My Life of Leisure...




This is all the excitment
that you get at a magic party...

  Yeah - it’s been almost 6 months since I posted. To be truthful, its been entirely selfish. I have been doing and being and not writing about it. And having a wonderful time with it too...
First - I got to go to San Francisco in June. Actually, I got to visit LA and San Fran. Scary part - it was 90+ degrees with 98% humidity in C-bus, but when we rolled off the plane in CA it was a cool 75 degrees with no moisture at all. Heaven!
We flew into LAX with its big spaceship out front and went to the rental car company to pick up our car. We had asked for a full sized model - since we are not compact car kinda folks - and was told they were out. Panic!! The gal at the counter says - we upgraded you to a luxury model. It’s in slot 42.
 Lo and behold - it a was a freakin’ land yacht! A huge caddy with all the bells and whistles. The perrrrrrrfect car for our PCH drive as it turned out. Just don’t try parking in the LA or San Fran though...
 After a night on a hard bed in an overpriced hotel in Hollywood, we hit the road. Being a Mid-west gal, my first impression of California - brown. Even in the middle of a drought here there are still vestiges of green, but even the trees looked dusty and brown on our way North out of LA on State Route 1.


The brown, brown hills of Southern California



The only thing that relives all the brown is the blue blue Pacific Ocean. As you think that all you are going to see are brown rocky hills, you come around a curve and BAM! the ocean hugs the coast and little towns are nestled along the edges. Then back up into the hills.
 The good news about those hills is that they hide little canyons filled with tasty, tasty food.

BBQ - St. Louis and Kasas City

I am going to preface this part of my blog by saying that bbq is a deeply personal subject for most people. I imagine that there have been Hatfield/McCoy type feuds about whose ‘que is the best and while I am a woman of strong opinions, I would prefer not to meet any pissed off ‘que fan with a shotgun in an alley anytime soon…

Here in town, I’ve eaten ‘que at the two big chains –Hoggy’s and City BBQ. City BBQ and Hoggy’s ain’t that bad…but they ain’t that great either. They are acceptable bbq. If it was all I could get, I would be fine with that. However, I know that there is extraordinary ‘que to be had. I would rather wait for great than settle for O.K.

(My current in-town favorite is Smackie’s. You’ve heard me sing their praises before, so I won’t belt out that tune here.)

In St. Louis, there is a chain called Bandana’s. It is the equivalent of Hoggy’s - acceptable, but not the greatest. Every time I’ve been to St. Louis, this is the only place anyone could tell me had good bbq. However, this time I got to venture out into the surrounding area and went to Roper’s Ribs. Tate, who you know through last year’s adventure at Comic-con, did some research and wanted to visit Roper’s.

Smokin' in the front...

And in the back...

Roper’s is a tiny place north of St. Louis proper. There are three 4-tops, and an order window. This was obviously a place designed for carry out. On the walls, there are autographed pictures of celebrities proclaiming their undying love for Roper’s Ribs and a picture menu featuring all the items you can order.

Check out that menu. It was torture while we were waiting...

I wish I lived closer to St. Louis, because there is no way you can eat everything on Roper’s menu in one visit. They have an amazing array of goodie – including deep fried shrimp, snouts, ribs, rib tips, and brisket to name a few. Tate and I stared open mouthed for a few minutes while the two guys in front of us ordered. We finally settled on a rack of St. Louis style ribs, a brisket sandwich and rib tips.

Back at the hotel, we popped open the containers and started in. I love ribs. The St. Louis cut is my preferred style and these were truly excellent. They were cooked until done, but not overdone and soft. The sauce was a nice balance of tomato, sweet, sour and spicy. The tips were the same way – If you like to gnaw around the cartilage on a big slab of ribs, then rib tips are for you.

Tips.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Tate ate the brisket. He said the flavor was good, but he disliked the way it was thin sliced – almost like a deli meat. We are used to chunks of brisket like we eat at Smackie’s, so we decided we were not qualified to rule on the brisket.

Our next stop was Kansas City – both states – MO and KS.

On our last trip to KC, we went to Rosedale’s. This year we went to two of the big players in town: Oklahoma Joe’s and Gates.

BBQ and Gas!!

Oklahoma Joe’s first. This ‘que joint was on Anthony Bourdain’s “13 places to eat before you die” list for Men’s Health magazine. This is why Tate was absolutely adamant that we go. This restaurant is really in a gas station. (I am beginning to think that being in a gas station may be one of the hallmarks of a good “joint”. Thank you, Diner, Drive-ins and Dives!)

I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and coleslaw on the side. Tate ordered a combo plate that had ribs and brisket.

The pulled pork was good. Moist and perfectly done, lightly sauced with their house sauce. (I was not offered a choice of sauces at the counter.) I added a little more of their “Night of the Living Sauce”. Most folks would find “the Living Sauce” fairly high on the heat scale, but for our group it was just warm.

This is as happy as Tate ever looks...

and it took eating some very nice red beans and rice to do it...

Tate traded me a bone for a bite of my sandwich. The meat on my rib was too soft and over done. I have teeth and like to get a little resistance when I pull the meat off the bone. This fell off with the first bite and got sauce all over my top – naughty naughty. Tate’s ribs came in two parts: the larger ribs and a smaller end. The large part was overdone, but the smaller end was perfect and tasted fantastic. That’s not a good sign to me… I like consistency in my ribs…

So would I put this on my list of places to eat before you die? Probably not - there was no life changing revelation about ‘que that would put this restaurant onto my list. I did, however, have that moment when I went to Allen and Sons and had Carolina pulled pork for the first time. It seems to me that KC ‘que is all about the sauce. Carolina ‘que was more about the pig – the sauce enhances the sweetness of the pork and the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Oklahoma Joe’s was some inconsistent meat with a pretty decent sauce on top.

Last on the list was Gates and Sons BBQ. Along with Arthur Bryant’s, this ‘que joint is a KC institution. I understand that most folks in KC fall into one of the two camps. Gates and Sons has the traditional tomato based sauce, with a balance of sweet, spicy and sour. Arthur Bryant’s (according to our friends who live in KC) is a little more vinegary.

Even if Gates is not your cup of ‘que, you have to go for the experience. The order taker belts out “Can I take your order?” and then relays your request back to the kitchen staff all at the same 100 decibels. This place is not for the timid. Jason and Bryan, our friends from KC, were all excited to see how high we would jump upon entering. Fortunately for us, we are not easily frightened. Otherwise we would never have heard the end of it.

Half and half sandwich

I once again got a pulled pork sandwich (see a trend?). I had wanted some burnt ends, but we had spent too long in the US Toys Magic Shop, which is right next door. The rule is – get there early for the burnt ends, ‘cuz when they are gone, they are gone. (Damn you magic people and your penchant for prolonged discussions about sponge bunnies!) Tony got a half and half sandwich consisting of ham and brisket and Tate decided to go whole hog (so to speak) and order the Four Bone combo which had ham, four ribs, brisket and two sides for $20.

Four bone platter

Gates and Sons cuts your meat to order, so when the order taker screams back what you want, they fish out the appropriate chuck of protein and cut away. My pulled pork was done correctly, moist and not too soft. It was not sauced before serving. I added their spicy sauce at the table.
Tony’s sandwich was really awesome. It was served on plain white poofy bread, but I am not going to hold that against it. Barbequed ham is really tasty and when piled up with the brisket – mmmmmmm. I am going to have to try replicating the ham at home soon.

Pulled Pork with French Fries.

The fries were really strange - like mashed potatoes in a crispy crust.

Not bad, but strange.

Tate traded me a bone for some of the pulled pork. The meat has some tooth to it without being tough. Tate was not too thrilled with the ribs because there were some small slivers of bone along the top edge of ribs. He did like the ham, but once again refused to rate the brisket because of the way it was sliced.

I had heard from other folks in town that we talked to that they did not like the meat at Gates because it was too tough, but loved the sauce. The sauce was a nice middle of the road tomato based sauce. The spicy sauce was decent, but not quite as good as the sauce from Oklahoma Joe’s.

If I had to, I would eat at Gates again. It was pretty good and the experience made it all the more fun.

So who was better Gates or Oklahoma Joe’s? Wow that is hard question…

If I had to go by sauce, it would be Joe’s. If I had to go by meat, I would pick Gates (mostly because the product was consistent, if the ribs had been perfect, it would have been Joe's hands down).

The next question is – if I had a craving for KC style ‘que where would I drive to for satisfaction?

I would say the winner would be Roper’s Ribs in St. Louis. Sorry KC!

Side note: For me, the perfect side dish for barbeque is cole slaw. And I am super picky about it too. Slaw should be cool and creamy, not watery, with a nice balance of salt, sweet and vinegar over top of crisp cabbage. I ate cole slaw at all three places mentioned above but my favorite was at Oklahoma Joe’s. The dressing was dead on and was not too gloppy. The cabbage was shredded rather large and held a nice crunch. The slaw at Roper’s was good, but not outstanding. Gates was good as far as dressing and consistency, but had green pepper in it – which I did not like. The green pepper flavor dominated the cabbage.

Roper's Ribs

6929 W Florissant Ave
St Louis, MO 63136

Oklahoma Joe's Barbeque

3002 W 47th Ave
Kansas City, KS 66103

Gates and Sons

W 103rd St & State Line Rd
Shawnee Mission, KS 66206

A Tale of Two Chickens: The Second Bird

Those of you who remember my last trip the KC might remember a mention of Bobbers. It's been two years and Eric, who was our traveling companion on that trip, still talks about the lunch buffet. When we told him we were heading to KC again, he said, “You can stop twice then! Once on the way there and once on the way back!”


Well, we only got there once this time, heading back after the massive BBQ-and-fried-chicken-fest that was KC.


Bobber Cafe is a local gathering place - the counter of the coffee shop is held down by a bunch of old farmers who meet there to eat a perfectly executed breakfast and drink pot after pot of coffee while they chew the fat. The parking lot fairly full when we got there.

Alas, we arrived too early – the lunch buffet did not start until 11 am and it was only 10 am. Tony and I wanted to wait. Tate, who had never been there, not so much. I think by that point Tate was contemplating where along I-70 he could hide two large bodies. So we cajoled Tate into waiting by plying him with beverages and amusing stories.

Pam - thank you for everything!

Our waitress, Pam, was intrigued by the fact that we had made Bobbers part of our vacation plans and told the cook in the back about the crazy people from Columbus, Ohio waiting an hour for her food. We could see people peeking out at us from the kitchen.

Thirty minutes later – the cook was putting out the buffet. The regulars thought she had gone offer her rocker – the buffet was never put out early! (I am sorry I do not remember the cook's name - if anyone knows what her name is please let me know so I can record it here!!)

Turns out – Thursday was fried chicken day. And the buffet gets busy on fried chicken day so I guess it was good we got their early.

yummmmmmmmmmm - fried chicken

The lunch dishes consisted of liver and onions, spaghetti and meat sauce with meatballs (Double your meat, double your pleasure!), fried chicken, and chicken and stuffing. There was also two types of homemade gravy (beef and white), really awesome mashed potatoes, corn, peach cobbler, homemade rolls, a salad bar and chicken noodle soup. And the cost for this amazing display of culinary prowess? Wait for it...wait for it.... $8.95!!! Even if you just went and got one plate, soup and salad, you would still have a deal!

Looks like hell - tastes like heaven. Real liver and onions...



Two gravies - the brown one is a beef based gravy.
The white is a country style milk gravy with lots of black pepper.
Both were excellent over the homemade mashed
potatoes lurking in the upper right corner.

Tony and I made the appropriate happy food noises. Tate seemed pleased – I mean he did go back for seconds. I loved the liver and onions – with the perfect mashed potatoes - oh boy! Was that awesome!

Now to the fried chicken – Can a platter of fried chicken from a $8.95 buffet go toe to toe with Straud's lauded by the likes Zagat and the James Beard foundation? Ummmmmmmm yes. The chicken at Bobbers was just as moist and succulent as the Stroud's chicken. The pieces were smaller, and the Bobbers chicken was not pan fried, but breaded and deep fried.

But still, I cannot say that those differences really diminished my enjoyment in any way. Really good food is really good food – no matter how much you pay for it...

Perfectly executed eats is a pleasure, no matter where you eat it and how much you paid to obtain it, but I have to point out its the staff that really can make or break a restaurant. The waitresses at both Stroud's and Bobbers were diligent, personable and excelled at their professions. The kitchen staff members were perfect in their execution of all the dishes we tried. That means they invested time and effort into learning their craft and they should be praised for the hard work and dedication they put into feeding strangers like me - and probably never hear a "Thank You" or a "Well Done" from those patrons. So if you are happy with the food and the service - please tell the manager. A job well done deserves notice.

So no matter which chicken you like best - Both Stroud's and Bobbers should be on your list of places to eat in Missouri. I know both are at the top of our list next time we drive to KC .

Bobber Cafe
16975 B Highway (Exit 103 off of I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas City)
Boonville, MO 65233

A Tale of Two Chickens

Tony in food heaven!

After my review of Annie Gunn’s, I bet all of you are thinking that I am cheap bitch who isn’t willing to pay for good food. That is not true. In the slightest. I’ve shelled out plenty of clams for a great dinner – and am willing to do so again – provided the food is worth the price being asked.

My first example is going to be Stroud’s from Kansas City.

I had never heard of Stroud’s. None of my friends in KC had been there. I really hadn’t done much research before our trip, so when we pulled into KC Sunday night, we were hard pressed to find someplace we really wanted to eat. After surfing Chow.com and Roadfood.com at the hotel, we stumbled upon Stroud’s.

I asked myself – how could I not have known about this place? It has a Zagat excellent rating PLUS a James Beard award. Then we looked up the website. Sticker shock set in. $16.00 for a chicken dinner? After our lunch at Annie Gunn’s, we were a little wary of $16.00 entrees.

But as we were hungry AND the internet (the fount of all knowledge) said this place was good, we opted to take the plunge.

We were so glad we did.

Stroud's prides themselves on their pan fried chicken. Pan fried – not deep fried. The chicken is barely coated with seasoned flour then fried in a cast iron skillet. That takes time. That takes skill.

Every chicken dinner comes family style. That means you get an overflowing bowl to be shared by everyone at the table. The side dishes for the chicken dinner consist of your choice of potatoes, green beans, chicken noodle soup or side salad and cinnamon rolls. Being classically minded people, we opted for mashed potatoes – with homemade gravy.

The noodle soup was great – and so was the homemade poppy seed dressing on the salad, which was served on your basic iceberg lettuce house salad.

So while we are waiting on our drinks, we are watching people go out the door – and there are a lot of boxes and bags in their hands. We assume the folks with the bags were getting huge to-go orders, 'cuz fried chicken traditionally transports pretty well. The boxes – we had no idea. Maybe they were taking out the garbage?

Since it takes time to put out pan fried chicken, we asked for a ½ order of chicken livers. We figured it would be 6 or 8 livers on a plate. This is what we got.

We stared at it a moment. “This must be a mistake – I am sure they brought us a double order.” Tony said. At that moment the manager walked by and said, “No, its a half. Did you want a full order? I can get that for you.” “No no! This is fine!”

Best freakin' chicken livers ever in a restaurant. Perfectly done and served with a side of gravy.

Before we had finished our livers, out came the chicken and side dishes. Holy cow – it was a lot. I grabbed a chicken breast to see how dry it was. Not at all. Moist, Juicy...(I am now salivating all over my keyboard.)

G.B.D!!!

The mashed potatoes were creamy and rich – and the gravy...

I would go and get just the gravy and eat it with a spoon. Rich, flavorful... If you have ever had really good gravy, you know the what I am talking about.

Ladies - is you husband not as "attentive" as he used to be?
Just apply this gravy generously to the neglected area...

The green beans whisked me back to childhood – soft with pieces of ham in them. No healthy fresh veggies for us!

So we ate and we ate and made obscene sounds while doing it – because this was food sex.

Then we got the cinnamon rolls for dessert. These are not what most folks think of as cinnamon rolls. Think more along the lines of monkey bread – yeast dough rolled in butter, than coated in a thick crust of cinnamon sugar. They beg for coffee or milk...

Now I will tell you - we put a serious hurtin' on our food and still couldn't finish it. So without asking, Michelle, our server, brings over a big stack of styrofoam containers for the leftovers. AHHHH – now the light goes on. All those bags leaving with the other patrons...

I haven't mentioned this before – but Tate had opted to stay back at the hotel and watch “The sexy vampire show” on HBO, so we had ordered his dinner for carry out.

We had been going to play a trick on Tate. We are evil like that and Tate would not hesitate to do the same to us if he had the chance. (He is evil too – it's why we get along so well.) The plan was, before pulling into Stroud's, we would stop at Steak n Shake and order something, then put his dinner in the Steak n' Shake bag. We would says that the chicken place was closed and here is your dinner. He would be pissed until he opened the bag -awesome! Nothing like pissing off the guy you have to spend lots of time with for the next three days. We are brilliant!

Tate's order came out in a box. Second mystery solved. Evil plan squashed.

Screw Doggie Bags!

So we waddled out to the car with our bag AND a box of food, drove back and laid like beached whales on our bed while Tate gobbled down his dinner. He made the appropriate orgiastic noises appropriate when one is eating really good food sitting on a hotel bed and saying, “These guys must be sadists! There is so much and I can't stop eating!”

And by the way, leftovers do keep and microwave very acceptably – we got two more lunches out of them. Screw eating fast food in our room...

We went back on Wednesday before we left and had lunch – Tony was weeping for chicken livers with potatoes and gravy. I had some of the best pot roast I have ever had and Tate ordered the chicken fried steak. All excellent.

And yes - there were leftovers. I packed them into the cooler
and ate them for a late dinner when I got home. Damn....

A note about something other than the food: The staff was fantastic. Both servers and the managers were friendly, they put with our constant demands for attention and even took our picture posing with boxes of food. Bless you Stroud's staff members!

Melissa was fantastic! And so patient!!

I am only sorry it is a 10 hour drive to KC, since I would be stopping in at least once a month for some of their top notch food.

St. Louis Eats: Annie Gunn's

Tony and I go to St. Louis almost every year. We’ve had good and bad food experiences over the years. So when a local friend asked us to go out to lunch with him before we left town for KC, we were happy to oblige. I mean we do like to eat after all…

Then there comes the moment when you sit down and start looking over the menu, you question your judgment. “Holy cow! Should I take out a loan on the house to cover the bill?”

Annie Gunn’s is a restaurant owned by Thom Sehnert , who prides himself on presenting food with a pedigree: the pork is from locally sourced heirloom breeds, the beef is grass feed, the heirloom tomatoes for the salads are grown by local farmers. Their wine and beer list is so large that it reminds me of a study guide from one of my college courses. (The download on their site is 7 MEGS for the wine and beer list.)

The prices are those that you would expect from items with such a pedigree: $6 for a half portion of heirloom tomato salad, $5 for a 4oz. hamburger, $14 for corned beef hash – That was off of the lunch menu. The dinner menu made my pulse race.

Let me say that the bread was very good. It reminded me of my own homemade hard rolls. It came with pats of Irish butter which was the perfect accompaniment to such good bread.

Tony ordered the cream of potato soup. It was great soup – I loved the little croutons of the same bread crumbled up into it so you got the soft creaminess and the little crunch.

I ordered the heirloom tomato salad. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a half portion for $6, but I had sticker shock at $12 for a whole salad. It was good. Fresh tomatoes, basil and onions topped with goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette. The portion, however, was fairly small for $6.00. The salad was only two slices of tomato about 4-5” across and about 1/2” thick. If that was half portion, I would have been shocked at getting four slices of tomato for $12. (When I got home, I made the same salad for myself with items from my garden and goat cheese from Trader Joe’s and it still tasted awesome. I just paid a hell of a lot less.)

For the entrées, the unfortunate fact is – the execution did not live up to the prices paid.

I had asked for my burger to be cooked rare. I like raw meat. It makes me happy to see pink when I bite into my burger. The burger I received was barely pink. It was still juicy however, but it still was not what I asked for.

Tony ordered the corned beef hash topped with locally sourced free-range eggs. The hash itself was fine. It really needed to have a bit of a crust on it. A crust would have made a nice contrast to the soft interior. (I was a little put off by the sweetness of the corned beef – I am assuming they cure their own. Tony did not really have a problem with it.) The biggest problem was with the eggs. He had ordered his egg sunny side up. It is his favorite way to eat really good farm fresh eggs. However when he got his eggs they were almost hard cooked, with only a little tiny bit of the yolk left runny. Tony was very sad. Also, the hash was supposed to have a buttermilk biscuit with it. Our server told us they were out, but about 15 minutes later we saw biscuits leaving the kitchen with other orders and our server did not offer to get any of the new ones for him. Not good!

Before you ask – no, we did not ask the dishes to be redone. We did not want to embarrass our host, nor did we have time to wait while our food was properly executed.

So while to food was acceptable, I would have a hard time going back to Annie Gunn’s at the prices asked. For that much money, everything should be dead on the first time.

So where have I been?

It's that time of year folks! You all know what I mean - vacation time!! If I haven't been out of town, I've been working crazy hours so that I can get the time off to be out of town - so as usual my blogging has suffered.

For those of you who haven't gleaned this info from my writings - my hubby is into magic. Not wiccan magic, but the "Is this your card?" type of magic. His work - and yes, he is a pro - makes it possible for us to travel and eat all over this fine country of ours.

Tim Felix - owner of Midwest Magic

and legend in the making.

This is his sexy "mysterious" pose.

Max Maven eat your heart out.

Earlier this month Tony lectured in Chicago. One of my favorite places to go is Chicago...and Tim Felix of Midwest Magic plays a big part in making me feel like that... Tim knows how to make a magic wife happy while her man is busy playing with his toys - hey! Enough of that filthy stuff right there! I am talking about food here - it is a food blog!

Tim took us out to dinner before the lecture. He has been telling us about Jay's Beef for years and I finally got to visit this trip. (For those who have never heard of an Italian beef - here's a description.) Actually we got a beef and sausage with peppers - no cheese. Damn. Soooooooooooooo good. The right bread, the right meat, the peppers and giardiniera. If you are in Chicago, please stop in and try Jay's. Your tastebuds will be sooooooooo happy!

Here's the beef - now shut the hell up Clara Peller!

The rest of the evening went swimmingly. We had a nice turnout for the lecture. The Chicago magic scene is always welcoming and there is a lot of fine, fine talent in the Windy City.

We headed home the next day and about 4 hours outside of Chicago I had a serious beef craving, but Tony wouldn't turn around. Bastard.

Vintage!

One of the best things about driving places is the little gems you find hidden along some of the byways. One tiny place, in Churubusco, IN, is Magic Wand Burger. It's a family owned ice cream and burger shop off of Route 33. We had driven past it several different times, choosing to eat at our favorite pork tenderloin place instead. This time we opted to give them a try - and damned glad we did.

This was staring at me as I came out of the ladies' room.

Scared the hell outta me too...

and I am not afraid of clowns...at least I wasn't....

I will warn you - if you have coulrophobia, then this is not the place for you. The whole interior is coated in clown pictures and statues... At least there were no pictures of weeping clowns in the bathroom.

More clowns to watch you eat...

Tony ordered the Magic Burger, a double decker cheeseburger made from fresh ground meat. The restaurant has the local grocer grind it for them every morning - a benefit of living in a small town. The fries were food service, but fried correctly. I took the plunge and ordered the deep fried cheese burger. Yes -I said deep fried cheeseburger. Essentially, they took a partially cooked meat patty, put a slice of cheese on it, breaded it and then deep fried it. It was pretty good - not as good as the Magic burger, but an interesting novelty filled with molten cheese. Onion Rings were food service, but once again acceptably cooked. It might seem that I am belaboring the "cooked properly" part, but considering none of the staff was over 18, I found it kind of impressive. We also ordered the homemade apple raspberry cobbler, which was pretty darn good too. They also offer all your favorite soft serve ice cream treats as well.

The legendary Magic Burger - two layers of meaty cheesey goodness.

Deep fried cheeseburger - as if a fried meat patty wasn't enough....

Next time we go, I am going to try the pork tenderloin sandwich which they make themselves (according to our waitress).

Part of my love for this little place was the fact that they have been around forever. In my head, I can see people meeting there for dates after the high school football game, getting married, taking the kids there, then those kids meeting their dates after the football game. It has that feel - and I think that's a really nice thing to have in this age of fast food burger places.

So after all the foodie goodness, I worked seven days in a row in preparation for my next out -of -state adventure: St. Louis and Kansas City.

While Tony slaved away in the dealer's room at the Midwest Magic Jubilee, Tate (you remember him from last year!) and I ran around St. Louis, eating and visiting the St. Louis Art Museum. You didn't have me pegged for an art lover did you? Just a food lover... *sniff*

Tate and I also went to a concert at the Pageant, a concert venue down on the Loop. The headliner was Reel Big Fish, a ska punk band that has been around since the 90's. If you get a chance to see Reel Big Fish - it is worth the time and effort. This Youtube video shows the final song from their encore - See them jumping around? They did that for 90 minutes. And the mosh pit was amazing. 'nuff said.

Of course we ate in both St. Louis and KC, and I'll be posting all about those foods up coming posts...

Jay's Beef

9732 Irving Park Rd
Schiller Park, IL 60176

Magic Wand

602 S Main St
Churubusco, IN 46723

Day Two: Swag Fever hits!

So the next day - I was rested and ready. Annie and I had decided to volunteer early, so we got down to the convention center at a rather early hour.

My assignment this time was to man the professional suite, which provided a much needed quiet space for the guests who were presenting programming at the convention. The lady who ran this room plus the con suite (being held at a local hotel) had been doing so for over a decade. My job was to make sure things were tidy and that folks who had the wrong kinda badges didn't come in and bother folks (ie press and fans). Sharing my duties were a couple of guys from Jersey - I suggested they check out In and Out Burger before they left the coast.

Annie managed to make it to the Joss Whedon panels.
She is totally stoked about DollHouse, his latest TV series

I had wanted to see Joss Whedon talk about his past and upcoming project, but by the time I got out, the room was totally filled. I later learned that the staff did not clear out the rooms between panels. Hence, even if you had been waiting in line for hours to see Josh, you may not make it in the door unless the folks camped out inside the room left.

So I said screw it and went to the dealers hall. I have a feeling lots of other people said that too. It was then that I developed Swag Fever. (What is Swag you ask? Swag is all the cool free stuff that is being passed out by the various vendors. Mostly it is promotional items pimping out upcoming movies or tv shows, comic books or artists. The main rule is that you didn't have to pay for it!) I had picked up a few posters the previous day, but they had become damaged on the way back to the hotel.

The Fox booth was passing out these poster tubes with a carrying strap. But wait! The tubes were going like hot cakes. The next time they were getting passed out was a 1pm. So I got in the (at present) very short line at 12:30. It was here that I met Byron. (If you wonder why I remember his name, it because he was the only guy to give me a business card!) Byron runs a small website called Row M. He was there on a press pass - which I immediately began to covet. (Press passes let you bypass all the long lines!) Byron and I passed the time talking about stuff - Star Wars, collectibles, you know - geek stuff. Then the crowd started to build. The Fox staff has a guy come up about 5 minutes before the tubes were going to be passed out and started pushing people around to form a line. (You will find this is a reoccurring theme with some booths: lack of planning when it comes to crowd management.) The guy pushed me out of line and Byron yelled at him and pulled me back onto the right side of the rope. Thanks Byron!!

We were watching the beleaguered Fox staff getting the tubes ready for distribution when a lady on the outskirts of the crowd starts yelling at Byron, "I got the last one!!". The last what? Turns out Intel had hooked up with the new Star Trek movie and was having a contest. There were scratch off cards with different "staff positions" from the Enterprise printed on them. If you collected all eight positions, you got a cool laptop bag. The catch? To turn them in, you had to have eight people, one to hold each card. Byron had been working with two other people since earlier in the convention and now had all eight cards. Byron generously offered to let me partake of his swag bounty by giving me a card. I was to meet him at the Star Trek/Intel booth after we got our tubes.

The Fox staff started passing out the tubes and the crowd surged forward. If you have never been part of a huge mass of bodies before, it can be frightening the way you are just swept along by the pressure. I am a large gal so can hold my own, but a smaller person - there is always the chance you would be overwhelmed and lose your footing. We spewed out of the end of the line and swirled away from the main press of human bodies. I lost Byron in the crowd.

I started towards the Intel booth - the flow of bodies was against me. I only had to go over two rows, but it must have taken me 5 minutes to get there. And when I did arrive, there was Byron and his two compatriots, waiting. We still needed four more people, so we grabbed folks out of the passing press of bodies - a kid, some other geek who had a hand full of cards, and two gals who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We turned in our cards and received our swag. I thanked Byron again, and promised to get him the Hasbro ticket that Annie had left in the room. (To even get into the line for the Hasbro collectibles shop, you had to have a ticket, which they passed out at random intervals. Annie had scored one, but not Byron. And he really had to get his toys.)

My Swag Bag!!

I then wandered around the dealer hall for a little while longer, then went back to the hotel with Annie and Tate. We had wanted to see the Robot Chicken and Venture Brothers panels, but just couldn't get in. The whole wait in line for hours thing was kinda getting us down. I suggested we try this restaurant, Doa Son, I had seen suggested online. It specialized in Asian noodle dishes.

Now normally I would not be so bold in a strange city, but we had rented a GPS unit along with the rental car. (It was affectionately known as "The Bitch" - as in "Shut the F*** Up, Bitch!" because of it's constant talking.) So we follow the Bitch's instructions to the restaurant only to find - there is no parking. This is one of the problems we encountered a lot. We would want to hit these small out of the way restaurants and could not park. So we kinda said screw it. I popped in and ordered take out while Tony drove around the block again and again and again. Tony was greatly amused.



Sorry there are no pictures of the food. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all so hungry we fell on the food like a pack of wolves. The noodles were really good. The broth was clearly homemade loaded with lots of veggies, meat and noodles. Tate got so much food that he couldn't finish it all, so he said "Screw the noodles! It the broth that make a good noodle soup." and downed the rest of the liquid nectar.

We then passed out to get ready for Saturday - the big day!