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Uncle Markie out and about.

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Fri
31
Jul '09

Partly Cloudy. Yahoo!

I actually had to turn the air conditioner off in the middle of the night. I was too cold. Yahoo! Headed to the woods later this morning, but thought I’d share this little bit of news of my friend Steve who is serving time for DUI in Montana — yes, someone (his best friend) was […]

Thu
30
Jul '09

Ten Degrees Cooler… 96.

I think this picture says it all about how I’m feeling about this weather. It’s also a good shot of my new facial hair… facial hair that lots of the men in my life think looks hot (in the good way, not the overheated way). SOB update: returned yet another drop down screen for over […]

Wed
29
Jul '09

Cabin Fever.

House Over 100 Degrees.

I’m starting to get cabin fever. Or would that be SOB fever. Day two of being sequestered in the RV with the AC cranked up to high just to keep up with the weather outside. Luckily the captains chair makes a very comfortable place to read the newspaper, and the banquette isn’t too uncomfortable to […]

Tue
28
Jul '09

To Bed At 3AM.

Up At 8AM.

93 Degrees At 8PM.

We got in about 2am and I was asleep by 3am. Not much of a night of sleep. And the heat wave is supposed to be picking up even more today. Still getting used to the Marketing Meeting now on Tuesdays, but I at least got my list revised in time for today’s meeting. Off […]

Mon
27
Jul '09

Back In The Air Again.

Hopefully.

With the flight at 1pm, I have plenty of time to get to the airport this morning – but a 7am computer tech help call got me out of bed a little earlier than planned. So with that, it was what the hell, I’ll just go out to the airport in a leisurely trip on […]

Sun
26
Jul '09

McGuyver Hawaii Moment.

The hotel I’m staying in has those old style nightstands with the radio built in… and I wanted to listen to NPR for the news. Static, static, static. I pulled it away from the wall to find that it didn’t have an antenna installed. No, I don’t travel with spare antennas – cords of every […]

Sat
25
Jul '09

Another Day In Paradise.

Just an aside, here are great links to a couple of WienerMobile incidents over the last week: Weiner Mobile In Trouble In Honolulu and Weiner Mobile Slams Into House And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post. The list for today: Pool Time Work Time Ukulele Search Time And the result was….. Pool time […]

Fri
24
Jul '09

Hawaii, Here I Am.

What a day. Add three hours to your typical day to account for the time change. 6:45am Jill is in front of the house for the run to the airport. I have had coffee. That’s the best I can say other than I’m showered. Breakfast and drinks in the Board Room before schlepping out to […]

Thu
23
Jul '09

Hawaii, Here I Come!

Well, tomorrow there I go. Waikiki for three nights oceanfront. Doesn’t look like there will be any First Class upgrade for Jill or I. Oh well. Can’t win them all. Don’t worry, I’ll post some pictures. Today was filled with work, errands, SOB testing — yes, it looks like the fix worked! I took him […]

Wed
22
Jul '09

SOB (Son of Bob) With The Doctor.

The doctor showed up this morning to cure SOB’s persistent drip and overheating. It turns out that is was all related to a stuck thermostat: The overheating The lack of hot air coming out of the dash The dumping of it’s overflow reservoir Cost of the fix: less than $50 which I didn’t mind considering […]

Tue
21
Jul '09

Random Quotes.

And More Dinner Guests.

First the random quotes. From this month’s Wired Magazine: Caloplaca obamae n.A lichen found in California’s Channel Islands, it’s the first species named for Barack Obama. Bush an dCheney have been commemorated taxonomically — the the scientific names for slime-mold beetles. And from Adam’s (one of the dinner guests) cellphone: Hey baby, wanna come over […]

Mon
20
Jul '09

Not The Day I Had Scheduled.

OK. 4am is WAY too late to go to bed. I popped awake at my usual 8am — and cursed. I do need more than 4 hours of sleep. I got a restless two more hours. And no nap, either. Thank goodness my dinner date and I had a “malfunction”. Last night is was PezPunko […]

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 […]

Sat
18
Jul '09

Dinner Party Season.

Yeah, Like That’s Anything New.

An update to yesterdays post…. which I wrote in the afternoon before things changed, as they are want to do. Dinner turned out to be steaks, salad and roasted potatoes with Jill who needed a little cheering up (and a lot of scotch) having been laid off from her job yesterday morning. Having someone else […]

Fri
17
Jul '09

Elite Status Update.

This morning I booked my return flight from San Francisco to Seattle on September 20th on United. Those last 678 miles are the ones I needed to push me over the 25,000 Elite Qualifying Mile barrier to maintain my Premier status for 2010. In the progress I set a new personal best for least dollars […]

Thu
16
Jul '09

Too Hot.

The Weather That Is.

Early morning… traffic was a mess, I was running late, went down 4th to 90 to avoid a backup… made it to the office for the marketing meeting in under 30 minutes… better than my return trip because of the I-90 lane closures. Gee — that three month contract for part-time is now running to […]

Wed
15
Jul '09

Dinner For Two, Then Three, Then Four.

Take two steaks out of the freezer. Wait an hour. Take out another. Wait until just before dinner to take the fourth steak out of the freezer and nuke defrost it. Swanda was the original guest. Then it was BBHa for cocktails, but then stayed for dinner. Then it was Jonathan who was on the […]

Tue
14
Jul '09

Neck Is Killing Me.

My neck. Ouch. Symptom = Pain. Reason = too much time at the keyboard. To get away from the keyboard I ran errands. Costco for pills and to check out cheap gas BBQ’s for the Cushman place Arvey’s for printer paper — ended up with other stuff off the bargain rack Office Max for more […]

Mon
13
Jul '09

Stunning Customer Service.

Happy Monday All. One of the pieces of email in my inbox today was a request to complete an online survey from my insurance company, Farmer’s Insurance. I still haven’t taken the survey, but it did remind me to finally call the claim center to get the windshield on the mommy van replaced. Here is […]

Mon
13
Jul '09

And The Diagnosis Is….

Ross survived the night! After another lovely breakfast (thanks Rich!) we have accelerated our schedule for leaving the lake. Basically, as soon as we can get it together. That turns out to be a litle before noon after we clean the refrigerator (no thanks to Michael Neil), get all the recycling in the cars, pull […]