If I sound like I am complaining about the hospitality that we have experienced here in Shelburne, let me apologize. Only my stomach is complaining and even that is in a nice way.

Last night we went out to a house party thrown by one of the other members at the yacht club and boy to they have a nice house! It's one of the old farm houses that has been renovated and added on to and upgraded with all the modern conveniences and yet still retains some of the sense of old fashioned and slightly antique. It comes with 45 acres, a barn, a workshop and a stream running through it and sometime soon they are planning to sell it so they can move into the town. Many of the other friends we have made since we moved here were out there too. That's one of the really nice things that I have noticed since we moved here - the small population base means that unless you are a total grump the chances are that you will find many of the same people at each of the parties that you get invited to. Make remembering names easier if you are only introduced to a few new people each night. I have also noticed that not many of the people that we meet who are in our age group are retired. Many are still working it's just that they have managed to work their lives or careers so that they can live in a community like Shelburne or Lockport or in the surrounding county and commute either physically or electronically to work. Only about 25% are like me and actually trudge into an office in town.

I am begining to get into the swing of things again at work. After three years away I was a little nervous that I might have lost what I call the managerial spine which is the willingness to make unpopular descisions for the general good. I find that I haven't although there might be one or two people who have struck me off their birthday and Christmas Card lists. Oh well. I think that pretty much everyone on staff here is good people. It's just that there have been a lot of changes around here in the last 12 months that a few are having a job to get used to. They will eventually. I have the advantage in that I don't have any memories of how things used to be done.

Back to the original topic: tonight it's our turn to entertain although on a much smaller scale. We will only have two other couples in for dinner and Barb is doing a baked Brie and yours truly is doing a Thai Peanut Chicken in the slow cooker to be served with rice and a salad. It will also provide me with another opportunity to show off the Nelleke Wassail Bowl.