12:55pm departure and I’m at the airport a couple of hours before that having cocktails and eating free food. It may be $300 a year for the airline club, but I think I’m getting my monies worth.
Flight was running 40 minutes late, but I don’t’ have bags so Dan beats me to baggage claim since I’m at the end of A concourse and walk over the sky bridge.
Stuck in rush hour traffic, our dinner guest arrives before us and lets himself in to start cooking. A Yemeni recipe featuring chicken, sausage, turmeric, paprika, garlic and a thickener to make a gravy for a stunning stew like dish, with cashew green beans with lemon zest on the side with a bunch of roasted root vegetables. Damn that was good for just arriving from the airport.
Boys night in.
It’s a hard way to earn the lst of my Alaska miles to hit MVP Gold.
A whirlwind of activity today after the HomeWise guys showed up at 10:30. Houston, we have a problem. So the inspector did the pressure test readings on the house and they were HIGHER than before all the insulation work. They should be LOWER. All the work was done so the only thing he can figure out is that he wrote down the wrong number originally. Hugo (the contractor, not the inspector) had (and still has) a couple of last minute things to fix. Really what needs fixing is the single pane windows and the roof needs reroofing.
Checks to deposit, groceries to buy, booze for Swanda, packages to pick up, swing by the house, drop stuff off at the house, check email, back out the door to pick up corkscrews and bags at True Fabrication and swing them by the shop, then back to the apartment (for the third time today) for cocktails with Swanda before heading home for dinner. The original plan was that we were going to pick up stuff in Fremont and have dinner at a new Rib Truck having a “soft” opening. We were both too pooped, and I hadn’t packed yet.
And that was my evening. Eating and packing.
I should remember to plan at least a couple of days between trips so that I don’t spend an entire 24 hours trying to squeeze in everything.
I forgot to post this picture of the sunset last night from my parent’s balcony (while working on mom’s computer).
After finally getting her email to work this morning, it left me precious little time to wolf down a tamale before we headed to the airport in Albuquerque. Flights running on-time, got to SFO with plenty of time for a late lunch which started off with oysters:
And then moved on to the Crab Louis:
And today’s odd picture… a United regional jet that seriously either needs a new paint job to maybe just be retired.
It was 8:30 by the time I’d stowed the luggage in the trunk and gone up to apartment to pick up the small packages. Didn’t finally get home until 10pm.
How to get five good sized adults back to Santa Fe when the car is a Subaru Forester and we are five good sized people. The answer, have two of us hitch a ride with my brother Jon headed to the airport and get out at the Santa Fe Opera exit and cram in the Forester for the last half an hour — that way Jon avoids having to swing through Santa Fe proper and can just take the nuclear by-pass highway (Santa Fe is a nuclear-free zone).
Spent the rest of the day getting my mother’s new birthday computer to actually recognize the files from the old machine (2/3 successful) and for it to actually be able to log-on via dial-up to MSN (yes, she is still on dial-up). The later only took two calls to voice automated technical support and one call to a real person who transferred me to someone who actually knew the answer. I finished up just in time to BBQ lamb and pork chops for dinner.
Dinner was another big affair — eight of us at the table. We pretty much finished the remains of all the food leftover from the trip to Taos.
After dinner it was more computer stuff — lots of disassembly of computers, two from Jennifer and Kennan and my mother’s old computer. Now I have a bag full of spare parts to replace the space that the computer took on the way down.
Of course, stayed up too late, but what’s new with that.
Markie……
I didn’t know Santa Fe was a “no nuc” zone, but I’ve lived around several (Berkley comes to mind…….) and I’ve always wondered whether the city fathers and mothers involved had thought to tell our potential enemies that……”Don’t be coming around here with your nuclear weapons……we don’t allow them.”
I’m thinking they didn’t.
Cheers from the People’s Republic of Vermont……..Eric and Kate
Woke up late, but that was OK as the three of us (Bro, Helene, Me) all slept in after our late night drive last night.
The hope for Michael’s Cafè for breakfast was dashed by the sign “will re-open Dec. 9th“. Damn. It’s a great place for breakfast. Through town and down the hill we wondered in search of the Taos Diner II for a sunning breakfast/lunch. I had the Eggs Benedict (not on my diet, but I skipped most of the home fries) with a Pomegranate Mimosa that came over ice in a pint-size glass — luckily the owner showed up because our waitress didn’t know how to make one (she does now).
Walking back to the WorldMark is difficult with Helene, “Look, more yarn!”, but we did stumble across the “Occupy Taos” movement, all four strong:
When we returned an hour later, the four had moved on — apparently it was a lunch time occupation.
Stunning weather today — sunny and warm, didn’t even need the jacket for the run to the store for supplies.
We were back and settled into one of the condos for the big reveal. I left a key at the front desk for my sis-in-law who was bringing my parents up from Santa Fe. Imagine when my mother walked in the the condo and found Helene, Bro, and her former business partner and family friend Mike sitting around chatting. THAT was a look of joy. Even my father had a twinkle in his eye from the experience.
Kennan and Alissa showed up around seven, just in time for things coming off the grill, not that any of us were starving with the poo poo platters having come out at four. For tonight we did grilled vegetables and bratwursts, a big salad and some artisan (albeit Albertsons) bread with some sort of red cupcakes for the birthday candles.
Did I get a group portrait? Oops. Hopefully tomorrow.
Parents retired early, Dad needed to stay up until nine to deal with his eye drops and last pill of the day (needing an empty stomach), and the rest of us (minus Alissa who also crashed) stayed up late into the evening chatting and catching up.
On the way to meet Helene at Amtrak for our trip today, spied these two cars in the yard:
The Mid-America City of Angels is a car for lease (http://www.midamericarailcar.com/pages/fleet.html) but what is weird (other than my obsession with private rail cars) is that it isn’t listed on their fleet roster, and it’s last known owner was a Heritage museum in Omaha (home to Warren Buffet who now owns BNSF). I believe it’s a lounge car.
The other car in the yard:
The Boston and Maine Salibury Beach sleeping car (http://salisburybeachrailtravel.com/). Odd that the two are travelling together, well maybe not. One lounge, one sleeper.
We got to the airport in plenty of time, flights were on time with was really good because we had a 40 minutes connection at SFO with checked baggage, and still had time to grab a snack for the second flight.
Brother Jon picked us up at the airport (so I could have a couple of scotches on the plane) and whisked us to “secure undisclosed location”.
More on that tomorrow. Suffice it to say, we all made it safe and sound.
It just happened to be on the page I opened the paper to. Or shall I say, Too Funny.
Part of today was spent at the Seattle Public Library to check the RL Polk City Directories to get a sense of what businesses were in our space since it was built in 1900. On line I found the picture of our building when it was the headquarters for the Seattle branch of the Black Panthers.
1973-1976 it was O’Neil’s Fabric and Upholstery (it has been vacant since 1977), it was Brill Realty 1960 to 1972, which is odd because in 1968 1127 ½ was listed as the Black Panther Party headquarter, but as you can see from this photo, it’s obvious that Brill Realty wasn’t operating. My guess is that the Polk folks saw the Real Estate sign and went with that. From 1940 to 1956 the left hand side (1127) was a bakery under various owners (in 1940 it was call Cooperative Bakery). I ran out of time at the library so I still have to do 1900-1939. And all that time from 1977-2011, those 20+ years? Filled to the brim (think an episode of Extreme Hoarders) with the landlords “prized possessions”.
Swung by the shop with some delivers and to give Jimmy a quick lesson on card printing (wine description cards) and hung with Jill and Bliss when they came in to see the shop. Then out to dinner with Bliss for cheap Mexican before heading home to finishing packing for my trip with Helene tomorrow.
Nice to sleep in as the laundry list of errands has no particular schedule.
Eastside for bank, Trader Joes, and a couple of thrift store (6 wine glasses for the shop at .45 each). On the return from the Eastside, it’s off to the UW Surplus Store to see if they still have $25 dorm fridges (serious disinfecting needed) and other things for the shop. Found the following:
Dorm size fridge ($25, needs serious sanitizing)
Rolex and plastic sleeves for business cards ($1.75)
Under cabinet file cabinet (beat up, but only $5)
2’x2′ carpet squares for behind cash wrap (20 @ .50 each for $10)
5 x 5 dishwasher rack ($1.00 — paid $25 EACH for the other three last week)
Looks pretty funny all stuffed in my car:
Maybe I should have kept the Mommy Van rather than the Miata. Nah.
Of course, there was a large format printer they had for $200. Didn’t have time to power test it, maybe next week. Just what I need (maybe).
Spent the afternoon in the shop getting everything installed. Well, without doing the final cut on the carpet squares. That’s tomorrow.
Ginger Pork with Asparagus with a side of marinated cucumbers.
Mostly a day off, but 1pm finds me meeting with Jimmy for a list of little things for the shop:
Heater for under the desk
Down light for the counter area
Card holders for the lower racks
Business card holders for the counter
Letter size two side plastic flyer display
Items we couldn’t find after our five stops:
A ¾ size glass front fridge (supposed to be coming soon)
Resealable wine stoppers (though I like the red ones, and they do have rubber seals)
Dorm size fridge for our personal items
Small microwave (also for personal use)
I was at the taco truck in South Park 4PM for fish tacos after running Jimmy home, then to the shop to drop stuff off, and back to Jimmies to drop off the drill.
Tonight’s solitude dinner is some of the leftover pork, sliced, salted, with a side salad with a topping of the marinated cucumbers (TONS better the second day) and a Blue Cheese vinaigrette.
Here is a link to the wine for tonight (click on the bottle):
Spent the evening working on a couple of possible ads for the local monthly paper in Madrona:
Tomorrow, off to University of Washington surplus to find a Dorm Fridge. I had quarters (from the poker fund) for any trick or treaters (nothing says love like cold hard cash), but none showed up.
Up early as today is my FIRST alone shop day. Need to be at the shop a little before 11 to crack the safe, fill the till, pull back the curtains and unlock the door.
A few people wandered in between 11-1, but the afternoon was quiet until about 4pm when Jimmy and Ron showed up— and Ron was in a shopping mood, giving me the chance to use the big 10% off button on the register. He walked out with a case of wine, including one of the bottles under glass at the counter, an area reserved for the over $50 wines (date wines).
Shortly after that we were inundated with trick or treaters and were out of candy in minutes. There were PACKS of children. We did treats for the adults in sample of wine, which help save the day wine sales wise.
We even kept the shop open an extra hour to milk the crowds.
Good think that DancingBear is coming for a late Sunday dinner rather than an early Sunday dinner (which is more typical). Roasted pork in a peppercorn sauce, marinated cucumber salad, steamed asparagus, and remainder of last night’s Sicilian wine.
And for today’s picture, an update on the South Park Bridge construction:
Both of the new support piers are starting to climb.
Mostly not in the shop, but that doesn’t mean I’m not doing shop business.
Blog posts
Parts for additional 18″ rack
New business cards
Table tents
I did run up to the shop for two reasons, to meet up with Jeff and Marvin and pick up half a 25# bag of bread flower and to pick up some wine for the house. Amazingly, I’d let myself run out. How can that be now that I have access to a very large cellar.
Tonight’s wine (to go with the pork chops) is from Sicily:
2010 Purato ($11)
Nero d’Avola
100% Nero d’Avola
The Purato is made from organic vineyards in the south eastern region of Sicily. The wine is rich with big berry and cherry flavors balanced out by dry tannins and good acidity.
Organic
The wines in the background are three more of the six bottle Madrona Wines Monthly November Red Selections.
Stayed up too late for having to open the shop tomorrow, but that’s life.
Spent the morning kerfing in the shop i.e. putting a thin slit in 1×2 stock to hold the wine description cards. Here is the setup:
The 1×2 goes flat through the track setup with boards and clamps. The top board is to keep the 1×2 from pulling up and away from the saw blade making the ¼” deep slot. Probably more than you wanted to know.
Did fourteen 40″ long sticks that will cover all the upper racks around the wall. We are still befuddled about how to handle the cards for the lower racks. All in good time. Mounted about half of them before I ran out of finish washers — time to go buy another box of a hundred.
But the blog post (for the shop’s blog) that never got done because I just ran out of time and energy was about the bottle that we had open for tasting today. There is generally one bottle open for samples as it tends to get people buying more while they wander around the shop with an ounce of wine in their hand. Often they end up buying a bottle of what we are pouring since it is then a “known quantity”. Here is what was open:
2009 Château Jouanin Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. The wine card description reads something like this:
Located east of the town of St. Emilion, this Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend has ripe, plummy fruit, medium weight, and a nice balance of tannin and acidity.
And yes, we sold a couple of bottles of it — at $13.00 a bottle, it’s tasting more like an $18.00 a bottle which is what we strive for in the shop.
Stopped by the apartment to pick up a toner cartridge that came in from Amazon and to have a glass or two of Prosecco with Swanda. Did some dinner shopping downstairs and headed home for a guiet evening.
Still plugging away at the remaining details for the shop, such as the 3×5 notecards and a way to mount them. The notecards will have the year, winery, wine, cepagè (what grapes and what percentages were used to make the wine), and a brief description of each of the over 300 different bottles of wine that Madrona Wine Merchants stocks at any given time. The mounting is the easy part, the data entry for the cards is the daunting part.
Milled the sample rail in the morning, went to the shop, installed it, then rewired the cash wrap for a wall phone and the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to easily get the Access Database of wine cards to print correctly on the Avery pop-out notecards. By the end of the day we had seven cards produced, but a fairly easy way to print individual cards rather than having to print the entire database. Tomorrow should see a much better output of wine cards.
Turned down an invitation to dinner with my business partner. After a long day with people the peace and quiet of a glass of whiskey followed by a glass of wine with dinner is too tempting to pass up.
Here is a recipe that I’m starting to work on, individual meat loaves (done is small spring-form pans):
This was all lamb (1 lb. for two patties) with an egg, spices, and ground hard cheese with more cheese added for the last five minutes. I’m thinking next time I’ll try ringing the pan with a piece of bacon. Doesn’t bacon make everything better?
Up again early this morning. The insulation crews are returning to finish winterization of the house, followed by a 10am phone interview with Alaska that whatever the opposite of “nailed it” that would be how that went, then I’m off to the store to do the last bits of this and that before the doors open at noon. Here is a look around just prior to opening.
By 6pm once the after work crowd arrived, the scene was a little different:
Luckily opening day went better than my phone interview. It wasn’t until 8pm that I was home and working on dinner. I had to swing by Safeway on Capital Hill as the refrigerator was totally bare. For once, that store actually had stuff in the bargain bin. Rib eye steak for tonight, thick pork chops for other nights.
More stuff on the “to-do” list than I can get done tonight, but at least I had a wonderful chat with Wonderful who came to grab opera tickets.
But, of course, all the last minute details (the glass for the counters came in about 3pm) meant a late dinner. The original plan was to cook for Swanda and Crew (Rob/Jody) when I left the shop. It was 7pm by the time I got to the apartment with two bottles of Malbec for a little tasting (one French, one Argentine, $9 and $10 respectively at Madrona Wine Merchants). Luckily they texted (hungry) and said Rob was headed to the Sea Garden (across the street from the apartment) for an assortment of Chinese food. The perfect complement for Malbec, or should I have gone for a semi-sweet Riesling or a Pinot Noir for the pork dish which this New York Times article talks about.
Sorry for the bad photo.
My problem is that I like heavy reds, and Malbecs are definitely that.
I got home and did the chores in the shop that I could safely do after a couple of glasses of wine:
Pull the nails from a wooden wine box
Cut a new lid for it
Air nail it down
Cut it in half to make two boxes for the lower rack of our shelving
Fill the trunk with the vacuum cleaner and other stuff for the store
Weasel the safe into the front seat of the Miata for installation in the bathroom
What I didn’t get done:
The paneling blade cut on some 1×2 as a test wine card holder (too fine, too dangerous for after a couple of glasses of wine)
In the morning the contractors come back to finish their job (except for the hood for the upper stairs), and I have a conference call at 10am for a future work opportunity, then it’s back to the sotre for opening morning and all the niggling details to finish (like writing up all the wine cards!).
The store looks great. Mazel tov! Art totally beats wine maps.
From the NYT article “she still vividly remembers her first sip of an imported wine: “It was a south Australian shiraz. It was so much better than the Chinese wines I’d had in the past, and you didn’t have to add Sprite to it” reminded me that, when I first met him in Corfu, Bri drank retsina with sticky lemon soda.
Last night was a lot of fun and just for reference you had food from Shanghai Garden, much better than Sea Gardens, which is known for watering down their food!
Just one more picture from last night. I packed a leather punch so that a belt that I gave CrowDog would finally fit around his skinny little waste. That is beadwork sewn onto buckskin making a pretty striking rodeo style belt buckle. I picked up several years ago at the Faerie Bazaar from Clyde Hall, a first nation’s person from Idaho, but the piece is from Leanne Chappell, she a member of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes.
The boys and I were out of the condo on the dot of noon, and headed to the coffee shop and the comfy chairs (and the 10% discount because we are staying at the WorldMark). I stashed my luggage back at the WorldMark, and Lunetta and Onyx brought theirs along as they are taking the bus to the airport (about an hour and a half, but only $2.50 each). As for me, I hung at the coffee shop for a couple of hours, then went off to lunch and had a lovely ceviche at Santiago’s Café close to the ferry terminal. The only book I managed to bring was Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey, which aside from a lack of attention to line breaks in chapter heading, I found to be an informative read. Now I just have to figure out how to circulate it amongst all my bourbon aficionado friends because at $22.95 ($20.66 for the Kindle edition) it’s a bit overpriced.
No trouble with immigration, the boat ride, or customs on the other end. Actually customs conversation was as follows:
Them: How are you doing tonight?
Me: Tired.
Them: Any gifts?
Me: No.
Them: Have a nice evening.
Short and sweet. No asking about what I’m bringing back, nothing. Just jumped in a cab and $32 later I’m home.
It seems everyone was a little tired from yesterday. Nobody rolled out of bed until 10:30am. Personally, I needed that extra rest (and still had an afternoon nap as well).
“Breakfast” was at 12:30 after the boys returned from the coffee shop (no Half and Half or Splenda for Onyx’s coffee) and featured “European style breakfast sausages” which are basically small links of weisswurst and a cheesy egg scramble.
Lunetta and I headed out mid-afternoon to the “real” grocery store for ingredients for tonight’s dinner with CrowDog and RobinHood. On the menu:
When we got to the check-out like at the Thrifty Food Mart we realized that all our groceries would be in handle-less paper bags. Yikes. It seems Thrifty has endorsed the voluntary ban on plastic shopping bags. Must be recent as the check-out clerk was pretty clueless when it came to double bagging (with paper you insert bag A into bag B BEFORE putting any groceries in, the opposite of plastic). It was a fun walk back on a sunny fall day.
The Salt Spring Island boys (CrowDog and RobinHood) arrived around six for a parade of hats. Lunetta bought three this afternoon and the Salt Springs Boys brought me one as a present:
It was a VERY early morning after a very late night. It was mid-morning that I realized that I was so asleep in the shower that I forgot to shave. There was lots of napping on the boat ride north.
Interesting what happened at immigration. We were the ones picked for more scrutiny. Not only passports, but drivers’ licenses which I never heard of before. Onyx was annoyed, but Lunetta and I were more like “they need to justify their jobs.” Check-in time isn’t until 4pm, so we had plenty of time to kill.
With the room not ready (they hadn’t even checked out yet), it was stash the bags and go to Barb’s Place for fish and chips (yes, me — that will be my carbs for the month), calamari, shrimp, chowder (the boys). This is there last weekend being open until they return in the spring (just like salmon).
Still no room at 1:30pm so off to the coffee shop we went. VERY comfortable chairs — so comfortable that the boys managed to fall asleep mid-page in their books.
By 3pm we were in the room and trying to decide on dinner. I checked out the mini-mart around the corner (was too tired to think about walking to the big market twelve blocks away) and picked up some soda pop, water and chocolate. Once we decided that we were cooking in, it was off to Finest At Sea, a boutique seafood shop a couple of blocks away for scallops and sable fish (black cod) for the grill and iceberg from the mini-mart for the salad (cook thing I travel with oil and balsamic, though Onyx used lemon juice instead) and stuff for a poo poo platter. Finest At Sea isn’t the cheapest (nor is the mini-mart), but it is definitely the freshest.
And here are the results (yes, another blog food shot):
For the first time ever dining with the boys, we had the TV on because PBS was showing “After The Thin Man” with William Powell and Myrna Loy (and a very young Jimmy Stewart). There were about six of these films mad (late 30’s early 40’s black and white) and the earlier ones are the more boozy ones (before they had a child, just the dog).
Onyx was in bed early, and Lunetta and I headed to the hot tub to lessen our woes (or aches and pains from aging).
Today the crew at the house is insulating the floor and putting down new plastic in the crawl space.
As for me, it’s borrowing Gnarlene’s truck again to move the last display fixture from the garage to the shop. You can see a glimpse of the new rack in this shot:
Only two more racks to build and we are done.
On the way back to the shop, stopped at Encore and inquired about glass racks (not that we have a dishwasher installed yet) and a single wide glass front fridge for the white wines and champagne. Hopefully next week they will have a ¾ size fridge available, but no used glass racks in the size we need at this point.
Had to leave the shop at a little after three to meet the boys (Mark and Onyx) at the house. They are going up on a little holiday — tomorrow (way too damn early) we leave for Victoria.
Dinner of a chef salad, a couple of pork tenderloins, fresh rosemary challah, and a couple of different versions of the 2007 Bonny Doon le Cigare Volante. Yum
Markie……
I didn’t know Santa Fe was a “no nuc” zone, but I’ve lived around several (Berkley comes to mind…….) and I’ve always wondered whether the city fathers and mothers involved had thought to tell our potential enemies that……”Don’t be coming around here with your nuclear weapons……we don’t allow them.”
I’m thinking they didn’t.
Cheers from the People’s Republic of Vermont……..Eric and Kate