UMTravels

Maybe 5 hours of sleep last night. Dragging my ass to the airport this morning. First run with the new suitcase. Wish me luck.

Flights on time, sitting in First (used miles for the ticket), all is good).

Plenty of time in Houston for a Rueben for lunch… which kept me full until after 8pm. WOW – considering the sandwich was at 3PM.

The Colonels met me at the airport which was sweet of them. They brought me to the Avenue Plaza Resort – a WorldMark resort on the St. Francis streetcar line in the Garden District. Kate had a couple of glasses of wine, I had a couple of glasses of Bourbon, Eric was driving. They left after an hour or so to let me get settled – and at least Eric is an early-to-bed kinda guy.

As for me, I had another Bourbon and started thinking dinner and shopping for breakfast.

First stop: Houstons (where I ate at the bar the last time I was in New Orleans).It’s a small chain – guessing this one is the only one with live jazz.

Here is the menu: http://www.hillstone.com/pdf_menus/houstons/Houstons_St_Charles.pdf

Sat at the bar (again) and had the Soup of the Day: Red Bean Andouille and the St. Francis Oysters on a bed of creamed spinach, either of which would have been the dinner I needed after my late lunch. Combine it with a Sazerac Rye and Dolan Vermouth (we sampled this yesterday) Manhattan to wash it down and the phrase out of my mouth was “Dear Lord, take me now, it doesn’t get any better.”

Some pictures. The bar:

The band:

The food:

And if I can make this work – a 30 second video of the band.

Great conversation at the bar with a neighbor who asked my wine advice and I took the bartenders since nothing on the menu I knew… and the bartender treated me to a sample. GOOD. Not sure I’d pay $14 for a glass of it… guess I’d better research the bottle price. The wine was: Mi Sueño El Llano | Napa Valley 14!/!52.Hispanic winemaker, Napa Valley grapes. ViVino, my phone app lists 17 like, no dislikes and a score of 85. It’s labeled Cabernet Sauvignon but has some Syrah in it. Unfiltered so it’s throws a little sediment at the end of the bottle.

Next up was Walgreens for soda, eggs, cheese, and a 3-day Bus/Streetcar Pass.

Unfortunately the mini-mart closed at 8pm. I was hoping for cooking spray, green onions (doubtful) and salsa. They are on the same block as the timeshare and the amazing 24-hour Bar/Grill/Slot Machine/Laundromat:

What it says in the center is IGORS. I’ll try at get a better shot of it tomorrow.

For now, off to bed with Letterman.

[206.8]

My brainfart – let’s do a Vermouth Tasting at the wine shop. LINK HERE

So, Vermouth. My tag line was “This is not your Mother’s Vermouth” – though in my case, my mother has a couple of really good bottles of Vermouth that she saves for the really good bourbon rather than the Early Times/Martini and Rossi Sweet Vermouth/Bright Red Cherry that is the everyday Manhattan.

We had six different Vermouths open:

• Foro Extra Dry
  
• Perucchi White
  
• Dolan Vermouth Rouge de Chambery 
  
• Quady Vya Sweet Vermouth (in my mother’s cabinet)
  
• Carpano Antica Formula
  
• Perucchi Gran Reserva Vermouth (in my mother’s cabinet)

It was great to taste them side by side. All of them with the exception of the Carpano to my taste would be fine on their own with a couple of cubes and maybe a twist of lemon.

Great day for sales Sunday wise.

Dinner at Swanda’s with Wonderful as well…yes, he is fully in holiday mode:

Didn’t stay late – I need to finish packing this:

It got done… at 1:30am while cursing. Even the travel book didn’t get bound. Apparently I didn’t leave early enough.

[207.0]

My half dead tree in the backyard that I may have killed dumping hot wine wash (from the still) off the porch, or the neighbors poisoned because it dumps leaves on their yard lost some of itself during the day while I was at the shop:

More things to fix on the “dining platform”.

Speaking of work – crazy wild day at the shop – and it was just me holding down the fort as Jim in Chelan with the relatives and the girlfriend. Means a 5 day run for me which is good for my billable shop hours but was a little stressful at points.

Headed home at 7 to have my chunks of Filet Mignon before entertaining Missy and giving her some of my Canada SWAG since she’s a big hockey fan. A Molson Beer hockey puck menu holder and a pair of the Canada Olympics Hudson’s Bay mittens. She was quite happy.

Another work day tomorrow.

[207.6]

There are some nice things about working the first day of the month:

• Wine Club selections are available
• Big dollar day
• Dinner invitiations start flowing from my friends in the wine club who want home delivery

The downside?

• Manually running all the credit card numbers

Tonight’s dinner invitation is from DancingBear and BreticusMaximus for steaks, cheesy potatoes and salad – and a lovely bottle of Barbera d’Alba that one of our reps left (well ¾ of a bottle).

As for those cheesy potatoes – I ate them… and figured out that you could make that dish low-carb by swapping out the scalloped potatoes for cauliflower and it would probably cook in half the time. Apparently the recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen if any of you want to try it and invite me over.

Sunday is dinner with Swanda and Wonderful. Swanda is the one in the wine club now that it’s fall (4 Red, 2 White).

Got home around nine and made a horrible discovery…. Istanbul is on sale this winter/spring:

The Colonels (who I see next week in New Orleans) would die on this route – almost 16,000 miles. Not a bad price though $612.90 round-trip. I couldn’t find a cheap way to do this mid-week so I’ll have to be off a weekend so might as well make it a 10-day trip in mid-March.

Working the shop tomorrow solo as Jim is in Chelan with the relatives – hopefully tasting wine.

[208.6]

Running errands before getting to the shop a little after four. The child invasion runs from 4:30-6:30pm tonight – BOOM (Business Owners Of Madrona) sponsors a Halloween Treasure Hunt (of sorts). We are the M in their Zombie Madrona Puzzle.

And what a save of children looking for treats… and adults thankful for a sip of wine.

Here is the aftermath…

We were ½ a rack out of clean glasses – we were down to the Champagne Glasses. In the picture above – the dishwasher is ALREADY full.

After a cup and a half of chowder at Greg’s place (courtesy of Patsy) and a glass or so of scotch I was home at around 7:30 – just in time for more trick-or-treaters, which surprised me since I’m not used to them in my hood – and they were a bunch of them. Here is what they got at the door:

All the stuff I’ve lifted from flights, Board Rooms, United Lounges… at least it isn’t a tooth brush (which I did see in one of the bags at the shop).

Put the marinated chicken thighs in the oven, made a little salad, had a good evening.

You?

[210.4]

Yep, it was a quick trip to the Bay Area. The original reason was:

1. To see the boys
2. To make three trips for an extra 10,000 bonus miles on Alaska,
3. And then they announced a double Elite Qualifying promotion until May of next year (link to the deal)

The flight was at 1:20 so it’s out of the house at 10am – luckily Mark isn’t on a conference call since the wine box is now full of whiskey for the return trip.

Got to the airport in plenty of time – even enough time for a dog at the airport – a gourmet dog as well:

Didn’t realize the dog came with fries or I would have tried to swap it out for slaw or a salad – or just had them leave them off the plate since I have no willpower once they are in front of me. But those are grilled onions on top of that split dog. Damn tasty.

And as expected – no upgrade to First – this time there were seven people in front of me on the list (which they nicely display on the monitors at the gate).

Had a little time to putter around the house before heading to the shop for a private event – tonight it is a private wine tasting for Events & Adventures, a singles activity club here in Seattle (and 6 other cities) that I used to work for.

Didn’t get out of there until 9ish – but I had a new toy in tow… a new Porter Case that the last time I checked the shipping status they said November 4-12^th to expect arrival… not the 30^th of October. I got this one off eBay with a Make An Offer price of $199.95 or a Buy It Now price of $249.99 – (link to the deal – he still has 8). I didn’t need the camera inserts but my buddy Craig in LA can use them in my old Porter Case.

The new one:

This shot has all the foam and dividers which will be going into the other case: And in hand-truck mode:

The new one has a TSA approved lock along with it being injection molded so hopefully it won’t get as banged up as the others when I check it. In hand-truck mode you can put 150# of other luggage on it.

My old case with the new padding and dividers:

Well, that’s my fun for the day.

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Up and out the door lugging a 6-pack of wine for the boys.

Got upgraded on the flight down – still no word on the return flight which means it doesn’t look good.

This isn’t my plane, but it is one of the newest in the Alaska fleet – dedicated to their employees:

Uneventful flight down (just how we like them), easy transition to BART into the city. Stopped for a dog at the dog stand at the Ashby station – damn those are good dogs – before walking the ten blocks are so to Mark and Onyx’s place. Normally I would have gotten picked up since I have the wine with me but Mark was on a conference call and, well, business does come first.

For our dinner tonight with Alicia (no Devon, he has a colonoscopy planned for the morning) I brought down some smoked black cod from the Port Chatham Smokery, now part of Trident Seafoods in Ballard.

Because Alicia has clients up until 8 – we ate a little later than usual… and started with a lovely Sparkling Rosé Cremant that I brought down on a previous trip. In addition to the cod, some fingerling potatoes (also from a previous trip) and a huge mixed green salad rounded out the meal service.

Needless to say I didn’t get to bed early.

[208.0]

Slept in a little later than I’d planned, which meant run, run, run for the rest of the day.

Today’s big chore is helping Jim with all the wine club shipments – well, not really shipments, they will be picked up—but they all need to be ready for the 1^st, which is its own issue since Jim is taking this coming weekend off to head to Chelan meaning I’ll be doing all the credit card billings on Friday. How’s that for a run-on sentence?

But before that I need to start moving wine around in the house so I can take a bunch of 6-bottle wine boxes to the shop. Since I didn’t have any empty cases I had to use wooden wine boxes that I brought home yesterday:

It took us almost three hours to get the club boxes put together – the downside of being flexible is while 12 people have “6 Reds” boxes, others are very customized:

• 3 Red/3 White
• 4 Red/2 White
• 6 Red/6 White – each bagged individually marked Red or White with the tasting notes inside the individual bags
• You get the idea…

The upside (besides all the revenue this brings in) is that it’s caused us to really clean up the back room. I took measurements for some more shelving to hold 6-pack boxes throughout the month so we don’t have this scramble at the end of the month as the club continues to grow.

Didn’t get home and settled until after four – moved some more wine in from the garage to get it to room temperature from garage temperature (makes the distilling process go faster):

That would be a case of port on the left, Three cases of red in the wooden cases (from above) and 5 6-packs of the same dead red wine on the right – all below the lovely 787-8 Model Airplane that I got on the MegaDo.

Had a steak and a salad for dinner – and then it was back to work posting notes for this weekend’s tastings. I’m particularly excited about the Sunday Sipper this week which is a Vermouth Tasting – we will have 6 of our Vermouths open for tasting.

Spent a little time trying to nail down details for my Honolulu and Hong Kong trips (no, not on the same itinerary), but nothing firm yet. Current thoughts are:

• Macao and the Formula One Museum for the Hong Kong trip
• Circle Eco-Tour of Oahu for my final day in Honolulu when I need to check out at 10am and my flight back to Bellingham isn’t until 10pm

Was hoping to get to bed early since I’ve an early flight in the morning.

No such luck.

[208.4]

Shop day today for me. Took the wagon today since I have four rolling carts to integrate into the shop… which I realized wasn’t going to be that easy since there are cases and cases of wine waiting for thewine club shipments. Maybe I should have done this next week – after all the shipments are boxed (and hopefully picked up).

Oh well – that spent the first two hours of the day.

Didn’t get to much of what was on mine and Jim requests lists – luckily it was customers keeping me from my list.

And speaking of customers, it was almost like Gay Days and Madrona Wine Merchants – at 4:30 DancingBear, BreticusMaximus and JohnJack were all in at the same time as one of our regular gay couples (that sounds odd doesn’t it). Six gay men standing around drinking wine. How odd.

The upshot of all this was a dinner invitation up north after I got off. Gotta love a free dinner from people buying your wine.

Short entry today – just feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

[210.4]

My how time flys. We have been open for two years now. Add at least 6 months intense planning and building bits and pieces and the six months before that of back and forth. And we haven’t killed each other (yet).

We have settled into a routine flow with a list of things that need to still be done. But it’s all good.

Today’s wine tasting was “non-hosted”, meaning we were flogging things that we’d found a really good deal on – and passed those deals on to our customers. Something that they have come to expect from MWM (Madrona Wine Merchants). And frankly, it was a zoo for the first hour and a half. I think the neighborhood likes us – buying wine from one of your neighbors, well in the case of Jim, I’m just an ex-pat.

After this morning’s weight numbers after several days of carb heavy buffet meals – even when you try and avoid them, tonight it is salad and protein time:

I look at that picture and it makes me smile (other than I don’t have a napkin and silverware). Good food, good wine, a little reading material.

Life is good.

[211.2] As bad as I expected.

5AM wakeup call. Last chance to check email for the day… well, at least until I get into US cell phone range.

Transit to the airport was actually quick, and the Nexus/Global Entry was a joy. Off to the gate:

Yes, we are a real flight – I love the CHARTER MEGA DO line. They even catered a continental breakfast at the gate since the busses left the hotels at 6:30AM. It’s getting better.

This is our plane getting towed in. And the crazy MegoDo folks panting at the gate:

And the craziness in the aisles – and we have a meal service and two drink runs to get through this:

And it gets crazier:

And that was a 10 pack of Tito’s Vodka she was holding – three hours in we had sucked all the hard liquor (which they triple stocked with regard to a normal flight), and by the time we landed all the beer and wine was gone.

Airplane food was good. Toronto-Tucson seems to be British influenced with the grilled tomato:

When we got to Tucson we didn’t get into the terminal at all… off the ramps and right onto buses:

Next it was off the “Boneyard” – the USDOD facility that houses, rehabilitates and scraps out military planes:

And then we were back on the plane for San Francisco with a restocked bar (which we killed AGAIN) for a hanger party at SFO (San Francisco) at the repair facility:

More food, more wine – there goes my numbers for tomorrow morning’s weigh-in.

I opted for the air-frame tour (choice of three)…

Too bad we didn’t get to crawl through the planes but it was a fun time.

No upgrade for the way home – though another of the MegoDoers was one seat in front of me… he’s the one that blogged the luggage factory shots from Wednesday.

Long day – didn’t make it home until 1:30am.

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Being shut out of the Hotel Thing turns out to be good. I get to sleep in.

Due date at the Marriott is 11am for lunch then god knows what.

As it turns out its three hour-long break-out sessions – really I would have preferred the “boots on the ground” behind the scenes at Air Canada at the airport rather than focus groups led by marketing geeks.

Pics from today. From my walk to the Marriott – lovely detail work on an old government building:

Lunch with the geeks:

Didn’t realize it but in the foreground is a gillisoneer who helped our team win some swag with our business plan for a new airline, and some of the massive buffet reception (again, just wine, no cocktails):

And here is the swag total so far – but keep in mind I used the $100 AMEX gift card for raffle tickets for tomorrows drawing – those are in the picture as well:

Opps, missing the second set of gloves – the two white boxes are models of Air Canada’s upcoming 787-8 with MedgaDo Plaques – had someone give me an extra. The black boxes are RFID shielding passport and wallet covers. To get all this stuff home, the airplanes came out of their boxes.

And, because I totally forgot about mentioning my hotel room – clean, reasonably quiet, tiny:

And the final picture.. a guilty pleasure…East Canada Fish and Chips – the Canuuks know how to do this. I couldn’t believe that this was Room Service from the Pub in the basement. That’s an 8 oz. piece of Haddock!

5AM wake up call for the morning.

God help me.

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Well, the Rimowa factory tour was cool. It wasn’t cool that the busses that were supposed to take us there showed up at the wrong Marriott. What’s a little waiting around – finished one paperback, time to put the other one in my jacket pocket for those downtimes… like waiting for busses. Here are some shots of the factory – not sure how the MegaDo blogger got permission to take these as the rest of us were told no cameras, no videos.

The outside shot it mine.

Good tour – amazing the amount of hand work goes into each bag. Also amazing the cost (and the sky high margins). Here are their aluminum cases:

We had about an hour and a half after we returned to the hotels until the big reception at the Ritz-Carlton. Time to catch up on email, have a couple of cocktails, etc.

Gotta say that the food at the reception was top notch… as one would expect from the Ritz. My favorite was the suckling pig they were carving:

Add unlimited decent wine from the Niagara AVA and you have a nice evening of mingling – topped off with a little gift bag from the Ritz containing something oh so Canadian:

Yep, mittens from Hudsons Bay.

And as our final photo of the day – what you do to get a decent height to type blog posts on…

Yes, that would be the blue recycling bin turned upside down.

Night all.

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Early morning. VERY early. Do I look tired?

Breakfast on the plane:

Don’t I look comfortable?

On the layover in Dallas (massive airport just FYI, bought some duty-free Scotch and got some swag:

Lunch on the way to Toronto:

Still looking comfortable?

Got to Toronto and through Nexus after several tries – remember – must open eyes wide for iris scan. Managed to catch the schutttle before the one I was booked on. Nice to not have to think about bus, subway, subway, walking — this was shuttle, transfer to smaller shuttle.

Actually made it to the MegaDo checkin counter before 7. And now the MEgaDon’t.

YET ANOTHER DELETION – and this one from the NEW schedule. Seems that:

1. Breakfast is only included for people staying at the Host Hotels (Ritz and Marriott) – not mentioned in trip description
2. The whole “Marriott Experience” that they were so hyped about is limited to 50 people (out of probably 150 on this MegaDon’t) and again, limited to those staying at the Marriott.ds

Only good side is that I get to sleep in on Thursday morning – but still PISSED that Marriott commandeered the day, and then doesn’t make it available to everyone in the group. You’d think they want to impress the people who didn’t stay there as well – making future customers since they are giving us Platinum Status through 2015… or maybe THAT is also only for the folks who stayed there.

Grumpy tour guest at this point. Hoping for some really cool swag over the next couple of days.

Got checked into my room at the Strathcona – walking distance from the Marriott and a third the price. Had a Ruben in their pub in the basement. Not bad – had double cole slaw rather than the fries – enough carbs today – and yes, I did eat that fluffy biscuit at breakfast. Yum.

At least I have duty-free scotch to drown my tears.

9:30am back at the Hellaiott, oh, I mean Marriott, for the luggage plan tour.

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Well, the MegaDo starts tomorrow – this is the weird flyer junkie junket from Toronto to Tucson to San Francisco on a chartered plane.

Finally got a more detailed schedule of the events – two of them I really wanted to do have been cancelled:

• Air Canada behind the scenes tour (Marriott wanted more of the day)
• Boots on the ground Air Force Boneyard tour (cancelled due to the government shut down – they promise something equally cool in its place)

Pulled the temperatures for the various cities:

• Toronto, rainy and 47°
• Tucson, sunny and 84°
• San Francisco, partly cloudy and 64°

Talk about a pain in the ass to pack for – heavy jacket, no jacket, and light jacket.

Here is the full (edited) latest itinerary:

Schedule

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Registration package will be at the Marriott, where registration will be open from 6pm to 7pm.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

This is our day with Rimowa (high end luggage manufacturer). 

We will return to the hotels sometime between 4 and 5 pm.  This will be highly dependent on traffic in Toronto, which can be brutal.

Marriott Program will begin at 6:30 pm at the Ritz-Carlton.

Thursday 24 October 2013

This day will be a mix between Marriott and Air Canada.  Marriott will be hosting a behind the scenes look at hotel operations.  This event will be hosted at the Marriot and will begin at 8am.  The Marriott event will involve groups competing in various hotel challenges (cooking, housekeeping, front desk, etc…). Marriott is really excited about this and we hope you are too.

In the afternoon, Air Canada takes charge; unfortunately also at the Marriott. The logistics in getting everyone to and from the airport just wouldn’t work given Toronto’s traffic, but Air Canada has promised us a unique opportunities to hear from them and talk about our likes, dislikes and the future of Star Alliance

At 6pm Air Canada will be hosting a reception for the group. If you were on SMD3, you should remember they know how to party.  The event ends at 8pm and you have the rest of the evening to yourself in Toronto. 

Friday 25 October 2013

It is the day of the Charter Flight. 

AC and UA are both working to provide us our own dedicated lounge at the gate, including food and beverage.

We will arrive in Tucson at 11:15.

Due to the government shutdown the tours that we had set up with the Air Force were cancelled by the Air Force. As a result, we won’t be getting any “boots on the ground”; however, we have arranged for a special tour hosted by the Pima Air Museum, which still gives us access to the Boneyard. Pima has promised to make it memorable for the group. 

Boarding in TUS will begin at 2:50 PM and we will be closing the doors at 3:30 PM for the short flight to SFO from TUS.

The flight will land in SFO at 5:30 PM and proceed to the hanger for the UA reception. UA has requested that there not be bag lying all around the hanger, so there will be luggage bins as you get off the plane for you to put your carry-on bags into. Again, small purses or cameras are an exception, but items like laptop bags and roll-aboards will need to go in the bins.

At 8:30 PM the party and MegaDo officially come to a close. There will be transportation provided to the Marriott and the terminal as required.

WHEW! A couple of days ago I had to move my flight from 8:30pm on Alaska to 10:55 on United to not miss out on the last event. Still worried that I won’t make the registration 6-7pm since I don’t get in until 5:30 and with customs (should be quick) and the hour transit to the hotel…..

Two wine tastings this afternoon that with packing, paying bills, voting, and all the other miscellaneous errands, there just wasn’t enough time to both sample wine AND be prepared for this highly complex trip. At least I found a bag with about $28 in Canadian bills and coins in it.

After the madness of the day it was nice to just have a nice quiet steak dinner with the remains of yesterday’s tasting wine.

Must get to bed early tonight as my flight is at 6:15am… it’s a long way from Seattle to Houston to Toronto – at least I’m in First.

[206.6]

Interesting start to the day – four customers waiting outside the door at 10:50 (we open at 11). Nice sales total – birthday wines it seems.

Then 15 minutes later, another couple – at least these folks got to try the tasting wines for today:

• Varichon & Clerc Privilège Blanc de Blanc    ($9)
  Made from a mixture of Chardonnay, Chenin, Ugni Blanc and Colombard grapes in the méthode traditionnelle, this Brut Blanc de Blancs has aromas of buttered toast and pears .While the wine is good the labels are messed up. Was $14 now $9. 12% alcohol by volume.
• 2011 La Celestiere VDP Vaucluse    ($12)
  Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Alicante.
  Blended from over 50-years-old vines on clay/lime stone soil, the surface is peppered with pebbles. Manual harvest. Raised 100% in concrete tanks. A full dark Rhone style wine from a CNDP maker.

Plus we had this still open from yesterdays’ tasting:

• 2011 Anselmann, Siegerrebe Spätlese $16
  Siegerrebe is a hybred cross between Madeleine Angevine and Gewürztraminer. The vine is suited to colder climates as bud-burst is late and fruit ripening is very early It easily reaches a high must weight which is unusual in cooler climates. Anselmann’s Spätlese shows how well the grape does in the Paltz. The wine is very aromatic with elegant, floral and fruity fragrances reminiscent of roses, mango, passion fruit and apricot. The taste is round, rich with a mild acidity and a long finish.

And just because it came in yesterday (I bought a case untested, hopefully for Christmas gifts) and we opened it to see what it was like:

• 2001 Tagaris Walker Port $10
  This blend of Washington State Lemberger and Cabernet Franc is a tasty dessert wine that offers aromas and flavors of dark cherries, smooth berries and underlying chocolate. Was $20, now $10

The second couple in tried the first two and bought six of the bubbles – he’s new to the area so I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of him. Needless to say he got a free wine tote with his purchase. Also sold a couple of the ports during the day as well. What’s nice about the sweet wines is that they stay good for weeks so we can continue to sample them for people.

Not bad for a Sunday sales wise.

Home for and Adobo Marinated Chicken Thigh dinner… served with a salad and the remaining Blanc de Blanc from today’s tasting.

I really should start packing.

[208.2]

Dropped Kizzume off at Faerie Coffee on my way to the shop.

First customer to walk in the shop – 1:45pm – and we open at 11am. The days sales were OK but look great on paper as we got a big check from supplying wine to a local reception. We could use more of those.

After work it was off to a wedding reception for a couple of friends of mine who got married yesterday:

The happy couple. Went to Hawaii with Mark (on the left) last year.

Great food, great booze, great conversations.

Thanks boys for the invite… and congratulations.

[207.0]

I actually got out of “owner reeducation” at the appointed hour – well they promised 45 minutes and it was an hour, but better than the sharks at Seaside.

Hit the road after putting a little more air in the driver’s side rear tire… a very slow leak.

Ugly, ugly traffic getting into town – if I didn’t have to stop by the shop and pick up a case of wine that needs shipping I’d have taken US99 rather than I-5. After wine pickup it off to the house to weigh it and get it in the UPS system, then off to pick up Kizzume who came up from Tacoma for dinner and an overnight, then it’s off to drop off the wine at UPS and then head home to start working on dinner.

Tonight’s menu:

• Gazpacho ceviche
• Green salad
• Steamed asparagus
• Veal picata

Think it turned out pretty good.

In addition to Kizzume and myself, the lovely Swanda and BF Caveman rounded out the party. Below is a piece I call “Caveman With Bunny”:

Big fun for all involved.

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Out of the house at noon headed to Birch Bay. Stopped in Mount Vernon for a little thrift shopping – found two logod champagne glasses for a quarter a piece for the shop.

By 3 I had SeasideBoy in tow and off the WorldMark Birch Bay. The plan was for an overnight stay, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

They have completely redone in the inside and outside of this WorldMark since I was last through. It went from being a tatty (it was one of their first resorts after all) to the usual high standards of the WorldMark system. One odd thing in the studio was the placement of the Murphy bed – you couldn’t walk around the bed with it down as it dropped right next to the kitchen counter. Guess I should have sprung for the one-bedroom.

Basically SeasideBoy is standing right where the bed comes down. Bad design.

After a beef flank steak dinner called the front desk to cancel my “owner reeducation” for tomorrow morning at 10:30… only to have them up the offer from $75 to $100. Sold.

Guess I know what I’m doing in the morning…

[207.8]

Got up at 7am to plug the computer in to see if BART was running today. Whew! It is. Back to bed until 9 since I don’t have to get the boys to give me a ride into the city – a long ride on choked freeways with thousands of BART stranded riders in their cars.

Passed this sign on the way to BART:

Significance? Both names of islands? Yes, but not the reason I took the picture – SeasideBoy’s last name is Ellis.

No upgrade on the way back north. I’m number two on the list. Actually made it to number one when they last minute upgraded the guy sitting next to me. Almost as good as First Class – bulkhead aisle with the seat next to me open – made for a much more pleasant flight.

Steak and salad for dinner – big surprise there.

Time to unpack one bag and pack another for the trip to Birch Bay for an overnight play date with SeasideBoy tomorrow.

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