In a message dated 11/8/02 4:10:50 PM Pacific Standard Time, vladluskin@yahoo.com writes:
<< Is anyone going to do a report for CR of last night's gathering. I had
child care duties and couldn't make it. How did it go? >>
Hi Vlad,
I suspect Jan will write it up. The rain meant parts of the group were late
so we had to juggle tables (and gave up two temporarily). As those diners
finished we re-took the tables as our group members rolled in the door. We
eventually ended up with about 18 (there was a sign in sheet for Dale), the
food was great and plentiful, the wine flowed freely and the desserts were
outstanding. Dale had door prizes for answering trivia questions and was
grateful to have seen so many faces that he's gotten to know only through the
magic medium of email. He left to head back to San Jose and Matteo, who had
been circling the block for almost 40 minutes finally double parked and came
in, having eaten Mex in the Mission and I directed him to the best of the
illegal parking places where he was least likely to get a ticket and we could
see the car. The party atmosphere continued out in front of the place and was
still going when they closed. Other entertainment was Joel Metz's incredibly
practical (and well traveled) work bike that he RODE there in the rain, and
Bob Freitas returned the Montelatici (mon-tel-AH-tee-chee) frame that I left
at his house to tempt him with. The man has inhuman fortitude and too many
pending projects. So this naked frame provided a lot of entertainment
(unfortunately, after Dale had left) and was pretty much admired by all. The
last 4 of us drifted away after 11 PM. Earlier, I scored a 100,000 Lira note
from Jan Johnson. This is going to live in my Alfa to keep it happy.
It's fair to say a great time was had by all. I enjoyed meeting everyone
there!
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA