Before I post the photos from yesterday, I needed to type a few things. Firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to timjr! Secondly, alas, none of us won the $290 million lottery. Well, I did wave goodbye to my dollar bill as I bought the ticket. And thirdly, there’s yet one more food item I forgot to mention. On Thursday, I had a bit of Elsa’s chicken pita sandwich from Cousin’s Turkish Diner or whatever that was called. Yet another tasty morsel. Actually, I cannot think of a single food item that I tried that I didn’t enjoy. Guess I love food too much. Heh. 🙂

So, onto the photos for the day…

Judi lives really close to the old Dearborn Station. It was, aparently, the train station that her grandparents arrived at when they came to Chicago. Now it houses a number of yuppy stores, Bar Louis, a bank, and there are a number of apartment complexes where the station once was. I’m sure Judi can correct me and tell you even more about the history of the station.

I thought I should get a photo from the Taste now that it was the last time we were going there. Very busy- apparently it will be even busier today, since tonight is fireworks night.

judiang, miz_em, and elsaf outside of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Judi, Emily, and me. (Notice how Elsa didn’t get the “wear a blue shirt” memo.)

Emily, me, and Elsa. Everyone wanted her photo taken with Emily that night. Except Forest Gump.

No, Forest wanted his picture taken with this lady instead. We dunno why – Emily is *the* celeb to have your photo taken with.

There’s nothing more invigorating than leaving a chilly pier and getting onto an air conditioned bus.

Well, Judi is up for good now (she was actually up before me today, but since I wasn’t up, she went back to bed) so time to finish this post.

All I hear now is the sounds of clicking. I’m on my laptop, Judi’s on her PC, and Elsa’s on her laptop. We’re all sitting in various places in Judi’s flat and typing away. I think that Judi’s actually even typing up a proper LJ entry! Can’t wait to read it if she is.

Once again, I’ll save the pictures (there weren’t a lot today) for tomorrow morning to post. So I’ll just type about the day. But first, a couple of bits that I forgot to mention in earlier posts. On the first day of Taste, while we were walking to the theater to see Fahrenheit 9/11, we stopped at a bag shop (“That’s My Bag”?) so that I could buy a fanny pack. (Oi, you Brits, stop snickering.) I’m either a pocket or a purse gal, but there are times when I travel that a fanny pack would be rather handy. So I plonked down $20 and change for a gray JanSport fanny pack (metaphorically – I actually used a credit card). It’s been very handy on this trip. Has a little pouch in front just perfect for my camera.

The other addendum has to do with food items I have tasted. I remembered this morning as I was going through my Taste booklet that I’d tasted something that Judi had gotten yesterday. At the gormet booth for Thursday they had Cafe 28 and Judi tried the Coconut shrimp over curry rice. I tried one of the shrimp and it was very tasty.

So onto today. As I wrote this morning, Elsa and I got up early. I believe Elsa was moving around from 6:30am on and I got up at 7:30am. I believe Judi was up at 9:30am. My combo cereal again for breakfast and when it was after 11am we headed off for the Taste. And for 2 hours, we grazed at the Taste. (Seriously – it was 11:30am when we arrived and 1:30pm when we left.)

We’d done the Even Numbered side pretty well, so today we started on the Odd Numbered side. I started a Arya Bhavan and got a samosa. Then I nipped around to Dock’s for the crab cake nuggets. We all got saganaki (fried cheese) at Atrium Restaurant & Bakery. I got a taste of Rainbow ice cream at The Original Rainbow Cone. Judi got a Bacardi Limon Freeze, which I tasted (a few times). Oddly enough, it was rather bitter, not sour. I got some garlic mozarella cheese bread from Polo Cafe & Catering to get the sweet out of my mouth and tried more of the Freeze. Still bitter, but refreshing. (I actually didn’t get any beverages this time out.) We’d found a nice place to sit and eat, but by then I was done with food, so needed to go out again. I went to Cousin’s again to see if they had borek today. They did, so I got one. By the time I returned to the girls, however, I was done with it. They were talking with an older couple (and Judi was eating their food) about politics. The couple were devout Democrats and the conversation was interesting. After the conversation was done, we continued grazing. While the girls got gumbo from Chicago Joe’s, I got a breaded steak sandwich (taste) from Ricobene’s. I was down to my last 7 tickets and knew exactly what I wanted. 4 tickets for caramel flan from El Pollo Loco and 3 for the taste portion of pineapple sundae from Zephyr. Between those two desserts, however, I took a bite out of Judi’s grilled lamb chops from the gourmet tent which had Morton’s the Steakhouse today.

So I had a really good variety at Taste of Chicago this year. Tomorrow and Sunday we won’t do Taste. Tomorrow because it’s the busiest day for Taste and Sunday because we must do dim sum! Judi will probably do Taste for supper on Sunday. (Who knows what I’ll have. Really shouldn’t have to eat for another couple of weeks after this trip.)

We returned to the flat and Judi and I napped while Elsa wrote. Then an hour later, I got to working on Judi’s laptop to get Diablo II working. Elsa and I tried to get the laser printer to work, but we think there’s a fault in her laser printer. I also took a stab at getting Judi’s digital camera working, but no go. All throughout this geeking, Judi slept. Heh. No wonder she stays up til 1am if she naps for a couple of hours during the day.

At quarter til 6pm, we headed off to the #29 bus stop and awaited our bus to Navy Pier. This time, the bus was there in about 12 minutes versus the 30 minutes of yesterday. We sat in the back with a fellow from DC and a family from Minneapolis. We chatted about Chicago and the other cities throughout most of the bus ride. Just a few stops away from the Pier, however, the bus stopped and we had to get out. We could have joined the #29 which had followed ours down the street, but we decided to walk the last few blocks. We arrived at Bubba Gump’s at 6:30 and were told it was a half hour wait. Perfect – we’d agreed to meet miz_em there at 7pm. We walked inside the Pier this time to see the shops and then walked back to Bubba Gumps to see Emily waiting on a bench for us. We hugged and took pictures and when it was time, we sat outside at our table.

I ordered an amaretto sour and water to drink, we got an order of Hush Pups (shrimp & mahi mahi in the hush puppies) as appetizer, and then we all ordered the Shrimpin’ Dippin’ Sauce. Peeled shrimp in a butter flavored broth with french bread for dipping & rice. Oh yeah, a small amount of cole slaw to pretend you had vegetables. We all ate well and talked for two and a half hours or so. We even shared the chocolate chip cookie sundae (where Emily, Judi and I made sure to get all the whipped cream away from Elsa’s portion for her). It was a pleasant evening.

Afterwards, we got to the busstop and were surprised when the #29 bus showed up rather soon. It was a nice ride home and now we’re here geeking. I suspect some Eddie Izzard and amaretto sours will soon be forthcoming.

Last night I wrote about yesterday at Navy Pier but didn’t include any pictures. This morning, while elsaf an I wait for judiang to wake up, I thought I’d post some photos. Still no photos of me, but Elsa will have pictures up someday, maybe, and then you can see that I was wearing a shirt which looks a lot like the LJ icon I have for this post. (I made it for this trip. Alas, spilled gumbo on it, but we hope to get it washed today.) Once again, I’ll be nice and stuff them under a LJ cut. (Betcha wish I did that with my long text posts…)

Judi’s pomeranian, Lance. He’s laying on the Aerobed which is my bed when I stay with Judi. (Elsa gets the sofabed.)

The girls relax outside of Bar Louis. Well, Judi would be more relaxed if she weren’t on the cell phone.

Lance sat out with us, too. He was looking for people to pat him.

The entrance to Navy Pier.

Windy, one of the Tall Ships that sail around the pier. 4 sails – amazing!

Two folks play around in the rigging of Windy II, another Tall Ship.

Jonathan Livingston, I presume? (Yeah, yeah, so I always do that joke when I have a photo of a seagull.)

Stained glass depicting King Solomon.

I loved the colors in this stained glass depicting a story about a bear attacking others.

You can’t tell from this photo, but this particular stained glass piece had a 3D look to it. Really cool. (The message is “Don’t Smoke.”)

A final shot of Navy Pier. Judi has her best “I own all this shit” look on. 🙂

So, there ya have it. Lots more pictures! Today, Taste for lunch and we hope to meet up with miz_em at Bubba Gump’s for supper. (So, back to Navy Pier for us!) Whatever else we do is icing on the cake.

We’re sitting in Judi’s flat watching The Daily Show as we wind down. Afterwards, we’ll watch an episode of Dead Like Me and an Eddie Izzard concert. But I’m here to type up about the day’s activities.

elsaf woke up first, me second, and, as usual, judiang last. I had a combo of Total & Raisin Bran for breakfast and uploaded pictures from the first day of the Taste. (Will probably upload today’s pictures tomorrow morning.) Around 11am, we headed over to Bar Louis (which is right next to Judi’s apartment) for lunch. I had a chicken pesto panini and French fries. Very tasty sandwich. Lance was with us – we sat outside and he was just outside of the patio area, slutting for pats. (He found 3 victims.) Judi returned him to the apartment and then we headed off to the bus stop.

We were waiting for the number 29 bus. After half an hour of waiting, Elsa and I were beginning to doubt the existance of the number 29 bus. But it then showed up and we squeezed in. We were heading for the AMC theatre near Navy Pier. We arrived with 10 minutes to spare before the 1pm showing of Spider-Man 2. (The matinee price was $7.50!!!!! I could watch 2 matinees at Piqua and have change for, um, change!) But Judi had to order popcorn and pop, so we ended up walking in as the first trailer began. There were a number of interesting trailers, and then the movie began. Judi and I enjoyed the flick, Elsa wasn’t as pleased with it. I’ll probably get the DVD if it’s cheap. 🙂

As we left the theater and turned on the sound of our cell phones, Judi discovered that miz_em had called. She informed us that she wouldn’t be able to join us tonight due to a problem concerning her husband. Alas! *hugs* to Emily and her hubby. We might be able to meet up with her tomorrow night.

We walked from the AMC to Navy Pier and wandered down the pier. When we got to Haagen Dazs, I got a Bailey’s Irish Cream Shake for $6.50. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive than what I pay at the mall, but it was bigger than the mall ones. Mmmmm, and so tasty. We sat and watched a tall ship sail around and enjoyed the glorious weather. Once we finished with our ice cream, we continued down the pier. Judi saw a sign for the Smith Museum of Stained Glass – she’d never noticed it before. We went inside and looked at the beautiful stained glass.

This museum viewing brought us back to the start of the pier, so we made our way back to the bus stop. So, how long would the #29 take to arrive? Only 25 minutes this time. Amazing! We got to sit for the trip back to the apartment and when we arrived, we fought our way off the bus. We did a quick stop at the Ace Hardware near Judi’s place to get a set of nice measuring cups and an ice cream scoop. Then back to the flat so Trina (the cat lover, note) could walk Lance. Judi’s not convincing me that dogs are better than cats. They’re a hell of a lot of more work.

We sat for a bit, but by 7pm, we figured we should head to Taste for supper. Once again, I spent $21 on 33 tickets (and had 5 left from the day before). At Hey Sushi, I got the taste portion of tempura calamari and Elsa let me have a bite of her red bean fried rice. At Kasia’s Deli, I got a potato and a spinach pierogi. At Sweet Baby Ray’s I got the taste portion of the “Boss” BBQ pork sandwich. Continuing the Taste tradition, I got the taste portion of Pad Thai from Star of Siam. (I fell in love with pad thai thanks to Star of Siam and Taste of Chicago.) I got a chicken tamale from El Pollo Loco and missed out on the borek (spinach & feta pie) just as I did the year before. (They sell out of this often, it seems. Maybe tomorrow!) I consoled myself with a chocolate covered frozen banana from Aunt Diana’s Candy Makers. Bella Luna Cafe had beer battered artichoke hearts. Then I got the seafood gumbo from Chicago Joe’s. The final 4 tickets I then spent on a piece of plain cheesecake from Eli’s Cheesecake. Yum! (Oh yeah, I got a Sierra Mist yet again.)

Phew – lots of good eats. We sat & listened to a band playing some sort of Mediterranian music, but once the mosquitoes decided that I made for a great supper, I decided that it was time to leave. And here we are, watching the end of Iron Chef.

I have wonderful friends. It turns out that elsaf had a cable for her MP3 player which is the same as my camera requires for synching to my laptop. So I now have photos to go with the text from yesterday.

dark_pheonix‘s surrogate for the trip.

Ever since I first visited judiang at her apartment, I have been fascinated with this mission nearby. I still haven’t figured out why I was fascinated with it, but this time I finally got a photo of it.

Judi and Elsa enjoying the lovely flavors of The Taste. (Notice the long line of portapotties in the background. It’s no surprise they have about 4 billion of them in the park.)

Judi guides us towards Michigan Avenue for our “1 mile” walk to the movie theatre.

One of the few buildings in Chicago that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was the old watertower and its pump house.

A photo of the pump house. Elsa in the foreground.

Here’s an indoor shot of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Man, I hate to think of the oppulance of the *First* Presbyterian Church.

We’re just sitting around this morning geeking so far. We’ll probably do Taste for lunch and definitely do Taste for supper. (miz_em will be joining us for supper.) And watching Spider-Man 2 is on the agenda. Oh, and getting some measuring cups for Judi so that I can make a decent Amaretto Sour tonight. (Judi had *no* small measuring devices for making drinks. Well, she had a half tablespoon… That’s a wee bit too small.)

Good grief, now both of the girls are insisting that I take Lance for his morning walkies… He’s not *my* dog, dammit… 😉

I got up this morning at 6:30am EST and by 7am, dad was outside, ready to take me to the airport. I loaded up my shit and headed on to Vandalia, home of the Dayton International Airport. Dad dropped my sorry little butt off and I checked in on my flight then sat at the gate reading The Amber Spyglass while I waited. We boarded on time, but had to wait on the tarmac for an extra half hour before Chicago would let us take off. It was a smooth flight and we weren’t very late arriving.

I got to the baggage claim and awaited Judi while I wrote in my paper journal. As I was writing about my new cell phone, my pocket started vibrating. It was Judi, calling my cell phone, to tell me she was half an hour late. Heh – happens to us all! I moved on down to the Southwest baggage claim (I flew Aunt Tilly’s Airline) to wait for Judi and Elsa. The both eventually arrived and we took the El back to Judi’s place.

After a change of shoes and/or clothes, we walked to Grant Park to the Taste of Chicago. I bought $21 worth of tickets and started grazing. Steak taco from Taqueria Los Comales. Plaintain chips w/ garlic sauce from Sabor Latino. Roti canai (Indian style pancake with curry chicken) from Penang Malaysian Cuisine. Shrimp fried rice, pot stickers, and chicken curry puff (we each got one and shared) from Tiparos Thai Cuisine. Three-cheese fried ravioli from Tutto Italiano. Some of Elsa’s vegetable tempura from Guey Lon. A chocolate chip cookie dough egg roll and a bite of Judi’s kobe beef slider from The Saloon Steakhouse. A Sierra Mist to “wash it down” and to top it all off, of course, Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream from Kitty O’Shea’s. (It was Taste of Chicago where I first discovered Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream.)

Suitably sated, it was time to move on. Judi told us the movie theatre where Fahrenheit 9/11 was playing was just “1 mile” from the Taste. Elsa and I have learned that the Chicago mile is about twice what a normal mile was, but we agreed to walk it. We got to the theatre within 15 minutes of the show starting and bought our tickets. $6.50! For a matinee! Gee, I don’t even pay that much for evening showings. But the movie was definitely worth it. I found it moving, informative, and funny in places. The audience seemed very appreciative of the movie and it even got applause. This is the first Michael Moore flick I’ve seen. (I really want to see Bowling for Columbine and will probably rent it when I finally get caught up on all the DVDs I bought during a 20% off sale at DeepDiscountDVD.)

After the movie, we moved onto the Big Bowl for supper. I ordered the Kung Pao tofu & spinach noodles. They were very good and suitably spicy. I drank a lot of water. Judi convinced Elsa and I that the “Pagoda” was a nice “light” dessert to have afterwards. The waiter brought out three big plates holding 3 big scoops of coconut ice cream each, and some crispy egg-roll material. Apparently the Chicago Mile isn’t the only measurement that’s different here as it is back home. With the crispy and coconut, it tasted a lot like fried ice cream. Very yummy!

We waddled out of the restaurant ($16 for my bit, in case you were curious) and hailed a cab. As soon as we arrived at Judi’s place, it was time to walk Lance. (Poor doggy had been crossing his legs for hours.) Once that task was done, it was time to chill out and geek. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 2 1/2 hours or so. Ah, it’s fun to be back in Chicago! (Alas, I won’t get any photos posted to the journal until after I go home. Left my cable back on the computer.)

No, I’m not going to try and sell you insurance or turnip twaddlers or swamp land. I’m just doing a bit of advertising for my Sylvester McCoy site. I thought I’d try to recruit some votes for the site at Star Pages (you’ll find a link on every Sylv page – just click and then confirm and I get another vote – woohoo! I’m shooting for 100) and see if anyone’s interested in joining the (very quiet) mailing list of the SMCSB.

So, what’s the SMCSB? Before there was a PMEB (Paul McGann Estrogen Brigade) there was the Sylvester McCoy Chocolate Sauce Brigade. Originating on Usenet in rec.arts.drwho back in late 1995 (or early 1996? I researched it once and haven’t felt the need to go back and research again), the fan club has always been unofficial and relatively quiet. In May of 1998, I created an eGroups list for the SMCSB (and eGroups eventually became YahooGroups). It’s been a nice quiet little list. We have moments of extreme posting, but usually moments of extreme lack of posting. Thanks to my goading of mindwarp in her LJ, we’ve started a small discussion going on the list right now. But we need more members! And you don’t need to enjoy the thoughts of Sylvester McCoy and chocolate sauce to join the group. We have some straight males on the list (drake57 as a manly example) too. Yes, there is some gushing that goes on, but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as the gushing that goes on in PMEB. 😉

Hmmm, what else Sylvish did I want to say? Oh yeah, “smcsb” is an interest that you can have in your LJ interests, if interested. Heh. (Yes, it’s not as fun as “seventies porn colin,” but what is?) Also, I updated the Big Finish section on the Sylv site to include a review of The Harvest. And finally, while reading my journal from my late HS/early college years, I discovered the date of my first mentioning of Sylv in a journal. November 8, 1989, I was a freshman in college. In a long journal entry, I wrote the following:

As to Paradise Towers, I bought it because I have now seen Doctor #7 and like him. A lot. He is a massive improvement on #6. I wasn’t sure at first, because the book version of that episode wasn’t really that good. The episode itself was excellent and the Doctor was great. I hope they show more of him (though I doubt that they will).

OK, so I haven’t mentioned Sylvester McCoy by name there… It does happen in the journal eventually, though. (Well, not this particular journal, but in one of them. Where I used to talk loads about Eric Idle, that eventually switched over to this short, Scottish feller.) And don’t go thinking I’m anti-Doc6. I’m not – I wasn’t. Earlier entries have plenty of pro-Colin comments. And the fact that I’m describing Paradise Towers as an excellent story – heh! Ah, the joy of youth! The bliss of ignorance! (Heck, I used to think Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma was a good book. Ye gods – have you ever read it????)

Well, I think I’ve Sylved enough in this entry. Sorry to you readers who just don’t “get it”… Tomorrow I shall have some food-laden entry, most probably, as I’ll be in Chicago with judiang and elsaf and doing the Taste of Chicago and all that jazz.

I’ve got an LCD monitor, a laptop computer (the school’s, actually, but it’s still mine to use), a home wireless network, a cordless phone, dozens of MP3 players, and a home theater system. Still, judiang has never considered me to be a member of the 21st Century until yesterday, when I finally got myself a cell phone.

There have been many times while I’ve been on trips when my owning a cell phone would have been very handy. Sometimes one needs a phone when one is at my folks’ cottage at the Lake. And of course, trying to find people in and around airports has been made far far easier thanks to mobile phones. So with these concerns in mind, I spontaneously bought a Virgin Mobile Pay as you Go phone. My regular monthly phone bills are rarely more than $25, so I didn’t want to spend an additional $20-$40 a month on a cell phone. I liked the TracFone like what dad got, but it costs $100 a year to keep it running, and that’s not including the cost of phone calls. The Virgin phone, OTOH, is only $20 every 3 months or so (or every 5 months if you don’t mind your phone being inactive for awhile) and that includes the phone calls. Yes, the calls are expensive. 25 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes in a day, plus 10 cents a minute after that. But this is a phone for vacations and emergencies. I think I can handle it.

And I discovered when I got it home that it’s the perfect phone. Click here. Now type in “45373” into the zip code box. Look at the map. Notice that gray blurb just above and to the left of Dayton? Yup, that’s where my home town is! So people will NOT be able to use my phone to find me when I’m in the area. 😉 They can only contact me when I’m in Troy or Piqua or at the Lake or in Chicago, etc etc. How’s that for a perfect mobile? (This was not my original plan in buying the phone, but it’s something that I think I can live with.)

It does seem to have good coverage in all the big cities that I tend to visit. Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Boston, LA, etc. So it should work fine on my trips around the country. And, as I wrote earlier, it works at the Lake. (I called both elsaf and Judi from the Lake. Left a message with their respective services and Judi returned my call. (Elsa is at work, I believe, and thus in a dead spot.) Oh, Judi, turns out it does charge for incoming. But I’m now at the 10 cents a minute stage for today, so that’s OK.)

The phone uses Sprint’s network, so it’s all digital. But there is no roaming. I believe dad’s TracFone does do roaming (with twice the cost per minute). When I listened to the phone messages that I left on my home answering machine, I was amazed by two things. The first, that I thought it was my mother and it took until the second call to actually realize it was me. The second, that it actually was very clear. Cool!

Oh, another reason why I opted for the Virgin phone rather than the TracFone – it’s a much cooler cell phone. I went for the swanky AudioVox 8610 so I’d get full color and stereophonic ring tones. I found the ideal ring tone for my phone, too. (See the “current music” to find out what it is.) And someday I’ll be in an area where my phone works and I can download the ring tone. 😉 Oh, it has two games on it as well. Blackjack, which is OK, I guess. And something called Magic Hexa, which is rather fun. Sort of like Tetris and Super Bubble Pop.

So, there ya have it. Trina’s finally joined the 21st Century. Are you happy now, Judi? 😉

When I was still in school, Señora Wilberding (lovely German name for a Spanish teacher, don’t you think?) was my 8th grade grammar teacher, freshman & sophomore Spanish teacher, and junior creative writing teacher. Sometime after my sister graduated, Señora left Newton and went part time at Lehman Catholic High School in Sidney. This past year, however, she returned “home” to Newton and is teaching Spanish there once again. During the year, I and a few others helped her out with her computer woes and she considered us her Computer Gurus (a title that I rather like). To thank us for our help throughout the year, she invited us all over for dinner tonight.

Alas, half of us were unable to attend. The band director had some sort of church function that he had to be at and the English teacher just got home today with her newborn baby (congrats Ann!). But the business teacher and I both were able to attend. I arrived a bit early and found the place with little difficulty, despite the fact that it’s been years since I’ve been to her house^*. Mary Beth arrived soon after. Señora’s husband headed off to watch a baseball game down the street so the three of us had an evening to ourselves. Lasagna, salad, garlic bread for supper, mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. It was all very yummy. Kudos, Señora!

We talked all through supper and then had dessert out back on the porch overlooking their lovely garden. And we talked and talked. It wasn’t until I was being eaten alive by the mosquitoes that we finally headed in. And that was nearly 10pm. So, four hours spent with my former teacher and current co-worker. It was quite lovely.

^*Señora is one of those devoted teachers who really cares for her students. She has them over to her house occasionally, calls their homes if they’re not doing homework, and does everything she can for the kids. I was talking with one of my junior boys this year who had mentioned that she’d been calling to check on his homework progress. I said “and that’s the difference between us. She actually cares if you pass or fail her class. I really don’t care if you pass or fail chemistry.” I probably should care more, but I doubt if I’ll ever get to be as caring as Señora when it comes to her students. Something to aspire to, I think.

It’s been awhile since there was a new Doc7 (Sylvester McCoy) audio adventure. And, alas, it will be awhile until there’s another new Doc7 audio adventure. So I was rather excited when The Harvest arrived today. I was walking to work and stopped in the post office and there it was. I decided I’d listen to it after I finished The Evil of the Daleks. (Working on computers is a mindless enough task that I can listen to audio adventures without a hitch. So the summer is when I finally get caught up on all of my audio adventures – and relisten to several more.)

The biggest worry I had while listening to The Harvest was about the quality. The last Big Finish Doc7 adventure was Master. My review of it wasn’t hugely negative, but also not hugely positive. And since it will be March of 2005 before we get another Doc7 audio (gee thanks, Big Finish, for postponing that audio until after you play out the rather dreary adventures of Doc8 and Charley) I was concerned that I wouldn’t have any good Sylvish adventures for a very long time. The Harvest had to satisfy my Sylvish ears for the next 9 months. So, did we have another Fearmonger or another The Dark Flame?

I’m happy to say that I really enjoyed The Harvest. It has some sparkling dialog and a new companion who works well with both McShane and the Doctor. (Yes, Ace is calling herself McShane now. Or “Just McShane” as she often corrects people. The Doc still calls her “Ace.”) Hex (Thomas Hector Schofield) is a nurse from 2021 and his favorite expression is “Oh my god! Oh my god!” (Sylv doing an imitation of that is priceless.) Still, when you’re meeting people like the Doctor and McShane, you’re bound to have some “Oh my god!” moments like Hex does in this story. Part One does a good job of introducing us to Hex. McShane shows up about halfway in. The Doctor appears briefly, but it’s a great appearance. Parts Two-Four have all three of them in equal measure (with a good deal of time having the Doc and Hex working together). The story is good, the action riveting, and, as I said earlier, the dialog sparkles. The ending to Part One is a particular favorite of mine (and, whether intentional or not, is a fun dig at Death Comes to Time, which is another Audio Adventure that I love).

I haven’t read many reviews (well, so far only one, and that was just one line to say it was loved) so I don’t know if I’m the norm on this or not. Still, with a bit more work, I should have a Synopsis and Review for the audio up on my Sylv Site soon. (Heck, just to indicate how much I liked this – I’ve already begun relistening to it. I got to the middle of part three when I finished making the ice cream and cleaning up my mess.)

*sigh* I’m gonna miss Doc7, Hex, and McShane. (Wow, whoda thunk it – I’ll actually miss McShane! I didn’t think that was possible anymore, but when she’s written right, she’s back to being a good character.)