UMTravels

Happy 46^th birthday to Fluffernutter… he still only looks 30, the bastard.

It was a nice little party – met a bunch of faeries who knew me by reputation (hopefully bad) but that I’d never met. A couple of hotties that might be worth perusing – might be nice to have something that didn’t require a round-trip airfare and car rental. Got their at five, and the last of us were thrown out at eleven so Fluffernutter and TinTin could reconnect after Fluffer’s 5 day work trip to Canadaland. I was surprise to not see Swanda at the gig – but his neighborhood was pretty well shut down along with the viaduct for some “fun run”. Fun for the runners, not so fun for anyone driving anywhere near downtown. Add the Georgetown Art Fair, and a multiple street/block party on Capitol Hill for Gay Pride weekend and you have a traffic mess. Needless to say, I took the back way to Fluffer’s place.

That was most of my day… spent the time before the party working on the new Studio 403 website – I’ll send the link when it’s done, hopefully tomorrow. And speaking of client related stuff, should I ever go back to work for the client I fired, we’ve agreed that it was be a win-win situation to just put me on the payroll at part-time (meaning no extra benefits) at a 15% reduction since he’ll have to pay payroll taxes for me. I have to pay the tax no matter what, and it would get me the two-week billing cycle I require. Time will tell. Miss the money, not the work so much.

Other than that – bubkes.

[221.1]

After a snippy “customer feedback” email to Metro, now there are maps posted on their site as to what is going to happen about the three bus lines that come through South Park. Salamander, this is for you:

I got some work done on the Studio 403 website – not enough, but I found the major elements, checks are in the mail, old clients emailing to make peace, not a bad day.

Dinner with Swanda tonight: chicken spetzle (was supposed to be noodles, but they didn’t quite turn out) soup with vegetables and some sour cream, a little white wine (OK, a bottle, but there were two of us), and conversation.

Post dinner back to the house to look/plan where the pad for the scissor lift will go.

No rest for the wicked.

[226.1]

The big event today was re-working my resume – last date on it was 2008. It must mean that I’m getting serious about finding more work. Of course, the “job” that the resume and cover letter are for doesn’t pay. What is this thing? A seat on the Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee.

I guess I should be looking for something that does pay. And I need to get the web-site updated, guess that will be tomorrow’s chore.

Today’s pictures are related to yesterday’s post about the bridge closing next Wednesday – as you can see the county has come and boarded up some of the building they own that are in the path of the new bridge should they ever find the money for it:

Looks like a total of four buildings are being boarded up – all I can see is “giant graffiti magnet”.

And while we are on the topic of pictures, ever wonder what the view from my roof was like?

Why was I up there? To see what the view would be if I got a 19′ scissor lift for the back yard to mount a 2-top (two person dining table) on – turns out I’m going to need the 32′ lift if I want to get the view across the Duwamish River that I’m looking for.

Just a chef’s salad for dinner tonight – trying to get rid of that big hunk of ham I defrosted – add some boiled eggs, a little lettuce, some dressing.

[224.8]

Just another boring day around the house – posts that annoy Ray enough that he just doesn’t read the blog anymore.

• Errands
• Lawn mowing
• Making maps and party invitations
• Eating
• Drinking
• Making merry with the neighbors.

The party invite (click on the image for the full size version):

[224.0]

Nice to be back in my own bed. And to sleep in until whenever (9:15 this morning).

A couple of client issues in the morning, cleaning out all the clippings from the trip and getting those in the mail, picking up the dry cleaning, dropping magazines at Wonderful’s place, packages at the apartment, Safeway for groceries and gas, trying to ignore the fact that the lawn really needs to be mowed and it’s a sunny day.

In the three packages were two phones and two bottles of wine from Bonny Doon – one a Method Champenoise from a Reisling grape. Yes, more phones:

One 5- line black wall phone and one 10-line, both picked up for less than the shipping was – and the 10-line came wrapped in liquid absorbing packing not unlike adult diapers – luckily not previously used. The black one was NOS (new old stock), never used, and has all it documentation, key labels, the works. Getting a little closer to my Skype Speaker Phone up and running.

Dinner tonight with DancingBear and Swanda – al fresco – finally the weather is cooperating. Talapia stuffed with lobster and crab, a big salad (missing my greens from the great white north trip), bread as rolls, and the champagne from today’s shipment.

Yum.

[225.4]

Up at 7am with a wake up call. Showered and on the road half an hour later.

Feeling more sluggish this morning than any other of the drive days. I had to even pull over and take a power nap at one point. Maybe I should have saved the $110 ($13.75 an hour, but they didn’t charge that way – but compared to the $6.25 an hour for my Yellowknife room because of early check-in)

Got to the Edmonton International Airport a couple of minutes after one, delayed by that nap, and a nasty accident on Hwy 16 west of Edmonton… good thing I had my GPS unit with me otherwise I would have been seriously lost with only a map that covered Alaska and Northwest Canada… and end right about were Edmonton is.

The car was covered in dead bugs, and had over 2300 kilometers of miles from my trip… total bill for the three day rental? $67 Canadian. I spent more than twice that much on gas. For as anal as they were at check-out about car condition, he didn’t give it a second look – maybe it was looking better than all the marks on the check-out sheet made it appear.

With a flight at 6pm – needless to say, I was a tad early. And after waiting around eating, drinking, reading – the plane which had been on-time all day, suddenly was 15 minutes late (still time to make our dinner reservation at the Thirteen Coins by the airport), then 30 minutes, then 60 minutes, then 90 minutes, then back to 60… why all this juggling? The airport was under Red Alert – NO ground movement, which meant our inbound flight was feet from the gate, and that’s where it, and four other planes in similar states stayed for those 90+ minutes. Suddenly being stuck in a terminal with bars, bathrooms, Starbucks, duty-free, didn’t look too bad.

Lightning strikes in the area is what caused the Red Alert – not surprising considering all the lightning and thunder that I say on yesterday’s drive. And I forgot to mention in yesterday’s report of the double rainbows, quads if you count two on each side and blank in the middle of the clouds that were also part of yesterday’s drive.

After the bar closed at 5:30 (ours was the last flight out of the International Terminal), we were down to the Starbucks, which luckily stayed open to provide people with coffee and pastries – personally I wish they’d had something more savory as I’m not a big sweets fan, but the Apple Fritter went down OK. At the hour mark past due, I went back to the Starbuck and grabbed an orange juice… and then went to the loo to dump some of the duty-free vodka I’d bought into the top of it – make lemonade out of lemons they say, or in this case, screwdrivers out of duty free.

Finally arrived in Seattle at 8:30 – Swanda at the ready to pick me up after a little miscommunication and take me back to my place. But at that point it’s almost his bedtime, so cocktails are on my own, with a grilled sandwich for company and sustenance.

Early to bed for me as well.

[? ? ?]

The only thing keeping me from totally sleeping in this morning is the 11am check out time. My plan of finding brunch (on Father’s Day) downtown, melted away with the rain that started at 9.

Solution? Wait until the last minute, check out, take the shuttle to the airport — so much for exploring Old Town.

Much better lobby shots this morning:

At the airport at noon for an amazing Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich and fries — I should have had that for dinner last night rather than the ribs. Hotel ribs versus airport food — and fresh-made airport food wins.

A couple of hours of wandering around the airport while it rained… and then it stopped. Which is good, because I only have one more New Yorker to finish.

With the rain stopped, I take the hike to the Buffalo Air terminal — they used to board at the main airport, but security after 9-11 got beefed up, and the barrier between secure, and less-secure got complicated with lost airside passes and lots of hassles. Who is going to blow up a DC-3.

So with that, the picture bar (maybe that phrase will pass spell check):

And here are my favorite pictures from today — me at 6500 feet in the co-pilot seat of a DC-3 with a hottie at the controls. Co-pilot a DC-3, get a T-Shirt and a pin? Got both. Didn’t get the pilot. He’s the young guy in the photo bar — but here is me in the cockpit:

What were they thinking — 6500 feet over Great Slave Lake! With a Orange juice and whiskey in my glass.

Tonight — the Mauve Palace, a.k.a. the Western Budget Motel in Peace River Alberta where the desk clerk at 11:30pm knows Joe of Buffalo Air, but still only gives me the corporate rate — and only kitchen units are available, good thing I found a 20CAN bill on the island when I refueled at the station I’d refused to use on the way up to Hay River, and worried about for the next two+ hours when I was running short of gas. Huge place… could roller skate. Kitchen, dishes … found the real glassware. $105 — way more than I wanted to pay, but I need to break up a 12 hour drive.

TV, internet, cocktails, maybe some sleep if I finish this post.

[? ? ?] But with road food, god help me.

I didn’t have to worry about oversleeping for my 8am flight — I woke up every hour freezing in the rental car and had to run the engine for a few minutes to get the chill off.

Eighteen out of thirty two seats filled, and a massive wall of freight on the other side where the other two seats in a four seat row with center aisle. Four armed cops on board, on holiday, not for security, which was non-existent since it was a flight between non-secured terminals.

I haven’t been able to preview the video on my crappy netbook (NOT travelling with this one ever again), but here is my walk from the terminal to my seat on the plane:

There is another short video of the engine spinning up (I was seated right over the wing), and of my exit from the DC-3 in Yellowknife on YouTube if you poke around user: markstephensouder.

When we got to Yellowknife, I discovered that they have at least half a dozen working DC-3’s still in service (not including those parked at Hay River to looked like they were mostly for parts).

I might have to buy a t-shirt, but the sign on the store at their terminal in Yellowknife said M-F 8-5. Apparently they have done a IceRoad style documentary about their IceAir Deliveries — the DC-3 doesn’t need a traditional runway, just some flat clear ground (or packed snow).

Lunch at the French Bistro called Le Frolic. Mimosa and Eggs Benedict since it was the Saturday brunch menu. The dinner menu looked interesting, but not sure I’m ready to spend the $75 or so that a delightful meal of  what looks like high-end, local ingredient French cooking.

Hit a shop for post cards for Steve and SwandaMom — I picked up stamps yesterday at a gas stop that had a post office. Add two thrift stores — yes, even here, loading videos on YouTube while I had a much needed warm nap, and that was my afternoon.

Dinner tonight at the restaurant here in the hotel (Chateau Nova and Suites) at Papa Jim’s Roadhouse on the third floor. Guessing that it won’t be as nice… but I’ve already dropped $150 on this hotel. At least this one I got for over 24 hours since I was able to check in at 10:30 — and that shower shortly after was definitely needed.

Speaking of the hotel, it’s built into the side of a hill:

The flight tomorrow doesn’t leave until 4:30, which is a little troublesome since the shuttle is at 1:15 and 3:50, which means the 3:50 would be cutting it close to get checked in… and 1:15 is REALLY early, though I could wander around and take pictures of old planes.

It’s going to be an early night for me.

[? ? ?]

Up at 7. At the airport at 8. Left the gate at 10am. Destination: Edmonton.

Did a little napping next to some cute guy — probably on his way to the oil fields. And after last night, I needed the extra rest.

Rental car for today: Budget — but WOW, they must get burned alot on their rentals. $300 pre-charge, refundable, $20 gas-refill, refundable. Wait until they get it back from 2500 more kilometers — good thing it unlimited mileage.

Out of the airport at 1:15pm, after a 15 minute delay getting my car ready — it was ready, they just didn’t want to upgrade me from my compact since they didn’t have any… I don’t think the all-wheel-drive Nisson Rogue is really considered a compact. And I’m guessing they are really anal about damage, so I went back to the desk with more scratchs and dings, expecially on the windshield.

Get in car. drive north by northwest, for many many hours.

Arrived in Hay River with 1/4 tank of gas left and actually found a 24-hour gas station — the first station in several hundred miles. When did I arrive? 12:45am… luckily we are in the great white north that at this time of the year is the great light north… look at this shot of the plane I’m taking tomorrow:

That’s right — well after midnight and the sky is still blue. It didn’t ever really get dark — I know this because I slept in the rental car, not wanting to pay $150 for 6 hours of motel time. Life ain’t cheap up here.

Another early morning tomorrow.

[? ? ?]

Short post — out of time before trying to get out of town (again).

Dinner.

Steaks, salad,  bread, wine.

Many drinks. Much hot tub. Bad packing for tomorrows trip.

Photo bar form last nights dinner:

Much fun.

[225.1]

Got out of the condo a little after ten — a little earlier than I’d planned, but I have to get back to the city so I can send off a logo file. The joys of supporting old clients.

Before I go on, here is a little humor that I found listening to the CBC on the way home:

That would be Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame. At a little over 4 minutes, this is truly a funny fake trailer.

And filed under telecommuications crows… a nest across from the condo:

Crows in the city… nesting on a cell repeater panel.

Dinner tonight was with Johnny (who made all my dishes), Jimmy and Suze, for Cornish game hens stuffed with oranges and dusted with Chinese Five Spice then baked. Jimmy brought salad fixing and wine, I made a loaf of bread, all was good.

[? ? ?]

Had a little time with Devon and Maggie before hitting the road for Canadaland a little after noon.

Twenty-five minute wait at the truck crossing for non-Nexus members, no wait at all for those of us with Nexus cards. Picked up a bottle of Knob Creek ($21 a liter) for cocktails tonight, though I’m sure it will only be myself and BamBam drinking the hard stuff – Helene is bringing wine, Hummingbird, dessert.

After the border, it was off to a different Safeway – my old stand-by has been closed for a new condo development. It turns out that this one is even more convenient as its just off Oak on King Edward, which then I can take to Granville. No provincial liquor store in the parking lot, but a private one.

Dinner tonight? Wild salmon steaks with herbed butter, a big salad, a loaf of bread (with crackers and spread for appetizers). There were only three steaks in the display case, so the butcher cut me four fresh ones.

Here is a shot from the condo before Helene arrived:

That would be BamBam on the left, and Hummingbird on the right.

A lovely evening all around.

[226.6]

Don’t know why I was so tired today… but really, TWO naps? One before the errand run and one after. Maybe I’m tried to rest up for my 24 hours of driving later this week when I head to the Northwest Territories… but first I have to pack for Vancouver and dinner with Helene and the boys tomorrow. Not much to pack considering it’s just one night:

• GPS (to see if they have Canada on it’s chip)
• WorldMark bag with napkins, oil, basalmic, spices
• Bag with butter and Diet Coke
• Overnight bag with tiny laptop and a change of clothes

Even a boring dinner… exactly the same as last night.

No wonder I don’t spend much time at home.

[226.4]

After the drama of last night, stayed in bed until 10am when I know coffee would be waiting for me.

Bloody Mary’s and breakfast eventually made it to the table between reruns of Soap courtesy of NetFlix downloads. Odd system, that, to have in the woods. But no matter.

After breakfast is was the tour of Pacific Beach, Moclips and this odd new town of SeaBrook which I renamed FauxBrook since it looked like the wicked witch had popped an upscale modern Cape Cod beach town on the bluffs of the Pacific. Very odd indeed.

Got my postcards, wrote my postcards, mailed my postcards.

On the way back to the city in the HMS Rich, stopped at the Dog House:

I must say that I wasn’t as impressed as I was the last time. Maybe because he was slow, AND forgot the sauerkraut that I paid extra for — but when you are a mile down the road it isn’t worth turning back. Wondering if they have changed ownership. One more chance is what they get.

In comparison, the quiet dinner at home of a smoked pork chop and salad was wonderful.

[? ? ?]

Today’s adventure takes Uncle Markie to Peyton Place, oh, I mean Pacific Beach, Washington.

Got out of town around 10, to Olympia around 11, and off to the coast around 12 after a last minute shopping excursion.

The HMS Rich was loaded with chairs, Curt, myself and Rich. We really should pitch in and get him a nice six-door model.

Hung out with the neighbors most of the afternoon until it was time to fix dinner — a leg of lamb, roasted potatoes and onions, rosemary bread, wine… and for dessert, a 50+ year old bottle of Madeira that I’d been dragging around for 20 years of so. It was amazingly good for being so cloudy.

And why do I call our destination Peyton Place… seems to be a lot of partner swapping going on out here in the woods next to the beach, and sexuality swapping as well. It was definately a Saturday Night around the campfire.

One gentleman was so out of control he had to be escorted back to town. Luckily Rich and I had passed on Karaoke at the local bar favored by all the local and non-local color and got him back to town safely. He was a local, most of the other revelers were Tacomans, Olympians — sheriffs deputies, firefighters, random lesbians.

Just another quiet night in small town USA.

[224.2]

Checked out a little after 9 and headed back to Kahului to top off the tank and check out Costco for Hawaiian shirts, which I found a couple of them at $13.95 each… finally.

Hawaiian airports were never designed for post-911 security, so it is always a cluster-f#@k to check-in and get through security — made worse by the guys manning my line who rescanned my bag three times, each time taking more and more of the electronics out to get it to pass. Now you know why I always arrive at the airport two hours early.

Today’s photo is an interesting airplane on the tarmac — inter-island cargo I’m guessing, and old as sin, but still operating.

If you look closely you can see that the windows have been tinned over. Any clue the make and model (colonels?)

Lunch/Dinner on the flight home was damn fine… and it was plane food. Lamb-chop (actually medium rare!) with a port mushroom sauce with scallop potatoes and a chef’s salad to start.

Funny thing is that it almost the exact meal I made for myself last night.

Except mine was a shrimp Caesar salad rather than a Chef’s salad.

Got in a little after 9pm and was home a little before 10pm, and in bed a little after 11pm for tomorrow I head to the coast with the poker boys.

[? ? ?]

The list…

• Kmart for Hawaiian Shirts
• Maybe Costco, too (all my Hawaiian shirts were tattered and I’ve left them behind over the years)
• Discount Fabric Warehouse (multiple coupons)
• Haleakala National Park ($10 entrance, but I have “the card”… with Yellowstone at $25 and Craters of the Moon at $8, so far, recovered $43 out of the $80 fee). Oddly enough with my many trips to Maui, haven’t done this park yet. So much for laying out in the sun on this trip.
• Surfing Goat Dairy
• Home (well, to the condo).

This is not the day for someone who easily gets car sick – hair-pin after hair-pin turn.

This wasn’t taken at the top (click on the scroller bar at the end of the post for other pictures (like my improvised cooler – water frozen into the bottom of a sealable Pyrex bowl). Height at the top: 10,023 feet. It reminded me of Craters of the Moon which I visited on the Yellowstone trip, just add another 6,000 feet in altitude. One interesting fact I learned from the ranger manning the gift shop cash register… 80% of the entrance fee from my “park pass” stays in the park ($8 of the $10 entrance fee) – the other 20% goes to parks that don’t have entrance fees.

Once I was off the mountain, it was time for a little road-side lunch of shrimp stuffed avocados and onion tako poke. All kept on ice in the truck.

After the mountain it was off to the Goat Dairy. I arrived right at the moment a tour was about to become ready. $7.00, plus more if you wanted a bag of hay to feed the young kids (the goats, not the children on the tour. I’m not sure how much the hay cost – I’d rather BBQ the goat than feed it.

And the cheeses aren’t cheap…. $12-16 for an 8 ounce jar in oil. Ouch. Of course they do have one with 23K gold flakes in it for a 2 ounce jar… at least that one comes with a basket and a shark’s tooth necklace.

Tasty – but not as tasty (or as cheap) and our cheese man from Eastern Washington (http://quillisascut.com/) who occasionally comes to town with extra cheese that doesn’t get sold to Rover’s and that class of restaurant.

After a fruitless trip to WalMart (desperation)for aloha shirts, it was back to the fabric store… they have some really GREAT patterns and some good deals. Check out this one:

My thought was just make Hawaiian shirts to replace my dead ones since I couldn’t find any decent (and cheap) ones on my visit here. I even found a Aloha Shirt pattern – for a 2XL that would mean 3 yards of fabric ($5-7 a yard on sale, so that would be $15-21 a shirt – and I’d have to deal with the buttons). The flip side of that is that I haven’t sewn a shirt since I was a teenager, and the pain is still fresh. Maybe I’ll get to Costco on the way to the airport.

Got back to the condo a little after 3pm to do a little clean up, a little email, and a little mindless web-surfing.

Leg of lamb was the dinner tonight, along with a salad with some more of the bay shrimp, and the other half of the bottle of 2009 Budini Malbec (Mendoza region of Argentina).

Tomorrow’s flight is a reasonable 12:35 so that’s out of the condo 10ish after a breakfast very much like this mornings… 3 eggs sunny side up, bacon, toast, coffee. I guess that would 9:30ish if I want to stop by Costco so see if I can get some shirts. I did pick up Man Calendars at the ABC store across the street from the condo when I went for butter (and on-sale bacon) last night.

Wish I’d booked another day (or two) and skipped the Washington Coast on Saturday – but I did promise to go.

Oh, and here is the promised scroller bar:

[? ? ?]

Up at 5:30, by 6:30am I’m in the Board Room after parking at the airport – early flight out, late return flight on Friday. Got onto the island a little after 11am… and a long walk to the rental car counter – had I known I would have taken the “group” door which would have cut the walk in half. Live and learn.

Here is the room:

After the early morning, it was nap time – conked out for an hour!

Next up… hunt for the third thrift store of the day. The Sally Ann. Of the ones near the airport, couldn’t find one, and the other was sparse, but the Sally Ann in Kihea was stocked to the hilt – with nothing I was looking for. I’ve never seen twenty matching toasters at one store… I guess it’s not surprising since this is “time-share land”.

Booze and groceries next – one stop shopping at Safeway after a quick trip to Hilo Hattie to look at their sale rack, which isn’t much of a sale price – tomorrow off to Kmart where the real deals are.

Stopped by the front desk to pick up my parking pass, and get the pitch for taking “owner re-education” for $50 or 1000 Bonus Credits… the $50 is the better deal, but it isn’t enough to get me to waste an hour of my limited hours in Hawaii.

The menu for tonight… 50% off Mahi Mahi, Avacado halves stuffed with shrimp, salad, Malbec.

So – now for the side news.

This is the hotel I was planning on staying in a week from Saturday on my Canadian DC-3 adventure…

Looks like I need another place to stay – according to a call from the hotel left on my voicemail. I’ll see if they can get me a preferred rate at another hotel with a free airport shuttle (and free wireless). Meanwhile it looks as if I be staying at the Chateau Nova. Click here for the full story.

The other call today… Devon. I screwed up. I double booked. Tuesday I’m supposed to be in Vancouver for a dinner party at The Canadian… luckily he still has Thursday available.

[? ? ?]

If I wasn’t sore and beat up from yesterday’s construction projects, moving half a yard of crushed gravel didn’t help.

And in a humorous act of nature – here is a close-up of a couple of larger chunks of gravel that rolled off the pile…

I kid you not, that’s how they landed. Now I just have to enlist MoonSong to help distribute it. Too bad there wasn’t much maneuvering room for the truck to drop a nice clean line. So little room that there was 6″ on either side of the truck mirrors coming down the alley.

A quiet dinner with Swanda tonight… salmon, steamed green beans, salad, the news.

And we close with a song… My Bags Are Packed, I’m Ready to Go (Momma and the Pappas).

[224.4]

It’s a good thing I don’t have any major clients at the moment – with the list of projects still needing to be done around the house.

Today’s project:

Using the bamboo flooring from the old trap door lid to finish the rest of the laundry room floor and add a drain (the black square in the first photo). I didn’t have quite enough to finish it to the wall but that will be behind the washer/dryer combo.. and the edges got caulked and sealed in several coats of varathane so should it leak it will head straight to the drain instead of sitting there and start the molding process.

And while I was at it I made a top for the washer/dryer combo that holds the icemaker, blender, and chopping blocks – the bar is moving in here from the kitchen counter. It really opens up the kitchen counter, and the cabinet above is big enough for all the glassware and bottles unlike the previous location.

Dinner was supposed to be with Swanda but was postponed due to crankiness (his, not mine). We are on for tomorrow, so it was just a baked potato and Kobe-style steak for me, rather than salmon and green beans.

[226.5]