Well, I think we made the push through the last of the bad weather.  It’s been on-again, off-again for several weeks now but the long term forecast looks all good from here on out.  What we do with that lovely weather remains to be seen, but it’s nice to have the opportunity to enjoy it anyway.

So for this past weekend’s debacle, our friend Susan visited us from KC.  Todd was supposed to come in from Texas also and make it a real reunion of miscreants, but, well….  He’s Todd, so he didn’t.  We ran into mildly sketchy weather, but were able to make the best of it.  Friday was actually not TOO bad, but there was a strong wind blowing which was actually quite chilly.  Not that we had an opportunity to do much anyway, what with work and all.  After work we met some friends up at Milestone (probably my least favorite restaurant in the area, but at least it gave me something to complain about) and hung out on their patio for awhile.  After that it was up to Cameron Park where we had reservations at Papa Gianni’s, which we’d never been to before but have heard good things about.  The jury is still out, but I am sure we’ll be back.  Overall I give it a thumbs up.  We had some delicious mussels for an appetizer, but my dinner was a little iffy.  I will readily admit it was a sketchy order on my part though.  I’ve managed to turn “bad ordering” into my own art form.  I can take a huge menu (which was the case at this place,) and after 30 to 45 minutes of over-analyzing can pick the worst thing on the list nearly every time.  I’ve got skills, what can I say.  My victim of choice this time was calamari in marinara, which in retrospect doesn’t even sound good.  It did at the time though, apparently.  But, it wasn’t.  Sigh.

Saturday turned out to be a most glorious day on the weather front, and I feel we really got our money’s worth out of it.  We started off with breakfast at The Purple Place, which has never disappointed.  Come to think of it, they may be the only place in town that I haven’t been able to screw up my order, at least on the breakfast menu.  It’s just solid.  We enjoyed a leisurely meal, and by the time we finished the temp outside had risen to a very respectable 68 degrees with not a cloud in the sky.  We took advantage of the day by popping the top off the car and heading out to the Amador wine area.  Our first stop was at Rancho Victoria, which has been one of our favorites lately.  It’s got a lot going for it on my list of “good places”:  Short drive, fantastic patio with great views, and not usually overly crowded.  As a matter of fact, the patio was so enjoyable we may have overstayed our welcome a bit.  I’m thinking at some point in time, you probably cross over from “customer” to “loiterer.”  If so, we crossed said line.  Hey, they didn’t ask us to leave, and they still got a little money from us.  Geez, it was just so nice out I didn’t want to give up my seat.  Eventually though, we headed over to Wilderotter Vineyards, another one of our staples.  They meet most of my criteria also, except for the crowd part.  They are always at full capacity, and Saturday was no exception.  It was OK though, we still managed to get a nice table on the patio.  We didn’t stay too long though, and rolled back to the house to finish up the day on our own, uncrowded, patio.  Perfect fire pit weather, which has also been few and far between this year so far.

Sunday was a non-starter.  I got up and made pancakes for the girls, which proved to be my sole accomplishment for the entire day.  Susan had to leave for the airport after breakfast, and then Donette & I took up residence on our respective couches.  It was a day of (really) bad TV and web surfing.  We’re talking four or five hours straight of “Touched By An Angel” and “The Love Boat” reruns.  Both were so cheesy I wanted to stab myself, but at the same time I was too immobile to walk across the room and pick up the remote.  Sad situation.