Polaroid Photo

Uncle Markie out and about.

Refresh for a different picture!

UMTravels

Choose a Topic:

Search Results:

Sat
26
Jun '10

Happy Birthday Fluffernutter.

Happy 46th birthday to Fluffernutter… he still only looks 30, the bastard.

It was a nice little party – met a bunch of faeries who knew me by reputation (hopefully bad) but that I’d never met. A couple of hotties that might be worth perusing – might be nice to have something that didn’t require a round-trip airfare and car rental. Got their at five, and the last of us were thrown out at eleven so Fluffernutter and TinTin could reconnect after Fluffer’s 5 day work trip to Canadaland. I was surprise to not see Swanda at the gig – but his neighborhood was pretty well shut down along with the viaduct for some “fun run”. Fun for the runners, not so fun for anyone driving anywhere near downtown. Add the Georgetown Art Fair, and a multiple street/block party on Capitol Hill for Gay Pride weekend and you have a traffic mess. Needless to say, I took the back way to Fluffer’s place.

That was most of my day… spent the time before the party working on the new Studio 403 website – I’ll send the link when it’s done, hopefully tomorrow. And speaking of client related stuff, should I ever go back to work for the client I fired, we’ve agreed that it was be a win-win situation to just put me on the payroll at part-time (meaning no extra benefits) at a 15% reduction since he’ll have to pay payroll taxes for me. I have to pay the tax no matter what, and it would get me the two-week billing cycle I require. Time will tell. Miss the money, not the work so much.

Other than that – bubkes.

[221.1]

Sat
13
Nov '10

Full Day Two.

Herding Cats.

Forced march today begins with butts on bus at 7 after bags out at 6 with breakfast sometime in between. The reason… a seriously FULL day.

First stop, the floating market 90 minutes out of town — a least there is a little nap time on the bus. Long boat rides from the bus stop to the market — passing through narrow canals dug in the 1900’s. I need to look up the James Bond movie that was filmed in Thailand using lots of long boats. The market itself a mass of humanity, mostly tourists it seemed to me. A couple of hours at the market (both sides of the river), and there was a huge traffic jam in one of the canals that thankfully we weren’t involved in.

Next stop was the largest temple in Thailand — where they run prayers up to the top on a pully system, and there are enough vendors of food and consumer goods that it warranted more than a 30 minute stop. I’ll add it to the list of things to come back and spend more time at on another trip.

One of my favorite food stalls was the stall selling fried bugs.

Yin, our groups purchaser and eater off all things odd, bought two bags of bugs — silkworm and mealworm — I think I liked the silkworm better, of course, you could fry shoe leather and I’d probably like it. I think our other guide Eric tried one of the grasshoppers — which I would imagine would be like eating the deep fried shrimp head left over from making sushi that Dan taught me to love.

Another reason for more time at the temple (Fluffernutter has some great shots from the tunnels under it) would be to have a lunch stop… as the bathroom/Kwikie Mart stop an hour later really wasn’t enough of what I would call “real” food. Flip side — if you are advising people to be careful about street food, and then have them eat street/vendor/stall food for lunch… yeah, it’s an issue but damn that chicken satay looked good, and the duck, and the….

A restful 90 minutes back to the city to the SkyTrain terminal — destination, the Weekend Market — which Fluffernutter and I went to 15 years ago. Getting 40 people to move in the same direction at the same time is pretty much like herding cats. Now add public transit. I like that it is part of the itinerary as it gets us out of busses and into the way the city really works (or now that it does since the Skytrain started in 1997 — wasn’t hear when Fluffer and I were here 15 years ago… they were just starting to build it).

So, Weekend Market. Huge. It really requires a map to get around it, and not get lost. I didn’t have one. I was looking for license plates… which would probably be in the “antique” section — since they didn’t have a “junk” section, but on the map (borrowed) it was half way across the warren of small alleys and shops… all I found was clothing and shoes and the stink of masses of humanity and open sewers. Guess that means I’m willing to pay a little more before the trip is over.
 
Next transport — the subway (2002 vintage). Man this city is easier to get around from the last time I was here. Still huge… just less need for motorcycle taxis. Off to the train station for our 7:35pm train to Chang Mai — when our itinerary was printed it was a 6:00pm train that got in at 7:30, now it gets in a 9am.

NOT. Small fire for smores, or other problems with the other 2nd Class Sleeper Car with air-conditioning. Delay — two hours. No problem, we all have dinner boxes, and lots of booze (and for me, two bags of ice and cups) to pass the time. Some of our group have been to the KFC and are passing around buckets of chicken — for once I am jealous, KFC is a weakness that goes denied 99% of the time… I just had a couple of nuggets while eyeing Fluffernutter’s drumstick (that sounds DIRTY).

At 10pm (by Thai Time Standards) they came around to convert our seats into sleepers — for those Amtrak roomette folks — same thing, no wall. So much for the single supplement. At least it was Fluffernutter.

By this point — we had had a two hour delay, drunk lots of booze that we all brought on (Vodka, Tequila, Scotch, Rum, mixed drinks, the lot). This group is fun when it loosens up a bit!

I pity the monk (complete with saffron robes) and the other folks who were in our car… I think we could have filled a complete car (not for next trip — reserve car) since some of our folks were in the next car. Having said that… Thai Rail, well, we will leave it at that. We were a noisy bunch who really needed a full nights sleep.

[96 kilos!]

Fri
21
Aug '09

Feeling Out Of Sorts.

Not sure what is going on but I’m just feeling a little “out of sorts” — and not in the typographical sense  (see Out of Sorts definition with regard to typography). Or maybe it is. It has the side affect of zapping my will to bill.

SOB is now a clean SOB with MoonSong putting in a couple of hours of interior and exterior cleaning to get the remnants of two camping trips off/out of it. Now if Stuart would get his ass over here and check out the alternator — he call and postponed to Monday.

p1080347

Now on the upside, I got the bill for my monthly Medical Insurance Plan… shocking. I must be one of only a few people whose premiums went DOWN this year. Mind you I’m on a fairly high deductible plan… but it went from $293.53 to $270.86 — an 8% drop.

Dinner and a little work at Swanda’s place with Helene (yet another Events and Adventures contractor) and Fluffernutter. It was like a meeting of the Swanda Full Employment Plan (SFEP). I prepared (from his chef, not me) what I thought was a HUGE quantity of food for four people:

  • Rack and a half of ribs
  • Two half chickens
  • Salad
  • Fresh Bread (yes, I did bake that)
  • Three bottles of wine

And damned if we didn’t go through it all.

Left with a check from Swanda to cover the wine I’m having shipped in for him, and for my two airline carts that he bought for Fluffernutter as an early Christmas gift. Guess this means it’s time for me to finish rebuilding the phone booth that Fluffernutter also covets.

[218.4]

Sun
2
May '10

Brother, Day Three

Seems that my brother and I have settled into shopping as the “bonding” activitity.

  • The Swinery for paté and smoked kielbasa. Tip – avoid going on the weekend, the place is packed
  • Outdoor Research (no sale)
  • Filson for a hat for my brother
  • Some other outdoor store where I got a couple of pairs of pants

After the shopping it was off to Jimmy’s where he and Suze were bottling this year’s batch of framboise. They were happy for the interruption of paté and supplied us with gerkins, mustard, crackers and wine to go with it – not a bad deal. Plus, I got rid of the bag of down pillows – yes, finally figured out it was Suze who wanted them (in addition to Pat if I couldn’t remember).

Then back to the house so Jon could work on his presentation he’s giving at UW tomorrow afternoon. That left me with time to install the light cover (after expanding the hole) for the front porch light, and start the search for the rest of the pieces to make the Charlie’s Angel Speakerphone work. In the process cleaned out eight bins and boxes of stuff in the garage.

  • Found a new laptop case for my brother (out of the half a dozen spares I had)
  • Found two of the three pieces I need to turn the Speakerphone into a Skype device,5-line office connectors to single line input, the transformer I ordered on eBay. Amazingly enough I found all the documentation on the unit on some telco site.
  • Found the original hinges for the phone booth for Fluffernutter, and maybe the key to the phone (a ziplock bag full of unknown keys).

Slowly but surely the garage is getting cleaned and organized – with the duplicates of stuff being taken to Goodwill or given to friends or sold if I think it has any real value.

Dinner tonight was a baked pork loin, salad, bread, wine, song.

Kidding about the song – did have a hot tub after dinner.

[223.7]

Thu
18
Nov '10

Day 7 — Beach Tourist Town Anywhere.

What a luxury to wake up at ones own pace… today that was 8ish for me, not unlike at home. And a wonderful sleep it was, one where you are worry free about missing a flight, a breakfast, whatever.

Today’s funny story… I’m at the salad bar (which also holds the cheese and cold cuts) and this German tourist says to me… “The Americans, they have not learned to speak quietly”… and we all know who he was talking about. My response, “Yes, I know, she’s in my group… imagine that all day.” That made him chuckle — probably in pity. Amazing to be able to annoy German tourists, who have the world’s worst travel reputation as being loud and pushy.

And speaking of tourists — Americans are in the minority. Aussies and Germans make up the largest contingent.

Spent part of the day walking the main drag with Fluffernutter looking for suitcases for us. After a lunch at Burger King (yes, I was with Fluffernutter) I had to have my picture taken in front of the McDonalds across the street.

Even Ronald is culturally sensitive.

The afternoon was spent hanging out in the air-conditioning. The morning rains had turned to sweltering afternoon humidity. Time to catch up on the blog, upload photos to the netbook, and start the packing process now that I have a new suitcase.

A couple of cocktails with the girls while they were getting ready to go out for the evening — and I got last nights orders totally wrong. Fluffer had the lasagna, Natasha the calamari and pizza and salad for the other.

Tonight’s dinner was at the restaurant downstairs. Avoid the oysters — they were the size of softballs and bland. The filet mignon was actually medium rare (order rare in this country) and looked much better than Fluffers T-bone so I gave him half of mine.

A little more packing, but it will really won’t happen until the morning. Guess I’d better start figuing out what I spent on trinkets for the customs declaration.

Travel day tomorrow.

[? ? ?]

Sun
19
Jul '09

Dinner Party Season Continues.

Tonight the dinner party moves over to Swanda’s place after a relaxing day around the house avoiding paying work and catching up on magazines that have been stacking up.

Firecracker salmon, some orzo salad, cucumbers in vinegar, corn salad… too bad I forgot to bring the wine.

Hell, I was even home by 7:30!

And then, all hell breaks loose at 9.

Fluffernutter had called during dinner which rolled over to voice mail. When Swanda retrieved the message it was not good. A member had gotten lost in the woods on a hike with a dozen or so other members.

Fluffernutter was on the way out to the trail head, family had been tracked down and notified. I was assigned two channels to watch to see if there was any coverage (negative), and by 11:30 Swanda and I were headed out to the trail head with more pop, water, sandwiches, chairs, a canopy — apparently a dozen of his family showed up to help.

I got home at 3:15am and got the text that they had found him a 4am. At least now I can sleep with some ease.

[218.3]

Thu
27
Jan '11

Cocktails At The Camlin.

Oysters At The Brooklyn.

Nightcaps And Sleepover At The Camlin.

Spent the day puttering around the house trying to get ready for this evening (and finishing the “Memory Book” for the cocktail party) and planning for the next couple of upcoming trips – Hawaii and the Trans-Canada ViaRail trip.

Started running pre-party errand a little before 3pm – and the first one was a bust – Trident Seafood, former Port Chatham Seafood which I had a nice coupon for, had a sign on the door – back at 3:30… really, so much for you making THAT sale.

Next up, AAA for Hawaii maps, then Grocery Outlet for the poo-poo platter for the penthouse at the Camlin, the cleaners for shirts, the apartment for mice (computer, not live or frozen) – and a thankful ride from Swanda to the Camlin to I didn’t have to drive to the Camlin, dump my stuff, go back to the apartment, bus back to the Camlin… all to avoid $29 for valet parking. THANKS SWANDA FOR GIVING UP YOUR PRINCESS PARKING FOR ME!

My luck this month in WorldMark properties is still with me – the Cirrus Penthouse (part of the former Cloud Room) is I think the nicer of the two penthouses (or is it three)… nice walk around balcony, better room layout than the Nimbus next door, or was it the Cumulus… can’t remember – so I had to check, I was in the Nimbus on February 1st of 2010 for yet another cocktail party.

Natasha showed up a little after 6, and was properly “wowed” by the suite. After an hour of cocktails and chat it was off to The Brooklyn for oysters and vodka… and whatever else we found…

But before I get to dinner, Natasha was in the loo when the waiter came by for drink orders… and I ordered the Vodka Oyster sampler ($13) for each of us, but before it got to the table, the waiter swung by to say that someone had bought us the first round of drinks! Nice! Only a couple of people knew that’s where I was for dinner, could have been someone on the staff knowing I’m a big spender when I’m there.

Back to dinner… after the Vodka Oyster sampler (four different mini-shots of vodka, paired with four different oysters), we order a couple of half dozens of oysters, before starting in on an ensalada caprese, tuna tartare, and a rabbit confit, which we shared, all of which are on the “small plates” section of the menu. Having polished those off, we added the Seafood Volcano before calling it quits. Yum, been a long time since I’d been to The Brooklyn, too long.

After waiting for security to let Natasha’s car out of the garage (missed closing by 30 minutes) she dropped me back at the Camlin where Fluffernutter and Josh were waiting for me. And the answer to the question of who bought the cocktails… Fluffernutter. Seems he a Josh were dining further back in the restaurant, totally on chance – they were driving by and were hungry, and The Brooklyn has valet parking. Mystery solved!

Since the penthouse includes robes – my first task (after fixing a drink) was to get comfortable… though apparently rather quickly…

Stayed up too late chatting, but it was good to see the boys.

[227.5]

Mon
7
Mar '11

One Down, Three To Go.

This morning they finally collected on of my “freebie” upgrade coupons… six flights and only one coupon collected. Not bad considering four of those legs were flights to/from Hawaii.

Had to stand around for a bit after returning the car… no checked bags until 4 hours from flight time…. Absolutely NOBODY in the security lines (2), which, of course, meant that they did the new backscatter scanner thing.

  1. Not effective
  2. Slow as crap
  3. Highly intrusive

Spent the next couple of hours in the American Airlines Admirals Club courtesy of my Alaska Board Room membership – but for some reason it doesn’t get you free wi-fi. At least they are now offering free well drinks and have extensive food menu for purchase. I had the Cobb Salad with my whiskey on the rocks times three.

Interesting photo from the gate check-in desk… the signage to the left on the wall was a big American Airlines logo, the signage over the desk was Alaska, but pasted to the front of the counter was this very old notice about exit row seating….

TWA – they haven’t been around for awhile (bought out by American years ago).

And speaking of interesting photos – there was a mother/daughter in 1A and 1C, mother had the traditional Muslim scarf head covering… but the little roll aboard that the daughter was wheeling had the Muslim version of Barbie® on it…

So very, very, odd.

Plane was on-time – by 7pm I was at the apartment and trying to inflate my flat tire. Big hole when you can feel the air coming out. Took presents upstairs for Swanda and Fluffernutter, had a couple of drinks, came back down, dumped a half a can of sealant in and re-inflated. It held.

Stopped for junk food on the way home. Too tired to cook.

[? ? ?]

Wed
28
Jul '10

My New Plane…

So I caught this lovely version of the 737 I’d like to have for my personal transport:

Wow – a 737 with SideWinder Heat Seeking missiles on it – that’s for me! Actually it’s for the Indian (sub-continent) Navy. Personally, I’d go for the winglets which give you a 20% improvement on MPG.

So, the problem with the Miata? A gas cap that there was a manufacturers bulletin for. My old mechanic and now the owner of the Quillayute River Resort wasn’t impressed with that the boys at BMW couldn’t figure that out and had to waste a day sending it to University Mazda. If I had a regular 9-5 job I’d be much more upset, than what I am, which is amused.

Most of today fixing little things around the house like crawling on the roof, again, to align the antenna. Started to get closer to the laundry/bar room shelves… at 33.5 wide I need to figure out how 32″ wide will work so I can get three shelves out of a 4×8 sheet of cabinet grade plywood.

Oh, and I booked another trip – Santa Fe for Christmas. Flying to ABQ on the 20th ($5), staying at the Hampton Suites for a “Southwest Special” rate of 50% off for a one night stay ($70), then catching the Rail Runner to Santa Fe mid-day the next ($?), returning home on Amtrak in a roomette ($535) on the 26th. Time with the family, time with myself.

Dinner tonight was an amusing use of leftovers… the grilled rockfish from a couple of nights ago, flake it, add and egg, ad a handful of the Ritz crackers Fluffernutter brought as an appetizer, mix together, toss in the fridge for a bit to bind, form into patties and lightly fry, use the same pan to wilt some spinach and there you have it. I should have plated it on the yellow dinner plates, would have looked nicer.

Dentist tomorrow. Big fun. Nitrous.

[226.0]

Tue
24
Aug '10

Must Be Having Fun…

Haven’t Succumb To Email.

Yet.

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.

[? ? ?]

Tue
12
Oct '10

New Plates For The Toy.

Shock of all shocks – I went to the DVM (Department of Motor Vehicles – actually the Licensing Bureau) this morning at 11:30, renewed my tabs, ordered a new custom license plate and was out the door ten minutes later. No line. I couldn’t believe it. Parked at the apartment and walked to 5 blocks (newspaper in hand to read while I waited). Shocking.

The new “paper” plate:

And since that makes the front plate invalid, I decided to pull a plate from my collection to use on the front:

Yes, Autoridad Del Canal – the Panama Canal Authority. I think it looks real slick.

Dinner tonight at Swanda’s – combining a package run with making dinner and watching the news. Of course that turned into dinner for three when Fluffernutter called my cell from a couple of blocks away – a roast chicken on a bed of purple potatoes and onions (and the remains on the stove for soap tomorrow). A fine evening.

Then home to pack for tomorrow adventure in dateland.

[228.7]

Wed
13
Oct '10

Seaside And Camera Phone Self-Portraits.

Got out of the house at 11:30 after Jimmy and Suze picked up the chop saw for art projects (Suze, not Jimmy). Destination: Seaside for date number two.

It was a lovely drive down – top down part of the way until it got a little too cold, but no rain.

This shot was outside Longview, Washington on US30 on the Oregon side of the Columbia River.

This shot was actually from last night coming home from dinner with Swanda and Fluffernutter – again, another cell phone self-portrait. No too bad considering the various lighting situations.

Got into the condo at 3:30 – half an hour early, which is something that this resort isn’t well known for. They even offer people $15 in restaurant coupons to get people to check out before 10am.

In between a movie (Hot Tub Time Machine) and romantic activities, managed to get dinner on the table at 8pm – veal chops on grill, baked potatoes, cole slaw and a nice bottle of rose.

Needless to say, it was a late night.

[228.6]

Thu
11
Nov '10

Flight Day.

12 Hours To Seoul.

Hour Layover For Duty Free.

5 More Hours To Bangkok.

1pm flight — set the alarm for 6, what was I thinking. Snooze, snooze until 7:30 and out of the house at 9 when Mick picks me up — GOAL — not sit in crappy preassigned middle seat, but sit in bulkhead aisle.

Goal acheived. Got bulkhead middle… but then someone on the other side of the plane wanted to trade for my seat.

Seattle – Seoul. Exit row aisle, four movies, drank them out of scotch, which sometimes was Jack Daniels, apparently Koreans aren’t particular about their scotch, and just assume it’s all whiskey.

Hour layover — Dalmore Grand Reserve for too much money, but it comes with a free laptop case which will fit the computer I don’t have with me.

Five hours to Bangkok — and my boarding pass wouldn’t scan at the boarding gate…. oh, you’ve been moved to an exit row aisle. It pays to call a week before, beg then to put your Alaska number in, and take them up on the offer to put a note in your record — would like bult head aisle seat.

Fluffernutter and some hottie tour guide waiting for me (and the other 37 people on this tour) outside customs. I’m not sure, but I’m thinking it’s been 15 years since we were last in Bangkok together — and that was one VERY differnt trip.

Herding kittens into busses and then onto the hotel. These are the things I’ve learned from the Holiday Inn Silom….

  • Dial 6 for ice made from filtered water
  • Internet is basically $10 for 24 hours — hence you are getting a blog report for tomorrow as well — better than $3 for 30 minutes.
  • Dalmore Gran Reserva is awesome

It is now 4:10am, an I have a wake up call for 7am for breakfast, palace tour, emerald buddha, tailor made clothes, maybe meeting up with a buddy who lives here… damn. Full day coming, no like today wasn’t a killer.

Should have some nice pics on tomorrows post — while I still have the web.

[99 kilos — do the math, 100 kilos is 220, so I’m loving this scale in the hotel room]

Wed
17
Nov '10

Day Six — Calling All Lobsters.

And Crabs.

Really BIB at 6:40am… They had to have the hotel open the restaurant a day early to make this happen.

And to add insult to injury… guess who was seated across from me on the bus and screeched the entire way to the pier? At least I am not alone in my dislike. In conversations with others, we were talking about the percentage of people on any given tour that we didn’t really want to be around… I threw out the 10% figure, but on further consideration of this group, the consensus seemed to be 5% of any given group are the folks you don’t want to hang out with — the screechers, the Debbier Downers, the smelly and the obnoxious (not necessarily  in that order).

Our planned visit to the Angthong National Marine Park was replace with a snorkelling trip in the morning, followed by lunch on one of the islands and a couple of hours of beach time for more snokeling, or if you are me, laying in the shade reading (which is what I also did on the boat while the rest were bobbing in the water.

Needless to say, after a day in the sun, many of our crew were looking like lobsters, even with 60spf sunscreen on. I got red in some places, but nothing that I think will peel, but will turn to tan over the next couple of days even though I didn’t use any protection otre than monitoring the time I spent in the sun and searching out shade. Others were not so lucky and really are looking like lobsters.

The island we had lunch at looked like a nice place to make a destination…

Lots of wooden walkways around all the major rocks. Kinda cool.

And crabs in the buff….

Got back to the hotel around 6pm in serious need of a drink. First Fluffernutter joined, then Natasha and her roommate (who brought Jameson, Limoncello, mixers and snacks), then by Erik, the guide. Some would ponder partying in the guest room rather than on the beach or by the pool, but we’d been in the sun and heat all day, and air-conditioning is a wonderful thing — and you control (hopefully) the guest list — no screechers allowed.

Dinner was basically across the street with a menu typical of a tourist town, a little something for everyone. squid ink pasta for me, Fluffer had the calamari, and I forgot what the girls had (mysoginistic pig that I am).

A nice evening — even with monsoon rains coming down on the way back to the hotel.

Nice to have an evening where you can go to bed and not have to wake up at any given time — now THAT is a vacation.

And even nicer to get an email  asking you to be a Product Manager for the client that you were previously just doing logo and website design for.

[? ? ?]

Fri
19
Nov '10

Day 8 — Bad Connections.

Just a short post as I still have a few minutes on my internet connection.

Up at 7, breafast at 8:30, BOB (butt on bus) scheduled for 10:30.

Today’s schedule:

  • Koh Samui to Bangkok
  • 10 hour layover
  • Bangkok to Seoul
  • 10 hour layover
  • Seould to Seattle
  • 12 hour flight

Ouch.

Was planning on staying at the airport in Bangkok, but now I need to go into town and get Fluffernutter set up with a free apartment for two nights courtesty of Beat and Habibi. Thanks guys!

Don’t expect much updating for the next day or so unless I get lucky.

[? ? ?]

Sun
19
Dec '10

Packing, Laundry, Packing, Cooking, Packing.

Well, that’s my day in brief.

Bye.

Kidding. I’ve got a couple of pictures for today’s post:

Cleaning out the fridge and making breakfast. Looks better than Ronny Macs.

And look – the outfit matches the shoes!

Dinner tonight with Fluffernutter – stir-fry beef, onions, tomaltios, over a bed a rice with a side salad.

Off to the airport tomorrow.

[233.1]

Tue
6
Jul '10

The Day Of Niggling Details.

Now that everything is back open after the holiday weekend it’s time to deal with all the niggling details that have piled up over the last couple of days:

  • Figure out PayPal address for the place I bought the scissor lift from
  • Find out delivery cost or maybe I should just drive it home at 2.5 miles an hour
  • Call Car Tender and get the Jag in to figure out erratic dashboard warning lights and fix passenger side window which now refuses to go beyond half mast
  • Get with Fluffernutter to hand-off religious items for Canada and figure out when he’s arriving Vancouver later this month so I know if I’m on a one-day or two day trip
  • Figure out who to invite to dinner for the chicken that’s thawing
  • Figure out what night between now and the 16th that Councilman Curt and Peace Corp bound Dave can come to dinner.

And the answers are basically, it should all become clear TOMORROW. Delivery is $100 and they should be able to do tomorrow, car can go into the shop tomorrow, a two-night trip, Jill for chicken, and Dave will let me know… tomorrow.

Continued cleaning out the refrigerator the slow way… eating my way through it. That meant salad and a mix of the black-eyed peas and collard greens for dinner.

[226.2]

Sun
25
Sep '11

One Meeting, Two Parties.

The morning chore was getting the Madrona Wine Merchants business cards redesigned with the new logo — Jimmie is out and he has tastings (which I will miss) on Monday.

On the way to drop off the cards, swung by the apartment for what I thought was a package from my jeweler (M. Lowe & Company of Berkeley), but it was not and then off to scour the thrift stores for:

  • Recipe card files (found two almost matching in black with separator cards)
  • Spit bucket (was looking for stainless steel, found a nice ceramic crock to use)
  • Business card holders (stuck out, but those are cheap)

Jimmie and I swung by the shop to get a photo of the new paint job and the sign in the window. It’s starting to feel real:

Errands done, but still not packed and it’s off to an Equinox Party at Josh’s place — the guy who does my structural/drywall work on whatever house I’m working on at the moment. Unfortunately I was standing next to the keg when it was tapped and got nailed (though not as bad as Josh) with a garden hose of Fremont Brewing Company IPA. Add a stop back at my house to change before the next party and throw the shorts in the wash because it’s 80 degrees in Santa Fe (next trip).

Cocktails with Fluffernutter, his Josh, and some people I knew, and some I didn’t. It was hard leaving after only a couple of hours, but there is that pesky packing to get done for the Santa Fe trip in the morning.

Somehow it was a slow process and I didn’t get done until 1am. And the alarm is set for 3:30am.

Ick.

[219.7] Amazing after being on two cruises to only gain .6 pounds.

Fri
30
Dec '11

An Hour A Week?

Just think how clean the garage would be if I just spent an hour a week (OK, today it was 1.5 hours):

I can actually open my car door the whole way.

Dinner with DancingBear and Swanda tonight. Got a ride home with DB, and Fluffernutter will bring me back in the morning. Too many novice drunks driving around between the holidays. Don’t want to get caught in a sweep.

[210.4]

Thu
12
Jan '12

In The Air Again.

No, Not The Clooney Movie.

Another long day for Pucci. Luckily he moved one student around and came home to take me to the “T” saving me from a five block walk in the rain. In the Boston vernacular, it was pissing (as opposed to spitting, the other one, which is pissing, but coming at you at 30mph).

Made it from Pucci’s to the Delta Crown Room with cocktail in hand in 1:15. I was pretty amazed as that was:

  • Pucci Shuttle to Harvard Square
  • Red Line to Government
  • Green Line to Park
  • Blue Line to Airport Shuttle
  • Shuttle to Airport
  • Security

I celebrated my good fortune by purchasing a cup of Clam Chowder for waiting around the gate, and a Lobster Roll for the flight. No upgrade, yet again I was number 11 on the list.

On the down side, I got a call from Fluffernutter that Swanda had been hospitalized. That is never good.

Decent flight, puts me 25% of the way to MVP for 2013.

Sea-Tac to the apartment took a little longer this trip. Two fools decided to crash into each other… ON the light rail tracks. Finally got home around 11. I probably shouldn’t have stayed up till 3:30am.

[? ? ?]