This whole website thing is a real pain. Something is broken, I don’t know what, and I really don’t care to put a whole lot of effort into figuring it out. Things should just work, you know? But, I guess sometimes they just don’t.

Anyway… What have we been up to over this extended down-time? Not a lot, honestly. Friday night we stayed in and made pasta. We haven’t done that in a while, and need to do it more often. Good wholesome fun, right? We made some linguine noodles, and served it with shrimp alfredo. OK, the alfredo sauce was out of a jar, but we added some basil from our garden and some good shrimp from the grocery, and it made a more than passable dish. After that I retired to the couch in the back yard to watch a movie… Something of an unfortunately common ending to my days anymore.

Saturday we did just not a whole lot. We were dog-sitting for the weekend, and the three of them together can be…. “challenging.” They take a watchful eye, to be sure. Mostly Quinn and his partner in crime, Renfield. I don’t speak doggy, but it is almost like they are communicating bad ideas to each other somehow. Alone they are “not bad.” (Which is not say “good” by any stretch.) Put them together and they dig holes in the yard, carry in random disgusting things and leave them around the house, and bark incessantly at nothing. Bad eggs. They do entertain each other, though, which is nice. I just wish they could be a bit less destructive about it. We did risk a venture out of the house around 5:00 to meet some friends for happy hour, which was fun. We headed down the street to Moto. I like that place, and we don’t get there very often. It hit the spot for sure. I think we ran through their entire appetizer menu, and doubled up on a few.

Sunday we watched the 49’ers game, and then did a little light house hunting. We’ve been “considering” moving, but so far it’s been one big disappointment. We set our price-point at about Way-More-Than-I-Ever-Thought-I’d-Spend-On-A-House, and we’ve been shopping for a few months. What you get in said price-point is disheartening to say the least. Most are somewhere between unlivable and total rehab. Add into the fun, you have to drive about 45 minutes out to find anything at all in that range. Might be stuck in the ‘burbs for a while longer at this rate. (Speaking of disheartening.)

Please bear with me…. This one could take a while….

Mostly quiet on the western front, with the exception of a few shows we made it out to. For our “opening act” we drove the motor home up to Tahoe to see Dave Matthews. Love him or hate him, it’s always a great show. Side note, if you hate him you are completely misguided in your musical tastes. I am not sure how many times I’ve seen him actually, but I always enjoy it. On the other hand, I do NOT enjoy the Harvey’s Outdoor Arena. I’ve skipped several shows that Donette went to, because they were at that place. It’s hard to get in and out, and for the bigger shows (like this one) it’s all General Admission. I got there a little early to secure a good spot down front, but once you’re there you ain’t moving until the show is over. This kid is entirely too old, not to mention out of shape, for standing in the same spot on blacktop for a 2+ hour show. Last year I actually bailed out a little early, but this time I stuck it out, and my back paid for it. To add insult to injury, the sound isn’t very good either. To be expected, since it’s a freaking parking lot, but come on; find somewhere else. Anyway, marginal venue aside, I enjoyed the weekend. The antique RV performed flawlessly, and we enjoyed several other “Tahoe activities” while were there too.

After that, we headed back down the hill for a mid-week Cake show. Well, it didn’t work out so good. It was down at the Golden One center, which I generally enjoy, and we had good seats. But, as mentioned above, I am old. After a good dinner at The Bank, we rolled over to the arena, found our seats, and enjoyed a solid opening set from Tall Heights. That was a nice surprise; Never heard of them but they put on a good show. After that one, and a short intermission, Ben Folds came out. Yeah, not a fan. Somewhere in the middle of his set I fell fast asleep. You might think this hard to do in a loud, crowded arena. But I guess the combo of dinner, exhaustion, age, and general disinterest formed something of the perfect storm. I was pretty excited for the Cake show, actually I’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time. Alas, I snoozed through the better part of it. Guess I’ll have to find my cassette tapes and listen at home.

Well that was a reasonably entertaining weekend! And the best news it, I have one more day of it. And the even better news, I have one more day of weekend and a 3.5 lb tomahawk ribeye in the ‘fridge. My plans are pretty well set. Side dishes are a little iffy, but then a hunk of steak that size, who needs sides anyway.

It was a low-key weekend, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Needed to wind down a bit anyway. We did a little grilling, and I was dog-sitting for a friend for a while. Not just any friend, a friend with cable tv. Not having such luxuries at home, this made for an entertaining time. I got to watch the Oregon football game, and probably about six movies. Their dog isn’t exactly high-maintenance either, like some others I know. (Cough cough, er Quinn & Nacho.) He is 14 years old, so for the most part he just sleeps in his bed. Having such similar routines, we got along famously.

Once again, I’ve been out of town. I’ll call it a pseudo-vacation of sorts. We flew to Montana for the entire week. Donette was working, I was just along for the ride so to speak. And by “ride” I mean car ride; We put in a lot of windshield time. As usual I’ve already forgotten everything we did. I really need a notebook or something. I recall we flew into Missoula, and out of Billings… All the cities between have escaped me though. There were a lot of them too; Besides spending the first weekend in Missoula, we went to a different city every day. Speaking of Missoula, I couldn’t help but notice it was roughly the same population as this gawd-forsaken-place I currently reside in. Despite being the same size, there were countless places to eat, and even several big-name concerts going on. Why is that? We have zero decent restaurants, and about 3 horrid cover bands that take turns annoying me. WHY?!?! Donette reasons that Missoula is an actual city, whereas EDH… “isn’t.” I’m not even sure what it is, a town? Whatever. Annoying. I guess we could move to Sacramento, but honestly it isn’t a whole lot better from what little we’ve seen of it.

Random ranting aside, I enjoyed the trip. It would probably be worth a repeat visit, especially if she didn’t have to spend the whole time working. Of particular note was Glacier National Park. Unfortunately all we had time to do was drive through it, but even that was pretty spectacular. I’m not entirely clear why it’s called Glacier Park, I didn’t see any stinking glaciers, despite being plenty cold for some. I could probably figure that out with a little reading…. Nahhh. Having just come from Yosemite Park, I would say it was favorably comparable. Definitely would like to get back there some day, maybe even in the motorhome. Of course I snapped a gajillion pictures as always, but they just don’t quite look the same as seeing it. We drove by Yellowstone park also, but didn’t have time to veer off course to that one. Another trip to be made, I guess.