Rick Riordan

[Quick edit: here is a link showing the crowd and Rick Riordan's thoughts on the night.] Wednesdays are normally our easy days, but lately they seem to fill up too. Now DD and DS#1 have swim practice every day of the week that they don't have something else. Today there was also a meeting for volunteering dads at the elementary school involving pizza that I had to skip. Why? Well, Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series of books was speaking and signing books at a Barnes and Noble nearby. This series is DS#2's new favorite and he was VERY excited about it.

This meant that my lovely wife had to watch DS#3 at the park while DD had swim practice. DS#1 has practice right after DD so she had to bring the little ones home and get them all ready for bed.

DS#2 and I arrived just before 6:00 when Rick Riordan was supposed to speak. There was a line out the door for people getting a "letter" for the signing later on. My first thought as we walked up was, "Damn! I hate crowds! Why am I doing this again?" Our first letter was I1, which meant we'd be there a LONG time. I did get the 4th and 5th books in the series for DS#2 to get signed.

Mr. Riordan is a good speaker and his brief talk was very entertaining. I guess the first book in this series is slated to be a movie due out in February 2010. He also mentioned some of his plans for additional books (that I couldn't hear as well).

Eventually we moved up to "W" when people left early, etc. We still didn't get home until 9:00. The signing at the table went so fast that someone stepped in front of me and I completely missed seeing DS#2 at the table, let alone getting a picture of him. Whoops!

Despite the length of time we were there, and his short moment at the table getting his books signed, DS#2 was absolutely THRILLED. I guess that makes the entire evening worth it. --I still hate crowds though...