Chicago CreationEnt '09

I know AJ and I are planning to go to Chicago. Is anyone else planing on going?

Guest List:
Amanda Tapping
Joe Flanigan
Paul McGillion
Michael Shanks
Connor Trinneer

WOO HOO!!

http://www.creationent.com/cal/sgchi.htm

Hey, I am glad you made your way here.

I have been going back and forth about whether I can afford this or not. I am going to Dragon*con but I still want to go to Chicago. Alot of things are up in the air here and I hoping for a resolution by the end of May.

If things work out, do you need a roommate?

@Scary: That's up to Amanda. I think we were planning on rooming so if we have room for 4 in the NUTROOM I'm sure that would be fine. I think a friend of hers is coming too....Not sure.
I'll be talking to Amanda soon. She ran out of texts till the 25th! :O lol I need to call her this weekend tho.

Well after have such an awesome time in Vancouver, I just had to buy a ticket for Chicago. Gotta have all my Vancouver photo ops autographed

Was planning on going, but with recent events, I don't think I will be able to go.

Hey Wendy!

You've been bitten by the con bug, I see. That's very cool. I'm sick at home with a horrible cold/thingy... ugh.

So I saw you posted here and I just wanted to say it was SO GREAT meeting you in Vancouver! I'm so happy for all you got to do. I'm sure you'll have fun in Chicago.

(((((((((Angie))))))))))) You are in my thoughts and prayers, 'k?

Weirtoo wrote:

Well after have such an awesome time in Vancouver, I just had to buy a ticket for Chicago. Gotta have all my Vancouver photo ops autographed

REALLY?! WOOHOO!! MORE SQUIRRELS!!

whovian wrote:

Hey Wendy!

You've been bitten by the con bug, I see. That's very cool. I'm sick at home with a horrible cold/thingy... ugh.

So I saw you posted here and I just wanted to say it was SO GREAT meeting you in Vancouver! I'm so happy for all you got to do. I'm sure you'll have fun in Chicago.

(((((((((Angie))))))))))) You are in my thoughts and prayers, 'k?

Thanks Trish! I truly enjoyed meeting you all too. Next time I'll have more time to socialize, cause I won't be doing all that crazy VIP/backstage/Up Close and Personal stuff.
Yes, definitely bitten by the con bug. Literally and figuratively. I was sick for a week and a half after I got home. Of course it didn't help that I had a cold when I left for Vancouver.


Could you do me a favor and email the pic with all us squirrels sitting on the step in the Atlantis Gateroom? I'd really like to put that one in the shadow box/frame I'm doing.

Chicago should be affordable for me as I can drive vs fly, and the hotel is cheaper too. Plus I don't need as many photo ops or autographs. I'm going mainly to get my Vancouver piccies signed, and a photo op with Amanda and with Connor. I was very surprised at how wonderful they both were!

And yes Stargate_Addict.....more squirrels!!! woohoo!

I will certainly e-mail you that squirrely pic. Jeremy's in California right now and we keep missing each other. So don't panic if it takes a bit of time. He won't be home until May. And I'm sick right now. I guess I have the after-con-crud. I actually think I caught this thing on Easter at my sister's house. My WHOLE family got it this week. So... figuring Sunday was day 1 and Wednesday is when we all started to feel it... I'm guessing we caught it then.

Anyway... I did like Connor. Way more than I thought I would. I still laugh when I think of the auction right before his panel and someone yelled out "MORE!!!!" and it turns out it was Connor! LOL!!! That was HILARIOUS! And he raised lots of money for charity because he did that. So kudos to him.

And Amanda... I mean, EVERYONE who's ever met her says she's amazing and sweet and funny and great. So my expectations were uber high. Let's just say she certainly EXCEEDED them. I LOVE her! I so do!

Ok... I will try to remember to get that pic from Jeremy. I think it's on his laptop. Which, of course, is with him in Cali.

Hope you are feeling better soon!

Thanks Trish! No hurry either on the pic. I won't have the money to actually frame it for a while anyway.

Bummer that Jeremy is gone until May! But good that he has a reliable job in this nasty economy. We'll just have to work hard to keep you company until he gets back!

Feel better.

(((((((wendy))))))))))

Thanks! Well, I *hope* Jeremy has a reliable job. He's been sick of it for the last year and they (like every other crappy place) are using the bad economy as an excuse to treat everyone at work like dirt. So Jeremy's scaring me with the whole, "Well... maybe I will look someplace else for work.* That's always fun.

I'm still sick... I really, really, really hate viruses. At least it's not strep. But thanks to my lovely cold I got about two hours sleep last night. Forget a war on terror, I think EVERYONE could agree on a war on the common cold, right?

Anyway... I talked to Jeremy this morning and he says he'll try to upload all the pictures to our smug mug account. Once he does that I'll send you the link. Then you can just download the pics you want so you can have them on your computer to print out at your *leisure* (you gotta say it all snotty like... lay-zure).

Awww Kimber, come on, you know you wanna go, I'm going, you and your cousin and I could be roomies. That'd definitely take the heat off an already cheaper hotel rate

And you could wait for cheaper ticket packages to go on sale since it's mostly autographs you want anyway.


It would be SO much fun!!!

I really thing you should come!!!!!

OKay, so.....I can only speak for myself, but I had a great time in Chicago!!!! Some of it was just getting away from home. Some of it was going to my first Stargate con. A LOT of it was the qonderful squirrels I meet!!!!!! And of course a good amount of it was seeing and meeting Gary (funny!), Connor (gentle!), Michael (sweet!), Amanda (bubbley!), Rachel (adorable!), Joe (friendly!) and Paul (open!).

A group of us ran around together (well somewhat): Stargate_Addict (Katie), AtlantisJackson (Amanda), Swimchic (Meghan) and myself as well as Meghan's bestfriend Casey (often called Starry) who is becomeing a squirrel as soon as she can. I know we meet others there, but we didn't see them most of the con. Sorry ladies, I wish we could all have spent more time together.

First - I had taken with me a pack of the cards that Wolfie had made. The "Hugs from a Squirrel" notecards. I also took along badges. Some of Criz's "Convention Squirrel" design and the ADB Chris and Paul toons. The idea was to write notes to each actor thanking them for their work and give them badges - the squirrel and ADB Chris ones for Gary, Michael, and Amanda; the squirrel and Paul ADB ones for Connor, Rachel, Joe, and Paul (of course). These were given to each at their photo ops and after a couple, the Convention staff (who has to approve what you give the actors) would just smile and say "Ok, we know what they are, we don't need to worry about them."

This is going to be multiple posts. LOL. Sorry but want to make sure I don't lose it.

Gary was first up on Friday. We made out his card to say "Thank you for ten memorable years. On behalf of the Hewlett Squirrels". I gave him the card and buttons at the photo op and later during autographs had to explain quickly (due to the speed of the line and not wanting to cause any block of it) that we were fans of David's who adopted the squirrel after David's blog comment. And that squirrel on the button was a Stargate convention going squirrel. I was told later by one of the Creation staffers that he *loved* the card and buttons.

On Stage, Gary was much better than I thought he would be. I mean I have always liked him on the show, but sometimes felt that they overplayed him a bit too much for comedy. (I hope that came out right) He explained the story of how "Technician" became "Davis" became "Norman Davis" became "Norman Walter Davis" became "Norman Walter Davis Herrimann" and finally "Walter Herrimann". Ironically, real life has also pulled a name game with him.

In brief: For some time, everytime he crossed the US border - whether by car or plane - he was pulled aside by Homeland Security for questioning. Seems that the name Gary Jones has been used by someone they are looking for. Gary has never had a middle name so it was finally suggested that he change his name and add a middle one. After some discussion with his wife, he decided to add the middle name of Paul - a name he has always liked since he was a kid. So his wife gets the paperwork for him and he fills it out making his name Gary Paul Jones. His wife then took the paperwork to her job so she could mail it off for him. After a few weeks the documents came back to him. So he opened them to discover that his name was now Gary - Paul - VON - Jones.

After saying some words Gary didn't want to repeat in a room where kids were in the audience, his wife came to find out what was wrong. After Gary showed her the "mistake" on his name: Gary Paul Von Jones instead of Gary Paul Jones, his wife then informed him "Oh, I thought just adding Paul was too plain, so I added the Von." And to prove he wasn't making it up, Gary pulled a lady from the audience and asked her to read his driver's license: Gary Paul Von Jones! But he hasn't been stopped by Homeland Security since then.

Connor was also up on Friday. For his card we put "Thanks for making Michael such a memorable character. On behalf of the Hewlett Squirrels" I had to explain that to him as well in the autograph line. But, again, I was told he really liked the card. So all came out fine, I think.

I'm getting very tired so I'll have to come back on Connor's Q & A. The only thing I can remember off hand was someone telling him that her friend wanted him to prove he really was from the state of Washington by asking which he prefered - scones or elephant ears - and to sing the State Fair song. *What?!* Seriously, how many people know their state fair song? A few, sure. But get real. He's got a lot more important stuff to think about.

We went out for dinner at Chilis and it turned out our waitress was a huge Star Trek fan. She knew about Stargate but just never got into it but she loved the fact that we were geeks as well, so she was fun but also busy (Friday night dinner crowd)

After coming back to the con, there was a cabaret show by Gary and his good friend Dean Haglund (he played Langly of the 'Lone Gunman' from The X-Files). I hadn't expected too much but it turned out to be a riot!! The only way I can think of to discribe it briefly is it was kind of a cross of Stargate and Whose Line is it, Anyway (which by the way, was kind of created by Gary, Dean, and others in their comedy troup (which included Ryan Stiles - yes, who you think) - but kind of stolen from them by a producer in England who had them sign a bunch of papers and create a video tape of their routine and then said they couldn't make anything of it. But a few months later there was Whose Line with a different set of comedians making it's TV debut. At least that is what they said at the Dessert Party Saturday night at our table. truth? We'll never really know.)

But the night ended at the con with Karaoke in the bar. I didn't go, I think Katie went, not sure. But appearently, while at karaoke, a girl was singing when all of a sudden, Connor came up and joined her. She didn't know he was going to do that and everyone *loved* it! don't know if he stayed around and did any more singing, I think someone said he did. But, again, not sure.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Getting *very* tired now, so I'll post this for now:

On Friday, I had worn a "Proud Member of Hewlett's Squirrel Squad" T-shirt. On Saturday and Sunday I wore a Convention Squirrel T-shirt. Michael when I did my photo op took one look at the shirt, asked "What is this?" with a huge smile. Me: "Well, you know David Hewlett has a group of fans that call themselves Squirrels..." Michael: "Yeah" with a nod and smile. "Well, this is a squirrel who is at a Stargate convention." Michael: "I *love* it!" He also laughed and loved the button of Chris.

Amanda too loved the Chris button. And thought the shirt was very cute. Rachel was all smiles at the shirt but nearly went into tears went I told her that the squirrels all loved her in both ADB and Atlantis. And she loved the buttons of squirrel and Paul and she touched by the card (before she even read it). I didn't give either joe or Paul thier gifts (Meghan did) but I did say to Joe at the photo op "David's squirrel send their greetings." Joe: "Oh, ok" We took the picture, I thanked him (which I did with each guest) and as I walked away I heard him quietly say"David's.....squirrels....." We had figured that he knew about the squirrels or had at least heard about them. Turns out, no! Meghan can explain better, but she found out that Joe did not even know David had a site, let alone that he ran it. (I would really like to have heard their next conversation - "Website? You have a website? Some fans calling themselves squirrels...What is *that* all about anyway?...said you have a website.")

With Paul - again Meghan will have to explain other than he (and Joe) at first thought the character on the ADB button was Joe. But my understanding is that Paul, once he realized it was him, was very happy with it. Appearently, neither Paul or Rachel have ever seen the ADB stuff Criz designed. Maybe they will ask David about them.

And, another thing I'll talk more about later - during their on stage appearence, Paul and Rachel had a trivia game. One of the prizes was an 8x10 'poster' of ADB which they would sign after the Q&A. The question was "What were the names of the characters they played on Starcrossed?" I yelled out "Ryan and Racha" which I knew was wrong as I said it. Don't know why I said Ryan when I knew that was wrong. Paul, of course, said "No." and started looking for someone to say the right answer. I waited a few moments expecting someone to answer as people had been asking them all kinds of questions about ADB and Starcrossed. But no one was even trying. I yelled out again "Colt and Racha" Paul and Rachel had been looking the other way and both turned their heads back real quick. Paul: "Say it again." "Colt and Racha" Paul pointing: "Yes!" So I got to go up and get my prize from Paul. *Happy squirrel dance going on in my head, let me tell you!*

I told both Rachel and Paul while they were signing that I was one of David's squirrels and had helped promote the movie so I darn well should have remembered the character's names. Later, when I had my photo op with Paul he recognized me - convention squirrel shirt after all - and did one of the faces that says 'oh, here's trouble' and said to me "You again..." I smiled and shrugged and went to step on his other side (Paul was having single people pics done on his right where everyone else was standing on the star's left) Now, Paul was letting people give him hugs, but I wasn't going to just start hugging him. I figured it wasn't something I should just assume and put my arms around him. So I just walked around him. He reached out, and pulled me into a hug. While he was hugging me, he said "Thank you so much" which I am assuming was for the support of ADB. (If I'm right, then all squirrels who have supported ADB concider yourselves hugged by Paul - i just got the physical hug) I said back "The squirrels all miss you Paul" And we had our photo. Paul hugs are GGOODDD!!!

Working on uploading pics to photobucket. Will link when I have them loaded (there are 460, so will take a while) May link when I have only some of them loaded so you can have a looksy.

Well, I'm going have to do some work on it as there are duplicate pictures for some reason, but...

I present my photos from Chicago Creation Stargate Con 2009 (I'm sorry for quality of most pics. There were lighting and background issues and I ended up having ot use a setting that was close to the limits of the camera and try to still perfectly still when taking the pics. Very hard!)


https://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z147/rebelpearl/

(((BECKY)))))) Thanks for representing the Squirrels. I will have to check out your pics later. I have to get back to work.

Becky thank you so much for sharing pics and for your great con report !!!!

@BeckyL, loved your con report its almost as good as being there! Pic's were great too.

Aw, thanks everyone. Not done with the con report, but need to collect all thoughts first. In the meantime, {sorry editting image to fit better}

Let's see how this worked: Gary during his Q&A

Connor during his Q&A