Yesterday morning I awoke to the harshness of a spring sun glinting off the waves of frozen snow in the yard and street. As the coffee dripped away into the carafe, I took a nice warm shower and woke the wife. 30 minutes later I had finished my first cup of the day and we were headed for a wonderful brunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery. The temp was a balmy 48 degrees at 10:00 am, and I only needed 4wd on the pickup to get off our neighborhood street and onto the main drag, which was mostly bare and dry. At the brewery, we basically had the entire restaurant to ourselves, and dined on some fine breakfast grub and got a free sample of 5 of their in-house microbrews. We then drove down to CastleRock where we strolled the Outlet stores and took in the wonderful view of the mountains to the west behind a slate and white valley floor of Sedalia.

Back home at mid-day, we fed the squirrels and commenced with baking loaves of rye bread. We reclined to the sofa to take in some good westerns, and ended the day with a good dose of spaghetti with home made meat sauce with extra dollups of minced garlic and fine Balsamic from Moderna, accompanied by some decent sourdough and Sangiovese from Spokane. Cuddled in front of the fireplace, I alternately watched the evening news and my wife gently dozing off while snuggled in my arms, using my shoulder for a pillow.