brenda, I honestly don't know, but I can't see any drawbacks.

I will be out of the country for about 2 weeks in May. I still need to pin down exact dates, but I'll be returning either 5/22 or 5/29 TBD and leaving 10-16 days before then, again, exact dates TBD. I need a house and cat sitter for that period of time, and will pay for those services. Perchance a Buffista would like to take a vacation during that period, take the job, and catch the F2F? Last sitter, I paid $12.50/day, but I'm open to negotiation.

The cats take some work, hence the paying for services - aside from the usual daily feeding and litter-cleaning, one cat requires daily medication - transdermal meds (aka goop) squirted on a latex-gloved finger and rubbed into an ear daily, and he may or may not require oral meds daily. All 3 cats are nice cats; none are biters or scratchers; one is The Best Cat Ever. There's also a neighborhood cat social conflict situation, which requires time to lock the cats inside on certain days and not others. I budget a minimum of ~30 minutes to cat care each AM and PM. So, no throwing food in a bowl and leaving, really, though a visitor from afar could work out overnight travel away from the house with the cooperation of my favorite neighbors. I could help you arrange 2 days-1 night at a friend's beach house for a fraction of the usual beach house rentals, esp. mid-week.

The house is pretty nice if I do say so myself -- Bay view, hardwood floors, decks, garden, queen bed. There's an empty bedroom in which another visitor(s) could sleep gratis, house/cat sitter willing, assuming an air bed. It's about a 10-minute walk from a major transit hub with regular bus service to SF and parts North and East Bay, or 3 miles from a ferry terminal with regular service to the SF Ferry Bldg., or a 15-20 minute drive to a BART station in the East Bay, or (if no traffic), a 15-20 minute drive to SF across the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a 10-minute walk to the pretty and pretty lively downtown; a 5-minute walk to the Safeway at the bottom of the hill, next to the bocce ball court, Calif. Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and good coffeehouse; and 4-block walk to a nice, pretty park with playground, open space & trails, basketball court, redwood grove, and tennis courts. My priority is obtaining quality daily care for my cats and if it could be combined with enabling a friend or a vouched-for friend of a friend to enjoy Northern Calif., so much the better. Inquiries and pet-care experience to profile addy.

We should start designing a t-shirt. I don't think we had one last year!

How did we skip the t-shirt last year? (Says the guy who didn't go, and still needs to purchase his DC shirt from two years ago.)

Hell, we couldn't even get people to attend, how the fuck were there supposed to be t-shirts?

I think we should have Phantom F2F shirts now for people who did make it.

I think we should have Phantom F2F shirts now for people who did make it.

That's a brilliant idea. Nic has a worn, ragged tee-shirt in honour of one of the American Olympic teams - from the Moscow Olympics, which the US boycotted. Phantom tees are fun.

I had a design in mind for last year's shirt, but desk shackles intruded once I got back to work.

Close-up of an archetypal Bourbon Street gaslight street lamp viewed from corner angle with the signs reading "Buffista f2f" and "2005" and Mardi Gras bead chains draped between and underneath the signs.

I wasn't there, Matt, but damn, I'd buy a shirt like that just for the cool factor.

How did we skip the t-shirt last year?

It was to confuse the vampires.