Wowsers. What a weekend.

Takaza and I flew up to Chicago last weekend to attend the Midwest Furfest staff meeting. While we were up there we thought we’d get some of the LAFF folk together, just for fun – you know, a small gathering, just like old times. Riiiight…

On Friday I headed over to the airport right after work. Dan had flown up Thursday night to spend some time with his mom, so I was flying solo. Since Dan had taken our big suitcase with both of our clothes, the only luggage I had was my backpack with my laptop and a few other items in it. I realized that this was the way to travel – not having to worry about anyone else, very little baggage to lug around, very pleasant overall. I was able to swing a flight two hours earlier than the one I scheduled to take by smiling and asking the ticket agent politely if I could switch flights. No problems, no costs. Yay!

I got into O’Hare at about 7 PM and Dan and Datahawk (our lovely and talented chauffeur for the weekend) met me at the Kiss’n’Fly. We drove over to Rustitobuck‘s where we found that Linnaeus had already arrived. We hung out, enjoyed the company, and eventually ordered dinner from Leona’s. It was tasty, even if they did screw up the order and we couldn’t tell what was the ravioli and what was the lasagna. After more talking and laughing (a lot of laughing. I love these guys) we headed off to bed.

Saturday found us in Oak Park, introducing DataHawk to the wonder that is Penzey’s Spices. We dropped about fifty bucks there restocking our cabinets (hey, we were out of double vanilla and Korintje cassia!). After that we grabbed a rather forgettable lunch at a local restaurant, then headed back to Rusty’s to kill some time before dinner.

Now, when we first started planning to go out Chicago, we decided to see about putting together a dinner. When we lived in Chicago, I used to organize “Western Suburbs Dinners”, held (surprisingly enough) in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. We’d get twenty or so folks out for it, and we’d have a good time. So I sent out the announcement and waited for the RSVP’s to start rolling in. And roll they did. And roll. And roll some more. So we were expecting between 30-40 people for dinner at Giordano’s. Well, when all was said and done we had more than 50 folks turn out for dinner, and we picked up another couple folks at the arcade. It was a tremendous, overwhelming evening, and we had a fantastic time. Fortunately, it appears everyone else had a good time, too.

Sunday, we had a tasty lunch at Portillos then went over to the staff meeting. I shan’t bore you with the details, but much was accomplished, and it was definitely a worthwhile trip. Things are shaping up for very well for this year’s Midwest Furfest – we’re definitely going to kick butt. (Have you registered yet? Just checking…) After the meeting it was back to the airport, where we had an uneventful (iv very late!) flight back. We got to bed Sunday night after 12:30 AM, and got up for work at 6 AM. Ouch. Definitely an early night tonight.

We had such a fantastic time in Chicago, and we’re really looking forward to returning in November. We’re taking an extra day off this year, so we’ll be rolling into the hotel on Wednesday before the convention. This will give us some time to get our feet under us before all the fun starts.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m a-headin’ off to bed…