Nov 8 - some good news !

The first thing that I did on Saturday was update my wine cellar inventory ... even before unpacking the new cases of wine. I maintain my inventory on a spreadsheet -- nothing fancy, just keeping track of the wine, the year, the maturity, and for Opimian Wines -- the lot number, price etc. By having such a list I can decide what to open. Next I went to opim.ca to check on the incoming wines -- get those onto the spreadsheet ... and that's when I came across the good news ... this you'll never guess ... most of the incoming is white wine for Sandy.

This is good news because I have not been ordering much red wine trying to let my wine stock dwindle somewhat so that wine does not get past maturity (too much). I thought that I was doing a pretty good job and then all this wine came in ! So -- the 9 cases included 2 cases of 12 and 7 cases of 6 -- the two cases of 12 and 3 of the cases of 6 were Sandy's, leaving 4 cases of 6, i.e. 24 bottles of red wine. What a relief ! Although drinking wine is a chore (ha) you hate to feel like you're falling behind !

Alex left around 8am so he'll be home around 10:30. He had quite a load of stuff to take back -- some stuff from the last trip, i.e. raincoat, shotgun etc. as well as everything that he brought up this time. He also took the crossbow, target and arrows back. I don't need those hanging around here.

I decided to tackle the gazebo and, believe it or not, I finished a half-hour ago. 3+ hours to hang the remaining tarp, tie it down and put up Christmas lights on said gazebo. I just had lunch, catching up on any RSS articles from Velonews, CNN, Wired, etc. while I munched my ham sandwich and leftover veggies from the other day.

It hasn't rained today -- much -- a few drops here and there and the sky looks dark and forbidding. I have other chores planned for the afternoon, starting with cleaning the bikes ... I think ... so I'll save this and be about my business !

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I'm back. It's early a.m. on Sunday. What did I do with the rest of my day yesterday ? Mostly I moved wood. The last of the well aged wood was in the woodbox by the house, and it was down to 1/3 full. I moved that wood down to the deck behind the house to make way for wood cut this past winter, then, wheelbarrowed wood down from the woodshed to start filling up the close woodbox. I got it half full before rain and tiredness intervened. I sure wish that I could use the ATC for this chore !

I was going to go fishing but it was obvious from the doppler that by the time I got out there it was really going to rain ... so I turned on the TV. No sooner had it sat down than Sandy got back from Port Loring, having dropped a newspaper off at Jim & Bonnie's, and said that we were invited over for a drink. So ... I got cleaned up and we went over. At this point it was around 5pm. We were back by 6:30.

Jim was hunting this past week but didn't get anything. He'll be hunting again this coming week, so we won't see him until we come back in December. We'll probably see Bonnie over the next couple of days.

We had the leftover lasagna for dinner -- the recipe that Sandy had prepared for the three of us the night before -- and as usual, lasagna was as good or better warmed over. My mom would always make lasagnas in multiples and freeze them for reheating. I remember the early days in North Bay -- you have to understand that North Bay is not really cosmopolitan -- and she had to use cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Why I remember that I do not know ...

So ... what today ? I'll finish filling that wood box, go to Mass in Britt this morning, whatever. Oh - I did another small chore yesterday, putting a couple of big screw eyes in the garage man-door.

Today I'll probably drive Sandy's car to Britt and add fuel stabilizer on the way back. It will go into the garage, fuel stabilized and tires over-inflated, and then not move for six months. At least that's the plan. If we have to drive it over the winter then I'll have to install the snow tires that are in the barn. We are due for some snow before we leave and of course they'll salt the roads.

Three more days, then we head south. We're confirmed with Jeffrey & Sara, babysitting Emma on Friday. I think that we're confirmed for dinner with Leonas, Mariadella, Steve and Pam for dinner on Thursday. I think that Sandy made arrangements for lunch with Angelika for Thursday, or at least that was what she was planning on doing. Before we leave I have to do the usual computer backing up & packing. We don't need a ton of clothes for the trip but I have biking clothes to bring down -- shoes & helmet etc. -- camera bag, a spare pc that I intend to move down there which I have to assess before we leave. The time will fly by.

Ah ... biking. I'm looking forward to getting out on the bike and getting some aerobic exercise. The first couple of days will be tough on the body and the butt. Warm and sunny weather will be a welcome change from the cool and the wet here.

Enough ...