I arrived in Houston at 5:00 am and bypassed a ruckus I found out later to be a grenade scare. Me, blissfully ignorant, walked off into the hot Texas morning with nary a clue.

The hotel, a Hyatt Regency, got me into my room right away, and in spite of wishful thinking about sightseeing, museums, parks, or even the Johnson Space Center, I found all I could do was fall asleep in the big cushy bed.

The cat people begin to congregate in the bar in the early afternoon. The collection of cat clothing, tee shirts, jewelry, hats, and bags was impressive. I met up with my friend from Vancouver, Ramona Marek, and met some new people, including Helga all the way from Germany. By dinner time, we had taken over a good portion of the airy bar, while everyone ate and caught up on book, blog, and cat news. Many cell phone cat pictures were passed around, all receiving due praise.

Our only job of the night was to stuff the swag bags for the convention goers with the generous donations from various cat companies. Little and Tyler are going to love the cool toys and food! Janiss Garza brought her therapy cat Summer, and we all went nuts, having been deprived of feline contact for several hours.

Tomorrow will be a big day with presentations and panels. The CFA Regional Cat Show will begin as well, and besides checking out all the amazing cats, we’ll be selling our books at the CWA table.

All I’ve seen of Houston is the airport and the hotel.

Note: When I got out of the air conditioned shuttle, my glasses steamed up. I’ve never had that happen before.