conference catch-all!

Alright, a bit of a photo dump post from me as I sit in this airport lounge (I'm posting this on the next morning, however) and await boarding a little more than an hour from now.  Shots from a conference that was!

There were many friends and colleagues there. 

And I felt that the work that we did together was productive, worthwhile, and that the non-work times were enjoyable.  Mocktails a few times in the hotel bar,

though with my dry January continuing and a very small conference and work to be done each night, I didn't spend late evenings down there.

I made it to no programs but to a few good speakers, and I applaud Cindy, the ALA president, for her work on leading us all this past weekend. 

I had a nice meal (but only ok food) at Latha (oxtail and essentially a macaroni and cheese). 

I had a nice meal (a loud setting and flirty but only ok service along with a tasty enough slab of meatloaf) at The Arrogant Butcher. 

I had a good mocktail,

great oysters,

and tasty chicken at Flour & Thyme.

I had the same hotel room for nine nights, but at least the view was pleasant!

I wore some outfits!

I met the "perfect man".

It was the last LibLearnX conference ever, sadly.  I mean, I always loved the old Midwinter meetings, and I loved that we could go to some different conference cities.  But we had to bring the LibLearnX experiment to an end, unaffordable as it was.  Ah well.

I will see folks at ALA Annual in Philadelphia, happily.  June!!

so...

... the worst Christmas in my recollection got even worse yesterday with Conrad's decision that he wanted to stay in Escanaba for Christmas.  This came on the heels of a bunch of texts from his sister, and cost us far too much additional money for me not to be angry about this.  Home on the 26th.  Now counting down.

Sorry.  I'm jet lagged and cranky.  I have never really been fond of Conrad's hometown (there's not much going on here, we know no one outside of the very small family), and it's even worse at the holidays when so much shuts down and we're trapped in a hotel instead of our own home.  So forgive any attitude that creeps through in days ahead.

We left Chicago after sunset yesterday,

later than scheduled but still in time for dinner.  A short flight, and then we made it to the hotel.  A nice hotel,

right next to Lambeau Field (for any Cheeseheads reading this).  We headed up to dinner after dropping our bags, and that was very enjoyable:  Last Words to start with, some deep fried deviled eggs,

a wedge lettuce salad to share, a steak each,

a bottle of a 2010 Rioja, a huge chunk of carrot cake to share. 

It was so good.  Up until Conrad dropped his bomb.  The evening unraveled at that point, and you can be sure I had stern words for him.  And then it was bedtime, more or less, and another truncated night (three hours again) for me.

Ugh.

We got on the road late this morning, having stopped in a couple of places.  By the time we got to Escanaba, it was lunch time, so we popped into Gram's for pasties

before we did anything else.  I left Conrad after lunch to take care of things with his sister, and I headed to buy food and Christmas decor.  I mean, if we're not going to be home with our tree or Van's, if we're going to be in a hotel room for a week, we may as well have a little touch of Christmas.  So I shopped, and then checked into the hotel.  A nice enough room with a lake view,

 

and with some Christmas touches, it feels better still.

I got Conrad back to the hotel to unpack, then sent him off for dinner with his sister.  Me, I had a cocktail (The Meredith - grapefruity, but a bit sweet)

and the bison meatloaf at the hotel bar. 

I'm now back in the room, finishing off a boulevardier.  Conrad is back from dinner.

Tomorrow is the funeral, and then it will be a couple of days of getting things done.  I've told Conrad to put some of the burden back on the rest of his family.  He heard me, but he won't do it.  Ah well.  As long as I can pin him down on Sunday for a Christmas Eve together.

Counting down here, counting down.