Amazingly we had sausages left over from last night, and this morning they are in the breakfast scramble this morning…. And then it’s on the road for this boy.
I’ve got a 3pm appointment for a hitch install on the Focus.
Got there a little before 3 with the announcement that it might take two hours. Need food. Only thing close? Mini-mart. Answer? Deep fried chicken gizzards (are we in the south?) and jalapeño poppers.
And as I was reading the Wall Street Journal in the back of a trailer (I needed shade)… 45 minutes later, the hitch was installed:
Sorry for the bad pic – there is actually a hitch there. Now I need to order a ball.
In the garage, another couple of coats of red paint on the trailer. Still need to put the fenders on and do the wiring.
Out of the house at noon for a lunch at the Big Kahuna BBQ on Lombard. Kaluha Pork!
Yes, that’s a lot of carbs on my plate – and the sandwich is missing the first 3rd.
Then off to Goodwill which landed me an old 5-line split out box – no use at the moment but it goes into my 1A2 collection of old multi-line stuff.
It took most of the day to get a dinner count – when I went shopping I thought 8 – turned out to be six. And the only pic I have of it is… condiments to go on all the various sausages on the grill:
At least we are having salad. And caraway beer kraut.
My morning text from Roxy. “Danger danger… missing cards… car2go and orca card with number 232 on the front last seen on or near the chaise lounge”
Car2Go is a car sharing service in Seattle and Orca is the transit card for busses and light rail.
Brought them to the shop with me and at noon a very hungover Roxy and Jerrod popped in to pick up the cards and the pack of Cocktail Colors cigarettes that he left. And there was a change deposit on my deck of 51 cents as well. Lots of people dropping lots of things last night.
Got to the shop to find that there are still samples from yesterday’s tasting – in addition to the two I plan to open today. Seven bottles to sample from – that’s a hell of a Sunday but whatever is left goes to Julians with me tonight after work and after a three hour drive. The leftover samples don’t bode well for yesterday’s sales – and it’s true. Broke four digits, but just barely – worst Saturday since the end of November.
By comparison, it wasn’t a bad Sunday — though the first 4 hours wouldn’t have shown that since it was dead, dead, dead — thought I was going to have to subsist on the woman who were hanging out someplace close by and kept coming in for more cold bubbly – though at $10 a bottle it wasn’t going to be a lot.
As usual, customers right under the wire — thinking that being open until 6 on Sunday might be safer… but I do like getting off at 5 so I can make dinner for folks at the house.
5:10 I was on the road to Portland — 7:40 I was in Portland having made a gas stop in Lacey. Two and a half hours — with a gas stop. Damned impressive — think I’ll take me time on the way home.
The graduation party for Julian was in full swing when I arrived — luckily there was a little food left for me — home make pulled pork sandwiches. Damn fine.
Sis-in-law, bro-in-law, nieces left shortly after I arrived only to return with a car issue. There goes Karen’s trip to Evergreen tomorrow. Besides Julian’s graduation they have been on the road for Emily’s graduation and are looking at colleges for Karen for 2014.
Here are a couple dark shots of the festivities…
Jameson and Julian noodling around.
Julian’s girlfriend and his parents, not noodling.
A late night — the moonshine I brought didn’t make it through the evening.
Not a bad first couple of hours for the till, too bad it didn’t continue through the tasting of Austrian wines. Blame the weather – the sun was out which means the beach or the weeds over tasting fine wines.
Roxy and Jerrod came to join the couchsurfer and I for dinner. Yes, I let him stay one more day – mostly so he could meet the boys and maybe get a better idea of what the faeries are about. In the end all we did was to probably freak him out – needless to say he didn’t participate in the post dinner hottubbing.
Speaking of dinner – totally spaced getting a picture of the four of us, or even of the al fresco dining. Mixed grill of smoked black cod (very rich), steaks, turkey Italian Sausages, salad and a loaf of dill rye.
So, the couchsurfer who said he had no dietary restrictions turns out to not like:
Rabbit (had them as pets as a kid, as my mother did)
Duck (had them as pets as a kid)
Caraway seeds (which are in pretty much every Italian Sausage ever made)
I was fun to watch him try and pick them out of the sausage.
We (well Roxy, Jerrod, me) partied into the night. Couchsurfer went to bed.
Six orders in the queue at work today. I spent the rest of the time reading the Wall Street Journal and working on a document entitled “Initial Considerations for Business Transition” which beside being a run-on sentence is meant for the owners of the business and suggesting how they turn it into a non-profit foundation running a business (like Newman’s Own, etc.).
Working with Roxy to review/edit/tweak the two-pager broad outline. We’ll see what John, the President has to say about our proposal. The three founding partners are starting to talk about some sort of transition was they all move into their child wanting years. John just proposed to his partner a couple of weeks ago (gay) and the other two partners (straight) are married but so far childless.
Monday night (forgot to mention THAT) Roxy, John, Erin (one of the partners) and I had dinner out on Queen Anne at Petit Toulouse (French) as a finalie to the season. That was a nice treat — and, of course, they made me pick the wine.
But back to today — dinner with Couch Surfer Thomas (CST) of steaks, fresh bread, salad. CST doesn’t cook (or at least well according to him) so the sight of fresh bread from the oven was welcomed.
He’s off to a movie with his Methodist Chaplin wanting to be boyfriend. Well, he wants it, not sure if the Chaplin wants it.
Two comments about CST.
Spends too much time in the bathroom, no matter what time the day
Spends too much time holed up in the guest bedroom/office
He’s just on his laptop in the bedroom — it wouldn’t offend me if he were on his laptop in the living room — at least there would be a little more interaction.
Oh well, that’s why couch surfers are limited to three nights.
Work at the print shop is slow, slow, slow — definately the end of the season. I’ve started taking off the minute Roxy arrives and giving the hours to him. I have been catching up on my reading though.
Been texting with this week’s couch surfer, a 21-year-old gay guy most recently from Eugene, Oregon but raised in Ogden, Utah. Trying to find a time to meet him at the house, which as it turned out, he was already their when I got home — just hanging out looking like a one-man gay pride parade in his aqua skinny jeans and bright pink top — lets not forget the purple print vinyl bag….
He wants to move to Seattle — has friends here, has a guy he’s interested in, now he just needs a job so he can move it with a friend, who wisely said, “No Job, No Room”. His ideal job would be with Planned Parenthood since that’s where he worked in Eugene and really likes the service they provide.
Thomas (the couch surfer) has a game night planned with friends so he won’t be around for dinner tonight (but will tomorrow).
As for me, a little steak, a little salad, a little wine and it’s all good.
Well, that and working a little more on the trailer.
After work today I was running errands around town, one of which was to Pacific Iron & Metal to source a piece of aluminum for the trailer bed. Needed a piece 40×48. Popped into their outside yard — lots of diamond plate, thicker than I wanted. Looked like I was going to have to have them cut a larger piece to size… and then I spotted a palate with a couple of dozen sheets on it. We measured one and found it was…. 40×48. A little thicker than I wanted, and 23 pounds so a little heavier, but he cut me a deal on it. Only charged me 20 pounds (at $2.50 a pound).
Next up is to bolt it to the trailer:
It’s going to get painted red so I won’t have to get the slight corrosion off of it. Now I just need to go in and cut out the stake slots. That will be the project for the rest of the week.
TokyoDave wa supposed to be on a 6:30 flight — just perfect for having dinner, but, alas, his United commuter flight to ORD from STL had a mechanical, so they put him on the Alaska SLT-SEA direct flight that arrived at 8:30. Make that a late dinner.
With talking until 1, we aren’t getting much sleep tonight and I need to take him to the airport in the morning.
A VERY quick visit. He’s off to Portland and then the Bay Area.
One last ODD note. They picked up my recycling this afternoon… on a Tuesday (Wednesday is my usual day) and on the wrong week (recycling is every other week). This is the second time it’s happened — and it’s sort of handy since I’ve been bringing home all the empty boxes from the shop.
Well, UPS dropped off a big freakin’ box this morning:
Just a little LARGE to send to the wine shop as there would be no way to get it into the back room, and if you could, it would take up the whole room — and then there is the weight:
And here is the inner box all pretty and graphically:
Man that thing was packed in their well. Good thing I already have a stack of cardboard next to the recycling bin cause this is going to add a bunch more.
A quiet evening around the house… with little bits of styrofoam stuck to everything.
Sucko day at the wine shop – I think the weather has everyone gardening and not sipping wine.
First sale wasn’t until almost three, and we open at eleven. Last hour was good, just needed several more good hours.
Swung by Harbor Freight on the way home – zip ties (which I didn’t know I needed until I saw the price) and a couple of four piece anti-fatigue mats that I like to use camping.
Tonight’s dinner?
A pork tenderloin covered in bacon spread from Skillet:
$14.95 – click on the photo to go to their website. This was a gift from Swanda – we used it as a topping on last night’s rib-eye steaks (with deviled eggs and green bean salad). Let me tell you … it kept the tenderloin moist and tender.
After dinner we did something I haven’t done in what feels like years… watched a DVD. An oldie but a goodie.
This movie came out the year I graduated from high school (1974) and it is as funny today as it was then. Click on the DVD cover for more information about this wonderful Mel Brooks comedy. And I did something I haven’t done in a decade — made popcorn for two people who try and avoid carbs. I didn’t even know I had popcorn kernels – must be left from a couch surfer.
Out of the house at noon to take the boy back north… with the Mercer ramp closed traffic is truly a mess, luckily not for northbound, but getting back south might be a challenge if the express lanes switch direction… luckily they didn’t and it was only a 15 minute delay after getting off the freeway to be able to get up Capital Hill.
My turn to close the shop today – then it’s off to dinner as Swanda’s place with BreticusMaximus and DancingBear. Now if any one of them would pick up the phone to let me in. Twenty minutes later at least BM saw my text. Seems everyone had put their phone on vibrate for their afternoon game of Caton. Geesh.
That made it 8pm by the time I got there – forgot Swanda’s chilled bottle of white at the shop, was to the freeway with an expectedly closed freeway entrance when I remembered. I had a delivery order for DB as well.
Home later than I wanted, a little after ten. Fell asleep on the couch in the middle of Saturday Night Live. Guess I needed the sleep.
Two orders in the queue when I showed up for work. And nothing else had come in before I got off at 2pm. I got caught up on a 2″ thick stack of magazines I’d been behind on.
Got this far to the trailer this afternoon before I got the call to pick up Seaside Boy (now Everett boy) at the Nordstroms in South Center Mall:
Only thing left is to mount the axle, put on the head unit, and run the wiring.
The boy is up for the night – and I’m paying him to mow the lawn as well, though by the time we got to it, he had to finish with a flashlight. While he was mowing I mounted the axle.
Late dinner. Pork loins and salad. The boy isn’t much of a wine drinker… trying to teach him. Not getting far.
I’ll take him back to Everett in the morning on the way to work.
Slow day at the office – but complications with one of the printers, again. Another service call – diagnosis, failing hard drive. Luckily after a couple of calls figured out that it’s under contract so just costs of down time.
Headed home I spotting this going up river:
It big – hoping it means that they are about to place the opening parts of the bridge deck.
Started working on the trailer assembly:
But had to go back to Harbor Freight and get the correct carton two – they gave me the carton for the next size up model.
This is as far as I got today before dinner and drinking called.
Well, I finally pulled the trigger on this. Had I pulled the trigger last week I could have saved $30. Oh well. Piece number two of the “weird camping project”:
Then it was off to work – to be greeted by a crisis. The printer we print the linen announcements on the display panel on the network controller is stuck on “Loading….”
Not good. Apparently it happened yesterday and a tech is on the way for 11:30 (still hadn’t made it by the time I left work at 2:30). So the print queue is filled with orders that can only print on the now dead printer.
Tried:
Restart button on controller – didn’t work
Cycle power on/off – didn’t work
Completely unplug controller from wall, wait a minute, plug back in – WORKED.
Quickly queued up ALL the linen jobs and started counting envelopes – 22 orders in the queue on a Tuesday morning is a rarity, but when ¾ of them were left from yesterday…
Busy day getting the orders out, complicated by an order going to Canada (even though the invoice said Vancouver, WA – and the shipping amount was $12.50. $62.15 and 30 minutes in line at the Post Office and 15 minutes for the clerk to actually process the package later… I was out the door and on the way to get plates for the trailer:
That’s almost actual size. The plate is like 3″x7″. Now I have to assemble the trailer which is still in the station wagon:
Trailer in the box. Sort of like that “dick in a box” video from Saturday Night Live years ago.
Haven’t seen that in years, and it’s still funny.
After all the excitement of the day… pork chops, slaw, white wine for dinner.
One of our distributors is having an unusual wine tasting today in honor of their 10th Anniversary – only 10 of the wines I tasted out of33 were actually for sale. The rest were verticals from two different producers.
On the Domaine Dagueneau we had vintages from: 94, 96, 98, 99, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10. WOW.
On the Clos des Pape Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge we had: 00, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 10.
The 00 of the Rouge goes for $150 or so. Basically there were thousands of dollars of wine open.
After that I didn’t have the spirit to go across town and sample champagne, instead I went to the wine shop and grabbed boxes for recycling since they come on Wednesday at my house. A little grocery shopping, then swapped the ragtop for the wagon and went and bought a utility trailer:
Not that the wagon has a trailer hitch, yet. That’s scheduled for the 13th.
Got a coupon in the mail – $159.99 (plus tax). Harbor Freight is the place. File this under “camping accessory project” that need to be completed by mid-July.
Today is the day for CaddyDaddy’s Celebration. Time to meet the family that has heard so much about me, but never met. 11-4 was the time, I made it until a little after 3 when it started to wind down. It was good to swap stories with the poker buddies, most of who showed up. Curt and I might have even made peace after two years of not talking. It might be time to rejoin the poker game. It was also good to see CD’s old housemate Neil – a little dishwater blonde cutie.
It was still hard.
After the celebration I needed to be away from people (who I knew) for a bit. First stop was a Safeway to hit the discount racks (steaks, Britta filters, pork chops, dented tomatoes, sausage) and then next door to the Goodwill where I stumbled across a little bit of airline memorabilia for SuperModel:
A stainless steel coffee pot with NWA (Northwest Airlines) etched on the side. SCORE!
Tonight staying at Ross’. Dinner was the two steaks that I brought, and he added asparagus to the mix. Too bad we drank the bottle of wine I’d planned to go with dinner at the Celebration.
Very light day at the print shop, but the owner (the local one) was there when I arrived – it was nice to spend half an hour chatting with him. It gave me a few new perspectives on our plan to see what they would think about turning it into a non-profit Foundation.
Off work at 2, headed to Oly around 3. After dicking around and traffic got there at 5:30 for the social hour of the President’s Recognition Award Dinner. What a change from last year and the unlimited flow of wine. This year: tickets that entitled you two a maximum of two glasses. Luckily I had none drinkers at my table to run and grab me some of their allotment. This year’s dinner wasn’t nearly as wild as year’s and not nearly as much fun.
Let during the last presentation to make it to Dwight’s place by nine for an evening of drinking and storytelling.
I miss that boy – it had been too long. Dwight is the one that I brought back the 4-port USB hub in the shape of a large Lego brick. Here are two of his more strange Lego constructions:
Frank Lloyd Wright rendered in Lego.
He’s got thousands of dollars tied up in his bricks….
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