Lame weekend. I haven’t put in so much couch-time since… Well, probably last weekend. Usually I can sort of disguise it as “relaxed” though; This weekend was just boring. I did watch the majority of the basketball games, some of which were entertaining. At the end of the day I didn’t care much who won or lost though, so that takes some of the excitement out of it. I was hoping for a little run from MU, but they went out in the first round. Probably for the best, they’d have just been destroyed by Gonzaga like Oklahoma was. We also tried our first attempt at the “order ahead” grocery thing. Yeah, you get on their website and order all your groceries, then go pick it up and they put it in your trunk for you. Lesson learned, always check the “no substitutions” box. I ordered my annual corned beef. I was actually a bit excited about it matter of fact, as I had a new pastrami seasoning recipe I was going to bust out on it this year. She got all the way home, and they’d given me a bottom round. AAAGGGHHHH!!!! I said brisket!!! What the heck am I supposed to do with this thing? Ugh. I threw it on the smoker anyway, but I don’t have very high hopes. I’d say ’21 is pretty much ruined.

In the very short “positive” column, I got my new skillet! Yes, such is my life these days, new skillets are big news. The biggest news was that it finally came. I ordered that thing in November! I considered asking for a refund several times over the last 16 weeks, but I really wanted my skillet. Geez, 16 weeks. “Oh, the covid, oh the shipping times, oh the holidays…” SIXTEEN WEEKS?!?!?! IT’S A SKILLET!!!! This company makes a grand total of two things: A 10″ skillet and a 12″ skillet. That’s it!!! Two things!!! And it takes that long!??!!? Well whatever, I guess I finally have it, and I like it. The only thing I’d remark on is that it’s an odd color. I already knew that, and I knew it would bother me, but I ordered it all the same. It’s kind of a copper color. Cast iron skillets are black. That’s about all there is to that story. “Well, it will get darker with use.” Guess what, NEW cast iron skillets are black too. Hey, I cooked some eggs and they didn’t stick, I guess that’s about all I should ask at this point.

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Ahhhh, back from a moderately relaxing vacation. We packed up the motorhome back on the 5th and took off for sunny Salome, Arizona for a full week stay. Not exactly a common destination I would imagine, but our friend’s mother stays the winter there so we went down for a visit before she heads north for the summer. (Apparently Salome regularly hits 115 in the summer; Yeah no thanks.) We had a great time, a nice mixture of kicking back with the occasional activity thrown in for good measure. They’ve got this sweet ATV, as pretty much everybody in the area does. Some friends of theirs were nice enough to loan us two more so we got to do some desert exploring. It’s something of an official pastime there it seems, and there are more miles of trail than you could probably ever cover. And those ATV’s, (not sure what they’re officially called… not a four-wheeler but not a dune buggy either) would pretty much go over anything in their way without so much as spinning a tire. Good times. I immediately started shopping them, but quickly found out they can’t be street licensed in CA, the No-Fun-State. That would limit it’s usefulness around here quite a bit. That was the whole week I guess, nothing else to report on. The motorhome treated us good (knock on wood…) and the whole trip was just pretty smooth. I might look into leaving the dogs behind next time, we’ll see. They just aren’t used to being alone, and you can’t very well have them tagging along everywhere. Luckily a nice neighbor checked on them in the motorhome while we were gone, but they were still plenty anxious when we got back every day, to put it mildly. Nacho has a shriek that just can’t be described; I need to video it someday so people will believe it.

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So I was able to sneak in a short getaway last weekend, preventing me from making my not-so-regularly scheduled update. Just when I was sure I was in the groove. I took the motorhome up to nearby Ponderosa Resort for a little camping trip, or glamping if you’re into the latest made-up adverbs. Well, actually I didn’t take the motorhome, per se, my friend Michael drove it up there and parked it for me. It would seem that being co-owner I would drive it around, but not so much. Maybe someday, but not this particular day. The campground is only 15 miles from our house, but it is very nice and it still seems like you are “getting away.” Didn’t do a whole lot; Some friends came and went, my spouse came and went, and the rest of the time I just hung out. The weather was exceptional, especially for this time of year, so a lot of time was spent just sitting outside in a lawnchair. May sound a little too low-key for many, but I like the opportunity to just relax. Good trip.

In other life-altering news, I got new Internet service! The past year I have been suffering miserably with my fixed wireless plan. I do not think that’s an exaggeration either. I would get kicked off while working several times a day, things like streaming video were impossible, and during the evenings it would slow to unusable speeds. I’ve looked and looked for alternatives, but couldn’t find anything. Finally, rather randomly, I came across Verizon Home LTE service. I am honestly not sure how I never found it before; It doesn’t seem to be widely advertised or easily accessible from their main site. So far it turned out to be just what I need though, knock on wood. Been using it all week with no disconnects and everything works just fine. As an added bonus it’s $40 cheaper a month, and 5x faster. Score! This may even lead to moving this website back home where it belongs, although that sounds like more effort than I’m willing to expend at the moment.

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You know you’re a slacker when the next post after “Happy New Year” is on Presidents Day. Man, I just can’t seem to get back into the dreary rut of updating this every week. Tsk tsk. Maybe this will be the post that gets me rolling again. Maybe I’ll go on a diet and start exercising too. Yeah, maybe. So anyway, we just got back from a rather glorious week in Hawaai, Maui to be specific. This was kind of a last minute deal, as a rather troubling percentage of our decisions seem to be anymore. It was based on a combination of sketchy weather at home, cheap air fare, and general boredom. The weather didn’t clear up while we were away, but it was a great time anyway. Sort of hard to go wrong with a week on the beach in February, honestly. Pluses: We had some great food, didn’t spend an exorbitant amount of money, the whales were fantastic, and we liked our resorts. Minuses: It was a little windy? That’s all I can come up with. Well, and wearing a mask for the duration of the five-hour flight, but I guess that’s just part of the game these days. For that matter, I could throw “It’s only a five hour flight to Maui from Sacramento” in the plus column and it would cancel the mask out. We got back home late on Saturday, picked up the pups, and got home for some needed rest. On Valentines Day, we went to a friends house down in EDH for a fantastic dinner. Filet mignon, mashed potatoes, caesar salad, and crab bisque. Oh man was it good. Filets are just not my favorite cut of steak, but these were fantastic.

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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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