2008 Anthrocon Artists Alley/Con Store Report

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

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

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

Still Needing That Vacation From My Vacation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And We’re Home

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

Heading Home From Anthrocon

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

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

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

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

Good AC so far

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

Packed and Ready To Go! And Some Links

Last night we got takaza‘s car packed (stuffed to the gills, actually – we had to remove the back seats of his Element. Three cash registers take up a lot of space!) and it’s parked in the garage. I dropped him off at the train station this morning, so all I need to do when I leave here at 2 PM is go home and toss a few final things into his car (like my laptop). I pick him up from work at 3 PM and then we’re off! We’re driving as far as Independence, OH tonight, then we’ll be arriving in Pittsburgh at around noon tomorrow.

All that’s left now if for me to try to be productive until 2 PM. Yeah, wish me luck on that.

To distract and amuse myself, I give you…links!
All You Can Eat Bacon? It’s a heart attack waiting to happen and yet heavenly at the same time! Sounds like a fun place to visit in Chicago, though.

You know what the world needs? It needs a bacon cheeseburger sausage!

Keeping with the theme, there’s something to be said for “bacon textiles” – it’s delicious!

OK, enough with the bacon. Let’s talk about Monopoly + nukes.

Finally, because Anthrocon is so much on my mind, I’ll point out the handy Official Anthrocon Map to those who will be attending. I just added a couple of interesting nearby restaurants yesterday (as recommended by roadfood.com!). linnaeus, if you get some time, you might want to check out Robert Wholey & Co., located only a few blocks from the hotel towards the Strip District – it looks like an interesting food market with great seafood dishes. Heck, if I’m free I want to go with you! If I get a chance, I also wouldn’t mind going to DeLuca’s (“best breakfast in Pittsburgh”).

Four hours to go! Time to look busy…

Livin’ the Suite Life

Now that was a truly amazing weekend, and exactly what I needed!

With Anthrocon quickly coming up, I admit I was not the most pleasant company for much of last week. Worries about preparations compounded with concerns about projects that were hitting at work right after the convention had me irritable and sleeping quite poorly. takaza, as always, was a saint and put up with me somehow. Then on Friday, I realized that 95% of what I needed for the convention was done and what wasn’t done could be handled at the con. At the same time, I found out that due to equipment and material delivery issues, my projects were being pushed back to late July. All of this set the tone for me to be very relaxed for the weekend.

We kicked off the weekend by checking into the Westin Chicago North Shore. You see, Dan won a free weekend in the Wheeling Suite there (yes, the suite which will be home to the Con Suite at Midwest FurFest) and he suggested that this would be the ideal weekend for it. So after we got settled in, he had to go have lunch with his cow-orkers. I met up with daveqat, jimcyl, and linnaeus and we had dinner at Wakaba, a Japanese restaurant just up the road from the hotel. It was…underwhelming. Standard suburban strip-mall sushi, at slightly inflated prices. I don’t see us going back there. After dinner we relaxed on the suite balcony (15 floors up) and relaxed. That was a nice end to the evening.

Saturday brought Dan’s company picnic. He was in an organizational role this year (yeah, imagine that) and so I was left to run bingo myself. Fortunately, Paul, roho, and genet volunteered to lend a hand, and we spent an enjoyable afternoon calling bingo to several hundred people and giving away over a thousand dollars in gift cards. It was surprisingly entertaining. Afterwards, we had a quick but refreshing swim in the hotel pool, then it was time for the party.

What’s the fun of having a ritzy suite if you can’t have a party? We welcomes a small group of friends up to the suite, ordered pizza, and mixed up some drinks. The weather was perfect as we chatted out on the balconies, admiring the views and watching fireworks set off in distant towns. We took a break at about 10 PM and everyone went down and swam for an hour until the pool closed, then it was back upstairs to chat and refill our drinks. I had a fantastic time and the party really let me relax and not worry about work or Anthrocon.

On Sunday it was time to check out (after sleeping relatively late). jet_der_hund had spent the night with us, and he kindly assisted us in carrying all of our stuff down. Dan took a nap in the afternoon while I puttered with Anthrocon preparations. Following a reasonably short online MFF staff meeting, we both worked on AC stuff while I introduced Dan to some of Big Blue Fox’s outstanding megamixes.

And now it’s Monday and I’m back at work. I’m going to struggle to maintain focus and get stuff done here, but I leave here at 2 PM tomorrow, pick up Dan from work, and then we head for a brief overnight in Cleveland, then Pittsburgh Wednesday morning. By the way, A note to folks in general: if you e-mail me between now and the coming weekend, don’t expect any response until after Anthrocon at the earliest!

I Hear Some People Relax On Weekends…

Yuck. I woke up a few times last night so I’m really dragging this afternoon. Fun.

Not a bad weekend overall. We were up far too early Saturday to drive down to Naperville to meet up with unclekage, who was in town for Duckon. Breakfast was acquired at Juicy-O (missed you by 24 hours, perro!). As always, the meal was excellent and we had a great time discussing last-minute Anthrocon business. We hung out and talked a bit more (and complained about Anthrocon’s stealing Midwest FurFest‘s ideas on a certain nifty tidbit, though really it was just that they hit on an idea at the same time we did 🙂 then we took our leave. On the way home we picked up a few things from the MFF storage locker and ran a few errands, then takaza took a short nap once we got back home.

A short while later it was down to Lincolnshire to see Kung Fu Panda on the biiiiig IMAX screen with linnaeus, genet, and midwestcougar. The movie was technically excellent – they did a really great job on the textures and the character design, and that was really highlighted on the ginormous screen. The content of the movie…Eh. I’d call it adequately entertaining, but nothing too fantastic. My biggest problem is the same one I always have with stars cast in voice roles – Jack Black spoke and I didn’t see a giant panda, I saw Jack Black. Others may not have a problem with this and may enjoy the movie more, but it didn’t really blow me away.

After the movie Jaycee had to take her leave, but the rest of us drove through a sudden thunderstorm up to Gurnee to meet roho for a tasty Indian meal at Bombay City. Nom naan nom!

Sunday was stressful, even though we didn’t even leave the house. I spent the day working on Artists Alley stuff, programming registers, finalizing documentation, and other fun stuff like that. I got most of what I wanted to accomplish done, but I still have several documents to write up. Dan was working on similar things for the finance office and I think we both got stressed out and started annoying each other. We got it worked out, though, and were able to relax later in the evening.

And here we are, eight days before we hit the road for Pittsburgh. I still have a lot to do, including making the Artists Alley/Con Store staff schedule. It looks like we’ll be getting together with some friends on Wednesday, then next weekend is pretty much shot with Dan’s company picnic and other stuff going on. I should be able to take a breather sometime around July 4th. Yowza!

Bouncing Across the Country

Well, that was fun. I wrapped up my trip to Atlanta yesterday. After grabbing a quick breakfast at a ubiquitous Starbucks, my cow-orker and I met with the vendor and worked through the software we were reviewing one more time. It was very productive and I was glad that I made the trip. After we wrapped up, a rep from another part of the vendor’s company took us to lunch at a fantastic Japanese restaurant.

After lunch we were in a bit of a time crunch to get back to the airport. Fortunately, we had a Mustang and were driving on I-85 through downtown Atlanta – 85 mph the whole way? Sure, why not! I was glad my cow-orker had the car on his credit card when we dropped it off, though – the $156 bill for two days will be fun for him to explain ($63 of that courtesy of Avis’ “Fuel Service Option” was the culprit, as they charged him for a full tank of gas). The flight back was uneventful, though I will never again take a window seat on a CRJ if I can avoid it – I spent the whole flight bent slightly to the left, and had no room to do much more than listen to my iPod and read a magazine.

takaza was of course wonderful and had a tasty dinner of mashed potatoes and pork tenderloin on the stove when I got home. Unfortunately, due to some Anthrocon-related screwups I fell into a truly vile mood, but Dan was sweet and put up with me. Dinner was quite tasty and afterwards we played some Boom Blox, which Dan had picked up the day before.

And here was are on Thursday. Things have been a bit slow as I try to ramp back up from being away. I just found out that the project I was working on that HAD TO HAPPEN by the end of the month, then got delayed due to paperwork, will now be delayed even more since the process engineer in charge of it put in his two-weeks’ notice. Ah, life in the corporation. I’m just glad tomorrow is Friday.

…and back down South again

Well, briefly, anyway.

This morning I left at my usual time, but instead of going to work I headed north once again to Milwaukee International Airport. I caught a 9:55 AM flight out on Delta. Man, I got spoiled on Midwest. This was a CRJ-700, and I was crammed into an aisle seat with a big guy in the window seat. Not fun. But the flight was uneventful and I met up with my cow-orker at the Avis counter at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

The clerk there assigned us our car; I heard her say the space but missed what kind of car it was. We got to the lot and there it was…a cherry-red 2007 Ford Mustang. Oh my. And my cow-orker wanted me to drive since I know the area. Oh darn! It’s a fun car. The suspension is kind of rough, but the acceleration is smooth and it wants to go fast. I wasn’t paying attention as we drove up the Downtown Connector and I looked down and oh look, I was doing 85, pushing 90. Whoopsie!

We stumbled around a bit looking for a place for lunch before settling on a Korean BBQ place. Neither of us knew anything about Korean BBQ, but what the hell. It was quite excellent – we split a dish of beef and mushrooms in a slightly sweet broth, served with rice and about a dozen different side dishes. The kim chee was quite tasty, and nowhere near as pungent as some versions I’d had elsewhere. the only moment of unintentional hilarity was when I misheard the waitress’ broken English and thought that she had given me a bowl of soup. No, it was sauce, though my cow-orker said my eyes bugging out when I took a sip of it was quite entertaining.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with the vendor, and I am pleased to say that my presence on this trip was warranted. I had some good input on the project we’re working on and we’ve established a good rapport with the guys there. For dinner tonight, they took us out to a fantastic Argentinian steakhouse. Capirihas and steak? I was in heaven! After we got back to the hotel, my cow-orker was ready to go out and drink some beers and shoot some pool. I tossed him the keys to the Mustang and told him to have fun – I was going to bed.

Tomorrow should be good. We’re going to hammer out the last bits of the project and make some lists of what still needs to be done. I expect we’ll have a tasty lunch somewhere, then it’s back to the airport. I hope to be back in takaza‘s arms by 7 PM. Yay! But now it’s off to sleep…

Crazy times ahead

It’s been a while since my last substantial update. Obviously, I made it home from South Carolina OK. My flights were on Midwest Airlines from Milwaukee to Atlanta. Now, Midwest’s prices are usually more expensive than most, but in this case it was only an extra $10 or so. For that I got nice wide leather seats (the equivalent of business class on United or American) on a comfy Boeing 717, free sodas (two rounds), and of course the vaunted chocolate chip cookies (which weren’t all that great, but they were free!). I’m sad to hear that they’re rolling out “Saver” service, which will convert the majority of the 717 cabins from 2 x 2 seating to 2 x 3 seating, which will make them a lot less attractive to me. One thing I did learn in all this, though: Milwaukee Airport is a hell of a lot easier to fly in and out of than O’Hare! Given that MKE is just another 10 miles’ drive for us vs. ORD, MKE is now my airport of choice when fares allow.

So anyway, I got back very late on Monday night. Tuesday I was dragging at work, but got a lot of stuff done. When I started the week, things were looking hectic: two projects that MUST be done by June 30, and we were going to be scrambling especially since I’ll be gone to Anthrocon from June 24-30. As the week went on, though, things started to fall apart. The one project that could have had me working weekends until Anthrocon ran into regulatory delays and is now pushed back to mid-July at the earliest, more likely August. As for the other project, a new packaging line, the equipment won’t be delivered until June 27th at the earliest. Given that I’m not comfortable writing a protocol without the equipment in front of me, and that the following week is Summer Shutdown (meaning that while I have to be there, most of the people who need to sign off on the protocol won’t be there), I don’t expect that we’ll be able to start the validation until July 7th at the earliest. So, now it looks like July is going to be busy, but at least my June has opened up a whole lot!

Also, a funny thing about my trip down South: originally, I was supposed to visit a vendor in Atlanta who is supplying software for the packaging line on Tuesday and Wednesday. I changed my ticket accordingly, and life was good. Except they weren’t ready, and needed to reschedule. So I changed my ticket back. Net result: my employer paid $250 for me not to visit the vendor 🙂 Such is the way of business travel. However, they rescheduled the vendor visit to this Tuesday and Wednesday. So guess who’s flying BACK to Atlanta? The engineer I’m flying with booked a United flight out of O’Hare, but I was able to get a cheaper flight at the same times from Milwaukee (alas, on Delta not Midwest – Midwest’s fare was $600 vs. Delta’s $300). Granted, although we’re supposed to take off and land at roughly the same times, any guesses who I expect will be first to arrive in each case? Hint: O’Hare on a summer weekday afternoon is approximately the fourth circle of Hell.

So work his kept me quite busy this week, as you can see. In my spare (!) time I’ve been working on Artists Alley stuff for Anthrocon, programming the cash registers and working on documentation. rooth, I’ll be e-mailing you this weekend about spreadsheet applications. I found out last week that instead of the 100 seats we were going to have in the Alley this year (compared to last year’s 80), the number looks closer to 120. This explains my panicked post seeking more staff. I’m pleased to say that delphi_of_clf and tecknow have signed on, along with the rest of the Artists Alley/Con Store staff: frostyw98, woodychitwn, ramalion, shy_matsi, chanur2000, rooth, space-dingo, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Kage. As soon as the programming schedule is released (something I’ve heard will be happening Very Soon Now) I’ll be contacting folks to see when they will be available, then build a staff schedule around that. Gosh, the things we do for fun!

So, what’s going on this weekend for takaza and I? Nothing. Absolutely, gloriously nothing. No plans. It’s quite lovely, really 🙂 I expect we’ll venture out and do something, perhaps, but we’ll see what the days bring.

The last day to pre-register for Anthrocon is TODAY!

(Copied from mongologue‘s post to the Anthrocon website)

Pre-Registration for Anthrocon 2008 will be coming to a close today on June 6th, at 11:59 PM EST. Pre-Registration not only gets you in a line which moves at least twice as fast as On-Site Registration, but it’s $5 cheaper for Attending memberships, and only Pre-Registered SuperSponsors can attend the luncheon with Floyd Norman. Over 2,150 people have pre-registered already for Anthrocon 2008; these folks know the advantage to quick lines, discounts, and one less thing to worry about at the convention.

http://www.anthrocon.org/registration is the URL.

So Pre-Register! It’s great for Anthrocon, and okay for you!

–Chiaroscuro

Seriously, I recommend pre-registering. You will be happy you did!

Birthday Surprise 2008: Success!

Greetings from South Carolina!

I had posted about this under friends-only posts before because I was planning a surprise…and it worked! On Friday I left work at 11:30 AM and drove north to Milwaukee. As I was driving I called my mom and wished her a happy birthday, and apologized for not being there to help celebrate it. I told her I was driving to lunch as we chatted, and then that I had to go because I was “approaching the restaurant”. Actually, I was approaching the airport.

I caught a flight on Midwest Airlines from Milwaukee to Atlanta (on a 717, nice comfy wide leather seats, decent food provided – note to linnaeus, their food is designed by the executive chef at Mader’s!). Once I got to Atlanta I picked up my rental car, the most stripped-down Chevy Cobalt you have ever seen. No power windows, locks, or anything, and no cruise control. Ugh. Anyway, I drove out through crowded but not crazy traffic and arrived in Anderson, SC, in almost exactly two hours. I pulled up and surprised the heck out of my mom when I got out of the car!

This has been a lovely and relaxing weekend so far. My sister and her two sons are here as well, and we’ve been having fun swimming, playing video games, and such. For dinner we went to Liberty Hall Inn and Cafe. Their website didn’t offer a lot of information, but my sister recommended them. It was a great choice – the dinner was excellent, and our server, Ashlyn, was a real hoot! For dessert we went out to the deck and had a good enough time that one of the other diners came out to see what all the laughing was about, because “y’all are having a lot more fun than my group.” After dinner we came home and swam some in the pool and relaxed. It was a very enjoyable evening.

This morning we had kicked around ideas of driving around a bit and maybe even venturing into the North Carolina mountains. Unfortunately the weather is pretty lousy, so we’re going to stay near the house instead. After I shower, Mom and I are going to go pick up some breakfast from Panera, and this afternoon I’ll probably play my nephews in a few rounds of Boom Blox.

I’ll be here until tomorrow; my flight from Atlanta leaves at 7:55 PM. I’ll probably head out early in the afternoon and kill some time around Atlanta before going to the airport. Maybe drop off the car and jump downtown on MARTA? We’ll see. For now, I’m off to shower, and then breakfast!

Dinner with Top Chef?

Well, not quite. But close!

You see, rasslor was passing through town and wanted to get together for dinner. takaza and I met him and linnaeus at the Westin Chicago North Shore in Wheeling to have dinner at Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood. Once we walked in and talked to the hostess, we found out that they were also hosting a viewing party for tonight’s episode of Top Chef, which was filmed in the restaurant last year! This of course isn’t the first time we’ve eaten at Tramonto’s, and the meal was excellent as usual. Here’s what I had:

Cocktail: Sake mojito
Appetizer: Hamachi sashimi in a miso-pineapple emulsion with chili oil
Entree: Roasted halibut with organic spring peas, fava beans, and pea tendrils
Side dish: Fire-roasted asparagus with Hollandaise sauce
Wine: A Bourdeaux sec (yes, a white – very rare for me!)
Dessert: Malted milk chocolate souffle with Ovaltine ice cream

After walking around the hotel a bit, we parted ways and came home to watch said episode of Top Chef. I was amused to see our waitress from this evening shown prominently a few times in the episode, and Dan recognized enough faces to guess that the “patrons” in the restaurant when they filmed were all employees of Cenitare (the part-Tramonto-owned company that own Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood and Osteria de Tramonto) or their guests. It was a good episode, and I agree with their choice for elimination, though when it came down to the final two it could have gone either way (and the person who didn’t get eliminated should really be the next to go).

And now, we’re off to bed.

URGENT Anthrocon Help Needed: Artists Alley/Con Store

Talk about your good news/bad news situations. I recently found out that the Artists Alley at Anthrocon is going to have a lot more seats than I had originally thought. That’s great! Except that my staffing levels were based on a smaller Alley. That’s not so great. So here’s the deal: I need two more people for the Artists Alley/Con Store staff, and I need firm commitments by June 1st! What’s in it for you? You get a free membership to Anthrocon, a free 2008 Anthrocon T-shirt, admission to the (very tasty!) staff dinner on Sunday night, and admission to the Super Sponsor Lounge for the whole weekend.

What am I asking in return? 12-15 hours of your time over the course of the weekend. You would be running a cash register in the Artists Alley or the Con Store, as well as assisting with end-of-day artist payout as well as setup and teardown (as your schedule allows). Plus, you’ll have an ideal seat in Hall C to watch the entire convention walk by and be in a single place that makes it easy for your friends to find you! I create a set schedule that you will have in hand a week before the convention, and I am willing to work with you to make sure you don’t miss any panels or events that you want to see.

Interested? You can either leave a comment here or e-mail me at alley-2008@anthrocon.org no later than June 1!

Wow.

It’s very, very late, and I’m just thinking about the last two days. A fantastic party, followed by a day of relaxing, games, and a crappy movie at a great drive-in theater with good friends. This has been a wonderful weekend, and I’m looking forward to spending a bit more time with friends tomorrow before we have to get back to mundane things like doing laundry and housecleaning.

If I’m lucky I’ll be able to sleep in come morning, though…

The Calm Before The Storm

Before the craziness of this week’s preparations for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, we had a very nice weekend. On Friday we met up with linnaeus, roho, and genet for dinner in Antioch. We had originally planned to try out a BBQ joint I had read about, except we found that it was not only closed, the space was vacant and available for rent. Well. Instead, we walked down to the little Italian place a few doors down, Petrucci’s. As we were standing outside debating, one of the employees came out to cajole us into coming in. After she went inside, Linnaeus took a deep whiff and said, “Smell that? That’s Calvin Kline’s Desperation.” We shrugged and went inside.

After being seated, the waitress asked what we wanted to drink. I asked what beers they had on tap, and she…didn’t know. The manager came over and told us the beers they had: Michelob, Heineken, and Moretti (sure, they had a Peroni neon sign out front but they didn’t actually, you know, carry it). Evidently the three-beer beer list was too much to remember. Drinks arrived, and many giggles were had as we admired the Dunkin Donuts straws we were given. That was when I started pushing for just getting appetizers (a selection of fine frozen, fried cheese sticks, onion rings, etc.) and getting dinner elsewhere. I got outvoted, but we ordered the simplest possible thing we could: one sausage pizza, and one pepperoni pizza. To their credit, the pizza sauce wasn’t bad, and the toppings were OK. The crust, though, was terrible. It reminded me for all the world of cheap frozen pizza. Needless to say, we won’t be going back.

Saturday saw me at work in the morning while Dan slept in. He was awake and showered when I got home, and we headed out to run some errands. We happened upon a local coffee house now in its third incarnation since we’ve been in the area, and had a very tasty lunch there (they carry Intelligentsia Coffee! Yay!). Then it was up to Antioch Packing House to gather information on buying a side or quarter of a cow to fill up our freezer. We also picked up some excellent bacon and a couple of fantastic steaks. Once we got home we were joined by tozier_wah for the evening, and introduced him into how we have a small dinner for company: grilled NY strip steaks, baked potatoes with Monterey Jack and Parmesan, and grilled asparagus with rosemary and goat cheese, all accompanied with an excellent Australian shiraz blend. The evening ended with me nodding off on the sofa while Dan and Toz played Mario Kart Wii.

Sunday was the Midwest FurFest staff meeting. It was lightly-attended, as expected, but we got some good stuff done. perro has done a great job of fitting all the major events into the allotted space; now he can start thinking about the smaller panels. Afterwards we went over to Cafe Mistiko, a curious “European sports bar” that I really wanted to like more than I did. They made killer smoothies, and the saganaki was quite tasty. My crepe, “The Zembekiko” (Loukaniko [Greek sausage], tomatoes, peppers, and feta cheese) was only so-so, though. I’d be willing to go back and try something else on the menu, though. And lest you think of crepes as dainty little things, these suckers were huge, taking up three-quarters of the plate. I did also pick up a copy of the menu for the Japanese sushi joint next door and it looks like that may be next on the list of places in the area to try.

This week, we’re cleaning and shopping in preparation for the coming weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing some of our out-of-town friends, and hopefully repeating the fantastic time we had last year. Never a dull moment!

China Earthquake Reporting

Last night on my way home from work I was listening to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. Their hosts Robert Siegel and Melissa Block were originally in China to do a series of reports on Chinese culture and state of the country leading up to the Summer Olympics – then the earthquake happened.

Last night’s story by Melissa Block was, without a doubt, some of the most amazing and heart-wrenching journalism I have ever heard on NPR. It put a human face on the tragedy, as we followed the efforts of a husband and wife in the city Dujiangyan as they attempted to find someone to help dig out their parents and their two-year-old son. I would urge you to listen to the story – it’s difficult listening, but it is very worthwhile.

Here’s two ways to help:
American Red Cross – China Response
Americares

Massages and A Trip Behind The Cheddar Curtain

Right, it’s time for the weekend wrap-up! After working Saturday morning, takaza and I met up with Linnaeus at the Massage Envy in Palatine (which is conveniently owned by Dan’s brother). Dan and Paul each got one-hour massages; I went for a 90-minutes massage, choosing a deep tissue massage this time (I usually just stick with relaxation). It was…effective. But wow – she found some trigger points in my back that I didn’t know I had!

Following a quick lunch, we all headed back up to our stomping grounds, stopping by the game shop in downtown Grayslake to browse a bit. Then it was back to our place to play a little Wii Sports and hang out for a bit. After that we decided it was time to get a new game, so it was off to Gamestop to pick up Mario Kart Wii. Dan cooked up some tasty turkey burgers and we spent the rest of the evening driving like madmen around itty bitty tracks. Oh, and since people have asked, our Wii console number is 0640 0380 8682 3927, Takaza’s Mario Kart ID is 3523-2801-2341, and mine is 2578-3899-6783.

Sunday Dan and I were off to Milwaukee to spend the afternoon touring the area with tozier_wah and jet_der_hund (sadly, little_wolf had to work). We started out with an incredibly yummy lunch at Kopp’s Frozen Custard. When they say “jumbo burgers”, they mean it! Wow, those were good though, as was the frozen custard (Quote of the day: “Someone call Culver’s and tell them I want a divorce!”).

After that, we took the short drive down to the Sprecher Brewery for their brewery tour. The tour was fun, and the tasting afterwards was great. For $3, you (normally) get four 8 oz. samples of their beers or unlimited pours of their sodas. It pretty much confirmed that, for me, while their beers aren’t bad, I much prefer their sodas. Just a few weeks ago they introduced a cherry cola; while their regular Puma Cola doesn’t do much for me, this cherry cola was really, really good! Dan bought a case of it for us to take home 🙂

From there it was on to The Spice House (where Toz learned not to inhale the Latino spices) and then we finished off the day with a visit to Alterra At The Lake, my favorite coffee shop in Milwaukee. We had a lot of fun making the circuit of the town, and I look forward to going back again soon!

As for this week, work is keeping me busy on various projects. I’ve also got a few things that I need to take care of before this weekend’s Midwest FurFest staff meeting. OK, and maybe play a little Mario Kart in the meantime…

Ugh

It’s a documented fact: Internet forums and message boards make you stupid.

See also: If you make it easy enough for any idiot to use it, any idiot is going to use it.

Lots To Do, Lots To Do…

Another quiet week rolls past. Still, I’ve gotten a lot done, particularly with Anthrocon stuff.

The new registers for Artists Alley are mostly programmed; we just need to replicate the changes out across all three registers. I’ve revamped my spreadsheets to incorporate changes we’re going to need to upload each day’s artist names into the registers, which shouldn’t take more than a few minutes each morning. I’ve also started to document some of the processes required in the off chance that I’m pulled away or hit by a bus or something. And I’ve firmed up my staff, as well. Last year I had seven people on Artists Alley/Con Store staff; this year I’ve got nine people with two others available part-time. That’s going to make scheduling a lot easier.

There’s still a lot to do, though. Takaza and I need to revise the receipt forms and get those to uncle_kage by the end of the weekend. I need to figure out how to put together a map of the Alley on a whiteboard so we can write who’s sitting where (legibly!) each morning to help people find artists, and I need to make up a similar template that we can print out so it can be easily and quickly filled in once artists are seated and then transfer the information to the whiteboard. I need to pick up supplies for the Alley as well, and print and laminate the barcodes for the Con Store once I get them from Kage, and…and…

Man, it’s amazing the stuff we do for fun, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, we’ve been having a blast playing with our new Wii. The only game I’m really playing a lot of so far is Wii Sports, but I’m sure in the near future we’ll be thinking about buying another game. Whether that’s Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Boom Blox, or something else, we’ll see…

Beer and Cheese!

Two great things go great together!

Yesterday, after a long day spent running back and forth across campus working on various projects, I got out from work just a little late and headed north to Milwaukee. I met up with tozier_wah and little_wolf near their place, then we carpooled in to downtown Milwaukee, taking the scenic route up I-794 along the lakefront. We had a few wrong turns along the way – did you know the Marquette Interchange is partially open now? Neither did I! We inadvertently drove through it twice. Finally we arrived at our destination, Milwaukee Public Market.

We were the for Mooo & Brew, a beer and cheese tasting to benefit the Hunger Task Force. Predictably, the place was a mob scene, but we had a lot of fun. We were joined at the last minute by jet_der_hund, and we had a great time critiquing the various cheese (yum!) and beers (mostly yum, though there were a few clunkers). My favorite was (of course) the Unibroue lineup, which featured a wheat beer (Blanche de Chambly), then the same beer flavored with apples (Éphémère Apple) and cranberries (Éphémère Cranberry). Best of all was the Don de Dieu triple wheat ale, which just knocked my socks off (easy to do, at 9% alcohol!).

After we had enjoyed all the beers and decided that it was probably really a good time to get some dinner, we wandered around the Market a bit and I introduced everyone to The Spice House and we hit a couple of other places. We visited the small wine shop there, which was doing great business selling the beers which were being tasted upstairs. I hadn’t intended to buy anything, but when they mentioned a free Unibroue glass with every Unibroue beer, I had to pick up a bottle of the Don de Dieu! The guys working the shop were very friendly and we had a lot of fun joking around with them. We asked for recommendations on places fro dinner and they steered us away from our original choice and recommended a couple of others instead.

So off we went into the rapidly-gentrifying Third Ward, admiring the art shops and oh-so-trendy bars. We stopped by Hinterlands Gastropub, but were scared off by the entrees that started at $30. We wound up taking the wine shop guys’ advice and settled on Water Buffalo. Dinner was delightful, with great conversation and very tasty food. I had a blast and I think everyone else did as well. And I learned all about IML! 🙂 Afterwards, we walked down to the Foundry location of Alterra, but alas they closed a half hour before we go there. So we walked back to our cars and said our good-nights.

What a great evening! My only regret is that I didn’t get home until 11, so I’m dragging a bit today. It was worth it, though! I look forward to getting up to Milwaukee more and exploring with friends.

Great Weekend Wrapup!

What a great weekend! Uptime and downtime – the best of all worlds.

On Friday I was feeling antsy and wanted to get out, so takaza and I met up with roho and genet for dinner at the always-fabulous Scott Dogs. My jumbo shrimp were indeed quite jumbo, and extremely delicious! It’s always such a pleasure to go there because Scotty and his aunt (whose name, shamefully, continues to escape me) always recognize us, make sure to ask how our food was, and really go out of their way to make sure the meal is a special one.

Saturday morning found us hard at work clearing out Dan’s office. He had emptied out the storage closet down there a month or so back and we kept meaning to get everything re-stowed, so now was the time to take care of it. Unfortunately my back was giving me some pain so after about 45 minutes I had to turn it over to him. In the meantime went upstairs and finished making a couple of loaves of a fantastic multigrain bread. The went into the oven just as people started showing up for Game Day. Our guests included aeto, Roho, Genet, posicat, nymphara and her boyfriend Nick, colliedoc, hypersnazz, woodychitwn, truegrave9, and Bob.

We played several games, including a nice round of poker, Cosmic Wimpout, Blokus (I blame rigelkitty – on the strength of his good comments about this game we picked it up. It’s a lot of fun!), Quelf (an aggressively zany and wacky board game – think Cranium, only trying way too hard), and Catchphrase (another good game we learned of from Rigel and xydexx). Pizza was ordered, beverages were consumed, and a good time was had by all. Thanks to everyone for coming! We’ll definitely have to do one of these again soon (and not schedule it again softball 🙂

On Sunday, we did…nothing. Well, we did laundry, but mostly we just did nothing. And it was good.

Coming up this week, I’m trying to interest tozier_wah and little_wolf in a beer and cheese tasting at Milwaukee Public Market on Thursday evening – anyone else interested?

Oh, and I finally got a LinkedIn profile. I’m not sure how useful it is or anything, but hey – feel free to add me to your network!

Public Service Announcement: Rooms for Anthrocon Are Available!

This is a reminder that today is the day that the Westin Pittsburgh Convention Center charges the first night on all reservations that have been booked for Anthrocon (presumably, those who have reserved have gotten e-mails about this already). The Omni will be doing something similar on May 2. All of this is well-documented on Anthrocon’s hotel page.

A by-product of these facts is that all the people who booked rooms when they were unsure of whether they would attend or not are being forced to decide, and those that aren’t going are cancelling their reservations. This is good news for people who didn’t get a room, though! Right now rooms are available at both the Westin and the Omni! Make your reservation now! (though be prepared to pay for your first night when you reserve, at least at the Westin.)

Oh yeah, LiveJournal. I remember this thing…

I’m late with my weekend recap, but there’s not too much to say. Saturday we spent over at takaza‘s mom’s house with his family, playing various games and enjoying the mountain of food she cooked up for the occasion. On Sunday we didn’t do too much, mainly just relaxed around the house. I had gotten a very specific pain on Saturday night that was causing a bit of concern (on my back, just over the right kidney) that left me feeling rather blah and playing havoc with sleeping that night; that has since dwindled to nothing, so I’m hoping it was just a passing thing. Other than that, a rather unremarkable weekend.

This week finds me in statistics class (yes, again), this time learning about Design of Experiments and Variation Transmission Analysis (not Variable Transmission Analysis, which makes a lot more sense to my mind, but probably a bit too automotive). The glorious thing is that I don’t have to be in at work until 8:15 AM or so, compared to the usual 7 AM, though I’m still waking up at 5:30 AM with Dan. I’m able to enjoy my mornings a bit more, so that’s nice.

It’s still two months away, but Anthrocon is weighing heavily on our minds right now. Part of that is the fact that we have three large cash registers sitting on our dining room table. Both Dan and I are teaching ourselves how to program these for the Artists Alley; we’re hoping that these will help streamline the process a bit and make things easier for everyone involved. I’m still waiting to hear back from a few potential staff recruits; I need at least two or three more folks before I can stem the rising panic I’m feeling.

Which brings me to this: I am taking volunteers for Anthrocon Artists Alley/Con Store. In exchange for at least fifteen hours of your time, you will get free entry into Anthrocon, a free T-shirt, dinner on Sunday night (a nice dinner, too!), and the luxury of bypassing the registration lines and picking up your registration materials in Operations! If you’re interested, leave a comment here or e-mail me at alley-2008 [at] anthrocon.org.

Not much else going on this week. We may have a wah crashing at our place for a day or two during his transition to life behind the Cheddar Curtain, but other than that there’s not too much is going on.

FCN, Part 2: Food Fun!

And now…the rest of the story.

As I mentioned, the convention this weekend was quite a different experience for me. For one thing, I learned something that apparently other people do when they go to conventions. Yes, I…left the convention! I actually set foot outside of the hotel while the convention was taking place. This was a new and fascinating thing for me, something that I very rarely have had time to do when working Anthrocon or Midwest Furfest. So what did I do?

It all gets summed up in four words: I am Zingerman’s bitch. You’re going to be hungry after you read this…

Furry Connection North: One Down, Many More to Go (Hopefully!)

Furry Connection North. It was a weekend so big it’s going to need two posts to cover it!

First off, let’s talk about the convention. From everything that I saw, girtygrin and his staff did an outstanding job. All of the staff was extremely cordial and friendly. Things ran on time (if not early!). The sponsor lounge was very good, and the complimentary beer (Bell’s Amber Ale and Oberon) was excellent. All in all, they can give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done. Speaking personally, I really appreciate that Gir went out of his way to make our experience a pleasant one.

So that meant that I had a great time at the convention, right? Well…not so much. I can’t stress this enough, though: this is absolutely no fault of FCN or anyone associated with it. As I have suspected all along, if I go to a convention and I’m not volunteering in some fashion, I’m bored. It’s how I’m wired, I guess, but there it is. I think I needed to recalibrate my approach to conventions a bit, and by the end of the weekend I was doing a lot better. I was a lot more outgoing and social, and I met a lot of new people and got to spend time with folks who I don’t often see. It was a real pleasure to spend more time with tervicz and to make the acquaintance of jet_der_hund. I also had a blast hanging out with huskydoggeh, kodi_pup, dexcat, Dexgirl, and of course all the usual gang of miscreants from Chicago and Chambana.

The hotel…yeah, the hotel. We had been to the Best Western Executive Plaza for Dorsai Thing last year, so we knew what to expect. Then, and this weekend, we stayed in the “tower”, which was the newer side of the hotel; our suite had a bit of an odd odor to it and the furnishings were somewhere well past “worn out”. I hadn’t realized though that the other parts of the hotel were quite so…grim. The lack of air conditioning would have killed me, and there was unfortunately a litany of other complaints as well. The reviews on TripAdvisor pretty much sum things up. Also, mirkowuff hit it on the head: “This was probably a fantastic hotel – in 1984.” Granted, the costs were reasonable and it enabled a first-year convention to get its feet under it, so it definitely served its purpose.

So, what did I do to fill the time this weekend? Well, that’ll have to wait for the next post.