I’ve been stranded alone in my house for a full week now, after Donette flew out to KC to spend some time with family and friends. (KC? In January? Yeah I tried to point out the flaws inherent to that plan, but was ignored as always.) Well, I guess I’m not technically alone; I’ve got these two idiot puppies to keep me company. And keep me company they do, whether wanted or not. They are both rather high maintenance for lil’ things. Overall I’ve been pretty bored, but I did get out of the house and have some fun on a few occasions. Saturday was particularly notable, in fact. My friends picked me up and we headed out for some rather random adventure. We didn’t have much of a plan, so we kind of made one up as we headed due west out of town. The first destination was easy; It was noon, so lunch was in order. After a brief discussion (and finding a few of our first picks closed,) we ended up at Marlene & Glen’s Diner in Plymouth. I like to go there every now and then… It has character, not to mention calories. It also has about two dozen health code violations at any given moment, but I can overlook that for a good turkey melt. After a meal, we ended up going directly across the street to Prospect Cellars, one of our favorite wine tasting rooms. For being a favorite, we don’t get there very often, so it’s always enjoyable when we actually make it. Don’t want to wear any places out, you know. It was good as always, and as we were leaving one of the ladies suggested we try 24 Brix just down the street… And our second destination was decided. We gave it a thumbs up, or at least it is worth a second visit sometime in the future. From there, we made a little longer drive to Jackson for some grocery shopping at the vaunted Schwingle Meat Company, aka The Carnivore’s Toy Store. It is quite a place, definitely worth a visit if you come out this way some time. I picked up way more than I intended, it’s easy to get carried away. Meanwhile my friend Michael engaged in a rather amusing conversation with the girl behind the counter. He needed some pork to throw on the smoker for the games Sunday, and it stands to reason that theirs would be wonderful, and as a bonus inexpensive. They went back and forth for at least a good ten minutes; He’d ask a question, she’d open the door to the back and yell it at the butcher, then relay the answer. After a painfully lengthy repetition of this process, he decides “I’ll have a six pound bone-in shoulder.” She hollers back through the doors again, and then comes back to report “We don’t have any right now.” Nice. OK scratch the pork. We found plenty of goodies they DID have though, so we threw them in the cooler and took off for nearby Sutter Creek. We didn’t do much there, just kind of looked around at all the fun stuff. It’s a nice little town. From there we drove back closer to home, ending up in Shingle Springs at one of our favorite haunts to watch the evening football game. None of us had a particular interest in the game, we just kind of hung out and enjoyed the day. All in all, a fine way to enjoy a weekend afternoon. I’m a little light on pictures this week it seems, but I found a few.