Installing Bedroom A/C

I have the window fan in the bedroom and for the past few nights that has been great. It brings in cool air and is energy efficient and quiet. The temps and humidity are rising and it will be in the triple digits here next week. So I'm going to install the A/C unit tonight. Should only take an hour or so.....if I don't have to run to Home Depot.

Weekend Wrapup

Marilyn and I drove down to the boat on Friday night. It was really great to have an extra night down there. I got the GPS wired up and we headed out. There was wind in the bay. Too much. It was blowing about 20 knots and we have never put the sails up on the boat before. We went back in and anchored in the creek for the night. We swong on the anchor in 25 knot winds till morning. On Sunday morning it calmed down and we put up the sails. We practiced out sail handling and had a great time.

Temp measures......

Last night I bought a window fan and a small air conditioner. The guy from Hannaberry said we need a new air conditioner ( and heater.... ) and that won't happen untill at least Spetember ( or October! ) So we have to make due until then.

In other news we are going down to the boat this weekend. ( at least there is air conditioner down there! ). If the winds are with us we are going to cross the bay and head to Gibson Island.

Ski Trip and Air Conditioner

Mike, Linda and I spent a nice evening talking about the details of next February's ski trip to Stowe, Vt. The bus company wants to stick us with a big increase this year. Also, the economy is not doing anything good to anyone's budget so skiing may an expendable experience for many people this year. We just have to be aware of the cancelation dates.....

When I got home, Marilyn asked me to check the air conditioner. I inspected the outside unit just in time to hear it scream in pain .... and die..... Calls to the air conditioner repair guy have gone unanswered.

Back to Work!!!!

Well after all the flying, hotel stays, classes, visiting, and site seeing it's back to work! Things here are really just the same as I left it. ARUGH!!!! ( Why was I thinking anything would be different? )

Yesterday I got a chance to go down to the boat. I filled the tank with 10 gallons of fuel, added the cleats and brought down the air conditioner for Scott. Afterword I took about a 2 hour nap which went a long way to fix that case of jet lag that I had. I really felt refreshed even though it was about 95 degrees and 100% humidity!

Epilog

Home again. There's no place like home........ Hey, but it's hot and humid here in Philly.

I'll cool off tonight. I have the A/C humming and I'll go down to the boat tomorrow.

On the way home

Went early to the airport this morning. I took the bart which is the best way to get around in San Francisco. When I checked in there was a first class upgrade available. I took it! Elbow and leg room on a cross country flight sign me up! Hopefully the flight will be on time and home quickly. Called Marilyn last night she seemed to having fun with the girls in KCMO.

GARLIC!!!

Went to the Stinking Rose. A garlic restaurant. I was walking up Columbus and I was smacked hard with the odor of garlic. I went in and sat down and ordered a fat tire and a bagna calda, a skillet of roasted garlic, anchovies and olive oil. I sopped up the garlic and oil mixture with a nice piece of bread. I then ordered the mussels. These are not the mussels marinara of back home. The mussels are not opened with a gentle bath of warm tomato sauce. No they are forcible breached after being dropped on a hot skillet that has white wine, soy sauce and of course....garlic. What a flavor! I topped it off with a gliroy garlic ice cream.... not so good. After so much garlic I hope I'm allowed on the plane.

At the Stinking Rose

Found the stinking rose resturant. Their speciality is garlic. Picking up a few tips for garnet hill!

Last day in class

Today is the last day of the Microsoft Advanced Debuging class. I'll be heading home tomorrow.
Somehow I've been killing my BART tickets. It's costing me a fortune to buy a ticket de magnitize somehow and have to buy another one. I hope I don't do that to the airline ticket! I should be home Saturday, I may go to the boat on Sunday to bring some stuff down.

More San Francisco

Class here has been going well. There are more coffee shops than I have ever seen. Starbucks, Peets....more espresso than you can shake a mug at. Getting around on the BART has been very successful. I highly recommend to stay downtown and get around using mass transit. The guys that have rented a car have even been using trains because of the traffic here. Went to Chinatown to have dinner with co workers last night. On the menu in the restaurant had jellyfish on the menu. Yuck! Our dinner was not too weird we has soup and chicken dishes and was topped off with Peking duck.

Stranger in a Strange......

Well I was walking around the Embarcadero Center, it was mostly closed up. I found a barber and figured that I could get a hair cut. It's nice having a fresh hair cut and walking around without much structure. I went to the ferry building by the Oakland bay bridge and was watching the sailboats gliding along in the bay. I was thinking of Marilyn. She called this morning from Lincoln Center, she and Meg are seeing a show in NYC. I was missing going down to the boat this weekend.

I scraped the idea of sourdough and chowder when I found a bread place next to a cheese place. I got some triple cream brie, a few slices of salami and bread.

While walking thru the ferry marketplace I saw a meat place that puzzled me. the sign said "Humanely Treated" yet the meat was in cuts in front of me. I was hoping they did plan on treating me humanely! And in a place that some people would not come near it, they were selling lard, organic lard....Hmmmm is that really any better for you???

BYOB in the finacial district

I utterly failed to find something open here. I am on the edge of the finacial district and chinatown. I walked around and found a wachovia. This helped replenish the cash supply. Chinatown had throngs of people waiting for the ubiquitous chinatown bus. I did not want dim sum. I did find a laundry in chinatown which may be good for getting stuff washed maybe the hotel laundry will just as good. BYOB is bring your own breakfast. Me and my fellow tourists are being gouged 15 dollars for eggs and bad coffee at the hotel. Hope to find clam chowder and sourdough bread at fishermans warf this afternoon.

Good morning San Francisco!

Sunday morning having coffee at the local Starbuck with the homeless guys. They really know how to make a guy feel at home. I mean they got the smell of Suburban Station exactly! A little fresh air and my appetite will return. I'm on the hunt for some breakfast.

In San Francisco

I'm now in my hotel near the Transamerica Building. It's about 65 degrees here. I left my jacket on the chair at home. I deal with that.... I found that one of the diners from the show Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. here. I'll go to the GrubSteak tonight. I can't set any pictures on the blog from behind the firewall at the hotel here. So pics will have to wait.

Going to San Fransisco

Here I am at Philly International. I'm going to San Leandro for a Microsoft Advanced Debugging Class. Look I'm almost smiling! Well not really. We are missing two boat weekends because of this!

A Night at the Movies

MArilyn ad I went to the Ambler Theater to see a Marx Brothers film " A Night at the Opera" Still funny 70 odd years later. They showed a Daffy Duck / Porky Pig cartoon too!

Nemo, Neptune??

Nemo.... Neptune..... Well when we did the toast it was Nemo.... the fish!

Who we whished to address was Neptune... Roman god of water and the sea!!!

Well I hope Nemo will put in word for me!!

Asleep on The Train

The weekend took it out of me this morning. I was dead asleep on the train. I missed my stop! I went on to 30th Street Station. Good thing that it was the last stop for the train as I really getting into REM sleep! If the train kept going I was going to wake up in Paoli!

Boat Name change

We had to call on good king Neptune to help us with the boat's name change.

Neptune, Neptune help us change a name
Because the masters of the vessel are not quite the same
Neptune, Neptune we give you your share
Fair winds you will give Foul you will spare
Neptune, Neptune keep us safe in your hand
As we play on your water and return to the land.
Barbara Ann as this vessel was known before
Will be Imagination evermore.

Fourth of July Weekend Wrapup

Marilyn and I took off early on Thursday to get down to Rock Hall. Still it took over 3 hours to get down there between traffic and stops. We got down in time to load up and set up the boat before Marj and Roy arrived. We took up positions on the deck to watch the Rock Hall fireworks. They were spectacular as usual. On Friday morning we walked down main street to see the parade. It was a small town spectacular with antique cars, scouts and ending with "sandy claws" a crab that is marching band mascot. After the Roy and I went to the boat to fix the boat toilet, Marj and Marilyn went shopping. We positioned the new Jabsco in about and hour in addition we also fitted a gas grill on the stern rail. When the ladies returned we had lunch then we shoved off for Swan Creek about 5 minutes away. We had some problems with the anchor mount, the anchor would get stuck coming out of the bow roller. Roy and I replaced the bolts in the rollers with pan head screws. We anchored in the creek and went swimming and we lounged around. Later we fired up the gas grill and had grilled chicken and salad for dinner. It rained and stormed at night we stayed out as long as the bimini cover would keep us dry and we bedded down for the night. In the morning it was still stormy and we heading back to the slip. The anchor was still giving us problems. Back at the slip we got some clevis pins for the bow roller and that seemed to fix the sticky anchor. Later we had Scott and Carol over and the six of us had a champagne toast to the new boat. We stayed in and played Shipwrecked then we went out to Waterman's for crabs. back at the boat we attempted to sit outside for a while be were driven inside by the mosquitoes. Stormed again at night, no leaks thankfully. We spent a sticky day poolside. We then cleaned up the boat and went home.

Fourth of July

Getting ready for the big 4th of July weekend. Marj and Roy are coming down to the boat. Roy will help me with the head swap on Friday. Plans are to watch fireworks on Thursday night, make repairs take on provisions on Friday. Sleep in Swan Creek on Friday night go to Gibson Island on Saturday and back on Sunday. A bit ambitious but we'll aim big and go from there.

Extra Toilet

Someone asked what I was going to do with the extra marine head. Well maybe I'll open a restarauant like they have in china. The theme "Toilet". Ahhh so you think I'm sh!##ing you. look here.

I was told once that restaurateur did not want to extend credit because as he said "After 24 hours it's all the same stuff" The Chinese are trying to speed up the process.

New Marine Head on the way!

After this trip I appreciate a low maintenance marine toilet. Got home last night and the first thing I did was order a new Jabsco Head from West Marine. The smelly overflowing unit has to GO! this weekend. I passed on the compact marine size and got the normal size. The tag line for this is a bigger seat so that you can have more bottom on top!

Imagination Log

The alarm went off at 5am. We stirred and started coffee and ate DOD's ( Day old Doughnuts! ). I took the trash on land and found a man in the dumpster. He was routing the trash for aluminium cans. Not the regular Philadelphia can router but a older guy looking in the trash for cans. He was complaining that the tourists were throwing away cans. We shoved off at 6:30. The canal current was against us about 2.5 knots. We pass thru to the Elk River. Car carriers and tugs pushing barges were passing us and on the river. Passing Aberdeen cannon fire could be heared. The proving grounds was doing some live fire testing. They had picket boats to keep people out of the area. It sounded like a war zone. We were now in the Upper Chesapeake. Several boats were sailing on the bay. We stayed on the engine for speed. Al made sandwiches again. He was saying that we never saw him doing this as Ann would have him slaving in the galley all the time. We came into Rock Hall about 12:30. The total the the engine was on was 14 hours. We moved the Ericson from our slip to a tempoary slip and moved Imagination into it's new home.

I would like to Thank Al, Steve and Harry for a great trip.

The trip is not measured in distance or time, but the companionship and laughs found along the way!

Thanks guys for a great and memorable trip.