Originally uploaded by thetejon

The baby has not yet arrived. The official due date is tomorrow, so that's not exactly a surprise, but believe me when I tell you that the wife is ready. I'm pretty ready, too.

What has arrived, though, is a big package of onesies from the wife's family. Pictured here is the creation of one of the baby's uncles-to-be. Please excuse the trademark-infringement. It really is the sincerest form of flattery. And Bell's doesn't actually sell onesies, so he's not taking away a sale.

The Bell's Octoberfest, by the way, is quite nice. I recommend you try it if it's available in your area.

And if you work for Bell's and are reading this because it showed up on your traffic logs, why not offer onesies? I can't speak for everyone, but we'd definitely buy some.

A couple weeks ago, I started planning a happy hour for the Columbia Heights Forum because people were starting to argue a bit too much, as people tend to do on forums. I figured it would be more friendly if people met each other in person.

So the happy hour was last night at Wonderland, and it was pretty cool. I met a few people I "know" from the forum, and we had some local blog coverage (The Heights Life has a picture of our group at that link).

There was a bit of discussion about making these meetups a little more regular, so we'll see what happens. There are still a few forum regulars I'm dying to meet in person.

Edit to add: In the comments to the Heights Life post, there is a discussion EXACTLY like the discussions that prompted me to plan the happy hour in the first place. People get angrier discussing things on the internet because you can't see a person's face, you can't hear the tone of their voice, you can't get the non-verbal cues that tell you what the person is really saying. And it's anonymous - it's much easier to hate someone you don't actually know. So I think it's kind of amusing that the post about the happy hour generated exactly the sort of discussion that the happy hour was supposed to prevent.

I got to meet Charles Stross! And drink good beer! I dragged the wife down to The Brickskeller last night to meet the author and his wife, and an eclectic group of local fans.

It was a little tough for the wife, since they now have a bunch of Bell's Beer on hand. But it was less tough than it could have been, because they were out of most of it, including the Hopslam they claimed to have on tap.

But it was fun. He signed my copy of Halting State. I wasn't sure which book to bring. I could have done what one person did, and brought everything Charlie had ever published. But really, the marginal utility of each subsequent signature is pretty insignificant. I thought about bringing Singularity Sky, which I really enjoyed. Or Accelerando, the first of his that I read. But I have both of those in paperback. And my favorite of his, Iron Sunrise, I apparently don't own at all. I guess I must have gotten it from the library.

Anyway, I finally settled on a nice hardcover, and I'm happy with my decision. Plus I got this great picture of him. Didn't get to talk to him much, but that's okay. Not sure what I would have said.

The conversation mostly centered around Charlie, talking about writing and politics. He says he's not writing any more in the Iron Sunrise post-Singularity universe, which is too bad because I really like those stories. He related some stats on the death penalty that suggest we shouldn't be killing people. The wife and I talked to his wife about beer - she was looking for weird American stuff they can't get back home in Scotland, which is exactly my attitude when traveling. I will never understand those who travel abroad and want hamburgers and Budweiser.

It was a good night. We got a little wet walking home, but since this was the warmest day we've had since last summer, and it didn't rain too hard, it wasn't too unpleasant.