4. All our rooms will be on the 14th floor or the 12th. Those on the fourteenth will have room keys that automatically access the hospitality suite, from Thursday afternoon on. Those on the twelfth will have a second key awaiting for them at the front desk, that accesses the hospitality suite.

This = frelling awesome.

LOVE #4. That's so cool.

It's all cool! Whoo and hoo! I get more excited everyday.

Hotay. Back from Many Errands On Foot All Over Freakin' Town and What Did Universe Do Without iPods? stuff.

So, let's see. A few things I didn't get to in the above list:

1. The room block. At the moment, we have 50 "room nights" of the needed 60, at least if I'm (ugh) counting right: 8 rooms on Thursday, 15 Friday, 17 Saturday, and all 10 of the 10 reserved for Sunday. That seems to make 50. Plus, there's one reservation for the Wednesday before and two on the Monday night. And that's with a month to go before the 16 April cutoff. So I suspect we're fine, there.

2. Can I get a rough estimate - I know it's early yet and we have plenty of time - for non-guests at the hotel who will need a parking space at the hotel during Prom? I told Eva I'd try to get a her number that was at least ballpark; Matt and Beth, for instance, or Sparky, or Maidengurl or Consuela? That is, people driving for Prom but not staying at the hotel but who really would rather park in a little corner of the HICC's garage that says "reserved for Buffistas"?

3. How would you like to handle looking at the menu selections? My own take - shared with Eva and Lilibeth, who handles the catering - is that, since we have to spend a minimum anyway, we should probably get one dish for the carnivores, one for the veggievores, something with fish, and a honking big dessert tray. We're thinking refillable chafing dishes; she's very happy indeed to be working with someone who speaks cateringese.

By the way:

As people have to check out, it's a final gathering place.

Not sure I was clear - it would be ours through checkout on Sunday. IOW, through noon, which is when the hotel guests are checked out anyway.

Do we want it through Monday morning, for any reason? I'm actually thinking we might, since it appears we have ten guests on Sunday night.

Sunday afternoon it was really nice to have in DC, and if there are that many still on Monday morning, that might be good as well.

It's been nice in the past to have the HS an extra day so that after people check out on Sunday, they can hang out there until it's time to go to the airport. So even if we won't need it Sunday night necessarily, it'd be nice to have it all day.

Just poking my head in to remind folks about the A's/Giants game on Sunday. Anyone who is checking out that day will need to handle the hotel side before heading over for the game.

I believe I have 14 folks interested. There may be extra tickets available, but will know more as we get closer.

So, the general vibe is that we do want the HS until Monday? No problem, so long as we can do the finances; I'll let Eva know.

I may need a parking spot, Deb--I was thinking of taking BART in, but if I do that I have to drive anyway (from the BART station home), and would have to leave by midnight.

The hotel's really putting out the red carpet, no doubt due to your skillful negotiating! Awesome!