I'm guessing that most, if not all, of the Nilly-related activities will be taking place in Manhattan, so staying in Brooklyn (my part of Brooklyn, anyway) will add at least half an hour to any commute.

Gotcha. You've got a castle in Brooklyn, it's where you dwell.

(The outer boroughs are the ones that aren't Manhattan -- Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx.)

Ah, of course. Total of five.

If by castle you mean one-bedroom apartment, then yes.

It's a really, really nice one-bedroom apartment. I can testify.

Can I get a witness?

In re my earlier post - yup, I've seen those little kitchen torches - they're nice for creme brulee, gratinee-ing onion soup, etc. I still remember years ago, on the old Dick Cavett Show, Julia Child gratinee-ing onion soup. Only this was before they had the kitchen torches, so she pulled out a full-size blowtorch. Mr. Cavett was startled, to say the least.

I don't know if this would be useful for the F2F or not, but American Airlines offers group discounts on groups of ten or more going to the same place. more info here

Toddson, they're also perfect for the interstices and hand-held control needed for kashering that oven.

Waiting until the very last minute before Nilly arrives to do it, so that I won't have to do it twice.

American Airlines offers group discounts on groups of ten or more going to the same place.

Dang. No AA here. Wait, that's wrong. No American Airlines here. Yes, that's what I meant.

I have got to stop whining about home. I love it here, really I do. Just not always the being in the middle of nowhere part.

I heart your tagline, libkitty.

Thanks, erikaj. I just went back and watched Bowling for Columbine. It's not quite as good as Fahrenheit, but the man is brilliant.