Living Remodel Pre-Work

I have devised a home made piano caster for the cost of buying one professionally made piano caster. I will have three, commenserate with the number of piano legs I have, so that worked out well.

I just went on line to Steinway and Sons dot com and learned that a parlor grand Model A piano weighs 695 pounds. That is good news for me as the furniture mover I purchased has a 1000 pound capacity. That means my little casters will be well within the regulations for successful piano movamentations.

As you can see from the photos provided, I placed a brace across the furniture mover and then another brace on top of that. I used my router to create a square hole for the wheel to fit in snuggly. I spent about $60.00 for the movers and the wood to augment the movers. As I said, that is almost as much as one caster.

It still remains to be seen how easily the piano will move around with this system.

Survived the Holidays

It's two days past Christmas and we have survived it. The tough portion of the holiday is behind us and now I hope we can enjoy ourselves a little bit.

I guess we have to start thinking about New Years Resolutions. I have one every year to learn to type properly. My hunting and pecking method does not serve me very well considering the amount of time I spend on a computer.

I also want to play the piano more. It's waaaaaay out of tune but I think that can be fixed.

We also have a project to start preparing for. It is time to drywall the ceiling in the living room. Then it gets a nice treatment of crown moulding and I think some wall papering. I'm not in charge of that.

To prepare for the project, I first have to come up with a method to easily move the piano around. I have a plan in mind and I need to start on that without haste.

Deep in the Bosom of the Season

With the occurrence of the annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride, we are now firmly ensconced in the Christmas Season.

The Carriage Ride was perfect. We haven't yet had any snow to speak of this season. So when it started snowing about 11AM today, Susan and I celebrated. It did not snow a lot, just enough to create a dusting on the ground and make everything an occasion for Caucasian. It was just white enough.

We invited a few friends over and enjoyed some pizza and libations, including ice shot glasses with Fireball. Ooooh! Ahhhhh!

There was of course, the cleaning frenzy prior to the party but that went pretty smoothly this time around. Susan did not seem stressed and that's cuz I was incredibly helpful.

I painted a window on Saturday and took enough pictures to create a seminar on how I paint windows. You are particularly lucky because this is gonna be it.

It's best to start with a window. Pretty much any window will do but try to get one that you have permission to paint on.

Generally, I use tempera. Tempera is the powdered paint you used in kindergarten that mixes with water. It is not a good choice if the window is exposed to rain. It will run. In that event, you have to use acrylic.

Okay, you have a window. Now you have to decide what you are going to put on the window. In this case, it's going to be a Cigar Store.

So I made a stencil of the the copy that needed to go up and taped it into place, making sure it was square and level on the window.

Then I pulled out my big window painting dauber, and went to town on the stencil.

When you have that up, you start filling in the letters with your base color. In this case, it's very simple. White letters with a black outline. I use an inch and a half foam roller to fill in the letters. You don't have to worry about sloppy edges because you'll cover that with the outline.

When it's all filled in, you pull out the Chinese character brush and start outlining.

Now, if I was at all professional or cared, I would use an artist brace bar to support my hand as I paint. But because neither of those traits apply to me and it's a temporary window anyway, I just slap up the outline and move on.

Thus endeth the seminar!

I made some bitchin' ice candles for prior to the Carriage Ride. They froze a little too efficiently so so they kind of fell apart on me when I tried to chip a hole in them. Nonetheless, they worked groovily.

This one is completely enclosed and comes apart in half. I put LED lights in it and it looked pretty cool.

The other one came apart in three pieces but I was able to freeze it back together and make it look decent. This one had a real candle in it and was quite luminous.

Okay! That's our Holiday weekend in pictures. Now it's time to go back to work and reality!

One Wedding, a Funeral...and Lots of Sky Walks

It's been a busy week here in Lake Wobegone!

We have been out painting sky walks every night this past week. 
It cuts into our busy television viewing schedule but the money is nice.

Today we had a Memorial Service for our friend, John Roehm. (Pronounced "Raym") He has been Mom's boyfriend for the past five years. He died November 10th after being diagnosed with lung cancer back in May. He was the nicest guy I've ever met...very kind and the quintessential gentleman. We will all miss him a lot and leaves a real hole in Mom's life.

We will be leaving shortly to attend a wedding. This looks to be a very big affair. A big service at St. John's Cathedral followed by a reception at the Davenport Hotel with open bars and and a served dinner for 300. Some money is being spent!

We have one more sky walk and then we are finished. However, I did get a call from a guy who wants a temporary sign painted on a storefront window that will be opening in a couple of months. Something like "Coming Soon!" He doesn't need it right away but we'll get it done this week.

ThanksMasOween

The busy season of Thanksgiving means that it is the even busier season of Sky Walk Painting and we are up to our paramecium in it. We started last week, prior to Thanksgiving because there is a thing called "Christmas Tree Elegance" that raises funds for the Symphony and they wanted their sky walks decorated in order to get the most advertising they could.

We have ten sky walks to paint this year and we are almost half way there. After tonight, we will be half way there.

In the meantime, we have had all the associated Thanksgiving stuff going on. We had our Wednesday night out and enjoyed an evening at Bluz at the Bend.

Then we got up at 3:30 and stood in line at SpandexTown (Walmart) to get a George Foreman Grill for 75 cents. We were 768th in line and lost out to a old lady with tattoos oozing from her skinny shorts. Editor's Note: If you really believe that we gave up precious sleep to stand in line with the Truely Retarded, then my sarcasm in the previous paragraph needs to be tweeked up a tittle.

Next we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, sponsored by Toyota, until the Rockettes, sponsored by L'Eggs, kicked their long lovely gams into our hearts. Then we had to wait for Santa, sponsored by Mattel, to wave at us, thereby guaranteeing a wonderful Christmas season.

Thanksgiving was with the family and friends at the home of my sister's friend, Nancy. Mass quantities of food were consumed and then we went home and slept.

On Friday, we painted.

On Saturday, we painted.

Susan had to work Saturday night so I putzed around the house and did some stuff. Among my stuff to do was laundry. During the laundry stuff doing, I discovered that it was once again time to call a plumber and have our drain roto-rooted. It was backing up into the basement.

So we spent the rest of the weekend being very careful about how much effluent we put down the drain. The drain is long enough that we can drain things until it backs up. Then we need to give it a couple of hours to empty out.

This made it especially fun last night when we had our own
Thanksgiving meal. We like all the left overs and stuff so we always have our own meal if we don't have the opportunity to host Thanksgiving, which we never do.

We had to be very careful with what went down the drain and we had a shit load of dishes to do throughout the course of the meal prep and meal post prep.

It all worked out and we made it to Monday. Which means now we have to go back to work. Ugh!

In the meantime, here are some pictures.

Snow Day Eleven-Niner

Let it be known for the record and officially unto intoward paternity that November Niner is the first official snowfall of the season.

I'm not sure weather (Get it, weather/whether) November Eighth should really be the date because that's when the snow started.

But to be an official snowfall in my world, the snow has to stick and that didn't happen until later.

In any event, I am content with saying Eleven-Niner for the first snow of Twenty-Twelve.

I don't imagine it will be around long. It never stays on the ground this early in the season. But it may well be a sign of things to come.

Another great sign to point to is the number of car crashes during the morning commute. By that yard stick, Eleven-Niner again qualifies.

Also, for you Numerologists out there, Eleven-Niner is the opposite of Nine-Eleven. Coincidence? Probably!

Old and Out of Touch

As I write this, the President is speaking, giving his victory speech to the majority of people with whom I am clearly out of touch.

Basically, if I voted for you today, you lost! There are couple of exceptions, but only a couple.

But the great thing about the U.S. of America is our ability for a seamless transition of power without too much consternation and you move on to fight another day.

But it is now official as proven by the election of 2012. I am old and out of touch with America.

So now we have Gay Marriage and Legalized Marijuna in the state of Washington, which reminds me of a Bible quote that makes more sense now. "If a man lays down with another man, he should be stoned" Leviticus 20:13.

A Crime that's not a Crime

We spent our extra hour in the comfort of the bed. It was fabulous. Usually I try to save my extra hour for later in the week. I might use it to take a long lunch or read a good book. But I was tired and really rally really enjoyed using it to sleep more. I have a feeling that will be a major theme in my life going forward.

Susan worked to clean inside and I worked on the outside. I pulled the post holders from the flying ghost out of the ground and raked and blew the leaves around until they formed nice neat piles. 

Yesterday, I loaded the leaves from the curb into my garbage can. They filled the can and left me with very little room for garbage. Upon reflection, I realized that these leaves technically belong to the city since they were in the street. I decided to return them to the city by dumping the leaves I collected into a pile of leaves in the park directly across the street from the house. One might say this is illegal. Another one might say you're full of shit! I say, what leaves are you talking about?

So what we are dealing with here is a precarious legal high wire. I guess it would be best if we never spoke of this again.

All Hallow's Clean A Ween

We spent our Saturday cleaning up and stowing Halloween Stuff. Good Lord, we have a lot! It was raining for a good portion of the day which made it all the more fun when I did get out into the yard to gather up the decor. I have a quartet of hay bales that I have no idea what to do with. Perhaps I'll put them on Craig's List and see if they get hauled away.

I guess I have nothing more exciting than that to say for today.

Revised T or T Totals

We have discovered that our neighbor upon whom we rely for Trick or Treat totals ran out of candy and temporarily suspended distribution while making a run to the store. 

Another neighbor a few houses away also keeps a running total with a clicker and told us they counted over 1,400. I'm not going to get nitpicky with the numbers. Let's just say we had a "Shitload" of kids (and a few adults) stop by the house on Wednesday Night.

Eleven Se7enty-Three

The first kid showed up at 4:40PM. Actually, that's not true. One kid who had been running around the park with his track team from North Central High School knocked on the door at about three and said, "Trick or Treat?" He asked it like it was a question. I told him I'm not ready yet. I hadn't even brought up the candy from the basement yet.

The rain stayed away. It turned out to be a great night. Here are the pictures!

That last picture above is pretty indicative of the crowds we had. At one point, it was like that for a good hour. Just kids coming up one side of the stairs and going down the other.

I am still amazed (for the eighth year now) at the number of people in our neighborhood considering the low number of houses that are lit up and giving out candy. There are approximately 75 houses around the park and I bet there were less than half open for Halloween.

We threw our last candy (lollipops) at some kids at about 8:30. Then our party started. This is the party where we clean up all the crap out in the yard and deposit it in the living room. Then we have some Sloppy Joes and beer. We were all so tired, we just sat around the table and enjoyed the quiet.

So another Halloween is in the books. Eleven hundred kids have our candy and we have some clean up to do.

Waging War With Wine

We have had a busy weekend getting ready for Halloween and just general cleaning.

The main mess in the kitchen has been wine. Not just the wine we are drinking, which is A LOT, but the wine we are making. Suddenly I have fermenters all over the place with yeast working hard to make sure we keep as little blood in our alcohol system as possible.

It started a few weeks back when all these people at church at plums up the ass. We decided we should make some plum wine. Afterall, that is the wine that won Grand Champion the last two years at the fair. If you can't beat them, make the same wine as them and try to beat them that way. That what we always say.

So I gathered up enough plums to make six gallons. According to the recipe book, that was 24 pounds o'plumses. It turned out in our case that we are fermenting se7en gallons of Plum Wine. I have a six gallon carboy and a one gallon jug next to it.

The pulp from the Syrah grapes we got not only produced juice but it seemed to produce fruit flies by the copius hundreds. The problem was that I had the mesh bag full of grape pulp sitting in my eight gallon bucket. I was opening it often to squeeze the bag and extract as much juice as possible.

Everytime I opened the lid and squeezed, I was getting pulp dripping down the side of the bucket. It made for quite a sticky mess on the floor. I finally got smart and laid down some plastic.

Saturday night I racked as much of the juice as I could out of the bucket and into the six gallon carboy. It was a really slow process as the syphon kept clogging due to the amount of free floating pulp and the stuff that had sunk to the bottom. It was clear from the start that we had more than six gallons. I got a second five gallon carboy and ended up with close to two more gallons of juice. That finally allowed me to get the pulp laden plastic off the floor. The fruit flies should be gone soon. Or they are settling in.

Susan spent most of the weekend cleaning while I was outside avoiding cleaning. My task was to set up the flying ghosts. I got the post holders pounded into the ground on Saturday and placed the posts today. Then I set about the job of stringing the fishing line.

With Susan's help I got it strung. We put our first test ghost into place and it fell off before going half way around the first wheel.

I am having definite issues with tension...both on the string and in my forehead.

We finally had to give up due to rain. Rain and wind will play havoc with the ghosts so we are hoping both will stay away when the 31st comes.

There is still lots to do...and then we'll be dead!

It was a Dark & Chilly Night

Our Syrah is in the bucket but I haven't thrown the yeast in yet. I'm still trying to get more juice out of the pulp. Susan and I had a squeezing session last night and it didn't go well. There is sooooo much pulp that it is really hard to lift the bag up out of the fermenter. It's a heavy Mofo. Once it is out, Susan had a tough time squeezing. We got juice out, but there is lots yet to extract. We will try again tonight and probably toss the yeast in.

The amount of daylight is getting lesser and lesserer. I recently purchased these nifty new outdoor timers to operate my outdoor spotlights. They operate on a timer or I can set them to come on at dusk and go off 12 hours later.

I presently have it set for the dusk set up but we are now at the point were it is still dark 12 hours after the lights come on. So now I have to make the proper adjustments. The problem is that it is getting dark by the time I get home. So it is more difficulter to make my adjustments. I will be wearing my flashlight hat to get this done.

I bring this up only to mention that I am now leaving the back porch light on 24 hours per day. It's just gotten to that time. That means that it is only a matter of time before the snow starts flying.

That now leads me to my annual statement about winter which is this: As I get older, Winter gets colder!

The Grapes of 2102

We have returned home with our booty of grapes. They are currently sitting in a bath of themselves in my giant cooler. We started with 100 pounds. Then they went through the crusher and became juice...or perhaps more accurately, must. 

But let's get things in order.

We started our day by getting up around 8 and having a hearty breakfast at the Sunnyside Inn. If anyone is looking for a nice place to stay in the Yakima Valley, more specifically, the Sunnyside/Prosser area, we recommend the Sunnyside Inn.

After breakfast, we loaded up and headed for our first winery. We were planning on going to Steppe Cellars in an area known as Rattlesnake Hills, but they didn't open until 11. We had to be at our grape source at 11 so that was a no-go. There was another winery in the immediate area called Tefft, so we went there.

We ended up buying a box of wine from these guys.

From here, we went to Vine Heart. This is our grape connection. Things went very smoothly at Vine Heart and we were in and outta there with our must in 20 minutes.

After that, the day was ours to do as we pleased and then head home at a reasonable hour.

There is a wine makers coop area in Prosser where we can hit several wineries in one stop. We went to three bing-bang-boom!

First was Coyote Canyon. There were a bunch of people there and we got a nice tour and lots of questions answered. Plus they had meatballs. Yum!

Next door was Martinez and Martinez. Tasted lots, bought nothing.
Oh wait! I forgot that Susan bought a Corkscrew from these guys.
Next to them, behind the fountain is Apex. Again...tasted but no purchase. 

We ended our tasting day at Milbrandt Vineyards. We had some food and some wines and then decided to call it a day.

The drive home took two and half hours, covering about 180 miles. It was a quick weekend trip, made necessary by our busy schedule.

Here are a couple of pictures to depict the definite arrival of Autumn. The park looks fabulous!

The Pursuit of Grapes

For the first time in 52 days, we have had rain. It's not a big deal. It is the eleventh longest Spokane has gone without rain in recorded history...that's about 135 years. It's probably nothing but a speck in the great scheme of time. All I can tell you is our lawn is dry.

I am writing this from the Helen room in the Sunnyside Inn in Sunnyside, Wa. We are out to get some grapes this weekend. We have arranged to pick up 100 pounds of Syrah grapes from our contact Patricia in Prosser. Prosser is just down the road from Sunnyside which is just down the road from Yakima, which is just down the road from Ellensburg, which is just down the road from Seattle, which is nowhere near where we live.

We have had a wonderful day of driving and wine tasting. Susan is resting prior to our night on the town of going for pizza and beers and then returning to our room to crash, watch movies and soak in the giant bathtub in our room...the Helen room.

We have been to several wineries. Let's see if I can recount them in order. First we stopped at this Spanish looking hacienda place off the highway on the way to Prosser called Chandler Reach. We spent $10 there on a glass and wine tasting fees. We also watched some grape crushing.

We continued on to Prosser but first stopped at Bern's Tavern for beer and some lunch. We needed to have food in our bellies in order to survive the coming onslaught of vinery juice.

After Bern's, our first stop was the Yakima River Winery. This place is a quiet little Mom and Pop winery owned by Mom and Pop Winemaker. Mom served us several glasses of great tasting wine and charged us no fee. We therefore felt compelled to buy a bottle of Syrah which we will lay down for three years.

Next we hit the Desert Wind Winery. We paid a $5.00 fee for tasting and bought nothing. We liked lots of their samples though.

From there we ventured to Kestrell Winery. This is a place we like a lot because of their cheese selection. However, today they did not have the Horseradish cheese we have purchased in the past. We did buy a wine tasting passport which waves all the tasting fees at a lot of wineries. It cost $35.00 so we have to hit six more wineries to break even.

Next was Mercer, a nice little winery with many nice wines that they didn't charge us to taste. So why did we buy the passport?!

From Mercer we went to Snoqualmie. We bought two bottles from them. One was a really tasty 2001 Merlot that I want to drink NOW! But, we are going to save it for a special occassion. Monday, for example.

From Snoqualmie we drove to a little family owned winery called Davenlore. We went there mainly because we bought a refillable bottle there last year. It was $25.00 to buy the bottle and the wine last year but only $15.00 this year. Plus, they served us lots of wine and did not charge a fee.

Our next stop was to the Yellow Rose Garden Center to try and buy a Halloween prop we saw there several years ago. Alas, (who ever says "Alas" anymore) it was not for sale. So we trudged across the street to Willow Springs winery. We'll probably go back because the have a wonderfully cheap alternative to Bailey's Irish Cream. 

Finally, we finished our tasting day at the Airfield. Airfield Winery is a nice place that was very busy. They had people stomping grapes in the back room and lots of wine to sample out front.

By this time, we (but especially Susan) were getting pretty souced and it was time to head to Sunnyside to check in to our room...the Helen Room.

As we drove the ten miles from Prosser to Sunnyside, we began to notice a change in the overall smell of things. Sunnyside stunk! It smelled like the abandoned outhouse at a stockyards. Fortunately, the smell had not inundated the Sunnyside Inn. Our room smelled fine.

After a brief nap, we headed out to dinner and noticed the smell had moved on. We went to the Snipes Mountain Brewery for a little beer and pizza. Wood fired pizza ovens seem to be very popular in this part of the state.

Now we are up to date and it is time to relax in our room and watch a movie. We selected "Walk the Line" from the library here at the Inn. We also need to soberize ourselves. We still have to get through tomorrow.

The Boiler Game is Over

The temperature was below freezing the last couple of nights and so I fired up the boiler last night. October 5th is the oficial boiler game date for this year. Not even close to the record.

But we are warm.

As you can see from the tree in our front yard, Fall is here. We spent the day doing Fall things. That means getting Halloween stuff ready. It's a pain for me because I have come down with the cold Susan had. I'm much more of a pussy than her so I won't bear it near as well.

We are closing in on completing our newest Halloween addition. it's a giant pumpkin scare crow. Susan is down to the wire on the paper mache punkin.

I may have more to say but is head is clouded but snot. See, I told you I won't bear this well.

The Boiler Game

It's getting chilly in the night time where the sun seems to just up and leave the sky. What is up with THAT!?!

The chill means that it is once again time to play "The Boiler Game". As you will no doubt recall from Octobers of yesteryear, we try to see how long we can go before we have to reignite the pilot light in the furnace and turn on the heat.

I just looked back to last year but could not find a definitive post that gave a date as to when the heat came on. It looks like we made it past Oct 21st. That could be the record. I'll have to research it.

I managed to get another color of paint on the bird houses this morning. I should have them finished soon and ready to put up this weekend. Then the birds too stupid to head south for the winter will have public housing for the winter.

End of September Update

We had a semi busy weekend which was marred by illness. Susan has been steadily coming down with a cold since last week and it continued through the weekend...even though she had to work a hockey game on Saturday. She is tough.

Even though she was feeling sickish, that couldn't keep her away from our annual visit to the Greek Festival and the local Greek Orthodox Church. Normally, we ride our bike's but Susan thought it would be best to drive because of her depleted state. It was fabulous as usual and again makes me wonder why I don't enjoy orzo more. I really love that little football shaped noodle.

I spent the weekend goofing around the yard, doing odd jobs here and there. I spent some time on a new Halloween Prop. I cleaned up around the yard. I started painting some bird houses I have had for a couple of years but not put up. And I made some beer.

 It's an Octoberfest Beer and I used some of my home grown hops. Above is the wort boiling away prior to adding the hops. Below is the hops, the store bought stuff from the store where I bought it and the home grown stuff from the home where I grew it.

It is currently bubbling along in the kitchen as the fermentation process has taken off and gone wild.

I've been holding off on these bird houses because I had to get them painted. And naturally, they had to be painted in the color scheme of the house. I got them primed on Sunday and then added some base colors later. They will soon be the bitchin' best bird bedroom in the neighborhood.

Catching Up

I haven't had the time or inclination lately to update the ol' Bloggerooni. So here I is...updating!

When last we got together, we were talking about how Susan and I are better label makers than we are wine makers. Now that the fair is over and we have retrieved our entries, I was hoping there might be some constructive criticism on the judging forms that might help us determine where we could improve.

Unfortunately, the judging forms are not designed that way. They have about five categories and they rate each category with a number. Then they total up the numbers and the highest number wins.

They left a few comments but nothing helpful. My favorite comment was left on our friend Ellen's entry inwhich the judge noted that the wine was "slightly tart with slightly tarty flavor". I suggest there is a bit of tard in that judge.

Today is the last full day of Summer and the summer weather continues to stay with us although it is augmented by the slightly smokey nature of the various forest fires going on in our region. We end up with cool looking sunsets like this one.

My buddy Mike was just in town for a brief visit in order to say "Good Bye" to his Mom. She has had a steady decline over the past  few years due to the Ahlzheimers. So while it is sad, it also a blessing that she is now at peace and hangin' with Jesus!

My work has been incredibly busy as all our customers want it NOW! I put in a bunch of hours last week in order to finish printing the full wrap graphics for a motorhome that is becoming a mobile health clinic.

This week has been much more mellow. I'm actually writing this during my work hours, which I hardly ever do. I can today because I'm sitting here at the computer pressing the "Go" button every five minutes on some decals I have to cut. Oops! There they go again. Excuse me whilst I change sheets. 11:21AM

I'm back! 11:23AM

We are having a festive Potato Lunch today. The boss has provided a mess o' taters, they have been baked and are now sitting on the barbeque awaiting extracation from the flames.

I think I shall go eat me a tater! Later!!  11:36AM

1:53PM Wow! Great lunch. Everybody had plenty to eat and it was quite tasty.

I guess that's all I have to say today. Thanks for watching!

Harvest Time

I have started the Hops harvest. They were ready and I managed to find a little time on Sunday in between Biking and Fairing.

I'm only going to save the Sterling Hops, as that is a variety I can use in my home brewing. The Hallertau shall go to the birds, worms, or whatever wishes to chew on them.

They have done their job for the year and provided great vining foliage for the arbors on the deck. The fact that I get usable hops out of it is purly foam on the beer.

Next, I'm going to pick the few bunches of grapes we have and blend them into a small amount of juice to try to make wine from.

September 9th, Part B

We have returned from the Spokane Interstate Fair. We have had our fill of fair food. Elephant ear, jumbo corn dog, wonder bar, greasy fair food, we had it all. Or at least a lot.

We often refer to our wines as award winners. The reason is because we have won ribbons at the fair. We had high hopes for our Zinfandel this year. Our hopes were dashed...but not completely. We got a second place ribbon. The Norby's (those Bastards!) are once again the Grand Champions.

I think I know why we didn't have the results we were hoping for. Our Zin had a lot of sediment that settled on the sides of the bottles. I don't think it effects the taste but it is aestectically unsettling. We are really happy with the taste, but the smelll is not what it could be.

On the bright side, our label won Grand Champion.

Sept 9th, Part One

For the first time in weeks, it rained this morning. it is much needed and welcomed, but not on the day of the fifth running of SpokeFest.  

This was our fifth time as well. We did the nine mile route which is prefect for us. 

Frankly, our bodies cannot withstand much more than nine miles. It's just a couple of miles after the start where are butts get sore and not long after that where certain parts of my anatomy start to go numb...parts I don't want going numb. Let's just say that Susan is totally correct now when she refers to me as "NumbNuts"!

Now, it's off to the fair see how we fared in the wine competition.