Wednesday, December 4th

Happy anniversary Charlene & Phil.
  It was a very nice day here in the Valley.  How nice, well I am in short pants.  The temperature didn't seem that high, but in the sun it was like a nice summer day.  The day started with a monkey bread Marg made, our first one of this winter season.  I had a large chunk of it and she also took a piece over to Janice next door.
  I went out this morning looking for window catches for two of our windows.  I check at both the hardware stores without any luck, so I went to the RV salvage yard.  It is really quite an experience, totally disorganized junk all from various kinds of trailers and park models spread out over about an acre of land and run down buildings.  I've bought a few things there in the past, but it really is a last resort stop.  The guy who owns it is a real classic junk yard dealer.  Anyway I did find what I was looking for but he wouldn't take the sliding windows out of the trailer they were in, he wanted to sell the window as a unit.  Marg was doing laundry this morning, so stayed home, a more productive morning than I had.
  Back home I started on a different project.  Marg and I put wallpaper on the back splash in the kitchen area a few years back.  One piece of it was in poor shape, so I stripped it off and then made a replacement.  If you have not heard my wallpaper horror stories, you cannot appreciate how I loathe wallpapering.  We did manage to get it cut, wet and stuck to the wall.  Fingers crossed, it may even stay on the wall.
  Lunch was cold roast beef sandwiches, the last of the roast from the other day.  That was a very good roast and made a great sandwich.  After lunch Marg finished the laundry and had a few visitors.  There are still some people arriving for the first time this fall and one of them was one of the gamblin' gals.  I went to play pool and got in with two from yesterday and another player who is one of our better players.  We had good games and a few laughs as usual.
  We wrapped things up a bit early as we had jobs at the hamburger offering.  Gary's burgers are a regular monthly event and we have helped in the past as it takes quite a few people to put it together.  Marg served at the counter, I as in the past toasted buns on the grill.  It is a bit of a challenge as Gary uses the majority of the grill space for the burgers.  Also offered are: french fries [in a deep fryer], chili, potato chips, all the condiments and an assortment of drinks.  I think we did about 120 burgers tonight and they all seem to happen at the same time.  They are large burgers and the very first time we went, I had a double burger and couldn't finish it.  When cooked it is bigger than a quarter pounder.  I am always amazed at the number of people who order doubles.  After an hour of a full grill [20 burger patties & 20 buns open to toast both sides] we eat and then clean the hall and kitchen.  Its a bit of an ordeal.
  When we finished the poker players had already started, so I drove Marg home, picked up my coin bag and went back to play for a couple of hours.  I didn't win any big pots and in fact probably came away down a little bit, but I sat at a good table and it was fun.  We'll sure sleep tonight.