Up early Sunday to drive Bosco to the train station in Niagara Falls. A check at the Shaw site revealed all systems down. A plastic bag had caught against the ventilation on the compressor and shut the system off. That and the warm weather conspired to melt the first ice we were so joyous at having created. Good that it happened now. JC and Bosco are working on getting it back up; Bosco's going to miss his train.



It's Sunday, our day off and we're supposed to go skating. JC's got a sore throat. Things were just going a bit too swimmingly.

Saturday night Debi Pratt hosted a dinner at her cottage by the lake and we met Paul Ziraldo (Donald's younger brother), and his lady, Dana.



Jaz stayed at the apartment above the storefront to finish his final exam. When we said our goodnight-goodbyes, Dana had agreed to skate and learn to play hockey! We're going to rent the rink for a Christmas shinny game with, hopefully, Gord's brothers from Mississagua and Ottawa, and the cousins, and other interested takers.

We missed attending the Cinematheque (it's a bit early for press appearances) but Debi introduced the project anyway to the audience gathered. Over smoked salmon, cold chicken, trout, salad and several excellent bottles of Inniskillin wines,



we heard about how many degrees "it" ("it" being the temperature, grace a Mother Nature) has to be in order for anyone to be able to call wine Ice Wine. Grapes must be harvested at minus 8 degrees; an inspector comes down to the winery to verify during the harvest. Minus seven won't do, and artificial cold won't do.

So there are more parallels to this wine and our work, whose process is freezing and melting. Warm winters in Ontario (where minus 8 isn't usually a problem), and then what about Ice Wine? Debi says that "it" won't affect the industry for another 40 years. ("It" being global warming). But who really knows these things? We're all so inter-connected and at the mercy of a world so much bigger and so much smaller than we can even begin to see. In the meantime, drink up, we're only here for a short time, and the Ice Wine is very very good.



Here it is, that's ice on the copper pipes again and the show is on the road. (These are the new 'elements' Gord is adding to the design -- can't wait 'til he gets colour on those!) Monday, we are going to TRY to play some hockey at lunch! Pascale (our lighting designer) is here, her Quebecoise french is so great to listen to, and I got a chance to bavarder en francais. She's going to fix quiche tonight. Debi and Stacey and I plot & schedule at Inniskillin cette apres midi.