UMTravels

Another wild day… marketing meetings in the morning, packing in the early afternoon, and then headed to Jameson’s place for his graduation tomorrow.

He and Natalie live outside Olympia and they are both walking the aisle (graduation) tomorrow:

• Jameson with a double BA/BS
• Natalie with a Masters in Environmental Study

Way to go you two!

I arrive at their little slice of heaven about 3pm with Natalie’s mom and step-father about 3:30pm. By then I’d gotten SOB situated on the road side, ran power to it, and got the laptop cell signal booster that I installed yesterday up and running. 5 Bars! That’s an excellent signal. Too bad it’s 2G and not 3G — but it will be enough for email.

The plan is to hang out. More family arrives including Julian, Jameson’s little brother who has also done work for me. Cocktails start flowing and we settle in for an evening of conversation and BBQ chicken (I cleaned the freezer out a bit).

Too late to bed but what’s new.

[220.3]

The joys of having friends you travel with is that you are working on a deal to use a $50 companion fare and are looking at Oakland first class for $260 a person, and then realize you can go coach to Hawaii with the outside possibility of upgrading for the same amount.

Goodbye Oakland, hello Honolulu. Now I have to find a place to stay.

It only took us two weeks to figure this out. And now I guess that I didn’t actually have to book that Newark flight next week for the miles. Or maybe their is MVP Gold in my future.

This, and trying to bill some hours to pay for it all. On the upside downside since it’s costing me money) is that Raf is doing a great job getting the yard in shape for the dying season.

Trying to figure out how to do Wiki pages is making me WikiMad. Make something, save it, watch it disappear. Shit.

Errands to Fry’s for SOB parts — and I actually got them all installed, though I’m having problems with the new video monitor for the kitchen. Pictures tomorrow. Maybe.

Dinner tonight was a rack of ribs in the convection oven, a nice salad, and some wine.

Raf home at 11 just in time for bed.

[222]

So, I found this because I clipped an article from Wired Magazine:

http://www.pottube.com/watch/dfaecdc212708f721b78/How-to-roll-a-lego-joint

I couldn’t get the damn thing to embed.

And from the same article, what if your member becomes erect on passover — is that like leavened bread rising?

Lots of billable hours today. Raf was working in the yard for most of the morning — the overgrown garden is getting closer to normal.

For me, besides billable hours it was a stop at the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) Nexus Urban Center at Boeing Field for finger prints, a photo (where I could smile — but not on the biographic one for air travel), and a chat with both US and Canada Customs folks. In and out in 15 minutes. Badge in the mail sometime.

Dinner was a small rack of baby back ribs (Toby will love with left over ribs — that would be Raf’s big dumb black lab).

Add some wine, start packing for Jameson’s Graduation Party, installing some more hardware in SOB (Son of Bob), and it’s an evening.

[219.7]

Back in the air for me, again.

Up at 8:30, out the door to the airport at 10am.

Bummer — pulling into the airport I get a text message from Alaska Airlines — your flight has been delayed by 45 minutes (which turned into a little over an hour). Had they sent it a half an hour earlier I would have stayed at Mark and Onyx’s and gotten some more work done.

The same lunch from the way down was served on the way back — but because my seat mate didn’t want his (nor did the rest of the crew) I got his as well.

A work meeting with Swanda followed my arrival to Seattle (with stops at the liquor store and Safeway). Man did he look beat. Nothing like opening a new office to through you into the blender.

Raf came by at around 7 for dinner, and movie and a sleep over. Seems he’s broken up with his girlfriend and is homeless, again. I least I have a ton of yardwork to get done so he can earn some bucks to keep his phone, storage locker and insurance paid off.

Dinner was steaks, roasted potatoes, salad and wine. It never seems to get boring.

And here is Raf’s contribution to the discussion of food. An oyster shot:

[? ? ?]

Today’s adventure is a trip to Santa Cruz for Santa Cruz Gay Pride. It’s funny that last summer on a mileage run I ended up at Arcata’s Gay Pride — not that I planned for it, I just happened to hit the right weekend.

Left the house at 10, got to pride around noon with all the stops:

• Noah’s Bagels for breakfast take-out
• Starbucks for coffee
• Picked up Goat

Goat is a wonderful 72-year-old faerie with 3 Rolls Royces [36, 56, and 72] and a Maserati under tarps in the driveway. Plus the pickup truck, a Volvo, and a collection of harpsichords, pipe organs, coocoo clocks. Some day I’d like a tour of all the toys.

There is something nice about Gay Pride celebrations in smaller towns — they seem less corporate sponsor driven — much less “Sponsored by Bud Lite!” “Sponsored by Absolute Vodka!” Thanks Lunetta for pointing that out.

Here is the photo shoot of Gay Pride — emphasis (mine) on the pretty boys:

There are two short video in there. One at pride and the other a short clip that starts with a shot of Goat and then pans around the pool party that started at 3pm.

And what a pool party it was. Clothing optional. Potluck that actually had a good mix of food and booze. Water slide into the pool. Space in shade and sun. And what really amazed me was that half of the cute boys I’d taken pictures of earlier showed up — though the percentage of them going “optional” was about 25%.

Basically I spent form 3-7pm getting an all around tan while removing a lot of water coming off the water slide full speed butt first. And no, there isn’t video of that.

Left Santa Cruz and headed north up Highway 1 (past Bonny Doon Road for those winos in the crowd, though their tasting room has moved into the city) to Half Moon Bay. A gorgeous day for a coastal drive.

Home at 9 in time to file the daily blog report, pour myself another scotch, and maybe have a little ahi tuna poke for a snack.

[? ? ?]

Up at 8am, out of the house and headed for the airport at 9:30. Through security by 10 and headed for the Board Room for breakfast.

Once again — I have an Alaska flight leaving from the North Terminal. It says a lot about the fortunes of Alaska Airlines and United Airlines… the North Terminal used to be exclusively United and now Alaska has 4 gates there — out of the 16 total. Ouch.

The noonish flight to Oakland is the one with a real lunch, albeit a light one. The rest of the afternoon flights have an annoyingly high-fat snack basket up in first class. Today’s lunch was a salad with non-fat dressing, mini-pita bread filled with hummus and a wrapped Fran’s Chocolate.

Onyx met me at the airport and two stops later (BevMo for booze and the Berkeley Bowl for appetizers) we were at their place where Mark was working on a weekend work disaster. Ah, the joys of a start-up.

A relaxing afternoon, but no nap.

Dinner finally hit around 8pm — and a stunning dinner it was made from stuff already in the fridge… scallops wrapped in bacon drizzled in a berre blanc sauce and carrots sauteed in butter, triple sec and chinese five spice. Yum, yum, yum.

[220.5]

Nothing like starting the day out with an alarm clock.

I love Swanda’s comment — I hate meetings that run over an hour. Here, here.

The upside is that it does allow for more things to be done during the day. After the meeting it was off to the bank to put my paycheck in, grab a little lunch, stop by Office Max for a toner cartridge that they were out of so I ended up buying an 8gig mini-SD card for $20 ($60 marked down to $30 and a $10 off coupon), then off to Arvey/xPedX for the print cartridge where it was actually cheaper ($149.95 compared to $136.95, and I had a $5 off coupon).

Home was finishing up the printing of the summer call which Swanda hates the typeface to which my answer is that it makes people slow down and absorb the material. Well, that’s my woo-woo answer.

More billable hours in the afternoon looking for office locations in the Bay Area.

Evening was taken up with dinner and a movie with Dancing Bear, the Queen Registrar for the summer gathering. Pork chops, roasted red potatoes, salad, and wine on the back deck.

Off to Berkeley tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get some pictures to spice up these posts.

Still no answer on where/when we are going for Jonathan’s birthday cruise. Thinking Alaska (again) late August. Got a card in the mail from Holland America (a nice A-6 card in matching envelope) saying they received my letter of complaint and they are looking into it. Nice touch using a thank-you note size card.

[220.8 — apparently the cruise weight it back]

Well, the standard marketing meeting every Thursday has been cancelled. Or rather, postponed until tomorrow. At 8:30am.

Didn’t I just do a post on early morning stuff. Is it karma?

Spent the day billing hour, running errands, and generally getting my life ready to leave town again on Saturday for the Bay Area. Looks like a little work down there along with Santa Cruz Pride and a faerie pool party — does faerie pool party mean no suits? Will take the speedo just in case.

Dinner was roasted chicken over salad. The wine was a Ravenswood Zin that I then tried out the new accessory Goerge gave me — the vine cork with the attachment cord that attaches to the vacuum food sealer.

Guess I’d have to let it set for several days to see if it really works, but with Dancing Bear coming for a work/play dinner tomorrow, guess that’s out.

At least most of the Summer Gathering call is printed alone with being posted on web, makes DB only a week late which is good for him. It’s kind of relaxing knowing I’m not going.

Into bed at 11pm tonight. Ambian will control the tossing and turning so I wake up to the alarm refreshed.

[215.8 — bye bye cruise weight gain]

I HATE GETTING UP EARLY.

There, I said it — like you all didn’t know that.

It just screws up my sleep schedule and makes me cranky. Example:

• Up at 5am with a wake-up call
• 5:30 downstairs shit/shaved/showered for breakfast
• 6am shuttle ride to the airport
• 6:45am Continental President’s Club having a Cape Cod or two
• 7:45am One the plane for a scone and yogurt and another Cape Cod
• 8:45am Sleep for another hour
• 10:30am Leave the garage and head home
• 11:00 nap for an hour
• 1:00 lunch
• 2: nap for an hour
• 4:30 drive to the dry cleaners to drop off Alaska trip shirts
• 5:00 news and dinner with Swanda
• 8:30pm back to bed

It’s hard to get billable hours in with that schedule.

[219.2]

What’s that phrase…. not the day that I was expecting.

Dan and Lisa were off with his mother for breakfast — I passed, I wanted to sleep in since I was expecting a long day, and an early morning on Wednesday flying back to Seattle.

Breakfast basically sucks here at the Ramada Airport Denver. I make do with the English muffin toasted with a little cream cheese and this morning a hard boiled egg sliced and dribbled with Tabasco sauce.

Lunch was across the street at the Village Inn and their Cobb Salad. I had to go back to the room for my hoodie and hat as the weather has turned cold, drizzly, and windy. This does not bode well for the Leonard Cohen concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre… rain or shine. $130 ticket. Sounds like misery to me at this point.

Back to the room for more work when I get the call from Dan — OK, I was napping at the time — saying the concert has been postponed til Thursday because of weather. So much for rain or shine.

When I get the word that I can actually get a refund — happiness blossoms.

It also helped with the car/hotel/early morning flight situation.

Dinner was halibut at George’s place, then Dan, Lisa and I heading into town to visit Sean (Moshe) and Lisle who are sans kids for the night. I made it until about 9:30 before I had to head back to the airport hotel. It will be an early morning tomorrow.

Thanks George for all the car use!

[? ? ?]

Out of bed at a little after 8 so I could get some breakfast in me before they stopped serving — at 9:30 it turns out.

Dan, Lisa and George show up at 10:30 for our trip to the DAM, the library, and maybe the mint. Oh the plans of people sightseeing on a Monday.

• DAM (Denver Art Museum) closed on Mondays
• Library open, nice short tour
• Mint by reservation only

Instead — we are off to Paris on Platte for lunch and then spice shopping next door — you could smell the spices half a block away. Yum.

After our misadventure it’s back to the hotel for me, and off to nap time for Dan and Lisa. I did get a little work in, but missed the nap.

Dinner at the Buffalo Bar and Grill a couple of miles from Dan’s Dad’s Place. I had the buffalo meatloaf which was good, and generally everything looked good… and the prices weren’t too bad either — max entree was like $15. I don’t understand how a bar cannot have bitters to make a Manhattan — geez, it’s like $2 a bottle.

After dinner we took George home and headed to Dan and Lisa’s friends from Seattle who move to Lafayette, Colorado which was 30 minutes away on the north end of town. Great folks, great kids — and that’s alot from me!

Home at 11:30 exhausted — but not too exhausted to finish this blog post.

Tomorrow — no morning plans other than work.

[? ? ?]

Up a little before 8, out the door at straight up 9am. Earlier than I like, but it’s a six hour drive to Denver from Santa Fe.

An uneventful trip with the exception of the “Change Oil” light coming on around the New Mexico/Colorado border. A quick call to George confirmed that is wasn’t a problem — but I think he was happy that I was concerned enough to call.

I got to the Ramada on Tower Road at 3pm, filled up the ice bucket, poured myself a drink, checked email and headed over to George’s to return the Corvette at 4.

The kids were napping when I got there, but the sound of the Corvette brought them to life.

Dinner was Delmonico steaks on the grill, some beans, and some potatoes…. and a lovely St. Suprey Cabernet that Dan brought. Yum.

Tomorrow I think we will hit the DAM (Denver Art Musuem).

[? ? ?]

I have finally figured out Internet access at my parent’s house. No — it isn’t gloaming onto the neighbor’s signal like my brother does — it is attaching the cell phone to my computer and making it the modem.

My day:

• Wake at 8:30 to avoid moving furniture for the party
• Two slices of rustic loaf (my mother’s favorite) toast for breakfast
• Drive into town with the top down
• Shop at the outlet stores on Cerrillos for black chinos
• Hit all the stores and buy two pairs of pants — one olive and the other kakhi, but only spend $21 for both
• Spend $30 on sushi and nigori saki for lunch
• Strike out at Jackalope for a gift for Dan’s father who lent me the Vette

Party at 4 — my nap is interrupted at 3 because the party maven needs my help lifting and organizing stuff. It only happens once for each child.

At 5 I return to my parent’s house for a “to-go” cup of scotch on the rocks. Good idea. Several other people engage in the Fresca and Vodka, or merely the beer in the glass to get through the “dry” party. It seems that there was an “incident” with kids in the house and booze so it’s a dry graduation party.

Weird to be in a place with that many testosterone challenged kids.

By 9 we (and some of the guests) are back at my parents house hanging out and getting ready for bed. Lot’s of chatting and hanging out. Not a bad way to end an evening.

I have to be up at 8 and out at 9 to return the Vette and meet Dan and Lisa at George’s place. I’m ready to go.

[?  ? ?]

Before I start with “Day Two” let me share some things about “Day One”.

Big event:

That would be the video of Emily (my niece) getting her high school diploma — which means it’s been 18.5 years since the death of my brother. And a surprisingly good commencement speaker. One graduation down, one to go. That would be my brother’s widow’s new husband’s nephew Jameson who does his ceremony June the 12th for a combo BA/BS from The Evergreen State College.

Dinner was at the parent’s house — which wasn’t the plan when I booked the WorldMark Santa Fe (which is lovely — check out the video link from yesterday scrolling bar). Made it back to the condo by a little after 9pm.

Time for work — bill those hours!

And now for “Day Two”.

I’m milking every minute out of the condo — sleeping til 9am, logging in a little work, checking out at noon, working for another 45 minutes in the lobby and then off to Rio Chama Steakhouse for a 75 birthday lunch for my sister-in-law’s aunt Nancy.

After lunch it’s off to the parents to work on the “to-do” list of all thinks high-tech that need fixing.

More later, maybe.

[? ? ?]

Here is the some additional notes from yesterday — from a note to my friend Lynne:

In your honor I had the Heauvos Rancheros with Green Chile this morning across the street from the condo at Michael’s Kitchen. The WorldMark Taos is on the grounds of the Fechin House which house the Taos Art Museum — talk about a central location.

Got a nice burn driving down from Denver yesterday with the top down on Dan’s Dads Corvette that I’m borrowing for this trip — and last night there was the wonderful smell of pinon burning in the fireplace of the caretaker’s cabin on the property. That was after a lovely post dinner stroll on the plaza. Nice way to start a road trip.

And for all the photos to date:

Took today’s marketing call from the conference room at the WorldMark Taos — then it is off to Santa Fe.

More later as time permits.

[? ? ?]

Early morning when you get a text at 4:45am telling you that your flight is on time even before the alarm is set to go off at 5.

Out of the house at 5:30am

Car is parked and am through security and in the Board Room by 10 to six — time to toast a bagel before they start serving booze at 6am.

A couple of drinks and a quiche on the plane and I am on the curb at the Denver airport at 11:30 and by noon I’m driving out of Dan’s Dad’s Driveway headed for Taos….

Well, until I ran into Joe Biden’s limo that shut down I-25 so he could give the commencement address to the Air Force Academy — with a tip from another driver and George’s GPS I hit State Route 83 to get around the fact that the freeway was literally a parking lot — time hit: 30 minutes. And another 30 minutes for a Subway sandwich, Diet Coke, sunglasses, and scotch.

Taos at 6pm — in the room. Scotch and ice in hand.

Dinner at 7:30, movie (School for Scoundrels) by 10:00, bed, who knows when.

[223.2]

Lot’s of loose ends to tie up before taking off for Denver tomorrow.

• Blog reports to catch up on
• Paycheck to pick up and deposit
• Room to reserve for Gnarlene in San Francisco ($177 .20 for three nights just off Union Square — and air is $119.20 on Virgin America, United and Alaska for a vacation total of $300 for 4-days/3-nights with money left over for the BART fare)
• Thank you notes to redo for E&A
• Letters in the mail:

1. 1. Monica – return map I forgot to leave in the truck in Juneau
   2. Steve in the slammer – what’s been up the last two weeks
   3. Holland America to complain about various problems with the last trip
   4. Clippings for mom, Curt, Jill, Linda
   5. Thank you note to the limousine company that picked me up at the train station

• Run to Safeway for six more bottles of Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel ($6.25 each) to qualify for a $30 rebate on a case — making it really cheap good wine
• Finish packing – carry on only
• Print out boarding pass (seat 1F — yes, my record of always getting an upgrade on Alaska Airlines is holding)
• Fill paperwork for the “Fire Hydrant Refund” that Seattle Public Utilities is offering because of illegal billing from 2002-2004

Upcoming schedule:

• Wednesday: Seattle-Denver-Taos
• Thursday: Taos-Santa Fe
• Friday: Santa Fe
• Saturday: Santa Fe
• Sunday: Santa Fe-Denver
• Monday: Denver
• Tuesday: Denver and Leonard Cohen at Red Rocks
• Wednesday: Denver-Seattle (wish me luck on the upgrade)

Dinner tonight are some pinwheel steaks with sliced tomatoes — oh, and that red stuff from Napa.

[222.7 – ouch — it’s true about those 6 pounds per cruise]

Today was just getting things put back together after two weeks away from home.

Left camp a little after 10am, dropped someone off in Bell Town and headed home to deal with the stack of mail (8″), an overgrown lawn (more than 8″ in some places), and a little grocery shopping since there is nothing in the house except moonshine, diet coke, and condiments.

Didn’t get much actually billable work done, but all the ducks are in a row for the morning. But the laundry is done, the bag for Denver is 90% packed, the transportation from the airport is arranged (and I got a coupon for cut rte parking at the airport in my credit card bill).

Dinner was a quiet affair — just some baked chicken breasts and coleslaw. Mix with a little red wine — savor.

No more pictures for a day or two.

[221.7 — but mid-day]

Well, the plan WAS to cab from the boat to the train station, check the luggage and go explore Vancouver with my priest and his hottie boyfriend and catch the 5:15 train to Seattle.

That WAS the plan. The reality was a wee bit different.

Took the cab to the train station and the baggage check was closed until 11am. We also discovered that there was an 11:30am bus (not my favorite way to get home) that would get us in between 3-4pm meaning Ross would get to Olympia by dinner time with time to mow the lawn, rather than midnight.

Priest and hottie boyfriend met us at the train station so we had a little time to hang out before we got on the bus.

And speaking of the bus — got in an hour early. But before I go on, here are the last of the pictures I posted to the web of the trip:

Coming back early had one other benefit… I could catch the last day of the gathering at the Longhouse that Gnarlene borrowed SOB for. Time to fire up the Jag, pick up some wine and pop and head to the suburbs.

Lots of surpised people at the Longhouse when I showed up — lot’s of “thought you were in Alaska” comments. I had a fun evening hanging out with the boys, watching nude oil wrestling on the lawn, hung out in the RV drinking scotch and wine, watching videos — managed to stuff eight people in SOB.

A nice way to end of the trips.

[? ? ?]

Today we are cruising the inner passage… stunning. I’m glad I stayed on the boat. And we have a chef’s dinner tonight. Doesn’t Ross look cute?

More later.

[? ? ?]