20 September 1999
Oy. Friday evening around six, our phones came back on, but not power. So Matt and I called various people to let them know we were safe and sound, and then went out to dinner. When we came back, we still didn't have power, which was disappointing, and Matt said, "I hope the phone's still on," and went to check. Just as I was thinking Don't be ridiculous, of course it's still on, he started cursing. We had, indeed, lost the phone again.

Matt was so angry he could barely stand up straight and I was feeling grimy and filthy. So we packed a bag and went to my parents' house for the night. They had power and a working phone, so we called Bell Atlantic (who explained that the phone might well be on-again-off-again for some time, since the main cable had been damaged and needed to be spliced in several places) and VA Power (who, after we tricked them into answering the phone by pretending not to have a touch-tone phone, said they thought we'd have power back mid- to late-morning on Saturday). We talked with my parents for a while, then went to bed. When we got up, we had - wonder of wonders! - a hot shower. A very long, very hot shower. It was lovely.

Saturday morning we thanked my folks and went back home, where - surprise! - the power was back on, and apparently had been on for some time. We unpacked our things and re-packed and just after noon we left again for the D.C. area.


Our friend T had invited a lot of people up to a small press expo in Bethesda, MD (just north of D.C.) to attend a wrap party for his comic book. After looking at the guest list, Matt thought it would be fun to go. We had some trouble with our MapQuest-generated directions (they suggested that, from I-95, we take exit 170A onto I-395, and then take exit 170B onto I-495, and then forgot to tell us that I-495 was in fact the Beltway that it said we should merge onto - if I hadn't done it once before, we might still be roaming pathetically around the D.C. area! And then they got us most of the way to the street we were supposed to be on, but didn't tell us how far it would be until we actually encountered the address we were looking for) but managed to make it to the hotel.

The hotel's parking garage was full, so we followed their directions across the street to a public parking garage equipped with parking meters. We put enough change in the meter to pay for three hours, then went over to the hotel. (It turned out later that this was unnecessary, as the garage is free on weekends.) We found Greg right away, in the line forming for Neil Gaiman's autograph, and he told us where to find T. After we'd greeted T, we stopped by Mark Oakley's table, where Matt introduced himself. Mark seemed happy to meet Matt (Matt maintains an absolutely fabulous fan website for Mark's comic) and Matt got a glimpse of how I feel all the time - Mark is at least 6'6"!

By then, Matt's bag was starting to separate his arm from his shoulder, so we checked into the hotel and went to fetch our things from the car. We found ourselves especially amused by the door to the balcony which had been screwed shut and displayed a small plaque reading: "Balcony sealed for patron's protection" or something more or less obnoxious like that.

I had realized when I saw Greg in the Neil Gaiman autograph line that I had forgotten to pull out something for him to sign. However, just about anything Neil Gaiman wrote is a reasonably good bet for me, so I figured I'd just buy something at the table. Matt got in line with me, and we chatted amiably with the people around us. It turns out that we timed things just right - we wound up about fifth from the end of the line! As we were standing in line, I noticed Linda Medley's table, so after making sure the people around me wouldn't mind, I had them hold my place in line while I dashed over for her autograph. After some discussion with various people around us, we discovered that his name is correctly pronounced "gay-man" and not "guy-man" as I had always pronounced it. Damn it, now I have to try to correct myself.

When we got to the head of the line, I bought a chapbook with two stories in it (which turned out to be okay, but not my favorite of his work) and the annotated script for the Babylon 5 episode he had written. Neil seemed very nice, if quite tired, and signed my books. He actually got a joke in on Matt's, but I'll let Matt tell you about that.

By then, my feet were feeling a bit ache-y, so I went to sit with T and Greg at T's table. I spent most of the remaining hour and a half or so of the expo there, helping T hawk his book. By the time we'd packed up, I was starving, so the four of us went in search of food. We wound up at a restaurant about half a block from the hotel which was pretty good. Then we went back to the hotel, and we sat around Matt's and my hotel room until fairly late - 11:30 or so - reading comics. I got a great picture of the three guys sprawled around the beds, comics strewn everywhere.

Sunday morning I got another lovely hot shower, and then we collected Greg (who had begged a ride) and headed home. We thought about having breakfast first, but the hotel's restaurant was (as we should have expected) absurdly overpriced. If we'd been especially hungry, the buffet wouldn't have been too bad of a deal, but $3 for the single glass of juice we each wanted was a little steep, so we just left, stopping near Richmond for possibly the very worst McDonald's experience we've ever had - Greg started out with a burger instead of the grilled chicken he'd ordered; they forgot the lemon for his water; they neglected to put tartar sauce on my fish; and when I asked them for some tartar sauce, they took a drink cup and filled it halfway with the stuff. The bathrooms were a treat - Matt and Greg assured me that the men's room was, in particular, especially classy. The women's room hadn't been too bad, except for the six-year-old boy in it with his mother. (My personal opinion is that if the child is old enough to go to school, then they're old enough to go to the correct restroom!)

Anyway, we finally made it home and had an uneventful evening. We got the laundry done, but didn't get around to doing the grocery shopping. Guess we'll have to do that tonight.


This afternoon I have an appointment with my foot doctor. He's going to deal with the perpetual ingrown toenail by cutting a sliver of it off and cauterizing the base of the nail so it won't grow so wide anymore. My brother had this done in something like eight different places on six different toes, so I have a reasonable idea of what to expect. That is to say, I expect to be hobbling and limping for a few days, and then I expect I'll finally be able to wear close-toed shoes without wincing again!


I'm tired this morning. I had trouble getting to sleep last night, so I didn't really get to sleep until around midnight. Then the cat started being a pest around 3:30. Matt's alarm clock had apparently been mis-set and went off at 4. At 5:56, four minutes before my alarm would finally go off, the cat decided it had waited just too long and in revenge peed on the bathroom rug. I gave up and got up. But today's going to be a doozy.