UMTravels

After a week of work and crazy travel, I’m taking off a couple of days to visit the boys in Berkeley. I was pleasantly surprised the morning of my flight to get an upgrade after checking in last night, but before heading out to the airport – means I’ll eat less in the lounge before […]

More road warriors end up doing mileage runs at the end of the year to get/keep airline status to get free upgrades to the “land of warm salty nuts”. I prefer to load up my account at the beginning of the year, booking TONS of flight when Alaska puts most of their destinations (except sunny […]

Normally my domestic trips I don’t do weekends, as to not annoy my business partner in the wine shop. Made an exception to see Pucci. His schedule is freer on the weekends as he teaches most afternoon/evenings during the week. Got the rare upgrade to first on the Seattle-Boston run – rare because Seattle is […]

Nothing like being home twelve hours between trips – and have a dinner party. Got back from the coast at 3:30pm, got up for my flight at 3:30am the next morning. And it was a wild dinner party – thanks to a new device in my kitchen. That would be a shot chiller that dispenses […]

Through an odd set of circumstances, I acquired a free RCI week. Problem was that it a full week (which would mean missing a weekend of work), or more troublesome, only bookable less than 30 days out. If you think about it in inventory terms, it’s the sloppy leftovers that no one else wants. And […]

Yep, it’s already a third of the way through January, and I’m finally documenting my Christmas/New Year fun. After visiting friends in Forks the first two days of Mark and Onyx’s visit, I returned home to a full holiday feeding schedule. Look at the Beef Wellington that Onyx (and Mark) made for a group dinner […]

  Malvirà Wine Lunch at Cascina Spinasse Tuesday, January 16th Noon to 2pm 3-courses with wine $55 per person (+ tax & gratuity)   Malvirà was established in the 1950s by Giuseppe Damonte, in Roero in the Piedmont region. Today, Malvirà’s wines are made from their Estate fruit, organically farmed on 104 acres across 6 […]