Oh man, the weather really wants to go to full-on Fall season here. Just can’t quite get over the hump. Sunday was definitely in the season, rainy all day and barely broke 60. Then this week it’s back to the upper 70’s with full sun. Hey, nothing wrong with that either. As long as it’s not snowing, it’s all good.

The weekend was unacceptably marred by work. It happens. I’ve yet to convince management that I cannot be spending nights in the datacenter instead of hitting the town in search of blog material. I don’t really understand this mindset, but seem forced to comply. Robbed of my Saturday, I did have a fairly entertaining Friday. We went to our neighborhood haunt Bones for lunch. Haven’t been there in a few weeks, so it was good to see “the crowd” again. We don’t usually eat there either, as it’s gotten so expensive. Not expensive in the “costs more than everywhere else” kind of way, just in the “everything is expensive anymore” kind of way. Apparently I whined too much about the insane cost of adding bacon to my burger and they threw some in for free though, so that was nice. ($3.50 to add a few strips of bacon?!?! C’mon man.) After that tasty meal, we finished up the workday at home and then went to an open house our realtor was throwing at nearby Saureel Vineyards. We’d never been there, and it was a fantastic property. We need to make it a point to go back there sometime and check out their wines. Had a great time though, lots of food and a guy singing who was good.

Sunday we went out to a late breakfast with some friends, then it was back to the house for a day of watching football. It didn’t feel like so much of a wasted day like usual, since it was raining and cold out anyway. Donette made some great beef stew to enjoy during the night game, which hit the spot.

I’ll throw in another random “product review” since I don’t have much else to go on. I recently broke down and bought a Vortex setup for my Weber grill. I’ve been going back and forth on if I really needed one, and as usual finally came to the inescapable conclusion that yes, there was really no way I could continue life without one. I’ve used it twice so far, both times in the “indirect-direct” setup described on their site. (Whatever that means; Doesn’t really make sense.) I made chicken legs both times, and both times they came out great. Smoky, crispy, and they get done fast. I want to do wings in the same fashion, but when legs are usually 1/5 the price of wings I’m gonna go drummies every time. The main reason I got it is to do ribs in the same setup, but I haven’t had a chance to try that yet. Supposedly you can cook a slab of ribs in about an hour; This I gotta see. I also want to sear a steak over it, as it gets crazy hot in the middle. Overall, I’ll give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Half star ding for the price. Yeah it works great, just like everyone says. But I can’t shake the feeling that $40 is a little exorbitant for a metal cone. A lot of people make their own, but nah. Guess I ain’t THAT put off by the price.

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