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.

Ahhh, I needed a good three-day weekend.  Actually I’m a little worse for wear, but that comes with advanced age I guess.  We had a good time of it, all things considered.  Friday sort of escapes me, although I’m sure we did something.  I’ll have to backtrack with the wife on that one.  Geez, speaking of advanced age, my memory is horrible.  I do recall that we walked up the street and caught a fireworks display at nearby Town Center.  It was a passable effort, I’ve certainly seen more elaborate shows.  Got us out of the house I suppose, there’s something to be said for that.

Saturday we went to a birthday party at a friend’s house in Folsom.  Whew, it was a heck of a party.  For some reason I had envisioned a few people sitting in the house chatting, but it was a full-on back yard bash.  He had an awesome pool and several covered areas, I definitely had a little backyard-envy going on.  He had a barrel cooker running, similar to this setup, and what seemed like an endless variety of meat coming off it.  He shredded up a few pork butts shortly after we arrived, then out came some of the best carne asada I’ve ever had, then several pans of chicken.  Whew, it was a feast.  Lots of people showed up with with various sides too, there was definitely plenty to eat.  (I was empty handed of course…  Nobody filled me in on the details.  No swimsuit either.)  Good times at any rate.

Sunday, in the “slow learner” category, we once again went river tubing.  As I limped painfully through the house this morning, it occurred to me that I well might be too old for tubing.  Indeed, I spent some time researching inflatable kayaks this afternoon;  They look significantly more comfortable.  We had a great time though, and I’m sure we’ll end up getting talked into it again.  Cheap entertainment if nothing else.  I once again took a few good shots from assorted trees and boulders along the way, but at least I managed to stay right side up this time.  After that adventure we headed back to our house and grilled up some decent fish tacos, then somehow ended up breaking out the long-dormant Rock Band game.  Too much fun for me, it’s turning into a long Monday.  I’ve got some pictures of the day’s activities but mercifully forgot to upload them, sorry.  Just look at last week’s, pretty similar day.

Sunday, our ever-expanding quest for amusement took us on a 30-minute drive to Coloma for a good ol’ Float trip.  (Friday and Saturday were irreparably marred by work, I’ll just skip those days.)  Our first stop was at a sporting goods store along the way to pick up tubes and life vests for the trip.  This was a moderately pricey stop, but everything survived the day so I suppose we’ll get more use out of them.  I sincerely question the need for a life vest on the very calm river, but I guess rules are rules.  Anyway, we got there some time after noon, met up with some friends, blew up the tubes, and hit the water.  Not much else to tell…  We spent the next several hours meandering leisurely down the fine American River.  Other than a nasty tangle with an ill-placed boulder, (which I lost,) it was a relaxing, uneventful trip, which we intend to repeat in the near future.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is 109 degrees, so the nice cold water sounds better all the time.  That’s about all I got.  I’m a bit worse for wear today, so I’ll just post some pics and call it good.