UMTravels

No picture of dinner with the boys (DancingBear and BreticusMaximus)… but picture this:

• Green Salad
• Cole Slaw
• Asparagus and Chicken Breast Pieces Swimming in Alfredo

No starch for anybody tonight. White wine for DB, cocktails for BM, and red wine for UM.

I think we have finally come to consensus on spending a week (well, I’ll spend five days) in Cabo San Lucas as my timeshare there. Guess I’d better get booking it – first full week of September is what we are shooting for. That would be AFTER most of the little kiddies are back in school and before BM returns to college.

That’s it for today.

[205.4

[208.4]

Got to sleep in a little later today since I’m just 15 minutes from the office having spent the night at the Camlin.

Not a bad day at the shop, though I could have come in several hours late with the dearth of customers in the first hours.

Did have a little time to try and find an armrest for the 2000 Ford Focus. All of the universal ones are expensive, and don’t get very good reviews. Found one on eBay that is from the same model of car but came with the higher trim package than my base fleet package. I have a counter offer in on this:

It’s even in the right color!. Like the pencil holder they built in? Great idea – my base console has one as well. On eBay it was $75 buy in now or make counter offer. I offered $55 – we will see.

Quiet dinner at home tonight.

[206.2]

With it being Mayfair in Madrona today, the wine tasting started at 1pm instead of 2pm… which for me is handy since it’s Opera night and I have a room booked at the Camlin. Means I get to check in at a little before 4 rather than a little before 5.

This is the shot of the room AFTER I completely rearranged it so you could actually open and use the Murphy bed. They had the couch backed up against Murphy bed and the kitchen table was where I moved the couch to.

Dinner with WonderFool at Dragon Fish – small Asian plate meal type place. With the 20% off coupon we got out of there for $60.00 + tip, which included a lot of sake for both of us.

Off to the Opera next, via the monorail:

WonderFool wearing my old sport coat that he had retailored (when he was 20 pounds heavier).

This is our last season of tickets – giving up my truly wonderful seats, but at a grand for the pair, it’s become too much.

And how did Speight Jenkins reward us for our final opera? By presenting two short and incredibly painful operas. http://seattleopera.org/tickets/production.aspx?productionID=123

I spent the evening wanting to slit my wrists. Here is the summary:

In this exciting pair of Seattle Opera premieres two very different composers explore the fates of women who must come to grips with grave disappointment. In Poulenc’s sensual, captivating 40-minute monodrama, a desperate woman is shunned by her lover over the telephone and stumbles through a minefield of emotions towards an unknown fate. In Puccini’s sentimental one act, a noble-born woman who has joined a convent is disowned by her family, takes poison in despair, and miraculously passes into a state of grace.

Sister Angelica (Suor Angelica)
Music by Giacomo Puccini
In Italian with English Captions

The Human Voice (La Voix Humaine)
Music by Francis Poulenc
In French with English Captions

Luckily it has only one more performance – the matinee tomorrow.

We should have taken the monorail home – got stuff in a traffic mess of Mercer AND 99 being closed. We could have walked home quicker.

[206.2]

Friends of mine are selling their house… and I’ll miss the Cabana and Pool:

http://www.windermere.com/listing/WA/Seattle/4594-W-Cramer-St-98199/18170253

180 degree view of The Sound.

The Chinese Courtyard at the front of the house.

So, if you need 2+ acres in the middle of the city, and have $4.1 million to spare, it’s a great house. Technically it’s two lots so you could take out the tennis court, barn and fruit orchard and build a second house.

As for me – worked the day, finished sewing the wagon curtains in the evening after a blade lamb steak and salad for dinner.

At least I got the sewing finally done.

[206.6]

Back to work today – one week off, and then back to the craziness of the middle of the Graduation Announcement season.

After work, it was onto work on the station wagon adding curtains. Apparently I did such a good job matching the color (blind guessing at Home Depot) to paint the curtain rails that you can’t really se them:

Until you hang some curtains on them:

Got the one set done before age and eyesight made it impossible to get the bobbin refilled to sew more. Once they are all done I’ll investigate Velcro® to get them to conform to the body style.

Quiet dinner at the casa.

Back to the grind.

[208.8]

Up at ten:

• Breakfast
• Mail drop
• Drop off old Asus for brain transplant
• Home Depot for bug spray
• CampingWorld in Fife for curtain rods for the Focus
• Bank deposit
• Pecos Pit for BBQ
• Home Depot for forgotten items
• Les Schwab to get leaker fixed (must return)
• Safeway for groceries and gas
• Les Schwab to get the damn thing done
• Home

That would be FIVE hours of stuff.

But there is a mystery solved. The train from the other day or so in these pictures:

So, here are the much better shots from train spotters:

This is the “power” car…look at the exhaust pipes on the front, and the aero-dome for the satellite downlink stuff.

Thanks to NormanDcat who looked at the photos and actually figured out my “I thought it was labeled MRL on the cars”.

More is the info he found:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3050156

And then I started digging….

Montana Rail Link : http://www.montanarail.com/index.php

Owned by the Washington Companies: http://washcorp.com/index.php

Great video here: http://washcorp.com/video.php

And they repaired their yacht:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/warning.php?forum_id=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.charterworld.com%2Fnews%2Fattessa-iv-yacht-launch-seattle-usa-largest

Had the train cars barged in so that the yacht folks could rehab them:

I’d give my left testicle to ride on that train – oh the joys of coal in the US:

Makes me think of Warren Buffet and his “train set” which I’ve seen parts of. Apparently I run in the wrong crowd.

Same dinner as last night.

No worries.

[208.6]

The usual of working Sunday, and a decent (for a Sunday) take at the till thanks to a rush at 4:30.

The big news of the day is dinner at Swanda’s new digs up north. I don’t envy the “joys” of moving. It’s taken him a month to get everything put away – and the last big item is now in the back of my station wagon, the rollaway guest bed. Where I’m going to put that is another question, but it is always handy to have a spare bed.

Porkloins over roasted onions – he did the roasted root vegetables separately for the BF since neither of us are doing carbs.

Left early as compared to when I used to dine at the old place since it’s twice the distance (but much cheaper in rent) and I tend to not like to drive after having wine with dinner.

Looking forward to being off tomorrow… time to run all those errands.

[210.2]

Into work at 1:30, out at 7 with my new car stereo that arrived while I was cruising.

The new one has a smaller footprint so I get a little junk tray – great place for the remote.

Only took2.5 hours to install it – lots of wires to crimp.

And the plates arrived!

A very late dinner with getting home at 7:30 and only starting to cook at 9:30… Chicken Cordon Blue sliced up over a bed of greens.

Yum.

[210.2 – not bad for 3 days of cruising]

Up at 6, out of the cabin at 7:30, off the boat at 9:30, lunch with Hummingbird and BamBam at noon, onto the train at 5, home by 11:30. Long day.

The Vancouver train station.

An interesting train set, private. Wow. Can’t seem to find any information on it though.

And I was awestruck at the redo of King Street Station in Seattle. I’m just hoping they are going to do some fancy accented paint work since that’s a whole lot of white.

Off to bed for me.

[? ? ? – should be interesting to see what tomorrow's number is]

When asked what I did today, the answer is “a whole lot of nothing”. And that isn’t a bad thing.

Bought a bottle of Jameson’s at duty-free — bought a jacket (50% off) because I’ve been cold for days, and it will be handy for movies under the stars tonight. Probably will need it in the morning, but not the afternoon tomorrow in Vancouver.

Had breakfast delivered to the room — two egg mcmuffiny things which I removed the muffins from, along with coffee. Did lunch in the buffet as the restaurant I wanted had a long line, dinner with Jill and DancingBear with the Beef Wellington amongst other things.

A little nap in the afternoon and the evening was filled with cocktails in the Skywalker lounge (had to use the free drink coupon) with a bunch of the boys, then the dinner, then The Hobbit under the stars, then back to the Skywalker lounge for the LGBT, which on this cruise is really G, hold the BLT.

Today’s pictures are from the screening of The Hobbit:

Mind you, I’m not a big fantasy fan… but here I am bundled up watching:

That would be a fuzzy Jill to my right.

Again, up too late, but with a 6am wakeup call. Now to figure out how to kill a day in Vancouver whilst waiting for the train home.

[? ? ?]

Slept in until 11 and by noon I was lined up for lunch in the dining room. Gumbo and a chicken Caesar for lunch.

Back at the cabin, took this shot of the RIP CaddyDaddy poster I posted on his stateroom door:

Even took him to the LGBT cocktail hour which about 40 people showed up at, including one of the gay staff who said he was trying to get us  moved for tomorrow’s meet and greet up to the Skywalker lounge since our numbers are so large.

And Jill and I took him to dinner as well:

Movie under the stars anyone?

It was a little too cold out there for me to stay for the movie, even with blankets.

Another late night – but at least I didn’t order late night room service!

[? ? ?]

Maybe an hour of sleep – sitting up – on the couch – and apparently I missed four flash bang lobbed into the business across the way from my house.

Here is a little snippet about the incident on one of the local news sites:

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/man-hogtied-held-gunpoint-during-south-seattle-rob/nXjdt/

I’ll check back in a day or so to see if they have any updates to the story.

DancingBear showed up on time at 5:15am – I had to exit my house through the garage and walk down the alley to meet him. They had blocked off the streets in front of my house. Great way to start a trip.

Since I was checking a bag we were both in the MVP Gold line which meant we could get DB on the earlier flight with us, rather than the 9:05 or his original flight was the 11:05 which would be cutting it close for him to make the 3:30pm sailing.

Both of us got through the Pre line (shoes on, laptops left in) – though DB got his “wine” confiscated. He couldn’t find it earlier to give to me and thought he’d forgotten it at home. No – it was in his briefcase. Oops. Good think I brought an extra. I’d planning on having Jill bring that one on.

In LA we met the Princess folks for our$24 transfer to the pier – which turned out to be a good deal since we were early and they took us to the Sheraton for coffee and pastries (we went downstairs for a real breakfast at 15% off) and more importantly they checked us in and would have out keys ready when we hit the dock – no lines. YES! And since CaddyDaddy isn’t going to use his transfer (hard to do when you are dead) we got the Princess folks to take DancingBear in his place. RIP CaddyDaddy – at least someone got some use out your prepaid transfer.

I had the eggs benedict for breakfast – on top of the two English muffins with cream cheese I had in the Board Room. Maybe I should call this post “Carb Day”.

Got on board, got settled, got ice order, fixed myself a drink, did the emergency procedure briefing and then headed to the back of the boat for a little sailaway view:

That would be DancingBear in the background.

Dinner at 7:30 in the nice dining room with DB and Jill – we passed on joining the other dozen of folks at the massive table. I don’t really like meals with over six people, just too crazy. Just not relaxing.

Tonight’s wine:

Not a bad bottle of wine.

At 9 was the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) meet and greet was at the Wheel House lounge, deck 7 aft. Probably the most folks I seen at one of these, like twenty. Of course when the group you are travelling with has a dozen or so, doesn’t make it that difficult to reach those numbers.

Stayed up way too late, which meant ordering more carbs from room service. Bad Uncle Markie, Bad.

Will do better tomorrow.

[205.5 – and we’ll see what 3 days of cruising does to that number]

The day was spent running errands and doing for final bits of packing. Pretty amazing that it got up to 87 today – the 6^th of May! That’s not only a record winner, but 20 degrees over normal.

Dropped the remains of last night’s Bonny Doon Picpole (translates to “lip smacker”) at Jim’s along with Suze’s California liquor order, then to Safeway to pick up a couple of six-packs of Diet Vernors, one of which is going into my luggage with my bottle of “wine”. I must be a god to turn wine into whiskey. Chris dropped mine and her orders this morning.

I was amused by the cashier on the receipt:

HEATHER “MANEATER” FRANKLIN

Dinner by myself and catching up on other things during the evening.

However, just past midnight the neighborhood suddenly lit up with police:

There were a couple of dozen police cars which backed away when the two SWAT teams showed up – so it was an early morning of loudspeakers blasting “You are surrounded. Open the door slowly and back out with your hands in the air.”

Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep.

[205.8]

Art opening this afternoon at the shop, leading to a decent (for Sunday) sales day.

After work it’s steaks off the grill and coleslaw al fresco – the first outside dining of the season. The reason, it hit 83 at the airport this afternoon.

And this just in from Saturday’s party, a picture taken by the birthday girl:

How odd that FaceBook puts a black border around pictures. That would be me on the right, wearing my derby-day hat.

[206.2]

Opened the shop and closed the party. Well, the latter isn’t exactly true, though I did spend more time that I had planned – even ran into the service tech that fixed the trimmer last week – that was too weird. Apparently he has a buddy who lives in the neighborhood, and it was sort of a neighborhood party with half a dozen bands playing and somebodies riverside house two blocks from my house.

Lots of unexpected fun:

And you can see the progress on the bridge.

And since the house is in the “Sliver By The River” which is King County, not Seattle, bonfires (and fireworks) are legal.

I invited Long to join me at the party to celebrate Missy’s birthday, but he was pooped from a long bicycle ride. Tonight is his last night with me before going off to stay with his lady friend in West Seattle, which makes me wonder why he didn’t just stay there all week.

Oh well, it will be nice to have the house back. I think I’ll start limiting my couchsurfers to a max of 3 days since as Benjamin Franklin says: “Fish and guests stink in three days.” Though I must admit I thought it was Mark Twain that used that line.

[206.0]

A week and a couple of days after purchasing my new toy, it’s now street legal:

The license agent’s comment was “you lucked out on plate numbers.” How’s this for an easy to remember plate number – the GRN is for The Evergreen State College which features a tree logo.

My last day of work at the print shop until Tuesday the 14^th – next week is the cruise. 5 days off in a row. It’s been so long.

No couchsurfer Long for dinner tonight, he’s off with his Vietnamese friend who goes to school here – wonder why he didn’t stay with her?

As for me, some peppered beef flanks wrapped in bacon – plenty of leftovers.

[204.4]

In today’s photo tribute to CaddyDaddy, we (well, the Royal We) title this photo, fat men on holiday in Mexico (specifically a two bedroom Penthouse condo in Cabo San Lucas.

I think it was CaddyDaddy’s birthday trip 2011.

Work was a blur – hard to not think about the dearly departed. Once the orders were completed I started the process of cancelling CaddyDaddy’s Amtrak reservation (easy – issued refund) and Alaska flight (less easy – they had to split the reservation, and I need to have the Funeral Home and phone number to get the refund of $98, which I don’t have, nor does the family yet). I’m less worried about the September trip – I should be able to change the name on the other tickets and I have two possibilities.

When I tried to start the car… DEAD, DEAD, DEAD – good thing I put the charger in the car… and used every extension cord in the shop to get it plugged in. Time to get a new battery and put off the Smog Check until Friday or Saturday – need to check on times for both them and Ballard Licensing.

Hello Les Schwab Tire Center and a hundred bucks later I have a battery. Then off to Home Depot, but abandoned a purchase of 4×8 sheet of Pink Foam Insulation as a cover for the hot tub. I panicked and didn’t buy it – worried that it wouldn’t fit in the car diagonally since I hadn’t measured the Focus Wagon yet – and I didn’t have a bungee cord to strap down the lift gate. Tomorrow, maybe after Smog Check and Ballard Licensing.

Next up – O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for car fuses – the horn doesn’t work on the Focus, and it might be that the fuse is missing. Then Safeway for eggs (and other things) since there are two of us for breakfast in the mornings.

Pork loins, salad and bread for Long is tonight’s meal.

And here is the effect on guests:

Guest down, call 911!

[204.4]

Work was fine until CaddyDaddy’s sister Pat rang my phone. He is dead. I’m guessing another heart attack – I was too rattled to ask details.

In his honor – a picture of us from his 2012 birthday trip to Hawaii where we stayed in the military hotel on Waikiki:

It’s hard not to get misty eyed looking at this photo of us.

We were due to leave on Tuesday for LA, pick up a Princess Cruise to Vancouver and train home. Need to cancel his. FUCK. He was 15 days from getting his first Social Security retirement check which was going to give him the freedom to travel more. He had plans to take his Mom to San Diego, First Class on Alaska, in August – used my last Companion Fare Certificate that would work for First – and I was happy to give it to them. And then there is my Birthday Ramble that he was booked on: Seattle to Vancouver on one Princess Cruise, a night in Vancouver in a two-bedroom condo at The Canadian, then the next day off to LA on another Princess Cruise which we would have transferred to the Coast Starlight for the ride home in a Family Room (the wide one with windows on both sides of the train.) FUCK.

RIP dude.

The rest of the day was a bit of a daze. After work it was Ballard Licensing to either:

1. Transfer the title on the Focus and order license plates, or
2. Get a trip permit if it needs to be smog checked.

Unfortunately “B” and $30 later, it’s a trip permit for a car that the battery isn’t holding a charge. Guessing need new battery, will charge tonight and drive to work tomorrow – with the battery charger handy (and park near the front door).

Company for dinner tonight – Swanda (who leaves tomorrow to visit his mom for her 90^th) and Long, a Vietnamese CouchSurfer currently going to school in Cincinnati but going home for the summer. He’s here for a handful of days. Oddly enough it’s nice to entertain tonight, though with Swanda’s bad work day, it took some convincing. It was good for both of us.

Did steaks on the grill much to the delight of Long. Guessing most of that has to do with having no cooking skills and being a broke student.

It was a good end to a bad day.

[204.8]

Got off a little early from work as Roxy came in a little early. Came home and did this:

Mowed and edged the front, back and alley – about 2 hours of sweating in the sun. But the sun was out and that is good. The post is called “Slacker Lawn Care” because the two possible people who I’d hoped to do my lawn over the summer both flaked out.

Moved the car into the front yard to charge it a bit – may need a new battery as it seems to have lost its charge in the couple of days since I drive it – or there is a short some place which is not something I want to deal with.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to register the car without getting it smog tested – all depends on if it just model year (then I won’t) or previous records of smog testing (which I well have to since I doubt the UW did any testing). We will see.

Pork chops on the dinner plate tonight.

Early to bed for once.

[205.2]