Wine Festival

Wine Festival
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

Rachelle and I hit the 2nd Annual Sacramento Wine and Art Festival yesterday. Nothing better than drinking a lot of wine outside in Sacramento in August. With temperatures hitting 100+ in the shade, not a lot of heavy red wines going down easy. Lots and lots of chardonnay. Not exactly my favorite, but I'd already paid my $20 and I was going to get my money's worth. The wine and art fest was a two-part event for us. Since I painted an accent wall in the living room last week (too much HGTV), Rachelle and I finally decided that four years with nothing on the walls was too much and we thought we might be able to find some good art. Or some bad art that looked better after many, many, many tastings of wine. Did I mention that we took light-rail down so we wouldn't have to moderate our tastings? Anyhoo, no art that reached out and grabbed me. Some really nice pictures, but nothing I felt like hauling back on the light-rail. And lots of really crappy crafts. Even with the heat and lack of fine art for my wall, the wine fest was the good part of my day. I let Rachelle talk me into joining her for a spin class at the gym. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of "spinning", the fine folks at the gym have managed to take a fun and enjoyable activity, i.e., riding a bike, and sucked all of the fun and enjoyable parts out of it, leaving nothing but the sweat, discomfort and exercise. It's like taking another of my favorite things, i.e., cold beer, and removing all the good things about it, like the taste, fizzy sensation and friendly buzz, leaving nothing but the hangover and swollen beer gut. Anyway, the far-too-cheerful spin instructor fires up a thumping soundtrack of bad music (at 9:00 on a Saturday morning), turns off the lights and starts shouting out instructions. "We're going up hill now! Pedal, pedal, pedal! Now we're sprinting!" No, we're sitting in the friggin' dark riding stationary bikes. I made it a grand total of 22 minutes out of an hour class. Possibly the most boring thing I've ever done at the gym. It makes the treadmill seem exciting. I spent the rest of the hour working on my lats, gluts, delts, and biceps. I think. I'm not really sure what any of those are, but every muscle I have is still burning 36 hours later. Ouch.

Salt Lake City

SLC FD
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

So I made my first real trip to Salt Lake City this week and I'd have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was I able to get plenty of caffeinated beverages, I had to choose between two brew-pubs about three blocks apart. Since I'm a little fat and a lot lazy (and since I had found a great hiking trail earlier in the day), I picked the one closest to my parking space. If you ever make it to SLC, make sure to try the half-pound BBQ buffalo burger paired with either the Full Suspension Pale Ale or the Provo Girl Pilsner at Squatter's. Or you could do what I did and have both. Whatever. On the way back to my car, I was a little concerned that two beers were one-and-a-half too many when I saw this fire truck driving by. Any city that will paint flames down the sides of their fire trucks is pretty friggin' cool. I wonder if the police cars have hydraulics and spinners? To continue the strange crap to be found in SLC, at every cross-walk there is a bucket of bright orange flags. Apparently, you are supposed to grab a flag on one side and wave it around as you cross the street to make yourself more visible. In California that might make you a "target", but in Salt Lake people apparently stop for you. Weird. All in all, cool city to visit, probably too clean and nice to actually live there. I'll give it a B+.

Bob

Bob
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

Greetings from Bob Hope Airport in beautiful downtown Burbank! Actually, I'm not sure Burbank has a downtown and the city ain't that pretty, but it's my favorite L.A. area airport. It's one of the few airports in a major American city that doesn't have jetways. They basically roll steps up to the front and rear doors and you have to walk across the tarmac to the terminal. You get the feel of travelling to a third-world country without the inconvenience of learning a new language or actually leaving California. And it's named after one of the greatest entertainers of the early-to-mid 20th Century. He did get a little creepy later on, but that's not the point. Between Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and John Wayne Airport in Orange County, I'm curious to see what they re-name LAX in 20 years. I've got some suggestions that I'm thinking of sending to the L.A. airport authority: "Mel Gibson International Airport and Cathedral", "Nick Nolte Airport, Pharmacy & Rehab" and (my favorite) "Holy Shit I Can't Believe Pauly Shore Got Famous Enough To Get An Aiport Named After Him International". I'll be giving odds. Anyway, I caught the early flight down and made it back to Sacramento by 7:00. Not a bad day. I've got to hit Salt Lake City tomorrow. Don't have good feelings about the bar scene in Utah. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to coffee for my workshop in the SLC, but things are looking good there. A Medicare meeting without coffee could get really, really ugly. I'll try to get pictures.

Speedy

Speedy
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

Rachelle and I rode our bikes to Folsom for dinner tonight. It's a 10 minute ride to Old Folsom and a 30 minute ride/walk home. Basically the difference between "downhill" and "uphill". And the two beers at Q'bole. And the Mexican food. Damn, I'm getting hungry again.

We decided to ride our bikes because it was Thursday Night Market and there is no friggin' place to park. I'm not quite sure why it's so crowded up there because there's nothing even remotely interesting to do. It's three blocks of booths filled with crappy crafts and free chiropractic evaluations. There is one massage booth, but I don't think they offer a "happy ending". Unless you're in the market for used Aloha shirts, henna tattoos or incense, there ain't much for you. Still, it's better than sitting at home watching re-runs of Fear Factor.

Anyway, the ride/push back up the hill was a blast. And it's a lot harder to fall off the bike on the slippery gravel and rocks if you're already walking.

1-800-PET MEDS

1-800-PET MEDS
Originally uploaded by klycolllins.

So, Bo's order from 1-800-PET-MEDS came today. You'd think a company that shipped nothing but crap for pets would know better than to put friggin' TREATS in the same friggin' box as the beef-flavored heartworm pills. Geniuses. That said, I really dig the whole on-line ordering for Bo's meds, and they are great about sending reminder e-mails when it's time for a new order. Otherwise, Bo might have heartworms. Whatever those are. I'm guessing they're not good.

I picked up a new suit at the Brook's Brothers outlet this week. I was leaning towards the seersucker but I couldn't think of where I could wear it, outside of a Matlock convention. They also had a great pair of red shorts with blue embroidered lobsters on them, but Rachelle wouldn't let me get them. For $10, I could have found someplace to wear them. The outlet mall near our house is pretty sweet. I was there this weekend with Ken and Shelly and we hit the Bebe store. I was not aware that strippers had their own outlet shop. Nothing bigger than a size 2, and nothing that would look out of place in any of your sleazier strip clubs. Even better, most of the people shopping there would have found better selections at the "Big & Tall" store. That and the biker chick at the Nike store with the short, short denim skirt and no underwear. Unfortunately, she also should have been shopping at the "Big & Tall" store. Mostly the "Big" store.

Off to Seattle for work tomorrow. It should be a quick trip, and it will be great to be out of the heat here. 101 in Orangevale vs. 75 in Seattle. Hmmmm. Considering it's been at or near 100 in Sacramento for @ 6 weeks, I'll take the 75. Hope to send pictures from my new Treo 650.