All I was thinking about today was packing for the Santa Fe trip – it wasn’t until I got the email to check-in that I thought about whether I’d gotten upgraded to first for the LA portion of the trip. Answer = yes. Might have gotten an aisle seat if I thought about this at the tail end of Hawaii trip. Too much stuff going on.
Actually way too much stuff going on.
Dad passed this afternoon. The phone rang, I looked at caller ID, and it was the parents, well, Mom. That meant one thing.
I didn’t make it back, Emily (my niece) who got off a week early from finals didn’t make it back.
Part of me is relieved. Dad is out of pain. Emily and I didn’t have to see him as a shadow of his former self.
Going to be a little harder to wear my Santa Hat this season.
Plane landed half an hour late or so due to a couple of passengers we for some reason declined to board – meaning they had to go search for their bags in the cargo hold.
Me, I slept a bunch of the way home, but not enough of it to keep me from napping for half an hour at the rest area midway from Bellingham to Seattle, and then napping for another hour at home before heading into the shop to work the tasting to close shift.
And what a shift it was – slammed from 2 til 5, bottles barely lasted until 4 and we opened up another bottle of the first two in the tasting. Completely sold out of stock on two of the sparklers. Yes, it was a bubbles tasting and that always draws a crowd.
Sale rep John took this shot of the bottles in the bath:
Me, I took a photo of the mess in the back room after the tasting. Guessing that one load tonight and other one first thing tomorrow on my Sunday shift.
We actually ran out of champagne glasses near the end, and we have a rack and a half of them. Good day for sales – up 73% over last year.
After work it was a tree trimming party at Ross and Joes place – we supplied the wine for their commitment ceremony last summer – and the now have their license for the real thing, but that will be a small family ceremony with the same officiant as before. I didn’t stay all that long. The combination of lack of sleep and not wanting to drink and drive were the contributing factors.
With the meatballs at the party (and cheese and salami) it was a late steak dinner (with half saved for breakfast) followed by a little more shop work – someone I know came in and bought 5 gift certificates, wiping us out of our stash from last year. Spent some time printing up a big stack along with the envelopes they go in.
Recounting a long day… up with a wakeup call at 7, rolling over until 7:30, coffee on, eggs reheated, out the door around 9, headed for the North Shore.
We did the slow trip up the east side. Most folks just go straight up the island, we did the circle route.
Apparently they decorate trees on the north end.
Here is a little video tour of our east coast of Oahu run:
And then it is on to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck – Darcy turned me on to this two years ago on my trip with SurfBetty.
And then off to Bonsai Pipeline and other surf spots – no, we didn’t surf, I used the free chair I found (and fixed) on the beach to watch the surfers.
And then it was off to Honolulu for the Tin Man Mailman, a retro Hawaianna storef (Joe bought a Tiki Mug), then off to one of the oldest Tiki Bars in Honolulu located in the industrial districts – La Mariana Sailing Club )Joe bought a Tiki Mug):
Love the blowfish lanterns over the bar. Then off to a fabric store where Lisa bought fabric to recover Joe’s Tiki Bar chairs, and I bought 100% cotton fabric featuring space shuttles loaded with pineaples – I kid you knot. Sorry, no photo.
We didn’t make it to the Duke’s statue as Friday night traffic was hell getting into Waikiki, so we turned around and headed to the airport to drop me off.
Fun trip – 4 hours in the Delta Sky Club room next to the Japanese Garden behind security at the Honolulu International Airport (reminds me of Seoul, South Korea)… free drinks, free snacks, free wi-fi.
Plane leaves at 11:45pm, arrival 7:55am and I’m to work at 1:30pm for a bubbles tasting.
Eggs in the skillet this morning – luckily the eggs were done by the time I smelled smoke. Will research when I return to Seattle.
10:30 appointment for a Wyndham time-share sales pitch for $125. Might have gone for it (cheapest option $18K for bi-year), but everything is on hold with dad circling the drain. I know that sounds cruel, but if I don’t treat it with humor I get maudlin (according to sis-in-law).
So, in that vein, we have pictures from the trip that are just…odd and in no order:
Picture number one: MAGNUMS of really expensive wine in the local FoodPanty – really — $105-$230 magnums of wine in Wiakiki? Thinking wrong audience, hence Manager’s Specials on two of them. Wish I could see the original price on those Manager’s Specials!
Wondering about punctuation. Family name, or just missing a comma or two.
Pig kills goose….. and….. From Chinatown in Honolulu.
Aloha Hawaiian camouflage. Honest, it’s a cell-phone picture and I didn’t realize I’d blend in so much.
And apparently I’m cooking too much with no kitchen, which means I have to wash the dishes.
And why was this parked a block over – that is freaking stunning.
Just kicked around Waikiki today after the active yesterday. Picked up some chicken to go with the leftover kimchi and seaweed salad – opened a bottle of red and worked on packing the suitcase for tomorrow’s return flight. Luckily got upgraded.
Still no burners – good thing I brought the hot plate!
Didn’t fire up the hot plate this morning – ate leftovers from last night. Think Chinese breakfast.
We were out of the units a little before 10 and headed to the Kanaka Ukulele factory tour. I’d done it before, but thought Joe and Lisa would enjoy it (which they did).
Next up was the Aloha Bowl Flea Market. Not as packed as it usually is according to the vendors. Cause: very muggy weather, but overcast so you don’t have all the heat from open sun.
After a couple of hours and only covering half of the flea market we set out for something air-conditioned: Hilo Hattie. Yes, more shopping – and here it the result from the flea market:
Fabric for something, maybe a shirt? ($10 for three yards)
And who couldn’t resist Christ nailed to a surf board – looks great draped in puca shells. ($15, down from $18)
Three new Hawaii shirts from Hilo Hatties. (1 @ $4.99, 2@ $9.99)
Joe and Lisa headed back to the windward side of the island while I had the remaining leftovers for dinner.
In for the night – my dogs are barking (my feet are killing me).
Well, I must be on holiday as I had a HulaDog for breakfast this morning, granted it was a late breakfast.
I had the polish in a bacon taro roll with the mild sauce with Star Fruit Relish & Lilikoi Mustard – truly Hawaiian.
After breakfast/lunch (it was almost 11) it was off to the FoodPantry for supplies for the condo.
As promised, here are some shots of the condo. Yes, it’s the handicapped unit:
And a lovely shot of me by the pool:
Joe and Lisa showed up around five and I had a pupu platter laid out and ready for them. Lots of various poke (marinated raw fish) and a selection of drinks.
For dinner we decided on The Village Noodle House in Chinatown. I’ve passed through Chinatown many times, but somehow never managed to stop and eat. Lisa had the beef, broccoli, thin noodles; Joe the shrimp with vegetables, and I opted for the roast half duck. We shared appetizers of Moshu Pork and Green Onion Pancakes. All good, not spectacular, but I’d go back. Hell, they even have free parking, a rarity in Chinatown.
Had a little walk after dinner with sort of freaked Lisa out a bit… certainly wouldn’t as a woman (or maybe even a guy) walk around the neighborhood without being very alert.
Back at the condo, Lisa headed to bed (I had an overlap of a day on my reservations) and Joe came down to my room (luckily on the same floor) to chat and have a few more drinks.
It’s going to be a long day of driving, flying, and walking.
Eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast, and out the door at 9:45 headed to Bellingham.
Met SurfBetty in downtown for Korean Food at the Stone Pot only to find it closed. Then conveying to a Japanese Restaurant near SB’s place in the north end only to find it closed (damn Mondays). Ended up at a lovely Vietnamese place nearby which was cheap and lovely.
After a great lunch (Chicken Pho [soup] for SB, summer roll and chicken-lime salad for me) it was off to the airport arriving WAY in advance of my flight and in the middle of an Allegiant Air flight to Vegas I believe since I didn’t see anyone dressed for warm weather (they now fly to Hawaii as well).
Short line at check-in being a Gold First Class person – apparently if I wanted to take tomorrows flight they would have given me $400, which would have been more than the ticket cost me. Bad timing unfortunately with meeting up Joe and Lisa tomorrow. And you know how much I love getting bumped. Dollars, miles, the works.
Had a couple of Manhattans at Scotty Browns and got caught up with all the emails and blog posts for both me and the business, and then it was onto the flight. I left my jacket in the car since I didn’t want to drag it around Hawaii for four days so it means I’ll freeze my nipples off on Saturday morning as well – hopefully it won’t be raining cats and dogs.
About an hour in, dinner was served:
Mixed Greenswith Soy Citrus Glazed Chicken, edamame and Madarin Oranges
Warm Hawaiian Sweet Roll
Kalbi Beef Ribs with Korean BBQ Sauce
Sticky Rice
Stir Fried Zucchini
Tropical Trifle for dessert
Not bad for airline food. Manage to drink them out of Scotch in the six-hour flight so someone else up front must have been helping.
Here is the view from Honolulu International Airport on my arrival. The Chinese Garden you see in the foreground is actually behind security in the airport. But oddly enough, no smoking.
Caught the shuttle into town, dropped the bags and headed out for a late night snack of Kaulia Pork from Ono Cheesesteak which has taken the place of L&L near the Royal Kuhio where I’ve stayed in the past. The Royal Garden where I’m staying this time is about 4 blocks north (meaning further from FoodLand, the closest full service grocery store). And no, I didn’t eat the two scoops of rice, but I did eat the tiny scoop of mac salad.
The room is nicer that the other Wyndams I’ve stayed at in Waikiki, though there are some “odd things”:
Wine glasses, but no corkscrew
No cutting board or knives
No cooktop, but I knew that so I brought the electric skillet
Up and out to open the shop – gonna be a long day with an after-hours Grower Champagne Tasting. Turnout was more than we expected as people brought unreserved additions meaning a little less champagne for everyone, but not noticeable so. Here is a shot from the security camera (and the reason I moved it to its current location):
Dollar wise it was a good day – lots of expensive champagne going out the door, more in special orders.
Then it’s off to Swanda’s for dinner with Wonderfool (and Swanda). Pork loins over potatoes/onions/carrots, slaw, roasted brusel sprouts. Good conversation, but had to leave at 9 to come home and pack.
Do you think this is too much for four nights in Waikiki?
Maybe I should have gone with just the Speedo and a toothbrush.
Jim swapped Opening/Closing with me today so that he could get the wine club orders ready – it being the 1st of the month. That always makes a nice little bounce in the till.
Interested in joining the wine club – here are the details: http://madronawinemerchants.com/blog/mwm%e2%80%99s-madrona-wines-monthly/. We don’t ship, so that saves you a lot of dough – just swing by sometime during the month and pick up your goodies. Here is a great shot of half of the club members selections – complete with reusable 6-bottle tote (which also has cool side pockets for other goodies:
Stopped for seafood in Ballard for the family holiday presents. That’s what everyone gets these days – seafood and wine. Who doesn’t love that?
Closed up at 7 and headed home to start packing for a number of trips. The top box will be headed to Oregon to the bro and sis-in-law, the middle box goes to Hawaii with me on Monday, and the lower box goes with me to Santa Fe the following week. All the relatives holiday shopping is done, but not the wrapping.
Got the second barrel filled the other night – they look like two little pigs on the counter:
Turkey sausage and salad for dinner – didn’t get to the asparagus so that will go to Swanda’s place tomorrow for him to use. We have this habit of passing produce back and forth if we are headed out of town and it will go bad before our return. Guess this means I’ll be taking his wine club selections as well. Maybe that’s why he invites me over the first of every month for dinner.
Was out of the condo around 11 and off to the border. The signs said 40 minute wait at Peace Arch and 20 minutes at Pacific Crossing – went for the Pacific Crossing as they give me a 10% discount off Duty Free with my Nexus Card. Nothing beats even cheaper duty free.
And nothing beats the Nexus Card – there were only 4 cars in front of me in line – so much for that 20 minute wait.
Next stop is the apartment to pick up the three custom casks that I ordered a couple of weeks ago. Don’t they look cute?
And I plan on using the “St. Bernard” style one as a sporran to go with my kilt:
Now I have the two smaller casks filled – need to set up the equipment again to work through those eight cases of wine in the garage to fill the other two (with plenty left over!).
A quiet night at home catching up on email and whatnot.
A lazy morning after last night’s rambunctiousness. The big goals for the afternoon are a little thrift shopping (didn’t find anything – was looking for some new shorts for the Hawaii trip next week) and a lemon to stuff into the cavity of the bird that Helene is bringing over (and grabbed a few more things for the pupu platter).
Folks started showing up around 5 – that would be the aforementioned Helene, along with Hummingbird and BamBam – and did I remember to get a portrait of all of us, no – just like last night. No documentation.
In addition to the contribution of a happy, organic bird, she also showed up with pre-prepped vegetables to go under the bird and chicken stock to make gravy. This from the woman who couldn’t boil water a couple of years ago. Add in a piece of flank steak on the griddle, a nice big salad and a huge loaf of bread and you have a damn fine meal when accompanied by the requisite white and red wines.
A lovely evening of laughter and conversation – we must be in the midst of the booze and buffet season.
MoonSong came to clean at 9 or so, which got me out of bed and starting to pack to today’s adventure. When I left at 10:30 or so, he was still cleaning and dusting and whatever.
First stop is at the apartment to pick up a couple of pairs of custom shoes I ordered. Well, I THOUGHT it was two pairs, apparently I ordered another pair from Vans that I’d forgotten about. The Vans are on the left, and the two on the right are Converse:
You can’t really see from the photograph, but the pair in the center are a very shiny gold patent leather. A what the hell is “patent leather” anyway? Click Here For The Answer.
It was a slow trip up the coast. A stop for gas and thrifting in Mount Vernon, a stop for lunch in Blaine, a stop at duty free for whiskey (and free playing cards with 13 different stories about Jack Daniels on them), wine shop for red/white, Safeway for appetizers and other dinner stuff meaning an arrival at 3pm at the condo – only to be informed that Shaw Cable was installing new digital TV boxes in each of the units meaning no early checkins.
Luckily, twenty minutes later they got the “All Clear” for my floor – the top floor of the WorldMark units – 24. Nice unit that has more room in the dining room.
Waiting for me at the door of the condo were Epick and his boyfriend (who I have the hots for) – my arrival at the unit was delayed by going to the basement parking lot to get luggage and groceries.
Boyfriend hung for a couple of hours before heading home to pack for a weekend move – Epick stayed late into the night helping me take care of that Jack Daniels – I made a little latenight dinner of lamb chops after he left, but still had to make a midnight Tim Hortons run. That won’t be good for my weight numbers!
Another Tuesday work day for me…. Though I’m wondering why I even bothered to get out of bed. Not a single customer until 5, and I opened at noon. Ouch. Might be the worst sales day ever, but I’ll have to check that. Or that might depress me more.
Mind you, last year wasn’t a stellar day either, but I did like half that. Ouch, as Jim said.
Got the icemaker installed in the bathroom, ran some ice – the first cubes were good, the I started getting “ant cubes” – apparently there are still some ants in the plumbing from the infestation of a couple of weeks ago. See this gross post: https://blog.unclemarkie.com/2012/11/07/everything-is-dying/. I’ll run it some more on Saturday before the wine tasting, that should get the rest of the critters out of the plumbing.
Got home around 7:30 and by 8 there was a steak and a salad on the dinner table – didn’t open a bottle of wine since the other half wouldn’t get drunk until Friday, past it’s pull date.
Only thing I didn’t get around to was packing for tomorrow’s trip to Vancouver.
Besides going to a wonderful Champagne tasting with a hundred or so bottle open, the other project for today was what I’m calling FrankenStand. It is a weirdly shaped shelf unit for the bathroom that will hold the icemaker and give us a little counter space. As you can tell, made all from scrap lumber from the original lumber shipment for the wine store shelves:
In progress above, completed below.
Had Daniel over for dinner – tried to sell him my mother’s Miata, didn’t work, but we did have a lovely pork loin wrapped in bacon (must be the season) and a massive green salad.
After dinner was over and Daniel gone, it was time to clean the sugar ants out of the ice machine. Disgusting. I just hope I got them all.
OK day at the shop – at least I made better than last year in sales. Maybe I should stop tracking day/week comparisons to last year. People buy or they don’t, we market, sometimes hit helps.
But the high spot of the day was dinner with Bliss and a friend of his. Cocktails (the olives in the martinis were our salad), and the tasting bottle I brought from the shop (no good by Wednesday) to accompany a lovely stew/soup with tiny cornbread muffins from scratch – and yes, I succumbed to the lure of carbs, cornbread carbs.
It was an early night as Bliss has a ton of papers to grade – the joys of being an International Baccalaureate English Teacher.
Tomorrow is a champagne tasting in the afternoon and then dinner with Daniel.
In the meantime, I dream about the next motorhome, the Airstream Interstate that seats 8 for travel, 2 for sleeping.
Post Turkey Day crowds like at the store but the final numbers were OK, better than last years.
Of course that means a late supper and an alarm to set in the morning.
Since today is “Shop Small” day, I had a quick dinner next door at St. Clouds – their fall salad and a bowl of mussels steamed in coconut/ginger broth. Very tasty.
After dinner it was off to DancingBears to drop off his annual “Shop Small” day wine purchase – called to remind him to register his card and buy wine with the offer of free delivery. Two nice bottles
2000 Gran Orsitan Reserva for $12
Foxglove Chardonnay for $13.50 (it was on the 10% off rack)
Stayed for a drink and it was back home.
Wow, this blog would be boring if I just worked every day of the week.
Before I get to dinner, finished up getting the MailChimp email list set up for the Winter Gathering – it’s a free service works get if you don’t have to send out tons of emails but still have a lot of members on your list. Got the call designed, send out, and only 23 bounces (2.9% according to the site). Now comes the fun part of going through the database and updating it, and sending snail-mail postcards to the bouncy people.
As for dinner, here is the before:
That would be a “Moose Loaf” according to Swanda. Half moose (thanks Alan in Juneau), half lamb, wrapped in bacon.
And the whole meal:
With a load of pencil-thin asparagus and a big salad. No carbs here except for the wine.
Good dinner, good to see Swanda, still didn’t get to bed early.
Well, Turkey Day is a working day for me – well, at least from 11am-3pm. Not expecting huge sales (last year $350), but people do really like it that we are open for those last minute wine emergencies.
Jim came up around noon to hang our new sign banner:
It’s still got some wrinkles, but it needs to stretch out a bit before we can tighten it – and it doesn’t help to have that damn garland in the way.
While Jim was doing that (sometimes with help from me), I was working the counter and putting in the new shelf unit into the bathroom/storage room to make more space available. Here is the end result:
The new shelves are to the right, above the toilet. The shelves to the left are reorganized so that it’s easier to see the “wines on hold” names for quick access. With the microwave moved to the shelf it gives us flat service to stack extra glasses on (bottom right). Still to be done is the stand to the right of the sink to hold the icemaker (lower shelf) and provide a little counter space to prep the cheese and crackers for the tastings.
A last minute rush of customers meant we exceeded last year’s sales, and made me a little late getting to Suze’s place for a turkey day dinner. There was a little “competition” over what kind of gravy to make, and I must confess that I would have preferred both of them a little thicker:
I left around 7:30 to get back home safe and sound. Longer I would have stayed around, the more likely to be sleeping on somebody’s floor.
Swanda went to the liquor store the other day and picked up some stuff for him and others…
Yes, I ordered a case of Evan Williams Bourbon, two Jameson Irish Whiskies, two McLennan Scotches – seems I was running a little low on the brown stuff. Got lots of the clear stuff, mine and others.
Thanks Swanda – still can’t believe he spent $1800 at the liquor store (OK $200 was for me). And it did save me a run to the store.
In other news, took the Miata (mine, not my mother’s) to the shop for an estimate on getting the damage repair – looking like $1500 not including glass.
3pm found me at the store helping Jim until 7 when we closed – did over double what we did last year on the Wednesday before Turkey Day. Pray for the rest of the season to be as good.
Home for a steak and a heavy red before bed. That was mostly for the rhyme – there were several hours between the red and the bed.
Oh it could be fun depending your arrival. Snow forecast Friday night/Saturday morning! Aloha-ha-ha! Off to airport to fetch Damon.
Oh bloody hell, and I left the jacket in the car!