Spaulding Gray, The Feline Foodie, Reporting From His 2010 ACS Cheese Bunker… Report #1

Last night, The Lady attended the first “pre-event” of the 2010 ACS Conference. Gordon Edgar read two passages from his book, “Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge” at Sheri  Levigne’s  Artisan Cheese Shop, Calf & Kid, at the Melrose Place Market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood next to downtown Seattle. A few dozen serious cheese nurds were on hand to meet Gordon and greet each other. Sheana Davis provided the cheeses for the crowd and everyone was chatting about…cheese…

The Lady met several of our Facebook cheese friends: in addition to finally meeting Gordon, Sheri and Sheana in the flesh (as opposed to the virtual internet flesh) she met Jeanne Carpenter of Wisconsin Originals, Juliana Uruburu of the East Bay area The Pasta Shop and Emiliano Lee who writes the nahmo blog. Allison Hooper, past ACS President and Owner of Vermont Butter and Cheese and The Lady were able to catch up and chat about VBCC’s new Double Cream Cremont.

The Lady was “honored” to be among many of the cheese world “swells” and is looking forward to a terrific week of cheese and all things cheese… but let’s discuss me… after all, as far as I’m concerned, it is all about me…

I’m here in my own ACS 2010 “Cheese Bunker” in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland because the Seattle Sheraton has some ridiculous rule of “No Pets”… as I have pointed out before, I bathe myself several times a day and humankinds for the most part, only bathe once in any twenty-four hour period… you do the math…

The Lady found a little motel across Lake Washington that is “Pet Friendly” and not too far away from downtown. Even better, for The Lady, it is only three minutes away from a Fred Meyer… for some reason Fred Meyer has a special place in The Lady’s cheese heart (and my tummy). We’ve been in town less than twelve hours and The Lady has already made two “pit stops” at the FM across the freeway from the “Cheese Bunker” – so named because this is the spot where I will be blogging and reporting for the next five days… because the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton has not evolved enough to recognize the importance of this Feline Foodie or any of my fellow feline and canine travelers… but I seriously digress… according to The Lady, I do that a lot…

My moles within the ACS have already begun reporting in on the five phone and high-speed internet lines installed for me after we checked in… this motel understood the honor of having The Feline Foodie as a guest… their gain is the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton’s loss… but I’m not bitter about the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton denying me admittance… nope… not bitter…

Without divulging any secrets I have been told that 30 Cheese Judges arrived at the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton to judge 1462 American cheeses and each judge was treated to 65 delicious morsels of “Cheese, Glorious Cheese”. They will do the same again today.

The Lady and The Man will spend today together until The Lady picks up her Conference credentials this afternoon at the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton and attends the “First-Time Attendees” meet-and-greet tonight. Tomorrow she begins her journey through the 2010 ACS Cheese-a-Topia… until then, I remain your humble Feline Foodie reporting from the “Cheese Bunker” hidden somewhere in the suburbs of Seattle…

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