August 2018 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Dorkstock is coming!

Dorkstock 2018: Infinity Dorks, Nov 8th-11th, 2018, Gamehole Con: Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall, Madison, Wisconsin — Give in to the dork side! Come play games with us at the 2018 Dorkstock!

I’ve mentioned Dorkstock here before, it’s a mini-convention within a larger gaming convention; it has been hosted at Gamehole Con in Madison the last couple years. This year’s theme is Infinity Dorks, because, in case it wasn’t obvious by the title, we’re dorks, and that includes an addiction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is a special year for us in many ways. John Kovalic is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dork Tower, which is the fandom base for Dorkstock. What does that actually mean? Well, it means there’s probably cake in addition to Igor Bars. Not that you really need more sugar after an Igor Bar….

It’s also a special year because it’s the first time that Steve Jackson and Phil Reed, who both play key roles at Steve Jackson Games, will be attending Dorkstock. If you know anything about Steve Jackson Games, you know that John Kovalic has drawn a few things for them, most of which involve the word “Munchkin“. As game designers, they’ll bring their own element of fun to the table, with a couple special events on the Dorkstock game schedule.

I would be remiss if I forgot to mention Scott Olman, a long-running special guest at Dorkstock. Scott is the inspiration for Igor (you can read about the core Dork Tower characters here), though John says he tones down the outrageous things that Scott does when he writes the comic. Scott will be running a D&D adventure titled Who Threw Rex Down the Privy, which is sure to be interesting!

Come join us in Madison, Wisconsin from November 8th through 11th for exciting games and a sugar overdose!

The Dan Camp Journey

Four years ago, I embarked on my first drive to Dan, or Black Belt, Camp, with a carload of teenagers (none of them mine) and the vague notion that I’d be doing karate all weekend. Our first stop was a rest area on I-65 in Indiana, where one person slowed down long enough to receive copies of the New Testament for all of us. That resulted in some interesting car conversations as we proceeded to a popular (with our karate family) lunch spot. Beyond that, well, we stayed up late, got up early, and did karate pretty much all weekend. There were team-building exercises, some general silliness, and new friendships that came out of the weekend. Every year since has been a different adventure, with a new mix of driving companions and the same overall giddyness that comes from doing karate for a whole weekend with two hundred or so of your closest friends.

Strawberry milkshake in a mason jar at The Farmhouse — Strawberry milkshake in a mason jar… is that enough whipped cream?

This year was no different in that respect. After years of driving by, both to Dan Camp and other events towards or past Indianapolis, and only having stopped at the shop before, we ate lunch at The Farmhouse at Fair Oaks Farm. If you’ve driven south on I-65 recently, you’ll know that it’s hard to miss the billboards for Fair Oaks Farm; between the restaurant and the farm, there were probably a dozen before we got there. (Driving north, there are two that tell you that you missed it and you can turn around at the next exit.) This is unquestionably the first time I’ve been served a milkshake in a mason jar. They are, as it turns out, the perfect size. The meal was delightful, prefaced by some fresh cornbread and well, no, we didn’t make it to dessert. But I generally consider dessert to be optional when I have a milkshake.

After lunch, as I mockingly pointed out the scenic corn and soy (and more corn and soy, as this is the midwest), I noticed a faint rainbow out of the corner of my eye. It wasn’t until my companions (who weren’t driving) looked that we realized there was a double rainbow, with a far brighter one hiding below the faded one I had spotted.

Beyond the exciting weekend activities – have you ever played balloon “soccer” on a windy day with multiple balloons per team, and only karate moves allowed to propel the balloons? – the weather was just about perfect. Two years ago, there was a downpour along with some exciting thunder and lighting on the Saturday afternoon, which forced a break in our outdoor activities for a bit. This year, there was a bit of rain on our drive Friday, and a light sprinkling Saturday afternoon.

Foggy morning from the suspension bridge — Looking at the giant slide from the suspension bridge, through the fog and a spider web.

Sunday morning, as I began packing the car, I enjoyed the fog that had settled in overnight. I went back to the cabin for my phone, then walked onto the suspension bridge to get some photos. (The bridge is one of those things that you either love or hate about the camp; it bounces quite a bit when everybody is lined up, crossing the river.) Just me and my arachnid friends.

Spider and web with a foggy morning river in the background. — Pretty spider and web with a foggy morning in the background.

People come into our lives for a reason.

Just over 8 months ago, we welcomed Arwen into our lives. She is, without a doubt, still a force of chaos, also known as a kitten. I know, she’s over a year old now (since she was 6 months when we adopted her), and technically not a kitten, but I don’t think she realizes that.

She has taught everybody in the house a bit about patience, some better than others. Diane still has points where she barely tolerates Arwen, particularly on the bed at bedtime. But I’ll wake up in the middle of the night to find Arwen lying next to her, and sometimes June is there too.

If there’s human food involved, Arwen’s the first one there. Constantly. But she’s not up on the counter (as much) while I’m cooking, and has learned most of the time to wait until I put a plate down to lick. That said, I still won’t walk out of the dining room with a plate of food at the table, and leftovers have to be tucked away while we’re eating.

June and Arwen curled up together on the sofa — June and Arwen

She’s been great at getting June to exercise, they will tear through the house playing at random times. Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I wanted a kitten, to encourage the older cats to move more. (Hasn’t work so well with Diane.) And they curl up together at times, just like June and Diane still do.

She is a mighty insect huntress. I can always tell when there’s an insect in the house, because she’s suddenly leaping straight up at the window or the wall. I rarely notice what kind of insect it was. Unfortunately, I have far fewer spiders than I used to; I think she’s eaten all the obvious ones.

She’s even learned not to use her claws when grabbing people. She still reaches out to grab me, but now it’s cute instead of painful. Her obsession with nibbling on toes, well, that’s still a thing. Slippers are our first line of defense.

Amazing Arachnids

One of the cool things about Brookfield Zoo is their seasonal exhibits. Every year, they have a butterfly exhibit, where you can walk into a tented area with a butterfly garden. If you’re lucky, the butterflies may land on you. But this year’s special exhibit, through Labor Day, is the Amazing Arachnids. (Some years, there are animatronic dinosaurs… those are super cool too.)

This exhibit has exactly what the name implies… lots of tarantulas and a few scorpions. And, of course, a plethora of educational information about arachnids, spiders in the media (books, movies, comic books), and a couple awesome photo opportunities including a giant Lego spider.

The variety of tarantulas is pretty amazing, as can be seeing walking through the exhibit. There are large and small tarantulas, with variety in colors and habitats. Some of the tarantulas had impressive amounts of webbing in their habitats; others had none that I saw. Some were highly visible, some tucked under habitat pieces, and others were well hidden. At least one seemed surrounded by its own webbing.

Photo opportunities (me being silly and a Lego spider) at the Amazing Arachnids exhibit and a few tarantulas. — Photo opportunities at the Amazing Arachnids exhibit and a few tarantulas.

Outside the arachnids exhibit, as part of the same special exhibit ticket, is the Mission Safari Maze. Intended to be educational rather than difficult, we walked through this searching for posters on different animals. There were a few interactive exhibits, such as a spider web to climb on and a short set of monkey bars.

If you’re arachnophobic, stay away. Otherwise, I highly recommend you visit the Amazing Arachnids before summer ends.

Heartbreak Hotel and Ren Faire

In an odd combination of fandoms, we saw Heartbreak Hotel and attended the Bristol Renaissance Faire in the same weekend. And for bonus points, I noticed that Dirk and Guido’s opening act that day included a reference to Heartbreak Hotel (as “love poetry”… before they got into the obligatory sword fighting).

We took the train downtown to see Heartbreak Hotel; I’m not a fan of driving in Chicago. It’s the prequel to Million Dollar Quartet, which we had seen (twice) at the Paramount in the fall. As could be expected from the title, it delves into the history of Elvis Presley. While we both enjoyed it, we agreed that we liked Million Dollar Quartet more, both because of the style and the songs that were played.

The Lynx Show, swallowing giant scissors — Forget the giant scissors he’s swallowing… aren’t those shoes awesome?

As I mentioned in last year’s post about Bristol, we always try to catch at least one classic and one new act. Obviously, we watched Dirk & Guido again; the Swordsmen are always a delight. This year’s new act was a The Lynx Show, swordswallower and magician with a great sense of humor. We stumbled upon it because I had seen someone walking by with frybread, and then I found the frybread booth (also new, I think), which was directly across from the show stage minutes before the show. (I first tried frybread on our big road trip in 2013; I’m hooked, but don’t really like deep frying at home.)

Somehow, I went to Faire this year without eating garlic mushrooms. I may need to go back.