Friday night I met up with Stephanie and her dad, Jean Claude, at Ale Works. Talked about this 40,000+ attendees, $700/head, Donald Trump financial seminar he went to in the city (for free, of course!)—and the fact that he’s actually 1/4 American. Story: his grandfather was an American fighting in France during WWI when he met Jean Claude’s grandmother. They had a child, Jean Claude’s father, but then his grandfather returned to the US after the war. As a result, Jean Claude has an American half-uncle who lives in LA.

Afterwards, Stephanie and I went over to Barcode on Mendocino, which I’ve been meaning to check out. Very swank. A really nice alternative to the Russian River/Ale Works downtown microbrewery juggernaut. Great drinks, though pricey, clean, modern decor, dj spinning background music, Spike Jonze music videos projected on one wall. Looking forward to going back. Turns out I didn’t have to wait long.

Saturday slept in, recovering from a wee bit of drinking the night before. Strolled through downtown SR because I wanted to check out a restaurant on 5th street called Satur Wine Bar and Bistro. Versatile menu (tapas), prices were reasonable ($9-11 range), decor looked upscale, not too snooty. But it was closed. We looped around to find a restaurant where we could eat outside and in the sun. Found Checkers. I’d never been. I had paneed chicken, she had the pasta carbonara. Quick trip through the mall, then a nap before Stephanie went off to prepare for her last spring dance show. I blogged.

Post dance show headed off in the direction of Barcode to meet up with some folks who turned out not to be there, but at the Belvedere. We stayed, had two excellent Mendocino Mojos, talked, basked, and closed the place down.

Sunday no plans. Eggs and bacon. Lazed in bed. Eventually got up and out (for dinner!) and went off in search of the fixins for some skillet burgers. Started my taxes and learned it’s going to be painful this year. As in $1500 painful. Time to call it a night.

Update: Hold the fucking trains! So I’ve been weathering the kind of angst that only a person who owes the government $1500 of his travel-to-france/buy-a-digital-slr-camera fund can endure, when lo and behold, I discover a $6000 discrepancy between my W2s and my year-to-date gross pay on my last pay stub from 2005. Lesson learned. It pays to check (and keep) these things. Taking into account a little bit of qualified tuition expenses, I swung from owing the government $1500 (and having to adjust to an additional $100+ taken out of my paycheck every two weeks) to looking like I might get $30 back. Yee-haw!