(Wow, am I dating myself with that subject line…)

So, con reports aside, what have we been up to? Well, the past weekend was quite entertaining, really. The fun started on Friday when Takaza and I played hooky from work to meet Mirkowuff and Siegferret at Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mirko and Siegfried experienced some delays getting to the park, unfortunately. We missed the top of the first inning, but once we got seated things were fine. And those were some really great seats! Section 215, Row 2 – about a third of the way up the third base line with a great view of the game. I will freely admit that I am not the world’s best baseball fan – hell, after football season is over, I usually throw away the sports section unread. But I learned that actually being there at the game is far more interesting, and I really had a great time. Mirko and I swapped rounds of (expensive, nasty) beer and Sieg and Dan each got some hot dogs. The game was great, too – a real thriller, with the Cubs pulling it out in the bottom of the ninth. I would actually be willing to catch another game this year, albeit maybe from the cheap seats.

After the game we fought the teeming throngs to get out of the park and onto the El, taking about a half-hour to go a few hundred feet. We eventually made it onto a northbound Red Line train and rode up to DaveQat and Jimcyl‘s place. We hung out there, and were eventually joined by boixboi and perromutt. Perro stuck around to wait for Darkwolph (who was apparently traveling in low orbit, since he got from Lafayette, IN to the north side of Chicago in 90 minutes, on a Friday afternoon) while the rest of us tromped off to Evanston to the Asado Brazilian Grill. We dove into the tasty food and copious quantities of meat, and Perro and Wolphy joined us not too long after. The meal was excellent, and the company grand. We parted ways afterwards and went home and to bed.

On Saturday Dan and I set forth once again to the wilds of downstate Illinois (i.e. south of I-80) towards the Champaign-Urbana metroplex. We arrived at Mirko’s in time to do some birthday shopping, then it was over to Siegfried’s place for a fun night of games with Mirko, Sieg, Lycaos, and Wolftail. We played Malarky (very fun game, though I’m not sure about the scoring system) and Cranium (always fun) and had a great time.

Sunday morning, we met everyone but Lycaos (who was flying out that day) at The House of Lard, aka The Original Pancake House, for breakfast. Yum! Very tasty. I drove home, and on the way back we finished listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have…comments. But I think I’ll wait a bit and think it over some more. Anyway, we arrived home just in time to meet up with Rustitobuck and Linnaeus and strike out for Linnaeus’ birthday party. Paul has documented that well, so I’m going to be lazy and just point to his entry 🙂

And today it was back to the grind, woohoo. Ah well. Now, to figure out what we’re going to do for dinner tonight…