I’m glad somebody got it. Thanks.
Oooh, oooh, Jane! Can I have a room, pretty please?
I’m going to be rooming with Bristlesage, and we will be going to the Field Museum, so if you see a couple of young women going into paroxysms of delight at the sight of dinosaur bones, that’ll be us. If soda can be convinced to come, she’ll be rooming with us too.
Woot!
Yessss, the Kyla/bristlesage train o’ museum fun, coming soon to a Field Museum near you. We sincerely hope to have a soda car.
Baseball exhibit, Sue, and sundry other works of greatness. Who’s with us?!
And Jane, thanks so much.
And, on airports, are they both good, both bad, one better than the other? Fares are pretty comparable right now, but I’m not sure where they’ll go in a couple of weeks, so I’m wondering if flying into Midway is more hassle than the dollars it will save me.
Thanks!
Could you please reserve me a room at the D’ohtel?
For air reservations, the hotel’s right out by D’ohare
Much appreciated.
bristlesage, Jane hotel is right near O’Hare and I suspect free shuttle service from the terminal is available - Midway is on the south side of Chicago (the baddest part of town ;))40 miles or so SE of O’Hare. If I were you, I’d avoid Midway unless the savings were significant.
I suppose I should make my token appearance here to say that I’ll make it if I can.
Finals week is May 9-16, but I may be able to work around them.
If so, as usual, I’ll probably need a place to sleep.
If anyone who is interested in sharing a room doesn’t have a partner yet, drop me a note. Email is meril at earthlink dot net.
D’ohne 
And yes we do have a shuttle that runs every twenty minutes from the airport to the hotel. The shuttle is also available to take you to the train station.
No sighs of relief…I’m keeping my eye on this thread;)
If I get a flight, I’ll sleep where I fall.
Hotels? Pussys!
Just nudging this back up after the outage of the past week. Any updates?
I’m going to start a new thread with all the known details in the OP, along with ideas for things to do in “off hours.” It probably won’t be for another week or so, though. I still don’t know who’s going to be driving this one, as Miss Creant said she’s very busy until the end of March, and as far as I know no one else has stepped up to the plate. I was thinking I’d just solicit ideas from locals in the thread for night-time venues - no one really needs to decide on venue for a quite a while yet.
fixed coding
I need a roomie too.
porc, I’ll bite. What kind of hoop-jumping did you perform in making in the arrangements for last year’s ChiDope? I’d be willing to work on it if someone is willing to partner up with me.
Gundy, I love you!
Really, we just need someone to research some venues and make some decisions - the main thing is to pick a venue for the big event on Saturday night, and for Friday night as well, and to make sure the place can and is willing to accomodate the group. Last time, we had around 50 people Friday and about 60 for Saturday night. Last time a deposit for the party room was needed - I solicited for funds and manhattan and UncleBeer were nice enough to kick in. It’s not a big huge deal, but I’m the type of person who feels somehow personally responsible for everyone having a good time if I pick the spot - like somehow it’s “my” party. It’s idiotic, I know. But I end up stressing out over the whole thing and I’d like to avoid that right now. I don’t mind starting a new thread with all the info in it - I just don’t want any responsibility for making any decisions this time around.
Saturday daytime events seem to evolve on their own, so nothing to be done there other than show up somewhere.
Jane has once again made hotel arrangements, so thankfully that’s out of the way.
We also did a cell-phone list last year - I’d be happy to take care of that again.
Last time we also had name-tags for the first time, thanks to Miss Creant, but obviously that’s done right before the event.
That’s about it, I think. If you want to email me, we can discuss some more.
If you need a hand at all, Gundy, let me know. I’ll be willing to put in long hours drinking beer at different establishments to find the perfect place. Feel free to email me.
porc, I understand how you might feel that way. Rest assured, I don’t give a rat’s ass about whether anyone else has a good time. 
Hamlet, how noble of you to offer! You’re on. I have to admit I have a north-side Chicago proper bias when it comes to bars, though, so be prepared. I’ll e-mail you shortly.
If it happens that there’s a choice between an all-ages venue (perhaps in a meeting room or somesuch) and a +21 bar, all other things being equal, I’d ask you to consider the all-ages place (all other things being equal, e.g. quality of food, ambiance, alcohol availability, etc.), so younger folks, myself included, could be a part of it all.
“All other things being equal” is a very important phrase in this post. Please understand I’m not asking you to pick someplace the majority of people don’t want to go just to accommodate two or three of us. I do understand there will be older folks not imbibing intoxicating beverages, so we could get together and do something or other, if an alternative venue can’t be found.
Just something to take into consideration. I’m really looking forward to this.
I’d like to second Garfield’s statement, including the possibility of getting together even if an alternate meeting place can’t be found.
I think I’m almost getting excited.
One other thing to consider - since lots of folks will be staying near O’Hare, something easily accessible to the blue line would be great (all other things being equal, as Garf said). Also, at some fests, there’s been a giant dinner at an all-ages places, and then various splinter groups do various other things (bars, dance clubs, get drunk at hotel bar, etc.) a bit later on Saturday night.