operation "westward purr": successful

when i picked brer up at the airport he was laden with his backpack, and a cat carrier in each hand. he said, "i'm not going to be able to relax until i know these cats are safely delivered to your house. i'm a nervous wreck!" from the King of Cool himself, this was a weighty statement. we loaded those guys up into el caballero negro and beelined it to the house at 510. every few moments one of them would send out a whoaful "rrOUrrr!!" just to make sure we hadn't forgotten their plight. once in the house, we showed them the amenities, and rubbed them down with a handful of nip. after their initial eager investigation and much descriptive meowing, rodolfo retreated to the darkest corner of the closet, and kitty behind a window curtain.
brer had relievedly reached the beer portion of his day.
i introduced him to sac-to by foot and by beer. around mckinley park, then downtown by way of capitol garage coffeeshop for coffee and guinness. through the capitol grounds arboretum, and finally met sealion and mackindaddy for dinner at the pyramid brewery, by way of rivercity brewing company. :)
next morning, sealion, brer, and i ate breakfast at cafe bernardo (gotta love those cornmeal pancakes!!) and headed to tahoe for snowshoeing. uncharacteristically gloomy, the sky did not affect our mood. we hiked the groomed trail for a while, and then the boys expeditioned it up some fairly vertical banks of sun-glazed powder. (i'd hang back a few feet, and then when i assessed that they might actually make it, i followed along. .. ) this bushwhacking.. or powder-tromping, or whatever you wanna call it~~was FUN. we topped-out to some expansive views of the mountains. with the clouds, everything was all white and gray, smeared with dark patches of snow-swathed fir trees. we slid down the back of a couple of climbs, with feet propped up high (ok. . so mine were a lot like snow-ploughs.. i still did it, didn't i?!). a snowman snowangels and snowball fights (snowdevils!!), with nips from the flask now and then. our hike closed with irish coffee in the lodge at the foot of the slopes at kirkwood, where we could watch boarders pop up like popcorn on the rims of the halfpipe. drove the "even more scenic route" home (read: we took a wrong turn). dinner was (delicious!) sushi at kru, downtown. we all used brer's "jetlag" excuse to turn in early after a day playing in the snow.
we biked to breakfast at the fox and goose (try the new yorker omelette [whoa.] and, of course, the sourdough wholewheat walnut toast). brer, of course, couldn't help playing mechanic on my bike. :) our short weekend visit too soon to a close, but as jam-packed as you'd expect with this crew.
i marvel at a successful~not just calm, but a whole lot of fun~weekend with my recently-exed-husband, and my boyfriend.(!) ever-grateful that my friendship with brer stood the test of marriage, divorce, and now~~the afterlife; we really do think we might make it to the other side: bestfriendship despite marriage. so thankful to these two men who can see through possible ego-challenges to mutual laughter. i get to have the companionship of both my bestest-oldest-friend AND my sweetiepie. how frickin lucky am i? brer and i agreed it created a sense of closure, his visiting me where i live. it meant a whole lot to me that he enjoyed our space and felt comfortable here.
sealion, thank you for your confidence. brer, thank you for the blessing.

photos: the weather wasn't feeling photogenic that day, but at least you can tell we're having fun.
cat smuggling device. snowperson, snowpeople, snoweater, snowthrowers. lodge lunacy.