Television Made Me Stupid

This past weekend was pretty good, actually. I declared on Friday that, dammit, we were going out for dinner. After a year of driving past L. Woods Restaurant on Lincoln in Lincolnwood (right by the dreaded Purple Hotel), we agreed that it was time to check it out. Now, I’ll admit I had some trepidation – the place always seems packed, and it was a Friday night. A quick check on Metromix showed that the entrees were in the $8-15 range, and that it was a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant (a local chain of restaurants that are pretty much excellent in quality). Takaza phoned and we were told that they took call-ahead seating (i.e. put your name on the list before you get there) so we were off!

We were seated immediately, but the menu…well, $8-15 isn’t quite accurate. I’d say $15-30 is more like it. Not awful, but not what we were looking to spend, either. Fortunately, they had a small section (“The Lighter Menu”) that was essentially their lunch menu for dinner – $10 or so entrees. Hmm, that might work. Dan had the bacon cheeseburger, and I opted for the beef brisket sandwich. Both were OK, but the mashed potatoes that came with mine were excellent, and worth coming back for. The real draw that will bring us back are two things: Sprecher sodas on tap (root beer, cream soda, and orange cream soda), and cooked-to-order desserts. We got the large apple strudel ($12, serves 4) that was divine. I’d also like to try their “Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Cake”. I’m also intrigued by their “Supper Club” menu for six, which is $28 per person for a whole lot of food! (Granted, as Linnaeus points out, for $28 per person you could go to Sal e Carvao or Fogo de Chao, too…).

Saturday was pretty mellow; Dan had to work and I took care of some Midwest FurFest-related stuff, then attempted to take his car over to the nearest Currency Exchange to get new plates. I had the bright idea that I’d avoid the lines at the DMV by taking care of it there, but I didn’t account for the extra $45 they wanted to charge in service fees, on top of the $78 for new plates (they also expected to sell me a new title, but I’m not certain that’s necessary. More research needed on that). So that idea got aborted. That evening, Paul and I had the bright idea that socializing would be good so we went over to LAFF bowling (Dan was smart and stayed home). You know, there’s not much to say; we went, we bowled, we left. There may have been stuff that went on with the rest of the group, I have no clue. We pretty much just stuck to our lane and drank beer 🙂 My bowling was awful, though, and between knee and back problems I dropped out after two games.

On Sunday siriuswolfstar came over early and he and I drove the circuit around Woodfield Mall to collect the last of the information for the MFF Restaurant Guide. His help was very much appreciated! The MFF staff meeting went well and was quite productive. Dinner at Fuddruckers afterwards was quite tasty, and the conversation was quite entertaining and informative.

Not a lot happened yesterday – went to work, did laundry, and we watched the latest Monster House, which I swear is getting more and more stupid (“Let’s see how badly we can bitch up these poor saps’ house!”). Since Paul and I have read Anthony Bourdain‘s excellent book of the same title, we also decided to watch the premiere of Kitchen Confidential on Fox. We made it through about 18 minutes of it before we turned it off and deleted it from the TiVo. Yeah, it was that bad. Think all the stupid parts of “Hell’s Kitchen” meets “Sex and the City” with a dash of every stock sitcom character you’ve ever seen, with awful, self-conscious dialogue.

I’ll be coming in at 6 AM for the rest of the week to make up for the afternoon I’m taking off on Thursday (to be detailed in a later entry). And on Wednesday, Dan and I are going to an eye doctor that woodychitwn recommended so I can get both new glasses (my current ones are five years old and scratched all to hell) and finally get some prescription safety glasses. Hopefully the doctor will be as cute as advertised 🙂 And now, back to that aforementioned work!

Due to the proliferation of Brazilian steakhouses, chophouses, and carnicerias in Chicago, Mayor Daley has been forced to declare a state of emergency. Dozens have died in horrible cases of meat exhaustion.

Yes, it’s a meatwave!

Run Silent, Run Deep?

I’ve been accused of running silent for the past few days (hi Mom!) so I guess it’s time to bring everyone up to speed on what’s going on in my life.

First and foremost, I’ve been worrying about my Dad. As I mentioned in my last entry, he’s in the hospital recovering from a repair of a repair of a repair to his back surgery. The good news is that he seems to be recovering nicely, and I’m hoping may be out of the hospital as early as next week. My mom and my sister have been busting their butts keeping him in good spirits, cooking dinners for him, and generally making sure he’s got the best possible care. It kills me that I can’t be there helping, but time and money and circumstances prohibit.

We actually had a pretty busy weekend. Takaza, Linnaeus and I spent Saturday walking around a whole lot in preparation for a event we’re working on in October. Preparations went well and I’m confident that folks will really have a good time. We had a lot of fun but unfortunately I’ve confirmed that I have weak arches or some such because my back was a complete mess by the end of the day (and my left knee wasn’t so hot either). I’m going to need to see a doctor about this sooner than later, and I’m hoping the resolution isn’t going to be more of the “Lose weight ya fat bastard” sort of thing.

I spent a good portion of the day Sunday resting my back, but Dan and I finally headed out late in the afternoon and spent the better part of four hours doing research for the Midwest FurFest Restaurant Guide. The idea was to pare the radius of restaurants listed from five miles down to two miles. Just lopping off the list at the two-mile mark cut about 20 restaurants, though a few were added back (Outback, Gameworks, etc.). We covered about 75% of the area (still need to do Woodfield Mall and its environs) and wound up crossing off 3 or 4 restaurants that closed and added a good 20-30 restaurants that hadn’t been listed before. Yikes! We’re going to have to take a hard look at that list and decide either to cut back the radius or be more selective about the restaurants we list (probably the latter – do we really need to list all four Quizno’s in the area?).

Last night was a nice change of pace. I got a call on the way home from daveqat informing me that I really needed to stop by their place to pick up something. That something turned out to be a belated birthday present, a very nice cheese board, a nice set of knives and little cheese label thingies. It was a lovely gift, and very thoughtful of them. We hung out and chatted at their place for a while, then were joined by tecknow. We all went out to Tom Yum, a little sushi/Thai restaurant a few blocks from our apartment (though Dan and Paul bowed out from dinner). The food was pretty good, the service appalling. A nice reminder of why I only get take-out from there. Fortunately, the dinner conversation was entertaining and I had a really nice time.

As for the rest of the week, we don’t have a lot planned. I might have to work late on Friday (yay overtime!) and Dan might have to work this weekend – we’ll see. I’m hoping to maybe hang out with friends, because I feel like I’ve been a bit of a hermit of late. Who knows? We might even show up at LAFF Bowling this month. And of course there’s also the Midwest FurFest staff meeting on Sunday – lots of fun to be had there!

Well, back to work I go…

Holy cow

This is a first. Fox News actually broadcast the unvarnished truth last night, and it’s not a pretty picture for Our Fearless Leader. I’ve never had much use for Geraldo Rivera, but he is absolutely compelling here, and Shepard Smith does a good job showing Sean Hannity’s obfuscations for what they are. Just watch the clip.

For a Friday, this sure seems like a Monday

First, let’s get the whinging out of the way: I need a new pillow, I think. I woke up this morning at around 2:30 AM with a headache (neck strain, most likely) and slept fitfully the rest of the night because of it, never waking up quite enough to get up and take some ibuprofen for it. When I did get up at 5, I had to make the coffee twice, because I hear the coffee tastes better when you remember to actually add the coffee grounds to the coffee maker. And just when I thought the day might pass uneventfully, I heard from takaza that there has been a fiber cut to his employer’s building, so they’re without phone or connectivity and he’s left to twiddle his thumbs until they work it out (just got an e-mail from him – they’re back up. Good).

All of this, of course, is completely meaningless and insignificant compared to what is going on down on the Gulf Coast. There’s plenty of discussion and finger-pointing and speculation going on so I don’t see much need to add fuel to the fire except to say let’s tend to the living and bury the dead first, folks. It’s a question of priorities. It’s worthy of note that, according to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the city worked to get everyone who couldn’t get out into central locations and then…the system failed. No one appeared to ship them out to safe locations, and so there many of them have stayed. Make no mistake, I believe there should be some serious analysis of what happened, just…not now. Not yet.

Down in the Delta

Something that some folks may not know about me: after high school (so long ago, in 1986), I didn’t want to just move on to Clemson University. At that time, it just seemed that all of the people I knew from my high school in Anderson, SC (15 miles south of Clemson) were going there, so I was afraid it would just be high school writ large. No, I wanted broader horizons. I received a nice package of grants and loans from Tulane University in New Orleans, and that is where I went for my first year and a half of college. I have a lot of fond memories from there:
– The horrid freshman dorm. Fourth floor, Sharp Hall.
– Marginal improvement the next year, second floor, Butler Hall
– Sunday morning brunch in Bruff Commons (not good food, but pleasant at the time)
– Broadcasting the Global Folk Show on Sunday mornings on WTUL-FM
– Video production with TUVAC, producing a weekly issues discussion show for public access TV
– The massive toy-gun shootout that ranged the length and breadth of McAlister Auditorium
– Seeing Andreas Vollenweider, Bruce Hornsby, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Hunter S. Thompson (the latter completely drunk out of his mind) at McAlister Auditorium
– Plum Street Snowball stand. That wasn’t a sno-cone, that was heaven.
– Audubon Park Zoo, right across St. Charles from Tulane
– Mardi Gras. Good gods, Mardi Gras.
– All the great music at the clubs: Beausoleil, File’ Cajun Band, The Godfathers…
– Fridays afternoons on the Quad. The Song Dogs, Harry Connick, Jr., Winter Hours, The Radiators…
– Working as a dispatcher/student marshal for Tulane Police. I saw every inch of that campus, and then some, and met some great people.
– Cafe du Monde, Dixie Beer, barbecued crawfish (suck the head and pinch the tail, y’all!), muffalettas, and po’boys

And now? Most, if not all of that is under water. Officially, Tulane University has said they won’t start classes until September 21, but I saw one blog that had a tip from a Tulane employee speculating that it may be next year before they can start classes again.

They’ll rebuild. There is no doubt in my mind. It won’t be the same, but that’s OK. Everything changes, and I’m sure very little was still the same from the last time I set foot in the city seventeen years ago. But I do believe they will come back, in time.

That’s in the future. For the present, there are millions of people that need help. They need your help. Stop what you’re doing and think: what if you had to leave, right now? What would you take? What would you leave behind? Where would you go? What if what you thought you could come back to was gone, obliterated?

Think about that. Then click on one of these links. Even if it’s just a few dollars, every little bit will help. The American Red Cross donation page (site is very slow). Americares donation page (small but very effective charity). Humane Society of the United States donation page (mounting a rescue effort for pets and caregivers). Or select some other charity that you prefer, but seriously: do something.

Home Again and Big Blows

So, back in Chicago. I had a lovely weekend at my parents’ in South Carolina. My dad is recovering well from all of the back surgeries and is up and about, walking (well, for short periods anyway) for the first time since April. Mom is holding up well too, though I hope my visit provided some short respite. I had a strange moment of deja vu as I drove to their house from the airport at 12:30 AM on Friday night, realizing that 20 years earlier, in 1985, I would have been driving that same road in my F-150, coming home from hanging out at friends on a Friday night. And it’s scary how little has changed in the last 20 years, at least out in the country where they live.

As with so many people, New Orleans is on my mind this morning. I admit that I’ve watched a lot of CNN and The Weather Channel over the last few days, remembering the times we’ve watched and waited in North Carolina, and remembering what it was like when Hurricane Fran hit in 1996. Fran was still a Category 3 hurricane when it blew between Raleigh and Durham, and the devastation was staggering. I can’t imagine living in an area below sea level and having a storm as strong or stronger coming through. My thoughts and hopes are with the people down there and especially those I know with family there – rustitobuck and genet. Here’s hoping everyone pulls through safely. And hey, goodluckfox – keep your head down and take care!

BoingBoing has some good links to blogs from folks down there. I’m keeping an eye on this one, written by a reporter holed up on the third floor of the Times-Picayune building.

“Play the one that goes deedly-deedly-deedly!”

I seem to be drifting a bit this morning, having trouble focusing on one project at any given time. I do hope this passes soon. Not that I have any huge plans for the day besides stopping at the grocery store for dinner, but it is a trifle disconcerting.

So on Saturday Dan and I drove up to Irishfest in Milwaukee. For all that it was their 25th anniversary and they brought back a lot of fine performers, I found the schedule strangely unappealing. The company was good, though, as we were joined by datahawk and linnaeus, and even briefly by roho‘s sort-of-cousin Laurie. I did get to see brief flashes of some excellent performers, but there was a lot of dreck there too; there’s only so many times I’m going to hear “Danny Boy” before I start wanting to beat someone with a mic stand.

While it was a pleasant surprise to see Schooner Fare there, that too was something of a letdown. I first saw them a good eighteen years ago, performing at Wolf Trap in Virginia. They were amazing, and a real treat to see live. To their credit, they’re still in fine voice after all these years, but one of their members passed away last year and as a duo they really lack of the punch they once had. We did see the majority of the performance by Wolfstone and as always their instrumentals far outshone their songs. I could rant about the annoying woman and her even more annoying child who were sitting next to me, but the less said about them the better.The joys of festival seating. Ugh. Dan and I packed it in at around 7 PM and went home and crashed.

Sunday was the August Midwest FurFest staff meeting. Planning continues apace, and the meeting went well. A lot of unresolved questions were answered, and we worked through some outstanding issues. Dinner afterwards at Fuddrucker’s was quite tasty, too! After dinner, Dan, Paul, and I drove to one of the possible hotels for an upcoming shindig and it looks like we might have a real winner. After a brief stop, we headed home and crashed for the evening.

More to write about, but it’s lunchtime now!

Addictions

giza seems to have gotten me addicted to WikiFur. I have to admit, I never really saw much use in wikis but I’m now starting to understand. This is a fun collaborative tool, and it lets you play at being both an author and an editor. Click on over and take a look – you may find that someone’s already written an entry about you 🙂

Sort of back and IRISHFEST!

Well, the good news is that they finally got the work computers back up. The bad news is that my laptop goes out today via FedEx so any computer access I have at home is on borrowed equipment. Safe to say, don’t look for me on ICQ or AIM anytime for the next week or so.

So this coming weekend is Irishfest in Milwaukee. I’m planning on heading up there on Saturday, leaving Chicago at around 10 or 10:30. Anyone interested in joining me, or meeting up at the Fest? Tickets are $12. I’ll be sticking around until at least 10 PM or so.

Home Early, But That’s Not Good

So, thanks to our good friend Zotob, I left work today at about 1 PM. Given that pretty much every single computer at my employer was affected and given that everything we do is based around writing and editing information that’s stored on the network, well, there hasn’t been much since all of the computers started shutting themselves down yesterday at about 1 PM. There were large signs everywhere and announcements this morning not to turn on your computer, and from the memo that was distributed at around lunch time, it doesn’t look like this is going to get fixed until at least late tomorrow or maybe Friday.

If I were a full-time employee, this would be great, but being a contractor, well, if I’m not there, I don’t get paid. I snuck out early anyway since I need to back up my laptop. Yes, I’m finally getting around to sending this thing in for repairs – it only took a month to get around to it 🙂 Anyway, I’ll make up the tie by going in early tomorrow and Friday, though I hope I can come up with stuff to do in the meantime.

Standard Weekend Recap #912

Saturday, the plans were simple: have lunch with Takaza‘s mother to belatedly celebrate her 60th birthday. As a gift we were going to add some components to her computer and get everything running again. Sounds simple, right? Heh heh heh…

First, there was a trip to Cyberexchange in Vernon Hills to get a CD-RW. We had an external CD-RW that Dan got for free from work but it was a USB-driven unit and Dan’s mom’s computer is an older box running Windows 98, therefore all it has is slow USB 1.1. The CD-RW’s they had in stock were too expensive and the owner was reluctant to take the CD-RW we had to trade (come to think of it, we still haven’t heard back on how much he’s willing to offer). Eh – we picked up a SoundBlaster Live card since her sound wasn’t working either and resolved to figure out a way to get Win 98 to recognize the CD-ROM that was already in the computer. We arrived only a little late at 2:30 PM and proceeded to spend the next four and a half hours banging our heads against the wall trying to get everything up and running. It was frustrating, but in the end we got everything working! Of course, the birthday lunch had now turned into a birthday dinner, but that was OK.

Dinner was at a little Italian joint between Crystal Lake and McHenry. The food was OK but clearly…well, would it be too snobbish to say “It was good for McHenry County”? After dinner we headed back home, with a quick stop at Culver’s. I had a taste for their lemon ice, but I was dismayed to find that they started making it with Splenda so now it has that nasty chemical aftertaste. Phooey! I settled for a concrete and we drove home, pausing briefly to admire the fireworks at Lakemoorfest on our way through the town.

Sunday, Dan wasn’t feeling well, having had a bad reaction to the previous night’s dinner (as had I, but that’s because I was stupid and forgot that I should always take an antacid before bed after a dinner that has tomato sauce). We got a late start, but Dan, Linnaeus, and I drove around the northwest suburbs scouting out hotels for an upcoming shindig. We found some good possibilities, but probably the most surreal moment was the tour of a certain hotel which shall remain nameless (hint: it rhymes with Schmingate Inn). The manager took great pride in his hotel, but there’s such a thing as too much pride. We got a tour of the rooms, a description of the granite countertops, assurances that the furniture was sturdy, Canadian-made stuff, and the many and varied television stations they carried. And to top it all of, after we mentioned we had stayed at a sister location a few miles down the road: “I don’t want to put them down or say we’re better than them. I mean, they’re friends of mine and we work together all the time. But we’re really a much better property.” Heh. Right. After that we retired back to the apartment and spent a relaxing evening watching Tivo and reading. And that was our exciting weekend, woo.

This week it looks like we’re going to have some company over for dinner on Thursday (hopefully), and maybe do some touring around the city on Friday afternoon/evening. Saturday is IrishFest (I’ll be posting more about that soon) and Sunday is the Midwest FurFest staff meeting at the Hyatt Woodfield. Lots to do!

Weekend Update to Come, But First…

Here’s a link especially for wildmouse:
Hershey to acquire Joseph Schmidt Confections Inc.

Oh dear. As Linnaeus said to me, if they’re smart they won’t tamper with J. Schmidt – that’s too good a thing to mess up! I’ll note that in the same article it’s mentioned that Hershey is also acquiring Scharffen-Berger. WTF? Are they out to destroy all good and tasty chocolate in the world?

A Pretty Good Week

It’s been a pretty good week. We got a new car, and he passed a huge hurdle once we got online registration up and running for MFF. Work has been steady and shows signs of getting even busier, which is not a bad thing.

The one down note was that my dad had to go back into the hospital Wednesday night because they found he was leaking cerebrospinal fluid – about 100-150 cc’s worth. Eek! The whole idea gives me the willies. The good news is that they were able to go in and fix the problem last night (there was a small laceration in the dura, or membrane around the spinal cord) They patched the hole with a surgical cyanoacrylate adhesive. Yep, super glue. Hmm, I wonder where that came from, eh, ladyinthetower? He’ll be in the hospital until Sunday, but I think that’s more to make sure that he stays flat on his back and doesn’t push himself quite as hard as he did initially after the surgery. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated!

Tomorrow afternoon we’re off to the wilds of McHenry County once again to take takaza‘s mother to lunch for her 60th birthday. Sunday we’ll be gadding about Chicago on a top-secret mission! Woo!

Finally, and this is going to come a huge surprise to everyone, I know, but it’s true: Roger Ebert hated Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo. But it sure makes for quite the entertaining review!

Midwest FurFest Announces Online Registration!

Midwest FurFest is happy to announce that online registration is now open!

Memberships are $30 until September 30, 2005, and $40 thereafter and at the door.

Sponsorships are only $100. And what do you get with your sponsorship? You get a free T-shirt, a print from our Guests of Honor, a limited-edition commemorative pin, a delicious brunch with our Guests of Honor, and a special surprise gift!

To register, simply point your browser to http://www.furfest.org/regindex.html and follow the link.

For more information about Midwest FurFest, visit our website at http://www.furfest.org

Announcement Number One

Well, I said I hoped to have a couple of good announcements this week, and here’s the first one:

New wheels for Duncan! Woohoo!

Yes, the 2001 Alero, lemon that it was, finally proved to be just too much aggravation. Takaza has had such good luck with his Element and I enjoyed driving it so much, I figured it would be perfect for my next car. And thus we now have The Box and The Blue Box. Yay!

Another Weekend Down

This weekend was a fun one. Friday evening we opted to stay in and enjoy a nice quiet night. Then on Saturday we met up with roho, genet, skorzy, was1, and Roho’s cousin Lori at BD’s for usual Saturday lunch there (sans Feren, who obviously doesn’t love us 😉 Lunch was delightful, as always. Afterwards we retired to R&G’s place in Antioch, but not before making a stop by Antioch Packing House to pick up a huge sirloin steak and three pounds of hamburger (ground right in front of us). Once at R&G’s,we chatted for a while and generally lolled about in digestive torpor. Eventually we got motivated enough to roll out Cranium Turbo Edition, which we just picked up. The game was a real hoot, with charades, pictionary, trivia, and all sorts of other stuff. The Turbo Edition is a marked improvement in gameplay over the original version, and that made the game that much more enjoyable. After we wrapped things up (Will and I won! W00t!), we made quick trip to the local Jewel for snacks and condiments and such, then it was time for meat on the grill. Arr num num num! Roho was a fine griller, as always, and everything was delicious. Sadly, due to a nasty headache on my part we had to bow out early from the Apples to Apples and rum sampling that followed.

Sunday found us on our way up to Milwaukee for the wedding of aureth and jenwolf. The service was lovely (great job, werellama!) and the meal afterwards was good. It was a nice day and even if it got a little warm in the building we were in (un-air conditioned, ack!) it was nice to see many of our friends there. Afterwards we headed home (with a stop by the store for the week’s groceries) and takaza made some delicious mac and cheese (with BACON! yum!).

And today it’s back to work. Eh. At least with the hot and muggy weather we’re supposed to have all day I know I’m not missing anything by not being outdoors. Looking to the rest of the week, I don’t think we have a lot going on except for taking Dan’s mom to lunch for her birthday on Saturday. I’m hoping to have not one but two exciting announcements in the next few days, though – watch this space!

Good News All Around

A couple of things at random…

First off, it is with much relief that I can report that father’s surgery yesterday went well. For those who didn’t know, over the last 4-6 months he’s been having terrible pain in his lower back, to the point where he wasn’t able to walk. It was diagnosed as spinal stenosis, which means that there were bone spurs on his spine that were compressing the spinal cord. Yesterday morning he went in for a decompressive laminectomy and when I talked to him last night (!) he said he had been up walking around and it really seems to have worked. Amazingly, he’ll be out of the hospital this afternoon (barring complications) and then it’s several weeks of convalescence and physical therapy. The prognosis is pretty good, though, and I have really high hopes. I’m hoping to make a weekend visit to Mom and Dad’s in South Carolina the weekend of August 27th – it’s been far too long since I’ve been down there.

Secondly, Dan and I were looking ahead later this month and it looks like the weekend of August 20 is Milwaukee Irishfest! Woohoo! I will definitely be going on Saturday the 20th – anyone interested in joining me? This will be my third year going and if you like Celtic music at all this is THE PLACE to go. The lineup on Saturday includes some of the biggest names in Celtic music: Schooner Fare, Tommy Makem, Danu, Green Fields of America, Cherish the Ladies, Gaelic Storm, Leahy, Seven Nations, Black 47, Young Dubliners, Wolfstone, Liz Carroll, and the list goes on. The only problem is going to try to figure out who to see among the great stuff that’s all scheduled on top of each other!

Finally, I can say that in regards to the event I mentioned last week – we’re going to have some good news in the next few days, I think.

“Baseball Has Been Very, Very Good To Me”

(Wow, am I dating myself with that subject line…)

So, con reports aside, what have we been up to? Well, the past weekend was quite entertaining, really. The fun started on Friday when Takaza and I played hooky from work to meet Mirkowuff and Siegferret at Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mirko and Siegfried experienced some delays getting to the park, unfortunately. We missed the top of the first inning, but once we got seated things were fine. And those were some really great seats! Section 215, Row 2 – about a third of the way up the third base line with a great view of the game. I will freely admit that I am not the world’s best baseball fan – hell, after football season is over, I usually throw away the sports section unread. But I learned that actually being there at the game is far more interesting, and I really had a great time. Mirko and I swapped rounds of (expensive, nasty) beer and Sieg and Dan each got some hot dogs. The game was great, too – a real thriller, with the Cubs pulling it out in the bottom of the ninth. I would actually be willing to catch another game this year, albeit maybe from the cheap seats.

After the game we fought the teeming throngs to get out of the park and onto the El, taking about a half-hour to go a few hundred feet. We eventually made it onto a northbound Red Line train and rode up to DaveQat and Jimcyl‘s place. We hung out there, and were eventually joined by boixboi and perromutt. Perro stuck around to wait for Darkwolph (who was apparently traveling in low orbit, since he got from Lafayette, IN to the north side of Chicago in 90 minutes, on a Friday afternoon) while the rest of us tromped off to Evanston to the Asado Brazilian Grill. We dove into the tasty food and copious quantities of meat, and Perro and Wolphy joined us not too long after. The meal was excellent, and the company grand. We parted ways afterwards and went home and to bed.

On Saturday Dan and I set forth once again to the wilds of downstate Illinois (i.e. south of I-80) towards the Champaign-Urbana metroplex. We arrived at Mirko’s in time to do some birthday shopping, then it was over to Siegfried’s place for a fun night of games with Mirko, Sieg, Lycaos, and Wolftail. We played Malarky (very fun game, though I’m not sure about the scoring system) and Cranium (always fun) and had a great time.

Sunday morning, we met everyone but Lycaos (who was flying out that day) at The House of Lard, aka The Original Pancake House, for breakfast. Yum! Very tasty. I drove home, and on the way back we finished listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have…comments. But I think I’ll wait a bit and think it over some more. Anyway, we arrived home just in time to meet up with Rustitobuck and Linnaeus and strike out for Linnaeus’ birthday party. Paul has documented that well, so I’m going to be lazy and just point to his entry 🙂

And today it was back to the grind, woohoo. Ah well. Now, to figure out what we’re going to do for dinner tonight…

Payola? Say It Ain’t So!

For those of you who have yet to slip the surly bonds of over-the-air radio, I present an amusing tidbit: a 60-page PDF of e-mails detailing what Sony was giving/paying to radio stations to play their crap music, as well as a nice sprinkling throughout of what radio stations were on the take (this is part of the $10 million settlement that Sony just paid for Payola).

Link via BoingBoing

A Romantic Weekend

And after long silence, I finally emerge. What’s the occasion? I finally got a computer at my desk at work, which means I can grab the occasional break and write a bit. Does this mean I’ll finally get around to writing my Anthrocon report? You damn betcha. But first, I have to talk about the weekend.

See, Takaza called me on Thursday with the odd request: all weekend plans would be his to make. It’s usually something of a joint effort between us, but I shrugged and said sure. He was quiet about any developments until that night. It turns out that we were going away for the weekend. Not too far away – only Elgin, maybe 30 miles west of Chicago, but that wasn’t the point. Since Anthrocon, we’ve been both been a bit stressed and snappish, and a nice weekend, with no convention duties and no chores around the house, was definitely a good idea. Just the two of us taking some time to reconnect.

After work on Friday, I drove out to Dan’s mom’s house in Wonder Lake. Her computer had gone belly-up and Dan left work early to do some repair work on it. The repairs took longer than expected, and we didn’t leave until 8:30. We headed south on IL 31 and stopped off in Crystal Lake for a tasty dinner at Outback. After dinner we continued southwards and got to the hotel at around 10:30. Now, when Dan originally reserved the room on Priceline, all he knew was that he was getting a room for $60/night at the Holiday Inn Elgin. When he called Thursday night to verify the room, he found out it was a Queen Suite, which is lovely except that that had a queen bed, which doesn’t work for us. So they upgraded us for free to a King Suite. Well, as we checked in, they looked at what rooms were available and went ahead and upgraded us to a Jacuzzi Suite for free. Nice! The room was fabulous – two rooms, really, with a comfy sofa, a two-person whirlpool tub in the bedroom, and a huge bathroom with a roomy shower with two shower heads. We watched a bit of TV, chatted a bit more, then went to sleep.

Saturday morning, I discovered one drawback to the room: the curtains hung to just below the windows but no further, which allowed quite a bit of light in once the sun came up, waking me at around 6:30. I decided to get up around 7, and surfed the net on Dan’s computer for a bit (yay for free Wi-Fi!) then went down to the lobby and got the paper. By that time, Dan was awake and we had a lovely shower then went to get breakfast at Baker Hill. On the way there we saw the Days Inn Elgin, which seems to have really slid towards meeting its nickname of “The Dead Hooker Inn.” After breakfast, we walked around Spring Hill Mall and drove around West Dundee and Carpentersville in a half-hearted search for a place that might rent boats. Failing in our quest (but not too upset about it) we returned to Elgin and wandered a bit until we found ourselves at the Grand Victoria Casino. We wandered through the place and I was amazed at the brutal efficiency with which the place is designed to separate suckers from their money. I even gambled! Well, I put a dollar in a slot machine. I lost. That was fun, or something.

We returned to the hotel and passed the afternoon swimming, chatting about our upcoming shindig in October, and relaxed a bit more. Decadent, I tell you! We were both feeling hungry, so we wandered up to West Dundee to check out a couple of restaurants. The first looked tasty, but a bit pricey and not particularly Dan-friendly. We opted for the second, Emmett’s Tavern because they brew their own beer – always a selling point for me. The dinner was outstanding! I had a nice sampler of five different beers, then followed that with a pint of their Old Dundee Porter, which was just fabulous. It probably didn’t hurt that I was slightly tipsy, but that’s OK. The food was excellent – Dan’s applewood-smoked bacon/white cheddar burger was tasty, and my Boursin burger topped with a portabella mushroom was to die for. We had a great time and I’m really glad we went. After dinner we went back to the room and had some really nice together-time.

I was up again at 7 AM on Sunday, curse my evil internal alarm clock! I surfed the net for a while then Dan finally stirred an hour or so later. We went down to the hotel lobby and opted for the hotel restaurant for breakfast, since the 20%-off coupon we got when we checked in brought the prices down to normal levels. The breakfast was OK, better than the day before, but nowhere approaching the quality of, say, Las Vegas Restaurant in Antioch. After breakfast we relaxed in the room for a while, soaking up every last second of our extended checkout time. Finally, at 1 PM we left the hotel and drove back into the city. The romantic weekend was over, but I’m sure it won’t be our last. I had a lovely time, and I was reminded once again of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband.

Remember that Anthrocon report I promised? Still coming. Eventually. Between trying to get back into the swing of things at work and continuing computer issues, a con report has gone to the back burner. I’ve made copious notes, though, and I’ll be writing something up, probably this weekend. I also still need to put together a final report on Artists Alley, and while it won’t be quite as exhaustive as my annual MFF Registration report (less numbers to play with 🙂 I’ve got a good bit to talk about.

And now, I go make dinner…

Made it home

Anthrocon was excellent. I will write up a full report (of my experiences and for Artists Alley as well) tomorrow. The flight home had no major mishaps, though our suitcase is now in the dumpster in the alley.

Also: I GOT THE JOB! I start Wednesday. More info on that tomorrow as well. For now: sleep.

The Requisite Pre-Anthrocon Post

Job interview went well. It took all of 20 minutes, which means either they really like me, or they’ve already hired someone and are going through the motions. I’m holding out for the former.

Spent the afternoon making 96 scones. Exhausting. Want to try one? Find me at con. I’ll be easy to find – go to the Artists Alley.

We get up tomorrow at 4:30 AM to take the El to the airport. This means I’m off to bed now. See some of you at the con, otherwise see you on Monday!

One Husky, Missing in Action

I seem to have bad luck with computers and Anthrocon. Last year my Vaio’s display crapped out at Anthrocon; last night the backlight on my Compaq Presario died, leaving the screen extremely dimly lit and the bottom left of the display dim to the point of illegibility. Takaza (who is the best husband in the whole wide world, I’d like to point out) braved the HP/Compaq tech support phone slalom last night and got them to admit that yes, it’s the backlight and yes, it will have to be sent in for repairs. The stupid thing is only six months old, for chrissake! Fortunately, while inconvenient, it’s not crippling for the work I have to do at Anthrocon. Linnaeus has been kind enough to offer the use of his laptop (identical to mine, but one model up) for the con, which will be a godsend. For now, I’m making do with one of Paul’s old monitors he had lying around hooked up to the display output. The laptop will get sent off sometime next week, I expect, once I figure out how to back up everything on it.

In other news, I have a job interview in two hours. Yay! More on that later today…

Last Call For Anthrocon Artists Alley Help

I’m running into a bit of a pinch with staffing, so I thought I’d see if anyone in LJ-land would be willing to help…

I need help with Artists Alley Payout at Anthrocon. We’ve got a good number of folks but I need two or three more to really make things run smoothly. What’s involved? Just an hour to an hour and a half of your time on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday of Anthrocon, starting at 4:45 PM on Friday, 2:45 PM on Saturday, or 3:45 PM on Sunday. It’s pretty easy work – you’ll just have to do one small thing, like filling out receipt forms or adding up numbers on a calculator. What’s in it for you? Um, my gratitude, and the gratitude of the artists in Artists Alley for having expedited their payment. You can help each day, or only one or two days – any time you can spare would be appreciated! If you’re interested, you can comment here, or e-mail me at duncan at wolfhusky dot org. Thanks!

It’s Just Right

Some weekends are too busy…some are too lazy. This one was juuuuust right.

On Saturday I left takaza hugging his pillow and mumbling “G’way!” and struck out for Vernon Hills to join roho, genet, feren, and datahawk for lunch at BD’s. The lamb there is just delicious, and really lends itself to my favorite combination of soy, ginger, and garlic. After lunch Data and I headed back to our place where we bummed around for a bit then took the El down to the Lincoln Park Fest (which, it turns out, was right outside the Zoo. We probably still missed you by an hour or so, Quasi). We were joined by chouette and Ed and saw moryssa as well. Carbon Leaf just flat-out rocked. We were standing front and center in front of the stage and I really enjoyed the 90-minute show. There was a huge crowd of fans and it seemed like everyone knew the words to the songs, which is always cool and must be really gratifying to the band. I took some okay pictures of the show with my cell phone – at least you can make out who’s who.

After the show we repaired to the Golden Nugget at Clark and Diversey. We speculated whether this was the diner that was featured on This American Life (it wasn’t) and had a so-so dinner. At least the company was good. Linnaeus, having freed himself from his familial obligations, joined us to mill about a bit and figure out what to do for dessert, but eventually we just decided we were too tired and headed home. We watched a bit of “I’m Alan Partridge” which strikes me (like “Father Ted”) as one of those Britcoms that I should probably find hilarious but I just, well, don’t. Eh. I dozed a bit while we were watching it and eventually was ordered off to bed.

We puttered around a bit on Sunday, relaxing and watching TV a good part of the morning. Eventually we got motivated and Data and I did some shopping while Dan worked on preparations for Anthrocon. I picked up a dandy charcoal chimney at Home Depot and was able to get a lovely bed of coals going in the grill in about 20 minutes. I cooked up some delicious cheeseburgers (garlic overload! woo!), which we finished just in time for the Midwest FurFest online staff meeting to start. We’ve got a lot of work to get done in a short period time (like, before Anthrocon!), so it’s going to be a challenging week or so ahead. After the meeting we chatted and Dan and I talked out a disagreement that we had, much to Data’s amusement. Finally, laundry was folded and we were off to bed.

And so we’re at a new week. Manpower has been prodded that yes, I would in fact like a new job at the end of the month, thank you. I applied for a couple of positions on Careerbuilder, and got a call from Aerotek Scientific about a 6-12 month contract position in the O’Hare area. At this point, there’s no a question of turning down contract positions in hopes of something permanent – I’m all about the paycheck. We’ll see if I can poke this along to fruition. Additionally, I hope to be meeting with unclevlad sometime this week to work out some Registration issues for MFF. But for now I need to figure out what we’re doing for dinner and get ready to head on home. Whee!

It’s been a roller coaster of a week (and not in a good way!). My employment is still very much in limbo but I’m attacking the problem on several different fronts. I’ve applied to a couple of positions at Hospira, a couple at Abbott, and Manpower is pursuing at least one for me as well. I also sent resumes off to a number of places in the Chicago area. With any luck I’ll see some things come to fruition next week.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking I see some steaks in the immediate future for dinner tonight. As for the weekend, it looks like we’re doing the weekly Lunch at BD’s with the usuals, then we’ll be going to see Carbon Leaf at Lincoln Park Fest. Sunday we don’t have too much planned besides the online MFF staff meeting. I’d like to maybe do some grilling on Sunday, too.

Oh, by the way – here’s a couple of fun links for folks to amuse themselves:

Do you think is a good start but would like to see more? Check out flickrDogs for more fun pics.

This is a short, screamingly funny ad. I won’t say what it’s for because that gives it away, but it’s worth seeing.

If you have a Sirius Satellite Radio subscription and want to listen at your computer but don’t want to use Sirius’ crapass player, check out Siriusly. As a bonus, it can be combined with ConRec (CONtinuous RECorder) to act as a Tivo for Sirius! (Well, for the streams they put over the net, anyway)

Oooh, I get to go home in an hour! Guess I’ll get some work done in the meantime…
…and maybe drink another Monster…

Anthrocon Planning, Continued

Plans for Anthrocon are continuing apace. We’re flying in on Thursday, July 7, arriving at PHL at about 11 AM. The train geek in me hopes it will be a nice day, not too hot, to we can take the SEPTA train in, but more likely we’ll be taking a shuttle to the hotel. We’ll be flying out on Monday afternoon.

An interesting note about the Wyndham Franklin Plaza: I know that Anthrocon didn’t have a lot of choice in what hotel they got this year, and I know it’s going to be a bit rocky. However, I was doing some research on tripadvisor.com and the reviews of the hotel are, ah, not good. Pretty bad, actually. Essentially, be prepared for an older hotel that, even though it had an update a few years back, clearly needs another one badly. From the reviews, it looks like the housekeeping service is spotty, but at least the customer service is generally good. As for restaurants, Shula’s Steakhouse gets rave reviews on Citysearch, but be prepared to pay $25-35 for a steak there. The Terrace Restaurant, the other restaurant in the hotel, is pretty much what you would expect of a hotel restaurant: breakfast and lunch only, OK food, prices about half again what you might pay elsewhere.

Why do I say all this? I’m not trying to deter anyone from going, or even from staying in the hotel. To be honest, a lot of this is exactly what was seen at the Adam’s Mark over the past few years. And besides, no one goes to Anthrocon to sample the delectable food in the hotel restaurant or to worry about getting their bed turned down every night – they go to see their friends and to have fun at the convention. And the hotel seems more than up to that. I guess what I’m trying to say is know what you’re getting into, and adjust your expectations accordingly. Hey, it’s a short-term solution, and next year will be much better.

The good news is that from what web-research I’ve been able to find, there’s plenty of places within walking distance for food, and if you’re driving then you’re good to go. I highly recommend a trick that we found a few years back at the Adam’s Mark after a long day of working the convention: get a couple of your friends together and order food in. It saves so much hassle and time, and you can spend more time with your friends. I plan to hit the concierge desk early on and grab a couple of delivery menus, if they have any.