BOSTON 2009 GTG OCTOBER 10, 2009
 

plans have finally been made for our 2009 GTG....this time we will mix urban with suburban venues......the actual GTG will be in Newton, MA and other venues will be more urban in nature....

friday nite, Oct 9, we will gather at Punjab Restaurant at 7PM. the restaurant is located at 473 Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington, MA. this is at the junction of rt 60 and mass ave... there is plenty of parking beside and in back of the restaurant in free public lots...
andy,beth, karen and i eat here frequently and the food is fabulous!!!

as with all our venues we will require cash for payment...no credit cards....drinks will be kept seperate of the food bills.....

the main part of our weekend will be the GTG itself held in the BOKX 109 american prime restaurant within the Indigo Hotel, 399 Grove Street, Newton, MA.... there is plenty of free parking under the hotel. the hotel is located at the junction of grove street and rte 128 (95), just south of the intersection with the mass pike (rte 90)... grove street has its own exit.... the hotel is adjacent to the riverside station terminus of the MBTA (green line)... as before we will gather about 11AM for chat with luncheon served about 1PM....karen has worked out a simple buffet lucheon which we hope will be well received and tolerated by all (soup, chicken caesar salad, pasta dish, dessert, coffee and tea served with dessert).... cash bar.... there will be plenty of room to mingle and converse prior to lunch.....the lunch cost will be about $30 inclusive.... cash only...

the hotel has rooms available (expensive), but as in the past i think we will use a summerfield suites (hyatt) for our hqtrs---the waltham summerfield... similar rates to burlington.... other hotels in the area are: newton marriott; sheraton needham; westin waltham; courtyard waltham; wyndham waltham; residence inn dedham and norwood; sheraton newton (not good hotel); and all the boston and cambridge hotels (sonesta, le meridien, res inn, marriott, inn at harvard, charles hotel, wyndham suites, hyatt to name a few)...

saturday (10-10) nite will be GPANDA nite......relax, no speedos allowed.... we will return at 7PM again to the similan restaurant 145 first street in cambridge, MA.... this is some of the best thai food outside of thailand..... this will be a time for fun and laughter....we will eat family style as in the past and will also split the bill accordingly.....cash bar.....

if there is interest we will host or arrange a sunday brunch/breakfast.....

please indicate your interest here, with a return email address, or on my fodors e address: [email protected]

looking forward to seeing everyone again and i have already heard from some newbies who will plan to attend....

we had a fabulous time last month at the LA GTG and we don't want boston to be out shown by them.....

we hope to put pressure on fodors to send katie to our GTG.... she is fun and interesting and i think everyone would love meeting her....

bob and andy (karen and beth)

no interest....we will cancel it then

ok robert, no need to pout. i'm interested, but can't go, but interested. give me all the details of what i'm going to miss. :-)

I will check my calendar and see if I'm available. I'll get the suburban visa when It seems unavoidable. Go Similans.

will maybe attend some of the seminars/whatever, though harboring concerns about event creep.

is the indigo hotel actually indigo?

hey, if any of you cheapskates are miauing about the $30, shut up and pay up. You're forking out the cash for the hotel meeting space and the questionable company, not the food. Which will probably stink, but so what. i was always creeped out by the place in cambridge, because you had all those weirdly idiot-savant MIT people wandering the streets. They could explain quantum physics without batting an eye, but had no clue where the Hotel@MIT/Meridien was when they were half a block away.

speaking of confused, how's it going, Bob. the indigo isn't terribly expensive on Fri/Sat nights, it's only during the week when it's a fortune. for those whose memories are better than mine, this hotel used to be the Holiday Inn. It's now (as it was then) part of the IC group, for you point-earners/spenders.

as i was born and reared in Newton, I should have some info about the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the hotel is in the Auburndale/Lower Falls area, mostly a goyishe section, so I'm not well informed. However, if you go over to Barry's Village Deli in Waban, about a mile or two up Beacon St, you can get an OK (but hardly great) corned beef sandwich.

I'm..uh...gee, I have something on Friday the 9th, what is it now? Oh, yeah, return engagement (by popular acclaim) at the renowned Dana Farber Cancer Institute! So I do believe I'll be there, Mr. Kimball, and I thank you once again for inviting hicks from the Midwest like myself to attend, even if Panda will be there, proclaiming that Cambridge is the center of the universe, etc., blah-blah-blah.

BC

You can count me in. My better half just accepted a pretty big job offer that will probably keep him in indentured servitude through the next year...so as of right now, I'm flying solo.

But I'll be there. :)

don---before it was a holiday inn it was a howard johnsons or some other billerica type hotel....karen and i had a tour a month ago and they have done wonders with the old place...

Bob, you know that Cheryl and I would love to come, but it is unclear whether we can make it. Right now we are so preoccupied with our remodeling that we haven't even made plans for our SE Asia trip yet! We have our tickets in and out of Bangkok, more arrangements yet to be made.

Both the Honolulu and Boston gtgs are on our radar.

Let's see, Bob has booked us at a former Holiday Inn/ Howard Johnsons. Can't wait. Will there be car hops? It's scary that Don is such an expert. Kathie, we hope you can come. Cambridge awaits you and Cheryl. Filmwill, not bringing that NC B-ball fan is a disappointment, but it will keep me from listening to his crowing.

<i>Adventure car hop is the place to go
For food that's always right;
Adventure's food is always just so,
You'll relish every bite.
Out on Route One in Saugus,
Come dressed just as you are;
Adventure where the service is great,
And you never get out of your car</i>

what are the dittys about newton?

Don-you always amaze me with the breadth of your "knowledge". The ditty was great. Did Adventure have car hops on roller skates?

No roller skates for the Adventure girls, sorry.

They were the major sponsor of the Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg Night Train radio show on WMEX, 1510 on your radio dial. I believe Arnie went on to be a radio DJ in NYC for awhile, for any of you fellow geezers from Gotham.

Sorry, no Newton jingles. (<i>Isaac, Isaac, he's our man; If he can't do it, no one can!</i> ?)

We look forward to the GTG but just need to sort out October travel plans to China before knowing our availability.

How about a Newton L:imerick?

There once was a man of Gravity
Whose universe had no naivite.
But Einstein did find
Isaac was behind
And now he's Duke of depravity.

if lcuy goes i might join her.

Lcuy is always in attendance at the Boston GTG's. We expect her again, you too Nannabee.

Hi Gpanda:
I know lcuy's hard to keep up with!
I hear they have a great ball team in Boston. Should I wear my husband's STL cardinal jacket - just to stand out in a crowd of course.
I of course, will be coming for the food!

Mary Alice, where are you headed in China, or are you still working that out?

Bob, what is the name of the little restaurant in the strip mall behind your hotel? Something like Texas Sushi? I've never had a better steamed pork bun or Thai beef salad than there and would like to go back when we are in BKK this summer.

Don, My husband has work in Shanghai then, possibly Beijing as well, but the dates of his travel aren't firmed up -- he goes back and forth often enough that it isn't a priority to nail the Fall dates down-- and we haven't figured out yet whether I'd be able to use miles and make a trip at the same time. We hope, in any event, that we can both come to at least one Fodor's event.

Bob, we would love to come to the Boston GTG. Loved meeting everyone at the LA GTG.

We just found out that our daughter is expecting at about the same time in October. This, of course, puts our plans on hold for the time being. We will be monitoring all plans closely.

Boston GTG is definitely on our radar.

Magical-we hope that your grandchild will accomodate your schedule and we will see you in Boston. It was a pleasure to meet you last month.

I've got the next BOS GTG on my calendar (as well as the one in HNL). Hope to be there... no reservations as yet. Too early to think about exact dates.

I'm just home from Switzerland about 18 hours ago... jetlag has set in. I waved to Bob and Karen as we were passing each other somewhere over the north Atlantic yesterday, as they were flying to London.


Off to BKK in about 10 days. Brad is already there.

Carol

magical....we deliver babies at GTG's as well....so bring her along... we do keep gpanda away from new borns however....nothing like scaring a kid to death when they are not even 24 hours old...

man... i have no idea what you are talking about???

gpanda tells me that the saturday nite is all set for the GTG at similans, so it now seems that our line-up is complete

any interest?

we will be able to lower the cost of the GTG by ordering all our food from pork products... any suggestions

Bob, it sounds like you're suggesting a form of cannabalism and that GPanda would not be safe...

Of course you know I'm going to be there!

BC

Just checked with the Indain restaurant for Friday night, Punjab. They said they would be glad to have us. I did not mention Bob. He'll be a surprise.

Are you thinking that the curtained/tented area in the middle of the dining room would work well at Punjab or is there some other arrangement? I know that it is hard to speculate without actual numbers of attendees, but I am curious how you are thinking about it.

The Panda will be permitted into the parking lot at Punjab. The rest of us will have the run of the place.

BC

punjab is the best indian food we have ever had, even inside india

maryA-If there are enough people, the tented area would work fine. However, I'm guessing 15-20 people on friday night and that's too few to take over the whole area. We can always sit in the back towards the right. There's sort of an alcove that might fit our needs.

The worst part about Punjab is that Bob is likely to take charge and do the ordering. It's sort of a Sahib mentality. On a small scale, it's amusing. we'll see on a lerger scale.

Isn't there anyone in the Boston GTG crowd who's a Bar Mitzvah planner for his/her day job? That would help.

Today, I am a Panda...

Congratulations, Panda.

can you imagine a BM organized by gpanda.....crap table, poker parlor and take out food...

I've now got my ticket on UA! I'll see you guys in Oct in BOS.
Carol