Sunday morning I went to Church. I gotta say, sometimes it’s irritating being Catholic. Especially on five hours sleep in the middle of a con. And I returned to the show, did the Caricature Boy routine. My sales were up pretty significantly from last year, and I gotta say, I’m quite proud of some of the work I did. And I met a lot of great people. Including Ben Collinsworth who used his digital camera to take all the Thom and Alexandra photos you see on this site. I appreciate it, Ben.

I also hosted the Black Bull panel. I never got around to asking Black Bull if they felt being owned by a magazine that covers the comics industry is a conflict of interests. Other than that though, the panel went quite well. Not as good as Alexandra’s, but let’s be honest. Jimmy Palmiotti is cute, but he’s no Alex.

Glenn Herdling of Black Bull made a joke about “We all went to church today, right?” He was relatively stunned when I said I had. It was one of those Fraser/Ray moments right out of Due South

The only downside of the Sunday experience were the Tax People. New Orleans/Louisiana could take some lessons from Microsoft in having a better image and attitude. They force you to buy a vendor permit, which is fine. Then they force you to pay your money an hour before the show ends. They sweep through the room like the Stormtroopers overrunning the Correlian Corvette from the opening of Star Wars. Now my sales tax isn’t too hard to figure out, but I feel sorry for the dealers. I don’t know of any other tax organization that demands cash before you leave. They even act haughty when you ask for a receipt.

Last year when they swept the room, I told them I had to go to my room to get the change. This was for two reasons. I pay the sales tax myself, as the math and change making are just easier that way. And as such, I generally don’t have coinage. Also, I’m so irritated by their terrorist tactics that I pay in as much metal money as possible. When I returned from my room, they were gone. I wanted to pay my tax... well, want isn’t the right word, but I didn’t want Roger to get in trouble. The permits don’t list an address or phone number. I had to get that information myself. And to top it off, the state waited 89 days to cash my check. I thought it had cleared, so when I closed out that account from the Evil Bank One (that’s a story for another time) and went to the Much Better Great Lakes Bank, the check bounced. Fighting over late fees for a check they let collect dust was fun let me tell you. Fun in that kind of root canal kind of way.

This year they weren’t as bad, at least not to me. They did accuse someone I know of lying to them about low sales, which I think is unforgivable. I understand the need for sales tax and all, but you don’t have to be so bad about it.

When I hooked back up with Rob, I found out that, without my good influence, gone back to the casino and lost most of his winnings. He was still up $20, but nowhere near as good as he had been. With that kind of attitude, how is he going to pay for my next Exorbitantly Expensive Birthday Present? I’m asking for a DeLorean.

We hooked up with Roger and his wife, Jane, and Tony and Bob and Paul and Wes from the Con Crew and went to Bugsy’s. Bugsy’s serves big portions. Their side dishes are actually measured in acreage. Rob had some macaroni that became the lightning rod for humor that night, until we turned on Tony for his, shall we say, girth?

Unbeknownst to me, Roger had invited Alexandra and Adam to go out with us. I was surprised when she showed up. More surprised was Paul, who returned from the bathroom to find Alexandra and Adam sitting next to him.

I, of course, asked Paul to go back to the bathroom and see if Renee O’Connor would show up.

Later, all of us (except Alexandra and Adam) went to Mulatte’s. Everybody was drinking and talking, except for Jane and me, who were zydeco dancing. Generally, my dancing skills are roughly the same as Abraham Lincoln in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World. This time, as I was spinning Jane around the dance floor... well, I was still pretty lousy, but I wasn’t as lousy as I normally am. I’m going to have to do that again.

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