We're taking in money now. If you haven't done so already, please send a check for $30 for each person in your group (you, spouses, SOs, friends, and other guests), made payable to HOTT.BOB, to: HOTT.BOB c/o Andrew Solberg 2205 Hazard Houston TX 77019 Then we will put a little tick next to your names on Der Master List and all will be well.
Pictures of the site will be scanned and added to the page fairly soon. You'll have to sorta imagine what it will look like without eighteen inches of snow on everything.
Probably the most important accomplishment of the weekend was the initial budget estimate. It looks like our initial guess of $30 a person was, in fact, pretty damn good. We need to pull numbers out of our butts more often, I guess. The total budget works out to about $3000, which (at $30 a person plus the additional amount Andrew and I will be tossing in) is completely workable. In figuring out the budget, we tried to over- estimate the costs involved, so that unexpected additional expenses would not blow everything out of the water.
The budget looks like this:
(3) 10x16 tents (bought) $500 (4) chemical toilets (3-day rental) $300 (1) Large campstove grill (3-day rental) $ 60 + fuel Lighting (torch and lantern) $ 60 (12) trash cans (bought) $ 60 Ice, 100 lbs. $ 20 1200 beverages (various kinds) $360 (2) large dining flies (bought) $ 75 (50) Folding chairs (3-day rental) $ 75 (6) Folding tables (3-day rental) $ 90 (2) commercial coffee urns (3-day rental) $ 75 + coffee Food $1000 (see below) Paper goods: Disp. plates, bowls, service sets, $100 some cups, napkins, etc. Wood (half cord) $ 45 Something to remember the event by $150 ---- ~$2970 + someIt looks like we're pretty set on the tent thing; Andrew tells me we'll only be needing shelter for a couple dozen people (as I recall; is this correct?), which the above-mentioned tents should take care of. If one or more of these large tents is subsidized by someone else (i.e. would any of you like a two-room 10x16 family tent?), that cost would decrease substantially. My folks may buy one of them. The one grill being rented will have a partner (either bought by my folks or borrowed from friends); between them, there should be enough space for six people to cook at once. The 50% seating will be supplemented by logs, chairs people bring with them, etc. Hopefully, we won't all need to sit at once, even during meals.
For the food specifics:
Friday night, grilled burgers (vegetarian alternate still being worked out): prolly $200, maybe a bit more if we go for really good buns and make the patties ourselves (~50 pounds of ground beef), which would be vastly preferable. Also, lots of chips and dip type stuff.
Saturday morning: Tortilla breakfast, potatoes, some egg, cheese, salsa, lettuce, some sausage, we're working on some mixed fruit (prolly melons), about $150
Saturday lunch and dinner: Taos. We're talking about doing one huge group reservation at a place that does authentic southwestern dishes for dinner.
BONUS MEAL!: My folks have offered to do a meal themselves for us, for after the wedding, late Saturday night. No details on the nature of this feast yet, but I know better than to tell my folks "no".
Sunday late morning: Biscuits with gravy and/or honey/jam/etc. Sausage. More fruit. ~$150.
Sunday late afternoon/dinner: The Chili Cookoff. Basic ingredients (ground beef, beans, tomato, etc.) will be provided. We're prolly going to need to produce about 15 gallons of chili between all the people cooking. About $275.
Monday morning: Pancakes, egg, bacon or link sausage. $200.
Preliminary pricing by yours truly for various random items that we know will be needed for these meals suggests that stuff costs less than we initially guessed, especially when one is buying in huge quantities, so we may have the option of really producing huge amounts of food or (more likely) splurging on some of the ingredients.
1) An account is being set up right now for HOTT.BOB fee money. We'll prolly start asking for money around mid-June.
2) My folks are looking into getting group rates at one of the motels in town, for those of you planning to stay in town instead of at the site. If you plan to stay in town but *DON'T* want to be in a room near all the other 'froupers who are staying in town, let me know. There will prolly need to be a deposit put on these rooms relatively soon, so if you plan to stay in town, make sure Andrew knows this-- we'll need an accurate headcount of how many rooms, and you'll need to send in some separate money for this.
Andrew and I will be meeting in Las Vegas on the weekend of April 21st to scout the area, snag some phonebooks, take some pictures, and generally stride about the desert like two gods on a tequila hangover.
I imagine the next major set of changes (BIG changes, BIG *BIG* changes) to these pages will take place in the week after that trip; at that point, I'll be adding information on train schedules, hopefully some rough estimates of flight info, maybe scan some pictures of the area in, get menus from places we may want to eat at in Taos....
Other than that, the only major change to the home page is the pointer to Rocco's better Maps of NM. And again, a reminder to maybe check the needs list.
We're about three or four weeks behind on the budget, though, so at the moment we're still calling it $30 a person. I still think that will come down a good bit, however-- we should be able to do quite a lot without using the majority of that kind of money.
I am working up a list of things we need, most of which is stuff to be accquired with the collected money. However, take a look at it and let us know if we're forgetting anything obvious and vital to an outdoors collection of a hundred people.
Also take some time to look over the menu with a serious eye; we need assistance with almost all the meals, and some of them lack consideration for the vegetarian/vegan attendees, so we need recommendations for alternate recipes, ideas, etc.
More in the near future, no doubt.