I guess I'm the first one up Sunday. I wanted to be first in line at the angioplasty lab after that delicious meal of steak and NY cheesecake (OK, so I coulda' had the berries).

I arrived at Newark at around 5:30 last night after an absolutely splendid flight. (I'll try to make a trip report.) Caught the Olympia Trails bus to the Port Authority. There was an ominous parking lot in front of exit 15 (or is it 16?) at the toll booth getting off the NJ Turnpike. Another one at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. To make a long story unbearable, I didn't get into The City (the other one) until 7:15. So rather than check in to my hotel, I cabbed it to Ruth Chris and got there just after 7:30.

The gang had already moved to our private dining room upstairs. Folks were standing around having drinks, so I didn't feel late.

Dinner itself was great. Catman had arranged a set menu for $65 + tip, a terrific thing as we were liberated from the drudgery of making choices and figuring out who owed what. The dinner consisted of trays of hot and cold appetizers (seared tuna, cocktail prawns, smoked salmon, stuffed mushrooms, and crabmeat stuffed prawns), a nice green salad, choice of main course (filet, NY strip, lamb, and salmon filet), creamed spinach, onion rings, and choice of dessert (NY cheesecake or fresh berries with cream). Every course was delicious, and the steaks were huge and purrfectly (sorry, I had to sneak that in there once) prepared.

We enjoyed each others company until about 12:30 AM when the party broke up. Some of the highlights of the evening (in no particular order) from where I was sitting were:

- PremEx's designed a wonderfully clever label for the "Cateau Blanchard" wine he brought to the dinner. I really hope he or Catman puts it up on the Catman-do web site.

- Boomer, Vulcan, Catman, and NJDavid gave a little presentation of FlyerTalk's very own Freddie award. Randy had sent the award out for the dinner, and is making an acrylic replicate that can be sent around to various FT events. (The original is lead crystal.) Given the presenters, it was like getting our Freddie from the Sopranos - if you closed your eyes, you could hear Tony, Christopher, Uncle, and Pussy doing the presentation.

- There were lots of new folks to meet at the Do. It was a pleasure putting names to some of the new (for me) faces. Great to finally meet NJDavid and Helen, doc, onefreeman, raeban, Jim_B, RichG, AnnaS, Boomer, Beckles, Camera Guy, and NJFlyer.

- And of course it was great to see all my old friends, too.

- Punki's wore a fabulous velvety scarf that she had bought herself as a post Christmas present. I couldn't take my hands off it all night. As usual, Punki was dressed to kill, and tons of fun to hang out with.

- Rudi bought a small bag of what were absolutely the best chocolates I have ever eaten. (And I've eaten a lot of chocolate in my lifetime.) They were champagne truffles from Teutscher. Unfortunately, we have a Teutscher in San Francisco...

- My seatmates were PremEx and wingless2 (junior member) to my right, and flyme2 and Brigitte on my left. So as you can guess, I had wonderful, stimulating dinner conversation.

- Rudi came over to our table after dinner and shared the itinerary for his trip with us. I'll leave the details for him to disclose, but I think it's the all time winner for status miles per dollar.

- As he was leaving, Quiet Lion made a remark that left me incapacitated with laughter for about 5 minutes. I'm not sure why it struck me so funny, but I haven't had a laugh like that for a long time.

- On top of putting all the details together, Catman wrote touching tributes to each of us and passed them out during the dinner. What a sweet, generous soul.

- Dr. Burkey very thoughtfully brought me some medicines that I might need in Colombia next week in case I don't follow his advice and drink the water or eat fresh fruits and vegetables. During the dinner, he also came over to me and in kind of hushed tones told me, "Young man, I've got one word for you. Immodium." Thanks, burkey, for looking out for me.

- And finally, it wouldn't be a complete report without mentioning that there was a bit of a problem with the check at the end. I won't bore you with the details - they aren't important - but I was impressed with the way that from what I could tell, everyone involved conducted themselves with an extreme amount of grace under pressure in what could have been a very difficult situation.

Well, on to brunch...

....did anyone find AuH2O yet?

Kudos to Catman and to all those who helped to make the "DO" so wonderful for all those attending.

Sondra and I want to say "Thank you, Catman" for a wonderfull evening with old friends and new friends. We look forward to Montreal in July.
IT WAS FUN!

We had a great time with everyone at the DO!

It was nice to finally put faces with the names.

Thank you to Catman for planning and hosting a GREAT event. I look forward to attending more FT events.

Merci, merci beaucoups, monsieur le chat!

I wish to thank everyone for coming to the BIG DO DINNER and making it the most special night of the most special weekend of my life. Seeing the smiles and the laughs and the good times and the friendship and the LOVE made me feel I think I did a good job. And I feel that (in spite of one problem at the end) that the whole event can be considered a great success.

There are so many people to thank for this so I'll mention a few: Kristie, Alicia and Bob at Ruths Chris Steakhouse for helping keeping everyone happy, Boomer and Claire for coming over early to set everything up, and a special FOUR PAWS UP to my BIG BRUDDAR PREMEX/MR. LOVE for the special wine and most of all for being such a true friend.

Promise that next year for the CATMAN DO IN NYC, 2001 that the dinner will be PRE PAID and that we ALL do it in warmer weather (May I propose April or May, 2001?) It will happen, hopefully with all of you and more friends.

I love all of you!

PS: whatever "controversy" regarding AuH20 and myself is between just the two of us and remains CLASSIFIED.

ONly Yaz and Eddie know the true story.

PSS: Shadow please use a better choice of words than the other work that begins with P to describe your feelings. CMDR CATCOP is not amused.

Also, where is my acting CMDR CATCOP newself???

Sunday afternoon:

Well it has indeed been a fabulous adventure here in NYC. I am sooooo sorry that we missed out on the (what I am sure will become legendary) party in Catman's suite Friday night, but perhaps seeing the pictures will make me feel less tragic about not seeing The Koko Man in real life this time.

We had a fabulous afternoon--lunch at our place with AnnaS, JimB, Burkey, ausTXHiker, Joe and I, after which we headed up to The Essex House and checked out Anna, Burkey and Catman's suites. We hung out at Catman's for a bit and then came back home for a quick nap before walking down to dinner.

What a joy it was to meet the new folks and, of course, to see all our old friends. (Please note that PremEx is a long time friend, not an old friend. He likes me to make that distinction.)

In my role as Official Flyer Talk Delivery Girl, I received the arturo OMNI award and successfully rejected all bribes to reveal his address. I love you arturo and will never, never tell any of our secrets.

Private Note to arturo: The notorious and larger than life Roving Rudi had stuffed your award with fabulous (reportedly even better than SEX, or maybe it was better with SEX) chocolates, which he instructed me to distribute throughout the crowd. I would have saved them all for you, but it would have started a revolution and I am too old for all that fighting. I carefully handed them out one by one (although my friend Quiet Lion, who always flies first class, tried to get more than his share. That boy reminds me of me.)

Suffice it to say that a Grand Time was had by all.

We barely woke up in time for brunch--we all met up at The Essex House at 10:00 am. RichG offered his service as tour guide to the PATH and only Joe and I were brave enough to add an extra added adventure to the morning. If you ever get a chance to wander around Manhattan with RichG, snag it quick. He is a walking, talking history lesson with a head full of interesting facts and figures about The City.

We had a grand brunch on Hudson. What a great day. What a great group. Afterward Catman, Onefreeman, Raeban, Joe, JimB and I walked up to the subway (I LOVE THE SUBWAY) and headed north. Onefreeman, Raeban and Catman got off at 34th to check out the Empire State Building and the rest of us went on up to Times Square where we deboarded and started a beautiful sunshine day walk over to 5th, the Library, Grand Central, The Roosevelt and then up toward Central Park. JimB had to catch a plane so he split before Joe and I walked over to Bloomingdales just to make certain that there were no Gift Specials on my most necessary unguents and potients. What is a trip to NYC without a few new unguents and potients?????

We then snagged the N/R back home and here we are kicking back, resting up for another dinner with Fab FT Friends.

Rest, rest, rest.

More Later.

[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 03-19-2000).]

You know how you develop "faces" for people that you haven't met but have 'corresponded' with?

After reading SOOOO many posts, especially ones from 'events' I am scared to meet everyone....I like the world I have developed in my mind!

Dorian

Kudos to Catman for arranging a wonderful do!

I had a birthday party to go to last night and couldn't make the dinner, but did make the brunch today which was lots of fun.

It was nice finally putting faces with names and I enjoyed meeting Catman, QuietLion & HoneyBear, Punki & Joe, Burkey, AnnaS, Rudi, QuantamLeap & Marie, and NJFlyer. If I left anyone out (and I know I have), forgive me, it was my 1st FlyerTalk event (and certainly not my last) and I was a bit overwhelemed...

This is the 4 time ACTING CMDR CATCOP..newself

And just as my friend Shadow says, I too am pi**ed off that I could not make it to the DO!

Well, as others have described so well, we all had a blast, and the Cat put together quite the four paws up event!! After the brunch, AnnaS and I shared a cab back to the Essex House, as she had a flight to catch, and I needed to checkout and head to Penn Station for not so trusty Amtrak (yeah, I know that's a dirty word around here) back to Philly. And of course, in true Amtrak style, there were about 200 people on board the southbound NorthEast Direct train that were standing without seats. Luckily, I was not one of them!!

Looking forward to the Triple-DO next year!


dgolds: no, no, no... that was no piecerings, young man Have a great trip and don't let anyone talk you into transporting a package back to their grandmother in the States

Couldn't make the DO, planning a party for Caitlin (the big oh-five). Really sorry I missed it.

Funny story: We took Caitlin out to dinner Saturday night, and she got a "conehead sundae" for dessert.

The waitress arrives, looks at me and asks, "Conehead?"

I replied, "That's so cruel! I thought the hat covered it!"

My wife almost blew Lemonade out her nose. Waitress stood there with a puzzled look on her face.


------------------
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Dinner was great ... I walked dgolds back to his hotel (good thing too since he wanted to head the wrong way based on some faulty information he got somewhere) and made sure that auh2o had made it back there safely (he had).

Walked back to the Grand Hyatt (this hotel was not as bad as I thought it would be after the horror stories I'd read here ...) and collapsed into bed ... woke up around 9:00 and called auh2o, he told me he'd get up and get ready and to call back in an hour ... called back in an hour and he had fallen back to sleep ... told him to hurry his ... up ...

He gets to the Hyatt and we hop a cab to MSG to try and score some tickets for the big Knicks/Lakers game ... we arrived about half way through the first quarter, and there were plenty of tickets to be had on the street ... we scored a couple of nice tickets about 15 rows up between the corner and behind the back board for $200/each. The game was very good, though the Lakers pulled away in the end (we were hoping for overtime to really get our money's worth).

After the game we hopped a cab back to the Hyatt, had a light lunch, then walked across the street to the bus for JFK for auh2o and I walked around the block for the bus to EWR.

The flight back was uneventful.