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Picnic Success!

(Crossposted from )

The First Annual Midwest FurFest Summer Picnic was a resounding success! We cooked up 120 New York strip steaks, 8 chicken breasts, all sorts of fun appetizers, and everyone enjoyed lots of potato salad, green salad, banana pudding, and cookies. It was a hot day, too – we went through about 25 gallons of Gatorade and 15 gallons of water.

I hope that everyone had as good a time enjoying all the food as we did putting the event together. Congratulations to who won the Fan’s Choice award for the softball games, and with that a $50 gift certificate to Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood. Also, after everyone had eaten, we selected three names at random for prizes. Congratulations to and , who each picked up a free weekend night’s stay at the Westin Chicago North Shore and to Cale, who received a $50 gift certificate to Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood! (And I apologize for mispronouncing your name, Cale – twice! 🙂

This picnic was of course a volunteer effort. As such, a few thank-yous are in order. Thanks go out to:

  • , for working with us to make a special LAFF Softball into something even bigger.
  • Our hardworking cooks, including , , , , and
  • Everyone who helped with setup and teardown, including , , , , and some folks who I’m sure I’m forgetting (sorry!)
  • The Westin Chicago North Shore, for donating the prizes
  • The Hampton Inn and Suites Lincolnshire, for donating many cases of bottled water
  • And thanks to everyone who showed up and made it such a fantastic day!

has posted his pictures of the day. has posted his pictures as well. Do you have pictures from softball and the picnic? Tell us about it in the comments!

Thanks again to everyone, and we look forward to seeing you in November!

P.S. – For those who asked about volunteering at Midwest FurFest, you can find more information right here!

Updata

Whoa, what a crazy week. Work has had me slammed all week, and it will probably be more of the same into next week. Still, it’s manageable, just doesn’t leave a lot of time for things like LiveJournal updates.

Waaay back on Friday we met up with daveqat, linnaeus, perro and darkwolph to see the Pride Edition of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. It was a fun show, though not one of their best overall. We still had a good time. Afterward we walked over to Big Jones for what turned out to be a really enjoyable dinner. We worked our way through their cocktails menu, and my shrimp and grits was fabulous (if this sounds weird, imagine the grits being served more like polenta). Dan’s country fried steak was tasty as well, up to Heaven on Seven standards.

Saturday was pretty low-key. I went in to work in the morning, then that afternoon we had Paul, roho and genet over for dinner. We grilled up some steaks, chatted a good bit, sampled some mighty fine beers, and played the new Boom Blox game. And Sunday? On Sunday we didn’t do anything – just stayed in and relaxed. That was nice.

This week has been busy on the housing front. The home inspection for the new place was on Tuesday, and everything looked pretty good. There are a couple of exterior GFCI outlets that need to be replaced, but we’ll have the seller take care of that prior to closing. I’ll be meeting with our mortgage broker today at lunch to sign off on paperwork and hopefully secure as good a rate as possible.

Last night we got the letter we’d been expecting, a Notice of Motion to the Court of Lake County setting a trial date for the foreclosure of the townhouse we’re living in. The good news is that this is just another step in a long process, and the bank won’t take over the property for at least another four or five months – we’ll be long gone by then. The other good news is that in lieu of refunding our security deposit, our landlord told us we don’t have to pay rent in August. This is awesome!

In the meantime, planning is still going ahead full steam for the Midwest FurFest Summer Picnic, which right now has about 100 RSVP’s. Yikes! We’ll definitely have free strip steak for everyone (and some chicken breasts for non-beef-eaters); I’m working with a local caterer to figure out what the sides and desserts will be. I’ll be posting the menu next week as soon as we get it locked down.

And finally, there’s Anthrocon looming large on the near horizon. I need to deal with some items on my to-do list for that this weekend, and make sure that everything is ready to go. One advantage to having done this for so many years is that I’ve got lots of notes about things that need to be done before the convention. That will definitely save my sanity (what little I have left). OK, back to the grind!

Fine Potables Party at Anthrocon

I’m sad to say there won’t be one this year, for the first time in several years.

Between the stress of waking up early, working 12-hour days, and playing the gracious host, I realized that I wasn’t really enjoying the parties the way I used to. Additionally, takaza is basically going to be working second shift in his job with the convention, and he was the one who really helped make these happen – I wouldn’t want to host a party without him.

This makes me kind of sad, because I loved the company and it was always fun to find new and interesting (and tasty!) potables. But I also realized that the time spent hosting was time that I wasn’t able to socialize with my other friends who are hosting their own parties (I can think of several ongoing parties I’ve had to miss every year due to the conflict!). I’m hoping that by taking a break I can maybe be a little more social and enjoy the company of friends who I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. We’ll see how things go.

This is a low-activity weekend? I’m not doing it right.

I needed a laid-back weekend, and that’s exactly what I got! Both Saturday and Sunday I was able to just relax each morning, read the news, listen to some nice music, and enjoy my coffee. It was lovely! I even slept in a bit, which is unusual for me. Definitely it was something I needed to reset myself a bit after dragging horribly all last week.

On Saturday takaza and I checked out the site for the MFF Summer Picnic (on June 20 in Prairie Spring Park, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin). Nice fields, and the shelter is a bit cozy, but I think it will work. We also stopped to watch a neat Jet-Ski freestyle competition, part of the Great Lakes Watercross Tour.

As we were checking out the park, I got a text from fordshepherd. He, baja_hyena, and friends were doing a Wine Country tour and were right up in the area where we had toured last year. After hearing about their experiences at somewhat lackluster wineries, I suggested they check out Peju Winery, which was one of our favorites. Score! It sounds like that wound up being one of the best places they stopped at. Baja was also kind enough to send what sounds like a very tasty white port home with Ford for me, something that was very sweet and unexpected. Thanks again, Baja! 🙂

We capped off the day with a trip with linnaeus and Tom J. to the McHenry Outdoor Theatre to see Up. Wow, what a great movie! I really enjoyed it, and it was an amazing night to be out watching a movie – crisp, a steady breeze fending off the bugs, and a lovely wine and cheese spread to start the evening. Just a great evening. (Also, to paraphrase Nathan Fillion: How to test if your date is a robot. Take them to see Up. If they don’t cry, robot!)

Sunday, we met up with Paul, roho, and genet at BW3’s for lunch. R&G had just arrived from gypsypet and Charlie’s wedding in Charleston, SC. Lydia was on her thirtieth or so hour of being awake and was amusingly loopy 🙂 It was a fun lunch, and a nice spontaneous break in a very mellow day. We did a little shopping afterwards and picked up the new Boom Blox game (whee!). Later in the evening I made a batch of bagels for the week.

Then there’s this morning. Dan left for work at 5:45 AM as usual, but not long after I got a call: his car had died on the way to work. After I showered I drove down and kept him company while waiting for the AAA-summoned tow truck to show up. The truck didn’t show up until 9 AM, but that’s fine – it was nice to have the time with Dan. The car went to the Honda dealer in Gurnee, I dropped Dan off at home, since he can work from home, and came in to work. No diagnosis on the problem yet, but given that it sounded like it the engine was missing and losing power at 2,500 rpm+, I’m thinking it might be a computer issue, or maybe spark plugs, fuel injectors, or something else entirely. On the bright side, Dan’s car needed service anyway, including a fix to a sticky driver’s side door lock. I could have conceivably fixed that myself but taking apart the door looks like a bit of a nightmare.

So that’s about it right now. The rest of the week should be pretty boring, at least it will be once we get Dan’s car back. Fortunately he can commute by train if need be, so that makes the lack of a car somewhat less critical. Hope everyone has a great week!

EDIT: Sounds like the problem is the VTEC oil pressure switch, something that is apparently a common problem in 2003 Elements. It’s about a $250 fix, which isn’t too bad considering that (routine maintenance notwithstanding) Dan’s car hasn’t required any major work in years.