Baltimore Comic-Con

As a costume contest winner from last year, I got a free pass to Baltimore Comic-Con this year! And Fabian Nicieza (one of the original creators of Deadpool) was there, so obviously I had to go. Stella and I took the day (my birthday!) off work, drove up to see my friend Beth, and then the three of us went to Baltimore.

Welcome!

This is Piggy, the 3-legged super dog! This table was
selling comics about Piggy. Beth bought some while I
petted the pupper.

Beth and I only collect Funko Pop figures of
characters we've cosplayed. I thought I'd never find
Ramona Flowers!

Legions of Lego people and creatures! Stella is a giant compared to them!

The entrance to the exhibit hall

The Baltimore Convention Center

Awesome Con

This past weekend was Awesome Con in DC! It's a very hectic weekend, so I did my best to get as many photos of Stella as I could while also cosplaying, doing the cosplay contest, buying art, meeting celebrities, navigating the convention center, and remembering to breathe!

We found some buddies for Stella! We didn't buy any,
just stopped for a quick chat.

In the Lego building area, they had this newspaper cutout for photos.

Time to stop for a snack!
(Walter Washington Convention Center has excellent fries!)

Open play video game area with several old-school games (see the Pac-Man table on the right?)

There was a group that does memorabilia preservation work,
and they had several glass cases of interesting items,
including these Superman pieces...

...this Rainbow Brite and Care Bear, the Newsweek from when
M*A*S*H ended, and a few other things.

Back in the Lego area, there was a Brick Fair Derby
where kids could build a Lego car and race it down the track!

The tables for building the Lego vehicles

One of the MANY artists we bought art from
in Artist's Alley

General crowd shot... EVERY aisle was like this
on Saturday!

From above the exhibit hall floor, checking out the crowd

And Stella also helped watch my friend Beth's baby,
who was an absolute angel the whole time.

Somehow, I managed to not get any photos with Stella when I was in the Iron Man scale dress that I posted the teaser photo for, so here's one without Stella:

(Beth is Hawkeye, Jessica is Hulk, I'm Iron Man!)
Beth knitted the scale together, and made the bottom of her & Jessica's dresses too.

Stella in Radford (and Wasserhund)

I'm pretty sure The Innovative Library Classroom at Radford University is the last library conference I'll be taking Stella to! But it was fun, and very informative, and Radford is beautiful!

This was actually at the end of our trip, but we stopped at the same scenic view
on the side of I-64 to see the Blue Ridge Mountains. (We did this on the way back
from Roanoke, as you may recall... What can I say? I don't see a lot of mountains
around Virginia Beach.)

Mountain selfie!

Pretty lawns at Radford University... Trying to get a bunch of photos
before it starts to rain! We barely made it.

Their library is so gorgeous! And big! Can you see Stella on the stairs?

We found the Alumni Gardens next to the library

Walking around the Alumni Gardens

Radford U has quite a few outdoor sculptures on campus

This sculpture and the next one were in the same
area of lawn, with a sign designating it a sculpture garden

Opening remarks at the conference

Stella got her own bed in the hotel

Getting a nice steam from the shower in the hotel

Stella, what are you doing? You aren't coffee; get out of there.

You may remember our Wasserhund Brewery growler... Right after we got home
from Radford, we took a friend to Wasserhund for Friday the 13th lunch.
She got a few flight tastes, and the glasses are just Stella's size!

Peer Group Conference

Stella is learning so much about being a librarian! This weekend was the peer group conference for the librarians at all the community colleges in Virginia (plus faculty who use OER; we shared conferences with them because our interests overlap).

We actually took a little side trip first, by leaving a day early and going to Fairfax to visit my best friend, who had a baby four months ago and I had not yet met him! I didn't take any photos of Stella with him, because (1) he has a little octopus toy that looks A LOT like Stella and I didn't want to confuse the little dude or get Stella all slobbery (he's in that "explore the world by putting my mouth on all parts of it") and (2) I didn't want to take photos of him while he was sleeping in case I woke him up. Rest assured, though... he is SUPER cute.

Anyway, then we headed to Richmond for the conference!

Trying to get a photo of the George Mason University
sign as we sat at the red light, leaving Fairfax.

Peekaboo! We got a little silly exploring the
hotel room in Richmond.

So many towels!

This was as we were going up to Fairfax.
I rarely have both traffic on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel
AND an LV with me (and the wherewithal to get a photo)
so this is pretty unusual.

The building at John Tyler Community College
where half the conference presentations were
(mostly the librarian ones, including mine!)

Bust of John Tyler himself in the middle of their
beautiful campus.

Looks familiar! Same sign as our last trip, but at a different rest area.

Driving from Roanoke to VB

It is so nice to have an LV tagging along when you have to drive 10 hours in two days!

Scenic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the side of I-64W

Another scenic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this time
at the VDOT memorial

Historical signs at the first scenic view

Stella said we needed to bring these home from the hotel because they're just her size!

The pillows, however, were a bit large for her.

As they say, Virginia is for lovers! This sign is at the rest area (well, this one is so big
they call it a Welcome Center). Stella needs to work on her balancing skills,
so for now, she had to sit in front of the "O".

At the second scenic view pull-off, there's this big memorial for VDOT
(Virginia Dept of Transportation) workers killed in the course of their work.
And there's wee little Stella down front, reading the names.

So we are home, tired of driving, and ready for the weekend.

New Horizons Conference

Stella and I have had a loooooong day! We got up at 4:30am and left Virginia Beach just after 5am, drove across Virginia lengthwise, and arrived at our hotel in Roanoke at about 9:45am. Then we hopped a shuttle to the conference hotel and attended our first day of New Horizons, a conference for all the community colleges in Virginia.

We got there just in time for the box lunch.
While we ate, we studied the program to decide
which sessions to attend.

This is the little digital sign for MY session!
If you can't read it, it's The iPad-Based Library Classroom.
After hearing about it, Stella is excited to see the actual
classroom when we go back to work on Monday!

Diligently taking notes during today's
keynote session about student success.

I think now, we need some room service and junk TV in our hotel room, and an early bedtime!!!