Okay, The Them, I’m off to the zoo. If you’d like to head to bowling together, just e-mail me at my board address, as I’ll probably be able to check that at the zoo.
Otherwise I’ll see you and everyone else who’s coming at Bowling!
I just PM’d The Them, I’m touring gelato shops today with my lthforum friends
All are welcome to join us at any or all of the destinations. The Them and Blue Kangaroo have my cell phone if anyone wants to contact me.
Ack, sorry for pulling out at the last minute. I’m leaving the country for the forseeable future in a couple of weeks, and I have a friend that I won’t be able to see unless I see him tonight. 
(For some reason we didn’t figure this out until yesterday.)
I’m sad I won’t get to see everyone. Have fun!
I am so sorry, but a minor family emergency means I will have to bail. I apologize for the late notice. Have fun y’all.
The bowling party was great. Much fun was had by all.
Everyone who missed out should rightfully be writhing in jealousy. 
Pictures were taken (but not by me), and hopefully will be posted soon.
<–Smiling for the camera.
Final Report:
Bowling victories were achieved by all! Drunkeness was not, sadly, as responsibility raised it’s ugly haid. For all who do live in Chicago or visited like ExTank, Boyo Jim, and me, you really missed out on the science supply place. They have stuff you didn’t know still existed. They have stuff you never knew existed at all. They have stuff you cannot identify. All for cheap!
Post-bowling, where BlueKangaroo’s victory was lesser than anyone else’s, the party adjourned to Paterno’s Pizza, for lengthy, pointless conversation, fatty food, and more beer.
Final Report PS:
Best line of the night by BlueKangaroo: following a discussion of using tampons to treat war wounds (I can’t remember how we got THERE, but it’s true according to snopes) someone did a General Petreus impersonation demanding more tampons for the troops in Iraq.
BlueKangaroo’s Rumsfeldesque response: “Unfortunately we have to go to war with the tampons we have, not with the tampons we wish we have.”
Oh, and I just got home, in Madison. When the party broke up, I went back to my motel room, which turned out to be a small scale hell. AC didn’t work, no windows opened, the room was absolutely sweltering and stinking of insecticide. After no one answered at the officce door, I lay down and sweated rather than slept for about 15 minutes, decided I couldn’t stand it, got in my car and drove back.
At midnight!, I90 West was totally packed, 3 lanes doing 15-20 mph, out to O’Hare, before it lightened up to a pleasant rest of the drive.
Just for the record, I had a fantastic time on my Chicago trip Tues-Thurs and wish I could have stayed a few more days to meet you all. One note for future Chicago-bound travelers…don’t come during the last weeks of school, when every school in a hundred-mile radius has descended on the city for field trips and museum tours and band trips and senior trips. When we left Navy Pier the school buses were three deep around the entire place. The only place we were not inundated by children was at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and only because we went there after closing! Thought we were clear of them in the Water Tower, but went to the bathroom and there was a line of teenage girls in matching shirts…I think the only place they WEREN’T was the Hancock Observatory.
I’m glad everyone had a good time, including non-attender kittenblue.
I will get my photos up (for both 'fests) in the next week or so. I’m sorry to take so long, but I definitely have to keep packing!
It was lovely to meet everyone I didn’t know, and see the people I’d met before again.
Oh, and I’m very terrible at bowling, it seems.
A month is almost exactly the same thing as a week, isn’t it?
Okay, I do apologize for the stretch between the 'fests and the photos. Life somehow got away from me during the move and such.
I’ve finally managed to upload my photos from these two events. Those photos, plus one other Dopefest I’ve been to can all be seen here.
ETA: I have no idea why flickr separated the italian night photos around the bowling night photos. Sorry about that!
Thanks for providing them. I’m sorry I missed the earlier group.
And I’m probably be down there a bit more often, because I’m handling matters for my uncle’s estate. He died in Westment, so all the court proceedings have to be done through DuPage county. maybe we can do a few more lunches or dinners.
Someone else will have to organize that, though I bet they’d be willing to. I’m in New Mexico for about another month.