Closing ceremonies came, as always, about two hours and three days before we felt like the con was finished. But there's not serious arguing with the clock, not over this. We gathered in the ballroom, and the convention board gathered on stage, for the traditional events. The talk of how many people were there, how long the fursuit parade was, how much money was raised for charity and how great everyone felt. The promise that they'd have a theme for next year's convention soon. The promise that this would all happen again. And then it was officially over.
It wasn't done, of course. We hung around the con suite some, watching people playing this partly-electronic card game in which you mixed together songs to play at being a party DJ. We didn't quite get into playing, but did get to see how it worked and I came away with no idea how this worked as a game. bunny_hugger showed off her marionette more. We got back to the dhaba place and got our last dinner from them for ages. And noted that, well, when we did return Penelope to the foster, as we figured to do in a couple weeks, we'd be passing right by here and could take the edge off our separation by getting lunch.
After some time walking the hotel, getting in on the groups of people holding on to each other as if they could make the convention not end, we got over to karaoke. This was run by the same guy as last year, the one with a great performer's attitude, hyping people as they came up for their songs and encouraging not just karaoke signers but also air guitarists and air drummers and whole air bands to come up. And, for some songs, for other people to come up and dance too. When someone performed the Mulan song about ``Making A Man Out Of You'' dozens of people came up to march in a circle around the singers. bunny_hugger joined them, marching her marionette dragon the closest to in step that it's possible to do with the figure. It closed, as I guess shall be traditional, with everyone come up to sing ``Bohemian Rhapsody''. It's a great song for puppets, too.
A last real chance to hang around the con suite and see Shouda and anyone else we'd missed. And then to the Dead Dog Dance, smaller and less energetic than Saturday night's had been. I think it was slated to run to midnight. We didn't last it. We left about 10:30, in order to get to the rabbit rescue before it was too late.
We collected Penelope from the rescue. The woman running it said how after just a couple weeks Penelope looked better. We had agreed to keep the grumbly Californian for another two weeks after this. And either then or shortly after the woman running the shelter told us that yes, it would have been all right for us to leave Penelope with bunny_hugger's parents for a short while. I think that a lot of her anxiety about how we'd care for the rabbit was based on feeling attached to her and having some doubts that we could tend her properly. Now, with a couple weeks' track record and the evidence that Penelope was healthy in our care, she could feel more confident. I think we had reached a new level of trust in our abilities as foster-rabbit keepers. Of course by then we were already close to ``failing'', thinking of how hard it would be to return the rabbit again only for keeps.
A bit over an hour later we were at our house again, and the rabbit was in her hutch, and eating, and we could feel that great sense of having done something fun but being back home.
Trivia: In one month tailors for the last Emperor of China, Pu Yi, are recorded as stitching for him eleven fur jackets, six fur inner gowns, six fur outer gowns, two fur waistcoats, thirty padded waistcoats and thirty trousers. The total cost has been lost, but a chit survives recording that 2,137 taels --- 106,850 grams --- of silver were spent on buttons, thread, and pockets. Source: The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade, Adrian Levy, Cathy Scott-Clark.
Currently Reading: Beetle Bailey: The First Years, 1950 - 1952, Mort Walker. Editor Alf Thorsjö. Yeah, the strip gets like two orders of magnitude better when it gets into the army.
PS: Fun and surprises at the Game Room, Keansburg Amusement Park.

Inside the Game Room: a ... Popeye ... slot machine? ... Which is legal? ... And which somehow makes any kind of thematic sense? ... Because of the reasons?

So the good news is, bunny_hugger found pinball, and the bad news is ...
Fun fact: No one has ever played the South Park pinball machine long enough to knock the generic default scores like 'JEK' there off its high-score table.

And back outside to where one of those things with punching bags and tunnel slides and rocking suspension bridges and all gets a name and fairground art that totally doesn't want you to think of any bigger property at all!