Damp today

Cellar Door

The weather is rather unpleasant today.  It's very overcast and has been raining off and on since mid-day yesterday.  The forecast calls for heavy rains later this afternoon.   But the temperature is warm for this time of year - mid-50's.  That's probably not going to last much longer.  I may need to get out one more time with the leaf blower to deal with a few leaves that have blown around since my last time.  

The holiday season is upon us.  Linda has started writing Christmas cards, and has most of the gifts wrapped.  I've finished most of my shopping but need to do one more thing for Jeff.  We have our Christmas letter ready to go - will probably print it at home this year rather than go to Staples.

Thanksgiving was quiet.  Jeff and Mariah celebrated with friends, so Linda and I had dinner at Longfellows.  That's OK - but it's still a buffet, which means that there is a temptation to try everything, which means that one eats too much.   When I called they had a limited selection of seatings - basically, 11:30am or 6:00pm.  We took the later seating, and I think that was actually the end of their day - the place was pretty much empty when we left.

I've been doing quite a bit of turning - and have lots of wood shavings and chips to show for it.  Have made a number of Christmas gifts this year.  Yesterday, I tried working with a piece of wood that Linda bought as firewood.  I'm not sure what it is - other than it's very hard!  It's a closed-grain wood - clearly not oak, but far harder (and darker) than maple.  My suspicion is that its hickory.

We've starting looking for condos for next year, but so far RCI doesn't have anything for us.  That's not unusual - we typically don't find anything until at least Christmas or early January.  Linda is talking about doing some other things next year - it's hard to plan when she's unable to decide between options.

This picture is from the Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos, CA.  We were there with Dave a couple of years ago for a tasting, and bought a couple of bottles of Novitiate Pinot Noir to take to a Fourth of July party.