But Rory (who by the way is responsible for this mess!) now has decided that 
he'd like to do a Xmas "make up" on the 29th, which is smack dab in the 
middle of when we'll be up at the dome (tween xmas and new year's--hopefully 
you and eldon will join us so we can kick yer butts in spades).  so the 29th 
is very bad, as you can imagine.  if we could do the 24th, that would be 
great.  when's your plane leave on the 24th?