You know, I know you guys made me the next organizer since I missed December, but I am going to have to bow out of January too. Eeeek! Sorry! I know, I am a schlub, but other things are taking up time/money/etc at the moment and so I cannot attend.

However, if you'd all like me to organize it, I still could, if you insist, but I just won't be able to join in on the fun. Let me know, y'all!

Do I smell an impeachment brewing here???

We don't impeach we just penalize.

TJ is going to have to bring all the wine the next time he joins us and it has to be HUGE!

TJ- No worries. My New Years Resolution is not to rib you so much when you bag out of these dinners. I figured I'd set the bar low so I'm sure I can reach it.

That's kewl Fred. Iwant to attend it is just that I have to attend to, perish the thought, attend toother things.

Fear not, I will return to one of these things sooner or later. Maybe we can do just a tasting sometime instead of the whole restaurant thing. We could all bring some kind of finger foods/cheeses and show up at one of our places and focus more on the wine tasting...

Just a thought.

great thought, lets do it.

I'll do anything, dinner, appetizer/tasting thing, you name it. I'm in.

I'll throw my hat in the ring as well.

Happy New Year to you all!

Er, uh, does that mean we could do my suggested thing this month?

Hmm. Sounds good to me, but I'd need to beg off hosting. My place is no great shakes so I'd prefer it that, if we all would like to do this, I could get one of y'all to host. If one of y'all is up for that, just let me know and we can start planning and tossing around dates, etc.

That's a fun idea - I'd be up for that too. Though I'm having a unusually busy January with work and other things so it'll probably have to be a game time decision for me.

OK. So, it's looking like everyone is having a busy January. Should we instead push it to February?

Also, like I said before, I am good for organizing something, but if'n y'all want it to be January and an 'out at a restaurant' kind of thing, I'll arrange but not attend. If you're all definitely up for a cheese and finger food and wine tasting thing at someone's place, that would be awesome. However, my place is probably big enough, but I honestly don't think my PG-county digs are, uh, no great shakes.

So.

I am looking for the following--

1) Opinion on Jan vs Feb -- everyone want to do one or the other or both?

2) Opinion on restaurant thing or cheese/fingerfood/wine thing at someone's place -- which to do?

3) If the fingerfood option, is anyone open to hosting? I can work the details like picking the wine theme, handling the BLIND tasting details, and working out the 'menu' options so we don't have any overlap, coordinating getting enough stems there, etc -- IF someone would be gracious enough to host.


So, what'll it be gents?

Might be a little early in the year for me to offer to host an appetizer/wine tasting, but Swill might be up for it (being the bachelor in the huge bachelor pad somewhat centrally located in Tysons Corner). Plus he's could invite a number of potential VC recruits and have room for all of us.....I think he went to the sugar bowl, I'll check.......

Well, January 12-18 is Restaurant Week in DC. So there are places where we could go and not break the bank. I was thinking that I might try to make it back to Tosca for RW. Of course the last time I went, I ignored the RW menu and ordered from the regular menu and spent a bundle.

I find it difficult to get over to VA unless it is very close to a METRO station. That is why I've enjoyed the dinners in DC, just leave from work. Besides, if someone hosts, that puts pressure on them to have everything ready and considering how much trouble some of us have getting to the restaurants due to work constraints, that may be unfair unless we push it to Feb or even March. I know that I would not be able to, Karen would kill me if I offered and told her about it as a fait accompli. It is also difficult to make something, take it to work, and then get it somewhere else and still have it be great.

That said, I'm up for most anything and will try to attend wherever we have it and in whatever format.

There was some talk about making this next one an Italian wine night. Other thoughts?

Gentlepersons(Men?? since I don't know the gender of the participants ) -- Thomas was kind enough to extend the hand of wine fellowship a few weeks ago when I signed up on this board. I would love to participate in your events if schedule allows. My office downtown is just two blocks from the Caucus Room so I'm sorry I missed your last event but look forward to meeting you in the near future. If it makes any difference I am unavailable 1 /28-31. Norm Herring

I'll weigh in my thoughts...

While the idea of having one of us hosting at our homes is a good idea and an interesting theme, I don't see it working easily during the week. Dinner in a DC restaurant wil most undoubtedly be easier to pull off.

I'm good for either January or February. I also agree with Dinwiddie that I thought I heard Italian mentioned at the Caucus Room off-line as a possible next theme. So what's next??

for the penny pinchers it is restaurant week Jan 12-18.......$20.04 at lunch and $30.04 at dinner for 3 courses.

Corkage.....Lunch....Vidalia or somewhere else equally interesting?

Norm,

You are (of course) welcome to join us in our little get togethers. So far they have been all male (not that we don't allow wives, girlfriends, etc, but so far it has been just the guys) and it makes it easier to look out for the "hot babes' that way. (Of course, they always seem to be behind me for some reason so I often miss out on the initial ogle.)

The only entry fee is an appropriate bottle of wine (or Cuban cigars for the group) and willingness to close a place down. (These dinners do tend to drag out don't they.)

We will occasionally have a big dinner (such as the VC Rocks Equinox last March) that is larger and includes the better half. Of course, if you want to bring a wife/gf/so, you may, but they you have to bring two bottles of wine.

BTW,the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week can be found at

http://www.washington.org/restaurantwk/#I

But you have to look carefully, some are only doing lunch, others only dinner. And of course, we will have to make sure that they will permit as many bottles as we bring (I wanted to do Bistro Bis once, but they only allow two bottles per table for corkage.)

TJ ....don't sweat it that you can;t make the next small offline or two...any chance of planning that much talked about "big" offline like last year's Equinox event? I believe we all talked about getting the entire Laboratorio to ourselves in March or April?

Hey, I just had a thought. Why not try to do a "big" offline the same weekend (Laboratorio or other) as the '02 CA barrel tasting? That way we can try to get people from out of town to come as well. Whaddya'll think? That'll be the weekend of March 26-27.

McArthur's Barrel Tasting - the event is $125, and as JohnnyB and I will tell you, is worth it and a fantastic opportunity to try a lot of top Cabernets.

Jaime....we need to decide if we are gonna do the afternoon (again) session or the evening session as well. I strongly recommend this event. Well worth the money.