Good morning all:

Weekly Wisdom, still from the big city:

“De life ees lak’ a leetle hockey puck slipp’n on dat beeg ice wit’ lots of sticks slapp’n heem. Bot, once-n while a hard slap-de-stick hit de puck in dat leetle box to mak de winning goal.” — our local everyman we’ll name Claire is on vacation—this was sent in by his friend, a Québécois who we’ll name Armand

It’s a wonderfully cool morning (just a bit of mugginess—but hey), my coffee is fresh and from a perfect pot, and it’s still quiet. So, here we go.

Vacation – As I mentioned last week, we were in desperate need to grab a little vacation after filling up the cabin with young folk and even younger folk. LOVED it, but still, a small break was a necessity.

To begin her vacation Marcia has been on a rampage in the garden. What would have taken a team of five landscapers three weeks she did solo in barely two. It’s to the point where a steady stream of cars pile by, slow down, smile and come forth with a few “you go girl” or maybe a “whoo-woo”.

The only one not smiling is one nearby neighbor who has yet to discover the fact that we no longer use goats to keep the yard in shape. Maybe I should also tell him that it’s now possible to buy bread already sliced.

The ‘vacation’ did continue with a fairly major plumbing issue that needed to be addressed in short order. The plumbing is now fixed and the torn wall dry-walled. And so, in an hour, Tevita and I will get busy with water, Clorox, and scrub brushes to manhandle the residue. Meanwhile Marcia will get a jump start with paint brushes.

Again, we’re ready for a vacation. This gets us back to….

Vinnie-the-cat – Another trip north and another hour of his horridly guttural howling prior to settling in. I am seriously contemplating doing what our neighbor managed to pull off. He left town for a long weekend and Marcia was charged with a couple of minor garden issues for their yard during that time. Yesterday morning she received a, slightly, panicky call from him. It appears that with a the hustle and bustle of getting ready to head for the airport that he’d forgotten to put out food for their cat.

A little bit of reflection and pulling a similar stunt could be our solution with Vinnie. It would work except for the fact that Vinnie-the-cat would blast our dastardly stunt all over the internet.

The wine tasting & dinner party – All told it’s has been a quiet week. Last Tuesday, in lieu of dinner we went to a wine tasting. Normally this place offers some great wines to taste—this week they were a notch below so-so. Making lemonade out of these lemons I reversed from the norm; the norm being to taste the wine and cleanse the palate with a small piece of bread and a bit of cheese. This time I made major impact on the cheese tray and the baguette bread slices with a small (say tiny) sip of wine in between.

Last night we had all of the Cincinnati family over for dinner. This was another major stunt pulled off by Marcia—considering that we’ve been working for over a week to empty the refrigerator for our exodus this week. Somehow we ended up with more barbecued ribs, salad, veggies, and an ice-cream with fresh strawberries desert than possible. The story of the fishes and loaves from Sunday school days springs to mind. Or was it a story I discovered on the Kottle.org hyperlink site?

Now time to get ready, eat a little breakfast, and put on my scrubs—literally. Later this week we’ll make another long trip north. You’ll get a full report on what we’ll find once we get there—on SATURDAY! See, I did say that eventually I’d sync back into a regular Saturday post. Thanks for hanging in.

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,

Dirk