Sara and I had a great weekend together at the evidence photographers conference. Learned lots of neat stuff, got to hear lots of gory stories. Met a guy who was in the room when PA state treasurer Budd Dwyer killed himself on live TV at a news conference in 1987. Took close-up pics of fingerprints, blood (fake) splatters, and mannequin hands with fingers chopped off. I'm going to get some interesting Google hits now.

And speaking of which ... Dear Google searchers, please stop searching for "gory WTC photos". Pigs. Love, Badsnake

So, evidence photography would be a really neat line for me to get in if I ever leave the publishing biz. The biggest pain would be having to dress up and deal with lawyers. Blaeech.

Sara and I got to have a sleepover on Saturday night. We didn't get home from the conference until 10:30 or 11:00, and we had to be up and getting ready the next morning by about 6:30 a.m., so if you're guessing that we didn't get much sleep, you'd be right.

Deb was kind of miffed at me that I didn't find time to call her on Saturday. I'm sure I could have, but most of my free time was consumed with thoughts like, "Oh, my god. Finally we get a break and I can have a cigarette." Conference breaks were usually 10 or 15 minutes long, and not many of them. If I'd had a cell phone, I could've called Deb while I smoked. Yes, I'm still quitting in March. And of course I get the usual forced quit in a few days when I go home to visit my mother for Thanksgiving.

I'll do a proper date report when I've got the time to devote to it.