A fun time was had by all …

Here it is, Thursday afternoon, and I’ve mentioned Tuesday’s evening’s Blogger Bash only in passing.

I met two bloggers for the first time.

Karrie Alms is a well-known Peoria activist who just recently started blogging (along with Sara Partridge) at RALLY Peoria. Karrie came loaded for bear. She had a satchel filled to the brim with documents about the Glen Oak Zoo and Glen Oak School projects. Had I her organizational skills and tenacity, I might still be in the journalism business.

Take my advice, politicians: Do not get Karrie mad at you. You will suffer the death of a thousand paper cuts.

I also met the man behind PeoriaIllinoisan and Name This Peoria Landmark (I’m leaving his name out, ’cause I think be would prefer to remain anonymous). Swell guy, with a lot of inside dope.

C.J. Summers of Peoria Chronicle was there. C.J. does a ton of research too. C.J. is feeling a little insecure that his excellent site doesn’t get as many hits as mine. Frankly, he deserves to get a lot of hits, cause his site is THAT GOOD.

Murrel Rhodes and Jim Efaw of Cloud 29 (my current Internet Service Provider) and Recycling for Illinois were there as well adding their wit and wisdom to the conversation.

And guess who showed up? Peoria’s most obnoxious Yankees’ fan Gary Sandberg. As it happens, Gary is also a member of the Peoria City Council in his spare time. He was a font of information about recent and past city council decisions. He spent a lot of time chatting with Karrie about how the zoning process works especially regarding the Glen Oak Zoo expansion project.

Gary and the rest of the bunch advised me to either:

a. Fight the parking tocket I got on Tuesday, or:
b. Shut the Hell up about it.

I chose option c.: Pay the ticket and continue griping about it.

After the bash broke up, Murrel, Jim C.J. and I went to Steak ”n Shake in East Peoria for a nosh. But they were too crowded for the on waitress on duty (and there were a punch of teens at one table who kept everyone hopping). We instead went to Richard’s on Main (where the kitchen is open until 4 a.m.) and ate. The food was great and we talked about everyone and had a great time.

Here’s an idea, and I think C.J. brought it up: Let’s just make it a regular event to hold a blogger bash every fifth Tuesday, when the Peoria City Council doesn’t meet. We can invite various newsmakers to attend to give us some inside dope. And I also some the idea of holding a Blogger BBQ at Glen Oak Park sometime this summer or early fall.