Set up, evening show and dinner...

Well, the day started in a sketchy fashion. We left my sister's at about 8am and there was a very nice coating of ice over...well...just about everything. As we left on the route we wanted to go (to avoid the *huge* 45-degree hill leading down from the strange little spot were my sister lives), we found the road blocked by a school bus that had skidded to a stop blocking the road and taking down someones small fense. We managed to get our heavily loaded van down this huge hill with great care and at about 5 miles an hour or so. Once we got on 80, it was not too bad....very slow, but we arrived safely and a bit early. Best yet, I was able to park under the covered walkway which was good as it was raining quite hard.

Mom and Eli helped with the set-up. We had a nice lunch and I was completely ready with about a hour and a half to rest and prepare. It was quite a new experience *pathetic smile*. The show started at 5pm with a small group of bookish folks braving the weather to poke about. We had a sale or two, which is nice and bought some pretty nice/unusual material. There is some really wonderful stuff hiding in booths here in NJ. Details and some photos to follow.

This show has a dinner following the first night for attendees and a poker game for those so inclined following the meal. The dinner was nice, good salad options and three different meats (chicken, pork and beef, each in their own, very healthy, sauce). I could feel an artery harden in my chest while just looking at the options. OH, and a very nice cheese cake for dessert. The only problem was, there were only 3 8 foot tables and I made the grievous error of changing my cloths before dinner and thus ended up in the final 10ish people and tableless.

Gary Austin (Austin's Books and the promoter of this show) did his usual masterful job of dealing with problems and had a new table rolled in and set up for the nomads. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I used the interim to take me nicely loaded plate of food back to my room. I am very fond of many of the people here and I *know* I should have hung out and eaten there and had some drinks, etc. To be honest, however, I was up really early (for the x-th day in a row), started it with a very stressful drive, set up the booth and then did a show for 4 hours. I just *really* wanted to change into sweats and go to bed. So I did.

Night all. Tomorrow should be great fun. Starts at 10am, runs until 5 (I think). We'll then pack up and go to my sister's for the evening. Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue.