Sleepy Sunday

I hope the time change treated everyone well. Not us. The girls were up at the new time of 7 a.m. It wasn’t pretty.

We had a loverly Saturday night, though. My parents were in town, and we met a bunch of people for DearDR’s 40th birthday dinner. DearDR knew about dinner, but didn’t know about the bunch of people, so he was surprised when we sat down at a big table and when people kept showing up. It was a nice night.

And we got to share one of our favorite local, non-chain places with friends and family. The Bocktown Beer and Grill is a great restaurant, and their selection of beers is daunting if you’re adventurous. I had three I hadn’t tried before, and I was so happy about my choices.

First was the Troeg’s Hopback Amber, a beautifully colored reddish ale. Although the hops were the strongest note, it was incredibly smooth, without the hoppy-bite of an IPA (my usual style of choice). A very good starter.

Then I had Rogue’s Yellow Snow IPA with my dinner. I had been reluctant to try a beer with such an evocative name, but one sip of DearDR’s and I knew I had to have one. It’s a very pleasant IPA, with lots of bitter hops and no aftertaste.

My final beer of the night was just a sample of Atwater’s Vanilla Java Porter. I say “a sample”, but samples at Bocktown are 3-4 ounces, and might cost you a buck or two. (If you just want a taste, on the other hand, that’ll just be a sip or two, for free.) The Porter was a delicious dessert: smooth, with a deep brown coffee taste overlaid with notes of vanilla.

All-in-all it was such a pleasant night. DearDR was happily surprised at who showed up to fete him (his actually birthday is Wednesday), many bearing gifts of wine or books. The food and drink were wonderful, and there was a lot of laughter. Not a bad way to spend some time.

Now, let’s see if I manage to squeeze in a nap today, and I’ll call it a close-to-perfect weekend.