Well,I must be doing something right when hotel security decides to shutdown the Invincible Party for too many people. I think regular hotel security used the pretext of a noise complaint to investigate. Regardless, the 100 or so people in various dress (from undies to a rubber submarine rescue suit) got kicked out of the suite. A good number of them did go to the lobby to host their on Lobbycon. I don't think hotel security like spending their time watching about 100 people in the lobby chatting and secretly drinking away until 5-6am. Thanks for all of those that went. I'll have to think of something new to keep the numbers in check next time.

Even with all the problems with the hotel, MFF 2009 was fun. It was great to see and hangout old friends again. "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind", the local Chicago comedy troupe, was very funny. Kudos for getting them to go to MFF. The MFF Hockey scrimmage seemed to go well. We had 12 skaters and 2 goalies for it. After an 1 1/2 hrs, everyone seemed tired but satisfied.

Other then another "wardrobe" malfunction with my Halo Kitty outfit, the rest of the time at MFF 2009 was relaxing. Of course, I had the most fun just being with my mate, nitropup . ^_^

There w ll be another hockey session at MFF 2009.

It will be at the same place, Twin Rinks Ice Pavilion, which is about 3.5 miles NW of the hotel.

The ice slot will be on Sunday, Nov 22, from 3:30pm to 5pm. This is after the fursuit games and before Closing Ceremonies. We would meet in the main hotel lobby at 2:45pm to arrange carpooling to the rink.

The total cost of the slot will be $225 ($150/hr). If we can get a decent number of people going, it should only be about $20 each.

So, bring your gear. If you can't bring a stick, post here or email me at poomie at poomie.net and we can see about getting extra sticks.

Hope to see many of you there.

While owning a house allows you to bulld equity, modify your domain to what you want, and use the mortgage interest as a tax deductions, don't forget the repairs.

I had the fun time struggling with a leaking sink drain pipe. So after 3 visits to Home Depot, hacksawing a pipe to make it the right length, and getting my hands covered in pipe joint, I think it's fixed. No leaks so far.

For awhile, I wished I was back in an apartment where I could just call up someone to fix something at no cost to me.

Welcome to the Great American.... "Nightmare"!  ^_^

While joking about being called a pomegranate and poomiegranate, I suggested little_wolf should come up with a pomegranate-based drink and call it that. He came up with a martini that is also known as "Oprah's Pomegranate Martini":

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
• 2 ounces vodka
• 1 ounce Cointreau liqueur
• 1 cup ice
• sparkling water, splash (optional)
• lemon, a squeeze (optional)

Directions:
Shake ingredients in a shaker and put in chilled martini glasses. You can also rim the glass with sugar. Put pomegranate fruit into glass as garnish. Simple!

Try it out. Maybe we'll make a bunch at a party at MFF!

Though I just got back from a week long trip to Seattle and Vancouver, I packed the car again and headed down into Indiana to hang out with Slush and crash at his place. This made it a lot easier to get to Wolf Park at 9am for their first annual "Walk for Wolves" fundraiser. graywolf769 organized two groups of fursuiters (WolfTail, wildfox34 , iceleopard, quasiskunk (along with aragornwolf), perro, darkwolph, panth, and myself). I stole the  picture to the right from Graywolf. The adults and kids there loved us! According to the staff, the group and corporate sponsors raised over $20,000. Our group only did 4 laps.

On other note, I did get to hang out in Indiana with Graywolf, panth , and Slush. I had a great time hanging out with them all and enjoying the local culture. The only thing I'll say is this: Boy, do I feel old.

I'm not a college student any more. I can't party like a college student any more.I can't scream out at 4am like a college student. but I still get treated like one and  get carded like one. Oh well.... ^_^

While I'm waiting to board my plane back to Chicago, I just wanted to do more name dropping to thank many furs for a fun time in the Northwest US and Canada.

1. Kodi_pup - for offering crash space and hanging out at RF '09 and in his beloved Vancouver. The Yaletown Brewery in Vancouver had great beer. The views from Grouse Mountain are incredible. Finally, the low cost and amounts of good sushi at Sushi California is epic. The picture on the right shows about an equivalent amount of 2 orders of sashimi (around $16 US).Oysters were good as well at So.Cial.
2. Deccadog, aldebron - for hanging out at RF and taking us around the area.
3. Seattle crowd (Revfox, sashapup w/ little_wolf )
4. Vancouver furs (laceaurora , p_dawgydog , siku_wolf, , Jessie, torwin_collie , Frysco) - The Salt Tasting Room was great! I've never been to restaurant that was located off an alley.
5. Aussie Clan (tzup , nbowa , Harley, and TJ) - Thanks for having a "deaddog" type gathering in your room.
6. Gear Heads (jet_der_hund , rubberwolf, and felixkatz ) - Good to see you guys also at RF
7. Southern Bells (vinnywest , tervicz ) - Even though we all hate the southern culture, you guys at least bring a southern gentleman attitude. Great seeing you at RF.
8. And the rest (darkwolph , nerfcoyote , staticfox ) - agani, thanks for hanging out at RF.

I am glad to be back home though.

(Maybe more details in the future)

I made it safely to Seattle and spent the last 4 days seeing old friends and meeting a few new ones. The con was pretty low key but they did the best they could with the current situation. The hotel itself was beautiful with an large atrium but the hotel could have been a bit friendlier to the con-goers. 

I made it up to Vancouver with kodi_pup and enjoying the great scenery and city with him, Pdawg, and Lace. Luckily there were no problems at the border. :)

I'll be back in Chicago on Thursday.

While doing the renetworking and stuff, I got to redecorating part of my living room. The clutter and knick-knacks scattered throughout were moved to two shelving units. Also, the bulky items (vacuum tube radio and Apple //e computer) were moved out too.  The strategy was to make things more vertical and open up the rest of the room.



As for my mantle, the clutter was again removed and replaced with fewer objects and a new framed photograph of a wild female cougar.
The photo was taken by Thomas Mangelsen and titled "Spirit of the Mountain" which the name of the a wild cougar seen at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wy. She and 3 cubs were observed for 42 days which was the longest observation length of a wild cougar.

Next project will be to make a few additions to the 2nd bedroom (almost done) and the kitchen.

Thanks again for all the kind words on my upcoming new job and current break.

I'm in the process of cleaning up the clutter in the condo and fixing anythiing that's broken. Part of that was to get my telephone landline repaired. As of this morning, it is now working! Why does this matter? Well, three points:

First, the landline has been not working for the last 2.5 YEARS. I know that's procrastination but its hard to find time to be home and wait for the phone repair guy.

Second, the electric door lock for my condo building is opened by the phone on my landline. I've tried to get my condo management company to change the number in the directory to my cellphone but no dice.

Third, I need the landline because two of my phones require pulse dialing. They look similar to those below:


You can't use pulse dialing with VOIP technology as far as I know. Of course, dialing 11 digits can be a pain. :P

I was able to convince three other furs (moonblazewolf , lonewolf_csu , tekfox ) to play in the Coors Cup which is a gay hockey tournament in Denver (this year). After playing 5 games (with a short, 9 man, bench) in 48 hrs, we are all beat! My back and legs are killing me.

I had a blast and really appreciate Blazewolf, Lonewolf, and Tekfox for coming out and help form a ragtag team that somehow made it too the upper rec level championship, but lost. It was a tough last game but I know we did our best and can be very proud of that. But we ended up 2nd out of 8 teams. :)



That little trophy cupis for 2nd place / runner up. We are already looking to plan our next team with more furs joining. Of course, we'll have the best mascots of any team :)

All ties to my last job have been severed. I've completed the "check out" process at my most recent job. So, no more responsibilities for the next month when I start my new job.

But, it's not going to be all fun and games... I've got a lot to fix and clean up around here this month.

However, the first thing on my list is a 5 day trip to Denver to see friends and play in a gay hockey tournament!

There are only 5 more days to go for me at my current job.

I've been at the same place for the last 4 years and see numerous negative changes going on. Some of those involved the administration and managers. Others were related to people coming and going.

But now that I took an offer to go back to my other job, I'm feeling a bit sad that I'm leaving my current place. This new opportunity is a great one that will allow me to do more of what I enjoy and am good at. Part of my sadness is that I'll probably never see most of these people again. The other is that many of them are unhappy and I can't take them with me to my new job.

Well, life goes on. At least. the one month break will help recharge me.

So my brother and his wife are getting tired of spending their summers in Manhattan. Last year, they rented a summer house in the Hamptons. This year? A house near Woodridge Lake which is about an hour west of Hartford, CT. it's a nice private lake which keeps it from getting overcrowded.

As it was my mother's birthday this past week, I head out to NYC  to meet up with Nitropup. He was kind enough to drive me up to Woodridge Lake and hang out with my parents, my brother, and his wife.

Unfortunately, it rained on Saturday but we were able to keep ourselves entertained with a few drives through the small towns near the lake and idle chatter at the house.

It was great to see eevryone again especially Nitropup, but I also enjoyed being in my own bed. 

Woodridge Lake is a very nice place to relax for the summer but I'm a city boy and always enjoys returning back to Chicago.

While there is a lot of debate between those in favor and against the current health care insurance reform proposals, you have to love the paranoid or fringe who are starting to make certain connections. These include President Obama is a Nazi, or his policies is Nazism, or he wants to create "death panels". But leave it to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) who schools of these fringe protesters regarding her accusation about Pres. Obama.

Again, I have nothing against civil discourse or a spirited debate. But I don't think you can truely debate sa protestor who says such things. We should continue to isolate them and bring into the debate  those with true concerns about the current health care reform so a good solution can be found.

This is an excerpt from an INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Editorial (posted Friday, July 31, 2009) , titled: How House Bill Runs Over Grandma

"...The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror movie script.

The U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) basically figures out who deserves treatment by using a cost-utility analysis based on the "quality adjusted life year."

One year in perfect health gets you one point. Deductions are taken for blindness, for being in a wheelchair and so on.

The more points you have, the more your life is considered worth saving, and the likelier you are to get care.

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless. [I added the emphasis]

The British are praised for spending half as much per capita on medical care. How they do it is another matter. The NICE people say that Britain cannot afford to spend $20,000 to extend a life by six months. So if care will cost $1 more, you get to curl up in a corner and die..."
 

I hope someone broke it to him that Hawkings is British and lives in the UK. :P
After reading that, i couldn't believe the rest of the editorial. Just slopping work.
 

My hair stylist has been pushing me to get my gray toned down / colored. What she would use is not a dye but something that would wash out after 5-6 weeks of regular shampooing.

So after the joke of my last post about redheads and going in Saturday for a hair cut, she convinced me to get it down.
Sorry that the pictures don't show much of a difference: Left is a pic before, right is obviously after. Most of my gray is on the sides of my head.



The people who have seen it (including those at the salon) said it does make me longer, ie. the hair finally matches the face.
So I'll have to decide if I want to keep doing it every 4 weeks. I guess coloring my hair is my official entrance into being gray muzzled. At least, I got hair up there. :)

From fukung.net:





That is all.

For those who keep up with the news or like seeing some creative video editing, there is AutoTune the News:


Anyone want to make a furry version? :)

I was able to get a trip to AC quickly setup as I needed the break after a crappy 3 weeks at work.

Good points were:

• Just relaxing and seeing friends again
• Having little expectations for the con other than holding another Invincible Gear party
• To fursuit a little
• Playing hockey with a few furs

Bad points:

• I bought too much beer for the Gear Party
• I need to fix my fursuits

oh, and

• Perro's Iphone getting stolen

It was overall fun. Keeping expectations low does help when going to AC.

I was at dinner with a few friends tonight where 2 of them got new Iphones, and I decided to make a quick statement:

I DO NOT HAVE AN IPHONE AND I'M OKAY WITH THAT!

Long live the Blackberry. ;)

That is all.