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We're back from Canoe Bay where we had an excellent and relaxing time. The food and wine were incredible, and the solitude and privacy of the resort and its surroundings were much appreciated.

Yesterday, we did a little snowshoeing along the frozen shores of Lake Wahdoon. Canoe Bay used to be a summer camp for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and there were many carved tree trunks lining the shore, left there by the aforementioned Adventists.

I just happened to spy two carved Easter Island-style Moais standing forlornly in the snow on the banks of a tiny little island out on the lake. They looked like they'd gotten lost on their way to the South Pacific with a sort of "what the hell are we doing here?" expression carved on their faces. Naturally, I had to hike over and take a picture of myself with one of them!

Posted by MrBaliHai at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I hope everyone out there (except for militant Hindus) had a lovely Valentine's Day with their Significant Bother. I spent most of the day in the kitchen cooking dinner for MrsBaliHai. I made this nutty, chocolatey Molè de Xica and served it over pork carnitas with tropical avocado salsa on the side. I uncorked a bottle of Garnacha Tres Pico, a simple, but very robust Spanish red. For dessert, we had fresh berries in cream.

Our Valentine's Day festivites will continue next weekend at the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Canoe Bay resort. I'm looking forward to a couple of days of snowshoeing, skiing, and haute cuisine, although I'm not crazy about their dining-room dress code which mandates a dinner jacket. I only own one suit (that I don't fit into anymore), so I was forced to go out and purchase a blazer today. I wear a 40S which is practically impossible to find around these parts, but I finally managed to locate very nice black cashmere blazer at an exhorbitant price, so I'm all set.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Way too much excitement 'round here for a Sunday. I went out to browse at the local Borders this morning and discovered, much to my delight, that they were selling old cult films and television shows on DVD at low, low prices! I picked up a copy of Santo en Atacan las Brujas (Attack of the Witches), featuring the fabulous, silver-masked El Santo doing battle with a coven of evil sorceresses.

I also picked up a couple of episodes of the German Flash Gordon television series which I fondly remembered watching as a kid in Denmark. As I recall, it was extremely lewd and cheesy Eurotrash entertainment, which is why I have such good memories of it, no doubt!

However, my nostalgic reverie was not to last. As I sat down to watch my new DVDs, I was rudely interrupted by the harsh buzzing of my septic tank alarm and the disgusted cries of MrsBaliHai as stinky sewage backed up the basement drains and flowed out over our laundry room floor. I spent the next couple of hours trying get ahold of an emergency plumber, to no avail.

I took apart the electrical box by the lift pump, checked all the voltages, and even ran an extension cord out to the septic tank to bypass the alarm circuit, but I couldn't hear any signs of life from the pump. Finally, I took the cover off the alarm box and had a look inside. When I put everything back together, the alarm had stopped. We eventually managed to stem the foul tide in the basement by enforcing a strict "no-flush for number 1 policy" with the kids, and turning off all of our water-using appliances. Looks like I'll be staying home tomorrow to wait for the septic guy to show up.

UPDATE: The plumber found nothing wrong with the lift pump, but suspected that the float switch got stuck temporarily, thus allowing the water in the pumping chamber to rise to the point where it started backing up into the basement. I still had to pay him $95 for the diagnosis.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)