Falltacular 2019--Saturday, 2/16/2019 @ My Place In The OC

Event Planner - Online or Offline
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Checks in the mail! I wouldn’t miss this for anything.

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Not knowing the starting dates, I kind of jumped the gun and sent my check in 11/16, but nonetheless, I`m excited to be doing this for the first time and looking forward to seeing some dear friends and putting some faces and names together all the while for a more worthy cause. Might even drink a good wine or 3.

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Lodging Details

Best Western Plus Marina Shores
34280 Pacific Coast Highway
Dana Point CA 92629
(800) 232-3262 or (949) 248-1000

Please contact the front desk to reserve your room. You MUST use the phrase “Laura’s House Falltacular” when reserving to get the group pricing that was offered. These rooms are held until 1/19/19 and will then be released to the hotel’s general inventory. Use these savings in the auction!! All rooms are first come, first served. If a room type you want is “sold out” there may be others available at the rates below but not secured by the blocked status.

King Whirlpool Suites- $124 - 5 available
Two Room King Suites- $124 - 8 available
Standard King Suites- $114 - 7 available
Two Room Queen Double- $124 - 5 available

Parking is again included, saving $20 for a 2 night stay. (Auction $$$)

The hotel is really looking forward to hosting us during our stay are fully committed to the cause behind Laura’s House. If you or your friends are in the area and looking for lodging, please consider the Best Western Plus, Marina Shores and mention you have stayed here before for Laura’s House to let them know you are appreciative to the savings they offer us.

Contact me with any questions regarding the lodging.
Cheers,
Mike Stoneking

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Booked the King Suite at $124… Thanks Mike!

Cheers!
Marshall

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With the whirlpool???

flirtysmile

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Booked thanks Mike!

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King, thank you for arranging the lodging again, and for the thoughtfulness to put it both here and on the Facebook page. Thank you, partner.

Update. We are at 140 paid and I have told Laura’s House that through EOD tomorrow we will accept checks, which means those people would be locked in for the event. AFTER tomorrow, we will start the wait list. That means we will call those checkholders who receive on Thursday and going forward to see if they want to be put on the wait list.

It took just a week to sell out the event. Pretty amazing. Nearly $14,000 raised in that short period of time, for an event that has NO advertising, where the passion and advocacy of a committed group like all of you drive this success.

THANK YOU!

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That’s great. But I don’t see Mike Grammer’s name on the list😱

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Say it ain’t so! Wait?! I also don’t see a certain grill master supreme Bruce Leiserowitz on the list [swoon.gif]

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Thanks for arranging the hotel again Mike! All booked and ready to go - is it February yet?

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SOLD OUT! Boom. Well, that was fun. A wait list is now going to be started. As any additional checks come in, they will go onto a list and if they want Laura’s House to hold (not cash) the check, they can be placed in queue to see if we end up with some space as the event nears. If folks don’t want to be on this wait list, then they can skip sending in the check and we will look forward to seeing you in 2020, and accept that we appreciate you thinking of Falltacular. NOTE–for transparency, there are a few people who already paid but there are transit quirks with their payment. They will get added to the file this week and they know who they are, as I spoke to them earlier this week.

I am going to let things settle now for a few days and then we will start getting after the silent auction donations for the garage. This auction drives 50-55% of what we raise, it is critical to the culture and spirit of the event. We also need to get after the Friday dinner BYOB event sign-ups, as well as the Volunteer schedule. So, more to come.

As I posted the file today, I thought of a cool song that always makes me smile and feel positive. If you want 3 mins of joy, play this. The best funk Rufus & Chaka Khan Sweet Thing - YouTube

Onward!

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Made the cut. Whew

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Cool!

Big “whew” from me last night. As of about 11pm Monday night, I randomly checked the Offline forum, saw the Falltacular thread, said, “oh, shit”, jumped outa bed, made out a couple checks, woke up and drove straightaway to the Laura’s House office (about 1.5 miles from my house) to hand-deliver the checks! Literally made it by a couple hours.

WTF? I remember the event didn’t fill up until early/late January only a couple years ago. First, Barolo…then Northern Rhône…now Falltacular!

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Hooray for the sell out and benefit to Laura`s House. Nice touch Frank with the Chaka Khan tune. Looking forward to it and meeting so many fine folks at the Friday dinner and Saturday event.

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Good evening everyone. The Event File is updated again with more wines, auction items, volunteer schedule and guest payments. Click link below.

As I said yesterday, there is now a wait list and that will appear in the file. We have never had to do this kind of approach but it is the nature of the event’s popularity now. We have some people on there who have come in years past and have been diligent with the event. What I would ask is that if any of you that have paid for 2 people have a sense that your +1 is not going to attend, do a favor for me and give your +1 spot to one of the wait list people now. This is one way we can help.

For those who are waiting, there will be a point where I evaluate and see if we can pull these folks in but that won’t be until late January. For anyone else whose checks are in transit or you want to wait list, we will continue to take them but you need to understand you will go into queue on the wait list.

Thank you all for understanding.

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Folks in the Falltacular family. Need a hand. Who is JOHN LUTHER? We got a check today for 2 people and need to wait list him but there is no phone contact #. Anyone know this person? Thank you.

BTW, Andrew, that is one helluva story. And the funny part, you of all 150 people I believe live the closest to the Laura’s House corporate office. What is it, a 2 min drive? [rofl.gif]

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Yup, about 4-5 minutes, or about 1.5 miles. With four roundabouts and a stoplight, it’s about 50/50 you can reach the office from my house without stopping! We drive past the office on a regular and sometimes daily basis.

I actually hand-deliver a check most years, usually not until I get around to it, but this year I had no choice! We were with family in Silicon Valley over Thanksgiving, and I wasn’t on WB much, and certainly not the Offline Planner forum. For some reason I clicked on it before turning out the light, and BOOM…I ran downstairs to make out the check.

Ladera Ranch is fine, if a bit stepford-wifey, and although the schools are top-notch, the restaurants and grocery stores mostly suck. But this one thing is really cool, only to us wine dorks: I have the security of knowing I can get my Falltacular check to the desk within minutes to secure our spots!

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Love the post Andrew. So pleased I`ll see you and the gang sooner than later on for this event . Happy holidays

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Thanks to La Pata, you have easy access to the (much better) stores and restaurants of San Clemente!

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So awesome to read this thread and see how quickly it sold out! So happy for Margaret and all at Laura’s House, the beneficiary of Saturday’s main event. Always a highlight of mine taking part in this event, and this year will be no different. Now to get backing once again . . . :slight_smile: Or maybe not . . .