Grar. I so don’t want to be here today.

I got up to the Racine Marriott last night in short order, a quick 30-minute drive. I suspect the northbound Tri-State Tollway gets abominable in the afternoons (judging from the huge backups on the southbound side that occur in the mornings), but when you leave at 3:30 things are nice and smooth. I checked in without any problems and was pleasantly surprised by our room: instead of the small, somewhat spartan room we had last year, this room has a nice wet bar with refrigerator, roomy bathroom with a separate area for the vanity, and a sleeper sofa. Also, it appears that they’ve upgraded their beds; this one was very much on a par with Westin’s OMGWTFSOFT beds, though I’m not quite on board with the whole “Let’s stack twenty pillows on the bed so it looks luxurious” thing. Anyway, it’s the perfect room for entertaining and it will suit us well this weekend. I’m mildly annoyed that they are going to whack us for $10 per day for wireless access, but we’ll cope.

Datahawk and takaza arrived at about the same time, a little after 7 PM. We went over to Culver’s for a quick dinner then got back in time to meet wyldekyttin, unclevlad, and renniefrog unloading their van. There was brief talk about maybe hitting the hot tub, but I was just too tired. We went back to our room and I quickly collapsed into the sleep of the dead, interrupted at about 1 AM by a horrid reflux attack. Bleah.

This morning I was up at 5 AM and went out to find about an inch of snow on the car. Bleah. The drive in didn’t take nearly as long as I expected, and I had time to gas up the car and hit Charbucks for a caffeine fix before work. Now I need to find a way to pass the next seven hours since all the people I need to finish my current project are in training today. After that, it’s back to Racine and Congenial. Woo!

Wow, I’ll bet all of that above was amazingly boring. Here, have some links to amuse you:

• A sixteen-year old gay teen takes on Virginia Senator George Allen on the subject of gay rights. This kid has a hell of a lot more guts than I did at his age, and I am just amazed and impressed by his actions. There’s a lot of nice stuff in the comments as well.
• For those traveling to Midwest FurFest, here’s a new and inexpensive way to get to Chicago: MegaBus (which apparently is already a sizable carrier in the UK). According to Chicagoist, their deal is that fares start at $1 each way, plus a 50-cent reservation fee. For each trip, three or four $1 seats are reserved, and the remaining seats can range from $9 to $27. In other words, you’ll have to book early to get the super-cheap fares. They run express service to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and St. Louis.
• Wisconsin proves that they are on the verge of global domination…or just a really good three-day binge.
• No wardriving for you! A Rockford-area man is fined $250 for leeching off of someone else’s WiFi.

And now, to work!