"All the leaves are brown...." (and red, green, orange, some yellow)
"and the sky is gray..." (actually, it's a sunny, crisp 49°F here as I write this)
ANYWAY, what I'm getting at is, I and the entire firefly clan will be heading to sunny, (smokey? smoldering?) southern CA to visit family over Thanksgiving from November 17 through the 24th. After landing in L.A., we'll be in Victorville, Redlands, Chino, and Ontario seeing her family, and in Laguna Beach to see my brother. We'll visit Disneyland sometime while we're there, but that's all we have planned so far.
Sometime during all this rigamarole, I would love to have a meet-up with some fellow sifters. A while ago Lucky suggested the 21st (that still work for you, Lucky?), and I know there are more of you out there, at least before the map went all screwy. Ant? Youdiejoe? Grimm? I know you may have holiday travel plans yourself, but anyway let me know. Hope to see y'all soon!
"I've been for a walk...on a winter's day" (it'll still be fall, but you get the idea!) 
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Darkrowan, Grimm, and Jonny are the other OC Sifters who I think are all up for participating. (Side note: The VideoSift User Map is currently functioning again.) What say you, you three, are you in?
Great to hear you'll be there YDJ. So if the other OC guys join in, it'll be the biggest ever with 7 Sifters: Firefly, YouDieJoe, Me, Charms, Jonny, Grimm, and DarkRowan. Kickass.
Everyone okay with meeting in OC somewhere? I guess that question's mostly directed at YDJ since Firefly may also be here at the time.
I figure the best place would be somewhere we can sit for a good while, while actually patronizing the joint. So drinking something is probably a good way to go and I figure coffee would do, but Starbucks isn't very spacious, so a comfortable, relaxed alcoholic beverage serving establishment may be the best way to go.
Or maybe we could meet at an Internet cafe and conduct a private group chat in person.
Maybe a quick lunch somewhere such as Chili's or TGI Fridays? (they have bars, right?)
Other participants, any thoughts?
Here's a link: http://www.lawrysonline.com/
For food: I just got introduced this weekend to the eating style of "Shabu Shabu". The idea is conductive to a lot of talking at the table, very communal. The place I went to has a very very nice owner, but I don't think the seating setup will be conductive to talking with 7 persons lined up in a row (the booths I think only seat 4 or 5).
Just an idea.
But at the same time lets not forget what Lucky's warning ""Where" is a good question... As Dag and I realized, it's a little difficult to have a good conversation while trying to eat a meal, so we probably shouldn't meet over dinner."
at Baja Sharkeez in Newport Beachwould definitely be the best. It'll probably be hard for all 6 of us "in-of-towners" to get out of work early enough, especially for YouDieJoe who'll be coming from LA. Is that alright for everybody?After thinking about it more and given that everyone's psyched about a dining establishment (including Charms and myself), I'm sure it'll be easy breezy to dine and chat, especially with a whopping 7 (or 6 pending Jonny's response) of us together. My meal with Dag was a bit more of one-on-one "business" talk, and that's probably why it seemed a little difficult a setting for conversation.
If there are no objections, once we get Jonny's yay or nay, I'll go ahead and make reservations for the 6 or 7 of us at 5pm on Wed, 11/21
at 114 McFadden Place, Newport Beach, CA, 92663.DarkRowan: Funny. You work very near me. I work just past the end of the runway (on the other side of the golf course). Shabu shabu is definitely good eatin', but you're right, not for a big group. Maybe just a couple of us OCers could meet up for some shabu shabu another time.
[edited for shift of rendezvous point (see below)]
I'm not a big fan of that hurdle, so if there are any other suggestions worth fielding, let's hear them?
I for one think Javier's Cantina and Grill at Irvine Spectrum would be a wonderful choice. Also a local place, but quite a bit more spacious and easily accessed.
Thoughts?
And yeah, way better parking. Newport/Balboa is nice, but parking is ridiculous.
Javier's Cantina and Grill
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 5:00pm PST
45 Fortune Drive, #400
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 872-2101
Again, I'll handle reservations once I've heard back from Jonny. Hopefully YDJ will bring his camcorder so we can create macro HD videos of each other.
By the way, I'll be flying Alaska Airlines. Never used them before; any you folks have experience with them?
Yep! All's ready to go. I wasn't able to get hold of Jonny; hopefully he's alright. The reservation's made under the name VideoSift.
Let's use this comment as our check list. Here's everyone's current status:
And who is doing the Sift Talk write-up?
Lucky did the write-up in his blog entry.
I appreciate that you would make the effort...but you must not have heard me at the end of the night that I was only kidding.