Floatin' My Boat!

This week has been full of computer work! Still working out the kinks...

I applied online for admission to Santa Rosa Junior College. I haven't signed up for any classes, and haven't paid any fees, but by virtue of having a receipt that says that I applied for admission: I'm a student. So I'm eligible for the famous "Apple educational discount". There's your tip o' the week - but you didn't hear it from me!...

At the end of last week, Apple announced the introduction of a new 2-terabyte Time Capsule, the wireless automated backup hard drive... they reduced the price of the 1-terabyte model to the price of the previous 500-gigabyte model,... and they discontinued the 500-gigabyte model (which is the one that I had purchased four days earlier.) So, along with my college admission receipt, I took my now-discontinued Time Capsule to the Apple Store in Santa Rosa. There, I exchanged the Time Capsule for the 1-TB model. With my educational discount, I received $100 back plus a free iPod Touch (!) for the MacBook Pro, $66 back for the 3-year Applecare warranty, and $20 back for the Time Capsule. SCORE!... Tonight, I'm downloading updates for all of the software.

This past week in the vineyard, we've been removing leaves from one side of the fruiting zone in order to better expose the clusters to morning sunlight. This results in the development of more flavor and color in the grapes, while retaining the shade that protects the fruit from afternoon sunburn. Just another step in the labor-intensive process that produces the wines we love!

Drew and I went out this afternoon on the reservoir. We rowed out to add a float to the pump intake pipe. When we pulled up the old float, we found that it had sprung a leak. No wonder it wasn't floating anymore! We decided to return the smaller supplemental float and buy a larger replacement one. Two steps forward - one step back.