My roommates and i then wondered around for about an hour to find a party, but that's not my style, or Kristine's, so we split up and went to sleep.

Rumors: Cocktail party.     Christian Kane was late (I saw him arrive and be escorted down a hallway). So when he finally arrived it was a big thing.  James Leary was in mid-sentence when he came in and everyone left him alone, talking to himself when Chris arrived.  Emma went back to her room early as she was sick, and was still sick throughout the whole weekend.

Saturday

Saturday is always the mondo chock ful o nuts day (figuratively and literally) .  Activities start at eight am and end at 2am (Well the scheduled ones anyway).  As I did not have the funds to pay 40.00 for a picture session I did not get up until 9 am or so.  Kristina and I went out for breakfast, chatted in the hall for a while then went inside the ballroom for our Autos with Chris and Emma.  They were both very sweet and Chris likes to call people (read girls) "Sweetheart" I was all gushy for a while.

Then I went to get Autos from the bonus guests.  Yeah, i already had Leary, but i figured I'd get another one, 'cause that's how they make their money and why they're really here..Right?  So I had picked up a pic of him in the Clem make up and I see this multishot that just showcases his personality so well so I get that one also, so $35.00 dropped on an auto I've already got.     Then next was George.  I am not very outspoken so it was a very cookie cutter encounter.  Then was Mark Lutz, my roommate was handling the money for him so I was able to hang around the table a little longer.  He signed my picture, added to the several wrong spellings of my name, got pic and then waited in the longest line in the room...Camden's. 

When I fianally get up there, I try to find a pic I like artistically, 'cause that's me and well there was one, but he had short hair in it, so I saw an excellent magazine layout and wanted to get that but he had only one, so I decided to let him keep it until Sunday. What was great about Camden at this point was that he actually introduced himself "I'm Camden"  Wow...it blew me away.    He related a story that Lee Majors once introduced himself to a co-star (who didn't appreciate it) but made an impression on Camden.  it was great!

Then I attended Dr. Vern's Buffy/Angel Trivia.    All I gotta say is that with the time life Series that Giles owns the free gift is a calendar.  I got that one wrong and went downhill from there.    John..the walking Buffy computer won, I do believe.

Now there is glaring hole as i had to go eat lunch with my mom and sister...something about being in town and all.  so Missed the presentation with the four bonus guests...I am sorry.  Hey the steak at Durangos is pretty good.

I make the last 15 minutes of Christian's talk (he only did about 30 minutes.) The questions were not memorable or I may have them lumped with his Sunday presentation, but Memory does not recall anything other than the shortness of the Q &A.

While waiting for Emma to come out Joe Motes came out to tak to us about the business end of the con and answer questions about problems relating to Paypal.  I asked if there was going to be Tampa con next year because of the Slayercruise, the answer was that they are cutting down on the number of cons so people have money to attend.  Some the cities such as Cleveland or Tampa may be cut from the list.  He is thinking a bigger con, like Oakland, in Vegas.     This is kinda cool...except for people with family ties like me that can't travel for the next (looks at son) 7 years or so.  They need to have one of those biggin's in Orlando.  But I digress.

To kill time they brought out the custom made Angel and Spike puppets.  I got my picture taken with them.

Emma came out and you could te she was still not feeling well. Things covered: James puts his all in the Kissing scenes.  She would sing heavy metal at Joss which why she had to do the Bunny song that way.  She hates Fox, she hated her wardrobe.  When asked if she would play lady MacBeth in the upcoming Marsters movie.she 1) thought she would not be good for the part as written by Shakespeare. 2) if written differently sure she wuld play the part and 3) James got 50 F*****ING Million?!!!!.....Well good for him.  No Anya and Xander should not have gotten married.  She was asked her porn name  I do not remember what it was, sorry.  If she could be a shirt, she would be a plain white t-shirt as it could be anything it wanted.  (you can see the way the questions went).The kissing scene with ASH was hard for her as he was a father figure on the set.  She is in the stages of pitching a show for Oxygen that involves showcasing Animal aid organizations.  She would love to have a farm with chickens, goats and horses.  She loves chickens so much she won't even eat them.  She does have chickens decor around her house, but strategically placed so as not to be tacky.

Next was the costume contest which Kristine entered as Drusilla.  She was great, but some others put more into the stage presentation.  "Faith as Buffy" did the pop you like a cork scene, I do not remember if she won a prize or not,but definately should have.

Afterward I went to the Gong Show, but..the Spike vs Angel shanshu thing was still going on...Bored Now!...so i sat in the middle and said Cordy should have gotten it as she had the most growth..  Yeah, they love me there. ;)

I went to the gong show with all intentions of going up and singing Darling Nikki.  I have to get over my fear of being in front of people.  This was step one...or so i thought.  I got up there made the PMRC talk, then sang the first two verses and froze.  The words just left my head.     AND I felt myself start to black out...NOT a good sign.  I made the judges gong me and I pretty much ran out. 

Next time they come to Tampa I will do better.    I will do karaoke.  I will get over this stupid fear.   I will write down the words.

The Banquet.  It was good, the food was better than last year, but I hardly touched it.  I was just not hungry.  Which is good, i could use to loose a few.  I was seated next to Cat and Kristine who are both awesome.  We did the whole fanfic rundown.  The last year banquet rundown.     When the table next to us..Mr.Lutz's began pelting Mr. Leary's table with artificial sweetener.  Thus began "Sugar Wars" a tale of   Intrigue and suspense with a love story intertwined.  After the first barrage of packets there was nothing....and we waited for the retaliation to come from Learyland..the Nation of Lutz giggled at their surprise attack.  The president of the Unified Nation of Caulfield was ducked down talking to a young Lutzlander when the Attack came pelting The nation of Lutz and nearby lands with artificial sweetner.  Nearby lands fear mashed potatoes would be the next bomb of choice.  Again a volley from the Nation of Lutz with a little help from the visiting president.  Then the PTB stepped in and an uneasy peace settled between the two countries, leaving Learyland to pick up the the mess.

But all was not over at the Nation of Lutz.     soon there was a great migration that led the whole nation around the world in the formation of a conga line. They returned only to find peace for a short while.   Soon they all migrated three seats to the east.  They did this three times.   Then in a moment of disbelief from their leader and pleads for them not to, the entire nation yelled "We love you Mark!"

Other things during the banquet. Camden loved Cat's top. J. actually went around to every table.

Thus ends the tale of the Banquet as we prepare for the coming of the great event which is Kane.

The Kane concert was awesome.  If ou ever get a chance to see them, even if you do not like the style of music, please go see.     I got to sit on the floor in front of the stage roughly four rows back.    Flash photography was only allowed during the first two songs and you really got to know why in the fist five seconds of the first song. 

J introduced Kane with a cigar in hand.     Which in Florida it is illegal to smoke inside a public building.   Just an observation, nothing came of it that i could see.  Kane came out and rocked, I immediately knew my hubby would love the music (not my style) and immediately recognized the talent.  There was a Q &A session when we find out about Chichi Tilden and Princess.  Otherwise known as J august Richerds and Christian Kane.      Yep, their Porn names.  Which will come back to haunt us come Sunday.   They finish the set with an encore requested by J. "Could never take the place of your man" by Prince, but set to their style of music.  I knew all the words, just not all the timing (yeah I'm a Prince fan...what of it?).   It was awesome.

Next was the dance...much better than last year. Why? Well the music was better and...Camden danced the whole night with us.     Boy can that man move!  Still couldn't get Diz to play my Ozzy/ Madonna version of Crazy Train...maybe next time. 

It was 2:30 before we got back to the room and showered and fell asleep.  It was a great day.

Sunday

"Dead Tired Day" otherwise known as SundayI arose from sleep excited to see more J August and get the autograph I was most looking forward to.  Kristine and I went to breakfast then fell n ine for the autograph session. Christian and Steve cam in and sat down for their auto session that was announced the day before.  J was a little later and then we started lining up.  I skipped Christian as I nly had one auto for him and did not buy and extra.  I was the second person to get J's auto.  As always i said thank you and got a thank you back.  i then went in to get my Camden Auto and while waiting in line J runs in to show a picture to Lutz.  It is a cast shot that is a very um...suggestive betwwen Gunn and Lorne.    J. was saying "Do you see where andy's leg is?" and Mark "Where is his other hand?"  J "Look at this shit!!" then leaves to finish his autograph session.  He wasn't mad just amazed that the shot got printed that way. Got my pic of Camden and my auto and left.  I might have made a comment about liking an actor that didn't disappear after 8 pm with Mark and George in the room, but hell it was the truth.

I then went looking for Eris' panel and wound up in the tail end of the RPG session with John H. who had done the write up on past slayers last year. (See my website for the updated list).  There was only about 6 of us at Eris panel so we talked about every topic under the sun until the Mark Lutz presentaion at 1:30.

Lutz is very funny once he decides to tell a story and not take questions. 'Cause well the questions were kinda silly.  Mark is a championship Swimmer and almost made it to the olympics but missed it by that much.    His first acting job was for a car company inside commercial.then a really cheesy Canadian produced show.  He and Andy are really good friends.  They were on a Paul lynde kick for a while and were taping all of his appearance on the hollywood squares for a while there.  It even bled over to the tapings of Angel. Joss"Ok Paul let's let Andy do the scene now"  He was a prankster at University, he has a degree in politacal science, and he was up to the "One more time and your out " bit when he was messing around and flicked a lighter under a sprinkler head in one of his friends rooms.  Well the alarm went off and everyone had to go out side.   When he got back inside one of his other friends were saying that they had no idea who did it when a guy in a fire suit came in with a gadget and waved it at the sprinkler, it beeped and the guy says "this is the one...whose room is this?"  Mark panics, the friend say it was hers but Mark has a pang of conscience and runs out into the hallway to tell the guy he did it and finds out he was a refirgerator repairman that was a friend of the girls.

So mark vowed revenge. details of the revenge plot are sketchy right now it invovle making his friends think he was drunk.  running back and forth on a ledge betwwen two windows and 2 lettermans jackets.  Yep you guessed it..he faked his death.  But they forgot to tell the foriegn exchange student...who freaked and called the cops who were not amused. 

It would take a whole page and a half to explain the whole story, so maybe if you make a con with him there, you might wanna ask him.  We got to say happy fathers day to Marks dad over his cell phone.

Next was Christian.  And we as an audience had no energy.  We were dead on our feet (or seats as it were).  He even commented that getting question out of us was like pulling teeth.  Tattoos he was asked to show his tattoos which are on both calves, but he had lace up boots on and he wasn't going to take them off.  He talked about he hated being a lawyer on a super hero show.   He was not fond of the Lindsey character until season 5.  His favorite hat is his Stetson cowboy hat.  He commented on the girl that was writing everything down in her little note book.  She was right up front.  Then J came out.  He made a comment on if we were talking about fanfiction or not. He pulled a chair up and tried to balance on the back but overbalanced instead.  Several things happens at this time...one Christian tries to stop Js fall, 50 camera flashes and Christian saying "Man I think I grabbed your package."

"you know that pictures going to be all over the internet" -J

"I know" -CK

"Floods of fanfiction Gunn stormed into Lindsey office and looked into his eyes, Angel was away for the afternnon.."-J in his narrative voice.

Girl in audience"I have the picture"

J runs down and looks at the pic on the digital, "Shit, Chris" he runs it back up to the stage "look at this!!!" Christain is laughing "that looks just as bad as I thought"

J returns the camera.

And that set the tone for the next hour or so. 

Oddest fan experience:
Ck references the girl that comes to every show and concert who is in the audience. 

J refers to a girl whom he met at the magazine stand while checking out one that he was in.  she asked if he was in it and she said she was in a magazine too, and got it from behind the counter and proceeded to show him her pictures out of "Big Black Asses"  Here was a women he had just met and he was seeing very intimate pictures of her, so when she asked for his phone number, he gave it in his state of shock. "Were getting married next spring.."

CK then says there was an even odder fan encounter than his favorite stalker.  He was in the middle of nowhere Scotland..with J. on the way to a con when they had to stop for food and a pit stop.  The Limo pulls in to the little fish and chips place and they go in and These two old ladies' jaws drop when they see them.  they were fans of the show, in nowhere Scotland.  it was eerie.

Yes they had seen CC playboy shots, then asked if we had.  No they would never do one for Playgirl.  Ck loves his Mama but she technologically impaired.  We tried to say happy fathers day to J's dad but the phone cut out due to a dead battery. 

Chi Chi Tilden and Princess reared their heads several times on stage.

And my dears was Tampa Slayercon 2004

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