I wrote this in 2004:

This morning over breakfast, I said to my wife, "Happy π day!"

"Happy pie day? What the hell are you talking about?"

"No, not 'pie'," I said. "'π'."

"Not 'pie,' but 'pie.'" She was clearly not amused. "Isn't it a little early to be drinking?"

"Anne, look at the date on the calendar."

"Yes it's march 14th, and you're going to watch WrestleMania dos equis* with your brother." She frowned. "Are you trying to tell me that you're taking a pie to Jeremy's house? Because if you expect me to make you a pie . . ."

"No, I don't expect you to make me a pie." I said, well into that area where you've explained the joke so much, it's never going to be funny.

"Today is March fourteenth. That makes it 3.14 on the calendar. 3.14 is also known as π."

She blinked a few times.

"Oh. It's π day."

"Yes!" I said. "And at 1:59 pm, it will be even more π day. Isn't that cool!?"

She took a long, thoughtful drink from her coffee mug, carefully set it down and said, "You are such a nerd."

And to commemorate pi day in 2009:

I present this incredibly awesome song by my friend Chris Hardwick:

This year … well, I got nothin'. Except maybe … maybe we could use today's date as an excuse to talk about math with kids!

Yeah! Check this out: When I think back on my years in school, I realize that math wasn't hard, math was just boring. Until I got into high school and started solving equations in algebra, which were framed as puzzles for me to solve, math was always framed as this collection of facts that we just had to know by rote, because … well, nobody really knows why, we just do it and stop asking so many questions you damn troublemaking kid.

Maybe we could use today's date, 3.14, and its relation to π as an opportunity to show kids how numbers and mathematics are all around us all the time, like a secret language or something fun like that.

…or you could just watch the video Chris and Mike made and leave it at that. I'm not the boss of you.

Edited to add: Over at Geek Mom, they're doing a ton of fun math stuff for kids today that's all pi-centric. I highly recommend taking a look.

ECCC has officially joined PAX on the List of Conventions I Don't Ever Want To Miss. It's well-organized, staffed by competent and friendly volunteers, and has what is, in my opinion, the perfect balance of comics and popular geek culture.

This year, I had to leave Saturday afternoon to fly home for a very special ultra-secret surprise party for one of my favorite people in the world, so I only got to spend a day and a half in Seattle, so here is an appropriately-brief recap of some highlights, including pretty pictures:

My awesome hour was especially awesome, even though someone compared Next Generation to Twilight. Seriously. That little bit of unpleasantness was more than offset by the opportunity for Evil Wil Wheaton to make an appearance, though.

I told a couple of stories to a very enthusiastic crowd (that was huge for a Friday), and had a lot of fun while I did it. When I find good video or audio recordings, I'll post them.

Friday night, I had dinner with some friends that included the most amazing beer I think I've ever had, a Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout. Normally, Imperials are way too heavy for me, but this was just perfect. It was a bourbon stout that had a chocolate finish. I'm not going to describe it further, because if that isn't enough to make you want to drink it, it's probably not for you in the first place.

Saturday, I joined Amy Okuda and Felicia Day for a panel about The Guild, that got … a little blue. I guess it was my fault for drawing a dick on a notepad and passing it to Felicia, you know, like 12 year-olds do, but then Felicia showed it to everyone, then drew one of her own that I had to draw a robe and wizard hat on. I'm sure you can understand how things sort of got out of hand after that.

We call this one particular picture of Wesley Crusher "Sexytime Wesley," so my friend Joel added some art to my display model:

I didn't have any time to walk the floor or go shopping this year, because I had to leave Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to meet as many people as I could, but I still came home with a couple of cool things, including a crocheted Fawkes:

Yes, it was made for me by an adorable Wonder Woman, who was accompanied by equally-adorable Silk Spectre and Batgirl. She also made a crocheted Codex for Felicia, and a Tink for Amy. Seriously. Awesome.

I met Ken Jennings:

It went something like this:

Ken Jennings: “Hi. I got my ass kicked by a computer on Jeopardy, and —”

Me: Holy shit. You’re Ken Jennings!

Ken Jennings: …yeah.

Me: We are totally taking a picture right now.

Ken wrote about it on his blog, if you'd like to get his side of the meeting. I found him to be a very funny and normal geek, which pleased me greatly.

I also made a Munchkin treasure card for a guy, which is certainly not legal for tournament play:

I got to visit a little bit with Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes, who both asked me why I wasn't doing their panel with them. You know, it wasn't until I started writing this blog that I realized how nice it was to not only see them, but to not feel awkward and nervous, like I'm still a little kid with something to prove to the adults I look up to. I guess that makes sense, with me being 38 and all, but as recently as 5 years ago I would have been overwhelmed by anxiety, and I'm grateful that I don't feel that way any more. Frakes and I decided that we'll continue to pester Rogers to get us working on the same episode of Leverage, which I thought would amuse some of you.

Every single person I met while I was there was friendly and kind, and I know a lot of you who I met read my blog, so let me say once more: thanks for reading and for being so nice to me. It's because of people like you that I look forward to cons like ECCC.