Category Archives: anthrocon

Just The Usual Pre-Con Panic, and Fun With Cars

So I was working today and I realized, “Wow, three weeks from today I’ll be in Pittsburgh.” Gaaah!

The good news is that, once the programming schedule is up (which sounds imminent), I can start making a schedule for the Artists Alley and Con Store. I should have the Con Store price list and bar codes in hand from Unclekage tonight (barring unforeseen issues, such as zombie attacks), then it’s just a matter of assembling what little equipment we need and figuring out how to get it to Pittsburgh. Hmmm, I foresee a trip to Antioch Liquors in the near future…

So since my car (2005 Honda Element) has 35,850 miles on the odometer (i.e. within a hair of going out of warranty), it’s going to the Gurnee Honda dealership tonight to get a tear in the seat upholstery repaired while it’s still free. I’ll have some time to kill before takaza‘s train gets in, so I’m going to swing by the Grayslake Farmers Market which opens its season today and see what good stuff I can find there. Dan’s car (2003 Honda Element) is due for emissions inspection, which is thankfully just down the street from where I work; unfortunately, its “Check Engine” light is coming on, warning of the impending 60,000 mile service. Since they won’t do the emissions testing if any warning lights are present, we need to get Dan’s car serviced, so we’ll be dropping it off at Gurnee Honda on Friday night. Also on Friday night we’re meeting daveqat and jimcyl for dinner at the always-yummy Osteria di Tramonto; I’ve heard rumors of miniature golf with some of Dan’s cow-orkers to take place before that, but we’ll see if that comes to pass.

Wow. Looking at my calendar, it looks like every weekend is going to be busy into late July, at least. Ah, the joys of summer socializing…

It’s Wednesday Already?

My, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun. Which leaves me no explanation for this week, but that’s OK. Not that it’s been a bad week, mind you, just…eh.

Monday found takaza and I having fun making dinner. While Dan experimented with slicing and frying techniques to make home fries, I fired up the grill and cooked up a couple of steaks, as well as some fresh pineapple. I learned a couple of things: 1.) Three chunks of hickory is too much. The steaks tasted a little too much of smoke. 2.) When grilling pineapple, add the cinnamon sugar after grilling, otherwise the cinnamon gets bitter. Ah well. It was a learning exercise all around, and in the end we still had steaks and yummy home fries. Yay!

Last night we were feeling minimally motivated. I sautéed up some peppers and onions, then Dan cooked some chicken and diced it up and we had tacos. We both love the whole wheat flour tortillas we’ve found, and the chihuahua cheese is delicious. A little salsa and some crema…yum. It was a quiet evening, as Dan was working on Anthrocon cash sheets and I engaged in a bit of transit geekery (see below). Afterwards we watched the latest episode of Deadliest Catch.

Click for boring transit geek stuff

Go Go Gadget Airfares!

Woo! We just bought plane tickets to Anthrocon! Depart from O’Hare on Tuesday night at 7:05 PM, return from Pittsburgh at 2:35 PM on Monday afternoon. The total cost? $93 each, including taxes and fees. Sweet! We need to figure out the logistics of getting to and from the airport, but for that price it was worth it to lock in the tickets now.

Other than that, it’s a last-minute push to finish off the cleaning today, then there’s the party tomorrow. Happy fun time!

Midweek Already? I’m Not Ready!

It’s been a bit crazy this week as takaza and I make preparations for the weekend. Mainly just getting things cleaned up, etc. but also running errands. yesterday I stopped by our favorite local butcher to order some meat to smoke this weekend. We’re going to have rather a lot of meat, since I wound up ordering two pork butts (yes, that’s a pork shoulder, and no I don’t understand the vagaries of butcher-ese) plus a beef brisket. Each butt is going to be 7-9 pounds and the brisket will be 8-10 pounds (with fat attached; probably more like 6-8 pounds of meat once cooked). If we see the 50% yield on the pork that I did the first time I smoked (this will be better quality, so I expect more like 75% yield) we’re looking at putting between 13 to 17 pounds of cooked meat on the table. Hope everyone is hungry! 🙂

The other big news on my mind is Anthrocon. Besides some slight changes to my staff (and welcome to woodychitwn as my second-in-command in Artists Alley/Con Store), I was taking a hard look at our travel plans. We typically leave the Tuesday evening before the convention, spend the night somewhere in Ohio, the roll into the con at around noon on Wednesday. First off, leaving Tuesday night after work means trying to leave town on the evening of July 3. I expect it’ll take at least double the usual time if not more just to clear Chicago and surrounds. Which leaves us driving way too far too late at night, or having to drive further than we’d like on Wednesday morning. Plus, there’s the expense of the gas (assuming $4-ish per gallon), the hotel Tuesday night, the tolls, the food along the way, and the parking at the Westin.

Then, the thought occurred to me: just how much is airfare? If we fly out from O’Hare Tuesday night after work, we can stay at the La Quinta near Pittsburgh International very cheaply due to Dan’s points there, then catch the express bus downtown Wednesday morning. Monday morning, it’s as simple as catching the bus back to the airport. And after totaling all this up, it’s actually cheaper to fly than to drive. Couple that with the kind offer from linnaeus to carry a few other items in his car for us (i.e. booze) and flying suddenly becomes a very attractive possibility. Dan and I will talk this over tonight and probably have a decision in the next day or two.

So, to do tonight: install the new shower head (which, according to Amazon, is currently sitting on our front porch), clean both showers (we have a stall and a tub/shower in the master bath), then start in on dinner. Busy busy busy!

If Only It Were Friday…Oh Wait, It Is!

So the office has that Friday-afternoon-before-a-holiday ghost town feeling to it. The boss has gone home and I’d wager folks are going to start trickling out over the next hour. He told me I could leave anytime I want to – which is dandy, except as a contractor, I get paid only for when I’m here. Ah well, 4:30 it is.

I’ve been updating a few things for Anthrocon Artists Alley, and giza set me up with editing privileges on the AA page on the AC site. That’s pretty cool, though I doubt I’ll use it much between now and July. Meanwhile, I’ve had a bit of fun with the new “My Maps” feature on Google Maps and created a map of stuff in the vicinity of Anthrocon. Pity they don’t yet have an easy way to plug everything into the Google Maps API, but hey, it was an interesting experiment.

Going into the weekend, I leave you with two nifty YouTube clips:
1.) The Gossip’s “Standing in the Way of Control” – I don’t much care for the video, but the song is quite catchy. I came across a reference to them in an article in today’s Chicago Tribune, “Proudly, loudly gay and on a major label? Sure”.
2.) While surfing around LJ I came across the_gneech‘s post with this infectious little ditty: ROFLMAO. Recommended for both World of Warcraft players AND fans of The Muppet Show 🙂

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Midweek Stuff

It’s a typical week, which is to say not too exciting.

nymphara is crashing at our place for a few days, as she is in between apartments. Various errands have kept her busy all week, though, so we haven’t seen much of her!

I thought that we were going to a party this weekend, but apparently not. This means we actually don’t have plans for the weekend. Shocking! I’m sure something will expand to fill the available time, though (like maybe a lunch trip to The Firkin in Libertyville. Hmm…). Pretty much the most exciting thing is that I picked up some pre-marinated skirt steak from Garden Fresh Market the other day; I’m really curious to see how it cooks up tonight, but if the small of our refrigerator is anything to go by, it should be quite tasty!

Among other errands I need to run is a stop by the Round Lake Park District offices to drop off our entry form for the Spring Stampede (pdf link) that we’re going to do with linnaeus and mirkowuff. The tentative name for our team is “Hungarian Soup Orchestra”, something that will make no sense to anyone who hasn’t watched the last few seasons of The Amazing Race 🙂 I should check out their gym facilities while I’m there, too.

On the topic of Anthrocon, I got a happy surprise yesterday when I made some lists of who I have for help and I actually have more people than last year. Awesome! We were stretched pretty thin last year, so the extra person will make a world of difference. Right now, I’ve got danruk, linnaeus, Grandma & Grandpa Kage, bullethc, woodychitwn, frostyw, nymphara, and rooth for my staff, with additional help from datahawk, roho, and genet for payout each day. With takaza‘s staff of daveqat, jimcyl, and wild_rhythm, we might be able to make it through this year without completely falling apart (though if anyone feels the need to demand that I spend a half-hour on the massage guy’s chair again, I’ll be quite OK with that!). I’m always looking for a bit of additional help, though, so if you’re interested, let me know. I took some time yesterday to update the staff instructions for Artists Alley and Con Store; I’ll be sending those out sometime next month, I expect. I’ve arranged the signup room and times with kuddlepup, so that all seems to be in order. I need to make a list of forms I need to print and info I need to get from Kage, then I’ll be pretty much good to go.

Oh, I almost forgot! Many of you have heard me rant and rave about Intelligentsia’s Black Cat Espresso. I’m afraid I have a new love in my coffee life, though: Alterra Coffee’s Delta Mud. Oh man, is that stuff good! And their prices are much more reasonable than Intelligentsia’s, even with shipping included. I still like Intelligentsia’s stuff, but unfortunately it’s just a pain to get out here in the burbs.

Back to work for me, now!

Hump Day Musings

Not a whole lot going on this week, and it’s really quite nice. With our Heroes on hiatus that has left us free to watch other good stuff like The Dresden Files (which, though technically set in Chicago, is actually shot in Toronto. Not quite as bad as Vancouver, which “looks like Boston, California”), and accumulated low-priority animation shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. Tonight I think we’re going to check out the second episode of BBC America’s Robin Hood and the premiere of FX’s The Riches, which got rave reviews (and the idea of Eddie Izzard maintaining a strict American accent amuses me to no end).

Thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday’s call for help at AC. I’ll be in touch with you soon, trust me. We also need to have a little sit-down with roho to discuss the feasibility of point-of-sale software for Artists Alley; this is probably something for implementation in future years. Something like that could really streamline payout, but as has been noted in the past, what is it worth to knock twenty minutes off a 45-minute process that we do three times each year?

Yesterday’s weather was fabulous, just with the high just a hair over 70 and breezy. I opened up all the windows and aired the place out (and discovered a missing screen on one of the windows in the master bedroom). Relaxing in the living room with the breeze blowing was just lovely. Of course, because it’s Illinois in March, the weather today has taken a turn for the icky, with the temperature crashing down into the 30’s by tonight and a chance of rain and snow.

Finally, in case anyone missed it, the fursuit photos that nymphara took at Midwest FurFest are now available online. If you want a high-quality copy of any of the pcitures, just drop takaza a line.

Get into Anthrocon for free!*

* – There’s a small catch, of course. There’s always a catch.

Hi everyone! Remember me? Your old pal Uncle Duncan? (Hi, Uncle Duncan!)

Yes, it’s that time of year once again, the time where I look at Anthrocon rapidly approaching, look at the number of people I have available to work Artists Alley/Con Store, and completely freak out. Yay!

So, what’s involved? Mostly, it’s running a cash register and sorting little slips of paper. We also need help with artist payout at the end of the day (I usually need about ten people for this each day) and

[info]takaza

can also use help in the cash handling room. Scheduled hours will never be earlier than 9:30 AM and never later than 6:30 PM.

What’s in it for you? Well, you’ll have a schedule in hand before the convention even starts so you know where you need to be when. As always, I’m willing to tailor your schedule around other stuff you want to do at the convention; that’s why you’re there, after all, and that comes first. Then there’s that whole “free admission” thing: Anthrocon requires at least fifteen hours (or more) of volunteer time for a complimentary admission. If you can only put in ten hours, that’s cool – you’ll at least get a free T-shirt out of the deal. And if you can only spare a couple of hours, that’s OK too – you’ll get a hug from me (if desired 🙂 and my undying gratitude (or baked goods after the convention, if local. We’ll talk).

Interested? Then please comment here or drop me a line at duncan AT wolfhusky DOT org  ASAP and I’ll add you to the list. Thanks!

NOTE: Even if you’ve already told me you’d be helping out, I’d appreciate it if you responded here. Anything to help jog my sieve-like memory 🙂

In case anyone missed it, tugrik has his amazing pictures from Anthrocon up and ready for viewing.

This is my favorite picture because it shows both the beauty of the venue we were in (David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, right on the Allegheny River) and the sheer number of fursuits gathered – almost 200!


(Click picture for a ginormous 6610 x 2149 version showing an amazing amount of detail)

Oh, and here’s how they got that shot (that’s PNC Park in the background).

Yeah, we’re weird, but it’s a good kind of weird 🙂

Where Did The Weekend Go?

Yes, we do indeed have a personal life too, and I’m sure y’all are tired of reading about FRAC, so enough about that for now.

On Friday, even though takaza had driven in to work we decided that it would be better if I picked him up and we left his car at his employer’s over the weekend. I really enjoy meeting him after work on Fridays because I usually get there 30-40 minutes before he’s ready to go so I have time to read or nap or just relax, and the weather on Friday was ideal – 70’s and breezy. I parked under a tree for some shade and read the paper, and dozed a bit too. Once he was done for the day, we drove deep into the darkest wilds of Evanston, to explore the mysteries of the Central Street shopping district. Although my initial target was The Spice House, we also found Foodstuffs, which is an evil, evil place, and checked out a couple of interesting restaurants (Jacky’s Bistro was tempting, but a bit too spendy for us that night). We wound up opting to drive down to the Davis Street business district, which wasn’t nearly as interesting even if it is bigger (too many national chains represented there). We tried to drop in on siriuswolfstar at work, only to find that he had traded shifts and was well on the fast track to inebriation elsewhere. We wound up at Trattoria Demi, a “red-sauce Italian place” that I found to be…eh. Nothing exciting, but at least it wasn’t too expensive.

Saturday found me poking around on the net in the morning to try to find something to bring to wyldekyttin‘s birthday party that evening. I utterly failed at matching the theme (“something that can be deconstructed”), but I did come up with an extremely tasty Asian chicken salad. I sauteed up some chicken breasts using The Spice House’s delicious Argyle Street Asian Blend. I stole the dressing and fried rice noodles from this recipe, only I used a nice spring blend for greens, and added snow peas, scallions, and baby bok choy. Once the chicken breasts were cooled, I tore them apart by hand. The nice thing about this was that I could I put the noodles in one bag, the greens in another, the prepared veggies in another, the chicken in another, and the dressing in a plastic container; when it was time to serve I just dumped them all into a bowl and tossed. Quite tasty, too.

The party was great fun, and crim_ferret did a sterling job on grill duty (mmm, Asiago cheeseburgers!). Alas, the fact that I had woken up at 6:30 AM caught up with me and we left the party at an unconscionably early hour because I was close to falling asleep.

Sunday was spent working on Anthrocon stuff – Dan on signage, me on Artists Alley and Con Store prep. I’ve almost gotten the work schedule in place, I just need to give it a once-over before sending it out to my staff. Thank heavens I was able to recruit enough folks this year so that I don’t have to schedule myself, since I get pulled in four different directions at once during the con and I need to be able to deal with stuff when necessary. We took a break in the afternoon to grab some food, do a bit of shopping, and finally pick up our rings from the jeweler. This ordeal has taken over two months, but we finally have both rings back and I’m once more wearing my wedding band – no more cruising the bars for me! {snicker} Once home we watched some Good Eats and worked on more Anthrocon stuff (this will be our refrain for the next week).

Incidentally, for those that care: we’ve made a slight alteration in our Anthrocon travel plans. We will be driving, leaving Chicago sometime between 5:30 AM and 6:00 AM (when we normally leave for work anyway) on Wednesday, June 14, aiming to arrive in Pittsburgh by 3 PM EDT; we’ll be departing Pittsburgh before noon on Monday the 19th. We were originally going to put in half-days at work and leave Chicago at noonish, but we realized that the loss of hours for me is more than made up for by the decrease in stress in not getting in late to the hotel and not scrambling to get stuff done Wednesday night. Heck, we might even be able to take a swim before the con starts!

We don’t have a lot of plans for this week, since we’re trying to save a small bit before the con. Mostly finalizing Anthrocon stuff, and clearing up the huge backlog we have on the Tivo (NINE episodes of Doctor Who? I need to get watching!)

Going to Anthrocon? Want To Lend A Hand? (and maybe get in for free!)

I am seeking staff to help out in Artists Alley/Con Store at Anthrocon 2006. Duties would include working as a cashier, assisting in artist logistics, and assisting with artist payout at the end of each day. While I would be happy to have the assistance of folks for just an hour or so here or there, if you put in ten hours you will receive a free Anthrocon T-shirt; put in fifteen hours over three days (if you’ll be there for setup and teardown that counts too!) you can earn both a T-shirt and a membership to Anthrocon. (For an idea of how things went last year, you can find my AA/CS report from last year here.)

If you’re interested, please drop me a line NO LATER THAN THURSDAY, MARCH 30 at duncan at wolfhusky dot org, or reply with a comment here.

-Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley Manager
Anthrocon 2006

Worthy of note…

If you’re planning on going to Anthrocon, note that the Westin Convention Center (the primary hotel) is now 75% full and rooms are going fast. The overflow hotel, the Omni William Penn, is right up the street, but reserving now means you can spend your con in air-conditioned (and non-rained-upon) comfort.

Edit: jadedfox notes that all doubles and queens have sold out for Wednesday night, so all that is left that night is king rooms (if you make a reservation that includes Wednesday night, you’ll be told they’re sold out of doubles and queens for all of the nights, even though they’re not.)

Remember that Anthrocon report I promised? Still coming. Eventually. Between trying to get back into the swing of things at work and continuing computer issues, a con report has gone to the back burner. I’ve made copious notes, though, and I’ll be writing something up, probably this weekend. I also still need to put together a final report on Artists Alley, and while it won’t be quite as exhaustive as my annual MFF Registration report (less numbers to play with 🙂 I’ve got a good bit to talk about.

And now, I go make dinner…

Made it home

Anthrocon was excellent. I will write up a full report (of my experiences and for Artists Alley as well) tomorrow. The flight home had no major mishaps, though our suitcase is now in the dumpster in the alley.

Also: I GOT THE JOB! I start Wednesday. More info on that tomorrow as well. For now: sleep.

Last Call For Anthrocon Artists Alley Help

I’m running into a bit of a pinch with staffing, so I thought I’d see if anyone in LJ-land would be willing to help…

I need help with Artists Alley Payout at Anthrocon. We’ve got a good number of folks but I need two or three more to really make things run smoothly. What’s involved? Just an hour to an hour and a half of your time on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday of Anthrocon, starting at 4:45 PM on Friday, 2:45 PM on Saturday, or 3:45 PM on Sunday. It’s pretty easy work – you’ll just have to do one small thing, like filling out receipt forms or adding up numbers on a calculator. What’s in it for you? Um, my gratitude, and the gratitude of the artists in Artists Alley for having expedited their payment. You can help each day, or only one or two days – any time you can spare would be appreciated! If you’re interested, you can comment here, or e-mail me at duncan at wolfhusky dot org. Thanks!

Anthrocon Planning, Continued

Plans for Anthrocon are continuing apace. We’re flying in on Thursday, July 7, arriving at PHL at about 11 AM. The train geek in me hopes it will be a nice day, not too hot, to we can take the SEPTA train in, but more likely we’ll be taking a shuttle to the hotel. We’ll be flying out on Monday afternoon.

An interesting note about the Wyndham Franklin Plaza: I know that Anthrocon didn’t have a lot of choice in what hotel they got this year, and I know it’s going to be a bit rocky. However, I was doing some research on tripadvisor.com and the reviews of the hotel are, ah, not good. Pretty bad, actually. Essentially, be prepared for an older hotel that, even though it had an update a few years back, clearly needs another one badly. From the reviews, it looks like the housekeeping service is spotty, but at least the customer service is generally good. As for restaurants, Shula’s Steakhouse gets rave reviews on Citysearch, but be prepared to pay $25-35 for a steak there. The Terrace Restaurant, the other restaurant in the hotel, is pretty much what you would expect of a hotel restaurant: breakfast and lunch only, OK food, prices about half again what you might pay elsewhere.

Why do I say all this? I’m not trying to deter anyone from going, or even from staying in the hotel. To be honest, a lot of this is exactly what was seen at the Adam’s Mark over the past few years. And besides, no one goes to Anthrocon to sample the delectable food in the hotel restaurant or to worry about getting their bed turned down every night – they go to see their friends and to have fun at the convention. And the hotel seems more than up to that. I guess what I’m trying to say is know what you’re getting into, and adjust your expectations accordingly. Hey, it’s a short-term solution, and next year will be much better.

The good news is that from what web-research I’ve been able to find, there’s plenty of places within walking distance for food, and if you’re driving then you’re good to go. I highly recommend a trick that we found a few years back at the Adam’s Mark after a long day of working the convention: get a couple of your friends together and order food in. It saves so much hassle and time, and you can spend more time with your friends. I plan to hit the concierge desk early on and grab a couple of delivery menus, if they have any.