The convention wound up with almost 500 attendees, which is pretty good for a first time gone wide convention. I think the seminars went pretty well; recordings of most of them should be up on the Celesticon website in the next few weeks.
I got some gaming in, and chatted with some fans new and familiar; I even got to see a couple of the old ConQuest hands that I had anticipated would be at Pacificon this weekend instead. So that was grand, grand, grand. I even did a soupcon of business.
It was, as always, great to hang out with James Ernest, Doug Sun, Dana Lombardy,
macklinr, Carl Rigney, Chris Hanrahan, and luagha. Thanks to them, and to Dennis Detwiller, I dined sumptuously while here. Perbacco (short rib stracotto with herbed beef-marrow crust), a Malaysian place in the nearby strip mall (much of James' pineapple shrimp fried rice), Kabul Afghan Cuisine (an excellent lamb pillau with carrots and raisins, and a magnificent side of kadu -- roasted spiced pumpkin topped with yogurt and meat sauce), and New Mana Asian Cuisine in San Mateo, a great Filipino restaurant (chicken grilled on a lemongrass skewer, topped with a sweet-hot sauce reduction; stir-fried string beans and squash in spiced coconut milk), and my old standby Fuki Sushi (spider roll made with fresh delicious crab, and a salmon-belly sashimi in garlic butter topped with caviar, plus blue shrimp and an Alaska roll). And need it be said? In-and-Out, the bar none best fast-food hamburgers in America, ergo, the universe.I bought Here I Stand and Soldier Emperor and won a copy of Field Commander: Alexander; I playtested James Ernest's awesome map game Mapple (refer to it by name today!) and talked Trail of Cthulhu with folks, and signed a book or two.
Can't wait to return to the Bay Area in February for DunDraCon -- mark your calendars now!