Rick is going, I hope he gets lots of pictures. Rene was caught laying face down on the floor with a married man, not her SO, see if you can beat that?
usbseawolf2000 (Dennis, not Rick), JimN, I and others will be there --- I hear that the last spot has been taken. See you there Barbara. Unlike my appearance in Detroit in January, I might dress up (a little) for this.
Sorry guys, I have to give this one a miss too. Damn. You know I got hardly any of the food at PCD, I missed out I fear.
Pat, BTW, IMO the lunch at PCD Reveal Monday afternoon was fantastic, but the dinner at PCD Reveal Monday night ranged from disappointing (the gourmet sliders) to terrible (the fusion Chinese dumplings). But my bet is that tonight's food in NYC will be very good. And of course, the alcohol will be moderately high name brands (no well drinks or Pabst Blue Ribbon beer) and the cars will be the same.
Just back from the 2010 NYC party. It was great to meet barbarm, steve and the others from PriusChat. It was a fun time, learned alot about the 2010 Prius, seeing it in person really puts and end to some of the back and forth discussions here. Like the odometer/instrument cluster IS more in the middle like the Yaris. Dissapointed the Toyota execs left so fast, so never had the chance to ask them why no Estima minivan is in the USA yet. And I learned how to screw up a valet parking lot guy. Let them park your Prius and keep the key in your pocket, then wonder why they can't get your car back to you LOL.
Danny and I got a pretty good explaination about the mini-van situation. Turns out the cost of the Estima in US$ is about $50,000! Clearly it's not marketable here for that. And while they could sell it for less here they feel the impact in Japan if they were to do so would be huge. We also had strong hints that they know there's a niche to be filled. The could/would not give details...but I'd keep my eye out for a hybrid Venza if I were to guess.
I had a good time at the NYC show too. Nice to meet some PriusChatters I hadn't met before -- JimN, barbaram, paprius4030 and others. (But I wish they had put our screen names on the name tags like they did in Detroit. That way I could put names to faces.) And nice to meet others from CleanMPG and elsewhere too. Food was good -- choice of fresh ravioli with choice of sauce; beef, chicken and fish kebobs; excellent salad; great bread (like ligurian focaccia with rosemary, but chewier with less olive oil and salt); good hor dourves. Alcohol was good, e.g., Absolut vodka. The three cars there were the exact same three cars they had in Detroit. And the clear drivetrain model still had FireEngineer's engine block heater in it. And the Toyota folks were great too. Some of them, like Stephanie (Toyota hostess/presenter), were also in Detroit. Thanks Prius Team.
Yup, thanks Prius Team, great event. The trivia was fun to play and finally seeing the cars in person was awesome. The whole top mfd with the touch tracer needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated if you ask me. I also heard several people say how now that they saw the center console in person they like it.
I like the console! Hey Boo, only food I had at the Monday night reveal was the little burgers, they were pretty good for burgers, much better than white castle. Not sure why I thought Rick was going.
my pics are here Photo Sharing by MyPhotoAlbum.com :: MyPhotoAlbum :: 2010 prius~ and no! I don't think that blonde is Jim's date!
Not!!! Here were the three so-called "gourmet sliders" at Detroit's Monday night reveal (L to R: Sirloin Beef, Chicken, Mushrooms): To me, some of the problems with the Sirloin Beef gourmet sliders were: 1. As a general matter, in the United States you should avoid foods and places that self-proclaim themselves as "gourmet" --- as they rarely are. 2. They were too dry and didn't "slide" one bit -- not enough fat, juice or other moisture. Sirloin is a very lean cut of beef. It doesn't make for a very good steak, nor a very good hamburger unless it's mixed with fatter cuts of beef like chuck (or in some real gourmet places, hanging tender). 3. They were too big and overcooked, which exacerbated the problem of the very dry and lean beef because it made it harder to mitigate or balance that big hunk of dryness with onions, tomatoes or condiments. Now, White Castle on the other hand ... they're moist, they slide and have perfectly balanced flavors ... the taste you crave!
Thanks Barb. And I have a picture of you after you took that picture of Jim and his new friend. (gotta go, I'll post or send it to you later)
Here are a few of the pictures I took at the NYC event - it was good to see the cars and the people! http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=899161234815803977/l=472587538/g=30759719/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
:flock: Damn that stuff looks like heart attack on a bun! At NYC we had beef kabobs on a stick and chicken and mahi mahi on a stick and the gourmet dish was goat cheese ravioli. They were all pretty good.
