Chicago Bound

It didn't look quite so crazy on paper when we planned it, but being in 5 cities in 8 days may have proven to be a bit much.  At a certain point, it's just too late to change things!  As soon as we were "Safely in Sheffield," I did a horrible thing and abandoned my family less than 24 hours later for a trip to Munich and the LIBER Conference.  The good (selfish) news is that it would mean a direct flight to Chicago for ALA, the bad news is that it tacked on a couple of days to being away from the family.  As I head off to my 24th (?) ALA (19 of them consecutive), I do it with a heavy heart, more for leaving the family behind in England than with the dread of a 10 hour trip to Chicago.

Of course, I expect Sharon and the kids to know their way around Sheffield and  Yorkshire completely by the time I get back.  The one smart thing I did was to plan some holiday time as soon as I returned from Chicago and 10 straight days of work.  We're headed north for the lake district and for Scotland, and other points yet to be determined.

In the meantime, I have had a wonderful time in Munich.  Some of you, my friends, have met my colleague, Norbert Weinberger, and a better host than he and his wife Andrea cannot be found in all of Bavaria, perhaps all of Germany.  The conference was new to me with a few familiar faces (even my old boss from NCSU, Kristin!), and a new flavor--a truly European Conference with hundreds of attendees from dozens of countries.  The even let in a couple of Canadians and Americans like myself.

The first night included Bavarian dinner and lots of Bavarian entertainment.  I captured some of this on Facebook, but here's some more:

And a couple of videos.  The whips were fascinating (if a little close), the dancing very sweet, and the music was fun.  Eli, that dude on the stand-up bass was too cool!

And now on to the Windy City!  Looking forward to it, but looking forward even more to getting back to Sheffield.