You might have heard about one or two big conventions that were going on the last weekend in July. I didn’t go to either of those, but I did have a mini-convention at my house with Brenda, Sue, Jen and Erin, and a whole mess of kids. It was, if you will, the Non-Convention.

I never had any plans to go to BlogHer. As I’ve mentioned before, I prefer to meet the internet one person at a time; it’s just more enjoyable for me that way.

I didn’t have any plans to go to Comic-Con either, even though it’s in my town. But then the fantastic JustJenn, who’s had a vendor booth at Comic-Con the past few years, asked if I wanted to go. I accepted her generous offer because I thought it would be fun to see the craziness in person just once. I made plans, secured babysitters for Saturday morning, and then…I didn’t go. I was up sick half the night on Friday and was in no shape to catch the 6:15am trolley to the convention center.

I was both bummed about and—honestly—kinda okay with missing it. I wanted to go, but I really didn’t want to deal with the thousands of people and the hours of standing in line and going all by myself. What can I say, when it comes to large gatherings of people I am usually a wuss. I feel bad that Jenn went out of her way to help me out and then I had to blow her off. (Well, I did text her and tell her I couldn’t make it. I’m not THAT rude.) I know she understands, because she’s cool like that, but still. My only consolation is that because I didn’t go, someone else who really wanted to be there got my seat at the Chuck panel.

My babysitters (Brenda and Sue) were already at my house along with three enthusiastic playmates for Annalie. That meant I was able to take it easy on Saturday and was feeling much better on Sunday when Jen and Erin arrived for Non-Con. Since the weather was hot and we were going to have a whole bunch of little people around, Brenda helped me set up our big green inflatable pool, the pool with the slide and palm-tree sprinkler, and one of the little wading pools.

The kids spent most of the day in the water. We adults spent most of the day sitting on the patio drinking Diet Cokes or iced coffee, talking and refereeing the occasional squabble.

I made some Kool-Aid for the kids at one point, which Bug had never had before. After her first long sip she turned to me and said, “Miss Bethany, what IS this? It’s so red and yummy!”

Emily spent some time drawing in the cardboard house that Brenda made for the kids out of a large box. When she was done, she handed her mom a drawing and skipped off.

It says, “I wish I had a hamster.”

Audrey fell in love with our cats. She spent most of the time she wasn’t in the pool either sprawled on the floor upstairs watching Lily give herself a bath, or chasing Katy around with a brush.

Molly most emphatically did not love our cats. She screeched every time one of them got near her. She did fall in love with Miss Brenda, though. She spent a lot of the day on Brenda’s lap, or watching Brenda chop vegetables, when she wasn’t in the water. Brenda felt very loved.

The vegetables Brenda chopped were for a salad, which was accompanied by grilled hot dogs and chicken and fresh fruit. Notice the avocados in the salad. Yum!

Part of the reason for this Non-Con is that I’m on a mission to introduce Erin to as many of my friends here as I can. Because Erin has been a grad student for the past few years, she never had the chance to visit us in Maryland, so she never met any of my friends there, who were such a big part of my life. Since she’s here and I have the opportunity, I’m going to get her together with as many of my friends as are willing to hang out with her.

Plus, we just love having Erin around! We want to spend as much time as we can with her while she’s in SoCal.