Elsa Hotel

As most of you know, Rishi has been working on a big project the last few months. He's puting together a business plan for a small, boutique, budget hotel in Capitol Hill. The hotel is named "Elsa Hotel." I've been blogging a bit about his experiences so far at www.elsahotel.org. I'll admit, we haven't hit the really juicy stuff yet, but if you're into following Rishi's progress on his dreams, I suggest subscribing.

The most recent update highlights some of his Google SketchUp drawings of some of the rooms. He's super excited to be able to play around with this. It's a great break from grinding out number on water usage and P&L and marketing strategies.

So, check it out! I try to get in a post a week or more; I'm sure as things heat up I'll have more to write about.

www.elsahotel.org

The Inn at Langley

Last weekend Q and I took the short ferry ride to Whidbey Island to celebrate her birthday. We took Monday and Tuesday off to make a four-day weekend out of it. There are a number of dog-friendly inns and bed and breakfasts on the south end of the island, but since we were in a celebratory mood, we stayed at the best of the best: The Inn at Langley.

The Inn lived up to its reputation as a destination in and of itself. We brought enough cheese for a party of 40, and ate dinners of cheese, wine, Scotch, fruit, bread and crackers in the room all three nights. We took full advantage of the free breakfast, eating more fruit and breakfasty things in the room each morning. The warmer days, we were out on the balcony overlooking Puget Sound. The rainy days, we ate by the fire.

We thought ahead and brought the must-haves for a romatic getaway like this: ample CDs, candles, wine, and reading material. We spent a lot of time sitting on the balcony or soaking in the huge tube (with a view).

Of course, being a trip with Grete, we hit the two biggest and best dog parks. That could be a post in and of itself. Actually, that's a good idea.

We took a day trip up to the top of Whidbey to hike a little around Deception Pass. The park is great, but northern Whidbey is just like North Seattle -- where the south is very beautiful and coutry and folksy, the north is strip malls and six lane roads.

You can check out our favorite few photos here. There's a pile of photos of Quincy and I, and our vistas here. Then, there's, like, 200 photos of Grete jumping and shaking here.

Traveling with Celiac Disease – Part 2

After 36 hours of meat, the company let me loose on New York City at 3pm. I immediately hopped on the N to 61st and Lexington to Lilli and Loo, a Chinese restaurant with a gluten free menu.

Chinese food is often made with soy sauce and Hoisin sauce. Both of these are almost never gluten free. In Seattle, I have yet to find a Chinese restaurant that can accommodate me. I haven’t had any Chinese in over six months, easily the longest I’ve ever gone in a life filled with fantastic Chinese food.

Lilli and Loo also had a dish that I haven’t had in years: General Tsu’s Tofu. My local Chinese place stopped making it for me because it was too hard to keep the tofu intact. I begged and begged, but after more than two years of making it for me they stopped. Then, celiac. Lilli and Loo’s GTT was sweet and a little spicy. The tofu was medium-firm and a little crunchy. The sauce was thin, but dark. I was wonderful. I ate it all, even though I had just crammed three plates of crappy salads down my gullet at the hotel lunch buffet. I ate alone, and the restaurant was empty except for two Japanese students picking at an appetizer.

After that, I headed up to Harlem to meet Regina at her house. She had planned dinner at ___, a Risotto-centric tiny restaurant. It turns out that they are a Mecca for celiacs. They have four different gluten free beers, all their desserts are gluten free, all their bread is gluten free, nearly all their risottos are gluten free (gorgonzola is not gluten free), nearly all their appetizers are gluten free, and everything is labeled on the main menu. Moments after we arrived and said yes to the 30 minute wait, a couple came in behind us. The man was visibly excited about the prospect of gluten-free beer; when the hostess began to tell him about the menu and desserts, his enthusiasm grew almost feverish. This was a guy who clearly hadn’t been expecting much. I know the feeling.

This was the first time I encountered another celiac in public. We didn’t exchange conversation at all, but I felt so much better. Look, here’s a tall, hunk of a man getting giddy over gluten free cookies and weak beer. I am not alone. We sat down and I couldn’t help but overhear “celiac” and “gluten free” from table after table. I looked around and saw at least six gluten free beers (there’s only nine two-person tables in the whole restaurant). The table came with two gluten free breadsticks. Then they brought more. I didn’t cry but I could have.

The risotto was good. It was filling and warm and flavorful and cheesy. Quincy will love it. But the atmosphere was a real treat. I felt normal and welcome, not just tolerated and accommodated.

On my last day in NYC, Regina took me to Lili (not actually associated with Lilli and Loo, from what I can tell) on 57th near 7th. They also had a gluten free menu and General Tsu’s Tofu. I also ordered “rock shrimp tempura” because I hadn’t eaten tempura in 7 months either. Regina ordered a small flotilla of sushi. Our food was awesome. The appetizer was to die for (I almost ordered more). It had a coconut sauce and a little tangy spice. Oh, I miss it already. And the GTT was spicy, thick, a little too sweet and made with soft tofu perfectly fried, balancing moistness with flavor with crunchiness. Next to us, a fellow celiac ordered dumplings, a stir fry, and tea, double checking every order as he placed it and as he received it. The waiter prefaced, for me as well, every item with “your gluten free” so there was absolutely no chance of confusion. He also prefaced items just for Regina wish “and this is just for you” or “and this has gluten.” It’s small, but the shift from accommodating to fully accepting as a course of action is incredibly freeing. I got a little misty eyed again. Quincy would have cried, I’m sure of it. Unlike Lilli and Loo, our Lili waiter told me not to eat the fortune cookie.

In all, New York City obviously has a strong GF community. It inspired me to work on that in Seattle. I’m not sure how much effort I want to put into it, but I am going to at least start a dialog with the three Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood.

Traveling with Celiac Disease – part 1

Quincy hid her worrying about me well. I don’t really worry. I probably should have, and I appreciate that she did.

My plane flight, my first since being diagnosed with celiac disease, was a nonevent thanks to two Think Thin protein bars, a bag of Rice Chex, and four homemade gluten-free M&M cookies. All of that was Q’s idea. Well played.

My first 36 hours in NYC were to be dictated by the ebb and flow of classic hotel conference – 72 degrees and fluorescent and coffee that had me pining for NesCafé. My only escape was my first dinner. But, I arrived at the hotel at 10pm, so my options were limited by how far I could get in 15 minutes. I walked down the street to an Italian place that had a Risotto special.

The Risotto was good, but I didn’t expect muscles around it. The salmon in it, certainly Atlantic, tasted an awful lot like chicken and had a texture similar to balsa wood. Still, the meal was huge, nourishing, and I didn’t have to explain anything since Risotto is nearly always safe. I burned my tongue on the first bite, thank goodness.

After that, I was at the mercy of the event planner’s communication with the hotel kitchen staff. She took up the task vigilantly, finding me before every meal and making sure there was something for me. At breakfast I had some fruit (all the hot food and pastries were off limits) and coffee. At snack time, I had fruit (all the desserts and bagged munchies were unsafe) and coffee. At the buffet lunch the first day I had a dry salad, a shrimp salad (questionable) and raw veggies. And coffee. At lunch the second day, I fared very well with potatoes, a safe shrimp salad, and mozzarella/tomato salad. I ate three full plates. And a cup of coffee.

For the one dinner, which by all accounts was a dreadful arrangement of cafeteria food supplemented with fantastic conversation, I was served a medium-rare steak and steamed vegetables. Obviously, something went wrong. But, I played it cool and tried to eat a little of the cow. Yeah, not so much. The woman sitting next to me was amused. I couldn’t have the dessert, though I was offered fruit after everyone was done. I took the coffee instead. We headed over to a Scotch bar across the street and sampled a few different Scotches until 2am. I ate every gluten-free item in the minibar when I returned (one can of mixed nuts).

I ate, in total, seven Think Thin bars on this three and a half day trip. Fortunately, the pain I endured at the conference was repaid with a treat, a surprise, and a surprise treat.

DiSC ®

I’ve been to a couple management training seminars. And of course, there’s my time invested in PSI. I figured that FTI’s “Director/Manager School” would be at best a refresher, at worst a disheartening corporate-speak snoozer. But, I bucked up, dressed up, and opened my mind to the possibility that the experience would be worth my time.

It was. DiSC is one of many work-style assessment and awareness training systems. It starts with 75 words that the student grades from “never” to “always” in applicability to their work-style. Purportedly statistically sound algorithms categorize your style into four categories: Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness. This breakdown is similar to the Controller-Promoter-Analyst-Supporter roles in PSI. You may place dead center in a category, or close to a second category; you may place near the center (easy to shift) or high on the edge (born natural).

Surprise everyone: I’m a high Di! Modes I tend to exhibit: Drive, Active and Encouragement. Yeah, shocker. My polar opposite (or perfect counterpart) would be a classified a Reliable Objective Supporter.

So, it’s easy to generate a pile of stereotypical, useful strengths from this information. Generally speaking, almost every attribute we drilled into for D and i fit me pretty well; most of the others didn’t really apply to my core work style, though certain I have supported, analyzed, collaborated, and been reliable. The most useful bit was next.

After spending an hour or so examining the basic behaviors and stereotypes of each grouping, we started to dive into exactly how each group does (generally) and could (ideally) interact with each other group in some common managerial scenarios.

For example, the most interesting to me is how a D or an i could interact with a C. Many QA engineers are C’s (or S’s), and often the very best at the technology and the methodology are naturals and far from the center. The customized personal report described exactly what I do – sadly, the description was under the heading “Potential problems when working together.” But there is hope. I knew that C folks like to have logical, fact-based goals and that they like to work alone; what I didn’t know is that they often prefer written communication to my fly-by face-to-face drop ins and may perceive my checking in as a lack of confidence (in them), an annoyance or even bullying. They prefer to go over options slowly (something I’m not sure I’ve ever done intentionally) and need to know that they will be given the time and space to complete their tasks to their high quality bar.

So what will I change? Certainly I’m going to focus more on fact-based goals and remove some of the emotional/political/collaborative language that I so love using. Doing work to get so-and-so out from under water is probably less attractive than doing the same work to increase product quality. Heck, same same. Also, I’ve got to stop bothering them. No wonder I get those looks sometimes!

There was much more, but all in all I found the specific advice about interactions across category lines to be helpful. I’m no idiot; I know people are more complicated than just four work-style types. But learning how to motivate, delegate, develop, and collaborate with certain stereotypes will be a handy cheat-sheet for the office.

Olympic Ice Hockey Tickets

A few months ago, it seems forever now, I put in my request for Olympic event tickets with CoSport, the only vendor to the US for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. I requested way more tickets than I wanted (heck, more than I could afford) in hopes to get at least a couple men’s ice hockey tickets in the lottery.

I got word today from CoSport that the lottery results are such that I have purchased six pairs of hockey tickets and two pairs of curling tickets! I’m stoked. Quincy is already researching a place to stay. It’ll probably mean a few days away from Grete, but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity (when else will I live so close to a Winter Olympics host city?).

I got more tickets than I expected to get. This means that I have too many and I’ll be looking to sell or trade some of the events. We got events for a Sat, Sun, Mon, and Wednesday, so I’m going to try to find a non-hockey ticket for the free day.

We did get a Quarter Finals hockey game, which is super exciting. I didn’t even try for the metal games (while they’re super-exciting and guaranteed to have the best teams, they’re expensive and the odds of getting any were lower). We won’t know our exact seats (though I did get the best sections for each of the games) until later this year. We won’t know which teams we’ll be watching until right before hand (or in the case of the Quarter Finals, the night before).

I want to sell a pair of tickets to three different men’s ice hockey games and one pair for a curling match. If you know someone who is interested, I’ll be selling them for exactly what I paid for them. If you know anyone who has their own tickets to sell, please let me know.

Oh, I can’t wait!

2008 in thumbnails

This year started off auspiciously with a backwards repel down a waterfall in Costa Rica. I came back sore and wondering what the heck I was thinking. That was January 1st. The 365 days that followed stayed in the same theme: exhilarating and sometimes painful. Overall, it was one of the busiest and most eventful years of my life.




My dad visited in January, followed by a nontraditional wedding between two of Quincy's best friends, Maggi and Jeff. I spent January through March unemployed by choice, preparing the house for Quincy, Grete and Gesso to move in, and relaxing for the first time in years. Rick moved out in February after four years of living in my basement -- it was both sad and happy, as he is now in Portland with more room, more light, and more music in his life.




Rishi, Omar and I went to Vegas for the Super Bowl ('nuf said) and Grete spent her first weekend at my house. Quincy and friends spent long hours ripping up the floor in her kitchen, preparing it for an eventual sale which would be both stressful and ultimately rewarding.




Quincy, Grete and I met my mother and Eileen on the Oregon coast for a long weekend of hiking and beach walks. I was getting weaker and sicker at this point, and visited the doctor for more blood work. Still no idea what it could be, we traveled to Pennsylvania to meet my family and to South Dakota to visit Quincy's. I swung up to Vermont to see Brian wed Becca, certainly one of the most beautiful weddings I will ever witness.




Quincy and Grete ran their first 5k. Quincy moved in and we started gardening in earnest in the middle of the summer. By July, I was finally diagnosed with celiac disease. Just one month later, with a fresh supply of oxygen in my blood, I asked Quincy to merry me (the day before Vena married Simon, another beautiful gathering of friends and family).




We dog sat DJ & Emily's Lola and hosted a super-fun game night in the fall. Megan and Talina got engaged this summer as well, so we spent a few nights sharing our wedding planning. I continued working at Attenex, taking the bus every day, and re-learning how to manage stress (now that my energy returned, so did much angst).




Parties (with DJ & Emily's new baby!), outdoor lights, and snow capped off an amazing year. Quincy and I have absolutely no idea what next year will hold for us. After all that we've done so far, I know we're both hoping for a little breather. So, who wants to take bets? hehe... I didn't think so. Let's go sailing!