SeaTrek (June 22-29, 2007)

[Jedikatie]

I'll have more pictures of Connor for you guys either later tonight or tomorrow, I've just finished transferring his Q&A session to DVD from my camera, so I'll just have to grab the screencaps from that off of my laptop to add here (and to my ipod).

I'm proud of myself, that's the first time I've ever used that DVD recorder I got last Christmas to tape anything other than a TV show, and it came out right too, so at least I know it works... so maybe sometime I'll try and copy these old TV shows and movies I've got over to DVD...

[Jedikatie]

Well, here's a photo I got off my camera (not the video of Connor's talk)... I was curious to see what a nightvision picture looked like on my camcorder, so I took one of Connor as we were passing through one of the tunnels on the train trip...

[justTripn]

BTW, is Dizzy Fedcon12?

[JadziaKathryn]

Connor recommends the book, The Golden Spruce.

I feel an urge to head over to Amazon and see what it's about. Despite having unread books in my room, I adore books and am forever interested in new ones.

[Rigil Kent]

Meh. It's about an environmental whacko. Not my cup of tea.

[Jedikatie]

^
Well, the way Connor told it, it was about the only golden spruce tree in the world that had been around for years and then some guy went nuts and cut it down... and it was a true story.

No worries on getting some screencaps from that video I did... so far this afternoon (before I went to bingo) I capped the first 10 minutes or so of the 45 minute video and had over 2400 pictures from that 10 minutes. Told you I could take pictures. And that's with me clicking repeatedly on my mouse to take each and every picture. I'll have to go through tomorrow and see which are the best so I can post them...

[Jedikatie]

Some pictures of Connor from his Q&A session...

[Jedikatie]

26 June 2007

Well, today's the day we first get to sit with Connor at his table at dinner. It's also a day spent on board ship, though we visited Tracy Arm Fjord in the morning (which was lovely). Though I did have to wonder about everyone trying to tell me that it was cold. Um, it was 60+ degrees and the sun actually shone that day, it wasn't cold, not even at our closest approach to the glacier. I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, just like I would in the same sort of temps in Ohio in mid-March. Yet the ship's crew and whole groups of passengers were walking around in sweatshirts and jackets (and some even in winter coats), and the crew was passing out hot chocolate... *shrug*

We saw some seals while we were there, but unfortunately they were too far away to get a decent picture of them with my camcorder, even with the telephoto to the max.

After that, there was the group photo for the SeaTrek/Slayer cruise people in the centrum of the ship. The photographer had to take the picture from two floors above us in order to get all 200+ people in it. He took several different versions, the last had George and Jonathan acting nutty again (though I didn't get that one), I got the boring first picture where you could see everyone smiling at the camera and no one was doing silly stuff (but then I already had them doing silly stuff in my photo with the stars).

Afterwards, they did the first autograph session. So I went off to my room to gather up the stuff I'd brought for Connor to sign (which was my Enterprise cast photo, the very dreamy picture of Connor standing on the beach in Italy that NX-Oner had given me as a present, and two scripts--Observer Effect and Terra Prime. After he finished signing all of those and I'd paid, he said "Going to be at dinner tonight, Katie?" And I told him, "Looking forward to it" with a big smile on my face. Then I proceeded through the lines and got everyone else's on my group photo except Clare Kramer's (who wasn't going to charge for her autograph on that photo, she was planning to sign for free that night at her and Dizzy's pajama party) and that Richard Arnold guy's, because I really didn't want his, and what he was selling at his table (various card sets from the different series) wasn't anything I wanted--I already had the three Trip costume cards, and those were the only things that might have tempted me.

Anyway, I left the little conference room to take the stuff back to my cabin before Robert's talk, and passed through the casino on the way back, which was the shortest route as far as I was concerned. I hadn't actually intended to spend any money in the casino, but I figured, hey, it's only $20, I've got plenty of cash still. So I tried one machine (Ms. Little Green Men) and didn't have much luck, and then cash out of it and went to another machine and played it for about 10-15 minutes, using what was left from the first machine of that $20, and was winning enough to keep me playing (though with an eye on my watch because Robert's talk was going to be at 1 pm). Then I hit "7" "7" and "3x" which was equal to 630 coins on a 25 cent slot machine, plus the about 150 or so I'd already built up before hitting that. So I played it until I had it sitting at 800 coins exactly, and cashed out. And then got to sit there because the machine ran out of coins until the attendant came to put more into the machine. Took two of those buckets to get all the quarters up to the cashier, and it was a cool $200 for that 15 minutes of playing, which I hardly objected to.

Finally I made it back to the room and put down the autographs I'd gotten, and then went back upstairs because just as I was going up they'd announced that there were whales to one side of the ship. So I got some video of them slapping their tails, and right at the very end I managed to get a shot of one of the whales breaching. Though I haven't copied that over to post online yet. And then I headed off to Robert's talk, and later to Ethan's talk.

I got dressed early and headed down to the dining room in hopes of heading off the crazy cat lady from sitting anywhere near Connor, and met up with the other three ladies who were sharing out table, Beth, Sue and Leigh Ann. Fortunately we'd all beaten her down there for once. Paul, who was one of the guys who was in charge of the cruise, came over to us as we stood there, trying to decide how to do it to make sure that she didn't get anywhere near him and made a comment of making sure that "the cone of silence falls around this table" and then suggested that we put Connor and his brother over by the window and fill in the seats from there so she'd have no opportunity to get close to him. Connor asked each of us at the beginning of the dinner how are day had been, and when he got to me, I told him about winning the $200 at the casino and he just gave me the cutest little look, kind of like he couldn't believe it and then asked me what machine I'd been playing, and I told him, "Titanic," and he goes, "Oh, the one machine I didn't try." Poor guy... evidently lady luck was not with him whenever he tried his hand at gambling during the cruise.

Well, it turned out that Connor and his brother had gone up to one of the bars earlier in the day, on their way to the gym or something, and Jonathan Woodward joined them. And after they had their drink, Jonathan bought rounds for everyone. I don't remember which it was--it was either bourbon or whiskey, but whatever it was, Jonathan ended out passing out in his cabin and didn't even show for dinner that night. Connor and Matt did make it, though. Connor told us all what had happened. And that was when he said the nicest things about NX-Oner especially, but also about Hoshissis and myself (though mine was to a lesser extent, I'm pretty sure--he's seen them lots more times than me), describing NX-Oner as "a friend he never knew he had" and he thanked her. While he might have been a bit in his cups at the time, I think he did really mean that, and I thought it was very sweet of him to say.

Connor told us about his childhood some, and talked a bit about Jasper and how he and Arianna aren't planning on having any more kids of their own, but if they do decide to have another, they'd adopt one. And Connor would prefer to adopt a Chinese girl, just because he knows how bad it can be for them over there. The crazy cat lady tried to tell Connor that his son would be trouble when he grew up, but Connor disagreed with her about that. We did, thankfully, keep her mostly shut down and off her favorite topics this night.

He and his brother had the lamb for dinner that night and were really impressed by it, enough that Connor ordered three extra portions of it for the rest of us to try. I did eat a few bites of it, and he's probably the only person in the world who would ever get me to try it. Certainly my own parents would never be able to accomplish that feat, ...

At the end of dinner, Connor gave each of us a kiss. I got a hug too along with my kiss, after he told me that he thought that Morgan dollar I gave him was worth more than I thought it was and he said, "Are you sure?" to me a couple of times. But I just shook my head and told him I gave it to him. He laughed and said, "Honey, I'm not giving it back. But are you sure?" I said "yes, it's yours."

And then later on that evening I ran into a guy in the casino that I knew was part of our group on the cruise (though he was with the Buffy fans) who turned out to be from Columbus, Ohio, but works in one of the old DESC buildings on what used to be Gentile Air Force Station here in my hometown, so I found that a bit ironic...

[Jedikatie]

27 June 2007

Today we were in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. I'd signed up for the "Tshimshian canoe quest and rainforest walk" expedition. Which meant we got to canoe across the harbor (and some silly people actually thought that the phrase "must be able to paddle a boat for up to 2 miles" didn't mean that they themselves would actually be paddling) to where the rainforest walk was taking place. We did pretty good actually, considering there was something like 20 of us paddling this 42' long canoe--we made it across the harbor in about half an hour, with a couple of rest breaks on the way there.

The rainforest walk was nice and peaceful, though we didn't see any wildlife beyond a couple of slugs and a curious sea lion who just poked his head above the water and watched us all watching him. I got a couple of pictures of him with his head sticking up, but that's all you can see of him, unfortunately, he never did come any further out of the water than that. Then we paddled back to the pier on the other side of the harbor, and we were a lot faster going back than we were going out--I think it only took about 20 minutes that time, with only one or two rest breaks. Still, it was nice little trip and I enjoyed hearing about from a couple of the Tshimshian elders about some of their culture.

After that I looked about the shops down along the waterfront briefly, but I only ended out buying some postcards and a keychain. I think I was pretty much shopped out by this point in the trip. So I went back to the ship, figuring since it was once again formal night at dinner (and this time we were going to be at Connor's table--sigh--that it would be best to get ready early, since there were four of us sharing the room. And I needed a shower anyway after that canoe trip. I also planned to bring my camera to the dinner that night, mostly so I could get a picture of our other dinner companions (excepting the cat lady). Though I sure didn't mind that Connor was willing to let us take pictures of everyone at the table, so I got a picture of all of us there as well, even if Matt's wine glass is blocking my face in my picture... but then I know what I look like, so that wasn't really important to me.

Oh, and I remembered a few more things that Connor had told us the night before when I was writing today's entry down. He told us that he takes after his mom's side of the family, while his brother Matt is more like their dad's. That cat lady tried to say that they looked similar in profile but I disagree with that statement--their noses, for one thing, are two entirely different shapes. Matt has more of the Romanesque type of nose and Connor's, well, everyone here knows what his looks like, with that nice little swoop at the tend... The shape of their faces is similar, I will grant that, enough that you can tell that they are family, but their profiles are not that similar (and considering I was sitting to one side of one or the other all three nights we were at the table I had plenty of views of their profiles to make the comparasion). Connor also said that they're 1/8 Cherokee, and a mix of Irish, Scottish and French in descent. And they were quite proud of the fact that they could hold their liquor whereas Jonathan was plastered and passed out.

Anyway, back to dinner tonight, which was the second formal night. Beth sat in the same spot, next to me to save it for Jinx, who was late again so that the cat lady wouldn't sit there. We were hoping that Jinx would get there before her, but no such luck. So the cat lady (who was on the other side of me) raised her eyebrow when Beth got up and let Jinx have her spot, figuring out (finally) what we were doing. Which did not bode well for later on. So basically I had no one to talk to the entire two hours we were at dinner for the most part. So I didn't say much, but tried to listen to what Connor was saying (he was talking much quieter this night than the night before). I felt sorry for Beth, Sue and Leigh Ann because they couldn't hear a thing that was being said down at the other end of the table. Sue could tell I was not in a happy mood. Anyway, towards the end of dinner, the cat lady decides to make her first move on Connor. She handed me some printout about a cat (after not talking to me the entire night, so I hadn't even realized that she was talking to me at first) and goes, "can you pass this down to him?" I glanced at it to see what it was before hesitantly taking the paper, and giving Connor a look of apology, mostly because she'd put me in such a position where I either had to pass it down or else it would be fairly obvious that I was being rude to her, I passed it down.

Shortly thereafter, Sue excused herself--she'd been battling with motion sickness for much of the week, actually--and the cat lady stood up also and announced to the whole table that she was "sick" as well, but she planned to bring the wine bottle that Connor and Matt had drank from the night before (which she claimed at the time that she had wanted to keep because she makes things out of wine bottles) to dinner the next night for Connor to sign, because she was "going to sell everything that she got from this cruise on ebay to raise money to support her pet rescue, and she'd appreciate it if Connor would sign some stuff for her for free." And she says this in an extemely loud voice, with Joe, the guy in charge of the cruise, standing just behind me and to my right. And then she left. That kind of pissed me off. I mean, if she wants his autograph on something, then stand in line and pay the man for it. It's not like she's not going to get her money back in an ebay auction anyway.

I really hope that Connor understood that I didn't really want to pass on that printout, that she put me in that position. (And considering she hadn't said anything to Connor all night either, I think he was kind of surprised. But then if he hadn't brought up his wife's cat having died recently, then she never would have had an opening either.) Oh, and Connor said that he's not really a cat person (which I think kind of got to the cat lady too, because she said something like, "Well, you wouldn't like me very much then, I've got 37 cats.") I do know that the cat lady was in large part responsible for the fact that I was actually drinking wine at dinner for the past three nights. I'm not much for alcohol myself (largely because there were a number of alcoholics on my mom's side of the family) but she drove me to it. Though I at least only had one glass each night (well, except for the last night, but there's a reason for the change that night), and drank water or coffee otherwise.

Anyway, after dinner I went with Leigh Ann and Beth up to the Schooner bar and got another drink, because I was still ticked off about what had happened at dinner. Sue was up there already. I eventually went over to the karaoke event just down the hall from the bar we were at, and it was highly entertaining--Classic4's medley of stalker songs, which she put together herself and accompanied herself on the piano (which she said was out of tune) and sang was the definitely the biggest hit of all the fan entries in the karaoke. She well deserved winning the grand prize in the contest, she was that good. Hopefully someone got it on film (besides Kevin, the SeaTrek videographer) so everyone can see how awesome it was. Connor was duly impressed and even brought it up the next day at his Q&A when she asked him a question. Robert and Claudia as Sonny and Cher singing "I've got you, babe" (with Jonathan Woodward providing his own version of "sign language interpretation" of the lyrics off to the side) was also very entertaining.

After the winners were announced, I was headed back out through the bar, hoping to see Beth, Leigh Ann and Sue (to tell them that the stalker medley had won, because I'd mentioned it to them earlier when I'd gone out to retrieve something I'd left behind), and who should be sitting there talking to them but Connor and Matt. So I sat and listened to them for a bit. Connor talked about Precious Cargo and how he told the director that they needed to drain that swamp over the weekend because he has a tendency to get very bad ear infections but they didn't, so he went off on the director I think he said, refusing to do it. So they had to use his stuntman, actually, in his place once he goes underwater. And Connor said that he usually didn't do stuff like that, but it was a health concern of his, not because he was being a prima donna or anything like that--if he got an ear infection, then he's out for several days, and that's time that could have been used for filming. He also said the "princess" from that episode "married up," because she married Salman Rushdie--though I found it ironic that less than a week later, I read online that she and he were getting divorced.

Shortly thereafter, NX-Oner and Hoshissis joined us, and then Connor and Matt decided to go elsewhere a few minutes later. Anyway, I think Connor was talking to Beth and the others (he joined them, not the other way around) to sort of make up for dinner, since he knew that they couldn't hear him from the other end of the table, which was very sweet of him.

[Jedikatie]

28 June 2007

This is the last full day of the cruise. I spent about half an hour repacking my suitcases neatly this morning, and managed to get everything I bought into my two suitcases and carry on, with some room left over in the carry on to pack the clothes I'm wearing today/tonight. Have to have the luggage all packed and out in the hall by 11 pm tonight, with the colored tags they provide on them so the crew can come along and collect them to put in the different storage crates to offload very early tomorrow morning.

The ship's at sea again today, heading back towards Seattle. You can see various little islands and mountains out either side of the ship. I got to do a lot of wandering around, mostly because with four of us in the room, it took time for all of us to get packed back up. I went through the shops once more, just to see if there was anything that I really felt the need to buy, though I think all I got were some more keychains, because I was buying them for various people at work and realized that I hadn't bought enough for the one job (though I found out on the Sunday after I got back that I needn't have bothered--several people apparently quit there while I was away, and I don't know the new people so I'd hardly be giving them anything).

I also spent a bit more time than I really wanted to in the casino. Only won about $43 dollars this time, though.

Connor's talk wasn't scheduled until 1 pm, and I was there early but still only got a so-so seat. The reflection from the windows (especially before they finally realized that it would be a good idea to lower the shades) made the video somewhat interesting to watch, because Connor would be there clearly then I'd move the camera slightly or else pan out a bit, and suddenly be thrown into shadow.

He started off his talk with he didn't know what a booze cruise was like, having never been on one before, but to him, this was the Alaska-inland passage booze cruise. Then Jinx asked that question about the Dead Zone, which he knew absolutely nothing about (and later on when Hoshissis asked him a question about a Boris Karloff thing that he and his make up guy had options on, Connor was like, "what bulletin board do you guys get this stuff from, anyway?" To which Jinx answered "I got mine from brunettejolene.com.")

Most of the questions asked, as Hoshissis, I believe, said before were the standard questions for those who have never seen Connor before--how did you get the job as Trip (though the one Buffy fan who asked him a question about Trip called him "Chip"); talked about how Trip was originally called Spike (but UPN couldn't have two Spikes, so he was worried about what other nickname they might come up with--like maybe Biff); someone asked him to talk about the craft and how he does his acting, to which Connor paraphrased Jimmy Stewart as his answer, and then told us about how he had a teacher who told him he needed to always make it look like work in front of others, even if (especially if) it wasn't for him (because Connor excelled at doing whatever it was that he was asked to do).

He also talked about the recent fires in the LA area, and how the first fire went up to the Hollywood sign on one side, which was close to where he lived and scared him a bit, though the prevailing winds pushed it away from his neighborhood. And then when the Griffith Park fire happened a short time later, he kind of stopped paying attention because the smoke wasn't blowing into their neighborhood and he hadn't realized it had gotten as bad as it had (or that it had been as close to them as it was) until he and Arianna had gone to a neighbor's for tea a few days later and learned everyone else in the neighborhood had had their bags packed and had been ready to go at a moment's notice.

Someone asked if he had any pictures of Jasper, and he said, yes, on my camera. And then they persistently asked, "where's your camera?" To which he replied, "not on me." And then they went, "Go get it." They didn't seem to get that he wasn't going to share pictures of his son with us, not that I blame him in the slightest. (Talking about his son is one thing, but sharing photos of the little guy--I think someone must have pointed out that that is an incredibly bad idea since he doesn't really know any of us. Especially since he himself said that he's had bad and scary experiences on the Internet with people, and I don't blame him for wanting to keep Jasper out of the eye of those people, because you never know who's going to have enough sense not to post the pictures of his kid and who's going to show up at his house.--That's just my opinion, mind. And yes, I do know that he's shown pictures before, I was there when he showed Jasper's picture to us at Vulkon last year. But I can't help but wonder if that--and FEDCON or whatever con it was last year when he put the pictures up on the screen from his ipod--was before the incident of someone showing up at his house, and maybe now he's trying to protect his wife and son from some of the loons out there.)

He also joked that the whole cruise was actually on the backlot of Paramount, and that they just used digitized footage played through the windows, and that there was a reason why every town seemed pretty much the same... that got a chuckle from those present. He also told us about a pilot he'd done before he got Enterprise for Fox called MK3, which was a futuristic Three Musketeers set in a time where guns have been outlawed and swords were the only weapon allowed. Obviously it didn't get picked up, but he didn't realize until he and the guy playing Porthos were doing the sound dubbing and saw the video in full that it really, really sucked.

Later that day, there was the farewell gala. Connor didn't end out doing anything (which was good, because as he told us, he didn't have anything prepared to do). Robert and Claudia once again played Sonny and Cher, only this time they sang "I had you, babe" to the tune of "I've got you, babe" and it was all about the years after their breakup. Robert and Ethan did House Call, which was funny as always. Claudia and Denise (who was finally out of quarantine) did an improv (with George stepping in towards the end of it). None of the other stars did anything for that. Joe was given a plaque, signed by everyone at the con, because this was his final event--he's now retired officially and will only be there as a vendor in the future.

And then there was our final dinner with Connor and his brother Matt. I was sitting next to Matt this time, and for some reason Jinx switched places with the cat lady, so I ended up with her on my other side. Confused the heck out of the waiters. They were playing this piano music over the intercom really loud right above our heads so I could only hear about 1 in 3 words that Connor said, unfortunately. I talked a bit with Matt, since he was next to me. Connor left briefly during dinner to go get this picture that he'd had made up at the photo gallery for people to buy that he could sign (since he'd forgotten to bring any with him, not realizing that autographs would be done during the cruise), so we got a sneak peek of that while we were eating.

So after going to get that picture and his autograph on it (he wrote "Katie-- 1 of very few, been lovely spending time with you, Connor Trinneer"), I went to shake his hand and to say thank you for being on the cruise, and he pulled me close and gave me a kiss goodbye. Very sweet of him. He also gave the others kisses as well. Hoshissis and NX-Oner got their pictures taken with him, though I didn't.

[JadziaKathryn]

I completely see why he wouldn't want to show pictures of his son. Unfortunately, although most people would just think, "How cute!", there are a few crazy ones out there.

It sounds like you had a great time, crazy cat lady aside.

[Jedikatie]

^
I forgot to mention that Connor bought all of us at his table champagne at that last dinner, which was really, really nice of him. We did a toast and everything (though I can't for the life of me remember what the toast was now...)

[Rigil Kent]

Did you mention that somebody gave him bound copies of my Endeavour fics, up to Pandora (not my idea, BTW...)

[Jedikatie]

^
No, but then I didn't see Jinx do that either.

I did get to see Connor once more after the last night on the cruise. The next morning, I got off the boat very early (I was off the boat and outside, waiting at the door for the rest of my roommates, by 8:10 am), because I did the valet luggage thing. Which meant I didn't have to worry about my two checked pieces of luggage--they sent it on to the airport for me. I was the only one in our room who qualified for that program, since I was leaving that day, on one of the participating airlines, and was only traveling in the U.S.

Anyway, while I was waiting and waiting and waiting (we're talking nearly two full hours before the others got off the ship), I happened to see Matt come out the door next to me, and a little further away was Connor, who was instantly recognizable to me even from the back because of his huge, bright green suitcase. I didn't get a chance to say anything to them, however, because there was a whole crowd coming out the doors at the time, and they headed off in the opposite direction from where I was standing.

Hoshissis and I went to Pike Street Market (or whatever it's called) because she wanted to try and find a football jerseys and sneakers for her two boys. We did eventually find a jersey and a pair of sneakers for one of them, but no luck for the other at all, unless she found a jersey at the airport. So we wandered about downtown Seattle a bit, until nearly 2 pm, then took a taxi to the airport (the concierge at the pier would only hold our luggage until 3:30 pm). Where we both got to sit and wait a very long time for our flights to leave. Mine was delayed by an hour due to the storms in the Dallas area, and I'd been expecting it to happen because every time that afternoon I'd checked the departure board, every flight to Dallas was being delayed. Hoshissis's flight was delayed, however, due to the bombs they'd found in London that day (and it took an extra day for her to get home because she missed her connecting flight and then couldn't get on another flight that night due to the bombing in Glasgow). I ended up not leaving Seattle until around 12:45 am Saturday morning. Though at least it made the wait in the Dallas airport shorter for me, because my connecting flight out of there did leave on time.

[TSara]

Thanks for posting all this Katie!

You have made me so excited to meet him and Dominic at Cherry Hill!