It’s Monday night, and that means my extended weekend is over.  I took last Friday off so we could head to Dragon*Con in Atlanta.  That’s two four-day work weeks with a four-day weekend thrown in for good measure.

We left Friday morning after David’s doctor appointment.  We had three celebrity photo-ops scheduled for the weekend, and the first was at 1:15 that afternoon.  We made our way to our hotel, dropped off the car and proceeded to speed walk for about four blocks to the Sheraton to pick up our convention badges.  With Amy’s heart condition, that probably wasn’t very smart.

We picked up our badges and walked two more blocks to the Marriott, where the photos were being taken.  After a couple of wrong turns, we finally made it in time for a photo/meet-and-greet with John Schneider and Catherine Bach from “The Dukes of Hazzard.”  They were both extremely nice, and it made Amy’s day to meet John.  She’s always liked him and Tom Wopat, but I think only John will show up for this type of event.

We left the photo shoot and ventured over to the Hilton.  That’s where the majority of the celebs were hanging out and signing autographs.  We wandered around seeing who was there, and that’s when we found the guys from SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters.”  We watch that show every Wednesday night, and we love watching Jason, Grant, Steve and Tango go through all these old houses with so much history.  Do we believe in the spirits they find?  I wouldn’t say that, but it’s still very neat to watch.

We quickly found Alan Ruck.  Alan was one of those guys I’ve wanted to meet.  He played Cameron in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” one of my all-time favorite movies.  He was also in “Spin City” and “Star Trek: Generations.”  I’ve always enjoyed his roles, and I knew he was one I’d have to talk to.

Alan is one of the most down-to-earth people I have ever met.  We talked for quite a while about houses (I mentioned Cameron’s house from the movie was up for sale for only $4 million, but he prefers Spanish architecture to the all-glass house it was), our kids and our upcoming move.  As I said, I’ve always liked his roles, but I’ve got a brand new respect for him.  He is a very cool guy.  Amy doesn’t care for too many movies from the ’80s, but she liked him a lot, too.

After Alan, we got in line to say hello to John Schneider again.  Amy got his autograph this time and talked to him some more about David, the heart struggles he’s gone through and John’s involvement with Children’s Miracle Network (he co-founded it).

I wanted to meet Charles Fleischer (the voice of Roger Rabbit) that day, but he had his bag and looked like he was about to hop up, so I let him be.  We walked around for a little bit elsewhere before we went back to our hotel and checked in.  During this time, we found the table for Ghostbusters Fans (gbfans.com), of which I am a member.  I met some of the guys there that I’d talked to in the forums and would be marching in the parade with.  We left there and rested in our hotel room for a bit.

We had dinner at Metro Diner, then had to scoot back to the Marriott for a photo with Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict from “The A-Team.”  A typo on the schedule had Dwight with Barry Bostwick, so Dirk didn’t show.  Amy was really hoping to meet the man who played “Face,” but it was a solo photo with “Murdoch” and “Lt. Barclay” instead.  That was fine because he was awesome!  Another nice guy, even though we didn’t get to talk too much to him.

I’ll admit I’m hooked on Tekzilla and other tech shows.  I knew two of my favorite tech broadcasters would be in Atlanta for Dragon*Con, and I knew they’d be at the Marriott Saturday night for a meet-up.  What I didn’t know is they would be in the Hilton Friday night doing a live podcast.  That is, until I whipped out my Blackberry and looked at Twitter.  I saw the tweet from Veronica Belmont that she and Tom Merritt would be live in 25 minutes from Hilton 204 for The Sword and Laser.  I quickly grabbed Amy and told her to indulge me and my geekdom for a little while.

We made our way to the room with about 100 people in it.  Tom and Veronica were at the front getting ready, and I nearly had a nerd-fit.  I don’t get starstruck, plain and simple.  I’ve met enough celebs to know they put their pants on the same way I do, but I’ve always wanted to meet these two.  They were prepping for the show when sitting right behind me was another tech guru, Roger Chang.  I nearly flipped out then, too, and I turned around and started talking to him.  He’s a classy guy with a lot of tech knowledge, and he’s the producer for Tekzilla.

So we listen to Tom and Veronica go over some of their sci-fi book reviews and picks, and they interviewed Timothy Zahn, who is one of the best Star Wars authors around.  It was awesome to hear the show live, and they even gave us all free first edition t-shirts from the show!  Sweet!  I knew the Saturday night meeting would be crowded as rip, so this was my chance to talk to both of them one-on-one.  I waited until the room basically cleared out, then got to talk to Tom.  We talked about a wide variety of things, and of course, I asked for a photo with him and Veronica.

Wouldn’t you know my sweet and social wife was already talking to her when I turned around.  She’s only seen Veronica when I’ve been watching the show online, and she’s not nearly into gadgets and stuff like I am.  I thought it was awesome to see her talking away.  My beautiful wife talking to my “geek-crush.”  We got to talk to both of them for a bit, and Amy took a picture of all of us.  I have to say, this was my favorite part of Dragon*Con.  They were so friendly, and I think it’s awesome when public figures take time out and just chat like you and me.  It reminds me of the compliments I got when I was a TV reporter, but took a few minutes to talk to viewers.  They always seemed impressed, even though I was just a regular guy barely making ends meet.

After the podcast, we decided to crash.  It was late already, and we had an early day Saturday.   I’ll talk about it tomorrow.  It’s already too late at night. 

I definitely have to share what it’s like to march with close to 50 Ghostbusters.  Look for photos in the photo gallery!

Until tomorrow!