Fifteen Years Later

Once upon a time there was (and still is) a science fiction convention in the Chicago suburbs called Duckon. At that convention, starting in the early 1990’s, a series of panels and events centered around the furry fandom was established; it became known as the Furry Track, one of several programming tracks at Duckon. Over the years, the Furry Track grew and grew, through the efforts of Robert King and many others, until those attending just for the Furry Track represented a good-sized chunk of the convention, several hundred people.

I moved to the Chicago area in 1998, and attended Duckon. I made a lot of great friends there, and got active in the local furry group, Lake Area Furry Friends (LAFF). After attending the convention, I piped up on the LAFF mailing list that with the success of the furry track, we had the momentum to start our own convention! I outlined a few different approaches we could take, and what might be necessary to start the organization. I was quickly told to shut the hell up, but only because there was a group of folks that was already well underway in planning just such a thing. (My now-husband Dan was part of this group; he remembers that email and wondering, “Who the hell is this guy? We’re already working on this!”)

That was in 1999. The rest is history. Midwest FurFest made its debut in 2000. In the years since, I’ve been Registration Director, Convention Chairman, and, since 2010, Hotel Liaison. I have been a member of the Board of Directors from the beginning, and besides Robert, I am the only other founding Board Member still serving. I have made many, many new friends, and unfortunately damaged and lost a few friendships along the way. I was fortunate enough to meet and fall in love with my dear husband. We celebrated our Commitment Ceremony on Sunday night of Midwest FurFest 2001, and our Renewal of Vows/Civil Union in 2011. Midwest FurFest has been the home of some of the happiest moments of my life, and I am incredibly proud of what we have created. An ever-growing attendance of 4,000+ is an endorsement of that creation.

Over the years, though, the time commitment has risen. What started as “Oh, it’s Labor Day – I suppose we should start planning the con” has become a 14+ month cycle of organizing an incredibly complicated organization that takes 200+ volunteer staffers and another 50-60 on-site volunteers. The last few years have had me working more on convention-related work than the work I’m paid to do in the last month before the convention. I’m spread thinly – not only am I the Hotel Liaison, but I am also the Social Media Manager, Webmaster, Department Lead with several departments reporting through me, and general guy-who-does-stuff-that-needs-doing. I’m not complaining, mind you – I undertook all of this willingly, and for the most part I enjoy what I do. I am proud that the convention Twitter account has a personality, and has a reputation for its sense of humor and responsiveness. I have an incredibly talented and dedicated Hotel Liaison staff who are all a genuine pleasure to work with.

After fifteen years, though, the time has come to say, “Enough.” The convention work is taking too much time out of my life, the worries and stresses from January to December are making me cranky and unpleasant to be around, and I feel like I’m not bringing much in the way of new ideas to the party. I need a break.

After this year’s Midwest FurFest, I’m stepping back. I’m resigning from the Board of Directors and I will not have a management position. I will not be a part of pre-convention planning. Am I going away? Absolutely not! The drive to create and to help is still there, but it needs to be redirected. Tentatively, I will be helping Dan as Assistant Guest of Honor Liaison next year. I hope to also act as a consultant where I can, providing some institutional knowledge when questions come up. And in the future…who knows? I may get more involved in Midwest FurFest, or another convention, or…the possibilities are endless. But it is time for a change now.

I hope to see many of our friends at this year’s convention, which for me starts in just a few hours, when I show up at the hotel. This is going to be an amazing year – the date change, though difficult, means that we have much more time to set up, and will result in a happier and more effective staff, which I believe will make for a better convention overall. Wish us luck!

On the Topic of Furry Connection North

Furry Connection North has declared that they are closing their doors. Now, I’ll preface this by saying that I am fortunate enough to count several of the senior staffers and board members as friends, and so am probably somewhat biased in that regard. I will also state, though, that after 13 years of Midwest FurFest and 22 years of working in fandom volunteer organizations, I have some insight into how these organizations work.

What I find galling and simply jaw-dropping are the few (and fortunately I can say VERY few) people who have said, “Why didn’t they ask me to take it over before closing the convention? I would have helped!” Here’s the problem: you didn’t step up. The time to be saying this is not now. The horse has left the barn, and the barn has burned down – a little too late to shut the door.

To use another analogy: If someone wants to borrow your car, are you going to give it to someone you don’t know who just approaches you off the street? Or are you going to lend it to someone you know and whose actions you have observed and can say that they are trustworthy? You could have been on that staff. You could have stepped up and volunteered a year ago, two or three years ago. You could have shown that you were responsible and been promoted within the organization. THAT’S HOW IT WORKS.

For someone to show up now, when they had the opportunity to volunteer before, and complain that the FCN board won’t simply turn the convention and its assets over to them is the height of hubris. Don’t complain that no one ever asked you to help. The convention accepted volunteers every year in Operations. I know – I worked there for a few years. No, you did not get an engraved invitation. No, you were not invited to run the Sponsor Lounge your first year. They might have even just asked you to help haul equipment. You start at the bottom, and you work your way up. And if doing grunt work is distasteful to you? You shouldn’t be running conventions. Because someone has to do it, and when no one else is around, that’s someone is going to be you.

Ranting aside, there is something here to be learned from every member of furry fandom (heck, from all kinds of fandoms): If you have an event that you love that is run by volunteers, step up! Offer to help. Even if it’s just checking badges at a door for a few hours. Don’t assume that “someone else will do it.” Because eventually, there will be no “someone else”. And that event that you love? That’ll be gone.

Where to Go At Walt Disney World

Last night we put the call out to the interwebs: “We’ll be at Walt Disney World Dec. 1-4. For you Disney fans: If there’s one thing you think we must do/see while we’re there, what is it?” We got a lot of fantastic suggestions, including (links added for future reference):

That seems like a good list to start with, but if anyone else has further suggestions, we’d welcome them! Additionally, our travel agent, TC, suggested a great book Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World 2012. Dan picked this up on iBooks last night and it looks like it has a ton of useful info.

(Side note to anyone who has ever accused me of overplanning our vacations: After looking at some of the Disney websites, reviews, and guides, I have to say that these people make me look positively relaxed and easygoing! 🙂

LASIK Update – A Bump in the Road

This morning I had a followup appointment with my eye doctor. He had noticed some minor stria (stretching) in the flap in my right cornea in my exam last week and wanted to see how that was healing.

So the good news is that my vision in both eyes right now is 20/30. The bad news is that it should be better than that. My left (dominant) eye is healing perfectly and objectively everything looks great. The doctor is somewhat mystified why my vision is not better in that eye, but we agreed to let it continue to heal and see if it improves over time.

My right eye is definitely weaker than my left, and the doctor is further concerned that the stria could be affecting my vision there. I left with instructions to up the antibiotic eyedrops I’ve been using from twice a day to four times a day. On Wednesday I will go back to his office and he will lift and reset the flap in my right cornea, a quick office procedure, I’m told.

I’m not really happy about these issues, but I want to stress that my vision is still pretty good and I’m not having any second thoughts about the surgery. The human body is a fantastically complex system, and the process of “damaging” that system and allowing it to recover (heal) is not a sure process. Both my doctor and I believe that my vision will continue to improve; in fact, he mentioned that he feels that the aforementioned presbyopia we thought was imminent may have been pushed back by several years due to the surgery.

Fun times, but that’s the way it goes. More updates as warranted…

LASIK + 7 Days: A Status Report

Seven days ago I underwent LASIK surgery. Here is an update on how things have gone since. (A report of my initial experiences can be found here.)

I wisely chose to spend most of last weekend indoors. Although I’m not having a lot of light sensitivity, I decided to err on the side of caution. I picked up a pair of cheap wraparound sunglasses from Amazon and those served me reasonably well when I ventured out to walk Buddy. For the most part, though, I stayed inside and took it easy.

On Monday I returned to the doctor’s office for a checkup again, as my distance vision had been good, but not quite where it should be on the Friday before. This was much better. Interestingly, although things were a trifle blurry when I covered one eye and tried to read the smaller print on the eye chart, when a diffraction grid (piece of plastic was many small pinholes) was placed over my eye, everything snapped into focus nicely. This is how the doctor differentiates between problems due to an inaccurate prescription cu into the corneal flap and deficiencies due to the eye needing to heal more. In this case, my prescription is perfect, my eye just needs more healing time.

At work, things have been pretty good. I haven’t had to expand fonts or zoom in on documents. I have a 22″ monitor that I have about 18″ away from my face right now (I’ll be moving that back as things progress). My 14″ laptop screen is about 30″ away from my face and I need to lean in to read that still. My friend Jet had an excellent suggestion, though – once an hour (or so) I try to turn my attention away from the computer and let my eyes relax some – walk to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or just close my eyes for a few minutes.

The other thing that I’ve noticed is that I am definitely having “good eye days” and “bad eye days,” as demonstrated by my consumption of eye drops. My doctor has been kind enough to supply me with 30 boxes of Refresh Optive eye drops (each box contains 5 plastic vials, and each vial is good for about 3 uses). On a “bad day” I’ve found that I may go through 10 vials, applying drops every 15-20 minutes. On a “good day” I’ll use half of that. Because the free samples will only last so long, I have ordered a couple of bottles of Systane Ultra eye drops from Amazon. The price is a little less than the Refresh Optive, but from my research it appears that Systane is slightly better at relieving dry eyes. I expect to continue to have good and bad days for the next 4-6 weeks, but it’s a minor annoyance compared to the overall improvement of vision I have after the surgery.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is the eye guard that I’ve had to wear each night while I sleep. Imagine something like goggles, held on by an elastic strap that goes over your head. For the last week I’ve slept rather poorly because this guard tends move around on my face and requires re-seating every so often. It’s been a minor annoyance, but nothing debilitating. The good news is that I only have to use that for a week, so tonight will be the last night with it, and then I’ll be done.

The purpose of the eye guard, of course, is to prevent you from rubbing your eyes while you sleep. I had a heart stopping moment a few days ago when I woke up, removed the eye guard, and rubbed my eyes. Waaaaugh! Fortunately, there was no harm done, but man that is an unpleasant way to wake up! It just goes to show that you have to think about what you’re doing whenever your hands go near your eyes, even if you’re only half-awake!

I have another follow-up appointment with the eye doctor on Monday, and I’m expecting to see even more improvements then. I’ll be sure to post more updates as time goes on!

Tom’s Big LASIK Adventure

Or, “How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Laser”

About 65 hours ago from when I started writing this post, my vision changed rather radically. Some backstory first:

I started wearing glasses when I was three years old. For the last 41 years I’ve always worn glasses of one kind or another, save for a stint of about a week in my mid-20’s when I attempted to wear contacts…and failed. I never mastered that whole “putting your finger in your eye” thing, unfortunately. I wouldn’t say I’m phobic about things touching my eyes, but I am certainly extremely uncomfortable about it. I don’t know what my vision was without my glasses specifically, but I was very nearsighted – anything more than 18″ away was a blur, and after six feet it was just hazy, indistinct shapes.

About five years ago, Dan and I started talking about LASIK for me, first as a 40th birthday thing, then as an ongoing possibility as we got our finances in order. This year we finally decided to pull the trigger.

Continue reading →

Orlando Vacation / Bahamas Cruise!

Once upon a time, we announced that we would be taking a cruise in December, 2012. Well, following some changes in plans and some freeing up of vacation days available, the trip has morphed into a NINE-DAY VACATIONPALOOZA!

OK, maybe that’s a little overstated. However, what we have now is a four-and-a-half-day extended weekend in Orlando, Florida, followed by a four-and-a-half-day Bahamas cruise/weekend in Miami. We would like to invite folks to join us for one or the other or both!

Here are the specifics:

On November 30, 2012, we will fly into Orlando right after work. We will be staying there through Wednesday, December 5. Our accommodations will depend on how many people will be joining us. If just a few (or none) we will probably get a hotel room, but if we can get at least a few more folks we can look into a vacation rental house/townhouse. This will drop the cost per night way, way down, plus we can cook a couple of meals ourselves and save some money on food. We will also definitely be renting a car while we’re there.

What will we be doing in Orlando? Well, I hope that we will be able to look up some of our friends down there and at least say hi! We’ll be visiting one or more Disney parks, and for Disney geeks the coolest thing is that as a Siemens employee Dan can get a limited number of tickets into Base21, the Siemens-owned meeting area/lounge located in Spaceship Earth. In addition to Disney, we will also want to go to Universal Studios, as well as other nifty things to see in the area. Note that December 1 is Dan’s 36th birthday, so we’ll be sure to do something special that day!

On Wednesday morning we’ll pack up and head out early for the Port of Miami. There we will board the Celebrity Reflection for a three-night cruise to the Bahamas (ship info: http://goo.gl/Vl2hC and cruise info: http://goo.gl/MF7HI). This cruise will be the inaugural Caribbean cruise of the Celebrity Reflection, which launches in October, 2012. Not only will it be a spiffy new ship, it will be the biggest and most modern ship in Celebrity’s fleet. The ship will visit Coco Cay, Bahamas and Nassau, Bahamas, and then will return to Miami at 8 AM on Saturday, December 8.

So, what will the cruise cost? Well, that all depends on your accommodations. An interior cabin is cheaper than a balcony room which is cheaper than a suite, naturally. We’ve worked up a spreadsheet to help you estimate the expenses and see how it fits with your budget. You can find it at: http://goo.gl/3r74q

Once the cruise is over, well, plans are a little up in the air. Depending on airfares it may be cheaper to go back to Orlando and fly home from there, but if possible we’d like to explore Miami a bit and fly home from there. We’ll see how plans work out once we know who’s with us and what they might be interested in.

So we have two awesome vacations (or one big vacation), and we would love to share the fun times with friends. Who wants to join us?

Midwest FurFest 2011

Oh my goodness, what a convention. It scares me to think that Midwest FurFest 2011 was my 12th MFF – twelve years of doing this. Yikes.

This was also my second year working as Hotel Liaison with the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. In one sense it was easier but in another it was a little more difficult – I knew the lay of the land and what my proper role should be, however a few months before the convention we were surprised by the sudden resignation of our hotel contact (to go to the Hyatt Regency Woodfield, ironically). Our new contact, Matt, was promoted from Meeting Concierge (who work with meeting organizers the day of the meetings to make sure they have what they need) to Convention Services Manager (who work with meeting organizers before and during the convention to nail down all of the little details).

I won’t lie – I made Matt earn his keep, but he did very well. I filled his inbox with emails and lists (and lists, and lists of lists). He put up with me and my special OCD tendencies, and I think that between us we totally rocked the convention preparations. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, mainly in convention preparations and scheduling stuff that the average attendee never sees, but I’m sure that we’ll do even better next year.

I know better than to try to list things day by day, because honestly by now it’s all a blur. What did my days consist of? Up at 7 AM, shower, check emails and monitor Twitter/Facebook. 8 AM, check with Security and other departments to make sure no one burned down the hotel overnight. Check in with Gir or Cheetah to make sure they were good for their shift. 9 AM – 10 AM, morning meeting over breakfast with chairman and staff leads to discuss any convention-wide issues or problem children. Check social media again, respond to any queries/issues there. Hit the floor and start the rounds of the hotel, checking in various parts of the con and making sure everyone was happy. Put in a shift or two as Hotel staff on call. Check social media. Get lunch around 3 PM, typically a quick bite from the staff lounge. Roam some more, check social media, then a real dinner. Go off duty around 7 or 8 PM (unless I was on call for the night). That about sums it up.

I had two fine folks helping me out in this craziness: Gir and Cheetah. This was Cheetah’s first year on Hotel staff and Gir’s second, and both of them did utterly fantastic jobs. It is awesome to know that I have people whose judgment I trust and I can utterly rely on to just make it all work. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re both awesome friends!

Somewhere in the middle of all of this (Friday night, to be specific), Dan and I celebrated the ten-year anniversary of our commitment ceremony with a Renewal of Vows and Civil Union ceremony (now that CU’s are legal in the state of Illinois). It was an amazing event, with scores of our friends joining us. We had a beautiful cake for the occasion, and Matt from the Hyatt surprised us with a huge tub filled with ice and bottles of champagne. I know that several folks took video of the ceremony, and we have a ton of pictures to post as well. And after the whole event, we had one hell of a party! It was a great night for us both, and I was so glad to spend it with so many friends.

The rest of the convention went extremely well, and as always we succeeded in making our charity cry. The convention attendees raised around $6,000 for them, and the convention was able to add a check for $12,500 on top of that. I have to admit that I always love that part of Closing Ceremonies! Once the convention was all taken down and stowed for the night, we retired to our room for a final shindig where we welcomed a small number of friends to join us. Nothing too crazy, but a really nice way to wind things down.

So now we take a break, rest and recuperate. The ideas are already flowing for next year, and it’s safe to say that I don’t see us as a convention resting on our laurels any time soon.

The Proposal (Ten Years Later)

Oh yes, there was one more very important thing that happened on the cruise. I am a terrible husband for not mentioning this sooner, and for that I deeply apologize to takaza.

The first night of the cruise, we gathered with some of our friends in our room after dinner. It had been a long day, I was tired (and a bit sweaty and a mess). All of which explains why I look so horrible in these pictures:
The Proposal 1The Proposal 2
Many thanks to rustitobuck for these pictures!

Dan and I have been together since 1998, and we celebrated our commitment ceremony on November 18, 2001. This cruise was, in part, to commemorate our tenth anniversary. That first night of the cruise, Dan knelt on one knee and popped open a ring box to reveal a lovely simple white gold band. He asked me if I would renew our vows on the tenth anniversary of our first commitment ceremony. And so it will be that on Friday, November 18, 2011 at Midwest FurFest we will have a small ceremony to renew our vows and officially join in a civil union in the state of Illinois. Expect one hell of a party to follow in our room that night 🙂

Did We Mention That We Like Cruises?

The final travel announcement we have this week is a two-fer. As you know we recently completed an Alaskan cruise. The downside of this is that…we’ve been bitten by the cruising bug. We had so much fun that we want to do it again. To that end, we have not one but two cruises planned. Don’t worry, we’re making these announcements way early so you have time to start planning and saving if you’re interested. Here’s what we have in mind:

First up: A 3-night cruise to the Bahamas – December 5, 2012 through December 8, 2012!

This cruise will be the inaugural Caribbean cruise of the Celebrity Reflection, which launches in October, 2012. Not only it be a spiffy new ship, it will be the biggest and most modern ship in Celebrity’s fleet. We’re proposing that folks fly to either Fort Lauderdale or Miami on the evening of Tuesday, December 4, and spend the night in the area. On Wednesday we’ll make our way to the Port of Miami and board the ship sometime after 10 AM. The ship will visit Cococay, Bahamas and Nassau, Bahamas, and then will return to Miami at 8 AM on Saturday, December 8. We’ll spend the night in the area then fly home on the next day.

So, what will all this cost? Well, that all depends on your accommodations. An interior cabin is cheaper than a balcony room which is cheaper than a suite, naturally. We’ve worked up a spreadsheet to help you estimate the expenses and see how it fits with your budget. You can find it at: http://goo.gl/3r74q

Interested? Leave a comment here or contact us by other means and we’ll add you to the list of interested folks.

The second cruise is even further out, but we wanted to make mention of it now to get it onto people’s radars. We loved Alaska so much, we are going to going back there in July of 2013. We don’t know what ship just yet (though there’s a good chance it will be the Celebrity Millennium) or what the itinerary will be, but as that comes available we’ll be sure to spread the word.

Group Trip 2012!

It’s that time again! No, it’s not time to butter the cats, it’s time to talk about travel. In past years we’ve made some amazing trips: Napa Valley, Pacific Northwest, Montreal, and Alaska. For 2012, we’re planning an awesome extended weekend and we would like to invite our friends to join us. We’re going to NEW ORLEANS!

Plans are still being worked out, but the idea right now is that the trip would be from March 1, 2012 through March 6, 2012. We would fly into New Orleans on the evening of Thursday, March 1, and fly out the afternoon/evening of Tuesday, March 6. We will be staying in a hotel in downtown New Orleans. We’re going to try to incorporate some of the things that everyone loved about cruising into this trip. This means that while we’re all staying in the same place, meals and activities will be on an a la carte basis – if you want to join the group, great! If you want to go off an do your own thing, that’s great too.

Plans for the trip are still rather vague right now, but will be nailed down as time goes on. You can be certain that we’re going to be eating a lot of really good food and enjoying some tasty booze. We will probably have a couple of native guides (including Genet’s brother, an officer with New Orleans Police Department), and will have the opportunity to see parts of the city and its surroundings that your average tourist doesn’t get to see.

The nice thing about the a la carte approach is that you can RSVP as long as airfare and hotel rooms are available – we’re keeping things flexible! We will need to know who’s going with us, though, so we can possibly negotiate for group discounts and such.

So now it’s your turn: Are you interested in joining us? Leave a comment here or contact us by other means and we’ll add you to the list of interested folks!

Wuffcruise 2011 – Part 2

(Picking up our story where we left off, on Thursday afternoon)

After a couple of beers, we walked back to B&B and relaxed a bit, joined not long after by Dan and company. Soon, it was time for dinner, so we walked back downtown to Glacier Brewhouse. This is a noted restaurant in Anchorage, a huge and busy place. We managed to secure private dining room which worked very well for us. Our group was joined by Plonq, Atara, and Rustitobuck. We enjoyed a great meal and great beer, and then we closed out the night with a walk back to B&B.

Friday, May 27
Everyone was up bright and early. At 9:30 AM, the B&B was kind enough to haul us and our luggage in their van to the Anchorage Marriott, which was only 6 blocks away. Check-in for the cruise was easy, only taking 15 minutes. We left Dan and Atara at hotel and the rest of us walked over to Snow City Cafe, where we were joined by Foxfeather and Mbala to bring our full group to 18 strong. Breakfast was quick and quite delicious! We finished up just in time to head back to hotel. Our group was split between two buses. The buses took us to the airport, where we caught the Celebrity Cruises train to Seward, our eventual embarkation location. Seward is approximately a 3-hour’s drive or a 4.5-hour train trip from Anchorage.

The tour guide/waitress in our car was extremely friendly and gregarious, and was always full of useful information. Unfortunately, Roho, Genet, Rhene, Rasslor, Brophey, and Karwood were not so lucky. They were two cars back, and their guide/waiter was less chatty, and their rail car was quite raucous and loud.

We took a lot of great pictures on the trip, but I have to say that after about three hours I was ready for the trip to end. If it were my choice in the future, I’d prefer to drive to Seward, or at the very least take the bus.

We arrived in Seward at 5:30 PM. Embarkation was painless. We had accelerated boarding since we were in a suite, although those in Concierge Class had it easy as well. Surprisingly, to board the ship we had to go through a screening similar to airport, though with less the irradiation and/or groping. We had no problem going straight to our room once we were on the ship, since we arrived relatively late.

We dropped our carry-on bags in our room and went off to tour the ship. We started off at the top of the ship and worked our way downward. Two decks in, we found the Riviera Bar by the pool and started out with the first drink of the cruise, a Long Island Iced Tea.

This is a good time to talk about one of the really nifty parts of the cruise: the Premium Beverage Package. What a great deal! It costs about $50 per day, but keep in mind that only (weak) coffee, water, and juice (mornings only) are free on the ship – everything else costs. Espresso drinks, sodas, and of course alcoholic drinks typically cost between $5 and $10 each. You can see how it quickly adds up! Additionally, there’s the question of convenience – how much is it worth to you not to have to worry about expense every time you order something? Sure, it’s part of the marketing, but it’s very true.

All that walking was thirsty work, so I picked up another drink along the way and then it was down to the Rendezvous Lounge on Deck 4 to secure seats for the muster (formerly lifeboat drill). This is much more streamlined than in the past. There were no life jackets, just a presentation by the crew along with shipwide announcements by the Cruise Director. The whole thing was over in 15 minutes, and then it was back to the room to unpack. We met up with the rest of our group for dinner at 8:30 PM in the Metropolitan Restaurant, the main dining room of the ship. Although you can choose “Select Dining”, where you show up whenever you want and they seat you at the first available table, we opted for “Traditional Dining” for our group. This meant that we had dinner every night at 8:30 PM, but had the benefit of having the same tables and the same waiters every night. This was a very nice arrangement for us and I’d be all for it the next time we cruise.

Next up: The Fast Wrap-Up of the Cruise!

Wuffcruise 2011 – Part 1

So, a long time ago (back in April, 2010) we started to plan a cruise to Alaska. Last month, it was time to make it happen!

We left on Wednesday, May 25. takaza and I worked a half-day, and then his mom was kind enough to drive us to Milwaukee Airport (and keep an eye on Buddy while we were gone). We had a 2:10 PM flight on Frontier Airlines, our first time flying with the carrier. We upgraded our seats to “Classic Plus” on all legs; it was probably too expensive, but it was worth the perks, especially guaranteed seating in the “Stretch” section of the plane. Four inches doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can make all the difference in the world when you’re flying 8 hours! Among other benefits, we were able to use the “Best Care Club” at Milwaukee Airport while waiting for our flight, and we had priority boarding, which was utterly awesome since it meant we were usually the first passengers to set foot on the plane (yay for always having overhead bin space!).

The 2.5 hour flight to Denver was uneventful. I liked the DirecTV at each seat; it distracted me enough through our flights that I didn’t use the iPad that Rustitobuck had so kindly let me borrow for the trip. Once we got to Denver, things looked bad – first our flight to Anchorage was delayed a little, then a lot, then back to on time. It turns out that our plane (which was coming from Chicago, irony of ironies) had a mechanical problem, so they provided us with a new plane.

The five-and-a-half hour flight to Anchorage was fine, but a little long. The Anchorage Airport was OK as well, though it seemed a bit of a maze to the unfamiliar traveler. We took a cab to our accommodations: Earth Bed and Breakfast. On the way, we passed a crowded park filled with people walking around and enjoying the lovely weather…except it was 10 PM and as bright as if it were 3 PM.

So, how was our stay at the B&B? I’m going to cheat and copy the review that I posted to TripAdvisor, since that covers everything.
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How can I give a high rating and yet not everyone in our group enjoyed our stay? It’s very simple – our expectations and reality were different. I have encountered two types of B&Bs: the first is similar to a small luxury inn, the second is more like staying with relatives. Earth B&B is definitely the latter, but our group was hoping for the former. This is not Lori and Ronda’s fault at all! They were impeccable hosts – friendly and accommodating (heck, Lori mentioned she could have driven us to Seward, which probably would have been a much more interesting trip than the train ride we took there!).

The rooms were spotless and the beds were comfortable. The living room was comfortable and a pleasant place to chat with friends. The breakfasts had a nice variety of cold foods and a home-baked bread each morning. If pressed for something negative to say, it was mentioned by some of our group that better room-darkening curtains/shades would have been appreciated as they acclimated from Eastern Time to Alaska Time. This is relatively minor, though.

Part of the problem was that we had two groups of three and my partner and I, plus another couple we didn’t know, all sharing two bathrooms. This can get a little cozy, and when you’re trying to get everyone rolling in the morning can introduce significant delays. As long as you understand that there is one bathroom to share between two rooms downstairs and another bathroom to share between two rooms upstairs (the third upstairs room has its own bathroom) and are comfortable with that, you’ll do just fine.

In summary: Earth B&B offers incredibly good room rates, great rooms and comfortable beds in a welcoming environment. As long as you are OK sharing a bathroom (or can get the Mt. St. Elias room, which has a private bathroom), I would recommend them highly!
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Roho, Genet, Rhene, Karwood, Brophey, and Rasslor stayed at the B&B with us (those six people, in two rooms – you can see why it was a bit cramped!). The change in time zones hit several of us hard, particularly Roho and Genet (and Rhene, who was from Denmark – I don’t even know how he managed to stay awake!). Once everyone was awake and rolling, though, we walked the 8 blocks or so downtown. We passed a huge number of tourist joints selling many and varied Alaska-themed tchochkes, all made in China.

Our first target was the Official Iditarod Store. Unfortunately, we were disappointed to find it in a dying mall. It was pretty sad, too. There was a limited amount of unique race-related stuff – mostly just generic crap that they had printed “Iditarod” onto. Dan picked up a few trinkets and we moved on.

We were joined for lunch by Roman and Austin at Sack’s Cafe’, the first of a series of excellent restaurants that Yelp helped guide us to. After lunch we walked around a bit more, but my foot was starting to bother me so we split up and I went to Humpy’s with Roman and Austin, where we chatted and enjoyed inspecting their beer list. We were later joined by Karwood, Brophey, and Rasslor.

That’s all for now. Part 2, coming up soon!

Breaking the Inertia

Bless me LiveJournal, for I have sinned. It’s been three months since my last entry, so I suppose I should talk about what’s been going on, even though there’s been nothing really that notable. I should say that I do keep daily tabs on what’s going on on both Twitter and Facebook, so my life isn’t completely lost to the ether, but I do like to occasionally document important stuff here.

So, the highlights from February: Had my annual review at work and everything is copacetic. fordshepherd and baja-hyena came into town for a late Valentine’s Day weekend and we enjoyed a tasty dinner at Heaven on Seven. Dan closed out the month by jumping into an ice-filled lake, after raising over $1,200 for Special Olympics. Right after that it was down to the United Center to see the Blackhawks play.

March brought an acceleration of planning for our upcoming Alaskan cruise. We put together a couple of great web chats to help coordinate the 16 (!) other people going on the cruise with us. I ventured into Chicago with some of the rowdy Chicago furry crew for a pre-St. Patrick’s Day bar crawl which was entertaining and a sad reminder of why I never did bar crawls in college. I played with my Sous Vide Supreme some more and made carnitas: pork shoulder cooked in lard for 50 hours at 143 degrees F, then shredded and fried in lard. So good, but so bad for you!

In April, it was off to Michigan for Furry Connection North! We had a great time, hosted several parties, organized a group dinner for 40 at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, and generally enjoyed the convention. As always, the staff does a great job, and we’re already looking forward to next year. We had some fun making three different flavored popcorns: duck fat, bacon, and white chocolate with cinnamon. All three were a big hit and we’ll be experimenting more with that! Toward the end of the month, we had to take Buddy to the vet to have some lumps removed (it happens with old dogs, unfortunately). This turned into a bit of comedy of errors as stitches got torn open, and the poor guy was stuck with the Cone of Shame around his neck for three weeks, though eventually he got used to it.

May started off with the Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable (FCLR), which went really well this year. It looks like we’re picking up speed with it and next year we hope to have representation from even more conventions. I found that I sprained my right ankle and have plantar fasciitis in my left foot, so I’ll be starting physical therapy tomorrow. So that brings you up to speed with what’s going on.

Looking ahead, we leave for Anchorage in a week and a half to finally kick off our Alaskan cruise! We’re very excited about this trip. Yesterday was spent doing some much-needed clothes shopping, both for the cruise and for clothes afterward as well. Today has been pretty quiet – my goal is not to leave the house at all today! This week and next will be pretty crazy at work, too. I’m trying to wrap up some projects and have some things tended to while I’m gone, so that’s going to take some good advance planning. Unfortunately, part of that includes me having to go into work briefly tonight at 11 PM to make sure some instructions are followed by the third shift staff. Ah well – sacrifices must be made sometimes. And now off to take care of some laundry!

It’s Been a Busy Month…

Right, I have a journal here. I should actually use it 🙂

Just to update a few things before they totally slip into the past: Following the craziness that was Wuffmeet, takaza and I slipped into a comfortable winter rhythm. Our cooking has improved, or at least gotten more interesting, with the addition of a Sous Vide Supreme to our kitchen. We are still experimenting and testing recipes, but we’ve been really impressed with how it cooks steaks and other meats. The fish it makes is to die for, and butter-poached chicken is simply divine. The biggest trick is that seasonings behave differently with low-temperature cooking, so we are still learning what works, what doesn’t, and what we still need to try. I’m having a ball with is, and I’m hoping to bring it to Furry Connection North to provide some interesting snacks for our parties!

Our social life has gotten a bit quieter with the departure of close friends roho and genet to the wilds of the east coast as they move to the heart of Boston. While we were very sad to see them go, I’m really glad to see Roho get his life back from his (former) evil employer. We provided some small help in moving some of their furniture out of their house (I still feel bad about what we did to the wall in their basement stairwell, but I’m told it was a relatively easy fix). Once the movers came and loaded up their stuff, Genet crashed at our place for a few days with Briana, their pretty-but-airheaded Samoyed. She and Buddy got along great (as always), and it was nice to have the extra company. Once all of the contractors were done making their place super-pretty so it could go on the market, she packed up the dog and their two cats and made the long drive to Boston. Here’s hoping they can clear all the boxes out of their new place before summer! 😉

We have been having a lot of fun planning our upcoming cruise to Alaska, coming up around Memorial Day. Somehow our group has reached 18 people from all over – even someone from Sweden! We purchased a good bit of the various parts of the trip over the last month, including flights (Frontier Airlines, MKE-DEN-ANC/SEA-MKE), reservations at a fabulous little lesbian-owned B&B in Anchorage, trains from Anchorage to Seward (where our ship departs) and Vancouver to Seattle, and various shore excursions. Dan is thinking about putting together a group chat on Saturday, March 5, for everyone in our group so we can talk about coordinating schedules and answer any questions that folks might have. We’ll be sending around emails for that. This is going to be the longest vacation we’ve had, and I’m really looking forward to it! We’re already brainstorming ideas for group trips for next year as well, including an extended weekend in New Orleans, and a ski weekend at Sugarloaf in Maine. More on that after the cruise!

I should mention that on Groundhog Day we got buried with a blizzard. Twenty inches of snow fell in a very short time, and then the 40-50 mph winds kicked in. We did the smart thing and made sure we had everything we needed and when it started coming down we sat tight at the house. Work for both of us was closed (the first time in a long time!) and we spent the snow day relaxing and Genet made cookies! Our HOA dues have never been more appreciated as we watched the snow removal company try to cope with the huge drifts, though we did get into the act a little bit by excavating Genet’s car from the snow.

Somewhere in there was our first Midwest FurFest staff meeting of the year. It’s always rough to get started again after the last convention, but there’s contracts to sign and plans to get into place. The good news is that Hyatt Regency O’Hare was extremely happy with the convention last year, and now that we all know each other, the coming year will be much easier to plan. We have changed up our meeting schedule a bit, with more online meetings early in the year; this makes sense since most of the staff doesn’t really need to spring into action until the summer.

Oh, for those wondering: our conventions schedule this year is to attend Furry Connection North and Midwest FurFest and…that’s it. Since the cruise is so long and I only have ten days of vacation, Anthrocon just isn’t in the cards for us this year. I wish everyone involved with AC well, though, especially rooth and chanur2000, who will be taking over my and Dan’s staff positions there, respectively. Good luck, guys!

Finally, Dan and I will be hopping on board the Amtrak Wolverine this evening and taking the train over to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to hang out with the fine folks there for the weekend, and to help determine the beers that will be served at FCN’s sponsor lounge. It should be tough, thirsty work! Dan has planned a fun dinner for Saturday night as well. The fun doesn’t end there, as it appears that we will be visited by fordshepherd and bajahyena next weekend, when we will…well, those plans are a secret!

Off to work now – I hope everyone has a great weekend!

New Year’s Puzzle Hunt! (Part 4)

And now, the last checkpoints in the New Year’s Puzzle Hunt!

SHAGELUK
The title of this puzzle is “Rockin’ Around The Clock“. The following text was printed below:

Donnie was a player, all right. But he got played. He was supposed to pick up his girlfriend, Veronica, for the darts at her place at 12:33 PM. Little did he know that she had just had a cozy little lunch with his best friend, Leon, that finished at 12:21 PM. She rushed home and got there at 12:30 PM, just before Donnie did. She checked her text messages and saw that Leon wanted to meet again at 12:45 PM, so she told Donnie that she wasn.t feeling well, and left poor Donnie standing at her front door at 12:33 PM, right when he was supposed to be there.

Go to where you commonly lose these, and text or call us and tell us: How much does it cost to get these wet?
Click for solutions

New Year’s Puzzle Hunt! (Part 3)

The Puzzle Hunt continues! Yesterday we had the first three checkpoints, now here’s the next three:

MCGRATH
The title of this puzzle is “Just Like The Dorsai“. The following text was printed below:

hampton wildfire factory company
inn potbelly kona cosi
milwaukee redrobin grill
bigbowl cheesecake noodles

When you solve the puzzle and find the item, text or call and tell us:
What is the sum of these ladies?

Click for solutions

New Year’s Puzzle Hunt! (Part 2)

So, how did you do on the Trivia Quiz? If you found it tough, don’t feel too bad – it was supposed to be! The average score on the quiz was 46%, with a low score of 30% and a high score of 72%. At 6 seconds per correct answer, that means that everyone got at least a little bonus out of it, from as little as two minutes to as much as three minutes and 36 seconds. (Side note: Thanks to Genet and Street for grading the trivia quizzes!) Also: Want to see the trivia quiz answers? Highlight the black boxes in the first post and you’ll be able to see them!

At this point we handed out packets to each team. On the front of each packet was written the team name, a phone number, and the name of the first checkpoint for the team. Inside were thirteen envelopes, a bag of jelly beans, and a Hampton Inn room key. The envelopes were labeled Skwentna , Rohn, Nikolai , McGrath , Takotna , Ophir, Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling, Kaltag, Unalakeet, Shaktoolik, and Koyuk. As I’m sure you know (really?), these are all stops on the Iditarod Trail. The names don’t really have any significance beyond providing a name for each checkpoint that was non-sequential.

The phone number on the packets was intended for the teams to text requests for hints and guesses at answers to. The phone numbers were actually Takaza and my Google Voice numbers, and we had half of the teams reporting to him, and half reporting to me. After about 20 minutes, though, Dan and I got utterly swamped with the incoming text messages. Instead, we switched to having the teams report to the common room for hints and to submit their answers, one team allowed in the room at a time. This turned out a lot better, since it allowed more interaction and allowed us to better gauge how things were going.

Let’s start in with the checkpoints!
The general format for each checkpoint was that the teams first had to solve a puzzle, then use the information derived from the puzzle to answer the question posed in the clue.

SKWENTNA
The title of this puzzle is “Surely You Can’t Be Serious“. The following text was printed below:

jyi acfbvagi cz wvpcgq ycqy moif eagyajjag. cj cz rviafvp a ocgjaqi emniv, agn gmj hdcvj firigjvp. zm jivv dz: xyaj piaf xaz jyi bcrjdfi jalig?

Click for the solutions

The New Year’s Puzzle Hunt! (Part 1)

This year at Wuffmeet we held the initial New Year’s Puzzle Hunt. Teams spent an afternoon racing around the Hampton Inn Lincolnshire trying to work through the clues and get the answers to the questions we posed to them in the fastest time with the least number of hints. The rules were simple:
1. No asking for help from anyone else or using the Internet.
2. If you leave the hotel You’re Doing It Wrong.

After a bit of sorting out, we got everyone together into eleven teams of two. They were:

Coondog DataHawk & Linnaeus
Die Piggies! Rama & RB
Easy As Jam Aureth & Jenne
Ginger Squee Initially Basil & Jen, then Quasi & Jen
Isentropic/Failing Illini Hartree & Roho
Minot Artemis & Dbruin
Team Awesome Woody & AidenDingo
Team Burnout Stevie & Zexyz
Team Hot Tub Spork & Madius
Team Rawr Rusty & Kellic
Team Slobber Tolemur & Vish

We started out with a 50-question trivia quiz. There was no penalty for incorrect answers, but each correct answer was worth a 6-second reduction in the final time. We gave everyone exactly ten minutes to complete the quiz. The quiz is shown below (highlight the black box to get the answer).
The Trivia Quiz…

Wuffmeet 2010 – That’s A Wrap!

Wuffmeet 2010 is over! And damn, was it good.

For those wondering, Wuffmeet is a gathering of our (Takaza and my) friends that we hold every year at a hotel around the Chicago area. The number of people in attendance varies, but this year was one of our bigger ones, with around 70 in attendance. This year we moved from a Courtyard to a Hampton Inn, and I think it was a move for the better. Certainly the function space was an upgrade: we went from two rooms and a room on the side for booze to a single large room where everyone could eat, chat, and drink. The hotel rooms were better, and the suites were actual suites. We were in a great suite right next to the function space, where we had the luxury of a full-sized refrigerator and a kitchenette.

We started things off with a fantastic dinner that RB put together. Fourteen of us ventured down to Otom Restaurant in Chicago for an excellent meal (and some really tasty drinks – who knew butternut squash juice could be so good in a cocktail?). This made for an excellent start to the weekend.

Friday we started things off with getting the common room organized, then a nice day of hanging out, chatting, and welcoming friends as they arrived. The annual Wuffmeet Poker Tournament was that afternoon, and it was won by Gir, with Rama in second place. Then it was time to set up for dinner, which was an excellent meal catered by one of our favorite Chicago BBQ places: Smoque BBQ. I was happy to see that we ordered almost the exactly correct amount, just a little too much. Can’t ask for more for a buffet! We had ice cream for dessert, and got to the serious business of partying in the new year. We served champagne (and sparkling cider) for the toast at midnight, and the other New Year’s revelers in the hotel were vastly amused by the appearance of fursuiters in the lobby.

Saturday started as slowly as you might expect. Once folks started making appearances in the common room, I put some hot dogs on to heat up. Those seemed to go over well. Lunch was followed immediately by something new: The New Year’s Puzzle Hunt. This was an awesome new event that Dan and I had a blast putting together. Look for a series of posts to follow detailing all of the quizzes, puzzles, and solutions! For dinner this night, we had served tacos – beef, chicken, cheese, onions, lettuce, cilantro, sour cream, avocados, and the choice of corn or flour tortillas. For dessert we had a variety of cakes and pastries. In the evening, there was more socializing, somewhat less boozing (what a surprise, given the previous night), and we capped things off a session of “Horrors from the Web” (though really, it was more relegated to “Horrors from e621” 🙂

We had originally announced that we would wrap up the party on Sunday, but when Dan and I realized we had Monday off, we decided to push on through one more day. Unfortunately, many did not have the luxury of a holiday on Monday, so over half of the group left over the course of the day. For me personally this was the best day of Wuffmeet, and a reminder why I enjoy the party so damn much. It was a very low-key day, with some socializing, some chilling and browsing the net, and finally some swimming (my first chance to do so all weekend). For dinner we ordered pizza from Lou Malnati’s, and it was very good.

Today, the last stragglers gathered for brunch at the nearby Walker Bros. Pancake House – a hearty group of nine folks. Great company, and good food – an enjoyable way to finish off the weekend. Thanks so much to Jet, Hunter, Rusty, and Josh for their assistance in getting everything packed up into our cars. We got home at around 2:30 PM, and had unloaded and picked up Buddy from Dan’s mom by 3:30 PM.

So yeah. Wuffmeet really rocked, I think. A few things in summary, from my personal perspective:
What worked
* The new hotel was a great fit for the party, and the beds were much more comfortable
* A single room make things feel more cohesive, and having the (epic) bar close at hand was quite nice as well
* The Puzzle Hunt was a blast!
* I loved the Thursday night dinner – a very nice way to start the party off
* The food from Smoque is always delicious!
* The media PC was a good addition. Having the low-level background music was nice. Many thanks to Gir for bringing the projector!

What didn’t work
* The taco bar, while tasty, was a crazy amount of work. I spent 8 hours cooking the beef and chicken on Thursday (with the generous assistance of Roho and Genet!), and that was very stressful for me
* The way events were scheduled, and the proximity of the puzzle hunt to the taco bar ramped up the stress for both Dan and me
* No more garlic for Dan!
* An event like this is getting too big for two people to do everything – we need to start delegating some of the work around to others, or we won’t get any of the relaxation time that makes Wuffmeet so great. (OK, this has been the case for the last few years, we just need to actually do it!)

Random MFF Memory

I wanted to post this so I didn’t forget it, and because it amuses the hell out of me. As we were wrapping up on the Monday after Midwest FurFest, we ran into wingywoof and seritaph. Seritaph had a great commentary on tipping of hotel staff among fans (I’m paraphrasing somewhat here):

“They love us! Apparently the worst tippers are accountants and actuaries. They know the value of goods and services and won’t tip worth a damn. But fans? Fans just duck their heads and say, ‘I’m sorry we’re weird. Here’s twenty dollars.'”

And that’s OK, in my opinion. The more we tip, the more they look forward to us, and the better deals we get (and deals aren’t just limited to what’s in contracts and such. I couldn’t begin to list all the little bonuses and freebies we got as a convention because the Hyatt staff was willing to work with us!).

Birthday Celebration!

I’m dragging a bit today, but it is very much for a good reason. Yesterday was takaza‘s birthday and I wanted to make sure that we celebrated properly. I got him a nice gift (along with the software to run on his iPad) so now anywhere he can get wifi access for his iPad he has access to our U-Verse DVR at home. We’ve had a Slingbox for years, but it’s fallen into disuse since it required laptop access. Dan uses his iPad about 70% of the time and his laptop 30% of the time, so this seemed like an appropriate gift.

To celebrate Dan’s birthday, I invited some of our friends to join us for an evening of dinner and bocce at Pinstripes in Northbrook. We had a blast – the food was excellent, and the company was better. The appetizers alone were fun – we ordered a bunch of them and shared them around the table (makes me want to investigate a tapas place more!), and the entrees were quite tasty. My beef tenderloin was perfectly-cooked and had a great sauce.

After dinner we adjourned to one of their indoor bocce courts and enjoyed a civilized hour of alternating between playing bocce and enjoying some excellent desserts. (Also, a note to players: that little ball is called a pallino, a boccino, or jack. It is not, however, ever called a snitch 🙂 In hindsight, I realize that I inadvertently left a few folks off the invite list – I apologize! No slight was intended, it was merely my own absent-mindedness.

We didn’t get home until 11 PM, and didn’t get to bed until 11:30. Still, it was worth it and we had a great time. Now that the Big Event Crush (MFF, Thanksgiving, wedding, Dan’s birthday) is over, I can breathe a little bit before starting to stress over Christmas and Wuffmeet!

Baby Steps…

So the Illinois House and Senate have passed a bill approving civil unions, and Governor Pat Quinn has said he would sign it into law. It’s still sitting in the back of the bus, but I suppose we should be thankful they’re even letting us on the bus. This is a step in the right direction.

My favorite commentary on the Senate debate came from one of the commentors at capitolfax.com, who summarized the statements in favor of civil unions by Sen. Ricky Hendon (D-Looneyville):
Talked about his favorite uncle, who was straight, but didn’t want to marry for a 3rd or 4th time (can’t remember). Then went on to say he hates politics, and hates seeing people who are adulterers, on the down-low, etc., speak against civil unions. He supports the bill not because other politicians called him to ask for his support, but because it’s the right thing to do. He said it won’t wreck the state, like it hasn’t wrecked other states who have civil unions or more. And he said voting for it won’t send him to hell, and it won’t send anyone to hell.

Now take that summary and make it sound crazy. That’s about the gist of it.

One way or another, though, this is something to celebrate. It will be interesting to see the full list of rights and benefits assigned to those in civil unions, and when it will be implemented. We will definitely sign up, but only with the knowledge that this is a stopgap en route to full and equal marriage.