As I said in the title it has been a productive and enjoyable few days - if the apartment was not in the throes of being packed up you might say we have had a taste of what retirement on the dirt might be like. We were in no particular rush to get out in the morning other than to perambulate the pooch, we could decide to do exactly what we wanted, when we wanted and nothing was looming other than Mike's current irritation with Revenue Canada.

We had a sublime dinner last evening with Nellie, Ragnar, and company at Saege - I had delicious spinach soup, followed by a mouth-watering pepper steak, and split that lovely, rich chocolate torte with Mike. I had nibbles of Mike's gravlax and his schnitzel - yummy! Mike mentioned that I made an apple pie today for Wayne and the yard guys - always a pleasure to feed them as they are most appreciative - frustrating to come back to the apartment this afternooon where you could still smell the glorious apple pie fragrance but alas there was not a crumb to be found here. We had a bite of lunch at the Squadron - both had great meals - Mike had a Moroccan fish stew made with Red Snapper and I had the Shrimp Pad Thai - more yummy stuff - and yes, a good part of our lives are all about food - it is a wonder that we are both not as big as the side of a barn door!

And now for the productive part, I deposited my last (sob!) paycheque from Harbour Swan and proceeded to get the last few things I wanted for the boat before we leave - we stopped by the Paderno Store in Bayer's Lake and I bought a few more of the OXO Storage containers that we have torture tested over the last two years on the boat. They come in square and rectangular shapes and have a vacuum seal in the top and clear sides so you can see what you are grabbing out of the storage lockers - they protect their contents from any "boaty-smell-flavour" transfer that occurs with some tupperware containers and zip-lock bags. We use them for flour, sugar, tea, coffee and so forth. I also bought a drawer organizer that will fit quite nicely into the sliding drawer we built above the frig, and two more cookie sheets that will actually fit in the oven cavity of the small but mighty boat oven.

Off to dump Perry in the tub - he has been having a lot of fun outside - for that read he is fithy and is ready for a dip in the suds. And then to a different kind of suds - those of the hop variety - to the Ale House we go for a reunion with some of our friends - those who work or worked at Keane - it will be great to see them and catch up on developments.