 70 fan guests of honor Val and Ron Ontell were at the info desk when I took this photo.
Lisa and I (and Kuma Bear) cast our site selection ballots for the 2019 Westercon, and bought friend-of-the-bid level pre-supports for the Utah in 2019 Westercon/NASFiC Bid
Although programming started at Noon, the Opening Ceremonies were at 4 PM. I attended them and afterwards retrieved the Gavel of Westercon, which I'll use to preside over the Westercon Business Meeting before returning it to this year's convention to hand to next year's at the Closing Ceremonies.
Westercon 70 is donating a complete set of one of their GoH's books (Gini Koch) as a Bonus Round prize for Match Game SF, and I collected those this afternoon as well and put them with our other material.
It's very, very hot here. At one point I went to the minivan to collect some things, and realized that we'd left the bag of chocolate covered raisins that I'd bought in Beatty in the bottom of the ice chest. Even though we're parked as much in the shade as possible and it is an insulated container, the heat was just too much for what is now a congealed mass of melted chocolate with raisins embedded in it. Oh well.
After the dealer's room closed, David Clark joined Lisa, Linda Deneroff, and me for dinner at the nearby My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, where Lisa and I ate many times during the previous Tempe Westercon and that we both like quite a bit. It also has the advantage of only being one block away from the hotel, which means a lot when trying to move around in this stifling heat.
After dinner, Lisa and I made a brief visit to the parties, particularly the Utah Westercon bid party, but we were both very tired and turned in early. Tomorrow we have the Fannish Inquisition (Lisa has been asked to record it and I'll post it to YouTube as soon as I can). In the afternoon, Kuma Bear has been asked to host one of the Art Show tours (at 2 PM). Those are our only commitments tomorrow.
It looks like a fair number of Westercon's Usual Suspects are not going to be here in Tempe. Some are staying away for weather-related reasons, while others have their schedules cramped by the fact that NASFiC is the following weekend. Lisa and I have attending memberships to Puerto Rico but can't attend. In fact, we'll still be on the road in Las Vegas, but I'll be working at the Day Jobbe, when NASFiC starts.
Incidentally, during Opening Ceremonies here at Westercon, we were told there were about 600 members at the start of the convention.