Call RCI and try and book condo for Ireland or Scotland over birthday (no luck, guess I’ll fly to Plymouth, England where they make the Gin and hang out with Mark Ovendon)
All done and off to Sushi at Swanda’s.
That was the plan for the day, but then add stopping by at Western Bridge to watch Wonderful hang the Poncho Art Auction ($625,000 worth of art going up for auction) which has a piece of art that I donated in it (though originally for the Great Art Party) and then to his house to take a network card for the printer (and a cable if that didn’t work) so I can print more Big Joy business cards for that art project, and I’m still home by 8… installing the printer card and working on getting everything I need printed before it stops working again.
The afternoon was more work for E&A and later on SOB when Whitaker showed up to run the poo pump wiring and fix a couple of other small things. Stuart will be over Tuesday or Wednesday to check out the alternator – judging from what happened to the wiring box in the back on the bouncy roads of Lake Cushman, I’m figuring the alternator jiggled a little loose. And just in case he doesn’t come I’ve charged the old battery and that should get me to and from Tinkham next week.
The evening is drinks and dinner with Swanda and finish up some wiring on this computer.
It has just been an odd day. Woke up needing aspirin (surprise!).
I think the post title says it all. Apparently I’m all blocked up since the title discusses four different people so I just exploded (in some cases, literally).
Markie, still reeling from a fabulous time. really enjoyed meeting all your friends. Glad you got some “quality” time after I left. Posted some of the pics on facebook.
Pam spent the morning wondering around downtown shopping for a shot glass for her daughter (and a really cool crab cracker for me!) while I got the weekly blog reports done.
Checked out of the Camlin around 11:30 and were back to the house soon after. I got the shopping list ready for a store run while Pam lounged and read her book.
The meal tonight:
BBQ’d lamb, pork ribs, tri-tip, Italian sausages
Green Salad
Cole slaw
Pam’s famous Potato Salad (which she made while I napped)
One bottle of white wine
One bottle of rose wine
Two bottles of red wine
And the guests:
Uncle Markie
Pam
Wonderful
Swanda
Jonathan
Adam
Pam and the gay boys — sounds like a rock-a-billy band.
Food remaining? one small piece of lamb, and one small piece of tri-tip. The rest was hoovered clean. You can always count on Jonathan for helping with that.
Luckily Pam went to bed before the Wii Strip Bowling started.
A crab cracker is a “table ready” version of a pair of pliers used to “crack” the shell of Dungeness or King crabs – not unlike the device you use on your nuts (walnut, filbert, etc).
I guess I got out of there at the right time…strip bowling just scares me! It was a fabulous night to be sure…as always. Pam was a delight and you are an amazing host!
Luckily Pam is a low maintenance guest… finding ways to amuse her self while I take this week’s marketing meeting call from home.
After wrapping up the call we pack up the car and head out to be tourists. First stop is the Museum of Glass which I’d never been to before, but Pam likes glass and so do I. I haven’t enjoyed a museum as much in a long time. We spent a bunch of time in the hot shop watching a guest artist (Eric something, from Seattle) and his team:
The main exhibit was of the work of Preston Singletary who is a Tlingit from Sitka who does in glass what most Tlingit do in wood or bone. Truly amazing and worth the $12 admission. Can’t believe I’ve never gotten down to Tacoma to see the museum.
After the museum was the traditional tourist ride aboard the Washington State Ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. Here is Pam on the bow with the City of Seattle coming into view:
Landing downtown, next we are off to the Camlin to stay in a one-bedroom timeshare across the street from the Paramount. Dinner tonight is at the Brooklyn in my favorite seats — 58 and 59.
West Marine (wire, on/off switch for SOB inverter)
Harbor Freight (heavy duty cables for the inverter in SOB)
it was off to the airport to pick up Pam flying in from Kansas City on my miles for a reunion after 35 years… yes, that would be someone from high school! I missed (on purpose) the 35th reunion on the 1st of August.
No pictures yet, but probably will get one posted tomorrow when we are off to the Museum of Glass after my marketing meeting.
Dinner tonight was fresh baked challah, a slab of salmon, a small crab, salad and a lovely rose.
For today’s picture we have SOB parked on the lawn at the lake cabin….
It looks so peaceful sitting there… really peaceful with a dead battery. Left the key on the accessory setting and sucked it down. Damn. Luckily easy to jump.
Left the lake a about 2:30 with Rich in the lead with his leaking front tire, me in the middle with my iffy battery, and Ross bringing up the rear to pick up all the pieces.
The drive out was stunning. There must have been 40 guys on the diving rock with another 40 milling around — including one in a THONG! All those board shorts and one thong. To bad I couldn’t stop with my bad battery.
About a half an hour out of Olympia the battery totally lost it and started backfiring — poor Curt was tasked with holding his thumb on the battery bridge switch which links the house batteries and the starting battery. This got us to Olympia, but without the ability to stop and help out Rich who had to stop and pump up his leaking tire. Maybe we should have just taken the mommy van!
A trip to Schucks and I was back on the road with a new battery but a nagging feeling that for some reason the alternator isn’t charging like it should. Did it loosen itself on the bumpy gravel roads up at Lake Cushman? Time to call Stuart.
Dinner tonight was just left over meat from the weekend and the evening entertainment was working on the Great Art Party website getting PayPal options up for buying tickets.
A good weekend for sure.
Different topic … so now I see a smallish image in the IE tab that says “UMTravels >> Blog Archive” yet I don’t see the same image in my IE “Favorites” folder; I still see the Microsoft “E”.
This weekend if all about reading (and playing poker) for me.
Oh, and installing the BBQ. Nice shot of David in front of the installed BBQ. It only took two wrenches, a vise and partially disassembling the BBQ.
There were seven of us at the poker weekend at Lake Cushman — five of us playing poker late in the afternoon while we had light. The cabin is off the grid, so after dark, it’s, well, dark.
Dinner tonight was Pork Tenderloin and asparagus on the grill, salad, bread, and wine that eventually ended up on the deck. I’m not sure why I always spill wine at the cabin.
I actually had to turn the air conditioner off in the middle of the night. I was too cold. Yahoo!
Headed to the woods later this morning, but thought I’d share this little bit of news of my friend Steve who is serving time for DUI in Montana — yes, someone (his best friend) was killed in accident.
For the second season Steve is an Inmate Firefighter. Here it the link to an article about him and the crew that he works on:
“It seemed like a good opportunity to get out and give back to the community,” said Steve Atchinson, one of the second-year inmate firefighters. “I’m getting out of prison in a few years, and your habits you make here, you’re going to carry out there. I wanted to get in a more structured work environment.”
Atchinson lost his freedom in a 2002 drunken-driving incident that left his best friend dead.
“This has been a big transition to prison, and carrying the weight and responsibility for somebody’s death,” he said. “I’m just trying to get back on the right path.”
So, that’s my happy news for the day. Guess I’d better get in SOB and get down the road.
I think this picture says it all about how I’m feeling about this weather.
It’s also a good shot of my new facial hair… facial hair that lots of the men in my life think looks hot (in the good way, not the overheated way).
SOB update: returned yet another drop down screen for over the sink. Again, DOA. I think I’m just going to say no to trying again, though it could be “third times a charm”.
Getting all packed up for the trip to Lake Cushman tomorrow. Sort of nice to just be able to throw things in during the week and just take off tomorrow after sending out month end invoices.
Was hoping for a date for dinner tonight, but no go. Guess that puts us off until late next week. Argh. So I’ll have a quiet romantic dinner with myself in the air-conditioned comfort of SOB (Son of Bob). Hopefully I get lucky.
Glad you had S.O.B. with air conditioning the past couple days. I had left-over cold beers from a tasting last weekend, and judicious closing of the windows in my cave-like apartment; combined with night-time open windows and many fans a’ blowin’. But that ain’ air conditioning!
I’m starting to get cabin fever. Or would that be SOB fever.
Day two of being sequestered in the RV with the AC cranked up to high just to keep up with the weather outside. Luckily the captains chair makes a very comfortable place to read the newspaper, and the banquette isn’t too uncomfortable to do all the computer work.
By dinner time the house was over a hundred degrees — I know this even though he temperature gauge on the thermostat stops at 99 degrees. How? The oven thermometer was registering 104 degrees — THE OVEN THERMOMETER. Yes, we set a record. Fine, it’s 30 degrees hotter than normal. I want normal.
My plan to have steak and a salad was replaced by Jonathan coming over with a half a salmon, fruit and cabbage for a salad. My original plans included Joanie coming over for a computer fix (which Jonathan did MUCH better than I would have) and so we were three for dinner. In SOB.
Yes, we all had dinner in SOB after quickly prepping and cooking everything in the kitchen and on the grill. We even had fresh baked bread.
We got in about 2am and I was asleep by 3am. Not much of a night of sleep. And the heat wave is supposed to be picking up even more today.
Still getting used to the Marketing Meeting now on Tuesdays, but I at least got my list revised in time for today’s meeting.
Off for errands of groceries, gas and the bank before heading back to lovely sun-baked South Park.
The house was already at 90 by early afternoon so I retreated to the RV and cranked up the air conditioning. Of course to get any work done I had to pull an Ethernet cable out from the living room since the wireless signal isn’t quite strong enough.
It would have been a little more comfortable had the RV not been loaded for the upcoming camping trip to Lake Cushman, but there is still room to work.
Yes, that is a Propane BBQ loaded up next to the bed. That should make it VERY interesting getting out of bed in the middle of the night to pee.
With dinner planned for over at Swanda’s (also air-conditioned) that means I don’t have to cook in the sweltering house.
And speaking of dinner, it was lamb steaks with salad. Yum.
With the flight at 1pm, I have plenty of time to get to the airport this morning – but a 7am computer tech help call got me out of bed a little earlier than planned. So with that, it was what the hell, I’ll just go out to the airport in a leisurely trip on the bus.Between a smooth check out and a city bus waiting for me when I crossed the street I was in the Continental President’s Room by 9am having a bagel and cream cheese breakfast followed by a Bloody Mary. Damn, life is hard.
Jill is showed up at 10:30 from her flight from the Big Island. At 10:30 I get a forwarded message from here… our flight home is over 2 hours late, and that she is making her way across the terminal.
Looks like it’s going to be a LONG day since by the time she got settled into the lounge there was another text…. 270 minute delay on our flight — but at least she pointed out that there was free wi-fi here in the lounge.
New times? Our 12:55 flight will now leave at 5:05pm, putting us in a little before 2am.Ick. More amusing is our horrorscope for today (yes, we are both Libran):
Rushing around isn’t cool. You show your maturity by allowing yourself plenty of time to do what you need to do. There will be a special moment with someone you love. Savor it and allow it to stretch out for as long as it can.
Like 4 hours?
I love the Alaska Airline Flight Status page when it says about our flight: Not operating as scheduled. Duh. Apparently is was an hour or so into the flight and had to turn around and head back to Seattle. Possibilities are heart attack, mechanical, or unruly passenger. I’m guessing option A or C since they were only on the ground for 35 minutes.
Wish me luck for getting out of here. And for your amusement, here it the scrolling bar of 165 pictures from the trip.
The hotel I’m staying in has those old style nightstands with the radio built in… and I wanted to listen to NPR for the news. Static, static, static. I pulled it away from the wall to find that it didn’t have an antenna installed. No, I don’t travel with spare antennas – cords of every type, adapters, but no FM antennas. Take a look at what I made from a twist tie and one of their hangers – though I had to remove the rubber grips from the clip to make it work:
And a little more about last night and my get together with Johnnie, who I used to go to school with years ago. We hadn’t seen each other in 10-12 years – long enough that he had four children at this point and is thinking of adopting two more. Wow. The meeting wasn’t as odd as our last meeting where he tried to convince me that I should be having children because I had such good genes, but close.
He is still an odd duck – way intelligent but with an interesting interpretation of his divorce and dating afterwards. Oh well, he seems to be happy now, and isn’t that really what matters.
But now back to me.
Spent a little time down by the pool, but the wind was kicking up and I was pinking up so I packed up and walked down to Waikiki Beach. I should have waited for the shuttle. Feet are killing me and I was sweating like a pig by the time I found a place for lunch.
Lunch at the Tiki Hut overlooking the beach. A seared ahi tuna salad with a 20oz. mango mojito in a commemorative glass. That takes care of one gift!
Back at the hotel, I lounged around the room finishing a Dean Koonz book that I’ll pass onto Hummingbird when he and BamBam stop on their way to Breitenbush this summer. Also logged on to find out that Jill and I are being upgraded to First Class for our trip home tomorrow – even went downstairs to the lobby where there was a computer with printer ($1.00 for 5 minutes, .35 cents per print page).
Dinner was a couple of appetizers from the bar downstairs – Ahi Poke Ocean Salad (wonderful large chunks of sashimi grade ahi with seaweed and soy) and their Hawaiian pork nachos which were these tortilla cups filled with pork and topped with guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Add a glass of Shiraz and you have a damn fine dinner.
The rest of the evening was just laying about and occasionally looking down on some corporate meeting down near the pool – totally held in Japanese, I’m guessing that it was a corporate reward for good performance – I did see a sign for a Sony reception so I assume that was it.
And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post.
The list for today:
Pool Time
Work Time
Ukulele Search Time
And the result was…..
Pool time — got about an hour and a half of morning tanning in after having a lite breakfast of Korean dumplings at the food court of Ala Moana mall which is up the street before hitting the sale rack at Sears where I got my digital camera for a steal a couple of years ago, then to Hilo Hatties which I thought had closed since they went into bankruptcy, but apparently not — and scored a killer salt and pepper silk long sleeve shirt (looks like my sports coat) marked down from $54.99 to $9.99.
When I was in the lobby this morning I picked up the brochure for the hotel I’m staying in…. this room on this floor. $475 a night. Ouch. I like the $80 a night off of priceline.com. Suddenly I feel better about paying for Internet service.
Next up? The hotel shuttle down to Waikiki beach where it turns out that I stumbled into the 25th Annual Longboard Classic. Surfer boys everywhere.
I’m afraid I made myself sick with too much eye candy. Check out the scrollbar to see some of the thousands…
Next stop was Puapua — an ukulele shop in the Pacific Beach Hotel. Damn, that was the WRONG place to go into. Stunningly beautiful instruments, including a couple of dozen that weren’t for sale, just on display like a museum. After listening to the electric ukulele last night I knew it was going to be bad — remember the rad aluminum skate board I bought in Big Bear, California?
And I bought a soft side case to get it home safely.
An early dinner poolside while working on round two of the daily tanning session. Tonight is cocktails at 8 with Johnnie — and all college friend and ex-Microsoftie. Should be interesting conversation if it’s anything like our half an hour phone conversation this afternoon.
Where do I begin??? NO Hilo Hattie coffee mugs please – they speak voices to me!! Next, were there enough towels in the room for all the accidents – Ahem! You have a new toy…and boy is not in front of it = amazing! And fireworks too! WOWZERS, what a day…in paradise.
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.
Well, tomorrow there I go. Waikiki for three nights oceanfront. Doesn’t look like there will be any First Class upgrade for Jill or I. Oh well. Can’t win them all. Don’t worry, I’ll post some pictures.
Today was filled with work, errands, SOB testing — yes, it looks like the fix worked! I took him over to Jimmies for a little computer work which meant up hills, down hills, stuck in traffic on hills. Still haven’t had the time to install the third monitor over the sink, but either next week or at the lake the following weekend. Need to make sure it works soon, or send it back to Amazon.
And the hecticness continued with packing for the trip, getting a little dinner in me, getting garbage and recycling outside, meeting up with John Weber, and finally heading off to a 9;30pm date.
Up early in the morning, but I can sleep on the plane.
The doctor showed up this morning to cure SOB’s persistent drip and overheating.
It turns out that is was all related to a stuck thermostat:
The overheating
The lack of hot air coming out of the dash
The dumping of it’s overflow reservoir
Cost of the fix: less than $50 which I didn’t mind considering it was a house-call!
Tomorrow we will take SOB for a little spin around town to see if he is really fixed (i.e. temperature gauge in the correct range, no dripping, lots of hot air coming from the dash). At some point I have to get the air conditioning system recharged since that got drained getting the water pump off — oh and I need to recycle all the old radiator fluid too!
Need to make sure SOB is ready for two upcoming road trips:
Lake Cushman at the cabin 7-31 to 8-2
Tinkham Forest Service campground 8-13 to 8-16
What I thought I’d thawed for dinner was a chunk of pork loin. Imagine my surprise when I found it was a rack of ribs doubled over on itself. Much better! I’m sure that it was enough for two people, but somehow there was nothing left for tommorrow. At least I had a bunch of salad to add some ruffage and wine.
More web work for The Great Art Party after dinner. Check out this year’s goodies by clicking on the link.
When you have the time, do something that will eliminate all worries regarding an older V-8 (or V-6) engine under great stress from A) a heavy load or B) persistent idling. Add an additional mini-radiator in front or below the factory radiator. I recall in the ’70s they sold a lot of these for RVs and heavy-duty trucks becaus the factory units didn’t provide enough cooling capacity. And, back then, they were cheap. You’ll never have to worry about blowing a gasket again . . . well, the mechanical kind, anyway.
Markie, still reeling from a fabulous time. really enjoyed meeting all your friends. Glad you got some “quality” time after I left. Posted some of the pics on facebook.