UMTravels

Another morning of waking up BH (Bangaladishi Hottie) and getting him out the door and onto BART so he can change living situations. He is going from a room in a house where he doesn’t feel open talking about his sexuality to living in the guest house of a gay couple that’s been together for 15 years. Good move BH!

After getting him moving I went back to bed. 24 wears out 52 pretty easily.

The afternoon I actually got some reading done (as well as a little work). Finished this month’s Wired to leave behind for the boys and started on one of the two New Yorker’s Swanda passed along. A nice quiet Sunday in the sun.

Dinner, or maybe I should say nosh was over at Ms. Otis’s place (who did not send her regrets). Cold cucumber soup, fresh tomatoes, basil and onions from the garden, good bread, lovely Italian deli  meats and cheeses… and a little red wine made for lovely conversation with her and her visiting friends.

Back at the ranch later — the boys were doing a Puttenesca, which I also had to try. Nothing like two dinners to make you go to bed early.

Off to the airport and home tomorrow.

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Worked a little, booked a little travel, tried to find someone to join Jill and I in Mexico. Succeeded in the first two, have invitations out in the third, though it’s not looking good.

Travel stuff:

• Got my upgrade to First on the return flight Monday morning
• Swapped out on night in a two bedroom penthouse with it’s own hot-tub in Mexico for two nights in a three bedroom penthouse with it’s own hot-tub (means two nights in Mexico we will have five bedrooms for the two of us — hence the need for company)
• Responded to Dan’s request needing some Markie time by booking four nights in Orlando (an hour away from him and Lisa) for early November. Got airfare for $287 — and it will be the miles I need to complete my MVP Gold. I have invitations out for that as well to fill one more bed (maybe two if someones willing to take the couch)

After all that it was off to the Berkeley Bowl — a grocery store with enough eye candy to give me a sugar buzz. Tonight’s dinner is a half a salmon, fresh greens, and a tiny baguette of bread (as the boys don’t do much in the way of carbs).

My Bangaladishi Hottie (BH) took BART up from Fremont to join us for dinner. He impressed the boys with his very grounded spirit, intelligence, and beauty. The boys impressed me for their ability to draw him more out of his shell. A lively dinner conversation was had by all — and it must happen again — though when is a BIG question with what else is already on my plate for September. Maybe I’ll book October.

BH and I retired downstairs to bed — he has to be up early in the morning as he’s moving from Fremont to Hayward — and closer to a BART station.

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A good morning shagging and it was out of bed at 7 to get the Bangladeshi Hottie to work by 8am. Hopefully he’s OK with how quite I am in the mornings as compared to the evenings — I am a little better after a couple of cups of coffee and the morning news. Wish me luck getting him to come to dinner on Saturday.

After dropping him at work it was back to bed after finishing the USA Today — which doesn’t take that much time as it’s not much of a newspaper, nor was the “breakfast lite” they served downstairs. Toast and orange juice makes a good breakfast for my mother if the toast is made from a rustic loaf, but this was “bag-o-bread”. That said, the gentleman and the front desk was good for the recommendation (and the coupon) for last night’s dinner and with a call later in the day saying I’d left my toiletries and pills in the room. Opps. Guess I’m going back to the hotel again….

But after going to get a bagel at “The Better Bagel” just up the road (stunning good by the way!), the office in Santa Clara, and then Costco for something that they don’t carry down here, and then to M. Lowe and Companyto see Margo (and get my ring buffed and my ruby robo-washed), and then onto the boys place to keep working for a few more hours.

Dinner tonight is what we do in this house when we are all exhausted from long days and long nights. Order food to be picked up and brought in. Actually it’s the same Ethiopian Restaurant (Addis) that I mentioned on my last visit that I’ve already forgotten the name of, but you should try because it’s so good. There is one of the dishes that you can get raw — and we did, with the spices on the side so I wouldn’t have “ring of fire” in the morning. And we aren’t talking the Johnny Cash song.

So, it’s a quiet night around the house. Me blogging, Lunetta debugging, Onyx with his feet up in the poppa son chair reading. All downstairs in the daylight basement because they are having a heat wave in Berkeley — maybe that’s why I’m dog tired.

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Because of last night, I got a slow start this morning… though not as slow as Mr. Lunetta who was just getting out of bed as I was leaving the house around 12:30 to grab food and head to lovely Fremont.

What takes me to Fremont? Not the Nuumi, the joint GM/Toyota auto plant that GM pulled out of a couple of months ago as part of bankruptcy and Toyota just announced that next month they are leaving as well.

Nope. Got a date tonight that has enough potential to fly and drive.

Picked him up at work at 4:30, headed back to the hotel for drinks and play before dinner.

Dinner was at Saki’s Spin-A-Yarn Restaurant (Fremont’s Hidden Treasure Since 1951). We both ended up ordering pasta dishes — the Alfredo for him and the Seafood Fetticine for me. This place was recommended by the desk clerk at the hotel when I checked in — and came with a 20% off coupon.

After dinner the most amazing thing happened. He picked up the check. At least he let me leave the tip. I’m not sure that has happened  before.

Back to the room after dinner for some more fooling around and a little television before the large meal sent us to sleep.

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Had totally forgotten MoonSong was coming to clean this morning. At least I was up and showered.

Headed to the airport around 10 for my noonish flight. For once there were some cute guys in the Boardroom to provide eye candy to go with my eye opener, bagels and cream cheese.

Uneventful flight other than the dozen pre-board children and parents, half a dozen old folks — it was like watching the MVP Gold load onto a Hawaii flight!

Didn’t get my favorite seat (1C), but close (1A) — and a light lunch of salad with some pasta was served.

Swanda was at the airport to pick me up and whisk me into the city (San Francisco) to look at office space for Events and Adventures.

After the city it’s back to the East Bay with a shop at BevMo for mo’ bevs and AAA for maps.

I packed four tenderloin steaks, asparagus and bell peppers in my luggage for dinner tonight.

And a long dinner it was.

[218.7]

After last week and my lack of motivation, it feels good to be back in the groove.

Standard Tuesday with the marketing meeting on the Eastside.

Dinner with Jeff — and some stunning smoked pork chops from Stewarts Meatsin Yelm. Add some pan fried red potatoes and a little Chinese broccoli and you have a healthy meal.

After dinner the conversation turned to what to do with my 8HP engine off the chipper — he’s going to help with the search for a cart body, as in go kart.

Home early, gotta travel tomorrow.

[220.1]

So today was a work day… and I totally forgot about Stuart coming by to check on the alternator — by the way, it’s fine. One more thing off the SOB list.

When the mail came — there was the monthly bill from the mortgage company — and offering me “preliminary criteria for special mortgage refinancing” — how romantic.

5.25% on a 30, 4.625 on a 15.

Interesting — but what is the house worth? In this market? With a ton of places on the market in South Park?

• Zillow = $226,500
• Chase = $188,000 (who sent me the offer)
• Eppraisal.com = $231,342
• AOL = $196,950

And the average? $210, 698 — woohoo — $698 more than I paid two years ago, so I’m above water. Of course none of those guestimates include the fact that there is the 500 sq foot steel garage at the back of the property.

Pulled the numbers, its better to just pay an extra $500 each month to pay down my 6.5% mortgage.

And my favorite oddity from the news today — the women murdered by the reality show guy was identified by the serial numbers on her breast implants because the murderer (who has since committed suicide in Canada) hacked off her fingers and removed her teeth to slow down identification.

Dinner at home. Quiet — tomorrow dinner with an ex, then off to the Bay Area on Wednesday (and I’ve been upgraded to First Class).

No pictures today.

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After a slightly delayed morning drive by shagging it turned into project day.

Project number one. Install the Inverter Control Panel and Rotary AC Switch into SOB. Now all the power stuff is on one panel under the refrigerator:

The small black rotary switch will shift the 110 power from shore power to inverter to generator. Super simple.

Next up on the agenda — spray paint Jimmie’s propane burner stand high-heat black after Wonderful did a little sand blasting on it. Just in time for Jimmie to start on the beer for Sandi’s Wedding in November:

And on to the phone booth. Well, I got it mostly unburied, but that’s about all I got done with it:

Spent more time thinking about the electric hoist system that I have the parts for to go into the garage…. did some dis-assembly of the one from the church and starting thinking about plans for the new one. Nine feet of track (left one piece at the church) which should swing everything out of the way of the Jag.

Dinner tonight was with H20Blanco (WhiteWater) who is in town after the Bush visiting family and friends. A huge slab of ribs and salad and wine, and more importantly, a diagnosis of the last problem on the Wolf Range — new thermostat. I get the part, he will install it saving me a $500 service call.

[222.6 — damn potato salad at yesterday’s BBQ]

Lazy morning.

Thought about working on the phone booth. Thought about installing switches for the inverter in SOB. Thought about a lot of things. Managed to get the dishwasher unloaded.

BBHa showed up at 2pm to pick up some newsletters I’d printed for him for the Big Joy project — yet another “pedestal raising”. Pedestal raising? That’s when you some dead gay man and make a movie about him. Oh, was that my out loud cynical voice?

I did get gasoline put in the chipper and got it started to see if it was wildly off balance… it is. Guess that means the chipper really is dead. Now what to do with an 8HP Tecumsah engine — maybe a Go Kart?

Neighborhood BBQ started at 3pm. By 9pm when the music started, I’d hit the wall and had to come home. Even I reach my limit of food and booze. Headed home to the quiet.

A little midnight nighty night conversation with the Bangeleshi Hottie and it was off to bed for me.

[219.9]

Not sure what is going on but I’m just feeling a little “out of sorts” — and not in the typographical sense  (see Out of Sorts definition with regard to typography). Or maybe it is. It has the side affect of zapping my will to bill.

SOB is now a clean SOB with MoonSong putting in a couple of hours of interior and exterior cleaning to get the remnants of two camping trips off/out of it. Now if Stuart would get his ass over here and check out the alternator — he call and postponed to Monday.

Now on the upside, I got the bill for my monthly Medical Insurance Plan… shocking. I must be one of only a few people whose premiums went DOWN this year. Mind you I’m on a fairly high deductible plan… but it went from $293.53 to $270.86 — an 8% drop.

Dinner and a little work at Swanda’s place with Helene (yet another Events and Adventures contractor) and Fluffernutter. It was like a meeting of the Swanda Full Employment Plan (SFEP). I prepared (from his chef, not me) what I thought was a HUGE quantity of food for four people:

• Rack and a half of ribs
• Two half chickens
• Salad
• Fresh Bread (yes, I did bake that)
• Three bottles of wine

And damned if we didn’t go through it all.

Left with a check from Swanda to cover the wine I’m having shipped in for him, and for my two airline carts that he bought for Fluffernutter as an early Christmas gift. Guess this means it’s time for me to finish rebuilding the phone booth that Fluffernutter also covets.

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I guess I knew it was coming. Putting in lots of energy, getting less back.

But know it’s official — he’s got someone he is hot for a LTR (long term relationship) but has promised me a new pink hairdo and pork chops. Better than nothing.

So Gilly and I are off to Mexico on the 2ndof September for 5 days/4 nights. First class each way, 2 bedroom condo, airport transfers, all for under $1500 total. OK — I’m on a cheap rebound!

Sweet man — would like him in my life. Oh well.

How else to recover? Rent-boy Sunday morning, Bangladeshi hottie on Thursday night (and maybe Friday and Saturday nights).

It did ruin my work day — all I wanted to do was, well, work with my hands. Why did I pick the hottest day of the week to do the dump run and clean out the trailer?

Of course now that the trailer is clean, and their might be a buyer for SOB, maybe I should start working on my concept tear-drop camping trailer project. Apparently I can’t NOT have a project.

Dinner tonight was a ridiculously huge pan-fried steak with a split of the Bonney Doon and a side salad of the tomatoes and cucumbers.

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Some billable hours, some work on SOB — finished the striping, but then “A Project” — figure out what is the best deal for using a $99 companion coupon on Alaska Airlines to get First Class for two to “somewhere”.

Here is the result, sorted by cost per mile… but is that where we want to go?

And here is the slider of all the new SOB photos:

And yes, the rumors are true… once the switch for the inverter is installed, it gets another wash/wax and a cleaning, the alternator checked out to make sure it’s good — it’s on the market for $4500.

Tonight is a pork chop and some of the chop salad and, well, some more of that lovely wine.

[220.0]

A typical Tuesday with marketing meeting followed by errands followed by work on the items that came up in the marketing meeting. One project that got finished today was the lapel pin for Events and Adventures:

Looks kinda cool — not bad design work on my end.

Add a steak with cucumber and tomato salad and a split of the Bonny Doon Le Cigar Volante and you have dinner for one.

[219.2]

Man, this week is starting out really bad — stood up two days in a row.

Yesterday for a shagging, tonight for overnight guests. Is there no justice?

Makes me want to sell SOB — which suddenly is a possibility.

Work during the day, more laundry, and a dinner of jerk chicken and marinated cucumbers. Oh, and a lovely split of Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volante 2004.

Let’s hope my dry streak doesn’t continue.

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Up at 9am for coffee and to break camp. Seems I have a nooner scheduled.

Here is the link to all of the photos from the weekend:

So, I get home by 11am, have SOB unloaded, the dishwasher and washer loaded by noon…. and by 1:30 my date has cancelled — apparently installing a transmission took four hours rather than the expected two hours. Damn. I missed out on pancakes at the camp site this morning.

On the positive side there were some of those “billable” hours while I cleaned up the inbox to get ready for the upcoming week.

This afternoon/early evening is a beer launching party at Jimmie’s place that I’ll head over too early so I can fix his computer…. again.

Might update later, or might just come home and go to bed were it’s warm and comfortable.

[220.8]

Well, the rain is starting to slacken.

This morning we are greeted by Jonathan, who I described as my “Craigslist Morman Rent Boy On A Love Mission” — which, of course, is completely false, but it did make all assembled laugh.

Just a lazy day in the wood, dodging the rain and the smoke from the fire. The picture below is of a little piece of practical joke artwork that MoonSong made for the campsite:

The joke? There are NO utilities at the camp, not even for the camp host. One previous host saw it and said — “Damn, even I don’t have utilities”, to which MoonSong picked up the stub of wood with the pieces attached and handed it to him with “Here, you can borrow mine.”

Bacon and eggs for breakfast, lunch was a massive whole salmon stuffed with shrimp and bell peppers, and dinner — well — dinner was Spam-O-Rama! We had everything from Masubi (Spam Sushi):

To Panko breaded Spam cutlets which were stunningly good and went fast:

I got the heat working in SOB so at least I won’t be cold tonight.

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Well, last night the rains started around dinner time… which meant nine people in SOB having chicken Marsala, ensalada caprese, chicken Caesar salad and saffron rice. Life here in the woods is tough.

Here is a shot of SOB before the rains started:

Gee, I look comfortable don’t I. And speaking of comfort… take a look at the liquor cabinet:

And lots of adventures… we had a little damage to the banquette, but it’s fixable. And many thanks to Swanda for making a run into town for fix-it supplies and cables necessary to get my laptop connected to the Internet so I can blog in the woods.

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An early post today as I’m headed off camping (car-camping that is) to Tinkham State Park with some of the faeries that aren’t going to the gathering at Breitenbush Hot Springs.

So here is how my morning went:

• Drive-by shagging at 8:30
• Call from Stuart at 9:30 cancelling for today — he has a blown slave cylinder his truck
• Packing
• Work
• Blogging

Out of the house at noon for propane and gas and then up the mountain.

Who knows, maybe I’ll update this if I can get an Internet connection in the woods.

[218.7]

Trying to get lots of loose ends tied up so I can get out of town tomorrow. It will be close as Stuart has had to delay by a day checking out the alternator — good thing I have AAA Plus RV coverage — they can just drag it back down off the mountain!

Tonight is a date with the weinerman (the cute tattooed guy I’ve been seeing). The plan was for a picnic in or out at his house. But plans change — turned into nibbles while watching Glen or Glenda from the boxed set I recently got. And that was about all — he was up late last night with band practice, then worked all day… he barely made it through the movie. Guess we should have hopped in the car and gone to the beach for a real picnic before the rain set in.

Home by 9 — now THAT is depressing. Maybe I should put away the picture of my former weinerman Richard that is sitting on the end table. Actually he isn’t a former weinerman, he’s just plane dead.

Silver lining: More time to organize and pack. Not much of a silver lining but what can you do. And it was good to hang out with him.

[216.8]

Contrary to the original plan — my lovely company has stayed over for another day. Yeah!

At 9:30 I left for the weekly marketing meeting on the Eastside while the boys set out for UtiliKiltsfor a kilt for BamBab (a short hottie black number) and a tour of the market for dinner and flowers.

Funny thing about our fish for dinner from the flying fish boys — the first one the dropped! The second one was just as tasty.

I made a loaf of rosemary challah — here is the recipe since several have asked for it (the basic dough, add what you want):

1# Loaf of Uncle Markie’s Challah

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons yeast

Combine ingredients in your bread maker — set on dough setting. Pull it out of the pan after 45 minutes. Form into whatever kind of loaf you want on the greased baking pan. Place in oven on lowest setting for the second rise (or in the proofing oven on the back porch) for another 45 minutes ore until double in size. Back at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Looked great with an egg wash (beat and egg with a little water, apply to breadwith a brushjust before baking, sprinkle with Kosher salt).

We also had a nice green salad, and a fruit salad for dessert. Yum.

And then more of the Wii Bowling.

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