Anthrocon Artists Alley/Con Store: Want to Help?

Are you planning to attend Anthrocon?
Do you worry about being bored, or having that awful, unfulfilled feeling that you could be helping out more?
So you want to help keep me from going insane? 🙂

Well, have I got an offer for you! In addition to running Registration for MFF, I’m also running the Artists Alley and Con Store for Anthrocon this year. And I need help!

This year, there’s three areas where I need some help.

1. General assistance. This is going to include helping with sign-ups, dealing with the lottery at the open of Artists Alley, helping set up and break down, and working as a cashier in Artists Alley and/or Con Store. These are the most time-intensive positions. However, this also has the best rewards: A free membership to this year’s Anthrocon, a free T-shirt, registration in Operations (bypass Registration completely!), and a free, delicious staff dinner on Sunday night.

2. Cashiers. This requires less time, and only requires that you work a couple of hours at a time. It’s pretty simple work, and allows you to see a lot of the people at the con since everyone passes through the Alley or the Dealers Room. This requires 10-14 hours of your time over the course of the weekend, and you will get a free T-shirt and a free membership to next year’s Anthrocon.

3. Payout. Over the past few years we have worked up a great system to pay artists quickly in Artists Alley at the end of the day, but the drawback to the system is that it is very labor-intensive. This will only require 3-6 hours over the weekend, and only right when Artists Alley closes each day. I’m afraid there’s no recompense for this except my undying gratitude, but we do have a fun time during payout.

A note about scheduling: Scheduling is pretty rigid due to time needed to count out cash drawers and the necessity of having the correct number of folks on hand at all times. The good news is that you’ll have that schedule in hand at least a week before the con (arranged, as always, to fit around the stuff you want to see and do at the con).

Does this sound good to you? Or do you just want me to owe you my soul in return for volunteering? (the line forms to the left, boys). If you’re interested, let me know in a comment here or an email to alley -at- anthrocon dot org. Please tell me what position you might be interested in and a general idea of when you’ll be arriving and departing (“Friday morning” is as specific as I need right now).

Thanks!
-Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley/Con Store Manager
Anthrocon 2005

Glad it’s Friday!

Wow, I’ve been slack about updating. Oh well.

So anyway. It’s Friday, yay! I had a doctor’s appointment this morning (no big deal, just some tests that turned out negative – it’s all good), so I didn’t get in until a little after 9. This was offset by the times this week that I left the apartment at 5:30 and got in a little after 6 AM. Ugh. I’m glad I don’t have to do that with any regularity anymore. Anyway, I had allotted enough extra time that if I didn’t get in until 10:30 I’d be covered, but now it looks like I have some extra time. Guess that gives me time to write up this entry and maybe leave a little early. Yay!

LAFF Coffee on Wednesday was OK; little_wolf, perro, and night_watch showed up, along with me and linnaeus, and we chatted for a while. I’m thinking that a weekly thing is starting to wear on me a bit, so I’ll be changing the things around a bit. I think this week will be our last regular coffee gathering, at least on a weekly basis. Instead, I think I’m going to a bi-weekly schedule, alternating between a coffee shop in the city, somewhere on the North Side, and dinner and drinks out in the North/Northwest Suburbs. I need to do some research into what venues will work best, so there will probably be a break where there’s nothing going on. I’m sure everyone will cope.

Last night we had takaza‘s tasty homemade mac and cheese and watched a nice show on the Iditarod finish, followed by our weekly sacrifice of brain cells watching Survivor. We also discovered that sleeping with the bedroom door open is not a happy idea since Marble (Linnaeus’ cat) likes to sneak in, perch on our headboard and, right as we nod off to sleep, meow loudly for attention. The second time he did this, he was tossed unceremoniously from the room and the door was closed. Have I mentioned lately that I am not a cat person?

Tonight we have a party to go to, then tomorrow will be kind of a nice slow wakeup. We’ll be heading up north in the afternoon to tend to Briana (roho and genet‘s fl00fy samoyed) and spend the night up there while they’re off partying in Madtown. And Sunday? No clue. We’ll work on that…

(And they were giving out free cans of Monster energy drink with lunch today. No food coma for me! I’m rarin’ to go!)

Yummy!

It’s nutritious and educational! It’s Google Gulp!

Yes, it’s Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of “smart drinks” designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty! Be sure to check out the Frequently Asked Questions.

For something even cooler (and a little more probable), check out this morning’s interview on Morning Edition with Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez about today’s release of Sin City…conducted by Kevin Smith. Keen!

We also just found out last night that Kevin Smith is going to be speaking in Crystal Lake on Sunday. It would be fun but at $35 a pop, I don’t think so.

Edit @ 8:23 AM: I found this useful and amusing list of April Fool’s sites.

So that was Easter?

Gee, for some reason it was a pretty low-key weekend. On Friday, takaza, linnaeus and I kinda bummed around in the living room, watching Tivo (and Linnaeus running around town in his underwear, carjacking people, shooting gang members, and gaining an impressive gut by eating $150 worth of pizza…in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, of course). As time went on our motivation to do anything slowly waned and eventually dinner became a quick trip to MickeyD’s by Paul and Dan to bring dinner back.

Saturday, I was rather stupid. I had been wanting to make this lovely apple clafouti for a party that night, and so I went on ahead and made it (after Paul graciously went to the store to pick up ingredients). So I peeled the apples, cooked the apples, made the batter, assembled it all – in general, spent about two hours on my feet making it. That was pretty stupid since I’m definitely still fighting the effects of cellulitis. I wound up wearing myself out and having to go back and take a nap for an hour. I felt a lot better after the nap and we headed up to the party. Good food, good friends, and a general good time was had by all. Dan and I got home by 10:30 and we crashed not too long after.

Sunday, there’s not a lot to say. We made some rounds of the grocery stores, buying groceries for the week, and were surprised at who was open and who wasn’t, given the holiday. Jewel and Lincolnwood Produce (the latter was a surprise) – open. Bed Bath and Beyond and Best Buy – closed. Huh, go fig. We came home and made a nice pot of chicken and dumplings and watched a couple of episodes of Ramsey’s Boiling Point, which was quite entertaining. And that was my weekend, yay. Hey, at least I didn’t have to spend it in a hospital, though!

The leg feels OK this morning, though if I don’t keep it elevated like I’m supposed to it starts to ache a bit. Heh. Nice reminder. I’ve got a follow-up visit with the doctor on Friday, so we’ll see how things stand then. Incidentally, for anyone who ever has to take Zithromax: acidophilus pills are a VERY good thing to have!

As for plans for this week, I’ll definitely be at LAFF Coffee. We don’t have much planned otherwise, and nothing for the weekend either. Shocking! I’m certain stuff will come up, though. Hope everyone’s Mondays have started off OK, or at least bearably!

Both takaza and I were dragging a bit last night (I didn’t sleep well the night before). I played a bit of Ratchet and Clank, which provides a nice catharsis (getting close to the end, I think, but I’ll probably take a few days’ break from it while we have company). I sauteed up some chicken breasts and we had a quick dinner while linnaeus picked up rasslor at the airport without incident. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out, chatting, and watching the latest episode of The Amazing Race. Then it was off to bed and a much better night’s sleep.

Things are chugging along here at work today. It sounds like Dan is feeling a bit under the weather today – I hope he feels better after a nap at lunch. He may or may not be joining us for LAFF Coffee tonight, but Rasslor, Linnaeus (his employer willing, as usual), and I hope to be there. I hope that we’ll be able to show Rasslor a couple of fun “locals-only” places while he’s up in Chicago. Hey Brophey, any uniquely Midwestern souvenir we should send back with your bear? 🙂

Ow. My ear hurts. I know it’s irritation from wearing earplugs to bed every night – it sucks to be a light sleeper. This just happens sometimes. With luck, I can get through it without having to visit my shiny new doctor (chosen blindly when Takaza switched our health care coverage over to Aetna when he transferred). I’m a bit surprised, though. I didn’t realize my chosen doctor was affiliated with a college. Heck, I didn’t realize there’s an actual college in North Chicago. Who’da thunk it?

For some reason, traffic on the drive home yesterday was horrendous and added another twenty minutes to my commute, making it a little over an hour. At least I have my new Sirius radio to keep me company, yay! We took a quick poll when Paul and Dan got home and found that no one was motivated to make dinner, and no one was particularly hungry. So we skipped dinner, mostly, though Dan enjoyed some cheese from the weekend’s foray behind the Cheddar Curtain, and popped some popcorn for us to eat while we watched The Amazing Race. A pretty blah episode, unfortunately, though I’m really pulling for Patrick and his mother.

It’ll be a quick dinner of burgers tonight, I think, then we’re off to LAFF Coffee (yep, every Wednesday, Cafe Boost, 7:30 PM. You know the drill). The upcoming weekend looks like it might be a relaxing one, with only a visit from the DirecTV installer and a birthday party for everyone’s favorite hatepuppy on the agenda. Hmm. I have a craving for sushi. I should do something about that.

Well, enough rambling from me. Off to lunch I go!

The clock ticks slowly

It’s another quiet day here at work, which is just fine by me. Right now I’m marking time before I head out the door up to Congenial, where I intend to spend the weekend relaxing, spending time with friends, and (ahem) drinking 🙂

This week has been pretty busy. I’ve been working all week to get a in-dash bracket for my car so I can finally mount the Sirius Satellite Radio that takaza bought for me last weekend. We’ve had Sirius for about a year and a half, but only in the Element. I’ve been going nuts on my commute switching between NPR, one of the AM news stations for traffic reports, and my MP3 player. 20 GB is a lot of music, but after six months things start to get stagnant, and I’m looking forward to hearing new and different music once I get everything hooked up.

Speaking of my car, I turned 59,000 miles on it this week. This is significant because the warranty runs out at 60,000 miles, so I intend to drop it by a dealership next week for a final in-warranty checkup, get all the typical servicing done on it, etc. I expect that’s going to get a bit pricey, unfortunately, but it’s stuff that needs to be done. If I had my way I’d go ahead and trade it in and get another car, since I just know that the way this lemon is built it’s sure to fall apart the moment it goes out of warranty. Unfortunately, I think I’ve just reached the point where the money they’d give me for the trade-in would just equal the amount of money still left on the loan, so I’ll stick it out a while longer.

Things are still chugging along on the job front. Of the five people in our group, one is leaving next week; unfortunately they’ve said that they are not going to fill the position, so that doesn’t really open up any opportunities for me to sign on for a permanent position. On the bright side, it’s all the more reason for them to keep me on since there will be plenty of work to be done in her absence. I’ll continue to watch the internal job boards and apply when I can to various positions, as well. I think if I’m still a contractor when the summer vacation season comes around, things could get expensive due to lack of paid days off. I need to look at my Manpower paperwork and see what paltry benefits they might offer when I’ve worked enough hours.

But in two hours, I’ll be leaving all that behind! Swimming pool and hot tub, here I come…

A Random Memory

This was triggered by Rama’s post, and made me remember some interesting times.

This would have been in the spring of 1990.

I was broadcasting my weekly jazz show on WSBF-FM at Clemson University one dark and stormy weeknight, right around sunset (I was the jazz director* at that time). The station offices, usually bustling during the day, had emptied out with everyone gone for dinner or studying. The EBS tone in the studio suddenly went off, scaring the crap out of me. Tornado warning for our area. How’s this for low-tech: when the tone went off, it was tuned to one of the larger radio stations in the area (WFBC-FM, Greenville, SC). I had to quickly write down what their announcer said (they were reading from the NWS copy). Then I had to fire the EBS tone to go over the air to our listeners (two switches, one up, one down) and break into our programming and read the warning back over the air.

I put on a couple of long tracks and went out into the empty station offices and looked out over Death Valley (Clemson’s football stadium), across Lake Hartwell, and saw a funnel cloud forming. It was miles away, no immediate danger, and it never touched down. It was an eerie moment, though: the darkened studios, quiet jazz playing in the background, the green skies swirling outside.

Interesting times.

* – As the station’s jazz director, I say in hindsight I had godawful taste. For some reason I always veered towards the GRP label (your basic “smooth jazz”). Ick. Anyone got a time machine so I can go back and slap myself?

Meme Morph!

So here’s a twist on the current meme…

Five Things I’ve Done That I Probably Shouldn’t Have

1. Took a curve at 60 mph, with gravel in the road (spinny spinny!)
2. Chose to start college at Tulane University when I could have gotten a free ride at Clemson University…then transferred to Clemson two years later, but losing the financial aid.
3. Broke each arm. Twice.
4. Romanced someone from Australia online for months, then planning to spend a week with them…and realized ten minutes after they stepped off the plane that it wasn’t going to work.
5. Spent four years getting a master’s degree.

Further updates later. Bagel goodness now.

Midweek Amusements

Not a bad day here at work. Puttering my way through an ongoing project that’s tedious and unpleasant, but do-able. To celebrate the birthdays of a couple of my cow-orkers, the whole department went out for lunch at Tacos El Muerte Norte in Waukegan. Pretty tasty, and it satisfies the craving I’ve been having for Mexican food. One of my cow-orkers announced her resignation, which might open up some interesting possibilities for me employment-wise in the department. We’ll see what develops there.

It looks like the plans that we had for the coming weekend are somewhat up in the air, but considering that we have so much to do to get the place back to a livable state, I’m sure we’ll still be plenty busy! Anyway, even if we’re not sociable this weekend, there’s still Congenial next weekend, and I’m really looking forward to that!

Incidentally, consider yourself reminded that LAFF Coffee in Chicago is still going on tonight, with rumored appearances by aureth and chouette tonight, as well as takaza, if he’s finally over the cold/flu/plague that has knocked him down for the last week or so.

Finally, here’s a fun little meme that I enjoyed filling out:
Ten Things I’ve Done That You (Probably) Haven’t

1. Hosted a radio program in France
2. Taken hang gliding lessons at Lookout Mountain, TN
3. Shot bottle rockets at friends at close range, while they shot back (I said it was unique, not smart!)
4. Visited a Kodo drum festival in Sakura, Japan
5. Been given a glass of grappa after a meal in Italy just for being American
6. Had a toy-gun shootout in an empty college auditorium at 2 AM
7. Gotten a standing ovation from 150 people for a meal that I (and my staff) cooked
8. Danced a reel with Fiona Ritchie (host of NPR’s The Thistle and Shamrock)
9. Called home from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, just because I could (OK, Gene might have done this…)
10. Chatted with the American ambassador to Switzerland

{sniff sniff}

Smell that? It’s sweeps month. You know what that means, right?

Yes, it’s yet another report telling you that hotel rooms are filthy cesspits filled with human waste and bodily fluids! The only thing to do is wear an environment suit and carry one of these wherever you go! And for gods sake, don’t touch the TV remote control!

This message has been brought to you by The American Society for the Propagation of Fear and Hysteria

Learning About City Life, Part 241

About a month ago, I was walking to catch the bus to go work and I heard a loud buzzing overhead. I looked up and saw just to the west, a formation of helicopters hovering in perfect formation. Now, coming from North Carolina so recently, and being within reasonable proximity of Cherry Point Naval Air Station and Fort Bragg, I assumed it was some military/governmental thing. It turns out that, no, it was news helicopters covering the Brown Line train derailment that was two blocks away from my bus stop.

So I’m coming in to work this morning and once again I see that formation of helicopters just north of where I work. Turns out there was a bad house fire with fatalities about two miles north of here.

Huh. The moral of the story: see the helicopters, turn on the radio, I guess.

Hey feren, you were almost right. I did get a slight bump in my web page traffic, but nothing like I’ve seen in years past. Maybe I’d get more traffic if I updated my web pages more often than once every three years or so? Still, there seems to be a heck of a lot of people out there wondering if Tom Brady is gay 🙂

The entertainment of moving continues, as I’m in the process of getting rate quotes for car/renters’ insurance right now. State Farm (who I’ve been with for 13 years now) is coming in not too far above what we were paying in NC. I’m hoping that the (gay-owned) independent agent I contacted will have a better quote, though, and will take into account the fact that Dan and I are domestic partners (According to Partners Task Force, Aetna, Hartford, Travelers and others offer DP discounts. We’ll see what they come up with. I’ve got the new bank accounts set up with Bank One, and direct deposit changes have been filed. Hmm, still need to do the change of address with the post office, as well as most of the companies we pay bills to, but I believe pretty much all of that can be done online (yay!).

The Amazing Race finale tonight, then coffee tomorrow. Thursday night, Paul and I will be moving furniture around in preparation for Dan’s arrival. That’ll be fun, or something.

Mmph. Man, I hate this after-lunch motivational slump. I think I’ll run some errands and do some walking to get the ol’ blood flowing.

Moving: The Prequel

So, as a few of you might know, we’re in the process of moving…

On Friday I flew down to Raleigh, NC to help Takaza with moving preparations. On the flight down, I was reminded of why I despise flying United on this route: they also stuff people into teeny-tiny Canadian Regional Jets (CRJ’s) that are built for people that are no taller than 5’10” and weigh no more than 175 pounds. I was freakishly lucky, though, and I think the only empty seat on the flight was the one next to me. Yay! The flight got in on time and Dan and I turned in relatively early.

Saturday, we had big plans about all the work we were going to get done. Well, I slept in until 9 AM (a rarity for me), then we were slow getting going. We had to swing by the bank to change our address, and Dan wanted to run some errands in Chapel Hill. We wound up getting home at around 3 PM, feeling kinda blah and tired. We went to lay down for a short bit and were attacked by a vicious nap monster! When next I looked up, it was 5:30. Um, whoops. That gave us just enough time to get ready for dinner. We met up with wildmouse, me_not_you, ovrclokd, thebroomecloset, scarlett_fire, Thomas, and Rich at The Angus Barn, one of the most famous (and pricey) restaurants in the Raleigh-Durham area. The company and wines were excellent, the food and service not so much, but we had a good time and it was really nice to see everyone one last time before moving out.

On Sunday we slept in again, though we tried to motivate a bit earlier. We did get some boxes moved around, and spent a good bit of time planning and making lists. We had lunch with Mike and Lisa at their fabulous new house (I’m so jealous! 🙂 and picked up boxes and packing materials that they very graciously donated to the cause. Then it was back to the house to relax and plan a bit more. All too soon, Dan was taking me to the airport, and I was on my way back to Chicago. The rest of the evening was spent skimming the net, chatting on Furrymuck, and fast-forwarding through the Super Bowl (I didn’t much care who won, really). Once The Simpsons started, I set the Tivo to be sure to get American Dad and headed off to bed.

All in all, we didn’t accomplish as much as I’d hoped. There’s still a lot of boxes to move and stuff to be repacked. However, Dan will have lots of help this week (and thank you all so much!) so that will help. And in less than five days, he’ll be on the road to Chicago, to stay here for good. I can’t wait!

Lots of stuff to do this week. On the way home I need to stop at BB&B to pick up a comfy air mattress for Dan to sleep on while our bed is in transit from NC (plus, the air mattress will be useful for guests in the future). Paul’s going to get copies made of keys to the apartment, and I need to work out what we’re going to do with our car insurance and renter’s insurance. And tomorrow night is the finale of The Amazing Race 6, so we’ll be watching that, hopefully with the company of datahawk and posicat.

In the meantime, though, back to work I go!

Reposting, for a good cause

By way of Perro, who got the original message from soappuppy.

CALL FOR HELP: A nifty person who used to work at Wolf Park has since founded the 501(c)3 non-profit Indiana Coyote Rescue Center. Since most states regard coyotes as vermin, this is a unique center with a rare and noble mission — to be nice to coyotes. Not many places are.

darkwolph and I visited the Center a while ago and hung out with its many critters. It’s tiny (very tiny) and it’s run by one shoestrung but well-meaning lady (CeAnn) who pretty much has devoted her entire life to these poor critters.

Well, some complete ass snuck onto her property on the night of January 27th and shot one of her coyotes point-blank in the face (graphic images). Wolphy and I met this particular coyote, Amber, during our visit; she was sweet and trusting and loved everyone. She rolled over for complete strangers, wiggled, and demanded bellyrubs. Imagining the kind of person who could shoot an animal like that in the face….*gnnnh*. I get quite angry.

The ICRC is on a shoestring budget and poor CeAnn is now stuck with almost $1,000 in bills for Amber’s medical care and reinforcing her fencing so this does not happen again. Please, if you have a dime (or more than a dime)…could you send it to her?

If you don’t have a dime, can you pass this along?

CeAnn Lambert
INDIANA COYOTE RESCUE CENTER
7975E 300S, Bringhurst, IN 46913 USA
Tel: 765-566-3800
PayPal: ceannicrc@yahoo.com
———–

I sent some money CeAnn’s way, and if you can spare a few bucks it would be a generous thing to do.

Random Rants

Just some scattered thoughts from today.

Hmm. While reading this review on Slashdot, I was vaguely tempted to finally get off my butt and learn PHP. Then I remembered that I hate programming, and the whole thing would probably give me a headache. I think I’ll leave that to those who actually enjoy such things.

I’ll be honest. I hated Star Wars Ep. I and Ep. II. I might consider going to see Episode III if George Lucas showed up on my doorstep and offered to drive me to the theater and give me $50 to watch his crappy movie. I have to say, though, that this is the hands-down funniest take on Ep. III that I’ve seen yet: Episode III: A Lost Hope.

(And speaking of the Hayden Christensen/Keanu Reeves School of Wooden Acting, what the fsck is Keanu Reeves doing in Constantine? This is a role that was made for Gary Oldman, or any of a number of fine British actors. John Constantine was a Brit, fer chrissake! Mark my words, this is gonna be a suckfest.)

So, Virginia is proposing license plates for those espousing “traditional marriage”. Charming, but about what I’d expect. I really was amused by this (slightly-NSFW) license plate that Waldo Jaquith proposes. Me, I like the idea of a “Separation of Church and State” license plate…

The State of the Union speech is tonight. Sounds like a good night to be a coffee shop, away from any of the Stupid Rays that will be emanating from the television set. So that’s what I’m gonna do.

I came across this while searching around for media coverage of furry fandom and was amused – isn’t it amazing at how many papers will print a story once it hits the AP wire? But hey, the next time your Aunt Sue from Columbus, GA (or Wilkes-Barre, PA, or Grand Forks, ND) asks you about furries, well, at least you’ll know where they probably read about it.

And hey, feren – I’m still worried, and hope to hear some good news from you soon.

Sushi And Beer

When last we left our intrepid hero last week, he was off to deal with a flat tire. Lotsa fun, that. The total cost was $118, including the discount for working at Abbott. Hey, at least it gets me something. A lot more than I was expecting to spend, though. Apparently, my car as an “unusual” tire size. Shyeah right. Bah.

So the weekend was pretty cool. Friday got off to a roaring start when linnaeus and I had dinner with Addison (aka the late, lamented addison2427) and Devious. They took us to a fabulous little sushi joint on Halstead. The sushi was excellent, and the sake was, um, copious. Afterwards we retired back to Linnaeus’ place for more conversation and beverages. A really fun night, and we need to see these guys more often.

On Saturday, I took a tour of Chicagoland, starting with a trip to Mount Prospect to line up a P.O. Box for takaza and I. From there met up with Roho and Genet at Perfect Brewing to check out their selection of brewing supplies. They’re still putting their store together, but it looks like a fun place, and the owner is a very nice guy. I picked up a very cool little plastic gadget that holds a racking tube in the carboy at whatever height you set it for. Way cool, and very ingenious! We adjourned to lunch afterwards at The Fox and the Hound (which is sadly, not nearly as cool at The Fox and the Hound in Cary, NC, was, but oh well). From there, it was down to the South Side, all the way into Indiana where I met aureth and mirkowuff at Three Floyds Brewery. We sampled some of their brews, and while Aureth and Mirko were big fans of the Dreadnaught “Imperial IPA” (read: hops with a little bit of beer added), I enjoyed the Pride and Joy mild ale. Man, they do like their hops at Three Floyds, though! Afterwards, we went back to Aureth and jenwolf‘s place and hung out for a bit. Several other folks showed up, but I had to head out early due to the long drive and the fact that I was still tired from the night before.

And on Sunday? Sunday I did nothin’ 🙂 Well, I went to the grocery store, but that’s about it.

This week has been a bit busy, with planning for moving continuing apace. New bank accounts, storage units, coordinating schedules – all part of the fun. We’ve got LAFF Coffee in the City tonight, and I need to do laundry tomorrow in preparation for flying down to NC on Friday. That’s about where things stand right now. I had a couple of things to comment on, but I’ll post again in a bit…

My Car is Conspiring Against Me

Yesterday before I left work, I had the joy of changing a tire on my Alero in a snowstorm. What fun! I knew the tire had a slow leak, but I was hoping to nurse it along to the weekend. No dice. So I drove home and back up here on the teeny spare (not a good idea, but oh well). I intend to drop the tire off at a local tire place at lunch and see if they can fix it (or replace it, which would be bad, since if I recall correctly if you replace one you should really replace both on the axle).

As I was driving up with the LOW TIRE PRESSURE light lit up on my car dash, I get the dreaded bong bong bong sound and another light comes on – LOW WASHER FLUID. Whew. That’s easily dealt with. And to top it off, I got the alarm and a new light one more time before getting to work, as my low fuel light came on. I think my car hates me. Fortunately, the fuel is easily fixed, and a trip to Autozone will garner me some windshield washer fluid, as well as some new windshield wiper blades (the ones I have are original, I think, and I’m at 57k miles) and an air filter. A few weeks back Jiffy Lube kindly offered to replace my air filter for only $16, but I figured I can buy the $3 filter and pop the clips on the housing myself, thanks. Let’s see, $13 labor for a 30 second job. That’s over $1,500/hour. Nice work if you can get it!

And to top all of this off, I really need to do something about the brakes. Granted, my first thought is to sell the stupid thing (since the warranty runs out at 60k and this thing is a lemon), but since I think I still owe about the same as the trade-in value, that’s not really an option. Bummer. I want an Element! Wah!

Coffee went well last night, though it was a small crowd. Need to do some laundry tonight, and think about how we’re going to fit our bed into the back bedroom at Linnaeus‘ place. That’s gonna be tight. Also, need to line up some places to look at around Lake County this weekend, so we have some idea of what costs might be and what’s really feasible.

But first, I get some work done…

After the elation, the nitty-gritty

Now that we know that takaza is going to be moving up to Chicago, we’re left with the details. As near as we can tell, we’re going to try something like ABF and get everything packed up by Friday, February 11. Linnaeus is going to fly down and keep Dan company on the drive up, which I know will be very much appreciated. They’ll be driving up on February 12-13, getting in on Sunday afternoon. Whether I fly down the weekend before is up for grabs, though the airfare has jumped up a good bit so it’s starting to become an expensive proposition. We’ll have to see…

The current plan for housing is that we’re going to move a few things in with Linnaeus in Chicago and stay there for about six months or so. The balance of our stuff will go into storage (which ain’t cheap, but we’ve found some good climate-controlled places). We’ll be paying rent, of course, but the costs involved will be far cheaper and will help us save up a little bit, even with the additional storage costs. I will admit to having misgivings (it’s going to be tight with all three of us there), but as Dan pointed out we can handle things on a month-to-month basis and if things don’t work out, it’s OK. I’ll probably continue to poke around at places in central Lake County and see how much we’re going to be talking about in rent/utilities eventually.

Oh yeah, I need to make some lists of stuff to deal with in preparation for the move – new bank accounts, address changes, etc. I think I still have my to-do list from the last move (to Durham) around, so I can deal with that.

We’ve got LAFF Coffee tonight, which I’m looking forward to; I’ve been antisocial for the last few days and it will be nice to get out and see folks again. Don’t have much plans for the rest of the week. I hope to make it down to aureth and jenwolf‘s place on Saturday, but that depends on how house-hunting goes (if it goes at all). Jim, I’ll keep y’all apprised. Oh, and I’ll need directions to your place, too.

Finally, I just wanted to say: Plonq and Atara, I’m keeping you both in my thoughts today. You did all you could for Bit, and I’m sure her life was a very happy one. Take care, both of you.

SCORE!

I’ve been hinting for the past few days, but we finally got the confirmation today…

Takaza now has a job in Chicago!

Whee! See all the details here.

Edit: Oops, I didn’t realize the entry was Friends Only 🙂 The short version: he’s got a job with his company in Mount Prospect, IL (about 5 miles north of O’Hare). It comes with a pay raise, a promotion, and a relocation allowance. He starts on February 14, and will be moving up here on February 12-13. Yay!

It’s A Little Bit Of Sweden In Your Mouth!

I knew going into the weekend that I was going to get precious little done. And what do you know? I was right!

They were predicting a big snowstorm to hit the Chicago area starting on Friday. I hightailed it home Friday afternoon, stopping for a brief run through the besieged Jewel Supermarket to grab a few staples. The place was a mob scene, of course, though not quite as bad as I’ve seen in North Carolina when snow is predicted. The people there seemed to have a “we’re all in this together” attitude, and that helped. By 7 PM the snow had started falling, and I resigned myself to a quiet night, chatting with friends and watching a few things on TiVo.

Saturday morning I slept in until 8:30, which is really unusual for me. As I expected, we were at 9″ on the ground and the snow was still falling. I’d guess we topped out at around 14 inches or so, yay. After a few false starts and telling ourselves that the food was worth it, Linnaeus and I ventured out into the teeth of the storm to walk the four blocks to Tre Kroner, a little Swedish restaurant.

Wow, what a fabulous place. The coziness was extremely welcome after the walk, and the coffee was quite tasty, too. Paul and I each ordered something different,t hen split it so we could get a good overview of the menu. We ordered a cinnamon roll (weirdly lemony, and not enough cinnamon), a maple pecan danish (delicious!), vanilla-orange French toast (yum!), and an omelet with roast beef, red peppers, goat cheese, and Jarlsberg cheese that was unconventional, but quite tasty. It was a great brunch, and surprisingly inexpensive. We really need to go back for dinner some night and try the traditional Swedish smorgasbord. And no, neither of us said “Bork, bork, bork!” while we were there. Nyah.

The rest of the weekend was spent lazing about, doing a bit of laundry, and generally being slothful. Paul made a batch of chili on Saturday that unfortunately had a bit too much heat for my taste (for his too, it turned out). On Sunday I made chicken and dumplings that turned out quite well. I hadn’t made it with the peas before, but I really liked the addition. As always, I used Bisquick dumplings ’cause I like those a lot better than the baking-powder type.

So that brings us up to speed. The biggest problem I have today is that, because I ran out of Protonix over the weekend, I’ve been having problems with reflux. I wound up waking up twice last night, the second time at 4 AM and I never did get back to sleep. As a result, I’m really dragging this morning, though I’m trying to dose myself with caffeine as much as possible without kicking off the reflux again. Bleah. With luck, Takaza is going to express-mail the Protonix that came into Durham on Saturday today, but if that doesn’t happen I’m going to have to find my way to a Walgreens or Osco and get some Prevacid OTC (which takes 24 hours to work, just like Protonix). Bleah. I really need to stay on top of when to reorder medicines better – this is entirely my own fault.

Eh, back to work. Hopefully I’ll have something to write about later.