OK it’s sprinkling, at a rate of about six drops per minute.  There is, in fact, wet stuff falling from the sky however.  This phenomenon has not been seen for well over two months now, it is something to be enjoyed for sure.  As a matter of fact, Teagan and I just went for a two mile walk, it was very refreshing.  The rather unfortunate part of this is that, to read the news, the unexpected precipitation is being caused by the nearby wildfire, which is so large and so hot that it is creating it’s own weather changes.  Seriously, read the weather channel page!  Never heard of such a thing.  Anyway, we are close, if not dangerously so, to the huge Butte Wildfire.  Other than a constant smell of smoke and a loss of solar power, luckily it’s not affecting our day-to-day activities.  Let’s hope it stays that way.

As to our weekend events, it was a full one.  Friday, lame as it may sound, we kicked it at the grocery store.  Whoa, slow down there.  Yeah, we’ve been reduced to that.  They had a wine & cheese tasting, and we were somewhat spent from the work week, so we went with it.  It was, honestly, about as boring as a wine tasting at a grocery store sounds.  We met up with our friend Michael and endured our 4 tasting, then picked up some chicken and headed back to the house.  We threw the hen on the grill, opened another bottle of something-or-another, and enjoyed the evening.  Not much more exciting than the previous venue actually, but at least I was grilling and we weren’t inside a grocery store.

Saturday was a full plate, such as our plates go.  We started off with an hour trek north to Mt. Vernon Winery, just because we haven’t been there in a while.  I’m gonna say it is probably our favorite winery out here so far;  I just wish it wasn’t so far away.  We took a cooler full of picnic feed and enjoyed a glass on their nice patio.  As luck would have it there was some kind of tour group there too, and they had a musician playing tenor sax and singing for our entertainment.  He was so bad I actually enjoyed listening to him.  He was….  “enthusiastic” if nothing else.  I’ll give him style points, and he gave me hope that my chances of an alternative means of employment might not be out of the question after all.  After that we headed back to the home circle, and met up with some friends at the newly opened EDH Brewing.  Honestly, I don’t hold a lot of hope for the future for that place.  But, it was their first day, I’ll easily give them a pass on that one.  They only had two of their own brews on, and the one I had was less than remarkable.  On the possible upside, they do have a nice patio and a few familiar rotating taps.  We had one pint, assured them it was the best thing we’d had in ages, and headed across the street to Mraz for a few of their always-enjoyable products. As if THAT wasn’t enough excitement for one afternoon, we left there and went over Michael’s house to watch the Oregon game.  It was a great time, I felt almost like a sports fan for a while there.  Unfortunately their team lost, but we had a good time.  Actually I slept through most of the second half, but it sounds like they had fun.  Once the game was over I rallied a bit, and joined in on a rousing game of Just Dance 4.  We won’t elaborate on that unfortunate event.  I just don’t know if I’m going to fit in here.

Sunday was a day that will live in infamy, for at least another week or so.  I took my fancy new kayak rig for the inaugural trip down a river, and I was quite nervous and excited for the event.  It ended early, and quite poorly.  There were many rapids involved, along with some moderate to severe skin abrasions, bruises, and a permanently damaged ego.  I will not, at this time, go into details, as much as I’m sure Munkirs wants me to.  I will live to fight another day, if not on that particular river.  Maybe I’m more of the lake-kayak kind of guy.  A delicious carnitas burrito at a nearby restaurant soothed some of the pain, if not the ego part.  Stupid river.