UMTravels

The answer? With 85+ wines to taste in a two-hour period, swirl, sip and spit. Well, spit anything that is under $50 a bottle wholesale. That left swallowing for about 25 of the selections.

How about this bottle at $90 retail:

That would be the 2009 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge. Yummy, but out of my price range. Nothing at the tasting was under $21 a bottle wholesale. Yikes.

A little stop at the ReStore right around the corner from the tasting. Found a 24″ four burner gas range ($115) and a char-broil grill, also 24″ ($175), unfortunately NO place to put them so I passed along the information to MoonSong who will swing by and take a look at them. When we both know a store repair guy it helps. Those are stunning cheap prices for commercial equipment.

Next stop was Pike Place Market to drop Jim off for a quick bus home, then onto the re-routed Highway 99 which was only a crawl for the first ½ mile then it opened up (as opposed to if I’d gotten on at Western Ave.)

The evening was spent like the morning, waiting for the Alaska Airlines servers to catch up with the massive load when they advertised a CyberMonday sale. Luckily it runs for 5 days. Booked Boston at $125 + tax each way, changed the Kansas City trip in March to the week before so I can see the opera Nixon in China. Here is Helene’s take on the opera.

Great plan Markie — “Nixon in China” is a great opera, and they’ve got a stellar cast.

James Maddelena created the role for John Adams, director Peter Sellars, and librettist Alice Goodman.  His voice was a bit ragged as the performance went on at the Met last year, but not horrible, and dramatically, he’s got it down pat.  Maria Kanyova sang Pat Nixon at Canadian Opera Company’s recent production, and a friend from Toronto thought she was great.  Richard Paul Fink is a fantastic Henry Kissinger: he was in the Met production, too.

I know the story, but haven’t seen it live. The fact that I get to see it in the new Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts is the gravy on top of the potatoes not that I’m allowed potatoes anymore if I want to continue to lose weight.

Bagged Oakland at $101.40 (total) round-trip for late January, and looked into New York (well, Newark) at $100 each way plus tax. Maybe Houston to visit a friend, that’s only $75 + tax.

No matter, with everything I’ve booked I’ll be at 15,000 flight miles by the end of April. Really, one more New York, Boston or Hawaii would give me MVP for next year. Don’t think I’ll go for Gold as they’ve changed one of the biggest reasons for Gold — the 4 upgrade anytime (assuming availability) so that it doesn’t count for the cheapest fares, and you all know how cheap I am.

Wonder what tomorrow brings other than work.

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