Went over to the Theater Building at about 4 PM to see what was up with Implosion orientation. Madeline, whom I adore, was there. Then, after orientation, ran into John and Mikala from Witt’s End, who I didn’t know would be here, but I was super-happy to see. Mikala was part of the flip cup moster squad from DSIF in February, so I’m a huge fan. Ate dinner with Zach, Meredith, Katie, John and Mikala, and then watched the fist Implosion show– a thumbs up.

Hit the mainstage, which was the Defiant Thomas Brothers (who are the best sketch show I’ve ever seen, hands down… they did the most amazing update of the “Who’s on First” sketch), Bassprov with Horatio Sanz, and the Horatio Sanz All-Stars. Brett Gelman flew in for that and was fantastic… and flew out today, which makes me sad, because I would very much have liked to get up with him. JD was there– YAY.

Then, I came to casa Telfer, where Dan and I talked Doc South for quite a while.

I slept with these guys:

We woke up today, puttered about, then headed over to Shiel Park where I taught the afternoon Second Beats class. Good fun.

Now we’re computing, though technically, we should be watching Telfer’s Willow DVD. (And I have already forgotten why that Willow bit was funny.)

By the way, my plans to see Cubs games were spoiled… by the fact that it was SNOWING in Chicago this morning. It was rainy and shitty all day yesterday.

I can safely say that Jon Karpinos is a fine human being. After flying into Chicago on Thursday, I met up with Dave Reis at the Playground, where his team International Stinger rocked the house. (I’m putting that fact in print for all to see because I think Dave thought that my praise for his team might be insincere. Dude, it was not.)

Dave and I went up to the Ginger Man bar for Zach’s birthday party, where I also discovered it was Meredith Ibey’s birthday. Jon and Bill rolled in there after Show Pony rehearsal, and I was finally able to sneak out and ditch my bag. It’s hard to be super-social when you are carrying your luggage. Seriously.

Back to bar, hanging out, some bits, etc.

Jon was good enough to house me for the evening, and we spent a little time Friday morning working. Then we met up with Zach, Katie, Rene, and Jessica at Fogo de Chao, where meat is served on sticks. Seriously, they walk around with meat on skewers, and no matter what you ask for, they cut you off a piece that is medium-rare.

Rene eats meat.

Jon has signs up all through his apartment naming the rooms, in convention center style. The living room is the “Grand Atrium,” Jon’s bedroom was something like the “McKendrick Plaza.” The true gem: the bathroom is ridiculously named– if I remember correctly, it was the “Rockefeller Institute for Gastro-Intestinal Studies, Housed in the Combs-Cloninger Bathroom Center, Funded in Part by a Grant from the Smallwood Foundation.” Nice.

I slept like a king on his double/queen air mattress, though I occupied on tiny third of the bed. I am so used to having a body on one side of me and a cat on a pillow on the other side, I don’t know what to do.

Happy 60th birthday, ma!

I am about 90% back to normal on my laptop. I had to do some tweaking to get Firefox and Thunderbird doing what I wanted them too, I am still missing some Trillian info that I can just nab off of my home computer (though some of you have IM names that I will now never be able to identify… so when you talk to me next and I have no idea who you are, sorry). Trillian took $25 because I had to buy another year of Pro, but I was almost a year overdue in doing that, so I don’t feel so bad.

The good news is that Feedreader 2.80 is out, and so far, the interface is much, much cleaner. Add to that the fact that I found out how to get the atom
feeds from Blogger, and I’m a happy aggregator. (Tip for the uninitiated: http://BLOGNAME.blogspot.com/atom.xml )

There’s a Flickr group for DSI. Many thanks to Katy for starting it. I will have to get in there sometime and really get some photos assigned to it.

Welllll, if I learned one thing today, it’s that I should not listen to what’s being said. I should listen to how it is being said.

In other news, yesterday, at the height of my frustration, while waiting for the cable repairman to fix my Interweb, I went outside and moved some trees from right around the deck, where roots should not grow, to the back yard where TREEMAN has been lurking. I also moved one tree from next to the outside fan for the AC. I don’t think that will take well, since the majority of the root structure seemed to reach down under the concrete slab that the unit sits on. And I don’t have a small shovel. So, I may have killed a tree. But the illusion that I was helping it move to a place where it could grown big and strong was nice and soothing until I snapped the main root.

For each tree I kill, I am saving two. I tell myself that.

I suppose I should tell the story of TREEMAN, so remind me one day and I will write it down. He’s an interesting character.

So, despite the best intentions after Friday’s show, Chicken Ranch bagged on me at lunch, I bagged on them at dinner, they bagged on me after the Lewis Black show. Me and those five ladies will have to have a love-fest at a later date. (Ladybug will likely supervise said love-fest, so don’t get your panties in a wad, moral majority.)

Chicken Ranch’s explanation of the debacle, and my response, which should say all I want to say about the gd movie “Closer.”

Why did no one warn me about the gd movie “Closer”?

Ladybug did sumer stock with one of the Chicken Ranch ladies way back when. Small damn world.