You know you’re a slacker when the next post after “Happy New Year” is on Presidents Day. Man, I just can’t seem to get back into the dreary rut of updating this every week. Tsk tsk. Maybe this will be the post that gets me rolling again. Maybe I’ll go on a diet and start exercising too. Yeah, maybe. So anyway, we just got back from a rather glorious week in Hawaai, Maui to be specific. This was kind of a last minute deal, as a rather troubling percentage of our decisions seem to be anymore. It was based on a combination of sketchy weather at home, cheap air fare, and general boredom. The weather didn’t clear up while we were away, but it was a great time anyway. Sort of hard to go wrong with a week on the beach in February, honestly. Pluses: We had some great food, didn’t spend an exorbitant amount of money, the whales were fantastic, and we liked our resorts. Minuses: It was a little windy? That’s all I can come up with. Well, and wearing a mask for the duration of the five-hour flight, but I guess that’s just part of the game these days. For that matter, I could throw “It’s only a five hour flight to Maui from Sacramento” in the plus column and it would cancel the mask out. We got back home late on Saturday, picked up the pups, and got home for some needed rest. On Valentines Day, we went to a friends house down in EDH for a fantastic dinner. Filet mignon, mashed potatoes, caesar salad, and crab bisque. Oh man was it good. Filets are just not my favorite cut of steak, but these were fantastic.

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Ahhhh, that was a welcome little break. I’ve had so many fascinating activities lately that it was very hard not to jump on here and retell them, but I resisted. I’ve forgotten what they all were though, so I’ll just have to stick to this past weekend. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t nearly as adventure-packed as the prior holiday weekends, but that’s the way it goes. ** There is also some chance that I’ve done nothing but eat and sleep since mid-December. Let’s stick with the other story though.

We both, for the most part, laid on the couch and watched football all weekend. I am not sure either us had any particular interest in any of the games, but it seemed like the thing to do. We also ventured out and… Well, no, no we didn’t. We just laid on the couch. The good news is I didn’t catch the ‘Rona, the bad news is I gained (another) 10 pounds. Can’t win ’em all. I made a batch of bbq gumbo too, which came out fairly well. Luckily I have enough freezer scraps to make another batch, as it did have some “oddities.” This is probably my best documented recipe, but somehow it seems to come out differently every time. Who knows. For an added twist this time, I found out at the last minute that instead of thawing out a leftover smoked brisket, I’d grabbed an uncooked tri tip roast. Well, the doctor said I need to cut back on the beef anyway, I guess this is a sausage/turkey gumbo. Nothing wrong with that.

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Happy Holidays to all, and I mean that with the utmost sincerity, as well as a very heavy dose of sarcasm.

I finally got my pool table light installed. The guy that moved the table wanted $500 to install it, so I thought I’d call on my trusty CMSU electricity degree and just do it myself. Hey, when you flip the switch the lights come on, I’m gonna call that a success. You can see it’s just a few inches left of center, but close enough.

Somebody posted this bear on Next Door a few days ago. It’s about three miles up the street from us. It looks huge!

Whew, we finally had some out-of-town guests up at the new ranch. Fun, but tiring. Then again, I get tired walking across the room, so that’s not saying much. Anyway, my Mom, sister and brother-in-law came up on the 23rd for a short stay. For excitement, we treated them to a real California PSPS! Good grief. Yep, house full of company and out go the lights, right on cue. We fired up the generator and tried to make the best of it, as there’s really not much else to do about it. Ran into a new snag this time; It is getting cold at night! The house was a rather crisp 58 degrees in the morning. We figured out how to fire up the gas fireplace, but the fan is electric so it was kind of limited in heat output. Guess we really need to get the generator hooked up correctly before winter hits.

They finally turned us back on Tuesday evening. My family had left that morning, and then our friend Kelly from KC flew in that night. I kind of tried to stay low-profile and let them do their girls schedule, but I did join them one afternoon for some wine tasting. She left this morning, and we are empty-nesting again. I did a woeful job taking pics while everybody was here, but I have a few.

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