What I did the first week of August

For me, August is the month to re-commit to all the projects and goals I've set for myself. Why? Well, you see, I turned another year older on July 30th and always take the time to re-evaluate the past year of my life. So here is what I reflected back on...

1- I retired from military service after 21 years.
2- I finished a novel for NaNoWriMo 2006.
3- I finished a movie script for ScriptFrenzy 2007.
4- I have begun to enjoy the word of Private Dental Practice.
5- We did a great spooky house for Halloween.
6- The Chargers did well in football... until the playoffs.
7- The Padres won the NL West.
8- The Tigers played in the World Series.
9- My kids made me the proudest father in San Diego. They're all smart, honest and hard working and the best kids a dad could ask for.
10- I've started back into our winemaking hobby.
11- The front yard and back yard are coming around and looking good.
12- I'm exercising every day by taking a one hour walk of about 4-5 miles.
13- I've become a better cook- by necessity.
14- I have begun several book projects and am making progress on them.

I've set some goals:
a- Travel to Europe for our 25th wedding anniversary in 2009.
b- Complete NaNoWriMo again this fall.
c- Do a great Pirates themed Halloween.
d- Lose 10 pounds by Christmas.
e- Begin running and run in a 5K race by Christmas.

So that's what happens when I enter August... for me it's New Year's Resolution Time!

Wine Making

It's about time to rack my wines again and stabilize them. That amounts to siphoning them into clean jugs and then adding sugar, sulfite, Potassium sorbate and glycerin to sweeten and stabilize it before bottling.

I just ordered the famed Portguese bottle corker yesterday. It will make one man bottling possible. Also I purtchased Root Beer and Birch Beer extracts to make some more soda pop. We've tried Ginger Beer and love it! It really has some zip to it... more like Vernors Ginger Ale than anything else. But it's got BITE.

Soon it will be time to start washing and sterilizing wine bottles and getting the old labels off and all scrubbed up.

Projects for the future:

Wine Kit with grapes (5 gal)
Elderberry (5 gal)

The last time we racked wine it turned out very good, I mean we tasted them and they were pretty good.

Five Things....

1- Well Tony Gwynn got inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He deserves the honor. Not only is he a great ballplayer but he is also a first class citizen. One day at my son's school, Tony was sitting on a bench waiting to pick up his daughter. It was the off season and he had just had some knee surgery and was in a walking cast. A bunch of boys saw him, my son included, and recognized him. They went up and asked for an autograph. He could have said no and told them to go away. Instead he took the time to sign each kids math book cover after getting a promise from them that they would try to get an A in the class. He's a class act.

2- The light hitting Padres won today by the score of 18-11. They haven't been scoring a lot of runs lately and I hope this snaps them out of their funk. I just hope that they don't lose their next game 2-0.

3- I just finished "The Attractor Factor" by Joe Vitale. I have tried some of his ideas with surprising results. I hope that by implementing his entire plan that I can reap some serious benefits.

4- Well I'll turn another year older tomorrow. To my ears 48 seems much older than 47. It easily sounds like more than a year - more like 2 or 3. Anyways, whether I want to get another year older or not... I will.

5- BMO has his best friend over for a two week visit. He moved away to Arkansas 1.5 years ago and it's good to have him over. He's grown very tall- almost as tall as me. He's been here nearly a week and it's been great. I know BMO likes having him here.