UMTravels

Maybe an hour of sleep – sitting up – on the couch – and apparently I missed four flash bang lobbed into the business across the way from my house.

Here is a little snippet about the incident on one of the local news sites:

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/man-hogtied-held-gunpoint-during-south-seattle-rob/nXjdt/

I’ll check back in a day or so to see if they have any updates to the story.

DancingBear showed up on time at 5:15am – I had to exit my house through the garage and walk down the alley to meet him. They had blocked off the streets in front of my house. Great way to start a trip.

Since I was checking a bag we were both in the MVP Gold line which meant we could get DB on the earlier flight with us, rather than the 9:05 or his original flight was the 11:05 which would be cutting it close for him to make the 3:30pm sailing.

Both of us got through the Pre line (shoes on, laptops left in) – though DB got his “wine” confiscated. He couldn’t find it earlier to give to me and thought he’d forgotten it at home. No – it was in his briefcase. Oops. Good think I brought an extra. I’d planning on having Jill bring that one on.

In LA we met the Princess folks for our$24 transfer to the pier – which turned out to be a good deal since we were early and they took us to the Sheraton for coffee and pastries (we went downstairs for a real breakfast at 15% off) and more importantly they checked us in and would have out keys ready when we hit the dock – no lines. YES! And since CaddyDaddy isn’t going to use his transfer (hard to do when you are dead) we got the Princess folks to take DancingBear in his place. RIP CaddyDaddy – at least someone got some use out your prepaid transfer.

I had the eggs benedict for breakfast – on top of the two English muffins with cream cheese I had in the Board Room. Maybe I should call this post “Carb Day”.

Got on board, got settled, got ice order, fixed myself a drink, did the emergency procedure briefing and then headed to the back of the boat for a little sailaway view:

That would be DancingBear in the background.

Dinner at 7:30 in the nice dining room with DB and Jill – we passed on joining the other dozen of folks at the massive table. I don’t really like meals with over six people, just too crazy. Just not relaxing.

Tonight’s wine:

Not a bad bottle of wine.

At 9 was the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) meet and greet was at the Wheel House lounge, deck 7 aft. Probably the most folks I seen at one of these, like twenty. Of course when the group you are travelling with has a dozen or so, doesn’t make it that difficult to reach those numbers.

Stayed up way too late, which meant ordering more carbs from room service. Bad Uncle Markie, Bad.

Will do better tomorrow.

[205.5 – and we’ll see what 3 days of cruising does to that number]

The day was spent running errands and doing for final bits of packing. Pretty amazing that it got up to 87 today – the 6^th of May! That’s not only a record winner, but 20 degrees over normal.

Dropped the remains of last night’s Bonny Doon Picpole (translates to “lip smacker”) at Jim’s along with Suze’s California liquor order, then to Safeway to pick up a couple of six-packs of Diet Vernors, one of which is going into my luggage with my bottle of “wine”. I must be a god to turn wine into whiskey. Chris dropped mine and her orders this morning.

I was amused by the cashier on the receipt:

HEATHER “MANEATER” FRANKLIN

Dinner by myself and catching up on other things during the evening.

However, just past midnight the neighborhood suddenly lit up with police:

There were a couple of dozen police cars which backed away when the two SWAT teams showed up – so it was an early morning of loudspeakers blasting “You are surrounded. Open the door slowly and back out with your hands in the air.”

Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep.

[205.8]

Art opening this afternoon at the shop, leading to a decent (for Sunday) sales day.

After work it’s steaks off the grill and coleslaw al fresco – the first outside dining of the season. The reason, it hit 83 at the airport this afternoon.

And this just in from Saturday’s party, a picture taken by the birthday girl:

How odd that FaceBook puts a black border around pictures. That would be me on the right, wearing my derby-day hat.

[206.2]

Opened the shop and closed the party. Well, the latter isn’t exactly true, though I did spend more time that I had planned – even ran into the service tech that fixed the trimmer last week – that was too weird. Apparently he has a buddy who lives in the neighborhood, and it was sort of a neighborhood party with half a dozen bands playing and somebodies riverside house two blocks from my house.

Lots of unexpected fun:

And you can see the progress on the bridge.

And since the house is in the “Sliver By The River” which is King County, not Seattle, bonfires (and fireworks) are legal.

I invited Long to join me at the party to celebrate Missy’s birthday, but he was pooped from a long bicycle ride. Tonight is his last night with me before going off to stay with his lady friend in West Seattle, which makes me wonder why he didn’t just stay there all week.

Oh well, it will be nice to have the house back. I think I’ll start limiting my couchsurfers to a max of 3 days since as Benjamin Franklin says: “Fish and guests stink in three days.” Though I must admit I thought it was Mark Twain that used that line.

[206.0]

A week and a couple of days after purchasing my new toy, it’s now street legal:

The license agent’s comment was “you lucked out on plate numbers.” How’s this for an easy to remember plate number – the GRN is for The Evergreen State College which features a tree logo.

My last day of work at the print shop until Tuesday the 14^th – next week is the cruise. 5 days off in a row. It’s been so long.

No couchsurfer Long for dinner tonight, he’s off with his Vietnamese friend who goes to school here – wonder why he didn’t stay with her?

As for me, some peppered beef flanks wrapped in bacon – plenty of leftovers.

[204.4]

In today’s photo tribute to CaddyDaddy, we (well, the Royal We) title this photo, fat men on holiday in Mexico (specifically a two bedroom Penthouse condo in Cabo San Lucas.

I think it was CaddyDaddy’s birthday trip 2011.

Work was a blur – hard to not think about the dearly departed. Once the orders were completed I started the process of cancelling CaddyDaddy’s Amtrak reservation (easy – issued refund) and Alaska flight (less easy – they had to split the reservation, and I need to have the Funeral Home and phone number to get the refund of $98, which I don’t have, nor does the family yet). I’m less worried about the September trip – I should be able to change the name on the other tickets and I have two possibilities.

When I tried to start the car… DEAD, DEAD, DEAD – good thing I put the charger in the car… and used every extension cord in the shop to get it plugged in. Time to get a new battery and put off the Smog Check until Friday or Saturday – need to check on times for both them and Ballard Licensing.

Hello Les Schwab Tire Center and a hundred bucks later I have a battery. Then off to Home Depot, but abandoned a purchase of 4×8 sheet of Pink Foam Insulation as a cover for the hot tub. I panicked and didn’t buy it – worried that it wouldn’t fit in the car diagonally since I hadn’t measured the Focus Wagon yet – and I didn’t have a bungee cord to strap down the lift gate. Tomorrow, maybe after Smog Check and Ballard Licensing.

Next up – O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for car fuses – the horn doesn’t work on the Focus, and it might be that the fuse is missing. Then Safeway for eggs (and other things) since there are two of us for breakfast in the mornings.

Pork loins, salad and bread for Long is tonight’s meal.

And here is the effect on guests:

Guest down, call 911!

[204.4]

Work was fine until CaddyDaddy’s sister Pat rang my phone. He is dead. I’m guessing another heart attack – I was too rattled to ask details.

In his honor – a picture of us from his 2012 birthday trip to Hawaii where we stayed in the military hotel on Waikiki:

It’s hard not to get misty eyed looking at this photo of us.

We were due to leave on Tuesday for LA, pick up a Princess Cruise to Vancouver and train home. Need to cancel his. FUCK. He was 15 days from getting his first Social Security retirement check which was going to give him the freedom to travel more. He had plans to take his Mom to San Diego, First Class on Alaska, in August – used my last Companion Fare Certificate that would work for First – and I was happy to give it to them. And then there is my Birthday Ramble that he was booked on: Seattle to Vancouver on one Princess Cruise, a night in Vancouver in a two-bedroom condo at The Canadian, then the next day off to LA on another Princess Cruise which we would have transferred to the Coast Starlight for the ride home in a Family Room (the wide one with windows on both sides of the train.) FUCK.

RIP dude.

The rest of the day was a bit of a daze. After work it was Ballard Licensing to either:

1. Transfer the title on the Focus and order license plates, or
2. Get a trip permit if it needs to be smog checked.

Unfortunately “B” and $30 later, it’s a trip permit for a car that the battery isn’t holding a charge. Guessing need new battery, will charge tonight and drive to work tomorrow – with the battery charger handy (and park near the front door).

Company for dinner tonight – Swanda (who leaves tomorrow to visit his mom for her 90^th) and Long, a Vietnamese CouchSurfer currently going to school in Cincinnati but going home for the summer. He’s here for a handful of days. Oddly enough it’s nice to entertain tonight, though with Swanda’s bad work day, it took some convincing. It was good for both of us.

Did steaks on the grill much to the delight of Long. Guessing most of that has to do with having no cooking skills and being a broke student.

It was a good end to a bad day.

[204.8]

Got off a little early from work as Roxy came in a little early. Came home and did this:

Mowed and edged the front, back and alley – about 2 hours of sweating in the sun. But the sun was out and that is good. The post is called “Slacker Lawn Care” because the two possible people who I’d hoped to do my lawn over the summer both flaked out.

Moved the car into the front yard to charge it a bit – may need a new battery as it seems to have lost its charge in the couple of days since I drive it – or there is a short some place which is not something I want to deal with.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to register the car without getting it smog tested – all depends on if it just model year (then I won’t) or previous records of smog testing (which I well have to since I doubt the UW did any testing). We will see.

Pork chops on the dinner plate tonight.

Early to bed for once.

[205.2]

Apparently Monday is “Send Back Your Dead” day:

• Tablet died – going back to Geeks.com
• Car stereo doesn’t fit – going back to Amazon

Can’t buy a new tablet until they realize they can’t do an exchange, but I did reorder a new car stereo (after checking out Fry’s just to make sure)… a single-din unit rather than a double din – and no CD player. Does have:

• USB
• Bluetooth
• AUX input
• AM/FM radio

I like the big “answer phone” button.

Apparently for $75 you get WAY more than the $150 system I returned. Didn’t realize this unit had:

• Flip out faceplate
• And it has a iWhatever interface for phone/pods etc.

Considering I didn’t even notice this before I ordered it… might have to get an iPod.

I’m still amazed at the price of electronics these days. For my $75 I get a single-din to double-din adapter plate, all the connectors. Can’t wait to install it.

Well, that was my day off work. Just me and a big old steak that I managed to only get half way through — leftovers for work once I’m done eating the meatloaf from last week.

[206.2]

Apparently hanging out with Greg is dangerous.

But at least his kitchen is well stocked:

Heauvos Ranchero before heading to the shop. And the Sunday paper. Greg is off moving a relative’s office.

Me – I’m at the shop at 11.

Not as bad as last Sunday (nothing is), basically, great breakfast, crappy day at the till.

Home to sleep in my own bed tonight — but not until I’m done hosting Jill and her Mom. Mom is flying from Tucson to Boston via Seattle with a four hour layover — right at dinner time and only 10 minutes from the airport.

Much fun.

[206.2]

Closed the shop today (as opposed to opening). Not a bad day in sales – much better than how the day started for Jimmie – not a sale before I showed up at 1:30. Some days are just like that.

My old house co-owner Greg showed up after the tasting (but there was still some left in the bottles) and invited me to dinner after I closed at 7. Steaks off the grill. Yum.

He’s a free man this evening with wife in Vancouver, BC with girlfriends, and daughter off for an overnight with friends.

We made the most of it – staying up late and decimating his whiskey collection.

Luckily it’s just two blocks from the shop so I can sleep in tomorrow.

[207.0]

Print shop in the morning. Wallastor Corporation in the afternoon. Steak for dinner.

Yep, that’s my day.

[208.0]

Now it’s just a matter of waiting for toys to arrive for the car… and working the print shop.

Discussions continue on the transfer of “The Legs of Christ” a piece by Burning Man builder David Best. Here is a really bad shot of the piece. Now just imagine it 3 feet by 4 feet:

You have to get up pretty early if you want a good deal from UW (University of Washington) Surplus… 6AM so CaddyDaddy and I could be there for the opening bell at 8AM in the parking lot of Husky Stadium.

The deal? $2800 for a 2000 Ford Focus Wagon with 57,000 miles on it (and some algae). That is about half of Bluebook retail.

I’ll get it titled and licensed next month (like, next week) but took it through a car wash to get the first layer of algae off it, then to Les Schwab to get the tire air pressure right – and what I should have done was put it on a charger since I waited over an hour to get AAA to give me a jump.

In honor of the Colonels, I put this plate on as a temporary:

That would be a US Air Force plate from Italy – Air Force Italy (AFI). I thought about my Panama Canal Zone plate, but it had 2007 on it.

Another beautiful day in the city:

After a little steak and salad for dinner, it was off to the garage where the Focus is on the charger to remove the factory head unit in anticipation of a Pioneer unit with USB/Aux/Bluetooth that is on Amazon for under $150.

As usual you can click on the picture and get to the Amazon site should you want to upgrade your 2-DIN head unit.

The other chore was to remove the next layer of algae. It seems to be holding a charge, but I’ll leave it on the charger tonight to play it safe.

So far the only thing I see that doesn’t work is the horn and the remote entry – which I’m guessing is just the batteries in the remote itself.

[206.6]

After work I transferred last week’s Tax Day Run into bottles:

I have to say that my new cellphone’s camera is far superior to my old phone which is vacationing with Thomas in Europe at the moment.

CaddyDaddy was already home by the time I was off work – dragging his computer along that got some horrendous virus that caused it to only boot in safe mode. Five hours later we had cracked the code to get it to restore. Then it was time to put all the software back on. Luckily for me it was just Office and Publisher.

Another late night and it’s going to be an early morning with needing to be at UW by 8am to look at some surplus Ford Focuses. Or would that be Focii.

[207.2]

Three loads of laundry, two loads through the still before Lucas shows up for dinner at seven.

Lucas is a straight guy, friend of Jill. He’s sweet, good conversationalist – and better to see him sans Jill as my googoo eyes for Lucas drive her crazy.

Lamb shanks was the main for tonight:

Looks good, didn’t taste as good as the last night – even after several hours of work. Can’t be perfect all the time, and the bread turned out great so it wasn’t a complete loss.

To bed late, again.

[206.8]

The shop wasn’t bad as in unpleasant, just bad in a sales sort of way. Four sales all day – luckily at least some of them were big buck bottles, like a lovely $48 (+tax) Chateau Nuif de Pape.

Got ahold of DancingBear to see if he’d be home so I could drop off some re-bottled Bourbon for our upcoming cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver, BC. Below are the bottles for CaddyDaddy and I:

The nice thing about running things north is that I usually get dinner out of it… and this time was no exception.

Tonight’s fare was a mixed grill of rib-eye, sausages, and chicken patties – with some green beans for me and some rice for the carb boys.

Home early, but with a commitment from BreticusMaximis to buy my old (well, not THAT old) Kindle Fire HD. With the new Windows tablet I bought, I just put the Kindle Reader software on it. We will see how this works when I take the cruise on the 7^th, which I actually get free internet time!

Maybe I should think about packing. Nah, its two weeks from now.

[208.6]

It’s always fun when friends swing through town on their way from London to Seattle to Portland to Denver, then Miami, Boston, back to Denver – at least that’s what I remember the schedule being.

It’s probably been ten years since we’ve have seen each other – was it on Lopez Island, or at their Pied-à-terre in Paris. I know it has been more recent that when I went to the Greek island of Sifnos for their 10 anniversary party since it’s now been 23 years they’ve been together.

I found the general location on Google Earth:

The town at the upper near right is Kastro, and their 6 hectare property (just shy of 15 acres) sits on the hillside looking towards the seaside town half a mile down a donkey path. The path in the other direction in half a mile gets you to the helipad.

With SurfBetty joining us for dinner and threw 4 smoked priprika links on the grill along with a couple of pounds of boneless country style ribs I’d been marinating all day. SB brought kale which he steamed, I did some asparagus on the grill, and a feta raspberry vinaigrette tossed salad made the meal.

Couple of bottles of French Red Wine washed it all down.

Damn fine time. Too bad SM leaves in the morning for the rest of his work trip.

[208.6]

With no company for dinner tonight I actually had a little time to finish setting up the new computer after mailing off a bunch of packages (some from the print shop, some from me).

Here is what it looks like so far:

The little tablet running Windows 7 is on the left, and then there is a 17″ monitor in portrait mode – something that the old server’s video card did not support. No, when I travel, I’ll just pull the tablet from its docking station, unplug the power supply, and throw it in the bag with the bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Might have to get an additional one – unfortunately it has a proprietary plug so it will have to come from HP at $40 or something like that. I’m wondering if the tablet is small enough to leave in my carry-on bag like the Kindle is.

After searching the TSA site it says devices the size of iPads can stay in your bag – though their blog says sometimes security is clueless about that rule.

So nice to power down the noisy living room server – final item is to set up email forwarding on the office server (and find a new home for the living room beast).

Steak and salad for dinner tonight – and a little cleaning/bed making in anticipation of company tomorrow night.

[209.4]

Well, a couple of more packages arrived so it’s back by the shop. After this one it’s just the toner cartridge coming in, maybe as soon as Saturday.

Since SurfBetty opened a case of wine last night, guess I need to set things up and run it:

I love my friends comment: “What you making? Beer?” Yes, that’s right. Beer. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Pork chops and salad is tonight’s solidary meal.

[209 something, I think, forgot to write it down]