Tea, in a Plaza

So, thanks to my friend Dale, a friend and co-worker at both TSR and WotC, and since, I made it without a hitch to The Plaza, where I'll be staying the rest of this trip. We even had a light meal in their courtyard,* which has never been open on any of my previous visits here. It was past their busy time so they told us it was fine if we wanted to linger over our beverages (mine was tea, of course). So we had a v. pleasant time catching up and reminiscing, while I admired the cafe sparrows.

*I assume this is the 'plaza' after which the hotel is named.

Afterwards I even got in a grocery run (thanks again Dale) to help me take advantage of the little kitchen in my room. Pity I did not discover until later that the oven was inert: both stove and burners weren't functioning. Probably just a pilot light is out, based on past experience. They shd have fixed Monday. And luckily till then I've still got the microwave.

For today (Sunday) I was looking forward to a get-together over brunch with another TSR & WotC friend (hi Sue),** but she had to cancel, so we'll try that again another time. 

**who was also at Marquette as well, but our times there did not overlap.

Yesterday's meal out in the courtyard having been so pleasant, I thought today I'd repeat the experience. If there was a long wait, why not: I had a book (well, my Kindle) with me and didn't have anywhere I had to be (we'd deliberately left the day mostly open so I'd be well-rested when the main purpose for the trip, the time in the Archives).

Then the forty-five minute wait got stretched by another twenty minutes. This was the second wait, but I decided to stick it out.

Then the sky opened.

I'd forgotten what Midwest downpours are like (we don't have them out in the Pacific Northwest much). So now they had to close the courtyard and combine the two waiting lists, Inside/Outside, into one (Inside only). Eventually an apologetic staff got me seated and I had a pleasant if somewhat tardy meal, breakfast/brunch having transitioned into brunch/lunch at some point in there.

I had thought of taking advantage of the wide-open afternoon to go up to Sip n Purr, Milwaukee's cat cafe, but after the rain stopped it had gotten really hot. So I went back to my room, where made some preparations for the Archive work tomorrow.

Then, for a change of pace, I spent some time with character creation for a 1st edition AD&D solo game I'm hoping to run off and on during the evenings; we'll see how it goes. I am finding that this iteration of the rules, my all-time favorite, relies heavily on the player already knowing the game v. well --which seems fair enough, given that they put 'Advanced' right there in the name.

We'll see how far I get.

--John R.