After work yesterday I headed over to the Hyatt Regency to hang with trinsf, britgeekgrrl  and hai_irouchuujin. I arrived later than I would have liked and stayed a bit later than originally planned but had a very good time. We discussed another Hugo nominee; Ted Chiang's Exhalation-which was the most recent Escape Pod broadcast but which I haven't read yet, britgeekgrrl  brought a pint of Humphrey Slocomb's 'secret breakfast' flavor (corn flakes and bourbon) which was delicious, and I promised to bring some bacon chocolate next week. We were joined later by digitalsidhe  and then by two other folks whose names escape me now, Paul and someone else... this was shortly before I left, so I didn't get to chat much with them, unfortunately.




( ... the rest of the evening ... )

Hyatt Regency, 5:30pm, you know the drill.

Tonight is Clockwork SF, so I won't be staying terribly late since I have to change into my glad rags and so on, but both britgeekgrrl  and I plan to be there till about 7:30, so feel free to drop by.

Feeling a little behind on everything, but mostly because there is so much 'everything' right now, so that's all good.

Last Friday's meetup ended up going very well. We started at The Thirsty Bear, where I met trinsf  a little after five o'clock. It turns out they don't seat tables till half past so we reserved one and waited outside. We were seated promptly and got a pitcher of very nice sangria and some delicious tapas. We spent a couple of hours there, joined by britgeekgrrl and hai_irouchuujin . Discussion was appropriatelly fannish and very entertaining.

The Bear has good food and good drinks but the table situation and the volume was not quite right for what I wanted so we threw around some ideas and britgeekgrrl suggested the hotel bar at the Hyatt Regency over on Embarcadero so we decided to check it out on our way to the Muni station.

Oh my god, I love the place! Walking into the wide open lobby atrium with the giant spherical sculpture I knew immediatelly it was the place. The vibe is pure Logan's Run seventies-futuristic. The drinks were decent, the food pretty damned good and the service was excellent, they also have some sort of happy hour I've already forgotten about and areas to expand/retreat into as needed.

We were joined by ewhac  and a friend of britgeekgrrl  and stayed till about midnight in the end, a pace I don't think I will be able to maintain every Friday (certainly not the next two as I have Clockwork SF and Hubba Hubba later those evenings) but consider a very good christening.

I didn't do anything much over the weekend except work on stuff at home and watch Rome, god I love that show.

The new issue is up, Abney Park and Clockwork SF coverage from me. Stuff from others as well, presumably.

In other news, it looks like we're settling on the Thirsty Bear down on Howard for the Friday after work meetup thing. Tapas!