I am pleased to announce the website I’ve been working on with Ron…

… is open for business! Well, sort of. We’re calling it “beta” at the moment. It’s still a work in progress, but I think it’s usable now. We need everyone’s rating dishes. Drop by dishAdish and check it out.

I finished installing the new cooktop. I replaced the stripped shutoff valve with a new on, then connected it to the cooktop with a new flexible connector. I had to shut off the gas to the house to replace the valve. I was a little worried, but my brother Mark convinced me it was pretty straight forward. It was. The only hitch was the new flexible connector did not fit through the hole cut in the counter shelf. I had to make it bigger using a utility knife. Otherwise, it went pretty well. At least nothing blew up yet.

I hiked Mission Peak again on Wednesday to help strengthen my knee. It didn’t go all the way to the top, only about half way. I made decent time, but not as good as a year ago, but at least my knee felt pretty good. I’ll probably try to go one more time over the weekend. Hopefully it will be alright for the Africa trip. Most of the time we’ll be in safari vehicles, but I’m a little concerned about the gorilla treks. I’ve hread they can be pretty tough.

I got a new toy for the trip. I got an Epson P-5000 to store all my photos while I’m traveling. It has an 80GB hard drive so I won’t have to carry my laptop. I can back up my CF and SD cards directly to the device. It can also play music and video files to help pass the time on the flights. Only 3 more days until the trip!