UMTravels

By 9:30 when I crawled out of the cave… the basement cave where the spare bedroom is… the house was empty but for me. Julian at school, the other two kids out.

I left the pad a little after noon to head to the train station to drop off the bag at the “Metropolitan Room”, which is the lounge for the Sleeping Car passengers. A nice perk is that you check in, they tag your bag, and deliver it to your roomette on the train. No muss, no fuss, and more importantly, no dragging the things around all day waiting for the train. Of course, the free pop, juice, water, coffee, and newspapers help make the room nice, oh, and free wi-fi.

Julian arrived around 1pm to go out to lunch. Well, lunch for me, coffee for him. He’s out of school for the day, and taking a break before working on a Spanish Lit paper. Not a bad lunch at the Davis Street Tavern. I had the oysters on the half shell, kumomotas with smoke trout row and a small portion of the mac and cheese. Odd combo, but damn tasty. Add a truly stunning Maker’s Mark Manhattan with featured those ridiculously expensive cherries ($16.95 for a 360gr jar) and you have a $35 lunch if you include Julian’s coffee.

Train 14 was almost on-time into Portland, and left on time. They moved me from one car to another since they’d sold my original room in route, but the bottled water was waiting for me, the champagne came along after the free wine and cheese tasting (yes, it’s back to being free, and only being for the sleeping car passengers), and a 5:30 reservation in the dining car for a steak dinner (probably $25 with dessert, but included). If I made the list of the freebies included in my $51 (plus the cost of the ticket) roomette charge it would look like this:

• 2 newspapers — $3 or so since one was the New York Times
• 4 diet Pepsi — $4
• 2 bottled water – $2
• 2 splits of champagne – $16
• 1 orange – $1
• 1 dinner with dessert – $25

Hey — that’s $51 exactly!

We started losing time because of freight delays — blame the flooding in the Southeast — lots of freight moving up and over rather than across swollen rivers.

Got into town half an hour late, no stop at Swanda’s, we were both too pooped. All I wanted to do is get home, turn the heat back up in the house, make some ice, have a cocktail and chill.

Mission accomplished.

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Hueavos Rancheros for breakfast, no photos. But it was Damn Good — thanks Julian. Especially when you still have two splits of Champagne from the train left to go with the Grapefruit and Orange juice.

Photo Day.

Photos number one and two… new fabric I bought at Fabric Barn, as it turns out, the first day of their yearly summer outdoor sale!

Both are a little stretchy, and I haven’t a clue as to what I’m going to sew out of them. Maybe ball gowns for the summer gathering. The camo is seriously mesh like.

Before dinner… with tequila.

The Elk Tacos, the other tray from the first shot was the Moose Tacos. Thanks Alan from Juneau!

And what happens at 9pm to Julian after Moose and Elk Tacos… This is my mother’s recipe (though she used ground beef) that I haven’t made in at least 15 years. My brother got my mother to make it on his last visit, but I’m guessing that they weren’t fried in a combo of bacon grease and Crisco.

And me too.

But as a side note, I’m trying to book my birthday night in this cabin in New Mexico that is part of a Dia Foundation art piece called the Lightning Field. It’s on hold as they might be doing maintenance then. But here is a shot when they have lightening.

Looks like a great place to spend 55.

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Not enough sleep last night. Something about to bed at 2am, and up at 6:30 for a 9:30am train that leaves one a little groggy.

Well, it was SUPPOSED to be a 9:30am train — by the time we left the station, it was 10:30… something about an engine inspection that ran a little longer than expected.

On the upside, that gave me more time to enjoy a lunch in the dining car after my red baron courtesy of Amtrak and having booked a roomette for the four hour trip. It was an additional $51 dollars, but includes champagne when you get on, pretty much as much champagne after that, lunch in either the Parlour Car or the Dining Car, and, of course, your roomette with two seats, a table, and an outlet.

That has to be the worst graphic for explaining a roomette, but it’s what the Amtrak site has.

It’s a pretty trip south of Tacoma, which I think by 2012 they are going to cut this chunk out to shorten the Seattle to Portland run by 15 minutes, so check it out while you can.

It was actually a little clearer than the picture would suggest, but between the cell phone camera shot and the tinted train window, it makes it look pretty dreary. I took the picture to send to my friend Fernando who is coming to visit Seattle in about a month.

Leave an hour late, get in an hour late, that’s how the train usually works, and did this time. The light rail connection is about a block from the train station, and it’s a straight shot to Julian’s house. Got the ticket, got hit up by a couple of street urchins who were looking for a couple of bucks “to get a bus ticket to Virginia” which I doubted since they had two straggly dogs in tow… no cash, but I did give them one of the splits of champagne that I snagged from the train — I do believe it made their day.

Spent the rest of the afternoon hanging with Julian while working on getting us a dinner put together — veal chops and grilled zucchini, with a roasted garlic bread/gorgonzola/paté plate to begin with. By the time we were ready to grill, two of his friends showed up. I knew there was a reason to have brought down four of the chops.

It was an early night for me… by 10pm I was in bed. The half-an-hour nap on the train wasn’t enough to make up for last night’s lack of sleep.

[228.5]

Nice to be home. Not nice that the first load of wash I do results in a flooded floor. Good thing I put that floor drain in. Of course the floor drain doesn’t go anywhere other than the crawl space, but it’s dirt, it will soak in.

Paging MoonSong — help. Luckily he’s available tomorrow or Wednesday to do a little snake action.

Grocery shopping, and a quiet day at home was the plan.

The reality was grocery shopping, work, move all the stuff on top of the washing machine (like the ice machine) and move the whole bar back to the kitchen. Got most of it done, the rest will have to wait until I’m back from Portland on Wednesday night, just like the rest of the office cleanup will have to wait as well. Good thing the Colonels aren’t coming until September!

A healthy dinner tonight — a stir fry of chicken breast pieces, vegetables and green onion tops. I passed on making rice, might as well start trying to cut the carbs now.

And for the quiet evening… my Manhattan Line (the MagicJack that’s connected into the 1A2 system) rang with a call from a neighbor wanting to come and hang out — something we’d been trying to arrange for weeks, but with my schedule and him now working, it finally happened. Much talk, much laughter, much drinking. Actually in the photo above you can see some of the cabling for that old-to-new phone system.

With packing I didn’t get to bed until 2am. Damn.

[227.8]

Slept in a little today, but by 11 was fed and we were on the way to the Boulder Farmer’s Market. It was a total pain to park, the crowds were huge, and it was too early in the season for a ton of stuff (as in vegetables) to be available.

There was, however, tons of eye candy so that made the crowds almost bearable.

While Dan and Lisa finished the vegetable run at the local Sunflower Fresh Market, I wandered next door to the Goodwill. Score.

It’s not the multiple line yellow phone that I was looking for, but it will go well with the yellow “Charlie’s Angel” speakerphone that renewed my phone quest over the last year. Not a bad deal — $2.99 and because the guy in line in front of me asked for the senior discount, they gave me the 15% off without even asking, which is good because I’m not quite that old… yet.

By 2:30 we were on the way to the airport for my 5:30 flight. I had just enough time in the Admiral’s Club to watch the most exciting two minutes in sports, a.k.a. The Kentucky Derby. My horse (Mucho Macho Man) didn’t win, but came in third. Jimmy did much better netting a little over $50 from his bets.

Painless flight, which is what you want. And I did my good deed for the week — trading seats with the guy in the window seat. And I was rewarded at the end of the flight by getting propositioned — be careful who you hand your business card tt — half a dozen texts later (after we disembarked) I’m turning down his invitation to from 306 in some Bellevue hotel. I must say though, it’s the first time that’s ever happened.

Took light rail back to the apartment and hung out with Swanda (aka the Package Princess) for a bit, picked up my packages and hit the road.

Flight days are always long days, no matter the distance.

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A Day In Pictures.

The 1pm tour of the Stranahan Colorado Whiskey Distillery. Actually it’s in Denver, so it was a 45 minute drive.

The wort and wash making area — from a brewery that moved to the east coast.

The stills, a combination of pot and column. Large still for first run, small still for second run.

The barrel house which is kept at 65% humidity to cut down on evaporation, a.k.a. the Angel’s Share. At the end of the tour, a small cup of their $59 a bottle bourbon. A little rich for my taste at the moment. Maybe I’ll have to come back and help on the bottling line in exchange for a bottle (the use volunteer labor to bottle and they pay in bourbon).

And after a wonderful BBQ’d Pork Country Style Boneless Rib Dinner ala Arthur Bryants.

Off to bed after that.

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I tried to put off getting out of bed, and I must have because the rest of the morning was a fairly good clip to get everything packed and ready to go. At least Dan and Lisa cooked breakfast and left some for me to reheat.

Out of the condo at noon, the appointed check-out time. Lisa driving, Dan at shotgun, UncleMarkie in the back.

Intermediate destination, the Arco Gold Mine in Idaho Springs (Colorado, not Idaho). By the time we got there we were all more interested in lunch than a mine tour, though we did go to the gift shop after said lunch.

As for lunch, probably the best patty melt I’ve had in years, though, once again, I’m in a food coma for the rest of the afternoon. Hilldaddy’s (is that like a SilverDaddy but from the hills?) Wildfire Restaurant, right on the main drag near the eastern exit from I-70.

But back to the mine:

Having been to a gold mine last month (the Britannia Mine in southwestern British Columbia), it was fine to miss this one. But apparently up the road in Georgetown there is a steam train route. Sorry I didn’t know about that. Might have gotten out of bed earlier! We attempted to stop by an antique store on our way out of town, but when we arrived after lunch… the amusing sign was posted on the door ¯ “Gone to pick up the Grandkids, back at 4”. Too late for us.

I napped while Dan ran errands (pick up the dogs, new eyeglasses from WallyWorld). Or I should say I tried to nap. Damned warm today, and the sun is out.

Nothing special for dinner tonight, with the big lunch all we did was nosh as each of us got hungry.

My evening was spent loading the rest of the software on to the new computer. That would be the part of getting a new computer that I REALLY hate.

But one more photo to share since it is Cinco de Maya today:

Those would be the martini/margarita glasses next to the stack of plastic ones.

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I had to force myself out of bed this morning, yet another “owner re-eduction camp”, Hey, it $75 for what turned out to be 35 minutes, apparently he’d pulled my file and found I’m a “re-education” junkie, or at least a money junkie. Did learn a few new things, like they have 7 year’s worth of inventory/points they need to sell before they can build any more new places. To try and change that figure they are dumping inventory back on the developers to sell to other people (for both cash and the ability to add new places). Also learned that two buildings of the proposed Granby resort here in Colorado are built, but boarded up. Not enough demand to hire the staff to run it.

A little before noon we were on the road to find a road trip road. First we swung through the mountains.

This shot is from above Steamboat Springs. Next stop the visitors center to get a map and a quest. The destination, Steamboat Lake. No picture there because the road ended in a snow bank. No sense taking a picture of a big snowy field with a lake buried under it. At least the woman at the visitors center was friendly, answering my bird question (some sort of magpie) and selling us trinkets.

Finding lunch off season proved a little harder it being off-season. Probably should have held on and had lunch at the house rather than the grocery/deli/gas station/liquor store. Wasn’t bad, fresh made, but a little on the bland side.

Dinner on the other hand was anything other than bland.

Pork roast over a bed of root vegetables (yellow beats, yams, onions, garlic), a nice salad, and a Bonny Doon Super Tuscan. Why do I feel the need to italicize Super Tuscan?

No hot tub tonight, but I did finish the Wild Turkey 101 proof rye.

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A lovely scramble this morning, but unlike travelling with the boys, no Bloody Marys in the AM. Probably just as well.

Today’s search if for martini glasses… our current ones are plastic —¦ not so nice. Struck out at the first “boutique resale shop” unless I was willing to pay $25 for a set of 4 matching “artsy” martini glasses. Stop number two was much better — closer to a junk store than a thrift store. When we walked in, the guy (kinda cute) behind the counter said that everything was 50% off today. Found three Mexican blue rimmed martini/margarita glasses at $3 apiece, which when he rung it up initially as $6.50 for the set. Might have been the wafting smell of burning cannabis we smelled upstairs that clouded his math brain. We settled for $4.50 plus tax.

That shopping out of the way it was time to swing by Staples to check out a possible new laptop for my aging Gateway model that is routinely overheating, especially when placed on granite countertops (like they have in a lot of WorldMark units). I’d seen an ad in the Sunday Steamboat Springs Times (or whatever it is) for a $599 laptop marked down to $399. Yes, they had them (but not the $345 model), but the pricing was the old pricing on the shelf… not going to sell many that way! It’s a Toshiba C655 with 320gigs of hard disk and 4gigs of ram (the $345 model only had 3gigs of ram, worth the extra $50 in my mind). Now for the joy of getting all my programs reloaded on the new beast.

Here is a great shot of said granite countertop:

Dan’s machine is on the left, my new one is in the center, and my dying one is on the right. I’ll probably be looking to dump my old machine (3gigs ram, 280gigs hard disk) when I get back to town. Known issues are that it runs hot, so either don’t leave running all day or put a fan unit under it, the DVD drive doesn’t seem to work, and the HDMI out only does video, not sound. It does have a 1.3 megapixel webcam and is decently fast with a 1.9GHz AMD Athlon Dual-Core processor. Knowing that, at $150 it’s still a hell of a machine for sale.

Tonight’s dinner is these stunning hunks of tenderloin that Lisa found marked down at the market — two inches thick. Here is a quick video of the BBQ area and surrounds from the WorldMark Steamboat Spings:

Here is a shot of the finished meal — and let me tell you that filet mignon or tenderloin or whatever it was, you could cut with a butter knife. I wish we’d bought the other two packages as well!

Lisa did the salad and the roasted asparagus and orange bell peppers. I supplied a 2003 Bonny Doon le Cigar Volanté which was stunning with the meat. Velvet in your mouth.

More hot tub action after dinner, then the kids retired and I stayed up a little longer, as usual.

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Slept in this morning. Now nice.

Much puttering around in the morning, loading the contents of the refrigerator into the 12v/110 cooler that goes into the back of the station wagon (a Kona Blue/White two-tone Ford Flex). Dogs to the vets to board, the leasing agent to talk house issues, the hardware store for a new faucet, back to the house to drop of faucet and garage door opener for package coming in the afternoon, Chipotle’s for lunch (I limited myself to half a burrito) and on the road a little after 1pm.

Destination: Steamboat Springs

Drive Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

Sights along the roadside: The Sculptured House featured in the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper.

And here is a tour of the condo while Dan is working on a chicken with pan sauce for our dinner:

Great dinner of chicken, steamed broccoli, mixed salad and a lovely Bonny Doon Cinsault (a member release only)…

Great hot tub afterwards…

And I managed to nod off on the couch waking up at 1am to go to bed.

I must be on vacation.

[231-232ish]

The morning started with a huge breakfast at the Mercury Cafe, this organic place that’s been around in one location or another for years. I had the “Free Peyton Manning” breakfast special, whatever that means — apparently it means two medium over eggs and organic German link sausage with horseradish cream gravey, with cheesy home fries. Good, but heavy, even with the addition of a mimosa. We met Dan’s Mom and Step-Dad there who are in town for the birth of Dan’s brother’s twin girls scheduled for later this week.

Needless to say, after that breakfast it was nap time for Lisa and I. Dan isn’t so good with the mid-day snooze thing.

Later, off to the dog park for a short romp, the dogs not me. Me, I sat on a bench and continued on with the reading of Michael Tolliver Lives, by Armistead Maupin. When I’m done Dan (and maybe Lisa want to read it before they return it to Swanda for “the collection”. It’s just something that you can’t do very easily on the Kindle. Lots of open space north of Denver where Dan and Lisa live, apparently it was a requirement for developers to set aside land if they wanted to build.

A little reading break before Dan and I were off to see Dan’s father’s new condo — yes, his place is filled with unpacked boxes and unhung art just like Dan and Lisa’s. After a thermostat repair and a couple of shots of tequila, off to Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q. A chain, but the meat wasn’t bad, and all the sides looked good. With the breakfast this morning I should have opted for something a little smaller than the 2-meat platter (which was a lot of food for $12.95). Happy hour mean $2 well drinks, $2 tap domestic, or $3 tap domestic premium beers. Dan and Dad had domestic premiums, I had a double on the rocks. It’s sort of an “odd”chain. A dozen branches in/around Jacksonville, Florida, a couple of more along the east coast of Florida, and then two in the Denver Metro area. Odd.

Returned back to the house in the second food coma of the day, but at 8pm it was a little early to go to bed, so we read until both Swanda and FaceBook announced that Osama bin Laden had been executed so we hung artwork while waiting for the President to make the formal announcement.

The kids went to bed before me, but with the reading lamp now hooked up by the couch I read for a bit longer there, then off to bed for more reading.

Not a bad Sunday all around.

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I love early afternoon flights. You get up at leisure, you have your coffee, you take your poop, you have a little breakfast, and THEN you head to the airport. Or in my case, to the apartment to leave the car, then take light rail to the airport.

I was all checked in and in the lounge at 11:05 for my 1:05pm flight. Oddly enough, they collected my coupon for the upgrade — last I’d looked there were still seats available. Hopefully I on’t have to use the other one next Saturday. It would be nice to have a round-trip set to save for a long flight — like Cabo San Lucas in November.

Flight was good, which means on time. It was the same sandwich for lunch that was on the Cabo return, apparently the menu changes tomorrow. For those who have forgotten, it’s a turkey, provolone, roasted pepper sandwich on a ciabatta rolls served warm, with a cold salad on the side. Next time I think I’ll just stuff the salad in the sandwich.

My bags were on the carousel by the time I made the trek in for the end of the “A” concourse. And Dan and Lisa were waiting curbside at door 411 — talk about easy.

First stop of the night — Tokyo Joe’s, a fast casual Japanese food restaurant whose claim is “No MSG, No Fried Food”. Good, fast cheap — light dinner for three $20. It seems that they have dozens of locations, but only in the metro Denver area. Too bad.

Next stop — First Bank Center to see the Denver Roller Dolls take on the Philly Belles ins a roller derby match. What a pleasantly odd way to spend a Saturday night. Dan, Lisa, Sean, and Sean’s woman friend whose name I forgot, but pleasant none the less.

It took three trips to the bar and three trips to the souvenir stand before I was sated — lots of stickers, one t-shirt, and three doubles. I’d like to go back sometime and get a sky box for the match as the stadium is small enough that you’re still not that far from the action.

Last stop is Dan and Lisa’s new place in the northern suburbs of Denver, and the bed calls.

[228.7]

I stayed up to watch the Royal Wedding last night while working on/in the office —  only to fall asleep with the TV on before the “big moment”. Luckily it was on instant replay on every channel for the rest of the day. I guess that means I still have a chance of snagging Prince Harry (the cuter one by the way).

Three new prototype belts and one bag was how I spent the morning, then errands, which included running the prototypes to the post office. Never go to Costco on a Friday afternoon. It was a twenty minute wait for gas. Luckily, at least the pharmacy line was non-existent. I even ran into Misha in the parking lot!

I did manage to squeeze in a 20-minute power nap before the news and cocktail hour.

6pm Eric and Brandon showed up for a vegan dinner. Yes, I can cook vegan. No, I did not cook the vegan guests on the grill.

Sort of a Japanese themed stir-fry over saffron rice. Japanese eggplants, baby bok choy, straw mushrooms, broiled tofu cubes, fresh ginger, garlic. Actually it was pretty damn good, as was the Nigori Sake (unfiltered) that we drained a magnum of.

Great conversation, great food, great fun.

[230.7]

Breakfast delayed this morning for an hour conference call. Hey, billable hours are billable hours even if you are in your robe and craving breakfast.

Noon meeting about another project which included a pulled pork sandwich from The Barbeque Pit in the Central District. One pulled pork sandwich with a glass of wine with the client and I’m in a food coma, but no time to take a nap because it’s time for a run to Seattle Outdoor Fabrics for more manufacturing materials including loop (as in hook and loop or Velcro®) neoprene which should be fun to try and run through the sewing machine.

I managed a “power nap” before the 5pm news cycle but not sure if it’s really enough. It might be like last night when I was in bed by 10pm.

Dinner was BBQ’d pork chops and salad. Thinking of tomorrow’s dinner with JesusEric and what the hell to prepare for a lactose intolerant vegetarian. Might as well be vegan.

The evening project is trying to install a couple of 10-outlet power strips to wrangle all the cords under my desk, which means that I have to break down all the crap on the desk, vacuum, rewire stuff, try and get the scanner on the desk. Much dust, much sneezing, and the office is still a mess. Boxes of stuff that I need to go through.

On the upside, the miles from my return trip from Cabo are in the account, and at the end of April, I’m now an Alaska MVP through 2012. Of course, I’m shooting for MVP Gold. What pushed me over the edge was the paid first class ticket to Cabo and the $99 coupon split with Rich. Now I just have to figure out how to spend 135,000 frequent flier miles. Maybe Egypt?

Another day of errands tomorrow. Damn that being out of town for two weeks running.

And I have the Royal Wedding that starts at 1am!

[232.5]

Up early today as I’m a Human Test Subject for Boeing today. $150 for sitting on my ass, periodically answering survey questions between feeding and hydrating me. Oh, and the blood pressure and heart rate readings as well. It seems they want to know how stressed out you get on a 6 hour flight when the seats don’t recline. The answer? VERY unless they were serving scotch, which they weren’t.

At least I got:

1. An aisle seat
2. A cute guy across the aisle
3. A VISA gift card for $150

It reminds me of one of the Colonels who said he’d rather have his fingernails pulled out than endure another long flight in coach. And to think, I did it willingly.

I reported for duty at 8:15 and was out of the Boeing parking lot at 5pm with my gift card. Of the 25 or so people who did this routine, only one opted to donate is gift card to charity. I guess the rest of us needed to money. I know I did.

The service during the “flight” (complete with background air noise) was a beverage service, then a snack service, then a lunch service, then a beverage and snack service. And yes, you had to remain buckled in unless you were stretching, not unlike a real flight. And yes, I was just as disoriented after the “faux” flight as a real one. At least I finished another book from my holiday reading collection.

At later than usual dinner for me, 8PM because of all the food they served (which was catered by Gretchen’s Of Course so it was much better than airplane food). Stir-fried pork and spinach over a bed of rice cooked in chicken stock (with leftovers for breakfast in the morning.

Still trying to catch up from being out of the office for two weeks.

[231.4]

Hitting the pavement again.

No billable hours, but busy, busy, busy. Unfortunately the sun was out today, which means I had to deal with an out of control lawn…right until the lawn mower stopped, luckily after I’d done the alley, back yard, two side yards and parking strip…the planting garden…not so much.

Today’s mail…putting the passport renewal in the mail, which meant getting new photos (and I had 3 reams of 11×17 chopped down to 8.5×11 while I was as Kinkos/FedEx). 4-6 weeks from now, new passport and handy wallet card for cruise ships.

Speaking of crusie ships, had a nice conversation with the Colonels about a trip to Eygpt — by the end of it we were congratulating ourselves on not spending $15,000 for 15 days plus air for the three of us. Thinking Holland America Trans-Atlantic that calls at Tunis and Morocco this springl.

I managed to catch a 15-minute KatNap(TM) this afternoon, but it wasn’t enough.

Tonight’s dinner is what I started on last night, the Osso Bucco, served at Swanda’s place:

Uncle Markie’s Osso Buco

Serves 3 (or Swanda and I)

Prep time: ½ hour    Cook time: 1 ½ hour

• 3 Nice Lamb or Veal Shanks, 1 ½” Thick or so
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Fresh Herbs (I Used Fresh Basil and Thyme) Minced To Taste
• ½ Medium Onion Diced
• 2 Carrots Diced
• 2 Stalks of Celery Diced
• Garlic (Minced or Paste or Whatever)
• Flour and Montreal® Seasoning (or salt and pepper) for Dredging
• 1 Cup Chicken Stock (or Beef Stock if you want heavier)
• 1 Can (16oz) Italian Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 Can (16oz) White Cannellini Beans (a.k.a. Kidney, White), optional for some
• ½ Cup Red Wine (or White if you wanted it lighter)

Dredge the veal or lamb shanks in the Montreal® seasoning and flour, shake off the excess. In an ovenproof covered cooking pot (Dutch oven, covered pan with metal handle) heat half the butter and all the olive oil (keeps the butter from burning) until the foam subsides, place the shanks in and cover.

Brown nicely on each side and if they will stand up, try and brown the sides of the shanks as well, adding additional butter and olive oil as needed. Remove to a plate as the shanks are browned. When all shanks are removed, deglaze (i.e. throw in some liquid) the pan with the wine (Red or White, your choice) scraping down the sides and the bottom of the pan and mixing the wine and grease together. Boil down a bit and reserve to the side in a small bowl.

To the same pan, now empty, and on low heat, add the rest of that grease (oh, I mean butter) and gently, oh so gently (swig of wine) soften the garlic, onion, carrots, celery. Once softened, oh so soft (swig of wine), stir in the herbs, the chicken/beef stock and the wine/grease mixture … the heat of the pan should allow the flavors to mingle. Add the shanks and wrestle them into the vegetable mixture and then cover with the can of chopped tomatoes.

At this point, you can refrigerate overnight is you are on deadline for a dinner tomorrow. Oh, shit. Yeah, that’s me! If not, shit, I should have had you preheat the oven.

Take the pan out of the fridge (leave on counter) and preheat your oven (oh, baby) to 325 degrees. When oven comes up to temp, stick the baby in the oven for 75 minutes and then add the Canned Cannellini beans and continue to cook for another 15 minutes (1½ hours if you don’t add the beans) or until the shanks are really tender.

Option 1: Pull the covered pan from the oven, turn the oven off, serve.

Option 2: For a richer sauce, pull the shanks out, put in the oven (now off) to keep warm, strain the pan juices into a small sauce pan and boil down to half and recombine before serving.

NOTES FROM THE END. Let that by cook another hour plus. It will make the meat flake more. Apparently this is one recipe that you CAN’T overcook.

[231.3]

No time for a nap today:

• Up early today, running, running, running.
  

• Load of laundry
  

• Breakfast, luckily there was some from before the trip
  

• Boltage meeting prep
  

• Letter to Prison Steve
  

• Lunch with meager leftovers
  

• Post office to drop a letter to Prison Steve, the Colonels, and Alaska airlines for credit
  

• Check to bank
  

• Trader Joes for dressing, wine and live basil plants
  

• Safeway for a meat run, also found some 50% off wine, which means I got another 10% off since I was buying over 6 bottles. Between all the discount wine and meat, saved $115.13 on a $170.39 bill which made me the winner in the checker’s eyes for the day
  

• Lowes for outlet strips for the office, I’m tired of the squirrels nest under my desk
  

• Home to seal the meat for the freezer
  

• Plant the basil
  
• Do the quarterly taxes
  
• Pay the end of month bills
  

• Another load of laundry
  

• Dinner of crusted Ling Cod over a bed of greens
  

• Chat with Fernando about BOS-SEA airline ticket this summer
  

• Work on dinner for tomorrow night after tracking down recipe
  

• Rewrite recipe to make it fit what I actually did
  

• One load of dishes
  

• Watch PBS special and cry (remembering chasing off fag-bashers at the Liberty Memorial park in Kansas City:
  
  

  WGBH American Experience . Stonewall Uprising | PBS
  

  www.pbs.org
  

  The Stonewall Uprising is a documentary from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE that tells the dramatic story of the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village, NYC in 1969. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City
  

Take a sleeping pill.

Go to bed.

[231.6] Not as bad as I was expecting for two weeks on the road.

That would be San Jose del Cabo to San Diego to Seattle. But not until we had fajitas left over from last night’s (and other nights) leftovers. I don’t know what got into the boys but they were all packed and chomping at the bit to get out of there, well before I’d even really woken up.

I had my last 45 minutes of au natural sun on the upper deck before getting my packing done. It’s not like anything really needs to be folded, it’s all dirty anyway.

It’s so weird to be wearing long pants again — it’s been a week in shorts. And shoes. Birthday dinner I wore shoes instead of sandles, but that was it. Now, both shoes and long pants. Fees very weird indeed.

Shuttle to the airport ($28 per person round-trip in case you are interested) was at 11:45 but we were all down there 15-20 minutes early. It being Easter Sunday there wasn’t much traffic on the way to the airport so there was time to get some more food in my stomach before we boarded. I skipped any of the duty-free as is wasn’t any cheaper (and in some cases much more) than the prices at the Mega. I actually got to mark $0 on my customs form for items brought back.

Uneventful flight (as it should be) to San Diego. Turkey and provolone with roasted red peppers on a ciabatta roll with a little salad was the first class meal. I’m not sure what Curt had back in steerage.

Rich and I were the first two people through an empty San Diego Immigration line, and even after waiting for luggage we were one of the first ten through customs leaving us about an hour before reboarding our plane for the rest of the trip home.

From San Diego to Seattle the first class food was a Caesar salad and a bowl of incredibly good mac and cheese complete with the bread crumbles. I could have eaten three of those alone.

Arrived home about 8pm to a full mailbox, a cold house (yes, I remembered to turn down the heat!), and my own bed. With three lunches I didn’t need anymore than some steak leftover from last week to tide me through the evening of junk television and laundry.

Can’t wait to jump on the scale tomorrow and see what two weeks on the road has done to my weight.

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Highlight of the day was dinner with the locals. On Thursday night, Curt went up the hill to the bar called Syriaccus to see this “alternative” band lead by Memo. Tonight we have Memo and his friend Luis for dinner.

Marinated flank steak on the grill after we had to call for more propane, so dinner wasn’t until after 8. Add a salad and some roasted red peppers and you have a fine meal.

And I almost got lucky with Luis!

Not bad for our last night in town.

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Breakfast.

Humor wall painting. I know it’s supposed to be a musical instrument, but really.

Dinner.

Just kidding, though it is just across the highway. Dinner was steaks and roasted peppers on the grill, a nice salad, and a lovely bottle of red, if you count the one we oened AFTER the bottle that seems to be communion wine (Easter is Sunday after all).

Finished the Calvin Trillin book Killers. Finished the J.A Jance book, Shoot Don’t Shoot, and started in at 11pm on the James Patterson/Peter de Jonge book, The Beach House.

I love a vacation when I can go plowing through pulp fiction.

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