26 June 2007Well, today's the day we first get to sit with Connor at his table at dinner.
![Smile Smile](./images/smilies/smile.gif)
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."
![Laughing Laughing](./images/smilies/lol.gif)
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,
![Laughing Laughing](./images/smilies/lol.gif)
...
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...
Was this the army that invaded your country, ma'am? No, officer, they were taller than that...
How about this one? I'm not sure--get them to march up and down a bit...
(From Terry Pratchett's Jingo)