As I write this, there are only 40 days until Dragon*Con. I am filled to the gills with fangirl giddiness and, at the same time, I’m dreading the brief time we have left. Why’s that, you ask? It’s simple.

I’m still not finished with everything.

I have no doubt I’ll be done by the first week of September. Well, no, to be honest, I’ll admit to a little doubt. But I have great hope that I’ll be done by the first week of September. Yeah, that’s much better. Most of what I’ve got to do are little things. Of course, we all know how little things add up to create a great, seething mass of “OH HOLY CRAP!” At the moment, this is what I’ve got left to finish:

1. Transfer patches from old Kaylee jumpsuit to new Kaylee jumpsuit.
2. Make new Kaylee shirt.
3. Finish Kowl feet, hands, and furry bib.
4. Put elastic into wrists and ankles of Popple costume, and attach tail.
5. Make a few new pouches for Jedi belt.
6. Hem Heather’s Orko robe.
7. Make Heather’s jumpsuit/ears/tail for the Barf costume.

Obviously, the biggest thing is making the Barf costume. I had wanted to start the jumpsuit a few weeks ago, but I can’t find my copy of Spaceballs. Unfortunately, this puts me back quite a bit in the planning and execution of the costume, as I can’t find any really good screen captures of the costume online. What I need to do is go through the movie and sketch the costume myself. With luck, Heather will be able to find her copy and I can get started on the costume soon. Of course, the hemming of the Orko costume requires her to actually come over to my house and let me hem the thing while it’s on her (ahem, hint hint, Heather. Hint hint).

You might be wondering what I’ve been doing with my time, if I’m not working on the costumes I need to finish for Dragon*Con. Clearly, I haven’t been posting here. I’m quite sorry about that. I had been trying to finish up my thesis for good by the end of the summer. It was looking good, too, until my advisor told me – rather at the last minute – that she didn’t think it’d be polished and ready to submit by the July 30th deadline. Although I’ve already gone ahead and walked across the stage at Convocation, I’m still not officially finished until the thesis is all signed off and turned in. So now I’ve got to go through more edits and another semester.

You should’ve seen me on Wednesday. I was a mess. After about two hours, though, I went “Oh, the hell with it!” Since I no longer have to worry about getting everything in by the end of July, I decided I’d go ahead and jump back into the blog and sewing and whatnot. Might as well retain what little of my sanity as remains at the moment.

And I have been sewing. Just not costumes. My boss had commissioned me to make cushions for her new breakfast nook, and I’m now working on curtains and pillow to go along with them, as well as new curtains for the French doors in her basement. I’m getting paid for all this, which is excellent! Whenever people ask what I wish I could do for a living, I tell them “If I could get paid to sew and make stuff for a living, I’d be extremely happy.” Although it’s not necessarily “a living,” it’s nice to get paid to do something you love.

Anyway, back to Dragon*Con glee.

There are a number of folks I’m looking forward to seeing at this year’s convention. I’m particularly excited about the following guests:

JIM BUTCHER! – Maggie and I met him up in Polaris about two years ago. He’s one of my favorite authors, and he’s a really nice guy. He was all excited about the Bob the Skull model that Maggie made and entered into the contest that year. It’s really cool that we’ll get to see him again, as Jim and his wife don’t like to travel much. They get car sick and dislike planes, so they tend to stick to conventions near Chicago.

Donato Giancola is down as one of the artist guests. He’s the new artist for Kristen Britain’s Green Rider book series. High King’s Tomb was his first cover for her, and he’s already turned in the design for the next book. I can’t wait to see it. When I heard about his being tapped for her books I checked out his website. And fell in love with his work. I swear this man has drawn the world I envisioned in my head when I was working on my (extremely bad) zombie story. I’m going to have to look around for an affordable print of his work while I’m at Dragon*Con.

Lee Arenberg is going to be at this convention. As you might recall from the Farpoint 2010 con reports, he had one of the best Q&A sessions I’ve ever attended, and Maggie and I are looking forward to hearing him talk again.

There’s going to be a few people from Heroes (a brief moment of silence for the cancellation of the show). I know Heather’s excited about attending one or two of their panels, and I must admit I might find myself sneaking through the autograph hall to catch a peek of Sendhil Ramamurthy. There might be swooning. We’ll see.

Ray Park is going to be there, this year. That’s right…Darth Maul! Toad from X-Men! One of the THX-dressed Skywalker Ranch guards from Fanboys! Yes, I’m that much of a geek.

They’ll have a number of people from Firefly, among them Mark A. Shepphard (Badger) and Jewel Staite.

Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette) and Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte) from TrueBlood will also be in attendance. Lafayette was always one of my favorite characters, and the decision to allow him to live past Season One is one of the changes from the original source material that I love. As for Sam Trammell…Sam Merlotte is, hands down, my favorite character in the books and I LOVE Trammell’s portrayal of him in the series. It might just be that I’m partial to weres and shifters. It might be because he’s just an incredibly good guy. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s really easy on the eyes.

Mmmm….again, there might be swooning. I really hope not, though. That would be really embarrassing. I’ve been telling Maggie that I’ll most likely end up waiting in Sam Trammell’s autograph line, only to step up to the table, say “You’re my favorite” in a shy little voice, and wander off.

Chad Vader was recently added to the guest list. The internet show is on it’s third season. If you haven’t caught it yet, I urge you to go do so now.

And, of course, there is the wonderful Paul McGillion. Yes, I’ve already met him. Several times. Yes, I already have an autograph from him. It doesn’t matter. It makes me happy when I hear he’s going to be at a convention. He is, after all, the reason I started watching Stargate: Atlantis. Not just because he’s cute, which he is. No. As I’ve mentioned before, I started watching Atlantis after meeting him at my first convention ever – SFX, a part of FanExpo in Toronto – and being impressed with how wonderful he was with fans. Being a decent human being will always put you on my good list. That goes for everyone. You’re a good person? You get a gold star!

Those are the major players I’m excited about seeing. Certainly there is enough excitement to go around and be sprinkled on the other attendees and guests, but that’s where the majority of the glee is concentrated. In addition to the guests, I’m looking forward to walking in the parade on Saturday. At the moment, we’re planning to walk with the She-Ra/Orko/Kowl costumes. That might change to Jedi and Sith, depending on whether some other friends of ours decide to come to Dragon*Con with us, but I’m pretty sure it’s set. There are a couple of meet-ups that we’re planning to stop in for. For example, there’s an 80s meetup! Since I’ve got both a Popple costume and a Kowl costume, I’ll be set for that one. Obviously we’ll be checking out the Alderaan party again. This year the Star Wars group is supposed to have gotten a much bigger room. Excitement!