Hey guys - the time is almost here!

[reynardo]

Firstly, please welcome sclerotic_rings and his good wife czarina69, who have indicated they want to meet up with us as well.

Secondly, every single one of you who has so helped us with this evil plan is as always entitled to full accommodation and meals at Chez reynardo and lederhosen, and an excess of hugs.

I can't believe it - less than four weeks until we get to meet panacea1 and check out the new house - er... it will be ready then, right?

Less than 5 weeks until we freak out jazzmasterson and harliquinn at their pre-wedding bonfire. And get to meet so many other lovely people in person, top of the list being the glorious mdsteele47 and the wonderful binxcat - the hugs will be enormous.

And then to deor and malada's, then on to torin3, and further to the glorious silmaril, with possible other meetings in between, then finishing up with the incredible skwerlbuddy.

And volcanoes. Can't forget volcanoes.

So - on to the finalisation.

Saturday 17th September arrive Manchester on flight CO 2612 at 10:23am. Pick up by panacea1 and Moxie - and abuse their hospitality until Tuesday 20th. Get driven to Portland, Maine, and pick up the hire car, then off to Lunenburg.

Tuesday to Firday Morning at the Mayo's in Mass - they're getting a copy of this too.

Friday am drive down to Tolland where we are staying at the lovely Tolland Inn. Drag out the warm clothes, then head off to the bonfire party - mdsteele47, could we beg an exact address from you?

Then the wedding on the 24th, and I am assuming something quiet on the Sunday the 25th September.

Then we drive to New York State. deor and malada, could we have a confirmation from you that it's ok to for us to drive to Syracuse then get picked up from there?

OK - sclerotic_rings, where would you like to fit in with this? We can head to Tolland, CT, a day early to catch up with you (and we'll have a car), or put aside the Sunday for you.

Monday afternoon the wonderfully generous torin3 picks us up at Johnson City, then Tuesday we head to Washington and I finally get to spend time in the Air and Space Museum without it being 95% under wraps (you yankees adn your derned Bicentennary preparations).

And Wednesday 28th evening we fly to Los Angeles, unless my beloved lederhosen wishes this to change.

Which then brings me to the other side. I very very much want to re-meet darkrosetiger, and meet chaos_rose, but alas, Sacramento is a bit too far north this time. But chaos_rose, we're in LA until Sunday 5th evening - what say you to a lunch or dinner somewhere in that time? We'll be staying in Anaheim, but can undoubtedly meet up somewhere - I know we're going to the La Brea Tar Pits at some stage too.

We still haven't booked our flight from Washington/Dulles to LA, which I need to do in the next couple of days, because time is getting on.

The sooner I have confirmation, the sooner I'm onto it.

Oh - and we're bringing in suitcases of Tim Tams, and bringing out industrial quantities of maple syrup.

[*Deep Breath*]


A full list of the previous posts can be found under here.

Comments

[mdsteele47.livejournal.com]

Ask and ye shall receive. The bonfire is at 140 Route 6, Columbia, CT. It's a bit tricky to find from Suicide Six, so I'm betting it will be rather flagrantly marked. Information and a detailed map will be included in invitations, should the happy couple ever get their act together and send them out. *ahem*

But I digress.

Will you be cell phone-equipped during your stay? Perhaps an exchange of digits would be in order as a failsafe.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

You want to cut your fingers off and give them to us? Well, ok. But we have a set of chocolate toes in our freezer already...

oh. You mean like in numbers???

Probably safe - and I should have a new phone by then (I ran over mine. Shaddup).

For you Yankees to call or SMS our cellphones, +61410410598 for mine and +61422653526 for lederhosen. Don't forget the "+" sign. But it works - we've been SMS-ing Josh and Cec for weeks now.

[mdsteele47.livejournal.com]

Damn, I wonder if I can get that bloody package back from the US Postal Service now...

You can find me at 412.480.2994. I have no idea if you have to tack on a +011 or not, but I'll bet you do. And the phone is SMS-capable.

You silly Aussies and your lack of phone number punctuation...

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

You know, if you really wanted to give up the piano playing, there are easier ways to do it.

The phone number is noted (and will be loaded in both our phones), and sorry, I wrote that reply far too early in the morning.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

I'm not making any promises as to non-jungle gardens and heaps of boxes and things hung properly on walls and such, but we'll unbury the spare bed and have pillows, if not Real Furniture, for sitting on.

Heck, we'll probably have furniture. We've GOT furniture. It's just not in the living room. Okay, some of it's in the living room, but that's not the stuff wot actually BELONGS in the living room...

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

So you want to rename me "couch girl"?

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

1) Smirk when you say that. >:E

2) If you -want- the Urgly Green Couch O' Doom... but I think the bed in the guest/computer/junk/storage room is probably more comfortable.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

As long as I can give it a quick vaccuum before bedtime, or if possible could DamnCat not be allowed too much access to it. I will be bringing anti-sneezing tablets but I probably should have mentioned the allergy before now. Nothing too drastic - as long as I know they're around I can deal with cats. Love them, in fact. Had one for years before the allergy raised its ugly head.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Aw, nuts. We simply won't be able to make it: the finances right now are so bad that I'm going to be lucky to buy myself dinner for my birthday. Sorry: if someone has a spare winning lottery ticket that they aren't using, then things might change, but I don't see it happening.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Bummer.

And doubly so.

Alas, then we'll just have to wait until you make your pilgrimage down here for the Wollomi Seedling distribution to get to meet you.

I did mention, didn't I, that I used to live in the Blue Mountains and still have close friends there?

[deor.livejournal.com]

Then the wedding on the 24th, and I am assuming something quiet on the Sunday the 25th September.

Then we drive to New York State. deor and malada, could we have a confirmation from you that it's ok to for us to drive to Syracuse then get picked up from there?

IIRC you're planning to arrive in Syracuse sometime afternoon (?). Can you pin it down a bit tighter as the time nears? Also, if you're dropping off a rental car there, it would help us to know which one/where so as to arrange convenient pickup.

BTW, there's damn-all to do in Binghamton on a Sunday night. GUess that means we'll have you all to ourselves. *evil cackle*

[mdsteele47.livejournal.com]

I'm going to guess it's going to be LATE, given the distance from central CT to Syracuse... that's about a 5.5-hour drive. Probably a good idea to check the drop-off point to make sure they're open, rey.

[deor.livejournal.com]

I hope it's not too late. I don't want to be trying to find my way around Syracuse after dusk, or driving back from Syracuse to Binghamton either. Don't know the city well enough for the first thing, and too many damn deer on the roads late in the day for the other.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Won't the deerest eb in the car?

*ducks*

More importantly, the car hire place is open until midnight, but we'll be a lot earlier than that - I was thinking (from what mdsteele47 said that about 5-ish sounds good), but there's a bundle of other places available in New York state. I am almost completely ignorant of your layout, so are any of the following better?

* Albany
* Buffalo
* Elmira / Corning
* Islip
* Mac Arthur
* New Windsor
* Newburgh
* Rochester
* White Plains.

And do tell - is Rochester named after the Earl?

[deor.livejournal.com]

All of those are further from us than Syracuse; some of them are several hours away. What rental business are you using?

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Alamo. Most of the others wanted obscene rates for one-ways.

We'll work it out - besides, don't the deer wear bright orange vests anyway?
(Ref: Tom Lehrer)

[mdsteele47.livejournal.com]

Depending on how you wish to split up driving, Newburgh might make some sense. It's about 140 miles shorter (and more direct) from Tolland CT to Newburgh. The tradeoff is it's 70 miles longer from Newburgh to Bingo as compared to Syracuse. More miles on the second leg, but the overall trip would be shorter.

OK, I'll stop back-seat driving now...

[deor.livejournal.com]

Monday afternoon the wonderfully generous torin3 picks us up at Johnson City,

Torin, we'll need to get you directions to our house. Please email me (kylinn(at)gmail(dot)com) with where you're coming from, and we'll send you directions.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

1) Find Binghamton / Johnson City on map.

2) Take exit.

3) Drive randomly in circles for awhile.

4) Stop at Burger King.

5) Look them up in the phone book.

6) Call and say "I'm within a few miles of your house at the Burger King on such-and-so street."

7) Wait for someone to come Lead You Home (tm).

;-)

*cough*

[deor.livejournal.com]

:-P

[torin3.livejournal.com]

E-mail sent. Any particular time work to pick up our guests?

[fluffy-cloud.livejournal.com]

Yea! I get to harrass you when you get to Anaehim!

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

I still don't think we've forgiven you and your family for introducing us to Krispy Kremes.

Am *so* looking forward to seeing you again, and meeting your man.

[torin3.livejournal.com]

Btw, the Air and Space Museum is now at two locations. There is a new large hangar. I'm assuming you would like to go to both?

Also, while we have discussed tim-tams and violet crumbles....is there anyway while you are out that we could see the awesome art that went along with 'The Eye of Argon'?

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Now I'm confused - I suppose I'll have to hit the website and decide.

And Violet Crumbles and Tim Tams are go.

er... which art to do with the Eye of Argon? You don't mean there's an exhibition somewhere?

[torin3.livejournal.com]

It was my understanding that lederhosen had copies of the original artwork that went with 'The Eye of Argon'.

As for the Air & Space Museum: http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/
There is the Museum on the National Mall, and they have added The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. I don't have a problem trying to make both places.

Hey, you've waited long enough, you deserve to see both of them! We'll just leave a little earlier. Sleep? Who needs it :)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Alas, no, There was one we obtained for the happy couple-to-be, which we thought was a fair copy, but it wasn't.

The most we have are some fairly amusing pics drawn one gathering... which are deep in a box somewhere.

Our prized possessions are the autographs of Ian McKellan (on a rainbow flag) and Neil Gaiman (on two books and a t-shirt). Oh - and each other of course.

[torin3.livejournal.com]

Ok...misreading or bad memory on my part.

Will a rope bed with a futon mattress be ok to crash on while here? We have air mattress we can stack on too.

Also, would you prefer to eat out or dine in?