state of the chanaleh, pre-Thanksgiving edition

[chanaleh]

It's Tuesday! Hence, I'm working from home. Well, I would be if I were doing any work at the moment. I'm waiting on feedback on the catalog project, but I do have page proofs on which I should input my final copy edits so I can order a set of lasers for the author. But, I tell myself, it needn't be right this minute. Right?

To get it out of the way, I will report that there is still no real progress on the wedding-planning front; we are stuck firmly in procrastination mode. Still planning on 8/31/08, but until we sign something officially with a venue, at least, it's hard to consider that really sealed up. The only thing I've been looking into with any enthusiasm is wedding dresses, and even that is hard to sustain (I may make a separate post with all the gory details, but will elide them for now).

The novel thing this Thanksgiving is that, no, I'm not traveling; my dad and stepmother are coming HERE for it. (This will, in fact, be the first time my dad gets to meet Tiger Boy. The TigerParents are also coming up, and we're making dinner at muchabstracted's house, which, unlike our place, has a dining room.) They arrive tomorrow night and are leaving early-early Saturday morning. Thus, we have roughly two days: Thursday cozied up in the house, and Friday out-and-about (not sure yet where to take them, though there is no shortage of museum ideas). They're staying at the Hyatt Regency on Mem Drive -- a.k.a. the new Arisia ziggurat hotel -- so that'll be fun.

Speaking of Arisia, I've been idly pondering two things: (a) the MuffinButtons question. I *thought* I filled out the dealer waiting list form ages ago, but I never heard back from anyone; and seeing as they have only a dealers' ROW no dealers' ROOM this year, I haven't decided if it makes sense for me to even apply. And (b) the Shabbat dinner question -- should the Boston/tremontstshul folks try to do one?? Our Kabbalat Shabbat service last year was freakin' awesome (thanks to host redknight), and made us all go "Hey, we should include a dinner next year"... but although I do now have a fleishig crockpot, it still seems a fairly complicated proposition overall. Any interested hosts this year?

November, of course, has been Community Theater Month, since all shows must by local ordinance be performed between Halloween and Thanksgiving. The Longwood Players' Importance of Being Earnest (starring the ever-adorable justom) was tremendously enjoyable, right down to the set changes. mitgsp's Pinafore was, well, a little bland, I thought, but still charming. As for theatreatfirst's 12 Angry Men Jurors... truth be told, even the movie doesn't wow me that much, despite (or maybe because of?) just having had jury duty myself the week before opening. Still, it was fun to watch this production just for my internal game of rate-the-actors (who's really brilliant and natural, who's kinda wooden, who pulls off the best accent, who's the cutest...). And I managed to tag along to the post-party, which was a lovely time and thoroughly reinforced my resolve to try out for Much Ado About Nothing in January. I'm also really looking forward to dragging Tiger Boy to Sudbury's Yeomen of the Guard in February.

The last happening of note in the past few weeks has been getting not one but two shout-outs from grade school: one on Facebook, from an old friend of my little brother's; the other here on LJ from someone I've always secretly hoped would someday look me up, and finally did. *waves to ksn* *looks expectantly at email inbox*

Oh yeah, and: The Menschen Take Manhattan! Honorable Menschen are going to be performing at the JCC in Manhattan next spring, on a Shabbat afternoon, which looks like it's going to be March 22 (immediately after Purim). All you NYers, consider yourselves alerted.

And now, I should go do something useful with the rest of the day, snow notwithstanding. One of my tasks for Thursday is the cranberry relish, and I can do that today. And clean house before my dad comes to see it. And tend to the ailing Tiger Boy (sore throat, poor baby). And lay out the shul newsletter for December. And finish those page proofs.

Comments

[noghri.livejournal.com]

The Longwood Players' Importance of Being Earnest (starring the ever-adorable justom) was tremendously enjoyable, right down to the set changes.

No kidding! If you still have the program, go look at the crew under 'Electricians'...

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's awesome. I must admit I did not, in fact, read the program At All (partly because we arrived at ninety seconds to curtain, and partly because the program was thoughtfully set in six-point type).

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

I am cautiously optimistic about doing a Shabbat dinner at Arisia. We used to host one at the massage den for a couple of years, after all. And this year Steve and I will have an actual room to ourselves for most of the weekend, somewhere around floor 4 or 5. I think I'd be willing to *help* host, but I wouldn't want to organize it all by myself. Want to join our superpowers? ;)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

As we're now at T-1.5 weeks, I will email you shortly to discuss. :-)

[gilana]

I would love for there to be a shabbos dinner at Arisia. I can't volunteer to host, but I'd be happy to help in some way.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

As we're now at T-1.5 weeks, I will email you shortly to discuss. :-)

[laurion]

8/31/08? Good luck. We were looking at venues over the summer for 9/08, and fully half of the places we were looking at did not have the weekend we wanted, and many of them had no weekends in that month. A few had none until late, late 08.

Let me know if you need some moral support on the wedding front from someone who is also going through it.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Methinks you and we may have different requirements in a venue. :-}

We put our names in at more than one place, when we first started looking in August. One of those, of course, is a hotel now being sold, and they no longer hold dates "within a year" without an accompanying deposit... fuckers. But they do appear to still have that Sunday open. If we wanted it, which we don't. I think maybe Labor Day weekend is less in demand, and Sunday evenings likewise to begin with.

[laurion]

True that. We wanted a Saturday, owing to not wanting to keep people out the day before work, and given that the Unitarian minister has a congregation to deal with on Sundays. Overall, Saturdays are the most popular day, and September is the second most poplar month (behind June), plus we had a severe limitation in what places we _could_ look at, given the larger number of guest we expect.

[jessruth.livejournal.com]

The Menschen Take Manhattan!

Yay for officialness! Consider our crash space officially available. I'll be on Spring Break the whole week prior to that, FYI.

Let the planning begin!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Well, normally I'd offer to come up earlier in the week, but that Thursday is Purim, so -- I don't know. We'll have to see. :-) Anyway, yay and thanks!

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

"I *thought* I filled out the dealer waiting list form ages ago"

At this point the Dealers' Row is mostly full.

You probably could snag a corner of someone's room on Dealers' Row if you want to vend.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Well, I expected that, but there might be a big difference between Mostly Full and All Full. :-}

What I did last year was snag a table in the lobby for the last hour of Sunday and set up illicitly informally... which was easily done since (unlike most vendors) everything I have fits in a single box anyway! But, the major incentive for a full-scale vendor implementation would be to pay *for* a room, so I'm not all that fussed about it overall, truth be told. Thank you though -- I may keep an ear out for potential sharers.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

I also thought you submitted an application, but I don't see one in my email.

We just had someone cancel, so there might be room. (I no longer run Dealers, so I don't know the details of what's going on.)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I would love for there to be a group Shabbos dinner! I've really missed it since people started fragmenting off into smaller groups a couple years ago. It was always so nice to start the weekend with that feeling of unity. Plus often it was the only chance I got to talk to people; last year there was one couple who I literally didn't see until they were leaving on Sunday night. I'm definitely willing to help organize (I can liase to the Konspiracy if you like), would have to check with S. as to whether he's OK with hosting in our room.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Nice! Liaising to the Konspiracy hadn't occurred to me as a possibility, actually -- part of the problem I was hoping to address is that we 'outsiders' never even know that existing small-group things are planned, much less how to wangle an invitation. So I guess what I was expecting was setting up another fragment. :-} But I'd be really happy to merge into a larger group... esp. if we can still hold davening beforehand like we did last year. Maybe we can reverse the trend of Shabbalkanization!

But, this does raise the question: how large could such a group potentially become, and is a normal hotel room enough to hold it? :-D redknight had a party suite last year, the living room of which was perfect for the davening.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Love the new word! Joining the KK isn't so much a matter of being invited as of figuring out who the listmistress is and asking to be added. It's pretty informal. (FYI: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KosherKonspiracy/ ) But I'm happy to liase if that's easier.

As for where... I'm a little out of the loop on available space b/c I took the year off to unpack. But if we can find someone with a suite who's willing to let us use it, that would be ideal.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention, I asked redknight about it and he's all for holding a dinner in his suite after services, but won't have the room early enough to do much food prep there. More to come via email! :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Very cool! In-room prep shouldn't be necessary, people usually bring stuff that's ready to eat.

[cheesyhill.livejournal.com]

November, of course, has been Community Theater Month, since all shows must by local ordinance be performed between Halloween and Thanksgiving

Don't forget Pippin which is actually going *in* the weekend of Thanksgiving (*grumble*) and opens the Friday thereafter...

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Oh, right. I've already been volunteered to come help you put in. Maybe my lighting wrench will actually get USED this time, instead of serving as an anti-work talisman. ;-)

[awhyzip.livejournal.com]

... but although I do now have a fleishig crockpot, it still seems a fairly complicated proposition overall. Any interested hosts this year?

Or you know there's um always the possiblity of eating an -- I won't call it "meal" -- but, you know, shabbat dinner event with MILCHIK food?

Just putting it out there :-)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yes, because you know, I so rarely schedule or countenance dairy Shabbat meals. >:-)

Point is, I don't have a milchig crockpot, I have a fleishig crockpot!