Coffee

I don't drink coffee. The hotel will let us use their coffeemaker and supplies, and if there is a coffee-drinker who would like to volunteer to keep coffee on, I would really appreciate it. If the machine isn't obvious, I'm sure Clyde Wanatee would show us or find someone who could. I don't want to add that to my list of things to think about, so maybe there could be a coffee monitor, or a coffee committee.

I was in that Target store this morning, and there's a coffeeshop and fast food counter. There was Starbucks coffee, though I think it wasn't officially "a starbucks," and there were baked goods. So for expensive coffee in paper, Target. For plainer coffee at the site... we need a volunteer or two.

The Owl Cafe

In the parking lot, truly close, breakfast/lunch/dinner, wine/beer, 10% discount if you show them your room key. They were decorated for Balloon Fiesta. There will be winter or Christmas stuff there when you see it. Some booths have remote juke-box controls; if your kids have never seen those, this is their chance!



Keith and I went to breakfast to scout it out and take come pictures; that's him eating.

Conference room layout

(click to see it a little larger)
I erased some wall where I hope/intend to have the moveable wall left open between the main room and the play areas.

Table games and maybe video games can be to the south, off the little lobby where the registration table will be. There are a couple of couches there. I figure that end will be a good hangout for older kids.

To the west (left of the photo) is another room we can use for toys and younger kids. We can have paper, markers, mazes, pencils...

In the main room we will probably request "banquet style (round tables and chairs) so that people can bring laptops and food, and will have toys, paper and pens in there for the adults, too. Being a fidgeter and a doodler myself, I would like to cater to people of a similar nature. If we can get a combination of "classroom" (rectangular tables) and "banquet," I might try for that. If they let us set up our own tables, even better.

As to names of rooms, "Sandia" and "Kiva" are sanDEEah and KEEva.

The map I used was for the fire department or insurance company, I guess; it showed the location of fire extinguishers before I messed with it. What it doesn't show is that the rooms open up to hallways on the north/top and east/right, and to the outside on the others.

quiet toys and discount books

I've started piling things to take to the site. It's just two and a half months away, I know.

I'm collecting quiet toys for toddlers and older kids. I'm washing the little wooden rocking horse. If you want to bring toys for kids to share in the playroom, which will be right next to the speakers, choose things that don't make noise if dropped on a table or floor. It will make a big difference in peace, happiness, and hearing what's going on.

(I know that horse would make a noise if dropped on a table; I know. On the back of that photo is this note: "Marty with 'the Turtle sword,' fall 1990. The horse came from a garage sale, $5. Keith fixed it up." Marty turned two in January 1991. He's 22 now. The horse is about the same.)


Also in my "take to hotel" collection is a box of books that have been shipped three times. Some are a little bent. There are a few books in there that were glued imperfectly when they were bound (too much glue, not too little; it's an aesthetic thing), and a few that were printed without the last blank pages and the "about the author" page. So I'm not happy to ship any of them to anyone who paid $25 plus shipping for their One Copy of the book. But they're fully good enough to

1) lend out
2) give away
3) use to take notes in, bend corners down, circle, cut-out-for-decoupage

So I'm going to sell those for $12.50, half price, to people in person at the conference. Not by mail, just right there.

ALL Unschooling news

I changed the template for the blog. (If you're reading this by e-mail, click on "ALL Unschooling news" to see it; minor)

I'm working on the FAQ. (minor)

The hotel changed its name from Sandia Courtyard to "RAMADA Hotel & Convention Center" (or, depending which webpage I look at, Ramada of Albuquerque, or Ramada Albuquerque Hotel; but they haven't moved the building, and Clyde Wanatee is still our contact, so... minor)

No major news to report!

Each time a family member has asked me what I want for Christmas, I've said I want this symposium!

Oh... a 100-member choir from a high school in Oklahoma will be traveling by bus from California, and wanted to have an overnight stay and a place for a New Year's Eve party. Clyde wrote "The band has about 30 rooms set aside - 3 to 4 per room. Mainly they wanted to use it to have a get together on NY eve as well."
We'll have our party in one of the smaller rooms, then, and they'll have the big room. I don't think that's a big problem. (We weren't going to pay for the room anyway, but they were going to let us have it just because our stuff was already in there; now they've sold it, so... we'll just need to get all our stuff out of the conference center early Saturday afternoon.medium news.)

Jill and Pam have decided on names for their talks. (See schedule at the tab above). Others are still thinking. Deb is planning hers this week and is excited because she has not (I'm pretty sure) spoken before. Her writing is well-known, fun and popular among unschoolers though! There are several articles new to my site this week: Deb Lewis

If you have questions, please ask them in the comments box at any blog post, or by e-mail, and I'll try to clarify every little thing! Thanks!!

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There is a park between the hotel and the city pool. It's a short walk across a major road, and we don't know yet how cold it will be, but here are pictures.

The buildings in the distance from the poor little whale or whatever it is are the Owl Cafe and the hotel (through the fences of a softball field). It's close. Those trees will be bare, and it's a 50/50 chance it will be warm enough to play outside on that stuff.

Barefooted in the winter

Responding to an e-mail inquiry, I wrote something that I figured was worth sharing:

The symposium in Santa Fe was really good, informationally, but we had to leave the meeting rooms each evening and scatter back to condos in the dark in the cold. This time we can have the meeting rooms as late as we want, and people can go back to their rooms in stocking feet. Santa Fe is prettier than Albuquerque, but about twice expensive, no matter what you touch. :-)

It's still really hot here, and might be fairly warm (compared to most of the world) in December, but not nearly as cold as we were in Santa Fe up on that hill with the wind blowing over old frozen snow. That was picturesque and not so fun.

Albuquerque has a lower elevation than Santa Fe, and we were up on the hillfort (fort hill, anyway; the fort was gone) of Santa Fe, too. The conference center is all part of the hotel, so no one will need to put on shoes or a coat to go from beds to meeting rooms. And if it does snow, we can see it from the windows and go and play in it.

Add gloves to your checklists, just in case (and I'll start a shared checklist and link it above).

The hotel is changing its name

Sandia Courtyard Hotel & Convention Center is changing its name to a Ramada.

My favorite event coordinator, Clyde Wanatee, will still work there. Our rates are guaranteed this year. He says the bedding is nicer. :-)