First of all…I did get some really cool news on the writing front…that I cannot divulge at this time.  Rest assured that I will spill the beans as soon as I am able and we can **squee** together about it.  In a manly way, of course.  In the meantime, revel in a seekrit squee on my behalf…

Today’s festivities weren’t quite as eventful as the first day, but we ended the day on a pretty high note.

The day began with the parade.  A throng of costumed geeks of various styles and persuasions wound through the streets of downtown Atlanta in all their geeky glory!  The grandmasters were Gil Gerard (the lead from the old “Buck Rogers” television series), Kevin Sorbo (the lead from the “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” series) and author Sherrilyn Kenyon.  We saw all manner of great costumes from He-Man and She-Ra, to a platoon of kilted Stormtroopers, a Klingon muscle car, four different variations on the Ghostbusters’ “Ecto 1” car…you name it, it was probably there.

After a nice breakfast at our hotel with a loquacious con-goer, we suited up in our steampunk attire to head over to the exhibit halls (aka “the place where you buy stuff”) and then to see the “Firefly” cast panel (with Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau)*.  The exhibit halls were completely off the chain.  Huge and filled to the brim with people.  Picked up a few choice purchases and got out to get some air. 

After our tribute to the gods of commerce, we went to get in line for the panel.  Apparently, one hour early was not early enough.  The line wound from the ballroom inside the hotel, out of the building, and wound around the building to meet itself again.  Once again: this was the state one hour before showtime.  We gave up and headed back to get out of our costumes for a while…if we had stayed, we probably wouldn’t have gotten a seat anyway.   Kind of depressing, but not much to be done about it.

Next we got some rest and some dinner and headed over to see the premier of a fan-based film set in the same universe as “Firefly” entitled Browncoats: Redemption.  Technically, it is a sequel to the movie Serenity, though it does not use the same characters.  It was not a bad movie, considering that it was a low-budget, “for the love” kind of production.  The story was interesting and there were a few laugh-out-loud lines. 

Finally, we poked our head in at the “Mighty Fine Shindig”, a party hosted by the “Firefly” wing of the Whedonverse track of the conference.  Looked to be a fine party, but The Wife and I are not much for parties, being professional wall-flowers and all.  We had a drink, toasted our tenth anniversary (the impetus for this trip), and headed to the hotel to begin our plots for the next day’s adventures…

 *Squee!