today has been one hella long and exhausting day! Wizard World Chicago started today and from 9AM until 6PM i was on my feet not sitting down once. goes w/o saying that my feet are suffering miserably from this. i'd say my wallet is bit sore as well since i spent more $$$ today than i had originally planned. it was the KUSA Master Nova figure that put me over the top ringing in at $100 and that was within the first 10 minutes of arriving at WW! that didn't bode well for the rest of the day...

i was surprised that there were as many attendees but mostly they were there to cherry pick all the best deals on the dealer floor before the onslaught tomorrow. i found some nice items for reasonable prices but i was mostly nabbing all the exclusives and getting much of my shopping out of the way so i can float w/Capt'n Satan and Raydeen tomorrow. i didn't bother attending any sessions or panels; i just walked most of the maze that is the dealer floor and stood in lines at exhibitor booths for the exclusives.

here's a list of acquisitions (and cost) from today:
Buffy con exclusive PALz figure -- $5.00
Dir En Grey t-shirt -- $12.00
Fathom collected editions comics vol 2 & 3 -- $2.00
Hellboy - "the chained coffin and others" trade paperback -- $9.00
Hellboy - "wake the devil" trade paperback -- $9.00
How to draw Manga Vol 1 (Antarctic Press) -- $10.00
Kill Bill Crazy 88 con exclusive Quentin Figure -- $15.00
Kingdom Come trade paperback -- $7.50
Kubrick Batman series Man-Bat figure -- $7.00
Kubrick Evirob figure -- $6.00
KUSA Master Nova figure -- $99.00
Mask of the Red Death Sideshow Toys figure -- $11.50
She-Ra Con Exclusive He-Man figure -- $20.00
Shockini Standard white figure -- $7.00
Skrash AlienRacer figure -- free
Son of Frankenstein Sideshow Toys figure -- $11.50
STIKFAS Beta Female w/Dragon figure set -- $16.00
STIKFAS Beta Female w/Jungle Cat safari set -- $9.00
The Authority "Earth Inferno and other stories" trade paperback -- $7.50
The Authority "transfer of power" trade paperback -- $9.00
Top Cow characters poster -- $1.00
Ultimate X-men vol 1 "the tomorrow people" trade paperback -- $7.50
Vintage 1980 Flash Gordon posters - 3 -- $5.00
Vintage Mego Micronauts - 8 figures -- $25.00

i'll save ya the time in case yer wondering; it was around $300 and change. ugh. i'm definitely gonna go easy tomorrow.

last night, my dept (3 of us) went to Chicago Indoor Racing for a couple of races in go-carts. damn, i wish i had remembered my camera b/c we were all decked out in racing suits and gear -- it was quite a hilarious site to behold! the racing was cool but frustrating b/c of all the rules they impose. i rec'd a warning after 1 lap and had no idea why. so i wasn't nearly as aggressive as i wanted to be. by the 2nd race we had more ppl racing and i started to figure out how to get the go-cart to better perform but some dumbass driver in front of me kept wiping out causing me to come to a complete stop a few times. stopping the cart totally kills your overall lap time. ah well. it was still fun. kinda.

afterwards we hit the Weber Grill for steaks and drinks. That was pretty good but not as good as i remembered from my first visit there several years ago. i ended up crashing pretty early (1AM or so) which was a good thing since i needed all the energy i could muster to survive WW today. i dunno how i'm gonna manage 2 more days of this.