Adrian

Today's been a long day already and I've been awake for just shy of 14 hours.

We got up early for the set tour - which was cool. kimberlyfdr, foreverseenstar, and I had Dean Devlin as our tour guide. Their "soundstages" are two warehouses in the industrial part of Clackamus, which is about 20 minutes outside of Portland. One's their permanent set (the apartment and McRory's) and the other they call the "Franken-set" because it's where they build all the other sets. But it was neat seeing the sets and seeing how they do things and getting to hear about things that are coming up in the third season.

I had just enough time when we got back to scarf down a bagel and cream cheese and get a frozen drink from Starbucks before Mark Sheppard's panel. Since Mark joined John Rogers for his panel yesterday, John decided to join Mark for his today. The two of them are fun together, though. And it was interesting hearing Mark talk about the fight between him and Christian earlier this season and how it started with his ten-year-old son, who loves Eliot, saying that he wanted them to fight. He said that in the first take, when Christian slammed him down on the table, they went through the table - which was bolted to two chairs and that Christian's hand came up to swat the table away from hitting Mark in the back of the head and everyone froze for a second and the two of them were like, "What are you doing? Let's keep going." And Mark's son comes up and goes, "Are you all right?" to Christian. And that Christian was a trooper because he had to hit him with the rod - with the angle they were filming at, he couldn't pull any punches and Christian was only wearing a pad on his leg. It's fun listening to him talk because he's a geek too and he loves all of this stuff as much as we do.

Beth and Gina's panel was fun. The two of them are adorable together.

I got one of the two autographs I needed to get today. I wasn't able to get the other because Mark had to leave to get back to either L.A. or Toronto (I can't remember which he said).

The photo ops have been a clusterfuck, though. Because first they did the group shots with all five. Then, instead of doing the guys so they could get to their panel, they did Gina, then Beth. As far as I know, they're still doing Christian, or may've just finished up. So, the guys' panel probably won't be happening at this point. :-(

Am still looking forward to Christian at Dante's tonight, though.

The beds in the Governor are small. When they say "double", they're not kidding! I think my double bed at home is bigger. I feel bad for kimberlyfdr, since I had a fidgety night last night. (I don't do well the first night somewhere new. And I think I did okay at the Westin because I was so tired.)

We did really well getting ready this morning - and even had about twenty extra minutes. :-) Both foreverseenstar and kimberlyfdr were excited to have mimosas. Both foreverseenstar and I had pancakes for breakfast and the pancakes won. (They gave us four huge, fluffy ones. But they were yummy.)

We had kimberlyfdr's panel this morning on the nature of family on "Leverage". We had a good discussion. And I learned that Aldis Hodge is 23.

From there, I went to the panel with Mark Franco (visual effects producer), Kevin Jackson (stunt coordinator), Kai Shelton (practical special effects), and Derek Fredrickson (digital effects). It was interesting hearing them talk about what they do on the show and how they do it.

After that was the panel with Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Reisgraf, and Aldis Hodge. It was lots of fun and it's great to hear that they all get along really well and enjoy what they're doing and, as Tim said, "they genuinely like each other". And Tim took a picture of the crowd and tweeted it. And it sounds like the third season is going to be awesome.

I missed Apollo Robbins' (the show's consultant) panel because we were waiting in line for autographs. I was really curious to see what he had to say. Tim drew a "self portrait" in my autograph book. I asked Gina about her baby - who's four months old today and is "the baby on set" and "getting her cheeks pinched a lot". Didn't really say much to Beth or Christian. I feel really stupid, though, because I messed up and said I enjoyed seeing Aldis on "The Mentalist" (which he wasn't on, he was on "Castle") and he corrected me that his brother was on "Mental". Whoops! I didn't get an autograph from Dean Devlin, but I did thank him for Stargate, since that's what got me into sci-fi (and partly what got me into "Leverage") and he was very gracious and thanked me. Mark Sheppard was awesome (as we all know). He was wearing a shirt that says "As Seen on TV" - which amused me greatly. He also showed me his dragon tattoos on his arms and chest (he's got four or five) and asked me if I had any. I told him I didn't, but that I've thought about it and he told me to make sure it was something personal "because it's a permanent symbol of a temporary emotion". And he asked me where I'm from and I said "Delaware" and he said, "That's where I get my credit card bills from."

We've just been hanging out since then, waiting for the banquet, which is at 8pm. And I just finished a sandwich, even though we'll be eating again soon because I haven't eaten since breakfast. It was really good and came with tater tots and I got it from AJ on the Rails. We're also wondering what's going on with the photo ops, since the autographs took so long today. But it sounds like they got everyone through once today, so maybe they'll just do all the photos tomorrow or something. We'll see. (I also need to get a couple more autographs that I promised, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to do that too tomorrow.)

After we finished at Powell's last night (and I seriously think my brain melted at the amount of books there), kimberlyfdr, foreverseenstar, and I met up with biancathecookie and went to dinner at Pastini Pastaria. I had the Cavatappi San Marzano - which was really yummy and biancathecookie and I split tiramisu for dessert.

The Westin was really nice. And the bathroom was *huge* (it had a bathtub *and* a spacious shower stall). And we all laughed at the fact that it echoed when we talked. I was amused that we all went to bed at midnight, even though for kimberlyfdr, foreverseenstar, and I it was really 3am and for biancathecookie, it was 1am.

This morning, we went to Jake's (which is the Governor's restaurant) for breakfast because it was close. And while we were waiting for our food, Marc, the con organizer walked by outside, stopped, and backed up, and stared at foreverseenstar until she noticed him, even though the rest of us were giggling.

The line for registration took a while, but we were like, "Well, what else are we going to be doing aside from hanging out and talking anyway, so...." But there were some "Negative Nancies" behind us who kept complaining about how long they were taking and how CreationCon does it better, etc. But, thankfully, the people in charge had given us numbers if we wanted to get out of line and they did.

We went to lunch at Big Town Hero for lunch - which has good sandwiches.

This afternoon, I went to Joe LoDuca's panel (he's the music composer) and as I was about to get on the elevator to go up, a guy stuck his head out and asked if it was the fourth floor. I told him it was the third as I got in, but that I was going up to the fourth floor. He introduced himself as Joe LoDuca and asked if I knew someone. I confessed I didn't and he asked if I was working the con and I told him that no, I was just attending, but that I was going to his panel. It was neat hearing him talking about the music and how he does things.

We've been hanging out for the past few hours, waiting for the cocktail party to start - which we're getting ready for now. (And I'm a bit jealous of their wardrobes!)