Butt early call from the front desk. 5am. Ick. Need to be at Maui Dive at 5:45 for equipment fitting, and 6:45am at the boat ramp for our 2-for-1 snorkel trip that I won my first trip to Kihei, Maui, WorldMark.
Continental breakfast — sweet bread, donut holes, etc — followed by fresh fruit — and lots of waves on the way out to Molokini Crater for our dive location — it was a 4.75 hour tour rather than 3 hour (Gilligan) tour because of harbor dredging. Even had a vegetable and dip platter late in the morning plus all the soft drinks, water, etc.
Here is a shot of Jill and I on the boat:
I spent an hour or so floating around with the viewing boogie board — I just can’t do the snorkel — I start gagging, which really isn’t a good thing to do in the middle of the ocean. Saw lots of fish, a few sharks, and a bunch of divers on the sea bottom from another boat. On the way back in we saw bunches of big turtles — even got a shot of one!
Jill spent about half the time (if not more) feeling like crap (and hurled at least once) — turns out she doesn’t do the sea very well. Or because of her stuffed up head, who knows — but she ain’t drinking tonight.
And two makes twelve. Left Jill at the condo and returned the gear, went to the post office for stamps, had lunch, and went to… wait, hold it…. Hilo Hatties — twice since Jill wasn’t with me. Got one, then took a walk around the complex, then got another — the last one I bought a $9.99 beach bag — big enough to hold a beach towel, some sodas, reading material, glasses, etc — and small enough to pack. And it matches my duffel bag — black and white hibiscus pattern. Very Hawaiian.
We checked in for our flights tomorrow. Need to cook dinner, though we’ve laid out too many pupu’s AGAIN so I’m not sure how the steaks and potatoes will work out — maybe we’ll just eat late especially since my clothes are in the dryer and I want to do the steaks on the grill — guessing it’s a no-no to BBQ naked at WorldMark.
Out of the house by 7:30 for Jill’s flight at 8:30 — I’ll return the car and fly out at 9:20am — planning on meeting at my office in Honolulu (hint: see previous post).
I was a little worried when it was a one customer day from opening at 11 to about the 3pm start of the tasting. Yesterday was a good day at the shop, but Saturday is out big day of the week. By the time I left a little after 4:30, my worries were gone, it looked like a strong afternoon. I’ll have to see what the numbers were tomorrow.
Headed home to get ready for dinner with Jill. Ribs and salad from me, fine wine from Jill (from her last France trip):
Jill brought along Murphy the Wonder Dog, but no bones for the mutt:
Really should have started packing for next week’s trip… but I didn’t.
Up at 6:30, on the road by 7:30am — got to Dave’s place about 9:15 or so. Office wasn’t open so I couldn’t pick up my FedEx package from SmithBarney.
Dave’s place. Stunning. Mom would love it. Same architect designed Bill Gate’s house. This one is three bedrooms and very ship like in the use of wood.
And then there is is nice Lotus Elise ($30-60K depending on age) sitting in the garage…
And the view….. (with Jill)
Then we headed on our circle tour of the island — including Volcano National Park and the change to use another my pass again — it’s paid off, and I’m $5 ahead according to Jill.
Add to this several stops at Hilo Hatties for free coffee mugs — and you have a full day of driving. Dinner was salad and pupu’s and laying around the condo. Tomorrow we are off to Maui for three nights.
Lots of email back and forth this morning with Jill… with the subject line “Shit”.
The Victoria Clipper IV was having overheating problems and a full boat of passengers…. 35 minutes out they turned around. By 10am they were headed back north, but at a lower speed. Turned the normal 2 hours 45 minute trip into a 4 hour trip. When they sailed again, they sailed with a reduced load, kicking all the day passengers off since they would only have an hour in Victoria. They were good to those who did make the trip:
free breakfast
free soft drinks
$1.50 champagne and grapefruit juice
20% off duty free
50% off your next Clipper ticket
Not sure whether they were able to restock for the afternoon return trip since they went through all the breakfasts and most of the lunches.
I was hoping to spot Jill on the back railing, but alas, she was inside and warm, arriving just in time for the SuperBowel (yes, an intentional typo). Saw the game, but with Canadian commercials — guess I’ll have to look at them online tomorrow which raises the question, then why watch the game. Go Saints.
PooPoos this afternoon of stinky cheese from Salt Spring Island courtesy of the boys (who I need to visit one of these trips) and a loaf of bread out of the oven. Dinner was skinless-boneless BBQ’d chicken breasts with salad and wine. Dessert of a chocolate bar in the hot tub.
Jill has 10 days of freedom, and luckily she spent one of those evening with me eating lamb lollipops, asparagus, salad, and a Trader Joe’s Amaroni which at $16 is really good — especially since most Amaroni’s start at double that price.
And really, the rest of the day was dull in comparison to Dinner With Jill.
Got the lawn trimmed up today… in three chucks. Trim, read novel, trim, read novel, trim.
Had a long call with the HOPE folks about getting a refinance on the house. Paperwork on hold wil I scrounge up some more regular income.
With the new martini glasses, guess that means we have to have martinis! And look what Jill noticed in the fridge:
Really. Stuffed Queens. I’ll have to remember that for the next time there is more than one queen for dinner. And speaking of that dinner, here the best of the shots, even showing the martini glasses in action:
Though actually we were having Gimlets, and ribs, and salad, and wine.
Followed dinner with a viewing of the Peter Sellars movie: Casino Royale, a 007 spoof from the 60’s.
Well, I’ve picked up a little side work for the next couple of days. It seems a friend has a recurring case of scabies – never pleasant. In an effort to keep from reinfecting himself he’s asked for the following:
(7) Pants (33 or 34×31 or so)
(7) Sweatshirts/sweaters (L)
(14) T-shirts
(7) Briefs or Boxers (32″ classic Jockey/L boxers)
(2) pairs flip flops
set bedding (queen fitted, top, light blanket)
towels (wash cloth/bath towel)
pillow and case
(7) lengths of cotton rope 48″ long (for a Jethro style belt)
Each of these items sealed in Ziploc bags, two bags for each day: day clothes, night clothes. Seems that the little buggers die in 7 days without a host.
$132.07 later (Goodwill) all I have left is the rope, flip flops, pillow and bags.
Oh, did I mention that all this stuff has to be washed in scent free detergent. Good thing I’m having dinner with Jill and Murphy (the Wonder Dog) tonight – that’s one more washing machine to coopt for the big load of jeans and sweaters. Add the load I have in my machine and the load in Swanda’s machine, I should be done tomorrow afternoon.
Great dinner: steaks on the grill (brought back to life with fresh propane), asparagus, eggplant – yum.
And the last project of the day, sanding and oiling a section of Black Locust to see if Bliss wants these slabs for a hallway table.
Four people spent the night in the condo… Joe, CaddyDaddy, SurfBetty, and, of course, me.
SurfBetty was up and out early, and the three of us packed up all the remaining food and booze and were out the door at 11:30. With no cooktop, that meant breakfast as back at the house rather than in the penthouse. You’d think they could have made the penthouses with a full kitchen. I can understand the rest of the rooms at the Camlin, but I guess they think that since you are in the big city that you won’t be cooking your meals.
The afternoon was spent unpacking, repacking, and generally cleaning up the place a bit. Nothing like multiple trips to leave you with stuff lying around everywhere.
Dinner tonight is via a Groupon Coupon for Shilla, a Japanese/Korean restaurant that I have long loved.
Sadly, the bloom is off the rose and all we are left with is thorns. It wasn’t that bad, but it’s under new ownership and management and things have gone downhill. The best example is our in-table grill wasn’t working and we were given a portable one which hogged most of the table. In the end it seemed like a lot of money for the quantity and quality of the experience.
And now we know why they have been offering Goupons.
This is Joe’s last night in town, back to work he goes.
My East Coast contingent has been begging for a visit so off I go (it doesn’t take much convincing, just a decent fare and hopefully an upgrade or two).
Paid more than I’d like (close to $500), but I was able to use my last two MVP Gold Upgrades for a guaranteed First Class on the Monday night red-eye to Boston, coming back through Portland on the dinner flight.
Uber’d to the airport since who knows what state I’ll be in on my return.
One of the things I really like about Alaska Airlines is their on-time rate (and best in the US for fuel efficiency):
That would be (clockwise): green leaf salad with ranch and cheese cubes, molasses cookies (which I packed away for later – actually had a spare zip-lock bag courtesy of the TSA), chili, Yankee pot roast soup, whiskey/diet. On the red-eye, it’s always a crap shoot of what you will get served on-board, definitely not a full meal.
And no, that isn’t a potato, that’s a dark roll to go with the Caesar Salad.
For the first couple of hours the service up front was great, even with just one attendant working the section, but as three quarters of the cabin went to sleep – service quality died. Snack basket make a quick trip down the aisle missing me (had to go ask – and I’m in the first row aisle with the light on. Forget more drinks without asking even though there were several of us waiting TV. It seemed that the Fall Fashion issue of Elle was more important than customer service. And yes, I know flight attendant’s main duty is to protect our safety.
That said, I did log on and leave comments after I returned home about the flights going and coming, and the STARK difference in service levels in the same cabin. I’m used to the crew at American, United, Delta on the red-eyes and long international flights being happier sitting there with their reading material, but not on Alaska (usually). The return crew were all 20 year plus at Alaska and were fantastic on the dinner run from Boston to Portland. In less than 24 hours after my comments were submitted (on a weekend!) I got this response back:
Good Morning Mr. Souder,
Thank you for completing our survey regarding your flight. As a valued passenger, I sincerely apologize that you didn’t receive customer service that met or exceeded your expectations while seated in first class. Being unhelpful or unfriendly, even if it is on a “Red Eye”, is certainly not our norm or something we condone at Alaska Airlines. We strive to provide exemplary service on each and every flight to all of our passengers and it sounds like we fell short.
By taking the time to contact us and giving us your feedback, you have not only given me the opportunity to hear your concerns, but also an opportunity to be proactive in preventing a similar situation from occurring again. I would like to offer you the following compensation of a $50.00 e-certificate which you should expect via email within the next 10 business days.
I am confident that on a future flight you will enjoy the high level of service that Alaska Airlines is known for and that you deserve.
Saint Jill picked me up at the airport in Boston on my very early arrival – hence the name, “Saint Jill“.
After a long nap it was out for “loooobsterrrr”….Belle Isle Seafood here we come. Not cheap, but a ton of lobster (could have used just a tiny bit more mayo):
Then toss in spinach and cheese for a one skillet meal:
Served over spaghetti… not a bad meal, all and all:
Hooked up with Pucci after he got off work – staying there because Saint Jill’s place is small, I snore, and Murphy sheds. Aisling is out of town so it’s a long night of drinking and catching up.
Breakfast/Lunch at Strip T’s – I opted for the Turkey Rubin with Pucci opting for the buttermilk fried chicken:
GREAT pickles – but a seriously non-OSHA bathroom in the basement, labeled with a sign saying, “Use Extreme Caution Using This Restroom” – certainly worthy of a picture:
Yep – the toilet is up several steps.
Pucci needed to go back to work so he dropped me off in Harvard Square where Jill was to meet me for a little culture. Kind of fun hanging out on Harvard Square – under the watchful eyes of Dewey, Cheetham, & Howe right about the Curious George store:
Lovely fall day…
Turns out Netta was also floating around after a doctor’s appointment (same thing as Jill was doing) so we all met up at Starbucks…
Great to hang out and catch up, but soon Jill and I were walking across the quad to the museum:
The Harvard Art Museum was having a showing of a pop artist that Jill likes. Name is Corita Kent…no photos of the exhibition (forbidden) but one of the inside:
All that culture made us want a little snack at The Russell House….
After culture and cuisine, it was time to walk over to Jill’s Mom’s place for cocktails and dinner…forgot to take a shot of her view of The Charles from her 3-bedroom condo, but I did get some food shots!
By the third bottle we finally found an old white that wasn’t off…
Amazingly it was the oldest (2000 Cheverny) that was OK, while the 2004 Pouilly Fume and the 2001 Latour Pouilly Fuse were both off but in different ways. The Cheverny went quite nicely with the Oysters (yes, more oysters) on the half shell:
Followed by some appetizers (grave lox, salamis):
Followed by the salad course (greens, pears, beets, Blue Cheese dressing):
Then the main: (swordfish, roasted potatoes, asparagus):
Back to Pucci’s after dinner – and in the morning Jill swung by to take me lunch and then to the airport – lunch Greek at Demos. This would be the lamb shish kebab salad.
Yes, I drank be, 4 different 4 ounce samples. Then it was off to the airport.
Contrary to rumors, terminal C for Alaska isn’t too great – they are off in a little wing with its own TSA checkpoint and little in the way of food/drink:
I had to walk to Terminal B to use the American Admirals Club – which is huge and the food good:
But, it’s a 15 minute walk in each direction. Oh well, walking is good for me. And there was also good food on the dinner flight home starting with a nice salad:
Then the main course:
And ending with dessert:
Not a direct flight home – I connected in Portland. Good thing I took a cab home!
6:50am – phone call to Jill answered, “Overslept” – me, “I meet you at the airport.” Hello MasterPark.
Great way to start the day those of you who know my obsessiveness to getting to the airport early. Hey, at least I got the Wall Street Journal read (today’s and the remains from yesterday) and the dishwasher unloaded.
At the airport, not much better. TSA understaffed and so the “Gold/1st Class” lane they are randomly sending people down, clogging it up – and there was only one lane out of the three open.
Not much time at the Board Room –enough for one cocktail and two bagels with cream cheese. Met up with Jill on the way out of the club, she had stopped by to pick up her water bottles she’d left on the trip to Tucson, and off to the gate we were, and right onto the plane… to find a POS (Person Of Size in airline terms) wedged into the middle seat between us. Clearly uncomfortable with the slab sides of the buckhead row seats, and certainly not able to use the tray table during the flight. Having friends who are POS who fly regularly, it was also obvious that he didn’t know of Alaska’s excellent policy for our larger brethren. The full rules are here: http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/help/faqs/second-seat.asp.
So, for five hours Jill and I (neither of us petite) sat side saddle in the 75% of our seat that was leftover. Jill facing the window, me getting knocked around by the flight attendaents and carts. Yes, I could have complained and made him miss the only flight to Boston that day (the plane was booked full), but, truly, he was as uncomfortable as us. During the flight I went back to the galley and asked if they had any of the POS brochures onboard that I’ve seen on the Alaska ticket counter – no such luck. I would have been happy to gently given the guy some handy material for future trips.
Let us all pray I get upgraded to 1st on the way back as the universes way of making it up to me.
With that in mind, the universe did seem to kick into high gear on landing. Kerstin’s finance was sitting in 6C (right in front of me) and so a ride awaited us at the airport – with a stop in the North End (old Italian district) for dinner on the way to Jill’s mother’s condo. Soon we were drinking wine (and a martini in honor of Pucci) and eating food, laughing, chatting, memories of the plane long gone. My new year’s resolution, of sorts, to cut back on the carbs shot to hell with the Carbonara — not much other than pasta or other things with cooked tomatoes on the menu, but I was happy for a hot meal.
Odd thing number one about the restaurant: that martini of which I spoke… Beefeater Martini, two olives up…. “Oh, we don’t have a full bar, we don’t stock gin…. I can make you a martini with vodka.” OK, I didn’t even bother asking what kind of Vodka… and when it did show up sans olives (they came later and were the small little stuffed ones… three to a frilly toothpick), what it lost in using a fresh shaker was more than made up in quantity… there had to be 5 ounces of vodka in the damn thing. Just what the doctor ordered after the plane flight.
Odd thing number two… after dinner she brought a complimentary shot of Lemoncello. Nice… but something odd about it. Like no other Lemoncello I’d ever had. Turns out if was Lemoncello Creame –tasted like 50% O’Douls and 50% Lemoncello, or as Kerstin said, “It’s like the filling of an éclair that I never wanted to eat.”
With a ride home (another nice treat) Jill and I settled into her mother’s Cambridge condo on the Charles before heading to the Star Market for an “essentials” run… eggs, sausage, coffee for the morning, and Diet Coke and Scotch (not in the same glass) for tonight.
Rest of the evening spent in techo hell… trying to get the wireless router working (failed)… so Jill is jacked in, and I’m tethered to my phone. Life could be much worse.
Up at 7:30am though Mark’s alarm is set for half eight. Shower, reading, easy morning. Out of the house at 9:45am when Mark leaves for work after two weeks of holiday time.
Three and a half hours to the airport, need to be there at half three for bag drop and security, though really need to be there earlier to drop off the rental car. Make that 3pm.
Plenty of time for the drive, and to stop and see Stonehenge, if even only from the parking lot since you can’t get all that close to it these days… couple of pictures will be fine which is all we did. Didn’t even figure out if there was a fee to see the place, just parked, shot over the fence, left. I was a zoo.
Rental car check-in painless. Guy asked — so where is this scratch that was added to the report – looked at it and rolled his eyes. Better safe than sorry. Great shuttle driver from terminals 1.2.3 to terminal 4 (international). Gave him a 2 pound tip with the advise — “Have a pint on us.”
British Airways sucks. Simple enough. BA Sucks! Let me say it again. The shrew at the Terraces Lounge where I can get in on my Business Class (Club Lounge in BA Speak) wouldn’t let Jill in as a guest. They did in Seattle. When I pointed this out — the response was…. well, Seattle has two flights a day, and we have tons. Wasn’t full to capacity. Make a customer happy.
Jill and I left, headed to the gate. I headed back to the lounge to pillage the place for goodies for Jill. Pastrami and ham with mixed greens on a ciabatta roll, couple of cans of beer, couple of packs of crisps (potato chips for us), chocolate chip shortbread cookies, a tangerine…. and that was for Jill (OK — I had one of the beers). I had three scotches, salads, cheeses, stuff that wouldn’t pack well.
Jill was impressed with my pillaging, but she still had 35 pounds in cash left over (and some change) to get rid of so I set off for duty free to get some scotch (and chocolate with more of the left over change). Everyone happy — we even did the accounting of all the expenses we’d run up and settled accounts.
On the plane an aisle seat for both of us this time. MUCH better than windows. Easier to move around. Champagne before flight — unfortunately not more while they hauled the hypocondriac out of coach (but not the wife) which caused us to go back to the gate for a medical. Scotch before dinner. Chateau nuf de pape with dinner (curry shrimp), and a Cognac after. Watched the news show and the first movie “The Good German” with Goerge Clooney and one of the Beau Bridges (of Sordid Lives), and apparently Toby McQuire (which doing a search on him I found out he was the cute boyfriend of the tomgirl on Roseanne).
After that sleep — apparently for half of the nine hour flight as they came on to say it was 90 minutes out and “tea” was being served. I had scotch with my sandwiches.
Seattle is so stupid – for Seattle passengers they make you throw your bags back on the conveyor to get them back to the main terminal. I’d have preferred to haul them myself.
Chris was there to meet me, and back to his apartment for vodka and computer time. It’s definitely a different place. Off to the UW sale tomorrow, and work on the house.
Sunday on Maui — no church for us. Sleeping in is more like it (at least for Jill).
Today’s errands include, yet another run to Hilo Hatties for more of those free mugs. With today’s two, we (or I should say, I since Jill doesn’t want any of them) to ten matching coffee mugs. And I still have ten more coupons. Wow, a set of twenty — that would be large.
Also needed to get more booze from Safeway, and a few more pupu’s. Most of the day was spent trying to figure out the rest of our travel year (apart, not together). Jill needs a little over 12,000 miles to reach 50,000 on Alaska for MVP Gold (much better than my MVP Silver that I’ll achieve with the third trip to Hawaii later this week).
So, Jill is going to Boston and Tucson for a couple of days each, and Orlando on a red-eye and will turn around and come right back. Sounds like my habits — maybe she picked up something from me.
My problem was less dramatic — but equally annoying. At one point Jill was 12 miles short of reaching her goal until she swapped out Orlando for a 2nd Boston trip. I just need to get to Santa Fe for the holidays. Amtrak = $1500 and days (but in a sleeper) and directly to Lamy (but with an overnight in LA). Air service directly into Santa Fe seems to be “up in the air” with one carrier stopping December 11th — and they did United and American tie-ins — but Delta said they were going to start on the 11th, but I can’t book a ticket — and that would be jet service out of Salt Lake City or LA (which would be sweet!) First class is a grand — which is over twice coach — and only into Albuquerque which is an hour away. The answer is United through Denver on big planes and pray for upgrades since I have a bunch of upgrade coupons. Just shy of $400. Ouch.
Dinner was a garlic peanut encrusted swordfish with sauteed bok choy and a large salad. The swordfish was incredibly moist — but the coating would have worked better with halibut or another light flavored fish — the swordfish taste just didn’t meld as well with the encrustation as well as I’d like. Oh well, experiment and learn. It was still good.
They ask, I visit – when I can. This trip started with a random text three or four weeks ago. The questions was: “When are you coming back through?” My answer was, probably winter, but let me look at fares. And the fare was $237 round-trip Seattle to Boston. Off to the Lounge go I:
And it nicely started with an upgrade!
At least it’s an aisle near the front for the long red-eye flight.
And I learned something new on the Alaska First Class Menu:
The unit of measure called an IBU which stands for International Bitterness Unit (though it also is a medical abbreviation for Ibuprofen). People who like really hoppy IPA (India Pale Ale) want a higher score. Check out the Wikipedia article HERE.
It’s a redeye, so the food is going to be minimal, but it starts with a little berry smoothie….
And then usually, it’s veggies and hummus….but this was a small hot sandwich thing, which I was grateful for:
The problem with red eye flights is that they are red eye flights – my arrival in Boston was around 6am, and with checked luggage I couldn’t even go sleep it off in the lounge one terminal over, so it was:
Baggage claim
Silver Line to South Station (Free)
Red Line to Alewife (Free)
Uber to Pucci’s place ($15)
As also is my way when getting into Boston (actually Belmont) is to head straight to bed for a nap – which is what I did in my lovely guest bedroom:
After my nap, we were out the door to Total Wine & Beverage (which isn’t close, but it’s cheap), and then back to the house for a lovely Pucci lunch. Plans to get together with Jill were thwarted by UPS deliveries at her place. Sadly, I didn’t get a pic, so you’ll have to take it from me, it was a stunning lunch.
When I visit midweek, I basically get to see Pucci around his teaching/performing schedule, so it’s catch as catch can. Left me time to wander up the street to The Spirited Gourmet to grab a sandwich for dinner – and to check out the wine selection and look for a favorite Gin of Pucci’s.
I got back just in time to miss the rain storm dumping!
While Pucci was off teaching – I ACTUALLY tuned to TV to watch the first game of the World Series:
Much cocktails and conversation at the end of the game when he returned from teaching and watched them win. Almost felt like I was with Dad watching football!
The following day’s lunch was at The Red House in Cambridge where during the day they feature ½ price oysters for the first dozen – I decided to tag mine with a couple of Maine Crab Cake sliders (and a Manhattan!)
I should have had our server get a picture of all four of us – Jill, Norma (Jill’s mother and wonderful woman), Pucci and I. Seems like I’m missing a lot of “photo ops” on this trip.
Pucci had the entire day off – he rearranged his schedule to move students to Friday and Saturday. THANKS!
This is actually the back of the building – had to borrow a shot of the front from their site:
Pucci had never been, and I hadn’t either – and they gave up a grizzled mobility challenged docent who was a font of knowledge about not only the equipment in the museum, but the whole Boston area water system. I was glad Pucci was there with his knowledge of some of the public reservoirs. Amazing old pumping equipment in the building, that was only shut down in 1974.
Serious “Steam Pump” at this place.
Jill was back at the house for dinner (after Pucci and I had afternoon naps!), and what a dinner it was, Beef Tenderloin, green beans, sautéed mushrooms, mashed potatoes – what a meal!
And I can’t forget the special guest, Jill’s dog, Murphy (aka, Murphy, The Wonder Dog):
It was a wonderful quick trip.
The return trip was as cruel, timing-wise, and the incoming – a 7am flight (basically getting on the same plane that brought me here). I was out of the house, in an Uber (under $30) to the airport at 5am.
Who would have thought it would take an hour and fifteen minutes to get from the International District to Wedgewood. Add one University of Washington Huskies Game (and they didn’t even win!). Thank god it was Jill’s Birthday/Housewarming and the good wine (and food) was flowing.
Met these two great guys there from Tacoma, who Jill met while she was renting a place during her renovation — they lived on the same floor. They run a wine bottle etching business in Gig Harbor — and they do amazing work. They did a bottle for Jill’s birthday with her doing power lifting.
Yesterday was a gorgeous train ride to Kyle of Lochalsh after
breakfast at the Ramada… didn’t know it was included but it wasn’t
on the bill when we checked out.
As for the train, think lots of Lochs (as in lakes, as in the Loch
Ness monster) and low mountains.
After checking both of the hotels on our list and finding no
vacancies, it was time for a pub lunch of a BLT for me and haddock and
chips for Jill (huge). The fall back plan of catching the bus to Fort
William is now in play.
Jill said the bus trip was even better than the train… I wouldn’t
know. I was napping.
Fearing a repeat of no room at the inn, Jill booked us two rooms via
phone at the West End Hotel where singles aren’t much more than a
double and walking distance from the train station. Singles mean that
we’ll both get a good nights sleep.
Dinner in the hotel. Lamb for Jill. Mussells for me. Both good.
Today is off to the train station after the included breakfast to drop
bags for tonights train, then off to the Ben Nevis Diistillery. Sounds
Yiddish to me.
Dinner in town before boarding the train at half seven. Drinks and
Ambien will guarantee a good night’s sleep tonight.
—
What time zone is Uncle Markie in? Check out https://blog.unclemarkie.com
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 combination — it made a hit at dinner tonight.
Dinner tonight was with Weightlifter Jill and Police Blogger Megan (link to the left under My Friends).
Peppered Filet Mignon, fresh garlic challah (bread), salad, steamed white asparagus, salad — with a lovely 2000 Cascina Adelaide Barolo that Jill brought. That girl does know her wine!
After dinner is was a rousing three way bowling on the WII — Jill emailed her WII MII to my machine — AND IT WORKED! Now I have to email my WII MII to Dan and Lisa so the next time I’m down there I have MII with me. Jill also brought over Mario & Sonic Olympic Games — at which I totally sucked. I think I’ll stick to bowling.
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 the North Terminal for our flight to Honolulu. No upgrades. No surprise. It’s Hawaii.
Near the end of the flight my comment to Jill was “now why did we choose Hawaii — oh right, $260 round-trip.”
The flight was 5 hours and I did appreciate the complimentary Mai Tai right before we landed. I appreciated the couple of three scotches in the Continental President’s Club while hanging with Jill waiting for her flight to the Big Island.
While we were in the President’s Club got a Twitter post from Alaska giving away two tickets to Hawaii — of course I entered, and got Jill enter as well.
The city bus ($2.25) to Waikiki takes an hour and drops me a block from the Hawaii Prince Hotel. For $80 (plus tax) a night on Priceline.com you get:
Both bath and shower
Robes and slippers
View of the Gilligan’s Island (where they left from) marina
Windows on the 27th floor that open
What you don’t get:
An ice machine on your floor (luckily there are robes)
Free Internet ($12 a day)
Free local calls (75 cents each)
And here is the “standard room tour” video:
While having a little scotch from the ABC store across the street (but three crosswalks away) saw this great show after the news call Hot Hawaiian Nights which opened with this live Ska Ukulele lead using a capo to change key — truly cool. Makes me want to get an electric ukulele for a new friend.
After a late lunch of sushi ($10 for 16 pieces and a can of pop at Aloha Sushi) — I know the neighborhood since I stayed across the street at the Agua Equis a couple of years ago — it was time for a little night in the heat of the afternoon.
Dinner tonight was going to be the Chart House around the corner, until I read the recent reviews on Trip Advisor… great view, overpriced food for what is was, mediocre service. Guess that’s what happens when you rest on your reputation… not a good thing to do in this economy. Went to Outback instead — not a first choice but close and consistant (and not Red Lobster which was right next door).
Back to the room for the blog and maybe some work, or not.
More errands – like swinging by the apartment pick up the new “travel” cell phone (Dual SIM model). Odd thing is it took me almost an hour to figure out how to get the back off… this from a 10-year Microsoft veteran.
An unexpected call with Jill means I have a dinner party (of two) on a night before my flight – how unusual for me!
Also booked the train for tomorrow’s run to Bellingham to get the flight – since Johnnie’s driving back down to Seattle the day we get back, it seemed the logical thing to do. It will be nice to have a little quiet time before the early evening flight.
Jill was over at five for cocktails, chat, and return of the MP3 player she borrowed on the Boston trip a couple of weeks ago.
Dinner was my wine, Jill’s much better wine, lobster tails, scallops wrapped in prosciutto, grill asparagus, a nice salad.
And today’s funny incident – just before Jill arrived I was thinking about what I’d packed for the trip – and realized I’d totally forgotten any shorts. Two pairs of Speedo’s, but no shorts. DUH! Better to remember today rather than running up plastic on the trip.
I can’t add, or count calendar days – seems I’m working 16 days straight, not 10. So really the 6 of 16. I guess I can look forward to the cruise in May that I arranged off as part of the job acceptance.
First day off – the 8th of April.
Worked at the print shop, and should have come home and taken a nap, but instead I cleaned up the deck as the sun was out and tonight is BBQ. Swept, rearranged, drained the water off the top of the hot tub – might fill it up this week! But I’ve got to get another cover – the old one is looking… ugly.
Speaking of BBQ – Jill is the dinner guest for a small two-person mixed grill. Couple of chicken breasts and three lamb T-bones on the grill – add a salad (since Jill and I are in the high-protein, no-carb world) and a little wine, and presto.
Dinner was sort of a working dinner – Jill reading scholarship applications and then talking about how to turn a working business into a foundation that kicked off scholarships for college students. Sort of a great combination since she just graduated from the UW MPA program (I believe) with an emphasis in non-profit administration. Great conversation, more work to do. Who knows, I might get an ongoing job out of this, and Jill might get a consulting gig. Win-win.
My after dinner activity? Topping off the barrels in the barrel room:
It took 1500ml to top off the four casks…
750 (on the left)
1 liter (with the strap)
2 liters
3 liters
Work tomorrow isn’t until noon. No alarm tonight – whew!
Computer work in the morning, work on the Rose Street House in the afternoon.
Kristina stopped by for a business meeting, and got repeatedly lost….South Park isn’t the easiest place to get to unless you know the way, or follow directions to the “T”. A couple of hours later Jill stopped by just as I was air-less nailing in the last piece of trim for the day. The only think needing to be finished in the two bedrooms is touching up the trim (from the nail gun), and painting the shelf in the back bedroom.
Jill, in her usual way of not wanting to just stand around, picked up a broom and started sweeping up. With the help of a little tequila, all the sudden, the vinyl on the kitchen floor is coming up so it can go into the trash this week. It was amazing, the floor came up in huge chunks, with only a couple of trouble spots. Amazing. Had to cut it to get it around the appliances.
Since Jill isn’t training, she came over to the city apartment for a pupu platter dinner. Jen from Green Fire Candles showed up with paper for a print job, and some of her soy based candles.
Leave a passing comment »