Sunday, March 22, 2015

A compendium

Such a nice weekend! Slept in both days, which is very rare. I was feeling stressed and tired and aggravated on Friday afternoon. I so need a vacation. Soon. 

Every now and then I post a bunch of photos, and write about them in the order that Blogger posts them. As we know, Blogger is sometimes inventive.

Calgary has been discussing a ring road around the SW part of the city for decades. Not that I cared then, but I was a small child when they started. At last, if the provincial government doesn't weenie out, it's going to be built. Unfortunately, it's going to take up a lot of space in a place I've run a lot, and would like to run more. There is a nice path that runs beside Woodbine, then north to the reservoir, beside Cedarbrae, then Oakridge. You can see from the map that some of this is going to become freeway. It looks like the path is going to have to cross the Southland extension, and over an expanded 90th Ave before I get to the reservoir. Sigh. Such is the price of progress. Note, on this map, west is up.


Saturday I bottled the Reisling. I had supervision. Can you see her lurking up on the sofa cushions? Every now and then I got admonishments, or cryptic cat commentary.

In the carboy the wine was a beautiful amber. In the bottle it's much paler. I'm not thrilled with the labels. I think they're going to be a bitch to get off, and they give the wine an unattractive green tint. Tastes pretty good, though, from the one sip I got out of the siphon after filling 30 bottles. It isn't often that happens. Normally I get 29 bottles and a little bit.

No swim today. Did I mention the sleeping in thing? Linda got inspired to deal with some tenderloin she bought. She likes to mix up different marinades, then add it to a zip lock bag with 4 or 6 slices. It goes into the freezer, and comes out when we feel like BBQ tenderloin. This is the first of several before photos.

This is bison for dinner in progress. Another before.

You go, Blogger! We got a couple flower pots for the front of the house.

Here's the meat ready to go on the BBQ. The last before.

And on the BBQ. I think this qualifies as in progress.

After! With a yummy salad, wine, and a Yum bun. Wonderful! I keep telling Linda she could give cooking classes once she retires, but she's so modest and humble she thinks nobody would show up.

And to finish off!

I earned my nice meal today with a surprisingly good run, 5K, 36:30. Mostly nice and easy. There were a few niggles, but about 1 K everything settled down and felt great. I'd originally thought to only run 4 K, but it felt so good I kept going. It was a bit cool and I was maybe a little bit overdressed, but I wasn't sure about the wind.



Saturday afternoon and evening was a lovely time with friends. They've been retired for a few years now, so I keep picking their brains. They suggested seeing Kingsman and going to dinner after. It was a surprisingly fun movie, even if there are lots of plot holes. Jack Davenport is an actor I like watching, and Michael Caine is always lots of fun. Colin Firth was a surprise in that role, but well done. Dinner was at Selkirk Grill in Heritage Park. They all had the bison, but I had lamb, and it was wonderful.

I was thinking at the time that this is a good way to do things, spending time with people we like. They are busy enough in retirement that they wonder how they ever had time to work. I know how that feels, and I'm getting itchy about feeling it again.

I had an interesting suggestion for my blog. One of my long-timeish readers suggested that as a new feature, I start with some of the existing posts, and polish them up another level into an actual topical essay. He noted that many of my blogs are little mini essays now, though often there are other things included. He thinks my readers might enjoy a weekly feature of a polished essay, with the blog organized so they are easy to find. Since he's my age, he suggested the level of polish would be for newspaper publication, but I'd like to do much better than what's currently in the papers. 

Is this something you'd like to see?

5 comments:

  1. BBQ! sigh. It will be ages before ours resurfaces from the four feet of snow on our deck a the moment. Looks like a fantastic meal and a wonderfully relaxed weekend. I'm so glad. Hope the week ahead is good as well. Wish I could join you for a run

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  2. I have mixed feelings on the Ring Road. It would be nice to be able to get out of my community and downtown or to the north or south without the regular jam on 90th, 14th, Heritatge, Glenmore, Crowchild, Elbow, Macleod etc. I also value living on the edge of the city where the deer, coyotes, hawks, hares and more wander in and running along the path and in the woods without breathing exhaust or hearing traffic.

    Celina is always so cute. This photo is another in her modelling portfolio.

    If Linda offered cooking lessons, I can assure you I would be the first to sign up and my hubby would be pushing me out the door and pre-paying for the lessons! She does magical things in the kitchen!

    That's a good solid run and the weather was perfect for it. Thanks for the nudge to get on the bike. I got a nice ride in after dinner.

    Polished posts like essays. Hmmm... interesting. You have a point in that they wouldn't need much polishing to be on par with the level of current editing in mainstream news.

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    1. Like every other road in Calgary, after opening the ring road will be either under (re) construction, or clogged with traffic.
      You are first on the waiting list.

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  3. I think we're in the same boat with our latest wine labels. Hasn't someone invented a foolproof label remover yet??

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    1. For a while I was keeping notes on removal procedures. And for some of them it was a procedure. I like the clear plastic ones, they peel off very nicely without any residue. Some paper ones come off after a short soaking in hot water. Some need the hot water to peel off the paper, then a product called "goo be gone" or something like that to get rid of the adhesive. And a few I use a scraper on, the tool for spreading floor tile adhesive (square cut edges) works really well.

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