Punki

Thanks, obscure2k, but we have alreadly committed to the company at the Ai Mori--especially since we have been promised a room large enough for both of us to work out.

I have grown quite very clever at finding edible food anywhere in the world. Italy can't be as difficult for a vegetarian as Germany. I eat eggs, and cheese (unfortunately--I love cheese), and very much enjoy olive oil in my diet. There must be someplace in Venice to find a salad and and eggplant dish.

I am not seriously concerned.

Cholula

Come on, O2K...you gotta play along with this. Dovster is already sweating bullets over this choice and we have to ride this horse as long as we can....
So it's "creepy, crawly" seafood or rabbit sausage.
And that's it....

Dovster

No. I'm not. You deserve a break today, so get up and get away, to...



Ride this horse? See earlier post in this thread. This is one of the restaurants where you'll be able to eat the horse!

obscure2k

Cholula I think it is best if I respond to this messge via e-mail. Check your e-mail in a few minutes.

belle3388

They have kettles to boil hot water at the Ai Mori, right? Am packing lots of instant ramens!

SanDiego1K

belle, bestest girlfriend, isn't taking food to Venice akin to taking coals to Newcastle?

belle3388

Not when they are eating fluffy and Mr. Ed!

SanDiego1K

ROFL! Excellent point, friend.

Dovster

Referring to my suggestion of McDonald's, Dorlee wrote:

I think that is blasphemy in Italy But, you will be forgiven if you will let us all in on your favorite places for eating sweets.

My favorite place for sweets is in Lugano, but I can bring you to a couple of good places in Venice.

Re McDonald's: The UIG is one of many Italians who swear that Ronald McDonald is the devil incarnate. The Italian Left, especially, blames him not only for destroying palates throughout the world but of cultural imperialism. For a long time, my UIG swore that only American tourists go there.

Finally, one evening, I convinced her to go with me. We couldn't get in -- the place was jammed with locals.

The UIG was not disappointed and told me that Milan's finest pizza restaurant was nearby and she hoped we could get a table there. She did some very good hoping because the place was almost empty. I took immense pleasure in pointing out that the Italians had all deserted it for McD.

Then, last year, I was in Milan's Piazza Duomo when there was a very big political demonstration being held by the Left.

I saw that two policemen had been assigned to stand in front of the McD's to guard it from Leftists who might want to torch the place.

There really was no need. This McDonald's was also jammed. Most of the people I saw were demonstraters (easily identified by the buttons and stickers they wore) who were hungry from all the protesting.

I gave up and walked about a block to the Burger King. This, too, was full of demonstrators.

Finally, I went to a traditional Italian sandwich restaurant and was seated immediately.

When I got back to the UIG's house and told her, she went into a further rage about how McDonalds is ruining things for Italian restauranteers.

obscure2k

I have received a price of 52 Euros PP for a 4-course meal, including dessert, excluding wine, mineral water and coffee. I am confident that the meal will be excellent and we will have a fine combination of seafood and meat (osso bucco). I really need to have a good head-count so that I can confirm the meals and reservations. The back room of Vini da Gigio holds 27 persons and we can have about 6 more tables in the smoking salon. We are unable to charter the entire restaurant as they already have some tables booked for that evening. The reservation is from 7:30-9:30 but, Paulo, the owner/mgr. said that they open the restaurant for dinner at 7:00 PM so we are welcome to arrive at 7 :00 for aperetives.
I would appreciate your e-maling me the number of people in your party.
Thanks,
O2K
[email protected]

obscure2k

need this information, so guess it is a bump

platbrownguy

::Long Exhale and Sigh of Relief::

Well, after several days of catching up on pages of the Delta board and selected BA threads, and after many hours of catching up on the 300 (!) posts that y'all have managed to produce in the 3 weeks (!) I've been gone, I'm back.

I'm glad to learn the list of people has grown so much as well - I'm really really looking forward to meeting everyone and the weekend should be a blast.

Unfortunately, Platbrowngal A will not be attending. Although she committed to coming as far as I knew, her conservative overprotective (no bitterness here) parents will not let her even though she's 19 and nothing I said will change their mind. Dovster, you're more than welcome to give them a call and try to work something out . Yeah, she still lives with her parents, get over it . She was Platbrowngal A because she's pretty cool and likes shopping and expensive meals and would definitely appreciate Venice, and she gets along with... err, umm... :cough: older :cough: people as well as I do. Oh well.

Platbrowngal B (20) was actually the original Platbrowngal A but couldn't go because she lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin and going would involve me going to that frozen wasteland or her coming down here first, and neither of us could work out the time for that.

Platbrowngal C (18) lives in Texarkana but has never been on a plane before and coming out to Dallas is her idea of a vacation. Venice would be overkill, and since she's just about flat broke I'd have to pay for pretty much everything, even her expedited passport . Her accent might scare some people off too, but she's damn cute. Back off, Dovster.

Platbrowngal D (19) lives in France and has become my new Platbrowngal-who-will-likely-be-coming. As the meet is still 3 weeks away and she is not very far at all from VCE (relatively speaking), she will most likely end up be the one coming with me, saving me a cool 100,000 miles ^. I don't know why she was Platbrowngal D and not Platbrowngal A to begin with. That really would have saved a LOT of hassle. Hmm, it's a shame I didn't think of this before writing this post... She's cute, French, and speaks good english, and I've become friends with her during my many visits to Ireland where she was an au pair until she went back home in July.

Platbrowngal E (17) was higher up the list before, but then she started asking questions like "so who are all these other people that are gonna be there?" and "wait so how old are they??" and "where are we gonna stay and what are we gonna eat?" and blah blah blah, and then decided she'd probably just rather go to the lake. Meh.


Anyways, I'll either take Platbrowngal D or resort to taking Platbrowndude who's actually pretty interested in going if he can get off work. Maybe I'll bring him and PBG D too. We shall see. I don't tend to plan many trips more than 7-10 days in advance so all this is way out-of-whack for me. I didn't even buy my Madagascar ticket until 4 days before I left.


Other concerns I have are the following:
-Will horse meat actually be consumed at the meet?
-Will Cholula actually be internetting nude at the local cybercafes?
-I don't own "rain clothes". I assume that somewhere in the midst of all the expensive shops there are ordinary laymen's stores where I could buy a reasonably-priced windbreaker or umbrella, right? If not, then perhaps I should stop by REI, which is luckily only 2 miles away.
-Is anyone else who is coming under 30? This isn't really a concern, just a question. I work and eat with grown-ups all the time .



Finally, in my infinite wisdom, while playing the 2-week-at-a-time-reservation-hold game, I managed to lose by miscalculating what time was the time I needed to call. I called too late and the seats on the AF flights were no longer available . The obvious answer would be to just get B/E tickets on DL using the Platinum Exception, but I think I'm gonna BA-it over DFW-LGW-VCE, doing a mileage-for-upgrade from WT+ to Club. $1100 and 30,000 miles roundtrip is pretty cool. The main reason is it would get me BA Gold... plus it's one less connection and BA just rocks.

This places me on BA 2584, arriving into VCE at 4:45pm on Friday 11/19, early enough to arrive in daylight. Cholula, this does mean I/we will not be on the same flight as you into VCE, so if you don't want to wait the 2 hours to share the water taxi, I totally understand. I'll split it with you if you do though .

If I don't BA it, I'll be on DL144 into VCE at 9:25, but this is looking unlikelier.

Either way, I still have my long-standing reservation at the Ai Mori for 11/19, 11/20, and 11/21, so that, the most important part, remains unchanged.

Glad to be back on FT... being gone was just too weird. If you'll excuse me, I must now go have a 6am breakfast with (gasp!) Platbrowngal A.


Cheers .

Dovster

her conservative overprotective (no bitterness here) parents will not let her even though she's 19 and nothing I said will change their mind. Dovster, you're more than welcome to give them a call and try to work something out

I don't know if that is a good idea. If my son wanted to take a girl to Venice for a few days, I would see absolutely nothing wrong with it. If some guy wanted to take my daughter, I would shoot the dirty, perverted, SOB.

This is what is officially known as the double standard and I am a firm believer in it. How would it help your case for me to tell that to PBG A's folks?

Platbrowngal B (20) was actually the original Platbrowngal A but couldn't go because she lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin

I guess that is the cross she must bear.

Her accent might scare some people off too, but she's damn cute. Back off, Dovster.

Personally, I love Southern women. They speak so slowly that when I ask them if they want to have sex by the time they say "no" it's too late.

Platbrowngal D (19) lives in France and has become my new Platbrowngal-who-will-likely-be-coming.

Fine, upstanding, American men coming to this Meet with French and Italian women! What is this world sinking to?

Anyways, I'll either take Platbrowngal D or resort to taking Platbrowndude who's actually pretty interested in going if he can get off work. Maybe I'll bring him and PBG D too.

Until I hear otherwise, I will leave the list as it is concerning your travelling companion(s) and flight.

-Will horse meat actually be consumed at the meet?

Most likely. Especially if I get to order for certain people.

-Will Cholula actually be internetting nude at the local cybercafes?

No. That would be in violation of Venice's Environmental Protection Code.

I don't own "rain clothes". I assume that somewhere in the midst of all the expensive shops there are ordinary laymen's stores where I could buy a reasonably-priced windbreaker or umbrella, right?

The hotel will supply you with an umbrella and even if it doesn't, you can buy them at stalls around the city for pennies. There are plenty of laymen shops, but if you don't attend the meet with one of the Platbrowngals, how will they know you are a layman?

-Is anyone else who is coming under 30?

Yes. My Used Italian Girlfriend is 26.

(Actually, she isn't, but I figured if she ever finds this board I had better have something on it to counterbalance everything else I've written.)

I believe there are two other people attending who are below 30 but they will have to tell you that themselves.

Glad to be back on FT... being gone was just too weird. If you'll excuse me, I must now go have a 6am breakfast with (gasp!) Platbrowngal A.

Why not just nudge her awake and tell her to run out to Denny's and bring something back to the house?

MsEverywhere

I have a friend who may want to join us. I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

Dovster

She would be very welcome.

He would not.