Poor deb and Nora. That was a tricksy joke

it made me laugh, though, and it was well timed because I was all stressed about hosting a party, and it manifested as being overly stressed about the kosher thing. But at this point I'm just going to go with the flow, and take Nilly shopping for the fewer-than-48-hours she'll be in Boston...

I may use Nilly's party on Monday as a nice excuse to visit the delicious bakery in the Brighton Whole Foods though. Allegedly, there are kosher goodies there. Even if this turns out to be a lie, I *know* they have incredibly beautiful and delicious desserts, and I'll provide for the non-kosher contingent at the very least.

I, for one, will gladly help you um...remove any goodies that might tempt Nilly. ijs.

We are down to 15 days until we are scheduled to make a choice about the city for F2F 2005. I've seen very very little information about the cities that we are deciding amongst. We really need to be looking at this stuff in the next two weeks so that we can make an informed decision about where we will be gathering in 9 months. That's right folks, it has already been 3 months since F2F 2004 in DC.

My Clorox Clean-Up has the "U" in-a-circle one.

So, if you're the right flavor of Jewish, you can eat Clorox.

Not that I recommend it.

I've seen very very little information about the cities that we are deciding amongst.

Minneapolis here. I have hotel site visits this week. So far, the top contender is the Crowne Plaza NorthStar, which is offering us $99/night rooms - single to quad occupancy, a complimentary hospitality suite, 11 wheelchair-accessible rooms, & a gorgeous Prom room. They're right downtown (actually, in the same building as my work), and very nice. The biggest drawback is the parking situation - $8.95 per day on the weekend, higher during the week (until 4 p.m. Friday).

What's public transit in minneapolis like, juliana? Would we need to rent cars?

That sounds like a wonderful place! Thanks juliana!

What's public transit in minneapolis like, juliana? Would we need to rent cars?

Public transport is good. Excellent for the size of the city, but not in comparison to New York.

The Light Rail Line will be all the way to the airport by the time the F2F rolls around, so it will be possible for people to fly in, hop the train, arrive in downtown 10 minutes later & be less than 3 blocks from the hotel. Of course, I'll be happy to ferry people around as well.

Field trips out to the Minnesota Zoo or over to St. Paul or the Wabasha Caves would best be accomplished by car or van, but there's also a lot to do right downtown.

Also, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a short bus ride away, as is the old Guthrie and the new Walker Arts Center.

When I stayed with juliana in 2002, I took buses all over the downtown area. Very fast, efficient, didn't have to wait more than a few minutes at any given time.

Downtown also has a very nice system of connected skywalks between the buildings and lots of restaurants and bars nearby (Ah, fond memories of The Local.)