The weekend started thursday night

So, my Thursday starts with a trip to the local lingere shop where I pick up my favorite brand of funny little plastic things (Avanti) and a bottle of lubricant, and get 40% off by signing up for their affinity card program. The girl behind the counter is alarmingly perky in that not-quite-caffeinated way, all too happy to be selling me stuff. I grab a bottle of Sobe Adrenaline because it's the only one with a decent flavor; it had been a long day at work, complete with company-wide meeting, but of the good kind.

I drove over to pick up my date, a beautiful and charming woman who I don't see often enough. We went out of to the little taquiera in the back of the Broadway Arcade, noting along the way the fact that the Broadway Market has been gutted and many of the other stores along the way are gone. I like that little taquiera; it's small and cozy, less expensive and with better food than the one that fronts out onto Broadway.

We stopped to shop for fetish clothing; if I'm going to be going out to gothic dance things I suppose I should have something better than a pair of black jeans. There was even stuff on sale, but I couldn't find anything on sale in my size. After hunting about, we gave up. We had better things to do.

We went to the local leather/goth/on-premises club, where I realized to my disappointment that I'd forgotten the clothespins that she'd asked me to bring. *Sigh* But we had a good time anyway. I ran into a couple of friends there, but as per club policy I'm not going to go into much detail.

After driving her back home well after midnight and thanking her for an amazing time, I headed back home, mastered a new DVD of Little Snow Fairy Sugar for Kouryou-chan, and went to bed.

Friday: Conifur

Omaha, Kouryou-chan and I all wandered down to Conifur, the local annual furry convention, paid our registration fees, and wandered in. As usual, programming at a Furry Con was light, lighter than usual, although this time there were a few decent writing panels. I attended a few with Kagemushi-san and another writer whose name I can't recall, and I have to admit that I felt like I was slumming. Many of the people there are pure furry smut writers who wouldn't know a theme if it bit them. I suppose that's just as true for the writers of alt.sex.stories, et. al., but still there's something desperate about furry fiction that's never quite satisfying. I suppose that's true of my stuff. If you use furries as analogies for other things-- racism, infertility, alienation-- it seems to work. But if you try and overdo the animal stuff it comes across as, well, disjointed somehow.

Anyway, the art room was okay. There were two or three artists who were doing interesting things, like Turbine Divinity, whose stuff I really enjoyed. I also picked up a CD of Ken Sample stuff, mostly unfinished works from his sketchbook, because I like his style and want to see how he does it. FallenPegasus showed up later and we went out to dinner, about ten of us.

There were two people walking through wearing Cats costumes. Gods, those were gorgeous. The girl had a gorgeous ass, but the guy... *sigh*. I really should rein myself in more. Well, maybe not. They were both beautiful under all those clothes, and those costumes were precious beyond words.

Furry Fandom remains a strange attractor for, well, the strange and sometimes attractive. There were a number of transsexuals, and the usual overload of overweight goths with bad teeth. There were also a ton of fursuits there, mostly the sports-mascot flavor, which delighted Kouryou-chan.

Eventually, Heather Alexander came around and played and sold her CD and Kouryou-chan really enjoyed that. Heather was embarassed to learn that Kouryou-chan is yet another "when I'm asked to bring my favorite song to school, it'll be Cambreadth March!" kid. By then, it was late and time for bed.

Saturday: A walk in the woods

Saturday, I rose and packed a day bag for a walk in the woods with jenkitty. We went down to Flaming Geyser park, where we parked at the trail head and made our way up into the ridge. The trail was barely a mile and a half long, and we did it both ways, going in and coming out, then walked back along the north ridge, getting a ton of spiders in the face, then looped back through the broad open field to the car. The weather was absolutely beautiful-- overcast, cool, misty without being muggy, perfect for hiking. It gave the forest a very Avalon-esque sensation.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic table, then walked the length of the park to the second trailhead, which began at the flaming geyser. It's a little flame about a foot tall, whisking back and forth in a broad sheet of cool methane flames, embedded in a pit about ten feet wide and filled with rocks, through which a stream has been diverted. There were no signs saying I couldn't, so I crept down into the pit and confirmed, yes, the fire is hot. Then we went up the trailhead to the other geyser, which is bubbling intermittently and won't stay lit quite the way the lower one will. We finished this second trail, less than a mile I think. All in all, about six miles, up and down hills, accompanied by slugs, fuzzy caterpillars, big black beetles, slick paths, mossy trees, and the ocassional mysterious cracking sound.

JenKitty was a marvelous companion, very cheerful, seemed to be much in her element. We had a good time. I tried one of those "gelpack" things, basically carbs and nutrients in a tiny foil pack. It was nasty, live a rasberry-flavored raw oyster. The sun broke out of the mist around three, and soon after that I took JenKitty home.

She graciously granted me the use of her shower, and I quoted Pooh. "It's much friendlier with two." I washed her back, she washed mine. Afterwards, we snuggled ferociously, then went to dinner. I had a Shari's Reuben, which ain't a reuben and is far too greasy but, hey, it was cheap.

I got home myself shortly after nightfall. It was my turn to put Kouryou-chan to bed, so I did, and then went and played some more BloodRayne. That memory leak is annoying as heck. I'm right now approaching the Temple area. I'm going to be annoyed if this is the whole of the mission; it'll be too short. And the memory leak is really pissing me off. Omaha came and got me about 2am and convinced me to come to bed.