Do You Know What Those Are?

  My mom and I tried out a new place that has soup dumplings.  Since neither of us was overly hungry we got an order of the pork soup dumplings and another dish to share.  I picked out the intestines over rice with egg and pork.  Our waitress asked if we knew what it was, and we assured her we did.  The cook who brought out our food looked shocked and asked if we really did order that dish because "usually only Asian people like it".  I thought it was all very funny, similar to when I order things with durian in them.  Both were really yummy, and I want to go back very soon.

  I ordered a bunch of pom poms.  I like the way they look on hats but don't like the price tag they usually come with or having to sew them on.  While scrolling through Instagram I saw a short video on how to use Pom Pom Buttons.  I did a search for some pom poms with elastic and found a lot of them for a good price on Amazon.  I got the more neutral ones because they will go with a larger range of yarns.  If I like these, I can always order some more exciting ones.

  I have been having a lot of fun designing doll clothes.  The crochet ones all turned out how I wanted them to, but the knitted ones aren't quite right.  I think I would have had to go down to a size 4 or 2 knitting needle, but I was excited to get started and could only find my size 6 needle.

 

  Bill has been in a cooking mood lately and we decided to bid farewell to 2022 with a deep-dish pizza similar to one you can find at Lou Malnati's Pizza.  The recipe told him to put salt in the sauce, but we think we are going to leave that out next time.  It was a pretty good way to end the year.

We Are Getting Closer to That End of The Year Push

Pattern: Witch Cats Hat by Christine de Savoie - Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways in 3114 Chamois (yellow) and 3372 Petal (pink) - Needle: US 8

  I only used part of the pattern for this hat.  The cat heads are mostly as they are written with a few plain rows added between the heads.  I sent Christine a message about how I think she has mixed up the row and stitch counts on the second and third charts.  She messaged me back saying that I was the first one to let her know that.

  I wish I knew what yarn this was, it was really nice to work with when making the worms.  Most of these worms were made when out at a bar, so hopefully I wasn't a bad influence on them.

Pattern: Cable Hat by Dora Stephensen - Yarn: Ella Rae Superwash in 35 Jade - Needle: US 4 and US 8

  The pattern is pretty fun.  There are some tricky bits to how it is written, but I got what she meant pretty easily.  She doesn't have any row numbers on the chart, so it's hard to tell what are just the plain set-up rows and where the repeat is.  Where the decreases start is clearly labeled though.

Pattern:  Not Quite Ribbed Hat - Yarn: Ella Rae Superwash in 35 Jade - Needle: US 8

  I had a fun idea for a series for my blog.  Even though I haven't even started with it yet, I've already thought of a way to expand the idea.  I'll give you a hint about it: it has to do with my complaints about yarn and pattern quality.  Some of it is already being more of a hassle than I thought, but I'm trying to work past that.

A Shane Update!

Yarns: Red Heart Pooling, Premier Just Yarn, Red Heart Eco, unknown grey yarn that I really like

  Shane had been to see a bunch of specialists, but they all agreed that surgery would be the easiest way to see what was going on in there.  He had it two days ago and now he's resting up and working on healing.

  While we were waiting for him to get his eye rummaged around in, another person was picking up a different patient.  The person was told to get the car and to pull up in front "like you own the place" and then they would bring her down.

  They found a bump, and some old blood under the retina from an abnormal blood vessel.  Dr. Chen thinks, to be on the safe side, that he should see a tumor specialist, but that will have to wait until he is healed from this ordeal.  The initial plan was to have him stay face down for a while, but since Dr. Chen had to add an air bubble to help some thinning, the plans were changed.  He gets to sit up and sleep on his side.  So far, he has been doing pretty good but gets tired easily.

  I don't know if everyone was starting to get bored with seeing me keep making the same few patterns again and again, so I'm continuing to mix it up.  I'm also trying to take more pictures of things that are in progress, so I don't feel like I have to wait until I finish something to start a blog post.

Bats, Furry Worms, and a Long Day

Pattern: Bat Hat by B.Hooked - Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways in 3114 Chamois (yellow) and 3372 Petal (pink) - Needle: US 8

   It might look like I made two hats with opposite coloring and the same pattern, but it's actually just one hat.  I tried my hand at colorwork double knitting again.  I spent the first part of the hat working it the hard way for me.  I forgot that I had gotten really good at using both hands to hold the yarns separately.  I hold the knit color in my left and the purl in my right.  It's easy for me because I can work continental knitting pretty well and then throw the purl like I normally would.  The wonky tension issues at the beginning aren't helped by the fact that even though they are the same yarn, the pink is a bit thinner.

  I really like the pattern and want to experiment with different ideas having to do with the double knitting.  One idea is to have half the hat have one color be the background and have the other half be inversed with a bat on each half.

  I'm back on the Worry Worm train.  It might be because I've done some fairly large projects recently, but I forgot how much I liked making them.

  I got another yarn from The Dollar Tree, some chenille yarn this time.  They are really soft and nice to touch.  The yarn wasn't hard to work with when doing the crochet part, but it kept wanting to come apart when I was trying to tie it at the end and weave in my ends.

  I've started another double knit hat.  I have enough yarn to have made another bat hat, but I wanted something with an easier chart this time.  I also wanted to try using a crochet cast on to see if that would help the bottom lay flatter instead of puffing out.  It worked better, but I think using a larger needle to cast onto would help even more.

  Now to get into the long day.  It's technically three days, but it feels like one long one.  On Friday Bill, Ryan, Shane, and I headed south to William & Mary college to see another Rocky Horror group.  Our friend Laila was the director of this show and we wanted to support her.  The show was a lot of fun and someone gave us a sealed bag of Insomniac cookies while we were hanging out afterwards.  Both Bill and I were tired, and we also both had to be up fairly early the next morning.  We got home about 4:35 am and though I got a bit of sleep in the car, it wasn't much.  I was then back up at 7:12 am to get ready to go into work.  My tire was low, so I refilled it in the rain.

  I didn't feel too bad at work, but definitely needed another nap before Heather and Jim's holiday party.  The party had a lot of good food and I got to meet new people and talk to some I haven't seen in a while.

  I had thought about possibly getting another nap in before our Rocky Horror show, but there wasn't enough time.  Shane and I helped Ryan get ready and we rocked out to Free Bird in the parking lot.  The show went well, and I think the audience had a lot of fun.  Bill and I didn't go to IHOP because we had to be up again before too long once again.

Click to see more details

  On the way out to the property we are considering getting, we had to try two gas stations.  Near the second gas station, near the Floor & Decor there was a mini car show.  I liked the color of the chartreuse one.

  We are looking at a vacation kind of house with a lot of forest around it.  The land used to be the water supply of Hopwood back in the day.  The house was very interesting.  They were a fan of carpet in bathrooms and sinks in every room, even the bedrooms.  There were 8 children, so a lot of rooms with connecting bathrooms.  There is even a rock feature in the living room with water around it.

Moooozzarell, Marilyn's Onion Soup, Martilyn’d Creamy Garlic Chop, and Ithaca Chai Pumpkin beer.

  After a small hike around the property we stopped by Marilyn's on Main for lunch.  If we do get the property, I think I'll want to come here fairly often.  The house is a little weird, but the forest was really pretty.  I did a check and there is a Hobby Lobby and a Michaels not too far from the house.  Next weekend Bill and my dad are going to check it out and see how he feels about it.

It's Still Spooky Season To Me!

  Back on November 4th, it was the last day for Fear Deluxe Admission so Ryan, Bill, and I decided to go to Cox Farms.  We wanted Shane to come with us, but he was busy.  To help stagger people in the attractions we got a card telling us what time slots we had for each event.  We started with The Forest, then to the Cornightmare, and finished with the Darkside Hayride.  I did like the hayride the best because there were a lot more haunt actors appearing from almost nowhere.  The party barn was my favorite part, along with the falling fence bit.  I'm glad we all went together.

Pattern: Swirling Drop Hat - Yarn: unknown blue cotton dk - Needle: US 6

  I thought I had finished this a while ago, but had left it halfway through the last row.  I thought by using a smaller hook and slightly thinner yarn that I could make the hat small enough to fit on Bill's head, but it's still a bit loose.  I know it will fit someone, but I don't know if it's too big to be a size made by many people.  My new thought on it is to use a bigger yarn again and make one size smaller, so maybe it will be the dimensions that I was hoping for.

Pattern: Feather and Fan Shawl - Yarn: Sundance Classic Elite Yarn in 6220 (Celery Spring) and 6250 (Straw Hat) - Needle: US 6

  I only had one skein of the green and used most of six skeins of yellow for the body.  I wanted to try making the pattern with random amounts of yarn instead of working up to a certain row like I did when I designed it.  I already made a change to the pattern, but I still need people to test it since I've been the only one to knit it so far.

  At one point Ryan showed an interest in trying to learn how to do some knitted colorwork.  I did a quick search for spooky colorwork patterns and found this Bat Hat.  I then remembered it later and wanted to make it as well, but for some reason couldn't find it again.  It took me a few hours over a few days, but I was finally able to find it.  I know it's supposed to be a spooky themed design, but I like the idea of it being in cute pastel colors.  It's been a while since I've done any colorwork, so my tension is wonky and I'm pretty slow at it.  I am having a lot of fun though, so it should be done soon.  While searching for the pattern I did find a bunch of other Spooky Knit Colorwork patterns.

Another Whirlwind of Activities

   Since Shane had never been there before, Ryan and I decided that we were all going to Cox Farm for the fall festivities on Thursday.  Our timing was a bit off because we were there when a lot of the field trip children were still there, but it was a lot of fun anyway.  One of the workers asked Ryan if he ever considered working for the Fields of Fear that they have after dark, and he got a lot of compliments on his Halloween themed hair throughout the day.  Ryan got more apple-butter and Shane got some cider for the house.  There was also the obligatory bag of caramel corn that came home with us.  I wanted to take a lot of the animals home with me, but they wouldn't let me, even if we could have fit one of the goats into the back of Shane's car.

  We left a bit late on Friday for the wedding near Richmond, but since there had been two hours of wiggle room built into the timing of the trip, we weren't worried.  We got on the road after grabbing something quick to eat in the car and started making good time.  We hit our first slowdown, but it didn't seem so bad.  Then we kept hitting slowdowns that just kept adding time.  At one point the GPS just added 40 minutes for no reason we could tell.  Our original planned time of arrival being a little after 3pm had now become 6:30pm and the cemetery closed at 6pm.  Ryan was scoping out lanes and we may have gone a little fast, but we got there right before it was going to close.  The guard at the gate seemed confused when we said we were there to marry someone, but the grounds keeper knew what was happening and let us in.

  The second we were going to start the ceremony, a train decided to roll through.  After we all took a quick train break it was time to start.  Victoria looked so beautiful.  Shane got some good Rocky Horror puns into the ceremonial words and everyone had a good time.

  It was then time to go to the AirBnB and have the reception.  The table décor was nice and spooky.  There were some snacks, but the main meal was really good Chinese food with Crumbl cookies for dessert.  To keep everyone going there were blood bag style energy drinks.  I had to call the party a bit short for our group because I had to work early in the morning.  I'm glad I got to go as Ryan's and Shane's plus ones.

And Back We Go!!

  Shane's car was technically ready on Friday, but he and Ryan had plans later that day, so getting the car was put off until Saturday.  It was a late night for some of us, but we managed to make it to the train station right as they were boarding.  We all got hotdogs and chewy marshmallow treats on the train.

  We passed through Ashland again, so I saw Center of the Yarniverse once more.  Last time they were closed at least, this time it just wasn't an easy option.  Bill would also argue that I don't need more yarn.

  We stopped back at CookOut and HobbyTown.  It was like we were finally getting last week right and going home in the car we arrived in.

  Once we were home we had to get ready for the show.  I was back lights again and Shane got notified earlier in the day that he was going to be Brad.  It was a bit of a tighter timeline than we usually use to get ready, but not so much we had to rush.  The laryngitis part of my cold had kicked in at that point.  I said I wasn't going to do any callbacks, but I did some anyway.  On the way out of the theater I was figuring out how to lock the one tricky side door and Shane tried to close the other door on my arm, which broke my Fitbit band a little.  Seems he is not having the best month.

What a Weekend

   On Friday a bunch of us headed to Maryland to help Bloody Mayhem Theatrical with an outdoor showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Before the show even started the wind picked up and the inflatable screen tried to make a break for it.  I ended up holding the transducer screen because it was acting like a sail and was also trying to fall over or make a break for it.  It was still a lot of fun though.

  On Saturday it was time to head south for Chris and Victoria's bachelor and bachelorette party.  On the way we got to see the tour bus for Yoko Says No.  I am going to look into their music at some point.

  Victoria was still at work, so Chris offered to show us some fun places.  We stopped by Rest in Pieces, and Ryan got a new friend (a cow skull now named Mootilda) and I got some bug keychains.  It was way too easy to find things you wanted, and I could see myself spending too much money on things to decorate the house with.  After that, it was about dinner time, so we met Victoria at Les Crepes Carytown where I got a very dirty chai and chicken crepe.

  On the way to the haunted house we got 7 people into Shane's 5 seater car.  It was a bit wild, but makes sense for us.  I was really excited since Victoria was telling us about how good of a place it was.

  It was such an impressive haunted house event.  There were so many rooms with so many big props and various things going on.  In the tunnel there was a guy behind me egging me on saying things like "Why you walking so slow? Are you dizzy? Why are you walking like that?"  He was my favorite part and pretty helpful.  I don't think I paid enough to get into it.  If you are in the area go to Red Vein, we already have plans to go again next year since we hear the theme changes. 

  On the way out of the parking lot Shane tried to take a shortcut and drove into a drainage ditch.  It ended up dislodging the coolant tube from the engine, cracked a corner of his radiator, and some of the radiator support is missing.  It meant that we had to leave the car with Chris and Victoria until it could be picked up and taken to a repair shop.  We got to go home in a rented Nissan Versa SV, at least it's a pretty blue color.

  We had to stop at Cookout for lunch, Ryan had never been, and Shane is trying to get all of us hooked.  I saw the sign for Hobby Town and Shane got really excited.  To help us digest we wondered around the store and all ended up spending some money.  I got a really cute stuffed cat by Tasty Peach Studios and a tiny tape measurer that I'll be adding to my knitting bag.

  On our way home we saw a florist, Thompson's Westwood Florist, where their electric sign said, "How mad is she?" which was pretty funny.  The ride back went well even if Shane got impatient at times during the trip.  I had a lot of fun; it was great to hang out with Chris and Victoria outside of Rocky.  I hope they manage to move back up and be closer to us.

I Don't Know How Either

   It's been a bit since I've gone out to just knit and sip on a warm beverage.  It was a rainy day, so it seemed like a good day to start again.  I got a lot of that worked on during the drive back from Kentucky.  I've already changed the pattern some so that I like how the stitches lay a bit better.  I'm not sure how I'm going to get it tested since the Ravelry group I usually use seems to not exist anymore.

  While I was knitting, Ryan was having an interview and got a promotion at work.  It's really exciting and we celebrated.  During his interview their nitro pot exploded a little and there was a "fun" coffee fountain.

  To keep the celebration going we went to a concert.  We are going to ignore the fact that we planned on going to the concert before the interview even happened.  I most likely would have never really gotten into iDKHOW on my own, but I do like their music.  I just tend to either listen to the same few CDs or true crime/paranormal podcasts.

  Since we didn't feel the need to get close to the stage, we stopped off at The Silver String for a drink before we went to The Fillmore.  When we first got there, Savannah Conley was still playing.  The opener we had gone to see was Joywave.  I was surprised that I had heard some of their songs before.  iDKHOW was a lot of fun, even though I kept getting distracted during the concert.  I feel bad for that part.  I would go to one of either Joywave's or iDKHOW's concerts again.

At The Late-Night Kentucky Picture Show

Friday:

Power plant tower we saw in Ohio

  We left later than Shane had been hinting at, but there were a few improvements that needed to be done to various costume parts.  We also had to make a few trips for items we needed.  However, it seemed that no one had a costume whip.  We split up the drive and I got to go first.  Ryan got a good chunk of his car sewing done in that time.  Shane got a nap in when Ryan was driving, and I got some blogging done when Shane drove.

  The hotel bed felt really good at 2:22 in the morning, even if we didn't end up sleeping well.

Saturday:

  This stop was the part I was the most excited about for this trip.  Mothman is my favorite stateside cryptic.  The Loch Ness Monster is my favorite overall.  While it was a small museum, I would go back again.  There were also signs that there is going to be a Mothman themed escape room that we are interested in doing once it opens.

  The Coffee Grinder was across the street from the museum.  We considered going to Village Pizza Inn for their Mothman pizza, but we had other lunch plans already.  On the way to the pre-show get together Ryan finished his sewing and I helped glue some of the patches back onto the Frank jacket.

  DeLite's for lunch, it was near the theater and a pretty cute diner.  I'd go back again for a milkshake or something.

  I got volunteered to play Betty for both shows.  Anyone who has seen the show with a shadow-cast knows that she is the most important character in the whole movie.  Shane provided his car blanket to be my wedding dress.

  There were some technical difficulties right before dinner scene on the first showing, which was interesting because it was digital, but it froze for some reason.  Might have been because they were trying to play it on an Xbox.

  The second showing had a different technical difficulty where there was only sound coming out of one speaker.  I also had to get Ryan some Red Bull to help him get through two shows in a row.

  Ryan was invited to come play Frank by someone who had never seen it before, but who was confident in his abilities.  I joked that you know that Ryan was a good Frank because he came with his own entourage.

  We were staying at the French Quarter Inn because it was not far from the theater.  It turns out it didn't cost much more than the Super 8, but was a lot nicer all around.

  Since both shows ended about the time ours usually starts, we invited some people to our room to hang out.  It was a lot of fun though we wish we could have gotten more people to hang out.  It also would have been nice to have been able to sleep in more before check out.

Sunday:

  The quality of sleep was a lot better in this hotel for some of us, but wasn't as long.  Even though I got fewer hours of sleep, I felt more rested.  The shower head also had nice water pressure and gave me a quick shoulder massage.

  On the way to Frisch's Big Boy, we stopped at Kentucky Liquor since we don't have drive-thru alcohol stores at home.  When I was in college I used to go to Bob's Big Boy for lunch when my parents came to get me after the semester was over.

  

  We had a good time strolling through River Crossing Flea Market.  It was a bunch of little booths run by individuals.  Unlike some of the other ones I've been to, they didn't have a stickering system, so you had to pay the person whose booth it was.

   Shane suggested we stop by Menards on our way out of town since we didn't make it to one in Chicago.  We don't have them in our area and Shane worked at one in a past life.  It is supposed to be just a hardware store, but you can also get some groceries here too.

  We saw a sign for the Tamarack Marketplace, but it was too late in the day to stop by.  It sounds like a fun place to try and get to next time.

  It was about time to find a place to stretch out legs, so we went to Lion's Den.  We kept an eye out for anything fun to use during the Rocky show.  We also took a quick look at the abandoned hotel that was next door.

  After a stop at Waffle House we headed home.  It was raining or overly foggy most of the time, but a My Chemical Romance fanfic got us through it.

MCR?!

  We stayed up until 3am picking out things to wear.  Mostly for Ryan because a I'm working on being able to fit back into a lot of my fun stuff.  The first concert I ever went to, I went to by accident.  I wanted to go to the craft show and Everclear was playing at the Fairfax County Government Center on June 6, 2003.  The last one I went to was with Joe to see The Prodgety in DC back on May 10, 2010.

  Ryan and I stopped at Sheetz to get some food and beverages before the road trip.  Bill made the trip shorter by lending us his E-ZPass.   We stopped at Maryland House rest stop to get gas and stretch our legs.  It would have been nice if the bathrooms hadn't been very warm, we were already a bit sweaty from the fact that the AC in Ryan's car doesn't work.  We did see other people who were going to the concert in the parking lot.

  The merch line went quickly, and even though everything had a hefty price tag, I got a tour-only shirt and some pin-back button sets.  After we got into the venue, we got some drinks.  I was still very warm so I started with the mango Claffey's Frozen Cocktail.  I thought it was going to be like a slushy, but it was a freeze pop.  Then I got a Party Poison, lime habanero margarita with red edible glitter, which was the special drink for the event.

The band line-up was:

    Devil Master - they were really good.  I like their capes and hair flips.  There was only one guy in the pit really feeling it at first, but then more people got into it.

    My Chemical Romance - it was a great show.  It's actually interesting how I got to go.  Ryan wasn't sure he was going to even get to go at all.  He bought the tickets to go with someone, but things happened and they were not longer going to go together.  The other person was the one to get the email with the tickets and sent them the day before the concert, so that was a good thing.  However, it meant that since it was such short notice to find someone for the second ticket, people like Mallory and Shane couldn't go.  I'm not a huge fan of MCR, but I do like them.  The craziest thing about this is that I had a dream where Ryan and I went to an MCR concert long before we even started hanging out.

  The whole experience was so much fun.  They played a lot of songs that they didn't get to perform before they stopped being a group for a while.

  I would definitely go to one of their concerts again.  The energy was amazing.  I felt almost dizzy when everyone was yelling about a song they love.  It felt like everyone on stage was having fun with their friends and we got to hang out with them as well.

  We hung out in the parking lot because we weren't in a huge hurry to get home.  We also stopped by 7-11 after getting a bit lost and taking some very dark sketchy looking back roads.  While heading home, I got a bit of history on the various albums and Ryan even played me some of the demo songs that are out there that didn't make it into becoming a full song.

  It was about 3am when we got home and both of us just had to go to bed.

Happy Birthday Tankuma!

   Tank is turning 11 today!  I can't believe it and he doesn't really either.  He definitely doesn't act his age.  He gets the zoomies all the time and likes to wake people up at 4am by chewing on some plastic or figuring out how to open their door.  I still need to get him some crinkle balls for his birthday.  He got one of his presents early, I made him his own Worry Worm, but no eyes so he can really chomp on it and I don't have to worry about him hurting a tooth.

  The other night he managed to open the door to Ryan's room at 4am, thoroughly scaring him.  Tank just gave an innocent little meow like he didn't do anything wrong.  He still doesn't like it when Ryan puts him in his shirt, but that happens a lot less often now and I've even seen them hanging out together!

  I know he's going to be getting a lot of birthday kisses from people today, at least from me and Ryan.

RKOcon

 Thursday 

  Had to get up earlier than I like to.  Tank had also been mean to me and slept downstairs in his cat hammock instead of snuggling with me.

  Even though Shane had invited us to come along on this trip a while ago, I didn't know if I wanted to try and make something fun to wear.  I couldn't think of anything to make for myself and was a bit grumpy that this was yet another convention that I didn't make anything for.  I then had the idea to make some worry worms to leave around the convention for people to randomly find.  I made a cute card to go with them with the poem too.

  After we had been on the train a bit, but before we headed to the Cafe Car, Ryan and I both heard some tiny meows.  Someone two rows behind us had his small fluffy cat with him.  I amused him by saying hi to the cat.

  When we checked in there was only the official table selling things, but there were some empty tables as well.  We got a worm on a string with our badges, I didn't know I was keeping with the theme.

  I left my first worm around and we ventured out.  It was suggested that we make sure we make it to Newport Creamery.  We got the loaded twister fries for the table, and I got a bowl of the Newport's Famous Clam Chowder.  The bubblegum Awful Awful was really good.  It was thick like a good milkshake, but lighter.

  When we got back from dinner the first worm was gone.  I put another one out on our floor and one more on two other floors.  I hope people like them.

  We went to go see The Room.  I've never seen the movie at all before, but Shane and Ryan really wanted to see it with a shadow cast.  It was a lot of fun.  The movie is really bad, but the shadow cast was really funny.  I would watch it again with a shadow cast.

Friday 

  Since we hadn't slept yet I don't know if this goes under Friday or Thursday.  We went in search of some after parties.  Our first stop was a room with someone who made a bunch of custom flavored alcohols.  The Sour Patch Kids vodka was my favorite.  A series of events lead us to bringing someone back to their friend and chatting with new people on the smoking patio.  We made a new friend, TR and hung out until about six in the morning.  He took quite a liking to Ryan.

  After The Tallest of Johns got to the room and settled in, we got him checked in to the con.  Shane had to get ready for one of the shows, but the rest of us went to the costuming panel.  We learned about wig styling and maintenance, Frank jacket secrets, costuming tricks, and some sewing/decorative ideas.  It seemed like it would have worked better as a few panels because so many topics were covered.

  Shane was the band lead in Repo the Genetic Opera, and it looked like he had a great time.  They had alternates for the characters, so it made the quick changes that happen between scenes really easy and smooth.  One of the people who played Blind Mags actually sang along.

   Wise Guys Deli was a quick choice for lunch.  I got The Accountant - Meyer Lansky, it was pastrami and corned beef topped with Swiss cheese, thousand island dressing and sauerkraut.  It was bigger than I had wanted, but our timing was going to be off for dinner, so it worked out. 

  There was a bit of a relaxing hangout time before heading down to Shock Treatment.  Shane got to play red blazer Ralph.  It was so much fun, and the energy was really good.  Ryan and I were offered free pizza on the way back to the room.

  We gathered some of the people we knew from around the con to go to the drag show.  One of my favorite performances was by Haunted Holy.

Saturday 

  There was a dance after the drag show, but not many people stuck around for that.  We found another dance on the bottom floor of the hotel.  While hanging out with random people outside of the dance we decided to order pizza.  While we waited for that, we got to know Peaches some more.

  It took an hour and a half to get it through Door Dash, but it only took half an hour for the people who ordered directly from the restaurant.  Their bacon chicken ranch pizza was pretty good, but probably would have been better if I hadn't been so tired.

  We took a leisurely morning where we went back to CVS for beverages and then ordered in some Dunkin Donuts.  There was some more time before we wanted to do anything, so Ryan and I got some merch.

  The Rocky Horror Picture Show was at a secondary location.  They wanted to make sure to be able to get everyone who went to the convention in and also some extra people from the area.

  During the preshow there was a technical problem, but when the music stopped we just kept singing the song and the person just kept going.  There were some awards, which were quite touching and one got very emotional.

  During the actual movie there were so many callbacks happening at the same time.  It was really exciting when most of us had the same one.

  The one of the Eddies must have gotten too excited because when he went to lift the Columbia he leaned too far back and they both went down.  I thought he was going to hit his head and though he was able to get back up before too long it looked like the Columbia was really hurting.  We later found out that both of them are doing okay.

Sunday 

  After a bus ride back to the hotel where we ordered McDonalds on Bill's phone, we hung out with Robin in the room.  Once we were fed we hit the con again.  Karaoke was pretty fun, but we ended up back on the patio talking with people.  It was finally nice out and I don't think some of us wanted the con to end.  Shane and I came in to go to bed around about 4:30am while Ryan caught up with some people.

  Ryan and I didn't know that the Dave & Buster's after-party was only from noon-2pm, so we didn't think we could have made it before our train was going to head out.  While we were drinking some Starbucks and recouping a little, I counted how many cards I had left and figured out that I left 18 worms around the convention for people to find.

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Pooling in Papaya - Hook: 5.5mm

  Suzanne treated us right on the way back for our train ride.  She said we could get as many drinks or as much food as we wanted.  I was the rebel and got the shrimp, scallop, and crab cake instead of the chicken biryani for lunch.  There was a cheese platter during our trip at some point too.  For dinner we all ordered the Asian Noodle Salad, but Ryan was the only one to not get the prosecco with it.  Around Pennsylvania is when we were offered some mixed nuts.

  We were all just so tired from the weekend, it really felt like the whole thing had been at least a whole week.  It was so much fun and I got to meet so many nice people.  We are planning to head to Baltimore to go and see Chocolate Covered Rocky Horror next month and we are already planning on going to the con again next year!

Packing for RKOcon

  Shane and I went to his eye doctor again.  They were able to get some pictures this time, which is an improvement.  The guy also referred to Shane's eye as a snow globe eye, who knew I know medical terms.

  All the labs came back negative, so he doesn't have to take the pills anymore.  The doctor took another ultrasound, she said the big bump is still there but isn't getting worse.  There is still talk about surgery to get rid of the cloudiness and really see what is going on.  It isn't an emergency though.

  Shane had discovered that Dr Chen had lived in Chicago.  She said she grew up there so Shane had to quiz her on her favorite deep dish pizza.  Pequod's Pizza was one of them.  She also knew about The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which surprised both of us.

  I got some fun new shirts to wear to the con.  I also got a few worry worms ready to give out to people.  I'm also planning on leaving some around with the poem for people to find.  I'm excited to go!