A busy weekend ....

We had a great weekend. Grant it was a bit cool for mid April but it was sunny and there was lots to do.

Saturday started with our normal walk over for coffee and then I did some garden work to make sure I had all the stuff out of the way as I was going to spend the afternoon doing the final upgrade to the Jeep - putting on a new rear bumper and tire carrier. Over the last few weeks I had upgraded the suspension system, put on new wheels and tires, a new front bumper and a new winch along with upgrading the battery system. I had been able to do all the other work myself but this rear bumper was heavy so I enlisted Dave and Jukka, a couple of my old Canadian friends to help out.

We spent the better part of 3 hours doing the install. I say the better part as breaks for beer interrupted and the actual elapsed time was like 4 hours but that include the congratulatory bourbon and cigars. The install itself is not tricky but there is some precision needed to make sure the tire weight is carried right on the carrier and I had to drill a couple of extra holes in the frame to add some extra bolt points. That meant putting on and taking off the bumper 2 times before the final install. But it does look good.

Sunday myself and Laura had an afternoon event, we will get to that, so I picked up Sam and Kris after my morning run (a nice 6-3/4 mile run - legs were a bit sore from the lifting the day before) and we headed out for breakfast. Silver Diner was Sam's choice and I actually loved the idea. We ended up at the Silver diner where Laura and I first had a breakfast date and I, of course, had pancakes. The girls seemed to love having breakfast and I think I will need to do that more. A quick trip to the mall as we drove Kris back to GMU and we headed home so myself and Laura could get ready to head out.

Our Sunday afternoon was to join the other barrel owners at Barrel Oak Winery for a spring tasting. We were hosted in the barrel room and they had snacks and, of course, lots of wine. The crowd was a mix of people and dogs. One couple had two beautiful Newfoundlands, another a wonderful greyhound and of course many more. We had some great wines and met some great people. Brain Roeder, the owner of the winery was there to greet us and we got to meet some of the other staff that we have only emailed with. The highlight was finding Laura's barrel with her plaque on it. She was very excited. They have not used our barrel yet so we are anxious to see what they will put in it.

We will be doing our custom case this fall so the spring tasting was a great time to see if any of the new varietals would be of interest to us. Maybe we will need a couple of more trips back to make that final decision :-)