I Voted!

…two weeks ago. Yay, early voting!

It should be an interesting day; I’ll be monitoring the news feeds and keeping an ear out for any useful news. Tonight, takaza and I will be heading down to linnaeus‘s place for the traditional election night gathering, one that I hope will be a lot more enjoyable than the one four years ago.

In the meantime, not too much going on. The weekend was fun, with a party over at justincheetah and calapurr‘s place, followed by a very enjoyable brunch on Sunday with friends.

Lots of small MFF projects going on, but I’d hate to spoil any surprises. I think people are going to be happy with all the cool stuff we have in the pipeline, though.

Hallowon’t and Adventures in Media

So last night we had made a commitment to a family get-together at takaza‘s sister’s which was cancelled at the last minute, literally as we were walking out the door. That was fine by me since I had been feeling so-so all afternoon, so I stumbled upstairs and took a nap. A few hours later I felt ever so much better, although it made any hopes of being social that night just too darn late. Dan tended to the trick or treaters (all six of them) with the candy we had intended to bring to the party. Instead, we spent the evening catching up on Tivo and heading to bed early. Woo, party guys, we are! 🙂

I’ve spent the morning giving some thought to my newspaper subscription to the Chicago Tribune. I currently get the paper delivered seven days a week, but I’m pretty dissatisfied. Since their grand redesign earlier this year, they have moved to making the paper 50% advertising/50% content, and a good portion of the content is from the Associated Press, which I can read for free online from numerous outlets. While their local coverage is serviceable, their world coverage has been pretty lacking, reducing many important stories to a one-sentence blurb on a hard-to-read world map – very USA Today-esque. They also cut out a couple of comics that I liked and shrank the rest. I’ve been giving thought to dropping my subscription but didn’t have a good alternative. I’m a news junkie, and I like to know not just what’s going on in the world but what it means as well. NPR gives a nice glimpse of that but since I only have a 5-10 minute commute, that doesn’t give me a lot of listening time.

Earlier this week there was the big story that the Christian Science Monitor was going to cease daily paper publication and move to a net-only presence with a paper version mailed out weekly. This reminded me of the late, lamented Monitor Radio. That was a radio show that played on various NPR outlets until 1997 that I always enjoyed and respected. Knowing the quality of CSM’s reporting, I checked out their daily “treeless” edition, a 20-page PDF that is emailed every morning. With that, I think I may have found a good replacement for the Tribune. I subscribe to many different RSS feeds using Google Reader, so while I get my world and national news from the Monitor, I can get local news with feeds from the Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, and the News-Sun, all of which are updated continuously. I already follow several blogs on the Tribune’s site (The Stew and Tower Ticker) so I get the content I like there before it ever sees print. Comics? The Houston Chronicle lets you build your own comics page for free. Yeah, you don’t get Sunday comics, but to be honest those mostly suck anyway.

Looks like I’ve found my new media mix!

A Day in Chicago, and Winter Weather Arrives (Briefly)

For a weekend that kept me very busy, it was surprisingly relaxing. Saturday found me driving into Chicago to pick up a few things for Midwest FurFest. I was reminded once again why taking public transit has always been my modus operandi when traveling in the city. Between driving around fruitlessly for 30 minutes near the Lincoln Park Zoo looking for a parking space that wouldn’t cost $14 while I spent 20 minutes shopping, followed by another 20 minutes in Lakeview looking for parking (I lucked out there), getting around with a car in Chicago can really suck.

On the bright side, I did meet up with linnaeus for a tasty lunch, and we had some fun chatting while driving around. We also made a very important discovery: Binny’s in the South Loop has a bar. And no just a bar, but a “tasting lounge” where drinks are actually very reasonably priced, allowing you to drop, say, $7 for a glass of 18-year-old single-malt Scotch before dropping $75+ on a bottle of it. We only had a beer (I had the Allagash Belgian Tripel, Paul had the Two Brothers Tripel Ale. We both liked mine better 🙂 (Side note: I see that Two Brothers now has a brewpub open. Road trip to Warrenville, IL, anyone?)

When I got home, takaza had already gone over to spend the evening with his family. This was fine by me, since it gave me time to relax and unwind after a crazy amount of driving.

We were up surprisingly early on Sunday to have breakfast in honor of midwestcougar‘s birthday. We were joined by Linnaeus, furball2k, evan_li, and the quiet and possibly LJ-less Kevin. It was an enjoyable meal and it was fun to meet some new faces. Afterward, Dan and I continued the previous day’s shopping spree, picking up some useful things. Our travels took us out to Hoffman Estates, where we got a tour of the shiny new ultra-spendy theater there (Dan: “I’d like to see a movie here.” Me: “IT’S $35 JUST TO GET IN!” Dan: “I still want to see a movie here…”). We were also treated to a rather surprising five-minute sleet storm as the windy weather turned very cold.

We finished off the shopping with a trip into Cabela’s. I figured I needed a picture for the con book and since our theme is “North to Alaska” it seemed to fit. We had fun getting a couple of shots, but most of you will have to wait until the convention to see the finished product (I’ll send you copies, Mom 🙂

This week so far has been busy at work, but I’m finding some time to deal with MFF stuff here and there. This Friday we’re doing some family stuff, and I have a bunch of con-related stuff to work on this weekend. On a nice side note, we were able to trade my old iPod to Dan’s brother (who is part-owner of a Massage Envy franchise) for two 90-minute massages. I’m really looking forward to redeeming those!

Fun With Twitter And a Relaxing Evening

Well, I seem to have gotten on the Twitter bandwagon. I’m really not sure how much I’m going to use it personally, but you can follow me at http://twitter.com/DuncanDaHusky. Oh, and I can assure you that I will not be copying my tweets to LiveJournal. I’m not much a fan of that approach.

More interesting, though, is that I have established an official Midwest FurFest Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/midwestfurfest. I have found a very handy service that we can use to load up with notifications like “The Charity Auction will begin in 15 minutes in Ravinia DEF” well in advance of the convention. Additionally, we can also send out notifications of programming changes and, um, whatever else I can think of 🙂 I’m definitely very new to Twitter, so if anyone has suggestions about how to best use the feed, I’m open to ideas!

Last night, after a very hectic week at work, we were joined by roho and genet for an extremely relaxing evening featuring cheese fondue, some crusty bread, a couple of bottles of excellent wine, and chocolate fondue for dessert. After that was a screening of the Big Lebowski episode of Ace of Cakes, followed by the latest episode of Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth. That show is really amazing, and it always really lifts my spirits. If you haven’t seen it I would highly recommend it – the cinematography is great, and the narrative is very well put together. This is definitely one of Original Productions’ (Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs, etc.) better shows. We saw Roho and Genet off at around 11:30 PM, then stumbled off to bed ourselves. Throughout the night my body reminded me why drinking several glasses of wine is a bad thing. Note to self: stock up on Rolaids.

So today I’m off to Chicago to do some shopping. I’m not sure how long I’ll be around, but we’ll see how the day goes. I suppose I’ll also swing by the MFF storage locker and pay for the coming year as well. Off to shower now!

Long Days at Work and Great Music

This is a crazy week at work, since I am working on a project I’m hoping to get done by the end of the week. Lots of paperwork, lots of time on the production floor, and lots of issues to keep track of. If I seem a bit remote when you message me during the day, that’s probably why.

This past weekend was OK. takaza‘s family came over on Saturday, but since I woke up far too early and had too little sleep, I was a terrible host and not very social. Ah well, we can’t all be 100% all the time. Sunday was a pretty lazy day of staying home and working on Midwest FurFest stuff, capped by an online staff meeting that ran longer than I would have liked, but still accomplished a lot. 30 days until the convention, and while there’s still a ton of work to be done, it sounds like everyone has things under control.

But that isn’t why I wanted to write this entry. The nights are turning cold, the leaves are falling from the trees, and we are well in the grip of autumn. This always gives me the occasion to pull out one of my all-time favorite albums, “When October Goes: Autumn Love Songs”. The schmaltzy title aside, this is one of the best and most atmospheric folk music albums I’ve ever come across. From Megan McDonough’s soulful reading of the title track, to Christine Lavin’s wistful “Getting Used to Leavin'”. this album definitely fits the season for me. My favorite song, though, is “Are You Happy Now?” by Richard Shindell, a talented singer-songwriter. The song has great lyrics like these describing a post-Halloween scene:

I’ve sat all night and now it’s dawn/And I cannot believe my eyes
There’s garbage strewn across the lawn/Where we once stared up at the sky
And streams of paper fill the tree/That hovered over you and me
Shaving cream covers the car/That we picked up in Baltimore
Though I know it’s hard to tell/I hope that what’s-his-name treats you well
I still maintain that he’s a bum/But it’s your money – have some fun

(Here’s a live recording of the song, but the quality of the audio does it a disservice)

So yeah. That’s what I’ve been listening to lately. Wow, I just realized that album came out in 1991. I first picked it up while I was working at WSBF-FM, the student radio station at Clemson University. I’ve loved this album for 17 years and I’ll probably keep on enjoying it.

Lots of Grilling, and a Very Busy Week

Holy cow, it’s been a while since I updated. Last weekend was a real hoot. Saturday was roho‘s birthday, so we got together with a bunch of friends and first hit Brightonwoods Orchards, then went back to Roho and genet‘s place for a tasty dinner of grilled meats and some excellent cupcakes make by takaza, including carrot cake cupcakes and my favorite, Boston cream cupcakes {drool}.

Sunday, we were joined by linnaeus and headed north to Milwaukee, first to Sprecher Brewing to stock up on cherry cola for Midwest FurFest, then a quick stop by Alterra Coffee to feed my filthy caffeine habit. Once done there, it was off to hegdish and drakeduck‘s place for a very enjoyable shindig featuring more grilled meats and some excellent company. It was great to meet some of the Milwaukee furs we hadn’t seen before, as well as some old friends we hadn’t seen in ages (hi Mistletoe and Tremaine!). Wonderful company, and Hegdish and Drake were excellent hosts. I look forward to seeing more of them!

Most of this week has been slow at work, which is good since that let me catch up on some MFF business. I’ve been very busy coordinating between departments, making my credit card squeak with a good bit of ordering, and working with some fine crafters out in California on some fun “spiffy” projects. Evenings have been spent enjoying the autumn chill by snuggling up with Dan on the sofa and catching up on Tivo’d programs. Some TV notes: Heroes is definitely getting better. The Amazing Race bummed me out by eliminating my favorite team. Survivor:Gabon is still in the early (boring) stages where the majority of the show can be watched on fast-forward. Chuck is fun, though we still have a couple of episodes to watch. Also sitting on the Tivo: Life on Mars, Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod, My Own Worst Enemy, and the balance of Reaper from last season. As much as I wish we could keep up with Pushing Daisies, we’re too far behind. Shows that are falling into the “Ain’t gonna watch it” category: Prototype This (so much potential, but so much suck), Knight Rider (too dumb for words), and Fringe (just can’t work up the interest).

As for plans this weekend, I may have to go in to work tomorrow morning for a bit. Then tomorrow afternoon Dan’s family is coming over – I just don’t have the motivation for cooking for a crowd, so we may just order pizza. Sunday I hope to do as little as possible, though we have an MFF staff meeting online in the evening. Just about a month to go until the con! Gah!

Right now, though, I’m listening to some excellent blues, Dan is cooking up a delicious dinner in the kitchen, and I have a very tasty beer in front of me. Life is good. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Beers and Dinners and Meetings, Oh My!

Now that was a busy, but fun weekend.

ramalion was crashing at our place on Saturday night and he had mentioned that he had never tasted my cooking. Those of you who know me know that this is a dangerous challenge! We invited roho, genet, and linnaeus to join us for dinner and I got to planning, digging into my online recipe stash to find some new and interesting recipes.

Prior to dinner, though, takaza and I met up with Roho and Genet at Wine Knows for their Fall Beer Tasting. It was a blast! So many good beers, but the real standout was the Browning’s Brewery Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout, which is aged in bourbon barrels. Absolutely amazing! (And sadly out of stock. But Genet is going to check in with them later this week!) We picked up a couple of bottles of wine and some good beers, and ventured to the store, then home to start dinner.

Rama was there when we arrived, and Linnaeus arrived not long after. I dove into the dinner preparations. The menu included Eggs with Cream, Spinach, and Ham, Spinach and Bacon Salad with a Roasted Shallot and Dijon Vinaigrette, and Potato Gnocchi with Meat Sauce. I learned a couple of useful things:
1. Don’t start cooking an involved dinner at 6 PM. Fortunately, the beer and wine (and chips and salsa) helped maintain everyone’s good spirits when the food was served at 10 PM.
2. Gnocchi is neat and fancy, but it’s a pain in the ass. Next time, keep it simpler.
3. The Eggs with Cream , Spinach, and Ham is nothing short of astonishing. Saute the spinach with garlic and shallots, then coarsely chop and place in a ramekin. Simmer diced ham with heavy cream, then spoon the ham into the ramekin. Break an egg into each ramekin, then spoon the cream over the egg. Bake until the white is set but the yolk is still runny, and serve with buttered toast. Heavenly!

Sunday brought the Midwest FurFest staff meeting. The meeting went a bit longer than I usually like, but we got a lot done and made sure that no action items from the past year has fallen between the cracks. After the meeting, we adjourned to Mi Mexico, a new Mexican restaurant just north of the hotel (in the old Weber Grill location, for those who know the area). Wow! What a great find! Our meals were really fantastic, and they handled a large crowd of people extremely well. Plus, if someone is looking to eat cheaply, you’ve got a winner here, with $5.00 entrees available.

The rest of the evening was spent at home relaxing, working on some small MFF projects, and watching The Amazing Race (yay for the comic book geeks!).

This week is crunch time for the Midwest FurFest Restaurant Guide. We’ve got 120 restaurants listed and my goal is to have a useful review for every single one of them. Once that’s done I need to go to work on some other projects. No panicking yet, though – everything seems to be coming along nicely.

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!