INFORMAL Get-Together - NOW SET - Sun, Jan 18 Noon

[JSmith]

umm....video?!?!??!?!?!

 

They took pictures, not video

[Rigel]

Let me suggest picking a place near a Metro station, but that being said, it can really be ANY Metro station.

 

If Robbie (or anyone else) is concerned about parking, you can park for free on weekends at any Metro station with a lot (the ones out in the 'burbs, mostly--see http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm for a map.)

 

What kind of cuisine/restaurant do we want? Any dietary considerations? (I'd like a vegetarian option myself, though I'm also a pescavore.) The Mall itself offers food in several Smithsonian museums and National Gallery of Art restaurants and cafeterias. Within a couple of blocks, there are food courts and also restaurants at Union Station (Union Station Metro/Red Line) and the Old Post Office Pavilion (Federal Triangle Metro/Blue or Orange Lines). There are lots of places near Dupont Circle on 17th Street. which I suppose qualifies as one of the "gay" districts of DC. Do Dan and Trebs have commitments on Sunday that suggest they'd be downtown for lunch?

 

There are also ethnic cuisines of almost any description available, though I'm sad to report that my local Ethio-Caribbean and Italo-Brazilian restaurants have both closed. Then there was the Ethiopian restaurant (near Silver Spring Metro/Red Line) I took Little Buddha to after he wrote about Ethiopian cuisine in SOOTB. (By the way, Little Buddha, to answer your challenge, the only Uighur restaurant I could find in the DC area was out in Gaithersburg a little past Shady Grove, and it closed this past summer.)

 

--Rigel, your DC-area tour guide

[LittleBuddhaTW]

OH GAWD...

 

 

I mean - GREAT!!!

 

 

Though Dan has now been officially notified that he can NOT get drunk with you EVERY single night we are out there (MAX 6 of the 7 nights)...

 

Hahaha ... there are actually a couple of nice bars/restaurants up in Rockville if you have any extra time to come up this way and hang out, or I can swing down to DC another evening while you're here and hit a bar (or two).

[Myk]

They took pictures, not video

 

hmmm...that works too

 

Oh Robert!!

[rknapp]

Maybe I shouldn't go... all this talk about pictures and videos and cockteasing and...

 

Eh, eff it. lol

 

I can't check in to my hotel in VA until 3pm so I need someone to entertain me until either then, or until maybe 5 or 6 or whatever lol. I'm driving over from NJ that morning.

[Rigel]

Prepare to pack warm clothes, long underwear, and winter-strength parkas. The most recent forecast for the DC area calls for a VERY cold Friday, with evening temperatures in the single digits (Fahrenheit)--and that's without the wind chill. By Sunday brunch, it may have warmed up to almost freezing (~32F, ~0C).

 

--Rigel

[Kanaye]

I would love to go but 1) I am TERRIBLE with directions and would most likely get lost and 2)I dont have enough money to be able to rent a hotel room.

 

I have to find out how far it is from CT, can I make it there and back the same day, and wiether or not Chrisifers could come with so, when I do get lost, (its inevitable) I wont panic as bad as I would if I was alone.

 

EDIT: Mapquest said it takes 6hours and 44 minutes driving... I highly doubt I could do that... unless I took a train.

 

*Sigh* I really dont think Ill be able to do this. Unless someone wants to pick me up... teeheehee...

Edited January 14, 2009 by Kanaye

[Phantom]

Sorry guys... due to events beyon my control (having agreed to help a friend move in and my parents) I won't be able to make it

 

However the next time ANY OF YOU are on the east coast... say near NYC... i'd be more then glad to come and say hi

 

(not that im hinting the next official GA get together should be in nyc.... not me )

 

Eric

[Kanaye]

I agree with Eric's non-hint. NYC would be sooo much easier for me. Though I would still probably get lost...

[Trebs]

The GetTogether for tomorrow is all set - all the attendees should have received a reminder from me today. Looking forward to seeing everyone - and we'll try to post some pictures as soon as we can.

 

Trebs

 

PS - If anyone finds themselves able to join us in Washington, DC tomorrow (Sunday) at noon but did not RSVP - send me a PM by 11AM Eastern time - after that, I'll be offline and can't forward the location. But ANYONE is welcome to join us.

[Trebs]

Just got back to the hotel - FANTASTIC time at lunch. Pictures and more will be posted soon.

[Trebs]

Lunch was fantastic - no problem meeting up with everyone and I think everyone had a great time (I know I did).

 

I put up some pictures. For some reason, I had a problem uploading the pictures as a gallery here - but I put them on my website.

 

They are at: www.rjws.com/Jan09

 

Most pictures are self-descriptive except:

 

GoatShot.JPG - Looks like CJ has set up shop locally

Goat - Detail.JPG - and his menu is based on SNL scripts...

 

Jewelry1.JPG and Jewelry2.JPG - ok, these aren't officially part of the lunch. I'm not too much of a jewelry person. 14 years ago, my mom gave me a necklace she had gotten - she didn't want and I LOVED it and wear it all the time since. It's gold and platinum. Before that, I never wore any jewelry and the only other jewelry I've worn since is my ring (in my avatar) as well as a triangular amethyst earring that Dan and I both wear in our right ear (and got the night we moved in together).

 

In the last few years, I've been looking around for an amethyst dangler that I could wear on my necklace - have seen a few that were ok, but nothing special. Today, after the lunch, Rigel, Rknapp, Dan and I kept looking around Union Station (where we had lunch at the Thunder Grill) - and found a little jewelry shop with WONDERFUL pieces. I fell in love with one of them, and the owner of the store saw me drooling over it at the window and called me in to look closer. As I'm looking, and at other (she had a TON of nice pieces - probably 100 in amethyst, and similar ones in aquamarine and other gemstones). I looked at the one piece I loved (Jewelry2.JPG) - and while looking, she told me two things. One that for the inauguration, she was doing a buy one, get one free OR if that was the only one I wanted, it was $155 but she would sell it to me for $140. I then caught another piece in the corner of my eye and pulled it out and - OMG - loved it even more (Jewelry1.JPG). It was $200 - and I took my necklace off in the store and put each on to see how they would look WITH the necklace and just was soooo WANTING both. I grabbed Dan (who was outside still talking to Rigel and Rknapp) - and... umm... my sweetie saw how MUCH was wanting them and said it was ok to get both (for the $200 cost - WOOT - so saved us $155!!!). Am in LOVE with them (not to mention Dan who let me get them).

 

Everyone else who was there - chime in with your thoughts. I'll post more later - but right now - naptime so I have energy for a party Dan and I are going to tonight at the Air and Space Museum.

[JSmith]

The pictures are a little small. Can you make them bigger?

[Drewbie]

Looked like fun

 

Have fun tonight Trebs and Dan

Edited January 18, 2009 by Drewbie

[LittleBuddhaTW]

Lunch was a lot of fun. It was great to see Dan and Trebs again, as well as Rigel, and it was nice to finally meet Sharon, SonoLuminus and her husband ("The Other Joe" lol), and Robbie (who's quite the cutie, I must say ...). I hope we can all get together again soon!

 

Have fun at the festivities over the next few days for those of you still in DC, and try to stay warm!

[Graeme]

Great pics, Trebs! It's times like this that I wished I was living in the USA (or at least was independently wealthy enough to be able to fly over to visit on a whim).

[Mark Arbour]

Great pics Trebs. Made me wish I was there.

 

BTW, you're looking great, very healthy!

[sat8997]

I had a wonderful time (other than freezing - we were inside and it was cold) and it was great getting to meet everyone. Dan and David together are a hoot and, I think, secretly 13. Oh...and tall...everyone was tall.

[Mark Arbour]

I had a wonderful time (other than freezing - we were inside and it was cold) and it was great getting to meet everyone. Dan and David together are a hoot and, I think, secretly 13. Oh...and tall...everyone was tall.

 

You're like 4'2", so of course everyone else is tall.

[C James]

I'm glad everyone had fun. And I doubled over laughing when I saw the name of the venue!

 

Wish I could have been there... One of these day's I'll make it to one of these things, but events have conspired to keep me away from the prior ones, and this one too.

[NaperVic]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. It's nice to put some faces with screen names!

 

Umm, were you guys in Chicago :wacko: ? Cause I thought the BillyGoat was in Chi-town

[shadowgod]

I'm glad everyone had fun. And I doubled over laughing when I saw the name of the venue!

 

Wish I could have been there... One of these day's I'll make it to one of these things, but events have conspired to keep me away from the prior ones, and this one too.

 

Pfft goat you were at the last one... I remember

[glomph]

Glad everyone had a good time and made it back wherever they were going.

 

This afternoon I heard on the radio that there were a thousand people waiting in line trying to get into a Metro station. Tuesday should be fun.

 

This broke the pattern of previous get-togethers. Usually you have them wherever I was when you met the time before, but I've not been to Washington for quite a while. I might need to go there in March, so maybe you can plan a gathering somewhere else for then, and I'll be months late instead of months early.

 

Thanks for the pictures so at least more of us can attend vicariously.

[TalonRider]

Pfft goat you were at the last one... I remember

Yeah, and they even have pictures.

[LittleBuddhaTW]

I had a wonderful time (other than freezing - we were inside and it was cold) and it was great getting to meet everyone. Dan and David together are a hoot and, I think, secretly 13. Oh...and tall...everyone was tall.

 

Trebs continues to insist that Dan and I were separated at birth ...

 

I think I behaved myself quite well this time ... you should've seen us in San Francisco ... lol