Dec 18/19 - catching up

... in more ways than one.

There were some minor to-do's around here and of course finding, cutting, hauling and decorating a Christmas tree still looms.  Perhaps we'll do that Christmas Day !

Outside - I picked up another led light string in Parry Sound the other day as one had burned out on the deck railing.  Sandy did some more deck clearing (snow) yesterday as it was above freezing for the first and looks to be the last time for this wintry visit.  One of our garbage can lids has disappeared, no doubt buried in the snow somewhere; there was a similar one in the garage.  I'm hauling wood into the inside woodbox daily, of course, and I'm approaching 1/3 through said outside woodbox.  At that rate I'll need to bring some down from the woodshed.  I should have made that woodbox just a liitttttlllleee bit bigger, to cope with three weeks of winter at Christmas.  Of course this wood is nice and dry so it burns faster.

Inside - We went to Sudbury on Monday and, in addition to groceries, picked up a new espresso / cappucino maker at Canadian Tire and a new TV at Costco.  The upstairs TV didn't have any HDMI connections as it's quite old tech, purchased in 1996 or 1997, 20 years old.  It has a ton of AV, component, DVI, S-Video connections -- basically everything under the sun at that point in time.  An unasked-for software update for the Sony DVD player rendered it unable to access the Plex Server some time ago (where all our DVD's etc are store online).  I'd purchased a Roku for that TV but it only has HDMI out.  I knew that and had intended to get around to the TV purchase some time ago.  Well it was time.  I had looked at Best Buy, both 55" and 60" models but purchased a 55" cheaper at Costco. 

Of course the new TV is a Smart TV and already has Plex built-in. I'll have to see if adding the Roku makes sense because other streaming services are a) more limited in Canada and b) don't work very well with our Satellite Internet connection.  With just two of us here some streaming is possible but as soon as we have many devices attached, usability drops off.  I could fiddle around and give streaming priority but if push came to shove, that's lower priority than browsing and VOIP.

Speaking of TV, our Shaw satellite dish seems to only support two connections at this point. I'd initially had three going (the fourth died some time ago) and on the first day that we were here the signal died coming into the den.  So .... at this point I have a signal in the den, swapped from the basement, and the basement only has Roku, i.e. Plex. 

Also inside, I updated and reconciled my Amex Canada and TD Canada accounts on Quicken, including the Randonneurs Ontario account.  That was three months worth, albeit a quiet three months.  I needed to do that as a precursor to finishing off the RO fiscal year end.  That's today's task.  I've procrastinated long enough !  Timing is perfect as the ACP invoices for France just came in - Randonneurs Ontario and Randonneurs USA.

The new espresso machine has some of the features of expensive machines, i.e. it measures the water for an espresso and it makes cappuccino automatically.  What it doesn't do is a) have a burr grinder to handle that side and b) refrigerate the milk.  Adding the burr grinder and automatic handling of beans and grounds seems to multiply the price by 5 ... adding refrigeration doubles that again.  This one is made by Oster; those more expensive ones are made by Jura.  CanTire also had one with the burr grinder but not the automatic cappuccino; it was about $100 more than the Oster.

Sandy tried an espresso but maintains that it's not as strong as what she drinks.  I agreed that it tastes different but I notice 3-4 espressos more than two cups of coffee; same amount of grounds. 

Coffee and wine ... important parts of life ... all those antioxidants !  That's my excuse.  They're hell on teeth though, from a staining point of view. 

The temperature got up to about 35F yesterday.  I made a trip into Port Loring to pick up minnows (will do some fishing today), mail (not too big a pile) and to mail the brevet cards out to Granite Anvil finishers.  In prep for that I had a bunch of stuffing and stamping of cards and envelopes.  Had I not wanted to get that off my plate, I'd have waited for Emma to help but it was overdue.

It's 20F outside now, balmy compared to the temperatures that we experienced when we arrived.  Good ice fishing weather, but don't tell the minnows !

Onward !