Up at 6:40 actually slept all night. Got downtown to discover my favoured eating place didn't open til 8am on the weekend, and most of the other shops and eating places weren't open (even Subway didn't open til 7:30. The free bus service also seems less frequent.

Dropped in on the Friends of Liad breakfast at the CCC, said hi to nbarber and growlycub but no spare places. So I then went looking for the CCC Lost & Found. There was a black bag found, which got my hopes up, but when I got to the security office it wasn't mine. Since it was after 8am I walked off to my regular haunt (Corner Cafe Bakery) and had a "Berry Almond Swiss" and coffee. This was quality museli with extra fresh fruit, thick dairy product (might have been cream and yogurt) in a very large bowl. Very filling. Uploaded one days notes, but I'm still at least a day behind.

Not having a program book made planning my day a bit difficult (until I realised I had a copy on my Palm!) Anyway I did catch the 10:00 panel on "The Future of Libraries" which rambled at bit. I left before it finished as I knew the next panel would be crowded, Lois Bujold reading from her new Vorkosigan novel.

It was for some reason, in a normal sized room and was crowded out, with standing room only, before Lois had even arrived. I was lucky as growlycub had saved me a space on the front row! Lois read 2 of the 4 chapters she has written so far. Material her publisher Toni W only got to hear with us. Set on a new planet with at least one new viewpoint character it sounds really interesting, how we will cope having to wait over a year for completion is another matter.

I stopped off or lunch at the Corner Bakery Cafe for a Bacon Lettace and Tomato sandwich for lunch, and saw Pat Wrede and Jo Walton (papersky) having lunch there too.

I then went to the Sheraton Hotel to report the loss of my bag (and passport) to the convention's Lost and Found, it was not easy to find as it was up an unlabled staircase, down a couple of corridors. I left my details including the hostel phone number. Interestingly of the 4 fans in the room only one wan't from the UK!

I rushed back to the CCC for "A Bryant of Books" missed the first few minutes, so don't know if James explained that the term came form the Bujold mailing list or not. (later discussion indicated he did). However the talk continued about types of collecting, rather than numbers (the original sub title).

"Choosing Religion as a setting for a Novel" with Lois Bujold, Louise Marley, PC Hodgell, Sharon Shinn and Steve M Stirling, was also well attended and has some pretty god good discussion.

I then mosied over to the main hall where "Star Trek: Phase II 'Blood and Fire' " was supposed to start at 5:30, but BSG Razor over ran so it didn't start until nearly twenty minues later, and as this was a 2 part story didn't finish until 7:35 It was a really good story, and even without all the special effects and music queues it was enjoyable. I look forward to be able to watch it on the web (http://www.startreknewvoyages.com) later this year.

The Hugo ceremony was due to start at 7:30 so the lights had gone down by the time I'd arrived, but none of the awards had been announced yet. As I was stumbling through the dark I heard someone call my name, tuned round to see Steve S, so I was able to sit next to him for the evening. The coolest award (for me) was that Sufford Lewis was given the Big Heart Award, as a fellow Bujold fan and attendee of the listie curry on Thursday, I saw her while leaving the theatre and was able to give her my congratulations.

Then back to the hostel, to try to determine what to do re loss of passport. Spoke to a police officer who recommended reporting the loss via www.denvergov.org/911. However on returning to my room, I found a note attached that said "call this number re the missing passport." with a local phone number. Which sounded like good news, and so to bed.

So I woke up late this morning 7am! and got to the favoured Corner Bakery Cafe at 1147 16th St. later than I wanted. Had a regular coffee with Baked French Toast, which came with fruit salad and 3 strips of bacon, one of which was crispy, but the other two were nearly as floppy as I asked. This is one of the divides between the US and the UK. Those on this side of the pond think that if you can't snap the bacon in two it's under done, whereas we on the other side of the pond prefer to be able to taste the texture of the meat rather than eating wood chips!

Anyway I spent an hour on my eeePc updating stuff and had to leave before I finished as it was nearing 9am and I wanted to sign up for a Kaffeeklatch. But I also needed provisions so went to Walgreens where I got half a dozen KrispyKreme donuts, some gum and a belated birthday card.

I got to the signup sheet at 9:10 only to discover that the one I wanted was fully signed up, and the queues had started at 7:30! Fortunately they was a reading at 10am with the same author Patricia C Wrede and when she arrived early there were fewer in the audience than on the signup sheet, so we got a chance to ask a few questions. Pat read from her new book "The 13th Child" out in April 2009 her first original novel in 11 years! She read selected highlights, rather than the first x chapters and it was really cool, I really wish I didn't have to wait eight months to read the whole novel. This will be the first part of a trilogy of stories set in this new world. She hopes to write a book each year.

After the reading I got a chance to chat, this was the first time I'd managed to meet Pat in person, despite corresponding via email for years. We walked back to the CCC together when we parted.

I had a few words with madrobin on my way to the dealers room, where I finally succumbed and bought 4 books from Larry Smith (he has a minimum $30 purchase requirement for Credit Card purchases) and given the no access to ATMs I need to conserve my cash.

At 1pm Lois gave her Guest of Honor Speech, it lasted about half an hour and was followed by 45 mins of Q&As, and fortunately her voice held out. Out in the foyer after Frank K, Franz T, growlycub, little egret and a couple of other listies clumped together for a few minutes before I split for Trailer Park, where trailers for forthcoming movies were shown, inc Bond, Harry Potter. This finished in less than an hour so I was able to update my offline blog,

Then Sufford moderated "The ages of a writer's life" a panel of Bob Silverberg, Connie willis, Lois Bujold and Larry Niven. After an hour the panel answered questions from the floor, though Bob a to leave early.

I met nlbarber after this and got a spare signed Analog from her, realised I'd left a bag of books in the previous panel room! Dashed back and found them, followed her to a panel ""After the day job goes" with Steve Miller (kinzel), Robin Owens, Russel Davis and Colin Harvey. Found growlycub there too.

Afterwards we dashed to Arby's on 16th St for a meal, which we intended to take back to the CCC to eat there. But just as we started to leave a thunderstorm rolled in and it started to rain. So we ate in the shop (I'd put the meal on my card, and got cash back from the two ladies, eeking out my ca$h, Arby's was the only place that used chip and pin). I had a regular beef sandwich, curly fries, and a jamocha shake.

By the time we had finished it had stopped raining and we got back to the CCC just before the Masquerade started. When it finished I discovered my shoulder bag containing my passport amoungst other things was missing. Some time between 5:30 and 9:30 I mislaid it! I left at once to check at Arby's, with no luck, then back to the hostel, where I was able to get a photo copy of my passport just in case. Further blog entries were added, but without the pocket program there may be timing and titling errors. (I later realised I had an electronic copy in my Palm, but I wasn't really thinking straight by then. Bed 11:20pm