I may be going to spend the night at a beach house with Lois and Katie on Friday night. There's sleeping room for only 3, though Lois said that more could come for hanging out on the sand/chatting/partying. I'm not sure it's Friday night, though. That depends on her, and she's out of town until Tuesday. I hope it is, I think, because that seems the most reasonable night to try to squeeze it in. It would be nice to have others come hang out though. I'd like that lots.

At some point I'm under orders to buy chocolate for Greg's coworker and supervisor who made it possible for him to have the time off while I'm gone. Would that fit in with anyone's plans?

Didn't Deb say that Scharffenberger chocolate (quite possibly one of the best on the planet) is kosher? 'Cause the factory is in Berkeley and offers tours. Lemme see if I can find a schedule.

Aha. Found it. The tour schedule can be found through this link. Tours are free but reservations are recommended.

I certainly want to find time to hang out with Deena. Of course, I want to find time to hang out with everyone.

Scarffenberger cooking chocolate certainly gets great reviews. I wonder if it's cheaper there. If so, I wonder if large amounts of chocolate in my luggage would set off any alarms.

Didn't Deb say that Scharffenberger chocolate (quite possibly one of the best on the planet) is kosher?

Yes, it is, and not only that, it's cruelty-free; they use only known Central American sources, they guarantee it, no slave or child labour to pick or process the beans. And no, it's actually more expensive at the factory, for some reason; but they carry it at excellent prices at Whole Foods (we have two of them here in SF). They also carry theloose weighed unsweetened cocoa (which, alas, is no longer kosher because the kosher wrappings are opened at the store and then reweighed into small individual containers of different weights). But all the wrapped chocolate is in fact kosher. I was going to see if Nilly wanted a quickie wander through Whole Foods, because a) they have a ton of kosher goodies, and b) the SOMA branch is three minutes by car from Trader Joes, which has even more kosher food.

Deb, Nilly will have a chance to see both Whole foods and TJ's here with me, if she wants, and it seems like there might be more time for it down here.

Yikes- being away from the Buffistas for so many hours a day must be the downside to this job! They actually make me work now. What-evah.

Will you still be able to hang out on Tuesday night? Or Monday night? Our spare bedroom is Nilly-ful, but we have a less glamorous but still very comfy couch if you don't want to do a round trip to Maine in one day.

Nora, I'd love to grab a piece of your couch, but its highly unlikely that I'll get two days in a row off. (I'll probably be kissing a fair amount of heiney to get the one.) But if I do, I'm there! As far as the trip, if a good deal of Tuesday's fun will be taking place in Boston proper, I'll most likely take the train in. (It's such fun!) This could take me out of dinner plans if they are in Somerville, depending on when the last train runs, or is there an easily accessible T stop? I don't know my outside-Boston geography terribly well.

We have Whole Foods here and they have Scharffenberger chocolate, but they don't have the cocoa.

Lee, perfect - she's got, what, three more days down there than up here, and definitely more time to play in Whole Foods.

yep, plus both it and TJ's are within walking distance of my place.

Excellence. Grab one of the TJ Kosher brochures, when you walk in - it's four pages long and incredibly useful.