Well I said I’d post again in January, and so I shall.  But, despite what well may be the longest respite from my “weekly” posting since the inception of this thing, I don’t have all that much to cover.  Oh we’ve been busy, I just don’t have the memory to go over everything.  What I DO have, I suppose, is a brief recollection of the New Years weekend, and a bunch of pictures of food.

For the latest of the three-day weekends, we drove down to San Francisco with a car load of friends for a few nights.  I’m a fan;  Big city, lots to do, lots to eat…  Ideal weekend in my book.  We got there Saturday afternoon and parked the car at the hotel (where it would remain for the duration of the weekend) and set about doing our thing.  We don’t really have a thing, so we had to make do.  Not too much to note really.  We enjoyed happy hour in a skyscraper with incredible views.  We ate lots of incredible food, and way too much of it.  We found decent barbecue.  And we celebrated the New Year, if from the safety of our hotel room.  As for New Year’s Eve, we went to Wayfare Tavern in the financial district with a large group for dinner.  I don’t know how this worked out, but it’s the same place we ate two years ago when we were there for the same holiday.  I found it rather curious that the menu was exactly the same as two years ago, given the short list of choices, but it was delicious all the same.  We indulged in far too many starters though, it effectively ruined our main course.  I can safely say I’ve never payed that much for a steak and then just left it sitting on the plate, but I was in such misery that the mere sight of it made me a little queasy.  Live and learn.

Monday was the drive back up the hill, which was pleasantly uneventful.  We were pretty much done for when we got to the house.  We’re both fighting moderately nasty colds so there was a lot of bowl games involved in the remainder of the day.  I did actually get out and go for a bike ride though, if only to say I started the year off right.  The main factor in that decision was that it was 65 degrees out.  If you get a 65 degree day on January 1 and don’t take advantage of it, well I guess shame on you.  It was quite enjoyable, hopefully I can keep some measure of consistency going with the cycling this year.  After that I made a seafood stew that came out pretty well, and then back to the couch.

Merry Christmas.  See you in January, enjoy the holidays.  Somebody should.  Bother.

Our Christmas card. Or rather, what our Christmas card would look like had we bothered to make one.

We made it through that holiday with flying colors.  I’m going to go so far as to say I had fun.  We’ve spent the last 3 Thanksgivings at friend’s houses out here, because traveling back to KC on a holiday is logistically nightmarish.  (Not to mention pricey.)  This year, after evaluating some mitigating circumstances, we decided to host it at our house.  And so, speaking of logistical nightmares, we invited all 20-something people over to join us for dinner.  (24 at last count I believe.)  It was a certainly a good time, if moderately challenging.  That’s just a lot of people, and a lot of food.  Not as hard as I thought though, it went relatively smoothly.  We had two turkeys and a good sized brisket I’d smoked the day before, and went with our favorites for sides.  Mashed potatoes and gravy, green rice casserole, corn, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and stuffing.  Maybe some more, who knows, that’s all I can recall at this time of morning.  Oh, and pie…  lots and lots of pie.  We cheated and got them at Costco, and those things are huge.  Oh well, they keep for some length of time I suppose.

Friday after the big turkey-day, I drove Donette and her Mom down to the airport early in the morning, and they left for Hawaii where they met all her sisters.  Since that time, I must say I’ve not accomplished a whole lot.  As a matter of fact, in a somewhat epic bout of laziness, I didn’t even bother getting dressed all weekend.  That, I must say, is a first even for me.  I got up, hit the couch and watched movies all weekend long.  When it got warm enough outside, I crawled out to the back patio and watched movies out there.  Shameful, but relaxing.  I’ve certainly eaten better than I usually do when she’s out of town, if not particularly healthy.  I’ve been subsisting on a steady diet of pie for breakfast, and turkey sliders for lunch and dinner.  Sometimes with a side of green rice or corn, most times not.  Solid meals.

As I not-so-subtly alluded to in the title, we spent that weekend in good ol’ Lake Tahoe.  I have to say we prefer visiting there in the summer time when it’s a little warmer, but it was an enjoyable weekend all the same.  It wasn’t too cold, and the traffic was definitely more tolerable than the summer months.  We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, just sort of enjoyed the sites.  We did have a very nice dinner on Thursday, at Chart House.  We usually go to Riva Grill for our “one nice dinner out” but took the recommendation of a local for something different, and it worked out quite well.  It’s basically a Landry’s, which puts it dangerously close to our “chain restaurant” black-list, but we decided to give it a go anyway.  Donette and her mom enjoyed the prime rib, and I had an ahi tuna dish that was quite delicious.  As a matter of fact, I had a very similar dinner last time we were at Riva and they utterly destroyed it, so Chart House is a little higher on my list now.  We also did the requisite shopping rounds, took a trip to the must-see Emerald Bay (I never get tired of that view,) and did no small amount of relaxing.

We were in Tahoe Thursday through Saturday, getting back home later in the afternoon.  Sunday was mostly eaten up by a trip out to Carmax in Roseville to look at a new (well, used) sled.  We have been a one-car family for over a decade now, and honestly it works out just fine 99.7% of the time.  But for some reason (bad judgement most likely,) I recently decided I just really needed my own set of wheels.  You know, for those 1/2-dozen days a year when it rains and I can’t easily get to work.  Sigh.  Well, whatever the reason, I got this idea in my head several weeks back and I’ve been shopping ever since.  For the most part I stuck to the Carmax site, which I must say I am now a fan of.  This is the third car I looked at, and it’s just a really easy process.  The first two were fails, one I missed out on by dragging my feet, and then when I saw this last one I was hooked.  It’s four years old, but as close to new as you’re going to get without paying the new-car price.  So, while it was a bit unfortunate her mom had to suffer through an hour of paperwork on her vacation, I went ahead and picked it up that day.  And, as you read it on this page right now, if I only put 1,000 miles on it in the next year we’re going right back to the single-car garage.

Busy weekend.  Busy busy.  Yeah that’s us.  OK maybe not so much.  We were “occupied” though, to say the least.  Donette’s Mom came in to town Saturday night, so we ran down to the airport and picked her up.  Our plans to entertain her during her stay are sketchy, to say the least.  Our first big item on the schedule was to take her wine tasting down in the Napa/Sonoma area.  This, despite the fact that she has no use at all for wine tasting.  Well…  Hey, our options are sort of limited around this place.  It’s a nice area to see, and there was just a little bit of fall color to enjoy.  (Mingled with the rather devastating fire damage from the recent wildfires.)  It was an entire day of driving, to be sure.  Our first stop was one of my favorites, Soda Rock.  Great wine, great place…  But the drive is horrible.  It’s not in Napa or Sonoma actually, but clear past them in the Alexander Valley, a solid hour’s drive past Napa.  Whew, it was a long trip.  We had a shipment to pick up there though, so we made the drive.  (Granted, it only costs about $10 to have it sent to our doorstep.  With gas at $3.50 per gallon, and a 2.5 hour drive each way…  Yeah let’s just not do that math.  It’s a fun place, go with it.)  Next on our little circle was our Sonoma spot of choice, Walt.  I like to fancy myself a Pinot Noir man, and I find theirs to be the best.  At the end of the day, I am 99% sure I couldn’t tell a Pinot from a generic red blend, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Although this was only our second stop, I was already a bit worn out from driving so we didn’t stay there long.  They were super busy (as always) too, and I didn’t feel like waiting around, so we picked up our shipment from them and then left to grab some lunch at a nearby deli.  From there, our third and last stop was our Napa favorite, Cuvaison.  This is our most recent membership, and I must say we’re very happy with it so far.  (Or maybe the new just hasn’t worn off yet.)  They have a nice variety of wine, and so far we enjoy them all.  Their tasting room is very nice too, with great views, and they manage the crowd by asking that you call beforehand to let them know when you’ll be there.  It was a good way to wrap up the afternoon, before making the arduous drive back up the hill.  We got back into our home area around 5:30, and went directly up to our friends Michael & Alaina’s house to enjoy a nice dinner.  After some delicious pasta we were all absolutely finished, and headed back to our house for an early turn-in.  Whew, busy day.