So, here's Turning to the Dork Side #22 for your viewing pleasure.

And so it was that after much internetical chit chat twixt JediPrincess77, JediMelindaWolf and yours truly, Sir Shiny Bonce of San Jose, that I found myself inbound to the Windy City with my long suffering wife, the ravishing Pidluk, and the enigmatic and deeply unspiritual Darth Kerfuffle.

The flight was uneventful, the drive to our lodgings was uneventful, the first trip to the bathroom was uneventful. If this was going to be an exhilarating jaunt in Chicago, then we were off to a mediocre start.

Truth be told, I couldn't have asked to stay in a groovier place. We were crashing with an old friend of Darth Kerfuffle's - let's call him John - and DK and John go way back. They started up many companies in the past, and if you're reading this on a Mac, then you have them to thank...

John is now, among other things, the editor of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy literature magazine, and was due to speak at a downtown convention that weekend, so our timing was perfect.

Anyhoo - his house is a geek's dream - seriously, mere words can't do this place justice, so I will put together a separate blog about it sometime in the future - suffice to say that here is a guy who owns every first edition worth owning, every first print of Amazing Stories, board games I had never heard of, every PC game ever made (yes, all of them), and is chummy with folks like Alan Dean Foster and Frederic Pohl. He's a very cool guy, and I'm lucky to know him. His magazine is called Black Gate - seriously, if you like fantasy then you should check this tome out - go to the website! www.BlackGate.com

Anyway, I'm here to talk about you lot.

My posse and I met up with the dynamic duo, JP77 and Green&WhiteJedi for a spot of breakfast and a chinwag on Friday morning. What a cute couple - almost as cute as Pidluk and I, but not quite. From there, JP77 had to go to work, so we told her we'd look after her little boy, and so we did.

We bored him rigid by traipsing around the Apple store, then into the Nordstrom mall to check out the cool Star Wars lego and the curry chocolate, and then a bracing walk along the lakeshore. I wondered why it was called the Windy City, now I knew, and my ruddy cheeks took a long time to forgive me.

Our first exciting mission was to find PadmeSkywalker77 and safely retrieve her from her hotel, which was tricky as her hotel was hidden by construction. We found her, and then began the simple drive to see the warbling princess. As has been previously documented, we got horribly lost, I blame everyone else in the car, but eventually made it to the venue with seconds to spare.

We knew we were in the right place at least.

At the gig we acquainted ourselves with JediPug, GalacticBabe and ewanandhaydenfan and then settled in for an evening of some chick with a big voice belting out some jazzy songs. Bethany was pretty awesome I must admit, almost as good as me. Some of the songs were quite moving, and I had to hide my misty eyes behind the camera.
The evening over, we said our farewells, and dissolved into the night.

The next day I awoke bright-eyed and bushy tailed, and bounded downstairs ready to take on the day. After a hearty breakfast of cold Mexican food we piled into the speeder and screamed on over to the meeting place - and meet we did! By an extraordinary coincidence there was a whole load of bloggers going to the same exhibit, so we figured we might as well join them. A quick kudos to Melinda - she rocks, did you know that?

We waited patiently for our turn to run through the exhibit like sugar-high lemurs, and most of us are in this picture, except e&hfan who got detained by the troopers for trying to smuggle a droid in.

Once inside we posed for the public, this happens everywhere I go - and also posed for some group specific shots... did I hear *cough* Geeks Helping Geeks *cough*?

The stuff on display was coolness incarnate; check out the detail on this flying machine, it's got ray guns and a spaceman and everything!

But forget the displays, we were there to have fun, and so we did.

First up, Bethany and I engaged in a bit of tomfoolery of a leg nature, but I'm not sure if we pulled this joke off - see for yourself.

My punishment for being silly was to be made the Tatooine parking attendant - damn jawas need to watch where they park...

Oh, scoop! Here's a rare picture of the elusive and deadly Darth Kerfuffle, getting what's coming to him.

Finally my favorite photo of the whole event. As we were gallivanting around the exhibition, Kenobi-Fan and I discovered that we actually did like each other. It turns out he's not as horrible as I first thought, and can actually be spoken to in a civilized manner. He was adamant that we should find the perfect exhibit to pose next to, for prosperity's sake and for the sake of future generations. It should reflect our mutual love for Star Wars, and yet be unique among all photos of two nerds hanging out in a Star Wars exhibition.

I think we found it.

If you can name the film this was used in, you will win nothing. Consider it a life lesson.

I found a quick moment to say to my old pal, FX-9, and get a bit of a tune up, and then it was into the shop... oh, my poor credit card. Correction, oh, pidluk's poor credit card...

As the day wore on, we eventually retired to a cosy little pizza shack back in town called Giordino's - or something. It is here that they create pizzas that would normally be considered ballast in any other decent society, but here they are revered as a health food. You gotta love them crazy Chicagoans.

Actually, our meal was a whole lot of fun and pretty tasty too - made all the more so by the great company. I was lucky enough to be sitting at one end with Mr.Z from GHG and Jimmy-Mac from Force-Cast, who regaled us with Star Warsy tidbits while his cool son ate about nine deep dish pizzas.
OK, I exaggerate.

JediPug was suitably humiliated, astonished and reduced to a weeping pile of emotion when her surprise birthday presentation materialized out of thin air. We had arranged for an Anakin stripper to burst out of the cake, but it was cut into slices before we could get to it... a tragic loss in the world of Star Wars strippergrams.

And so, we finally went our separate ways into the night, resolving to meet each other again as soon as we could.

Who knows? I might have a little something up my sleeve for next year which may indeed satisfy our cravings...

Happy days!

If anyone wants to see all nine thousand of the photos (OK, perhaps a few less) that DK took during our fun time, then try our 2Peer sharing software (now available for all systems!). That way you can download everything directly from my machine - groovy eh?
Either email me for instructions, or go to www.2Peer.com, register and then add me (neil@studiomoraine.com) as a contact - oh the sights you'll see...

Cheerio!