Weekend update - ArmadilloCon weekend

I spent last weekend in Austin, running the art show for Armadillocon 32.  I think this is the 8th or 9th year in a row that I've been in charge. The sales we had were astounding.  We started off busy, seemed to drop off a bit, but ended up having a great show.

Thursday:

Up bright and early (5:15 a.m.) to do final packing and hit the road.  I made it Granger around 8:45 a.m. and picked up my order of kolaches and 10 links of sausage from the store in town.  I also did some touring around, looking to see if any of the commercial buildings were for sale.  I think it would be neat to buy one, refurbish it and use it for a combination home/martial arts dojo.  Then it was on to Austin.  I stopped by the hotel, hoping my room was available so I could unload.  It was not, so I went on to Central Market for my weekend supply of root beer and then to Aikido of Austin to watch their noon session.

From aikido, it was back to the hotel to unload the truck.  After that, I had a couple of hours of free time until the pre-con dinner.  So, I went down to the pool, caught some rays and did some swimming.
The pre-con dinner was at a nearby Mexican restaurant, more inner than Tex-Mex.  Pretty good stuff, but expensive.  I think I might avoid it next year.

After dinner, it was time to assemble the art show.  It took us about 2 hours to build the show.   I  distributed the boxes of mail-in art to be at the spots where they would get hung in the morning.   I got to bed around 11 p.m., I think.

Friday:

Up bright and early for breakfast in the hotel and then off to the art show to start hanging art.  Tomi Welch provided a priceless amount of help in helping me hang the art.  We were ready to go by about 2 p.m., folks started wandering while we were still setting up.

We were open until around 9:30 p.m.  We were going to try to close at 6 p.m. and then re-open at 7:30 p.m. when the "Meet the Pros" occurred, but the Dealer's Room stayed open until 7 p.m. and we had to stick around.  I zipped off to Threadgill's for dinner after we closed.

Saturday:

Up bright and early for breakfast at Kerbey Lane on Guadalupe.  I won't be going back to that location.  The day pretty much flew by all the way through the auction.  We had 21 pieces go to auction where I auctioneered and Rhonda Eudaly did a fabulous job as a runner in her Ravenwood leather outfits job getting folks to bid.  We did a total of $8200(!!!!) sales in the art show for the weekend.

Dinner was at Enchiladas Y Mas with some of the Art Show crew.

Sunday

Up bright and early for breakfast in the hotel and then off to the art show.   The next thing I knew, the art show was torn down and all of the artists were checked out.  I waited around for one of the local artists and to move packages up to my room, so I was unable to help unload the art show supplies at the storage unit, but I did make it to the post-con dinner at County Ljne Bar-B-Q.  It's ok stuff, not great.

Back at the hotel, I had to do final paperwork and packing of the mail-in art for mail-out on Monday.  Laura Domitz and Jimmy Simpson, and Tomi did a fantastic job of packing up the art for me.

I hit the Dead Dog party for a bit, and then went to bed.

Monday:

Up early, without breakfast, to pack the truck and to try to hit UPS, USPS and FedEx when they opened so I could mail out all of the packages.  I think I managed to get on the road by 9:30 a.m.  I made it home by about 12:30 p.m.

Next year, I get to do something similar for WorldCon.  No ArmadilloCon, thank goodness.