We will join our sister group for a BYO sparkling wine, potluck. Read carefully, bring good wine & an appetizer and you can get in for a $2 donation. We will be praying for more snow too.

After the holiday crunch we are taking some time to relax and enjoy 2008 with some good sparkling wine, great food, good poker, and great company!

Very shortly we will be posting a list of suggested sparkling wines and appetizers to bring to this event. We will be asking everyone to bring one bottle of $20+ retail sparkling wine and an appetizer that serves 20+ people to share. The list should be helpful to those who are wine/food selection challenged. For now we have some resource web pages posted below to help you get started. You don't have to stick to the list but it will be a helpful guide for most.

$2-7 event donation for host provided "stuff" , host paid help and clean up. We will have bottled water and soda. We will be asking you to post what you are bringing in both the wine & food categories. If you do this and bring a sparkling wine that appears to be $20+ retail it's a $2 entry donation please. Any other $20+ retail non-sparkling wine & it's $4. Forget to post anything & it's $7; (so please post your contributions so everyone can feel the excitement of trying something new). Show up empty handed & you will be directed to the corner market to purchase your contributions. (Insist that you can't be bothered to do that & you will be relieved of $25 for the wine & $20 for an appetizer and one of my assistants will go get "something" for you. You then be entered into the contest for the pool toss "winner").

The game will be the usual no rake, no-limit hold'em cash game with unlimited $60-$100 buy-ins for the first table and maybe $40-$60 buy-ins for the second table.*** Blinds will be $1-$2 & $.50-$1 respectively. I can host up to five tables so if we go beyond two we will most likely alternate based on player preference. If the blinds are important to you put your preference in your sign-up posting.

We have new custom poker tables made by Curtis Roll, (real works of art), high quality Modiano Italian playing cards, plenty of chairs and nice chips. Come check out the continuing soft opening of the BC casino.*****

Arrive anytime after 7:00 PM. Cards in the air as soon as 5 folks sit down at a table &/or roughly 7:30ish

No smoking anywhere near the house. It's semi legal to smoke on the sidewalk in front of the house. Please flap your arms to air out before coming back inside!

*** You can re-buy when you get down to 50% or less of the top $ buy-in for your table. If you bust-out/go to zero/$0 you can buy-in for 150% of the top buy-in for your table

Here is a list of places that have great ideas for Sparkling Wine

http://winelibrary.co...

http://bevmo.com

http://wine.com

THIS TRIP IS ALREADY SOLD OUT!!! POST ON THE MESSAGE BOARD IF YOU ARE DRIVING UP. CHECK OUT THE NIGHT OF LIGHTS HAPPY HOUR ON SATURDAY

You must get a check to Michelle Hollister @ http://ccscsports.org to get on the bus. When you sign up yes please post that you are sending a check to Michelle.

Pray for snow!

We will join CCSCsports.org on their bus trip to Mammoth.

Your $209 gets you a seat on the bus, two nights in a nice shared condo and lots of fun folks to share the mountain with. You have to buys your own lift tickets. Sign up here to let others know your going but you have to get a check to Michelle Hollister to actually get on the bus.

You can check out the details, what's included, etc. on their web page @

http://ccscsports.org

Here are some of the basics that are included:

♣ Two nights lodging at Snow Flower Condominiums ♣ Round trip Non-Stop charter bus with movies on return ride
♣ Snacks and refreshments will be provided on the bus- Feel free to bring your dinner or eat beforehand
♣ Round trip transfer to the main lodge both days ♣ Saturday night dinner ♣ Sunday night sandwich for ride home.

It's a fun group.

You must get a check to Michelle Hollister @ http://ccscsports.org to get on the bus. Pray for snow!

We will join CCSCsports.org for their first bus trip to Mammoth. Save the dates.

You can check out the details, what's included, etc. on their web page @

http://ccscsports.org

It's a fun group.

UPDATE, SUNDAY 11/4. THE FORECAST STILL LOOKS BAD SO I RECOMMEND ATTENDING THE PRAY FOR SNOW PARTY, it's the next item on our calendar, THIS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH.

THIS IS A MAYBE BUT THE DECEMBER 14TH BUS TRIP IS GOING FOR SURE SO MAKE SURE YOU CHECK IT OUT !

They already have snow and like many of you, I will be monitoring the weather to see if opening day is worth the trip. If you think you might be going up and or want to share something with others let folks know and we might be able to put something together. It's a definet maybe for now due to uncertain conditions.

We are too small to have our own party but we can join in the fun of the party with 5 other groups at Michael's place. If you belong to the other groups sign up here so all of us snow fans can find each other.

This time we are going way south of the border to sample some of the great white wines from the Southern Hemisphere, have some potluck food and play some poker; (poker is optional, the wine isn't). All at Michael's house in Bel Air* For those of you who are geograpaphically challenged we are taking about white wines from Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and a few other interesting places down south.

There will mostly likely be about 100-130 attendees/players from Michael's three little groups and Darrells three Big groups. Only 30-40 poker players will be allowed. 3-4 tables. One lighted poolside

All members are urged to have a recent photo of themselves posted by Sep 25thish. Those not having a photo posted by then will be in competition with the smokers & other miscreants for the pool toss "winner". **

$6 meet-up donation for host/organizer provided "stuff". (The fee went up because the cleaning bill for the house and other missing/broken stuff was through the roof!) If you see anyone doing something they shouldn't nominate them for the pool toss**

We've had some successful semi organized & totally non-organized wine tasting/ poker games at Michael house in Bel Air*, so this time, just to change it up again, we are going BYO on the wine, potluck appetizers, optional poker & a Pool Toss** on a "SEMI-MASS CHAOS" basis. The semi in MASS CHAOS comes from the request for white wines from way down South and the possibility you may be tossed into the pool if you break the house rules/do not read the directions carefully!

This is more of a social event for winos; aspiring winos. So, if are a purest anything, make sure you have a high level of tolerance for non-purest. Or, you could just stay home, talk to you imaginary friends, play video poker and contemplate the true meaning of naval lint. Or hey, just bring a good karma attitude and join in the fun.

Bring a bottle of Southern hemisphere white wine, ($15+ retail please**) and a potluck item to share. It's summer time so white wines from the southern hemisphere are requested but it is SEMI-MASS CHAOS so bring whatever tickles your fancy as long as you are willing to take your chances on being tossed in the pool.** As for the appetizer part of the potluck this is your chance to show off your culinary talents. . The BBQ grill will be available. When you respond give us an idea of what your wine food pairing is.

Arrive anytime after 6:30 PM. First wine cork opens when the first bottle hits the door. The poker game will be the usual no limit cash hold'em game with a newbie training table most likely manned by Darrell. The game will most likely start around 7:30ish. (It's a group event; go with the flow). Poker game will have varying buy-ins of $10-$60 depending on which table you sit at. The game ends at 11:30ish

The host will provide bottled water, sodas & other mystery stuff left over from other parties. If you want anything else bring it.

The host has about 25 chairs and 15 of those are the cheap plastic garden variety. So if you really want to make sure you have a seat bring a folding chair of some kind or risk standing for a very long time.

You are encouraged to bring a swimsuit and use the pool or jacuzzi. There is no lifeguard on duty.

Smokers will be shot on sight**anywhere near the house. If you must smoke go out to the front sidewalk of the house and then run around the block a few times to air out before reentering the house.

FAQ: If Bel Air does not work on a mapquest search use Los Angeles, yes the host really does have a pump action shotgun reserved for smokers.

* Don't be too impressed with the "Bel Air" address. We were calling it the Bel Air Barrio but mapquest would not bring it up & people got lost. The movie stars live at the bottom of the hill.

**OK, so you've cleverly calculated that you will most likely not be shot for smoking, (someone pointed out it might not be totally legal ). Accordingly we will have pool toss for at least one offender in this descending order: smoking near the house, raiding Michael's good alcohol, not putting trash in it's proper container, smuggling in two buck chuck, bringing the "wrong" wine, not having a profile photo posted or any other high treason crimes. A wine soaked committee will be be formed to "toss" selected individuals into the pool for their above noted transgressions. So if you are bringing the "wrong" wine & pointing to your name on the sign-up list that does not have a picture of your smiling face start looking around hopefully for a sm