My winning streak in Learned League didn’t last long; yesterday’s match was a tie. I missed this question:

The works of Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov include Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, and what 1896 play, his first major work, which, despite its title, is actually set somewhere inland in present-day central Russia or Ukraine?

The best I could come up with was “Deep Souls”, which was wrong. The right answer, of course, is “The Seagull”.

We spent the morning at Shir Hadash, first for Torah Study and then services; Diane chanted Torah. There was a “Lunch and Learn” afterwards, but it was so crowded we went home instead, arriving just before FedEx delivered my replacement camera, two days before I expected to receive it.

After lunch, we drove into the mountains to take advantage of Silvertip Vineyards' closeout sale; we came away with two cases of Pinot Noir and half a case of Syrah. As long as we were in the mountains, we also stopped at Burrell School Vineyards to pick up our November order. I hadn’t planned on tasting anything there, but the owner mentioned that their 2006 port was on sale for $10/bottle and was available for tasting. We left with three bottles (only $25!), plus our order. And we have another pickup party tomorrow afternoon!

I haven’t had a chance to use the camera yet or work on the home automation, but that’s OK – it was nice to have a mentally restful Shabbat!

The Learned League season started on Monday. I lost my first three matches, but this morning, I awoke to the pleasant news that I’d won Thursday’s match. I’d gotten all six questions right, so I was assured of not losing the match, but it was nice to notch the win!

We took two bags of clothes, a couple of cordless drills, and an old Apple TV to Goodwill this afternoon and then went to Costco to pick up a few necessities; it took less time than I feared it would, and we hardly bought anything that wasn’t actually on our list (just some Balsamic Vinegar, which is a staple so it doesn’t count as an impulse buy, right?).

I made a lot of progress on the Home Assistant conversion. I still don’t know why it decided my keypads have only 6 buttons, but I found out how to tell it that there are 8. And I migrated some of the key behaviors I’d set up in Indigo (for example, turning off all the lights in the kitchen when I turn off the kitchen counter light) – it’s fairly straightforward, but tedious. So far, I’ve been able to do everything in their UI instead of having to edit control files, which is a great improvement over the last time I tried to convert.

Small wins make me happy.