Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bowling Movies and Real Estate Lust

Busy times before, and busy times ahead! It was a very full weekend, but we had a lot of fun.

On Friday, takaza and I met up with roho and genet for dinner at Las Vegas Diner in Antioch, then retired back to their place to watch The Big Lebowski (with white Russians in hand, naturally). It was my first time seeing it, and it was every bit of what I have come to expect from the Coen brothers. I enjoyed it, even if it seemed like half of the movie’s scenes could have been cut and left the main plotline intact. We also made a quick run to Wal Mart and picked up some nice lamps for our new bedroom set. I really should post some pictures of it now that we have everything in place.

We were slow to get started on Saturday, eventually leaving the house a little before 5 PM to drive around and look at rental house possibilities. We’re not unhappy with where we are now, but we know that we could do better if we must rent (and we agreed that we’re at least a year away from buying). We looked at some nice places in Wauconda, then on our way back stumbled across this jaw-dropper of a rental house. 4,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths with an in-ground pool on 6.5 acres in a very rural setting. Holy cats! Even stranger is the fact that it’s an $850,000 house that they’re willing to rent for $2,500 per month. I swear, if Dan and I could find a couple of suitable roommates, we’d jump on that sucker in a heartbeat.

On Sunday, Dan stayed home to deal with some workstuff while I hitched a ride with Roho and Genet down to colliedoc and hypersnazz‘s place for Straif’s belated birthday party. A good time was had by all, and I was very happy that the homemade caponata that I made was well received. Straif cooked up some tasty chicken katsu and teriyaki burgers, and Genet’s bourbon chocolate torte was simply sinful. We headed out on the early side so I got to spend some time with Dan before turning in.

Monday it was back to the grind at work. I spent the evening catching up on Midwest FurFest projects, answering e-mails and putting the finishing touches on some projects. Things are really coming together well, and I’ve got high hopes for this year.

Looking ahead this week, we’re getting together with linnaeus, Roho and Genet tomorrow to finally watch The Amazing Race season premiere. Rumor has it we might be hosting a lion this weekend, then on Sunday is an in-person Midwest FurFest staff meeting at the Westin. I may not have time to sleep, but at least I’ll be kept busy…

Road trip to Cheeseland!

I’m still alive, and still around. Things are busy at work, where I’m juggling several projects, and at home, where it’s premiere season on the broadcast networks and finale season on cable, meaning there’s been lots of great stuff on like Burn Notice, Heroes, Eureka, and more. Still, I wanted to write about our amazing weekend.

On Saturday we drove up to Madison…

I’ve got a little project…

I’ve been kicking this around and while I have some ideas I don’t have the know-how to make it happen. This is a project for this year’s Midwest FurFest.

Imagine if you will: Your basic coat check at a hotel. Doors which fold open on either side of the opening, a counter about 3.5 feet off the ground. The top of the opening is about 7 or 7.5 feet off the ground. We need a light which can be either freestanding or perhaps clamp to the door (with suitable protection to keep from scratching the door). It needs to project out from behind the counter about 12-18 inches, high enough that no one walking by will hit their head on it. The light should flash, but it can’t be obnoxious, like a spinning strobe light. The light would be turned on and off from inside the coat check, so no fancy controls are needed.

I’m thinking something similar to a broadcasting studio “ON AIR” light, only one that says “VOLUNTEERS NEEDED”. Alternately (but not nearly as spiffy) a flashing light with a sign next to it that says, “Volunteers needed when flashing”.

Oh yeah, and I need one more thing: Someone to build it. Any takers? 🙂 You would be reimbursed for all materials used.

Midwest Furfest Announces Charity for 2008!

(Sorry for the spammy cross-post)

Midwest FurFest is pleased to welcome our charity for 2008: Rainbow Animal Assisted Therapy!

Rainbow AAT was founded in 1987 to assist the therapeutic needs of special needs children. Since their humble beginnings with just seven dog owners, Rainbow now service the city of Chicago and the surrounding six-county metropolitan area, operating over 75 programs and reaching more than 1000 children per month.

Among their many programs, Rainbow AAT uses trained and certified therapy dogs to help hospital patients with occupational/physical therapy, bedside and waiting room visitations, and in-patient and out-patient psychiatric therapy. The dogs also go to schools to help with special and remedial education, and to residential centers to help with recreational and group therapy. Rainbow also offers “Read to the Dogs”, giving a child a nonjudgmental environment and a willing and attentive listener, as well as classes designed to help children overcome their fear of dogs and to teach dog safety.

Another important program that Rainbow AAT offers is crisis response. After the terrible tragedy at Northern Illinois University earlier this year, several of Rainbow’s members took their dogs to the campus – not to perform, not to talk, just to be there for the students.

Rainbow Animal Assisted Therapy will have a table as well as several of their therapy dogs at Midwest FurFest. They will be showing off all the fine work they do, and will be happy to answer any questions you might have. They will also be presenting several panels to talk about various aspects of their organization. Don’t miss our Charity Auction, where the always-entertaining Uncle Kage will auction off donated items to help raise money for Rainbow AAT. To find out how you can donate items to the Charity Auction, see our web page at http://www.furfest.org/2008/mff2008-charity.html.

So that’s what it’s like to do nothing. How odd…

First off, thanks to everyone for their kind words in response to my last couple of posts. They are very much appreciated!

After a go-go-go summer with seemingly at least one day of every weekend busy, this has been a odd weekend. Yesterday was spent relaxing and watching football games. I also made a test install of Drupal on a spare laptop and tried to figure out how to configure it. Today was spent watching some movies* and napping in the afternoon. Through it all takaza has been a wonderful husband, making dinners and snuggling up with me on the sofa.

The bad news is that I have a strong suspicion that the strep throat has moved on and left me with bronchitis in its wake. That would explain the wracking coughing that leaves me breathless (what fun!). I intend to call the doctor tomorrow and see what, if anything, is to be done. In the meantime I’ll cuddle up with a nice dose of cough syrup and hopefully get a passable night’s sleep.

* Wilily Wonka with Johnny Depp – enjoyed it, even if they took significant liberties with the ending; Meet the Robinsons – hated it and turned it off 20 minutes in.

Sick at Home

Bleah. This cough is hard to shake, and it’s kicking my ass. The doctor has prescribed a teeny-tiny bottle of Hycodan, which is a good start. I’ll have to call tomorrow to get a refill on that to get me through the weekend. The syrup helps me get to sleep, though it tends to wear off by about 3 AM, which means I get to cough myself awake. Sleeping for the past few nights has been difficult. I left work at lunch today with the intention of relaxing at home, but I wound up just sleeping for four hours – a rarity for me, since I don’t usually nap during the day.

takaza is wonderful, of course. He bought a couple of teas for me to try, and now he’s making chicken and rice, which smells delicious.

I’m really glad that this weekend is going to be a quiet, relaxing couple of days at home. I need that.

They’re Not Cocktails, They’re Craptails!

The Ten Worst Drink Concepts of All Time

My favorite:
The D-Bomb
Meat from one ripe durian, cut in half, immersion blended with:
6 ounces vodka
6 ounces light rum
Juice of four limes

Spoon mixture into durian halves, each garnished with a gently used sock (recipe makes two sizable drinks).

Looking to step up the visual impact of your next Pacific-themed grilling party? Tap into the power of the biggest, baddest tropical fruit under the sun.

The sock garnish helps moderate the drink’s odor without in any way conflicting with the earth undertones of Abe Vigoda and capital punishment that make durian such an adventure. Switch up to pantyhose to set a classier tone, or dress the drink down with a sweat sock that has survived a grueling neighborhood game of b-ball!

Columbus, Part II

When last I wrote, we were looking forward to seeing what Sunday would bring during takaza‘s and my visit to Columbus, Ohio as we visited fordshepherd and kai_darkwolf. After a whirlwind day on Saturday, Sunday was a bit less busy, something for which I was quite grateful!

Following a nice, lazy morning we were joined by rayneepanda and the five of us ventured forth to North Market, a kind of farmer’s market/foodie paradise. With the exception of a parking lot that made me rather homicidal, I adored this place. I picked up a tasty Vietnamese sub (banh mi thit) for lunch from the Vietnamese counter, and then for dessert we had some of the amazing ice creams from Jeni’s Ice Cream. As tasty as the cherry lambic was, I opted for a trio of goat cheese with cherry compote, cucumber Piersporter, and wild berry lavender. Oh my gosh, it was so good!

Following a bit of uncertainty about what to do next, we opted to skip the crowds and traffic craziness at Easton Town Center and instead crashed back at Ford and Jack’s place and watched Little Miss Sunshine, a wonderfully twisted movie I had not seen yet. I really enjoyed it. Julie headed home shortly after the movie.

We wrapped things up with a delicious meal featuring garlic-rosemary-and-pepper-rubbed steaks, rosemary-infused mashed potatoes, and for dessert, a wonderful combination of creme fraiche with basil served over macerated fresh strawberries, as well as a molasses-banana pie. Ford claims he doesn’t know how to cook; I think he’s full of it 🙂 After dinner we relaxed for a few hours playing some Wii and winding down.

On Monday it was time to hit the road. We opted for a more scenic route home, through Van Wert, OH and Fort Wayne, IN. Shockingly, we ran into no traffic as we passed through downtown Chicago on our way home. We pulled in a few minutes before 6 PM, which left us some time to relax and start some laundry. Dinner was ordered from Olando’s, with a small pizza for Dan and a half-rack of barbecued ribs for me.

Thanks again to Jack and Ford for their hospitality! We had such a great time. Your dogs are awesome (I want to steal Pete!) and your house is fabulous – I’m afraid I now have bungalow envy 🙂 I hope that we have the opportunity to get back to Columbus again sometime soon!

Postcard from Columbus

takaza and I are halfway through a lovely weekend in Columbus, Ohio, staying with fordshepherd and kai_darkwolf. We were able to scoot out of Chicago earlier than expected, at about 11 AM on Friday. Traffic was surprisingly light and we made it to Columbus in less than seven hours. Because we are horrible guests, we surprised Ford and Jack with a call saying we would be earlier than expected, but they handled it with aplomb. After some pleasant chatting and a tour of their lovely house. It reminds me of how much I really loved my bungalow in Joliet, subsiding foundation, collapsed sewer tile, and all. For dinner we went to the Elevator Brewing and Draught Haus. The food was quite tasty, though the beer was somewhat lacking. The company more than made up for that, though. And yes, visiting their place reminds me that we need a dog(s), since I’m really enjoying being around Nathan, Pete, and the visiting Jazz.

Yesterday we had a somewhat early start as we met up with Rob and Dean (alas, I can’t recall Rob’s furry handle, but Dean is SeetherWolf) at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) and an entertaining tour of the CSI exhibit (“Darn, I left my syrup of ipecac at home!”). After wandering around a bit we adjourned for a tasty lunch at Ted’s Montana Grill where we amused our waitron muchly with silliness. The evening brought a great party with about 15 people, some truly amazing marinated and grilled pork tenderloins, and lots of beer. Life was good. I was amused to hear that Dan knows Dean from about ten years ago (and hey steviemaxwell – Dean says hi!). Furry fandom is indeed a small town. It was great to see some familiar faces (Alaskanwolf, kwik, truegrave9) and make some new friends.

As for today? Probably a lot more laid back. We’ll seek some lunch eventually, maybe meet up with Kwik, and there were rumors of going to see a movie. Maybe. Who knows? We’re having a blast, that’s all that matters. I’m keeping an ongoing gallery of the weekend, sure to be updated more as the weekend goes on.

On a more serious note, I’m keeping an eye on Hurricane Gustav. Even though my links to New Orleans are somewhat tenuous (a year and a half at Tulane University over twenty years ago), I still have wonderful memories of my time there. Genet, I’m keeping your family in my thoughts and I’m hoping everyone rides out the storm OK. The same goes for everyone who has those they hold dear who are in the storm’s path. After the terrible events of three years ago, I dearly hope that there were some good lessons learned and that those will be well-applied over the coming days.

Well, that’s a bummer

One of the very few nearby non-Starbucks coffee houses, Prairie Croissant Cafe (a play on the Prairie Crossing development) is closing its doors after this weekend. This is bad news because it was a nice island of crunchy enviro-friendliness in the boring suburbs, with a touch of French gourmet food. Alas, the timing wasn’t right and their business model just won’t work in the current economy. What a shame.

Mongolian, French Toast, and Long Island Iced Tea: Now That Was an Awesome Weekend!

Man, what a crazy few days, and this week is shaping up to be pretty crazy too.

After work on Friday, I sped out slightly early and picked up takaza at his employer in Buffalo Grove. Then it was a stressful drive through Friday rush-hour traffic down to Lisle, where we checked into the Hyatt Lisle. After a short break it was back into the car for a short drive to Bolingbrook and BD’s Mongolian Grill. There we met up with ottr, datahawk, feren, lady_curmudgeon, roho, genet, linnaeus, wyldekyttin, and unclevlad for a fun dinner and drinks. Alas, I agree with Dan – I am kind of over BD’s. For one thing, it seems that no matter what I do, everything I put together there ends up tasting the same. I’ll freely admit that’s my own fault. The drinks were pretty weak, too, which was unfortunate. Ah well, at least the company was good.

After dinner we retired back to the Hyatt with Roho, Genet, and Linnaeus and had a lovely swim before bed. On Saturday morning, the five of us had a delicious brunch at Juicy-O then went our separate ways. Dan and I stopped by perro and darkwolph‘s place to drop off some MFF stuff and we wound up talking shop for a bit.

Then it was off to Dan’s mom’s place to try to get her Wii hooked up to wi-fi. I’m not even sure if what we were trying to do can be done: She has a laptop running Vista with built-in wireless as well as a Sprint EVDO card connected via USB. We were trying to create a bridge so the wireless would receive the Wii signal and go out through the EVDO. No joy, though. Instead, she brought her Wii over to our place and we downloaded a bunch of older games for her. She left after a bit and Linnaeus arrived shortly thereafter.

After a bit of chatting we jumped in the car and drove up to Kenosha, where we met the crowd from the previous night (as well as several new faces) for dinner at Charcoal Grill. The phrase that pays is “half-price appetizers and drinks after 8 PM”. Holy cow! So good, and those Long Island iced teas had a kick!

On Sunday…we did nothing. And it was good. OK, actually, we finally showered late in the afternoon and went out to Target at about 7 PM to pick up a few groceries and things for the house.

And here we are back in the middle of the work week. I’m really looking forward to Friday – I just got the OK from my boss to take off early, so Dan and I will be leaving at noon or before for Columbus, OH, where we will abuse the hospitality of fordshepherd and kai_darkwolf. I have only a vague idea of what the plans might be, but I’m sure we’ll be in good hands. I promise to take lots of pictures 🙂

Apparently, I’m Less a Husky and More a Booze Hound?

Great googly moogly, it’s been a crazy seven days!

After work on Friday roho and genet came down and we grilled up some burgers and brats and celebrated the end of the week with a very tasty drink that included mango juice, pineapple rum, and Cointreau.

On Saturday I drove down to LAFF Softball while takaza worked on Anthrocon finance stuff. I had a great time hanging out with friends and generally socializing. After the game ramalion and I came back home to de-grungify, then Dan, Rama, and I met up with justincheetah and calapurr for dinner at Cooper’s Hawk Restaurant and Winery, which is located right in front of the Westin Chicago North Shore (MFF’s hotel).

We had a very tasty meal at Cooper’s Hawk; not quite the level of Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood, but better than Claimjumper. The price point is about the same as Claimjumper, too. I had the bacon-wrapped scallops, which came with a yummy mac and cheese and a fabulous mango salsa. I also found the wine to be surprisingly good – Cheetah and I ordered the “Red Wine Flight” ($12.95), 2 oz. pours of four of their popular red wines. Three were good, but their cabernet sauvignon, while OK, had some VERY non-cabernet flavors going on. When our waitress asked what we thought of the wines, I was candid in my appraisal. She surprised me with a sample of the cabernet sauvignon reserve, which I found to be excellent. She then brought Cheetah, Cala, and I samples of the oak-aged cabernet sauvignon (also gratis), but the reserve was by far the best of the night. The only downside of the place is that at peak times (like, say, on a Saturday night at 8:30 PM), it is extremely loud and crowded. Overall, though, it was a great meal and I look forward to going back. It will be a great addition to the Midwest FurFest Restaurant Guide, too.

On Sunday, we relaxed for most of the day and worked on Anthrocon stuff. In the evening we had the online Midwest FurFest staff meeting, where we covered a lot of useful topics. It’s coming up on Labor Day weekend, the point where people start to realize, “Oh crap! We have a convention to put on in less than three months!” and things really move into high gear.

Then came the work week. I had not one, but two projects moving into high gear this week. Both projects have involved a lot of time out on the production floor, and by the end of each day I’ve been exhausted. Today was a little different, since I spent most of the day in a mandated technical writing class, one of two. It was…yeah. As I observed to one cow-orker, “This is not the most productive use of my time that I can think of.” Tomorrow it’s back to the grind to wrap up one project and figure out some snags with the other. I’m looking forward to drowning my sorrows in Mongolian BBQ and good company tomorrow night, though!

To Everyone Who Was Swearing Airborne Was Great…

I hate to say I told you so, but…I told you so.

“Airborne, however, when used as directed does not prevent class-action lawsuits, charges of deceptive advertising — or, according to the government, the common cold.

“There is no credible evidence that Airborne products . . . will reduce the severity or duration of colds, or provide any tangible benefit for people who are exposed to germs in crowded places,” said Lydia Parnes, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, which filed a complaint against Airborne’s makers.

The remedy prescribed by the FTC is for Airborne to pay consumers back for as many as six purchases, a nationwide total of as much as $30 million.”

Will you be at Mephit Furmeet?

Unfortunately, time and expense will keep us away yet again this year, but if you can you should go to Mephit Furmeet! And while you’re there, you should lend ramalion a hand at Registration. Why? ‘Cause he’s a cool guy, and I owe him my soul for all the times he’s helped out at Midwest FurFest’s Registration and Anthrocon’s Artists Alley 🙂 Interested? Here’s how you can help.

Oh Yeah, Updates…

It’s Wednesday already? Wasn’t it just Wednesday last week? Man, someone should do something about these calendars.

So last weekend was halfway stress-free. On Saturday we had takaza‘s family over to celebrate his mother’s birthday, albeit belatedly. We all went together and bought her a Wii. She’s a big fan of old-school games like Zelda and Final Fantasy stuff, so the online purchase thing is nifty for her. Plus, we played Boom Blox and I think we sold his mother on the game as well as his brother on buying a Wii period. The damn game is like a virus, I swear.

On Sunday I carpooled with roho and genet down to meet with a prospect for our charity for Midwest FurFest this year (Dan went to see The Dark Knight with his family and worked on Anthrocon tax stuff). The meeting went extremely well and I hope to have an announcement on that front later this week. They’re very excited to work with us and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun and make them a lot of money. From there, we drove over to Linnaeus‘s place where we were joined by siriuswolfstar, simbalion, feren, and lady_curmudgeon. We all enjoyed an excellent dinner of burgers and tasty sausages (mmm, andouille!) and some excellent beers. It was a very enjoyable evening!

Work has been more than a little crazy of late. I just wrapped up a big project yesterday which is a big relief, though I’ve got another project next week that will take up all of my time for the first three days of the week. We’ve also had a slew of new hires and I’m helping out occasionally to get them settled as well.

This weekend should be fun – I’ll be at LAFF softball on Saturday to hang out and chat with folks. Not a lot of plans on Sunday, but we’ll wing it and see how things go.

I’ll leave you with two interesting links: If anyone is in Los Angeles and likes food and The Amazing Race, well, the Food Network is looking for you! Granted, being the Food Network, I’m sure they’ll take a good idea and screw it up royally.

Also, it’s about damn time. Anthony Bourdain has been touring around Chicago as he finally films an episode of No Reservations here. I don’t know most of the places he mentions, but I’m glad to see that one of the highlights will be Hot Doug’s, a true Chicago original. (Though I wonder about his choice of local guides. Mancow Mueller? Really?) Anyway, it should be a great episode when it airs.

For Sale: One iPod

So as I mentioned a while back, takaza bought me a fancy-shmancy iPod Touch (’cause he’s cool like that). This means that I seem to have two iPods, which is one more than I need. So here’s the deal: I’m selling a black 30 GB 5th Generation iPod Video for $125.00 or best offer, plus shipping. I’ll include the DLO Action Jacket that it’s been in since I bought it (arm band not included, ’cause it’s kind of dumb).

Interested? Let me know with a comment here or via e-mail. First reliable offer gets it.

Way Busy Weekend

Whoa. Been kind of quiet around here.

Work has been busy, and between that and Midwest FurFest planning I haven’t had too much to write about here.

Last week was linnaeus‘ birthday. We celebrated this by going out to one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago, Heaven on Seven. We carpooled down with roho and genet; Roho was kind enough to brave the horrid Friday traffic. the company made the time pass quickly, though, and we got there with time to spare. We were joined by simbalion, siriuswolfstar, and rustitobuck, and we had a very good meal. Not as awesome as usual (the halibut was only so-so, and the beef tips were served with an unfortunate Worcestershire-based sauce that was very like A-1 Steak Sauce), but the company and the very tasty drinks made up for it.

On Saturday I was up far too early to go in to work. We had some testing that needed to be done when the plant was not in production, and this was one of the few weekends we could do it. I got in at about 7:30 AM; by 9:30 AM the engineer we were working with had determined that the database he had prepared the upgrade files with was of a newer revision than the one on the production floor and that he had to completely revise his files. While he was doing that, I took off for home since there was nothing for me to do there. As I was leaving the parking lot I heard the dreadful “tick tick tick” sound of something lodged in one of my tires. A quick trip to the nearby tire store and a $30 repair later, I had the upholstery nail that had been lodged in my tire. Bleah. At 2 PM I got the call that they were ready to resume testing, and I went back in and worked until 6 PM or so.

Sunday morning was nice and lazy, which was pleasant and needed. At around 1 PM takaza and I drove down to steviemaxwell and magicpaw‘s place for a birthday party for Magicpaw and Linnaeus. Various folks were there and a fun afternoon of movies and games followed. We ducked out a little early to take care of our grocery shopping for the week, then came home and relaxed.

Back to the grind now. I’ve got a couple of projects going right now, one of which is in the process of wrapping up. The boss is out on vacation this week, so things aren’t too stressful. On my to-do list for tonight is to cut up the ten pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts we bought on Sunday ($1.59/pound!) so we can freeze it in smaller portions perfect for a single meal.

This weekend we’re hosting Dan’s family for a birthday BBQ for his mom; looks like the weather will cooperate so I suspect we’ll be grilling up some steaks. On Sunday there’s a possibility of another BBQ, but we need to see what the plans are there.

Midwest FurFest plans are slowly coming together. If you have mentioned to me that you were interested in volunteering and I haven’t yet directed you to someone, do please remind me because I have some departments in mind who could use a bit of a hand. We also have some loose plans percolating for Wuffmeet, especially on how to divide things up so Dan and I aren’t quite so stressed out the whole event.

Midwest FurFest August 2008 Newsletter

“On you huskies! North to Alaska!”

In This Issue:
* You Want Programming? We’ve Got Programming!
* An Update from the Hotel Liaison (Shuttles to the Overflow Hotel!)
* Can We Talk? Yes You Can, On The Midwest FurFest Forums
* Get Your Membership to Midwest FurFest Now!
* The Dealers Room Is Looking Good
* Great News from the Art Show
* Our Publications Editor Needs Your Help
* Midwest FurFest Loves Its Volunteers

Click Here to Read More

Lazy Sunday

(Narnia not included)

Wow, so this is what a quiet, lazy weekend is like. I haven’t seen one of these in a long time.

Since my last substantial post, not too much has happened. Work has returned to more normal stress levels, thank heavens. Takaza is finally feeling better – thanks to everyone for their kind words. Unfortunately, this is a chronic condition that can’t be cured, but can be managed. He’s working on finding a new doctor who will help him with that.

Meanwhile, on Monday I did join mongologue at one of the Chicago stops of his long, long road trip. Linnaeus, simbalion, and siriuswolfstar joined him for a fabulous dinner at Tre Kronor. Great company and delicious food.

On Thursday, roho and genet came over, ostensibly to go to the Lake County Fair. However, after evaluating exactly how much fun there would be available for an $8 admission fee, we instead opted to go to Vickie’s Place for a pleasant dinner right out on the Fox River. Dessert afterwards was from Oberweiss, which was expensive but tasty as usual.

Following a quiet Friday night in, I went over to my friendly local podiatrist to have one last ingrown toenail taken care of. This has left me gimpy and slightly grumpy, unfortunately. Dan’s mom came over for dinner last night and I’m afraid I wasn’t the most sociable, but Dan did grill up an excellent steak dinner with Syracuse salt potatoes and grilled onions and grilled corn.

And here we are at today. Dan is working on the final reconciliation of Anthrocon’s finances. I hope to add some small bit of help where I can as well. For the most part though, it’s just a quiet, pleasant afternoon.

Stressed Out

Due to a conjunction of a huge project at work hitting this week and a couple of personal projects happening this weekend, I’m pretty stressed out right now. Hopefully I’ll be able to write up last weekend’s doings (including working a 14.5 hour shift on Saturday) and Monday’s trip to see the Beach Boys at Ravinia. That’ll have to wait until next week, though – too much going on right now. If I seem a bit short when you IM me, I ask for your patience. I’ll be better next week, really!

2008 Anthrocon Artists Alley/Con Store Report

We came into Artists Alley and Con Store this year knowing it was going to be a big year. We had new cash registers, new staff, a new payout process, and an Alley that was 40% larger than last year. I am pleased to say that we met all of the challenges presented and created and Artists Alley and Con Store that was really great. Were we perfect? No, we hit some bumps along the way. But we have reached a point where we can stop creating processes and can start refining the processes.

Of course, I’m the spokesman for the department, and the most visible person in it. I am under no illusions that our success is all because of me. First off, I had help in all of the pre-planning, register programming, and process design from my husband Takaza. Once it came time to execute all of our plans, my staff jumped in and made it happen: Woody, Frostbite, Chanur and Grandma and Grandpa Kage all came back from last year, and were eager to go to work.. Shy Matsi, Rama, Dave (TecKnow), Delphi, and Space Dingo joined us this year and did a great job, as well. I want to single out Rooth, my de facto second in command (and next year it will be more than de facto!) for taking initiative to improve the Alley both before and during the convention and providing some outstanding technical know-how. Finally, we wouldn’t have been able to make AA/CS work without the help of Takaza’s Finance staff: Linnaeus, DaveQat, Tango, and Hartree. Thanks to all of you!

Now, let’s talk about the nitty-gritty:

Still Needing That Vacation From My Vacation

Anthrocon reports will continue, but a brief break to talk about the three-day weekend.

Isn’t it funny how what is supposed to be a relaxing weekend suddenly becomes a very busy one very quickly? We started things out well – I slipped out of work an hour early on Thursday and got to relax a bit at home. takaza and I stayed in, watched some Tivo, and generally relaxed. I packed it in relatively early, but Dan stayed up late doing some baking and watching some shows I wasn’t interested in.

Friday morning was rather pleasant. Not a whole lot going on, just chilling at home, chatting on Furrymuck, that sort of thing. We finally got going in mid-afternoon and drove down to justincheetah and calapurr‘s place in Lombard, where we were joined by dexcat and Dexgirl for a fantastic evening of good food and good company, capped off with fireworks just a few hundred yards from their back deck. We ended the evening watching Harry Potter Being an Angsty Teen, though I was falling asleep periodically through it. We crashed for the evening at the felines’ house.

On Saturday we made the pilgrimage to Juicy-O, which was fabulous as always. Dan and I drove home while Cheetah and Cala tended to some stuff at home. We were joined not long after by roho and Genet, then Cheetah and Cala again, and we all went to see Wall-E at the McHenry Downtown Theater. I think I prefer the Antioch theater (the same company owns both of them) – it seems a bit cleaner and more pleasant in general. The movie was very good. Not quite a Pixar masterpiece like Ratatouille, but still a fun and enjoyable movie. Afterwards we lazed around our place while Dan cooked up some burgers. We also introduced Cheetah and Cala to Boom Blox 🙂

Sunday was a big day – we were supposed to be testing recipes for the LAFF Softball Picnic coming up on June 19th. Roho, Genet, steviemaxwell, and linnaeus joined us to help pick apart the recipes, discuss improvements, and generally refine things overall. They were all a huge help in preparation and cleaning as well, something for which I am very grateful! We came up with this menu:

  • Asian mixed green salad with baby bok choy, scallions, and snow peas, tossed with a sesame vinaigrette and toasted sesame seeds
  • Potatoes with kosher salt, Tellicherry pepper, and garlic, grilled in foil
  • Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, brined and wrapped in thick-sliced bacon, grilled to perfection
  • Grilled Arrachera (marinated skirt steak) tacos with corn or flour tortillas
  • Old-fashioned pound cake served with a raspberry coulis and fresh whipped cream
  • Fudgy Texas chocolate cake with (or without) toasted pecans

Right now we’re cooking for 40, but we’ll see how many RSVP’s finally come in (need to RSVP? You can find information on the picnic and RSVP instructions here). Given how stuffed everyone was at the end of the meal, I think we’ve got a winning menu put together, and it’s manageable for the number of people that we’re talking about. Given that the only facilities we’re going to have is coolers, some tables, and a five-foot-by-two-foot charcoal grill, our options are somewhat limited but I don’t think this shows in the above menu.

And now it’s Monday and I’m back at work. Booo! Still, there’s a ton of stuff to be done today so I need to get started on those…

Anthrocon 2008 Report, Part 1: Preparations, Tuesday, and Wednesday

Yes, it’s time for another one of Duncan’s exhaustive, verbose Anthrocon reports! This is the personal report; I have the “official” department report outlined. I’ll get that written up and posted by the end of the week.

I’ll preface this by saying that my Anthrocon reports (both personal and departmental) are long and detailed. This is mainly for my own benefit, as it’s very handy to look back just before the convention at past reports for reminders of what we did in prior years, what worked, what didn’t, and handy things like which pizza joints were good and which were not. Feel free to read along, though!
Preparations and Tuesday – The Drive Out

And We’re Home

We rolled in about an hour ago. Unpacked what needed to be unpacked, and we’re relaxing now. takaza is blessed with more vacation each year so he’s taking tomorrow off. Lucky me, I get to go in to work tomorrow. It’s gonna be a long day.

Heading Home From Anthrocon

Anthrocon was a huge success. $40,000 paid out to artists in Artists Alley. All that preparation, worrying, and stress paid off as the Alley worked flawlessly. My staff was top-notch and I spent the weekend much more relaxed than in past years.

We’re already making plans for next year, of course. The biggest change: Never mind Hall C, we’re going to be in Hall B. That’s twice the size of Hall C. Great googly moogly. Rooth and I have worked up a short (ha!) list of improvements for next year, too.

We left Pittsburgh at 1 PM ET; we’re just east of Toledo now. With luck we’ll be home by 9 PM CT.

Thanks so much to everyone who made this such a great year. Exhaustively detailed report(s) to follow, naturally.

Good AC so far

It’s 7:30 AM an I’m at Steel City Diner enjoying some chocolate chip pancakes and coffee. Yesterday went well – stupendously, actually. We paid 50% more artists than last year in half the time it has usually taken on Fridays. Over $18,000 has gone to the artists so far, and much more to come today and tomorrow. I am fortunate to have a kick-ass staff that is helping to make this all happen, and Takaza and his staff are doing amazingly well too. Here’s hoping today rocks as much as yesterday!