What we'll see will defy explanation

We left for AnthrOhio early, in the morning, the Thursday before Memorial Day. It was earlier than we wanted to get up, earlier than we wanted to leave, but what choice did we have? Since the convention moved to Memorial Day weekend, we couldn't stop at Coons Candy on the way back Monday; the candy shop with the furry-friendly name and mascot would be closed. (It's a family name, but they've got a cute logo of a confectioner raccoon now.) To visit at all we'd have to stop in Thursday, and they closed 5 pm Thursday. So we had to be in Harpster, Ohio, between 4 and 4:30, so we had to leave bunny_hugger's parents house as close to 1 as possible, so we had to have the rabbits set up in their home before then, so we had to leave before 11 am with a car loaded full with everything we'd need for the weekend plus everything our rabbits would need, plus our rabbits. Oh, and also did I mention that Sunshine's pet carrier --- the one we got free when we adopted Penelope --- is too large to fit in the rear of my hatchback, only up front, so there's stuff that could not be loaded until at least one rabbit was put in? So that was a fun three-dimensional polyominos puzzle to start the day.

But we got the rabbits delivered and set up, much as we now have them at our home: one downstairs and one upstairs. We guided bunny_hugger's parents through their medical needs. Sunshine needs an eyedrop twice a day. Penelope needs a bit of meloxicam on a wheat thin once a day. Compared to what they had learned to do when caretaking Stephen this was nothing, but they were still unsure. But bunny_hugger was also able to do them a big favor, finding the malware they's somehow gotten, and that intercepted all attempts at going to mapping web sites. They could still get directions by going to Yahoo Maps.

We were about ten miles out from their house when we realized we'd left bunny_hugger's neck pillow behind. It makes long car rides much better for her, preventing pinched nerves if she dozes off. She made do, using one of the plush rabbits brought along as prizes for the Bunnies SIG she hoped to run and cursing herself for the accident of having even brought it in to her parents' house. (She'd had it around her neck when we brought rabbit stuff inside, and took it off when we sat down to lunch, and forgot to pick it back up.)

But the important thing: we got to Coon's Candy with about 45 minutes to spare before the place closed and easily 85 seconds before we would have exploded from needing the bathroom. Might have been able to take a rest stop somewhere along the way. Anyway the shop was as we'd have hoped, one wing full of tchotchkes and T-shirts and puppets --- Folkmanis has a new guinea pig, one that's got a mouth easier for my fingers to move, but that hasn't got the long hair that makes mine so cute --- and cookie cutters and signs about how put-upon moms do everything around here. One wing full of candy. bunny_hugger's father had hoped we could bring him some liquorice drops and, you know, we just could not find any. She got some anise jellies instead, and he would say these were pretty good, when we returned on Monday.

And then on to AnthrOhio's new hotel. We also learned along the way that the old hotel, the Holiday Inn Worthington, had not been torn down yet, for all that its imminent demise forced the convention to relocate. We're not sure just why it hasn't, although I expect it just reflects that every project starts later than it means to. When I ran into Ed the Hyena, head of AnthrOhio, I did cheerily be the 84th person to give him the good news that the convention could move back no problem, and he winced. But the new hotel was, we were told, barely a mile or so from the old and not very different a place to get to.

We'd pass a zone of deep weirdness getting there.

Trivia: In 1848 Prussia repealed its ban on smoking in public places, years behind most of Europe did. Source: Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, Wolfgang Schivelbusch.

Currently Reading: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons, David A Bossert.

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PS: What's happening in the Rye Playland arcade a year ago?

So, someone was able to get the cumulative Jack Pot shot on Cyclone and earn her way onto the high score table.

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Look at that. Grand champion on an amusement park-themed pinball game at an amusement park. Is there better?

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80s music nostalgia show going on, under the name 'Come Together', as we played pinball and poked around the boating area.

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