UMTravels

Dear United Airlines… Thank you for buying Continental Airlines, and here’s what I’d like to do with it. I hear you are going to add Economy Plus to all their planes, that’s a GREAT idea, but I think you should adopt something of theirs as well, like a staff that actually seems to care, a […]

8:30 comes early… when bed was 3am. Catching the 10am express to Belfast to see a guy that I met a year and a half ago on my birthday trip to Dublin and Plymouth. The plan was to meet at the train station in Belfast after the 2 hour ride… that was the plan…. Waited […]

Breakfast out this morning… at Noshington just up the Circular… Now I can say that I’ve had a proper Irish breakfast with poached eggs on dark bread, the requisite broiled tomato and some home fries. It was a big enough breakfast that it held me until dinner with the neighbors two doors down. The original […]

It was a very slow day around the house after last night’s festivities… Jeff was late to work, Mindi still in her jammies at 4 in the afternoon, me taking an afternoon nap on the couch after doing the shopping for tonight’s dinner at Ennis Meats about a fifteen minute walk from Lullymore Lane. With […]

Yep. This is where I woke up this morning… no, not in the front yard, but upstairs in the back bedroom. Mindi advised me on waking that the kitchen was a bit bare, with toast and an apple the best bets. I returned to the living room with a quesadilla, there by cleaning out the […]

Arrive Dublin 6:45… on the curb with Mindy the Amazing at 7:30… and she ISN’T a morning person. I love visiting Jeff and Mindi… I get to take over their kitchen for such things as eggs and toast for breakfast followed by a shit, shower, shave, and a four hour nap. But here is my […]

Why, why, why… why do I book these early flights…. And I have one next week as well. Out of bed at 4am, while Solus slept. Cab booked for 4:30am. Checked in for the Seattle-Newark-Dublin flight and hit the Board Rom for three bagels and a really weak cocktail. The flight to Newark I moved […]

Another day of dealing with chicken stock (and the leftover meat with broth for a soup dish), dealing with trying to get an event registration process working, dealing with those last minute packing things, and trying to arrange to cook dinner for someone who I don’t know their arrival time. But in the mist of […]

Clean up the place, run to the Eastside to drop off a check (thanks Swanda), and come home to… chicken stock, lots of chicken stock. Between deboning in the morning, in the fridge for 8 hours to get the fat to the top for skimming, and taking a break from programming a website to skim […]

Taxes in the mail to the CPA. Two days ahead of schedule… my plan was to get them in the mail before leaving for Ireland on Tuesday. A call and a flour delivery from Jeff – which is good because I was down to about three pounds. Tonight is bread done all the way in […]

Just lots of miscellaneous things today here in the hood. A little work, a little shopping, a little package pickup. And just in case you need a picture of the hood, I found this online courtesy of the South Park Business Association: It’s a really nice wide-angle view of the industrial and residential nature of […]

Needless to say, I slept in this morning as I didn’t get a floor nap in like Julian did last night… Out of the house at noon to go pick up train ticket (and get a better seat by showing up way early), then walked next door to Wilf’s for half of one of their […]

A wonderful steak and egg scramble with Solus this morning… and we were only half an hour late getting out of the house (9:30 vs. 9:00) – still made it to Julian’s house in Portland by noon… and found him playing hooky from Portland State University for the day. Off to my new favorite restaurant […]

A little further along in taxes… have highlighted all the business/home deductions on the statements, next step, getting them into the spreadsheet. Now I just need to find the Smith Barney end-of-year 1099 form since it wasn’t in the 4 inch high stack of crap from them over the last year. Solus (The Priest in […]

Finally figured out how to hang my small, but growing, collection of license plates. After I took the picture I realized I should put two rings between them so there is a little more space between. Had to run to the Eastside because my bank, in it’s infinate wisdom, sent me a new debit/cash card […]

Starting the tax season… by sorting through the stack of papers…. Before                 After      Now I just need to put them in date order and get out the highlighter to go through all the credit card and bank statements looking for business expenses, and gathering all the household costs to split for the home office […]

Think a self-tour of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican…. http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html Here is the ceiling: And it a great tool for getting a walking tour of the chapel without the tourists…. Thanks Dan for the link. Woke up hung over in Olympia with a few less dollars in the bank, piggy. Burger (no fries) on […]

Today is all about making a poker game that I haven’t been to in a couple of months…. My job is to get out of the house about 1pm before the traffic gets bad. And hit Safeway in Lacey on the way. And gas. I’m cooking dinner tonight for Curt and I, and we are […]

Something about travelling means you spend the day after your return doing laundry… load after load. Clean sheets, clean shirts, socks, the works. And making bread for a dinner with Swanda tonight: Yes, the rolls sort of look like dog turd. The fact that they are rye doesn’t help the look any. But tasty. Before […]

What a day… the red-eye got into Bellingham at a little before 7am. Ug. Cab to Johnnie’s place… and instantly I’m in bed… did I even take my clothes off? Shoes I remember. I do remember microwaving the stale Sausage Breakfast Burrito from my trip TO Bellingham last week when I was too sick to […]