Saturday morning started out much the same way Friday did; seventeen crossdressing Hasidic Jews using tarnished silver spoons and one blacklight bulb between them were necessary to pry my brother out of bed, and then the four of us went about getting ready. Starr reprised her Poison Ivy costume from the day before with more comfortable boots, and I debuted a new costume bought specifically for this convention, Batgirl. It was amusing to me that I was going to be two Gotham Girls in a row, but at least the makeup was easier this time!

Usagi Seion and JenyBean showed up soon afterwards, and as we were standing there, we were approached, first by Nelson Torres of WTFTV to be interviewed on camera, and then by Catherine W. Griffin who was writing an article for The Columbia Journalist that talked about (amongst other things) what female comic fans thought about what female comic book characters were going through. While at heart we are all just fans enjoying entertainment, it really is interesting how many different intellectual facets you can find within!

Soon after, David Ng appeared, and after spending some time with him just catching up, we headed out in search of a good area in which to conduct our photoshoot. We soon found a good space outside, and while the wind made for some great dramatic hair and cape effects, we also had to battle it puffing up at exactly the wrong times. It was also much colder when the wind was blowing! But we are professionals, and somehow, between the five of us, we made it work. Dave took some truly epic shots of us that you can see linked on the Photoshoots page, and Starr made a guest appearance at the end as the true "star".

After we were done with the photoshoot, we headed back inside and started making our way all the way from one end of the con to the other so that we could meet up with all of our significant others who were stationed at Pete's Basement again. (The girls who were wearing heels really needed to get out of them by that point! I was glad I ended up in comfortable shoes all weekend.) Running the entire gamut of the con gave me lots of opportunities to shoot some more of the wonderful costumes that were on display in the hallways.

We spent some times at the Pete's Basement table again, just chatting, resting our feet, and observing the fans of The Basement, as well as the many wonderful cosplayers that were browsing the Artist's Alley. In addition to the variety of costuming levels I saw that weekend, I also loved how many people either did obscure characters in addition to the more well known ones, and also how many did obscure versions of main characters. It just goes to show just how much these fans love their fandoms!

I put my convention version of a "permanent address" to good use and texted a bunch of friends to let them know where we are. Soon afterwards, Doc came to join us! I don't get to see Doc nearly enough considering we used to hang out every week (and he really was the only light in my life for a while, and got me through a very dark time), and I'm afraid I was a little dazed from the walking and posing and the fact that I had a cowl taped to my face, but at least we got to spend some time together and catch up. I owe him some quality time, though, like stat.

Usagi Seion and JenyBean decided to stay at Pete's Basement a little while longer, but Louis, Freddy, Starr, and I decided to hit the con floor again after we had recovered our stamina. I had another friend of mine I wanted to see, my friend Richie from high school, so I got his coordinates from him, and we made our way through Artist's Alley over to where he was.

It turned out Richie, with the help of his friends Helene and Herbert, was running a trivia show! The guy they were quizzing first ended up getting a bunch of Marvel questions wrong (and of course, I had Louis whispering the right answers in my ear the entire time-there's a reason his LiveJournal nickname is "Marvel"!) but the guy was a good sport about it all the way through. And I might have known, as soon as the first guy was done, Richie convinced us to take a turn. As he is also a good sport, he said all four of us could compete as a family.

I had thought we would also end up with comic book trivia, but as they shuffled through their papers, they selected a page of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles questions for us! Little did Richie know that I still own a TMNT trivia paperback from my Scholastic Book Club days.and little did I know how much I would end up remembering from it!

I don't think I answered as many questions correctly as Louis did, but it's a little odd to be a grown married woman who can remember that the name of the mad scientist who accidentally mutated into a fly is Baxter Stockton. Starr gets a pass because she actually has a life, but I'm embarrassed that my brother's only TMNT knowledge is being able to sing all of "Ninja, Ninja, Rap", and that's only because of his much more embarrassing obsession with Vanilla Ice.

All in all, not only did we do a fairly decent job of upholding the family's geek trivia honor, we had a genuinely good time. I spent a little time catching up with Richie, but I didn't want to take up too much of his time because he had a lot more filming scheduled, so soon after we said goodbye and headed back out onto the con floor.

We had barely taken a few steps, when I spotted an extremely tall couple I also know: my friends Nora and Chris! Nora was wearing an extraordinarily lovely corset, and after I introduced her to Starr, who had also incorporated a corset into her Poison Ivy costume (which, by the way, was still less difficult to get her into, than it is to get Freddy out of bed), and they ended up talking about all sorts of corset.things.that I don't understand-something about boning, and lacing, and all that kind of good stuff.

Chris and I just kind of smiled at each other and nodded. At any rate, they also had other friends they wanted to see, so after the girls had gotten their fill of corset talk we said goodbye and headed onwards.

Another few steps, and we ran into another friend, Tony! I can't remember the last time I had seen Tony-I don't want to think so, but it MAY have been at our wedding back in 2009! Tony was trying to round up a bunch of his friends-one of which was Jessie Pridemore, who is always a delight to spend time and be silly with, but trying to organize cosplayers is a lot like trying to herd cats. Nevertheless, after five thousand flashes had gone off as people took pictures of the now large group of beautiful women in costumes gathered together, he removed us from the crowd with an almost surgical precision, and shepherded us off for another few photos. Since Louis and Freddy had learned by now that they have less to do when we're having our pictures taken, they decided to take a break from their convention coverage duties and just spend some time enjoying the con, so Starr and I left and we agreed to meet up later.

By this point it was just starting to get dark, and we had once again gone the whole day without eating (I have to apologize, I set a TERRIBLE example for my siblings at their first con, usually I'm better than this and eat three meals a day!), and we really wanted to spend more time with Tony, so we decided to call it a day again, and head up 11 th Avenue and see if we couldn't find somewhere to grab some dinner-the farther away from the convention center, the cheaper, we figured. So we left the con and headed uptown on foot.

After we had gone a few blocks, I remembered that we had passed an Irish looking pub many years ago after New York Comic Con 2008 that had looked promising, especially since by this point Louis wanted a beer more than just about anything, and I figured it wouldn't be as crowded as some of the chain restaurants in the area. It took a bit of walking to find it, and we had almost given up (and were researching other options on our smartphones) when we noticed we were diagonally across the street from it. Oops. Heh.

We had a really nice dinner, the waiters didn't seem too surprised to see Batgirl and Poison Ivy in full regalia, and we finally got a chance to really sit down and catch up. Tony is a wonderful person, and while he had gotten the chance to know our other brother David years ago when my mom was in the hospital, this was his first time really meeting Freddy.

Now he's just got to see Mom when she's awake, and he'll have met almost my entire family! (The only other friend I met through cosplay—indeed, only other out of most of my friends, come to think of it—who can boast that is David Ng, who has not only met all of Mom's family and Dad, but also my grandfather. But I digress.)

After dinner, since Tony was walking to Penn Station (I think?) anyway, we decided to walk part of the way with him, in part so I could show the kids Times Square (I think this was Freddy's first trip to New York City proper, although it wasn't Starr's), and partly so I could act like an idiot dressed as Batgirl in Times Square.

And let me tell you, I barely got ANY second glances while dressed as Batgirl. And for the most part, when I did attract attention, it was usually very nice people complimenting my costume! New Yorkers are really a LOT nicer than past and current media depictions would have you believe.

After we ran around Times Square for a few minutes so I could take ridiculous photos (thank you, Louis, Freddy, and Starr, for all indulging me in my nonsense), we hopped back on the train to make our way home. Only one day left!

Batgirl and Robin

A great shot of Helene's Wonder Woman costume

We're so cheesy, I'm sorry.

Corset fans!

Jessie's butt

Following the girls on their photoshoot

This is the shot the Doctor cosplayer actually wanted me to take

I love how people in Times Square just pass on by me like it ain't no thang.

Seriously, no one thinks the grown woman dressed as Batgirl climbing up a streetlight is at all worth a second look.

Freddy needs Starr to protect him from the evils of the New York City subway

Starr and Freddy

Pete's Basement interviews Batgirl