Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

happy baby, kerry! i wish you and manny and the little one to come all the best but it definitely won't be the same without you! (p.s. i found the card that was supposed to go in your package underneath my couch the other day. going to send it soon. :)

i hope the rest of you are coming! less than three months away now! can't wait to see you all!

lara! i am sorry it has taken me this long to reply to your message -- things have been hectic over here, as you know.

but i would like to say martha is still our gal for sending money to -- she is an angel to coordinate that part. i am glad to have found us a venue -- i really wanted an opportunity to show you guys my neck of the woods. it means a lot to me! :)

Martha wrote: "Hey Mo - I am down as your veggie counterpart cook. Can't wait!"

smarty, i was hoping you'd say that!

les! i'm excited!

hello fiction filers:

i am happy to report that we are now the proud renters of the Jeffery Bay cottage for the week of July 18-25th. The contract has been signed and the deposit paid so that's all sorted out now.

Ed and Glo, our landlords for the week, are very sweet and i'm very fond of them already. Ed has sent a couple of links to local attractions and promises more as the summer progresses. i told them we are a book group and that we had some writers in our midst and i think they are very tickled by the idea of our gatherings. here's a story that Ed shared with me in his last email, joking that maybe somebody needs to write a book about it:

"When the Huron Nation and Jesuits were being defeated by the Iroquois at Fort Sainte Marie, (they burnt the place down)the Jesuits were attempting to escape in canoes up the Wye River. (directly across from the cottage) They took a full broadside of flaming arrows, causing the Jesuit canoes to capsize and their subsequent capture. The gold and silver treasures sank to the muddy bottom of the Wye, documented as being in an iron cast box. My Great Grandfather dredged up the Wye River searching for the treasure, local newspaper accounts saying that it had been found. Grandmother used to laugh, saying that the church ministry, upon reading the news reports, descended upon the dredge barge in small boats, Grandfather and crew pushing them away with long sharp poles. ha ha.

Grandmother would never confirm, yes or no, but I think yes, and it's hidden on the cottage property."

i promised him we wouldn't dig up the whole place looking for treasure. :)

FYI, Ed and Glo do have towels and sheets and pillows and the like, but they do recommend bringing a beach towel. Again, I could probably rustle up two or three to bring, but it would be good if you packed one if you've got one. :)

The contract also requires a full list of attendees with approximate ages to be submitted to Ed before we arrive so i'm going to add an age column to the google spreadsheet. i will also add maps and directions and any other info i acquire. one other thing occurred to me and that's that since you are all going to be here, i should ask my brother for some of those awesome tenderloin steaks he always gives me for my birthday that i've always wanted to share with you all, so i'm going to make a column for vegetarian/omnivore on the spreadsheet as well. and i have to find somebody to make an awesome veggie alternative for steak night -- and sweet talk jonny into barbecuing 'em because i usually do mine on the george foreman grill.

if anybody has any questions related to Canada, let me know. now's probably a good time to remind you that if you are travelling by air, you will need a valid passport (though if driving in from buffalo, i *think* just a driver's license will do.) if you are flying, you may want to take advantage of duty free shopping en route, and if you smoke, buy cigarettes before you get here as we do not have a vast array of american brands and cigarettes are generally expensive.

also, i should advise that the canadian dollar is low right now but things are looking up for us, so if you want to buy canadian funds you might want to buy some now. :)

thank you, smarty! they seem like really nice people. plus i just like saying bunkie. :) i am guessing we haven't heard anything from patty because she and jean-paul are busy before travelling to london. i wonder if we need to to send out another facebook message? maybe a group email? it's really too bad there's not an easy way to address an email to a handful of people on goodreads. it would be good if we got a general sense of okay since we're stepping out of bounds of the poll and into "other options." it would be good if we could let them know soon. anyway, i'll be out at a workshop in the morning, and i'm out in the afternoon and evening as well, so i won't be inundating this thread with messages for at least twenty hours. :)

the rockside retreat http://www.cottagesincanada.com/thero... got back to me and they're booked the week we're looking for. available the week before.

hey folks:

got an assortment of photos via email from ed and glo at the jeffrey family compound. if you want to take a gander, please check them out here:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?i...

i've sent the contract to martha to review and then unless there is strenuous objection, i think we should pull the trigger.

Lara wrote: "I LOVE THIS ONE!!"

hurray! the good news about it is also that nobody will make us bring our own pillows and towels and sheets. the lovely gloria told me that the only thing we have to do is bring ourselves and food. and she said they have this amazing fancy barbecue they built, and the water is shallow for the kids and the beach is private and and and! can you tell i love this one, too?

given that micha is now a maybe, i like the idea of a place that it is a little more capacious. i am still waiting for some of the smaller places to get back to me, but my heart belongs to the jeffrey compound now. :)

you guys!

i think i found the perfect place! i just got off the phone with the wife (also a booklover) and the husband is going to send me more photos when he gets home but they just listed the place TODAY so the week we want is available:

http://www.cottagesincanada.com/jeffe...

not in the kawarthas, but a great bit of cottage country and probably closer to toronto. she was also telling me about this great historical spot when you can handcraft nails and swab the deck (she said this was for kids but i want in!!)

Went back to the first site and started combing it for rentals.

I contacted Mellow Yellow cottage and they are booked the week we're looking for but would be available July 12-19th. that place is here: http://www.cottagesincanada.com/mello...

i also sent a message to this place: http://www.cottagesincanada.com/trena...
(price is a little high)

okay. cottage portal website is back online. i am blitzing everybody. will continue to post updates as i go along. :)

hi guys:

heard from Wayne at Case Manana and they are booked up solid except for the last week in August.

the cottage portal site crashed after my last message so i haven't really been able to send out any more queries. still haven't heard back from coby, and i sent an email to the rockside retreat but haven't heard anything back.

if i don't hear anything back, 'm really wondering if we can consider switching the dates? what are your thoughts...?

here is the link to the google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/c...

please provide your phone numbers. :)

thanks!

glad that lara is feeling so fine! and yes, we definitely want pictures of your adventures. :)

i called and left a message for the fellow at illya and he's already called me back. he apologized -- he said he thought he'd replied to Martha's email. the week we were looking at is booked up (though he says the two weeks following are still available -- do we want to consider pushing back the date?)

i also called and left a message for wayne parent at casa manana. i see now that he has a website dedicated to the cottage and you can reserve by completing a rental agreement and faxing it. i could probably do this but i'd have to find a place to fax it and pay cash. does anybody have free faxing ability? my guess is that even if he calls me back, we'll still have to get the fax to him asap, so maybe we should just go ahead and submit? here's the link to the rental form:

http://www.accessv.com/~healthy/casa_...

it asks for the phone numbers of all the people who will be in attendance. i'm not sure i have all the phone numbers. i suspect this might be a good time to get the dorkapalooza google doc going again. i sent an email letting him know we were interested to follow up my phone call and cc'd Martha, and said we could send the form asap.

i can try calling the other places as well but i actually have to run some errands so that will have to wait until later on in the day.

well, i'm having a bit of an anxiety attack about this. i'm trying find other places to contact just in case illya is a no-go. i searched within the same parameters as last time, at a new site that was mentioned on the cottages in canada site and i'm inclined to suggest that people just look at the links and say if there's any they're actively opposed to because i suspect we might need to blitz a bunch of places to see if they're available (these are all currently showing as available for the week we've been talking about.) i hope people are okay with this idea, and i can make the initial calls since the long distance will be cheapest for me, if you like, martha.

http://www.cottagesincanada.com/thero...

http://cottageportal.com/Details/1666

http://cottageportal.com/Details/2360

http://cottageportal.com/Details/2393

http://cottageportal.com/Details/1877

i suggested coby in the poll thread since it had the largest capacity and the bells and whistles...

i can also try calling illya tomorrow if you want. let me know, though. :)

hi hi:

i forgot to say fingers crossed for jennie and to make some kind of snarky remark about brazil to oro. :)

also, thanks so much for doing the heavy lifting of making contact, smarty kate. you are the best! (also, i thought you might be up for a baseball game. :)

here is a message all about air fare research: tips on finding and booking cheaper flights, and some web sites that you can set up alerts with to keep an eye for cheap flights from. i've copied them below. it looks like they're actually saying it's now 6 weeks instead of 8 weeks that the tickets become cheapest (54 days is the number i saw bandied about) but they also say that flight alerts are the best way to keep apprised of deals. they also recommend searching for flights in singles even if you're flying in pairs because the airlines always match prices. so if there was one discount seat available you wouldn't see it because you're looking for two seats, i believe is what they're saying.

i should also mention if you are going to fly into toronto there are two airports here: the majority of flights arrive come through Pearson (YYZ) but Toronto Island/Billy Bishop (YTZ) is also fine -- and actually in Toronto. Pearson is in the suburb of Mississauga.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/art...

http://money.usnews.com/money/persona...

http://www.businessinsider.com/23-sec...

http://www.farecompare.com/travel-adv... (info article but also can sign up for alerts here)

http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/flight-... (UK) though apparently there is also a cheapflights.com

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/ (for US/Canada only)

Les wrote: "I am a Blue Jays fan and was hoping to catch a game. I'm in! Whaddayasay, Dan? All this assumes my maybe becomes a definite yes, which is looking more likely.

Thanks again, Mo!"

hurray, les! it would be great to meet you in person! :) also, i love that you are a blue jays fan!

no thanks necessary! i am just trying to make canadork as easy as possible because i want to see everybody!

(also, i just checked the schedule and they are planning the texas rangers on saturday afternoon the 19th and those tickets are only 5 dollars? maybe because it is family day? baseball is so confusing. :)

here's a link to the schedule: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/sched...

p.s. dan, i also noticed that the boston red sox are playing toronto blue jays the week of the canadork: cheap seats have gone up but they are still only 15 bucks. i know it's not the phillies but maybe some of the kids would want to do that? (you know i don't want to do that but i thought i'd put it out there since i know baseball tickets aren't always cheap in your neck of the woods :)

Dan wrote: "I'm gonna be looking into flying into Buffalo, Syracuse or some other American city and drive in. Flights into Canada can get expensive!"

great idea, dan! not sure if there's ever super cheap flights to new york or chicago or DC from phoenix but i wondered if that could be combined with a cheap porter flight? flights into the U.S. from Canada are also expensive which is why i haven't been able to come to as many of the get togethers as i'd like, and i'm so grateful for the opportunity to not be the one paying airfare this time round (i know lara always has the most expensive airfare but hopefully her turn for savings will come in eurodork 2016.) i'm also thinking that your probably is sounding more and more like a yes, and that makes me super happy -- i want the opportunity to give you and katie many hugs after one of the ickiest times in my life! :)

i read an article yesterday that said often the cheapest flights are available 8 weeks out from your travel date. the article was from 2010 so things may have changed. bottom line, i will still keep you all apprised if i see any fare sales from air canada hit my inbox.

we'll keep our fingers crossed for flight sales, kerry!