**It is NOT the Buca di Beppo downtown! We will be meeting at the one in Mira Mesa. (Westview Parkway is its address, but it’s essentially in a strip mall on Mira Mesa Blvd.)
Please do not go downtown!**
Encinitas, come on down! We have reservations for 10, and so far only have 9 bodies showing up. So you can be the 10th.
Ashes, Ashes, I tried emailing you to make sure you know that we’ll be in Mira Mesa and not downtown. The email in your profile bounces back.
Yep, I’d have been sitting downtown, talking with my cooties about how no one showed up.
I have no idea why my e-mail bounced, Scout. Guess I’m getting what I (didn’t) pay for. Until it’s fixed I’ll keep a close eye on this thread, so no worries.
Another Dopefest virgin here, so no need to feel unique!
I love to be there…but this weekend is the “getting ready to move due to Divorce” weekend.
Dang, I won’t even be able to surf!
I’ll hoist a beverage in your honor (it’ll be a Diet Coke 
) - I’ve been there, done that.
Everyone be ready to be photographed! I’ll be bringing my camera and will hopefully be able to take plenty of pics for a Dopefest photos report.
oh, and really, English *is * my first language…I do know about the apostrophe that should have been between the “I” and the “d” of “I’d love to be there”…geez I hate that.
Thanks for the diet coke toast scout, that’s what I’d be drinking too…next month marks an entire year of zero alcohol intake for me!
Just a quick bump… 2.5 hours to go!
So no one’s going to post about last night’s Dopefest that was Bigger Than Your Head!!!?
OK, I will (a short one, as I’m on my way out the door…).
We all met at Bucca di Beppo at the appointed time… except Ashes, who was shopping, so was a bit late. 
We wrangled over what to order, but eventually got it straightened out with the aid of Astrogirl, who marked our choices on the menu/placemat in pen. We ordered a BUNCH of food and generally pigged out for a while. Ashes showed up before all the food was gone, fortunately.
Then we had ice cream at Coldstone, slightly complicated by the fact that Astrogirl had forgotten to lock her car after getting a sweater which forced us to “Katchi-Ka!” back to the car to lock it up. Slightly off-topic, but the girl serving ice cream at Coldstone needs to change careers, as she was clearly not very happy in her work…
After ice cream, everyone went home! (at least I assume everyone did. Me and AG did, anyways… I suppose it’s possible that everyone else went out drinking and carousing after ditching us… hmm)
All-in-all, a good time! I’m looking foreward to the next time we all get together.
Oh! And a short PS: someone sent me an e-mail, but it ended up in my bulk mail folder and I noticed it just as I hit the delete button! I’m not sure who it was… I just noticed someting about “Dopefest” in the subject line just as everything disappeared. Sorry about that! Whoever it was that sent the e-mail, could you re-send it please?
Astroboy, that would have been my email you so callously deleted. 
I kid, no problem. It was just mentioning for those who were at the Dopefest the link to the pages I had placed on my personal domain to show the photos I took last night.
I’ll just place that link here for all to see and assume you’re getting email notifications of thread updates: http://www.jeffcraig.net/dopefest/
Yeah, that girl at the Coldstone who took orders from you and Astrogirl was visibly stressed out and in need of being elsewhere. (The crowd and the noise level in that small store last night would stress anyone! I was relieved myself to get outside again.)
You are correct everyone went home after walking back to the Buca di Beppo parking lot.
It was very nice to meet everyone and be able to put faces to SDMB names and have lots of good food.
Very funny Astro, I’ll have no spurious tales being told about my shopping abilities. The shopping I handled beautifully, it was the poopity driving that made me late. I still can’t believe how crazy the parking was, it was like downtown LA! No matter, it was totally worth twice the drive and another twenty minutes in the parking lot to meet you all.
Next time, I’m gonna get there extra early, because I really do want to order a meatball as big as your head!
Wait…you all went home??? I went out (not)drinking and carousing. Oh wait, there were no Dopers there[sub]that I’m aware of[/sub]just a bunch of running buddies. 
I don’t think anyone should be allowed to eat at both Buca di Beppo AND Coldstone in the same, oh, 5 hour period. Dear Lord, that’s a lot of food. But it was SO GOOD.
I guess I’ve been to enough DopeFests now that it’s getting to the point where I think “wow, it’s so good to see these people again!”
Thanks for coming out and spending the evening with me, everyone!
Oh, and I just checked out the pictures. I’m pleased to say that there is now another picture of me in existence that does NOT have me flaring my nostrils.
Thanks everyone for a lovely evening and a nice break from my no-carb diet! I was good at dinner, only having salad and veggies but when we went to Cold Stone I let the excitement of the moment get the better of me. I ordered the Dulce de Leche Delight (small) and ate the whole thing! This after no sugar for 2 and a half weeks. Later I developed a classic hangover (headache, nausea, light and sound sensitivity, etc.), all without ingesting any alcohol! My insulin went crazy and it took most of Sunday to recover. I learned a very valuable lesson about body chemistry and will be more cautious next time I indulge.
But you know, it was soooooo gooooood. It was worth the agony.
I’m happy I was able to provide it!
Q and I went carousing afterwards - at WalMart!* It’s the place to be on a Saturday night, lemme tell ya (other than with a buncha Dopers, that is!)…
T’was fun fun fun, and many thanks to scout for putting it all together. Always a pleasure to see her and Encinitas and the lovely Astrogirl, whereas Astroboy I think we all could do without. (I kid! I kid!) I think JeffWC was there, but he’s such a quiet boy we hardly heard a peep out of him. And then there’s that tardy Ashes, but she’s ever so lovely I just couldn’t stay mad at her.
I think, all things considered, Jeff must have had the best time - there he was surrounded by 4 beautiful women, and the other three guys with him either didn’t care or weren’t allowed to look! 
So #4 will be where, Callahan’s? Dave & Buster’s? Just as long as it’s somewhere that’s…
AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD!
(Oh, and that bitch at Coldstone didn’t even sing the goddamned song when I tipped them! Lousy underpaid workers! )
Esprix
I heard that!!! * making squinty gangster-type eyes*
As for where the next one will be, Astrogirl says that we should do a Korean restaurant next… I suspect so that she can poke fun at us as we drip kim-chi down the front of our shirts as we fumble with the chopsticks… Regardless, if we DO do a Korean restaurant next, I will not neglect the opportunity to show off my proficiency with the Korean language. “Yo! More beer! Nice Ta-Tas! You have a sister?”
I may be slapped upside the head by you-know-who, but it will be worth it!
You’ve got that right. I knew where to place myself at that table!
Bah. Some of us know how to use chopsticks.
Sounds like my proficiency at most Asian languages (except I’m always asking if they have a brother).
Esprix
Heh…it’s too bad the Tofu House in Hillcrest closed down. It used to be highly amusing to take my friends there and watch them attempt to eat fried tofu with chopsticks.