There will be a party at the Family Estate in Felton, California on 27 August, 2005. I'll update this page: http://www.red4est.com/party/rwac05.html with details as I figure them out.
What I know so far
There will be food
There will be drink
There will be dancing
There will be milkshakes
Interesting people will be there
People will have fun
At the moment, I expect things to start around 7PM. I'll have the milkshake press set up and ready to go. The party may last until noon, or it may end as early as 2am.
I am setting up a mailing list for people who want to arrange rides, or discuss other logistics. To sign up go to http://www.red4est.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rwac05 or sending mail to rwac05-subscribe at red4est should also work.
As with all of my parties, I welcome help setting them up, collaboration for any aspect of it, and my friends bringing cool and interesting people who won't do undue amounts of damage to either the property or the other guests.
I will be firing up my milkshakepress, so people are encouraged to
bring stuff for making milkshakes: icecream, fruit, jam, syrup, malt,
cream, yogurt ...
I've made a few ounces of homemade vanilla extract by soaking four
chopped up vanilla beans in some vodka.
I am looking for help DJing for the dancing. What sort of dancing?
Just about any. My friends do
almost any kind of social dancing
But you don't have to dance to come and have fun at my parties
I've had people tell me that they didn't show up at my parties because
they don't dance. Most of the people who show up, don't dance.
However, if you don't dance, and would like to learn, let us know, and we can teach you. If you would like to teach folks some form of dance, let me know.
Live music is fun to have. If you are a musician and would like to play at the party, please let me know.
Food and Drink: I will be providing food and drinks, but people are encouraged to bring stuff to share. I always advocate bringing a little of something really good, rather than a lot of something generic.
As of the night before the party I've got a medium sized pot of mild,
no really, it's mild, OK, it's not really spicy, vegetarian chilli
made up. I also made a big batch of
Octane boost
that you can use to make the chilli as spicy as you like. The octane
boost was such a hit at my last party, I've also frozen a bunch of 4
oz containers of it for folks to bring home.
I've also got a pretty fair sized pot of southeast asianesque chicken
stew, or soup. I don't remember what all is in it, so if you've got
weird food allergies, it might not be safe. If you don't have
allergies, it's very tasty.
I've got a gas grill on the back porch, so if you want to bring
something to grill, we can supply the BTUs.
Booze: There will be an assortment of wine, beer and liquor at
the party. Not many of my friends are heavy drinkers, so while
alchohol is present at parties, it's not the theme, though impromtu
single malt tastings have been known to spontaneously occur.
A friend just gifted me with a couple cases of very nice Chardonay, so
we're pretty well set when it comes to white wine, so if you're
bringing wine, bring red.
Crashspace:I have plenty of room for people to crash here (much better than doing so on your way home), however I'd prefer to know it if you are planning on doing so.
Carpooling:Some folks don't enjoy the drive to Felton, some don't like to drive alone. If you need a ride, or would like to share, join the planning list: http://www.red4est.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rwac05 and let folks know.
Parking: There is plenty of parking at the pullout a little ways south of my house. Please don't block my neighbors in though. I try to keep enough room in the driveway for people to unload, and for folks with mobility issues to park. The walk back to the pullout can be a bit dark, so bring a flashlight.
The Nexus Book: will of course be there for people to sign.
Children: The Family Estate is not a place that most parents would consider "child friendly". The house is between a major thoroughfare and a cliff overlooking a river. My house is filled with the sorts of toys that children love and parents fear. Things that are sharp, things that explode, burn or utilize high voltages. And while you'll have to go to another party if you want to play naked bondage pinata, the topics of conversation are often adult in nature. If you want to bring a child (of any age), it's up to you, but you have to be responsible for them. If they make a mess, you get to clean it up.
Pets: (See children) People have brought pets to my parties, but the place really isn't suitable for them. There is a tree in the side yard that they could be tied to, but it really wouldn't be a lot of fun for them.
Friends: (See children) If you already know where I live, chances are that you are a close enough friend that I can trust your judgement about who you bring. A lot of my fun in throwing these parties is the opportunity to meet new people, so you are encouraged to bring cool, interesting people, who won't cause undue damage to the property or the other guests. However (see children) if you bring someone, you are responsible for their behaviour. Also, please do not post invitations to my party to mailing lists or websites without my permission.
What to bring:
a flashlight, for the walk back to your car
cool people
milkshake supplies
good food
music for dancing
Someone to dance with
good drink
a great attitude
dance shoes
bedding (if you want to stay the night)
Dancers: It seems that at every dance there is usually a lot more leaders or a lot more followers. If everybody who wants to dance invites someone of the complementary role (leaders bring followers, followers bring leaders), in theory, the ratio will be a lot more balanced. Or, at least there will be more dancers at the party.
Pyrotechnics: We're in the middle of a forest, in the middle of summer. It's not the optimal situation for limiting rapid exothermic oxidation to the target substances. However, if some pringles cans show up, we could fire a couple rounds out of the gerbilator.
Fizzball: There isn't really room to play fizzball at the family estate, but if someone shows up with a case of fizzbeer, we can always grab some large sticks and head to the church parking lot down the street.
RSVPs: I really appreciate having some idea of who will show up. I know that it'll be an interesting eclectic group of people with interests that include dancing, racing, motorcycles, bicycles, computers, science, and so on, but it's nice to have an idea of which interesting people will show up. If you aren't sure that you can make it, that's fine, just send me a note saying you might show up.
If at the last minute you find out you can't show up, don't bother calling me on the phone to say you won't be here, unless I'm counting on you to bring something in particular. I did the first 90% of the cleaning and setup for the party over the past couple of weeks, and I'll be doing the second 90% at the last minute, so while I appreciate the sentiment of the phone calls, dropping what I'm doing and running up stairs from the back yard to answer the phone is a bit awkward. Emails are fine though, and I'll check my email periodically throughout the day.
Parking: There is plenty of parking at the pullout south of my house, just don't block the neighbors cars in.
Directions: If you need directions to my house (if you haven't been here you need directions, the address won't help you find it at night) send me email at lrcparty@red4est.com.
Last minute note: I've got a temporary link set up to the directions page at: http://www.red4est.com/party/rwacdir.html
Phone: If you need to get ahold of me immediately, there are
two phone numbers that you can try.
Landline: 831-335-7505
Cell: 831-818-7729
Showing up Early: If you'd like to show up a bit early and help with the last minute preparations, that'd be awesome. Likewise, if you want to show up and use my house as a base to go hiking in Fall Creek, or head to the beach in Santa Cruz, you're welcome to do that as well. However, please let me know when you'd be showing up lest you arrive when I'm off running an errand. Since I'm writing this at about 0430 on Saturday morning, I don't expect to be leaping out of bed particularly early, so please don't call too early in the morning today.
Previous parties are listed at http://www.red4est.com/party/
announce: general announcements from me, about what is going on.
dancers: dance related announcements
parties: Party announcements. If you want to find out about future
parties, you should sign up here.
rwac05: logistics list for the upcoming party.
slv: Local events for the San Lorenzo Valley (or Santa Cruz)
For the moment the feltondance, rsracing, and raceteachers yahoogroups will continue as is.