Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ozle]

£907 air fare....

On a completely unrelated note, can someone lend me £907?

[Witherweaver]

£907 air fare....

On a completely unrelated note, can someone lend me £907?

You much is that in real people money?

On a completely related note, as of this posting your post count and respect are anagrams.  (2861 Posts, +2681 Respect.)

Don't post any more.

Or get any more upvotes.

[Axxle]

It looks like Midway is closer than O'Hare?

(Although it looks like I can't fly into Midway as easily)

[Voltaire]

It looks like Midway is closer than O'Hare?

(Although it looks like I can't fly into Midway as easily)

You'd be taking a train from either, so the difference is negligible. You'll have to transfer either from train to train or train to bus either way. Just go with whichever airport has the better flight/time/price/airline.

[Polk5440]

(Although it looks like I can't fly into Midway as easily)

Did you check Southwest?

[Axxle]

(Although it looks like I can't fly into Midway as easily)

Did you check Southwest?

I only fly United.  Decided to keep my post up so people realize there's two airports in Chicago in close proximity so they have choices.

[Voltaire]

Bump! Start getting excited - this is less than two weeks away!

Here's Cat & Mouse's Facebook event for the Sunday portion of the meetup, for those who do that sort of thing.

I have one more location to re-check for Saturday but realistically (so close to the date) Saturday is going to need to be at my apartment (that was the emergency backup location). I am rather sad to have found that all other locations (particularly gaming-oriented ones) were either booked, not interested, or worse, ignored my inquiries.

I'll have final details very soon! 

[Voltaire]

/insert Prof. Farnsworth image

Good news everyone!

My re-check turned up a bar that will rent us a private room (with bar) for a very reasonable rate from 1-6 PM on Saturday. We could then adjourn to my apartment (1.3 miles away, so either a nice walk or take the train two stops), if there is sufficient demand to continue gaming/socializing. Is this something we'd want to do? The alternative would be to spend the entire day at my apartment. I leave the choice to you all.

Either way, Saturday will be in the Lakeview neighborhood and the Cubs will be at home that day, so parking will be extremely difficult. I'll provide more info when plans are final, but the short version right now is parking on Saturday =  and parking on Sunday = 

FYI

[jsh357]

Looking forward to it.

By the way, my wife will be tagging along now as well.  Probably doesn't matter. (can't imagine we're using up EVERY chair)

[ashersky]

Also:

Cubs =   

[Voltaire]

Also! No matter what, nobody has to pay anything for Saturday if you don't want to! If we go with the bar, the reservation fee is quite modest and then they have a (cheap) collective minimum tab we'd need to run up. I can't possibly imagine we wouldn't reach it, and I'm fine covering the difference (if there even is one). They also serve food, and it's actually very good food.

[mcmcsalot]

Also! No matter what, nobody has to pay anything for Saturday if you don't want to! If we go with the bar, the reservation fee is quite modest and then they have a (cheap) collective minimum tab we'd need to run up. I can't possibly imagine we wouldn't reach it, and I'm fine covering the difference (if there even is one). They also serve food, and it's actually very good food.

I am happy to help pay for the reservation fee Saturday, from the couple people that said they would be willing to spend a bit seems like we could make Saturday work, I agree though that absolutely no one should feel the need to pay anything and would only want to make sure no one felt uncomfortable.

[jsh357]

So... the airline has messed up our flights AGAIN and they refuse to change my flight to a reasonable time.  I am not sure if I'm still going at this point.

The lesson here is to never go with US Airways.  I used them years ago and had no problems, but apparently they have gone down the tubes since then.

[michaeljb]

I'll probably be in, if I can find someone to drive with from Denver (possibly have an IRL friend that could be interested).

edit: added games I could bring to the spreadsheet

Looks like I won't be able to make it to this one after all, unfortunately.

[Twistedarcher]

What's the best option for getting to the meetup on Saturday for those driving? Park elsewhere and metro in?

[Voltaire]

What's the best option for getting to the meetup on Saturday for those driving? Park elsewhere and metro in?

Almost certainly. The ink should be dry on the reservation tomorrow (I assume 4th of July holidays slowed things down on their end) - holding off on that to give final directions.

[Voltaire]

ANNOUNCING FINAL DETAILS FOR THE MEETUP THIS WEEKEND!

Saturday, July 12 @ Schuba's Tavern (Upstairs Lounge), 1-6 PM
3159 N Southport Ave, Chicago IL
Closest L stop: Belmont (Red and Brown lines)
Closest bus line: Belmont
Parking: pay parking available on Belmont, Southport, & Lincoln ($2/hour, 3 hour limit) - there is a Cubs game on the same day, so parking will be strictly enforced and likely busy. Expect hunting for a spot to take awhile.

We'll have the entire upstairs lounge at Schuba's as our private meetup space! It's full of tables, chairs, and a private bar (they serve great food, too). This is the day where we'll have the most space - if you want to play anything big, try to aim for Saturday.

Saturday, July 12 after Schuba's @ Voltaire's apartment, 6 PM - whenever
PM for address
Closest L stop: Sheridan (Red line)
Closest bus line: Irving Park
Parking: permit parking in Cubs territory. Impossible.

If there's sufficient interest, I'll happily host the gathering at my place after we leave Schuba's. It's about 1.3 miles away. I have a reasonably well-stocked game library and enough space for 2-3 games to be going at once.

Sunday, July 13 @ Cat & Mouse Game Store, 11-5 PM
2212 W Armitage Ave, Chicago IL
Closest L stop: Western (Blue line)
Closest bus line: Armitage
Parking: free parking on Armitage. Should be plenty available.
click here for the Facebook event

At Cat & Mouse we'll have the entire play space at the store for the entire day, as well as access to all the store's demo games (the copies we use at game nights and in the store to show off games to customers). Like most game stores it'll be a bit crowded, so we'll probably need to play 4-player Dominion (and hey, this is a social event anyway ). Try to aim for smaller games on Sunday.

I HAVE A LIMITED NUMBER OF GUEST PERMIT-PARKING STICKERS. If you are driving in to Chicago and are unable to take public transit from your hotel, or otherwise need to drive to either of Saturday's locations, PM me and I will reserve a guest permit sticker for you. These will allow you to park on any street, but know that due to the Cubs game these streets will also be very, very crowded.

If you have any questions or need any further information, please ask!

[Voltaire]

AIRPORT DIRECTIONS

Saturday, July 12
from O'Hare to Schuba's (about an hour)
1. take the Blue line (all trains will be travelling in the correct direction) from O'Hare to Belmont
2. transfer to the Belmont (number 77) bus eastbound. Get off at Southport. You will literally get off the bus outside of Schuba's.
cost: $5.25

from Midway to Schuba's (about an hour)
1. take the Orange line (all trains will be travelling in the correct direction) from Midway to Clark & Lake
2. transfer to the Brown Line northbound (train will say "Kimball") and get off at Southport
3. walk south on Southport to Belmont. Schuba's is on the southeast corner.
cost: $2.25

Sunday, July 13
from O'Hare to Cat & Mouse (about 45 minutes)
1. take the Blue line (all trains will be travelling in the correct direction) from O'Hare to Western
2. walk east on Armitage to Cat & Mouse. It will be on the north side of the street.
cost: $5.00

from Midway to Cat & Mouse (about an hour)
1. take the Orange line (all trains will be travelling in the correct direction) from Midway to Clark & Lake
2. transfer to the Blue Line (train will say "O'Hare") and get off at Western
3. walk east on Armitage to Cat & Mouse. It will be on the north side of the street.
cost: $2.50

In Chicago, train (L) trips cost $2.25 and bus trips cost $2. Transfers within two hours of your first trip are 25 cents. There is a "soak the tourists" fee in place at O'Hare that makes trips on the Blue Line that start there $5 instead of $2.25. You can avoid this extra fee if you're using a pass. The pass you might want to consider is a 24-hour pass (called a "1 Day Pass") for $10, depending on how much extra travelling you may be doing. There's also a 3-day pass - I forget how much they cost. The 1-Day pass won't save you any money if you're only using transit to go to and from the meetup.

[ashersky]

ANNOUNCING FINAL DETAILS FOR THE MEETUP THIS WEEKEND!

Everyone should upvote this to show their appreciation for all of Voltaire's hard work!

[Tombolo]

I got scheduled for work saturday and I'm really scouting disappointed....but I should be able to attend Sunday!  Maybe not until afternoon, though.

[ashersky]

Since I can't be there, I had one of these in your honor:

[Witherweaver]

I got scheduled for work saturday and I'm really scouting disappointed....but I should be able to attend Sunday!  Maybe not until afternoon, though.

Did you just conjugate Scout into an expletive?

[LastFootnote]

Thanks again to Voltaire for putting this together!

I think I'm still going to make it there. Realistically, I don't know how long I'll actually be able to stay. I'm coming with my wife and baby, and neither a bar nor a game store is going to have space for said baby to crawl around. So my wife and I will alternate holding him and playing games and/or we will play as a team. But I'm not sure how long we can keep that up. I'm guessing we'll be there for part of Saturday and none of Sunday, but hopefully I'm wrong and we'll be able to stay longer.

[Tombolo]

I got scheduled for work saturday and I'm really scouting disappointed....but I should be able to attend Sunday!  Maybe not until afternoon, though.

Did you just conjugate Scout into an expletive?

It seemed like a good idea at the time!

It also might be worth noting that Taste of Chicago is this week, which could complicate travel.

[Voltaire]

It also might be worth noting that Taste of Chicago is this week, which could complicate travel.

Since Taste is downtown and this isn't, if anything it should make travel easier as the CTA will be running extra trains for Taste...and least, that's been my experience the past few years.