STARGATE!!
And the Storm of Twenty-o-Seven

So, Liz and I are back from Chicago after having a wonderful time at the Stargate convention. It was a hoot and a holler and a half, I tell ya. Liz is marvelous company. We laughed a lot. I don't know how much you all care to hear about this since you don't watch the show, but...I'll do my best to have an un-boring recap.

We left Rochester on Wednesday evening. On our drive to Madison we saw a rainbow, an Amish horse and buggy, and a giant pita bread truck-vendor-thing completely destroyed by fire on the side of the interstate (with firemen and stuff still tending to it). Don't know what happened there, but someone didn't get their pita bread fix that night!

We then arrived at Sarah's new apartment. It's pretty nice--it's 2 levels, which makes it interesting. We pretty much just hung around. We went and got donuts. The next day we went and got ice cream. We saw Sarah's mom who asked us about the Stargate convention. I said to her, "Well, they sell general admission ticket at the door...so if you want to go it's not too late!" We then got a huge kick while at the convention by spotting a lady who looked A LOT like Sarah's mom (especially the hair) and Liz said, "Hey, I guess Sarah's mom decided to come after all!" Big laughs. Then, whenever we saw that lady we had to say, "Hey, it's Sarah's mom!" [Note to Sarah: We called her 'Sarah's mom', not Mrs. Symes or Penny]

Uh, yeah. So Thursday afternoon we took off for Chicago. It was raining the whole time. As we neared Chicago it got even worse and the traffic was horrible. As we were nearing the hotel I hear sirens going off.

"Are those tornado sirens?"

"Sounds like it."

"Ok. Well, if you see a tornado, let me know. So I can...do nothing, since we're stuck in traffic."

There apparently were tornado touch-downs (or just funnel clouds?) and high winds and lots of rain that night. Parts of Chicago flooded. Apparently, downtown Chicago was cut off from the airport region for a while because the roads were flooded. Anyway, Liz and I got a big kick out of the news reports the next day. Apparently, Rochester isn't the only city to sensationalize storms. Our favorite was the newsguy who kept referring to it as "The Storm of Twenty-o-Seven." Since when does anyone say that for 2007?

Anyway, there were all sorts of flight delays Thursday and Friday. The convention schedule had to be changed around a bit because the actors slated to appear at certain times weren't in Chicago yet. The poor guys had to travel for 24 hours then go give a talk at a convention immediately upon arrival. What a trooper. I was paranoid that Michael Shanks' flight would somehow not make it on time and we wouldn't be able to see him, but no worries. He made it there.

The first guy we saw was Obi Ndefo. He played a good jaffa on Stargate. I thought he was cute. His talk was ok, but not earth-shatteringly good. I felt bad because not a lot of people were there yet, being the first talk on the first day and with all the flight delays and all.


The next guest was Carmen Argenziano who played Jacob Carter (Sam's dad) on Stargate. He was pretty funny. I think he'd been drinking a bit. But he's the dude who had really horrible flight delays and had been traveling for a super long time, so you can't blame him. Then I got Carmen's autograph (you had to pay extra for Obi's...no thanks). He even personalized it for me. How nice.


That night they had a "Cabaret." I don't know why they call it a cabaret seeing as there's no singing or dancing involved, but whatev. It featured Carmen, Jay Acovone (Kawalsky on Stargate), and Dan Shea (Siler on Stargate as well as Stunt Coordinator for the show as well as Richard Dean Anderson's stunt double). It was more like a comedy thing. They had written a skit about characters from the show. Then they picked people from the audience to act out the scene. It was funny enough, but not hilariously so.

Saturday started with Morena Baccarin (Adria on Stargate and Inara on Firefly). She's the most beautiful person ever. Liz and I both have girl crushes on her. Her talk was pretty subdued, but interesting enough. It involved more talk on Firefly than Stargate (she was on that show more than Stargate...it's also a really good show, fyi). This picture I have of her wasn't taken by me. I stole it from someone else. I hope that's ok...but who the hell reads this but people who don't care about Stargate anyway? So I deem it unimportant. All my pictures of her were blurry (none of my pictures turned out that great). Isn't she pretty??


Ok, then...Jay Acovone gave a talk. He plays Kawalsky. He was funny enough, I guess. I don't have a picture of him from his talk.

Then Dan Shea (aforementioned stunt double) gave his talk. He was hyper-active. And funny. I also don't have a picture of him from his talk.

Then we got their autographs (except for Dan's because he was charging extra).

That night they had a Dessert Party where you go and sit at a table and the guests rotate around the room talking for a short time with each table. Dan, Jay, Morena, and Steve Bacic (a goa'uld from Stargate) were involved in this. This was pretty fun. That's where that picture of Liz and I was taken. I'm putting it on my blog even though Liz already put it on hers. Here are some other pictures from the Dessert Party. Dan is in the yellow shirt. Jay is in the greyish shirt. Steve is the one with the beard. Morena's the hot chick. Jay and Dan are kissing in one pic. Interesting.


Ironically, Candy and Jake were in Chicago Saturday and Sunday and staying at a hotel about 5 minutes away (Dan's wedding). But our schedules were such that we were never able to connect. :(

Sunday morning started off early at a Breakfast. Same deal as the Dessert Party...only a breakfast and different guests. This time Paul McGillion (Doctor Carson Beckett from Stargate: Atlantis) and Cliff Simon (Ba'al from Stargate) were there. It was interesting. That's all you care to know, I'm sure. Here's a pic of Paul that I took subversively (we weren't supposed to take pictures here).


After the Breakfast, Steve Bacic did his talk. He cracked a lot of jokes. Not exactly my style of humor, but it was entertaining. I also didn't take this picture, so thanks to whoever did!


Cliff Simon spoke next. His talk was very interesting. He is from South Africa, so he talked a little about that. He has a nice accent. He is SUPER buff. A very scrappy buff.


Paul McGillion was up next. He was super funny and was definitely one of my favorites of the weekend (possibly even better than Michael Shanks, if you can believe it). He was just really nice and funny. I don't have any pics of him from his talk. His talk ran late, making me almost miss my photo op with Michael Shanks and Cliff Simon.

Now, I had signed up for a Cliff/Michael combined photo op which was scheduled to start at 2:35. Paul's talk didn't get over until 2:50 or so. In my head I was thinking, "They wouldn't start the photo ops until his talk was over--otherwise it wouldn't be fair." So I waited until Paul was done before heading to the photo op room. Oops! Turns out they didn't delay the photo ops! As I approached the room a Creation (company putting on the convention) lady was yelling, "Anyone else for the Simon/Shanks photo op?!?" "ME!!!!" I ran in and was shoved over to the two of them. I must have looked completely frazzled (which I was), as both Michael and Cliff were laughing at me. I beamed uncontrollably, thanked Michael (who said something in return, but I have NO IDEA what...can't remember anymore!) and managed to completely ignore Cliff. Sorry! Like he cares. He just stood for a couple hundred photo ops. I don't think he'll care/notice if one person forgot to thank him. :) I haven't seen the pic yet. I have to wait 2 weeks until Creation gets it on their site, or whatever. I hope I/Michael/Cliff aren't blinking. That'd be a bummer.

Then the moment we've all been waiting for: Michael Shanks' talk. Woo-hoo!!! He was very funny and charismatic. And HOTT. Seriously, the guy is smokin.' Yeowsa. He plays Dr. Daniel Jackson, the HOTT archaelogist on Stargate. The first picture is mine, but the last couple aren't.


Then we got their autographs. Liz and I always managed to thoroughly entertain ourselves while waiting in the autograph lines. After that, we left for home, arriving back in Rochester at midnight or so.

So all in all it was AWESOME. Totally worth it. I love being a dork.