I started off my second day at the World Fantasy Convention with my second visit to a San Diego Man v. Food restaurant. Karen and Charlie Newton joined me at the Broken Yolk Cafe, where Adam Richman attempted the Iron Man Challenge.

What’s the Iron Man Challenge? Read it off the menu and weep.

There was no way I was going to attempt this (or any other) Man v. Food challenge, though I do sometimes order the meal in question just to see what it looks like in 3-D under my nose, and return with the uneaten portion and give it away in the con suite to a hungry fan. But since I didn’t think an omelet was likely to travel well, I went with the blueberry pancakes instead.

Back at the con, I found I very rarely ended up where I intended to go. I kept bumping into friends, getting swept up in their magnetic fields, and not making it to readings or panels I’d originally planned. I had a nice chat with Pat Murphy and Eileen Gunn about Joanna Russ and other things out in the warm San Diego sun, bumped into my old Marvel boss Len Wein, and more. I chose people over programming. The only official event I ended up at was Kathleen Ann Goonan’s 4:30 p.m. reading, which you can of course catch right here.

Then it was off to dinner with Ellen Datlow, Pat Murphy, Eileen Gunn, Maureen and Bob McHugh, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Liza Groen Trombi at Phil’s BBQ.

I’ve never seen a restaurant more tied into social media than this one. Sure, joints are all the time asking that we follow them on Facebook or Twitter, but while waiting in a line out front with about 25 others, I happened to glance down and see a rug which invited me to tweet.

Not only that, but the menu advised that if we were dissatisfied, before we Yelped, we were to bring our problem to our server’s attention, because Phil’s claimed to have more than 1,000 5-star Yelp reviews, and wanted to keep it that way. The food was excellent (I had the beef ribs), but … the onion rings were … scary.

I discovered the Devil’s Own Onion Ring in a basket. Note the horns!

We returned from dinner in time for the mass autographing session, at which once again, zombies (What Will Come After) outsold science fiction (What We Still Talk About) 5-1.

Then it was off to the parties, the highlight of which was bumping into old pal Bill Shunn, whom I had not known would be there. (Though Bill insists I had known, but had forgotten.) We talked until we were too tired to talk any more, crashing only after we’d made breakfast plans for a restaurant we’d both heard raves about, Hash House a Go Go.

About which more later …