UMTravels

Opened the shop, then opened my email to find this:

Hello Mr. Souder,

We’re always glad to hear from MileagePlus® members like you. Thanks for writing.

Congratulations! You have been awarded a trial period of Premier® Gold status in the MileagePlus® program! This will make your travel with us comfortable, simple and more rewarding than ever.

Your status will be effective for 90 days. Your 90 day timeframe will be January 20, 2013 through April 20, 2013. To remain a Premier Gold member through 2013, you will need to fly 12,500 Premier qualifying miles (PQM) or 15 Premier qualifying segments (PQS) on flights operated by United, United Express or Copa within that 90-day timeframe*.

If you meet the above required PQM or PQS threshold(s), a Premier Gold kit will be issued and mailed to you. Until you have a card, be sure to add your MileagePlus number to your reservation in order to benefit from your Premier status.

*Please note that qualifying activity for this promotion includes only base PQM/PQS and class-of-service bonus PQM/PQS earned on flights operated by United, United Express or Copa, and credited to your MileagePlus account. Any other bonus PQM/PQS, promotional PQM/PQS, credit card PQM, or PQM/PQS earned on other Star Alliance carriers do not count toward qualification for this promotion.

MileagePlus members are allowed to earn Premier status through the Premier Status Match program a maximum of one time in a five year period. In order to re-qualify for Premier Gold status in subsequent years, you will need to meet the published criteria.

Currently, Premier Gold status can be earned by flying 50,000 PQM or 60 PQS (including four flights operated by United, United Express or Copa) between January 1 and December 31 of each calendar year. For details about the MileagePlus Premier program, visit www.mileageplus.com/premier.

I hope you will travel with us often and take advantage of the exceptional benefits and service reserved for our Premier members around the world. Thank you for choosing United, and enjoy your Premier Gold membership.

Thanks for participating in the MileagePlus® program!

Well, that 12,500 PGM will happen by the end of the first full week of March, and they have already updated me online:

So what was my first order of business? Go online and get better seats for the two Hong Kong flights. The other thing about Gold status is that there is a 50% bonus of Frequent Flyer miles so that my 28,376 butt in the seat miles turn into 42,564 which with what I have in the account and what got charged to the credit card for the trips will give me over 50,000 frequent flier miles – enough for a round-trip anywhere in the US and Canada.

But enough of being a mileage whore.

The tail end of the work day was an artist reception which brought in a bunch of people, and a couple of hundred more dollars in wine sales. The deal with the artists is that they deal directly with folks who want to buy their artworks so we don’t have to run it through our books and have to take a cut – which the artists like because galleries usually take 50% of the sale price.

After work it was off for dinner with Mr. Bliss, a wonderful Sunday tradition that is getting started – even if it does take time away from grading his student’s papers.

Which is also why I was home fairly early.

[212.8]

Finally got the car washed today – the trip to Canada was pretty rough on it.

OK day of sales at the wine shop, lots of the wine-tasting wines sold, two completely (out of the five). I even bought a bottle of the last one, an interesting grape/cherry wine that I think will make a great Manhattan:

2009 Terracruda, Visciola $21 500ml
Aleatico, Sangiovese and wild cherries
This distinct and tasty dessert wine is made from the local red wine is blended with wild cherries the following July. It’s very aromatic, full of mixed fruits and just plain delicious.

Off at 7 and too the bank to bank the paycheck – guess that means I should pay some bills, but not tonight.

Spotted this on the street on the way to the car:

Free Beer w/Removal of Desk. Too funny.

Tonight is for getting all the TomTom GPS work done:

• Safeway/Vons Fueling Stations (logo is their “S” brand mark)
• Costco Fueling Stations (logo is the italic “C” from their logo)
• Liquor Stores for state-run states (logo is a booze bottle and glass)

But all that is after this:

Using the above wine/cherry thingee and some shine. Not the best and the Irish Whiskey didn’t work as well. I didn’t remember that I had a little Jack Daniels left from Canada until it was too late in the evening.

Flatiron steak over a bed of lettuce was tonight’s meal.

By the end of the evening all the TomTom updates are in the device and ready for road testing next week. Anyone who wants these files I’m happy to share. Right now they are in Excel for Microsoft Streets and Trips and in ov2 format (with .bmps for the logos) for TomTom. If you have another device most likely I can convert to that as well.

Over and out.

[212.0]

Out of the condo a little before noon and off to the border to find no line at the border after the mandatory stop at duty free since Nexus members get 10% off at the Truck Crossing Duty-Free store.

Next stop is the Safeway in Mount Vernon for discount meats (to restock what I took to CanadaLand) and to fill up the tank with my 20 cent discount.

And speaking of Safeway gas discounts, after a chicken cordon blu dinner with salad, I spent too much time working on importing all the Safeway’s with gas pumps into my new TomTom GPS. After much tinkering I got one state’s worth in so that it even shows the Safeway logo on the map pinpoint. Of course now I have to do that for the rest of the states, then for all the Costco’s with gas pumps, and then the state liquor store in Oregon, Idaho and Montana where the state still runs them. But that’s a chore for another day. Whew.

Whilst doing all this I stumbled across a fare that I couldn’t believe on the United website:

Seattle-San Francisco -Hong Kong, leaving Monday, March 4^th, returning Thursday the 7^th — $745.40 roundtrip. 15,184 flight miles closer to the 108,000 I need to become a million-miler on United and be Gold for life (and nominate someone each year for free silver status)

I got so excited that I booked the next week via Tokyo for $10 more, but I get to fly on ANA’s 787 assuming they are back up in the air by then. This one is only 13,192 flight miles, but between two I’m guaranteed Silver for next year, though that status no longer allows for Economy Plus booking at time of reservation – a loss after the merger with Continental.

Now the downside to all of this is that my United Premier expires at the end of the month, which means I’ll be back in Economy Minus (instead of Economy Plus). This got me thinking – sometimes they will do a status match to get new customers or get them back, and there is a procedure on their site. Send copies of your other club’s status via email… so off this email went with my Alaska Gold MVP status and my Virgin America Elevate Silver Status (also a match because of my current United Premier Silver status):

As a United flyer with almost 900K miles under my belt on United, I’m requesting status match from my current Premier (until the end of the month) to United Gold as I’m an Alaska Gold Member through 2014 (as well as Virgin America Silver). Attached are .jpgs of my online account records.

I am requesting United Gold match status for 90 days in which I promise to log 12,500 flight miles. I will book the trip this evening.

I’m looking forward to returning to the United fold after an absence of several years. And looking forward to matching my father’s million mile status.

Mark Souder

We will see what they say.

All this travel planning and I’m dizzy now.

[? ? ?]

First the work, yes, some real billable hours for the first time in months. It’s a project for one of my old clients:

• Sync up biz card design with website
• Make Power Point Templates
• Letterhead Template
• Print biz cards after design approval

Started with the business card as the look-and-feel has to translate to the smallest piece, then scale upwards.

Here is the view from the dining table where I moved to laptop to facilitate working on Illustrator files:

Not a bad workplace view – reminds me of my pre-Microsoft days at the Journal & Bulletin Agency when my light table (how’s that for a blast from the past) looked down 5^th Avenue to the Space Needle.

Tonight for dinner we are having Helene, Greyshard and Home – well, they are coming to dinner. The meal itself is a brisket that I’ve been marinating overnight with some boiled baby potatoes and onions, salad, and wine for Helene and I, beer for Greyshard and home.

Damn tasty.

[? ? ?]

Out of the unit a little after 11 to catch the 1pm ferry to Tawassan. Everything was going fine until suddenly the road was blocked by police and the detour was long, crowded and inconvenient – NOT what you want when you are trying to make a ferry. Instead of the ½ hour or so drive, it turned into an hour. And we know how I like to be early for things.

This is a lovely shot from the ferry:

Might have been better to go up to the sun deck and take this picture, but since I’d left my jacket at the condo, it would have been damn chilly.

Got to the Vancouver condo a little before four after a little last minute shopping at Safeway for salad and such. They were running a bit behind so it was almost 4 by the time I was in the unit.

Solus+, Marmot, Epick, and Tom for dinner tonight. Pork loins over a bed of potatoes, a nice salad, after the appetizer course… sounds like a broken record. And speaking of records we might have set a new one. Irish whiskey killed, bourbon killed, two bottles of wine killed… not a drop left in the house.

And Solus+ used the spare bedroom for the night and think he was happy to not have to head back to the suburbs.

[? ? ?]

Just a couple of pictures for the day…

The living room of the condo, and the view from the deck – notice the wi-fi antenna – no wonder my signal is so strong.

And the Coho coming in and a seaplane going out.

Dinner tonight with Tyson, RobinHood, Craig and TJ (the latter two I’d not met before). Steaks off the grill, crusty bread, salad… after the appetizer course, of course. Sweet man that RobinHood is he showed up with two bottles of wine, a blueberry pie and a pint of Salt Spring Island ice cream.

Much fun in the hot tub after dinner. Hopefully we didn’t keep the neighbors up.

[? ? ?]

Up at 5:30am for the 8:20am ferry so I can get a little breakfast at a place that I sort of panned on TripAdvisor last year with the title, “Good Food, Lousy Service”. This time the service was good (as I was the only one in the restaurant at 6:30am), but the Hollandase was a little curtled.

On the boat (the Coho Ferry) and promptly stretched out on one of the benches for an hour nap, just waking in time for the last call for duty free. 40oz. of Jack Daniels ($25) later the boat was pulling into the Inner Harbour of Victoria.

Customs had a few too many questions, but then again I wasn’t using my Nexus card since I had a bag of meat in the trunk (which I declared as “I have a couple of steaks in the trunk”. And a couple of roasts, and a brisket, and some lamb, and a lot of cheese.

Got to the condo about 10… and to my surprise, the room was ready. Apparantly no one was in the room last night. And off to bed it was for another couple of hours of sleep.

On the way to the grocery store with no room in front, went around back to see if there was more parking… instead I found this little guy on the loading dock with a FREE sign next to him. Who couldn’t resist:

Parked on the street, then it was up to the wine shoppe for a couple of bottles of red, then aswing through the thrift shoppe, then to the Thrifty.

Didn’t need but a few things like bread, salad, crackers, tomatoes, eggs and a piece of hot cooked chicken for my lunch.

No company for dinner tonight, so it’s just me and three lamb steaks:

Don’t worry, the leftovers will be for tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, that’s when the dinner party is though still confirming who and how many.

[? ??]

All packed and ready to go at 12:30….and there was still the pop in the front seat. Luckily on the return there will be less stuff after my Vancouver deliveries:

First stop is at the apartment for some books that arrived from Powells.

On the ferry to Whidbey Island with Cartman from South Park on my TomTom GPS – as he said when I started towards the ferry (programmed location into the TomTom on the dock: “Get on the faggoty ferry.”

I might have to see if I can make my own TomTom “surfer dude” file.

And the view from the condo after I’d checked in an hour early

Marybeth arrived around 4:30 sans salad so it she made a quick trip back out before out lovely steak and salad dinner sans her children (she really needed a break).

Tried but failed to go to bed early. And it’s up at 5:30 tomorrow.

Damn.

[210.8]

Well, the “whale” picked up his wine and was full of thanks, though with a $700 charge (including tax) it was the least I could do to schlep one of the two cases out to the car (he grabbed the other one).

He also had an interesting comment about the alcohol content of European wines compared to California and Northwest wines. European wines generally are in the 12-13.5% range, while US wines are in the 13-15% range – hotter growing temperatures is what Jim posited.

Needless to say, that helped the numbers, but we would have been in the four figure (to the left of the decimal point) without it. So far a good week. We’ll see how much Jim can sell tomorrow.

Home at 7:30 and cooking by 8:30. Tonight, marinated round steaks and the remaining lettuce in the fridge:

And then it was time to pack for the trip – my, what a load of meat and cheese:

And it’s all going with me. Let’s hope it all fits in the trunk.

[211.0]

Friday at noon is always a little crazy with all the drivers lined up waiting to deliver orders. This week less so as we are in the post-holiday only order what we absolutely need.

Better sales than yesterday, but the “whale” didn’t come and pick up his order – otherwise it would have been a “whale” of a Friday.

Last full day for me of the week. Saturday is half a day (which I close) and Jim if taking my Sunday shift.

Tonight’s meal shot:

Sausages in red cabbage. Pretty darn tasty.

Tonight’s art project – the cover for the Trip Booklet. Take that AAA:

Another late night of staying up watching junk TV (David Letterman followed by Craig Ferguson).

[210.8]

Day two of the extended work week. Got confirmation that a guy who had me track down a bunch of Washington State wines is serious. Ordered a case of one and half cases of two others. Total after the 15% discount… a whopping $652.80 (plus tax). We need more customers like him. This is the same guy that saved last Sunday’s sales by dropping $282 on a mixed case at the end of the day.

Off at seven after an OK sales day for a mid-week in January.

Next up, dinner:

That would be a Chicken Caesar Chef’s Salad.

Tonight’s project – map out the trip to Canada starting Sunday afternoon:

Night One: Discovery Bay (between Port Townsend and Port Angeles

Nights Two and Three: Victoria

Nights Four and Five: Vancouver

Lots of dinner company planned. Going to be taking a big old bag of frozen protein up north.

[211.4]

I have Jim’s work week this week – as he’s sunning himself in LA. I wish he’d take more holidays so I’d feel less guilty about taking more of mine.

Wednesday’s at the shop for Jim are mostly about putting together orders for the various distributors, and sampling wines that come in the front door from said distributors. He places the orders before he left for Cali, so it’s up to me to sample some wines as the reps come in – and research some special orders from a Sunday customer… the one that saved the day on Sunday’s totals.

The “Hella” part is that my schedule this week is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday close… with Jim taking Sunday. In some ways today made me feel more connected to the “real” shop, not just the half Saturday and all day Sunday routine.

Getting off at 7 it is so tempting to just go next door to St. Clouds and have a nice meal at the bar, but alas, I’m headed home, a steak waiting for me in the fridge. The joys of the 30-50% off rack at Safeway. Of course it means that I don’t eat until almost nine after winding down from the work day.

I did get some work done tonight… I got the shine bottles labeled from the last runs and put on the shelf:

Let’s hope that there isn’t an earthquake since those are the top shelf.

Nighty night for me.

[211.8]

A dentist appointment that has been postponed three times is now a reality at noon.

And it’s the expensive one.

• X-rays (though now digital so why do they cost so much)
• Dr. looking in mouth (my, you’d had some really nice work done)
• Dr. making one minor note for something to look at next year
• Lots of gas
• Teeth cleaning
• $400 bill – no dental insurance

At the UW Surplus sale found 5 toner cartridges for the Faerie Printer (HP Laserjet 4550) at 5 bucks a pop… got to pick those up.

Next is Safeway for more bargain meats, running out of room….

We’ll just call this the “Meat Locker”. Luckily there is a trip to CanadaLand coming up so I’ve got boys to feed.

It’s so bad when your default meal is a steak and salad and an anti-fat absorption pill – and some wine.

So far it’s keep the weight off.

[212.0]

So, today, after a couple of days of work, it’s a day off to run the still (and do some grocery shopping).

Think 11 liters. Guess I need a picture. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day.

That gave me the time to work on a possible United itinerary of an around the Pacific:

Oh, and those mileage totals would only be if I got them to comp me Gold status on United this year. It seems there is lots of “pouching” of premium flyers going on these days.

I need a little over 100K more miles on United to get Million Mile Status which means Gold for life, plus Silver for a friends. Will this be my goal this year?

Chunks of chicken stir fried in cabbage was the dinner – I needs my roughage.

[212.4]

Well – slow Sunday. Barely pulled it out except for the customer who showed up at 4:30, inquired about tracking down four different wines, and then went on to buy a mixed case that came to $284 something after the 10% discount and tax. Whew! Made it an OK Sunday.

With all that time, I started thinking about Pucci’s wedding this coming summer (assuming they can find a place in Ireland to hold it). After a Points Guy article on oneworld’s World Explorer fare I crafted this itinerary:

15 segments in 10 days, the only time stopping is for 3-4 days in Ireland for the wedding. Imagine this flight pattern:

Cost per mile for this $8522.15 turns out to be .19 which isn’t good, but if I kept them all on American, a couple of more trips on Alaska or American I’d have Gold on American, which doesn’t really do me good. If I put them on Alaska, only half the flights it would get me Alaska MVP status for next year with the 27,568 EQM Qualified Miles, almost enough for a Business Class ticket to Iceland (75,000 or onward to Europe 80,000), drop the cost per mile to .12 – but push up my qualification numbers for MVP Gold to 50,000 from 40,000.

Makes me dizzy just thinking about how many hours that is my butt in a seat in Economy and I’m sure Colonel Eric thinks I’ve lost my mind to even consider it.

Dinner at Swanda’s tonight – lovely broiled salmon, high heat roasted brussel sprouts, and a big salad. And he opened a bottle of white wine from his last month’s shipment. Score another one!

[215.0] OK, no more carbs.

Opened the shop this morning, looked at the sales for the week up to this point. Slow. Not unexpected for January, but still.

There were people through and we were into the low four digits left of the zero, but still.

Jill and Murphy stopped in, Greg and Patsy arrived just as I was leaving… the joys of having friends drop by.

It being just after the first of the month – and that means wine club shipments, it also means lots of dinner invitations so that they get free delivery of their six bottle selections. Well, two dinner invitations. DancingBear tonight and Swanda tomorrow night. Interested in joining the wine club? CLICK HERE. You can find out what shipped this month HERE.

Left the shop a little after 4:30, and was to DancingBear’s place by five. Thankfully he’d restocked the Maker’s Mark since I couldn’t find any olives or a lemon twist for the Bombay Sapphire.

DB had to go pick up BM (BreticusMaximus) at work on First Hill, then get him home, fed, and back to work in an hour. A little crazy, but at least he could drive himself back to work.

Omaha Steaks®, baked potatoes (yes, I ate mine, but not the skin), steamed broccoli, and a bottle of the wine that I delivered – I need to get more friends into the wine club, I’m liking the perks!

Home relatively early, but that doesn’t mean early to bed. After Saturday Night Live, there was the premier of The 206, from the creators of Almost Live that ran for 4 or 5 years and has been repeating ever since. Both a local content comedy shows.

[214.6]

A peaceful morning, no hurry to get out the door so it was just before noon when I finally was on my way.

First stop = Safeway for marked down Jack Daniels Smoking Chips for the BBQ, but I plan to roast them a little further and add them to the jars of shine for color, and to smooth out the product. 50% off, not too bad, so I picked up two bags. They are made from chipped up Jack Daniel’s barrels. And a few things from the discount meat rack.

Second stop = Gas at Safeway. No 10 cent discount, no self-service, but it was cheaper than most around.

Third stop = Burgerville in Kelso for a Bacon Blue Burger:

There goes my allowable carbs for the day, and then some. Luckily it’s a two meal day so maybe those 45 carbs and 710 calories won’t kill me (or my diet). Good thing that they are a Northwest only chain – furthest north is Centralia, WA furthest south is Albany, OR – so be near one isn’t easy.

Fourth stop = the apartment for a package. New black jeans (old ones on the verge of ripping in several places and will now be my paint/projects pair) and an R2D2 Silicon Ice Cube Tray:

I have the Death Star mold on order as well, but that won’t come until Tuesday for some reason:

You can click on the pictures and be taken straight away to Amazon to purchase your own.

A quiet night around the house for tomorrow I open the store.

[? ? ?] And who knows after two Bacon Blue Burgers in three days.

Had a late lunch at the Elderberry Restaurant outside Seaside by 15 miles are so and saw this lovely on display:

Bigger than mine… a recent picture with its new setup:

Drilled a hole in the lid of the catch bucket to keep the fumes in, and grabbed a wine box from the garage as a stand – takes up less space than the dining chair it used to be on.

Got to the condo around 2:30, not that it was ready, but they did call me half way to pick up SeasideBoy that it was ready… nice timing.

Too bad he isn’t staying the night; he’s got something going with his uncle early in the morning. Oh well, got to hang for a couple of hours before returning him home.

Next stop = Safeway for dinner, imagine, a marked down steak (on the grill) and a pre-prepared salad. Forgot to grab a bottle of wine. Oh well, I hate paying retail.

Just a quiet night in front of the fire while the wind whipped up the waves in the distance.

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First, a picture that I forgot to add last night of Sven and Missy at dinner:

11am found me in the shop for inventory – after hugging Sven goodbye and telling him to lock the house. It took about an hour and a half to count all the bottles, bags, and miscellaneous.

Next stop = Portland. Grabbed Billy so that we could get checked into the downtown Courtyard by Marriott on his employee rate, which was $19 plus tax. Too bad he doesn’t get a deal on the valet parking which is $30 a night. Ouch. Oh well, even with that it is still about 1/3 of rack rate for the room.

Popped Billy back to work as he’s on until 9:30 or so and headed over to have drinks and dinner with Julian at the bar at the Lloyd Center Applebees – he on one side of the bar (the working side) and me on the other (the drinking side). Sweet guy that he is he picked up my tab. I guess all those times I’ve cooked him dinner are coming back to me karmically.

Back at the hotel, I actually sprung for parking. Beats moving the car at 8am.

A little time to catch up on email before Billy’s return. Mount Gay rum was waiting for him, as was I.

A VERY late night.

[210.2]

I worked the still.

Sven went on a boat ride to Bremerton.

I cooked dinner for Missy and us – cod and shrimp stuffed puff pastries with slaw, salad and wine after appetizers of Sven’s cheeses from the market, crackers and crostini.

Then I tried to pack for the Portland trip tomorrow.

The end.

[210.4]