Just noticed that the weekend of 3/16-3/18 is also the final weekend of the Houston Rodeo. Though I am generally one of the first to bash my own city, this would be one of the few events that I would recommend to out-of-towners. It's kitschy and a bit odd, but booze and watching grown men jumping off of horses and onto horned critters is a can't-miss

I can do without the country music concerts they put on The rest, however, is a tacky, showy spectacle which manages to reinforce nearly every redneck/southern-southwestern/Texas stereotype . Well worth a visit for the uninitiated.

Don't plan around the cerealmarketer. An uncomfortably fluid month, but good for the EQMs. OK on Mar 3rd, maybe 10th, maybe 17th (it would involve LAX/SFO-EWR-IAH due to work, yikes), 24th, and maybe 31st (if Malaysia airlines rescinds my request for a J award from EWR-ARN that weekend...). Either way, will be getting sloshed in an IAH presidents club at some point during the month.

I'd be up for the rodeo if we end up scheduling the DO that weekend.

Rodeo? Uh, oh! I have to keep an eye on my wife when she's around theblakefish and "Handsome Scott." I can't imagine doing that in an arena full of cowboys!

After discussion with various FTers, it appears that the March 30-31 time-frame would allow the most people to attend. Admittedly, this will mean missing out on the Rodeo...but hotels are quite pricey around Rodeo time anyhow (at least by Houston standards). However, March 30-31 does coincide with the beginning of Baseball season. On Fri., Mar. 30, the Astros will be hosting the KC Royals at 7:30pm in Minute Maid Park (excellent ball park). On Saturday, it's a matinee game @ 1:05pm.

Drinks at the Saucer followed by a Ball Game sounds like an excellent idea for a Micro-DO. Now we just need to find out when it would be feasible for our out-of-towners to make it into H-Town after work. Would RNE and all the other out-of-towners kindly weigh in and let us know when they would be able to get into town that weekend, so the Micro-DO can be scheduled on an appropriate date at the appropriate time.

Hope to see many of you in March!

EDIT - Just a note, the Saucer is walking distance from Minute Maid park. Thank god for all these new downtown stadiums and drinks venues.

Will also cross-post this to Community forum once we've finalized exact dates & times.

I like the weekend of the 16th. I can celebrate the fact that earlier that week I will have finally made the last payment on my student loans! (Thought I'd throw that in since the conversation took a turn toward college and work.) Friday is probably better than Saturday for me that week, since some of my friends and I usually end up at the Irish drunkfest at Brian O'Neill's in the Village on St. Patrick's Day. Although, I might be able to convince them to come to the Saucer instead and hang out with us airline geeks instead.

And what's this about work after college? Play the game right and you can get paid good money to travel on someone else's dime and only pretend to work. Haven't you heard of consulting?

(Okay, for the record, in case anyone from my employer sees this since I know some of you are on here, I really do work. Most of the time.)

Okay, even better. I was posting at the same time as you with my preference for mid-March. But that weekend works as well, and I'm totally up for drinks and baseball (and more drinks afterwards?).

I probably could make the 2:40 pm DCA-IAH flight on a Friday afternoon - that would get me into IAH at 4:23 pm. Otherwise, I'd have to take the 4:30-ish flight that would get me into IAH at 6:20 pm. I'm definitely up for the Astros game, as well.

For all the newly Comped HHonors Golds out there, the new Hilton convention center hotel is also walking distance from the stadium. It's running at $159/night on that weekend. There's also a Hilton Medical Center (accessible via light rail from Downtown) for $134/night. Additionally, the downtown Doubletree (15 min walk from the ballpark, through good parts of Downtown) is only $116/night.

Marriott has both a Courtyard & Residence Inn downtown, with rates around $119-$129/night.

Hyatt has a Hyatt Regency downtown, slightly closer than the Doubletree at $140/night

SPG has no downtown properties. The closest & cheapest are likely the Four Points Houston Southwest ($80/night) Sheraton Suites Galleria ($139/night) & Sheraton Houston Brookhollow (now nicely renovated, $89/night). One could also stay closer to the airport at the Bush Airport Sheraton ($80/night). The Airport Sheraton provides a good free breakfast buffet on weekends to Golds and Plats, as the club lounge is closed Fri. Evening-Sunday.

There's also a full service Marriott in the Medical Center on Fannin right at the Dryden/TMC light rail stop for Marriott elites who want a full service hotel that's not too far from downtown. It's about a 15-20 minute trip from Dryden/TMC to Preston, the closest light rail stop to the Flying Saucer and Minute Maid Park.

Oh, hell yes! I'm there...

If we want to do the Astros game too, should we set up a system to get the tickets as a group? I'm willing to take that on if you all are interested.

Good plan guys. This may be one time I quietly hope an award ticket doesn't clear.

Committed to the bach. party in Finland if I can get an award seat, but should it fall through, frankly this will be a lot warmer. The day is already in for vaca, so Fri or Sat doesn't matter.

I will try to be in as well. I should be able to have my four Astros tickets available for the game.

Was thinking perhaps Stub-Hub, or direct purchase from Astros.com would be a good method of scoring a block of seats together.

Stub-Hub worked great for the IAH Rutgers Texas Bowl Mini-DO, but perhaps ssulivan has more efficient/cheaper methods available.

EDIT - Am knackered after a long day of uneventful work (see the EWR SFO thread to see what I mean), and a far too eventful evening of classes. Will hop back on this tomorrow. Hopefully we will hear from RNE when and whether he and the statue can come down