Potlatch was fantastic.

Well, to be honest, I went to a total of about two hours of official programming, but *visiting Portland* was fantastic.

It has cold weather (almost a pleasant novelty after the last few months), terrifying quantities of used books, delicious brewed by the cup coffee....

Oh, and cute science fiction geeks, can't forget them.



Tina C. met me at the airport on Thursday night and took me back to her place for a delicious meal of grilled peppers and portabella mushrooms cooked by her husband. Oh, and pricey, peaty and lovely single malt scotch. These people are amazing.



On Friday Tina took me out on the big pilgrimage out to Powell's, the Mecca of used books (the place literally fills a city block), where I spent about half an hour. Because, if I'd spent any longer, I would have spent all of my rent and food money. As is, I bought one hard to find at normal bookstores but cannonical philosophy book for work purposes ("Naming and Neccessity" by Saul Kripke) as well as four ancient out of print pulp titles.

*One book by Arthur Conan Doyle (not a Holmes book, but what looks like a proto-sf/horror-ish book called "The Poison Belt"), and
*Three books by August Derleth ("The Chronicles of Solar Pons," which is the sequel to the Solar Pons collection I bought in Seattle, plus "The Mask of Cthulu" and "The Trail of Cthulu")

I have a lot of nerdy pleasure about this.

(Oh, and with my Potlatch registration, I got a copy of Doug Lain's short story collection, "Last Week's Apocalypse," which is excellent. He was the guy who wrote the Coffee Cup/Alien Invasion Story that I liked some much, and the first story in the collection lives up to the promise of being just as weird.)

Later that afternoon we met up with Caroline....



....and we all went out to a nice Ethiopian place, then hung out at the hotel bar at the Portland Red Lion (where the con was), appropriately named "Windows," because they had a great view of the lights of Portland at night through the large windows immediately facing the bar. Julie showed up later that night, and, although Tina and Caroline eventually had to go to sleep, Julie and I ended up having a good conversation of the kind we used to have a lot at Clarion--Lovecraft, etc.--well into the wee hours. Also got a chance to chat with David Levine, which was nice. Oh, and I think while a bit sloshed, late at night, I may have committed myself to going to some jazz festival in New Orleans later this spring. We'll see.

The next day I went to what little panel stuff I went to, but more importantly, there was a scheduled Scotch Tasting, which alone I think, officially makes it a Very Good Con.

Having slept off the Scotch tasting, on Sunday, we visited the "Saturday" market, hung out in the hospitality suite, and then went out for some good Chinese food....

OK, that part was a little joke. I like Middle Eastern food, I *love* Indian food, and I'm pretty much OK with Thai, although I tend to get around that one by ordering the super-sweet dishes, but for some reasons I've had a life-long, irrational aversion to food from any part of Asia outside of the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian peninsula. Most people I know like Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese food, or at least some of the above. (God knows its not genetic, my family all loves that stuff, and I had it many, many times growing up.) I guess all of that's why, being such a gracious and uncomplaining person, I've had all of the above of probably hundreds of ocassions--but I've never liked it. Go figure. One hopes my week in Japan this fall will go some way to curing me of that particular dietary quirk.

Anyway, we did that, and generally commenced with the saying of the sad goodbyes, followed by a last bit of drinking that night with the people who hadn't left yet, and Tina meeting me from breakfast on Monday morning before I left.

Basically, the whole weekend was good illustration of why Tina and Caroline are my friends. We have a symbiotic relationship that works well for everyone. On their end of the bargain, they hang out, take me out to restaurants and coffee shops, provide witty conversation, listen sympathetically to my complaints and show me around new cities. On my end of the bargain, I spill coffee all over the place and kvetch about the dinner choice. Clearly, a win-win arrangement for everyone.