UMTravels

Well, before going to the accountant to do taxes, I booked the trip to London. It’s easier that way. Spend money, then find out the tax bill for the year.

What I realized last night is that the 12,000 plus miles I’ll get for that trip will give me enough for a domestic first-class ticket. A bonus. Of course, now I’m wondering if I should go back to London and go for Premier Executive. I think I have a travel disease.

So, because I like my pictures, here is last night’s dinner:

Roasted potatoes, lamb, salad, wine. Life is hard.

Tonight it was more about working on tomorrow night’s dinner for Alicia — shrimp stuffed with crab wrapped in prosciutto, asparagus (with Onyx’s hollandaise sauce), salad, and hopefully some wine….

Tomorrow is supposd to be sunny, maybe more painting.

[216.8]

So, my assumption was that this would be the last year that I would have Premier Status on United Airlines having moved most of my flying to Alaska Airlines. And then, today, a note in my in-box… double elite qualifying miles for all flights booked between now and June 15th. I am mulling going to London for a weekend in April… $500 round-trip, and 24.058 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM), a mere flight to the Bay Area.

If I decide to do it, it means that I will have beaten my old record of $985 (four roundtrips, 8 segments) to get status on Alaska a couple of years ago. Dear, oh dear, decisions, decisions.

What is so special about Premier status on United — Economy Plus seating at no extra charge. You can buy a pass for $350 a year, or fly 25,000 flight miles, or buy a ticket to London for $150 more. But trust me, those extra 4-5″ are critical to having a nice trans-oceanic flight.

And speaking of travel — just logged on to check on my upgrade for my flight to Oakland on Saturday… they bumped me to my favorite seat on Alaska… 1C. My luck is holding! The last trip was $110 round-trip and I ended up in First Class in both directions. This trip was $120 — with at least one direction in first.

But I can’t make a decision tonight.

I do have a photo of the back porch tonight:

But hell, it’s all about dinner. Four lamb chops, some high-heat potatoes, salad, wine.

And now for Barack on Late Night.

[216.3]

I’m not sure where Wednesday went… Raf got an amazing full day in of painting (8am-4pm) so the front and back each have one coat, the sides have two coat, and the whole thing needs another coat before we can start on the trim. That would be the “royal” we — meaning Raf, not me. The two sides need the extra coat to help cover the scrape lines.

Not bad considering the weather report was for rain.

Grocery and liquor store runs as I’m out of everything.

Calls to RCI and WorldMark to straighten out account details — must be all that paperwork that I did yesterday that put me in the mood. I even got all the upcoming trips put into envelopes to hold all the various itineraries and tickets. Those would be:

• 3-21, Bay Area for Alcia’s 50th
• 4-16, Birch Bay with Marybeth and the kids
• 5-7, Long Beach with the boys for poker
• 5-11, Alaska Cruise
• 5-23, Denver and Santa Fe
• 9-23, Ireland

I even got the tickets reworked for the Amtrak leg from Vancouver to Seattle after the Alaska cruise.

Dinner with Swanda. I made us steaks, asparagus and salad — typical Uncle Markie meal.

Home and on the couch by 8:30.

[217.6]

Yikes! Friday I meet with my accountant. That means it’s time for that once-a-year filing of all the paperwork that has just been stacking up on the floor by the desk. It also means sorting through all the Visa bills, the utility bills (for the percentage of home office deductions), donations, all that mandated IRS stuff. It really isn’t the sort of Man Date that I’d like.

That was the afternoon while Raf worked painting the house (the paperwork):

This one should really be titled, “A Boy And His Dog”.

The morning was going through the backlog of work for Events and Adventures. It is amazing to have a job that I can do on my schedule rather than a 9-5 (which I am no longer suited for). Hopefully they will keep me around a little longer.

The evening was trying to clean out the refrigerator by eating the bits and pieces of everything from previous meals/recipes — and it worked pretty well for the liquor cabinet as well. Guess that means a restocking run tomorrow morning.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Does a green salad count.

[217.8]

I realize that yesterday’s post was all about the seating, an not how to score that illusive frequent flier award — the business or first class seat.

The answer? Pay the $25 fee for a real human on the other end of the phone — even if they are in Bangalore. For the $25 you get access to all of your airlines partner flights as well. In the case of United — that’s all of the Star Alliance Partners, hence, my segment from Heathrow to Dublin on BMI (British Midland) and from Dublin to Frankfurt on Lufthansa.

Second part of the answer? Fly Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday with the best chance on Wednesday — hence, my two week trip. There was nothing (at the cheap saver rate) Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, and on Tuesday it was a code-share with USAirways, which only has two cabins of service (and on domestic first class they use plastic cups).

Third part of the answer? Flexible as to destination. Ireland was my first choice so I could visit Jeff and Mindi (and the two Jameson Distilleries — having done Bushmills in Northern Ireland several years ago). Second choice was Bangkok to visit LekkerDing. Third choice was Sydney, just because it’s Sydney and there are all these WorldMark resorts I haven’t visited yet (most expensive choice from both a miles and a lodging sense).

So, there you have it, my three tips on getting off the continent using miles. Now I’ll go back to figuring out what I’m doing for two weeks in Ireland. Helene has already sent me a list of fun things to do — though Waterford Crystal wasn’t on the list — didn’t they go belly-up?

The day was filled with work (not enough), Gnarlene’s computer woes (too much), and prepping for dinner with Wonderful (just right).

Finally ordered my Leonard Cohen tickets for Red Rocks Amphitheatre — that would be the Colorado/New Mexico trip in late May for the niece graduation/road trip. Many details still to come. Have car, need place to stay in Denver.

That dinner? Fresh sourdough bread (still haven’t perfected the recipe), bone-less country style pork ribs (isn’t that an oxymoron, bone-less ribs), salad and wine. Cocktails at 6 dinner at 7.

[219.6]

My 53rd birthday isn’t until late September (the 28th), but on this St. Pattie’s Day Weekend (though the actual day is Tuesday), I’ve booked two weeks in Ireland for my birthday.

So, the title post refers to the flight plan for the trip. Seattle to Chicago to London to Dublin — two weeks +/- on the ground, then back in the air Dublin to Frankfurt to Washington, DC to Seattle.

For 135,000 frequent flier miles (out of the 173,000 or so that I had — including the 13,000 from the purchase of the Jag) I’m in first class for all but the London, Dublin, Frankfurt.

By May of this year, all United’s 767-300 fleet will have their First Suite product:

My fear is that on my return leg that the 777 will be fitted with the old style international first class seats:

The time table for 777 updates is some time this fall… but I can’t tell if this is just a bad photo that doesn’t show the whole configuration or what — time will tell. At least I know the 767 will have been updated as they were the oldest in their fleet.

 On the London, Dublin, Frankfurt portions I’m in something called Connoisseur Class. I’m assuming it’s BMI and Lufthansa’s European Business Class and if so, it sucks. Six across seating the the middle seat replaced with an armrest. Same seat pitch as economy, just free food and booze. Oh well, I think I can handle it for the total of a little over three hours split between two flights.

Dinner tonight with Josh and Jill if everything works as planned. Chicken in a Thai Chili Sauce, salad, rolls, blah, blah, blah.

[220.6]

Apparently I have an inflated sense of my past. I have no FBI file, or, at least I didn’t before I requested my FOIPA (Freedom of Information Privacy Act) files. Curiosity satisfied.

What does Uncle Markie read, periodical wise (doesn’t count on-line, just what shows up in the mailbox and the front yard):

• Wall Street Journal
• Out Magazine
• Airline Procurement Magazine
• Money Magazine (added 3-16-09)
• Popular Mechanics
• Information Week (added 3-18-09)
• RV Business Magazine

How’s that for an odd collection.

The original plan for the late afternoon/evening was Josh (carpenter who widened my doorways and put pull-down stairs to the attic) coming over with more bad beer to turn into something else… now postponed until tomorrow due to hang over (his, not mine) — where we will also have Jill.

Leaves me with a steak. Poor me. Tomorrow either chicken or pork, both which came from the bargain bin at Safeway this afternoon.

[? ? ?]

Here is where we stand at the end of the week on the paint job:

Now, imagine that with a dark green trim. Imagine it done. Imagine all the flowers coming up in front of the winter. Imagine summer.

Dinner at Curt’s tonight with my brother, Dave from upstairs, Curt, myself. Cornbread muffins turned out great, pork in chili sauce a couple of minutes over done, but with the drippings, wonderful, salad, and lots of wine. Imagine, wine.

Did fairly well at poker for the second month in a row — turned lots of nickels and dimes into quarters.

[218.6]

Booked Denver this morning before the marketing meeting.

Still need a rental car — and I want it for under $200 the the week, with all the fees. Wish me luck.

NEWS FLASH!

Be careful what you ask for. I just forwarded my itinerary off to Dan and his father — and joked to his father that he should lend me is Corvette to the drive to Santa Fe. Not five minutes after sending the email he called to say, “sure, no problem”. Wow!

Guess that’s takes care of the the car problem. I’ll try and track down a photo of it.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog…

House is starting to get it’s first coat of yellow. Looks like it may take three coats to cover all the scrapping — that, on top of a coat of primer.

Brother Jon shows up sometime late afternoon for an overnight here (or two if he doesn’t come to Olympia to hang with the poker boys). Planned menu is steak, salad, potatoes, wine — standard Uncle Markie fare.

[218.5]

Where did the day go… it wasn’t work. That only took an hour and a half.

Errands? Not that many.

Working on the house. A little, but mostly it was what Raf was doing — me, I just nailed up some useless phone and cable lines that were taken down when the eaves went on last year (and had been dangling ever since).

Must be the damn computer that sucked it up.

I did figure out how I’m getting to Santa Fe this May for Emily’s (niece) High School graduation. I’m flying to Denver and driving down (5 hours). Why? I get the miles on Alaska and the fare was $150 round-trip. Amazing. How can you make any money that way.

The amusing thing is that the car (for the week) will cost me more than the airfare. 

Another reason for Denver is to see Dan and Lisa while they visit. I also get to see Dan’s father (who I like), and Sean, wife and kids (that I’ve never met).

I could have flown, but it would have been $260 for a triangle flight Seattle-Denver-Albuquerque-Seattle which was oddly cheaper than the $280 for Seattle-Albuquerque-Seattle. Now all I have to do if find a rental car for a week. Looks like $200 — wonder if I can borrow Dan’s father’s Corvette for a couple of days.

Had Raf over to dinner. Even did a load of laundry for the poor boy. Man, I remember living hand-to-mouth… and not really liking it.

The pork was good, the company was good.

[221.2]

Out of the condo by 10:30 — might be a record. It might be time to make a bag labeled “WorldMark” with all the spices, oil, wireless router, outlet strip, all the stuff that I need for having lots of friends with laptops on one connection.

$33.40 for two liters (two, one liter bottles) of Bombay Sapphire at duty free before a short wait at the border cute customs guy who joked that since I said we were playing hooky from work that he was surprised we had jobs. Maybe it was the Jag.

Got home to find three quarters of the house primed — and Raf grousing that now that it’s primer white he needs to go around and scrape again, now that he can see all the bubbled paint. Oh well,  bid a job, make it right. Considering he is fighting rain, snow, sun, and everything else, I’m amazed we are this far along.

I even manage a half an hour nap before going back to the grind of billing hours and pushing product.

At least I get to fix dinner while the sun is still shining — make me think that summer is somewhere soon.

[? ? ?]

A lazy day in the morning — breakfast was a hash made from last night’s pork roast and potatoes — Wonderful added a nuked egg to his.

BamBam showed up about noon and off we went to explore Kitsilano, Yaletown, and Gas Town for possible office locations. Seems I want to travel to all the places my clients want to open branches!

As luck would have it BamBam’s paintings are hanging in a coffee shop in Yaletown (my first choice for office location) that is owned by a real estate broker (who’s office is next door), and suddenly we are talking turn-key offices, what’s on the market, what they handle (what we want is what they handle). I love the whimsy of the timing of that visit.

Besides being a painter, BamBam is also a videographer — and here are a couple of links to video’s that he has done:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Imk2r5ap4
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuiWeCLgr4g

and my favorite off the Downtown Vancouver website:
http://www.downtownvancouver.com/index.html?v=axle

BamBam is the blond (at that moment), and the woman is his boyfriend’s secretary. How odd is that.

Dinner tonight was chicken seasoned with this lovely Meixcan spice mix called Tajin Classico which is basically Molido chilies, salt, and dehydrated lemon juice. Salad, green beans with garlic and onion, wine, a couple of different desserts and it was a meal for six people and we were only four.

And after dinner, the movie that BamBam and Wonderul picked out was Across the Universe which I hadn’t seen, but had heard the sound track while I was in Mexico the boys. What can I say, maybe it was the wine, but it made me cry.

[? ? ?]

Greetings from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Earth.

First — the review of the opera and the seats. For the first one-act opera , Bluebeard, we sat in the replacement seats — the next to the last row of the first teir — and soooo much better than sitting in orchestra center and having to step over people as we shoot out of the hall to hit the parking garage before the masses. For the second one-act opera we went back to our regular seats.

Yes, the view for Bluebeard (a STUNNING opera by the way) from the replacement seats was much better. The stage setting had a giant see-through scrim (that darkened in our usual seats) encased by a giant gold leaf frame.  Yes, we would have missed most of the action in Bluebeard by sitting in our (Wonderful and myself — though I’m looking for a partner for next season due to the economic downturn) regular seats. The full review of Bluebeard… I didn’t nod off, as I usually do during the first act of every other opera. Ertawag, or whatever the name of the second opera, was only saved by fully naked man rolling to and fro on the stage — strangley enough the plot stopped halfway through, and they took a bow (while we jetted towards the garage).

After performance cocktails back at my place. Woke up groggy from all the culture… and headed out the door fully packed at noon — destino (destination in Spanish, but I don’t know the French which would be more appropriate) Vancouver, British Columbia.

Sun, snow, fog, just plain odd weather headed north. Maker’s Mark (liter) and Alize (a passion fruit, cognac blend — Wonderful’s choice) from duty-free and then the cluster-fuck of the border where getting back into traffic going northbound means crossing the  Nexus lane and having to merge back into backed up traffic. Got to the WorldMark Vancouver at The Canadian a little after 3:30 to find the room ready.

Want the tour? Here it is:

Dinner tonight (as seen on the video) is a pork roast over potatoes and onions, a salad, lots of whiskey and wine and good company. In addition to myself, it’s Wonderful, my priest, and his hottie boyfriend.

[218.5]

That snow I mentioned yesterday? More like falling slush. By the afternoon the sun was out and the birds were chirping, and Raf was nowhere in sight having broken his 4×4 in a puddle that was bigger than expected.

And speaking of opera, tonight’s opera is Bluebeard’s Castle & Erwartung. It’s so odd this particular performance. On Thursday I got a call from Speight Jenkins — the Director of the Seattle Opera saying (yes, him on the phone, not a recording) that because of comments from patrons of earlier performances that he was moving my seats. My seats that I love more than the opera! This did not fill me with glee, more like gloom. Yesterday the box office called me with the same news, but at least was able to tell me where the seats were — Orchestra Center 13 rows back. Ick. Main floor, probably not on an aisle. I hate stepping over other patrons. After a little back and forth we are now further back, but on the side aisle of the First Tier. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report on whether the seats were good, or not.

Here are a couple of snaps from their website of the opera:

Before the show is dinner with Wonderful who will then drive us to the opera — early since we have to go to will call for new tickets. Another pain. Oh well.

Dinner is marinated chicken breasts (spicy chipotle sauce) over a bed of greens with a side of black-eyed peas and some garlic bed assuming that it’s fresher than the rolls from a couple of nights ago. Opps — I’m giving away my secrets of recycling food from guest to guest.

And last but not least, got a nice phone call from Debra in San Diego (lost friend from high school) thanking me for the CDs that I sent down of Javier’s music from his Muzak days.

[217.5]

Who would think it’s hard to write about Friday. What a stunning glorious day — too bad Raf is out playing in the mud with his 4×4 instead of scrapping and caulking… he says he’s coming tomorrow — when it’s supposed to snow. Silly boy. Who wants to be on the ladder in the snow. Paging Spring. Spring, Pick Up The White Courtesy Phone.

I don’t know what the title of this post is really about. Thank God it’s Friday. What the fuck. Must be the mood. Maybe it’s just sort of a throw away day waiting for Saturday and the opera with Wonderful, or Sunday dinner with Hummingbird and BamBam up in Vancouver.

I did get a little work done around the place. Hacked down a couple of limbs on the empress tree. Started the patch on all the miscellaneous holes on the interior of SOB (son of Bob — the newer, shorter RV that replaced Bob, the older, longer RV).

And the mail held a letter from the FBI with regard to my FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Privacy Act request for anything that is in my files — or if I have a file, which I’m assuming I do since I was supposed to be a limo driver at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Kansas City before they nixed that and put on door duty checking credentials right across from Walter ‘anchor booth. For information on how to file your own, CLICK HERE to go to my February 9th post. And yes, they were correct when they said it would be 3-4 weeks to get the initial response since they now run all mail through scanners looking for biological agents. Bottom line is that they got my request, and it’s being processed, here is your case number, we’ll be in touch, sometime.

Tonight it’s not me that is cooking — but Suze (with Jimmy rounding out the table). Nothing like asking Jimmy what’s for dinner and he relies, “Call Suze, she’s making lamb tonight.” The least I could do after inviting myself over is to bring a bottle out of the cellar (now the back pantry) — a 2000 Bonny Doon Le Cigar Volante. And it was damn yummy.

Home before ten and out shortly after that.

[218.9]

While I was on this morning’s conference call, Raf was busy scrapping away at the side of the house — he got all the ground level stuff done before crapping out at noon tired of working in the rain (and didn’t want to be up on a ladder in the rain)… had he waited an hour or two, he would have been working in weather like this:

Oh well. He will be back on Saturday when it’s supposed to rain again. Maybe he’s just a glutton for punishment. At least he’s pretty to look at.

Trips to IKEA and Ballard (opposite ends of town!) filled the afternoon.

Dinner and TV filled the evening.

[219.1]

So, this was the photo I was thinking of… a reminder of how nice it is to go to bed in a freshly made bed with clean bamboo sheets from www.shirtsofbamboo.com:

Oh look, there is a glass of scotch on the bed post. Imagine that.

But then, last night, my priest sent me this picture from my trip to Mexico in early January…

Or maybe it’s just a “scary” picture — got to love “speedos”.

Dinner date for tonight bailed, no one else has called, so I’ll make do with bar-b-qued pork chops, a little salad, and a little red.

[218.5]

I am a meat whore. Yes, I love my chicken, pork, kangaroo, buffalo, beef, snake, you name it.

I’m also a Safeway Clearance section whore. Today’s take on all this wonderful organic cyrovac’d beef — 50% off, and the stuff freezes well — not that there is any room left in my freezer being the Clearance whore that I am. Looks like we are eating a lot of steak this week.

Total savings? 47% of my bill… $96.94

Basically $200 worth of groceries for $109.88

Today Stewie is over staining the fence since it turned into a sunny day, looking at how to fix the chipper, taking the van in for emissions, adding some more reed fencing to the back deck, and at some point hopefully organizing the garage.

This afternoon Raf comes by to check out the house in daylight to finalize his bid to scrape, prime and paint the house.

This evening I think I’ll have a steak.

[218.9]

What a day…

• Up at 9
• Work
• Brunch at 12
• Work
• Leave for the airport at 1:30
• Plane flies away at 3
• Plane lands at 5
• Home by 5:15
• Guest comes for dinner at 6
• Dinner at 7
• Watch junk TV with guest
• Guest leaves at 10
• Watch news and new latenight lineup
• Bed at 1:30am

What was I thinking…

[? ? ?

Fourteen possible office locations scattered around the bay in five hours and 137 miles. Man traffic is a mess in downtown San Francisco — even on a Sunday afternoon!

Here is a sample of the video clips that I made of each location. This is the first one I looked at in San Francisco (on Folsom Street):

Guess I’m going to spend tomorrow writing up the report.

Stopped by Pat’s place after a stop at Trader Joe’s for groceries — didn’t have much time with Pat, but a pleasant conversation and a glass of wine it was.

Dinner with the boys tonight is a boneless leg of lamb over a bed of mixed new potatoes, a green salad with goat cheese, and a couple of very nice bottles of wine. Life is hard.

[? ? ?]