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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What is up with the random Chief’s game today? Might be convenient back in KC, but that is 2:00 in the afternoon here. People got work to do! Oh well, I can listen I’m sure. Famous last words.

Quiet weekend. Friday night we sort of geared up to go out to happy hour somewhere, but just didn’t quite get out the door. It was a pretty nice evening, we had plenty of food to make dinner, we were both a little worn down… So we just hung out on the back porch. Hey, same thing as going out, and a lot cheaper. That lack of effort carried on into Saturday, when we also did a big nothing. My excitement for the day was trying scrambled eggs on my breakfast sandwich instead of the usual over-medium fried egg. Whoa, slow down there big fella! Hey, times are a little slow here lately. For the record, I didn’t care for the sandwich, I’ll be going back to the tried-and-true fried egg. For evening entertainment, I treated Donette to a showing of the recently released “Welcome To Sudden Death.” Ummm… Not recommended.

Sunday we finally left the compound, and met some friends at a new brunch spot. We selected PJ’s Roadhouse for a destination. It’s one of those spots you frequently drive by and say, “We should stop in there some time.” And so, we did. I did not poll the rest of the group, but I’m going to give it a B+. I’ll likely go back, but if I had to drive as far as everybody else did, I probably wouldn’t make the trip. In the “plus” category: 1) Price. Hands down one of the most inexpensive places I’ve been to out here. 2) Food. Definitely on the “basic” side; Biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon, stuff like that. But hey, I like basic, and the sausage gravy was very passable. Minuses: 1) Smokey. As Donette said, if I am going to insist on visiting dive spots, I am going to have to live with smokers. I don’t have to like it though. 2) No table service. I can’t believe I’m actually saying that. But, I have gotten so old and lazy that I really can’t be troubled to walk over to a bar and order. Remarkably, I did survive the ordeal though, and the sausage gravy quality outweighed the minor inconvenience.

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