We're back from Chicago and our third ShibariCon.

We almost didn't make this event. On Tuesday we had some bad tuna salad at a local restaurant, and wound up with moderate cases of food poisoning. When we went to bed on Wednesday night, I was was way too sick to be thinking of going anywhere.

But a good night's rest got me back to half-speed, which gave me just enough energy to pack Dee and a thousand feet of hemp rope in the back of the truck and head west. We had an uneventful, if terribly rainy drive from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, arriving in time to catch a little dinner and say hello to a few people hanging out in the bar.

Our first classes on Friday morning were David Lawrence's photography class I and II. Thanks to Dave, we have at least a few photos of Dee taken over the weekend. The most amibitious photo was a three-girl inverted suspension. Each one was rigged by a differet top...of course I rigged Dee's inverted suspension, and was the only one who didn't need a chair to get her upside-down in rope.

All photos courtesy of David Lawrence

Our last class on Friday was Mike West's Sadism With Rope. One example was the strappado, which is definitely one way to hurt someone using rope.

At Friday night's play party we did a standard face-down single point rope suspension with Dee so she could spin. Dee loves spinning, and that's always fun for us. We also coached another couple with their own suspension scene. I was still feeling about two-thirds speed, so we called it an early night and headed off to bed. Saturday we slept late, ate well, and tried to be in good shape for two more classes, one given by Leon on Structural Bondage, and one given by Steve Indands on Human Bondage Furniture. I thought about sending Dee to take notes for me at the Lazy Dominant class, but I figured that if I could think of that, I probably had the lazy dominant thing down already.

Saturday night I pulled off a successful demonstration of a rare rope bondage feat; using "hypnotic suspension" I managed to tie four women together off the floor without using any frames or overhead lifting points. After that, I tied Dee on the stage in an inverted Y suspension and hung her by her labia rings (okay, there were other ropes helping hold her up).

Sunday we again slept late, and we went to Sir C's Needle Play class and Pere's Medical Bondage class. Then later in the dungeon I tied Dee in a well-supported standing position and demonstrated the new "Sea Urchin" attachment for the Hitachi magic wand.

Monday we packed everything back up and spent the day driving back home.

Hats off to Mortis once again for getting so many of our favorite rope people together in one place for a fun event. The first night when Gray asked for a show of hands, it seemed that half of the people were first-timers. That means a whole new crop of hemp rope addicts running around, tying people up.