NorCal X Marks Burns Supper: plan now!

[TimC]

It's in my planner - let us know what we can do to help.

-Tim

[switchblade5984]

ill see what i can do!

[Panache]

DATE IS CONFIRMED

Saturday, January 20th, 2007

Excellent! When does the shindig start?

I think that 7:00 might give everyone enough time to get there.

Thoughts?

Cheers

[Alan H]

I'm back and forth in e-mail with the amazing Madalyn, and will update the board shortly!

[Alan H]

ALL-RIGHTY, THEN. Here's the poop.

The Date: Saturday, January 20th, 2007

The Time: Festivities begin at 6:30 PM, wrap up around 10:30. We're doing all of the set-up, cooking, etc ourselves, so the hall should be open around 5:30 for preparations. There's a complete kitchen on the premises for re-warming food. There will be a communal clean-up afterwards, which I doubt will go beyond 11:00. Many hands make light work, and all that.

The Location: The American Legion Hall in Pacifica, California. The Hall is about two blocks from Highway 1, and is quite close to a number of hotels for those that would like to spend the night in Pacifica, thereby allowing themselves to quaff single-malt at every possible excuse. It's very easy to find (specific directions coming later). Pacifica is about 10 miles south of San Francisco, on the coast.

The Cost: Thirteen lousy bucks per person, payable to Madalyn Drago.

Activities: The Usual...an hour before dinner for mingling, sampling single-malt or Scottish Ale etc.. Piping in the haggis, the Selkirk Grace, The Address to the Haggis....the Immortal Memory, Toast to the Lasses, The Lasses Respond, plus various readings of the works of Scottish and Scottish-American authors. I'm hoping there will be a half hour or so of Scottish County Dancing (assuming I can convince a certain well-known couple in our midst to teach us the rudiments of a few steps) and there will be a trio playing for the dancing. Oh, and there will be lots of just plain old hanging-out and yakking.

Attire: Jackets and ties for the men, formal-to-semi-formal dresses or pants suits for the women. Black tie optional, but encouraged. Everyone must wear something significant on their person that's tartan or unabashedly celtic!.

Opportunities for Volunteering: I know for a fact that the Burns Supper for the San Francisco Saint Andrews Society is about $75 a person. I know that because my local clan convener is the President of the Society! While it's still a good deal @ 75 bucks, we wanted to make this Burns Supper accessible to everyone from XMarks that could come. To keep the cost down, we're going pot-luck.

We're inviting the Devils Canyon Brewery folks, so I think it's reasonable to assume that they will supply a case of Ale or perhaps a growler (I'll ask at this months get-together). Your thirteen dollars goes towards things like buying a few bottles of single-malt, buying the disposable plates/silverware, the centerpieces for the tables, one large food item that's not easily brought to the hall, and so on. However, for almost all of the food, and for all of the activities, we need volunteers.

Madalyn is handling all the food and collecting the moolah. OK, so we ALL owe Madalyn, BIG-TIME for this! She has an e-mail address which Kent made for her to coordinate volunteers for the event: If you can cook a food item for the Supper....and we need someone to make a haggis, then e-mail Madalyn at: burns_supper@crocuta.com...I'm hoping the Gwenlass will bring her famous "hagless" for the vegetarians among us.

We have our piper, so we're all set, there (thanks, PiperGeorge!). We have The Band for dancing (me, and two good friends of mine). However, we need people to read aloud at the Supper, so I will be HUNTING YOU DOWN and SIGNING YOU UP over the next couple months to read/toast/compose for the event. If you quake in terror at the thought of reading aloud before 30 people, then volunteer to cook something!

Attendance: We feel confident that we can get between 24-30 people at the Hall, just from the Northern California contingent of XMarks and our Devils Canyon Brewery Friends. HOWEVER....should someone from outside our usual gang of folks want to attend, just PM me and we'll make arrangements if there's room. SoCal XMarkers, Oregon XMarkers are welcome! Heck, if you want to fly in from the UK, come on in! I think the maximum we could really handle is about 40.


I'm going to make an executive decision, here. We need to know if you're coming by January 1st. and Madlyn needs to have your check by that day as well. That gives you plenty of time to clear your calendar and figure it out. January 1st!

This should be a blast!

[Panache]

The F-H.C.A.G., and I are in for

smoked salmon

1 bottle of scotch

1 bottle of wine (white and sweet)

1 address of the haggis (unless ANYONE else is keen to do this)

sound of crickets

1 song (My "Heart's in the Highlands" or "My Heart's in the Canyon" depending on how much refreshment is provided my Devil's Canyon Brewery)

1 dance, "Rory O' More" (if we can master it and get the music, it's easy and a lot of fun)

Cheers

[Monkey@Arms]

Well done on the planning. But jackets and tie? I have nae got a kilt jacket, and I thought the common wisdom was that a regular sport coat don't look right with a kilt?

How about Kilt and appropriate shirt, e.g. shirt and tie, or jacobite, instead?

Best regards,

Jake

[bunchdescendant]

(snip quote down to essence)

Attire: Jackets and ties for the men, formal-to-semi-formal dresses or pants suits for the women. Black tie optional, but encouraged. Everyone must wear something significant on their person that's tartan or unabashedly celtic!.

(/snip quote down to essence)

Aarrrgggh! Jackets and Ties!!

Well, guess it's time to take that tweed jacket down to Panache's tailor.

Now-where can I get a solid black tie, Lindsay flyplaid for the S.O. and a kilt in Lindsay or McLachlan for the Little Celtic Dancer.......

As you can guess, we are starting to plan for this.

Ray

[Panache]

Well done on the planning. But jackets and tie? I have nae got a kilt jacket, and I thought the common wisdom was that a regular sport coat don't look right with a kilt?

How about Kilt and appropriate shirt, e.g. shirt and tie, or jacobite, instead?

Best regards,

Jake

Jake,

I think that a dress shirt and go great with a UK. Instead of a jacket how about a vest?

Cheers

[Alan H]

Well done on the planning. But jackets and tie? I have nae got a kilt jacket, and I thought the common wisdom was that a regular sport coat don't look right with a kilt?

How about Kilt and appropriate shirt, e.g. shirt and tie, or jacobite, instead?

Best regards,

Jake

I'm guessing that you'll probably wear a UK to the dinner, right? OK, so how could you dress up a UK "to the max"? Maybe a sportcoat would look OK with a UK, I dunno....I've never seen one. Steve has a pic of himself wearing a Freedom Kilt on his website, with a regular sportcoat and kilt sox and it looks good.

It's worth a try, eh? Put it all on, snap a pic and toss it up here at X-Marks for comments?

I second the tie/vest idea of Panache's.