real, non-sarcastic, and basically public thanks

to dopealope for the incredible hospitality this long weekend.

i say "basically public" because only 3 people read this crap, and only dopealope comments on it...

anyhow, thanks, that was awesome, and here's a little thank you link:

a little thank you link.

for the rest of you, hops and i spent the weekend in slo, with one minor bike ride for exercise and baked goods, one trivial bike ride to retrieve a car left overnight at a restaurant because nobody was sober enough to drive it, one respectable 32 miler through wine country, and a quick flip-flop/barefoot hike up to the top of bishop's peak.

i'm ashamed to say that i've never hiked bishop's peak until now, but having waited this long, at least i did it in style, which is to say, covered in dirt, largely barefoot, and swathed in a bitchin sweat soaked linen shirt.

though i'd hardly call directv "functional", we did watch more tv than expected this weekend, including marathons of TNG, BSG, and I Love Lucy. It's ridiculously difficult to find anything to watch on directv, unless there's some trick I've missed, and hops and i were stunned at the number of commercial interruptions. still, the atmosphere didn't seem right for reading, especially at 3am when an after-lunch espresso woke me up.

on the way out of town we stopped at the splash cafe where i was shat upon by a bird. seeing the drop of yellow turd on my arm, i turned to the folks at the next table and said, "i think you squirted me with some mustard from your sandwich!" hops said it was more likely bird crap than mustard, and my optimistic illusions were then shattered. i honestly had thought it was mustard. i am still pretty sure that's what it was.

anyhow, after wiping the mustard off my arm, we plowed through a clam chowder bread bowl with seafood topping, calamari (undercooked, yecch) and chips, smoked salmon tacos, and a whole lot of lemonade. that was actually one of the larger meals of the weekend, and i enjoyed it all the way back home in the car, thanks to the chowder burps.

on hops demand, we went to pismo beach saturday afternoon. i warned her that the water would be cold, and feel three times as cold as it actually was since the memory of the caribbean was so fresh in our minds. i sure was right. i don't remember the california pacific being so cold, but then, i haven't been in it in a decade, probably because it's so frigging cold. 30 minutes later we were acclimated and had a fine time, but it's still no comparison to the caribbean, and the beach was crowded with people, dogs, lifeguards, and vehicles, in stark contrast to the near-deserted beaches of martinique.

anyhow, i can't go comparing every place i go to martinique, that's just not fair.

we had a fantastic weekend, and though tomorrow we must go to work, it's good to be back. i think. we'll see.