I guess I owe the blog an update! We are often away during weekends in the Summer, and this year is no exception. Two weekends ago we spent the weekend at my SiL’s cottage. It was oppressively hot, felt like upper 30s… So being near the water was wonderful. We were greeted by Black Sabbath blasting from an LP, I thought that was an exalted welcome. (We ended up listing to the whole album after we got settled…) Due to the extreme heat – most of the activities involved the boat or chilling by the lake. We enjoyed a lovely cruise navigated by Captain Liam one night, the (above) sunset was quite nice.  The major outing was a boat trip to The Waubic. This included a voyage through Big Chute and its interesting lock.

It was a stupidly hot day. Once we arrived at the Waubic we were told the heat had taken out a number of their appliances (including a beer fridge – RIP) – so they were having a horrible day trying to keep up with orders. Frankly, I’m surprised they stayed open. But the staff admirably trudged through, what I’m sure, was an awful day for them. It was NOT reflected in their attitude. Remarkably, they remained welcoming and relaxed. So – in spite of the ridiculously long way for our delicious food, we didn’t complain. The World Cup was on and Flying Monkey’s were on site – so there was plenty of distraction. I would return, I was impressed by the Waubic. I thought it was neat to boat to a restaurant too. Not too surprisingly, all the Sun took its toll on me. I was wiped out by the time we returned to the cottage. I spent most of the night in bed with a headache. Sigh.
While at the cottage, I talked SNES Classic with Bdot’s BiL. Apparently the system is very hackable, with low risk… I tried it when I got home and added tons of games to the system flawlessly. I was a little disappointed initially with the games but with the hack, and the ability to add vitually any SNES game, the system is a good buy.
The rest of the weekend was spent eating, reading, swimming and relaxing. Typical cottage weekend. It was a good time.

We have a lot of gardens on our property. Seven big garden beds. Keeping them (and the lawn) watered consistently is difficult and time-consuming. We have spent a good deal of money on landscaping, plants and the exterior of the property – so in a small way – we wanted to protect our investment. So we had a sprinkler system installed last week. To attempt to keep the cost down we helped with the prep and install. I moved tons of pea gravel and we both helped with the install. *eyeroll* It saved us a measly $200 bucks, which, IMHO, was waaaaaaaaaay less than the time and effort we put into it. Nevertheless, the plants and lawns are now on a schedule and we don’t have to worry about them when we are away throughout the hot Summer days.
The big news story over the past few weeks was the rescue of the Thai Boy’s Soccer team that was trapped in a cave for over a week. In a rare instance, the World seemed to pull together and join forces to mount the rescue. Divers and resources from all over the World were brought in to save the boys. Miraculously, ALL the boys and the coach got out alive. It was an incredible story of the power of unity. It is a shame it happens so rarely. Sadly a Thai Navy Seal died during the rescue.
The World Cup is down to three team for the Cup: France, England and Croatia. England and Croatia square off today. The games have been good with the exception off all the embarrassing theatrics by some of the players. Neymar acted like such a baby the internet memed him badly. I’m hoping for a England/France final.
We are camping at Bon Echo this weekend. Sadly we just found out there is a fire ban there, so that is disappointing.
I’m such a sucker for Linux Mint. We have a long on and off relationship. We are dating again. I’ve installed 19 on the laptop. So far it is solid. Which I say every time until it isn’t….
I got snipped yesterday. That was a very unpleasant experience.