Liz dropped Erik off at my house at 10am after their 12-hour overnight drive from Colorado. The KoL weekend activities started with all-you-can-eat sushi at Ninja Sushi in Chandler. I saw some people that I met last year, and some new faces. I thought that the restaurant did an excellent job of providing tasty food to a large crowd, 85 of us, in a fairly timely manner. Those at the teppanyaki tables had more of a wait, as they only had one chef for the 4 tables. We met Suzy and irena_seraphina who I've gotten into the game for some Mojo yogurt before the event at Dave & Busters. The food was mediocre, but I wasn't that hungry after eating heaps of sushi. I drank a fluffy drink that I describe as tasting like Hello Kitty. We played pool (badly) and lots of games. I got a photo of Erik, Liz, and I draped with tickets. We pooled our 1765 tickets, but didn't see anything that we cared to get from the prize store. Our group closed out the place. The Saturday activities were at this tacky reception hall in a strip center in Mesa. Once you ignored the fake flowers, fake statuary, and yards of sheer white fabric draped everywhere, the venue was a good match for us. A station for Rock Band was tucked into the crescent staircase, which I imagine was used for wedding photos. Instead of a receiving line, we had check in and merch stations. The ballroom hosted a large team trivia game, which my team won {awesome}, and the evening concert. Erik offered to drive us off-site for dinner so that I could enjoy the free beer from 4 Peaks Brewing. I love that Kiltlifter! We grabbedSuzy, Liz, and our new friend DanBob to have dinner at my favorite place in Gilbert, Romeo's Euro Cafe. The concert started off a little slow, not many were into the first opening act, but the pace picked up with the One-Ups covers of video game tunes. Everyone in the place rocked out when MC Frontalot took the stage.

On Sunday, we met a bunch of my non-game friends for dim sum at the Golden Buddha before I dropped Erik at an extra LARP event that I didn't sign up for. During the LARP, I met some knitting pals at Unlimited Coffee. Last night, we hit the karaoke after-con party at the Regal Beagle in Chandler. I sang a rendition of Soft Cell's Tainted Love that I think was well received. Erik was picked up around lunch time today. I just saw a post on Facebook that they decided to stay over in Flagstaff because everyone was too tired to drive. I don't blame them, I took a major nap this afternoon!

Now, I'm trying to decide whether to go to another after-party at Pranksters. I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow! I am definitely leaving tomorrow night open for relaxing and catching up on Netflix. More con photos here.

I tried on my Wonder Woman costume on Friday, considering whether to wear it to Comic-Con again this year. It was a little loose. I realized that if I lose any more weight, like I plan to, this costume will soon be too big for me to wear. So, I decided that I would wear it one more time, but that I wanted to kind of re-mix it to make it a different look. The idea came to me at the end of my nap Saturday afternoon: Nerdcore Hip Hop Wonder Woman! I talked to my buddy earthdog, and he thought that it was a fun idea. I had the red fishnets and gold boombox necklace (hard to see in this low-res camera photo), and I went on a scavenger hunt for the red hi-top Chucks and the yellow baseball cap. The yellow cap turned out to be the hardest to find. I had to go to two malls to find a plain yellow cap in a small/med and have the red star embroidered on.

Friday night I finished my Green Lantern sweater and put it in the wash. I'm pleased with the result. This morning, I got up at 8am to take photos of my dry and ready-to-wear sweater. Holey moley, it's already wicked hot at 8am! I'm not super satisfied with the photos, but I was starting to sweat, so I made due with what I had. I've posted the project notes over at Craftster.

After last year's fun with the knit Wonder Woman costume, I struggled to come up with something equally awesome to create to wear to this year's San Diego Comic-Con (July 22-26). I didn't have as much lead time this year, with baby projects to create for the beginning of June, so I knew that I wouldn't be doing another full bodysuit arrangement. It was also tiresome to be trussed up underneath that outfit, and I won't have the convenience of a nearby hotel to retreat to this year. I decided to create a Green Lantern Corps outfit, knitting a sleeveless Green Lantern sweater and mask, but wearing bought pants and power ring to fill in the rest of the look. I crocheted up a mask last night, and I am down to the last few inches on the sweater. I'm going to skip on white gloves, though I am thinking about possibly knitting white armbands or gauntlets, since it looks like I may have time to. Do my readers have any opinions on whether armbands would be cool or not?

I have been sick with some sort of flu business for the past few days. Really sick. I don't know if it is "swine flu", but all of the pork has been drained from my intestines over the past few days. It started Wednesday, I wasn't hungry at lunchtime, but I blamed that initially on the filling nature of the chorizo breakfast burrito. My grilled cheese lunch didn't sit well in the afternoon, and I started feeling nausea and stomach cramping. I left work a half hour early, and by the time I got home I was feeling achy and feverish as well. I checked my temperature, and I did have a fever. That's when the lower intestinal woes started.

In the morning, I still had an elevated temperature and had been up throughout the night to visit the lavatory, so I called out sick from work. I spent the day alternately in the bathroom and in bed. I shouldn't have gone out Thursday night, but I felt like I should go to the soft opening for the new restaurant that Travis is head chef of in Gilbert, Tailgaters. Wendy picked me up, and I feel badly now, because I think that I inadvertently gave her the cooties too. I was barely able to eat anything, which turned out to be just as well, since it took 2 1/2 hours to get our dinners, which we had boxed up immediately to take home. Our waitress was terrible, and one of the owners lost our dinner ticket. Duh. I hope for Travis's sake that they get the kinks worked out! By the time I got home, I felt awful and had a fever again.

I only felt a modicum better Friday morning, so I called out sick again. I was on email for about an hour to get an update on a work project before alternating between bathroom and bed for the rest of the day again. I had plans to go with irena_seraphina and Sara to see Ladytron and The Faint in Tuscon that night, and tickets had already been purchased. I was hoping that I would feel better by the afternoon so that I could go. At 3pm, I still felt like crud. I wondered if I could even be in the car for the 2 hour drive to Tuscon without need for a bathroom stop. I called BrienBear to see if he was available to go instead, that I'd still buy the ticket, but I didn't want it to go to waste. Instead, he talked me into getting some Imodium and going to the show myself. It turned out that the Imodium didn't help at all, but that Sara and Wendy wanted to make a mid-way stop as well. Wendy was starting to feel nauseated and unwell, and Sara was really tired from a long day at work. We sat in the balcony at the Rialto for most of the show. The Faint but on a better show than Ladytron, we thought, and we were amused by the DJs having a bromance that provided the in-between music.

I was a bit better Saturday morning, and was able to make it through the two-hour sock knitting class that I was teaching without the need to rush to the restroom, but had issues again after I ate something for lunch. I suspected that the symptoms hadn't stopped, I just didn't have any new stuff to pass through the system again. I spent the rest of the day and night at home.

Sunday morning, I woke up feeling better, and went with Sue over to razz and Robert's for DnD and SAS day. Unfortunately, Wendy was full-on with the sickness, and couldn't make it. We got her involved in character-making via IM until she had to leave us. I haven't played since high school, and there was a lot more to setting up a character than there used to be! I couldn't think of anything also, so I am playing the same character type I remember playing in high school, a half-elf ranger. It was pretty fun, and good eats, but my intestinal woes returned.

I seem to be slowly getting better, but very slowly, so I am becoming concerned, especially with all this talk of lethal "swine flu". If I'm not markedly better tomorrow, I think that I'm going to try to get in to see my doctor. In the meanwhile, I'm making sure that I get plenty of fluids and such.

Saturday night, my friend Kat threw a super fun costume party in honor of the birthdays of myself and her husband, Ben. I debuted my latest knitting project - a self-designed Wonder Woman costume. I didn't knit the legwarmers, but I did knit the bodysuit (with details), wristbands, and headbands. The only part that is not my original creation is the pattern for the star design used on the cuffs and headbands (I made up the other stars on the bottoms). It was a big hit at the party. Other people sewed costumes, including Kat, irena_seraphina, isoebella, and Darenna. Most people did dress in costumes, which was super cool. There was a ton of delicious food, and later, disco dancing!

Sunday, I met my dad and his wife at Phoenix Art Museum for a showing of “Dizzy Gillespie in Havana”. It was pretty good, Dizzy was a funny dude, I just started drifting off during some of the longer musical performances, since I was still a bit tired from the night before. There was some live music in the museum afterward, but it was a bit mellow and abstract, so we didn’t stay for very long. After that, we had an early dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, which was ok. Then, I went over to Myrna’s, and she drove us over by the US Airways Center for the George Michael concert. I had a couple of beers while she ate dinner at Coach & Willie’s. It was a great show! Started at 8:30 with “Fast Love, and ended at 11:20 with “Freedom”, with a 20 minute break. No opening act, just Mr. G M. I got home after 12. I was not happy when the alarm went off at 5:45am!

Fun fact: George Michael and I share a birthday, but he is 10 years old than I. He still looks good!

Today, I had lunch with a group of my co-workers in honor of the day of my birth at China Chili. Tonight will bring dinner with some friends at Wally's Pub. There was some drama with Nate over the past few days, which we worked out last night, but overall, it has been a good birthday time.

I feel compelled to share this link to The Hitchhiker's Guide Text Adventure that I saw on Digg this morning. They have a "20th Anniversay" edition of the game, and the original version.