UMTravels

Months of work comes down to the closing hours and the final pot of coffee on the front deck.

Some kind faerie (probably my cabin mates) left me a cart to haul all the stuff back to the car:

• Cooler
• Picnic Wine Bag
• Two backpacks
• One duffle bag
• One briefcase

And that’s after giving away the leopard print snugee to Leo Sunshine.

We (DancingBear and myself) had hoped to move lunch to noon (from 1pm) to help everybody (including myself) out of the cabins and on the road sooner, but alas, did not happen. My plan was to leave after lunch but if it’s at 1pm I could be in Estacada having a protein lunch buy the time they served the twigs and leaves.

Lovely drive through the back roads of Oregon with MoTown coming off the MP3 player.

Three pieces of baked chicken, a Diet Coke and a package of beef jerky from the Thriftway will be my lunch and road food.

Next stop in Estacada, no, not the Safari Club (which in the 80’s I used to design their concert posters when I worked at the Sellwood Moreland Bee), but Mikes Second Hand Shop. It’s truly my kind of shop. Tons of EVERYTHING. Luckily the car is small and already stuffed so all I picked up was two 100ft coils of pre-made Ethernet cables at the super-cheap price of $4 each. Don’s need them at the moment, but it’s always handy to have spares.

Back on the freeway to the north end of Vancouver, Washington to the Safeway/Gas Station stop. By the time I was out of there the tank was full AND SO WAS THE COOLER. Lots of lamb for the freezer, a much of steaks, so full in fact that that hearts of romaine had to just stay in the shade by the air conditioner vent.

All I can say about the rest of the trip home is PAINFUL. Three separate traffic messes. It added an hour to my return drive putting me home at 6:45pm. Ouch.

But the steak and salad helped.

[should be interesting tomorrow]

Off to town this morning for a dose of protein. Steak and Eggs with the toast and hash browns swapped out for a side salad, they are so good to me at The Cedars (and home of the Plywood Room according to Talent Show lore).

After a lovely breakfast/lunch spent reading the New Yorkers I’m trying to catch up on headed across the street to the grocery store… only to be thwarted by my impatience. I wasn’t willing to wait in a line 10 people deep at both registers just for a couple of cans of pop. I’d rather go through withdrawal pains.

No show planned for tonight on the schedule, just a dance, which I usually skip. That just meant the pre-dinner cocktail party ended up taking the place of dinner with the loads of cabin snacks that showed up on this, the last night of the gathering.

And that’s not the only thing that happened the last night of the gathering… think two people spending the night very cozy in a single bed.

And in case you are wondering what my roommates look like, here they are:

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The routines that we so easily slip into on holiday. Hanging around the cabin, going off for meal-times, not having to worry about cooking or cleaning up except for the cocktail parties.

Before you know it, it’s time for the talent show. This a great example of some of the serious talent in our group:

But all too soon it’s time for a nightcap and beddy-bye.

[clueless]

The boys (Hummingbird and BamBam) are up and out before I’m out of bed. Apparently they actually want breakfast though I hear the eggs were good, it’s usually just gruel, fruit and muesli in the morning. Not much in the way of protein, just carbs.

This morning I moved the propane coffee maker out onto the small front. No alarms went off. Whew!

Here’s the view from the front porch:

Actually, it’s from the path in front of the deck, but you get the idea.

Ran through the lunch line so I could get to Devil’s Hole before the sun shrank behind the trees. Here is a shot that I took years ago that we used for the publicity for this event:

The afternoon was spent in domestic bliss, i.e. sitting on the deck reading back issues of The New Yorker.

Usual cocktail party and protein load with the usual suspects before dinner salad. So far so good with staying on the low carb regimen.

Tonight is the Fashion/Auction Show, or would that be Fuction? One of the items being auctioned off is that stunning beaded red dress that I picked up in San Diego last year. It went for $75 which was a wonderful premium on the $7.80 cents that I paid for it. Unfortunately I succumbed to a little auction fever and ended paying $350 for several nights in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house on the big island. I do need the miles and my guess is that Dancing Bear will split the cost with me. I left the auction before the all the items were sold, having spent my wad and more.

A little post-functioning back at the cabin and off to bed.

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With the cabin to myself it was easy to sleep in past breakfast and make a pot of coffee at my leisure. Of course I should have done it on the front steps as I managed to momentarily set off the CO²/Smoke Alarm in the cabin. Being in the trees, the cabins that is, also means not a lot of direct sunlight.

Pre-lunch of cheese, lunch meats and marinated olives and mushrooms led to a lunch of a large plate of salad. A low carb diet at Breitenbush is a challenge — which my guess is that most of my meals will be pre-meals followed by salad.

Around two I wandered up to the parking lot to await the arrival of Dancing Bear with all of the photo directories stuffed into their envelopes with the bamboo towelettes. By the time he arrived several hours late at 4pm, I’d already checked in a dozen or so people, which would have been much easier with the packets arranged in alpha order. Oh well. Basically my job is done as far as organizing the gathering is concerned. Dancing Bear will be handling who does what for the fashion/auction/talent shows planned. My job is to sit and relax.

Sorry the photo is so washed out. I took this as a still picture from my tiny video camera, tried it with my phone as well, but it was as washed out as well. So much for leaving the decent camera a home.

Once Dancing Bear was set up at the gate I was able to get back to put the cabin together. I had to move out of B3 at 1pm and wasn’t allowed into B2 where I’m staying for the gathering until 4, leaving my pile of bags, blankets, coolers, electronics piled between the cabins.

Here is a shot of the cabin all set up:

With Mark and Onyx cancelling at the last minute, my new cabin mates are Hummingbird and BamBam. They arrived around 5 just as I was finished setting up.

Dinner was the same routine of pre-dinner meats and cheeses, but with more of a cocktail party setting. It seems that I have a reputation for breaking the Breitenbush rules.

More sticks and twigs (as they say) in the buffet line — I just headed straight for the salad.

After dinner was Breitenbush 101 (don’t plug in your curling iron, you’ll bring the system down), followed by Faerie 101 (what’s this all about) and finally the Opening Ritual, which I missed as it was a) really short and b) was waylaid by someone I hadn’t seen in a couple of years.

I’m already starting to get tired of all the “thank you for all your hard work” comments, and it’s only the first day.

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Not enough sleep.

The 8:30am call from my broker’s assistant telling me how to fill out forms that I hadn’t even printed out yet was the second she had placed. Apparently I slept through the first one. Crisis number one. Non-savable encrypted PDF that I can only fill out and print, and I can’t even cheat and print it to a PDF file so that I can add my signature to the damn form electronically. A six page form, that I now have to print out, sign, scan and email back to them before I can leave town.

To do it I had to pull the scanner (which is actually a dead inkjet all in one) into the living room and hook it up to the machine that can actually create PDFs and my laptop’s ability somehow got scrambled. Oy!

Crisis number two… while having packed MOST of what I need, I haven’t packed the talisman and its box, or the ice box. And by the time you know it, SHIT, the trunk is full, the floorboard of the passenger side is full, the front seat is full. No picking up hitchhikers this trip!

The plan was to get out of the house by 10am. In reality 11:05.

• 30 minutes into the drive I realized I have forgotten my lounge chair for in front of the cabin
• 60 minutes into the drive I realize that I most likely have forgotten my good camera
• 2 hours in I stop for cheese to go with all the meat that I have in the cooler and realize I’ve forgotten the asparagus and the spinach/yogurt dip that I was going to buy dipping vegetable for. I leave the store with twice as much ice as will fit in the cooler, cheese, cheese/salami rolls and marinated olives.

After such a crazy morning I didn’t even bother to turn on the radio (other than a flashing traffic alert notice). It was just me and the purr of the engine and the whistling of the wind. Very soothing. Makes me not care about the three items above.

In my franticness of leaving I decided to skip Costco in Portland and cruise straight south through Portland and take the left at Salem, the high speed way since I was an hour behind rather than going the scenic back way. After being behind the wheel for an hour, the new plan was to skip Costco, but stop in Woodland at the just off the freeway Safeway for gas and cheese, which would be quicker than NY trip to Costco. That would give me enough gas to get to Breitenbush Hot Springs the back way, and still have enough gas to get me back to Washington on the return home.

Final remaining shopping item was booze since my order for $100 of brown liquor from California isn’t coming. Hail Estacada! It only took me 10 or 15 minutes to find the liquor store (damn state stores), but they had the Aberlour 12-year on special for $7.00 off. I should have stopped at the 2^nd Hand Store that looked heavy on the junk — hopefully they will be open on Sunday when I might have more room.

Contrary to Dancing Bear’s theory, I don’t think coming the back way taking longer. Caveat is… coming from Seattle because you slice off about a half an hour by bypassing the central route from Portland. It ends up being the same. I left at 11:05am, got to the front gate of Breitenbush at 4:10 with:

• The Safeway Food/Gas stop
• The wrong exit detour (damn Streets and Trips — really, get off the freeway, get back on the freeway, go two exits)
• The booze run in Estacada

Checked in, unloaded, iced beverage in my hand by 4:30. Set up the computer, charge the camera, charge the cell phone, blog, chill. Speaking of chill, the passenger side carpet got a chill from melting ice.

It was a nice hour and a half of being in the woods, scotch in hand, the sound of the river in the background before heading to the dining hall, wine in insulated coffee mug for what I rightly assumed was a carb heavy dinner. Two plates of salad later and with the wonderful company of Wind and Keystone we were headed back to the cabin to see if a last minute move could be accommodated. I begged not — it’s so tacky to have magic marker changes on registration envelopes.

My evening entertainment was pulling on of he chairs from the cabin and having an after dinner dram of scotch reading the Wall Street Journal. The alternative was waiting straight people “kelp dance”. It’s so odd being here when it isn’t a “closed camp”… I have to remember to:

• Keep my clothes on
• Not go into the woman’s bathroom because it’s more convenient
• Not just whip it out in the woods and take a leek
• Not swear as much since there are children around

My goal of keeping to gathering to 150 faded with heartfelt pleas, which I starting ignoring when we passed 180. Beyond that the kitchen can’t function. Feeding 180 men is twice as hard as feeding 180 men, women and children. We eat twice as much.

[223.5]

I didn’t make too much progress on the garage organization. Two boxes and I got the chop saw platform raised into the air (minus the chop saw which is over at Jimmies for prototyping).

I did finish up the bag. One broke/bent three needles in the process. It now has a shoulder strap (with reflective squares on it) and a neoprene shoulder pad for comfort:

And yes, that is a Seven Deadly Zins embroidered patch on the top flap. It something (the patch) that I picked up at the Boston Wine Expo a couple of years ago.

Not feeling all that social — I’ve pasted up two parties this weekend. One down in Skamakaway and the other just down the street. Feeling that I need to be more centered before heading off to the woods.

[218.5]

Spent most of the afternoon buried in the garage — organizing, sorting, re-boxing, de-boxing (must have broken down 30 shipping boxes) all in an effort to get ready to build wine racks upon my return from the gathering next week.

Unfortunately, there is still probably another afternoon of work to be done.

By the evening it was time to start work sewing a travel bag to hold:

• The propane coffee maker
• Can of propane
• Regulator knob
• Filters
• Coffee
• Insulated coffee mug

Here is a shot of me swing the bottom piece, which actually has an 1/8^th inch piece of plastic sewn into it:

While I was in the middle of this, Wonderful and Ron (from Lopez) came by on their way to dinner (passed them a $10 off coupon). I haven’t seen Ron since I left the island, so that’s at least 3 years. He filled me in on the folks who bought my house and why they are selling. Answer: love the place, not enough light. He also told me that the husband of the husband/wife team is a master building and did most of the work himself, which means that he won’t be taking a bath on the place (actually, the place only has a shower).

Somehow I forgot to eat dinner — good thing I had a big afternoon lunchy type thing.

[221.6]

Really, I wasn’t planning on doing a wine tasting, it just happened. I was over at Jimmies looking at the racking prototype for the store:

None of the sanding and finishing is done, and there are going to be more adjustments, but this is basically the style.

So, we are sitting around playing with floor plans and where the cash wrap and dishwasher are going and one of the wine reps from yesterday afternoon shows up for a little impromptu wine tasting with the world biggest spit bucket (the yard):

Two Italian rosè sparkling wines started the line up — he brought eight, plus we were sampling some of Jimmies Tres Dindons wines from his basement. I wish I could have stayed longer for seconds, but off to Swandas to say hello to his mother and to drop off some maps for his sister who will be teaching her second graders about maps this school year.

After all that wine and whiskey, another rib-eye seemed appropriate (with an Australian Shiraz).

[221.2]

This afternoon I went to my first wholesale wine tasting for folks that owe wine shops, local restaurants sommelier, etc. Something tells me they aren’t all going to be like this. Ever go to a wine tasting and sample a nice heavy red and say, this would go great with a nice juicy steak — well, at this wine tasting, they had an Argentine chef grilling up stacks of rib-eyes (and sausage) and slicing them up into finger food. Got there at 4, left at 5:30 and didn’t need dinner!

The wines?

From Tomero:

• 2010 Torontes (white)
• 2010 Malbec
• 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2008 Petite Verdot Reserva
• 2006 Grand Reserve Malbec

From Vistalba:

• 2009 Corte C
• 2008 Corte B
• 2007 Corte A

From Andeluna

• 2010 Torrontes
• 2009 Cabernet Suvignon
• 2007 Limited Reserve Cabernet Franc
• 2004 Limited Reserve Malbec
• From Finca La Anita:
• Tonada 2010 Chardonnay/Torrontes
• Tonada 2010 Malbec
• Finca La Anita 2007 Malbec
• Finca La Anita 2006 Petite Verdot

That’s a whole lot of swirling sipping and dumping.

The venue? The Stables in Georgetown (www.georgetownstables.com) which I’d never heard of before, but is a wonderfully funky “for-rent” venue. Check out the pictures on their website.

And today’s picture? A detail shot of the gate next door to the stables. Nice work:

The rest of the evening was spent compiling 25 megs worth of digital wine maps from around the world to use as shop dècor.

[223.7]

Well, we finally got into the space that the wine shop is going into. Wow. Stacked floor to ceiling with “stuff”. One the upside, there is more storage room than we expected in the bathroom, which means room for the dishwasher in there as well.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes him to clear out the mess so we can get in and sanitize.

After that adventure and a little fooling around with a rosè and the latest logo version it was off to the apartment to pick up three printer cartridges, the most important being the black one for the 4100 so I can finish printing, folding, and stuffing the directory.

Here are my merry little hands at work:

Too bad Dancing Bear won’t be by until Sunday to relieve me of all the boxes of gathering stuff that are starting to pile up.

[224.9]

Yet another business card for my wallet:

Check out the website place holder at http://www.madronawinemerchants.com and click on the FaceBook like button so we can get a shorter URL for links. We need 25 unique likes! The logo still isn’t final for the vinyl (for the storefront), but since we have two wholesale wine tastings schedule over the next week plus, we need something to hand-out. And if you look closely, the 708 area code phone number could also be 708-FAT-VINO. Took me a while to find a seven letter phrase on Google Voice, and in the end, FAT-VINO just seems like too far out for the business card.

Tomorrow it’s off to inspect the space and work on the to-do list to get the place whipped into shape. I guess it’s a good thing than my billable hours are down so I have time for this project. NOT. And with the market. YIKES. Take deep calming breaths, or is that the pants of hyperventilation.

Chef’s salad for dinner. Why is it that that is never enough.

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Before I get to today’s workaholic post, here is a picture from yesterday when Jeffey stopped by:

With both of our toys out in front of the house. His is a little more expensive than mine:

And now back to the little afternoon party to fold, gather, stitch, stick and stuff.

Sorry it’s a little blurry, I was too by the time we were at this point. Dancing Bear showed up at 2:30, J.Steve and Brian about 6 and it was all done before a steak dinner for those still around. We had two people cancel on us, but not a big deal.

And now I just need to print the last 25 directories when the new black toner cartridge arrives on Tuesday, and then I’m done with 99.9% of all the work dealing with the gathering.

[224.1]

The day started out rather foggy and overcast. I actually had the heat on running to the grocery store up the hill. Got all the stuff organized for tomorrow’s Stick, Fold, Stich, Bitch, and Stuff work-party to complete the photo directory for the Summer Gathering. A week and a half before I’m still squeezing that last person or two in, and having to rearrange cabin assignments (which means reprinting the welcome packet envelopes for those people as well).

But by the time to leave for the opera, the weather looked more like this:

This shot was taken walking to the Opera House to see Porgy and Bess.

I was excited to see Porgy and Bess as I’d heard the music for years, but had never actually seen it performed. Bess was replaced with the Silver Cast Bess, but I didn’t feel cheated. I also didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to. At least Wonderful enjoyed himself.

My pre-show chicken breast over salad didn’t sustain me until the show let out at 11pm. I confess I stopped by Dick’s for two Deluxe burgers — at least I didn’t have the fries.

[222.6]

In preparation for the directory party on Sunday I’m printing all the directories… well, I thought I was. Managed to blow through a full black toner cartridge on the monster black and white printer. Actually it would be the tail end of one, and another full one.

And trying to print it on the color printer, the pictures are coming out too dark, and now red streaks are appearing. Guess I’ll be waiting until early next week to print the last 40 or 50 directories. Damn.

But I did get all the envelopes printed … complete with name and cabin number. These will be stuffed with the directory and a couple of bamboo towelettes (and a campground map for those camping).

A little more logo work but I’m punting that one to see if there are more ideas out there. But we need at least a temporary logo so I can whip out some business cards for a wholesaler’s only wine tasting next Wednesday (and another one on Monday the 15^th). I guess there are some perks to starting a business.

Amazing where an entire day goes.

[222.9]

More and more logo work for the wine shop — this time we are working with a mock-up of the store front that I had to Photoshop out a tree and a bus sign to get a feel for how it will actually work.

The cell phone shot:

With the tree and sign removed (and a Photoshop paint job on the sign area over the door):

And one of the proposed sign layouts:

Eventually there will also be a “blade” sign hanging from sort of pinkish area.

It was so tempting to say “Swine With Swanda”, but alas, it was an Atkins type of dinner. Nice big steaks and a fat-assed salad.

[224.4]

Work, work, work, meet, meet, meet, bank, bank, bank.

We hit the bank at the wrong time. Three people in front of us. That hour I put in the meter (meter said $2.00 an hour, but charged $3.75 an hour — city budget cuts for new signage).

Two hours later we are out of the bank with:

• Business checking account
• Matching debit cards
• $10,000 line of credit (apparently we both have VERY good credit)
• Checks
• Deposit slips
• And a personal banker

And after all that, after five a bed shows up, yet another project:

The lower frame has been rebuilt, but I have to do the side rails, steel wool and redo the finish on the bed before I swap it out for the “surfer bed” that currently occupies my bedroom.

It’s a solid walnut bed that used to be in my Capital Hill house years ago. I miss it. And it a more appropriate size for my current bedroom.

A repeat of last night’s dinner tonight.

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Today’s two projects. More work on the box (note brass corners):

All that’s left is to redo the felt on the inside (switching to black fabric on the suggestion of Wonderful) and the final sanding, which I may do at Breitenbush.

Project number two. Securing my front license plate on all four corners so it doesn’t peel up going through the car wash:

I added a slightly smaller than stock “I Shop at IKEA” frame flipped over in place of the stock frame that didn’t have any support for the bottom bolts. I know it’s trivial, but the esthetics were just bugging me. And I finally figured out how to attach my “Concours d’Elegance” San Juan Islands badge to the grill — those winged toggle bolt things for attaching heavy things to drywall — they popped right through the honeycomb grill. And now that I look at it, maybe I should have put it on the other side to cover a hole in the honeycomb. Damn.

Other than some errands and a turkey breast over salad, not much to the afternoon and evening until a call to my sis-in-law prompted another trip planning session. Her words, “more often, less time”. There go my frequent flier miles… as there seems to be availability on the flights direct into Santa Fe which can’t be had for under $500 if you were paying cash. But at 25,000 miles (plus $35 in fees) the account is starting to dwindle.

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It’s a good thing the gathering isn’t for two weeks yet as the box is demanding more and more attention. Today it was the clasps to keep the lid on:

Tomorrow it’s the start of the walnut trip around the bottom, or maybe I’ll just get some more brass hardware for the corners, or maybe both.

I funny thing happened today. I applied for a job that while I would gladly do, I don’t think I have a chance in the world of getting, especially after they tweeted about it and got so much action that it crashed their on-line job site. The company? Alaska Airline The job? Flight attendant. Who better knows how customers want to be treated.

So that’s today’s short post. Just a quiet evening at home with a seafood salad as the main dinner.

[222.9]

Today is project day. That wasn’t the original plan, it’s just what happened.

Pull out shelf over the washer/dryer combo. Why a shelf? Because of the high-velocity spin cycle, thing set on top of the unit tend to bounce off and fall to the floor, and too often, BEHIND the unit.

And work on the talisman box so that I have enough room to mount the lid latches:

And after a pepper-garlic chicken breast over salad dinner, a late night visit from Wonderful who was having late night carb cravings. Yes, I can whip up crostini in minutes:

Needless to say, but I will say it anyway, it’s a late night when gets show up AFTER the 11pm news.

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