In a groove

November 23, 2008
Peoria, AZ

We've wrapped up the "holiday letter" (way too much work) and gotten the cards done, even though we won't mail them out until after Thanksgiving. I spent a good chunk of time working on the photo side of this project, first selecting about 15 pictures to include, then using Photoshop to make a collage. Once I had my work flow and processes figured out, it actually went pretty smoothly - until I realized I was about 5 pictures "heavy". I'll play around with this technique over the course of the next year, and probably automate some of the tasks. Of course, anyone who follows the Blog has already seen everything that fits in the summary, so I shouldn't waste more time on it here...

In other news, well, there really isn't anything new. We dropped off Merlin's "thank you" cookies, did some shopping, and made some bread (ciabatta - or is it ciabetta? - from scratch and "regular loaves in the bread machine). I had taken the two portable gas stoves from the coach bay because I wanted to fashion some wind screens for them, so I finished that off and we dropped them back at the coach on the way back from the vet since it's on the way. At some point, I have to take the coach out to top off the diesel and propane tanks, but falling prices kind of reduce the urgency of that. We'll probably start pulling out the holiday decorations next week with an eye toward putting them up/out on the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's nice to be able to do that without gloves and parkas!

On the weather front, things have been quite nice, although the TV weather people keep blathering on about above-average temperatures. I'll take low-80s for as long as they're available, thank you very much. They're now predicting a "winter storm" for next week, with temperatures dropping (!) to 67-68° and even the possibility of measurable rain (1/4 inch!!) by Thanksgiving. Wow!

We found another "keeper" recipe last night: Sage-crusted Pork with Mashed Root Vegetables. The pork recipe included an apple-shallot compote that was great, and we had a very good 2003 Barossa Shiraz from the Wine Box. I've been scanning in the "keeper" recipes and creating PDF files for future reference. Now I just have to organize these files along with all the hardcopy ones we've collected. Another "over the winter" project...