The GOOD News! (and... not really any bad news)

Our contact at the Radisson seems to have dissolved, and because the water park isn't finished, our contract can be dissolved too. That means there's no meeting room, so no costs, and so no fees!

The swimming plan is moved to Wednesday night at the West Mesa pool, and FridayThursday afternoon we'll go to the zoo.

More details are here: SandraDodd.com/festival

Monkey Platter Countdown!

The time is getting close! Hema's family left India today. They're going to London, and then New Jersey, and then here.

Yesterday I was cleaning up the kitchen so we'll have lots of room for the Indian cooking demo, and I polished a silver tray and two silver bowls. I know kids will eat off plastic or paper, but hey... it's a big party!

I have lots of trays, so if you want to contribute foods to platters, you won't need to bring a plate or tray if you don't want to. We can use my stuff every day. Because of the SCA and medieval feast and camping projects over the years, and because of my thrift-store habits, we have lots of wooden and metal trays and platters.

I've reminded the hotel several times about wanting a sign-up page for our event, but I'm willing to give up on them. If you want to make a reservation at the Radisson for the Monkey Platter Festival, we have an $84 rate (and they'll add taxes). I had $90 on the page, but talked them back down. I'll go and change that.

So call 800-333-3333 or 505-888-3311 between 8 am and 5 pm Mountain time, and say you're with the Monkey Platter Festival. The available dates at that $84 rate are November 9-13. Double check that they say $84 base rate, and let them know whether you want a king or two doubles.

Do this pretty soon if you're using the hotel!

Pictures are here: http://sandradodd.com/festival/radisson09

Indian cooking, early inspiration

Hema (whose name sounds like HEYma) wrote and here's some of the news:

I'm in Indore where Ravi's aunt is an awesome cook. So i'm getting some large quantities of home-made goodies... to share at the festival. And she is giving some basic home-made-flour for making chaklis (someone's blog has a photo of this). My mom is sending home-made vegetable pickles and some home-made masalas.

Also Hema had asked how she could help in advance, and I said we didn't have logo art, so...

Here is something Ravi and I put together today. It's got a monkey platter feel but is Indianised and has more of a special-day feeling. The foods are sweet and savory, hot and cold. All are snack items. Not main entree variety. The rangoli design drawn around the thali (plate) is hand made by me and my sister-in-law. The foods are made by Ravi's aunt mostly and one item by my sister-in-law.

Monkey Platter Update and notes

New activity, if the weather is nice on Day 1 at my house (November 10): Cutting gallons of water in half with a sword. If you want to. Pictures of it having been done previously are linked below. We'll have safety people and coaches for those interested. You'll get several chances.
"Water My Yard with Swords" day
and we did it another time, on Kirby's birthday:
Kirby's birthday

For those of you who know for sure you're coming (besides Beth, who's speaking, and Lee, who will be filming and interviewing, and Hema, the guest of honor), I need to pay for the conference room soon, so please register in advance. If the cost of the room is covered (it's $360 or so) by Thursday, those who've stayed at the Radisson can request a refund of their family's portion. You can send me a check or use paypal.

The water park isn't finished but we can have a pool party that afternoon (Thursday).

Each day there's a park involved, with playground equipment. Tuesday it will just be for playing, because we can eat at my house.
Wednesday we'll eat at the park across from the museum.
Thursday we'll eat two blocks from the hotel, an easy walk.

I'll provide kid-readable maps to those parks, so try to let the kids find the place if you're patient enough. It will be more fun.

There will be mom-readable maps to the main sites before time. It's easy to get from the hotel to my house by bus, and I'll have directions and times before the day. The hotel will run a shuttle van to Explora and back on Wednesday for anyone staying at the hotel without a car, so as it turns out, people don't have to have a car for this! The airport will get people to The Radisson, and other things are easy.

The $10 is really for the use of the pool Thursday. I need to pay for the room, and only those registered for the conference can be there or in the pool. Bummer about the water park. I'm disappointed and they're embarrassed, but the hotel rates are still pretty good and we have the room for Beth and me to speak and for our Q&A session! Lee Stranahan will be there that day, and maybe other days, recording some of the talks or discussion, and maybe talking to some of you if you want. He and Lauren are unschooling their kids, and Lee's documenting people's experiences with and thoughts on unschooling.

To make it easier for people to add suggestions and ask questions, I'm going to go ahead and make a blog for this, and will start with most of this note.