Nov 16 - lamb, finally

A few days ago we had dinner at the club and the lamb on the specials menu caught my eye. Before I could order, we were told that they were out of lamb. I was heartbroken. Last night at a little restaurant at the corner of the North Causeway and Flagler, with Norm and Patti Himes, lamb shank caught my eye ... and this time I was not disappointed.

Nor was I disappointed with the prep or presentation, it was wonderful. Norm had the lamb as well; Patti had the fish tacos; Sandy had the tuna special.

So that was the end of our day.

For me it was an exercise day. I started off with Christie, who gave me a great workout and then shortly after getting home, I was out on my bike. It was hot -- 80+ -- and windy from the SE, but that wind stuck around for the trip back, providing a quick return.

I thought that I was finished at Saxon but Sandy reported bad news. She had tried to fluff the curtains in the dryer and ... E68. Rats. I went over and found that indeed we were getting an error code after a few seconds of operation and it wasn't going away with power resets. I checked online to see what the code meant, having forgotten from when we had this briefly a couple of years ago. It means "stuck switch" or some such thing.

With a little button-pressing troubleshooting, I determined that the "dryness" switch was sticking -- not the mechanical part, but the on the circuit board itself. Double rats. I'd checked into this issue two years ago and had sent myself an email with the model number / part information. Since the switch was well and truly stuck now and since the "repair clinic" place where I'd ordered before has a return-for-any-reason policy, I went ahead and ordered the part.

Our lease specifies that the washer and dryer are there "for convenience only" and we're not responsible for maintenance on those items or rather it's at our option. However, I imagine that our tenants would be pretty disappointed finding that they had no dryer. I went ahead and ordered the part and I'll have to tell them that I'll be there in a few days to install it.

So there goes half of the half-November rent ... sigh. I hope that this isn't a sign of things to come.

While I was biking the people from New Smyrna Glass showed up, early because they weren't supposed to be here until today, and started to work on removing the mirrors. They removed the full wall mirror in the bedroom upstairs and then moved to the dining room. One of the fellows felt ill so they bagged it for the day. They'll be back this a.m.

That was the good news. The bad news is that the bedroom wall is a mess. I can patch a small area of the textured surface without it being too noticeable but cannot do a geometric pattern in the same fashion. The entire wall needs to be fixed. The same will hold true in the dining room and living room. So ... I contacted Riley who has given me the name of the guy that he used here and at his new beachside house.

I had expected some wall repair work but assumed that it was work for me, not a contractor. I'll have to decide on whether I want it textured or smooth. I know that Jason would recommend smooth.

Today there's supposed to be a walk-through at Saxon. I had told Marcia (Oceanbreeze) that I would attend as well and asked her to let me know the time. She never got back to me so I'll call her first thing.

Tomorrow I'm going into Orlando for a routine doctor's checkup and following that, meeting Dan Wallace at St. James Cathedral for the noon Mass. He had arranged a Mass offering for Alexander.

Oh -- I told Riley in my email vis-a-vis drywall that Dolly could come and collect some papayas and he told us to expect her around 4:30 p.m. after she finishes work. I have about a dozen of them in the fridge now of various sizes :).

Onward !