Palfrey's life

I have this bad habit with big event stuff that takes at least several days and my blogging about it later. I want to, I've got the photo sets to go with it, but it keeps getting delayed. I've *still* got ~2 weeks of notes from last summer that I'm aware I never wrote up, and that bugs me (don't worry, I don't plan on doing those). And, then later on I've got other stuff to talk about and I feel that I can't becuase I've got that other stuff to talk about that I haven't yet. So, (partially) in order so I may talk about wonderful Coot videos/pics and fangirling the usage of the term "palfrey" within an episode of Gilmore Girls, I bring the details of my latest American adventure.

13/6: Get arse onto multiple planes, covering some 6000+ miles in a single "day" (global warming be damned!). Manage to get to ariiadne and vyrin's place without incident, avoiding weird girl crouching in static position for 5+ minutes while attempting to locate the front door. Observe properly the vast cube that is their very impressive place, and promptly collapse in much needed sleep.
14/6: Spend day getting the grand tour of San Francisco by ariiadne. Big photo set is here, but highlights: accidental shot of two blokes next to heart sculpture, typical SF picture, stupid numbers of rainbow flags, sea-lions! (actually within SF itself, note complete indifference to people). Get sunburnt, as it's the first really sunny day I've seen all year.
15/6: Spend day wandering around with ariiadne mostly getting supplies for the housewarming the following day. Introduced to various local items of interest, including what I believe to be my first burrito, the pirate shop (which despite my general dislike of non-film pirate things was very cool), and the amazing Borderlands Books, home of Ripley the hairless cat. Ended up with 9 books, and the only reason I didn't get more was matters of having to lug them around. Head along to the Squid labs movie night, which was showing Ghostbusters. Photos of the inside and surroundings, including the AT-AT's! (well kinda. You get the idea).
16/6: ariiadne and vyrin are dealing with the extensive barbecuing process in readiness for the housewarming (which was started with spice rubbing the previous night), so I'm dispatched into the wider world. I take the time to see SF MoMA and the Yerba Buena gardens. Housewarming commences, and I meet lots and lots of people (many of whom probably have LJs, or at least I should remember *some* names for, but my memory sucks). ariiadne says it better than I do, but there's also photos here
17/6: My timing on this particular trip does indeed rock, as it's Robogames time! Unfortunately, vyrin has managed to bugger his ankle playing football that morning, so I'm on my lonesome again. Once I find the place, it still rocked lots. Pics/Videos tell the story best. Didn't quite see the end, but given this (just) stopped me from missing my plane, all is good.
18/6: And, I'm in San Diego. Y'know, the place where I'm meant to be doing the conference stuff. But, I'd forgotten that all they had today was the tutorial/workshops which I wasn't interested in (or signed up to), so I've got a day to kill. Spend most of it at Seaworld, home of lots of things that like water... photos/videos. The killer whale thing had this weird "salute to the heroes" militaristic crap beforehand which was confusing as heck (killer whales <=> killers? damned if I know). Anyways. Much fun.
19/6-21/6: Proper conference. Not bad, some interesting papers. Mine for starters... presentation went (mostly) well and I got some good questions.

Gah. Big braindump!