Well my website is broken, seemingly irreparably.  After 2.5 years of the exact same setup, my stupid uverse service has decided my website & home phone cannot co-exist.  Since the phone service is for work and the website for play, guess what won.  I shall continue my troubleshooting endeavors but it don’t look good for the kid.  And now, having posted this brief update, I must re-enable the telephone…

Well I’m still by myself in CA, excluding the dog of course.  As you likely know, Doni’s dad passed away so she is helping out with things in KC.  I’ll be joining her later this week, then I think she’s coming back with me next week.  Whew, long time.  In the meantime, I’ve not done whole lot.  The weather has been pretty darn awesome so I’ve been riding my bike some and piddling around in the yard.  And…  Well…  Uh….  That’s about it.  Thank goodness for Royals baseball or I’d go to bed at 6:30 every night.  I’ve had some bits of fun though;  I took Teagan wine tasting once, threw a pork shoulder on the smoker and had people over, and I’ve been up to a friend’s house for tri-tip cooks a few times.  I’m starting to think the tri-tip is a pretty ideal hunk of meat for having people over.  Relatively easy to cook, doesn’t take long, and darn tasty.  Here’s a few random pics.  I expect I’ll get back to more riveting, regular updates in the near future.

So, not much to go on again this weekend.  If I didn’t mention it, Donette has been out of town the last few weekends.  Left to my own devices, it’s a known fact I will typically just sit on the couch and watch TV, eating microwave popcorn and Ritz crackers.  (I was starting to feel a little faint by Sunday afternoon, so I mixed some peanut butter into the diet.  Paired wonderfully with the crackers.)  Both of my friends were otherwise occupied this weekend, so it made my sloth-like ways even more inevitable.  I did have big plans of going bike riding, but it actually rained all weekend and threw that off too.  I watched no small amount of Gunsmoke, several random sporting events, and even ventured out once to wander the aisles at Costco.  The Costco trip netted two items I feel inclined to mention, mostly from lack of anything else to type about.  First was a meyer lemon tree.  I’ve been wanting a lemon tree since we moved into the house.  I was supposed to get one when the backyard got landscaped, but for reasons unknown to me…  I didn’t.  (Never really figured that one out.  Whatever, it was $20 at Costco.)  I see them for sale occasionally, and then after I wait around trying to decide if it’s a good time to plant, if it’s the variety I want, blah blah, they’re all gone.  So, when I saw a few of these out front of Costco, I threw one in the cart.  No, it’s not really the variety I wanted, but I’m tired of waiting.  Second was a fancy new electric razor.  This was another item I’ve probably been over-thinking.  I’m a Braun man myself, but I’ve long been intrigued by the Norelco design.  A few weeks ago when I was wandering Costco, I couldn’t help but notice they had quite nice models of both brands available, for exactly the same price.  This set me on a bout of research between the two:  Which was better for shaving your head?  Which was better overall?  Which had better battery life?  How expensive were replacement parts?  Well, it was pretty much a dead draw, depending on which review you were reading.  I must say I was leaning toward the Norelco, mostly because I’m a bit peeved that my Braun wore out.  The head pops off it while you’re shaving, which is quite annoying.  Not like once a week, like five times every time you use it.  OK, it’s probably eight years old…  But still.  Anyway, when I headed in to make my final decision and saw the Norelco was $30 off, my final decision was made.  Initial results are very positive, I’m happy with the purchase.  Is it “As close as a blade?”  Heck no, I can’t believe anybody ever claimed that.  But, close enough to get me through the work day.  It IS a noticeably closer shave than my old Braun though.  I don’t believe anybody could tell the difference between it and a blade unless they ran their fingers over my face.  And honestly, that very rarely happens during my day-to-day encounters.  Thus concludes my product review, wasn’t that exciting and informative?

Wow, where does the time go.  I’m rather busy this week (and last,) and not with anything that would be of any interest to anyone.  I do however have some pictures I can post of various recent exploits.  I went “mountain biking” by myself Saturday.  I put that in quotes because the truth of the matter is, I walked a fair deal of it.  I’ve got a deep-seated fear of crashing, especially by myself, so if I see anything even remotely difficult-looking I just bail out.  Of course, the downside is I’ll never get any better at riding.  The obvious upside is I might make it to ride another day.  Also of note, I joined a group of youngsters on a fun wine tasting Sunday.  They’d rented a large bus/limo to shuttle us around and celebrate our friend Alaina’s birthday.  I won’t list the actual age, because 1) I don’t think you’re supposed to, and 2) it depresses me.

Cycling season continues to ramp up.  I got in two decent road-rides last week, and a rather epic mountain bike ride.  The road rides are mostly just an effort to acclimate myself to the hills out here, which honestly I’m not sure is ever going to happen.  I’m gonna give it a try though.  So far I ride on the road by myself, so if I get winded I just slow down.  The mountain bike rides are generally with two or more other guys, so if (when) I get winded I either feel like an old man or I get lost because everybody is so far ahead.  Geez, they ride fast.  I’d like to blame it on the fact that I have 10+ years on all of them, but more likely it’s because I’ve got 20+ lbs on all of them.  Or, as my more politically correct college amigos would say, I’ve sprouted a few extra backs.

Anyway, to the weekend.  Friday, Donette flew out ridiculously early (5:30 flight) to meet her Mom in Phoenix.  She was on the way here to visit us, and as those plans developed they came up with the rather clever idea to meet up at her layover in Phoenix and drive to a Spring Training game in Surprise.  Fine idea indeed.  I cannot relate a whole lot of that day because, well, I wasn’t there.  Looked fun in the pictures.  I was still scheduled to work Friday, but late Thursday a guy called and asked if I wanted to head out to Hidden Falls trail in Auburn for some cycling.  Matter of fact, that sounded darn fun.  I was mostly drawn in by the fact that it was forecast to be 70 and sunny out, with rain starting over the weekend.  Enjoy it while it’s here, so to speak.  We had a great ride, or at least I did.  I found the trails moderately less torturous than the others they’ve taken me on.  As a matter of fact, I rode nearly the entire trail.  Granted, sometimes I was going so slow I might as well have just walked, but it’s a pride thing I guess.  I didn’t make it up one nearly vertical (or so it felt) hill, and I bailed out over one rocky section that appeared to promise sure death if I didn’t make it.  All-in-all, I called it a successful ride.

Donette and her Mom got in early Saturday morning, and did some catching up on their sleep into the afternoon.  After they got up and around, we met up with a few other couples and headed to Amador to visit some wineries.  Her Mom doesn’t actually like wine, or have any interest in it what-so-ever, but it’s really the only thing we know to do when company comes out.  We hit the usual spots, and mixed in a nice little picnic at one of the more scenic locations.  After that we headed back to the house and threw a tri tip on the grill for some dinner.

Sunday found us rather worn down.  We headed to The Purple Place to start the day off with a solid breakfast.  Not exactly the, er, most impressive place to take out of town guests, but it’s our favorite breakfast so we went with it.  It has lots of “ambiance.”  After breakfast we just kind of kicked around a few of the local attractions, such as they are.  We hit the small museum at Folsom prison, drove around the lake a bit (which actually has water in it,) and then finished up wandering around the Old Folsom area for a while.  Later in the afternoon we headed back to the house to rest up a bit, and just never quite got going again.  We got sucked into the NCAA tourney, and that was all she wrote.  Thank goodness we found some leftovers in the fridge.