There are fewer options on the final day, and the available time is short, so opportunities for plans to stray from reality are fewer. We’d expect less divergence…here are the results of our field test:
| Time Frame | What the Plan was | What really happened |
| Monday morning | Sleep in a bit, then go to session on James Bond vs Dr Who, and finally pick up art if I win any auctions.
 One of Patricia McCracken’s Little Dragons came home with me! Find your own here . |
Did sleep in. Fed horses & scooped manure, too. Didn’t arrive until close to noon.Trekked to the Art Show first to pick up the two pieces I’d bought, but then also discovered my single bid on the dragon-butterfly print was the winning bid. So paid and went to look for that panel talk. JB vs DW still ongoing, but after a half-hour I figured I’d had about all I needed on the topic. So no regrets about turning up so late.
My next move was to get my art safely into the car, though I did make a detour to make sure there was no boffering available today. Dang. Just another panel talk going on in what had been Boffer Central.
So I betook myself down to the Gaming Room to buy a coke and eat lunch. Two older teenagers who had joined in on the dancing last night were there playing some form of D&D. The one thing I haven’t done at this convention is play games, and it looks like that will have to be another time. For now, I just have to settle for having spent some time hanging out in the Gaming Room. |
| Monday afternoon | Go to session on “how to build a spaceship.” Go home!
 First firing of the Falcon 9-R advanced prototype rocket. Via Elon Musk on Twitter. At least there is a good place to read about the topic I skipped: start here.
 MKB’s latest novel in the Star Wars universe
 California Autism Foundation
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It was easier to walk to the media tie-in panel from the Gaming Room, so that’s where I went. I hadn’t actually looked at the list of panelist, so it was a pleasing surprise to see Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff there, in her capacity as a leading author in Star Wars novels. Her panel partner, Kevin Andrew Murphy, works also in gaming tie-ins and had a much more positive spin on the quality of that literature than the board-game guy in yesterday’s panel. Overall, I gained a much better picture of life as a tie-in fiction author. And an appreciation for authors who can face intense fans in the middle of a panel. Btw, about half the people in the audience are people I recognize.So things were winding down, including the dealer’s room. So I went on up to the closing ceremonies. In between that and the “hiss and purr” session, there was some dead time. I poked my head into the Art Room to see how the art auction had wrapped up. One of the women I remember from dancing last night was clutching the steampunk flamingo. Turns out it hadn’t had any bids, so the artist had offered it to her at a lesser price in order to avoid hauling it home. Good for her!
Next stop: the Gaming Room, for one last donation to the California Autism Foundation (the beneficiary of the Charity Vending machine) from which I gained a Coke for myself and an accidentally-vended ginger ale which I could donate to one of the nearby volunteers.
I was determined to stay for the critique session because I wanted to praise the DIY idea. The downside was having to sit through a huge laundry list of facility complaints and an equally lengthy recitation of praises for hotel staff. However, managed to retain my nerve enough to actually participate in the “programming” discussion.
After that subject was concluded, I took off for Nob Hill. Not the SF landmark, the grocery store. Got home before the guys and even fixed dinner for everyone. Does tacos count as dinner?
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