Only a few more weeks, kids.
The next big ChiDope is the weekend of April 5th and 6th. All Dopers - newbies and veterans alike - are welcome (except for a few of you, and you know who you are) 
The Main Event is at Timothy O’Toole’s on Saturday, April 6th at 8pm. Great location right in the heart of the city. We have a party room reserved, which I believe is called The Guinness Room, but I think we’re going to overflow it given the guest list below. Many thanks to manhattan and UncleBeer for graciously volunteering to split the cost of the party room. Note that this bar has NTN Electronic Trivia, which is where the “Trivia Games” of the title come in.
Still to be decided - where the hell are we going on Friday night?
Still to be decided - what the hell are we doing Saturday during the day? Several ideas that have been tossed around - most likely this will be a number of splinter doper groups all doing different things - if you have other ideas, please add to the list:
[ul]
[li]The Pleasure Chest - this is where the sex toys come in, so to speak.[/li][li]The Art Institute (see info from magdalene quoted below)[/li][li]The Field Museum[/li][li]The Museum of Science and Industry[/li][li]The Museum of Contemporary Art[/li][li]Navy Pier[/li][li]The Shedd Aquarium[/li][li]The Adler Planetarium[/li][li]The Sears Tower[/li][li]The John Hancock (which has a nice but very expensive bar in lieu of an observation deck)[/li][/ul]
I’m really jonesin’ for a visit to the Aquarium, but hell, I may have to go to the Pleasure Chest, too, since I’m the one who suggested that a group of dopers at a sex/leather shop would be a good thing. After all, I already have a drawer-full of sex toys, but no fish at all. Should be time to do both before the main event at 8, though. Of course, now that magdalene has taken the initiative to organize an Art Institute outing (see below), I’m jonesin’ to see my favorite French Impressionist paintings, especially Renoir’s Seascape and Monet’s Houses of Parliament… Thanks, mags.
Most of the Chicago museums’ home pages are listed here. I believe magdalene said that it was possible for Chicago library card holders to get free passes to many of the museums.
jarbaby has kindly offered to host a brunch at her place Sunday at 11. Please [email=jarbabyj@yahoo.com]email her if you’d like to go.
Jane D’oh! did a lot of legwork on hotels and has gotten a deal on rooms at the at the DoubleTree Hotel. It’s right near O’Hare and is easily accesible to public transportation to get you into the city. Not sure if rooms are still available, but [email=JDominowski@embassyohare.com]email Jane if interested. I believe some folks are also staying at the Radisson near downtown Chicago.
A couple of notes on ChiDopes, that I copied from my post in another thread:
DopeFests are what you make them. I’ve seen a number of posts in the past that imply people sometimes feel intimidated or uncomfortable attending some of these dopefests. If you’re not comfortable with Drunken Debauchery, I think Cranky’s idea of finding a like-minded doper or two to attend is a good thing. That said however, the attempt for “A Quiet ChiDope” a couple of months ago was not particuarly quiet. The same core group generally attends these things, and the core group for ChiDopes is generally not a quiet bunch.
That said, some notes on ChiDopes:
[ul][li]A lot of the people who attend ChiDopes like to drink, flirt, and generally have a wild time.[/li][li]No one will make you drink, flirt, or have a wild time if you don’t want to.[/li][li]Plenty of conversations happen at ChiDopes that are not about sex. I just can’t happen to remember any. ;)[/li][li]If you are having a conversation that is not about sex, people won’t come and interrupt you and and make you talk about sex.[/li][li]This is not an exclusionary group. If you show up, people will be friendly and talk to you.[/li][li]Hookups have been known to happen at ChiDopes (since we are such a friendly group), but again, if you don’t wanna, nobody’s gonna make you (unless you’re into that sort of thing :D).[/li][li]And a note to some folks (who I can’t remember) who thought they had to be personally invited to a DopeFest. If the notice is publicly posted, everyone is by definition invited.[/li][/ul]
And now, the list of illustrious dopers who are attending this function. Or thinking about attending. Or said at one point they might possibly be thinking about attending. But since we lost the original thread, and I only had the temp board thread, the new thread here, and my faulty memory to go by, I really have no clue. Anyway, here’s the list so far (definites and maybes):
[ul]
anya marie
beagledave (and mrs beagledave)
Billdo
Callie
chique
CRorex
Crunchy Frog
dropzone
DynoSaur
Ender25
Eutychus
Geobabe
Gundy
Hamadryad
hardygrrl
iampunha
inertia
Jadis
Jane D’oh!
jarbabyj
Jessica2
JoeyHemlock
KrustyKlown
Kyla
Little Bird
lno
Maeglin
magdalene
manhattan
MikeG
Miss Creant
MrCynical
MsRobyn
Odieman
Persephone
porcupine
Pucette
quixotic78
Random
rjk
Shadowfox
ShibbOleth
SilkTies_&_Ice
Silver Fire
Sophie
Sua Sponte
Superdude
Tattva
Tequila Mockingbird
thinksnow
tiggeril
TurboDog
TVeblen
typo mna
UncleBeer
UncleBill
VileOrb
vix
weirddave
yojimboguy
Zyada
[/ul]
Certainly doesn’t do much for the ol’ male ego. 
