Louis and I are early risers at conventions anyway, but we had to get up even earlier than we normally would have, due to my having a photoshoot scheduled for 9 AM Saturday morning. Why waste the daylight?

After that, we went back to the room and I started getting ready-I had a few kinks to get out of my hair after having it in a braid to cosplay Hana-chan the night before. Louis decided to relax a little bit longer, because he'd be wearing Vash and wasn't anxious to get back out into that Baltimore summer heat in a duster. I was ready in relatively short order, however, and then I was off to the convention.

I took my usual route through the convention halls to our meeting place just outside of the fountain room, and did my best not to be distracted by the Saturday morning cosplayers that were already filling the center. Saturday is usually the day cosplayers bring their "A game" and this year was no exception. I didn't want to be tardy to the party, however, so I raced outside and met Dave and the girls.

Trying to get nine cosplayers to do the same thing at the same time is a bit like herding cats, so since we were arriving in dribs and drabs, Dave started taking solo and "couple" pictures while we waited for our full group to arrive. Once we had all of the senshi assembled, we quickly twisted our bodies into the appropriate poses to match our reference image, and then a few of our number had to leave for other con related activities.

As we were shooting, Mario Rob wanted to see us Sailors in action, so he texted me to see where we were working. Not long after Jailbait, reprising his Tuxedo Kamen costume for the first time in years, and Artiga, unveiling his Batman, joined us. We quickly grabbed Jailbait for a few "Daddy-Daughter" pictures with Hime-chan, but wrapped up shortly after that. It was time to go back to the con proper.

I stole Hime-chan from the rest of the group, and after quickly jumping in the Sailor Moon meetup for a few photos, went off with Paul AKA PopeCerebus to do a little private shoot with him-stopping long enough to grab Eurobeat King for a quick hug before continuing.

It wasn't Hime-chan's first time cosplaying, but it was her first time wearing a Chibiusa costume, and Chibiusa is a character that is very special to both of us (long story short, she's kind of how we met) and I am enormously pleased with every single picture we took together that day, both from an aesthetic point of view, and an emotional one.

However, not long after this, the shoes-which I had admired so much on DSW.com and which I had gotten for an absolute steal -that I had chosen to go with my Hino Rei pantsuit were really starting to hurt. I had decided about a week before the con that I would rewear my Meryl costume to match Louis's Vash costume to attend the U.S. premiere of the Trigun Movie, Badlands Rumble.

Since I wasn't sure how long it would take me to transform from Rei to Meryl, and my feet were hurting anyway, I said a quick goodbye to Hime-chan and decided to head back to the hotel to get changed at my leisure.

Louis and I had watched Badlands Rumble through alternate comPuter InteRnet websites And to TEll the truth other, alBeit shAdY, sources, but there's something about seeing anime on the big screen with a crowd of people that can't be beat, so we suited up and got on line early-early enough, in fact, to catch the tail end of whatever panel was scheduled two slots before Badlands Rumble.which meant we had seats to watch the new Tekken movie, TEKKEN: Blood Vengeance.

My experience with Tekken is pretty limited, I think I played one of the games once and failed pretty hard at it (I'm not good with 3-D fighting games-if I can't hit "back" to block, I'm pretty much screwed) but the animation was beautiful, and the voice acting was good for a dub.

(Then again, when your initial exposure to anime included the God-awful DiC dub of Sailor Moon, anything better than nails on a chalkboard sounds amazing to you.) For a newbie it still had a standalone story that was easy to follow, so I didn't mind the extra time at all.

Finally it was time for Badlands Rumble. As I said above, we had seen the subtitled version previously, so we weren't too disappointed when we learned we would be watching the dubbed version. And again, we were pleasantly surprised with the voice acting.

I picked up a lot of nuances I had missed on the first viewing, and the picture quality looked even better on the big screen. We had a ball! And flatteringly, we were mobbed in our Vash and Meryl costumes for pictures once we got outside. It was great to interact with so many other Trigun fans!

Lou had yet to see Eurobeat King so I texted him to see where he was, and then wandered up to the third floor's terraces to visit and grab some quick shots. I always have fun hanging out with Al and I'm dying to get him to New York one of these days so I can treat him to a drink and maybe even a bad movie. Some day!

In the meantime, he took the best shots of our Trigun costumes that I have ever seen-I think wearing the violet contacts really helped, or maybe I've finally learned how to put that wig on properly, but I was really very pleased.

After shooting with Eurobeat King, we then turned our cameras the other way to take a few shots of not only the other cosplayers who were out in the afternoon sun, but our friend Nick, his girlfriend Brittany, and a friend of theirs, who I believe were all cosplaying from Full Metal Alchemist. However, we were all starting to melt in our hot costumes, so we decided we needed to get out of the con center for a little bit.

We took a quick break around 6 PM to go to McDonald's, because I was craving a crispy chicken sandwich, and we kidnapped Chris to come with us so we could have a chance to catch up.

Chris and I e-mail back and forth pretty regularly, but had gotten caught up in pre-con preparations as well as real-life stuff, and Louis hadn't gotten to talk to him much at all, so we headed to the nearby mall to relax and eat and talk-and most importantly, hear all about Chris's recent trip to Japan!

We had a wonderful time, even though the McDonald's was out of ice, and the soda was Baltimore-hot, and I was so tired that when I needed more ketchup my feet didn't respond and Chris was kind enough to get it for me, but it was just the break I needed to get my second wind.

Since we had dedicated so much of the day to Trigun, Louis was kind enough to offer to do whatever I wanted to do for the rest of the day. Since the Sailor Moon funtimes were over, I decided to indulge in my second favorite con activity: photo hunting! For at least an hour to two hours, we roamed the halls, back and forth, talking to whomever we felt like, taking photos of whatever we felt like.

After that, I grabbed PopeCerebus for yet another photoshoot-I believe this may have been his first one with Louis. Having just seen Badlands Rumble, I was way more in character than usual, and we got some excellent pictures of Meryl stalking her quarry, and Vash being entirely unsurprised when he caught her.

I also got a chance to see our friend Anna while she was relaxing with her friends, reintroduce myself to Lionel Lum, who I hadn't seen since my second ever anime convention back in 2002, and see Ranma in his Reverend Garterbelt costume. (Well, he claims it was a costume. I reserve my judgment.)

Soon after, David Ng texted us to let us know he had made a reservation for us at the Cheesecake Factory, and was holding our spot in line for us, so we decided to head on over to the complex he was in and join him. It was a bit of a walk, and I'm not sure I had ever been that far, but it was totally worth it-but I'm getting ahead of myself. The rest of OPIB and our friends started trickling in after us-Hime-chan, Avi, and Lady Terentia had just come from the Artist's Alley, and had new senshi cameos to show off that I promised myself I would buy the next day. Reinii and Andy joined us after that, and then more and more of our friends.

It was a long wait, but I can't blame The Cheesecake Factory for that-it was a Saturday night in the summer, AND the high point of Otakon. AND we had to wait for a table that could seat-wait for it-thirteen people! Just like the Last Supper. (I joked about us taking a replica of DaVinci's The Last Supper photo, but I wasn't about to push it-not everyone is the rampaging heathen that I am.)

Our waiter, whose name I kid you not was Steven Irwin (he told us his e-mail address was notthecrocodilehunter@hisemailprovider.com) was absolutely wonderful, and while his service was fast, the kitchen was understandably swamped, so we were there for close to three hours!

It was worth the wait-while I was still full from my McDonald's dinner, that didn't stop me from sampling both Hime-chan's (seated on my left) and Louis's (seated on my right) dinners, both of which I would have been happy to order. And while we ended up taking our cheesecake slices to go, they were just as delicious in the hotel room as they would have been at the table. I'm not a big cheesecake fan, but these could have converted me.

Dinner was probably the highlight of the con for all of us-just sitting and swapping stories. I got to hear the story of how Reinii and Andy met, and chatted with some of her college friends. Avi and I were sitting too far away from each other to talk, but that didn't stop us from sending each other hilarious text messages, including one from me after she almost started hyperventilating that said, "I love you, please don't die." And Dave presided over the head of the table with the air of a man who has had his every wish fulfilled.

We got out of there around midnight-having only had about six hours of sleep the night before (hey, that's less than usual for me! But probably more than usual for Louis) I was tired, and I had another con day ahead of me, not to mention the long trip home.

More of the Sailor Moon group shoot

More of the Sailor Moon group shoot

Still more

And more

And yet more

Still more

Last one!

Another shot of Nick

And another

And another

Another shot of Nick's friend

And another

Another shot of Brittany

Another shot of their friend

Whoops! Louis got in the way of my shot.

This one came out better.

I got claustrophobic just LOOKING at that line.

Louis and I agreed this was a good day to do the back of Randal's shirt without actually getting kicked out of the con.

Another shot of Galactus

I love my Hime-chan!

Louis grabbed my camera at dinner and took shots of the beautiful scenery

Baltimore's inner harbor at night

The dragon boats moored for the night

You can rent them to paddle around the harbor

The other shore

A closeup of the other shore

Domino Sugar neon sign

Yay cheesecake!

Yay group shot!