Phew – I’m tired. Leo is not letting me out of his sight. There’s a travel bag with dirty laundry in it. I must be back from a trip. 🙂

Last night, we wound up watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on the Family Channel while still winding down at audioboy‘s. I made judiang and myself amaretto sours (seconds for both of us as I’d made sours for indefatigable42 and us earlier that night) using the last of the sour mix. Audioboy’s wife assures me she knows someone who can take the extra amaretto. Judi and I returned to the hotel and finished the movie there. We also made the ultimate sacrifice and ate all of the Chocolate Hobnobs so that I wouldn’t have to pack them for the trip home. (Honestly, there was no room!) I wish I’d’ve thought to share them while still at audioboy’s place, but there ya go. (We also split the three mini pieces of Lindt chocolate. Ah, the sacrifices one makes!)

Suitably chocolated up, we lay there chatting for hours after Harry Potter was over. Mostly over Monty Python and British TV. (I really need to show Judi some more Python stuff.) I think I got 3 solid hours of sleep followed by cat naps. But at 7:30, I got up and got ready. We ate at the hotel again – peanut butter on bagels, banana bread, frosted flakes, and milk for me. I love a free breakfast, even if it is only “Continental.” We arrived at audioboy’s shortly after 9am and were promptly driven to the airport. Mrs. audioboy is a real sweetheart for being our taxi driver this weekend and we really appreciate what she did for us. (Audioboy was a great host as well, never fear.) We dropped Judi’s sorry butt off first, and then my own sorry butt, where I made my way to the computer terminal then security then my gate. I got to my gate before Judi got to hers if our text messaging was anything to go by.

The flight out of Boston was painless and we got to Baltimore OK (albeit half an hour late). While there, I checked out their wireless connection (which is one of the top 20 connected airports in the country according to CPU magazine). Yes, I connected just fine. But when I went to Internet Explorer, I discovered to enjoy the wireless services would cost me $3 for the first 15 minutes and then 25 cents a minute after that. Um, no thanks. So I played Spider Solitaire and fiddled with IIS a bit before going back to my book. (I managed to finish The Amber Spyglass at Boston and then later finished the Murder, She Wrote novel Dying to Retire on the plane to Dayton.)

After my 4 hour layover (which was only 3 1/2 hours once the flight arrived late) at BWI, we boarded the plane to Dayton just fine. And I called dad to say the flight was on time. Only to then have the pilot tell us that there was a 45 minute hold on all flights out due to a bad storm nearby. A second call to dad and more waiting. But we got off when the 45 minutes were up and I arrived just 2 minutes after dad did. Yay! I treated him to dinner at Friendly’s (where I got a free sundae with my grilled chicken sandwich) and used up the last of my Boston money. It’s a great trip when you’re left with only 51 cents at the end of it.

The trip was fun, hangin’ with judiang, audioboy and his wife, indefatigable42, whomiga, Bill, Tom, Arlene, and the others was a blast. Watching Doctor Who on impressive TVs was great as well. Oh yeah, and watching Vanna and Judi get along so well was also cute (albeit a bit distressing. She’s the dog person. I’m the cat person. Why couldn’t Vanna play with me????) Thanks to all for the wonderful weekend. (Oh, and sorry about not contributing to the pizza costs – I only thought of that on the flight home. Eek! I’ll make it up to you, I promise!)

Um, ditto what Judi said.

Well, actually, I can’t be that brief… (Sorry folks!)

Last night (the bit which judiang forgot to mention) Judi and I headed off to The Dolphin for supper. This is a seafood restaurant in the building complex where Bill lives. It’s a high quality seafood place. I got a 1 1/4lb lobster, grilled shrimp & scallops, and mashed taters. Wonderful, wonderful. Although we didn’t have hergrace with us, we still managed to crack open our lobsters well. (Judi helped me with the claws.) And, of course, since we used up all of our energy getting the meat from our lobsters, we had dessert too. I got the chocolate fudge cake. (Judi got key lime pie.) Good eats! (It just seemed a real shame to come all the way to Boston and not have fresh seafood AKA lobster.) The two of us ate for $75. (Um, eek?)

This morning, my alarm didn’t work (from my cell phone) but we got up OK nonetheless. Indeed, I was done early and went downstairs to drink hot chocolate and read more of The Amber Spyglass. Judi sent me a text message when she was ready to head down, but I received it while I was going up to the room. (Ain’t technology grand?)

As Judi then said, we had brunch at S&S and then walked and shopped. Once again, I got some good photos, but I’ll have to post them when I get home. Perhaps a NeilCon website. I got a wind up singing bird and a couple of physics toys, some dark chocolate Hobnobs (cuz my UK friends always tell me how great they are) and 2 individual Penguins (I blame shebit, the_ladylark, and Mags for that!), one of which I gave to Judi. Oh, and 3 little Lindt chocolates. Just cuz. Also I got a tie-dye kit (too). You’ll find out later why.

At Christina’s, I got some bittersweet chocolate & Bailey’s Irish Ice Cream. The bittersweet chocolate wasn’t as decadent as the stuff from Toscanini’s, but it was awful good. We returned to audioboy‘s to watch some more of indefatigable42‘s Samurai Jack DVD. Looks like a fun show – I should watch it.

When 42 had to head off home, audioboy and his wife drove her to the airport and the rest of us sat around enjoying the computers. (Actually 4 computers, 5 people makes for one unhappy person. Which was me…. ;-))

BTW, with enough persistance (annoyance?) one can end up getting a pineapple & onion pizza… heh heh heh.

I’m sitting in the back room at Bill’s place with some Horatio Hornblower thing playing (“Loyalty” I believe). Firstly, I’m just surprised to see Barbara Flynn playing the mother of the woman that Hornblower will marry. That’s Cracker’s wife and the dyke from A Very Peculiar Practice! Actors, always playing new types of roles, I tell ya…

judiang and I got up this morning and went for breakfast at the hotel (frrrrrrrrreeeeeeee!) Then we walked to audioboy‘s apartment for transport to Bill’s apartment. Bill has a phenomenal collection of technology here. We’re in the backroom watching a 50″ HDTV widescreen TV. Way cool. There’s another impressive telly in the front room (where several are watching Pyramids of Mars, I believe). They’ve got a webcam there and one going on at ravenevermore‘s place too. Ah, it’s fun to be a geek!

Lunch was hotdogs and vegetarian chili and fruit and there’s grapes & cheeses & crackers for snacking and CREAM SODA. Mmmm. Works for me! Later there’s the TVM and TISWAS and Curse of Fenric, so some good Sylvester McCoy fare for me. (And dark_pheonix, I brought your surrogate here and she’s watching Hornblower now and was watching The Three Doctors with us. I got a picture of her with the Doctor and a picture of her with the Brig, so you should be pleased there…)

Oh, and one final thing. I’m wearing a t-shirt that I made before this trip. It’s a photo of Sylv swinging and says “Sylveste is the Real McCoy.” Hopefully we’ll get a photo of me in the shirt, too.

Here I am, sitting in audioboy‘s music studio with Judi and audioboy himself. His piece called “Brenda” is playing on the midi sythesizer system or whatever that’s called. So we successfully made it here. 🙂

I got up at 4:44am and mom took me to the airport (I love mom!) and then I got on flight 444. Hmmm, that’s a bit spooky… (A Pecanbon from Cinnabon made me buy it and after I paid for the milk, it was $4.44…. Well, no, not really. It was $5.71.) My flights were both early arriving and getting to the end of the terminal where Judi was waiting was pretty painful. Awww, Vanna’s just joined us here. (That’s the KITTY at this place.)

When I arrived at the terminal, pritnear everyone was there waiting on me. Judi, whomiga, indefatigable42, audioboy and his wife were all there. Into the minivan and off to Trader Joe’s where Judi got some sustenance. (Be sure to read her story…) Then to Mary Chung’s for some wonderful food. No idea what it was all called. May write more on it later. Then we went to Toscannini’s for ice cream. I got some bittersweet chocolate ice cream and it was wonderfully evil. I must find a recipe for it.

It was then of to audioboy’s for awhile as we awaited the time we could get into the hotel. When that arrived, Judi and I headed to the hotel and snoozed. She actually slept (and snored) and I slept some and read some. (Still working on The Amber Spyglass.) Sometime after 5, we headed back to audioboy’s and chatted with folks. Then it was off to Sweet Chili (Japanese/Korean/Thai) where Judi and I got an appetizer called Shrimp Mermaid (which was very good) and almost $40 worth of very yummy sushi. Wonderful eats. Loads of folks were there and I got some photos which I will post later. Even dark_pheonix‘s surrogate bear was there. When dinner was over, we walked to Christina’s Homemade Ice Cream for, guess what? Homemade ice cream! I got a scoop of malted vanilla and a scoop of sugar cream. I tasted someone’s rose ice cream and oddly enough, it tasted exactly like roses smell. Good ice cream! Judi and I will probably venture off there on our own at least one more time this trip. (We paid close attention to how to get there.)

After ice cream, it was back to the flat and that’s where we’ve been all this time. After much fighting with my wireless card (and even trying a spare one of Whomiga’s) I’ve opted to stay in the studio and type this up. My butt hurts. (Wooden chairs do not make for optimum geeking chairs.)

Well, best to end this so Judi can update her LJ. Hopefully I’ll have more stuff tomorrow.

Gakked this Meme from the_ladylark. Just close your eyes at “B” if you’re easily offended.

TOTALLY honest
A – Act your age 33
B – Breast size 44F
C – Chore you hate Mowing the lawn
D – Dad’s name Mike (actually, William Michael, but he goes by Mike)
E – Essential make up item None – I don’t wear make up
F – Favorite singer Neil Innes
G – Gold or silver Silver
H – Hometown Pleasant Hill
I – Instruments you play Piano (mostly just by ear)
J – Job title Network Guru
K – Kids No kids, just my cat, Leo. He’s enough of a handful for me.
L – Living arrangements Own my own home – living there with Leo
M – Mum’s name Linda
N – Number of people you’ve fallen in love with None – numerous crushes, no real loves
O – Overnight hospital stays Just the one when I was born
P – Phobia Escalators, but I’m much better now
Q – Quote you like “This is a hospital Miss Shaw, not Scooby Doo!” Dr. Dove (Sylvester McCoy) in The Zero Imperative
R – Religious affiliation Unitarian Universalist (though I’ve not signed the book) or Christian in Exile
S – Siblings Younger sister (Amy) and adopted older sister (judiang)
T – Time you wake up 6:30 during the school year, whenever Leo wants me to get up every other time
U – Underwear of choice Mine, thank you very much!
V – Vegetable you refuse to eat Lima beans (unless they’re in vegetable soup – then they’re tolerable)
W – Worst habit Talk too loud/fast/much/tactlessly
X – X-rays you’ve had Left wrist (looked like broken glass) and teeth (perfect – ha!)
Y – Yummy foods you make I make a really good curry and I like my fried rice and now I’ve been dabbling in ice cream, too
Z – Zodiac Sign Capricorn, the goat in the “regular” zodiac and the Boar (or pig) in Chinese zodiac (notice how neither animal is terribly flattering…)

From shebit I did one of those other memes where you can find out some interests you might want to add to your interests list by inputting your username. Here’s the bit at the bottom of the meme, if you wanna give it a go yourself:

When I did it, I got the following interests: poetry, reading, music, movies, cooking, anime, fantasy, something positive, chocolate, peter davison, history, muppets, firefly, friends, sushi, web comics, queen of wands, invader zim, buffy, geeks.

I’ve bolded the ones that I’ve now decided to add. Some of them I really should have added long ago. (And someday I’m sure I’ll add Davison and probably the other Doctor actors, but I’m letting Sylv be the only actor in the list for the time being. Why? I have NO idea. I just am. I mean, I don’t even have Peter Falk in the list yet… Hmmm, maybe I will add him.)

Yay! I’m back online! It feels so good to be back. (I know, I know, it looks like I never left… Let’s hear it for next door neighbors with a working ‘net connection!)

Firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY drake57!

Secondly, I had a real “Oh shit, I waited around for nothing” moment today while the cable guy was diagnosing things. It wasn’t the cable modem that went bad. It wasn’t the node to the house that went bad. And actually, I already *knew* the first part of the problem and thus how to diagnose the solution, but my brain didn’t put two & two together until the cable guy was working.

I have a D-Link wireless router to create a nice home network. And I noticed on Sunday night that the router’s password had reset to the default. I should have then realized that if it completely reset itself, it also reset it’s speed back to 100Mb/s. A speed that my cable modem, apparently, can’t handle. So all I needed to do then (theoretically) was change 100 Mb/s to 10Mb/s. And I wouldn’t have had to wait until Wednesday.

Alas, the problem isn’t as simple as that. Even after changing the speed on the router, I still wasn’t getting an address from RoadRunner. I just didn’t have the time to work on it then (and decided to wait until I get back from Boston on Monday) so I have the PC hooked directly to the modem for now. And everything’s just peachy! (The cable guy also got to feel like he did a good job getting me back online, even though he really didn’t do anything to get me connected again. Still, his futzing about is what caused me to do the correct math and solve the problem.)

It took me quite awhile to get caught up in e-mail and now it’s time to do likewise with reading my LJ friends list. Joy joy! 🙂

Bleh, another day netless. It’s not so bad when I’m at the folks (like now) and getting caught up on things. It’s when I’m at home, alone (well, alone with cat) that I really feel it. I’ll think “I wonder who that actor is in such & such” and head for the den, only to realize there ain’t nothing there for me. And when I eat my breakfast in the morning, I need my e-mail! But it’s not there! I have to watch morning shows instead. *sigh*

Here’s hoping the cable folks arrive tomorrow morning as promised and can fix my outage. I can be strong! I must be strong!

Yesterday I left Chicago to return to the humidity that is Ohio. Before I left, however, judiang, elsaf and I met up with miz_em and her husband for Dim Sum. Very tasty food and a fitting way to end an Eating Vacation.

After lunch, we vegged at Judi’s and I actually fell asleep. Indeed, I woke up at 1:15, which is the time I had hoped to be waiting for the train at the station. But I was already packed and ready to go. I hugged Elsa, petted Lance, and then Judi walked me to the station. We hugged and I bugged out. It was easy going at the airport and the plane took off on time. I arrived at 5:30 and the parentals were waiting. We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home (got that funky 4-way pizza thingy – mine was pineapple, onion, and extra cheese, of course). Then it was home to my KITTY.

Leo was happy to see me, but, unfortunately, my internet connection was not. Apparently, Saturday night there was a storm here which (as always seems to happen anymore) knocked the power out. And this time my connection to my cable modem was f*cked in the process. Dunno if it’s the modem or the modem line, but I have no connectivity there. Meanwhile, my folks (who live next door) still have connectivity. But since they’re on a different node they still have a connection. So I can check LJ and e-mail from here, at least.

The cable folks can’t make it to my place until Wednesday morning – gah! I need my ‘net connection! I feel so useless without it.

Still, I hung out with the folks some yesterday evening. Then we walked to the post office (and Amy’s wedding invite was there – woohoo!) and then to Granny’s. Talked with Granny, Aunt Becky, and Cousin Mick (Cousin Bill and Connie and little Braden were there at the start) for a bit. And when I returned home, Leo and I watched CBS and PBS alternately for fireworks. (I thought the Boston fireworks were the best – especially with “What a Wonderful World” orchestrated to the fireworks. They even had the smiley face fireworks! I haven’t seen those since I saw fireworks at St. Paul.)

Going to head in to work today, despite it being a federal holiday. Just as well, too, cuz the treasurer and his assistant are there doing work and the servers are down (thanks to the power outage). Dad and I are going slow this morning, however, which is why we haven’t gotten there yet.

Rather than do these in the morning, I decided to work on them now. Who knows how tired I’ll be tomorrow morning. Thankfully, the folks are picking me up at the airport instead of my driving home. These ladies (judiang and elsaf) sure know how to wear someone out!

This is a funky sculpture by Marc Chagall. Judi says everyone just calls it the Chagall.

Here is the same sculpture from the Sears Tower. Gee, it looks so small!

Of course, this is because the Sears Tower is very, very tall.

I bought a postcard which shows the Sears Tower against the rest of Chicago’s skyline. It’s currently the tallest manmade structure in the USA. Nearly 1500 feet tall, and that’s without it’s antennae.

Here’s a view of Judi’s place from the Sears Tower. In an earlier post I had a photo of the clock tower at Dearborn Station. I’ve marked the station in this picture. You can see that she’s close to her current grocery (Jewel) and within walking distance (albeit a long walk) of Museum Campus where Shedd’s Aquarium and the Field Museum are.

Back in 1998, Judi, tiger5, alryssa and I walked to Dominick’s across the Long Ass Bridge. This was before Jewel was built. Are you surprised that Tiger kept saying “I’ll pay for a cab! I’ll pay for a cab!” along the route there and back?

We didn’t brave the outdoors this Fireworks Night, but we still had fun with the glow-in-the-dark necklaces that I bought. Judi, Lance, me and Elsa are sitting in Judi’s living room with our glow stuff on.

Even dark_pheonix‘s surrogate bear got into the act. (We did get some pictures with the bear, but none of them were in as good a shape as this one.)

Well, this has been a great trip. Tomorrow (or rather, later today) we’ll go to Three Happiness for dim sum. miz_em will be joining us, too, so that will be a lovely end to the trip. Then my plane leaves at 3:15pm. Back to Ohio – well, until Friday when I fly off to Boston.

Since I was a little kid and we’d visit my Aunt Ruby & Uncle Leland in Chicago, I wanted to see the Sears Tower. And then I got a best friend from Chicago (judiang of course) so you’d think I’d have a much better chance at seeing the Sears Tower. Except that Judi works less than a block from the Sears Tower and she hates going to her workplace when she’s on vacation. But, since she loves me, every year she’d promise to take me there. Alas, every year she’d not do that. It became a running joke after awhile.

But this year was different. Today she finally took us to see her workplace *and* to see the Sears Tower. elsaf already has photos up of the trip, so click here to see them. (I should get mine up tomorrow morning.)

We headed off to Gourmand Coffee House for brunch and I ordered an egg sandwich (w/ bacon & cheese) and a croissant. I had orange/mango juice with it. Breakfast was $7.50. We’d all brought our computers to the cafe since Judi said we’d be able to go online from there. Unfortunately, it cost $3 to be online for 1 hour. Judi went ahead and paid to geek, but I just sat & read some of Day of the Triffids, which is an e-book I bought for the laptop. I’m just a cheap bastard. After awhile, we moved on back to the apartment to drop off computers.

The next goal was to go to Judi’s work and the Sears Tower. It’s a nice walk – Judi’s fortunate to be able to walk to work. The Tower was cool – even though today was the cloudy/rainy day, it was still phenomenal to see Chicago from above. We saw Judi’s place (also marked on Elsa’s post) and lots of the places that we visited. Everything looked so close – except that the long ass bridge still looked long ass.

After the Tower, we moved on to Books A Million and I got Obliviously On He Sails by Calvin Trillin. When I finish reading it, I’ll give it to dad as a belated b-day gift. It’s a great collection of political poetry, most of which is funny and none of which is pro-Bush. We saw the guy on The Daily Show and we all agreed it was a book worth getting. (Alas, they only had two copies, and Elsa & I snagged those. Judi already read Elsa’s copy, so she’s sated for now.)

We returned to the Dearborn area and decided to get a snack at Hackney’s before crashing. We each ordered the chocolate chip cookie sundae – yummy! $6 a piece. I then walked to Taste of Siam to get a to-go menu so we could order supper. With all the rain, we opted to stay home tonight and watch the fireworks on TV. We returned to the flat and crashed. Judi and I slept and Elsa wrote.

At 6:30, Elsa called our order in and then I walked to the restaurant to pick it up. We got pad thai (of course) with tofu, pad see eiuw with shrimp, seafood curry, ginger chicken, and spring rolls. Strawberry smoothie for Judi and Mango smoothie for me. It was $15 a piece. All was very tasty and best of all, Judi got leftovers! Elsa and I took Lance to the White Hen to buy some decadent ice cream for munching on while we watch fireworks. There’s less than half an hour to go for the fireworks. We’re gonna sit in the dark with our glow-necklaces and watch the fireworks. Where it’s dry. 🙂