It’s warming up rapidly here, I think the summer might be a bit much for me.  Already hitting the 80’s and it’s early April?  Bad sign.  I’ll take it for now though.  Friday, however, was a bone-chilling high of 62 so we had to retreat indoors for our Friday night date.  We met up at Ruff Haus and used our coupons the guy at New Glory gave us last weekend.  Can’t beat a quality hotdog for dinner.  After that we went home and played the “spot the difference” game on Wii.  We are nothing if not easily entertained, I’ll tell you what.  We played that silly game for over two hours, culminating in our second highest score.  A productive Friday night to be sure.

Saturday it warmed up considerably.  Unfortunately we had shopping to do.  I took a solo trip down to the grocery and stocked up on a few items, then Donette joined me and we trekked west to the dreaded outlet mall.  I’ve never been convinced of the actual deals at the outlets, but at least you can get everything you’re looking for in one spot.  We worked in a little exercise too, that’s a heck of a lot of walking.  On the way back to the house we stopped at Relish Burger to enjoy the patio for a bit, then rolled on home.  If we did anything entertaining that evening, the details escape me at the moment.

Sunday the warming trend continued;  We woke to a very pleasant morning.  I decided to lace up my new-ish hiking boots and go for a walk, and Teagan was more than eager to join me.  We took our standard 3-mile route, but in a rather jarring bout of craziness I decided to walk it in the reverse direction.  You can no doubt imagine the excitement this curveball threw into our usually mundane stroll.  All in all an uneventful hike, but I do like the trail.  It has some great views of the area, and we usually come across some kind of wildlife.  This day, for instance, we ran across a big wild turkey.  If it didn’t take every bit of both hands to restrain Teagan, I would have liked to get a video of that encounter.  I think the stupid bird was taunting her, it just kept running in front of us.  Teagan kept looking back at me like “I don’t know what the heck THAT thing is, but it most definitely needs killed.”  She wasn’t the same the rest of the walk, she kept diving into the bushes in search of that huge weird thing.  After we got home, I fired up the Weber and threw on some ribs.  I left them on for 4.5 hours, effectively using up the rest of my day.  They came out quite passable, especially considering my usual rib disasters.

Teagan taking a breather at the top of the hill.

We got all crazy this weekend and actually left the confines of El Dorado Hills.  TWICE.  Let it not be said that we aren’t the Brave Explorers out here in our new environment.  Most of this craziness was due to all the rain we got over the weekend.  Can’t ‘que, can’t sit outside, can’t walk the dog…  Might as well drive.  So, Saturday we decided to go visit some of the local breweries.  One might point out that’s the same thing we did last weekend, but that place was hardly local; That darn near qualified as a road trip.  We started our afternoon at New Glory in Sacramento.  They’re relatively new in town, and not very widely available, but I enjoy their Mighty Eighth at Ruff Haus on my sporadic visits there.  (They were so pleased to hear that, they gave me a few coupons for free stuff at Ruff Haus, score!)  We shared a few samples there, then moved on to Hoppy Brewing.  After some mild negotiating, we convinced the other patrons to switch from the hockey game to the Mules basketball game.  I’m honestly not sure who was more incredulous;  Me, that they were actually watching hockey, or them, that these odd interlopers wanted to take over the TV for a D2 basketball game.  In the end, Donette’s UCM tee-shirt was the trump card and we got to watch the exciting second half of the Mule’s victory.  We also enjoyed some fine grub.  I’d liken this place a lot to my beloved 75th Street;  Very good food, a bunch of regular customers, and “decent” beer.  For the most part we just enjoyed our lunch, then moved on to American River in Rancho Cordova.  This place certainly lacked style points, stuck in the middle of a warehouse district with no windows.  (Hey, what would you look at anyway…  The other warehouses?)  They were nice, informative people though, and I did enjoy the 2x IPA I tried there.

Sunday we once again technically left EDH city limits, but only to do our bi-weekly shopping in neighboring Folsom.  What a DRAG, I despise shopping.  We were perilously low on staples at the house though, so we had to suck it up and make the full rounds.  Trader Joe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, the pet store, and Costco.  OK that doesn’t sound like much, but it was taxing.  We could have done with stops at Home Depot and the grocery too, but I was spent.

I’m bona-fide now!  Granted, I actually got these tags in, uh, November, but just now actually got them on the bike.  (Not one, but TWO bolts must be removed in order to replace the plate.  And me without a working cordless screwdriver.  My arm is still sore.)

My new Cali tag

Well I’ve had a few days off, which was nice I suppose.  I didn’t really do anything of note, just needed to burn a couple of vacation days.  About all I really managed to accomplish was leaving a large dent in the couch in front of the TV.  Saturday was effectively our only day of entertainment, when we drove to Auburn to visit Knee Deep Brewing.  I’m a big fan of their beers, and I’d heard the brewery was a fun destination, so we decided to make the trip.  It was a solid hour drive, and I’ll admit we were a little disappointed to get there and find it was all indoors.  Maybe we should have researched that one a little better.  I’d heard they had cornhole boards (which they did,) and food trucks, (also true,) and from that info I somehow derived it was an outdoor venue.  Oh well, what can ya’ do.  We made an afternoon of it, then traveled back to Folsom and met some friends at Lockdown Brewing.  I must say, I’m not a huge proponent of that place, but at least they had outdoor seating.

And…  That was my weekend.  I played a few good rounds of fetch up in the park with Teagan.  Cooked a few moderately successful meals.  Went to the gym once.  Maybe I’ll turn things around today (my last day off) with a hugely exciting day.  Yeah, that’s pretty likely;  Too bad it will be too late to make this update though.

Enjoying a Hopparillo 3x IPA at Knee Deep Brewery

One of my friends who is old enough to know better has filled my mind with naive thoughts of taking a hike this coming Fall.  With that in mind, I decided to start some light (very light) training.  Luckily there are numerous trails within walking distance of our front door.  The weather was quite nice Monday so Teagan and I kicked things off with a 3.5 mile hike down a nearby path.  (Or, rather, UP and down.)  Can’t beat the views!  This path is about 1/4 mile from our house.  You can barely see the Sierra Nevada range on the horizon.

Taking a hike with Teagan