UMTravels

Nothing like waking up to another invasion of sugar ants. Oh well, an excuse to do a little spring cleaning today.

Time to tackle the laundry room and pantry. Stuff has been collecting on the floor of both. Tons of cloth bags, coats, hats, appliances. Time to make them go away or at least organize them.

First to go to the curb was the wine cooler that only worked once in its months of being plugged in. Could never figure it out so the wine went into one of those cloth bags with dividers and the unit went to the curb with a free sign on it. Next up was to finally put the wine glasses Jill gave me into the cabinet with charms and recycle all the misc. glasses that are too big for the shop and too many for even Jim to handle. To the curb on top of the cooler – along with a couple of other things.

With the cooler gone I can actually put all the distilling equipment in one place – on the sewing machine trolley:

And speaking of sewing machines – time to make a case for my new phone out of some neoprene left over from the Boltage project. Here is the front:

And the back with the carbiner to go through my belt loop:

The nice thing about a sewing project is that you can also be working on some bread at the same time, assuming you are using the bread machine to mix the dough. This is one of the prettiest loaves I’ve made in a long time:

Dill rye was the style for tonight. It paired nicely with the marinated chicken with a salmon-goat cheese raspberry vinigrate spinach salad that I made for Surf Betty who was returning some glassware he borrowed to model his goblets on… and left with three different ones from the box out front. Too funny.

Stayed up way too late, but that’s what happens when you are emailing back and forth to Japan.

[212.8] Not bad considering all the carbs I’ve eaten this week.

By 9am I was out of bed, had a little fruit and up the hill nervously waiting for a passing empty Red Cab. Every time Michael or his BF would call the taxi company the answer was “no cabs, try later” which doesn’t really one any good when they need to get to the airport. Red Cabs are allowed to go onto Lantau Island where the airport is. Green Cabs are local only. To make matters more stressful, Michael left his wallet at home so even though I had bus fare (to get into town) he didn’t have his Octopus card on him, and no change. He headed back to grab it… and a minute later an empty Red Cab came around the bend. Whew.

It’s about a 45 minute cab ride to the airport from Michaels place. It was amusing to see big highway signs for Lantau Island with the standard airplane for the airport and next to it the Mickey Mouse ears. No way to get a picture from a moving cab. Sorry.

Got to the airport with plenty of time for a little breakfast – that little bit of sliced mango won’t hold me until the first meal service on the plane. Eggs Benedict and a Mini-Mimosa as the ticket.

Swung by duty-free, not for booze since they won’t let that onto the plane, but to see if there are any cheap Chinese cigarettes like the ones I found in Bangkok years ago. Truly wretched according to my smoking friends, but great conversation pieces. Found some for 91HKD, which is like $12 a carton. And I even had a 100HKD note in my pocket. Then I saw something I rarely see in duty-free shops…Sobranie cigarettes in Cocktail colors.

Three times the cost, but I love these… and in Washington they are over $10 a pack.

And here is my little 747-400 home away from home… looks like this one hasn’t had the merger paint scheme done to it yet.

So, I think there is something flagged in my United file… ordered my standard double Glen Fiddich on the rocks (with a Diet Coke on the side) and he says, “That will be $14.” I go for my wallet and he says, “I’ll come back for it.” OK. An hour or two later I go to the galley and request another round… and the same conversation. So far I’m into them for $28. Then comes the duty-free cart with him in the lead…. “Come on, you need something from duty-free.” “I’m sure she’ll (the flight attendant with the credit card reader) will comp those scotches if you buy something.” Talk about motivation — $28 off anything in the catalog basically. I went for the dual-time-zone watch:

Now I just have to figure out how to set it.

In SFO after I got back through security (an annoying process) stopped at the sushi place and got a spider roll, some ahi sashimi and a little bottle of sake for the flight north. I’d forgotten that I was sitting in the front exit row with no privacy to pour said sake, but managed to pull it off. A nice hour nap followed.

Was home by two after a stop at Safeway for dinner supplies and on a lark by the T-Mobile store since it was close by. End result: Salmon and a new Windows 8 Phone. Out of pocket $34 for the phone, forgot how much the salmon was – and another $10 a month for the next 20 months. I resisted the urge to by a case for it… their selection was poor and expensive.

My new boss, Roxy, showed up at 6 for a lovely salmon bbq’d dinner with asparagus (finished on the grill), a big salad (not off the grill) and some fresh bread.

In bed by midnight. Not feeling much if any jet-lag.

Nice.

[? ? ?]

For all the late night chatter I’m surprised everyone was up at 9 – not so surprised by Michael’s partner as he has back-to-back meetings all day at Google where his in the ad end of things.

Got a load of laundry run and hung (I should say Michael did), and then we were off for our shopping adventure to Sham Shui Po which is filled with electronics dealers (whole or in pieces) and wholesale clothing. Can you guess which one I’m interested in.

And the view from his rooftop deck – a little smog, but that should burn off in a couple of hours.

The bus to the train, to the train, to the train and we are there. There would be Golden Dragon Computer. Two stall packed floors covering a city block. Not as big as the Aki Habari Electronics District in Tokyo, but close. And I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of this district, also known for its wholesale clothing.

Thanks Michael for this great photo.

And the neighborhood in general – think REALLY crowded for tall Westerners.

Or my favorite series on the way home: Empty train, full train.

Time difference? 10 minutes and one stop.

Shopped for Diet Coke — we are both addicted, though he buys the expensive shipped in from the UK Diet Coke and what they have in Hong Kong is Coke Light. Personally I always thought they were the same. Guess not.

We met Michael’s partner at Largo, down the hill from their hillside village (and you could tell – hillside – from the photo of ClearwaterBay.

I picked up dinner….steaks for everyone, $650HKD (divide by 7.7), not bad. Didn’t have any booze though so that does change the numbers, but it did come with a lovely large salad which I’ve been missing.

Next up was to go for an hour long foot and back massage around the corner. I think I got the women’s version of a sumo wrestler – she almost brought me to tears at a couple of points.

Needless to say after that we took a cab back up the hill.

[? ? ?]

Up and out of the house to drop the car at Master Park and then hit the airport.

I’d forgotten the madhouse that early Mondays are at Sea-Tac. Even with the Priority Lane it took me half an hour to get through the mess.

The mountains are even out!

Quick breakfast and Red Baron at the Board Room, then off to the N Gates via the underground shuttle, only to find “Delayed” listed on the board.

The delay:

• First and hour
• Then only half an hour

Onto the plane we go, all settled in and taxiing to the runway when the flight attendants come on the PA and ask “Do we have any medical personal on board?” Never a good sign. Then the Captain comes on – “We are returning to gate.”

This isn’t looking good for my flight connection to Hong Kong…. And it wasn’t.

Arrived at for far end of one concourse Gate 85, then it’s basically walk to almost the check in desks, take a right, then go to the international terminal. At least ½ mile if not more. I figure I’ll do a lot of walking in Hong Kong so this is just practice.

Couldn’t wait until they started serving lunch – was defiantly starving. Had hoped for some oysters on the half shell at SFO with what supposed to be a long layover.

Good flight even considering a 2-year-old lap baby alternating between the seat next to me and the one beyond that. Only howled c couple of times (and not for long) – not bad for a 14 hour flight.

Best perk – flight attendant couldn’t find Glen Livet on the credit card machine so he just comped them – twice. Paid for the third round of two (remember – 14 hours) so I think I got my money’s worth – 6 mini’s for $14. Oh for the days when international flights had free booze. United is down to free beer/wine on its Pacific routes (not Atlantic)… and the wine is in plastic bottles, but at least is from the southern Rhone district of France.

Between the Scotch and the Ambien I managed to get 4 hours of sort of sleep – bless those noise cancelling headphones.

Arrived half an hour before schedule, cleared immigration fairly quickly, hit a cash machine for $900HKD (Hong Kong Dollars) and was off to the cab line with these wonderful instructions:

Of course it turns out that it’s really #1 rather than #4 but it all worked out – and right in the ballpark for cost ($40USD approx.). Not bad for an almost hour long cab ride.

Got in around 10, Michael and I stayed up chatting for a bit since he doesn’t have to work tomorrow – he swapped days to stay and hang out with me.

We’ll see how the jet lag goes – I’m guessing OK since I’m going to bed at what would be a normal time were I in the states.

[210.4]

A good day at the shop for a Sunday, not 4 digits, but triple last week’s terrible Sunday. Half the sales in the first hour, half the sales in the last hour. Too bad there wasn’t a place to take a nap in between.

Closed up at 5 and headed back to the hood for yet another rib eye steak and salad dinner – three nights in a row, but at least it’s quick and easy after a full day at the office (I mean shop).

The rest of my evening was spent packing for tomorrow’s trip to Hong Kong to visit an old buddy of mine (and Fluffernutters).

• Cameras – check
• Tote bag – check
• Pigletté books to fill out Michaels collection – check
• Clothes for transit – check
• Clothes for the city -check
• Clothes for the beach – check

Actually went to bed after the news as it’s a 5:30am wake-up call.

Ick.

[211.4]

I love those calls – what are you doing for dinner? And could you bring my wine club shipment.

Sell wine, get fed, drink the wine you just brought (actually I went for the Maker’s Mark instead).

I’m even stayed while they played most of a game of Catan, which was full of people saying things like “I got wood and I need sheep.”

Came home and waited up for my coming, not coming, coming but now I have to take a cab houseguest… finally got to bed at 3am and work is at 11am tomorrow.

Probably won’t be pretty tomorrow.

[210.8]

Spent the day running errands and preparing for dinner with Swanda who was kind enough to brings some packages from the apartment. When he moves next month I guess I’m going to have to build a package drop at the house. I’m really going to miss the free package service. Sigh.

A lovely steak dinner with a salad – which Swanda didn’t touch as he’d eaten a bag of lettuce as a salad for lunch. Just straight protein and a Bonny Doon Nebbiolo – man that was one tasty bottle of wine.

Another wine that is too expensive for everyday drinking ($45 retail). Sigh.

After Swanda retreated back to his place I installed a new magenta toner cartridge in the big printer with disastrous results….

What a mess to clean up… and now my vaccum clear intake is all magenta as well. Sigh.

[211.0]

Ended up sleeping on the couch for most of the night and then atop the covers – one less bed for Linda to remake today.

Got out of the resort a little later than I expected, must be the calming sounds of the river.

By noon I was in Port Angeles trying to find the used car lot that I flew past yesterday with a Vixen in it. The Vixen is a mid-eighties RV powered by a 6-cylinder BMW turbo diesel meaning that it got close to 30mpg on the highway.

More information here: http://www.vixenrv.org/tiki-index.php?page=HomePage

There was also an amusing Mercedes van from the same era:

A bit rough, but probably fixable – and the fact that both are plated (Washington State license plates) probably means they are both running.

But alas, no time for new projects.

Dinner with Roxy tonight. He’s come at 5 (always on time that boy) so we’d have time to get the last case of wine through the still until I get more… which looks like another 10 cases in the next couple of weeks.

A lovely meal of portabellas stuffed with a green olive tapenade, wilted spinach, a big salad and fresh bread.

[? ? ?]

Packed and out of the house headed to Forks for a little visit with Chip and Linda, and to deliver a case of wine (+1) that I forgot on my last trip. It might have been cheaper to just UPS it, but then I wouldn’t get to see them and share a lovely bottle of the 2010 Bonny Boon Le Cigar Volant Blanc Reserve.

It’s not often that I end up with a $50 bottle (retail) of white wine in my cooler. Luckily because I’m in the trade I get 30% off, and I’m grandfathered in on free shipping. Why do I feel like I’m repeating myself. Anyway, if you click on the bottle you can read all about it. The interesting thing about this Blanc Reserve is that it’s aged in carboys, you know, those 5 gallon glass jugs. Give the wine a slight cloudiness, but it’s damn tasty. Guess I’d better share the other bottle with Jim and Suze.

Got to Forks at 4 and the kids were actually mostly done with work for the day so there was time to just sit around and chat. I brought some fabric that I’d picked up in Hawaii to show Linda since we are both fabric whores – she’s the one that helped me sewing the wolf/mint hoodie last year.

Here is one of them:

And the other:

What amazed me is after an amazing dinner of stew and fresh bread, that Linda volunteer to sew a yukata (Japanese style bathrobe) out of the space shuttle unloading pineapples and a Hawaiian shirt out the the Japanese cats in the city fabric.

Wine delivery certainly has its perks.

Left them a little shine as well.

[210.2]

Today’s big event is a wine tasting at Marché, a French restaurant in the Pike Place Market area (across from Inn at the Market) featuring a small, but powerful, lineup of Burgundies.

First up was a little Henroit Champagne Blac de Blanc to warm us up for a selection of Reds ranging from $13.99 to $75.59 wholesale from Bouchard Pére & Fils. I swallowed anything in the $50 and above range since there aren’t that many wines that we’ll be tasting today, and I can go home and take a nap. Basically I swallowed 5 of the 11 reds.

It’s interesting that at these Burgundy tastings the suggested order is different than most tasting. Usually it’s bubbles, whites, reds, but in this case it’s bubbles, reds, whites.

Of the selection of Bouchard Pére & Fils whites, the range was $13.99 to $227 wholesale – three swallows out of seven.

And of the William Fevre selection of whites, two swallows out of six with a range of $14.69 to $72.09.

Total swallows for the tasting: ten. And I might add that the pate was stunning with a little course grain mustard on top – yes, it made me eat the baguette.

Home for a nap and then up to stir fry some pork to go over a bed of greens for dinner.

It’s a hard life in the city.

[208.8]

Now that I’m back from the Gathering and various road trips, it’s time to replenish the stocks of shine that the boys in the woods gobbled. And time to make a few minor adjustments to the process.

First off is to toast some oak chips for bottling – today I’m doing bacon smoked wood chips. Not that think it will impart any flavor it’s just that while the oven is on I might as well cook up some bacon at the same time:

That done it’s time to set up the equipment. Everything was set up, I plugged it in and…. Nothing. Seems on the last run I manage to finally kill the hotplate that SurfBetty and I picked up in Hawaii… yep, this looks dead, and dangerous:

Off to Target I go, coming home with a 900 watt closed surface hotplate for $19.99 plus tax. Question is, it 900 watts enough at full blast.

The new burner in action.

The only other change was to secure the water line – it keeps flopping out of the cooling jacked and flooding the floor before I’ve noticed:

Nice use of the twist tie I took off the cord for the new burner.

Basically you want to start collecting at 80C and stop at 90C.

Three and a half hours later we have the answer. Yes, 900 watts is enough, though it does take a half an hour longer to run, but the final product is coming out at 80 proof which means I don’t have to monkey around watering it down to get it to the right place.

Of course the nice thing is that since this isn’t on the stove (where open flame would not be good) is that you can also cook dinner while distilling.

[208.8]

Off to the shop this morning. Not all that good a day at the shop with various weirdness’s happening… the sudden de-hanging of artwork that was supposed to happen on Wednesday the 28^th. There was also supposed to be a pickup of returned wines didn’t happen. At least I got all the nails and hangers pulled from the wall. No time to get them patched and painted, and there are a ton of them because of the size of the artwork.

Out of there at 5, got home 5:30 to find a comment to a Madrona Wine Merchants FaceBook post that made me go searching the web. I stumbled across this photo on the Archie McPhee site… featuring a guy I used to date who had these lovely winged hot dogs tattooed on his pelvis:

I was actually looking for these wholesale:

Not sure if I can get Jim to go for stocking these.

Stir-fried pork over a bed of greens is dinner tonight. Think I’ll pop the Austrian red to go with it. Not sure if I’ve had an Austrian red – but if Jim ordered it, it’s good, and it’s a liter for $10. Here is the info on it:

2010 Lenz Moser Zweigelt

An Austrian hybrid ( a cross between St Laurent and Blaufrankish) this lighter red wine has fruity bouquet with aromas of sour cherries and delicate spicy notes.

12% by volume

Pretty damn good for the price.

[201.2]

Well, one problem sort of sorted. A home for the printing equipment. Through a buddy in Portland I got in touch with Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland. The IPRCC is basically a publishing collective that offers computers, printers, letterpress classes, etc. While they don’t necessarily want the press itself, they do want the two cutters, all the type and spacers, etc. Guess I need so raid some of the spacers for me first. I think I’ve come to terms with not owning a bigger press.

What a relief. One thing off my plate, except for getting it out of Marvin’s basement, and out of my life.

Of course, now I add deliveries to Forks and SF to my list.

There is no rest for the wicked.

[211.4]

Left Seaside at 11, quick stop for gas and was in Portland a little after 12:30. My appointment with Dean isn’t until 3, so it’s time for a little nap.

Oh what a mess I found when I met up with Dean and his sister sitting in the living room of my dead friend’s house. They looked shell-shocked for the task in front of them which was clearing out the house of a packrat who collected pianos, reed organs and the stray harpsichord as well as having a basement filled with letterpress equipment.

I was interested in the letterpress, which, oddly I forgot to take a picture of, but here is the basic jist:

And then there was the other equipment like the paper cutter:

And another paper cutter, or it could be a pedal driven slug cutter:

Boxes of blank business cards….

Type galore…

Composing racks…

All of which needs to come up 5 steps into the back yard though this entrance:

I put what I could into the Miata which was about 7 half cases of type.

And off into rush hour traffic I went; pondering how the hell to make this happen.

Time to get on the 0’s&1’s to Tony in Portland who had offered to help move it, but there is no way that I can take anything more than some of the type. Luckily knows of a Printing Collective here in town that might have space. Guess that will be tomorrow’s project.

Makes me tired just thinking about it.

[? ? ?]

Ah youth. Got called into work today so no fun and games beachside. I guess CaddyDaddy and I will have a relaxing day in the condo watching non-stop news. Seems he’s as much of a news junkie as I.

On the upside, it does give me time to get my InBox cleaned up, a client or two dealt with and generally feel more grounded in the real world.

Even means time to cook a lovely meal for the two of us – the aftermath:

Maybe it’s time to get TIVO or something like it –this staying up til 2am to watch David Letterman and Craig Ferguson is killing my sleep pattern.

[? ? ?]

I was off the land and on the road at noon and back on the grid 45 minutes later. One voicemail, one text, almost 200 emails. Not bad for five days out of touch.

So here is the recap of how I spent my time in the woods.

I slept LOTS. Coming to the gathering with the remnants of a head cold that I didn’t want to give to anyone else which meant no kidding, no hand shaking, limited hugging. And coughing into my elbow at all times. The typical day didn’t even include much catching up on reading – just a couple of pages on a couple of different afternoons. Skipped breakfast every morning, sleeping into about 12:30, then it was down to the lodge for a mostly salad lunch, then back to the cabin for an afternoon nap before the cocktail party that started every afternoon at 4. I think I only ate two dinners in the lodge – too many appetizers of meat, cheese, crackers (tough not for me) that it didn’t seem to be any need for dinner. Usually went down to the lodge around 8pm for whatever evening program what happening (Spoken Word, Fashion/Auction, Talent).

Didn’t take a single picture. Didn’t keep the blog up-to-date (not that I could have uploaded anything). But here are a couple of pictures of winter at the Bush:

The lodge…

One of the meadow pools…

I almost starved waiting for the first Burgerville to show up on my GPS. It was almost 2pm by the time I got some food in my system and I was a little jittery from low blood sugar – I should have just stopped, opened the trunk and got some of the meats and cheeses out. Next time.

Got to Seaside at 3:30 to find an accident in the circle drive in front of the WorldMark , a line 10 deep at the checking counter, and my room not ready. Did all the paperwork and started the wait for the room number (they give you keys and then just call you with the room number). Apparently I times my visit for something called “winter break” as there are a TON of kids whopping it up in the pool.

Off to Safeway for some dinner fixings while I text SeasideBoy to see when he will be coming. Once again it will be a quickie as he needs to be home by 7pm. Sigh.

CaddyDaddy showed up a little after 4, and we finally got into the room at 4:20 – the start of cocktail hour.

A little fun and then he was back home. Sigh. There is always tomorrow.

Steaks off the grill for dinner tonight – along with a big salad and half a baked potato. I had to finish the wine after CaddyDaddie’s single glass – they are still working on balancing his meds after his recent stint implant.

As for the rest of the evening, think unburying my inbox.

[? ? ?]

Apparently I needed sleep, like 11 or 12 hours of sleep because I didn’t get out of bed until noon. Another good reason to just go buy some chains today and drive to the Bush (Breitenbush Hot Springs) rather than carpooling with Mark and Onyx. Means I’ll miss Seth’s company on the return ride back to Portland on Monday, but it also means that I’ll get to Seaside at 4pm rather than closer to 7pm which wouldn’t work since both the Seaside Boy and CaddyDaddy are meeting me at the condo.

A lovely Heavos Ranchero breakfast from the talented Julian, a little computer time, a quick shower and shave and it was out the door by 2pm… in search of chains for the Miata.

No updates until Monday – I’ll still be writing it just that there is no internet in the woods, or cell phone coverage, but there will be ice since I packed the ice machine.

[? ? ?]

With my not packing much yesterday I was figuring that my planned noon departure for Portland would be much later than that. Now THAT’S a stuffed car:

The load coming back will be much lighter since the case and a half of wine and all the directories and printed good won’t be there.

Actually I made it out of the house by 12:30 and headed north (yes, I know Portland is south) to mail a bunch of articles I’d clipped on the SF trip last week and a book on the history of Whiskey called Chasing The White Dog to the Colonel. For more on the book click here: https://blog.unclemarkie.com/2013/02/01/just-dinner-with-the-boysand-im-not-cooking/.

Then it was off to Kinko’s (oops, that would be FedEx Office) to get the sign-up sheets cut in half – they didn’t even charge me saying they felt bad having made me wait five minutes to get service. That and it would have taken them more than five minutes to actually ring up the sale. But thanks Kinkos!

Then it was onto the freeway headed south.

Stopped for aspirin, gas and a burger in North Vancouver (USA, not BC) and was amused to see this sign on the counter at Burgerville (my weakness – at least I don’t get the fries):

Apparently they think white wine goes with burgers since the only red (which I had) was the Merlot.

Did some power discount shopping at Freddies (Fred Meyer) – seems they are having a 60% off already marked down prices. Picked up:

• Black Dockers Cords ($15)for me
• Women’s Playboy Underwear ($6) for a gift
• Homer Simpson Boxers ($4) for the Seaside boy
• Matching Elf underwear and hat ($3) for me
• Flannel PJ Bottoms, Flame Pattern ($8) for me

Total was $36.78 for a bag of clothes – cheaper than the original price on the pants.

Dinner tonight (since the nephew is in class until 9:30) was at the Fish Wife on Lombard:

A couple of appetizers, a Bloody Mary that came with an oyster shooter, and a bottle of wine since it was half-off Tuesday on full bottles. Took the rest on for Julian (the nephew) to have with his late night dinner.

I was actually in bed at a decent hour, which is good since I’m still fighting this head cold.

[211.0]

Today’s chore is to finish printing:

• Massage Table Sign-up Sheet
• Love Lounge Sign-up Sheet
• Talent Show Sign-Up Sheet
• Fashion Show Sign-up Sheet
• Spoken Word Sign-up Sheet
• Auction Sign-up Sheet
• Silent Auction Bid Slip

Of course before you can print something you have to redo the layout so it matches the rest of the materials already printed.

Luckily it was only 50 of each and they were 2-up on 8 ½ x 11. Compared to printing the directory, nothing. It took 30 minutes per directory times 200+. I’m too lazy to do the math so I’ll let you, gentle readers, do the math.

A quiet steak dinner a home… but at 10pm company from Dublin (Ireland, not Ohio) arrived for cocktails. They probably should have just stayed at my place for the night rather than catching another cab to their final destination (Anne’s place on Beacon Hill). Seems that this was the only night we could get together before I leave to the Gathering and they leave for the Bay Area.

They left at 1am, I went to bed, having not packed much for tomorrow’s departure.

[209.0]

Well, I have to say that it was an interesting Sunday… twice over last Sunday. Even if you took out $200 in special pre-paid orders, it was still a good Sunday.

Of course, being out of the shop at 5 and having four additional people coming to dinner. That would be the crew coming over to help put the directory together.

Steaks, rice, salad, and wine for the crew after they were done.

Thanks guys.

[208.2]