Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Margaritaville at Sea Paradise

We recently flew to Florida for a short vacation, spending a couple nights in Palm Beach and a couple more on a cruise ship, Margaritaville at Sea’s Paradise. It was refreshing to step away from the early spring weather in Illinois weather for a few days, digging out shorts and sandals that sit unused for half the year in our climate.

The layout and size of the Paradise was similar to the Alaska cruise from last summer, which made orienting ourselves on the ship fairly simple. We had an inside cabin again, and as luck would have it, it was at the end of a hall and the three cabins around it were being renovated… no neighbors!

A photo of me, still carrying my purse and backpack shortly after boarding the ship, in front of a trio of palm tree and sky photos with these lyrics split across the three: "Nibblin' on sponge cake, watchin' the sun bake, wasted away again in Margaritaville."

Given the name of the cruise line, there was no real surprise at the extensive Jimmy Buffett music, vibe, and decorations to the ship and its events. One of the drink packages (not sure which one, as I didn’t buy into it) had blender-shaped cups! There were parrots outlined on our sheets, painted on some of the ship’s walls, and a parrot on a directional sign near one of the pools, among many others.

The theme just about made up for the terrible website interface, lack of an app, and what felt like imperfect communication efforts – largely due to the poor website and no app. (The contrast was stark given last summer’s Alaska cruise.) The shore excursion information in particular was barren, including enough information to entice a purchase (with a 10% discount for booking ahead), but missing key details such as the departure time – we had to stop at the Shore Excursions desk after boarding to get that. Alternately, it would presumably have been on the tickets delivered to our room’s mailbox with the daily newsletter around bedtime… except our guided sea kayaking excursion (and a couple other options) were cancelled due to high winds. More annoying, from my perspective, was the lack of disembarkation information on the website; it made selecting our return flight difficult since we didn’t know what time we’d be getting off the ship. In fact, we didn’t receive that information until around bedtime on the second night. (Yes, we probably could have asked at the Information Desk. But we shouldn’t have to, it’s as important as the embarkation details.)

A sunrise photo on the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise, displaying the stylized name with parrots and palm trees near the top of the ship. A railing is visible with a glimpse of the stairs down to the next level.

That said, the overall experience was good. The food and entertainment were top notch, particularly the live show we attended on the second night, which was a non-stop 45-minute musical tour of the Carribean. While my nighttime photos weren’t great, the clear sky and visible constellations were a lovely experience. And our alternate to the cancelled kayaking turned out to be a relaxing day at a delightful location. If we land on another Margaritaville cruise in the future, I would lean towards their longer cruises (4 or 10 nights) instead of hopping down to Florida for the two-night cruise.

Taking the week off….

Have a cat photo. Because who doesn’t need a cat photo during a dumpster fire period of history? Also because Arwen is adorable when she’s napping.

Arwen, curled up on the entry way bench, partially under a fleece blanket with a space design.

Coming soon… our recent trip to Florida and the Bahamas, and seeing how travel and Midwest spring weather has affected my temperature blanket.

Frankenstuffies!

A white teddy bear with red Xs and pink Os wearing a read bow with pink hearts. In place of one arm, there is a multi-colored wing.

This is Calvin. Calvin’s transmogrifier experience did not go quite the way he expected, resulting in his current bear shape with one dragon(?) wing.

Calvin is a “Frankenstuffie,” a result of a recurring event in Capricon’s makerspace using donations of damaged stuffed animals. By the time I arrived midway through the event, the rest of the winged creature was divided between two other Frankenstuffies. Coincidentally, the only damage to this bear was one missing arm – which was actually in the tub next to him – so replacing it with the (conveniently correct side) wing seemed both logical and absurd.

The naming of plush – like cats – is usually a difficult matter, but I happened to attend a Cheshire Moon concert that evening, which included a performance of Calvin’s Girl, inspiring an easy and obvious choice for the name.

Have you ever made a Frankenstuffie?

Celebrating Paczki Day

While some of my colleagues in Brazil are celebrating Fat Tuesday as Carnaval, and people in New Orleans throw a Mardi Gras festival, in Chicagoland we celebrate Paczki Day. According to Google Translate, “paczki” is Polish for donut, though it does specifically seem to refer to filled donuts, as that’s what was available the evening before at our local grocery store, with a plethora of filling choices. A quick Google search shows that the ingredients are a little different from a basic donut recipe – these are perhaps a bit denser and maybe should be sold in smaller containers, but all I saw were 4-packs.

A four-pack of filled donuts from a local bakery titled "Bavarian Cream Paczki" - the title does not include the chocolate frosting, which seems important since there were Bavarian Cream Paczki *without* chocolate frosting.

Realistically, I know I could pick up a single paczki from a local bakery… if I wanted to pre-order or wait in a long line. These things are popular!

Oddly, I had lived in the Chicagoland area for most of a decade before I learned about paczkis. I was working at a bank – in IT, of course – and as part of a project to computerize some of the paper process, happened to be assigned a branch visit in a heavily Polish-populated area on Paczki Day. It’s not a holiday I remember to celebrate every year, but I noticed this year that the marketing was in full force at the grocery store a couple weeks early. In fact, it was early enough that I doublechecked the calendar to make sure I hadn’t misremembered the date!

What other types of celebrations have you seen for Fat Tuesday?

Today’s Economic Blackout

There’s a one-day Economic Blackout planned for today, 28-Feb-2025, partially in protest of the current administration’s attempt to rollback diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) efforts and boycotts of some large companies that have simply dropped their DEI efforts in response to the government’s discriminatory efforts. Many of the targeted businesses have been pulling in record profits for the past few years while increasing prices for the average consumer. Additional business-specific boycotts are planned for later this spring; some of them are detailed here.

Will this really help? I don’t know, I don’t recall seeing something like this done before. My thought is it can’t hurt. It’s a starting point, nothing more.

How else can you help? You could reach out to your representatives and senators, whether to thank them for voting against cutting our support services (my paycheck shows deductions for Social Security and Medicare, why should they cut those to give billionaires bigger tax breaks?) or reiterate your disappointment in their votes. You can find a local charity to support – a food bank, an LGBTQ+ organization, or something else – that will be picking up the slack as our tax dollars are misappropriated to help the rich.

You could even generate an Activism Bingo card if you want a checklist to work through.

It starts today, by simply not shopping.

Crocheting a Temperature Blanket

What’s that? Well, crocheting is when you use a single hook… oh, you mean a Temperature Blanket? It’s when you crochet a little bit each day based on the current temperature, or specifically (in this case), the day’s high temperature at my current location. I had heard about the concept years ago, and was considering starting one this year, but the last couple months have been kind of hectic (something about co-chairing a convention…). But someone told me that a Temperature Blanket doesn’t have to start on January 1st, so when I learned that JoAnn Fabrics is closing the three stores closest to me, I rushed out to pick up some yarn.

OK, not quite rushed out. I wanted to know how much yarn I needed to buy first… we have more days in the 70s than in the 20s, and only a handful of super hot days, and I wanted to know by how much. I pulled temperature data for the last year for Rosemont into a spreadsheet, used the mround function to round up or down to the nearest 10, and created a pivot table to count the occurrences. Yes, that’s a super geeky approach to yarn shopping.

Based on those numbers, I determined to buy 1, 2, or 3 skeins of yarn, as appropriate, with some loosely set colors. I know from experience that color selection varies, especially when trying to find multiple colors in the same or similar yarns. Then I went shopping – the only change was picking up a gradient white & blue for 30, because there wasn’t a white available in that yarn, and I flipped the blue and light blue because there was only one skein available for the darker color. (Caron Simply Soft, for reference. Which is, in fact, fabulously soft.) I also picked up a joining color (gradient black & white), having already decided I would be crocheting squares.

The beginnings of a crocheted Temperature Blanket - 3 squares, 1 for each day - and a color guide on cardboard for the temperatures. The color guide shows: purple = 100 = dark red.

After shopping, I grabbed a spare piece of cardboard, punched 11 holes into it, and looped a snippet of each yarn by the appropriate temperature. Because I’m using the mround function, 10 really means anywhere from 6 to 15, and so on for the ranges. I created a tracking sheet where I enter each day’s temperature, set up a vlookup against my color guide, and track when it’s done. If I miss a day or two, I’ll have the data saved and can mark as I catch up.

I picked a granny square pattern that starts from the center and works out (which is why I needed a joining yarn). While searching for that pattern, I spotted another one that starts with a more obvious circle in the center before expanding to a square – that might be fun some other year for a lows and highs temperature blanket, since we do get wide ranges some days. I also trimmed the pattern down to three rounds instead of the five it comes with, realizing that I’m making either 360 or 375 of these squares (for rows of 15)… at 3.5 inches, that builds up pretty quickly.

I will admit it’s hard to only crochet today’s square. Yes, I could look at the forecast and crochet ahead, but what if it shifts? A predicted 14 can easily become a 16, which is an entirely different color! It’s a practice in patience. I’m sure I’ll share some progress photos later in the year.

Capricon 45: Let Your Geek Flag Fly… was amazing!

I mean, I’m biased, so you don’t have to take my word for it. So here are few words from less biased sources… some of our Guests of Honor (GoHs):

Dr. Micaiah Johnson (which includes a comment from…)
Zeta Jane
and John Kovalic.

Alas, our fourth GoH, Dr. Tom Barclay, isn’t particularly active on social media. Rest assured, he appears in photos and definitely had a blast. In fact, here’s how it started, with the traditional Meet the GoHs panel Thursday afternoon:

Guests of Honor at Capricon 45: Dr. Thomas Barclay (astrophysicist), Zeta Jane (costumer), Dr. Micaiah Johnson (author), and John Kovalic (cartoonist)

These four guests met at their first panel, an opportunity for them to talk about anything they want before Opening Ceremonies. And here’s how it looked near the end, on Saturday night:

Guests of Honor and their guests at the Steampunk party. Dr. Tom Barclay and friend Sean; Nina, with friend of Dr. Micaiah Johnson; and Zeta Jane.

This was an exciting moment for me, as co-chair, when I realized that three of our GoHs were circulating through the parties together. Not pictured is a slightly different combination of GoHs on DJ Scalzi‘s dance floor about an hour later for the traditional midnight rendition of the Time Warp.

I know, you’re probably thinking that sounds like a fabulous photo opportunity. It was! I’ve seen several photos that include the three GoHs… and myself… doing the Time Warp. Obviously, I was too busy… doing the Time Warp… to take photos.

What are your geek flags?

As I mentioned before, this year’s theme for Capricon is Let Your Geek Flag Fly!

Capricon 45 banner image featuring two characters on the left, one holding a flag with alternating white and light blue lines with a 20-side die (rolled a 20), a goat's head, and an open book. On right, below the headline of Capricon 45: Let Your Geek Flag Fly! is a goat with a draped cloth that reads XLV, the Roman numerals for 45. Along the bottom, text reads Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, February 6-9 2025, Capricon.org

Depending on your interests, you probably have one of two questions:
1) What’s a geek flag? or
2) Why only one?

I’ll work through them in order. A geek flag is a flag that represents geek pride or a love of geeky things. Really, there’s no limitation on what you can geek out about. According to Dictionary.com, one definition for geek is “a person who has excessive enthusiasm for and some expertise about a specialized subject or activity”. My father, for example, was a Jerome K. Jerome geek, which can also be presented as Jerome K. Jerome was one of his geek flags.

You may have noticed “one of” in the previous sentence. Most geeks I know fly multiple geek flags. The earliest one I identify with is Star Trek, having been introduced to the original show before elementary school, closely followed by Doctor Who. By college, I was also flying a gamer flag – video, board, and role-playing games – and had realized that reading is its own flag as well. It will surprise nobody that Dork Tower is another geek flags I fly proudly.

Obviously, I fly multiple geek flags, which brings us back to the second question… why is our theme singular? Another one of my geek flags is musicals, and it’s a reference to Shrek: the Musical, specifically the song “Freak Flag.” The theme is singular in order to fly that particular geek flag.

What are your geek flags? Better yet, come find me at Capricon this weekend and tell me in person.

Another Restaurant Week, another new restaurant tried

This year’s Restaurant Week (which actually runs for two weeks) took us to the nearby suburb of Aurora, to a restaurant I have been following on Facebook since before they opened this location: Leilani Asian Fusion. Restaurant Week, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is an opportunity for local restaurants to draw in new customers with fixed price (“prix-fixe”) menus that offer a limited selection, showcasing some of their best options.

Honey Walnut Shrimp: Tempura Fried Shrimp, Honey Aioli, Candied Walnuts
Salmon Teriyaki: Scottish Wild-Caught Salmon, Miso Carrot Puree, Charred Broccolini
Drunken Scottish & California Rolls: California (Crab Mix, Cucumber, Avocado); Drunken Scottish (Crab Mix, Cucumber, Avocado, Seared Salmon, Unagi Sauce)
Ube Crème Brûlée: Ube Custard Topped with Seasonal Fruits

I’m not sure it’s possible to overstate how good this meal was. The Honey Walnut Shrimp had a surprising bit of spice to it (probably those red specks in the aioli sauce), and that may be well have been the best salmon dish I’ve ever eaten. The waitress mentioned that they use sushi-grade salmon for it, so it’s high enough quality that it can be served anywhere from raw to well done. The entire outside of the salmon had a delicious crunch to it. (The sushi plate wasn’t mine, though I assume it was also tasty.) And then the dessert… the Ube Crème Brûlée was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, with that beautiful purple color and fresh berries on top. And everything was perfectly-sized, so we left feeling full without that overwhelming need to explode or sink into a food coma.

Leilani Asian Fusion is conveniently located just down the street from the Paramount Theatre, which makes it an easy meal choice before or after a show.

Are you coming to Capricon 45?

By the time I wrote last year’s post about Capricon 44, I knew was putting in a bid to co-chair Capricon 45 with a friend. It’s less than two weeks away now and I’m super excited about the guests, the events… everything! We are going to have a rockin’ good time, as evidenced by the fabulous items listed in the flyers I’m including below.

Flyer for Capricon 45, a SciFi, Fantasy, and Literature Convention held February 6-9, 2025 at the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk in Chicago. The flyer mentions the four Guests of Honor (Dr. Tom Barclay, Astrophysicist; Zeta Jane, Cosplayer; Dr. Micaiah Johnson, Author; and John Kovalic, Comic Author) and some of the events they're participating in, with small images representing some other parts of the convention (Silent Auction, Parties, Gaming, Live Music, Writer's Room, Art Show, Dealer's Hall).

But… oh my goodness, there’s so much to choose from and I’ll be chairing and won’t have time for most of it. We have an actual astrophysicist talking about how to design a spaceship, an amazing cosplayer leading some hands-on sewing workshops, an award-winning author discussing automatons, and our friendly neighborhood cartoonist (if you consider Madison in the neighborhood of Chicago) comparing graphic novels and comic books. And that’s just a handful of the programming events, ranging from panels to round tables to make-and-take gatherings and even a cosplay parade.

The room block is open until January 31st, you can still join us and get in on the fun. Even if you can only come for a day – we have day badge rates here – it is absolutely worth the experience!