It's Been A Quiet Week

Not much happening this week except to continue organizing what I want to keep and what goes.

The highlight so far this week was having Ellie hang out with us yesterday. We had an extra long game of Hide and go Seek cuz I took a little rest while hiding in the bath tub.

 It's the only way I could get a 5 minute snooze. Ruth finally helped her find me.

After I asked her if she would like a bite of my strawberry.

She didn't quite understand. She ate most of it.

I made a treat for dinner. Yumm

Another Busy Weekend

We dropped past Shellie's place to give her a piece of stainless steel art work that Carrie did a few years ago encorperating some glass work that out friend Tracy did before she passed.

 Shelly loves both Carrie and Tracy. She was very touched to be on the receiving end of this work.

 We made a good choice in giving it to her. 

We also had Keith and Lisa drop over for happy hour yesterday. It was a great visit .

Ruth ended up throwing a quick and easy dinner together for us. It was after dark when they left.

We always love when we see them. 

I was telling him I was what he is going to look like in 10 years.

Same hair cut only gray. Same clothes only looser.

I went to the boat show Sunday afternoon with Michael and saw the sister of my old boat. 

It is a 1941 Chris Craft Barrel Back . A beautiful machine.

I won a lot of trophies when I owned it.

This one came first place in Tahoe last summer.

Mine was just as nice.

Andrew Middleton restored both of them. 

He's a magician when it comes to these old wooden boats.

My 1869 Steinway

I bought this piano as a basket case about 10 years ago. Since then I have replaced the Soundboard , Strings , Pins , Bridge caps as well as the keyframe and keys which were custom made in Germany for this instrument. I also had the Mason Hamlin Piano Engineers design and build a new carbon fibre action for it. Today I did a tuning and some final regulation . It's turned out beautiful.

If we weren't moving out of this house I would keep this piano. It's the nicest instrument I have ever owned but I don't know where we are going to be living so it doesn't make sense to keep it.

The tone is the richest I have ever heard. Someone is going to be very happy.

I will start advertising it next week.

Sunday Night Was Party Night

I've know Mike for over 40 years. We both started out careers in Winnipeg at the Yamaha Music Centre. Sunday night he threw a birthday party for his wife at this little restaurant down town. He invited 22 people and we all came. It was quite nice. 

Mike was the host of host's. He made sure everyone had food and wine at all times.

Here I caught him outside taking a 3 minute wine break for himself.

This was funny. She found a wood tick on the table and spent the next 5 minutes trying to kill it.

We couldn't figure out how it could have gotten on the table.

Peter was sporting his new Dr. No hair cut. I almost didn't recognize him.

Ronnie was all grins . She seemed to love her her party.

She's a smoker so Mike decided to just give her a few candles to blow out on top of the numbers
 representing her birthday instead of putting out a candle for every year.
I think he was afraid she wouldn't have the wind to actually blow them all out.

She loves getting big presents. I think I heard her say that size does matter.

It was taking so long opening the big one that recruits jumped up to help.

This was a cool indoor / outdoor electric candle.

It was a lovely party. Lots of laughs. We got home around 11:00.

It's Been A Busy Week

We started the week by going for a hike along the Greenway with our friends. 

Daisy was wondering why non of them wait for her when she stops to do her morning business.

Good thing she is so quick to catch up.

I finally have my 1869 Steinway ready to sell. 

I bought it 10 years ago as a basket case and have wondered for years if I would ever be finished.

That day has finally come. It turned out beautiful. I need one more day to tweak it .
 I'll start advertising all over North America on Monday.
I hope it sells easily. It is a very rare instrument.

We both saw Deb this week for hair cuts.

Ruth had more cut off than I grow in a year. It's not fair.

Friday afternoon I went to my friend's to tune his piano.

I love coming here. First thing he does is fill my wine glass and set me down to work. 

After I finished we cooked some steaks , opened more wine and sat around lying to each other until a little after 11:00 .
That's when I headed back home. What a great evening.

We decided to do this every 6 weeks or so.

Ruth was at the town house painting every day this week and I was there about 4 out of 6 days this week. It's almost ready for the renters. Thank goodness. 

I Just Saw A Great Movie

It was Called Ugly Benny. That caught my attention because it was about this little dog.

Last winter this jerk working in a garage pumping gas called Daisy ugly.

So this show is about a dog that looks like Daisy. I took this picture off of my iPad.
This is Ugly Benny.

I took this picture of my beautiful Daisy in her garbage bag rain coat..

That guy in the garage station was an IDIOT.

This was taken when her hair was al little longer.

She could have been a star.

Mian and Lindsey Spent The Night

It is always so great to see this couple. Mian lived with us for a while when she was a teen .
Ruth and I consider her a daughter. She is a great kid.
 So she met this wonderful young man and married him at out place a few years ago.
Ruth had the honour of performing the ceremony . It was a wonderful day.

So now they are expecting a little one and thankfully they love to visit with us.

If it's a boy I hope they call it Richard. Hahaha.

We both wanted a picture with them.

I wish I was more photogenic. That Damn dog is always trying to get in front of the camera.

Lindsey is a wonderful cook so we said that if they were wanting to stay he would have to make the meal.

The Gang was all here hanging around the bar watching him do his thing.

It was wonderful. He preferred plating this dinner to buffet style. I appreciated that.

He also set the table. Nice guy. He made us all feel lazy.

We had the grand kids for the day and Brad made it here for dinner.

 He had a busy day with family members from Vancouver so we were happy he could be here with us tonight. We all had a nice evening. Great conversations.

Why do I always look so serious?

Gus To The Rescue

When ever I am in a pinch and need to find something  a little weird I seem to be able to be able to count on Gus. He has the biggest collection of everything you could ever want. Today I needed 2 brass  pins for my Steinway. I called Gus from Home Depot to see if he had anything like that. I was telling him that I had a brass rod in my hand but it was too large in diameter. He suggested I buy it and we can turn it down on his metal laithe. No problem. Here Gus is cutting off a length of rod.

He gave me the chore of milling it down.

 The professional took over when it came time to making it look pretty.

He has the most interesting shop. This lady belongs on a car he has restored.

The car is hidden behind all of these treasures.

It's a beautiful Rolls Royce. I still want a ride in it. Maybe this summer.

Every time I visit Gus he shows me something new. This is a mint General Electric fridge from 1929. It's very rare.

 He says he had been looking for this model for 20 years. 

This is an antique cream separator. I'd never seen one before but when I told Ruth about it she said hem mom used one every day when she grew up on the farm. They had 7 cows that needed milking twice a day and then mom would run the milk thru this machine.

problem.

It's Been A Slow Week

It's been boring week until today. All we have done all week was concentrate on getting the town house ready to rent.
The good news is that we have good renters lined up for May 1st.

Today I got started on the Steinway again.

The new black keys were just a little too long. The fall board wouldn't open the way it was .

First thing was to get the exact measurements . The tape shows where the fall board sits.

I made a jig in my shop and it lines up the back of the key exactly where they need to be cut.

Using my new $60.00 Japanese saw I made these cuts exactly where they needed to be.

I broke 2 teeth on this new saw while cutting the Ebony Hard Wood keys.

It was worth the price. This saw could cut such fine slivers of hard wood. 

The job turned out the way I wanted.

Ruth said it took me about 3 hours to do all the cuts.

I have one more major job with the Steinway. I need 2 brass pins of a special size to hold and guide the key frame as the soft pedal is depressed. I'm not sure where I can get a brass pin the length or diameter that I need.

I'll be soo happy when this piano is done.