Yet again it’s another three day work week – and I can tell you are all crying tears. Colonel Eric who would say… “Working sucks, it’s better to be retired on a pension.” Others saying… “Please, take my five-day-a-week 9-5 job that is sucking the life out of me and not paying me a living wage.” Wouldn’t be so bad if I could kick this sinus/head/cold/infection, whatever it is.
Stopped by Safeway on the way home to pillage the 30%off racks and ended up with a few things like boneless pork loin chops, one of which I sliced up and coating in Emeril’s Essence which I’ve seen to lost the recipe for. Roll the chicken in the Essence, stir fry it up and at the last minute add some hot chili garlic sauce, put on a bed of tossed greens and open the wine.
The directory is finally printed, now I just need to muster the troops and get it folded and stapled tomorrow.
While I work, Jim cleans his house and bakes a big bird – think Turkey.
The event? A ten-year vertical tasting of his various Syrah based wines over the years. Luckily the shindig starts at 7pm which is when I get off work so I won’t be two late since his house if 4 blocks from the shop. Here is a portion of the invitation:
When Pigs Fly
Friday, February 7th
7pm
Come join us for a 10 year vertical tasting of
Chateau du Trois des Dindons’ Syrah.
2001 through 2010
I stayed for an hour and a half. Would have stayed longer but all the talking was killing my throat. Home I went to finish the printing of the directory.
Well, not the finish, just more printing, still not done, but at least I didn’t need to fix myself dinner.
The answer to your question is… a “vertical tasting” would be X number of years, say 10, of the same wine from the same winemaker. For Jim’s party it was opening bottles of his 2001 Syrah, his 2002 Syrah, his 2003 Syrah — all the way up to 2010 which he had two examples, which would mean a “horizontal” tasting for the 2012. When I left Microsoft I had a 10-year vertical tasting of the Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volante out of Santa Cruz. Some years I had a single bottle, some years I had a couple of splits (half bottles), and for the lucky years, 3 and 5 liter bottles.
Didn’t even leave the house at all today. Just sitting here monitoring the printer. Nothing like changing a toner cartridge in the middle of the night in your bathrobe. Magenta went out. Luckily I have a stash of 2 or 3 extra toner cartridges of each color.
Nothing like getting the email that says: Oh, I found another faerie that only wants name and photo (no contact information) in the directory… 46 copies into the 225 print run. When I found that his picture was on the back of the song page I made the decision to print replacement pages. It’s easy as it’s the center fold. And I didn’t like the quality of the song page so I figured out how to pump up the resolution on that as well. Fixed another minor problem, but that one not worthy of reprinting.
While waiting around for replacement pages to spool to the printer and print I finally went digging around for a 64-bit Postscript Driver for the Faerie Printer. The PCL driver wasn’t letting me specify the number of copies (well, it did, but just ignored it and only ever printed one copy). The down side of this is that every time it has to download the entire 50meg file again, and again, etc. rather than storing the job in the printer’s memory and repeating the print job.
The Postscript Driver is installed and I am a happy camper. This means that a) 35 replacement center spread pages and b) coming out in one batch and it means that the time to print the rest of the directories will be significantly less.
By dinner time, replacement pages printed and integrated into the existing printed directories and working on sending the directory to the printer in sets of 25 (25×8 sheets = 200 sheets which is about what the output bin can hold).
And then I learned the ugly truth… it won’t collate. Better longer and collated than quicker, and then spending the time mindlessly collating sheets of paper.
And today’s amusing pictures:
The printer’s duplexing unit held together with packing tape.
And a few things ready to send back for recycling.
When I say Hell, that’s pretty close. At noon, while printing front side of the directory…the printer jammed…and the tray drawer handle broke off in my hand. Oops.
Half an hour later, I was at WonderFools place rummaging through his garage (thank goodness for those keypad entry systems) for the carcass of another HPLaserJet 4500, one of three that I used to own. WonderFool bought one, Greg bought one (and donated back to the Faeries last spring), and the third went to Floating Bridge Press where it eventually died (or so they thought). WonderFool and I have been using their dead printer for parts ever since. At the moment there are only a couple of partial toner cartridges left to salvage – even the control board is gone. These things are real beasts.
Back at home with a replacement drawer I went to work prying the fascia of the old drawer (basically ripping it off the printer) to get to the release that the lever used to operate. Had to power it back up to get a relay tripped to finally get it out. Once out, it was back in and I was back printing in 10 minutes.
With things printing it was off to the University of Washington Surplus Store to see if they had anymore cartridge, repair units, etc. for the 4550 lying around. I’ve been getting brand-new HP-branded toner cartridges for $5 each (remanufactured ones run $35-$50 and I don’t think HP even makes them anymore). No luck at the store, well the UW store, much better luck at Safeway with a marked-down meat score of half a dozen steaks, some lamb, some stuffed chicken.
Here is an amusing shot of me on a call with one of the Queens Registrar:
I had the chicken stuffed with cheese and jalapeños for dinner along with a nice big salad.
Maybe the greens will speed the recovery of my ear drum and throat.
When I’m not sleeping or shopping for groceries or eating, it’s all about the directory and getting at least the covers printed since those are on heavier stock and needs to be pampered more than the guts.
So what does the cover look like?
The whole32-page directory is done in this Nouveau style.
The inside design isn’t my favorite, but it’s what the Queens Registrar want. Their favored layout:
And my preferred layout – which offers bigger pictures in more interesting sizes.
The advantage of the boring layout is then you have more pages for songs, where we live, resources, etc.
Oh well, it’s just my duty to provide what they want.
Always amusing when you come home from a trip and you’ve LOST weight. 5 pounds. Not bad at all.
Fairly slow day at the shop it being Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday – and on the sandwich board out from, it was Super Bottle Sunday featuring this big boy:
And no, I didn’t sell it, but here are the details:
2008 San Felice Chianti Classico Reserva $170 Sangiovese A Big Bottle of Big Wine. Il Grigio releases lingering, complex fragrances redolent of sweet violets and wild red berry fruit. The palate displays a wine of appreciable body, nicely lean-edged, and with a crisp acidity.
Let me know if you have a spare $170 – comes with a box (not wood) and might include delivery.
Still not completely over whatever hit me in the Bay Area and now I have directory hell to deal with.
The sore throat has advanced. I’m not feeling in the best shape. Especially since the Zinfandel tasting starts at 10am and runs (for the trade) until 1pm when all hell breaks out and the public is invited in.
Here are some lovely pictures from the event:
The queue up to get in.
Shot of the hall 15 minutes in.
Lunetta with a baguette and spit cup.
An hour and a half in.
By the end of the first hour we were only stopping at booths that there was nobody in front of… with the exception of Ridge Vineyards where I just muscled my way to the front of the line.
By the end of two hours I was spent (but Lunetta was only half way through his bagette). We headed back to the East Bay, with me scoring an extra ZAP Tasting 2013 glass – more freebie glassware for the shop – guess I should bring in the 4 that I have from the Boston Wine Expo of several years ago (where we [Pucci and I] got comped in as well). Joe Fico from Tucson was supposed to be on this tasting but work didn’t clear up until last week, and all the cheap fares were gone.
Oh well.
On returning to the boy’s place in Berkeley it was straight to bed for me, only waking at 3:30 in the afternoon because of hunger. I ate the remains of my breakfast I couldn’t finish this morning, and went back to bed, getting up at 5pm feeling a little more rested and less funky. I think an antihistamine is in order in case the scratchy throat was due to the grocery run on Thursday and pollens in the air.
The boys were kind enough to take me to the airport (SFO = 40 minutes each way) before their “date night”. BART is convenient to their house, but sitting in the back seat is way more comfortable.
At the airport in plenty of time, and nicely settled into the Board Room having snacks of tiny carrots, dip, cheese, and yes, two damn packages of those Club Crackers® which I can’t seem to turn down.
No room on the flight that is an hour earlier (well, no room in First which I have on the later flight) so it’s time to update the blog, read a newspaper, and generally hang out.
In theory due home at about 11pm tonight (that earlier flight would have helped). It’s funny – I think Oakland has more flights these days, but it’s SFO with the Board Room location – though no soup or salad in this location, but they do have the Pancake Machine for in the mornings. Either way, the Board Room is the place that I stock the fridge with oranges for DancingBear’s Old Fashions.
If something screws up, it will be on tomorrow’s blog report.
Good night all, I’ll be sleeping all the way home with luck.
Another day of conference calls and me sitting outside in the sun working on this lovely book:
The book is Chasing The White Dog by Max Watman. It’s an interesting mix of history, folklore, prosecution – and most interesting to me, how the quality of moonshine plummeted when prohibition kicked in – suddenly is was all about the money to be made. Click on the book and you will to taken to Amazon where you can buy new, used, or Kindle® editions.
Onyx was in charge of tonight’s dinner – chicken Cordon-Blu from scratch with a side of steamed broccoli – here’s do you George W. Bush – French food AND broccoli!
Just the three of us tonight. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the sculptures that Onyx is working on… maybe tomorrow.
A lazy day around the daylight basement. I made a run to the Powell Street Plaza to hit BevMo and Trader Joes. Rest of the afternoon was listening to one sided conference calls that Lunetta had booked back-to-back.
I’m the chef for dinner tonight and they were out of salad, wine, and whiskey. The latter one was my fault.
For some reason I set the alarm for 7:30 rather than 8. I made coffee and went back to bed without much success sleep-wise.
Got breakfast in me and headed to the airport around 9:30, and was parked, through the speed line at the airport and in the Board Room by 10. Still no upgrade, though at the time four people hadn’t checked in and I was number two on the list.
Got a bunch of papers read, had a couple of drinks, had a little food and headed to the gate. I don’t really like the N gates that Alaska uses as they are a fifteen minute walk-tram-walk from the Board Room. I might like them better in a couple of years when they build a new club on the roof of the N Satellite.
Still no upgrade. Oh well, another day.
Got to SFO and had to find something to eat before heading into the city. After two strike outs (too starch based) I found a food court in the International Terminal (pre-security) and got some surprisingly good Mongolian Beef (no rice) to hold me over to dinner.
By 4 I was waiting outside the boy’s house – they weren’t answering their cell phones. But it was a sunny day which is a nice change after Seattle.
Dinner tonight was out – at the CrêpeVine in Berkeley – they are a small Bay Area-based chain. Denver omelet for Onyx (with salad rather than potatoes), big Asian Chicken Salad for Lunetta, and the pulled pork sandwich with Caesar salad for me… I only ate a quarter of the potato bun, but I succumbed to the fries. Really, they are just a vehicle for catsup. Tasty and not too expensive, not that it matters since Lunetta picked up the tab.
Damn, no upgrade to First for Wednesday’s flight to SFO – well, at least not yet.
Guess I’d better get packed. Not taking any wine down for the boys, nor shine – so it’s carry on for me.
Yesterday’s birthday boy is coming to dinner, which is a bacon wrapped peppercorn pork tenderloin and a nice big healthy salad (to balance out the bacon).
An intimate wine tasting this afternoon – a rarity in this business for trade tastings – no having to fight your way to the table (or more importantly, the spit bucket).
These were all wines imported by APS Wine and Spirits out of Oakland whose owner was on-hand to answer questions. Two-thirds French, one-third Italian, and some odd spirits thrown in as well (the oddest being a Green Walnut Liquor. After I tasted all the wines, it was time to at least sample the 40-year-old Grand Champagne Cognac XO:
Just FYI — retail on that bottle in Washington State is $200 — which would mean $140 in California. And yes, I swallowed.
The evening activity was the birthday party of Magnatroius which turned into an amazingly hard-drinking party for a Monday night. They killed that pint of shine in no time flat. Luckily everyone cleared out before 10 (which was when I got home).
What a slow day at the shop…. Luckily Friday and Saturday were good – I even opened back up after I’d closed for sell another couple of bottles.
Dinner at Swandas was a couple of pork loins over a bed of roasted root vegetables… yum. We had the leftover tasting wine that didn’t get much action at the shop today:
Click on the bottle for the full description of the wine. It went quite well with the meal.
Home at a reasonable time, only to find that my buddy Joe from Tucson isn’t finding a cheap enough seat to join me in the Bay Area on Saturday for a massive wine tasting.
Opened the shop today after a lovely shrimp omelet:
Well, that’s the omelet in process. Wish I’d had some cheese.
Realized have way to the shop that I’d forgotten my opera clothes which means going back home to change before the 5:30pm restaurant reservation at Bhan Thai. Damn.
Tasting was very busy with the bottles barely lasting until 4 – only one quiet 15 minute period during the 2-4 tasting, and another big group showed up at 4:15 and I needed to leave at 4:30 to make this opera clothes change happen.
But then the world changed. Got out the door on time, but even before I got to Martin Luther King at the bottom of the hill Wonderfool was on the phone cancelling. He’s dealing with the sudden death of a friend (and employer if I remember correctly). Great.
Got Salamander on the phone, which he usually turns off over the weekend to see if he could be ready in 10 minutes to go to dinner and the opera… he said yes, didn’t even ask what the opera was (which is Cinderella). Here are a couple of publicity shots:
This would definitely be “opera buffa” which basically means comedic opera: light, fluffy, the opposite of anything Wagner wrote.
Dinner before was good, though they forgot the appetizer and the mains came out ten minutes apart, and they charge separately for rice – guess it’s time for a TripAdvisor review.
Plenty of time to get to the opera, like an hour early, which meant more cocktails.
Only nodded off once. Salamander gently nudged me when I started snoring.
Well, today’s silly project is to indeed create an .ov2 (TomTom POI navigation file) of all the Burgerville restaurants in the Northwest. And found a couple of more things online. Looks like my GPS device is good to go for the next couple of road trips.
Tried it out on a little road trip to get the car washed and do a little shopping for dinner.
Speaking of dinner, I invited young master Erick over for a shrimp in puff pastry dinner (with salad and bread) – though no wine for him, he was having DewShines, or would that be ShineDews.
Well, woke up and the boy (and his xBox360) was gone – don’t worry, my wallet was still there with everything in it. There a note (text message) on my phone saying his wasn’t feeling well and headed home to lay low for the day.
Bugger.
No reason to hang around Seaside if he’s not coming back to spent the night so I made breakfast, updated the blog, called the desk to check-out, packed the car and left.
On the way out of town got the oil changed by idiots (Oil Can Henry in Seaside) and headed north. The rain started shortly after. Damn, another day of driving in the rain, or is that driving rain.
A little stop at Burgerviille – hey, maybe I should map all the Burgervilles in my TomTom… another chore for another day.
The advantage of leaving a day early is that I can help Jim at the shop for the private wine tasting for my old employer Events & Adventures. I stopped by the house to unload the car and headed to the shop… only to find that 90% of the people were already there, having showed up 15-30 minutes early. Yikes. That’s a prompt group.
It was a good thing that I changed my plans as there were 15-20 people who at the end all wanted to buy wine, get wine advice, etc.
The lovely Natasha (from my trip to Thailand a couple of years ago) and bought seven bottles. Thanks Natasha. The group (who we offered 10% off on all purchases) ended up dropping around $700, not sure if that included the fee we charged them.
Here is a shot from the security camera:
Lots of people in the shop! Fluffernutter is thinking about increasing the number to 25 figuring on 20 will show up, or was to 20 figuring 15. He’s thinking about doing this ever couple of months, which would be nice.
Got home at 9 (which was better than I thought it would be) only to find that I didn’t have the salad I thought I had, but instead I had a bunch of green onions which fried up nicely with the steak:
And from the shop there were some sample bottles from the reps that were at the end of their sample life (second day):
2008 Domini Venetti Amarone della Valpolicello ($40 retail)
2006 Livia Fontana Bussia Barolo ($55 retail)
Both are both out of my usual drinking range price wise. Basically there as enough in each bottle for a nice glass. Too bad Jill wasn’t here to join me.
It was raining when I left Forks, it was raining when I discovered that my beloved Dog House restaurant in Aberdeen had turned into a Thai Takeout place, it was raining as I gassed up at Safeway, it was raining when I picked the boy up, it was raining as we ran errands, and it was raining as we walked to dinner. After the last couple of weeks of sunshine and weather, it was a bit of a change, and not much fun to drive on winding roads in.
Room was ready, but considering it was a little before 4, it should have been. Update on the Seaside WorldMark, they had gone wireless for their Internet, which screwed over the boy as he needs a wired connection for his xBox360 for which he doesn’t have a wireless card (guessing he will want me to buy one of those for him as well).
Same room location as a couple of weeks ago, just two floors higher:
Good straight on view of the ocean, and close to parking. Not so close to the pools, but I haven’t been in those pools in at least 5 years.
Had dinner at Norma’s Seafood and Steak. I had some Washington Coast oysters on the half shell – a little large for my taste, he had the crab cakes for his starter, then it was onto the fish and chip sampler (1 piece each of cod, albacore tuna, halibut and salmon) which was quite tasty – he opted for the BBQ Hamburger being in a meat mood. Bud light for him, a couple of Manhattans for me. $66 was the total after the 10% off coupon from the WorldMark. Definitely cheaper to cook in the room!
That would be Forks, Washington, setting for all the Twilight books and movies.
Ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, then across the Hood Canal Bridge to a place that I’d passed many times but not stopped – but it was time for lunch.
That would be Fat Smittys – just past the turn off for Port Townsend and before the turn off to the WorldMark Discovery Bay.
The view from inside the restaurant.
And the Fat Smitty Burger – two patties, bacon, cheese, a slice of round Texas toast in the center which I pulled out as a concession to my low carb diet – as was the subbing of slaw for fries. $10. Cash only, ATM on site. No alcohol served which is pointed out on the outside of the building.
Had to have a little nap after the twisty turny part of the trip around Lake Crescent. Got to Chip and Lindas (the Quilliyute River Resort) about 4:30, but they weren’t quite ready to relax so I had an hour to myself in the end suite (extra windows, best view, Unit #6).
Cocktails before dinner which was a lovely stuffed pork loin with oven roasted potatoes and a nice salad – with a nice bottle of French wine that I brought along.
They are the early to bed folks, and I was as well tonight – which is unusual for me.
I didn’t think I’d be able to get up, showered and dressed to catch the inauguration live at the party the next block over… and true that was. I did make it for the start of the parade a little after 11. By the time I needed to leave at one, the president still hadn’t arrived at the viewing platform. Oh well, the two Kirs I made from Prosecco (first one) and Cava (second one) were pretty damn tasty. I used the wine/cherry dessert wine we featured at last Saturday’s tasting. See this link for details on the juice: https://blog.unclemarkie.com/2013/01/19/work-in-the-afternoonwork-in-the-evening/
Errands up next – to the apartment for a package (and some groceries), then to Home Depot for some liquid metal to finally fix my jacket pull, then home for a nap, and to start working on bread for tonight’s dinner.
Dinner guests:
Lopez Lynne
Jerod
Erick
Dinner menu:
Cocktails
Homemade bread
Salad
Salmon
Steaks
Wine
For one of my dinner parties it was a fairly early night. Lynne was tired and Erick has to get up at 4am for work.
Me, I went to work planning the route for tomorrow trip:
It’s “retirement pay”, not a pension. Pensions are for old people. I’ll be only 71 next week.