Next Tuesday, we begin our journey to Orlando for Oasis 23. We expect to have a good time, and we’re really looking forward to seeing everybody. The packing — eh. But packing will happen on Monday, after work.
The first order of this weekend’s business is Ghost Ship, which, with one thing and another, has languished long enough. In and around will be house-cleaning, so that Mary can find her way from the kitchen to the living room, and laundry, so we’ll have clothes to wear in Orlando, and a Serious Consultation with Steve regarding which plushy should accompany us on the trip.
That last is a tough choice. For a good, long time, Hassan the Assassin was our default traveling companion. Then Harwil the platypus entered our service at the KC Nebulas, and he became the companion of choice, mostly due to being much flatter than Hassan. Steve’s Lord Black Cat has accompanied us on a couple of trips. [Here’s a picture of Steve and Lord Black Cat and me and Hassan (and a host of others) at the Stuffed Animal Tea Party hosted by Alison Looney at Penguicon 4.0]
I feel a little for the other plushies, of which we own a ridiculous number. There’s Sly the Fox, the day-job office plushy, who may be even flatter than Harwil and is certainly deserving of a vacation, and at least one of the hedgehogs is small enough to tuck into a traveling bag, not to mention the stuffed lizard (though that one’s stuffed with sand, and quite heavy, so maybe not). The Looney Bloom Kristin Looney gave us (also at Penguicon 4.0; I think the idea was that Hassan needed someone at his back) can certainly fit in a bag.
It’s a puzzle, it is.
Which stuffed animal do you take with you when you travel?
When I have space in my luggage, I bring the largest of our stuffed Gund bears, who is featured in this little stop motion movie: http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Tirade/BearsScreenTest.mov
http://www.wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2002/WN.09.12.02.html
I have not thought about that stuffed animal tea party we ran at Penguicon 4.0 in many many years – thanks for the quick mention of our plush Happy Flowers that brought me to this page!
I thought I was the only person of a certain age that did this. I’m glad to find I’m not alone. At the moment my travelling companion is Huangpu the Chinese Zebra, obtained in a moment of weakness at the Shanghai airport. He appears to have a good attitude to travel and doesn’t add more than a few grams to the cabin luggage total.