The snooty part of me wants to put my nose in the air and say, "You all 
are just lucky that things have been rearranged at my job for a bit.  
That means that I can do some calling to find a location and get the 
dinner plans going."

But because I am a well-adjusted, caring, intelligent grown woman, I 
will not.  At least not out loud.

Seriously, since no one has decided to let Carol, Sara and I know about 
any of the places in Milwaukee, I decided to do a little checking on 
the web and am going to call a couple of places before the end of the 
week.  So if by any chance someone has been talking to a bar about 
doing the dinner, please let me know ASAP so I will not call anyone.  
(And if that is the case I apologize for having you read the rest of 
this, because if someone has already booked something, everything below 
means absolutely nothing!)  :-)

I have a couple of leads on two places about a block from the arena.  
One is Major Goolsby's and the other is Buck Bradley's Saloon and 
Eatery.  The lady at Goolsby's was a bit miffed that no one in the city 
has bothered to let any of the establishments know anything about the 
tourney.  So I took it on myself to fax her some info on the dates and 
times of the games on Thursday and asked her to call me.

I am ready to tell any bar that we could get about 40-60 folks at the 
dinner.  And that if the Badgers get in, it could be up to 80.  But 
what I would like to have is a really solid idea of how many "for 
sures" there are going to the tournament.

SO, I NEED ANYONE WHO IS PLANNING ON GOING TO THE FROZEN FOUR AND THE 
DINNER TO WRITE ME PERSONALLY AND LET ME KNOW.  I WANT TO HAVE A 
PRELIMINARY COUNT NO LATER THAN THIS FRIDAY.  IF I DON'T GET A HEAVY 
RESPONSE, I WILL JUST GO WITH A NUMBER OF 40-50 FOR THE BARS.

I will discuss it with Carol and Sara, but my thought is that once we 
pick an upper limit, we will NOT change it - no matter which school 
gets in.  I extended my limit for the 2002 dinner, and it did not work 
well.  My thought is to cater to those who go regularly or planned in 
advance to be at the tourney, and not cater to the "bandwagoners" who 
come out when their local team gets in.

Oh, can someone from Milwaukee tell me how long a walk it is to a place 
like Brew City BBQ - it is (I don't know what direction) over the 
river(?).  I don't want to make everyone walk more than 15/20 minutes 
at the most.  I remember one FF where it felt like we walked for 1/2 
hour before we got to the place.

So, everyone get writing, and keep your fingers crossed that I can get 
us in at one of the close places by the arena.

Oh, and if you want to know...the NCAA website did not have game times 
on it.  so I called the Bradley Center.  On Thursday, the games are at 
2 and 7.

Later,

Kathy M.
Go Gophers!
Tampa, FL