Everyone else has already written about the blog meetup last week, but I suppose I must have my say - or else, what's a weblog for? Alison's writeup covers it thoroughly. I decided to go at the last minute and Shelly was game to go, too. My expectations were low, but I did want especially to meet Anita, whose List of Links and Book of Days I have read for years. The location on Rainier Ave. S was an unusual choice, but actually pretty good - it's an easy shot over I-90 from the Eastside. The Starbucks was about as sorry a one as I have seen outside of an airport. A surprising dozen people showed up. No one would confess to picking this venue; perhaps it was chosen by the mysterious "blog meetup" people in NYC!? I found it hard to hear at the Starbucks because of the background music and general noise level. Someone had the bright idea to drive down a few blocks to Columbia City and find a restaurant. The downside was that we lost Suzanne (Eat, Drink and Be Married) and Bridget (Vegan Bridget) in the move.

Salumeria on Hudson turned out to be a nice little Italian restaurant happy to see ten customers walk in on a weeknight. I have taken the liberty of posting Alex Lo's photograph of our table, so I could list everyone's name and blog.

Shelly	Anita (Anita's LOL)
Richard (Absolute Piffle)	Skip
Cameron (Dreamtime)	Alex's chair (Alex Lo)
Zoltan (Fuggit)	tyd hiding (Then You Discover)
Alison (Alison's Journal)	Stacey (Statanic Action)

We talked with Skip, who says he doesn't have a weblog. He came all the way from Poulsbo on public transit to this meetup. We gave him a ride over to Salumeria, even though our little van didn't have the back seat in and Skip had to just sit on the floor (it was only a couple of blocks). We talked quite a bit with Anita Rowland. Shelly and I both liked her. It was interesting to meet someone in person and know so much about her life already from reading her weblog and journal. We learned the fate of the motorhome (sold) which was the subject of the last entry in BOD for so long. We also talked a little to Cameron and Alex, who were on the other side of us. Cameron is smart and cute, and I suppose that applies to Alex also, who's a program manager at Expedia (or ought to be anyway). I thought there might be some crossover from the old S.M.U.G. (Seattle Modem User's Group), BBS folks who used to meet in West Seattle in the 1980s, but no such luck.

All in all, it was fun chatting with everyone. I wish we had changed seats a few times so we could mix better, but we thought of that too late. And I wish we had all printed out the first page of our weblog and taped it to our chests or something. I didn't put name/face/weblog together until later (I'm slow at this kind of thing). Everyone was really nice and interesting to talk with. I hope we do this again soon.