UMTravels

Before this trip – there were several folks asking the difference between the Radical Faeries in the States, and the EuroFaeries – a brief history: in 1995 (I believe), Lekker Ding, know known as Habibi, who was based out of Amsterdam, found some like minded people to organize a faerie gathering on the island of Terschelling, off the Dutch coast. Habibi was a regular at US gatherings and wanted to spread the gospel to the continent… it succeeded, there are how a dozen gathering each year, along with a faerie sanctuary known as FolleTerre (would that translate into fool’s land?). There is much more to the history, but you have the overview. At US gatherings these are kept very separate, at least at gatherings like Breitenbush. After the business end of the circle, with the European Gatherings, a talisman is passed from person to person as a way to check in with each person, and it also helps cement their names in the minds of everyone – in the states it’s more of a free-for-all with those needing to unload something scrambling for the talisman in the center of the circle – and that is another distinction – in the US, faeries speak from the center of the circle as opposed to remaining in the ring. I can see advantages for both – being in the center of the circle is a powerful drug – which might explain a number of US faeries who are hooked on being the center of attention and telling the same story of woe year after year after year. I guess it’s cheaper than a shrink. As for the Euro version, it gives everyone a chance, even the shy ones, to have a chance to talk about what good or bad is going on in their lives. After the initial go around, the floor is opened for those how have additional issues, or feel the need to respond to previous speakers. The one constant among both groups is the notion that the person with the talisman has the floor – cross-talk and direct response are discouraged. Another difference is that at EuroFaerie gatherings there is also occasionally organized sight-seeing – yesterday’s being a trip into Berlin for thrift shopping, and today’s a trip to Pottsdam with a boat trip to some castle where the treaty was signed assigning ownership of most of Europe at the end of WWII.

OK – that was one long run-on paragraph – I’m surprised that MS-Word didn’t flag more “grammar” issues.

Yesterday I was mostly a slug – I don’t know if it was me just feeling anti-social, but I skipped the Viennese Waltz workshop/dance after dinner, and just went straight to bed. It could have also been the excessive liquor consumption the night before. With the early to bed, I was up at 6:30 (the dance party ran until 4am) and making coffee, busing dishes scattered about the grounds, making a couple of fried eggs with the last two pieces of toast. By 7:30 the place was cleaned up, I was fed, and the “early” risers were starting to rouse themselves and make breakfast for the rest of the crew.

While most of the boys went off on their guided sightseeing tour (with our own faerie guide, CoCo’s boyfriend), I stayed at camp, did my laundry, did more dishes, helped with dinner prep, finished an Evanovich novel, set up the dining room for dinner, and basically just hung out in the woods.

Dinner tonight is a massive pasta salad with a quark and sour cherry dessert.

Good thing I ate all those Frankfurters in Frankfurt.

Oh, and the no email means I can’t approve any blog posts. That will wait for Saturday as well.

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I must be having fun because I was up until 3am. Sure, the heart circle after dinner ran long… but not that long.

Was up at 9am for breakfast, then back to bed until 3. Wow. I must be on holiday. Didn’t even get into the shower until almost 6pm. And after the excessive scotch night last night, thinking that tonight is going to be a wine night.

No motivation to check out the café down the trail to see if they have wi-fi. Maybe tomorrow. I did get a text in the middle of the night from Fluffernutter asking if I was back. I assume that was in response to my request for a ride home from the airport NEXT Monday. So for those of you keeping up with Uncle Markie’s European Holiday, don’t figure on me checking email regularly until Saturday – though I will respond to text messages, though mind the gap (the time gap that is). Here is a good example – it is 6:24pm in Germany at the moment – or 9:24am in Seattle. 9 hours is the time difference.

We are eating well here… by faerie standards. Last night’s meal was spinach lasagna made by Royal, whose faerie name should be Royal PITA. Any guesses? The “P” is for Pain. I’m sure you can figure out the rest. That said, it was an amazing lasagna – with a layer of béchamel sauce in addition to the tomato, mozzarella, pasta layers – that and a fresh green salad. Yum.

Tonight’s dinner (which started out as a late lunch soup and then grew and grew) is a ginger carrot soup, mini baguettes, and a green salad. Add a Nuviana Tempronillo/Cabernet Sauvignon and you have yet another damn fine meal.

One of the faeries has a high-pressure day job that he hasn’t been able to escape from but comes each evening for dinner and whatever happens after dinner. While this strains the sense of community in some ways – it also means that I can get the International Herald Tribune delivered the same day as it’s published – albeit late in the day. Yes, gave up email, but am still getting the paper – roughing it in the woods.

Speaking of the Trib – the American not living in Paris, but an hour south, had several days worth of issues when he arrived – unfortunately it was from about the same period that my New York Times was from… and since there are sister papers, a lot of the content I’d already read. It reminded me of the trip to Tuscany several years ago with Jill, Darcie, Jeanne and another half dozen people – where the café across from the villa had the IHT available (that day’s edition) by 10am – so I got in the habit of waking late and going for my cappuccino, pasti (Italian breakfast pastry kinda thing), and the paper. Truly civilized.

That’s it for the day. Back to the fun.

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Fairie Mojo – is there such a thing?

And how would you describe it? A feeling of calmed centeredness. Is centeredness even a word?

My life of the Dish Witch has absolved me of any feelings of guilt over not doing any kitchen prep work, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the never ending sand out of the hallways… and my fingernails are amazingly clean!

From the sunny humidness of yesterday and this morning, the afternoon has turned to showers and a nice cool breeze – my sympathies go out to the 9 or 10 faeries who went out for a long bicycle ride to see some modern architectural wonder close by. And so much for the Yoga/Dance Movement workshop on the lawn… leaving lots of faeries in the smoking temple drinking beer and chatting away.

Speaking of beer – yes, when in Germany, have the beer. Even me. Yesterday I had four. Over the course of a day. Can you say out of whiskey and the wine delivery is slated for today. Still – those were bottles of beer — .5 liter bottles of beer. Me. I would have been better if I’d found the stash of fizzy water yesterday instead of today – I think it was really the bubbles that I was craving.

Currently the kitchen is abuzz with the chopping of vegetables for tonight’s meal of lasagna – that would be lasagna for 45 people. Makes me happy I’m only in charge of cleaning up. They prep, put it in the oven, I roll in, clean up all the prep stuff which it cooks. Of course, in the meantime a lunch crew has to fly through and get things out so we don’t all starve… think of it as semi-organized chaos.

I wish I could post some pictures of the place and the process, but that will have to wait – I hear rumors that the café on the beach has wi-fi so I might wander over tomorrow and check that out – or it might just be a vicious rumor to get me out for a walk.

But back to the Mojo concept. For the last several years I’ve been feeling my faerie Mojo slowly slipping away, less willing to embrace the eccentricities of the movement – feeling a disconnect with the rest of my world. Odd that coming back to a EuroFaerie gathering after ten years would reinvigorate my sense of community. Or maybe it’s just that for me the Faeries had become the Breitenbush Faeries and my disgust over the “hippy sweat shop” that the Breitenbush community has become (in my mind) had started to erase 30 years of sense of Faerie Community. Of course that doesn’t explain why I only stayed one night at American Ridge. Maybe the answer lies in my need for certain creature comforts (like a bed).

The difference between this gathering and Breitenbush is that it takes everyone doing something to make it happen – that, or we don’t eat (or have workshops, or grocery runs). That doesn’t explain my estrangement from American Ridge – that must be about the bed and the hot shower.

That’s it for this afternoon – short bursts of text only blog posts until I’m at the DB Lounge in Berlin on Saturday.

Guess that means the same for email.

Who would have expected that.

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Yesterday…

Went to the DB (Duetshe Bahn – i.e. the train) Lounge a couple of hours before my train. Why hang out in a train station? Air-conditioning, free soda pop, wine and snacks… sounds like a good reason to me.

Had a first class ticket in a “quiet” section of the car. Apparently that just meant cell phones as I spent the first hour with a young child in our little six person compartment, complete with father and a ton of toys. Something tells me those weren’t his real seats as he moved to a compartment in the next car down with another child and a woman who I assume was his wife… guess it was a time-out for someone.

Butch Budda’s transfer instructions to get to the gathering were spot on… and with a stop in the Berlin Hbf (haugh ban hof, or train station) to grab €200 (200 Euro) for the gathering fee, I still have almost half the €200 I got at the cash machine at the airport (and Ezra’s short €20, should have been probably 25, for the duty-free cigarettes, but hell, there was a ride from the airport included so it all evens out).

By the time I found the S-Bahn (city train) Route 7, it was only ten minutes until the train to the woods. 15 minutes of walking (through at time a pack of ironman/triathelon competitors) I was at Haus am Wannsee – the house on Wannsee, which is a big lake within the city limits of Berlin.

Arrived at cocktail hour to find no ice, but at least there was a freezer big enough to put what remained of a bottle of Jack Daniels. A small saving grace, though I probably should have picked up more since I tend to share my stash with other faeries… too late now, and probably until Monday with Germany’s blue laws (the are finally open until 8pm on Saturdays).

Dinner of these giant fish cakes, and a traditional German potato salad and sliced organic gherkins (pickles, not the British/Nepalese soldiers).

The circle after dinner was more of a welcome rather than a heart circle – lots of logistical stuff about how the house works, but what was amazing for me to realize was that of the 40 people in the circle, 10 or so of them had been at the Terschelling Gatherings of 1996 and 1997. For my time in Frankfurt I had been worrying about if I could actually make it a week hanging out with the faeries in the woods (albeit in a bed, with hot showers, and most importantly a commercial dishwasher that does a load in 3 minutes – faster than you can rinse and load the next tray). I believe the answer is yes – hence, the redemption of Uncle Markie.

Today…

Because of having to upload blog entries via a tethered (and expensive) link to my phone, I’ve changed the format a little in that the posts for the week will be a little bit of yesterday and a little bit of today.

Stunning (and hot) weather for wandering around in one’s birthday suit – this will solve the problem of not packing two weeks’ worth of clothes, spend a week wearing nothing, or more likely, just running a load of clothes mid-week, as they’ve got a washer dryer here, as well as a second kitchen mostly devoted to making coffee and tea. The house has eight bedrooms with a total of 42 beds (mostly bunk beds, all singles).

Between yesterday and mid-day today I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen doing dishes – it gets me out of doing any meal preparation work… it with the monster commercial machine, it’s quick and easy. Just imagine me in a cook’s apron and nothing else… or don’t.

The weather is supposed to change by late afternoon but for the morning heart circle it was a combination of sun and shade on the beach.

We’ll see if this entry will actually post via the phone.

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Today is a big travel day – the ICE (high-speed train) leaves at 12:13 for a 16:21 (that’s 4:21pm for those non-military types).

Can someone explain this statue that is on the top of the train station?

I understand, sort of, the Atlas one….

And in case you are wondering what an ICE (inter-city express) look like, here is one, though not the one I’m on.

The may be the last update for a bit of time…. Apparently there is no wi-fi at camp. If I’m able to get an EDGE connection on my phone, I might be able to make some text only posts and then post all the pictures when I get back to Frankfurt next week. Although I did just try my 3G phone (which I’d use for the connection) and it was actually able to call up a web page in high-speed – but at $15 per MB (mega-byte – think 250-500kb per web page – surf judiciously!) as opposed to $1.29 per minute to actually talk to someone.

And to get ready for the journey to the woods – must get everything charged up…one universal adapter, one 60’s style three way adapter (lets the ground plug slide over the side of it), laptop, camera battery and video camera charging… guess I’d better charge the phone!

See you when I see you.

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I love this – in my anal-retentive travel book (see photo from a couple of weeks ago), I have 37 pages (plus and 11×17 fold out map of the S/U-Bahn) of stuff printed out on things to do in Frankfurt. What have I done so far… nothing that was on the list. I’ve just wondered around aimlessly taking photographs, listening to music, eating street food.

I did take a walk down by the river today – at least I’m getting my exercise to get rid of the wieners I’m eating…

Here’s a little video of the street festival…

I went for a dinner of paella and sangria (9.5 Euro, or about $12). Pretty good for street food, luckily there was a seat at a table in the shade with pretty boys.

Early night for me – off to Berlin on the mid-day ICE (high-speed train).

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Up around 8 for a breakfast – was feeling a little dizzy, maybe from the Ambian, though it was 8 hours after I took it to help reset my body clock to EuroTime. So cheese, some lunch meat, some juice, some coffee, a hard-boiled egg… ah, the German breakfast.

After breakfast, oddly, went back to bed. It feeling like I’m trying to catch up on tons of sleep, or maybe it just that I haven’t had much of a chance to truly shut down after these last couple of weeks.

Out of the hotel for a little pre-lunch stroll, and what do I stumble across, the red-light district (rather small and pretty quiet at 1 in the afternoon):

The red light district is MUCH more active in the evening as I found out walking back from dinner.

Other things I stumbled on are an outdoor street festival a couple of blocks from the hotel that starts tomorrow morning at 11 but crowds are already on the street and it looks like there is a beer stall ever forty feet, if that far:

Meanwhile, all the food booths are set up so I’m trying the Wild Boar Bratwurst with the hot German potato salad – too bad I forgot to take a picture of that! Back to the house for email/blog/websurfing… and yet another nap – maybe I got bit by a flea and now have sleeping sickness!

Amusing request at the front desk… ice for my cocktails. Ice? Head shakes. My English not good. Wasser, frozen? My German is equally bad. Cocktails? Shake imaginary glass. Ah. Checks kitchen. No, sorry. After looking this up, its: Eisw?fel – which translates to Ice Cube, and to get that double dot over the U, you will need to do Alt 0171 (with the 0171 done on your numeric keyboard). So, tonight, I’m having me Jameson’s with wasser mit gas (water with gas, also called soda/seltzer water). The things we learn while we are on the road.

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For the reference to that post title…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner

The flight got in early – so I was on the curb a little after 7, and Ezra was already circling… the wrong terminal – apparently the Admiral’s Club is not the only AA thing screwed up. Website said Terminal One – the tiny one. Reality, Terminal Two. Thank god for cell phones – as I said to someone else waiting to be picked up.

After a stop at Ezra’s lux apartment about a 15 minute walk from my hotel (close to his bike shop) I was checked in by 8:30am (AMAZING – now THAT is an early check in). Shortly after I was breaking my own rules for adjusting to jet lag – i.e. stay up until what is normal bedtime.

My room is the one just to the right of “HO”. How appropriate.

Up from the “nap” after four hours. Out the door for chicken, tortellini stuffed with spinach, in a cream sauce, with a glass of wine. And then to the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof), a.k.a. the main train station to postcard stamps for the postcards from DFW – which will now have German postage on them.

And back to bed for another couple of hours.

Dinner tonight was more of a snack since lunch was a huge meal that I only ate half of (finished the Rioja though). Can you say Currywurst?

Yes, back to the station – I needed a LITTLE food, not a whole meal. I also picked up a couple of postcards of the main train station as well. And then back to the hotel to settle in, do email, update FaceBook, do this post, chat, cruise on-line for a new German boyfriend… just another Wednesday night in front of the TV and the Computer.

Taking a sleeping pill to reset my body clock now that I’ve caught up on sleep.

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I’m thinking I like this hotel better – a full hot breakfast included with the price of a $50 room. And then it was back to bed for a little more sleep – seems I haven’t been getting the full eight for the last couple of nights.

With the flight at 2:45pm (how civilized) I was on the noon shuttle to the airport – a shuttle whose air-conditioning was in need of a charge – a great way to start a trip day, sweating like swine.

Security was a breeze, found a spot to eat the leftovers from last night’s meal of beef and rice before doing the duty-free shopping and heading to the Admiral’s Club (the American Airlines version of Alaska’s Board Room) for a drink (one complimentary, unlike unlimited at the Board Room) and a newspaper fix. I’m a little amazed at the business model for the Admiral’s Club – you can get a wide assortment of food, but, again, it’s not complimentary – and no complimentary drinks – this after paying $450 a year (plus a first year “initiation” fee of $50).

Hung around reading before heading to the gate – even found free DFW postcards for those on the card list, and then discovered I didn’t have the stamps and labels baggie with me… guess those DFW cards are getting mailed from Frankfurt!

Uneventful flight – I went with the lamb for my main course (over the crusted beef, curried shrimp and scallops, or lasagna). Between the food, the booze and the movies, I didn’t get much sleep even though the business class seats were pretty damn comfortable and reclined to a tilted 180 degrees, as in almost flat.

No, that is not me.

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Yikes, we were all out of the house at 6:30am… early for all of us, but I needed to catch my flight to LAX and then onto DFW, and the boys needed to get to Portland to go skinny dipping at Rooster Rock.

Alaska to LAX with Board Room on both ends, American to DFW – flight left 45 minutes late, but managed to make up all but 10 minutes, not that it mattered to me since I’m overnighting by the airport.

And that overnighting is where the trouble started.

1. Called hotel, found out my reservation was for tomorrow night, not tonight
2. Hotel shuttle driver on vacation, they say take a cab (but no offer of reimbursement)
3. Cab would have been $22 for a five minute ride
4. Walk to Grand Hyatt which is in the terminal – not willing to pay the AAA rate of $233 a night (and guessing that didn’t include internet access or breakfast
5. Go back down and pick up the hotel booking phone – randomly choosing the Day’s Inn because it has free wi-fi and a free shuttle and as it turns out a free hot breakfast, and the place is run by a Nepalese family (very friendly). Oh, and it’s like $45 for the night. Basically the same rate as the Microtel where I was booked… and because I was booked for tomorrow… logged on and cancelled the reservation.

So, it’s like 107 degrees here – making it worse than Seattle temperature wise so I just had dinner in the restaurant in the lobby – Mongolian Beef with Fried Rice. Huge portion, I only got through half of it – I’m thinking lunch tomorrow!

I’m all checked in for tomorrow’s flight which isn’t until the early afternoon so it will be a much easier day tomorrow.

[226.5]

What a wonderful lazy Sunday… in the heat. It just means you don’t move too much, too fast.

After a BamBam breakfast we did a little stroll around the neighborhood. With the bridge closed I’m trying (not too well at the moment) to shop and eat with the local places to help keep them in business. Today’s stop was at the Salvadorian, or is it Ecuadorian bakery for some breakfast items for tomorrow and the Mexican grocery store for a lime (the potatoes I need for tonight’s dinner looked sad).

After one bad movie (where we fast forwarded through most of it), and Beef Cake, which I’d seen but it’s always fun, it was off to Swanda’s for afternoon cocktails and grocery shopping.

Back at the ranch we weren’t moving fast as the temp soared to 96 (average temp for today was supposed to be 76 – a 20 degree difference). Dinner was steaks, baked potatoes, salad, wine out on the deck with the breeze flowing.

It must be movie day at the house as the after dinner movie was Shooting Porn with Chi Chi La Rue – a self described big fat white guy female impersonator and some of the 8mm stuff I’ve had transferred (still need to figure out how to get the rest transferred without it breaking the bank).

Finished packing and it was off to bed for tomorrow I head to Germany.

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I made breakfast for the boys (Johnny and Curt) of scrambled eggs, ham and bacon – with toast from the loaf of bread I baked last night. Yum. And reasonably healthy.

Made a run to Safeway for coffee, gas, and yes, more meat for the freezer, but most importantly – for wine, since we pretty much blew through my “cellar” last night.

And let’s talk about the weather – windows open on all four sides of the house…. As the temperature climbed to 95 degrees today. We are not surprised that Swanda has backed out of dinner on the deck. Offered his place, but with the boys arrival variable, it just wasn’t going to work. Maybe tomorrow.

Dinner at the house tonight for four – BamBam, Helene, Hummingbird (below, in that order).

Tiny pictures for such a full evening. Went to the neighbors party – watched it get shut down by the ex-principal violist for the Seattle Symphony, had some beans, came home.

More chat, no hot tub. Maybe I shouldn’t have filled it.

Off to bed.

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Errands in the morning – like taking the car in for a bath, picking up shirts at the cleaners, vegetables for a couple of dinners.

And, oh, the oddity of dinner parties.

In the morning it was Johhny and I for dinner.

Then in the afternoon Curt inquired if he could come.

Then Ross called to see if he could pick up my spare mattress and by the time he got here is was pre-dinner time.

Dinner for four instead of two – you just keep taking more stuff out of the freezer.

And speaking of Ross – not only did the mattress go, but the four dialysis chairs and seven crates of kitchen ware, blankets, sheets, coats, boots, you name it – guess my chore tomorrow will be reorganizing the garage now that there is a ton less stuff in there.

And how nice to go to bed on my old mattress and think, I’ve missed this thing.

The difference between memory foam and a firm mattress. Now I have to work on getting my old bed frame back (and repaired).

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With no blanket factory tour, we get to sleep in… a bit. We are out of town at 10am, and have toured ConcreteHenge by noon when it’s off to Sally’s Restaurant for more comfort food for Bliss – damn – he works out to get rid of this, not sure how I’m going to get rid of the Rueben (or the Prime Rib Dip with fries last night). He has the Sally’s Chili Side – which is a toasted hamburger bun (which he deletes), then hamburger patties, then chili, then cheese and a ton of fries. Looks like a heart attack on a plate to me.

Here is ConcreteHenge:

After lunch we are off to the Maryhill Museum which is filled with odd relics of the early 1900’s with the bits and pieces of royalty, Rodin pieces, Indian (feather) baskets, etc.

Here is the Maryhill Museum:

Nice place. But if you want to see all the shots, I’m trying a slideshow from Flickr since Twango stopped the ability do do drag and drop uploads.

Got back to Seattle (well, Bliss’ place) at 6pm, me home at 6:30. Chicken and vegetable soup (homemade) for dinner. A quiet evening of TV and Whiskey.

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How nice to just lounge around the unit until noon – Bliss working out, me sleeping in, bloody marys waiting in the fridge for the omelets stuffed with grilled asparagus and gorgonzola (can you say leftovers!).

One slight detour on the way to Pendleton… missed a turn – it was marked “Truck Route To Oregon”, but no road number. It snaked us through a small town and suddenly we are on a newly paved road – better signage would be helpful.

Top was up for the first hour and a half – it rained in McCall starting in the evening – and the day was filled with driving through light rain, light clouds, sun, light rain, you name it, but the top stayed up until we got to Pendleton.

Thanks again to Bliss for his iPhone photos.

Bad news from our first stop in Pendleton – the Wool Mill that makes their blankets – no 9am tour because of the summer mill closure, only the 11am and another one. Damn. A reason to come back – actually it’s a really cute town that must turn into a zoo at the Pendleton Roundup.

Got into the room at the Travelodge at 4pm, bagged going to the museum, and just settled in until dinner.

Here is the photo of the lunch side of our dinner place:

Nice big old school restaurant – lots of pressed tin, dark woods, the works. I had the prime rib dip, fries and a salad, Bliss has the chicken steak with a side salad – we both needed greens. Inexpensive enough, but I feel like a sow stuffed just before thanksgiving.

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Well, the Bear Bites at the TravelLodge was barely a meal… luckily we had a taco at the taco truck on the wrong way out of town – it was one of those mornings that started with me trying to track down my credit card that I left at the restaurant last night… and they are only open evenings.

Luckily – I discovered this when buying postcards… and the lady behind the counter told me that our restaurant was tied in with one across the street that is open all day… long story short, they got the manager, who had keys to that restaurant and my card was recovered – but not before I fell in lust with the barista and ordered a glass of prosecco (Italian champagne) to celebrate.

But back to the taco truck – Tito’s Tacos, featured in Sunset magazine in a feature on best burritos in the west.

The trip went much smoother after I unplugged the GPS and opened up a map. The GPS would have sent us south first rather than east on US12.

One more taco truck (though this one was actually a taco trailer) for lunch…

By the time we got to McCall, and got groceries, cocktail hour was an hour late (as in, we got in at 6pm) due to the time change. Bliss is Blissful that there is a full gym at the condo complex. Me, I’m happy that cocktail hour finally arrived.

While Bliss worked out, I read the paper, caught up on email, prepped dinner stuff – a rack of ribs on the grill (pre-cooked, just need to warm up), salad, grilled asparagus – and a starter of gorgonzola and Chardonnay. Life is rough out here in the woods (in a 1500 sq ft condo).

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9 gets pushed to 10. So much for arriving in Walla Walla at 2pm – which is check-in time and allows for 4 hours of wine tasting. Instead, we got here at 4pm after mothers and traffic. That’s the way it goes.

Thanks Bliss for the shots.

We managed to get in three wineries:

• Otis Kenyon Wines. Back story – aggrieved dentist, does time, grandchildren open winery ($30 Syrah)
• Sapolil Cellars – live music on the weekends, was not supposed to be open, but still taking guests ($19 Chardonnay)
• Walla Walla Wine Works (formerly Waterbrook) – tasted 12+ wines and they never charged, those in after us were charged $5 (still a deal) and there was a hot ex-student hanging out at the bar (from Petersburg on the SE Alaska coast). Bought the $10 blend (which would have been the price of two tasting fees). Bliss stumbled across a teacher friend of his, or maybe it was the other way around.

Drinks back at the lovely Travelodge – which has a 10-1 male-female ratio, lots of contract contractors BBQing on the deck, but the place is dead by 10pm since they have to be on the site by 7 or 8 in the morning. Missed the pool time. But it’s close to downtown, fresh paint in the rooms, three pillows per bed, fridge, microwave, deck. Not bad for $60 a night.

Dinner tonight at T. Marrarone’s — more than Bliss wanted to pay, but I needed a decadent meal after the stressful day of driving. He had the beet salad and the salmon, I had three appetizers: stone fruit salad (with fresh peaches), a Thai inspired mussel dish (the BEST I’ve ever had) and their version of a mac and cheese, which I wish would have given me a heart attack because now I have to work it off.

Back to the room for a little TV and blog and boy watching.

Tomorrow’s another day.

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The only real thing I had planned for today was a mid-day meet-up with my ex, Jeff, to hand off a baguette pan for his baking experiments.

That turned into sipping wine, which turned into a nap – just after a call from Jimmy with a dinner invite.

I packed the oddest things in the bag to go over:

• 3 ears of corn
• Leftover coleslaw
• ½ bottle wine
• A book (The Cigar Roller)
• Blueberries

You could describe the dinner as what was around both our houses, or, make it classy and say “Tapas”. The dinner?

• Blueberries
• Mixed olives
• Coleslaw
• Mushroom stuffed raviolis
• Tod mun (in this case, fried shrimp cakes)
• Garden salad
• Wine
• Scotch for dessert

Not a bad dinner for out of the blue.

But then it’s home to pack for tomorrow’s road trip to Walla Wall/McCall/Pendleton/Maryhill.

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While the east coast is burning up (and Moscow is burning down), we here in Seattle suddenly have rain. It’s so funny to see people show up for dinner in their winter gear.

Dinner tonight with DancingBear and Mikey. Man those boys can eat – I should have added the pork loin to the grill. A filet mignon apiece, an Italian sausage apiece, heavy tomato, cheese, cucumber, basil salad, and entire loaf of bread.

Definitely not a dining al fresco night. Good conversation, discoveries of friends of friends that are clients, a perfect rainy evening.

And for the first time in years (it seems like) watched a movie (Thunderball, 007) after dinner.

Well, DancingBear and I did – Mikey was crashed on the chaise.

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Moonsong showed up at 9am to continue work on the 3×7′ concrete slab to park the scissor-lift, and I was out of the house at 10am to pick up Jill. By noon (and the heat coming in), here is where the pad is at:

Forms are in and a gravel bed is tamped down. For the “re-bar” we are using scrap steel out of the recycle bin in the garage.

As for Jill, well, that didn’t go quite as well, but in the end it worked out. Timing was off, but there was one pretty boy that I saw twice and drooled at both times – and a whole lot of old dying people. I’m not much of a fan of hospitals.

Afternoon errands with cocktails with Swanda – and a package, yet another Safeway Ranchers Reserve cooking bib… this one in black. Now I’ve got both red and black for my different moods.

Dinner and futzing at home.

Bed early.

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