UMTravels

Office in the morning so we could see some of the sales offices which were in use last night when we stopped by. It’s actually a really nice house in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. Two story, basically a five-bedroom renovated 1940’s house turned into a sales office and club house for the members. All […]

Well, lots of billable hours for Events and Adventures — but this trip has been the oddest in terms of hotel rooms. Case in point. Here is the sign on the back of the door of our Dallas hotel room:   Is this something they have a regular problem with? This was an 8 1/2 […]

It’s going to be a long day… 11:55am flight, which for me means in the Board Room before 10am for that “eye opener” and a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese before settling into Seat 1C for the ride to Dallas. Lunch on board wasn’t bad — a little pasta salad and a warm turkey […]

Damn that inbox. My way of dealing with the “to-do” list is to leave it in the InBox until I deal with it, then file it away. And that’s where I found a couple of emails from the Department of Revenue (Washington). Print out the invoices, total the figures, file and pay online. Done. That […]

Lots of work today, and yesterday, and the day before. So that means lots of billable hours. It’s going to be a hell of a bill with the upcoming trip to Dallas on Thursday. I don’t charge (on this account) for time and travel charges (other than the airfare, parking, hotels, etc), but if you […]

I’m really liking the new (to me) commercial convection over. Loaves of bread in 15 minutes, pork loins in the same amount of time, and tomorrow I think I’ll try roasted potatoes (baked potatoes took 40 minutes tonight). After a full (for me) day of work, it was a couple of hours of cooking, since […]

I’m really loving the convection oven that I finally got rewired a couple of weeks ago — now I just have to figure out cooking times on all my favorite recipes, but it seems to knock off about 25% of the cooking time. Here is the oven that I’m talking about: On the top there […]

Lots of half naked men prancing around on stage — that’s the only description I can say about the Seattle Opera performance of “The Pearl Fishers”. Here is their description of the action: Sail away to the island of Sri Lanka for a sweet and sonorous romance from the great Georges Bizet (Carmen). A beautiful […]

Work and play during the day, entertaining in the evening. Just another typical day in UncleMarkieLand. Yet another trip to the apartment to track down the large E&A prints coming in from BlueToad Designson Lopez — still not here, but a late Christmas present from Swanda was there — the Barack Obama plate and collection […]

It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve had folks over for dinner…. so, a few emails later: Jill and Megan for dinner tomorrow, check out her crime blog to the left Thin Blue something or other Jeff for dinner and the opera on Saturday Scotty and Patrick for dinner Sunday Fluffernutter and the Lapsed […]

Behind, behind, behind, in my work, work, work. So that’s how I spent today, working, working, working. Steak, salad, and wine for dinner. Nothing more to report. No pretty photos. No Nothing. [218.8]

Well, the Inauguration was amazing — amazing enough to get me out of bed earlier than normal. I agree with the sentiments of many of those interviewed, black, white, Asian — I did not expect to see this in my lifetime. Yes, it does make me proud (finally, after the last eight miserable years) to […]

Well, I was amused by what we were consuming on this trip… (32) cans of Diet Coke (1) bottle of Sparkling Wine (4) bottles of red wine (3.655) liters of hard liquor (4.12) pounds of lamb (2.5) pounds of beef (1) pound of scallops (2.5) pounds of pork (1.5) pounds of chicken numerous other groceries. […]

Well, here is the tour of the condo in Victoria — all the two bedroom penthouses are slightly different, but this gives you an idea of the layout. Were it mine, I’d remove at least a third of the furniture… No big plans today — just running the boys to Murchies Teas in downtown — […]

So, you’ve been wondering how to support the economy — GO SHOPPING. Want to support me while supporting the economy? GO SHOPPING through the links on my site — running down the right hand side of the page, or on the shopping page. We (the royal “we” which really means “me”) have just added to […]

Yes, I know, I just got home and out the door I go again… destination? Victoria, British Columbia for a long weekend (4 nights), back Tuesday. Bye.          Nice place. It’s my favorite of all the WorldMark properties — full details here: http://www.worldmarktheclub.com/resorts/vc/ The plan is that Rich arrives at a little after 10 […]

Back in the saddle again, with the weekly marketing meeting at Events & Adventures in the morning on digging through stacks of email in the afternoon. The final report on Mexico is now available with the pictures loaded up. You can find them all here: http://share.ovi.com/channel/markso.Mexico2009 For some reason none of the ticker/slideshow widgets are […]

The post title says it all — that’s my plan for today. Left Yelapa on the 10:30 boat to Puerto Vallarta — a 45 minute trip. Next up was eggs benedict at Momma Rosa’s Kitchen, followed by checking email and blogging at the smoothie stand with at least a dozen computers, and a decent connection […]

I wish that was how I could describe my time in Yelapa, but that would not be correct. Two pumps and a quiver is how BamBam describes the stallion’s portion of horse sex. I’m not sure why I like that phrase so much, but I wanted to remember it here today. Today’s shot is a […]

Today’s after breakfast (again stunning) adventure is to the Cybercafe Eclipse, where for 40 pesos an hour you get Zen-like internet access. While the video and the photo upload, I write yesterday and today’s blog entry. Why I decided to upload a video on this connect is beyond me. Half an hour and counting. Tick, […]