hoboken also has a 7 foot chicken, if memory serves. and terrible singing. let's not go there.

erin, are you crazy?! Buffistas, tons of bars, and a *7 foot singing chicken*?! It's like God just stepped down from Heaven announcing his existence, telling the world he's a Buffy fan and We are his Chosen People, and handed us a travel brochure engraved on a stone tablet! We HAVE to go to Hoboken!

No chance of Boreanaz showing if we do that.

a chicken whose head will knock little speakers clear off their mounting. I agree, lets avoid Hoboken.

Meara, you said something a while ago about maybe being in town this weekend?

Speaking of being in town, and that town being D.C., this time I am coming for certain. Conference is paid for, ticket is bought. In fact, I am going from SFO-BOS-IAD so that I can visit Steve over Pres Day Weekend (not scheduling any Buffista get-togethers for Boston just yet - and it's not bad this time - it's that we might go out of town for that weekend once I get there).

So, I have the nights of Tues., Wed., Thurs and Friday (Feb 16-19) to spend quality time with Buffistas in DC. I'll actually be staying at the Westin in National Harbor, but it shouldn't be too much trouble to get to a more central location. I have other friends who aren't Buffistas to visit, but they have to work around the Buffista get-togetherage.

YAY, javachik! What will your schedule be like while you're here? Only evenings free?

Yeah, conference goes from 8:30 in the morning to probably 4:30 or 5 every day. I don't think I'll get roped into any vendor activities in the evening. So I am way flexible.

X-posted w/Literary, because it seems apropos:

Seattle-istas and NoCal-isatas, a friend of mine, Carrie Jones, is book-touring in the areas next week and she writes YA that I think might appeal to many of you guys.

Her two most recent releases Need and Captivate just hit the NY Times Bestseller list. Her earlier books, Tips on Having a Gay Ex-Boyfriend and Love (and other uses for Duct Tape) were critically lauded, but it's really the Need series that's taken off.

She's a total sweetheart and I'd love to get her some support-- she's also touring with another author, Alyxandra Harvey-Firtzhenry. I don't know much about her, but she's written a vampire YA that seems to be getting some buzz as being different from the rest of the pack: Hearts at Stake.

Anyhow, details of the tour are at Carrie's LJ [link]

But here are the dates and times as well:

February 8th Third Place Books 17171 Bothell Way Lake Forest Park, WA Time TBD www.thirdplacebooks.com

February 9th Barnes and Noble 19402 Alderwood Mall Parkway Lynwood, WA Time: 7 p.m.

February 10th University of Washington Event Time: TBD

February 11th Copperfield's Books 140 Kentucky Street Petaluma, CA Time TBD www.copperfieldsbooks.com

Not Your Mother's Book Club Valentine's Bash @ Books Inc 601 Van Ness San Francisco, CA 7 pm www.notyourmothersbookclub.com

February 12th Keplers 1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA Time: 5:30

For those of us in Seattle, it could be opportunity for mini-F2F *she says ever-so-hopefully*

Finally booked my flight and car for my DFW trip. Sadly (at least I think so in terms of where localistas are), it is more Fort Worth than Dallas.

In any case, I arrive at DFW at 5ish on Thursday (2/11) and am renting a car. My TCU presentation is not until 3pm the next day. So, if anyone's interested, I could do dinner on Thursday or something in the morning or for lunch on Friday.

I would love a hotel rec for either downtown Fort Worth or around the TCU campus.