If it weren’t for the honor of the thing, I’d skip writing anything today – it’s been busy and I’m exhausted.

The high point of the day was lunch with our friends at Eric’s Deli Cafe. The food was, well, it was Erik’s – we’ve been going there for more than 35 years, and it hasn’t changed much in that time. Good, filling, and simple. But seeing our friends in person instead of on-screen was a nice change!

I decided to resume ripping my DVDs to put them on my Plex server, so I spent a lot of the day fighting Handbrake. So far, even though I’ve installed libdvdcss according to the best instructions I’ve found, Handbrake doesn’t see it, so I have to use MakeMKV to actually rip the DVDs. And I haven’t been able to get subtitles properly included in the MP4 files that Handbrake creates. The good news is that using my M1 Mac mini to do the conversion to MP4 is fast – if I use “Super HQ” mode, it converts at 4x speed; if I use “Fast” mode, it converts at 12x speed. I’m hoping to figure out what’s up with the subtitles tomorrow when I’m awake!

We attended a Mensa event this afternoon: “An Afternoon of Language and Laughter with Richard Lederer”. I’ve been reading Lederer’s columns for years, mostly in the Mensa Bulletin, but I’ve also seen him in Toastmasters Magazine, the AARP Magazine, and probably elsewhere; this was the first time I’d had the chance to hear him live.

The session was a lot of fun (if a bit disorganized); he divided it into three acts, with Q&A between. It will be on San Francisco Mensa’s YouTube channel sometime soon. I found that he’d given a presentation on Fascinating Facts about Our Presidents last year, and I’m looking forward to watching it.

I had to dig through some of my files last week to figure out when we’d had the electrical and plumbing systems upgraded; it wasn’t easy. The drawers were stuffed, and the folders weren’t well-labeled. I did find what I needed, but I had to pull out all of the folders having to do with the house in the process.

Today, I spent the time to put those folders in better order; I also got rid of paperwork that I didn’t have to keep (like repair orders for the roof we replaced years ago). While I was at it, I looked through some of the other files in the same drawer and realized I didn’t really have to keep my Windows XP install disk any more!

The highlight of the day was visiting two of our favorite wineries to pick up the current releases. We started at Silver Mountain, where we picked up the 2015 and 2016 Sonnet Pinot Noir Black Ridge Vineyard as part of our shipment, and also took advantage of the trio special to acquire more Alloy, Spencer’s Choice, and Syrah.

After that, we went to Burrell School and picked up a Chardonnay, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and their top wine, Valedictorian.

We could have picked up our release at Silvertip, too, but they were still being extra-cautious due to Covid and were doing a no-contact pickup with no tasting; I decided it was the better part of valor to let FedEx deliver the wine later this week.

After we got home, we took a twilight walk and enjoyed the sunset.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, not at all!

We went to Costco today – I had a prescription to fill, and it was by far the cheapest place to do it. While I waited for them to confirm the price, of course we shopped; one of the things we were looking for was induction-compatible cookware, especially saucepans.

None of the cookware on the shelves was induction-compatible, but Hexclad was in the warehouse for a “special event.” Their cookware was clearly labeled as induction-compatible and non-stick, so we let the demonstrator show it to us. It looked good – he cooked an omelet with just a little oil and showed us how he could use a metal spatula without harm. But he didn’t have any saucepans (he’d sold out), and we didn’t really need any more skillets. So we left empty-handed, but with a link to their website to find out more.

Unsurprisingly, the website made the cookware look even better than the demonstrator did. But I did a little more research and found a Hexclad review from The Rational Kitchen. I’d run into The Rational Kitchen when we were deciding on a cooktop (which isn’t here yet!) and I liked the way they went into detail and explained things; they did the same thing here.

One of their observations was that you (we) probably don’t need non-stick saucepans. Considering we mostly make rice and pasta in ours, that’s probably true – and that means Hexclad isn’t a great fit for our needs, so I’m glad they didn’t have it in the warehouse today!

It was a typical Thursday, starting with Toastmasters and ending with our Trivial Zoom call.

That was about the extent of the excitement today – yes, we went shopping, and yes, I was able to do seat selection for our Portugal trip next year, but that’s pretty much it.

Oh, wait – the furnace turned on this morning for the first time this season – I knew there was something unusual about today!