KenzSailing

I remember a few years ago we flew into SFO to get on a Crystal cruise. We were delayed a couple of hours by flow control caused by wildfire smoke.

Yeah, today is a Code Purple day. I didn't know there was a Code Purple. Turns out, that's not even the worst rating. That's Code Maroon. I do not want to find out about code Maroon.

Hoo boy, just want to express sympathy from the US to our neighbors to the north, whose country seems to be on fire. Meanwhile, our northeast to the mid-Atlantic seems to be on a ten pack a day habit. There was a ground stop today at LGA due to smoke. Really, never experienced anything like this.

Oh, trust me on this, you didn't want to find out.... This paragraph from NC is so poorly constructed as to be nothing to be concerned about. But this is CC, so concern we must.

Two reactions to this: 1) $1000 doesn't cover much of a biz class fare flying intercontinental 2) This smells of soft bookings Hmmm....

OK, alright, your Friend of the Chez status is restored(it was never revoked, you know that.) Speaking of crab, have you noticed the price of the stuff lately? From Alaska King to Chesapeake Bay soft shell, it's hard to make a buck serving that stuff. And, back here on earth, my char grilled flattened chicken turned out very, very well. Not a single order came back to the kitchen tonight.

Hmmm, seems our very own @BEAV is a closet oligarch. No more friends and family discount at the Chez for you then. Full freight, and you better order the lobster.

Well, we're hard upon the Memorial Day weekend here in the US, a day of solemn remembrance. The traditional start of summer. After that however means one thing: Hot spatchcock summer! I exaggerate, I'm on my third squashed bird of the season. To be followed by my second batch of no-churn chocolate ice cream. The Chez is rocking. Also: RIP Tina Turner. She deserved to live forever(although she is immortal.) Let us rock: Dayum.

Feast or famine: water in the American west is a story older than the American west. I'm just glad to see an agreement looms on the apportioning of the Colorado river. This story gets covered back here and while it doesn't make much of a dent with the general public a lot of things that river feeds are impactful to keeping the whole economy running. Side note: I find it interesting that Las Vegas, for all its PR campaigns valorizing excess, is a very responsible and forward thinking steward of its water resources. Seven-come-eleven and I'll take my Scotch neat, thank you very much. I'm doing my part.

Ditto for port stops.

Yeah, and you're better looking too, you rascal.

My parents took me to Expo 67 when I was twelve. The experience really leaves an impression at that age. Bucky Fuller's geodesic dome, oh wow. In a completely unrelated update: OLoPP just got back from visiting her mom in KC for Mother's Day. So I worked up something nice as a reward for her diligence: the scallops were excellent, the charcoal grilled steak very good(need to get a thicker cut next time) and the first of the season homemade chocolate ice cream(topped with caramel sea salt) had her swooning. I takes care of them who takes care of me.

I'm beginning to think the old saying s wrong. It turns out you can beat a dead horse.

GP, I am sure you could make a review of the phone book interesting reading. Thanks for taking us along.

Headline today at CNN: "Woman survives five days in the wild on wine." If I'm ever in a tight spot, and have a choice of having MacGyver or this lady with me, I'm picking the wine lady seven days a week.

This is exactly what I was trying but failed to get at. It would be nice to have that one Regent souvenir. After that an envelope with luggage tags is completely sufficient. I already have a stack of pleather document folders from another lux line gathering dust on a closet shelf.

And that's why I'm up to page 11 on my ignored users list. You want to keep a garden, it's best to prune the weeds.

As cruisers anticipating our first Regent cruise, I can't say this is good news. I mean, who doesn't like getting a nice shiny to unwrap in anticipation of the big event? Don't get me wrong, we'll live(I suspect the phrase "successful trial in Europe" translates to "well, nobody actually cancelled over this.") Oh well, at least, unlike Ticket Master, they're not going to charge us a "convenience fee" to print our own documents.

I have been remiss in not mentioning that a couple weeks ago I scored our first and only Shad roe of the season, a favorite of OLoPP's. Now, as I may have mentioned before, raw Shad roe looks like the devil's own liver. Cook it down, and you've just got this grey mass. I won't touch the stuff but it's important to keep the Chez's most regular regular happy. So the dining room was content that night. Then yesterday we shopped at a new joint called the "Organic Butcher of Bethesda." Yeah, I know, I had my doubts, but they were recommended by one of OLoPP's co-workers. It's an impressive little store(their second location after one in NoVA.) Very boojie, so felt right at home. Picked up a nice rib eye that went on the grill last night. But the real highlight is the U10 dry sea scallops they sold me. Sweet, clean, fresh, tasting of the sea. Any joint that can sell me a good steak and to-die-for scallops in one stop gets my business. Anyway, it was another good Saturday night at the Chez. Our seas are fair and our winds are following.

Oh sheesh, are ports many times missed/substituted. It's of course disappointing if one has booked the cruise for them specifically, but to jump to speculation that RSSC is doing it to save money on fuel or whatever? Time to start watching fewer "X-Files" reruns.

This thread has turned into a tribute band: not very good, but keeps the olds happy.

Yep, that's the United way. I've been Kennethrobert since forever.

I will take that wager. Casinos are coming, the only variable is time. TWT.

The Chez, dinner report for Saturday 4/15: Well, it was a quiet night, but our most important regular came in. Good thing too, as we were able to delight her with an appetizer of the first shad roe of the season(and probably the last as it's a short season.) Ordered her usual steak(strip this night) and a loaded baked. Satisfaction was proclaimed, so the kitchen was tranquil. Per the usual, no dessert and she left her typically generous tip. On a related note: if anyone runs into that guy named for an airport, tell him we're keeping his regular table open. But time marches on, and we had to turn Ralph Fiennes away from it the other night. Sheesh, the guy plays a cook one time and he thinks he owns the joint. Maybe I should have been a stockbroker... PS: apologies to the various managers of Keith McNally's restaurants, whose report format I am copying. Steal from the pros.

I just looked at the WC email Crystal sent out. It's not identified, but it looks like it contains a render of what I'm guessing is the dining room formerly known at Prego. Again, quite the update, and the Olive Garden look is gone.