Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the
future of the human race. -H.G. Wells, writer (21 Sep 1866-1946)
Hi Patrick - trust your September is going well. Just back from a week in Regina visiting my mother and sister. It was summer when we left and (late) fall when we got home. At least there has been some badly needed rain. Joye Volker from Canberra (and UBC decades ago) is staying with us for a couple of nights while visiting her brothers in BC. We were at John MacLachlan Gray book launch for his new mystery last night and Brenda Peterson was there. Your name came up when they were comparing notes. Nothing to worry about based on what I heard. Are you coming in for the Writers Festival? Hope to see you then. Cheers, Paul
Hi Paulo! Just going back over some "ancient" messages that I never managed to get around answering and discovered one in which you mentioned Joye Volker! Funnily enough, I had lunch with her, somewhere on campus, perhaps the Faculty Club, at the University she was working at then, in 1991! I knew her from UBC Library. How is she? Retired? How is Brenda? Cheers, Patrizzio! Packing tubs: Morning, Brian will be by sometime today to drop off tubs, not sure if he has room for all ten but he will leave them at front deck area. Great Corinne
[Christina Tassell
Commandant Patricio! Private 3rd class Peric reporting, SIR! The Ranger has been fully checked out, lubed, electrical connection for trailer verified and is cleared for Hwy 3! The U-Haul has been booked for pick up Tuesday a.m. and will be at Wall street headquarters by 12:00 hours or shortly thereafter, pending lack of terrorist attack or North Korean ballistic missile testing targeting Marine Drive U-Haul depot.
Booking the U-Haul encountered illogical inconsistencies with main web site and Kits U-Haul outlet, but direct (secure) voice communication with Marine Drive agent appears to have sorted that out and return to Penticton U-Haul base Wednesday will incur a cost of approximately 80 Krugerrands. A high end brass padlock for the U-Haul will be personally provided by private Peric.
Transport of private vehicle (Canondale bicycle) to be determined pending load in truck bed and availability of bike rack slot on military marriage-mobile. That is all sir! I await further orders. Branko Attenzzione Private 3rd Class Peric! At ease, Private! Very good, (and I mean
Good, Private!) , field intel. Thorough, beyond a shade of doubt, and I
will brief Field Marshall Darjeeling as soon as she wakes from her
slumber. However, I am not pleased to learn that you have been playing
bridge while on sentry duty so consider yourself Private, (No Insignia),
forthwith. Not only is playing cards a serious dereliction of duty but
alos the fact that you didn't make the contract is certain grounds for
court-martial!
Patriçio, Can you explain ...How did N jump to 6NT???? Patrizzio, Ok, I re-bid that hand a few times, and the only bidding sequence that does not end up in a 6NT bid by N is as follows:
In this case, S will get the contract; W will lead a spade; North drops a small spade; E scoops it with the K; leaving the A / Q both good.
S then gets the lead with the Q; does the J (hearts) finess, … and gets 6NT!
The spade lead is the key, which just doesn’t happen when the contract is 6NT. The bidding is “Standard American" btw - the defalt for Bridge Baron. Branko] P.… and btw, I have arranged things so I can stay to (leave on) Mon Oct 2nd, if that works for all. B. Branko
Pat, forgot to include this …Humour for the day: part 1) (local, true story) On a typical walk in Pacific Spirit park, Juno & her boyfriend, Dax, often with a gaggle of others, despite the expanse of the park, must center their play between the legs of the humans. Recently, Marv commented, “dogs have no concept of being in the way”. My response was, “have you been to a supermarket lately?” John’s take on this is that most people, when you give them a shopping cart, suffer a 30 point drop in IQ. Part 2) A shepherd is approached by a man who makes him a bet. “If I can guess the exact number of sheep in your herd, I get to take one”. The shepherd says OK. The man says, "you have exactly 368 sheep out there”. The shepherd is impressed, wow! Ok, pick your sheep. Then the shepherd says, “let’s go double or nothing, if I can guess your occupation. Ok. The shepherd says “you are a government economic accountant.” The man is stunned. “How did you know that?”. “Just a lucky guess”, says the shepherd. "now give me back my border collie”. Branko
While I am not familiar with the bidding, as shown, (I
assume there is something in the movement up the scale in Clubs that
signals Aces, etc.), and that once N understood that Hearts had
considerable strength with Spades and Diamonds having stoppers, N jumped
to 6NT. If W leads a small heart, (fourth highest of longest and
strongest), N plays the Jack from Dummy, hoping for a finesse. This
works so then N runs all the Clubs. Nevertheless, given placement of
winning Diamonds and Spades I don't think there is anyway not to lose
two tricks and it would need a skillful player to stop hemorrhaging at
that number. Perhaps we can deal out hand after the tribunal delivers
your punishment so that you will have something to take with you to
while away your time in the brig! Over and Out, Private Peric!
Dismissed!!! Commandante Generale Patrizzio, Order of the Triple Star for Bravery under Redoubled Contracts!
PS:
Pending sentencing outcome, there will be a Nike missle slot available
on the MMM as we plan on shelling Sunshine Valley, during Operation
Mop-Up, where in-country informants suggest that Sheik Alman al-Waldrahiri has been hiding for past few months.
I was allowed to sleep in until 6:00 am before El Diablo started making a bit of a fuss to get me to let him out. along with Miss Etta. SInce I'd gone to bed reasonably early I decided I'd stay up and get an early start to the day. After I prepared the Wildlings breakfast, (Etta was back inside a few minutes after I'd released them into the wild but Duke didn't show up for about an hour!), I took my steaming mug of java into the office and worked away, editing pictures I've taken over last few days and when Anna Maria Tremonte was up I returned to the kitchen to grind beans and put on the Brodo for her and Rudolpho. Lady Dar scrambled the Lads some wonderful cackle-berries while she and AMT opted for yogurt, cereal and fruit.
After breakfast, AMT and Lady Dar helped me move the mattress from the guest bedroom to the Rumpus Room where we will keep it until I have a better idea how many tubs and boxes Chloë will have to store in the garage. Once I see how much space is needed I hope we can put our mattress in the garage as she wants to place her queen on our frame, not liking the mattress we have? Kids today! Didn't take but a minute or two and by the time we had it situeated in the RR and by then Rudinski had pulled their car around the back of the house andwe helped load it. They very kindly offered to take the eight large tubs which Brian dropped off yesterday while we were wine-tasting. He and Katie had used them for their own move to Vernon a month or so ago. I gather Brian was in Penticton on business. He is a beer rep and he covers the Okanagan. At any rate, we are most grateful for the tubs as well as the Swiss muleage!
Once car was loaded we hugged and kissed and kissed and hugged and then it was time to wave goodbye. Wonderful visit with this wonderful couple. We hope to see them next year if our travel plans to Europe come to fruition. Did a bit of organizing in the garage while Lady Dar started painting the guest room wall. With all the wine-tasting and purchasing we've done over last week or so, as well as fall releases, have about ten wine boxes for Chloë, just the right size for heavy objects such as books and ornaments. We'll bring them with us when we head into Vancouver on Sunday.
It was just after 11:00 am when I had a bite to eat and then suited up. Made sure I was dressed warmly as sky was filled with heavy dark clouds and wind was quite coolish, out of the NNW at 9 kph, when I started out but changed to the NNE at 16 kph and then the N at 27 kph by the end of the ride. Even put on full riding gloves as my hands had been quite cold when I last rode a few days ago. Season is certainly moving towards Fall! At any rate, I decided I'd hit the Gravol Trail instead of having to buck a head wind for any extended period of time so after PTC/Lakeshore/Riverside, I started off with nine Power Street loops, followed by a return to PTC and then back for nine more of the PSL. A couple of dispsy-doodles, one around Memorial Arena followed by two additional PSL's and then I was ready to head home. Very, very pleased that I was able to hold my AVG at 23 kph, only dropping a tenth of a kph on push up White against pesky head wind. Best AVG for that distance in sometime so wearing a Gerbil Face pays dividends against a blustery Fall outing! Cheers!!! Map and Stats for ride:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1990926401#.WcVJOleXLlQ.email
Hi old chap, I understand you're planning to be in Van in near future (from Chloe) any chance we meet? We want to take Sarge n Michele to dinner so would be good to combine. We leave next week Thursday. 😎Hi Patrick:
Things change so fast don't they? We leave on the 29th so are trying to wrap up our little household. And I am also frantically writing notes for a lecture I have to give the first night back on campus. And steeling myself to part from the kidlets. It would be great to catch up with you folks - Sunday evening would work for us, or pretty much anytime Monday through Wednesday. Maybe dinner with Michelle and Sarge one night? On us? Let us know what works. Love and cheers, K&S
Hi Kathleen and Stefano! Sorry
I haven't replied sooner BUT I had to wait until Lady Dar was home this afternoon and then life intruded! At any rate, Flamin' happened to call around 7:00 pm and it turns out that Sunday evening is really the only time
that will work for all four of us. Flamin' and Sarge will be in Kamloops
for the weekend and so won't be back until late afternoon on Sunday. I
gather you know, {Stefano mentioned that he had been chatting with
Chloë.), that we are driving in early that morning as we will attend a
birthday party/engagement party, (Sad backstory but will wait until we
see you to relate details.), at the hospice which Flamin' is in charge
of, not all that far from loft, as it turns out.
At any rate, the gathering there will probably be over by 6:00 pm at the latest, we assume and since we will be staying at Harbour Terace, with F/S, while packing up loft, perhaps dinner at some place on GI would be convenient for everyone. At the risk of being pushy, Edible is a fab spot!
Monday evening Lady Dar and Flamin' are having book club, hosted by Michelle, Tuesday evening Clan Sutherland curl and Lady Dar already has dinner plans with friend Robyn. On Wednesday morning I will be driving back to Penticton with Ragin' Bull. Branko has very kindly offered his truck and we will rent a U-Haul trailer which pick-up can pull. Lady Dar will drive back with Chloë on Friday. So there you have it! As you mentioned, Sunday would seem to work for everyone so pleased that this is the case. If dinner, around 7:00-7:30 pm, perhaps we could meet at Sutherland's beforehand to have a drink/visit while waiting for troops to arrive from the four corners of the world!
On the home front, we are still busy trying to ready our place to accept everything that Chloë will be bringing here. Once I post this message I'm heading back into garage to rearrange shelves to free up as much space for Chloë's possessions as possible. Have made pretty good progress so far but still have at least seven or eight boxes of books to fit onto shelves Branko built for us and which are already filled to overflowing! Looking forward to seeing you both so let us know what you think and we'll plan accordingly. Fondestos from Lady Dar. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pics: Anna Maria Tremonte and Rudi Rudenheimer just before they left this morning. Packing tubs from Chloë's friends in Vernon which they kindly agreed to mule to Vancouver! Stowaway Etta! Lady Dar's latest arrangement in our bedroom after she painted two walls and electric fireplace. Guest bedroom wall, almost ready. We needed to move out mattress there as next Freeloader, [Chloë!], doesn't like ours! She is bringing her queen. Lady Dar has always wanted to paint this wall anyway and once it is ready I will affix large wooden screen, [generous gift from Clara and Dusty when they left The Annexe], as a headboard, to wall.
My new grinder, Stefano/Big Al! Stevealimo has always bemoaned the fact that I never owned one and when Marilyn and Big Molly were up this summer we looked at a number at local pawn shops. One Big Al suggested had been sold by the time I got around to returning but this one did the job of grinding down the screws which protruded! Of course, had Ragin' Bull been in charge of constructing these bike lockers this would never have happened!!! Neither felines are interested in helping with painting or organizing garage!
Dear Patrizzio...dear Corinne...we are well and have a good drive to VC....thank you for you lovely hospialitility..... It was a great time, with you both, thank you!!!! Annemarie Bartlome Bern, Switzerland
