So Duncan, how did you spend the weekend?

I picked up Takaza from work at about noon on Thursday and we headed over to the airport for our flight to Chicago. We had tickets for the 6:50 PM flight on United Airlines, but we hoped to sweet-talk our way onto the 2:40 PM flight. Well, we hadn’t counted on the fact that United has moved to itty-bitty jets for the RDU-ORD run, so every single flight is pretty much booked solid. We went on standby for the 2:40 flight, but no dice. So we tried for the 5:20. No dice. 6:40 it was, getting us into Chicago at 8:40 or so. Oh well. At least our suitcase was already there ahead of us, avoiding what we heard was the 30-40 minute wait for the bags to get to the baggage carousel. Hmm, I think I’ll go with American next time we fly to Chicago.

We caught Linnaeus on one of his circuits of O’Hare and headed on out. We quickly threw together plans for a late dinner at Outback with steviemaxwell, rustitobuck, and Cheetah. A tasty dinner was had by all. Rusty was very kind and gave us several birthday/Christmas presents (mmm…Penzey’s spices…). Then it was back to Linnaeus’ place for the night.

Friday was a slow start for us. We took the El from Linnaeus’ down to the Loop, then out to Oak Park, where we met Cheetah at Penzey’s (had to get our Madagascar Bourbon Double Strength Vanilla Extract. Yes, it makes that much of a difference!). From there, it was out to Woodridge to see The Lion King on IMAX. Yowza! Was that ever worth it. Incidentally, Feren, we watched it from around the middle row – I’m not sure it would have made a difference where we sat. The one thing I noticed was that you could see the fuzziness in the character outlines in the expanded print, but that wasn’t the end of the world. About my only criticism is that it would have been nice if the theater had more bass in their sound system. By god, when they play the “BOOM!” at the end of the opening, I want to feel it all the way down to my soul!

After a quick stop at Krispy Kreme (hey, it was right next to the theater, but more importantly the light was on!) we met Linnaeus over at Expo. This is a division of Home Depot where they display all the upscale home decor stuff (Wolf stoves, Subzero refrigerators, $8,000 shower fixtures – you get the picture). We had a very enjoyable time alternately drooling over the appliances and making fun of the designs. I was truly in touch with my inner queen! We parted ways with Cheetah then and headed over to Glen Ellyn for a delightful dinner with Aureth and Jenwolf. Good food, friendly chat, and a little bit of smoffing ensued. A very enjoyable evening. We headed back to Linnaeus’ place right afterwards in preparation for the early morning on Saturday…

Which found us at the Oak Brook Marriott at 9 AM for NoCoasterCon. This was a grueling ten-hour geekfest where representatives from amusement parks from all over the Midwest come and talk about what’s new and exciting at their park (and give away lots of swag). It was fun, but…well, ten hours was a bit much for me. On the bright side, we scored passes to Paramount King’s Island and one exit pass each to any ride in Cedar Point (as in, walk up the exit ramp at any time and get on, avoiding the line completely. Way cool!). From there, it was off to Buffalo Grove for the Midwest Furfest post-mortem dinner. Very nice, and great company there.

On Sunday we lazed about in the morning (and Linnaeus made us some yummy bacon and waffles!), then it was off to the Hyatt Regency Woodfield for an afternoon of meetings – first the Midwest Furry Fandom Corporate Board Meeting, then the Midwest Furfest staff meeting. Much was discussed (and yes, which it ran quite long, it was worth it I think), and we’re well on our way to another fabulous convention for 2003. We had to head over to the airport at 4:45 PM met our plane with no problems, and arrived into RDU right on time.

Now we’re back in Raleigh and I’ve got a bunch of stuff to work on: consolidate our MP3’s into one place (Allen: we got your drive, and it’s hooked up and running fine. I’ll be transferring stuff back and forth tomorrow and should have it back in the mail by the end of the week). Also, I need to start work on the MFF corporate website, and a few other minor tasks left over from the weekend. Fun fun fun!