Sigh, Monday again. We had a decent weekend though, so there’s that. We started off on Friday evening over at friend’s house. It was sort of a semi-birthday for several people in the group. Had a great tri tip for dinner. I’ve been wanting that for a while, so that worked out well.

Saturday, we made the somewhat long drive to Lodi to check out a BBQ competition. Donette happened across it online, and we thought what the heck. It was a genuine KCBS sanctioned event, don’t see that much around here! It was small, I am guessing about 20 teams. Few nice setups, but for the most part there were some good ol’ back yard barbecuers in the entered. It was definitely fun, although we didn’t stick around to see the results. We had to take off for dinner reservations, which were at The Oxford in their little downtown area. Great dinner! Hour and a half drive aside, Lodi was a good time, might make it back there sometime.

Sunday was a “recovery day” from our big Saturday. Got some stuff done around the house and that’s about it. Mowed some of the yard, split a little wood for the firepit, and did a good amount of sitting around. All in all, a good weekend.

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Well, my big vacation for the year is done. I’m going to label it a success, if not 100%. I had some sort of crud the majority of the time, which did cut into my enjoyment a bit. I tried to power through, which of course likely just made it worse. We definitely managed our share of fun though, sick or not. We spent a full week in Ireland, made a brief two-night stay in London, then on to Scotland for the remainder. The travel was a bit on the brutal side, but I guess that comes with trying to see a few thousand years of history in two weeks. The flight home was a rough one too, it took a full 24 hours door to door. I’m too old for that! Here is a photo dump of some of the things we saw during our time there.

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We had a great week touring Ireland. Spent a quick two nights in London, now it’s off to Scotland today.

Having a great time celebrating Alaina’s birthday

Another down weekend! Maybe I’m saving my strength for something, although I’m not entirely sure what. I’ll know it when it gets here, I guess. Friday night was our only evening of any note. We passed on our regularly scheduled happy hour gathering in Shingle Springs and had some friends up for dinner. It didn’t go “exactly” as planned, but then what does. We put a meatloaf on the smoker for dinner, which I was happy with. I’ve tried it once before, with less than exciting results. It was so boring, actually, that I almost came up with a different menu. Luckily this one came out a lot better though, I’m even game to try it again soon. The rest of the evening was spent playing pool and watching movies. There was supposed to be a bonfire worked in there too, but… There wasn’t.

Saturday and Sunday came and went with a whole lot of nothing. A few less-than-exciting basketball games, then worked Saturday night, and that’s about the whole of it. Donette went to a friend’s house Sunday night for her annual Oscars party. Sounded like a real hoot, but I wasn’t able to score an invite, so I stayed home with the pups. We had a fine time of it, they’re about as hard to entertain as myself. We watched “The Power” and “Candyman” after the basketball games were over. The first was rather silly and boring, but Candyman was pretty darn scary. I think Nacho might have had nightmares.

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