We sort of took that week off, on the entertainment front anyway.  We needed to wind down a bit.  Plus all our friends (errr, both of them,) were busy so we were kind of hung out to dry.  We had a moderately entertaining weekend of it anyway though, or so it seemed.  Friday Donette was out of town, so I sort of hung out at the house.  I did crash a dinner party (with both of my friends) and had a good time of that.  Called it a night early, which is by no means unusual.

Saturday the wife was flying in, so I straightened up the house a bit, then drove down to Sacramento to pick her up at the airport.  I had big lunch date plans in mind for us, at Pizza Rock.  We’ve been there once and really liked it, so I decided to seize the opportunity to hit it again while we were “downtown.”  Alas, a few loops around the block indicated parking was going to be more of a hassle than I cared to put up with.  So, we headed to our old standby, Burgers & Brew.  Pretty much the only place we go down there.  Hey, it’s good, what can I say.  We came to regret our decision to sit outside on the patio, but other than that it was a fine lunch as always.

Sunday we decided to get out and about a bit.  After running through our options, we decided to load up the beach gear and head to nearby Folsom Lake.  It was a hot afternoon, but not really unbearable, and we’ve got a sun shade.  Things got off to a rough start pretty much from the get-go.  For one thing, there is darn near no water in the “lake.”  The vast majority of the shore access is reduced to steep drop-offs where the water used to be, much too steep to walk down.  We finally managed to get the car to a mostly isolated spot, reasonably close to the water, and parked it.  As soon as we opened the door Teagan bounded for the water and we quickly discovered why the spot was isolated:  It was a gooey stretch of mucky black mud instead of sand.  The dog didn’t seem to care, she blundered right through it and into the water.  Then, no sooner than I got out of the car, I saw a big boxer headed down the shore line towards us.  I don’t really let Teagan interact with other dogs (much to Donette’s dismay,) and I didn’t feel like experimenting this particular day.  Her meet-and-greets have about a 50/50 chance of going bad, and the “bad” 50 just ain’t worth it to me, especially with a beast the size of the one heading towards us.  So, anyway, I kind of panicked and the first thing I thought was to open the car door and call her.  Well, being a good girl, she ran right up the beach and jumped in the front seat.  Then the back seat.  Then the front.  Then the back.  All while dripping mud and water all over the interior.  Yeah, good start to the day.  Things went generally better from there.  She swam until she was thoroughly exhausted, which was the main purpose of the trip.  We sat under the sunshade and enjoyed the afternoon, also a key part of the day.  After that we headed back home and grilled a quite nice ribeye and watched the baseball game.  Not a bad day all in all.  We can get the car detailed another day.

Well now my updates are all messed up, dang it.  Miss one week and that’s what happens.  It’s been crazy-busy though.  The family came out last weekend and did a little NorCal touring with us, which was a great time.  There’s really not a lot to do around here, but we managed to hit what sites there are.  We traveled to Tahoe, Placerville, Folsom, Amador, and the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield while they were here.  (OK, I sat out the Jelly Belly tour…)  Whew, that’s probably more than we’ve done since moving here.  I don’t have a whole lot to type, I’m still a bit out of sorts.  Luckily I do have some pics to share though.

Geez I can’t believe it is Monday already.  Nothing short of depressing.  The busier the weekend, the faster it goes by it seems.  Sort of makes sense when I think about that statement, I suppose…

Donette’s younger sister Victoria came out and visited us for a quick weekend trip.  She came in Friday, and we started things off by going to a wine tasting party over at a friend’s house.  This likely sounds like we’re getting into the hoity-toity California way of things, but such is not the case.  It was just a nice little dinner gathering, and apparently they felt the need to have a theme.  It was a good time.  We all got scorecards and rated each wine 1-5;  added to the conversation opportunity if nothing else.  As an added bonus, our wine won crowd favorite, woot!  I believe it was an estate zin from one of our favorites out here, Mount Vernon.  I was a bit upset with sharing it, but that was offset by winning a gift card.  All good in the end.

Saturday was a hopeless waste of a day, spent sitting at my pc working.  Unfortunate overlap of scheduling since we had company, but that’s the way it goes I guess.  The girls left me to my misery and went out to a few wineries for the afternoon.  After that they hung out on the back porch and watched taped episodes of “Tiny House Nation” while I kept working.  Thanks for flying six hours to see us, we’re a hoot!

Sunday we had a river tubing expedition on the calendar, but it’s been rather oppressively hot here so we bailed out of that and headed up the hill to Tahoe.  The hour and a half drive gets you 20 degrees knocked off the temp, well worth the time.  We didn’t do a whole lot when we got there really.  We met up with our friends Michael and Alaina, who had stayed the night before, and ate a solid breakfast at the Red Hut, after waiting an hour for a table.  After that we just kind of kicked around the town for a while.  (A while too long, according to the parking ticket we got.  Arggghhh.)  I made the rookie mistake of misjudging the cool weather and burned my bald head, but it was fine afternoon all the same.  Afterwards we rolled back down the hill to the heatwave, and did a little grilling.  Victoria had picked up a fresh salmon in Seattle on her way, and it was delicious.  I think I can declare it the best piece of fish I’ve ever eaten.  I usually try and pick up the high-rent salmon when it’s in season at our local grocery here, and have never really been that impressed.  THIS stuff was awesome though.  Got to go all the way to the source I guess.

I forgot to upload my Tahoe pictures.  I’ll share the weekly forecast instead.  My family is coming out next week, bet they can’t wait for this!

Scorcher

Another weekend, another tube trip.  We didn’t have a whole lot to do, so we rallied the troops and headed to Coloma for another relaxing trip down the river.  Actually, it was “moderately” relaxing.  I’m not sure it was because the water was up or down, but the river was significantly faster.  We went through a few stretches that left me thinking “Yeah, maybe this isn’t exactly tubing conditions.”  Indeed, the vast majority of the floaters are on big commercial rafts.  Eh, I’m a cheapskate, what can I say.  It is cheap entertainment to be sure.  Twenty bucks a tube, (Which have somehow now survived three trips down the river,) eight bucks to park, few bones in petrol to get there, and you’ve got a full afternoon of good entertainment.  Granted, a few bumps and bruises to go along with it, but it’s to be expected.  Only two of the crew dumped this time, I think our tube skills are improving.  Afterwards we stopped by a place called Marco’s for a few slices of pizza, then headed on home to nurse our wounds.  Hopefully they heal by next week, as we’re planning to hit it again.

Wow, Wednesday already.  A day late and a dollar short, as usual.  I worked the better part of the weekend, which I am guessing nobody has any interest in hearing about.  Heck, I didn’t even have any interest in it, but that pesky mortgage kept me motivated.  I did have a nice day off Sunday though.  The weather cooled off significantly, so I fired up the smoker and threw on a 12 lb. brisket I’d come across at the grocery earlier in the week.  Pretty uneventful, yet enjoyable day.  Lots of hanging out on the patio watching TV, staring at the smoker.  I guess I did have a little excitement getting the cooker running.  Little fire-safety tip:  When starting your charcoal, do not set the chimney in the mulch bed, especially when it hasn’t rained in two months.  OK, I’ll grant you, that might be a common sense item, but my brain moves a little slowly at 6:30 in the morning.  Man, that stuff went up like a bunch of dry wood chips, which makes sense considering it’s a bunch of dry wood chips.  Whoops.  Adds a little color to that part of the landscaping I guess.  As for the brisket, it came out pretty well.  If I had time I’d have left it on for another 2 hours, but we invited company over so the “done” time was driven by that.  It was certainly passable, needed just a bit more time.  I’ve still got the point in the ‘fridge, so it’ll go back on soon for a big burnt-end dinner.  High hopes for that.