Updates will be slow in coming

Please let me apologize in advance here. This is due to circumstances out of my control. Otherwise known as the reasons why I can never, ever take vacations.

My coworker fell deathly ill - quite literally - on Friday night. There's only two of us covering the entire department. I got a voicemail from him this morning, and he'll be out for three to four weeks at least recovering. So I will be covering everything for that long.
Obviously, this will make it pretty damned hard to update you all on things, and get the last remnants of the trip itself sorted out. I'm dialed in to the office already as the urgent things start piling up.

This is why I can never take vacations.

Hello from Utah, 10/8/08

For future reference, I70 through Utah? Avoid at night. Avoid period. "Damaged road" is a cheery way of saying "Bo and Luke ain't got SHIT on you after this. If you survive." "Frequent Deer and Elk Crossings" is "Dodge The Moving Animals," and you get real familiar with "Ranch Exit." Oh, and no services for over a hundred miles.

We're currently in Center City, UT, a touch past I70-I15. We'll be riding I15 the rest of the way into California, and I forget where it goes from there. Not much progress has been made on the costume.

I need to talk to Clover, and see how many gigs of room are available on blizzconphotos.com. I have about 3GB of hi res images from Colorado, which is some of the most beautiful travel in the world.

But for now, sleep.

Belated Update, 10/7/08

Last Thursday, the main joint between the face construction and the skull broke.

I'm writing this from Fort Morgan, Colorado. I've made every attempt to fix things, but those 5 days without power just ran down the clock too hard. It's unlikely that I'll be able to repair in time, or finish in time now. *sigh* Left on Saturday for Michigan, spent the night at my handler's, then made for points west. Day one ended in Des Moines, Iowa. Let me say two things; Motel 6 wireless sucks, Des Moines rebuilt really quickly, there is a fuckton of corn between Michigan and anywhere west, and if you do not make a point to stop in Amana, IA and stop at the Village Inn, I will personally warstomp you. And don't think I won't; I have hooves.

Trip has been rather uneventful, save driving through some nasty storms and rain. And finding out that most places in Iowa and Nebraska have never heard of 91+ Octane. My Regal is less than pleased with their Ethanol tainted fuel substitute. I will have to draw an illustration of what these farmers can do with their corn.

Might be in Anaheim by Wednesday. Post more when I have time.

And we're back!

Still cleaning up things from days without power; 5 to be exact. They pulled a cute little stunt on us. Five trucks all day today, turned the power on to our block for 9 hours. Then after everyone had gotten home and started settling in, it went out again. As they tried to drive off.
Nothing quite like seeing people quite literally swarming into the street screaming and demanding answers. Had they turned off the power when requested on Sunday, we would not have been terrified of them turning on the power prior to today. They did not even secure the high voltage lines until yesterday, and apparently nearly killed themselves clearing the tree that had caused the damage in the process. Had they turned on the lines, it would have electrified quite a bit of fence and the telephone and cable lines as well.

Back to work. I have a lot of catching up to do, and not enough time to do it in.

EMERGENCY: NEED HIGH LEVEL ASSISTANCE AT THE ILLUMINATING COMPANY

If you or your family or your friend works for FirstEnergy / The Illuminating Company, the outage on Baldwin/Wyleswood in Berea, Ohio needs escalated. It needs escalated until they get a truck out here tonight. Not tomorrow. Not the day after. Not this "after Friday" bullshit. TONIGHT. If I do not get power back in a REASONABLE amount of time, which is defined as nothing even remotely like what FirstEnergy is telling me I can expect - which is that we're being told to screw off period, our storm damage is beyond lowest priority, despite being one of the first called in, and just because we reported downed wires doesn't mean they'll actually do anything to make the area safe and secure. We currently have a very large maple or oak bough literally being held up by wires on a phone pole that saidsame tree snapped in half like a twig.

This may kill the Tauren. I can't work because I don't have electricity and I can't transport all the equipment. And I have nowhere to set up.

Don't believe the bullshit that they have all these customers offline; customers in far smaller groups, which had far more severe damage including destroyed phone poles and transformers were repaired and online by Monday evening. They are treating our neighborhood like third class citizens because we have complained on numerous occasions of frequent outages in the past, subpar service, and yes - outage repairs that go exactly like this. They delibereately ignored our line down reports repeatedly, and cleared our outage reports multiple times Sunday night and throughout the day Monday. I need someone with some authority, to get our neighborhood back online now.

You didn't need that electricity anyways... 9/15/08

Thanks to Ike, I now have no power. Yes, I'm in Cleveland Ohio. We got absolutely slammed by the remnants of Ike, to put it mildly. There are power poles down all over the place, trees, the works. A gas station even got it's canopy blown over. I've been told by FirstEnergy that it may be a week before I have power at home again, and it will be at least two days before they can even get someone out to just look at the power lines down behind our houses. More if the poles were damaged.
Despite the "oh gods, I'm going to die" I was actually on track, and confident I would finish in time. Right barely in the nick of time, but in time. Now, I am not so sure. I've been hand sewing the right glove, since it was necessary anyways, but I'm fast running out of glove. And everything else will require that I have power to work on, including the jacket, which is very nearly done. When the power went out, I was setting up the lining on my Bernina for the final stitches before tucking it inside. :(

Quick Update, 9/14/08

Progress marginal. Left glove 90%, but alterations required. Right glove 40%, no alterations required yet. Body, 95%. Jacket, 98%. Dress, 0%. Purple Blouse, 5%. Slacks, 100%. Belt, need to go buy a belt. For the slacks.
Head still at whoknowswhere. The tail's done, but needs attached, which requires the body being done. Need head bust, but no luck to date. Head is now fully panic mode, but found a lot of weight to save. Enough that I may just be able to pull it off, now that I have SOMETHING to approximate keepout areas.

All travel arrangements are set. We are go for Oct 4th departure.

Back to work.

Tenative Schedule and Update, 8/31/08

Schedule updated 9/1!

Lost almost an entire day's work to inconsiderate people who think they're above business processes. End result, they took down several mission critical systems completely, for going on 8 hours, and forced me to take four hours out of my day just to drive in, sit around waiting, then drive home. I am significantly less than pleased, yes. To say nothing of their whining that fixing it would take a while, because they had planned on doing things today - yes, and certainly I planned to spend my whole day fixing what they screwed up, right?

So, without further ado, our TENATIVE SCHEDULE OF APPEARANCES FOR BLIZZCON 2008! (All in costume unless otherwise noted. Dates and times subject to change. Your mileage may vary.)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9TH
Purple Blouse, Jeans or Slacks

• ~2:00PM-~4:00PM - Ticket Pickup
  Please do not ask for your picture while I am in line!
• ~2 hours after Ticket Pickup - Photography Opportunity, Anaheim Convention Center, North Entrance
  I will be available for photos in front of the North Entrance. Yes, I will pose with you.
  
• ~1 hour, evening - Anabella Hotel, Fountain Area
  Bring your own flash or lighting equipment. This will be a relatively short session.
  Likely to be after 8:00PM.
  

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10TH
Red Dress, Red and Gold Jacket, arriving after Denny's Raid.

• 11:00AM - 11:30AM - Blizzcon 2008 Floor
  I will have an area staked out for photographs on the Blizzcon 2008 Floor. Very short session. I will be leaving no later than 11:45. This is dependent on panels and costume contest length.
• ~1 hour - Anaheim Convention Center, East Entry - Kid's Shoot
  This is exclusively for parents and their children. Please note the ground rules well, you will not be permitted to join in if you don't. The rules are thus; children must be relatively well behaved, and must not pull on my costume or outfit. Please note that I cannot and will not hold younger children! Families are welcome, of course.
  
• After AIMcon Dinner - Blizzcon 2008 Floor
  I'll be available for on-the-spot photographs as I wander the floor. This is dependent on panel and concert schedule. Departing ~9:45 at the latest for afterparty.
  

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11TH 2008
Outfit Undecided, Arriving after Denny's Raid.

• ~1 hour, morning - Anaheim Convention Center, East Entry - Kid's Shoot
  This is exclusively for parents and their children. Please note the ground rules well, you will not be permitted to join in if you don't. The rules are thus; children must be relatively well behaved, and must not pull on my costume or outfit. Please note that I cannot and will not hold younger children! Families are welcome, of course.
• Evening - Blizzcon 2008 Floor
  I'll be available for on-the-spot photographs as I wander the floor. This is dependent on panel and concert schedule.
  I will be staying until convention close.
  

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12TH 2008
By Request.

• ~1-2 hours - The Aftershot!, Anabella Hotel
• ~1-2 hours - The Aftershot Continues!, Hilton and Marriot Hotels
• TBD - As Requested
  

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13TH 2008
By Request

• By request. I am available all day at this point in time.

See you all there!