From the 'Zoo

Hey kids -- we're in the 'zoo now. Well, at present I'm in the computer lab at WMU like a bunch of other medieval geeks typing away. I got to Detroit yesterday with no problems. Our plane was so empty I stretched out and went to sleep across the three seats. Once I got to the Motor City, I did some more sleeping while waiting for Wendy and Faye to get there. Once they arrived we had some lunch and then picked up the rental car and headed out on 94. Way too much rain to be fun, but we made good time nonetheless. Outside of Kazoo there was a big accident in the eastbound lane that backed up traffic for miles.

We headed over to registration to find that we were in Valley I; better than Valley II (up the very steep hill) but not as good as Valley III, home of registration, the enormous book room and the coffee & wine hours. We went to Bilbo's for dinner; none of us had been to their new location yet, so it was nice to check it out. It's much bigger and airier, but without the basement there's a certain charm missing. The pizza and beer, however, are just as good -- I had some Dragon Red Ale, yum.

We dropped Faye off at the Radisson (no dorm life for her!) and headed back to our ever-so-charming dorm room. Wendy had work to do on an essay she was editing for Mechademia (I think) as well as looking over her paper for this morning (nice to get done in the first session of the day).

We both woke up early; there was a bird determined to wake the entire state outside our window and lacking a BB gun or trained falcon, there wasn't much else to do but get up. I wandered out to go get some tea and began running into folks right away. Had a long chat with fellow UConn alum John Sexton and ran into a bunch of the other UConn folks, as well as my new local colleagues from Siena, Mary and Pam. Wendy's panel went well, of course. Wendy talked about martyrs from the South English Legendary and was brilliant as usual.

Time to go enjoy the conference and the beautiful spring day. The swans are nesting! They weren't at this time last year, so that's cool. More news as time permits.