Babes and Beer |
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Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
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Sunday, May 28, 2006
Still sick as a dog. Hepped up on goofballs. B calls me at noon today to say, "Oh, by the way, I didn't buy a present for that birthday party you have to take the kids to this afternoon." Gah! I went to the UW Bookstore (they offer free giftwrap!) to buy "Castle" by David Macaulay, but they didn't have it in, so I bought a cool dinosaur encyclopedia instead. I like to give them something they'll like for years to come. The party was at the indoor soccer place in my old Marine Reserve hanger. They have an inflatable jumping room, a huge inflatable slide, and an inflatable obstacle course. The kids had a grand time bouncing like fools. I taught 'em to bounce themselves into the wall which knocks them ass over teakettle, and they were laughing hysterically. Afterwards we went to our friend's house for a BBQ, the kids all went back into the kid's room to play, and there was tons of laughing and squealing going on. Damn but it's easy to take care of kids once they reach 4. They went to sleep extra easy tonight. Saturday, May 27, 2006
Ugh, man being sick sucks. Harry say he doesn't miss B being gone because that means he gets four days straight with just his Daddy. Awww. We'll see how he feels after a few days. The BBQ was a success last night. The king crab was awesome, my ribs turned out great, the entine 9x13 pan of brownies got scarfed, a good time was had by all. The kids ate from 5pm until 8 o'clock bedtime. After I put the kids to bed, I cleaned up, loaded the dishwasher, and then basically went straight to bed myself. Friday, May 26, 2006
After I dropped Harry off at preschool, Isabel and I hit the store. The menu for the BBQ will consist of baby back ribs, bratwurst, hot dogs, king crab legs, chips, olives, baked beans, store-bought tater salad, corn on the cob, blueberry muffins, and caramel nut brownies for dessert. Plus lots of beer. Oh, and a steak for my friend who always pulls the Homer Simpson line: Marge: What do you want for dinner? Homer: Steak? Marge: Err, we can't afford steak... Homer: Steak? Marge: Sure, honey... steak...
Gah. Getting up at 4:40am sucks. Took B to the airport to see her off to Texas. All day yesterday I felt sorta dehydrated and off. By last night I figured out I'd caught the kids' friggin' cold. Bah! I feel like crap today, but I didn't tell B, I don't want her worrying about me on her trip. Four days with the kids. We'll see what kind of trouble I can get us into. Thursday, May 25, 2006
Woo! Won $31 at poker last night, everyone else except NotMe was within a few bucks of even, so basically I cleaned NotMe's clock. Part of that was when he challenged my three of a kind with what we call a "dork straight", you think you have a straight but you don't. In this case he had a 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and Ace. What the hell? Everyone laughed. Tomorrow B is flying to San Antonio to visit with her brother and his family. I'll spend the next four days playing with the kids. Since I don't work tomorrow, I figured I may as well throw a BBQ, and will be cooking up some ribs. Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Wooo! I got a call from my immediate younger brother in Albuquerque last weekend. His wife is pregnant, due early November. It'll be their first, and will be the 7th grandkid for my parents, and that all but my youngest brother have kids. I am SUPER excited about it. They'll be great parents. Last night B and I had nothing really to watch, so we ended up watching the crappy 1979 TV mini-series version of "From Here to Eternity". I read the book back in high school. I had read "All Quiet on the Western Front" in 9th grade english, but my sophomore english class had us reading the same book. Me and my friend Mary were about the only two "A" students in the class, so we complained and got "From Here to Eternity" to read instead, glub only knows how. Pretty smutty book for a 10th grader to be assigned. Man, that class was crazy. The teacher was the most senile decrepit teacher in the school, and regularly fell asleep at her desk during class, especially during tests. When that would happen, everyone sitting near me and Mary would move their desks close enough to copy us, then the people in the next row would copy them, until the answers had propogated to the far side of the room. (She sat in the front corner by the window, with me right behind her). I'm sure if you plotted the grades for that class our corner was As, then B, and by the time you got to the far wall you'd have the Cs due to errors in copying. The TV miniseries version is pretty bad, but it's funny to see a 26 year old Kim Basinger as a whore with a heart of gold. Don't movie whores always have a heart of gold? Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Last night I had my drinking club meeting. Normally it wasn't my turn as driver of our carpool, but our buddy next up on the wheel had forgotten about the meeting and wasn't going to make it, so since I was next I had to drive. That sucks, it means I didn't get to drink. Ah well. I brought the rest of the growler of Snoqualmie Falls Steam Train Porter which got sucked down immediately. We talked about bank stocks and edge-caching competitors to Akamai, and ended up buying some banks stocks and some more Alaska Air stock. I voted against buying more Alaska, I am NOT bullish on airline stocks and our current investment has doubled, I wanted to profit-take by selling half our stock so the rest was all profit. Monday, May 22, 2006
Brunch on Sunday was lots of fun. Only three moms, two others didn't or couldn't make it. The kids (all 4 present) went through the bacon and waffles like a horde of timberwolves. We managed to leave in time to get to Snoqualmie a few minutes before the 12:01 train left. It consisted of a pair of old diesel-electric engines and three really old rail cars. The first looked like a typical mid-50s passenger car, the next was a 1915 passenger car that had been converted to half passenger half baggage, with it's own heat so it could be used with freight trains, and the last car was an opulent 1913 Observation car where we sat. Old African hardwood inlaid walls, very cool. The train slowly backed up from the station to North Bend, stopped, picked up new passengers, and then went back, but on the return it went past the Snoqualmie station to the Falls there, for a view from the other side from the hotel and observation points. Harry had a total blast, and Isabel liked it too. The only down side was at the beginning when they were going to North Bend, a guy on the end of our car had to honk a horn for every road and driveway that we passed, so I had to hold my hands over Harry's ears. The way back wasn't an issue since the honks were all the way at the beginning of the train. We passed their new repair depot they have under construction, apparently their funding is doing fine since they've got big plans to refurbish a bunch of train cars and engines. He said if all goes well, which it won't, they may have a steam engine running next year. They have a ton of different engines and cars rusting away on sidings at the train museum there, it's nice they're going to be fixing them up. Afterwards we went to the Snoqualmie Falls Brewery so I could get a half gallon growler of their delicious Steam Train porter to go. $7 for the half gallon, $4 for the growler jug. Currently my only growler jug has The Ram logo on it, makers of terrible beer, so I didn't mind buying a nice new one with a quality brewery logo on it. We then went to the local candy store and got ice cream cones for the kids, and a sack of various candies. A quarter pound of rocky road fudge, some coke bottle candies, some swedish fish, a gummy shark and gummy alligator for each of the kids, and they each picked out a fancy lollipop. When we were driving home we figured we may as well stop by Costco since it was on the way and it would save the gas from an extra trip. Ugh. By this point I was draggin'. Almost $400 later we could barely fit all that crap in the van because we had not removed the stroller from the back. Oh well, it had been over a month and we needed a lot of staples. Yet another 25lb sack of flour, I tell you B does NOT let that Kitchenaid (aka Der AutoThommer, named after NotMe's former penchant for making bread with his) sit idle. Once home at last, our friend we were going to go to Tutta Bella with cancelled, so we went anyway. Holy freakin' glub I love that pizza. I had their special, which had some shaved italian ham, roasted garlic, carmalized onions, and asparagus tips on it. Needless to say, when I got home I was beat. I did have a great time playing with my sunday night World of Warcraft gang, since we had all 5 for the first time since the one guy went to the UK four months ago. Very nice having that additional DPS. We're all 30-31 except his 28 rogue, doing Razerfen Kraul runs right now. Not one wipe! Sunday, May 21, 2006
Dinner last night was great fun, with a friend of B's from college, her husband, and her super cute 2 year old daughter. They're remodeling the amazing Capital Hill house that she grew up in, converting the attic into an apartment for her parents, adding an elevator for them, and then they'll get all the rest of the house. She was laughing because when she graduated from high school, she had just finished school, was unemployed, and living with her parents. When her 10 year high school reunion rolled around, she'd just finished grad school, was unemployed, and living with her parents again. Now that her 20 year reunion is here, she's never doing school again, but is currently unemployed (full time mom) and living with her parents. Despite the fact that she lives at the exact same address as high school 20 years earlier, her reunion committee only got ahold of her last week for a reunion in 2 weeks. I can just about guarantee she's moved the shortest distance since high school, despite having lived in LA and worked for Oracle. This morning the kids and I got some yard work done, then we're off to the temporally-relocated "Mother's Day" brunch. Man, when NotMe started this brunch 7 years ago, his mom was the only mom attending. Now there are 5 moms attending, darn near every female except his fiancee. Saturday, May 20, 2006
Wooo! Ok, so far this weekend has rocked. Our dinner at our friend's house last night was tons of fun, great food, funny people. This morning slept in until 7:30, then went into the kids' room where I heard them talking. They were super cute, both lying on their tummies next to Harry's bed, where they'd taken their comforter and a little throw pillow that grandma had made them and turned that into a little bed for a little stuffed elephant. (It was whatever they call the oversized Beanie Babies) They said it was named Flora and she was just a cute little baby. After I fed them breakfast, I did the dishes so B would be happy (Peggy normally does all the dishes and B is a little traumatized with her out of town this week) then the kids and I went to the hardware store to get a pair of toggle bolts to secure the bottom hinge on the stair gate, it got pulled out by Harry last week. When that was done I got a call from my brother in Albuqueque, spent 20 minutes talking to him, then it was time to load up and go to the University district Street Fair. We had a good time as always, Harry got a corn on the cob, both kids ate hot dogs, I had an egg roll, a shrimp cocktail, and four $1 shishkababs, two sesame beef, one almond chicken, and one shrimp balls. We got a present for my folks, the kids got balloon animals, we got a stained glass bird to put in the hibiscus pot on the patio, and B got a couple of kits for a glue bits of glass to make a mirror frame. Sometimes I think B will explode if 90 minutes go by without some craft project. I swear she was NOT like this when we got married. After we got home, I took Isabel to dance and met a buddy at the bar next door, had a pint of Boddington's on nitrogen, nice and creamy. Once I got home, I got ahold of Fishpimp who was having a kegger. I figured I could squeeze just ONE more thing into the weekend, so I took off for Edmonds to Chez Fishpimp. I underestimated how frigging long and slow 196th SW was, damn that road sucks. Anyway, I made it there fine, met the lovely Mrs Fishpimp, and had a pint of the Alaskan Summer Ale he had a small keg of. I must say, a peer group of sales folks makes for a fun party, the people were a lot more social than my friends. I didn't have much time, just a tour and a quick game of beer pong, which I lost 21-6, but since it's beer pong, I sorta won as well. I got a taste of the smoked pork butt, glub damn that was good. Now I'm home and we're about to have a dinner party, bourbon-glazed salmon. Friday, May 19, 2006
Today is Bike to Work day, which I call "The Burke-Gilman Trail is crowded as hell Day". Lots of people slowly biking this morning. I got a free Clif bar and a free blinky red LED light. More lights = less chance of getting hit. Man, B has our weekend loaded to the gills. Tonight: Dinner with friends. Tomorow: After B does jazzercise in the morning, we're going to the U District Stree Fair, then I take Isabel to dance class, then we're having a dinner party for one of B's college friends and her husband and 2 year old. Sunday: Mother's Day Brunch which was delayed a week because I got the host (NotMe) drunk as a monk with a skunk last weekend at his bachelor party and he was hung like a french monkey on mother's day morning, napping from 10am to 3pm. After brunch we're taking the kids to Snoqualmie to their train museum for a train ride, then after that we're having dinner at Tutta Bella with some friends. Uff-da. Thursday, May 18, 2006
One of my friends just returned from a 4-month stint in the UK. He works for an aerospace contractor that builds machines that build jets, and was on site at Airbus working on one of their machines. He doesn't drink beer so that draw is out, but he DID get to see HMS Victory so I'm jealous. Anyway, I wanted to throw a BBQ for him, but the only night that worked was last night, which is one of B's jazzercise nights, so she didn't get to attend. She did make a damn good tater salad beforehand and made the hamburger patties. I made some baked beans (Bush's canned beans, some chopped onion, some brown sugar, some cayenne powder), got the kids to shuck 9 ears of corn, and grilled up 10 brats and 10 burgers, plus sliced up fixin's for the burgers. It was nice. Afterwards the poker guys stuck around for poker, and NotMe got a hankerin' for Slurpees, so he went to the 7-11 down the street and got 4 of the huge ones. Poker was fun, we had 6 guys for the first time in 4 months. Need to recruit a 7th. I went down over $25, worked my way to down $7, and ended up down $15. Couple real bad beats on the river, but c'est la vie. Monday, May 15, 2006
Fun weekend. We had a bachelor party for NotMe (err Bible Study since his mom reads this blog), it involved a 50' boat, several boat-up bars, far too much alcohol, 5 hours of poker at a casino, and WOPR stepping off the boat at the bridge (5' above the dock) instead of the stern (level with dock). He stepped off as if it was level, which made him fall quite spectacularly. He got sent home in a cab. I'd rate it as the best bachelor party I've ever been to. Thursday, May 11, 2006
Yesterday was Harry's 4th birthday. First thing Isabel gave him a stuffed "Harry the Dirty Dog" toy, since she didn't want to wait any longer. During the day, the pair of Big Wheels arrived from UPS. Nobody stocks them anymore, I had to order them from Walmart.com. Apparently the original company went out of business in 2001, and a new company took over in 2003. I assembled them, and took the kids to the big parking lot a few houses down that used to be the playground for that elementary school, which is now an adult education center for North Seattle Community College. They were having a good time cruising around on them, making that oh-so-familiar rumbling plastic wheels on pavement noise, when Harry lost a pedal. I replaced it, and it came off again. There is a washer that holds the pedal on, and it apparently isn't up to the task. After 10 minutes, Isabel lost one pedal and Harry had lost both of his, several times. Bah! I've emailed them asking what the fuck. I'll be sad if I have to return them. Harry also got a t-ball set from us, a little play bbq grill from his grandma, a ticket for a real train ride from his oma and opa (my folks), an inflatable punching bag from his aunt and uncle, and craziest of all, an airplane that pumps up and has a air pressure piston engine that spins the prop at 4600rpm and flys up to 300'. Ages 8 and up. You know a present isn't quite appropriate when the suggested age is DOUBLE the actual age. Gah. We actually had poker for the first time in forever last night. We currently only have 5 players, one has been in the UK for four months and is due back next week, another is taking night classes so he's out, so it's been hard to get a quorum together. I had some seriously lucky moments, and won a total of $31, over half that on a single hand. For anyone who knows how to play 31, Dee won that last night with our house rule that if at any point you hold all 4 twos, you instantly win. It's never ever happened before in all the years we've played it. He was dealt 2 2 3, someone dropped a two that he picked up for the 3, the next round he drew that last 2. Pretty amazing. Wednesday, May 10, 2006
I've been listening to my 4Gb iPod mini since I bought it a year ago February. I loaded it up with about 660 songs (most 192kb mp3s, which are 50% larger so it holds 2/3 of the listed 1000 songs) and just use the shuffle feature. When I plug it into my Mac via the USB cable to recharge it, it resets the shuffle list, so after over a year there were songs played a dozen times, and about 50 songs that had yet to play. Over Easter when we drove to Spokane we were using it for tunes in the car, and I bought a $18 car charger for it at Walmart. That gives me the ability to charge it without resetting it, so I am now on song 420 of 660. Very fun not having repeats in so long. I wish it could save the status of the shuffle list. Our renter had reported that the water flow from their kitchen sink faucet was very slow, but the sprayer had normal flow. I installed that faucet in 1999 when I did a to-the-studs teardown remodel of that kitchen. Actually that's the second one, the first time B was choking on how expensive the remodel was getting to be (nearly $6k, not too shabby really for such a nice job, of course the room is only 12'x12') and made me buy a cheapo faucet. That mofo exploded under the high water pressure there after only a few weeks, so I bought a quality Price Pfister. I knew it had a lifetime (or pforever as the marketing wonks say) warranty, so when I went over there last week I was wondering how to fix it. I figured out how to take a lot of it apart, and thought maybe something was jammed in the faucet spout, but had to give up. I went on their web page and used their troubleshooter, which was excellent. It pointed out the likely culpret as the diverter, and the diagram showed how to remove the spout to reveal said diverter. Sure enough, the diverter had part of one O-ring jammed, and unjamming it fixed everything. Wooo! I love not having to pay a plumber, and I *really* love not having to install a new faucet. That sink is a extra-deep one, which makes reaching up behind it to install a faucet a serious pain in the anus. After that quick commando plumbing success, B and I went to the grocery store. B laughed at me for buying some more of Isabel's Suave Strawberry Smoothie kids shampoo. I used some of her shampoo in Cabo and loved it. It's no more tears (not a big deal), it helps untangle hair (yeah my quarter-inch hairs need that!), but damn it, it smells nice. Strawberry. Mmmmm. When we got home we watched the season finale of Gilmore Girls. Since the creator and writer was fired, as far as I'm concerned it's the series finale. B was NOT happy with how it ends, but I laughed my ass off. Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Last night B and Peggy went to my friend Sarah's baby shower, they were gone from 5:30 to 10:30pm. Damn impressive for a baby shower. I met Sarah freshman year in the dorms, and we were great friends for a decade, then she met B and their friendship took over. Heh. They're adopting a little girl from China, leaving on Sunday to go get her. I'm very happy for them. Since they were gone, after the kids were in bed I was bored so I fired up the Video On Demand feature on the cable box, and looked at the free movie selection. Steel Dawn, a 1987 Patrick Swayze clone of Road Warrior. I'd never heard of it. It's not great, but if you like the "western set post-apocalyptic" setting, it was fun to watch. And now, here's something some of you have been waiting for, Cabo pictures. Monday, May 08, 2006
Good glub I was hung over on Saturday. I got up with the kids and basically vegitated on the couch for an hour trying not to hurl. Eventually B came down and rescued me, and I slept until almost noon. Ooooga. Tequila = bad. Saturday night we went to NotMe's place. He was throwing a Cinco De Mayo party but moved it a day later, and nobody could make it, so he cancelled and just threw a little dinner party for those who could make it. Damn tasty spread, and WOPR paid me the $17 he owed from our drunk bet. We had babysitting so we left and went downtown to see "Inside Man". We got there just in time, but the theater had had a fire alarm earlier and all the movies were running late. The movie itself was alright, kinda boring, and didn't make all that much sense, but there were some clever bits. On Sunday B went shopping with her mom for a dress to wear to NotMe's pending nuptials, so I took the kids to Safeway to buy groceries. Harry begged for corn on the cob, which looked alright so I bought some for later this week. When we got home, he talked B into making it for them then, so much for my idea. B's a sucker. :) In the afternoon I took a walk with the kids, holy crap there are some freakin' expensive houses a few blocks from mine. The cheap ones were around a million bucks, and they range up to 5 million, at least according to Zillow.com. Check out 6666 NE 60th St, 98115, and the houses around it. B was having High Tea with some friends, and barely got back in time for the dinner party she'd scheduled with our last friends we still see from our childbirth class 5 years ago. They're moving to Maryland next month to work for NIH. Friday, May 05, 2006
Holy crap! I am drunk as a monk with a skunk. I was NOT this drunk two minutes ago, I blame WOPR. Damn. Been a while since I felt like this. WOPR insisted I read Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog", which apparently won a Hugo. I've read her Doomsday Book, which was good, so I'll give it a go.
Hee hee. Ok, so it's Cinco De Mayo. B, who is constitutionally unable to accept a free nght scheduled a dinner party. She made shrimp ceviche, which involves shrimp and limes and is damn tasty. I made bacon quesadilas, which if you've never tried take quesadillas to a whole new level. Anyway, after six beers and two shots of tequila (Sauza Tres Generacions tastes like a 30 proof liqueur instead of a near 80 proof tequila) me and WOPR wandered the 500 feet to our friends house to drink his beer and tequila. I won $20 from WOPR on a bet about Savage Love reading comprehenion, but he only paid me $3. I found out that Living Colour's song "Solace of You" is good, but no "Cult of Personality" Thursday, May 04, 2006
One day in Cabo we took the kids on a glass-bottom boat tour out to Land's End and the cool arch there, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez. Very cool. Lover's Beach is right near the end, and goes across from the Sea of Cortez side to the Pacific Ocean, that side is called Divorce Beach. The tour was a lot of fun, the guide let Harry drive the boat on the way back. He loved it! B bought some sheets of posterboard, had the kids paint them, then printed out a bunch of pictures of each of the kids in Cabo so they could put together a collage for themselves. They are very cute. In the Cabo marina, I saw a superyacht, the 180' long 30' wide Twizzle. You too can rent this boat, it sleeps 10, only $280,000 a week during the high season. Sometimes I wonder who could possibly consider $40k a day as chump change. Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Back from sunny Mexico. Well, it's sunny here too, but sunny and 90F with a breeze and low humidity feels a lot better than sunny and 50F. I always find it odd watching TV in Mexico. The shows were normal US network TV, in english with spanish subtitles. The ads were all spanish. All the actors and actresses in the ads were as white as possible, I never saw an ad for anything that included the darker half of the population. The sunday before we left my youngest brother came over to help me jumpstart the Vista Cruiser. I have *got* to get some beefier jumper cables. After that he played in the back yard with the kids for a while, then we took the kids to Kite Hill to fly my kite and his new pirate ship kite. While we were there he had Harry sitting on his lap helping him assemble his kite and a Seattle P-I photographer took some shots of them and took down their names. I wonder if they made the paper. My brother didn't think so because he's got tats on his arms, but with blue-eyed Harry on his lap he just looks like a biker with a heart of gold, which always photographs well. Monday morning we had to get up at 6am to get loaded and out in time. We always use Extra Car for our Seatac airport parking, they always have the best rates (about $7/day with a coupon) and great service. They are one of the places that valet the cars tightly together, so it's not great if you're nervous about someone else driving your car, or if your schedule is flexible, but since I never change my flights around mid-trip, they always have my car ready and waiting when I get back at the scheduled time. The flight down was fine, non-stop which is nice. We didn't have any trouble in customs or immigration, and got our shuttle to the hotel no problem. I was a little sad that the beer kiosk at the airport wanted $5 per bottle of beer. Christ, I am not going to spend Seattle bar prices on beer in Mexico. The idiots at the hotel/timeshare/whatever you want to call it either couldn't or wouldn't give us two rooms near each other, our friends ended up with a top floor room, and we got a ground floor room. It was convenient, close access to the pool and outside, but sorta sad when 80% of the rooms have beautiful ocean views and we've got a view of the pool and a groomed lawn with flamingos. By the way, if you've never spent a week living a few feet from flamingoes, they tend to honk like geese. The kids and I took to calling them honkers. It's funny to see them sleeping standing on one leg, but my favorite was when they were standing on one leg, with the other thigh tucked up, but the lower part of that leg dangling in mid-air. I call it "dork foot". We spent many hours a day by the pool and in the pool. It was a nice pool, with flat shallow parts for the kids, a couple of waterfalls, and it meandered around in a loop. No swim-up bar, unfortunately. The hotel had an internet room, $3 for 30 minutes, and I would have blogged but B sorta talked me out of it the first day, then even though she felt bad and encouraged me to do so the rest of the trip I never ended up doing so. I would NOT have checked my email, I didn't want to know what was going on at home. The first few nights we ate at places we'd liked from the last time, and they were all too expensive and dissapointing other than Brasil Steakhouse, a place where they bring all-you-can-meat on swords. "Want some more NY strip steak?" "Si!" They'd carve me off another chunk. I think they had a dozen different kinds. $28 a head, but they didn't charge for the kids. Very fun. Eventually we found a bunch of cheaper places over on Hidalgo street near Brasil, much cheaper. For $10 you get two lobster tails at the Crazy Lobster, and the place next door had fabulous meals for $12-14. Still, all-in-all I spent more on food than I really expected. I forgot how expensive Cabo can be, no wonder since it's at the end of a long dry penisula, but it doesn't help to go to the main touristy places. One day we took the hotel shuttle to their newer Pacific ocean place a few miles north of town. Didn't go for any time-share speils, just let the kids play in the pool. That place had a lovely swim-up bar, we got a great shot of the whole family at the bar, the kids having smoothies and me a cerveza. B and I went parasailing. When we booked it they said the weight limit on tandem was 250 pounds, and since I'm almost 200 we weigh over 300lbs together, but once we were shuttled off the beach onto the parasailing boat, those guys said it would be fine. $70 got us a 10 minute ride, hoisted up high, past a moored cruise ship, out to the arch and back in. Very fun, not scary at all. Much less windy than I'd expect, it was pretty peaceful and calm under that parachute. The other two customers on the boat were a pair of women our age from Maine, if you can believe it. Long freakin' way to come if the Caribean is closer. The trip home on Monday went fine. I brought a few cans of beer to enjoy in the cab back and in the airport, to take final advantage of being able to drink anywhere. I bought two one-liter bottles of Myers Dark Rum for $14 each at the duty free, and a bottle of Sauza Tres Generacions for like $26. We had a 2 hour layover in San Diego where we had to go through customs and immigration, gave us just enough time to eat and for me to have a beer before boarding our Seattle flight. That flight was amazing, they landed, slammed the plane up to the jetway, shoveled everyone off, shoveled us back on, and took off immediately. I've never seen a turnaround that fast before, they must have just thrown the service trash from the previous flight out onto the tarmac. While I was in Mexico I read a bunch. I finished up Prisoner's Hope, the 3rd in the Nicholas Seafort series by David Feintuch. It was pretty good, better than the second in that series. I was going to read a Tom Clancy book, "The Teeth of the Tiger", but then I figured out I'd already read it. I reread the first James Herriot book, "All Creatures Great and Small", which I last read while camping with the family as a teenager. Patrick O'Brian's first book, "The Golden Ocean", from like 1956, showed how freakin' good an author he is, I was laughing out loud SO many times. It is the story of an Irish midshipman on Commodore Anson's ill-fated circumnavigation of the globe in 1740. I finished "The Golden Ocean" on the flight home, with 90 minutes to go I reached into my carry on for the last book. It was "Micah", the recent entry in Laurell K Hamilton's "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter" series. I'd pretty much given up this series, even thought I bought the first book when it was her ONLY book, and liked the series at first. Now I just don't get into all the quasi-beastiality and her erotica leaves a lot to be desired. As far as I am concerned the series has just gotten bizarre. I also don't enjoy low self-esteem much, and the protagonist's whining has driven me over the edge. "Oh poor me, I'm magical and tough and have 5 boyfriends, my life sucks". I'm sure plenty of people enjoy it, but I'm out. I wouldn't have gotten this but B bought it, thinking she was doing me a favor. Anyway, Micah is 250 pages, and I was well over half done in the last 90 minutes of the flight. This isn't a novel, it's a long short story. The pages had very little text in a very large font, huge margins, it looked like a high school kid trying to get a 2 page pager to format into 4 pages. Crickey, one of the sex scenes took over 3 chapters. |
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