So, it's been a month filled with both joy and sorrow. Which is, well, the way of things. But I was very saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Chuck Guthrie (Lord William Cecil, Baron Burleigh from the Bristol Renaissance Faire). Chuck was one of the sweetest, kindest souls I ever met. He taught dialect at BAPA my first year (1997) and I count him as one of a handful of people whom I've met through the Faire that I will always, always been intensely grateful to have had in my life, even in the smallest of ways. I am so glad I had a chance to see him the last time I was at the show and give him a big hug and tell him how much I loved him. I had no idea it would be for the last time, and it's very hard to picture a Chuck-shaped hole in the world. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the wake or funeral, because I was out of town. But he'll be sorely missed, and I keep smiling to picture both him and his good friend Jeannine (who passed away a while back) smiling down on us all.

I had a lovely lovely visit with my family this spring as well. My Judy came and spent a few days with me in February, accompanying my Poppy as he went to a trade show held out at Navy Pier. They actually stayed at my place, and then Judes stayed a few extra days and we marathonned some Jake 2.0 and pretty much deleted my store of wine. Then I went down to Florida for MegaCon, which marked my first occasion interviewing Ms Allison Mack face to face. She's a lovely, bright, delightful young lady and that interview should run at allison-mack.com next month, with a companion piece going up at MediaSharx at about the same time. Judes had a blast at the convention, and she got to meet Marc Singer (Donovan from V), Noah Hathaway (Atreyu from The Neverending Story) and we spend Saturday in the autograph line for Allison, who gave my mother a huge hug. How's that for classy?

The last week-end, Deirds and her friend Christine came up to visit and we bummed around Chicago, and spent out nights watching big vast chunks of Odyssey 5. Because yes, I am ebil, hooking them on a show which ends with an evil unresolved cliff-hanger. We also caught the Friday night Frodo-A-Go-Go at the Royal George, and got to marvel at Vuch as an Ent. Any Chicago folk who haven't caught the show yet, you've two weeks before Vuch and Freds move on--so what the hell are you waiting for?

And I finally got around to uploading the photos off my camera!

The Stained Glass Museum at Navy Pier:


MegaCon:


My trip to the UK:



Onion Soup: