Saturday we met up with our good friends Kirk and Laura at Universal Studios around 5 pm. We thought the plan was to meet for dinner and to stroll through the Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. And it was..sort of. It turned out that Kirk and Laura wanted to treat us to dinner for our anniversary and had made reservations at a restaurant that Blog Girl and I had looked at back in October and said we wanted to come back and try; the interesting eatery known as Mythos, Grotto of the Gods.

Mythos is located on the Islands of Adventure section of the park in The Lost Continent. The interior of the restaurant is filled, or rather I should say the walls, ceiling and floor are shaped like incredible statues of mythical creatures and there is a waterway running throughout the restaurant. The water represents the River Styx and the mythical shapes are Perseus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia, among many others. Click on my Flickr Badge on the right and you can see pictures from inside the restaurant of the various mythical gods and goddesses.

I had the filet mignon with asparagus tips and fried onion sticks and it was delicious. Cooked as I asked (medium-well), flavorful, tender and juicy. We enjoyed the food and the chance to catch up with each other (mostly Kirk and I, as Blog Girl and Laura work together). The atmosphere of the restaurant, the decor, the lighting and the otherworldly ambience, made for a delightful experience.

After leaving there we walked through the rest of the Islands of Adventure section, passing through Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, Marvel Superhero Island and Dr. Seuss Landing before heading over to Universal Studios to enjoy the fun of Mardi Gras, or at least the early part of the celebration. Lots of pictures over on my Flickr page.

We finished up with an ice cream dessert and left for home around 9:30. We had a wonderful time and appreciated the gift of the fantastic dinner our friends gave us for our anniversary. Thanks, Kirk and Laura.

April is Autism Awareness Month. Autism receives as little as 5% of the research funding as other less common diseases.

First, I want to thank Beth W. of MegaCon 2007 for issuing press passes to The Masked Blogger and his associate ZenGrrl. We enjoyed covering various aspects of the Con and the access that the press passes allowed us. I’m already thinking about adding video coverage for next year’s MegaCon. Thank you, Beth.

Here’s some final thoughts on MegaCon 2007:

Outside of a seemingly unending variety of Superman tee shirts (I wore 3, a different one each day, myself), there were 2 others that seemed to be very popular; the “Evil Keeps Me Young” black tee shirt with white lettering and the “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Roslin” tee shirt which came in a multitude of versions.

But by far the one tee shirt I wanted to buy as a gift for a friend of mine (you know who you are, lol) was the one that proclaimed “Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians!” Too bad I’m so cheap.

The “celebrity” guests were a good mix this year. Noel Neill, Margot Kidder, Lou Ferrigno, Sean Astin, Kevin Sorbo, Mary McDonnell, and Jamie Barber on the media side and MegaCon Guest of Honor Dick Giordano, Adam Hughes, J.G. Jones, Adam Kubert, Amanda Conner, Barbara Kesel and perennial MegaCon guest, legendary artist George Perez, among many others, made for a slate of guests with something for everyone. I even saw Virgil from WCW and WWE Wrestling at a signing table, but sadly no one was in line to get his autograph.

Speaking of George Perez, the man is still looking absolutely fantastic following the diet and exercise regimen he’s been engaging in to control his diabetes. In fact, he looks like one of the superheroes he draws. And on a cool side note, I just noticed that on his website he excerpted part of my blog entry from my Saturday post.

I believe this is the first time ever that I have attended all 3 days of the Con, usually I have attended either the Friday and Saturday shows or just the Saturday show. Maybe next year I’ll be able to take part in some of the after hours events as well.

I do have to say I was disappointed in some of the disorganization that was apparent. MegaCon is a huge event and the bigger something is the more of a chance there is that something or somethings will go wrong. I thoroughly understand that some guests have to cancel at the last minute, especially when there are blizzards grounding flights. I have no problem with that. I understand that not all of the volunteers will be well informed and so won’t be able to answer your questions, even simple ones. I know that sometimes, last-minute sessions will be thrown together and that, subsequently, presentation media equipment will not be on hand or in working condition. I can see where someone responsible for scheduling a panel session may not know how popular the guests might be and would hold the panel in a room much too small for the eventual throng. I’m aware that programs are printed at the very last minute, in order to be as current as possible, and that as a result there is an increased chance for typographical errors that will list incorrect rooms or times for panels and sessions. I even recognize that someone responsible for printing an official sign may not be educated enough to use the proper form and spelling of a crucial word. But when all of those problems, mistakes and errors (along with some I’m sure I’m not aware of) come together at the same time and location, it can prove frustrating to attendees.

My hat is off to the organizer(s) of MegaCon. As I said, it is a HUGE event and undertaking and it would be impossible for everything to go exactly right. But it seemed that there was a higher incidence of problems at this Con than those I’ve previously attended. MegaCon is such a prestigious convention that I would prefer to see as much of it go right as is possible.

If you’ve never been to a MegaCon, you should definitely make plans to attend. Next year’s MegaCon 2008 takes place on March 6th through the 8th and I’m sure it will be one of the best MegaCons ever.

Today was the final day of MegaCon 2007. As predicted here yesterday, today’s crowds were much smaller. When Michelle and I arrived at 10AM, we had no trouble parking and upon entering the 3rd level of the “C” hall we could look down on the Dealer Room and actually see open floor instead of a solid mass of people.

We decided to take advantage of the relatively quiet Dealer Room to finish our shopping. Michelle wanted to pick up a couple of things for her friends and I had some final things to pick up for family. I limited my shopping to family members who would enjoy the unique offerings of MegaCon and did not even buy anything for myself (though I was sorely tempted to do so) because of trying to save money for our upcoming trip to France. I just kept repeating, “Remember France, remember France” every time I was tempted to pick up a comic, graphic novel, artwork or piece of memorabilia. I also picked up a LOT of freebies, like posters and promotional comics, for Mikey to enjoy.

Frugal shopping caused me to miss a seminar I wanted to attend, “Anatomy of a Pin-up”, and to be late arriving at Mark Simon’s “Thriving Artist” class, but it put us in the room early for the Kevin Sorbo Question and Answer session that was scheduled at the last minute late last night or early this morning) by MegaCon. Thankfully we had checked the update bulletin board (actually looking to see if anything had been cancelled, not added, lol) and found out about the former “Hercules” and “Andromeda” star’s appearance.

Mr. Sorbo is a very personable actor who enjoys making puns at every opportunity. The audience was mostly composed of females who no doubt used to watch “Hercules” to see Mr. Sorbo’s muscular physique which was often showcased on the show, or gaze at his handsome visage. But he proved to be more than a pretty face with his quick wit and detailed answers to questions that were posed. Personally I only watched perhaps 3 episodes of “Hercules”, which I found to be more or less silly, and despite my best efforts I could never develop an interest in “Andromeda”, though I thought Mr. Sorbo was excellent in the late Gene Roddenberry’s story that was originally written back in the ’60’s. As he put it, “I went from Herc to Kirk”. All in all, this was a very enjoyable question and answer session and it was kind of Mr. Sorbo to agree to such a session without it being previously scheduled.

Then we moved to the room next door to watch “Arne Starr Presents”, which is Arne’s regular offering at every MegaCon. Arne is a working actor, comic book writer and artist and regularly shows the latest trailers and previews of upcoming films. as well as sharing news about current industry news. Here’s a list of the trailers we got to see during the 90 minute presentation:

Bug

Dead Silence

Disturbia

Black Snake Moan

Grind House

The Reaping

Are We Done Yet?

Pride

Hot Fuzz

The Lookout

Zodiac

Reno 911

Ocean’s 13

TMNT

The Kingdom

Live Free or Die Hard

The Number 23

The Invisible

The Last Mimzy

Sunshine

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

300

Ghost Rider

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer

Transformers

Spider-Man 3

Rather than take the time to link each of the above titles, I’m going to suggest you Google them if you want to check the official movie sites. Some of the trailers I have already seen in theaters or on TV, but many of them I had not and there are now a few extra films that I plan to add to my movie-going schedule.

After that it was time for me to say “Goodbye” to MegaCon 2007, while Michelle remained to check out the final panels and do an interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame. I’m sure if you check out her site or Orlando MetroBlog, you’ll find her latest views on MegaCon 2007.

Tomorrow I’ll have some final thoughts about this year’s MegaCon. Hope to see you then.