chickwriter: (O Canada)
I'll post about the final couple of days later, but in the meantime, go visit my Picasa album for the pics.

A small preview:

From Vancouver 2008


From Vancouver 2008


From Vancouver 2008


From Vancouver 2008


From Vancouver 2008
chickwriter: (O Canada)
Home.

Exhausted.

More later.
chickwriter: (FoodPorn)
Long day siteseeing + shopping + 16 yr old Lagavulin + bangers & mash = sleeeeepy Chickwriter.

/drive by post
chickwriter: (O Canada)
...after an OMFG moment this a.m. (woke up at 2:00; then lay back down to await the alarm. After a while, realized it seemed much longer than an hour and 15 minutes. Checked clock - OMFG, it was 4:00 - a full 45 minutes later than I'd planned to sleep. Threw on clothes, grabbed backpack and suitcase and called for my cab. Thank goodness they hang out near my apartment (thanks to the hotels around there). Made it to airport in plenty of time. WHEW).

Flight to Toronto was great. Very nice aircraft and no one beside me. Customs, easy peasy. Flight to Vancouver, nice, but very long. Weirdness of seating, but eventually, I ended up with no one next to me in the 2-seater portion of the 767.

Read a while. Re-watched the first 2 episodes of The Middleman on my iPod. Listened to raitala's recording of Let's Pretend the War is Over (Brilliant!).

Taxi driver eventually got me to my hotel, after asking where on Pender the Ramada was. Uhm, dude--I'm a tourist. After driving a ways down Pender, he pulled into an alley, called the office and asked for the address. you'd'a thunk he'd do that in the first place. ::facepalm:

In any case, I'm here in my room, relaxing and waiting for the rest of the clan to arrive. They were due to touch down about 10 minutes ago, but then they have to go through customs and get to the hotel. I'm tired and starving. Wish this hotel had room service. Oh well, it's nice enough and yay, free wifi!

Hope everyone's having a great Labor/Labour Day weekend!

(one amusing thing--on the way to the Ramada, we passed the Fraser Arms hotel, a manky dive near the airport. We were going too fast for me to take a picture).
chickwriter: (Default)
Bouchercon has published the panel schedule. All the panels are titled after songs.

I'll be on a great panel on Thursday, October 9, 2008 (as moderator):

WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH (Frank Zappa) Mixing mystery and horror.
Maria Lima(M),
Mario Acevedo
Heather Graham
Kat Richardson
F. Paul Wilson

Pretty darned good line up!

On a side note, my wonderful team at work gave me a pirate birthday card today and there was pie. :)

Okay, that's it, I'm off home, then finish the last wee bit of packing, then to bed early so I can get up at 3:15 a.m. (YIKES!)
chickwriter: (O Canada)
Wednesday: work

Thursday: work

Friday: work

Saturday:
-- get up before the crack o'dawn and hie self off to National Airport. Board Air Canada flight to Toronto. Takeoff: 6:00 a.m.
-- arrive Toronto 7:30 a.m. Go through customs, hopefully have time to get Canadian cash from ATM, buy brekkie (or at least a coffee). Board 2nd Air Canada flight, this time to Vancouver. Take off: 9:30ish a.m.
-- arrive Vancouver, BC 11:39 a.m.; get bags, cab to The Historic Ramada on Pender. Collapse for 2 hours. ~ 1:30 family lands @ Vancouver airport. Late lunch? Early dinner? something or another. Embark on [livejournal.com profile] birki_lib's extensive 5 day itinerary of doing, seeing, eating in Vancouver.

Mon-Weds: more fun in Vancouver & Victoria

Thursday: MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Turning 50 in Vancouver. Fun during the day; then a special dinner out to celebrate. (I want birthday wishes on LJ, people! One only reaches the half-century mark once!) ::g::

Friday: Vacation ends too soon. Up way early to catch 10:00 Air Canada flight back to D.C. (via Toronto again). Arrive home: past 10:00 p.m. Grab bags, get cab, collapse.
Saturday/Sunday: sleep

OMFG. I can't believe it's almost here! All of a sudden, it's vacation/birthday time. How'd that happen?

On a side note, SGA episode The Shrine - best episode ever. Brilliant performances by the Hewlett sibs, Joe F, the gang. Loved the storyline.

::loads to iPod to rewatch on the plane::

Side note 2: I absolutely, positively do *not* feel my age...whatever that is supposed to feel like.
chickwriter: (Default)
Home again. May I just say, I LOVE traveling on the train. So simple. Business class is comfy and quiet.

What I did on my holiday weekend:

-- ate at Sonny & Tony's - a mom & pop Italian place near [livejournal.com profile] starrcat's house. Great food and great ambience. And at 3:30 in the afternoon, it's empty. ::g::
-- watched episodes of The Closer, season 3
-- visited with J and F all day Saturday
-- discovered Rita's Water Ice (2 visits for frozen custard)
-- watched some Season 3 Buffy: When She Was Bad and School Hard
-- managed to snag the Doctor Who finale thanks to [livejournal.com profile] starrcat's broadband and save to my flash drive...but alas, no wifi
-- stayed up too late watching said finale (yes, there were tears)
-- breakfast Sunday a.m. at The Original Pancake House. My omelet was as big as my head. Too bad I couldn't bring the leftovers home, but I did get a lovely bowl of fresh strawberries with cream as a starter.
-- Caught the earlier train, upgraded to business class on the return trip and had a lovely quiet trip back
-- finished Small Favor by Jim Butcher (wow!)

Got home around 3:45 p.m., called my folks and spent the rest of the afternoon just lazing about, surfing the Intarwebs and just relaxing.

How is it 8:30?
chickwriter: (Liberty)
Wishing all of you that celebrate, a Happy Independence Day!

I'm off in about an hour to Union Station, where I'll take the train to go visit [livejournal.com profile] starrcat. Tomorrow the gang will join us.

Traveling with me, will be Morgause, my new MacBook Air. JEEEMINY, she's gorgeous. Nameless, the MacBook has now gone to a good home.

I'm hoping to get [livejournal.com profile] starrcat's router hooked up so I can have wireless access at her place. ::g::

Cheers and happy holiday!
chickwriter: (O Canada)
From the Vancouver Island travel blog

Travel plans coming along. Thank goodness for a librarian sister! Looks like the best bet is for me to fly to Dallas, the parents to fly to Dallas and then all of us fly to Seattle. Then we'll rent a car and drive to Victoria/Vancouver.

Thanks to those of you that gave me ideas about traveling to BC. Still soliciting suggestions, so feel free to chime in.

TGIF!
chickwriter: (Canada dream by tardis80)
Oh, great and powerful f'list and random readers!! I seek your wisdom and knowledge and advice.

Our Lima family trip (my, my sister, BIL and the 2 parental units) are discussing/planning a voyage to Vancouver, B.C. for the first week of September in celebration of my 50th birthday, combined with research for Book 3.

(Leave on August 30, then spend about 4-5 days in the aread and return home with some leeway time to decompress before returning to the day job.

I will need to fly out of DC area airport. The rest of the clan from Dallas. I'm trying to figure out the best airline/itinerary that would make sense and not cost me an arm and a leg.

Also, for those of you in Vancouver area or frequent visitors or heck, one time visitors - any suggestions as to where to stay, eat, places to enjoy? We all love culture, arts, food, etc. Not so much into the hiking/outdoorsy stuff - mostly because of medical restrictions.

I bow to your eternal wisdom. Please send comments. :)
chickwriter: (Default)
Just got in.

Miami International Airport is one gigantic cluster fuck. We (my sis, BIL and I) had similar flights (theirs @ 7 a.m.; mine @ 8) - so we get to the airport by about 5:45 a.m. - this is including having returned the rental van.

There were hundreds of people at American Airlines checking in - took us more than 1/2 hour to get our bags up there. My sis & BIL were shunted to another security checkpoint as the one for our concourse had a 40 minute wait time.

I've never seen anything like this. How can that many people be traveling before 7 a.m.?

In any case, they got to their flight (barely). I got to mine with a little time to spare and am finally home.

Cold, drizzly here but a welcome relief from the horrific humidity that was Miami.

A good time was had by all the Lima clan. Pictures later (since my sis and my stepdad took way many more than I did).

I'm off to nap a bit since I didn't sleep well last night and have been up since 5:00.
chickwriter: (Default)
In about an hour and a half, I'm heading to the airport and then due South - Miami-bound for my weekend o'relative fun.

Evidently, my cousin Gustavo is throwing us a bbq on Friday. Cool!

The plane seems to be completely full, which, arrgh. I hate traveling these days. It *used* to be fun. I'm not even taking Nameless with me, as I wanted to travel light. I have one gym bag (courtesy WFC 2007) and a small purse.

Weather at MIA is in the low 80s. Here, it's COLD. Thank goodness for layers. I'll be able to peel off the fleece in the airport and stuff it into the tote bag so I won't be drenched with sweat as soon as I arrive.

Since I'll have no Internet access while I'm gone (unless I can sneak out to an Internet cafe), I'll be offline until sometime on Sunday. (Okay, yes, I have my iPhone, so *may* check email, but don't count on it).

Be good, be safe and keep me posted if anything really cool happens while I'm gone!!
chickwriter: (Default)
So, World Fantasy Convention = totally cool. I spent 5 days in the presence of the great, near-great and utterly fabulous people and got to meet some of my favorite authors. Couldn't get any better than this.

I'm going to post photos as soon as I get my iPhone photos uploaded, but in the meantime some con highlights:

behind the cut )
chickwriter: (Default)
I'm off in about 30 minutes to the airport and World Fantasy Convention 2007. Hoping to meet up with Jeanne Stein later today and perhaps other earlybirds. (The conference starts tomorrow).

Everyone have a happy and safe Samhain/Hallowe'en!!

Westward Ho

Oct. 4th, 2007 06:48 pm
chickwriter: (Fangrrl)
No, NOT that kind of 'ho....sheesh!

Off to San Francisco in the wee hours of the a.m. for a work trip and back on Tuesday.

I've watched the Supernatural episode, because it's highly unlikely I'll still be awake, since I have to get up at 4:00 a.m. There was lots of squee involved.

AND
casting spoilers below cut )

Finally got to see Pushing Daisies on the ABC streaming player. It was as charming, quirky and enjoyable as I expected. Looking forward to more of the same.

Going to spend the rest of what's left of the early evening reading and looking forward to reading your SPN squee tomorrow after I arrive. (Nameless, the laptop, is coming with me so I can do some writing while I'm out).

Cheers!
chickwriter: (Blood Ties - Henry - hot)
I'm off shortly for the airport and then winging my way to Omaha for Mayhem in the Midlands.

I'm taking Nameless, my new MacBook, and reportedly, the hotel has WiFi, so I may be online more than I think.

Tomorrow morning, I interview Nancy Pickard, a task that I treasure most highly. Then in the afternoon, I do my panel with Dean James and Lee Killough.

I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and getting to hang out with some of the best in the biz.

Please cross your fingers, pray, or whatever that the travel gods are kind this weekend. :)

Later!
chickwriter: (Bliss)
Back from the biz trip to Boston.

Never did get a chance to hook up with any of my Boston peeps - too many work-related obligations.

Skipped the Pops last night, but my buddy B and I went to Turner Fisheries - one of the hotel restaurants and indulged. Cocktails, lobster, dessert and a cognac.

Got back to my room by 8:30. By 9:30 I was packed and snoozing.

Plane arrived at DCA at noon. Got home to find my clean, yet wet laundry folded in the basket and on my bed. Seems the laundry card didn't have enough $$ to dry the clothes.

Also came home to the heat on in the apartment (WTF!) and a blast of hot air. Opened the one window and am now cooling off.

Checked work email, yay - nothing major. My team is fantastic!

Am about to pass out from the jet lag. Who'd'a'thunk that a puddlejumper trip could wear a person out?

Plan to catch up on shows sometime later. Still haven't seen the latest Eureka, Heroes, Studio 60, nor the 2 Veronica Mars. Thank goodness for iTunes and the EyeTV Tuner that recorded what I needed.

Boston

Oct. 7th, 2006 11:08 pm
chickwriter: (Tardis)
Arrived about 4:00 p.m. after an uneventful flight.

Got to the Westin, checked in and located my clients at the Hynes convention center. They'd already pretty much packed up for the day, so JP and I cruised some of the mall shops. Stopped in at Teavana and got a lovely tall cup of lapsang souchong.

Ogled the big gorgeous Bravias at the SonyStyle store.

I was pooped, so never made it to Pandemonium and Chris G's signing. Instead, I went to dinner at Ginza (great sushi!) with JP and KD (her Boston-based friend). Then saw K's new townhouse. K drove us around a bit - went through Brookline - waved in the general direction of the town in honor of BLG. Crossed the Charles twice, b/c K forgot we were having dinner first instead of going to his place. Can't remember where he said his place was. In any case, it's about 15-20 mins from the Westin.

Back at the hotel now and trying to figure out just where they figure people should plug in their laptops.

There's one outlet at the little desk - but both those are take - one by the coffeepot, one by the oh-so-necessary lamp. I unplugged the lamp and plugged in my Airport, so I can sit on the luxurious king bed whilst surfing. (no WIFI here - WTF?)

Blanche is at 56% power, so I'm going to have to juice her up during the day tomorrow while I'm on the trade show floor.

Tomorrow is the first day of the trade show - goes until 5, then we're invited to a special dinner. Not sure where it's being held, but I bet it's somewhere fancy.

I bought more clothes the other day. The Avenue was having a massive sale. Got a lovely dark green/gray suit (maybe moss?); a long black blazer and a dark brick red blazer. Also, a pair of black slacks, 4 Henleys and a handful of other things. I ended up saving nearly $100 after all the discounts were taken. I now have a very nice set of grown-up business clothes that are also comfy. (they are pants, not skirts).

I wish that this event wasn't this weekend, b/c I could be at the fangrrl weekend with the rest of the gang. Alas, 'twas not to be.

Watched BSG last night - no brain left to comment, but enjoyed seeing CKR's Leoben. He's just the right mix of creepy and teh hawt.

Shay, Regina - hope your b'day bash is going well! Been thinking of you all today. :)


ETA: oh SQUEEE - my publisher's updated the Web site. Scroll down to March 2007 - my book is listed.
chickwriter: (Default)
Off in the a.m. to Omaha, NE for Mayhem in the Midlands.

Am I ready? Not so much.

Not quite packed. Not quite mentally ready.

Spent all of today in a work-related meeting, then went into my office to read email, etc. only to find that my work laptop had gone kerblooey. (That's a technical term. ::g::) Basically, won't boot up anymore. Rich, one of the network admins happened to walk by (on his way home) and I snagged him to take a look.

He's pretty sure it's the boot sector, so he's going to try to backup my email and rebuild the 'puter while I'm out of town. I guess if it had to happen, this is the best timing ever.

In any case, I'll be offline for several days. Not taking Blanche with me, because I probably won't get much writing done while I'm gone. Am taking the 400+ page printout with me to edit so I can work later.

Ta for now.

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