Things are slow out here, very slow.  I had a few note-worthy events over the last few weeks though.  One thing, I went mountain biking with some guys last week.  I rather miss cycling, and I’ve about accepted nobody I know out here is going to road-ride with me, so I caved and got a mountain bike.  Different world, I know that.  I pretty much suffered the whole ride, but it was oddly fun.  It didn’t help that it was pitch dark out, making it rather hard to see.  I’ve got lights, but they weren’t really cutting it.  Eh, I only wrecked once, I’ll call it a victory.  Granted, it’s hard to wreck when you’re walking your bike most of the time, but we’ll leave that part out.

As far as the weekend goes, we stayed in Friday night.  It’s starting to get a little nicer out, so I moved my TV out to the back patio and hung out there for the evening.  Doesn’t take a whole lot to entertain me.  Saturday it was even nicer out, so I grabbed a few slabs of ribs from the grocery and fired up the smoker.  It was an experiment of sorts.  I bought one slab of loin backs, and one slab of spares.  Same exact rub, same cook times, to see which I liked better.  Not a particularly valid experiment, as I already had it in my head I like spares better, but it was fun all the same.  Both of them came out quite passable.  I declare BBQ season officially OPEN.  Sunday we got off to a pretty slow start.  I made the critical error of turning on the TV, finding a few movies, and wasting a rather embarrassing part of the afternoon.  It happens.  It happens quite frequently, actually.  Doni hosted her annual Oscars party that evening, so eventually I had to get up and around to help with preparations for that.  It’s a “girls only” event, so when it kicked off I headed over to a buddy’s house with a few other banished husbands for steaks on the grill.  Works for me.

Whew, busy weekend.  Once again I totally failed in my note-taking strategy, so I don’t really remember specifically what we did, but it seems we were very busy.  I recall Friday night I tried to drum up a little support for a group happy hour, but got no takers.  We ended up on our back patio, which wasn’t a bad option at all.  Fired up the propane heater and had a nice evening of it.  When the temp started getting a little uncomfortably chilly we moved inside for “movie night.”  I’d been wanting to re-watch “From Dusk Till Dawn,” so we fired that up.  I think I actually made it through the first 30 minutes or so before falling asleep.

Saturday we got up medium-early and started on our project to hang our living room TV on the wall.  That was to be one of the things we were going to hire out, but due to certain, ummm, budgetary constraints we decided to tackle it ourselves.  It wasn’t that hard I suppose, although very time consuming.  It ended up taking me the better part of the day actually.  I was happy with the results, and as of this writing it is still attached to the wall, so I declare it a success.  I had grand plans of going mountain biking in the afternoon, but there wasn’t enough sunlight left in the day by the time I finished the TV project.  Sigh.  Can’t wait for the longer days to get here.

Sunday we got all social and went to the neighborhood “Valentine’s 5K.”  It was just sort of a fun-run.  Matter of fact, we walked most of it.  Boy it wore me out a lot more than it probably should have though.  I really need to start up some form of exercise.  After that short burst of activity, we did a little bit of work in the back yard.  Cleaned out the garden, and planted three grape vines.  We have a trellis along the back fence, which was originally intended for hop vines.  Every time those would start growing, Teagan would blunder through them and snap them off at the ground though.  Hopefully the grapes will be a little hardier.  For our big Valentines dinner, we grilled up steak and lobster.  That’s become our annual dinner for some reason.  Well, I guess the main reason is, it’s dang tasty.  Doni got to pick the after-dinner movie that night.  I don’t remember what it was called, and I don’t guess it really matters because I was asleep before it even started.

Yep, late again.  Poor planning on my part, I’ve been unavoidably detained.  I headed out of town this weekend with a buddy from Texas.  We drove down to Rohnert Park and stayed with a friend, so we could attend the big Pliny The Younger beer release at nearby Santa Rosa.  I’m sure everyone remembers all the details from last year’s trip, so I’ll be brief.  They brew this 3x IPA once a year at Russian River Brewing, and it’s ready the first weekend of February.  I guess it’s considered sort of the unicorn of West Coast style IPA’s.  Hop perfection, if you will.  We had intended our trip last year to be our one-and-only time going, but the closer the date came, the more fun I remembered having.  When my friend David from our Texas days said he’d fly in for it, it sealed the deal.  We had a great time, as usual.  As I’m sure I said last year, I’m not really sure there is a beer worth standing in line 5 hours for.  But if there is, I’d guess it would be the Pliny.

Well that was a nice little break.  Break from what I’m not exactly sure, but it was nice all the same.  Oddly, after a two-week hiatus, I really don’t much material to work with.  We’ve been crazy busy, and not with anything worth relating.  I suppose we did have a nice little outing yesterday.  We drove out to Sutter Creek and enjoyed a nice afternoon of wine tasting.  It was a fine day for walking around, if just a bit on the chilly side, and we had a great time.  Sort of reminds us of Parkville.

Other than that trip, we’ve mostly been shut up in the house avoiding the recent cold snap.  Weeks on end stuck in the mid-fifties, brrr.  Looks like that’s finally going to break towards the end of this week, and I’m more than ready.  The cold weather is hard on my old bones, you know.  We did sneak out to a few dinners over the last few weekends, with predictably dire consequences.  Every town/city should have something they’re know for, and I have yet to discover what El Dorado Hills has.  Not food, I can firmly attest to that.  Maybe I should contact the local chamber of commerce and let them know they’re suffering from an identity crisis, I’m sure they’d appreciate my input.  Anyway, our first outing, to the usually reliable Sellands, ended in bitter disappointment.  Sigh.  Maybe we’re setting our expectations too high. The whole reason we went there the other evening was their weekly special, advertised as “chicken pot pie.”  As I mentioned, we’ve been in a bone-chilling freeze lately, and a little comfort food sounded like it would hit the spot.  I can’t really accurately relate our let down, so I’ll just go with a picture:

chicken pot soup

I don’t know what that is, but I can confidently say it is not chicken pot pie.  Chicken soup with a biscuit floated on top?  The good news is, we could easily pass this one off as “you get what you pay for.”  Their specials are easily the best deal in town, that’s the main reason we go there.  The meal didn’t exactly live up to our hopes though.  Our second outing took us to the recently opened Milestone.  We’ve been trying really hard to like this place, as it’s close by and the menu is generally tasty-sounding.  Unfortunately, this was our 4th trip and I think it might be time to throw in the towel on it.  It can’t even get away with the “inexpensive” qualifier like Sellands.  For dinner, Donette ordered a big salad and I had the seared ahi tuna.  We shared those, at least they give you plenty of food.  The tuna was sadly overdone though, big bummer.  Maybe it was “seared” the first few minutes on the grill, but that last ten minutes didn’t do it any favors.  Sort of the same as everywhere else here, they like to cook the life out of everything.  It really doesn’t matter how you order anything, you’re getting it tragically overdone.  It was “OK” though, I guess.  The real nail in the coffin, we actually didn’t even try, we just saw it on the menu.  One of the specials proudly touted the “slow cooked Kansas-style ribs.”  Uh what?  What in the name of Emeril Lagasse are “Kansas-style ribs?”  I have to admit I really wanted to order them, but I just couldn’t imagine it ending well for anyone involved.  We sort of knew our waitress from another local spot, and she’s a nice enough girl;  No need to put her through any undue trauma.  Really, though.  Can I get a side of Rhode Island style beans with that?  Maybe an Irish style pizza for an appetizer?  How about a Delaware style donut for dessert, while we’re just making up random geographic food pairings.  Oh well, what can ‘ya do.  I keep thinking life on this veritable culinary desert will lead to weight loss.  Such does not seem to be the case to date, but at least it gives me something else to complain about.

Yes, even in the new year I am persisting with the late updates.  Timely blogging wasn’t one of my resolutions, what can I say.  The issue is, I didn’t want to turn on my PC yesterday and waste electricity, due to the ongoing drought conditions out here.  You are correct, that makes no sense at all, I’m just reaching.

We kicked off the weekend Friday night with a big ol’ night of nothing.  It was sort of a rough week, I think we were both out of gas.  Donette sat on the couch and enjoyed whatever the TV had to offer, and I chose to fire up the heater on the patio and have a cigar.  Yes, my first cigar in…  A long time.  I bought one a few weeks ago on a whim, despite the fact I have probably 30 sitting in my humidor, and decided it was time to give it a try.  Quite enjoyable really, or maybe it was just nice to be sitting outside in January.  It passed the time at any rate.

Saturday we hosted a semi-impromptu football watch party.  It’s not just every year you get to see the Chiefs in a playoff game, so we decided to make the most of it.  Donette made a pot of chili, some cheese dip, salads, wings, etc, and we had a few friends over to watch the games.  There was a two-year-old in the mix too, who kept us just about as entertained as the games.  (Despite the favorable outcome, I didn’t really find the Chiefs game all that interesting…)  One of her favorite pastimes is “running,” as in, race from one side of the house to the other.  The requirement to play this game comes up rather frequently, and you are all but obligated to play when directed.  A sample conversation would be:

Harper:  “Phil, let’s run.”
Phil: “No, not right now, I’m watching the football game.”
Harper:  “Phil, let’s run.”
Phil:  “Go give Doni a try, she likes to run.”
Harper:  “Phil, let’s run.”

You get the idea.  You can draw it out as long as you like, but at the end of the day you might as well just get up and run.  This scenario has played out many times, with many different victims, and to date I’ve never seen it end any differently.  Hey, I probably need the exercise anyway.  After enjoying the Chiefs victory, and many laps across the house, we still had a lot of food and a moderate amount of energy left so we tuned in to the second game.  Despite no interest whatsoever in the outcome (except wanting the Chiefs to get Denver in the next game,) we ended up watching that whole game also.  Hey, nothing better to do with a Saturday.

Sunday we got up and headed to the big city of Folsom to meet some friends at Land Ocean for a tasty brunch.  It was a fine brunch, I’d go back.  As usual, I had to find a few quibbles with the California food though.  I ordered the chilaquiles, based on the fact that, well, I like them.  What I got on my plate was a tasty dish indeed.  It was, however, by no possible stretch of the imagination, chilaquiles.  It didn’t even have chips in it!  (OK, there were a few strips sprinkled on top, sort of a garnish.  The very BASE of chilaquiles is chips.)  You can’t, or at least you shouldn’t, just throw together a few random things and name it after a semi-traditional dish.  It should at the very least vaguely RESEMBLE said dish.  This was a plate of black beans and potatoes with a fried egg on top.  What in the name of all that is holy.  I guess I can’t complain too much because I quite enjoyed it, but at the same time the disappointment was very real.  I have a tough go at the restaurants out here, I’ll tell you what.  After that, my heart heavy with another grave food injustice, we headed across the street to the movie theater and caught the noon showing of The Hateful Eight.  It was every bit the over-the-top graphic bloodbath we expected, and so we thoroughly enjoyed it.  When we got out of the theater it was a rather nice afternoon out, so we joined some friends at their house down the street for a little backyard party.  Just kind of sat around and watched his smoker and enjoyed the weather:  Fitting Sunday entertainment.  For the big Sunday finale, I went home and fixed myself a big skillet full of chilaquiles, and ate the whole thing.  OK not really.  But I wanted to.  And maybe next weekend I shall.