Toot- Toot... End of the Month

Well February has come to an end. Here's five things about my life you can chew on:

1- Well Winemaking has rocketed into high gear. To date we have the following eleven wines in production:
-Blueberry- 1 gal
-Raspberry- 1 gal
-Raspberry/blueberry- 1 gal
-Mint- 1 gal
-Spiced Apple Cider- 1 gal
-Blackberry- 1 gal
-Pineapple- 1 gal
-Welch's Grape- 5 gal
-Boysenberry- 1 gal
-Ginger Peach- 1 gal
-Vanilla Cherry Pie- 1 gal

2- I'll be working 12.5 days next month.

3- Got a chance to go to the PB Bar & Grill to see some old friends from the Navy last night.

4- Looking at laminate and engineered floors. Cost looks like it's $6 a square foot (labor included) plus underlayment and finishing costs. For an estimated 700 sq ft that's $4200.00 and that doesn't include the stairs and the bannister. (Guess I'm glad I'm working those extra days).

5- Final tape off for the Bathroom begins tonight.

Bonus: KAO is getting a $$$ promotion to Alameda, CA. It's not perfect but at least we'll live in the same friggin' state.

Five more things...

1. Call him Head Coach. Norv Turner returned to the Chargers as head coach to replace the fired Marty Schottenheimer. You'll recall I was thinking Ron Rivera would be the man... it turns out he will be a Charger coach- the linebackers coach.

2. All the wines are fermenting and I'll transfer them over to secondary fermentors tomorrow.

3. The bathroom project starts tomorrow as well. All the goods: paint, primer, rollers, brushes, etc are ready to go.

4. We had rain yesterday. A nice soaking.

5. Got some more days at NHC for March and April.

My five cents worth

Here's today's top five:

1- The interviews for the Chargers head coaching job continue. Everyone is probably wondering who my choice is for the job. I like Ron Rivera from da Bears. A 3rd year defensive coordinator he meets some of AJ Smiths criteria. He's defensive minded. He says he can work with the 3-4 that SD currently uses. He's young. He has Super Bowl experience both as a coach and a player. He'll come cheaper than Bill Parcells and the most important he says he can work with AJ. Whomever the choice is--- they better not screw with the system that's in place--- it works!

2- A good college friend is battling multiple myeloma. It's a pretty rough cancer and he'll be needing a bone marrow transplant and a kidney transplant in the coming months. Please keep Jay in your prayers.

3- I averted a winemaking disaster. I made a yeast starter- that didn't start. I boiled juice, sugar and water and probably added the yeast powder too soon. It never germinated. I added it to the wine must and... nothing. Today I quickly got another started and then added it to the quietly silent wine must. All have begun to happily bubble and a disaster has been sidestepped. This batch will include single gallons of: mint, blackberry, pineapple and apple. Stay tuned for more. The first three are in secondary fermentation: 1 gallon each of raspberry and blueberry and 1/2 gallon of blueberry/raspberry.

4- I went to the commissary and did some grocery shopping today. Also stopped by pass and decal and got a sticker for the Civic that GMO drives.

5- BMO likes his new phone. It's a hnad-me-down from GMO and has been working well so far. I recycled the old and broken phone so it doesn't end up in the landfill to poison the environment.

P.S. Please say a prayer that Karen gets the job in SD, that she is hoping for.

Marty gets the Ziggy

Well it's true. After losing their two coordinators and two other assistants, the Chargers fired Marty Schottenheimer. Marty had spurned San Diego's offer of a one year extension, three days after his teams unexpected exit from the playoffs. In essense he was gonig into the 2007 season as a lame duck. With only a patchwork coaching staff, it would have been all Marty in the conig season. That was something GM A.J. Smith and owner Dean Spanos weren't ready to accpet.

Here are my other four items for today.

2. Bill and I went to the zoo. It really impressed the man from Ashland. "that's the best zoo I've ever seen," said the Wisconsin native.

3. It's time for Spring Training!

4. The wine is still bub, bub, bubbling. Iwill check the PA tomorrow night and see if it is ready to rack into the secondary fermentor.

5. If anyone would like to contribute empty wine bottles please let me know! We'll need some.

Another Week

Here's my five top things

1- Welcome Victor! born this week to Antonio and Keith.
2- Worked two days this week.
3- Both jugs of fruit wine (blueberry and raspberry) have had yeast added and they're chugging along.
4- BMO did well on his math test.
5- Time to paint the bathroom. Game plan is: paint the ceiling bright white- down the walls 3 inches and install moulding. Then light blue walls. (maybe with sponged texture?). And repaint the cabinet slate blue and paint or repalce the medicine cabinet and put up new light.

Super Sunday

Well it's halftime and 16-14 Colts.

My Five things:

1- I made new wine labels

2- All the wallpaper is down from the bathroom.

3- Laundry is being finished.

4- Good haltime spread--- hot wings and dip, meatballs in BBQ sauce, and guacamole and chips. And ice cold beer.

5- Getting back into writing mode tonight.