Wow, the forecast today is calling for 107 degrees.  That’s just flat kooky.  And don’t give me the “dry heat” qualifier either, that’s just hot.  Bone-melting, gasping, stay inside all day, HOT.  I guess it could be worse.  I don’t know how exactly, but I’m sure it could be.  (I could be mowing lawns?  Striping parking lots?  Digging a ditch?  All kinds of ways, now that I think about it.)  Anyway, the weather over the weekend was quite a bit nicer than today, and we got some good use out of it.  Maybe not so much Friday, but we had a little fun that day too.  I had to work a bit later than expected, so we ended up just heading to the weekly wine tasting at the good ol’ grocery store.  If nothing else, the sheer lameness of going to the grocery store for entertainment on a Friday night amuses me.  And, it’s sorta fun too.  They have a decent band, usually throw out some good pizza, and you get to taste a few new wines;  Good stuff!  We hung out there for an hour or so, then picked up a few groceries and went home to cook up a tasty shrimp pasta.

Saturday started off a bit slow.  We spent a decent amount of time out looking for new patio furniture.  Wow, that was a shock, or disappointment, or something along those lines.  I had a few numbers floating around in my head for a budget, and I don’t think they covered the umbrella stand on most sets we found.  Good grief, when did outdoor furniture start costing more than good living room furniture?  I might well just be sitting in my Cabela’s folding chairs on the back porch, ’cause I ain’t paying that much.  After that waste of an afternoon, we headed “up the hill” to Placerville, to attend the 14th annual Bell Tower Brewfest.  We’d heard good things about it from a few people, and indeed it was a fine event.  It was a bit different than the usual setup, in that the different distributors were located inside several shops along the town’s main street.  It was pretty cool;  You could check out the shops and sample some good local brews at the same time.  It was also in the evening, so it was considerably cooler than the recent one we attended in Folsom.  Good event, I’m sure we’ll return next year.

Sunday was moderately productive.  We again headed up the hill, even further to Tahoe this time.  It’s really not a bad drive, and has the added benefit of dropping 10-15 degrees in temp.  We timed our trip for a lunch stop, and had our spot all picked out, but when we got there we found it was inside a day-use area and they wanted $8 to park.  For lunch?  No thanks.  We headed over to the south side, which we’re a bit more familiar with anyway, and ended up at a place called Steamers.  In something of a rarity, it worked out well for us, it was a solid lunch.  Their menu was just what we were in the mood for (sandwiches) and it was remarkably inexpensive too.  Donette got a turkey melt, which was great, and I let the waitress talk me into the taco special.  The tacos were…. “different.”  Like several other dishes around here, if you can get past the fact that they call it a “taco,” they were really pretty good.  The corn tortillas were coated in parmesan cheese and lightly fried…  weird.  Yet tasty.  Hmmm.  They also had about three heads of iceberg lettuce shredded up on them, which I’m not particularly fond of, but the spicy shredded chicken under that made up for it.  After lunch we headed to our favorite fine art gallery to pick up the painting we’d purchased several weeks ago.  Our first piece of “fine art,” how exciting.  I was a little excited, honestly, I’m rather fond of it.  In an added bonus, the artist was there doing a show, so we got to meet him.  I’ll admit he wasn’t exactly what I expected.  (Just like the tacos.)  Let’s see, 1) goes by one name, and 2) artist; just those two qualifiers pretty much scream “WEIRDO” to me.  On the contrary, he was really an interesting guy, quite personable.  If I was the least bit personable myself I’m sure we would have had a great conversation.  We hung out there for quite a while, mingling with all our new art collector friends, then headed back home and went to a friend’s house for dinner.  All-in-all, a fine weekend.