Dovster

Monitor, are you implying that Hunki and Punki are not yet fans of the Only Decent Hot Sauce in the Whole Wide World?

Shame on you! We will have no such flaming on this thread!

Punki

Have faith! Our cupboard is well stocked with Cholula hot sauce, courtesy of our still unmet (in real life) FT friend, Cholula. Venice will remedy that! ^

I also, surreptitiously, e-mailed my favorite Aussie Cholula fan today, trying to convince him that Venice in November would be a way cool adventure. I am not going to beg my older Swiss-German brother/et ux to come, because he/they is/are working, working, working--but I hope he decides that a quick little November vacation, a bit to the south, might be a pleasant and irresistible experience. @:-)

monitor, we are still sticking to our master FL-IRA plan--trying to earn as many miles as possible during our pre-retirement years, for extravagant (first class only) use during retirement--when it finally arrives. We are also still shooting for UA MM prior to retirement.

Can you believe this? We only switched to UA in 1999 so we could be on the exclusive FT top deck for The Original PIP--thank you very much to everyone who contributed to that amazing event, especially Tropical, Catman, PremEx and older brother for their plannning and hard work, and Randy for making it even more amazing that we had imagined, and PremEx for the great photo blog.

How much fun have we had??? Lucky us!!

Dovster

I'm getting worried about dedehans.

There is something sick about any woman who understands me -- in any language!

dedehans

we love ya in any language, Dov.....btw, got mz seats here in FRA

vasantn

I'll be there as well! Grabbed a $521 upgradable fare on AA; looking forward to seeing everyone.

Dovster

Vasantn, it will be wonderful to see you again!

I suggest that you take a look at Post # 2 in this thread before making reservations at any hotel. The Ai Mori is even nicer than the Ramada I stayed at in Fort Lauderdale -- although I know that is hard to believe!

stimpy

The lw and I just had a perfect weekend in Venice. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342190 for more details. I asked the Danieli concierge where the Al Mori was and it was pretty far from our hotel and St. Marks square so we didn't make it over there. But our area was a lot of fun. Perfect weather and not too many tourists. We didn't have to wait in any lines. The Danieli is a fabulous hotel if you have the points or Euros to swing it.

Dovster

Stimpy, I am happily shocked that you had such a hassle-free visit to Venice in the summer!

Did it whet your appetite for the city to the point where we can now put you on the "Definite" list?

KathyWdrf

Don't forget to add me to the "maybe" list. I love Venice, have spent a fair amount of time there (and have even experienced the infamous flooding), and I think the opportunity to be there with such an illustrious group may be too good to pass up.

Dovster

Kathy, women are always on my maybe list -- I am an eternal optimist.

Oops, you mean the "maybe" list for attending the Meet!

Done.

Ah, well, perhaps it is just as well as that is the list to which you were referring -- after all, I will be accompanied by my UIG (Used Italian Girlfriend) who tends to be a bit unreasonable about my taking romantic gondola rides with other women. The last time I tried it she had her cousin, Giovanni, a capitano in the Italian submarine service, shoot two torpedos at the gondola.

Fortunately, he missed.

I understand that the passenger liner he accidently hit will be cleared out of the lagoon before the November Meet.

KathyWdrf

So discretion would dictate that, on the days your UIG is there, NONE of the women FlyerTalkers (who seem to constitute the majority of attendees) should even give the appearance of a hint of flirting with you -- right?

Dovster

Yes. I realize that this will be hard on them, but it is a sacrifice which must be made in the interests of Venetian maritime safety.

Fortunately, the UIG will only be there for two of the four nights that I will be in Venice, so the women can feel free to flirt shamelessly with me on the first two evenings.

Oddly enough, at the PBI-FLL Meet, all the women managed to restrain themselves for the entire time -- even though the UIG was a few thousand miles away. I will never understand how that happened.

KathyWdrf

It's actually not that hard to understand. People who are "taken" often seem more alluring than those who appear not to be.

I'm sure that when the UIG is with you in November in Venice, the FlyerTalk women will have to work hard to restrain themselves!

Dovster

That is very often the case. When first meeting the UIG and me, many people have had to work very hard to restrain themselves from saying, "Hey! She's beautiful. What the hell is she doing with you?"

All too many have failed in their attempts to restrain themselves.

KathyWdrf

The truth is, only women are expected to be beautiful. Guys don't have to be.