Aw, Nora, how nice! Anniversaries are important and should be celebrated in a way that's important to the two of you. You will be missed, though.

returning to our old stomping grounds of Somerville and Cambridge for the weekend!

Redbones in the offing, I hope? Also, congrats on 5 years!!

So jealous of the Atlanta F2F talk.

Bay Area-istas (and anyone else visiting the area) - just a reminder about brunch on April 21st at my place, 11am for Daisy Jane.

Redbones *and* NERAX!

NERAX!

Some year I will actually get to that. *sigh*

Oh well, this year I'll be representing the great town of Salem at the F2F!

Hey, Nora -- As I won't be at the F2F either, if you and Tom want to take a break from Ale-ing and walk on over to Chez Jon (& FAQWife), let us know!

ooh! we shall see, Jon, I think I have your lovely wife's cell number in my cell phone still (from a prior getting-together).

Perhaps we can get together at Redbones?

Now that more people have committed, we really need to decide what we're doing about Prom. Both of the polls have indicated that only about 20 people are coming, but that may be low.

Using the ballroom would be a net cost of about $900 (since we'd pay less for the hospitality suite), plus food plus drinks plus bartender. I think we can bring in party trays pretty inexpensively, but we're still talking about dividing up about $1,300. The advantages of the ballroom are:

• It's in the hotel.
• We'll have it all day, so we can use it for other things
• We can dance and have our own music

Disadvantages:

• Cost
• More work for us, since we'll have to arrange food, buy drinks, hang a disco ball, etc.

Alternately we could go down the street to Manuel's. The room would probably be free and they have some pretty reasonable party trays, plus people can also order whatever they want. However, the drinks would have to be purchased from the bar.

Advantages:

• Cost (Most of the cost would be paid by people ordering food and drink, not a lump sum.)

Disadvantages:

• Not entirely separate from the rest of the bar
• Can't really have own music

There are a couple of more restaurants around that have rooms for private parties, but we'd have to drive, although not far, and many of them will want $40+ per person. Also, the dancing and music thing will probably be a problem.

Can everyone who's coming weigh in on this?

I like the convenience of the hotel - good to have my room nearby for changing or retreating, as needed. I think the decorating and getting food and so forth would end up being another fun Buffista thing to do, especially if it really is a small group.