UMTravels

Before we get to Vancouver, spent the morning and early afternoon playing on the mountain:

Talk about fun. Mind you I was a little skeptical about paying out $46.95 for a day pass on the mountain. Well worth it. Wish I’d had more than 4 hours to play on the mountain.

Here is the link to all the places you can get to on the mountain, including the Peak 2 Peak (Whistler to Blackcomb) Gondola.

How I spent my time was taking the Village Gondola up to the top of Whistler – 25 minutes. Actually it isn’t quite the top – there was a chair lift that went to the peak, but that required a quarter mile hike down, which I wasn’t worried about, it was getting back up – I was feeling a little dizzy from the elevation. If it’d had time later in the day I’d have done it after I was a little more acclimated.

Next was to take the Peak 2 Peak over to Blackcomb. Here is the blurb on the Peak 2 Peak gondola (two of the cards even have a glass bottom – very popular, I didn’t wait for them. (Note to Swanda: NOT for you)

BREAKING WORLD RECORDS.
CONNECTING MOUNTAINS.

Spanning the distance between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, the new world record-breaking PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola is a breathtaking, 4.4-kilometre journey to infinite possibilities. Redefining the Whistler summer experience by creating limitless new ways to get up-close-and-personal with the mountains, this engineering marvel breaks three world records.

• Longest unsupported span of 3.024 kilometres
  
• Highest lift of its kind at 436 metres above the valley floor
  
• Completes the longest continuous lift system on the globe
  

Wandered around a bit, then caught a school bus shuttle to the 7^th Heaven ski lift and go hang out on the Horstman Glacier with all the boys (and girls) still snowboarding and skiing in late July. It will be open until the 25^th. Tromped around in the snow for a bit then did the whole route in reverse, waiting for an empty gondola car that I could have to myself – that is where the shot above came from.

Here are all the shots I took up there:

Next stop, the WorldMark At The Canadian, downtown Vancouver. Checked in at 3:30pm, got settled, checked mail and headed to the IGA for dinner fixings. Hummingbird and BamBam coming to dinner. Broiled salmon, a Caesar salad, a loaf of bread, a couple of jugs of wine, and a fine time was had by all.

Fluffernutter and TinTin showed up at 1am to claim the bedroom. Only fair since they are the ones paying the bill for the two nights. I crashed on the coach.

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Got out of the house around 10:30 – only to encounter traffic gridlock all the way to Northgate…. And then again on Highway 1 on the Canada side of the border. They actually ask me several questions this time on the way into Canada, even in the Nexus line. Must figure out how to get the new car on my Nexus account.

With the delays, and a little thrift shopping in Mount Vernon (by the way, cheapest gas at Safeway closest to the border) I got to the condo in Whistler a little after 4. Actually I parked in slot 69 right at 4:20 – how’s that for numerical humor.

They put me on the top floor, facing away from the village:

Did a little research on hotel location for Swanda, and grabbed dinner at 21 Steps. Damn good dinner I might add.

Here’s the scroll bar of photos so far.

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I actually used the alarm to get up early enough to get me showered, fed and out the door to deliver the Miata back to the dealership so that Josh’s “Dent Guy” could take a nasty dent out of my passenger door. Didn’t notice it on the test drive, but as I was about to sign the first piece of paper in the purchase process. Good time – scratched out “car is good to go” with “dent on passenger door needs to be pulled”.

An hour and a half later after walking over the apartment to read the WSJ and take a little nap – the car was ready to go.

Jeff showed up a little before two to see the new toy. Here is a shot next to his toy, the Lotus Elise:

Yes, his is more sexy, but mines more comfortable. We hoped in the Miata for a little test drive to the Trader Joe’s in Burien, conveniently located next to the liquor store, another stop I needed to make.

Dinner al fresco on the deck with Swanda – marinated bbq’d chicken, asparagus, rolls, salad.

Not bad for a quick fix meal.

Guess I’d better start packing for the great white north.

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The big deal for today (other than cleaning up the house and the yard to get ready for company) is the final dinner for Curt’s neighbor from Olympia, who has become a friend of mine as well. He takes off the 19th for 28 months in Cambodia with the Peace Corps. Odd that he will be teaching English and doing community outreach when his last gig was as a public defender. I’ve thought about the Peace Corps as well so had lots of questions — like how long was the process (about a year) and how much of a pain (annoying but tolerable). Who knows, it would provide some focus in my life, but could I take two years in one place?

Dinner was a mixed grill of Italian sausages, chicken breasts and lamb lollipops (a new phrase I learned from Jeanne for those tiny little lamb t-bones), salad, pencil thin asparagus and rosemary challah rolls. Yum. Curt and Brandon drove up from Olympia after work, Dave came from the north end of Seattle where he is staying with his parents before he ships out.

Today’s scissor lift update is a video of the ride up and down before the platform gets built:

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I woke up this morning with the resolve that PuddyCat and I were mated for life. Then TinTin called.

TinTin returned my Saturday call, yes, come see the Miata (he’d recommended the black/tan BMW that was mide-20’s and out of my range). 1pm with his preferred/favorite sales person (he’s in parts). I forgot my phone, but he was in the lot – worked well.

Test drive. Good. What’s the PuddyCat worth. Time, stroll the lot looking for other things, or just looking. What do you want out of the car? What are you willing to pay… blah, blah, blah.

Of course there was still the hour plus to get all the transfer and purchase paperwork done before I could hand them my Visa to rack up more miles on Alaska. Hell, I could even leave it on that card since it’s only 10.4%.

Actually I think that I’ll actually save money with the new car…

• That erratic engine message would be $3600 if it became permanent
• The tires would have needed replacing in the next year at about $1000
• A 25% reduction in my auto insurance
• A 30% increase in my gas mileage – 30mpg versus 25mpg highway
• No more $120 synthetic oil changes
• Regular rather than premium gas

Plus there are the bums at the end of exit ramps – they tend towards being aggressive when in the Jag. Oh, and it comes with a 60 day, 3000 mile warranty and free car washes for as long as I own the car.

Drinks with Swanda after the purchase, then home for a steak.

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Today’s test drive is a 350Z that is sitting up in Everett (45 minutes north) on the Nissan Performance lot. I tried to see this one yesterday, but ran out of time.

The result of my test drive: the dog has fleas. WAY too much after-market stereo equipment (some of which impedes the passenger seat) with wires going everywhere – WHAT WERE THEY THINKING – close to $20K for FrankenElectronics?

The bright spots:

1. I was close to Paine Field – home of the wide body Boeing plant, so lots of planes on the tarmac in various states
2. Wicked BBQ – their pulled pork was actually pulled, not chopped, lots of stringy pork yumminess. The slaw was vinegar based, and I didn’t have enough room to try the fried okra, sweet potato fries, corn slaw, the ribs – if it wasn’t so far, it would be dangerous. Oh, and live music on Saturday nights.

Home for a nap before dropping of hats and opera handouts to Wonderful, followed by dinner with Jimmy and Suze (was supposed to include Mark and Maria, but barfing doesn’t make for good dinner company – damn those stomach bugs).

Home early, safe and sound.

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With PuddyCat’s expensive stay at the spa, it got me thinking about replacements. A search of black convertibles within 50 miles under $20,000 turned up four possibilities (well, more than that, but four that have styling/handling that I can live with).

I test drove the Mini today, tomorrow I’ve got an appointment to drive the 350Z (far right, above). The mini had plenty of get up and go, not much better back seat room than the PuddyCat, and a trunk smaller than the Miata. They are a grand low on the trade in (according to Kelley’s etc.) and a grand high on price (again, according to Kelley’s etc.). And then there is the toy-like quality — lots of plastic that didn’t seem to hold up very well.
Then off to a wine tasting of “world cup” wines (i.e. South African) at EVS (European Vine Selections) – picked up a rose method champenoise and an old vine pinotage – both a little more expensive than I prefer, but they were quite good.

It seems that the rest of the day was spent doing car research and wondering if the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.

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Well, with no wheels, no running errands for this boy. Just things around the house. Like things in the garage… Gnarlene is taking a couple of door frame pieces, and about 80 feet of 1×6″ clear fir tongue and grove for his sauna, and I’m building him a sauna door from the slabs of 1″ cedar that I salvaged from the church (first a 3’x11′ banquet table, and now a sauna door – and there are still another half dozen slabs. And yes, that I a ¼ tempered glass window in the door. Sonthing else that was laying around.

Basically it’s 2 ¼” ticket – a sandwich of planks, ¼” plywood, more planks. Air-gun nailed from the rear on one side, screwed from the other (screwed side goes towards the dressing room as you don’t want hot screws on your back. Still need to make some handles for him. That won’t make much of a mess in the garage.

Speaking of garage – found the source of that rotting flesh smell – a rat about 8″ long that maggots were having a great time with. I had to get out the rolling extension table that’s the same height as the table saw – this enables me to make long cuts without anybody else’s help. Shoveling the body up and out in the alley for the cats, and dumped all the cedar trim off on top of the remaining maggots to kill them, something about the cedar oil that is rough on them. And it makes the garage smell much better.

Got the call at 3:30 that the PuddyCat was ready to leave the spa… $750 and three days later. Ouch. Round number $250 to diagnosis erratic warning lights (not worth it to fix unless it gets much worse) and $500 to get the passenger side window working again – would have been more if I’d busted up the mechanicals (part + $1,000). Might be time to look for a new black convertible.

Dinner was leftovers – actually the best solo dinner I’ve had in awhile… the left over salad combined with the leftover chicken. Big, good, and healthy.

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Well, some things moved forward, and some things moved out another day.

Forward? The scissor lift got delivered.

The plan is for a 4’x8′ dining/view platform for behind the deck. By taking off a hundred plus pounds of metal railing, I can keep or increase the load rating (and safety margin). It was truly a bear to get the thing in the back yard – think planks and barrel jacks to get it over the roots of the tree.

And what will the view be?

Needless to say, without railings I wasn’t standing up on the platform. Imagine if I’d got the 26′ or 32′ model. Talk about dizzy. Now I just have to get MoonSong over here to pour a 3’x7′ concrete pad (for added stability and safety).

So that’s what today was, tomorrow is hopefully the PuddyCat back in my garage. They have to order some guide clips for the passenger side window. I wish they’d have attacked both problems simultaneously – I’m going to be really annoyed if I can’t have my car this weekend. The fridge is starting to look really bare.

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Got the Jag into the shop a little after eight and took the bus back to South Park… funny thing is that the driver didn’t know the new route. It made for some VERY interesting detours. Good thing I’m not the only one who didn’t exactly know where the bus was supposed to go. Travel time from the mechanic to the house, 45 minutes, plus 15 minutes standing around waiting for the bus.

After several late afternoon calls, it seems that the puddycat is staying overnight at the spa. They want to recheck some engine codes (they were having computer problems in the morning) and they still hadn’t gotten to the passenger window problem. Should I be looking for a new car?

No scissor lift delivery either. Probably could have had it this afternoon had I a forklift to unload it, but if I had a forklift I’d have just driven over and picked it up, saving me $100. Tomorrow, tomorrow, hopefully tomorrow.

The bright spot in the day was dinner with Jill – tequila, lime roasted chicken with a big salad, and some really nice old 1997 Chiati that she brought over. I bought a present of three lines of linotype with her name and address to use on the letterpress – 18 pt. Vogue is the typestyle.

Oh, and there is Murphy as well – that would be Jill’s new puppy, a 5-month old mix of who knows what. A rescue dog from Yakima – and it is the calmest puppy I’ve ever seen. Maybe it was the long walk they took. It will be interesting to see how big he grows to be – his head is already massive.

I’m the one on the right.

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Now that everything is back open after the holiday weekend it’s time to deal with all the niggling details that have piled up over the last couple of days:

• Figure out PayPal address for the place I bought the scissor lift from
• Find out delivery cost or maybe I should just drive it home at 2.5 miles an hour
• Call Car Tender and get the Jag in to figure out erratic dashboard warning lights and fix passenger side window which now refuses to go beyond half mast
• Get with Fluffernutter to hand-off religious items for Canada and figure out when he’s arriving Vancouver later this month so I know if I’m on a one-day or two day trip
• Figure out who to invite to dinner for the chicken that’s thawing
• Figure out what night between now and the 16th that Councilman Curt and Peace Corp bound Dave can come to dinner.

And the answers are basically, it should all become clear TOMORROW. Delivery is $100 and they should be able to do tomorrow, car can go into the shop tomorrow, a two-night trip, Jill for chicken, and Dave will let me know… tomorrow.

Continued cleaning out the refrigerator the slow way… eating my way through it. That meant salad and a mix of the black-eyed peas and collard greens for dinner.

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I don’t know what got into me today (or yesterday) with all the cooking. Today it was all afternoon in the kitchen working on boiling down a ham hock to go with the black eyed peas to go with the collard greens with bacon that Darcie and Jeanne are brining to go with the last two Portobello stuffed with lamb. But the most ambitious project was to take the 2# of bing cherries I got, but then still hadn’t eaten, and turn them into little tart size pies. It yielded six of them, here are the left overs – guess that will be for tomorrow, or I’ll randomly drop them off with friends. Check that mailbox!

What amazed me was the crust actually came out flakey without being refrigerated overnight. Guess what they say about butter from the freezer and ice water really does work – only took an hour in the fridge/freezer to get the dough to settle down.

Dinner was al fresco which I was not expecting when I got up this morning to grey skies and drizzle. Amazing what a few hours makes.

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I spent the Fourth mostly by myself… with an hour or two with Swanda desperately trying to get more HDTV channels to come in… a failure. As the all the big 4^th of July celebrations, my dislike of crowds, and crappy weather (65 degrees and drizzle) are keeping in inside.

So, the recipe for tonight. Lamb stuffed Portobello mushrooms.

• 1# ground lamb
• 1 egg
• Black pepper, red pepper, salt, garlic, dried onion, dried parmesan to taste
• Chopped fresh basil (optional)
• 4 Portobello mushroom caps, stem and gills removed

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for convection ovens)

Mix all the ingredients except the mushroom in a bowl. Refrigerate for half an hour to bind.

Brush or spray olive oil on cleaned mushroom caps (both sides).

Stuff caps to desired height depending on number of caps.

Place on oiled baking dish and cook for 20-30 minutes (15-20 for convection ovens)

Variation: broil on low for 5 minutes after adding fresh or dried parmesan to top of lamb.

It came out OK – need to work on the recipe, but it’s basically a non-tomato meatloaf stuffed into a portabello.

As usual, rockets red glare here in South Park – being the “sliver by the river” that is county owned, VERY different rules about fireworks.

Walking around the neighborhood after dinner – if you didn’t know it was the 4^th of July, or have PTSD or dogs, it’s like Iraq/Iran in the middle of a firefight. At least in South Park people are dragging wheeled coolers around with them filled with a semi-flammable substance known as alcohol. For a blue-collar neighborhood, I think they blew their fun money on this.

The photo bar:

A small sample. It’s hard to walk, drink, and shoot at the same time.

Oh – Swanda – Macy’s music sucked. Seattle better.

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I got out of Olympia in time for Car Talk – that makes it a little after 11am.

Lunch, read the WSJ, nap. Wake and start projects.

Projects:

Finish retro Skype phone installation… the five line (6-button) wall phone for the office:

And the 9-line (13-button) for the living room:

And the yet unwired phones for the bedroom:

I still haven’t gotten the speakerphone set working, but I think I’ll try and get some help from the telephone museum that is in Georgetown (the neighborhood just to the north of me).

If you want to call me on Skype – that would be from your computer – my user name is markstephensouder. And the phones do actually try and ring, though not as loud as a real phone. And you can leave voicemail as well!

And I finished running the wire (i.e. hiding the wire) for the new antenna, which in theory is pointable, but the motor seems to be unreliable, but on the positive side, it doesn’t seem to make any difference which way it’s pointed.

A quiet dinner at home of leftover salad, leftovers roasted potatoes, a slice of ham, and a couple of glasses of wine.

Tomorrow? No clue of what I’m doing for our nation’s birthday.

[225.6]

Does the stream of entertaining never end?

Out of the house at noon to run and install a different HDTV antenna at Swandas… out of there at 1:15 – apparently too late on a Friday afternoon that includes the 4^th of July to not get stuck in traffic. Travel time to Olympia was 1.5 hours rather than just 1 hour. It’s been worse, much worse – I think the record was 3 hours one Friday night when I was still working at Microsoft.

I had extra time before dinner prep to swing by the Archibald Sisters – an oddity shop in downtown Oly. The mission? Locate car air fresheners for all the poker buddies.

The reason for this odd purchase was that the poker boys that went to the Olympics in February saw one hanging in the car Ross parked next too at the Park and Ride outside Burnaby.

It did provide a laugh for the boys.

Dinner crew: Curt, Brandon, Rich, myself

Dinner menu: two pork loins in a Chicago style red bell pepper marinade, challah left over from last night, salad made from the last two nights salads, and a thin sliver of Maria’s blueberry roll (yet another leftover) for dessert.

Poker went OK – don’t think I’m really up or down much, which is better than losing money.

Yet another late evening. You’d think I’d learn. I’ve got to find a new client, this lifestyle may be the death of me.

Back home tomorrow.

[223.9]

I like my own bed. That said – the bed, well, I’ll have to try out Swanda’s new bed and compare.

If there was ever a moment of saying, I’m glad I don’t have clients at the moment, this would be one of them. Oy. I have spent all day dealing with “stuff”. Like assembling an roof mounted HDTV antenna that is huge, but came out of a box that was 4″x8″x16″, dinner for three – steaks, salad, bread from me, dessert from Maria (who I have never met) and bidding on scissor lifts on EBay.

The bottom line is that:

1. The antenna is up, but the motor is flaky, but provides the same amount of channels as the old one so I can sell it
2. The dinner was stunning – steaks that this nice Swedish woman said were 1.5 times her hand (Graf – I need that photo!) and a dessert that was out of this world — a rolled thing with new england blueberries and a cake like thing.
3. Oh, and that scissor lift that I bought in the middle of dinner on EBay…

Think, dining al fresco at 20′ in the sky. I wanted the 32′, but I got this one for round numbers $1200. All the 32′ ones were going for close to 3K – if I don’t like it, it will be an easy sell on craigslist once it’s pimped out with new paint. Like I need another project.

Dinner stunning. Dessert better. Fresh raspberries, must water then so they keep producing.

Tomorrow Olympia.

[222.5]

Got out of the house by 9:30… a little later than expected. Stopped in Vancouver for breakfast/groceries/gas at Safeway and made it home by 12:30. Not too bad a drive time.

Just enough time for a nap before starting on a 2# batch of bread – half the dough for sausage buns, half the dough as a round loaf, for tonight’s Bridge RIP party.

Guest List:

• Jill
• Wonderful
• Swanda
• John and Joan
• Darcie and Jeanne
• Peg and Ron
• Jim and Suzanne
• Postman Jesse, now FedEx Jesse
• Jeff

The Menu:

• Smoked salmon and cracker appetizer (me)
• Salad with goat cheese and cranberries (Darcie and Jean)
• TOMATO, MOZZERELLA, CUCUMBER SALAD (SWANDA)
• Snow peas and mushroom side dish (Jim and Suzanne)
• Parboiled and roasted red potato skewers (John and Joan)
• Shrimp scampi and honey jalapeño shrimp (me)
• Country style boneless pork ribs in Arthur Bryant (me)
• Assorted sausages (me)
• Buns/bread (me)
• Fresh raspberries (from the bush, help yourself)

The Pictures:

Thanks Joan for the pictures of the party at the bridge which I missed because I was hosting. I’d have loved to hear the bagpipers.

[225.6]

Must get new client. Must stop hanging out with bartenders and other night owls.

Noon finds Julian and I at the Produce Row Cafe — a once seedy neighborhood (produce district — i.e. trucks, warehouses, etc) bar.eatery that got pimped out a couple of years ago. Luckily the food is still as good as ever.

A couple of junk shopping stops — Sally Ann and Hippo Hardware that yield nothing, and then it’s home for a hap for me, and preparing ESL lessons for Julian. He volunteers in Gresham to help immigrants assimilate. Don’t say that after a couple of drinks.

While Julian is teaching, I’m having dinner with Jamshed… a dear Sufi Sheik friend of mine at Fishwife, halfway between Juilian and Jamsheds (the J boys). We both thought it was great — Yelp reviews were all over the board. Go figure.

Back at the house after dinner (and Julian’s return from ESL land) it’s drinking wine while he cooks tacos for dinner (smelled great, the left over slaw as a compliment), and then talking frequent flyer mile stuff.

He’s half way to Delta Elite status — he didn’t know about free upgrades, free bags, all that stuff, and by the end of the evening I’ve booked him to Mexico City via Atlanta, and he gets to overnight with dad (in Atlanta), earn 14,000 frequent flier miles (plus the 14,00 he has — Elite!) for a whopping $380.17. It will be good for him.

Honest.

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Curt spent the night, so it was a slow morning. Or maybe it was a slow morning because off the hoopla last night. I’m guessing the later.

Out of bed at 10, breakfast for both of us at 11, out of the house a little after 1 headed, first to the apartment, then to Portland.

Why Portland. Julian and Jamshed. Haven’t seen Julian in awhile, and want to see Jamshed while I can, he is in Portland trying to regain his health which was going downhill at Breitenbush.

Arrived a little after 4pm, before Julian got off work, did a little shopping at Fred Meyer (black jeans and allergy pills) and did a little reading to kill the time.

Boring entry today — I’m even bored by it.

Eat steak and cole slaw (the slaw we forgot to make and eat last night), drank into the night. Went to bed.

Like I said, boring except that the conversation wasn’t.

[224.2]

It feels like I’ve spent all day in front of the computer – hoping that Curt’s flights actually come in so we can have dinner here at the house.

In the meantime, finished the rework of my website: http://www.studio403.com

Well, it’s as done as it’s going to get for now – at least the branding matches the branding on my new business cards (look for one if you receive a clipping from me) that are a combination of 4-color (one side) and letterpress (the other side).

And while cleaning off the desk, here are two photos that came yesterday from my visit to Steve, who hopefully will get out on parole at his hearing next month. That was the Yellowstone trip.

And I found this drawing of his from several years ago to compliment this post.

Curt made it in about 7:45pm –when I pulled United flight schedule LAX to Seattle – only THREE direct flights, all in puddle jumpers. No wonder Alaska has half the United North Satellite. By the time he got to the house, the dinner party was in full swing – what was originally dinner for two somehow turned into dinner for five. Mixed grill, shrimp, stuffed chicken breasts, roasted potatoes and bread – and somehow we forgot the make the cole slaw – blame it on the margaritas.

Late night for me (and everyone else).

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