Man, it’s snowing again! As in, really snowing. Accumulation already and it’s still coming down hard. Color me displeased. As a little insult to injury, I’m sure the mailperson will label our driveway “inaccessible” and not deliver the packages I’ve been waiting for. What a joke. I would drive down our road in my little convertible with no hesitation, but if they see so much as a snow flake they won’t deliver. I need my toys man! They’ll get here eventually I suppose. Sometimes they don’t, but I’m always hopeful.

Well, despite missing my update last week, I really don’t have any material to work with here. Not so much as a picture. The constant rain has kept us at home for weeks now. That’s not even a standard pkenagy.com exaggeration, we’ve been completely homebound. This weather is just not something we’re accustomed to over our 10-year-stay here, and I do not like it. Sloppy mess. Personally, I spent the better part of my weekend re-doing my home network. Trust me, that is not something you want to hear about. According to our trusty weather sources, the rain may end later this week, or at least provide a little break. Get ready for an over the top update next week, because we’re ready to really bust out! (Sneak preview: “We went to Bones on Friday and then watched TV the rest of the weekend. The end.)

Happy New Year!!! Initial review, it’s going to stink. Definitely off to a sketchy start. But hey, it’s only a few days in, maybe it needs to get warmed up.

We sent off the old year in style at least. We packed up the puppies and headed down to a friends house in EDH for dinner, in what I like to refer to as The Fancy Area. They put together one heck of a meal for our little two-couple NYE party. I will just go ahead and label it “extravagant.” We kicked off with some steamed mussels in green curry, with a 2010 Dom Perignon we happened to have in the fridge. Took a little break, then on to lobster and crab bisque. Course two was over-the-top delicious also. Then to dinner… Ohhhhh the dinner. We had Japanese A5 wagyu, king crab legs, and lobster tails, with twice-baked potatoes. Maybe the best meal I’ve ever had? Right up there, for sure. I love seafood, so that was all a treat. I’ve never even had the wagyu beef, so I was excited for that, and it lived up to the hype. Great treat, for sure. I’d get it again, just need a special occasion to fit the, ummmm, rather exorbitant price tag. After dinner, we turned on the obligatory NYE shows and did our best to ring in the new year. I “almost” made it too. I was nodding pretty hard around 11:30, so I went ahead and called it. So close.

Meanwhile, while we enjoyed our decadent dinner, it was raining outside. And raining, and raining. I do believe I heard “record levels” mentioned, although I won’t swear to that. It’s a fine mess, at any rate. Lots of road closures and flooding all around. There was a huge mudslide somewhere up the hill from us, and we got back home to a washed-out driveway and a few tons of mud where a drainage ditch had been before. Yuck. For about 5 minutes, I naively thought I could dig a channel through it and get it draining again, but it’s so soupy it just filled right back in. Not to mention, it was about 15′ wide and 4′ deep. Yeah, lot of mud. Luckily my neighbor had some big toys, and he’s helping me dig out of the semi-disaster. Two more weeks of rain forecast too, hope it doesn’t fill right back in.

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Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. We certainly did, although I have to admit I’m always glad it’s over. It’s exhausting! Running all over the place, shopping, visiting… Eeesh. We made it through though, unscathed for the most part. Friday night we stuck to our usual schedule, which is an early dinner at Bones. Pretty standard-issue Friday night there, with the exception that the jukebox was broken so it was rather eerily quiet. Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up for a surprise visit, so that was certainly exciting! Quick tip; Never wear a Santa suit to the bar… Everybody will want to take a picture with you. Poor guy probably has a sore leg from all the… ahem… “plus-size” patrons sitting on his lap. Seemed to take it in stride though. I guess if you’re Santa Claus you get used to it after a few millennia. One of our waitress friends even had a bag of homemade Christmas tamales for us, that was a nice surprise!

Saturday some friends were having a big Christmas Eve party. By “big,” I’m talking 30 people. At once. All in the same place. Yeah, I had to graciously decline that one. While it sounds like everyone had a great time, and great food, it all sounded just a bit overwhelming. I opted to stay home and fix a rib roast for the two of us instead. I went to pick it up Thursday, and the girl at the meat counter rather apologetically admitted it was the last one they had, and came in a rather unimpressive 2.5 pounds. Hey, it’s for two people, that’s perfect! It was somewhere between a really big ribeye steak or a really small rib roast, but I was glad to get one that size. In something of an experimental cook, I threw it in the sous vide for 8 hours while we watched football games, then finished it in the air fryer for 10 minutes. Success! It was pretty darn good, and perfectly cooked. A rarity for me these days.

We kicked off Christmas morning by ourselves, with the pups, opening presents and listening to some festive holiday music. A nice, relaxing start to the day. We all got lots of nice gifts, puppies included. While I have to think they really don’t grasp “Christmas present,” they sure do seem to enjoy unwrapping them. Big fun right there. We sat through a few more football games, then headed out to dinner over at a friends house. They’d been smoking a 17 lb brisket all night, and it came out great. I am not sure bbq quite qualifies as a traditional Christmas dinner, but it should. Had some beans, mac ‘n cheese, slaw… Good stuff.

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We’re snowed in out west! OK not really, but there is a dusting on the ground, and it is inhumanly cold. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this, but just to reiterate, we moved too high. I don’t even remember where we’re at; 2,000’+ I believe. All I remember is the listing advertised it as “below the snow line.” Another lie, tsk. Could be worse I suppose, but at the same time I am absolutely sure it could be better. Since our last move, I’ve come to know we are now considered “West Slope” dwellers, whereas our last house was “Valley.” Lessoned learned, too late I guess.

Not much to do last weekend, too dang cold to go outside. I did finally get the top put on the Jeep, so at least we have the option of travel should it be needed. Case in point, we took it up to Bones Friday for our regularly scheduled “end of week” celebration. Didn’t stay too long, but it was nice to get out of the house. After that we scurried back home and Donette made a tasty cheese tray, which we snacked on while watching “Bullet Train.” Seemed like a reasonably exciting move, but I fell asleep half way though.

Saturday I again hopped in the Jeep and headed west to the local butcher shop. They had a shipment of A5 Wagyu beef in, and I had my eye on a bit for our upcoming New Years Eve celebration. What ensued would be the reference to the “stay in school” title. Man, I don’t know if it was the exorbitant price or what, but I got a bit rattled. I told the girl I wanted “8 oz.” After a brief discussion on when we were eating it, how many people was it for, blah blah, she picked out a piece and threw it on the scale, which read “.5 lb.” She seemed pretty pleased, while I said, “I think I need a little more.” Well, she says, you have to be careful, it is very rich, 8 oz is about right for 4 people. Yep, right, I need some more. (Did she not hear me right, and why is she giving me that funny look?) Somebody else asked her something, and I jumped on the chance to ask another girl if she could put another piece on the scale. She obliged, and it says “.8 lb.” Perfect, thank you! Grabbed a few pork chops for good measure, and drove home in my blissful ignorance. It was a few days later when it finally struck me that, due to the idiosyncrasies of the stupid imperial measurement system, .5 lbs is, in fact, 8 oz. I inadvertently ended up with just over 13 ounces. I am an advocate for the metric system myself, I like the round numbers. Next time maybe I’ll order .2 kg, or maybe 200 grams, etc, and see what they say. (I would likely be asked to leave and come back when I could talk proper.) For evening entertainment, we put on Bullet Train again. I fell asleep again.

Sunday we got up to the beautiful snow blanketing our yard, and still coming down hard. Blech. Double-blech. It was deep enough that I had to get out and shovel a path for the pups, which Quinn seemed appreciative of. (Nacho, not so much. She ain’t getting off the porch, path or no.) After that it was an afternoon of football and the aforementioned pork chops. Pretty much a standard Sunday, so the snow didn’t affect us too much. Still a little bit out there too, but it’s melting, if not quite fast enough.

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I guess it’s that time of the year again. Hopefully everybody had a good Thanksgiving, I know we did. We went to a large gathering “down the hill” and enjoyed a huge meal with a bunch of friends. Outstanding meal. My favorite was the smoked turkey I believe. Remarkably, there are several in the group that intentionally avoid it. I will never quite grasp that bizarre trait, but hey, more for me. Other than that, well… We have watched a lot of football and done some shopping and… Yeah not much. We were supposed to be out camping this week, but called it off last minute due to the rain. There is only about two weeks of rain per year here, and of course it happens to coincide with our trip that’s been planned for months. Go figure.

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