Well, that was a busy few days.

In my last (non-tipsy) post, I mentioned that I was going to be heading up to Roho and Genet‘s for dinner. And so I did, and we went to the Double Eagle in Antioch. In spite of it sounding like a leather bar, it’s actually a passable restaurant, though the service needed some slight improvement. The beer was cheap, though! After dinner Roho and I went down to their basement and watched some Family Guy while Genet went to poke at Evercrack 2 for a bit.

Now, through the evening several things had happened which got me to thinking: I tried calling Takaza when I left work at 4 PM and got his voice mail, which he never returned. Highly unusual for him. When I checked after dinner, he wasn’t online on AIM – also unusual. That and a couple of other small things made me suspicious enough that when he walked in the door with Linnaeus I wasn’t surprised in the least. But you know what? I sure was happy, and that’s even more important. We closed out the evening with cosmopolitans (Roho is indeed the King of All Cosmos – or something like that) and a couple of very entertaining rounds of Karaoke Revolution III.

On Friday we were slow to wake, then we finally motivated over to Las Vegas for a truly yummy breakfast, with Datahawk (eventually) joining us. From there we walked a few doors down and were going to have a nice cup of tea at InfiniTea, a lovely little tea house, but they were mobbed. We killed some time in J. J. Blinkers, then decided that we might skip the tea place and went back to Roho and Genet’s. We packed up all of our stuff and were deciding where to go next when Roho stressed that he really wanted to go back to InfiniTea, and let us in on a little secret why. We immediately agreed and set of in a caravan back to downtown Antioch.

Once we got back to InfiniTea, we ordered some lovely tea (their Moon over Madagascar is divine!) and some very tasty strawberry scones with clotted cream. And there, with good friends in a cozy little restaurant over tea and scones, Roho proposed to Genet. She said yes, of course (while we all cried in the background). I cannot think of a couple better suited for one another, and I wish them both a lifetime of love and happiness!

So that was one of the highlights of Friday. We took our leave and headed over to the Country Inn and Suites in Gurnee, site of the LAFF 2004 New Years Eve Party. Paul got us checked into our suite and we offloaded our stuff into the room, then he and Dan and Puma went off to buy provisions while I kept an eye on things at the hotel, which was a Good Thing since I was getting antsy. Once they got back we started setting up for the party in earnest, setting out the food, arranging tables, etc. At 7 PM, we opened the door and folks started streaming in.

All told we had 76 people pay to get into the party. The admission was $15, which helped pay for the munchies and sandwiches and pizza and sodas and room rental, with any leftover funds going to charity. It was a good crowd, and the rooms that we had were self-limiting; when it got too crowded, folks usually went off to their rooms, or went swimming. Video games were played, artists drew, and a mountain of food was devoured. With DataHawk’s able assistance, I worked the door, collecting admission and making sure that everyone who came in was wearing a badge. No, it wasn’t Registration, dammit!

With the food mostly gone, we wrapped up door duty at about 10 PM, and that was when the real fun of the night started for me. I went back up to our room and soon was joined by a bunch of folks who I just know if I try to list all their names I’ll forget someone. We had a good time trying some of the Scotch that I picked up for Paul (hope we didn’t put too much of a dent in it!), plus they were mixing red berry Alize’ with Raspberry Twist Smirnoff Ice and the result was a decidedly dangerous pink concoction that went down oh-so-smoothly. We hung out up there for a couple of hours then went back downstairs for the midnight countdown. I helped Data and Dan distribute glasses of sparkling cider and we all counted down the final seconds of 2004. It meant so much to me to be able to kiss my dear husband to welcome in the new year for the sixth year in a row. Wow.

After midnight, we adjourned to DaveQat and jimcyl‘s room, where Osiris was serving up some of the bounties of his job at Whole Foods: champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and camembert and crackers. The rest of the evening passed with good company and lots of laughter – a great way to bring in the new year.

Saturday was predictably slow getting started. Going to bed at 4 AM will do that to you 🙂 As people woke up, though, we accumulated quite a crowd in our room and I got to show off my new coffeemaker and share some very tasty coffee. It was a great way to start the day. Afterwards, we organized a caravan back to Antioch and returned to Las Vegas, where we ate ourselves senseless once again. The crowd broke up and we drove back to Paul’s place to relax for a few hours. The rolliebear stopped by and we walked down to a nice little Thai place around the corner from Paul’s place. More good food, and good company.

Yesterday was kind of blah, which is not surprising, the first day of work back from a great three-day weekend. Dan was feeling under the weather so he just hung around Paul’s place all day, then when I got home I made up a tasty dinner. This morning was a very early start (4:15 AM), but I got Dan to O’Hare with plenty of time to spare for his 6:30 AM flight back to North Carolina. It wasn’t quite so hard to see him go this time, particularly since I know he’ll be back in two weeks for NoCoasterCon and the inaugural Midwest FurFest 2005 staff meeting.

Looks like the next bit of excitement we’re due for is a snowstorm barreling down on Chicago; they’re calling for 8-12 inches of snow, heaviest right around Waukegan, which is about two miles north of where I work. What fun! I will definitely be using public transit and Metra to get around over the next few days – it’s just not worth it to risk life, limb, and property to try to drive when so many other good options exist.

Hmm, time to squeeze in a little more work before taking off.