Just click on the above for a link to the .mobi file which you can just drag to your KenDoll (my spelling) and dump in the books folder and it will show up on your bookcase (assuming you have your KenDoll connected to a PC).
A great dinner with the Loveland (Colorado) crew. Much talk, much wine, much munching of pork, grilled peppers, broccoli, grilled onions, and yams. Yum. Sorry, no picture.
But we did get into the Grappa de Solear Manzanilla Extra Dry Jerez Xeres Sherry that I brought — though we did run it through their Britta first.
Maybe tomorrow I can figure out how to make a .mobi of a Piglettè upload – it’s much harder as each of the pages is a “graphic” rather than flowable text.
It’s like a holiday — leaving town. Yeah, there is still the dribs and drabs of work to do, but I get to spend more time laying around reading that when I’m home. At home there is the “honey do” list, and I’m the honey.
Today’s shot:
It’s the view from the deck of the condo.
BrightHeart had to leave around 11 for a day of play rehearsal — at least we fed him a good bacon, egg, and toast breakfast.
Today’s adventures consisted of swinging by the Beaver Meadow Visitor’s Center for Rocky Mountain National Park. Watched a 20-minute video about the park which made me want to return in the summer and drive through it in the Jaguar with the top down.
Lunch in town after shopping for dinner. Stopped by the Stanley Museum (as in Stanley Steamer, and locally the Stanley Hotel where they filmed the shining, or it was written, or something like that).
Speaking of dinner — that would be a 4.19 pound boneless leg of lamb over a bed of roasted potatoes… a little much for two people, but just means that we’ll have lamb hash for breakfast.
Tonight’s movie: You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. IMDB’s short description of the movie is: An Israeli Special Forces Soldier fakes his death so he can re-emerge in New York City as a hair stylist. Definitely a screw-ball comedy with some interesting jabs at both sides in the Israel/Palestine conflict, including a liberal dose of hummus.
Too bed WAY to late — even without BrightHeart coming over tonight.
This schedule with BrightHeart arriving really late to starting to wreck my sleep schedule if I want to spend any time with him. Today we didn’t get out of the condo until after 4pm – just in time for a crush of people at the Safeway store for an Open House with lots of giveaways… luckily they had self checkout.
But I do have a couple of pictures for the day… Number One? Interesting combination of businesses:
I’ve always wanted to buy drugs with my drugs.
Number Two — a shot of the Stanley Hotel that I mentioned in yesterdays’ post with the sun starting to set:
Lewis didn’t show up until well after our dinner of German sausage and sauerkraut with an Asian salad on the side, with some wine from Argentina. The movie tonight (they gave me two coupons for free movies) was Balls Out: Gary The Tennis Coach, yet another comedy. Not nearly as good as last night’s movie — but I chose it since I had to go to the office to print my boarding pass.
Yes, I watch silly adolescent movies when I’m on the road.
The evening finished with BrightHeart and Mike giving me a four-hand massage. No THAT’s a way to put me to sleep.
Greetings from Breitenbush Hot Springs. In theory there is no internet or cell-phone access out here, but I know the secrets to get at least internet access. And coffee. At the same time.
Having arrived a day before the gathering, there is a little more time to chill out before the hoards arrive this afternoon. Most of the cabin I’m staying in has arrived, all but Jeff who is coming with the masses. That makes Chris, Mark, and Onyx (and me) all nicely settled. It being Valentine’s Day yesterday, the staff left us chocolate bars.
Lunch at 12:30, then working on the final cabin layout chart to post, up to the gate at 2:30 to start getting people registered, even though they had to stay out of the cabins until 4:00. Photo directories and bamboo towellettes were handed out to the expected 165 faeries.
Dinner at 6:30, with Faerie 101/Breitenbush 101 followed by the opening circle performed by BrightHeart, who isthe other penpal of my friend Steve who is locked up in Montana. As usual, I end of missing it all — something about coming here each winter since 1982.
An early evening for me tonight. Not even a soak in the healing waters.
What a rare treat. A quiet space in Jamshed’s Java Jive… no one here, but a thermos of coffee. Time to catch up on not only the mail, but the blog as well.
BBHa has offered a massage this afternoon — he is working on the other Queen Registar as we speak. It is his “offer of service” to the gatherings to give a loving massage to the organizers. He is good, and I’m looking forward to 3:00 this afternoon.
Probably do my lunch and soak thing, again. Need to get with BrightHeart sometime soon an discuss what to do with our “nephew” so he can have a job and a place to live after he gets out of the joint — he is up for parole this spring or summer and we are trying to get all his ducks in a row. He’s a nice guy who fucked up and has changed for the better in jail — a rare thing. When I’ve visited him (twice), even the staff has nice things to say about him. I’m (well, we) hoping that his parole comes through — I can imagine him gettng very depressed at having to wait another year.
More later, and maybe even a picture or two from the show. Forgot to bring my camera last night.
I guess I should have done this sooner. Organizing DVDs that is. Judging from the date on the Access Database of my DVDs it was two years ago or more that I did any changes to what was loaded where.
As of the end of today — I’m down to a stack of 40 DVDs that need to be cataloged and put in the machine… then it’s just a matter of printing and binding the catalog — and then it’s on to the 300 DVD player filled with more General Interest DVDs. Maybe I just have too damn many movies.
Hopefully I’ll get this done before heading to Tucson (at least the 400 one) on Thursday. Speaking of that trip — the 72 hour upgrade window arrived and left without an upgrade… hopefully the 48 hour window will be better to me. Hopefully I’m not flying down at the same time as all the snowbirds.
After a grocery and booze run, dinner was leftover ham on onion buns with sauerkraut and pickles — trying to get the fridge cleaned out in advance of the Tucson trip which is quickly followed by Denver and Estes Park to see BrightHeart.
Early to bed — the now bi-weekly marketing meeting in the morning, and the notes aren’t done yet.
So much for taking light rail to the airport this morning. A 7:40am flight time is just too early to add a half an hour to the travel time. Back to MasterPark I go.
Left the house at 5am, was through security at 6am, even with long lines at the scanners and my bag full of electronics. Not bad — except that we are talking butt-early in the morning.
Uneventful flight. Even managed to get a half-hour nap in right before landing. Too bad the quiche and turkey sausage was barely lukewarm.
BrightHeart and his friend Mike were at the airport to pick me up — they had been down in Denver picking up a utility trailer axle so it was a little tight in the Volvo for the ride north to Fort Collins. Unfortunate BirghtHeart has play practice this afternoon and early evening — he has the role of Chief in a production of One Flew Over The Cuckoos’ Nest. At Fort Collins Mike and I switched to his truck for the run up to Estes Park.
Multiple stops later (lunch, booze, groceries, etc) we arrived at the lovely WorldMark Estes Park. Missed it the first time with the sun in our eyes and the subtle/tasteful signage. And the room was even ready at 3:30 (rather than the guarantee of 4pm).
Here is a short video clip of the 3-bedroom presidential at the WorldMark Estes Park:
Not a bad little place.
Spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, drinking cocktails after we were all unpacked. Dinner was steaks and asparagus under the broiler (no on deck BBQ and I wasn’t thrilled about standing in the snow in the dark using the one downstairs), salad, and bread.
Lewis arrived late, after a little hot tub (on the deck) I was off to bed.
This is an experiment in the style of one of the Colonels – the trip report rather than the day-by-day, blow-by-blow. Comments please.
Dateline Tuesday:
I love noon flights. You don’t have to get up early, lunch is set out in the Board Room when you get there, you don’t’ feel self-conscious having that cocktail like you might at 6am.
Speaking of the Board Room (the Alaska Airlines lounge), they’ve added these new “pods”.
Though you can’t see it from this angle, there are outlets on the other two sides – each of which has two outlets AND two USB ports. I want one for home!
I resisted the temptation to take a $300 voucher for a later flight via Salt Lake City – which in retrospect I should have since:
I would have gotten double EQM (Elite Qualifying Miles) on Alaska as they are feuding with their Frienemy Delta (though I would have had crappy seats on both legs)
Because of limited T-Mobile service in Bozeman and other issues, didn’t get to meet-up with HockeyBoy so arriving a couple of hours late wouldn’t have made any difference
Oh well – lesson learned.
My plane – painted in Boise State Broncos colors (last spring I printed graduation announcements for them):
On my arrival in lovely Bozeman I was surprised at how gorgeous their airport is – when has anyone described airports as gorgeous?
The ticketing area viewed from above. And below, waiting areas complete with gas fireplaces (I counted three):
Got to the Dollar Rent-A-Car counter only to be told that they were out of SUVs and that they had transferred my reservation to the Enterprise Rent-A-Car counter right next door. So, my $50 a day mid-size SUV (cheapest car you can rent in Bozeman according to my research) turned into this (for the same price):
A honkin’ 8-passenger leather lined, boat complete with 4 sets of headphones and a remote to go with the DVD entertainment system. You’d (well, I would have) have expected a navigation system, but oddly it wasn’t equipped with one (though I think there was satellite radio).
Got checked into the Day’s Inn, went back and forth with the boy who fell asleep so we never hooked up, had a late dinner I brought in from Dave’s Famous BBQ which I liked until I read the ingredients on a couple of their sauce packages, both which started with “High Fructuous Corn Syrup”, had a couple of cocktails and went to bed as tomorrow is an early day – of watching the boy play hockey at 6am.
This is there 1 pound rib-tip APPETIZER for $10.50. I had them put in extra sauce. I didn’t think it came with fries, but there they were. I got through about half of it – which means lunch and snacks for tomorrow.
Dateline Wednesday:
Sorry – no picture of the hockey game. I didn’t want to distract him since as he told me, and he was correct, that I’d be the only spectator at the game. I only stayed for a little bit for the same reason (and it was cold as shit) and headed back to the hotel for breakfast and a long nap.
Got a little shopping done in the afternoon (notions for the next sewing project, all at 50% off), along with some reading. Finally hooked up with the boy at almost 8pm for dinner – having spotty cell service and oddly working but slow internet makes is very frustrating to try and hook up – wish he’d have just picked up the phone and called the hotel. Maybe next time.
Dinner was at Burger Bobs – I had the steak salad and a Manhattan or two – HockeyBoy had the Bob’s All In Burger which comes with an egg, though he opted out of the bacon. Not much time with him but it was a great first date – the conversation was easy on flowing. Need to do some more of that.
The upside of all of this is that I got to watch the State of the Union address.
One ODD thing about this trip to Montana is that for the first time in a decade I’m not here to visit Steve who for 8 years was in prison is Shelby and then Deer Lodge, got out for a bit, didn’t take his meds, lost it, violated parole and is now back at Deer Lodge. Years ago he stopped communicating with BrightHeart (who he was lodging with when I met him while he was awaiting sentencing) I think because he thinks he let us down. These days I know where is he because the Montana Department of Prisons sends me updates every time they move him. He went into the can at 19 or 20, those formative years of adulthood without ever having a chance to mature. The meds I mentioned were basically the same meds that they prescribe to our soldiers for their PTSD. He is back at Deer Lodge after his “proxy marriage” which is allowed in five states (surprisingly California is one of them, the rest are Texas, Colorado, Montana, and Alabama) to a Russian woman dissolved and she was forced to go back to Russia — they had been living with Steve’s mother — under allegations of domestic abuse on his part. Back on his meds he started a house painting business (but couldn’t drive so he had to hire employees), got a girlfriend with a child and things were looking up so he stopped taking his meds and the same cycle started again — drinking, abuse, and he got popped driving. Probably blowing over the limit and back in the system he went. A sad story that I can’t change.
Dateline Thursday:
Today he is working – he’s off on the weekends, which is, of course, when I work, so off to the museums go I. First up is the Museum of the Rockies – home to a very large dinosaur bone collection since Montana is prime dino hunting ground.
First up was a stop at the lab where they are dremmelling out the bones from the rock:
Then to their exhibits (I felt like I was in the Museum of Natural History in Chicago):
Through a decent historical exhibit on Native American culture – no photographs allowed, and finally onto the culture early western life in Montana:
Discount admission because they are between exhibits – and a future discount with my AAA card — $10.50 (regularly $14).
Next up is the American Computer Museum which is located in an office park. It’s the first computer museum in the United States (Berlin has one that’s older) and only one of two in the US – and I’ve been to both of them in the last month!
Lots of autographed items from astronauts to the Apple & Microsoft founders – early computer legends and a very eclectic collection that apparently only 6% is on display. Some of my favorites:
The control board from a MinuteMan 1 rocket (in honor of the Colonels).
More punch card readers and related equipment.
And then there is Robby the Robot – the original.
The museum is free, and signage to get there is poor but worth searching out. I bought a lapel pin and gave them a donation.
Then it was off for a late lunch where the boy works… The Roost. It’s a hipster chicken place.
I had the fried chicken salad, which was excellent:
Only got to see the boy for a minute – it being the lunch rush as all – gave him my receipt to the Museum of the Rockies since its good for two days.
With that I was off to the airport – no offer of being bumped today (damnit). One person in front of me in the check-in line, nobody in the TSA-Pre line, though during the afternoon it’s just “expedited” which means shoes, belt and coat stay on, liquids (which were in my checked bag) and laptops out – and the metal detector rather than the body scanner.
Time for one last Manhattan – which I had to teach the bartender at the Copperhorse Restaurant how to make, she:
Didn’t know the ingredients
Didn’t know that “up” in the case of martinis and manhattans meant shaken over ice
Didn’t know that a Manhattan goes in a Martini glass
But it was a good one (when you choose your own recipe it should be good) and she found some AMAZING cherries in the kitchen to go with it (apparently in Montana they don’t stock maraschino cherries at the bar). And the bar itself was pretty:
That is a brushed copper bar top. And she called the cherries “Bordeaux cherries” which I’d never heard of, but she brought three of them out for me. Doing a little research – seems that Oregon produces them for sale. Basically they are like the Luxardo cherries ($18 a jar at Madrona Wine Merchants rather than $23.77 with shipping from Amazon that we carry at the shop). Description here and cheaper than on Amazon.
And yes, she got a good tip.
Flight was on time – seat next to me which was empty when I checked in was full – luggage arrived with its wheels still on – found some 30-50% off ribeye steaks on Safeway’s markdown rack on the way home from the airport.
Off to see my ex and his wife because the fare was so damn cheap… $135 and some change round-trip. No First Class on the way out, and a bad on-line seating chart left me in a middle seat, but at least it was an exit row.
Lisa met me at the airport and we stopped at Total Beverage to stock up the house on Bourbon and Boxed Wine, and to stock my suitcase with 3 bottles of bourbon (to replace the couple of bottles of Captain Rat Cinnamon Brandy that I brought.
And then there was the weather that greeted me:
Poor Winston who had to go out and do his “business”:
Yep, little booties and a sweater as its below freezing.
Dan was off this Wednesday (with Lisa working, so that was a change from the usual) so we ran a couple of more errands and engaged in unhealthy lunching. Yep, that would be Five Guys Burgers:
I do like their product – and even ate the bun.
The afternoon was filled with installing a recirculating pump on the hot water heater so that the hot water is almost instantaneous…got all done but the upstairs bit before we had to leave for BrightHeart’s Buddhist monk ordination. Fairly amazing that I just happened to have booked this trip before I got the invitation. It was a bit like an episode of Portlandia with nothing set-up when we all arrived at the church. We could blame the snow – took me pushing Dan’s Miata up the driveway to get us there. The ceremony was long and drawn out, with lots of audience recitations – clocked in at an hour.
We didn’t stay for the reception – the fear of more snow. Both starving we stopped at Old Chicago Pizza and split a cup of soup and a couple of crispy chicken salads, with me having a couple of Manhattans to wash it down. Nothing for Dan as he was driving.
Got back to the house and finished the plumbing project while working on some nice rye – and before you knew it, bedtime.
Noon flight back – Lisa was going to drive me since she was off, but Dan woke up sick and called in and ended up driving me because Lisa was apparently in worse shape.
Took a bit of time to check-in, luckily it turned out to be a delay with a good reason – a First Class upgrade to seat 1F. Window, but I’m not complaining. And my plane is here! It’s way at the end.
And it’s still snowy out:
Alaska has an agreement with American to use their Admiral’s Club in Denver. I’ve been there a bunch of time. Nice, airy, free booze and snacks…I ordered a Whiskey and Diet – and this is what I got:
Only one of those and a couple of cookies and it was time to head to the gate.
Now all we need is the flight crew which is stuck behind an accident on the way to the airport – luckily we did get out on time considering the number of folks onboard who had connections heading to Alaska (from cold to colder).
Not a bad lunch in First:
A nice Chicken Caesar.
I was home in plenty of time to make myself a nice quite evening meal and relax away from the cold and snow (well, away from the snow).
Again, no, not that kind of quickie! Just a two-night stay because I got a round-trip ticket for $40 plus the $100 eVoucher I got from Alaska for the detail on the Maui flight last month.
But first I have to “work” Monday – if it’s Monday, it means our distributors are showcasing parts of their portfolios – but this week’s wine tastings actually started on Sunday before work with the Locus Wines rose release party. A couple (now friends) is a nice combination, one is a winemaker, the other a professional chef, so in addition to good wine, you get good nibbles, like these:
Monday’s tasting (also rose) was larger, but the food really good, but not Ton (the Turkish chef) good:
Food in the center, wine in a horseshoe around it. Some weeks there are three tastings scattered around the city, some weeks, none, but that’s my usual Monday.
Tuesday morning is off to Denver on a mid-day flight. Actually saw a couple of examples of Alaska’s new livery:
The new livery would be the 3rd of the 4 planes in a row. The 1st is their Hawaii-themed – not sure if they are going to remake part of the fleet with the flowers or not – here is a closer show of the new livery:
Uneventful flight to Denver – in the back, WAY BACK – exit row aisle in a completely packed plane where I was 13th on the upgrade list. Luckily, with MVP Gold, it still comes with a free cocktail even in the back.
While I’m in the air flying to Denver, Dan is in the air flying from Las Vegas after a two-day business meeting. Upside is it means I have a ride waiting – though actually, I’ll be the one waiting. His flight gets in a couple of hours after mine. But I’m good at waiting – as long as I have lounge privileges…
But nothing is every simple – Alaska uses “C” concourse, as does Southwest who Dan is flying, and the Admirals Club which offers reciprocal privileges, is in “A” concourse. Luckily all gates are behind security.
I’d never been out to “C” concourse, and I think it’s main lobby area is amazing:
Very Mayan – at the bottom of the photo is the train system that takes you to the main terminal and baggage claim.
A couple of hours of drinking, eating brie bisque and reading newspapers – it was off to meet Dan at the gate:
That is the smile of someone who hasn’t been met at the gate in way too long!
I brought Dan back to the Admirals Club for a drink and a bowl of bisque while we waited for the worst of rush hour to die down. Then it was off to lovely Louisville – wedged between Boulder and Denver.
One of the “chores” of this trip is to figure out if this “computer on a stick” will actually perform as advertised:
The connector on the end is a HDMI connector, so that gives you an idea of the size of the unit. It shipped with Windows 8.1 but we got it upgraded to Windows 10 – but didn’t ever get sound to come out of it, so I’ll try my TV at home – could be an issue with Dan’s tele.
A very relaxed visit – with Dan taking off Wednesday to just hang out – including hanging out with BrightHeart!
He brought a Chai Rum from a local distillery – good, but not $40 good in my opinion!
Wednesday evenings meal was courtesy of a $$$ off coupon for a Mongolian BBQ place in a suburb over:
The food was good, but man, the place was PACKED with kids. That was a bit of a downside, but $10 off $30 made it worth it.
The next day it was back to the airport, back to the Admirals Club, more brie bisque (you’d think they’d change their soups daily like Alaska’s Boardroom), and other seat in the back – this time number 14 on the upgrade list – my window seat view:
Uber’d home from the airport. Still cheaper than a cab – even with the $5 airport fee. I can imagine that all the cab drivers are pissed if you saw the number of Uber and Lyft pickup area.
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