So apparently instead of posting every day, week or month I'm down to posting after every con. Since I skipped Duck that's pretty damn infrequent. So infrequent in fact that I have no idea whether or not this will show up on Facebook.
Anyway, WindyCon was good, what I saw of it. I made it to ConSuite for about an hour, had a cider and a snack, chatted with some fellow crafters, then toddled off to attend the first panel I had circled on the pocket program. It was one of several I circled but turned out to be one of only two I actually made it to. Unlike other fen, I like panels and they're my main reason to attend a con. This year though, I was in charge of our group's WindyCon party so even with an early check-in I barely made it out of the party suite on Saturday. Oh well, Cap's only a couple of months away.
The panels I saw were at least interesting, so there's that.
The party was apparently a success as we won Best Party for the second year. There's no official organizer or theme yet but "Tron" has been bandied about. That would be pretty cool.
We're over-budget but not by as much as I had feared and some things were purchases that will serve us all year and beyond. (The pvc frame for our banners being the main example.)
Anyway, I think everyone had fun and as far as I know, no one had too much fun, although a larger than normal percentage of people seemed to have had too much fun on Friday night.
It was nice to come home to kitty snuggles though, astounding how much I miss them when I'm away.
We out caching today with a couple of local ladies, we got a few nice ones in downtown Naperville before the combination of wet AND cold chased us inside. We ate at Five Guys and I was going to actually fill out one of those on-line surveys just to tell them the music was too loud. Sitting here typing this I realize it would have been much more productive to walk up to the counter and tell them that...
Finished the large scarf/small shawl made from hand-me-down acrylic, not sure where that's going yet. The wool scarf that's a Christmas gift is coming off of the blocking board tonight but it looks good so far. The alpaca hat for Howard turned out very nice, now all I have to do is remember not to throw it in with the regular wash.
That's about it for now. More later, I hope before February.

It was all kinds of fun hanging out at Cap, even if I only made it up to the party floor briefly (15 minutes in the GT suite). This will be my last commuting con, I hated the drive and would have had much more fun if I'd ponied up for a room for all three nights.
It was great going to panels and on Thursday I even got to be the loud-mouthed panel abductor. Hee! As usual I mostly went to the science panels, but also missed a few I would have liked to attend.
Like several others I resented the lack of a less-expensive 'real food' option within walking distance. Also I was plenty irritated by the flightyness of the hotel shuttle. Mostly since I wound up ferrying people to public trans since the shuttle was restin' when it was supposed to be available. Grrr.
Picked up an AWESOME light-up shirt in the dealer's room. For some folks it was an excuse to stare at my chest but someone's always got to push the envelope, don't they madtechie2718? :-*
Finished knitting a sweater on Friday, wore it on Saturday, had yummy yummy sushi two days in a row, saw lots of friends, and generally enjoyed being away for a few days.
Saturday was the busiest day, for panels and everything else. My favorite was the Jim Plaxco, beamjockey, and Henry Spencer panel. That one could have gone on for another hour at least! Henry Spencer has been showing up at Chicago cons lately, and is a nice addition to astronomy panels.
Heads up to anyone who's not going to the Great Big Sea show at the House of Blues--checkout Far Out Friday. Especially the one for March (in two weeks) as it features the lovely and talented Br. Guy Consolmagno.
Picked up a signed papersky book (Lifelode) at one dealer's table and a couple of tasty morsels elsewhere. All in all a nice con. Am really looking forward to the Jonathan Coulton show this Saturday. Will probably be wearing the light up swirly shirt. I honestly can't think of a better place to wear it.

Todd & Holland's Frontier 40
Even less smokey than yesterday's tea. I must have started with "Tarry" which was likely the strongest. This one hardly even qualifies as lapsang suchong.

Todd & Holland's Lapsang Souchong Smoky#1
Not quite smoky enough. It's clearly a lapsang souchong but it's not very smokey. This is the first of my birthday teas that I've finished though. The others have a stronger smokey flavor. This would be a good 'starter' tea.

Todd & Holland's Purple Rain
Not really a tea, I bought this the other day while on my way to the meetup. It does taste very much like Concord Grapes, I wasn't able to get most of the other flavors out if the mix, it mostly tasted like grapes. Good but not a favorite. It brews up pretty weak as well.

Last night's dinner.
Duck, roasted in the oven according to the instructions in the wonderful How to Cook Everything. I didn't add enough water during the cooking though and wound up setting off Howard's smoke alarm because the grease started smoking.
I made Kasha (buckwheat) to go with and we had salad with tomatoes, greens, and olives.
The neck and giblets are going to go into the stock I'm going to make from the remains of the duck and frozen chicken remains. Chicken stock isn't cheap so freezing it is probably what I'll do.
The oven continues to be a problem, with the new thermometer showing a lower temp than the combination thermometer, which shows a lower temp than the oven's own temperature sensor.

Todd & Holland's India Chai
Used my nifty iPot, 2 tsp in the infuser.
The spice taste is stronger than the tea taste, but somehow the spices are not overpowering. I tried it with milk (ok, but no great shakes) and plain.
I much prefer the plain, its very smooth, not at all bitter, and not at all dry. Some spiced teas can taste like potpourri but this one has a much more subtle taste.

...I'm done.
Add me to the list of people who's done with the drama. At this point no one's totally innocent and there's lots of history on both every side and I'm not sure the group can be repaired. But it may not need to be.

I'll be attending the December social as usual, and I expect it to go as usual. Those who want to interact will, and those who don't, wont.
We're large enough that those who don't care for each other's company have plenty of other folks to talk to, so the best course going forward may well be to treat chicago-sf.org/meetup.com as a buffet--take what you like and ignore the stuff you don't.
Everyone has a lot of friends, pictures and memories that they wouldn't have gotten without this group. So even if the group fades away, everyone's lives will be better because it existed for a while.

To recap--nobody gets to make me angry, pissed off or stressed anymore.
Nobody except that hedge fund manager who made $4 billion for HIMSELF off of this crisis.That guy REALLY pisses me off.

This doesn't piss me off. I never realized that this project is largely responsible for the improvement of local waterways.

I'll be largely off-line this weekend, spending Thanksgiving with my Sweetie and our folks. I hope everyone has a good Holiday weekend.

Overheard at the local coffee shop ...
"Well my cousin said that 666 is associated with Obama and that makes him the AntiChrist."
.
Thank God the woman she was talking to took her down and made her defend that position (which the horrible racist woman obviously couldn't ) so I didn' have to start repeating "The AntiChrist? The AntiChrist? WTF?!?" in tones of increasing incredulity.


GAH!

I started a post yesterday but forgot about it and MultiLJ apparently doesn't auto-save posts that are shut down when one's laptop shuts down due to inactivity.
Today will probably mostly be linkspam, like this entry linked to by pecunium, about what Prop 8 passing means to one person.
Seen in carneggy's LJ is a shout out for "Let the Right One In" which looks very good. I just wish there was some sort of movie alarm site where you could enter the titles of movies you'd like to see, your location and the distance you're willing to travel (maybe even two tiers of distance) to see a movie. IMDB doesn't seem to do that, and the listing of benefits for IMDB Pro don't seem to indicate it's available there either. Oh well, I do know I'm going to see "My Name is Bruce", that should be entertaining.
Seen in the Whole Foods parking lot yesterday, a Chevy Suburban squeezing into one of the "Fuel Efficient Cars Only" spots. Nice.
That's all for now, off to a Sit 'n Knit and then to acquire ingredients for buckwheat pancakes and possible a cast iron frying pan to make them in.

You would think I'd be writing volumes about yesterday and the wonderfulness but I'm busy reading what everyone else has written and so far the phrase pecunium used stuck out for me "...it's not a place but a path."
There are many many more, original words and quotes, so many that I get choked up every time I refresh my Friends Page, but it was a happy sort of choked up and I spent most of the day smiling. Even the few splotches of sour grapes that I let myself encounter didn't dim my mood.
The only spot of gray is that filthy filthy Prop 8. I'm so glad I don't live in California and haven't had to deal with several months of hate speech, and then to have the haters win....grrr, arrgh!! I hope, as some have speculated, that it's a purely temporary victory. That won't take away the sting of course but it will be overturned and the sooner the better.
Also I learned to knit two-at-a-time socks today.

At Ogilvie, food court is deserted. Going to the science fiction group but thought traffic might be bad. Plus, even if i can't get in it will be great being out with the jubilant throngs.

Finished my first pass of Soldier of the Mist, by Gene Wolfe our selection for November's Close Reading Group. We'll be discussing it at WindyCon as a panel item so attendance may be higher than usual.
I have to read the first time for story and I really enjoyed Latro's story and the way it was written. I'm starting again only this time going slower and googling when I feel I'm missing an allusion. Also I'm going to take notes on who says what when and try to figure out about what time frame the story happens in.
In other news I picked up two powered antennae today, one for the radio at Howard's so that we can get a clear signal for WBEZ. It's gets a little static-y after dark otherwise. While I was at it I picked up an HD antenna so that I can at least watch local coverage. *fingers crossed* I hope things go the way they should, but I've been unpleasantly surprised before.
Right now I'm debating with myself about the most efficient way to get in and out of the city for our monthly social. More later, and I'm sure, much much more (either way) on Wednesday.

Ok, it's really not that bad. I fell in a forest preserve two weeks ago while looking for a spot to place a commemorative cache. I fell and the ankle went sideways. I felt it go *crack* similar to the way your knuckles crack. I thought it would hurt more than it did. After a few minutes I could walk on it so I walked back to the car and when I got home a couple hours later I kept it elevated and iced (Howard went out and bought me some bags of frozen peas which are make great ice packs) and when the swelling wasn't going down Tuesday I made an appointment and got in the next day. They took six xrays and determined it wasn't broken but one ligament had torn and in order to facilitate healing I needed PT three times a week and I should wear the boot-cast for about six weeks. The PT is a combination of ultrasound and electro-stim therapy which worked great to get the swelling down. I don't know how much it helps to speed the healing though.
It doesn't hurt anymore unless I walk too far on it and with the boot I'm able to get around pretty well, although it takes me a while to go downstairs. It's just slightly frustrating and inconvienent for a few weeks so I was really lucky that way.

It's November again and instead of doing NaNoWriMo which I actually have the time to do but no inspiration for _at all_, I'm dipping my toes in the shallow end of the writing pool and doing NaBloPoMo.
Today's post will be more of a journally thing as I'm tired and my foot aches so I'm not feeling deep or pithy.
Went to a geocaching event that featured many dutch ovens filled with warm cobbler. Only two small bowls full was waaay too much sugar. It was fun to see folks I hadn't seen in a while though. Another cacher and I were comparing ankle injuries and since her's was broken and she spent six weeks in a cast she won. I just have four more weeks in the boot, then I should be as good as new.




Found some caches, didn't find others, drove home, ate pizza and am happy for the extra hour of sleep we get tonight.
--posted using MultiLj

On impulse I took a half-day tomorrow so I could spend the afternoon at the beach. I'm thinking North Avenue beach unless someone has another suggestion. Anyone who would like to join me is welcome, PM me for my cell number.
I'll be there sometime between 1 and 2 pm.

I'm only posting now, mainly thanks to raven_ap_morgan and his shiny new LJ toy MultiLJ. So far I'm liking it. It installed easily and is pretty intuative (for me at least).
I'm going to try to write and read more than I have been. We'll see how that goes. I'm about a third of the way in to Mystic and Rider and it's one of those books (or I'm in a phase) where all I want to do is sit under a tree and read. Makes going to work, etc a little irritating. I'm glad to be reading it now though since Sharon Shinn is the GoH for Capricon and I had not previously read anything of hers.
Thanks for the new LJ toy Raven, I'm liking it so far.

Also, due to illness (razornails), busyness (pretty much everyone) and general dilatoriness (me) it looks like we won't be able to do the Chiditarod this year. I have put a planning meeting on my GCal for next year, and still plan on spectating at this year's race.

This would probably be why I can't sleep.
Bah.
No update for two weeks. Yikes. I've been busy and _thought_ about posting several times but never actually managed to put fingers to keys.
I've been faffing about with Capricon Art Show stuff and geocaching. Also reading a little, I finished How to Read Literature Like a Professor (nothing earthshaking here, just an entertaining refresher) and started Magic for Beginners as it was a possible contender for chicago-sf.org's book for March. It didn't win and I'm glad it didn't (even though I voted for it,  I had only finished "The Faery Handbag" when I voted, the stories after that don't make much sense). I bought it ages ago because of all the rave reviews I was reading everywhere. So far it's intriguing  enough to continue reading but not a book I would recommend to anyone, except maybe to that psycho that liked Samedi--The Deafness . I'm in the middle of the story with appearing and disappearing rabbits and a haunted dishwasher...I'm sure I'll finish reading the story and the book but I'm looking forward to finishing.
The car has come back from its spa vacation and is running perfectly now, I even got a courtesy call from Midas (the one in Countryside) making sure everything was ok and I was still satisfied.
Let's see, what else. "LOST" is finally back and both episodes were pretty good. I thought this was to be the last season but just read it got picked up for another season. Hm. I was kind of looking forward to the story being wrapped up and finding out the answers to lots of the questions but apparently that won't be happening for a while.
Geocached with the other geocaching meetup, that was lots of fun.
Hung out with friends, mailed my brother's (extremely late) Christmas present along with birthday cards and presents for his girls. (His stabby neighbor, btw got probation and had to pay my bro's hospital and legal bills. Not Tight. ) Hung out with the ex-roommate who was in town for a brief (yet weird) visit, went to a Superbowl party that was nice but we all lamented the lack of entertaining commercials.
Looking forward to seeing folks at Cap, however briefly.
After a three month hiatus I made it to Dave and Buster's for the chicago-sf.org monthly social, and saw David and Jaye (no longer BritishDavid and GirlJaye, their names are unique now) and Art Production Jason. I'm glad I didn't stay home because of the snow, since it didn't snow that night.
Paid for and downloaded the entire ouevre of Jonathon Coulton and I'm really digging it. Especially "Dance, Soterius Johnson, Dance".
Also, I really want a hedgehog.

How cute is that!
That's about it for now, there's other stuff but I have to figure out what's going on and what I want to do about it before I post.

Posting this before it becomes old news.

It seems like a silly thing to be excited about, for several reasons, not least of which is that one of the guys I was caching with on Saturday has _over_ 5000 finds, and Badlands and Corps of Discovery (my companions on Sunday) have nearly 9000 finds between them (and we still couldn't find a 1/1 micro!). So my 'accomplishment' pales a little in comparison, OTOH I've only been caching for a year. I had been out in 2006 with members of chicago-sf.org but didn't get my own GPS until last January. Even then since I was pretty much on my own it took me a while to figure it out (and I'm still finding out new stuff it can do). Anyway, some of those 500 finds were solo, some were with small groups, some were with large groups, but they were all fun and most of them were interesting. I can't wait for the next 500!
The rest of the catch up post will have to wait until after work.