Where there's smoke . . . .

Hi--Jared here. Today while Sally Piles was at work, I did a few errands around town--up to Skowhegan to "Wayne's Stove and Canoe Shop," which is like my dream store. Two of my favorite things in one place: wood stoves and Old Town Canoes. What a concept. Its kind of funny how he decided to sell just those two things, but not as weird, I guess, as how the 4C company somehow decided they were going to market ONLY iced tea and breadcrumbs. Now those things have nothing to do with each other. UNLESS some savvy guy in accounting thought it would be in the best interest of the company to do this since then they would only have to purchase one type of cardboard cylindrical container. Sort of like a "kill two birds with one stone" kind of thing. Why do I think of these things? As Fuzzy so often says, "there is something seriously wrong with you!"

Anyway, back to the store. I had to pick up some straps to tie the canoe to the Forester, since our old ones have gone to heaven (or more like the side of I95 from forgetting to take them off the car after our last trip). Hopefully, we'll take a cool trip tomorrow along the Solon/Anson section of the Kennebec. It is fast water up there, and it should be cool. More to come on that tomorrow.

Amanda made some delicious pizza (some pineapple, some red pepper) and Sue brought over some chicken kabobs which were leftovers from her BBQ. A good dinner, followed by a nice walk around the neighborhoods. Then, Sally and I sat around the new fire pit that I picked up today. It was a birthday present to myself, for us. We have so much excess bark from all the birch I'm splitting that it makes perfect fuel for a nice evening fire. As we mentioned before, it is so nice to sit around the fire, drink a few nine beers, or iced tea in Amanda's case, and talk. Thomas even got in on the action, and so did Frank, our friendly neighborhood skunk. Seriously, he is friendly.