Today is prototype day – the day to rework the Boltage™ prototype and design and sew a bag to hold the electronics. Last week I found a great source for webbing, elastic, hardware for this project and tons of stuff for non-work projects – anyone want to make a tent? Check out Seattle Fabrics – they are just up Aurora near DancingBear’s house – who is coming to dinner tonight, just FYI.
Here are some production shots of the bag:
In the final product it will have the Boltage™ logo on it, but I happened to have a stick-on embroidery patch from the Boston Wine Expo a couple of years ago lying around the kitchen. There are more production shots, but they are boring – more like documentation on how I made it so I can replicate or resize it going forward.
And while I had the sewing machine out I fixed my jacket pocket and replaced the straps on my day pack – all while working on some rosemary challah dinner rolls to go with the steaks and baked potatoes tonight. Like I said, a productive day. Maybe it was that hour that I lost due to Daylight Savings Time.
And now to test whether the system has finally stopped making mincemeat of my uploads from Word to WordPress. For the last couple of days it’s been auto-buggering colons, apostrophes, ellipsis, em dashes, all the symbols that give meaning to sentences.
Foggy in Olympia this morning, not outside, but inside.
Hit the road at 11am to catch Click and Clack on NPR. Appropriate drive time listening.
Lunch was the last of the leftovers from last nights dinner — at which point I remembered that I’d left a ton of meat in Curt’s freezer. Damn.
Lazed about the afternoon half-heartedly unpacking and wasting time on the computer before heading to the eastside to drop a check at the bank. Oh for the day when I can just scan the check and be done with it — apparently the technology is coming to my bank because of their recent merger with a Silicon Valley credit union.
Dinner tonight with Swanda and JohnnyThunder… cut rate sushi once it’s marked down at 7pm. I might have gotten a little too much in the way of sushi, marinated cucumber, marinated octopus, summer rolls…
Looks like a lot of food for three people — and it was. I took home a plate of sushi for tomorrow’s lunch.
Phone rings at 4am: Swanda telling me that there is a tsunami headed my way (I guess I picked a good day to be at the beach).
Phone rings at 4:20am: Front desk telling me that an evacuation is in process for the expected tsunami.
Phone rings at 4:40am: Dan from Florida has managed to butt-dial me from his new Ford Flex.
Phone rings at 6am: They want everyone evacuated by 6:45am for the expected 7:15am tsunami.
Personally I’d been watching the TV and was waiting to see what happen at 6:10am when Hawaii was supposed to get whacked before I was even going to get out of bed and take a shower. When Hawaii got 3-5 foot waves, and the tide at Seaside was out 3+ feet, and the fact that my room was on the 3rd floor at the back … I’m not running for the hills (or the 5-8 floors as they also suggested).
Here is the “fauxnami” as I started calling it:
Looks more like turbulent surf to me. This was taken at the designated arrival time — didn’t seem to bother the guy parked on the roundabout either.
I did get email from one of my friends in Tokyo saying he and the kids were alright — though he faced a 3 hour walk home.
Left a deserted Seaside after missing out on $75 for owner reeducation as they’d cancelled all the sessions because of the fauxnami. Hit a couple of antique stores in Astoria more out of killing time than anything else — having declined to purchase some more gifts for Swanda since they were $5 a piece rather than the $3-3.75 that I got the other four for — and I hadn’t heard back from him if he wanted any more … only to get a text answer back about the time I hit Longview that yes, he would like them, for a Easter basket for his sister.
Next stop Centrailia to see if they had antique stores (TONS downtown) and see if I could find any — found plenty, but not in the range I wanted to pay, and the right age to match the others, and the right material (metal, not cardboard). $6-8 each was just a little too much for me.
Then onto Olympia for the monthly poker game — this time with dinner before with Rich and Curt to talk about next month’s Mexico trip. It was a good night at the table — up about $30, which might have covered the booze bill.
I leave you with this silly picture from the game:
Curt took a group shot, but still haven’t gotten a copy in email, so the above will have to do.
Another early morning out of bed — maybe I’m turning into my long dead grandmother who only slept 4 hours a night at the end of her 102 years.
Round two of ice machine ant cleaning (this time I just going to leave the machine on and freeze the bastards), a little work in the morning combined with packing for a quickie overnight in Seaside, Oregon on the way to poker in Olympia, Washington — yeah, I know, it’s not really on the way, but I figured that it was an excuse to get laid.
Left a little before noon (check-in at 4) with stops in Lacey for groceries and gas, Olympia to drop off food for tomorrow night (and some 30% meat in the freezer), Swenson for a little chicken and onto Seaside to exactly hit check-in time.
Nice room — I think this is the first time I’ve stayed on the north side of the condo. Big deck!
Had a nice afternoon roll on the sheets before making a BBQ pork dinner with salad and mashed potatoes for the boy and I.
Unfortunately he needed to be back home (his) tonight so it was a 9pm run north to Walgreens (for photos he had waiting) and then back to his place.
Up early because I’ve got an 11am meeting in Queen Anne with the Boltage(tm) folks. Nice to see that project moving forward again.
Was sitting eating breakfast when I heard a key in the front door lock, that’s right, MoonSong is cleaning this Wednesday. I tend to lose track of which Wednesday is Cleaning Wednesday when I’m on the road so much.
This morning I decided to add a day to my Olympia overnight and head down to Seaside to see the boy since a) he’s available for a rare overnight and b) there is room at the WorldMark Seaside for $35 + taxes ($43 total). Guess I’d better bill a couple of hours to cover the condo and gas to get down there.
Good meeting at 11 — lots of marching orders and my first hands-on look at the prototype which means I can now work on the belt and bag to go with it. Back to sewing over the weekend at my consulting rate — I must be the highest prices seamstress around.
The afternoon was spent tracking down component suppliers and I managed to find a source up by DancingBear’s house in north Seattle that actually stocks all the pieces we need, which really blew me away — besides the fact that the place is filled with pretty hippy boys.
The rest of the afternoon was spent getting a colony of sugar ants out of my portable ice machine… really, how gross. Drain, purge, dry — hopefully I won’t have to get the air gun out as well. I might have to just keep it running all the time since they seem to like the moisture when it’s turned off… which eventually will me getting a new “ice full” sensor … at least that is user replaceable, but not orderable online.
Finished cleaning the machine in time for cocktail hour. I spent part of my time in Ireland trying to convince Jeff and Mindy that they needed to get one of these (105 pounds with 15 pound shipping).
Dinner tonight was a thin steak and some salad and the remainder of last night’s bottle of wine. Somehow I can only manage to drink ½ a bottle of wine when dining alone.
Prepped main courses for Seaside and Olympia dinners before heading to bed.
It’s always nice to be able to cover the nut for the month’s mortgage by a third of the way through the month – not that it covers the credit card bills, but I’ve got the other two thirds of the month to cover that.
How you might ask… two non-recurring pieces of money. Tax refund of net $850 (after tax prep fee of $315) and the sale of 20oz. of silver bullion rounds at $35.50 an ounce.
But the day was filled with errands…
Tire Factory to fix the flat and get them to replace the locking lugnuts with regular ones
West Seattle Coin for the 15 minute transaction to sell the silver —- no receipts, no ID, felt like I was selling drugs
Grocery store run
Home
Bank to make deposit of silver proceeds and work check
Dry cleaner to pick up folded shirts and drop off shirts for hangers
Apartment to pick up package
Quick cocktail with Swanda since he had a package as well
Home
Amazing the stuff you can get done if you are out of bed at 6am (of my own free will).
This morning they finally collected on of my “freebie” upgrade coupons… six flights and only one coupon collected. Not bad considering four of those legs were flights to/from Hawaii.
Had to stand around for a bit after returning the car… no checked bags until 4 hours from flight time…. Absolutely NOBODY in the security lines (2), which, of course, meant that they did the new backscatter scanner thing.
Not effective
Slow as crap
Highly intrusive
Spent the next couple of hours in the American Airlines Admirals Club courtesy of my Alaska Board Room membership – but for some reason it doesn’t get you free wi-fi. At least they are now offering free well drinks and have extensive food menu for purchase. I had the Cobb Salad with my whiskey on the rocks times three.
Interesting photo from the gate check-in desk… the signage to the left on the wall was a big American Airlines logo, the signage over the desk was Alaska, but pasted to the front of the counter was this very old notice about exit row seating….
TWA – they haven’t been around for awhile (bought out by American years ago).
And speaking of interesting photos – there was a mother/daughter in 1A and 1C, mother had the traditional Muslim scarf head covering… but the little roll aboard that the daughter was wheeling had the Muslim version of Barbie® on it…
So very, very, odd.
Plane was on-time – by 7pm I was at the apartment and trying to inflate my flat tire. Big hole when you can feel the air coming out. Took presents upstairs for Swanda and Fluffernutter, had a couple of drinks, came back down, dumped a half a can of sealant in and re-inflated. It held.
Stopped for junk food on the way home. Too tired to cook.
A nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with asparagus and cheese – and of course, a bloody mary.
The kids left about 11 to head back to Indy (with, as it turns out, a stop at the ChicagoLand IKEA store). I putzed around the condo for a bit before heading out for a Sunday drive. First stop, a drive through town – this is the home of Ulysses S. Grant – well, when he was president…
The Iowa border is about 15 miles from Galena – and just over the river (that would be the Mississippi River) I stopped in the port area to snap this picture north… the railroad bridge goes back to Illinois, the bridge beyond it connects to Wisconsin…
Stopped in Hazel Green (which if I kept going would have taken me to Janesville, site of an ex-LRY gathering years ago – the one that a car load of us got dressed up and went to the Playboy Club fo the first and only time in my life) to do a little antique/junk shopping. Great store – but everything I wanted was both overpriced and too big to get on the plane home.
Before heading back to the condo I decided to swing by the “ski resort” to see what it really was like – answer? Probably a hundred rooms of lodging, multiple restaurants, and people skiing and snowboarding on a sunny Sunday. The elevation wasn’t much more than the condo – but it was a straight downhill shot to the Mississippi River.
Dinner tonight consisted of eating the remnants of all the rest of the meals this weekend – and I’m sorry to say that I didn’t finish them all.
Cubed pork in the scrambled eggs this morning – which worked for Joe and I, but not Lisa (who just ate the eggs)… more for us.
Today is part of the Mardi Gras weekend in Galena… we missed the pub crawl last night which being sponsored by Bud Light seems to consist of drink specials in all the bars downtown of $2 Bud Light in a can or a $5 Hurricane – can’t say that we missed much.
With a stop at the Antique Mall on the way into town we were off to explore. Galena is one of those picturesque old Midwestern cities – lots of brick buildings that at least in Galena are mostly full of businesses – albeit more “crap” than you could shake a stick at – think potpourri and dried flowers, too many candles, and not enough antique/junk stores.
And it being Mardi Gras weekend the place was packed with people. The snow sculpting contest only yielded two entries – and who doesn’t love a tiki god made of old dirty snow….
After a big lunch (well, for me) we headed off to do the shopping for dinner and then back to the condo for a nap (well, for me). Tonight’s main was a lemon garlic roasted chicken.
Still haven’t done that video tour of the condo – maybe tomorrow.
For some reason I’m out of bed way too early – is it possible that I’m still under the affects of travel —- that my body know not what time zone it’s in?
A lazy morning around the condo, eggs and English muffins for breakfast before heading out to explore the surrounding areas and pick up supplies for a pupu platter which meant starting at WalMart (not my favorite but I also needed supplies from the pharmacy) and finding a $10 cutting board (not that I needed one) packed with a round of Gouda, a box of crackers and a length of salami – which basically was $10 of supplies with a bamboo cutting board thrown in for free.
Next stop was the Antique Mall between Galena and the resort. It’s a great place to stay if you need to stock up on your Sambo and Mammy items. Personally I got a pair of US Navy coveralls ($3.75), a couple of license plates ($4.00 for a pair), and four items for Swanda which I won’t describe since I know he reads the blog…. Just think Swanda – FOUR items for your apartment!
Next stop was Elizabeth – 8 miles beyond the condo, looking for more junk stores, thought I’d save downtown Galena for when the kids get here. No antiques in Elizabeth that I could find, but I did find a Chicago Hot Dog restaurant (loaded dog and fries $3.50) before heading back to the condo for a nap.
The kids arrived just after three (and just after I’d gotten up from the nap). It’s only been five years since I last saw them at their wedding in Jamaica (the one where the body washed up on the beach several hours after the ceremony). They are looking good.
Speaking of good, Joe took this panoramic photo of the view from the deck:
Yes, it is a tad overcast, but at least it isn’t raining or snowing (both predicted). Here is a shot into the condo from the deck that I found amusing:
We are in a two-bedroom corner unit on the top floor so we get the vaulted ceilings and two fireplaces – one that is a see through from the small bedroom to the living room, and the other which is a see through from the master bedroom into the master bath, right over the Jacuzzi soaking tub. I might have to do a walking video tour tomorrow.
Dinner was a pork roast over a bed of root vegetable, salad, wine – totally forgot the bread – and totally forgot to put out the pupu platter as well.
There is always tomorrow… after the Marti Gras parade at 5:30pm.
Up early this morning – it’s an 8:40am flight but I’m parking at the apartment so it’s 20 minutes north and a 30 minute south ride on light rail to get to the airport – but at $2.50 each way (for a total of $5.00) it beats the cost of parking at the airport by a factor of ten.
Got to the airport to find some happy news when I checked my bag in…. an upgrade to first that I wasn’t expecting. Something must have changed since I checked in last night. Changed in a good way. Puts a smile on my face to say the least.
Got to the Board Room for a lighter breakfast (since breakfast will now be served on board the plane) and to check the United website to see if my miles had posted from the Ireland trip…. And BINGO, they had. Why is it important? Tomorrow is the last day to get a frequent flier mileage ticket for the Canada trip later this month without paying an “up-fee” for last minute booking. The trip is train to Vancouver, hang out all day, catch the evening train to Toronto arriving 4 days later, then fly home. No coach class seats have been available (12,500 miles), but with the additional miles from the Ireland trip, gives me enough to get a First Class one-way ticket (25,000 miles), which is what I really wanted anyway. As an amusing side, the Business Class train ticket from Seattle to Vancouver was a freebie from my Amtrak points. With the train being $1200 I’m trying to trim costs where I can.
Nice flight, few bumps, sitting next to another independent marketing guy who had a contract with an Olympia start-up dating service… Table For Two (which folded after the woman ran off to Hawaii with the $15,000 SBA loan proceeds)… too odd that we ended up sitting next to each other. I was purposely “vague” about my client, saying it was an “activity club” rather than dating service, which is truly what it is.
Luggage was quick, then it was off to pick up the rental car…. Their version of a mid-size ($12 a day with about $12 in crap fees) is a Jeep Compass. I’d brought my GPS with me, already programmed to head to Galena. Was expecting rain, but didn’t get any thankfully. One stop for food, one stop as a nap (damn that getting up early, but better late and safe than dead).
Checked in – unpacked a little, and headed back out for groceries for dinner/breakfast/dinner. Here is the resort…
The picture makes it look so pretty – though it is set amongst the rolling hills above the Mississippi River 30 miles away – it is in the middle of nothing, 8 miles outside of Galena, Illinois – home to Ulysses S Grant. Lisa and Joe arrive tomorrow so it’s kind of nice to have a quiet evening to myself eating chicken in front of the TV before heading to bed early.
Nice to have some work flowing again, even if it’s just a little – certainly more fun than the hour spent at the dentist following.
After a quick stop at Safeway it was off to meet the wife of a guy who bought my 1960 T-Bird with a factory sunroof from Stewy, who neglected to transfer the title half a dozen years or year ago. Bad Stewy – so, it’s off to the bank to notarize a “avadavat of title” so the poor guy and actually register his car after continuing to do all the restoration work on the thing. Here is a picture of what I’m talking about (the car, not the avadavat):
Mind you, to stand like that you’d almost have to take the front passenger seat out (or at least slide it all the way forward and flip it up. Mine was actually titty pink – but the guy who bought it can’t stomach the thought of driving a pink car in Granite, Washington, so it’s going to be black – so that’s not that bad. Here is more information.
A steak for dinner – the first in a long time, then back to packing for the next trip… Galena, Illinois (flying in/out of Chicago).
Up at 8 to make breakfast for the both of us using the new dual burner griddle…
But, with all the travel, it was back to bed for a couple of hours… I needed it. 3am to bed, 8am up… with too many of those on the trip. At least I know that when I go to bed tonight I’ll sleep through
Work when I got up, things are moving again with one of my clients so that’s looking good, and it seems it might have a Belfast connection which would help cover the cost of that lovely but rushed fluffy bunny dish with the boys. I’m not sure that I’ve ever met a marathon guy (my friend) who has done a marathon with his parents…
My Dad was 3 Hours 22m
My Mum was 3 Hours 28m
Myself Was 3 Hours 36m
Dinner tonight is BBQ’d chicken thighs and onions over a bed of greens… a little wine, and some quiet time. And oddly enough the leftover onions roasted in chicken grease and the sauce will make a stunning gravy for over pre-poker steaks.
And in other news, my Portland buddy is today’s NPR song of the day… click on the picture for the link to NPR:
Or click on the album cover to buy it from Amazon….
But my favorite link is to a possible new VW Microbus….
And if you care, in 1872 Yellowstone became the FIRST National Park on this very day… and my National Parks Pass is good until the end of May.
Thank you for buying Continental Airlines, and here’s what I’d like to do with it. I hear you are going to add Economy Plus to all their planes, that’s a GREAT idea, but I think you should adopt something of theirs as well, like a staff that actually seems to care, a staff that isn’t snarky, mean, demoralized and bitter. Maybe a cross-training program could accomplish that mission. The flight attendants even shared their fesh hot warm garlic bread with me from their crew meal when I went back to the galley for another round of drinks.
At least you got a bunch of newer planes in the deal. And while you are at it, why don’t you make the TV free on flights that are weather delayed… what does it cost you – not much. How does it make the passengers feel? Like you care (not that Continental did that on my delayed Newark-Seattle flight). Of course that means that you’d (United) have to add a modern entertainment system to your planes.
Your customer with just shy of 800,000 flight miles under his belt on United,
Mark Stephen Souder
AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULAR SCHEDULED PROGRAM….
Another early day up and out – almost not early enough – no time for duty free with the THREE security screenings to get from the check-in desk (30 minute wait) through the immigration (30 minute wait) to US Border Customs (30 minute wait) that was actually in the Belfast airport which also means no duty-free on the plane as you’ve already cleared customs and are technically on US soil as you board the plane. On the upside it means that you can make a tight connection at Newark… like my four hour layover.
Flight from Dublin to Newark was packed – seven hours packed three to a row… all I could think about was how Colonel Eric would have been feeling – not happy. With the weather delay in the Newark-Seattle flight, at least it meant that a ton of people missed their connections and there were open seats… including the one in the bulkhead (normally an additional $109 up-charge) that make the other two people in my row VERY happy when I moved, as they could spread out.
That weather delay also added another couple of hours to that layover… the dinner I had around 5pm didn’t hold up through the flight – luckily I had some dried spicy shredded squid jerky with me. My rule these days is always pack jerky of some sort (had buffalo on the way over) in the brief case because flights WILL be delayed and I get really cranky when I’m hungry and stuck.
And a nice SHOUT OUT to Wonderful who picked me up at the airport at 11:30pm…. For my 8:33pm arrival (according to the screen print he captured). Luckily he was waiting for my call, and not depending on the website….
Guess they are putting all the IT money into combining the United and Continental websites, and not to actually reporting real-time flight conditions.
Now if we hadn’t stayed up chatting and drinking until 3am – AGAIN – hell you’d think I was back in Dublin!
At least Wonderful got some wonderful advice from me about his hopeful job interview.
Catching the 10am express to Belfast to see a guy that I met a year and a half ago on my birthday trip to Dublin and Plymouth.
The plan was to meet at the train station in Belfast after the 2 hour ride… that was the plan…. Waited 45 minutes… no response to the two texts, figured I’d go out and explore and if he didn’t text back I’d change my ticket to the 3pm train rather than hang around for the 7pm train.
Just down the street is the St. George Market which is open only on the weekends so the timing was good.
A nice example of Victorian architecture still in use today. Think antiques, bric-a-brac, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers (seriously, there was a candlemaker) and entertainment….
Ian finally rang around 1:30 and walked over. He’d overslept after getting home at 5am with a boy in tow, and finally getting to sleep at 8am. Even worse than me. First stop, Starbucks for tea for him, and water and juice for me – rehydration is the order of the day.
A walking tour of the city centre, a stop by the cathedral, not officially open for tours on Sunday, but they were setting up for the Evensong service which I seriously contemplated attending – instead we went back to his flat to meet the boy and eventually head off to a seriously nice dinner (albeit with slow service) of rabbit for me, steak for the boy, and pasta for Ian the Vegan. The slow service left me back at the rail terminal with 6 minutes to spare by the time I got to the platform, but still enough time to have the ticket taker snap a photo of the three of us…
I slept about half the trip home… exhaustion catching up with me – and Jeff was waiting at the station with a nice warm car. My last night in Dublin and all I want to do is go to bed for tomorrow is another early morning.
Breakfast out this morning… at Noshington just up the Circular…
Now I can say that I’ve had a proper Irish breakfast with poached eggs on dark bread, the requisite broiled tomato and some home fries. It was a big enough breakfast that it held me until dinner with the neighbors two doors down.
The original plan was for dinner at Jeff and Mindi’s place, but changed as their 1.5 year old is going through a bit of a cranky phase, though you wouldn’t know it as she went to bed right as we got there and stayed down for the entire noisy time.
The noise might have come from one bottle of Prosecco, three bottles of red (or was it four), a bottle of 15-year-old Havana Club rum and half a bottle of Jameson. We brought a Greek Salad (stretched from last night’s salad) and some of the booze. They made a lovely garlic bread and a Putenesca style pasta dish.
But really, to bed again at 3am – and tomorrow I have to get up at 7:30am to catch the train to Belfast.
It was a very slow day around the house after last night’s festivities… Jeff was late to work, Mindi still in her jammies at 4 in the afternoon, me taking an afternoon nap on the couch after doing the shopping for tonight’s dinner at Ennis Meats about a fifteen minute walk from Lullymore Lane.
With a refrigerator the size of the one at my old church (under counter) shopping becomes a daily routine, and luckily the guys at Ennis Meats do some pre-prepped stuff that makes it easy – tonight is the Pork Fillet stuffed with organic walnuts and apricots. Add a Greek salad and you have a wonderful meal, and for once, some leftovers!
Tonight’s big event is a premiere of the new Matt Damon flick (yes, I went to a movie… in a theatre) that is part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF). The Adjustment Bureau.
It’s a sort of Men in Black twisted thriller love story… as they say, “genre busting” – well, that’s what the director said in the Q&A afterwards. This was the European premiere, opens in the US March 4th.
A couple of glasses of wine at the neighbors after they movie (tickets were courtesy of her) and much chat about her new job which will take her to the new country of South Sudan, which led to frequent flier talk which led to convertibles in Rome, her other office site along with Washington, DC. Why does this sound appealing?
Yep. This is where I woke up this morning… no, not in the front yard, but upstairs in the back bedroom.
Mindi advised me on waking that the kitchen was a bit bare, with toast and an apple the best bets. I returned to the living room with a quesadilla, there by cleaning out the refrigerator of several bits of leftovers – two tortillas, some cheese, some salsa, a half an avocado…. So yes, grocery shopping is on the agenda.
First stop is Timgad – the Hallal grocery just around the corner. They have expanded their selection since I was here last.
8 small lamb chops, cream, Diet Coke®, eggs, but the salad fixings didn’t look good. So off to the local Spar we go…
Not known for there veggie selection, at least they have nice bags of rocket salad along with a couple of half-baked rolls, and a little dessert and we are out the door. Of course, I fogot one important item since we are entertaining one of Jeff’s co-workers tonight…. ICE. One more stop.
It didn’t hurt that there was a pretty lad standing about in front of the place.
Got lots of compliments on the dinner – used the bag of beans and the two random carrots to steam up some veg to go with the lamb (cleaning two more items from the fridge). Of course we all stayed up way too late… but fun was had, wine and whiskey (and vodka tonics for Mindi) devoured.
Arrive Dublin 6:45… on the curb with Mindy the Amazing at 7:30… and she ISN’T a morning person.
I love visiting Jeff and Mindi… I get to take over their kitchen for such things as eggs and toast for breakfast followed by a shit, shower, shave, and a four hour nap.
But here is my day in pictures:
PRE-Dinner…at CrackChicken, a”pop-up” restaurant (only open for three months in a super cheap vacant storefront) which I forgot to grab the menu from.. damn
Post Dinner chicken bone pile. Total tab for three with a bottle of wine and 2 beers… 55 Euro. Not bad.
The mad crush at the bar before the cabaret:
And a video of part of the performance:
Then cabbed it back to the house for a couple of nightcaps while talking of the days to come. Sorry for the quality of the shots – dark bar, camera phone, you see the problems.
Belfast mini-trip has been moved from tomorrow to Sunday when Ian has he day off.
Why, why, why… why do I book these early flights…. And I have one next week as well.
Out of bed at 4am, while Solus slept. Cab booked for 4:30am. Checked in for the Seattle-Newark-Dublin flight and hit the Board Rom for three bagels and a really weak cocktail.
The flight to Newark I moved across the aisle after we took off to have the seat next to me open. Nice when that happens. Might have caught an hour of sleep. It didn’t seem worth $745 to upgrade to Business/First that they offered.
Arrived Newark a little after three, with plenty of time for lunch, duty-free shopping, and laying around the terminal reading The New Yorker.
The flight to Dublin was even nicer in the seat category… I had three to myself and managed to get a couple of hours of fitful sleep. I would have gotten more, but they had a solitaire game on the seat back display, and we know how I love my solitaire.
I am guessing this is your posting for Tuesday, the 8th. Correct? Not the 9th.
Yep — got distracted by a meeting before changing the date….