Mmmm, Afghan food and cheerful, mellow conversation with Katie Bee; K-Bug and C. being smart, funny, quirky teenage girls (and doing so ridiculously well at socializing all night long with a tableful of grown-ups, about a million times better than I would have at 15); smonster doing incredibly graceful belly-dancing twists and arcs of her upper body to Italian dance music; juliana gorgeous in black velvet; MG, deb and Sparky entirely too far away at the other end of the table; Sparky's DH at the Steps of Rome with his lascivious lemon sorbet and unwillingness to play "Gay or Eurotrash?" (really, why would the man refuse to fellate a lemon peel in public to lure the caffe owner, why?), but still utterly charming. Plus, possibly the best cup of coffee I've ever had in my life. OMG so freaking good.

All Thursday nights should be like this, only Katie Bee and the MG's should stay for dessert, and MG and deb and Sparky shouldn't sit so far away next time.

only Katie Bee and the MG's should stay for dessert

They should also play "Green Onions".

I called and reset my room (thanks Deb!) The guy got kind of shirty when I insisted on a new confirmation ("It's been reset in the system, it should be fine"), but I don't care. So, now I have a non smoking room, but it has a king bed instead of two doubles *sigh*

NoiseDesign, I have the same problem with cigarette smoke that you do, so I'm glad to have the non-smoking-ness of the rooms confirmed. Though I'm still not sure if I'll be staying at the hotel or begging couch space from a localista.

Also, quiet yay for ChiKat and BF maybe-hopefully being able to come!

Heh. I was having an achey night last night, and sitting upstairs in the Lady Psychiatriste's booth at Vesuvios before dinner with juliana brought back a bunch of weepy-making stuff, so I was all bittersweet and boring through dinner. But dinner was wonderful, the company was superb, and I loved the hot Italian boy at the Steps of Rome snogging on me. Of course, what he really wanted was for my daughter to come back, but I'll take it.

Yeah, the idea of anyone having a problem getting a non-smoking room in San Francisco, of all places, is beyond absurd. Hell, I didn't know they even offered smoking rooms anymore.

I hadn't anticipated any problem finding a non smoking room in San Francisco. I can see why Sparky was thrown at the notion. Yay for getting that cleared up. I've stayed in smoking rooms on trips before and vowed to never do so again, because yuck!

I still love my smoking friends, but smokey linens are another matter altogether

Grump -- I just checked Jet Blue, and as I suspected, it's the most expensive option for NYC-Oakland. (I honestly have no clue where they get off calling themselves a discount airline -- IME, they're nearly always the priciest flight around.)

OK. Here we go.

Just had the nice conversation with Eva at HICC. This is nice and straightforward.

EVERY ROOM in our block is a non-smoking room. Smokers, do not panic, mes amies; every room has its own little balcony, where smoking is allowed. So you can smoke on your own private balcony. Not an issue, not even remotely.

Vortex, bebe, am emailing you. Eva wants your confirmation number; she's going to change you back to a double-bedded room. Can you e me?

deb, insent.

Afghani restaurant was yum. The company was stellar. Teens amazingly poised in the midst of snarky grownups teasing them about the way those cell phones kept going off. Sad to miss dessert; happy to see all the good people (and imagine those of you not attending).

If anybody thinking of F2Fing gets a fabulous price flying into San Jose; ping me. It's not too far south of Hayward and a ride could be arranged.