It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Ten days since my last post. My sincerest of apologies. It’s been a busy week!

Summer’s here, not a moment too soon. Calgary’s in the midst of quite the heat wave, and it’s been another unusual May – what else is new? Two weeks ago, we had snow and it was hovering around zero. Friday, yesterday and today, it’s somewhere between 26 and 28 degrees.

We’ve been gardening all this weekend: ripped up what was essentially a quarry of a front yard over the last two days, backfilled it with dirt, and today we’re planting an abundance of shrubs, creepers and annuals. There won’t be any grass in the front. We’ve taken the yard from being no maintenance to low maintenance. Pictures cometh soon.

In celebration, we had what turned out to be a really bad bottle of California rosé yesterday. No need to divulge the producer, because I think the problem was my mistake and not the wine’s. I think the error was keeping it – a 2004 – this long. Rosés by in large are meant to be drunk young and fresh. This one had a peculiar candied, stewed rhubarb thing going on that was half acidic and half jam. Almost like a zinfandel that was missing all of its depth and richness. I think that had it been fresh, the acid would have been more in line and the fruit would have been ripe and less stewed.

Last weekend, I happily returned from ten days away on business in Toronto and Winnipeg. The trip was good – long, but good. It was nice to be traveling again. I really enjoy the travel, as it lets me see Canada while not spending a lot of my own money. Back home, we had a great dinner on Sunday night with my parents, celebrating among other things, my 29th birthday, my Mom’s formal announcement that she’s retiring in 6 weeks, and my wife and I’s 3rd anniversary next week. Good excuses for a dinner.