Walk Softly and Carry a Big Schtick

You may recall from my Anime Vegas trip report that ala_mokita suspects I can find a chorizo and egg burrito in any town. I had to see if I could keep that reputation going in San Mateo. The Yaoi-con restaurant guide (and bless them for having one) listed a Mexican restaurant, Taqueria La Cumbre, so I set out Saturday morning to find it (right). I was doing the shopping, too -- picking up a few things that we didn't worry about for opening up Friday night but wanted to have for Saturday.

I had learned that there was a Japanese market in town. Oh boy! It was "Suruki Super Market" (left) and they certainly had a variety of Pocky flavors. They had a few other things, such as Hello Kitty breath mints (or possibly edible chalk?).
I hadn't yet received bovil's tip to look for "Chizu Mochi" (right) in the stores, but I'll look for it next time.

We didn't have a large team -- it was myself, Christian, midnight_rocket, and my minions Melissa De Mello and aramina. We had just enough people so we could cover the table down by the ballrooms and also the suite, with everyone having time to take a break and wander around the convention. (Things will be different at pmx!) Lunch was usually hot dogs purchased from the hotel, or peanut butter sandwiches in the suite.

Andrew and kproche found our suite. Kevin was one of the bishies performing in the Cafe Verfuhren suite and had a costume with black wings (left). I don't know what it's from.

( Incidentally, remember I talked about giving a cooking wreath as a wedding present? )

The Dealers Room, interestingly enough, usually had its doors closed (right). This was on request of the hotel. Apparently, even though the convention had the use of the entire ballroom floor, they were squicked out at the possibility of a mundane seeing the exotic boy-lurve merch on offer.

Our table in the ballroom area was near the entrance to the Dealers Room. Not the exit -- just the entrance. One-way doorways again. (Boo, hiss.) In fact the main traffic flow during the day was from the other end of the hall, down past the restrooms and into the dealers room. Our table was just beyond where you'd make that turn.

You may think I'm a bit cranky about how Yaoi-con turned out. ( That's not quite what I'm trying to convey... )

Daniella here had a question about Animé Los Angeles (left). I think I answered it to her satisfaction. If I remember correctly, she hasn't been to our convention before. So therefore, waving the flag accomplished something! Check our her ladybug stockings.

( Remember a few posts back I mentioned that Christian had Met A Girl? )

At Yaoi-con on Saturday we ate at Armadillo Willy's (right). By this point, we've added bear ears to Christian's hat, and as I mentioned previously I Wear My Sunglasses At Night because the Future's So Bright and my clear glasses are home, broken in the street. He's talked to the hat girl, he's talked to the drinking companion, now we're having dinner and then it's back to the convention. Armadillo Willy's is a barbecue place -- if you're not a carnivore, it's not really the place for you. It's not far from the convention, and in fact it's just a hop and skip from the Safeway where we've been doing all our shopping.

( When we get back to the hotel, I check in to see how Cafe Verfuhren is doing... )

On Sunday, I made another stab at finding a chorizo burrito. I know there are Mexican-Americans in town, so there ought to be the kind of place I'm looking for. I start looking around downtown, and head for the wrong side of the tracks. There's not much of a "wrong" side, but it shouldn't be difficult to figure out which side of the railroad has the lower rents. The main entrance of the train station faces to the west, so I drive up and down a couple of the side streets to the east, and sure enough: I find Las Cazuelas Taqueria, a hole-in-the-wall storefront operation (left). Getting a chorizo burrito is no trouble, although I should have specified no frijoles. They were very tasty.

Back at the hotel, we were late setting up, which was a bit of a disappointment. The line to get into the dealers room went in front of our table, and into the dealers room, and since it was a "one-way" door the fans didn't exit from that door. And after the line was gone, people didn't come from that direction. So by opening shortly after the dealers room opened, instead of for a short period before, we missed a chance to be that much more visible.

On the whole, we had a good time. Christian had a "Go Girl" energy drink, which was almost every bit as good as we expected it would be (right). Well, so he tells us; we didn't have the courage to try it. It was very pink. We still had snacks and food on the table, including a few slices of bread to go with our Peanut Butter and Jelly. When all the bread was gone, we hit the road -- we made it halfway home before dark, and Christian finished the driving through Santa Barbara, to Melissa's, and back to the Tower. After the Tower, Caroline took the wheel (with her newly-minted driver's license). In Lakewood we looked on the street and eventually found most of my spectacles. *Sigh* I was home, in my own bed, by midnight.

Photos uploaded:
Maria, Lynn and Flamingo Balloon Animal (02-Sep-2008)
"What Ho, Jeeves!" Garden Party (14-Sep-2008)
Afterparty dinner at Dinah's (14-Sep-2008)
Mikomicon 2008 part 1: Thursday, bag-stuffing (18-Sep-2008) et seq.
Mikomicon 2008 part 3: Friday (19-Sep-2008) et seq.
Mikomicon 2008 part 5: Saturday (20-Sep-2008) et seq.
Mikomicon 2008 part 9: Sunday (21-Sep-2008) et seq.
Yaoi-con 2008 part 1: Friday (26-Sep-2008) et seq.
Yaoi-con 2008 part 3: Saturday (27-Sep-2008) et seq.
Yaoi-con 2008 part 7: Sunday (28-Sep-2008)
Looking around Mile Square Park (02-Oct-2008)
The picture of ala_mokita with the "Go Girl" energy drink is from Yaoi-con, which is where I gave him the bear ears he has on his hat.

As you can see, I'm caught up with posting the photos taken so far. (Apart from the missing wiscon photos. I've looked, I haven't found them yet. Don't know where or when they'll turn up, if ever. So much for my comment about digital pictures being harder to misplace...) Anyhow, now I need to go back and caption everything, and perhaps give you gentle readers a bit of play-by-play for what I've done since Costume-Con and Costume College. Thus the ellipses.