party costs
Can we designate a choice between hookers and blow?
I'm not sure I understand what 2 is implying.
Sunday and Monday cost the same for me, so I guess I should ask Lee what her preferences are about when I head home.
But if I waited until I actually understood the joke I was trying to make before commenting then [ event that serves as punchline ]
Donation addition to the Heebie embezzlement fund sent.
Damn it, that was mildly funnier as Donation
Also, I designated the donation specifically for the Jello Wrestling Fund, and DO NOT try to weasel around the specific terms of the bequest.
I'm coming up on Amtrak on Friday, arriving at Union Station around 5:00. I think I'm going to take MegaBus back home on Sunday so I don't have to be up and out at the crack of dawn.
Paypal continues to be confusing. I haven't used it in quite a while. It tried to trick me into thinking I couldn't give money without storing my bank account info, when I told it I was paying by credit card. Grumble.
I keep putting off taking the "I love copyright" or whatever selfie that will extract more sweet cash from Halford, but I swear I'll get to it soon. It's just that I seem to only think about it at night, when I suspect the lighting would be unflattering as captured by my laptop's camera.
I guess I should probably just book a flight. I'm thinking of flying out Friday night and getting in Saturday morning, then flying back Sunday evening. That way I'd only have to stay one night.
Presumably people who are actually planning on going know these things, but maybe all the threads about Unfoggedecadecon should explicitly state the date and location? For potential lurkers, if nothing else.
From the PiratePad (which has a lot of additional information as well):
--- May 24-27, WASHINGTON D.C. --- Location: Potomac Avenue Metro on the Orange & Blue lines
Now that I think about it more, it seems kind of ridiculous to travel all that way just to be there for a single night. I'll have to think about this a little more.
Ah, okay. I think I'll be on the west coast then? I should really straighten out my May travel plans. Pretty sure I'm in Europe the preceding week.
17: Now is not a time to be sensible, teo.
The PiratePad thing is cute. I like the idea of measuring alcohol by carloads.
So which is the better airport to fly into?
20: I see what you did there, and I am amused.
National is best because it's actually on a Metro line, but flights are usually more expensive. There are annoying but plausible transit options from Dulles and BWI.
Hmm. Well, there are some reasonable flights to National. Also, perhaps I should apply for a subsidy? I think the lamentable income thread established me as just about the poorest commenter. I think even the adjuncts make more than me.
I'm still hedging because I may go out of town as much as four times in six weeks and I can't ask my one neighbor to look after Princess Kitteh four times in six weeks. 'con may be the thing that gets axed.
Well, there are some reasonable flights to National.
Definitely fly into National if you can. It's way more convenient than the others.
Plus if you fly into BWI random commenters might pick you up and give you crabs.
Ugh, my mid-May travel looks horrific. Turns out a 3-leg trip involving two European cities with less-than-gigantic airports is absurdly expensive and involves too many connections. I've been getting used to staying in one place the last couple of months. It's nice.
So now my conundrum is:
Leave on Friday? I'm looking for a new job, so don't want to commit to future vacation time, but the likelihood of having a new job in 10 weeks is probably not huge. But I don't want to sabotage myself either with defeatist thinking.
I think I will look again tomorrow, as prices seem a bit lower on Tuesdays.
I should start replying to all invitations by turning them around and telling the people to visit me instead.
Turns out a 3-leg trip involving two European cities with less-than-gigantic airports is absurdly expensive and involves too many connections.
Cancel it and come to DC instead!
It's tempting, although they don't quite overlap. But I think I'm supposed to be on the west coast about a day after I get back from Europe.
29: I was looking forward to having John Waters greet me with the traditional kiss and garland of H.L. Mencken quotations.
37: The most traditional garlands also contain crabs.
Have people actually eaten crabs? Shush now, I mean crab, plural. They're a challenge.
I will be in DC from early Saturday afternoon to Monday afternoon with the boy, and am arranging to attend whatever the Saturday night event turns out to be. Also happy to broaden our Air & Space and Hirshhorn museum visits to include other offspring.
I used to eat a lot of the fake crab meat we had at the subshop. But that was conveniently packaged in little niblets that were easy to pop into your mouth every time you went to the walk-in freezer for something.
39: I love crabs, but the meat to effort ratio is definitely a bit crazy, which is why all you can eat crabs is the way to go, as you don't feel like you need to maximize each one.
The one and only time I ate crabs out of the shell, I must say, while they're delicious, they tear your hands to shreds. It's an experience, and fun, but man were my hands smarting by the end of evening and through the following day.
I had ganjang gejang (soy-marinated crab) after hearing it hyped for several days. It was difficult to eat and I thought it was kinda bland. Maybe if expectations had been managed differently I would have liked it.
Ugh, my mid-May travel looks horrific. Turns out a 3-leg trip involving two European cities with less-than-gigantic airports is absurdly expensive and involves too many connections.
Yes, but Kharkiv has such great architecture, and the view as your plane approaches Klagenfurt is breathtaking.
The great mysteries of the universe revealed, only at Unfogged:
Maybe if expectations had been managed differently I would have liked it.
I love crabs, but the meat to effort ratio is definitely a bit crazy
The effort is a virtue. One of my favorite meals ever consisted simply of a Dungeness crab and a bottle of old Champagne. It was over an hour's worth of bliss.
45 Isn't regular crab consumption a residency requirement in MD? And it's the Old Bay as much as the crabs themselves that makes your hands sting.
Isn't regular crab consumption a residency requirement in MD?
Vegetarians apparently get some sort of waiver.
How do I manage to get a bad cold every just over 3 months! I am going to scream. When I get the energy.
if you grow up eating crab then you're just way faster at it and it's not so inconvenient; same thing with shucking oysters and peeling shrimp. I can remember my college BF's family taking me to an "all you can eat" shrimp place in st. john's and the people were very much not expecting/super-happy with the amount of shrimp I was packing away (they served it with the heads on. nice shrimp!). most tourists just gave up after a while and ate corn or bbq chicken, I guess? I had a...whatchamabob, long dealies, um...feeler? stuck to my nose at one point. eh. husband x regularly gives up on chili crab and pretty much the only part he likes, aside from me picking out backfin meat for him, is dipping the fried rolls in the sauce. taken on its own, a very defensible position, but...
oh god I want xo black pepper crab from this place out in toa payoh so bad now. fuck. except I'm too sick to go out to restaurants and the most thrilling thing I have decided this evening is not to eat in bed on a tray, but downstairs with girl x while husband x and girl y are at drum practice. so I'll have composed salad with an egg on it. not bad, but I have eaten it 9 suppers out of 10 of the past 8 months. soothing. I should make people bring me crab and sweet corn soup.
I'll be arriving Friday evening and leaving Monday afternoon.
My experience with eating crab is that if you crack the shell just wrong they explode a yellowish green goo all over you. Apparently this goo is considered a delicacy by some, but for me it was just another reason never to eat the damn things again.
Is anyone going from Boston or New York who might want to take the Megabus or carpool?
Is there still going to be a house rented where people can crash or is everyone staying in hotels/motels? Last time I stayed with Matt. If there is no house, does anyone know of cheap accommodations that would be convenient to the location of the main event?
BG, I've got you down as staying in the group house. Maybe I'm using the wrong email address for you? There've been a bunch of emails for people who want to stay at the house.
I love that Maryland crab eating thing. Bring me more beasts of the sea! Let me smash them with a hammer and suck out the meat of their legs!
I'm flying in Friday afternoon and leaving Tuesday morning. I suppose I should get on finding a hotel.
I'm flying in Friday afternoon and leaving Tuesday morning.
I'm flying in Thursday Evening and leaving Tuesday morning. I'm looking forward to spending some time doing touristy things and hoping everything won't be crazy crowded because of the holiday.
Let me smash them with a hammer and suck out the meat of their legs!
They sucked the bones and drank the grease.
I don't know if I can go yet, but I do want to go. Those who object to my presence, make yourselves known.
67: Better get ready for the Consensual Group Hug Patrol to make you feel welcome!
63: We're big fan of dungeness crab season around here. One of the SF restaurants provided an interesting can-opener like plastic thing that we purchased and used at home for a long while. Inspired by that, I tend to just use a heavy fork for at the table crab devouring, though I do remove the shell and such in the kitchen--usually with just a cracking motion, no tool required.
Blue crabs are perfectly easy to eat. They have that pop-top tab built-in!
Bostongirl - I'd be up for a carpool/Megabus from Boston. Getting a bus from here to Boston is pretty easy but I wasn't sure how to get the rest of the way. I'm tempted by the train but I don't know if the times would work out (and don't feel like looking things up now).
Crabs are way over-rated. They are hard to eat because the meat sticks to the shell, in a way that lobster doesn't, and they don't have that much flavour, i.e. they need either Old Bay or some sort of spicy fried goodness and garlic (salt and pepper crabs near Ranch 99 in El Cerrito were amazing).
Crabs are way over-rated.
Like many things, good fresh crab is fantastic, but if it isn't fresh then it rapidly loses what's interesting about the flavor.
Actually I rather like crab. Lobster is overrated.
I was thinking of arriving Friday and leaving Monday, if the family winds up coming with me. If not, then I will probably extend the trip a day on either side. My parents live just over the Potomac and we'll be driving in, so logistics will be pretty simple.
Lobster is not over-rated because garlic butter is the best.
Look, you bastards, both lobster and crab are fantastic and the best and not overrated at all when fresh, though also good when not quite as fresh but very nicely spiced.
Though I think my absolute favorite are mussels, especially the gigantic ones I had on PEI. MORE! A SHELL MIDDEN SHALL REMAIN AS A MONUMENT TO MY CONSUMPTION OF YOUR FLESH.
Oh, if we're branching out into shellfish!
The answer is scallops. Preferably from Digby so they're giant, wrapped in bacon and bbq'd/grilled. God's own food.
Plus they're okay environmentally.
the meat sticks to the shell, in a way that lobster doesn't
I'll bet it works for crabs as well.
Plus they're okay environmentally.
If your wrapping bacon comes from wild boar.
I never quite get scallops. Also they look just like something crunchy and gross at the Chinese restaurants, and they are thus tainted to me. (Water chesnuts maybe?)
I'd never heard of Digby, but it looks like they crown a Scallop Queen. Sounds pretty sweet.
Oh man, scallops are teh awesome* and I would eat them way more than I do if they weren't so damn pricey.
* Sea scallops, that is. Not bay scallops.
Preferably from Digby so they're giant
Huh. I feel like the larger scallops I've had usually have had less flavor, but maybe that's not true? Or actually maybe it's that there's some kind of flavor/texture tradeoff that makes me less happy with them.
The Scallop Queen selection criteria (not to mention grammar and capitalization, nice work Nova Scotia educational system) are pretty lame, though.
As a candidate you will be judge on: Personality; Integrity; Honesty, Public Speaking Ability and Effective Communication; Intelligence; charity and Community Interest; Submitted Personal Biography; Maturity; Poise; Overall Proper Behavior; as well as Personal Interviews and possibly your response to an impromptu question that may be asked during the coronation Ceremonies
If I ran the Scallop Festival, there would be two criteria: (1) are you awesome; (2) how many scallops can you eat.
I'll bet it works for crabs as well.
Fresher under pressure. (For a while the local co-op carried apple juice with was pasteurized using pressure. It tasted great but was really expensive).
After you're crowned as Queen, your first job is to preside over, inter alia, a reptile show, a fire department hose laying contest, and maritime music with Vern and Friends.
The fire department hose laying contest isn't part of the selection process?
I take the inevitable reliance on the virtues of garlic butter, bacon, and breading in the defence of molluscs to be an admission they're really not that tasty.
fire department hose laying contest
I didn't know fruit could grow that low in Nova Scotia.
If I ran the Scallop Festival, there would be two criteria: (1) are you awesome; (2) how many scallops can you eat.
AFAICS nobody gets to eat any scallops at all in that programme, so what's the point?
The answer is scallops.
Oh god. I *despise* scallops. I should like them -- I'm down with all the other shellfish -- but there's something about the flavor that just turns my stomach.
My preferred preparation for scallops is to grill them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. We get excellent, incredibly fresh scallops around here, though. I am not a fan of scallops wrapped in bacon, particularly. You can't taste the scallop and the bacon's mushy.
92: Lingonberries. They grow on lingontwigs.
Jesus, so much of the Scallop Festival is dirty:
SHOW AND SHINE
INFLATABLE'S
FIRE DEPARTMENT HOSE LAYING CONTEST
BALL HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
WOODSMAN COMPETITION
WATER MELON EATING CONTEST
SHUCKING CONTEST
Don't forget ball hockey!
This is like when I realized 'foot hockey' was actually a joke. Foot hockey being ball hockey played with your feet, aka soccer with a tennis ball. Or that Regina was funny.
I thought there was an anatomical explanation of why crabs and lobsters differed in their muscle attachment strength but I really don't know that much about crustaceans.
Scallops at Chinese restaurants are weird and gross. They've been frozen with a lot of water so they get all soggy and then you can't fry them properly. If you can get the dry frozen ones (and I think that any 'fresh' scallops at the fish monger have been previously frozen because most seafood freezing is done at sea), they are amazing just tossed in a little flour and pan fried (see, they are tasty - just best when wrapped in bacon and grilled (see also duck breasts rolled around cream-cheese-stuffed jalapenos)). The edges get a little brown and caramelized and the interior is tender and sweet.
Only that first line should have been italicized.
When I am going to the lousy Chinese place 1.5 blocks away, I often order shrimp just because yeah they're frozen but at least they are such a specific shape that I don't imagine I'm eating some kind of chicken slurry squished into pieces. That is what I have to say about shellfish right now.
Oh no wait I can add crustacean value: Strauss' Die Agyptische Helena has an omniscient mussel, sung by a contralto. I can't remember if it was just an offstage voice when the Met put this on or what. It would have been fun if there had been a giant vat of garlic butter or something to identify it.
" The oracle-like Omniscient Mussel tells her that though Poseidon is far away, he remains steadfast in his love for her. "
JOY.
Scallops at Chinese restaurants are weird and gross.
...and might or might not be scallops.
Count me in also for the crab-is-better-than-lobster club. But the teeny (and ungodly expensive) bay scallops with their luscious liquor are the best of all.
(see also duck breasts rolled around cream-cheese-stuffed jalapenos)
WTF?
I always liked crab better than lobster, and never found them that onerous to eat. A common warm-weather activity in college was to laze about with a bushel of crabs and several cases of shitty beer. Good times.
Crabs are delicious. Crawfish are too.
I've slipped from 'cannot commit until later' to 'almost certainly will not make it' as I've learned that a college graduation that I assumed was earlier in May is in fact scheduled for Memorial Day weekend. Ah well.
I will probably go, depending on the cost of lodging.
Also, Heebie, do let us know (here or pirate pad) if people start writing in to request assistance with airfare. I'd be happy to chip in but (selfishly) since I'm flying cross-country already I'm inclined to wait until it's clear that there's a need.
Haven't read the whole thread yet, but we'll be there Thurs.-Tues. for some bonus D.C. socializing.
teraz, we are collectively serious about pitching in on costs, so get yer ass there.
Perhaps at some point you should send out a suggested donation, heebie. That way people may feel less constrained from asking for assistance, and anything in the pot that ends up unneeded can go to other stuff like ethanol.
I'm down with all the other shellfish
Bad Jew!
Bot my tix. Flying in on Saturday morning, just in case. Direct to National, so hopefully no serious delays or anything.
113: there've been a decent number of really generous donations at this point, so there's money to cover people already. I sort of worry that a suggested donation would bring in way too much? We could always save it for the next good cause, I suppose.
Maybe we could buy Halford a car?
Not that I want 116 to stifle donations! Requests for assistance are coming in, as well. I suppose I have no idea what to encourage.
So, funny situation- there's a family gathering for my grandmother's 90th birthday next month that neither I nor wife want to drag the kids to (6 hour drive each way.) But I felt like we should be there, people getting old, etc., while she really doesn't want to deal with it. We were also discussing in the context of other planned trips this summer, when we'll be seeing said grandmother anyway- we usually make the trip only once a year. I mentioned that there was also this trip to DC I wanted to make for the party and she said, well, if we don't go to grandma's party, it's fine if I go to DC. Sorry grandma!
I still have no idea what I'm doing.
BOS to DCA round trip Sat morning-Sun evening is $180.
Booked my flight. I get in around noon on Friday and leave Monday morning.
I've been wrapped up in other stuff, so I haven't looked into tickets yet, but I will definitely be coming. I'll probably book a flight this weekend.
Bought my train tickets last night. Arriving at Union Station around 5:00pm on Friday, out around 11:00am on Monday.
I thought I was a definite no, but I checked my mileage balance, and after flying to London I'll have enough miles for a free ticket--provided there are any openings left on United. Next up: obtaining spousal permission!
Hey, Halford! I can't find the original post with your challenge about donating $200 if I take the "I support the RIAA" picture. What's the exact wording you want? Also, I hate you.