Happy Thanksgiving

Finally had a chance to light a fire. That fireplace insert is the greatest thing. Puts out a lot of heat and the flames are fascinating to watch. Plus we finally have the technique down for building a fire in it.  The secret of course is to use soft wood for the initial stage and include small pieces of hard wood that don't have any bark on them.  We don't grow any soft wood of our own, so we use scrap lumber from Ted's woodworking projects.  Once that fire is going it is hard to pull yourself away from it.  Reminds me of that chapter of Wind in the Willows.  I'm like the Badger, sitting back in his chair with his feet up and a hanky over his face.  Not sure what the hanky is about, but I definitely am feeling extra sleepy this time of year.

We went over to friends for Thanksgiving dinner and played with their Wii. It was fun, but not any more fun than playing cards would have been.

F has been here since Tuesday late afternoon, so that has been fun for us. She hounded us to get out the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, so the tree has been hauled out of the garage loft and washed and set up in the living room.  All decorated except for the dastardly 12 Days of Christmas ornaments.  Haven't quite mustered up the guts to get them in place, but everything else is up.

In other news, my rear bike tire finally wore to the point that I had to get another one. Replaced it yesterday at odometer reading of 1791 miles.  I bought the replacement tire at my LBS (local bike shop).  The owner warned me I was likely to get a flat when I replaced the tire, since the tube would have vulcanized to the tire.  I assured him I had tires liners.  He said that would lesson the problem.  I told him I would take my chances.  It is true that changing a tire after a flat often leads to another flat, but if he was trying to pressure me into buying a tube it didn't work.  Since replacing the tire I have had to put air in it once, we will see if it the tube holds up okay or not.
update
Replaced that rear tire on Aug 17 2011 at odometer reading of 3938, so I got 2,147 miles on that tire!