UMTravels

Good day at the shop – Jim was busy all morning – and Scott Southard from Southard Winery was pouring for the tasting. Darling 33-year-old ginger-headed winemaker that produces stunning wines considering their first vintage was 2007.

It also helped the day’s sales that it is the first of the month – meaning all the wine club shipments enter the system. And for August, even with a couple of bad weeks, we were up a couple of grand thanks to two weddings.

Customers past closing, but that just means more sales. Ran out of samples right at the end as well, so that means a fresh bottle for the morning (and probably half of it going home with me)… what goes with fish?

Thought about St. Clouds as I was starving and it’s right next door, but Gage wasn’t behind the bar and I really like his Manhattans – guess I’ll check out Med-Mix on the corner of 23^rd and Union.

Short review: parts of the mashed potatoes and gravy were cold, but since I shouldn’t be eating them I think of that as Karma, fried chicken good, slaw good. Rating: average. At least it was under $10, which I couldn’t have even gotten my drinks for $10 at St. Clouds.

Dropped a bottle off at one of our customers house and headed home for a quiet evening.

[207.4]

The alarm went off at 7am. The CouchSurfer wants to be on the road by 9am and that’s the amount of time it takes for me to get coffee on, check mail, check the news, get breakfast made. He has about a twelve hour drive to Great Falls, Montana which will put him half the way back home.

As for me, I went back to bed for a nap before getting up, getting packed and on the road myself by a little after noon.

Destination? The Longhouse Gathering – which runs until Monday but I’ll just be there for Friday night since work is Saturday and Sunday. I suppose I could go out after work on Sunday but that would mean setting up camp twice.

Today’s picture – sitting around the registration table having cocktails and appetizers:

Unlike the Breitenbush Gathering, this is all “self-catered”. The building behind us it the cook shack. The other difference is this is like $10-20 a day as opposed to Breitenbush which is $350 for 5 days/4nights.

Much late night revelry, much interest in the two Grappas that I brought out.

Damn – I forgot a pillow.

[206.6]

Lots of packages to drop in the mail, books to drop at Swandas, burners to return to Jim and shopping for dinner with a couch surfer who is staying the night.

The couch surfer and I:

A 23 year-old from Calgary doing a little Northwest road trip before heading home for a job interview on Tuesday.

And a musician as well. He was really jazzed about playing around with my ukulele and running it through his synth equipment. Below is a trippy little video with really bad lighting, but it’s mostly about the music.

Great dinner of lamb blade steaks, salad, asparagus, bread.

Talking long into the evening.

[208.7]

It’s always an odd day when you get a $2765.19 unexpected check in the mail – apparently my old mortgage company was holding WAY too much in my escrow account – another reason I’m glad to be done with them.

Nice to have a little in the bank, though.

And speaking of the bank – that’s exactly where I went the minute I got the check.

Back home after the bank it was an afternoon tweaking the ongoing experiment – let’s try Jim’s laboratory burner for the copper thing. Plug it in… power light on, turn on element… wait… cold… DOA. And then I remembered the electric skillet I bought in Hawaii with SurfBetty. It worked well:

OK – the 12-packs of Diet Caffeine Free Diet Coke are just to hold up the Mason jar to capture the juice.

The four empties are what went into the copper pot. The output is below:

That would be three Italian glass flasks (250 ltr) of a Grappa 2003 Albana di Romagna (that’s a grape type). Got about 700ml of 115 proof, topped it up to 750 with filtered water bringing it down to an even 100 proof.

• 1:50 start at 400 degrees
• 2:10 first drops — throw out first ounce — turn down to 350 (steam head is at about 88 degrees C)
• 5:05 turn off burner
• 107 proof is what the final product is (625 ml)
• add water to make 750 ml at 100 proof

Barely got the system shut down before heading off for cocktails with Kev up in West Seattle.

More cocktails during the house tour and then off to Zippy’s Burgers for something we both shouldn’t have (him = colestoral, me = burger buns). Then to my place which he hadn’t seen for a night cap.

We’ve been friends since my Capital Hill days.

Now all I have to do is get the rest of the packages ready to mail tomorrow, finish the travel books for the new trips (they seem to be piling up) and get prepared for the CouchSurfer from Calgary tomorrow, besides cleaning out the copper queen and doing a proof test on what’s left of the wine — according to the floaty proofy thing… it no longer contains alcohol — time to dump the wash down the drain.

Too many chores, not enough income.

[208.6]

The day of trains today…

First, the Coast Starlight to Portland with Solus+:

And the Tacoma Narrows bridge from our roomettes (across the hall from each other).

Our lovely cabin attendant who I recognized from a previous Coast Starlight trip provided each of us two mini-bottles of champagne once we were under way.

I had about an hour in Portland before getting on the Amtrak Cascades service in Coach, but with two seats to myself and no children in my car.

But the most exciting news is that I heard that I’m definitely in on a train trip from San Diego to Los Angeles:

 

 

And here is what the Tioga Pass looks like:

And here is the interior layout:

And the floor plan:

And the cost?

• Train portion: $50 (for a three hour coast hugging trip with an observation platform
• Air portion: $7.50 and 25,000 miles (last minute tickets were pricey, so good use of miles)
• Hotel portion: $62.40
• Airport transfer to LAX: $7.00
• Transportation in San Diego, unknown, maybe Debbie Dye will be my chauffeur, in which case then there would be a nice dinner out.

$126.90 and two days of my time…. Just got confirmation this afternoon. I’m uber-excited.

Leftovers from last night for dinner, still tasty.

[206.5]

Out of the house at 10:30 to pick up Solus+ at the train station and pick up my ticket for tomorrow’s train trip.

Solus+ arrived on time and while he waited for his luggage I finished this morning’s Wall Street Journal – yes, it is still coming almost three months later (was supposed to stop on May 31^st).

And luggage he had –briefcase, carry-on roller bag, and this massive suitcase. All of which, including us, needed to go into the tiny Miata. Thank goodness for the trunk rack and the straps I keep in said trunk.

First stop was Filsons for a little shopping – he actually got out of there for under a hundred dollars, which is hard at Filsons – great quality, at a cost. He was after a ranger belt (http://www.filson.com/products/1-1-4-ranger-belt.63206.html). Funny that Solus+ and my brother both love Filsons.

Next stop is Salty’s At Alki for a little seafood lunch with a view:

Solus+ and the view:

Solus+ had the grilled Klamath River King Salmon on a bed of roasted potatoes and greens:

And after my half dozen Penn Cove oysters, it was on to the blackened salmon Caesar that came with a cup of their wonderful seafood chowder that was topped with a little sherry:

Safeway and the liquor store for Solus+ trip supplies and it was home to dinnerand cooking for me while Solus+ napped.

Think Pork Shoulder Roast, asparagus in a roasted bell pepper sauce, a nice loafof challah, a little slaw, good conversation with a bottle of nice Turkish wine in honor of Solus+’s upcoming trip to Turkey.

[207.6]

A good day at the shop, which adding to yesterday’s massive day (Jim joked that maybe I should stop working Saturday) made for a really good week – may those favorable winds continue to blow.

The last quiet evening before more company comes. Solus+ is due in tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, dinner was three little lamb chops and some slaw.

[209.2]

No shop work for me today – I’m off to Joe and Ross’ wedding outside of Tacoma. Thankfully they bought all the wine for the reception from us.

After 15 years of being together, you end up on the beach with an officiant:

And then the reception:

Great day for a wedding – with the breeze coming off the water I could have actually worn my cashmere sports coat.

Left at seven. I could have spent the night, but that would make for an early morning to get back to Seattle (1.5 hours) to open the store.

After the lovely meal at three…

… it was the Taco Truck for Fish Tacos at 8:30 for my dinner.

[208.2]

Got the boyz out of the house around 10:30, they were headed to the market to see ThunderCloud before heading south to visit Seth in Corvallis.

In some ways, nice to have the house back to myself – now I just need to do many, many loads of laundry – sheets from two beds and all the other stuff that is piling up.

Managed to make it over to Jim’s to pick up the electric burner for the still, but no time today to try it out.

I did get some work done on the dining platform and I learned the following:

• Yes, my old multi-meter just had a dead battery – thanks JoeFico for the new fancy one
• No, the batteries aren’t holding a charge so it looking like it’s going to be expensive
• That there is a safety switch that basically keeps the lift from moving unless it’s closed (but a squeeze clamp bypassed that)
• That it’s no fun to work in a confined space doing electrical work – had to put on a new terminal end

End result – more work to do, most likely involving 4 expensive batteries and more working in a confined space.

Quite dinner at home after what seems like a week of entertaining.

Off to a wedding tomorrow.

[207.0]

Today the boys are out and about:

• Fremont Troll
• Pike Place Market
• Archtectural Tour
• Ferry Ride To Braindamage Island
• While I stay home and prep the still by:
• Washing with hot soapy water all three pieces
• Assembling the pieces (shown here with teflon tape to keep steam from escaping)

  

• Fire it up on the stove and run a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water (no need for the water bath)

  

• Run a first “sacrifical” batch through the still (two bottles of white wine that had gone off)

  

Of course, many things needed to change from the photo above.

• The cooling water heated up to quick so I had to shut down the run and insert a trickling water hose
• The wind kicked up and I had to surround the burner with aluminum foil (will try Jim’s electric lab burner tomorrow)

But the end result for the afternoon is this:

Sacrificial run (two bottles run though the still) came in at 80%, the run of red (3 bottles run through the still yielding 400ml, that was 40% Syrah, 40% Carignan, 20% Merlot) came in at 90 proof and I’m hoping with the electric burner, while it will take longer to get to temp that I’ll be able to set it at 80 degrees Centigrade and get a higher proof.

I was all done by the boys arrived a little before six and Bliss a little after six.

Dinner was jerked lamb on the BBQ with a big salad and asparagus in alfredo sauce. Yum.

[207.1]

A lazy morning, it was almost noon before the frittata came out of the oven – but it was good as it had chunks of steak and was complimented by plain Greek yogurt and a roasted green chili salsa.

The boys today are headed to the Underground Seattle tour which Mark had been on 14 years before, but Onyx had not.

I had also recommended the Klondike Museum (also in Pioneer Square). Apparently it is the smallest National Park in the US.

They got back just in time for us to leave for Swanda’s for a pork chops, asparagus in Alfredo sauce, Cole slaw – luckily I brought wine. Maybe Swanda should restart his wine subscription in September rather than October (hint, hint).

But before dinner, it was time to pick up packages – and oh what I package I had waiting for me:

Luckily it came in three pieces – and I figured it would be easier to unbox for the trip home (that and the recycling goes in the apartment’s binds, not mine).

Looks like I have my project for tomorrow – guess the Dining Platform repair will have to wait another day…

[207.7]

I got Joe up, showered and out of the house by 5am to get his car back and get to his flight.

Guess who went back to bed?

After I returned to the land of the living, it was time to clean up all the items that were pending – getting transportation to/from the airport, reading the long emails I just scanned over, oh, and all those credit cards bills and the new lower mortgage payment.

Dinner by myself, the boys were taking the scenic drive through Mount Saint Helens and didn’t arrive until 9ish. So, the steak that I’d neglected to freeze, leaving the pork chops for tomorrow when we go to dinner at Swanda’s place.

Short post today.

[209.0]

It’s always fun to wake up with a straight man in your bed. Whenever we visit each other we always sleep in the same bed which the last time I was in Tucson, led to three of us in bed: girlfriend, Joe, then me. There is no sex, just some cuddling before falling to sleep.

First up on the agenda for the two of us to go to a Champagne and new Italian wines at C&G – Joe will go as Madrona Wine Merchants new intern. Apparently he didn’t make the cut as by the end of the day, he was no longer our intern.

Next up was packages at the apartment, then to pick up wine at the shop for dinner, back to the hood for a carwash (very dusty from the woods) and a grocery run before heading (after dropping off the wine and groceries) to Dragonfish Asian Café so Joe could hook up with a couple of gay guys from his college day (honest, Joe is straight – trust me, I’ve tried [repeatedly] and failed).

Nice appetizers – I had the tempura peppered bacon and some chicken pot stickers – Joe started with an avocado roll and then to the tempura peppered bacon. It being happy hour those small plates were like $2.95 and $3.95 – and for $2.95 you could get four of their normally $7 cold sakés that counted towards their Saké Club – drink the first 9 (over the course of a year), get a cedar sake box and a 5 appetizer card – finish the next 8 and get a t-shirt and a chance at dinner for two. Go on a Sunday night and all sakés are 50% off. So far I have five punches (four in the first section, one in the second).

A couple of hours later we were home and working to diagnosing the problems with the dining platform. At least I’m getting closer to getting it running again. Still more to do, but at least I can get to the batteries without having to move the entire lift.

Another late dinner, supplemented by Joe making blackberry martinis (macerated blackberries with a little sugar and either vodka or light rum). And we were so full from the appetizers that we just used the leftover steak over a bed of greens. And a nice rosé.

Of course Swanda learned of the blackberries and now wants some to make his own martinis.

[209.0]

No sleeping in this morning – must pack up this mess (and clean up from last night). I preloaded the briefcase and the talent show outfit so that meant two less things to worry about. Breakfast was a little cheese and beef jerky.

Here is the final shot from the gathering – the middle of the soaking pools on the hillside:

By 1:15 I was in Portland at Julian’s place just off Lombard. The plan is for lunch. After striking out at Fishwife, and then the Hawaiian BBQ shack (both closed), it was off to the St. Johns Theatre and Pub (one of the McMenamins venues). I had a lovely spicy pork burger and a side salad, Julian, there classic wonderful Rueben.

Not much time to hang, other than lunch as JoeFico is coming to dinner tonight in Seattle. Funny thing is that he is in Portland now, so we will both be driving up I-5 around the same time – a trip that turned ugly with messy traffic in Chehalis, Nisqually Delta and Tacoma. Add one hour to the trip.

By the time we were both at the house, it meant that the steaks didn’t come off the grill until 8pm – but well worth the wait as they were basically bone-in prime rib.

It’s been awhile since Joe visited – he is on a Tucson, Chicago, Seattle, Ontario, Tucson tour to use of some vacation time which he timed to quit after he goes back to work for a week – he starts a new after that. Always nice to have a job waiting when you quit one. Maybe I should learn from him.

[? ? ?] Back on the scale tomorrow.

The morning routine….

• Sleep in
• Get up
• Make coffee
• Brush teeth
• Shower with the dirty glasses
• Rinse and put them on the handicap grab bar to dry (lets air circulate in them)
• Put the obnoxious wine goblets on the window still to dry
• Make a brunch of meat and cheese

Afternoon routine….

• Have a salad for lunch
• Take a nap
• Set out food for the cocktail party

Evening routine….

Well, this isn’t a routine evening as the Auction/Fashion show starts after my salad for dinner (to get some greens to go with all the meat and cheese from the cocktail party).

Can I restrain myself from buying anything? Well, didn’t spend much. Just $20 that I was owed by the Faerie Fee Fund anyway. It was the set of boxes from four of the Breitenbush male staff members doing their version on the Saturday Night Live “Dick In A Box” skit.

It was a hoot.

Back to the cabin for another Punch & Ham show.

[? ? ?]

[? ? ?]

Stomach cramps for the first couple of hours this morning. I blame the saltiness of the ham.

By cocktail hour I was feeling better and we were back into full swing.

Today I actually made it down to dinner, surprising people who hadn’t even known that I was at the gathering… guess they didn’t get over to B row in the afternoon.

Today’s big event at the gathering is the Talent/No-Talent show after dinner.

Here was the little outfit that I wore – sorry the picture is a little blurry:

The video came out a little better:

An after-party of course, but at least this time there was a lovely boy from Iowa to help me wash the dishes.

[? ? ?]

The downside to hosting a cocktail party is the morning cleanup of glass and plastic-ware.

And those big goblets in the window are truly a pain to wash as they don’t quite safely fit in the handicapped sink meaning I have to wash them in the shower with its puny water pressure.

Here is a little sampling of some of the campers:

Didn’t leave the circle for the rest of the evening, missing dinner and a showing of a rough edit of The Big Joy Project, a documentary about the life and times of James Broughton, famous gay poet.

I’d seen an earlier cut and really didn’t want to be hit up for money after the showing which I assume is what happened (since it always does).

One of my neighbors, Punch, even showed up with a leg of ham that he was carving off for people. Damn good, but damn salty. Many trips during the night for liquids.

And yes, he brought a juicer for making his famous rum punch.

Another late evening of fun.

[? ? ?]

A lazy morning of missing breakfast and having meat and cheese at the cabin instead – the standard Breitenbush breakfast is heavy on carbs and low on protein (forgive the occasional frittata).

Out of the cabin by one (though we were closer to noon), but my bags stacked by our new cabin, B2, the only one of the cabins with its own shower.

Me thinks I brought too much stuff.

The land is a very different place before the Faeries arrive – heterosexual couples, children, the works. It’s a battle to remember to look at the sign on the bathroom door before just walking into the closest one.

They had our cabin cleaned and ready to move into at 3, and by 4 I was all set up for the masses.

Note the sun-tea brewing on the ramp.

The gates for the gathering opened and in trickled the faeries. The gathering is officially open.

Lots of people stopped by the cabin for wine, cocktails, and much cheese, meat, crackers, etc. By the time we were missing dinner there were a dozen folding chairs and much laughter.

Of course that also means that I missed the opening ritual and Faerie 101 for all the newbies.

It’s nice to be home.

To bed late, but with nowhere to go in the morning, no worries.

[? ? ?]

Let’s start off with a couple of shots from last night that I discovered on my phone:

Think of it as Klingon weapons bread.

And the guests at dinner.

Up at 8:30, out of the house a little before 11 – the car packed to the gills:

Got to the land a little before 4 after a lovely run through the Oregon woods.

Mark and Onyx were surprisingly late, arriving at 9, well past dinner, not that it was much to write home about.

[206.7]

Headed off to the woods, so no posts until Sunday at the earliest when this post will be removed and new posts will backfill with the events of the day.

[206.4]