Illinois, October 2012
by Scott Hardie on October 30, 2012
Our road trip to see friends and family in Illinois was well worth it.
The drive both ways was pleasant. I indulged in junk food like a man taking a break from six months of dieting (since my post-Atkins diet started in June, I've lost 50 pounds). We tried some Star Trek and Doctor Who audiobooks, but they weren't very good.
First, we spent a weekend with Kelly's old friends in Springfield. I'm used to listening to hours of Amtgard talk at a time, so I didn't mind. At a fabric store's final day in business, Kelly scored $400 worth of fabric for $28, and the car was so happy for her that it nearly burst.
Next up was five days with Kelly's parents in Princeton. I'll keep the family drama private, but there were lots of good times, including hiking in Starved Rock State Park, having a early Christmas, grilling our own steaks at a local restaurant, visiting our hometown, and playing with stray cats at her brother's house. I'm glad that Kelly's parents built another bedroom in the basement where it's much more comfortable to sleep, but I'll be even more glad when they finish the bathroom down there, so I don't have to climb two flights of stairs silently in the middle of the night every time I need to pee.
Finally, we drove to St. Louis for a half-day. We were told that the City Museum was fun for adults, but half of the building was designed for children, and physically accessible only to them in some cases. We did enjoy the circus and the aquarium, smaller than those in Florida but with more than enough personality to make up for it. Dinner at Lotawata Creek with Funeratic members was the perfect conclusion to the week, relaxing and fun and getting my mind back on "regular life."
Now that GooCon is no longer an annual event, I don't know when our next visit up north will be, but I'm already looking forward to it.
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Gigantism
Thanks to a friend who couldn't use them, I scored They Might Be Giants tickets to replace the broken Valentines gift that I originally bought for Kelly. We took in the show last night with two other friends who happened to be going, Nathan and Raquel, and it was a great time. Most of my concerts have been metal, so I'm used to screaming and head-banging, and I didn't exactly know how to get into the music, especially since I was the least familiar with the TMBG catalog. Go »Revisiting Survivor: Australia
Since I'm a fan of Survivor and I missed the first halves of early seasons when they aired, lately I've rented them on DVD to see what I missed. And it's given me an opportunity to reflect on how the show has changed over twelve seasons. The first two seasons had a special quality that has largely been missing every since, which is the genuineness of the cast. Go »Help Needed
Our friend Bill used to work USF tech support in the early nineties, the days of Windows 3.1 and 28.8k modems. Go »Breaking Monopoly
My latest pastime has been seeing if I can rig a video game of Monopoly to give me infinite money. It turns out that I can, but it's incredibly tedious, far more so than I thought. I like to play with the NES version, because it's just colorful and fun enough without being too sophisticated in its AI. Go »Obama Criticizes Obama Over Rising Gas Prices
I was going to share this fake news article that I drafted in a chat with friends...Stopped at a DC-area gas station to fill up his motorcade, President Obama groaned as he watched the numbers climbing ever higher on the pump. "God, why don't I get off my ass and do something about the price of gas?" Go »
