Wow, where does the time go.  I’m rather busy this week (and last,) and not with anything that would be of any interest to anyone.  I do however have some pictures I can post of various recent exploits.  I went “mountain biking” by myself Saturday.  I put that in quotes because the truth of the matter is, I walked a fair deal of it.  I’ve got a deep-seated fear of crashing, especially by myself, so if I see anything even remotely difficult-looking I just bail out.  Of course, the downside is I’ll never get any better at riding.  The obvious upside is I might make it to ride another day.  Also of note, I joined a group of youngsters on a fun wine tasting Sunday.  They’d rented a large bus/limo to shuttle us around and celebrate our friend Alaina’s birthday.  I won’t list the actual age, because 1) I don’t think you’re supposed to, and 2) it depresses me.

Cycling season continues to ramp up.  I got in two decent road-rides last week, and a rather epic mountain bike ride.  The road rides are mostly just an effort to acclimate myself to the hills out here, which honestly I’m not sure is ever going to happen.  I’m gonna give it a try though.  So far I ride on the road by myself, so if I get winded I just slow down.  The mountain bike rides are generally with two or more other guys, so if (when) I get winded I either feel like an old man or I get lost because everybody is so far ahead.  Geez, they ride fast.  I’d like to blame it on the fact that I have 10+ years on all of them, but more likely it’s because I’ve got 20+ lbs on all of them.  Or, as my more politically correct college amigos would say, I’ve sprouted a few extra backs.

Anyway, to the weekend.  Friday, Donette flew out ridiculously early (5:30 flight) to meet her Mom in Phoenix.  She was on the way here to visit us, and as those plans developed they came up with the rather clever idea to meet up at her layover in Phoenix and drive to a Spring Training game in Surprise.  Fine idea indeed.  I cannot relate a whole lot of that day because, well, I wasn’t there.  Looked fun in the pictures.  I was still scheduled to work Friday, but late Thursday a guy called and asked if I wanted to head out to Hidden Falls trail in Auburn for some cycling.  Matter of fact, that sounded darn fun.  I was mostly drawn in by the fact that it was forecast to be 70 and sunny out, with rain starting over the weekend.  Enjoy it while it’s here, so to speak.  We had a great ride, or at least I did.  I found the trails moderately less torturous than the others they’ve taken me on.  As a matter of fact, I rode nearly the entire trail.  Granted, sometimes I was going so slow I might as well have just walked, but it’s a pride thing I guess.  I didn’t make it up one nearly vertical (or so it felt) hill, and I bailed out over one rocky section that appeared to promise sure death if I didn’t make it.  All-in-all, I called it a successful ride.

Donette and her Mom got in early Saturday morning, and did some catching up on their sleep into the afternoon.  After they got up and around, we met up with a few other couples and headed to Amador to visit some wineries.  Her Mom doesn’t actually like wine, or have any interest in it what-so-ever, but it’s really the only thing we know to do when company comes out.  We hit the usual spots, and mixed in a nice little picnic at one of the more scenic locations.  After that we headed back to the house and threw a tri tip on the grill for some dinner.

Sunday found us rather worn down.  We headed to The Purple Place to start the day off with a solid breakfast.  Not exactly the, er, most impressive place to take out of town guests, but it’s our favorite breakfast so we went with it.  It has lots of “ambiance.”  After breakfast we just kind of kicked around a few of the local attractions, such as they are.  We hit the small museum at Folsom prison, drove around the lake a bit (which actually has water in it,) and then finished up wandering around the Old Folsom area for a while.  Later in the afternoon we headed back to the house to rest up a bit, and just never quite got going again.  We got sucked into the NCAA tourney, and that was all she wrote.  Thank goodness we found some leftovers in the fridge.

I believe I’ll post an update on Monday, just for the sake of nostalgia.  Likely brief though, our weekend was rained out.  I’m growing a bit weary of hearing “We need the rain.”  Enough is enough.  The whole area is under water.  It seems to have gone from one extreme to the other.  Oh well, this week’s forecast looks moderately more promising.

Seriously, it rained so much we didn’t really do much.  Saturday we worked in the garage, and I washed my bicycles.  Whoa, slow down Kenagys, getting kind of wacky.  Oh well, it passed the time.  For evening entertainment we headed over to the clubhouse for a wine tasting.  That was firmly in the “better than sitting at home, but just barely” category.  We wisely brought a few friends with us so we wouldn’t have to meet any new ones.  Clever.  After that we headed back to our house for a good round of cards.

Sunday brought more rain.  Steady, maddening rain, and sort of cold to boot.  I fired up a Gunsmoke marathon, and was pretty content to just sit on the couch all day, but I started getting a bit antsy after four or five episodes.  We ended up meeting some friends in the Old Folsom area, and kicked around there all day.  And that was pretty much our weekend.  Better luck next time.

Well, I THOUGHT bike riding season was here.  Got out a few times last week, and declared the season officially open.  Then came the rains, and cold.  Darn it, thought I had a schedule going there for a bit.  Oh well, it’ll warm back up soon I hope, and it surely won’t rain much longer.  Everybody keeps saying “we need the water” so I guess I’ll just go with it.

Lame weekend, at least for me.  Doni kicked it up a bit, but I wasn’t there and so cannot relate the details of her events.  I did have a nice little happy hour Friday, on my back patio.  It was rather pleasant sitting out on our covered patio in the rain, watching TV.  After a while the rain hitting the metal cover got so loud I couldn’t hear the TV though, so I called it a day and went back inside.

Saturday Doni had a big costume party at a friend’s house.  They were throwing a “Tarantino Movie” themed party, and you were supposed to dress up as a character from one of his movies.  I don’t know what ever happened to just getting together for drinks and eats. Crazy kids.  Anyway, I was stuck working so I missed out on the fun.  I’m not entirely sure I would have gone had I NOT been working, but it was a moot point I guess.  For her part, Doni went as Daisy Domergue from The Hateful Eight, and did a darn fine job of it at that.  It looked like a great time from all the pics.  I had a good time working too.  Really.  Seriously.  Uh huh.

Sunday I was somewhat rudely awoken for more work.  That carried on for a bit, then we met some friends for brunch at the nearby Bella Bru.  And a fine brunch it was, I rather enjoyed it.  I got to hear all about how much fun they’d had the night before without me.  Not sure how that’s even possible, maybe they were just making it up.  After we ate everyone (except me) was still caught up in the spirit of the event, so we headed back to our house and watched Natural Born Killers, followed by From Dusk Til Dawn.  Another wasted Sunday in the books, check.

Things are slow out here, very slow.  I had a few note-worthy events over the last few weeks though.  One thing, I went mountain biking with some guys last week.  I rather miss cycling, and I’ve about accepted nobody I know out here is going to road-ride with me, so I caved and got a mountain bike.  Different world, I know that.  I pretty much suffered the whole ride, but it was oddly fun.  It didn’t help that it was pitch dark out, making it rather hard to see.  I’ve got lights, but they weren’t really cutting it.  Eh, I only wrecked once, I’ll call it a victory.  Granted, it’s hard to wreck when you’re walking your bike most of the time, but we’ll leave that part out.

As far as the weekend goes, we stayed in Friday night.  It’s starting to get a little nicer out, so I moved my TV out to the back patio and hung out there for the evening.  Doesn’t take a whole lot to entertain me.  Saturday it was even nicer out, so I grabbed a few slabs of ribs from the grocery and fired up the smoker.  It was an experiment of sorts.  I bought one slab of loin backs, and one slab of spares.  Same exact rub, same cook times, to see which I liked better.  Not a particularly valid experiment, as I already had it in my head I like spares better, but it was fun all the same.  Both of them came out quite passable.  I declare BBQ season officially OPEN.  Sunday we got off to a pretty slow start.  I made the critical error of turning on the TV, finding a few movies, and wasting a rather embarrassing part of the afternoon.  It happens.  It happens quite frequently, actually.  Doni hosted her annual Oscars party that evening, so eventually I had to get up and around to help with preparations for that.  It’s a “girls only” event, so when it kicked off I headed over to a buddy’s house with a few other banished husbands for steaks on the grill.  Works for me.