TOTOusa meetup at Anthonys on Pier 66 Seattle

In the past couple of years, I've had the pleasure of going out and having a meal with some of the major plumbing manufactures to talk about their new products, such as Kohler and TOTO and will be visiting the Sloan Valve Company in Chicago in the near future.
This time I remembered to bring my camera along.
Wednesday the 16th of June. I was supposed to be in Chicago today to hang out with the folks at Flushmate, but my son Taylor had graduated from High School on Tuesday, and I wasn't going to miss that. I had gone to Green Lake in Seattle on Sunday and as we left we drove by Duke's Restaurant. I commented to Taylor that Gunnar Baldwin of Totousa and I had lunch there years ago. And that I really should get together with Toto again.
Monday morning I got a call from Steve of Totousa asking if I could get together for dinner with the folks from TOTO. I didn't have to think real hard, yes. Sounds like a great idea.
Since Taylor was graduating on Tuesday night, we slid dinner to Wednesday. I work with James, and he writes some of the instructions on my site for the Drake and the Aquia, so I told him to make sure he could make dinner. He was working in Snohomish that day, and the homeowner kept coming up with more plumbing projects. Good and good I say, but it did make Jamie late, not too late for dinner, but he did miss the first glass of Riesling.
Anthony's on the Seattle waterfront. One of few sun periods this Summer.
In the distance you can see Qwest Field (Seahawks) and Safeco Field (Mariners)


Showing up from Morrow Georgia were Shingo Watada from and Wataru "Duke" Yokota, and from Manhattan New York was Virgina Guillian. The local reps were Steve from the Northwest Totousa and Jim Anderson from Western State Sales.


Shingo and Terry

James and Duke

Steve and Virgina

TOTOusa at Anthony's in Seattle


Jim Anderson, Shingo Watada and Terry Love



Terry Love, Duke Yokota, and James Love



Virginia Guillian and Jim Anderson

It turns out that Jamie knew Jim's son in school and in sports. Jim's son went on to play pro baseball. Small world. I almost never hear of someone making the majors. Jamie and I are still playing softball. It's always fun to hear of local players making it.

Virgina is mapping out her marketing ideas, and Jim is listening avidly.
Or maybe at this point she was talking about Ichiro. Next time they come out they should catch a Mariners game.
I have to say thanks to Virginia, she seemed to have the check for the meal. I've eaten at Anthony's before, but never this much variety. The food was great.
Jamie and I were able to talk to Duke and Shingo about pipeline stuff. Something new is coming, but they can't give out information on it yet. It is a new flushing system though.