UMTravels

Such grand goals for today — getting stuff together for dinner with Jeff and Mindi’s neighbors.
After the shopping:

And after cooking:

It was a lovely dinner — though Mary who is pregnant decided to decline at the last minute due to a wee bit of nausea. A rolled ham on a bed of roasted vegetables and a [...]

Today is “tour” day. This means that both Mindi and I are up “butt early” — what time is “butt early”? 6am and to the train station by 6:40am for a 7:10am train from Dublin to Galway. Ick.
I grabbed a sandwich and a Diet Coke in the train station as I’d heard the food on-board [...]

Happy birthday to me and greetings from Dublin, Ireland.
A little work in the morning (sorry Swanda, couldn’t help myself) and then off on today’s adventure — the Guiness Storehouse. What? Basically a “listed building” that Guiness couldn’t tear down to make a modern factory so they turned it into an “edutainment” center with a cool [...]

A fairly lazy start to the day — thank goodness for Ambien to keep the thumping of the disco out of my dreams.
Eggs Benedict at the hotel in the morning, then off to tour the castle grounds and art gallery filled with conceptual pieces, beyond contemporary art and sort of an odd match for the [...]

A slow morning around the house — guess last night was later than I thought.
Mindi was worse for wear this morning, enough so that she is staying in bed rather than coming on the road with Jeff and I on the tour to the south. As it turns out, it was a good idea with [...]

Up at 8:30, rolled over and re-awoke at 9:30. Got to love Ambien for being able to sleep through the night and avoid jet lag.
Bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, sandwiches around 2 for lunch — just  a lazy day around the house with all three of us sitting on couches working away at our computers.
As [...]

Got into London at 6am. I immediately headed into the Arrivals Lounge for the Star Alliance — judging from some of the signage in the shower, it used to be a British Airways lounge.
 
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Nice to be able [...]

Up at 5:30am and by 6 RB (Rent Boy) and I are out the door headed to the airport.
What a mess United Airline is! Two 757’s parked at gates near each other both grounded for mechanical problems. Our has some seal that they replaced that now the epoxy needs to cure, and the other, landing gear [...]

Up at 8am feeling a little foggy… maybe it was the ribs.
Out of the house at 9:30am with Mom in tow… dropping her at the library for a self-tour while I headed to the eastside for this weeks marketing meeting. Dad was lazing about the house when I left.
A long meeting today, but when there [...]

Got a full house today — I’m living in the office, and my parents have taken over the bedroom. Luckily, I have low maintenance parents!
Spent lots of today working on E&A stuff, and taking Dad grocery shopping with me while Mom stayed behind and read on the couch. Her big trip is tomorrow to see [...]

My prediction of a rough morning was correct. Painfully early for us — 8am.
Choked down a little breakfast, before they called our color to get the hell off the boat.
One update from last night before I go on — we had 14 guys show up at the final Friends of Dorothy meeting… WOW. I can’t [...]

Up at 10. So much for my plan of cheap Bloody Mary’s in the cabin followed by a morning Rosh Hashanah service with Rabbi Heyman. But what the hell, the sun is out.
It was more like up at ten, eat at 10:30, lounge around in the sun until 1:30, eat again, go back to the [...]

Talk about a late morning…. I was out of bed at 10:30, Jonathan at 11! Just enough time to get to the Friends of Dorothy lunch at the Seven Seas which got 10 of the guys to show up at. Not bad. I’m figuring the gay men on board at something like 20+.
After breakfast - [...]

Talk about lazy daze at sea. Up late, lounge around all day, look out at the grey roiling mass of the sea. I guess without the rocking of the boat, Cabo would have been like this had we gone. Lots of cabin time, lots of reading time.
Jonathan was a sweetheart and brought me breakfast in [...]

Greetings from Juneau!
Unlike when I was here with Ross in early May, we are docked at the far end of town and it is definitely drippy weather. The question is whether I want to try and meet up with Monica on this trip. Jonathan is planning on going into town — I will just stay [...]

We woke up this morning in Ketchikan, Alaska. Day three of our seven day cruise and the first time I’ve had free access to the Internet so far this trip.
How? My new cell phone tethered to my computer boosted by a 3watt signal amplifier. What?

The big black spot on the window is the antenna for [...]

First, a recap of yesterday’s events that didn’t get on the blog….

Jonathan not feeling good, running two hours late to pick me up because he was fighting off nausea
His car starts seeping transmission fluid half way to Canada
The beer belly wouldn’t hold the scotch and started dribbling (what is it with leaking fluids!)

But we were [...]

Well, today is the big day — off to Vancouver to get on the big boat. That would be the Norwegian Sun (does that mean it’s dark a third of the year?)

And here is what our balcony suite should look like:
    
We are on deck eleven at the far end from the pool, with food in [...]

Woke up this morning on Rich’s couch with my neck in an odd position, luckily not life threatening…
Next up was a visit to Jameson and Natalie for their yard sale — luckily I wasn’t in the mood for shopping, but it was good to see them if even briefly.
Lunch — I finally had BBQ at [...]

Worked a little during the day, got mostly packed for the trip on Sunday. Headed down to Olympia at a little after one to beat the traffic. Tried to find the exit for Cabella’s and couldn’t — it must be half way between two exits. Sung by Safeway to use my PowerPump rewards before the [...]