Work then swing by the shop to pick up some of the goodies I’ve ordered over the last couple of days.
With baking bread (and cleaning up) there isn’t really any time to play with the toys. And we didn’t seem to get a run going, though he did 12 bottles open for tomorrow. Didn’t even get my compost crock lid reglued – must have been having way too much fun – as this barbeque abuse photo shows:
Dinner was sort of Greek inspired – seasoned lamb, tzatziki, the salad was a raspberry feta vinaigrette. Now how I forgot to open the Retsina I’ll never know.
Guess I’ll be pouring the Retsina for SuperModel who arrives on Saturday on the direct flight from London.
Needless to say, it wasn’t an early night. Luckily SurfBetty is sleeping over on the office bed.
Ran some errands and came home to prepare for dinner with Roxy and Brandon.
The funny thing is that I met Brandon through Roxy, but Rox doesn’t know he’s coming to dinner since he moved 45 minutes away to lovely (kidding) Spanaway. Brandon’s spending the night and will cut the lawn tomorrow to earn some bucks. Not only is he stuck in the middle of nowhere three miles from the closest bus, he’s out of work and doesn’t have a car. Not good. Luckily he has a saint for a sister.
Dinner tonight is a rack of pork ribs for Brandon and I – and cod for Roxy.
Way too much fun. Roxy didn’t get out of here until midnight which will be rough since he gets up at 3am for his other full time job (other than being my boss at the print shop).
Nothing like a little freedom – my one day off this week. Must be time to run some things through the still.
During the runs there was plenty of time to surf the web for a couple of things I need for the office:
Network card for my HP printers – the one I have is dead on the 4550 and on the 4100 it’s on its last leg. With shipping, $30 for two of them – tested and guaranteed.
Magenta toner cartridge for the 8550 – which are ridiculously expensive from HP, and we call remember the luck I had with the last “off-brand”, but ScottyDog says that the Xerox ones are high quality. Hope so, I don’t want another explosion of toner. $88 with free shipping. Much cheaper than the $240 of the HP cartridges, that said, they are good for 12,000 pages at 5% coverage.
Also worked on the announcement for my father’s memorial service. Not really looking forward to it – is anyone ever?
Quite evening around the house, just me and the gurgling still.
A month ago or so I scored 10 ¼ cases of white wine cheap. Here is what I got:
2005 Domaine Le Conte des Floris Arès Blanc is made from Marsanne (60%), Carignan Blanc (25%), and Terret Bourret (15%). 13.5% alcohol by volume The estate Le Conte des Floris is a small exploitation of about 7 ha (17 acres) which is located between Pezenas, Caux and Gabian and was created in 2000. The winery is situated in the village of Caux, in an old cellar dating from the beginning of the 20th century. All our wines are worked without pesticide, insecticide or engrais. The harvest are handmade and the grapes are picked in small boxes of 12kg (26 lb) after selection within the wines. The wine is kept in small barrels during at least 15 months.
Don’t you love machine translated French – or at least that’s what it sounds like to me.
Originally this white wine was in the $15-$20 retail range. I like the buck a bottle price I paid for it – not that it’s undrinkable, but it isn’t pleasant. I have MUCH better uses for this wine tomorrow. Heavy reds you can cellar – don’t cellar light whites.
As for the shop today, dead, dead, dead – even with the sun out, or maybe that was to problem.
Came home, did a couple of chicken breast in molè and called it a night.
Medium order flow today in PrintLand, but I don’t know what was up in the morning, kept screwing up print jobs – luckily I caught them, but it’s still annoying. Lots of swearing with only me to hear.
The afternoon after work was filled with a visit from the Evergreen Foundation to pick up the scholarships we’d read a couple of weeks ago. They were amazed when I showed them the two applications with most of a paragraph verbatim to each other.
Just a quiet evening around the house for this boy. Can’t even find any cheap flights for July when I’m free from the print shop.
10 to 6, half an hour for lunch that I usually eat on my “10-minute” breaks. A quarter of the orders today so it was a mellow day – no mistakes which is good.
Big news I got in the afternoon – SeasideBoy is getting married, in August, to the guy he moved in with 4.5 weeks ago (plus one overnight in Seaside and 6 months of on-line correspondence).
I had the sense that is was getting serious, though not THAT serious. I’m not surprised even after 2.5 years of us seeing each other monthly or so – the new guy has 150+ pounds on me (and SB likes them hefty) and is apparently a total “gamer” as in video games as is SB, as is new guy’s brother. They’ve been going out to movies, dinner, lots of trips to the casino, all things I’m way too cheap to pick up the tab for. I offered to print the wedding invitations, he offered to invite me. That would be weird, especially if I took CaddyDaddy as my date.
Home before 7, dinner before 9, ordered a few more things for the new tablet PC:
64gig SD card to double the system memory
HDMI to VGA cable to add additional monitor
25 foot HDMI cable for travelling
The cables were cheap, the memory card $39 which isn’t bad considering how expensive large SD cards used to be. If all these things work as planned, I’ll retire the living room server and cut down the serious noise pollution and energy waste.
Full day of running orders, picking envelopes, seals, making them all pretty in boxes. Figure I made 35 graduates (or their parents very happy today). Not much time to sit around – didn’t take lunch until 3:30 when the rush of orders slowed down. One more full time day for me tomorrow.
Next couple of days will be busy because of the various “Grad Fairs” that Roxy and his boss are attending.
After work it’s back to the wine shop to pick up another couple of packages:
I had Roxy (my boss) in tow; at least we had a nice taste of a Western Australian Syrah/Viogenier while we were there. Next up the Post Office to drop off the few and rare Alaska shipments which FedEx Ground doesn’t handle, then dropped off Roxy and finally made it home by a little after 7.
In the mail this evening was a rather unpleasant surprise – my taxes came back from the accountant. Apparently I took too much out of my 401K and made too much money from the shop – whopping tax bill of $3786, plus his $325 fee. At least I have it in the bank, but ouch.
At least there are new toys to play with.
I didn’t realize the tablet came with a leather(ette?) cover with a place for its pen. Nice touch. I knew it came with a docking station with 2 USB ports and a HDMI out. Time to order some more accessories for the new toy:
64gig SD card to double the storage (128gig cards still too expensive)
HDMI to VGA converter cable so I can use a larger monitor – and hopefully replace the noisy server in the living room with this combo
Should arrive Friday or Saturday – then I can put the whole Adobe Suite on the “D” drive, the new 64gig SD card. It would be nice to retire the Monster Server, though it means moving some mail forwarding onto another machine, which I should have done years ago.
Some chicken thighs in sweet chili sauce and the leftover salad was dinner tonight, even the wine as left over from last night.
[204.4] Wow – haven’t been this light since Kansas City a year ago, and that was an unreliable (but flattering) analog scale.
Work at the print shop in the morning – it’s starting to pick up a bit. Not much time for counting out things in anticipation on the rush.
Swung by the shop to pick up a package:
Microsoft Wedge Bluetooth keyboard
Bluetooth mouse
These are for the Windows Tablet that shows up tomorrow. Cool design on the keyboard:
Once the cover comes off it turns into a stand for your tablet. For fun, tired making it work with my Nokia 810 – no luck. It would see the keyboard and the mouse, but wouldn’t let them connect. Oh well:
Still love my new phone.
Dinner tonight is with the wonderful Missy, who, just back from Yoga is looking soooo much better than when she arrived last night. Let’s get her well enough that she can take over my yard work!
If the tablet works out the way I’m hoping, might just make her a sweet deal on my Kindle Fire with it’s multiple covers.
Well, I did get around to running some of those ten cases. Ran two point two cases (26 bottles) in two runs. Also needed to toast up some chips:
Opened and ready to go:
Empty and ready to recycle:
And the new “catch alarm” set to go off when it’s time to dump the first two ounces:
Missy arrived in time for the second run… she wasn’t looking too good when she arrived, more like curled up on the chaise – the chemo pills she started taking Saturday aren’t agreeing with her. The good news is that by the time the roast chicken was served, she ate a ton, which is good because her appetite has been down and she’s looking skinny.
Think I feed her tomorrow as well – pork chops this time.
And too funny that she is doing Atkins as well, not for weight loss, but because sugar and carbs tend to react worse with the medications.
[205.8] Haven’t seen a 205 number since last September!
Day 15 of 16 straight days on some job or the other. And I seem to have added yet another job running the Washington office of a Nevada-based corporation that specializes in California real estate. Basically I’m providing office space and professional services like handling incoming mail and either holding or scanning and emailing it to Japan where their other office is. Old buddy of mine – not terribly lucrative — $100 a month but with a workload of maybe an hour a month. They also had me (separate invoice) design their logo:
It’s not quite done yet, need to match the crossbar weight to the thin stroke.
So, when I came home from the wine shop and the wine tasting I must have jiggled the phone cord running to the router… no internet. In researching the problem I came across another dreaded sugar ant invasion. It seems they like the warmth of electronic equipment. Notice all the little black dots… this was after I hit with the Botanical Raid – kitchen safe, orange oil based:
And there are more to the right by the transformer – bastards, they are impossible to get rid of on a permanent basis.
Tonight’s protein – Caribbean Jerk seasoned rolled pork roast:
Wrapped in bacon:
Cooked to perfection:
A little much for one, but it will make great leftovers.
Day 14 of 16. Just the weekend work at the wine shop ahead of me until a luxurious single day off.
Slow day at the Print Shop so found myself organizing and straightening things up – and wishing they had a vacuum cleaner so I could get all the paper bits off the floor – they have a massive industrial push broom which doesn’t really cut it for the parts of the shop that are carpeted. Oh well, maybe next week.
My new routine. Work, come home and tap a nap, diddle away the evening.
And since it’s such a boring day, we will add some leftovers. From Sunday night’s dinner at the Brooklyn, this arrived from the Las Cruces boys:
And this arrived from a Vancouver, BC friend of mine – Canada in 1899:
Not sure if you will be able to enlarge it on your screen to see that there were many more named regions in 1889 than there are now, such as Mackenzie, Franklin, Athabasca, Ungava and Keetwatin. If you want the original file, drop me an email or leave a comment.
Today is going to be a long one. Print shop 10-2:30, then the wine shop from 5:30 until 7:30, which turned out to be 8 since we still had customers at the tasting.
Tonight’s tasting was Carabella with the winemaker Mike:
And yes, he brought a rock with him for show and tell. He’s a retired geologist in case you were wondering.
Since I’m making money, I decided to spend a little. Picked up a refurbished HP Tablet:
HP Slate 500 Atom Z540 1.86GHz 2GB 64GB SSD 8.9″ Touchscreen Tablet W7P w/Dual Cameras, HDMI, Bluetooth & Cradle Dock is the description. It runs Windows 7 and I’m considering seeing if it will run Windows 8 and still have the pen work. Will definitely add another 64GB of memory so I can store all the Adobe programs out there – might opt for the 128GB if they come down in price. Probably will get a Bluetooth keyboard for the road as well. Might retire the server in the living room though I’d have to move mail forwarding to the other server which means digging up all the passwords and remembering what email addresses the Summer Queens Registrar want their mail coming to… more work.
Would be nice if this would be a light duty email and slow art machine while I’m on the road – certainly will weigh less (even with the external keyboard) than my 5-6lb. monster of a 15.6″ screen laptop. The tablet comes in at 1.5lb.
Had a late steak dinner – 9:30, which is really late for me, then, of course, stayed up to late watching late night talk shows.
Three quarters of the way through my “nose to the grindstone” couple of weeks plus.
I find coming home and taking a 30-60 minute nap helps. It would also help if I’d go to bed earlier.
Dan sent me this cool link. It takes whatever text you give it, or a blog/website, whatever, and turns it into a picture graphic. This was the result of running UMTravels through it:
Kinda cool – here is the link (need Java to work, download from Sun if it doesn’t automatically): http://www.wordle.net/create
Dinner tonight with DancingBear and BreticusMaximus:
The boys came over for a rack of ribs off the grill:
The boys are on the road (air) home via cab – after I leave for work, grabbing breakfast on the way to the office.
Got the queued up jobs done, then started on filling up boxes with pre-banded envelopes (mailing and inner). Moved my “banding” area to the front room/storefront to I could mindlessly count envelopes and look at attractive college students walking down the Ave. Sitting is better than standing. Natural light is better than Halogens. Pretty boys make everything better. That’s my work ethic.
Home by three, and an hour long nap. I wish I could blame the CouchSurfers for keeping me up last night. Alas, they are not guilty.
Marinated chicken thighs for dinner tonight, over a bed a greens. One left for a snack at the shop tomorrow.
After dinner it was surfing FaceBook, only to find to photos of me from 1976 I believe:
Good God, I have no butt! Love the braided hair down my back – wish I still had it. Alas, these days I’m folically challenged. And yes, I’m playing indoor baseball with a Hobby Horse – which I would include a Wikipedia link, but what I’m holding doesn’t really correspond with what there link is about.
I think I know the owner’s motivation – another full day of training in how to run the print shop. Personally, with the half-hour crossover between our shifts, I get how this works, and if I don’t, it still goes out that day because pickup is at 4pm.
The way Roxy deals with this is “its work hours, I’ll as many as they give me, it’s all over in mid-June”. This from the guy who is working a 40 hour week at Nordstroms as well as this 25 hour a week gig.
Worked until 6, then it was back home for a quick cocktail before heading off to dinner at The Brooklyn downtown. The boys (CouchSurfers) wanted a truly Seattle meal and were willing to drop bucks on it.
We all started with the oyster samplers:
I went for Vodka Sampler (4 ½ ounce shots of different vodkas, four different oysters)
Aaron went for the White Wine and Oysters (same combo pattern)
Johnnie went for the MicroBrew and Oyster sampler
Four different oysters, four different vodka/beer/white wines.
Johnnie had the Goat Cheese Pockets (Pockets my expression, they had some Italian name for it)
Aaron had a cup of the chowder and the foie gras over scallop
Bottle of Writer’s Block for dinner – it’s Jed Steele’s son’s label if I remember correctly from my time in Lake County north of Napa and Sonoma.
And then it was time for dessert. Poached Asian Pear with mascarpone:
With no Grappa Sampler anymore, I had (another) Manhattan, with the Bullet Rye I believe (or some local rye):
The boys split the Port Sampler (I think that makes FOUR samplers for the night!):
We lingered so long at the restaurant that the bartender had the key to my car – avoided a $9 valet charge! But with a two-seater, the boys took the bus back to the house – and got there 15 minutes after I did – shocking! They hit the bus stop downtown the same time the bus showed up. No traffic at 9+ at night.
Stayed up (again) too late – must work in the morning.
Easter Sunday at the shop – some panicked people needing wine for the lamb (or whatever). I was surprised that we did as well as we did on the till.
Had to rush home and meet some CouchSurfers on my porch – two gay boys from Las Cruces. Reminds me that I need to get to that chunk of New Mexico to see the new SpacePort for Virgin.
Click on the picture for a link to VirginGalactic’s site. And then there is the SpacePort site itself: http://spaceportamerica.com/
In honor of Easter, tonight’s menu is:
Salad
Saffron-Raisin Rice
Salad
Jerked Lamb Shoulder Cuts
Two Pinot’s from the shop that Jim and I were sampling (out of four) as to what to stock
Lots of fun after dinner with the “fur parade”.
Nice boys – the only downside is having to give up my bed to be a good host.
Oh well. Now I have a place to stay in Las Cruses.
Slept in a bit this morning since I don’t have to be into the shop until 1:30. Did get some grocery shopping done, but didn’t have time to mow the lawn. It might be time to hire help, especially with my allergies to grasses.
The tasting wasn’t slam packed, but there was a steady crowd who were buying the tasting wines which is what counts. We (Jim, the winemaker, and I) were a little worried that it being Easter weekend, and sunny, that the crowds might not materialize.
Finished the day with good sales numbers, actually I should say great. Looked back and the last time we had better sales was 12-22 – three days before Christmas! We’d had a bunch of days that were close since then but no record breakers.
Had customers (new to the neighborhood and the city) come in at 5 til 7 – left half an hour later with six bottles so definitely worth being late to Swanda’s for drinks and leftover Indian food… a probably my last visit to that apartment. I turned in my access card and keys. Sigh. Was running so late that I put off cleaning up until the morning…
Let’s see… five bottles (I did re-cork them), six if you count the Asian Plum Wine I’m taking to go with the Indian food. Dirty glasses. Cash register receipts. All will be waiting for me in the morning.
Arrived to Swanda’s to the overwhelming smell of paint in the hallway – and on opening the door saw the source. All the beautiful accent walls in the apartment had been taken back to primer. He moves on Thursday and that’s the minimum that needs be done for management since they have to repaint the entire apartment between tenants anyway. My guess is that the carpet and linoleum will be replaced as well since he’s been there 6 years and the carpets were only cleaned once (while he was in the hospital) since the tenant is responsible for moving the furniture out of the way. I wonder how many tenants forego the free annual carpet cleaning as being just too much of a hassle.
Swanda sent me home with a bag of goodies and this box – which I found a use for, not sure how good a use unless I plan on shipping this male torso bronzes…
Didn’t get home until after 10pm. Yet another long day.
So nice to just sleep in…. when work isn’t until noon. I know – no sympathy from the 9-5er’s – I’m still spoiled.
It’s my monthly Friday at the shop – I’ll be missing April and May due to the other job, but back to a Friday in June, probably late in the month. 8 or 9 deliveries that need to be checked in, priced and stocked, and special orders pulled out and emailed. Got most of the other tasks done other than compiling a list of possible auction items for the Seattle Children’s Theatre auction. The way that work is we supply a list of possible auction bottles that sponsors then come in and buy at 15% off to donate to the auction. Got the certificate done and printed, but that’s it. Too much time dealing with twenty cases of wine coming in in dribs and drabs.
The other joy of today was opening a package from “Keen” in Forks. It wasn’t until I opened it that I realized what it was – I knew WHO it was from, but not what.
Sometimes I’m clueless (well, most of the time). Last month I took some fabric with me on a trip to The Quillayute River Resort to show Linda, one of the proprietors. She helped my modify a mink and a wolf fur into a hoodie (LINK HERE TO THE JACKET). I just wanted her to see this cool fabric I picked up in Hawaii on one of my trips last year. (LINK HERE TO THE FABRIC). Well, basically she said, leave it here and I’ll stich it up for you into a new travel bathrobe (left my tatty old one there to duplicate) and a Hawaiian style shirt. Totally unexpected – and apparently I’d forgotten about the offer as well.
And the robe – if you look closely (or follow the link to the fabric) you can see a space shuttle unloading pineapples. So silly, and I love it. I like to travel with a lightweight bathrobe for what little modesty I have (mostly to spare others from my pasty bloated white body).
Tried dinner of a large chef’s salad – it lasted for an hour before I headed to the taco truck for three fish tacos (which have lots of cabbage on them so they are semi-healthy).
And I get to sleep in AGAIN. Work is at 1:30 tomorrow (but I have grocery shopping to do in the morning).
VERY fetching Markie. I especially like the shirt. But both garments are SO slimming….
M xx