Not a bad weekend, all things considered.  We started it off Friday after work by going on an honest-to-goodness date at 36 Handles.  Since moving here we went from going out nearly every night to maybe two or three times a month.  A harsh drop-off, to be sure.  I’m not completely certain of the reasons behind that change in habit.  Might be budgetary, or maybe we just don’t like any of the places around here.  At any rate, we busted loose and stayed a few hours at that place, which I do sort of like.  After that we headed home and played several rounds of dominoes, then broke out the Wii and rocked our faces off to Rock Band for several hours.  I don’t think we’ve ever played dominoes together, and I know we haven’t played Rock Band in probably two years.  Just an all-around wacky night for the old folks!

There was a price to be paid for all that entertainment, of course.  Saturday we slept in quite late, then crawled to the couch and watched college basketball for the majority of the afternoon.  I did manage to limp up to the park with Teagan and play fetch for a bit, mostly just to tire her out so she wouldn’t drive me nuts all night.  Surely we did something awesomely fun and wacky too, but the details regarding that portion of the day escape me at the moment.  It was too darn nice outside to sit around watching TV all day.  Things happen though.

Sunday we were just a bit more enterprising.  We got around at the crack of 10:00 and headed to the gym, a good start to any day.  After that we felt we deserved some calories, so we headed out to lunch at a place called Cascada.  This marked our first attempt at a Mexican restaurant since moving here.  All-in-all, I’d call it a success.  I had chicken adovado, and Donette opted for an asada burrito.  I thought both were very good, maybe with a nod towards the burrito as the better of the two.  I can’t say I really cared for the “feel” of the place, or the prices, but at least the food was good.  I imagine we’ll be back, if only due to the relatively close proximity to our house.  By the time we finished lunch, the games were on, so we headed back home and turned the TV on.  Once again we were denied the Chief’s broadcast, and were stuck watching the 49ers.  Donette promptly fell asleep, and I sort of stared at it with limited interest.  For dinner I tried a new recipe, spicy linguine with clams & mussels.  Our menu at home is generally dictated by the sale ad at the nearby grocery store, and this one was no exception:  The shellfish was on sale for $2.99, can’t beat that.  It came out very well, I label it a keeper.  The mussels were awesome too, which I’m somewhat excited about.  I do like me some mussels, and the offerings in KC could be a little…  dicey.  Also on sale are whole dungeness crabs for a mere $4.99 per lb, which intrigues me.  I have absolutely no idea what to do with one of those things, but I guess I better give it a go while they’re on sale.  Anybody ever tackle one of those creatures????

We went with a fried turkey for our Christmas dinner.  Cheap and tasty, my favorite combo.  I tried the dry-brine method this time.  I think I have to give the nod to the good ol’ “wet brine,” but it came out pretty well, and was a lot less mess.

Deep fried in peanut oil after a 3-day dry brine in salt, pepper, and lemon zest

I’m trying do develop a new theme for this page, the fonts have always irritated me. As you can see, I ain’t got no skills and it looks a bit messy right now. Rest assured I am diligently ignoring it for the time being, though. (It DOES look more readable to me?)  I’m sure I’ll give up on finishing it and switch back soon.

I guess Christmas is here!  Once again we didn’t get the house decorated.  I’m not sure how many years running that is;  Too many I’m sure.  At least this year we discussed it, usually we just totally ignore it.  I was supposed to put up the tree while Donette was out of town, but I didn’t get it done.  My rationale was “Why?”  I was home by myself, we have zero visitors…  Didn’t make no good sense.  Maybe next year.  Or, maybe not.

We actually had a remarkably busy weekend for once.  I was on vacation all week, which was quite nice.  As briefly mentioned last week, our friends Ed & Kim were in town;  Our first official visitors!  (This, of course, sort of contradicts my earlier statement of “zero visitors.”  It would have been a good idea to have a tree up for their kids…  Oops.  We did walk up and down the street looking at other people’s decorations, close enough.)  They headed to Tahoe on Monday, then we joined them Wednesday afternoon.  Donette was a little sick so we almost bailed out, but the rooms were already paid for so we didn’t want to just lose them.  It worked out well.  She started feeling better after some sleep, and mostly we just hung around the condo while they skied.  (Snowboarded, to be more accurate.)  They reported the conditions a little on the lame side the first few days, but Wednesday night there was a pretty good snowstorm that gave them some white stuff to work with.

We all headed back to El Dorado Hills Friday afternoon, and they had to fly out Saturday morning.  We didn’t exactly tear up the town while they were here, but for whatever reason we were rather exhausted and spent the vast majority of the day on the couch watching basketball.  As a matter of fact, that is all we did.  Sunday was only slightly more productive.  Donette did a thorough cleaning of the house in an attempt to get rid of any left-over germs from her little bout with the flu (or whatever it was.)  Meanwhile I hit the gym for a while, or perhaps it hit me.  After that I did the grocery shopping for our Christmas dinner.  We elected to go with turkey again, but deep-fried this time.  I am giving a go to the “dry brine” method this time, mostly out of interest and cheapness.  For the record, I didn’t want turkey, so it better be good.  They make an inhouse turducken at the grocery down the street, and I was dead-set on grilling one of those.  Donette was a little skeptical though, and likely with good reason.  I just wanted to try it more than anything.  Second on my list was rib roast.  This one she agreed sounded good, but they’re a little spendy.  Turkey, on the other hand, is still $1.49 and always a safe bet…  A reasonable compromise.