Bringing back the “Arcade away from home” Part 1
Somehow in the span of a month I managed to double the size of my arcade, the only problem was all of the machines were in Chicago. In March and April I found a Mad Planets for $50, my white Mr. Do! and another game that I hope to be sharing about by Sunday and somehow I had to get them back home. (more…)
Leaving Chicago is always stressful
I was up early, but I got a good amount of sleep. The air mattress held air last night, so I got up around 8:30-9. Tim and Mark were already up. Sarah slept for a little while longer.
I got on the laptop and figured out how to get on their internet. I sent out some emails and Mark and I talked about baseball some. Last night both the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks finished up their sweeps of the Phillies and Cubs respectively. Pretty impressive actually, the Rockies have now won 17 of 18 games.
Sarah got up and showered, and we all hung out for a little bit. Then I told Sarah that yesterday, when I was visiting Chris Moore, I found out he had some stools from Ikea. I was curious about the store, had heard people talking about it and I knew Sarah was also a big fan. We decided it was early enough yet that we would head up there before we headed home.
We got turned around briefly right by the Dan Ryan on ramp, and had to call Tim because I forgot to get directions for the store, but made it to Ikea without too much issue. Very cool store, very reminds me a lot of when I was in the industrial design program at school. European design, pretty affordable, and a lot of cool stuff.
We decided we liked the Franklin stools the best and picked two up. But I made a list of other stuff for present ideas later on.
We headed down 290 to pick up 294 and head south of the city. Well, we must have missed 294 because all of a sudden we are heading to St. Louis southwest on 55. Somehow we just totally missed 294 and were going south on 355. I hate Chicago, I never have a good understanding of where I am, things are never the same with construction, it always just stresses me out. I really want a GPS, if only just for Chicago.
So, hitting 294 was only 7 miles away, but who knows how far out of our way we went by going directly south. It took us almost 2 hours to get out of Chicago and onto 65 to head home. It felt like forever. We finally picked up the Colts about 40 miles north of Lafayette, bummed we weren’t going to be home for the second quarter like we originally had planned. We got home just into the third quarter.
Nokes was happy to see us, he always looks huge when I come home from vacation, I don’t know what it is.
We unpacked and wandered around, half watching the game half not, the Colts were already so far up that it would be a miracle if they lost. They played awesome against a really great defensive team with some huge names injured like Addai, Harrison, and Sanders (which has been injured long enough now that you wonder).
After the game we took on the project of getting the Jr. Pac-man into the basement. I already wrote about that in this post. After I cleaned up the black streaks we left on the basement steps getting it down, it was time for cartoons.
Mom Chapman called around 9, I got on the phone a little late. After Family Guy, I sat down, I had already had a long day with some frustration, I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. I did some tracing on The Glob artwork. I went downstairs and played one game of Ms. Pac-man with the new stools and called it night.
You never know with a 21st birthday
I was awake really early this morning. The air mattress had deflated, which I always assume will happen, so I went out to the couch and went back to bed.
I was going to wake up at 8:30, I had plans at 10 am that I needed to get at. Well, the plans got shifted until early afternoon. Sarah and I waited awhile for Tim to get up, trying to decide what we were going to do. Beth left soon after she got up, so we put in “Next” and watched it. Pretty good movie, entertaining at the least.
It was hot as hell. I couldn’t believe how warm it was in the apartment, I was sweating sitting still. It must have been at least 90 outside. Sarah and Tim both were hungry, so I found a Chipotle online which was just down the street, so we went there for lunch. We made a quick stop afterwards at the sporting goods store for a patch for the air mattress. Apparently this one is new, and is compartmentalized, so it should not have deflated without a new leak.
We got a good parking spot back at Tim’s. I gave Chris Moore a call, and he was free so I headed out to his new place. Sarah and Tim would car pool to dinner later and we would meet up then.
Chris’s place was amazing. He is pretty far outside the city in Palos Park, but you forgot that you live in Chicago which I suppose is the point. They bought a “fixer uppper” and added 6 feet to the back of the house, redid the whole upstairs and the basement. A gorgeous house, they have something like 3700 sq ft. Pretty amazing.
He had a conservative, and manageable game room. But it was very clean and really went with how nice the rest of the house was. I think he had about 10 games in there. I knew he has a ton more somewhere, so after a quick tour of the house and the gameroom, we went outside to the garage. Of course, that is where they all are, plus he has a storage unit with other ones he hasn’t brought over yet. A ton of projects, but he has a very level head and realistic focus. It doesn’t seem too out of hand.
I really enjoyed myself, one of the favorite people I have met so far. I got a couple of good bits of information, and just wish that I could have spent most of the day. As it was, I was supposed to head out around 4:10, I ended up leaving about 4:35, knowing there was no way I’d make it to the restaurant before 5.
I got going, and looked ahead at the end of my directions and got nervous. It seemed like they just cut off in the middle of no where, not at even the street where the address was. Sure enough, it was about 5:05 and my directions ended in a pretty bad section of town. I called Tim, and he helped direct me the 3-4 miles west that I needed to be to get to Leonas. I have no idea why the directions were so bad, I typed them in twice to Google, I just didn’t research it. So, Sarah and me coming out to surprise Andy didn’t pan out. Sarah waited and came up suddenly to the table, but I had to come in at nearly 5:30 to everyone already sitting down and chatting it up. I felt really terrible….even if I had left on time I would have been late though.
They had a good turn out of people, about 12 with us in total. Two of the friends were coming with us later, so it was the perfect size, manageable to fit into cars at the very least.
Dinner was good, the waiter was just so so. Leonas is primarily a Italian restaurant, but they have a little bit of everything.
In the group, we got to meet Andy’s best man, and Emily’s suite mate, both really cool individuals. The Cubs game was playing, so that was cool too. We got to watch most of the game that finished them off, they really stink. I was just glad they lost now and didn’t last further, there was no way they were going to go anywhere with that team anyway.
After we got the tricky bill situation figured out, we left. We followed Tim, and there was a little bit of an issue with a mixup of direction, our car went the wrong direction but still managed to make it back first to play the musical car game. It was a particularly long game. I dropped Sarah off at the apartment, and I drove around for nearly a half hour looking for a spot. I know it is a little bit of luck and a lot of timing, but seriously, I was getting really frustrated.
So, I find some people walking to their car, going to pull out. There is some sort of truck behind me and he won’t be able to get around, but you know what? Not losing the spot. So I put on my flashers and pulled to the side. The truck squawked, I didn’t budge. Then they shine some sort of bright light into my car like a jerk, so I flipped down my mirror. The car pulls out and I pull forward to pull into the spot, I really have no idea what is behind me. I go to back up and this person gets out of the car and starts to walk towards my car. Turns out it is some sort of cop on a power trip. Apparently I got mixed up and you have can only use a blinker to signify that you are taking a spot. But it was pretty obvious what I was doing, I don’t know what this guy’s problem was, but he obviously was power drunk. There was no way I was losing this spot, as it was I had an 8 block walk back to the apartment.
I got back, and of course, everyone else was lucky enough to find closer spots. Good for them, I wouldn’t wish it on them.
While we waited for Beth to arrive, we got out the rules for “Kings” and played a round. It went ok, Sarah has started to become more receptive to the game the more we play it. It did get things flowing a little smoother to go out to the bars.
We just went across the street in the sweltering heat to Village Tap. They had outside picnic tables. I got Andy and myself a pitcher, we almost forgot that it was his 21st…and sat down to watch the Rockies game. The group was splintered a little bit, Sarah stayed back, she wasn’t feeling good, her stomach was acting up unrelated to any drinks. Then, we had one member of the group get a little sick, so we weren’t really all sitting down together ever during the night. It was really low key.
Eventually Sarah came down and sat for a little bit, but then didn’t feel good again so had to leave. By the time everyone else was ready to leave, it was a pretty early night, before 1. Emily was the DD, so she took the kids and headed back to school. We gave our well wishes and good nights, the evening got away from us.
Everyone else was pretty tired, so we went upstairs and went to bed.
Back to Chicago!
This is one of my favorite parts about WordPress, all you need is an internet connection and you can add to your website from anywhere.
We left Indy at a decent time, just before 5. We dropped off the movie “Knocked Up”, and then headed out. We only made one stop around Lebanon to get some dinner at Wendy’s.
This was the first trip we’ve taken that I have had a fully charged and functional Zune. That made things go by a lot smoother. Sarah was exhausted from the week, so she slept until around exit 255. I woke her up to tell her that in a little while I would probably need her to get on the laptop to help direct me on the new route Tim gave us, and right then, I saw the sign for 80 and knew that timing couldn’t have been better.
The different way Tim had us go was awesome. No toll roads, the traffic was moving and a little more open with a ton less construction. We even came through a little south of downtown and went up Lakeshore ave which is fast in itself, but is much more scenic. I loved it, and hopefully this route will stick in my mind because I can never seem to just go to Chicago on memory alone.
By the time we actually arrived and parked, it was 9:45. We beat Tim and Beth back to their place, so we just waited until they got there not too long after.
We got introduced, talked a little bit about general stuff, and then about 10:30 we decided to go out and check out the two bars right on Roscoe, Village Tap and Village Tavern. One was better inside, the other better outside, but we didn’t get to experience the outside too much, both closed up at 11:00.
We got back around 12:30 and went to bed. Tomorrow would probably end up being a busy day.
R-Type is sold and gone
Today at lunch I went home to meet the ebay winner from last week. The auction ended on Thursday, about 18 people were watching it, but it didn’t turn into a bidding war, I had only two bids.
But the guy out of Chicago who won it really wanted it for awhile, so I was just glad someone won it who really loves the game. I love it too, but I don’t need a dedicated cabinet for it, at least not now. My name is signed on the inside in permanent marker, so someday if I decide I want it back when I have my mansion, I can hunt it down. But I imagine even then I won’t be able to beat it:)
Here are some photos of it getting loaded up.
