Being perky!

Hello World and Happy Monday.

Actually, now I'm reconsidering my perkiness.  I've been watching the flooding news from the Atlantic sea coast and it's worrying and sad -- as all my Pals buddies are trying to work out if they can head off to the Cross Stitch Pals retreat at a Myrtle Beach resort which apparently is still without power and has lost its pier.   Everyone be safe!

Now, to my continuing belated vacation/convention adventures and me getting in trouble..... again.

While in Kansas City, I ran away from WorldCon for an afternoon (I usually don't do this.  If I'm in for a con, I'm *in for a con,* and it's all I do until the closing ceremonies are over.  But it was poor planning on my part -- I'd planned an extra day of adventuring into my trip, but I planned it on Monday when many of the venues I wanted to visit were closed!   Sigh.).  Anyway, I escaped to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for a few hours and it was a lovely adventure.

I traipsed their grounds (despite the heat) on a mission to find their Roxy Paine metal tree, but I ran across this beauty -- the Glass Labyrinth by  Robert Morris.

And then I found Paine's Ferment (cousin of my favorite "Graft" in DC)

 The N-A is also the home of the "world's largest shuttlecocks" which are installed all over the property  --- sculptures by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

They also have a lovely collection of American cut glass.

There's a nice Manet you can visit -- Mill at Lemetz

And a van Gogh -- Olive Orchard.

And a quite stunning set of 16th Century Italian armor

And, speaking of art.... and heading back to the Con, here's the reason I committed early on to dragging myself to Kansas City in the middle of summer -- their artist guest of honor, Kinuko Y. Craft --

And it you don't know why you ought to lover her......

sorry for my bad pic--both they and I were having technical difficulties.

And I got to go to a reading by one of my favorite authors, Jack McDevitt--

While at WorldCon I finished a long-term project (she kept getting shunted off to the side, poor dear).  She was off getting finished, but we found out this weekend that the finisher has decided to quit so she will be coming back to me undone.  We will find her someone else to finalize her beauty and move on.

 Since I finished something I felt justified in starting something new.... right?   That's how it works?  It doesn't matter that I have 3-4 dozen other things already started and waiting for attention????

Ok, one last thing before I race off........    sheesh how do I get so far behind???  

I interrupt my WorldCon adventures to bring you the one-day adventure known as Ladies of Intrigue, a small conference  where I had much fun two weeks ago (and got in trouble.

I got to have lunch with one of my very favorite authors, Kate Carlisle (seated here with Rhys Bowen standing behind her).

And, ready to be jealous?  Here are (left to right) Earlene Fowler and Carolyn Hart.

Before setting out to LoI I scoured my shelves for unsigned books to take along and came up with this modest pile.....

And then trouble happened.......

And I came home with two tote bags of this less modest pile.....

And there was a nice swag collection in my bags coming home as well--

Now these convention/Badger-Gets-in-Trouble reports feed in to an upcoming event..... the annual Fall edition of Dewey's 24-hour Readathon.  It's an opportunity to connect globally with fellow readers (there are blog, facebook, and Goodreads events/presences by which to take part) and know that the whole world  reads with you.  It's a lot of fun for 24 hours or 2 whatever you have available on Saturday the 22nd of October.  Come for a little or a lot of it if you can, and I'll "see" you there!