Fixing the fan in the bathroom (which really means plowing into the bathroom wall to add a switch for the fan separate from the light switch and adding GFI outlet – talk about project creep – might farm that one out to MoonSong since I hate working up in all that loose insulation.
Designing the wine cellar since summer (and the heat of summer) is coming up. Under the trap door would be the naturally coolest place in the house – hell I could even up in a small air conditioner.
Finished the shimming of the trap door, guess that goes with the design above.
And the projects I did get to day:
Preparing the back yard alley area for 4 cubic yards of driveway rock.
The brown stuff is weed-block – looks like I’ll need a minimum of 3 yards of driveway gravel, probably more like 4.
Dinner tonight is not al fresco… one sunny day and the rain and drizzle has returned. It’s just me, a steak, some spinach and maybe a little wine for the heart.
Started the day late by laying in bed… it was good until I went to find the Wall Street Journal which was gone. 🙁
Still working through the list of chores – got the locks rekeyed to just one for dead-bolts, door handles, and garage handles. MoonSong has a key, and I have one waiting for Johnny for his occasional visits. Everybody else gets to do the word-combination locks on the fence gates and then the key-box by the back door.
Got a little further in the trap-door project by cutting down the size of the spacers to get a door totally even with the floor… one more tweet tomorrow and it should be finished. Now I just need a rug to put over it – yes, all that work soon to be covered up.
Michael and Dancing Bear showed up at about 5 to start working on re-systemizing Michael’s Acer Netbook… Mick didn’t have an external DVD drive, and I had one for exactly the same reason – to work on my Acer which is currently the web-surfing computer for the living room. Swanda showed up early from his play-date that he might have described as so “vanilla” that it was probably “imitation vanilla”.
As you can see from the photo – Al Fresco Dining Season has started…
Items of note:
Gin and tonic in hand
Wine ready to go for dinner
Small HDTV showing the ABC news
BBQ plugged in and coals starting to glow
Fresh bread in the warming oven
A couple of pork loins, baked potatoes, salad, couple of bottles of wine and much laughter.
Lots of odd things going on today. I got the house rewired with Skype phones in the kitchen, living room and office. In the process, compared the guts of my two pay phones:
The one from the Montana trip has a serious computer inside that doesn’t lend itself to easy rewiring for home use, assuming I can find a power supply to see if it’s functioning – and even then I think l’ll still have to retrofit some parts out of a regular one-line phone – hence the recent “jones” for acquiring old phones, in this case for parts.
And now onto shoes – I ordered a couple of pairs today from Converse. Just call me Imelda (as in Marcos):
I think it was getting all those links yesterday that led to the shoe binge, that and a comment from a prospective client whom I had sent a “thimble” resume:
Wow very impressive. Once the current avalanche of clients slows down or at least gets under control, I would love to talk about what we might do together.
We do need some help in that area ?
And as to the Old Fashions… if it’s Friday, Mick must be coming to dinner, which means setting up the bar to look like this:
The dinner was a mixed grill (lamb chops, beef tenderloin and rib-eye), roasted potatoes and onions, fresh bread, and a salad that we didn’t even touch.
I don’t know what got me charged up today but it should happen more often.
After the morning taking care of the few work details it was off to the Eastside to deposit a couple of checks (one WEEKS late), groceries, Lowes for drill bits, the apartment to drop off magazines and a photo for Joy who works in the office. She had inquired about my shoe fetish (sort of like my phone fetish).
With the exception of the pair in the middle of the top row, they are all custom Vans. The clown shoes are Converse. The links take you to their custom shoemaking site. I should really get a commission of all the plugs I give these guys. I understand that Nike does the same thing, but haven’t tried them yet.
After all the running around it was home to plant the basil and the assorted herbs on the deck which got me looking at the lawn which was time to mow, starting with the alley which I went all the way down two neighbors away (electric – good thing I have a lot of extension cords) to take care of blackberries growing into the alley. I love a good run-on sentence.
Had to rest for a bit (well, I put another coat of Varathane on the trap door) before attacking the rest of the lawn and staking down some more weed-proof cloth in front of the garage for the hopefully soon delivery of gravel. If I’m not billing hours I have to be working on the house.
Good thing I got the lawn mowed… by 5 it was raining, and slated to be raining through Sunday. Guess that means the al fresco dinner with Swanda will be put off.
As for dinner – the worst attempt at breaded dover sole in my life. Luckily it was just me for dinner.
Had the so-so continental breakfast this morning at the motel. Got on the road around 9:30ish for a leisurely drive back to Berkeley… no traffic screw-up’s like the last time I came back from Santa Cruz (mid-December).
For some off reason I wasn’t able to find a Santa Cruz postcard – usually I can just go to the local Walgreen/CVS and they have some, not here. Guess it means and Oakland card from the airport which as it turns out are only available past security and the post box – pre-security they have San Francisco cards, go figure. Luckily the nice information lady said she’d post them when she got off her shift at four.
A little time in Berkeley to eat and pack the bags. Today’s first picture – why the TSA opened my bag for a look:
Yep, that’s right, enough liquids, wires, electronics, phones to make anyone suspicious. The photo doesn’t show my other camera since I had to use it to make this shot – but it was in there as well.
Yesterday I got a call from MoonSong who was at the ReStore in Ballard and stumbled across something he thought I might like to go with my recently acquired payphone. I took a leap of faith and said yes to the $85 purchase (oddly enough, the same price I paid for the payphone) and this is what I found on my kitchen table upon my return home:
I don’t think this will be it’s final home but it sure does look nice.
Dinner tonight was various marked down items at Uwayjimaya. No energy to cook.
Got out of Berkeley around noon, and was checked in and texting CruzDude by 2. No time before his 3:30-12:00 shift, so we will get together after work. Staying at the Ramada Limited for like $60 with tax. Not bad, fridge, microwave, soundproof side-to-side (though not from the sidewalk, but it wasn’t noisy after 10), free wireless, continental breakfast.
I do love Santa Cruz… so much eye-candy, so little soap.
Brought the portable GPS with me — and programmed all the thrift store locations into the favorites. Came away with nothing. Oh well, with the two phones and four bottles of booze in my checked luggage, I’m sure the TSA will be opening my bag.
Dinner was a little late… 8pm (well, that’s late for me). Limonecello was the spot — just across the street. I had a bit of a late lunch, and didn’t want to be too full for later… the dinner answer? No salad, but just an entree of the veal and pancetta stuffed handmade ravioli’s in a sage, pine nut, light cream/butter sauce… with a glass of Temperanillo (Spanish red).
CruzDude got there about 12:30 — just finished Letterman… left an hour and a half later and it was off to bed for me.
A slow start to the day, and not much really in the way of things needing to get done today. Just a little shopping for groceries after an afternoon visit to see Pat.
But really, the day is about the stunning dinner…
Caesar-like salad
Warm flat bread
carrots glazed with butter, Chinese five spice and Cointrau
shrimp sauteed in butter, garlic, honey and jalapeno
scallops wrapped in prosciutto with a lemon berre blanc sauces
Trader Joes for six bottles of booze (yes, I’ll be checking my luggage on the way home)
So, what was my haul from the thrift stores?
One brown trimline rotary dial and one white touch-tone wall phone that needs several years of nicotine cleaned off it.
Dinner tonight is over at Alicia and Devon’s place in the city, with added guests of Dan and Lisa who are in town for an investors meeting. Yummy fresh halibut and chicken sausages, an amazing salad, great bread, great company and lots of wine — with an opening toast of Rose Champagne from Gruett (New Mexico).
I love mid-day flights. Begin about to get up at the usual time and still be able to pack your bags.
Got out of the house around 10:30 with a bag full of frozen pork and shrimp, and a resealable jug for Onyx. By 11:30 I was at the airport and checking into the Board Room for lunch. Not bad considering that in that hour I’d driven to the apartment, left the car in the garage, walked across the street and caught light rail to the airport, had to check in since a bag was going in the belly of the plane, and made it through security. And it was Memorial Day weekend with tons of people.
Flight was running early because of a tail wind. Spent more time waiting for my bag (I wish Alaska would tag First Class bags with priority stickers like United does) than for my ride (Onyx) to show up. Mark was back at the house embroiled in a work crisis.
After several calls from Tokyo Dave, decided he should just come to dinner with the boys and I. Twice in one week, in two different cities. How fun.
Country style pork ribs marinated in a plum sauce, on the grill. Broccoli with hollandaise. No salad, none in the house so we made do with what we could find, but as usual, wine.
Got Tokyo Dave to the airport for his early flight to San Francisco. Came home and went back to bed.
Woke up and found his toiletry kit sitting on the toilet tank — guess I will be taking that to the Bay Area with me tomorrow as well as a bunch of frozen meat.
Wood putty and aluminum were today’s errand… it last bits for the trap door cover. And installed. Now all that’s left is to give it a coat or two of varathane and we are good to go while I think about wine cellar designs.
Dinner tonight with DB. No, not DB Cooper, nor Dave Brauer, but Dancing Bear.
Roasted potatoes, salad, pork chops, yum.
I guess packing it being put off until tomorrow morning before my flight.
Out of the house at 9am this morning to pick up Tokyo Dave at SeaTac. He is coming for an overnight stop on his way from Tokyo to San Francisco to see me, and renew his US driver’s license.
A little grocery shopping followed “license department waiting hell”, and late in the afternoon of hanging around the house it was off to the apartment to pick up shirts and a package.
Here is today’s humorous story about wanted and unwanted guests. Tokyo Dave would be the wanted guest, a couple of crows, the unwelcome guests.
For dinner I defrosted the deer back chops that Alan sent me home with on my December trip to Juneau. The BBQ was ready and I took the plate out with the four chops on it, went back in the house for something… came back to find three chops rather than four and a couple of squawking crows in the alley… Tokyo Dave found the fourth chop sitting on top of a fence post half eaten. And yes, I washed it off and put it on the BBQ with the others.
Thought you would find it assuming that crows here in the city have such good taste.
Before, the crow eaten chop:
And the fine meal after.
Finished the evening with a little soak in the hot tub before draining it since I’ll be out of town for almost a week – no need to run up the electric bill, and it was time for the water to be changed anyway.
Change the spacer by 1/8″ to make it totally flush with the rest of the floor
Also – still ruminating on whether I can turn the space under the trap door into a wine cellar, and if I want to have it air-conditioned.
I would have gotten more of the project done, but today’s big event is having dinner with Marybeth and the kids down in Tacoma – which means driving down there in rush hour. The usual 45 minute trip is more like an hour and a half in the evening rush hour.
I brought steak and fresh bread (needless to say the kids loved the steaks, guessing as a single mom they don’t get them that often) and MB provided the corn on the cob and the salad – and homemade pie for dessert, a treat.
Got back to the house a little before ten to set the alarm for the morning… Tokyo Dave is coming into town to get his license renewed (and to spend the night) before flying to San Francisco for a funeral.
Odd to wake up and decide to start a new project for the day.
The project? Replace the trapdoor in the hallway with one closer in shade and color to the oak flooring that is next to it rather than the bamboo from the kitchen.
And this is how far I got by the end of the day, working into the night.
The new trap door will have a band of aluminum trim. I’m still trying to decide if it will be hinged or not. This afternoon I picked up the ¼” top nailed oak, unfortunately I could only find 1 ½” rather than the 2″ wide. Stay tuned, maybe by tomorrow I’ll have a “finished” shot.
It’s amazing how quickly I get back into the routine:
Get up
Make coffee
Pee
Check email
Take a dump
Abuse the Internet
Make breakfast
Continue the day
Last night I posted two Craigslist Ads… the trailer (listed for $275 – up from $150 after doing some research), and the receiver hitch lift ($125, up from $75 after some of the same research). At the end of the day, the trailer sold for $250, and there is one person interested in the hitch lift. In case you are interested, this is what I’m talking about:
And I delivered a rug I’d like to sell so the hopeful buyers can see how it goes with their salmon Eames chairs. Wish me luck, I need the money.
Why do need the money? I’m going to Hawaii shortly after I get back from the Bay Area which is the mid-Memorial Day trip. Got to sell lots of crap since my ex-client is dragging his dick about paying the last invoices. Tomorrow I get to bill him for interest… yet another invoice that won’t be paid for 30+ days.
Dinner with Swanda tonight – veal chops, a little salad, some of his wine that he is clearing out before the “hot season” comes to his apartment and boils all the wine.
After days on the road, I just can’t take the crowds.
Here is what I’m blowing off this afternoon and evening.
Glenn Cooper’s wake, which was originally going to be his farewell, but he died too soon. Too many people from when I was 20.
The 10-year Dindon’s Pinot Noir tasting. Good food, but 50+ people all 50+.
What I subbed in: a dinner at home with Dancing Bear.
It was much nicer.
Had an afternoon visit from Grubin, she needed to pick up T-shirts for “pride” week, or something like that at the school she teaches at… she needed to wear the “colors” of the school she went to, and wanted Evergreen over UW. I lent her the geoduck in the mortarboard hat, and an alumni t-shirt.
I also listed the hitch lift and the trailer on Craigslist, and had a lovely hot tub after the BBQ’d pork ribs (and salad, wine, bread [mine, bad], etc) for dinner.
I got out of the motel a few minutes after nine… the sun was sort of out, but wicked cold. No top down.
Next stop, Superior, MT for gas – managed to get the plus version of unleaded for $2.99, way to go Montana, so far the cheapest gas this trip ($3.50 for premium in Yellowstone), then down the road to St. Regis to stop in a couple of antique stores which yield nada.
The yield happened in Wallace, Idaho – most famous for (beside the Oasis Bordello Museum) being the last stop light on I-90. It’s also chock full of antique stores. Here is what the yield was:
I have the cord for the phone, but it’s in the dishwasher getting years of nicotine off it. Still no 5-line yellow touchtone to go with the Charlie’s Angels speakerphone, but still a nice addition. Like I need another payphone (I have one in red)
Stopped in Kellogg, Idaho, just down the road, a bust, a waste of time. After that is was straight through stopping for gas, food, and pee breaks. The only amusing part of the drive was with the top down going over Lookout Pass… and it started snowing. That’s a new one, driving through a snow storm with the top down.
Dinner was a couple of martinis and some of the leftover chicken from last night.
Wake-up call came in on schedule at 7am. In theory I could make it to Deer Lodge by 1:30 and still leave at 9am, but you know me – better early than late.
Got to Deer Lodge at noon – only to find the motel front desk closed until 2, now THAT’S weird.
Back up plan, the old Montana State Prison in downtown Deer Lodge. The prison was retired in 1979, twenty years after riots ended with three dead and the use of a bazooka to rescue hostages.
I would have spent more time in the car museum next door (part of the AAA-discounted $7 admission), but I was running low on time to I grabbed a sandwich and headed out to the modern prison west of town to see Steve.
It’s “odd” how they do prison visits here… put your car in a line about a mile from the prison, wait for a pilot car, pass through the gates and head to the nigh-security facility for check-in and pat search (I got a really cute guard!), and then for those of us with “good” prisoners, get loaded into a van and taken to the Work Dorn where prisoners where blue jeans and work shirts and actually get to wonder around their facility.
Spent a couple of hours visiting with Steve. It was a good visit. He looks well, and it sounds as if in July he might be able to move to “boot camp” which is the next step before being paroled. My worry on this visit was that he would be out on a fire when I can to visit – his worry as well! Oddly enough, played three rounds of Sorry, last visit, it was the game of Life – not sure why prisons choose games like this – is it some twisted irony? Sorry? Life? Anyway, it’s a good way to pass the time while chatting away.
Got back to the motel around seven, stopped at Safeway, logged, on, found a GPS unit that might fit over my less the useful one in the Jag (after having to borrow a tape measure from the front desk who wanted to know all about the Jag) and the rest of the evening was spent eating part of a roast chicken with the last of the salad, one of the dinner rolls from Old Faithful (the last one will be for a chicken sandwich for lunch tomorrow), and finishing the last of the red wine I packed. It must be time to go home.
So with that thought, here is the scroller bar from this trip:
Mark, I’m confused. Did you stay in downtown Deer Lodge, Deer Lodge County, Montana or in downtown Deer Lodge, Powell County, Montana? You know, it’s not like there is a shortage of names in Montana…more like a shortage of places to name.
Blog, meet Steve, Steve meet blog (once I print this and send it to him). Here is the video of the prison firefighters from Montana — and Steve has a couple of soundbites:
So, and now onto the day.
Old Faithful Inn
Got out of the condo a little before noon – the heavy rain that had be present since the morning, mostly gone. By the time I got to Yellowstone it was the occasional sprinkle.
Animals to add to my list this morning:
Coyote is what I thought, and then I looked close at the picture…. WOLF
Green winged teal
Plus the countless buffalo/bison, mule deer, geese, etc.
Amazing facts about Yellowstone…
You can fart and no one can tell the difference between you and all the sulfur coming off the water
All those bison/buffaloes clogging the roads – and only buffalo hamburger on the menu in the evening (along with antelope sausage), but no buffalo steak or tenderloin
The reason (question asked by Zaphid yesterday) they don’t do geothermal energy production for the park’s needs – they tried it in Iceland and New Zealand and the geysers stop. Years ago when there was a large swimming pool heated with thermal waters from a spring, as the water lowered, a geyser started – and had stayed to this day, even though the pool is long gone
I think the shared bath room in the “old house” is a better deal than the “hi-range” room in the newer wing with bath – more charm, closer to everything. Saw the room I would have had for Saturday night on the tour today.
Met a couple of nice women travelling together from Kentucky as we were waiting for the 10pm geyser — need to say, no photographs. But I do have a photograph from earlier in the day:
Early morning tomorrow. Need to be at the prison by 1:30 or so for a 2:15pm “escort vehicle” call.
Mark Stephen Souder is wondering what I’m going to do now that I had to resign my day job in Congress because I’m:
a) Heterosexual
b) Married
c) Right Wingnut Christian Republican (and some of my friends are former Republicans, now Independents, and Christian)
d) Cheating on my wife with a part-time staffer
And then I posted a response on the Huffington Post:
As someone who shares the name Mark Souder — I consider him my doppelganger. He is as far right as I am far left. That said — after 15 years service in the congress… let’s talk about his retirement package (rather than the package as a gay man I don’t want to think about when I think of him):
Best three years salary: $165,000 a year
15 years of service
1.7% of the total
$42,000+ a year — AND he can collect when he turns 60, which is July 18th. At 68 he can collect his social security as well since he joined congress after 1984 when they required congressman to pay Social Security.
This for a man who has disgraced his wife, his party, his religion, his country, and my name.
The only bad thing about this is that the Bing/Google search on me will be easier.
And now onto our regularly scheduled post:
My day from an email to Debbie in San Diego:
Greetings from West Yellowstone. I think Angelica would have enjoyed my day today – I saw buffalo, elk, deer, trumpeter swan, and one nasty fat raven – and almost ran out of gas – the trip computer said I had 15 miles left in the tank, and there are only three gas stations in Yellowstone. Part of the day we even had the top down. The we? I picked up an vegan Israeli girl hitchhiking by the front entrance to the park and squeezed her and her pack into the car – no small feat it being the Jaguar and the fact that the passenger side seat was forward almost all the way because of the kneeler wedged into the back seat. Just dropped her off back by the highway after a full day of touring, chatting, photographing, walking trails etc. I offered her the other bedroom (I’m in a two-bedroom, two-bath unit so there is plenty of room) which if she doesn’t get a ride back to Rexburg (she is http://www.couchsurfing.com on a Mormon couples couch) or it starts raining, I told her where the condo is (half a dozen blocks from where I dropped her) so she can crash here as a backup plan.
Not a bad day (except for that panic about the empty gas tank). Here is a great photo of myself and Zuphit, the vegan Israeli hitchhiking couch surfer:
So, I guess the only other thing to add is the scroller bar with the rest of the pictures:
Dinner tonight is a filet mignon, baked potato, salad, wine… hard life.
A little slug like this morning… by the time I got out of the house it was a little after 9am. Doesn’t look good for getting to West Yellowstone by check-in time, especially with the longer route through Craters of the Moon National Monument.
So – add extra time for the monument, add extra time for the three thrift stores that I checked out in Boise, but traffic was light, and more fun than just taking the freeway the whole way.
First amusing video – a live action shot of me in the car, driving through the monument – sorry for the wind noise that cut out the commentary on the final shot – the kneeler tucked into the cabin of the Jag.
Next quick stop was Arco, Idaho – where I might have to come back to take the tour of the Idaho National Laboratory – no time today, but this is what I think is the city hall in Arco:
I like the fact that the building is made from lava rock. What the photo doesn’t mention – oh and by the way, I shot that one, but it you click on the Arco, Idaho link, the Wikipedia entry is almost the exact same one – in their photo, the wind is blowing and the flag is fluttering… anyway, what the sign doesn’t mention is that they got that power in 1955, but in 1961 the reactor melted down, causing the only three fatalities in the US due to a nuclear power plant accident. Now you know why I want to tour the lab, to learn more useless facts.
And speaking of tours… guess I need my passport information and 7 days notice:
Got to West Yellowstone about 7pm. Unloaded the car and my bowels, made a martini and then went back to the desk for the “I-Bridge” for the computer…good timing. A guests computer crashed and he was turning his back in… the LAST ONE. Considering at times I’ve had three units checked out at a time, that’s going on the comment e-form.
Dinner was chicken cordon blue – to bad I couldn’t get the young maintenance guy to join me – I did get him to bring me a 3-way (bulb, unfortunately). Did chat him up about other resorts and where he should go. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get lucky in things other than I-Bridges.
And the surprises (2) on the nightly news?
I resigned my senate seat because I was:
Heterosexual
Married
Right Wingnut Christian Republican (a.k.a. my doppelganger)
Cheating on my wife with a part-time staffer
I saw my friend Steve who I am going to prison to visit on Friday on the 10 0’clock news… no, he didn’t escape, they were doing a story on prison firefighting units and he had two sound bites in the minute and a half story.
But still more to do:
It was actually NBC News, but I won’t tell. Lester Holt works for NBC, not ABC.