ConFusion started with a snow storm. Our one hour trip took three, and we rolled into the hotel parking lot at 8pm. (Some unlucky attendees endured a grueling twelve hour drive from Chicago.) We were greeted by some very friendly and helpful hotel valet parking staff who helped me unload our luggage even though we weren't using valet parking. I missed my first panel — the first of two introductory panels for new convention attendees — but I wasn't the only late panelist.
Too hungry and tired to care about the cost, Joe and I decided to splurge on dinner at the expensive hotel restaurant. The food was very good. The calamari appetizer was both one of the more reasonably priced items and quite good -- thick but tender slices of squid with a crispy light coating. Joe had an excellent steak, and I had fabulously decadent chicken and lobster with asperagus and hollandaise sauce. The restaurant was so slow in bringing our meals, that they gave us free desserts. The wait was made bearable, however, because we had the prime table in the lounge for watching con-goers stream through the lobby, and many friends and acquaintances stopped by to chat.
The real meal deal is their breakfast buffet (NOT the expensive brunch buffet): an all-you-can-eat hot and cold buffet including made-to-order omlettes for $13. Go hungry and feast.
We tried to attend the chocolate ritual in the Consuite at 11pm, but it was shoulder-to-shoulder packed, so we bailed and spent a pleasant night hanging out in the Penguicon party, followed by a brief pass through the GT party, and finally landing in the scotch-tasting party, where I spent some 30-40 minutes solving
"the gopher puzzle."
Stayed tuned for The Saturday Report.
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