UMTravels

It’s fairly amusing (to me) to pack a huge carry-on for an overnight trip to Portland.

But when it includes three bottles of wine, a bottle of whiskey, a four-pack of Absolute minis as a thank you for a bed, two loaves of bread, one stick of butter, two packs of coleslaw, six Idaho russets, four pork tenderloins and a bottle marinade – no wonder it weighs a ton.

Got to the Amtrak station after a stop a Uwajimaya for day old sushi and got three tickets issued. Today’s business class seat to Portland, tomorrow coach seat to Seattle, and the roomette from Santa Fe to Seattle after Christmas. I wish this was my car for the trip down south.

The car (BNSF1) was part of a six car train belonging to Burlington Northern Santa Fe – no wonder Warren Buffet bought the whole company if this is how he gets to travel. If you want to see a roster of all the business cars for BNSF, it’s here: http://www.qstation.org/BNSF_Biz_Cars/index.html

I love taking the train to Portland, it’s so relaxing – even if I did have to sic the conductor on a coach passenger that had been drinking (or was off her meds) plopped herself down over three seats at the front of my car. And this trip I just hoped on MAX which is a couple of blocks from the station and it’s a direct shot to Julian’s house (and another two block walk). Damned convenient.

Dinner tonight was a party of six. Me, Jameson, two friends of his from high school, one boyfriend and one child. Nice meal, but I was up way too early (7am) this morning, so it was an early night.

[226.5]

Time to get back into the swing of things and get some bread baking done. Jeff was over in the late morning to drop off some high-gluten bread flour for me to try – and a loaf of his plain baguette that he made using a pan he borrowed from me. A nice discussion about bread (he uses the Julia Child method – I use a machine) and the difference between artisan (his) and high-tech (mine). These are the two loaves I baked today – with the bad of flour in the background – there is talk of splitting a 50# bag.

While the bread was in process (45 minutes in the machine, 45 minutes in the proofing [warming] oven) I got the scissor lift positioned on the slab – I only had to use the barrel jack half a dozen times to get boards under the wheels. Considering the three dozen times to get it around the side of the house, this was a welcome relief.

I should have taken the picture without the boards – looks much cleaner.

Swung by Home Depot to look at decking materials and to start thinking about the budget. Looks like (5) 2x6x8 at $4 each, (6) pre-notched deck rails at $19 each (ouch), (4) 2x4x8 side rails at $3 each… for a total of $150 before any of the electrics and bamboo siding. I might swing by Bamboo Hardwoods next week to see if I could do the whole project in bamboo for that tiki-like look. Shit, and I need to build the stairs up to the platform… it never ends – oh and that didn’t include the decking. Damn.

Dinner tonight with Swanda and orange-balsamic glazed chicken breasts, a salad, and a loaf of my bread. Oh, and a little wine, too.

Then home to figure out what to pack for tomorrow’s dinner in Portland.

[227.5]

Before I get around to today’s post, I stole this off the FaceBook comment of my friend Aster:

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Back in the swing of things – travelling west is sooooo much easier on my body. That and being exhausted at midnight which is my usual bedtime. Woke up at 8am ready to face the world, and a stack of mail, clippings to send, bills to pay, restocking the fridge – the usual stuff after two weeks of not being around.

So, what got done while I was on holiday? The concrete pad got poured and the oven thermostat was replaced. Nice to have a key box by the back door so that I don’t have to be here.

I should have had MoonSong put a big R.I.P and some fictitious details on the slab – it does sort of look like a mausoleum slab. And speaking of slabs – below is one of the slabs from the South Park Bridge…

Dinner tonight is with Dancing Bear… a peppercorn pork loin, roasted potatoes, salad, and a blackberry pie (leftovers from the freezer) for dessert.

It was an early night for me, but it was nice to walk around the neighborhood after dinner – lots of people and families out, some even using the new off-leash doggie park.

[229.4]

It’s nice when:

1. You have a flight at 2:25pm
2. You have someone to take you to the airport
3. You can clear immigration in less than 5 minutes using the Trusted Traveler Program when the line looks to be about an hour deep

It’s not so nice when:

1. Your business class seat on a 9-hour flight isn’t all that comfortable (roomy, but not comfortable)
2. You clear immigration quickly, but then it’s back out through security to get two terminals over and your domestic flight home
3. You are so exhausted from the 3-hour layover that by the time you are on the 4 hour flight home, you don’t even want to drink.

But I’m back home, Curtis gave me a ride home, all is well. Apparently I’m not doing enough long distance flights – these didn’t used to bother me so much.

[? ? ?]

My host both had high-pressure jobs in Frankfurt’s banking and investment community. Sunday, for them, is a trip to the local bakery (one of the few things open on a Sunday, and then only until 11am) for some fresh breads and rolls followed by breakfast and chilling out in the apartment watching movies and working on and early Sunday dinner.

I was more than happy to follow their lead. Yes, I am a tourist, but it’s a gray, drizzly day that is perfect for watching a couple of movies.

First movie up… Thank You For Smoking. Good old fashioned dark humor for a dark day. Later in the afternoon after I’d finished the Grisham novel The Client, it was time for the Johnny Depp version of Alice in Wonderland. Sometimes as dark as the day.

Add packing for the trip home tomorrow and a pasta dinner and you have my day.

[? ? ?]

Today is a travel day… the S-Bahn back to the main Berlin Hbf, then south to Frankfurt.

I was packed (badly) and out of the house at 9:30 or so… a walk through the forest to the station, a little wait for the train and back at the main station am I. Found the DB lounge and settled in for the first real internet connection in a week, though it was a little odd… 15-minute cards. i.e. you got a connection for 15 minutes before having to log in another user name and password. Seems a bit silly to me, but free is free. I used one of the two cards to download all the mail (close to 300 messages), read/deleted/replied, and then logged on to then send them all. One chore down.

Had some drinks and light snacks in the lounge but had a more substantial lunch before finding postcards and heading to the platform for the train south.

Lovely train ride – had the entire compartment to myself which meant that for part of the trip I was stretched out across three seats and snoring.

Ezra met me at the train station and off we headed to his place for a lovely evening of sampling parts of his extensive scotch collection.

Here is the slideshow from this trip:

And how nice to  sleep in a full size bed in a room to myself.

[? ? ?]

My how time flies when you are having fun. I guess my worries about lack of sleep or general grumpiness and fleeing the gathering as I did the last Eurofaerie gathering have not come to pass.

After whiling away the day reading some John Grisham piece of trash and doing loads of dishes, at 4pm the gates opened for the “day trippers” to come and have a meal with the faeries. Not only was this invitation open to Berlin faeries, but friends of faeries (including a middle-aged heterosexual couple).

As I sit and do this blog entry, once again faerie talent is practicing… an Asian/Latin gentleman who is a biochemist in Stuttgart is playing the ukulele. It makes me want to pick up the electric ukulele that I bought in Honolulu last year and actually learn how to play it. Maybe I should come back over for lessons – and pick up a Porsche while I’m at it (they are built in Stuttgart).

Dinner tonight for the first time at this gathering – unless you count the fish – was MEAT. Bratwursts, pork, chicken – in addition to the seiten, grilled vegetables, grilled tofu, and all that – it was a BBQ in the back yard – with a floor show of boys oiled up and wrestling on an Alaska 10-year Roof (a.k.a. Big Blue Tarp).

Last night was the talent show – and yes, I was up until 3am according to reports, and tonight is the auction to cover some of the fees that the poorer faeries couldn’t raise to attend this week. With my desire for only carry-on – I’m guessing I won’t be buying the 3 foot tall copper gilded penis – that would make a very ODD second carry-on item.

Short entry today – I’m running late, and the auction is about to start and I need some pictures of that penis.

[? ? ?]

Funny how the people you found annoying ten years ago – are still annoying ten years later. Time, apparently doesn’t heal all wounds – maybe time wounds all heals.

Today’s activities have included a seitan making workshop – that’s a gluten-based meat substitute which is often used for things like mock duck. Next up was the making of “flapjack” – which is butter, brown sugar and oats, baked up into a “sweet”, what the Brits call a dessert – and then some sort of Caribbean meal… I’m just the dish witch. I just clean up the mess afterwards.

I missed the business circle – missed the heart circle – spent my time hanging out in the smoking tent listening to the rain on the plastic, reading a silly John Grisham novel, waiting for a whiskey delivery, wondering the meaning of life, and not really worrying about what that meaning is.

At the moment (late afternoon blog time in my schedule) Miss Michael is doing his warm-up exercises – he is a professional dancer (modern/interpretive) from New Orleans who is leaving tomorrow to rejoin his company for a performance in Estonia. The dining room where I’m plugged in has this wonderful feeling of a group house from my youth where folks are just doing the things they need to do, like practicing, writing, cooking, or just hanging out smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

It’s a strange and wonderfully calm atmosphere. Maybe it’s the music Miss Michael is dancing to, maybe it’s that it’s not a performance, just the exercise that he needs to get ready for tomorrow. Maybe it’s just people wondering in from bicycle rides in the rain. Maybe it’s just much ado about nothing.

Watching Miss Michael dance, I wish my mother and Helene were here. They are both dance fanatics and would enjoy the behind the scenes rehearsal, somehow made acceptable by the fact that we are both working at our trade at the moment. To hear him panting between numbers gives me a new appreciation for the physicality of what dancers go through. It is rare that I pant at the keyboard.

Tonight is the talent show… and there are several faeries making noise about me doing something for the show… but what. Not really my strong suit. I haven’t looked to see if Miss M is on the schedule. I do know that one of my roommates (I’m in a four bed bedroom) has been working on his makeup for two hours (at least). I’m sure that it will yield some amusing photos – but those will have to wait until the weekend.

So, it’s just a drizzly but not gloomy day around the house. I’ve only taken two calls so far since arriving… one from H²0 Blanco, about the thermostat replacement for the Wolf ranges, and to return a call from Curtis who butt-dialed. An interesting calm when you “internet time” is the 30 seconds it takes to upload the blog.

I am realizing that I’ve missed the EuroFaeries… ten years was too long a break, but until you take that break, you never know. Maybe there is hope for my reconnection with the US faeries as well.

Or maybe it’s time to sell the house and hit the road.

[? ? ?]

Before this trip – there were several folks asking the difference between the Radical Faeries in the States, and the EuroFaeries – a brief history: in 1995 (I believe), Lekker Ding, know known as Habibi, who was based out of Amsterdam, found some like minded people to organize a faerie gathering on the island of Terschelling, off the Dutch coast. Habibi was a regular at US gatherings and wanted to spread the gospel to the continent… it succeeded, there are how a dozen gathering each year, along with a faerie sanctuary known as FolleTerre (would that translate into fool’s land?). There is much more to the history, but you have the overview. At US gatherings these are kept very separate, at least at gatherings like Breitenbush. After the business end of the circle, with the European Gatherings, a talisman is passed from person to person as a way to check in with each person, and it also helps cement their names in the minds of everyone – in the states it’s more of a free-for-all with those needing to unload something scrambling for the talisman in the center of the circle – and that is another distinction – in the US, faeries speak from the center of the circle as opposed to remaining in the ring. I can see advantages for both – being in the center of the circle is a powerful drug – which might explain a number of US faeries who are hooked on being the center of attention and telling the same story of woe year after year after year. I guess it’s cheaper than a shrink. As for the Euro version, it gives everyone a chance, even the shy ones, to have a chance to talk about what good or bad is going on in their lives. After the initial go around, the floor is opened for those how have additional issues, or feel the need to respond to previous speakers. The one constant among both groups is the notion that the person with the talisman has the floor – cross-talk and direct response are discouraged. Another difference is that at EuroFaerie gatherings there is also occasionally organized sight-seeing – yesterday’s being a trip into Berlin for thrift shopping, and today’s a trip to Pottsdam with a boat trip to some castle where the treaty was signed assigning ownership of most of Europe at the end of WWII.

OK – that was one long run-on paragraph – I’m surprised that MS-Word didn’t flag more “grammar” issues.

Yesterday I was mostly a slug – I don’t know if it was me just feeling anti-social, but I skipped the Viennese Waltz workshop/dance after dinner, and just went straight to bed. It could have also been the excessive liquor consumption the night before. With the early to bed, I was up at 6:30 (the dance party ran until 4am) and making coffee, busing dishes scattered about the grounds, making a couple of fried eggs with the last two pieces of toast. By 7:30 the place was cleaned up, I was fed, and the “early” risers were starting to rouse themselves and make breakfast for the rest of the crew.

While most of the boys went off on their guided sightseeing tour (with our own faerie guide, CoCo’s boyfriend), I stayed at camp, did my laundry, did more dishes, helped with dinner prep, finished an Evanovich novel, set up the dining room for dinner, and basically just hung out in the woods.

Dinner tonight is a massive pasta salad with a quark and sour cherry dessert.

Good thing I ate all those Frankfurters in Frankfurt.

Oh, and the no email means I can’t approve any blog posts. That will wait for Saturday as well.

[? ? ?]

I must be having fun because I was up until 3am. Sure, the heart circle after dinner ran long… but not that long.

Was up at 9am for breakfast, then back to bed until 3. Wow. I must be on holiday. Didn’t even get into the shower until almost 6pm. And after the excessive scotch night last night, thinking that tonight is going to be a wine night.

No motivation to check out the café down the trail to see if they have wi-fi. Maybe tomorrow. I did get a text in the middle of the night from Fluffernutter asking if I was back. I assume that was in response to my request for a ride home from the airport NEXT Monday. So for those of you keeping up with Uncle Markie’s European Holiday, don’t figure on me checking email regularly until Saturday – though I will respond to text messages, though mind the gap (the time gap that is). Here is a good example – it is 6:24pm in Germany at the moment – or 9:24am in Seattle. 9 hours is the time difference.

We are eating well here… by faerie standards. Last night’s meal was spinach lasagna made by Royal, whose faerie name should be Royal PITA. Any guesses? The “P” is for Pain. I’m sure you can figure out the rest. That said, it was an amazing lasagna – with a layer of béchamel sauce in addition to the tomato, mozzarella, pasta layers – that and a fresh green salad. Yum.

Tonight’s dinner (which started out as a late lunch soup and then grew and grew) is a ginger carrot soup, mini baguettes, and a green salad. Add a Nuviana Tempronillo/Cabernet Sauvignon and you have yet another damn fine meal.

One of the faeries has a high-pressure day job that he hasn’t been able to escape from but comes each evening for dinner and whatever happens after dinner. While this strains the sense of community in some ways – it also means that I can get the International Herald Tribune delivered the same day as it’s published – albeit late in the day. Yes, gave up email, but am still getting the paper – roughing it in the woods.

Speaking of the Trib – the American not living in Paris, but an hour south, had several days worth of issues when he arrived – unfortunately it was from about the same period that my New York Times was from… and since there are sister papers, a lot of the content I’d already read. It reminded me of the trip to Tuscany several years ago with Jill, Darcie, Jeanne and another half dozen people – where the café across from the villa had the IHT available (that day’s edition) by 10am – so I got in the habit of waking late and going for my cappuccino, pasti (Italian breakfast pastry kinda thing), and the paper. Truly civilized.

That’s it for the day. Back to the fun.

[? ? ?]

Fairie Mojo – is there such a thing?

And how would you describe it? A feeling of calmed centeredness. Is centeredness even a word?

My life of the Dish Witch has absolved me of any feelings of guilt over not doing any kitchen prep work, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the never ending sand out of the hallways… and my fingernails are amazingly clean!

From the sunny humidness of yesterday and this morning, the afternoon has turned to showers and a nice cool breeze – my sympathies go out to the 9 or 10 faeries who went out for a long bicycle ride to see some modern architectural wonder close by. And so much for the Yoga/Dance Movement workshop on the lawn… leaving lots of faeries in the smoking temple drinking beer and chatting away.

Speaking of beer – yes, when in Germany, have the beer. Even me. Yesterday I had four. Over the course of a day. Can you say out of whiskey and the wine delivery is slated for today. Still – those were bottles of beer — .5 liter bottles of beer. Me. I would have been better if I’d found the stash of fizzy water yesterday instead of today – I think it was really the bubbles that I was craving.

Currently the kitchen is abuzz with the chopping of vegetables for tonight’s meal of lasagna – that would be lasagna for 45 people. Makes me happy I’m only in charge of cleaning up. They prep, put it in the oven, I roll in, clean up all the prep stuff which it cooks. Of course, in the meantime a lunch crew has to fly through and get things out so we don’t all starve… think of it as semi-organized chaos.

I wish I could post some pictures of the place and the process, but that will have to wait – I hear rumors that the café on the beach has wi-fi so I might wander over tomorrow and check that out – or it might just be a vicious rumor to get me out for a walk.

But back to the Mojo concept. For the last several years I’ve been feeling my faerie Mojo slowly slipping away, less willing to embrace the eccentricities of the movement – feeling a disconnect with the rest of my world. Odd that coming back to a EuroFaerie gathering after ten years would reinvigorate my sense of community. Or maybe it’s just that for me the Faeries had become the Breitenbush Faeries and my disgust over the “hippy sweat shop” that the Breitenbush community has become (in my mind) had started to erase 30 years of sense of Faerie Community. Of course that doesn’t explain why I only stayed one night at American Ridge. Maybe the answer lies in my need for certain creature comforts (like a bed).

The difference between this gathering and Breitenbush is that it takes everyone doing something to make it happen – that, or we don’t eat (or have workshops, or grocery runs). That doesn’t explain my estrangement from American Ridge – that must be about the bed and the hot shower.

That’s it for this afternoon – short bursts of text only blog posts until I’m at the DB Lounge in Berlin on Saturday.

Guess that means the same for email.

Who would have expected that.

[? ? ?]

Yesterday…

Went to the DB (Duetshe Bahn – i.e. the train) Lounge a couple of hours before my train. Why hang out in a train station? Air-conditioning, free soda pop, wine and snacks… sounds like a good reason to me.

Had a first class ticket in a “quiet” section of the car. Apparently that just meant cell phones as I spent the first hour with a young child in our little six person compartment, complete with father and a ton of toys. Something tells me those weren’t his real seats as he moved to a compartment in the next car down with another child and a woman who I assume was his wife… guess it was a time-out for someone.

Butch Budda’s transfer instructions to get to the gathering were spot on… and with a stop in the Berlin Hbf (haugh ban hof, or train station) to grab €200 (200 Euro) for the gathering fee, I still have almost half the €200 I got at the cash machine at the airport (and Ezra’s short €20, should have been probably 25, for the duty-free cigarettes, but hell, there was a ride from the airport included so it all evens out).

By the time I found the S-Bahn (city train) Route 7, it was only ten minutes until the train to the woods. 15 minutes of walking (through at time a pack of ironman/triathelon competitors) I was at Haus am Wannsee – the house on Wannsee, which is a big lake within the city limits of Berlin.

Arrived at cocktail hour to find no ice, but at least there was a freezer big enough to put what remained of a bottle of Jack Daniels. A small saving grace, though I probably should have picked up more since I tend to share my stash with other faeries… too late now, and probably until Monday with Germany’s blue laws (the are finally open until 8pm on Saturdays).

Dinner of these giant fish cakes, and a traditional German potato salad and sliced organic gherkins (pickles, not the British/Nepalese soldiers).

The circle after dinner was more of a welcome rather than a heart circle – lots of logistical stuff about how the house works, but what was amazing for me to realize was that of the 40 people in the circle, 10 or so of them had been at the Terschelling Gatherings of 1996 and 1997. For my time in Frankfurt I had been worrying about if I could actually make it a week hanging out with the faeries in the woods (albeit in a bed, with hot showers, and most importantly a commercial dishwasher that does a load in 3 minutes – faster than you can rinse and load the next tray). I believe the answer is yes – hence, the redemption of Uncle Markie.

Today…

Because of having to upload blog entries via a tethered (and expensive) link to my phone, I’ve changed the format a little in that the posts for the week will be a little bit of yesterday and a little bit of today.

Stunning (and hot) weather for wandering around in one’s birthday suit – this will solve the problem of not packing two weeks’ worth of clothes, spend a week wearing nothing, or more likely, just running a load of clothes mid-week, as they’ve got a washer dryer here, as well as a second kitchen mostly devoted to making coffee and tea. The house has eight bedrooms with a total of 42 beds (mostly bunk beds, all singles).

Between yesterday and mid-day today I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen doing dishes – it gets me out of doing any meal preparation work… it with the monster commercial machine, it’s quick and easy. Just imagine me in a cook’s apron and nothing else… or don’t.

The weather is supposed to change by late afternoon but for the morning heart circle it was a combination of sun and shade on the beach.

We’ll see if this entry will actually post via the phone.

[? ? ?]

Today is a big travel day – the ICE (high-speed train) leaves at 12:13 for a 16:21 (that’s 4:21pm for those non-military types).

Can someone explain this statue that is on the top of the train station?

I understand, sort of, the Atlas one….

And in case you are wondering what an ICE (inter-city express) look like, here is one, though not the one I’m on.

The may be the last update for a bit of time…. Apparently there is no wi-fi at camp. If I’m able to get an EDGE connection on my phone, I might be able to make some text only posts and then post all the pictures when I get back to Frankfurt next week. Although I did just try my 3G phone (which I’d use for the connection) and it was actually able to call up a web page in high-speed – but at $15 per MB (mega-byte – think 250-500kb per web page – surf judiciously!) as opposed to $1.29 per minute to actually talk to someone.

And to get ready for the journey to the woods – must get everything charged up…one universal adapter, one 60′s style three way adapter (lets the ground plug slide over the side of it), laptop, camera battery and video camera charging… guess I’d better charge the phone!

See you when I see you.

[? ? ?]

I love this – in my anal-retentive travel book (see photo from a couple of weeks ago), I have 37 pages (plus and 11×17 fold out map of the S/U-Bahn) of stuff printed out on things to do in Frankfurt. What have I done so far… nothing that was on the list. I’ve just wondered around aimlessly taking photographs, listening to music, eating street food.

I did take a walk down by the river today – at least I’m getting my exercise to get rid of the wieners I’m eating…

Here’s a little video of the street festival…

I went for a dinner of paella and sangria (9.5 Euro, or about $12). Pretty good for street food, luckily there was a seat at a table in the shade with pretty boys.

Early night for me – off to Berlin on the mid-day ICE (high-speed train).

[? ? ?]

Up around 8 for a breakfast – was feeling a little dizzy, maybe from the Ambian, though it was 8 hours after I took it to help reset my body clock to EuroTime. So cheese, some lunch meat, some juice, some coffee, a hard-boiled egg… ah, the German breakfast.

After breakfast, oddly, went back to bed. It feeling like I’m trying to catch up on tons of sleep, or maybe it just that I haven’t had much of a chance to truly shut down after these last couple of weeks.

Out of the hotel for a little pre-lunch stroll, and what do I stumble across, the red-light district (rather small and pretty quiet at 1 in the afternoon):

The red light district is MUCH more active in the evening as I found out walking back from dinner.

Other things I stumbled on are an outdoor street festival a couple of blocks from the hotel that starts tomorrow morning at 11 but crowds are already on the street and it looks like there is a beer stall ever forty feet, if that far:

Meanwhile, all the food booths are set up so I’m trying the Wild Boar Bratwurst with the hot German potato salad – too bad I forgot to take a picture of that! Back to the house for email/blog/websurfing… and yet another nap – maybe I got bit by a flea and now have sleeping sickness!

Amusing request at the front desk… ice for my cocktails. Ice? Head shakes. My English not good. Wasser, frozen? My German is equally bad. Cocktails? Shake imaginary glass. Ah. Checks kitchen. No, sorry. After looking this up, its: Eiswűfel – which translates to Ice Cube, and to get that double dot over the U, you will need to do Alt 0171 (with the 0171 done on your numeric keyboard). So, tonight, I’m having me Jameson’s with wasser mit gas (water with gas, also called soda/seltzer water). The things we learn while we are on the road.

[? ? ?]

For the reference to that post title…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner

The flight got in early – so I was on the curb a little after 7, and Ezra was already circling… the wrong terminal – apparently the Admiral’s Club is not the only AA thing screwed up. Website said Terminal One – the tiny one. Reality, Terminal Two. Thank god for cell phones – as I said to someone else waiting to be picked up.

After a stop at Ezra’s lux apartment about a 15 minute walk from my hotel (close to his bike shop) I was checked in by 8:30am (AMAZING – now THAT is an early check in). Shortly after I was breaking my own rules for adjusting to jet lag – i.e. stay up until what is normal bedtime.

My room is the one just to the right of “HO”. How appropriate.

Up from the “nap” after four hours. Out the door for chicken, tortellini stuffed with spinach, in a cream sauce, with a glass of wine. And then to the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof), a.k.a. the main train station to postcard stamps for the postcards from DFW – which will now have German postage on them.

And back to bed for another couple of hours.

Dinner tonight was more of a snack since lunch was a huge meal that I only ate half of (finished the Rioja though). Can you say Currywurst?

Yes, back to the station – I needed a LITTLE food, not a whole meal. I also picked up a couple of postcards of the main train station as well. And then back to the hotel to settle in, do email, update FaceBook, do this post, chat, cruise on-line for a new German boyfriend… just another Wednesday night in front of the TV and the Computer.

Taking a sleeping pill to reset my body clock now that I’ve caught up on sleep.

[? ? ?]

I’m thinking I like this hotel better – a full hot breakfast included with the price of a $50 room. And then it was back to bed for a little more sleep – seems I haven’t been getting the full eight for the last couple of nights.

With the flight at 2:45pm (how civilized) I was on the noon shuttle to the airport – a shuttle whose air-conditioning was in need of a charge – a great way to start a trip day, sweating like swine.

Security was a breeze, found a spot to eat the leftovers from last night’s meal of beef and rice before doing the duty-free shopping and heading to the Admiral’s Club (the American Airlines version of Alaska’s Board Room) for a drink (one complimentary, unlike unlimited at the Board Room) and a newspaper fix. I’m a little amazed at the business model for the Admiral’s Club – you can get a wide assortment of food, but, again, it’s not complimentary – and no complimentary drinks – this after paying $450 a year (plus a first year “initiation” fee of $50).

Hung around reading before heading to the gate – even found free DFW postcards for those on the card list, and then discovered I didn’t have the stamps and labels baggie with me… guess those DFW cards are getting mailed from Frankfurt!

Uneventful flight – I went with the lamb for my main course (over the crusted beef, curried shrimp and scallops, or lasagna). Between the food, the booze and the movies, I didn’t get much sleep even though the business class seats were pretty damn comfortable and reclined to a tilted 180 degrees, as in almost flat.

No, that is not me.

[? ? ?]

Yikes, we were all out of the house at 6:30am… early for all of us, but I needed to catch my flight to LAX and then onto DFW, and the boys needed to get to Portland to go skinny dipping at Rooster Rock.

Alaska to LAX with Board Room on both ends, American to DFW – flight left 45 minutes late, but managed to make up all but 10 minutes, not that it mattered to me since I’m overnighting by the airport.

And that overnighting is where the trouble started.

1. Called hotel, found out my reservation was for tomorrow night, not tonight
2. Hotel shuttle driver on vacation, they say take a cab (but no offer of reimbursement)
3. Cab would have been $22 for a five minute ride
4. Walk to Grand Hyatt which is in the terminal – not willing to pay the AAA rate of $233 a night (and guessing that didn’t include internet access or breakfast
5. Go back down and pick up the hotel booking phone – randomly choosing the Day’s Inn because it has free wi-fi and a free shuttle and as it turns out a free hot breakfast, and the place is run by a Nepalese family (very friendly). Oh, and it’s like $45 for the night. Basically the same rate as the Microtel where I was booked… and because I was booked for tomorrow… logged on and cancelled the reservation.

So, it’s like 107 degrees here – making it worse than Seattle temperature wise so I just had dinner in the restaurant in the lobby – Mongolian Beef with Fried Rice. Huge portion, I only got through half of it – I’m thinking lunch tomorrow!

I’m all checked in for tomorrow’s flight which isn’t until the early afternoon so it will be a much easier day tomorrow.

[226.5]

What a wonderful lazy Sunday… in the heat. It just means you don’t move too much, too fast.

After a BamBam breakfast we did a little stroll around the neighborhood. With the bridge closed I’m trying (not too well at the moment) to shop and eat with the local places to help keep them in business. Today’s stop was at the Salvadorian, or is it Ecuadorian bakery for some breakfast items for tomorrow and the Mexican grocery store for a lime (the potatoes I need for tonight’s dinner looked sad).

After one bad movie (where we fast forwarded through most of it), and Beef Cake, which I’d seen but it’s always fun, it was off to Swanda’s for afternoon cocktails and grocery shopping.

Back at the ranch we weren’t moving fast as the temp soared to 96 (average temp for today was supposed to be 76 – a 20 degree difference). Dinner was steaks, baked potatoes, salad, wine out on the deck with the breeze flowing.

It must be movie day at the house as the after dinner movie was Shooting Porn with Chi Chi La Rue – a self described big fat white guy female impersonator and some of the 8mm stuff I’ve had transferred (still need to figure out how to get the rest transferred without it breaking the bank).

Finished packing and it was off to bed for tomorrow I head to Germany.

[227.0]

I made breakfast for the boys (Johnny and Curt) of scrambled eggs, ham and bacon – with toast from the loaf of bread I baked last night. Yum. And reasonably healthy.

Made a run to Safeway for coffee, gas, and yes, more meat for the freezer, but most importantly – for wine, since we pretty much blew through my “cellar” last night.

And let’s talk about the weather – windows open on all four sides of the house…. As the temperature climbed to 95 degrees today. We are not surprised that Swanda has backed out of dinner on the deck. Offered his place, but with the boys arrival variable, it just wasn’t going to work. Maybe tomorrow.

Dinner at the house tonight for four – BamBam, Helene, Hummingbird (below, in that order).

Tiny pictures for such a full evening. Went to the neighbors party – watched it get shut down by the ex-principal violist for the Seattle Symphony, had some beans, came home.

More chat, no hot tub. Maybe I shouldn’t have filled it.

Off to bed.

[2271]