Sunday morning began like any other idyllic weekend day, the sun nowhere to be found but the temperature low enough to provide for excellent running conditions. Zooey out-slept Titus, so he and I grabbed a tortilla for sustenance and together struck out on a morning jog, leaving the girls back home to slumber. I got a good seven miles of hills in, pushing Titus in the B.O.B. stroller, before we returned home to a more substantial breakfast of granola, yogurt, and dried apricots. Sonja and Zooey were by then up doing their thing.  After a quick shower and a diaper change, we were ready to go to the zoo.

It’s a rare day that goes by that Titus doesn’t mention “zoo animals” if not several exotic critters by name when asked what he is thankful for. Typically, when we ask Zooey — more so out of a sense of equity than for the actual answer, he’ll chime in something like “Zooey is thankful for giraffes and hippopotamus.” I’m trying to teach him that answering for a woman, about her opinion, in her presence is a good way to get dumped, fired, or stabbed, but so far he doesn’t seem to understand. I’ll keep working on it. He’s still cute enough to get away with it for a little bit longer.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to feed the giraffes, as the rain drove them away, but Titus had a good attitude about it, and Zooey didn’t seem to mind. Together, he, Zooey, Sonja and I saw lions, zebras, impalas, a tiger, some monkeys, and several types of birds as we walked around the zoo for a few hours. It was a good morning, and fulfilled a need that had been nagging at all of us for a while, the Henry Doorly Zoo a regular, integral part of our family routine. Ours stomachs began to rumble and we headed for the car. We got home and I started to make lunch when I saw it:

Yesterday’s entire post had been about how we were so relaxed on Saturday that we totally lost track of time. I was thinking of it entirely as a good thing, until I went to get some chicken sausages for lunch yesterday and found a bottle of Robledo Rose’ in the ice chest, frozen through with the cork blown out. Apparently, we were a little too relaxed on Saturday, and I forgot I had put this in there.

I carefully removed the wine-sickle from the freezer and set it on the counter. I let it defrost all afternoon while the family took naps, and then ironically re-chilled it. When my friends Mike from Boston and Sky from Lincoln converged upon my home in Omaha for dinner last night, we all shared a glass of rose’. It wasn’t the worse for wear, so far as I could assess, which reaffirms my belief that I want my cellar to be too cold, rather than too hot.

The Robledo Merlot Rose’ 2016 is a vibrant, fruitful take on rose’, with a darker hue most likely due to the time spent on skin and the Merlot grapes it is made from. Delicate in the mouth, with bright pink fruit notes and a floral bouquet, I enjoyed it a lot, though I’ll reserve formal judgment on the wine for when I try a bottle that hasn’t been thoroughly neglected. That said, if this is what it tastes like after being abused, I think it’s safe to say this is pretty great juice.

Zooey got in on the toast, and Sonja got to catch up with my old friends before we departed for dinner. In all, our extremely relaxed weekend continued on course throughout the night, and I got home in time for Sonja and I to watch the season finale of the Big Bang Theory on Hulu before turning in. If every weekend could be like this one… oh wait, they pretty much are.

Cheers to relaxation, on the weekends and any other time as well,

Mark