This year’s edition of Bricks by the Bay, the annual LEGO convention in the San Francisco Bay Area, happened last weekend. It seemed like I wasn’t going to be able to go due to illness, but thanks to the miracle of antibiotics, I was able to go! Here are some of my models (Teddy, Kermit, Owl and California Flag) on display:
I was also a big contributor to the Micropolis group display – you can see my elevated train station, hospital, and canal modules, and there are a few smaller ones of mine in there as well.
I had spent the previous weekend in Portland, visiting friends and attending the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival. My partner Rosa stayed behind for a few days to go to a fibercraft retreat and I drove home alone. By the time I left I was starting to feel ill, and I was only able to make it about a third of the way before I had to get a hotel room for the night, due to fever and bad cough. I finally made it home Tuesday evening, and the first thing I did was take my temperature, and it was 103.6°F (39.8°C)! I sat around the house in misery for a day until friends on Facebook convinced me to get medical attention Wednesday night. It was too late to go to Urgent Care so I went to the ER in Oakland where they diagnosed me with pneumonia! They hooked me up to an IV and pumped me full of antibiotics, and after being there all night long I went home. It was amazing how quickly I felt better! I was sure I was going to have to miss Bricks by the Bay, but by Friday evening I was feeling pretty much fine, just a mild cough as I still had some fluid to clear from my left lung.
I rested as much as I could, and didn’t attend as many talks, games, etc. as I would have if I were well, but I was able to display my MOCs and participate in a few things. I attended a presentation by Flynn and Richard on building and transporting large MOCs, where they mostly talked about their “Treasure of the Snake Queen” model which won Best in Show and Public Choice at last year’s convention, and also at BricksLA last January. I also went to a workshop for rehabilitating old 9V LEGO Train motors, and a trip report from some people who recently went on the LEGO Inside Tour in Denmark.
I took photos of all the MOCs on sale Saturday evening, and a few shots around the convention on Sunday. You can browse all the photos on my Flickr album.
