Foiled Again

Ugh, had to work again last weekend. Hopefully that’s the last of the ruined weekends for a while. We did get out Saturday night for a few hours. Some friends were singing down in Folsom, and we wanted to catch that show. Normally I would have immediately declared it too far out of my circle, but as it happened I had to be in EDH at 9:00 pm for work, so why not mix in some fun prior to the not-fun.

Sunday I was couched all day. Those all-nighters at the datacenter just ain’t my thing anymore. My excitement for the whole day was grilling a chicken, following a recipe I came across last week. Not gonna lie, preparing the spatchcock chicken has intimidated me for many years. I’ve watched youtube videos, read countless directions, but never got up the courage to give it a try. Turns out it’s not quite the complex process I had in my head. Two minutes with a meat cleaver did the trick. Add that to the life skills list I guess. The recipe came out good, with one quibble. I put the weight on it while it cooked, per the instructions, using a bacon press as it happens. Of course that didn’t let the skin brown under the weight, leaving a big ol’ white spot right in the middle of the nice crispy brown skin. Flipping it helped, but it didn’t get evenly browned by any stretch. I might skip that part next time, not convinced it was needed.

Latest Concert

Still wicked hot out here. A little better, but still well into the “stay inside” range. We elected not to heed that rule though, and instead traveled to a concert at an outdoor amphitheater. As it happens, we bought the tickets quite some time ago, well before the weather could have been forecast. Yeah, I suppose you could argue that the date was late July in northern California, and therefore it was a foregone conclusion that is was going to be hot. I guess my optimistic nature got the best of me. But anyway, the show was Tears for Fears, (yeah, of 1980’s fame,) and Cold War Kids (still old, but not THAT old,) opened for them. There was a rather lengthy list of “pros & cons” associated with this lineup for me, but at the end of the day we like going to concerts, so we went. That actually pretty much headed up the list of “pros,” along with the fact that the tickets were quite reasonably priced. Now, moving on to the “cons” list, it is a bit more extensive. The location was actually in Wheatland, CA, falling WELL outside the boundaries of my established travel area. It was a solid 1.5 hour drive each way. We were able to get a driver, which eliminated most of the unpleasantness, but it’s still a heck of a long time to sit in a car for me. Also in the list were the facts that I’m just not, and never was, a really big Tears for Fears fan. I do, however, generally like Cold War Kids, so that’s OK. The sound was borderline horrible though, so that kind of took away from it. Some outdoor venues are better than others I guess; this one wasn’t my favorite. I suppose the fact that we DO really enjoy shows won out, and I had a good time. Any show, regardless if I really wanted to see the group or not, is better than sitting home on the couch all night in my book.

Some friends joined us at the concert, and we elected to just stay at their house afterwards. This was nicely pre-planned, the dogs were left there to play with their pup and everything. Sunday when we got up, we enjoyed a great brunch to start the day. I’d picked up some breakfast steaks at our butcher shop, and we also had hash browns, scrambled eggs, and sourdough toast that Donette baked the night before. While it was indeed a great start to the day, it was also effectively the end of the day. We just aren’t used to staying out that late, and it really took it out of us. We limped back home after brunch, and the rest of the day was spent on the couch watching unremarkable movies. I suppose that falls under the “relaxing” category, sometimes erroneously referred to as “boring” or “unproductive.” Oh, we caught the end of the Royals game too; three game winning streak, what?!?!?! First one of the season if I heard right? While that is an absolutely embarrassing statistic this late in the season, I was glad to get to watch it anyway.

False Spring Season is Over

As expected, the unseasonably cool weather has ended. And it REALLY ended, we’ve been on an unfortunate stretch of triple-digit heat. I guess it was nice while it lasted, but it looks like hot is here to stay for a while.

Crummy weekend. Spent most of it working, and when I wasn’t working I was sleeping, or at least trying to. Doesn’t make for very usable content. My excitement for the entire weekend was cleaning my Weber Kettle grill Sunday night. After fifteen years of use, it was due. Wow there was a lot of crud on that thing. I got some plastic putty knives and went to town, and it looks a LOT better. Couldn’t believe how much grease and ash was built up on the sides. Not a yummy thought for something I cook on!

I don’t have any exciting events to relate, but at least I’ve got two weeks worth of pictures, guess I’ll go that route.

False Spring, Part II

We were treated to more fantastic weather over this weekend. I think it topped out in the high 70’s every day! I have a feeling that’s the last of it though, the forecast shows it getting up to the typically brutal temps through this week. Only downside is when I invited people up LAST weekend, it was miserably hot. Can’t win ’em all I guess, I’ll take it when it comes. Little closer to Fall already.

We made the most of the weather I think, getting out of the house a few times. Saturday was perfect convertible weather, so we took it out and went to a few wineries. The goal was to, gasp, actually try a few new places we hadn’t been to. Yeah, kind of wacky for us. We hit three new ones, all pretty nice. I completely failed taking pictures, so I have no evidence of this, but it really happened.

Sunday I woke up at my usual unholy hour, and for some reason I had it in my head it was Monday. Matter of fact, I was so convinced that I went through my whole weekday routine, including logging on to work. It took a rather embarrassing amount of time before I figured out what was going on. Once I did figure it out though, it was game on. Felt like a vacation day. We rolled down to some friends house and hung out there for a while, then returned to Geartooth for a few hours. Man I really like that place, and the owners, but I hope they ramp up their menu soon. I cannot survive on nachos and jalapeno poppers forever. (Those are seriously the only two items on the lunch menu.) Don’t get me wrong, they’re both great, but I need a bit more variety. After that we headed back home for a solid nap, then grilled up some bratwursts and hung out on the back porch for several hours. Back to hiding in the a/c everyday now I expect, but it was nice while it lasted.

July 4 Cookout

Happy semi-long weekend! When is a long weekend not really a long weekend? When you have to work. Sigh. We did have a little fun though, despite the rather wicked heat wave that settled in the last few days. We broke out the good ol’ Weber grill, invited a few people up, and grilled hotdogs and hamburgers. Traditional July 4 fare, in my mind anyway. I got the hotdogs (and burgers) at Kings, and they were totally worth the extra price. I’m not a real big hotdog lover, but these were actually quite good. The burgers came out really good too, so it was just a fine little picnic. Only bad part is, we’d planned to do some games and stuff outdoors, and in the 98 degree heat that just wasn’t gonna happen. Lots of games of pool, lots of sitting on the couch in front of fans. Works for me!

In other exciting news, we found a new bbq place we like! Long story short, we had a flat on one of our cars, and while it getting fixed we decided to try out the recently opened Geartooth Alewerks, which was conveniently right around the corner from the tire shop. It was great! Only bad part is, as there are only three employees, the menu is quite limited at the moment. I look forward to trying their ribs on a future visit, but they don’t serve those until 3:00. Right off the cooker! Hopefully this place sticks around a little longer than the last place I liked, and hopefully they get some help hired soon.