This thing is finally working again, sorry for the delay.

Let’s see, work must have once again read this because I can no longer get on hotmail or gmail. Those seem to be the only things that I normally go to that I cannot get on, so I guess it isn’t that bad. I guess I shouldn’t use those emails as much as normal since I can hardly check them. So if you need to get a hold of me while I’m working use my work address.

I took off a little early on Friday so that we could catch our flight. That was the first step towards a good weekend. We got into Cincy and our friend Amy picked us up from the airport in her brand new Jetta. It’s pretty similar to the one that I cruise around in, but it has all of the features like automatic windows and a sunroof. We headed out to my parents house for a bit. I knew that I wouldn’t have much time this weekend, so getting in a couple of quality hours was on the top of my list. I also needed to pick up the Mazda, so I could get all around town. Man I miss that car, 264 thousand miles and still going strong! I picked up a group of friends from Chicago at the airport later that night and headed downtown to the hotel. We dropped everything off real fast and headed down to the Hofbrauhaus. We only had an hour or so down there, but we made the most of it. Liam and Fighty met up with us down there, and even made a little guest appearance with the polka band. Good night out in Cincy, besides the fact that the bar was dead.

Saturday we had lunch at RockBottom and later on ended up in the hotel bar. All of our friends began arriving and we had quite a party going on in the bar. Some came and went, but a group of us stayed there until show time. The show was at the Taft Theatre, a older theatre right in downtown. We had great tickets in the second row, and most of our friends were all within the first 10 rows. I got the band to play a song for me including a little shout out! They were a little rough but that is expected since it was the first show in months. We had fun being so close to the action!

Sunday I went to Skyline, and even drug most of the Chicago crew along. They did not like it though, but at least Liam and I did. Afterwards we drove up to Columbus for the next show. I borrowed a pair of big blingy earrings from my friend Noelle, and that completed my costume. The paint on the shoes didn’t last too long, but it did the trick. Only a few of my friends dressed up, but it was fun regardless. Of course we hit up Chipotle that day. Free burritos yesterday if you went in and bought one on Sunday! This show was all general admission, so we would of course be hanging out in the back of the venue. The Shantee opened the show and were great as always. I just found out that they are breaking up soon, so that might have been the last time I see them. At least I saw them play in front of a large crowd once. OAR came on the stage dressed as pirates, and played a good set. I could hear this show much better, but that was probably just because of location. We went to a cheap bar afterwards and soon called it a night.

Monday was my travel day. I drove back to Cincinnati and dropped the car off to my dad. My mom picked me up and we went out to meet Kim and her mom. From there I went over to visit with some of Kim’s family for a little bit and to get everything packed and ready. We flew out later that night, although we almost got bumped to the next flight. Maybe next time. We had dinner back in KC at Flat Wok which is a Mongolian bbq place. I loved it! Kim has wanted to take me to one of these, and I’m glad we finally went. I tried to find a website for this place, but haven’t had any luck. I would highly recommend it…

Yesterday we had to go back to work. It was a pretty quick day however and we followed it up with a quick workout. Later in the night we went to Todd’s for an election party. I think everyone just was looking for an excuse to throw a party. I tried to stay up last night to watch all of the results, but ended up passing out on the couch. I’m kind of glad the election is over, now we don’t have to deal with the protestors and all the political discussions that have been popular lately.

Today has been very uneventful. I finally got the stereo that I won on eBay, so I’m going to hopefully install that tonight. I need to make sure it all works before I cancel my complaint. I’m still waiting on the check from the Hyatt. Is 2 weeks too long? I may call towards the end of the week if nothing shows up. I need my circuit city gift card as well. Maybe all of our mail is just getting lost somewhere…

Someone from work must check my blog. I complain about Websense blocking too much, and the next day I can get to most of the same places that I could before. Woohoo! Work went by really fast yesterday. :b

Yesterday I got my pimp Halloween costume delivered to me here at work. I was afraid to open it the entire day, I figured someone would see it and make me try it on or something. Then knowing my luck the boss would walk in, point and laugh at me. Thinking back I should have just put it on to see what would have happened. Maybe I’ll wear it tomorrow.

I’m having major issues with the person I bought the stereo from on eBay. This is truly the first problem I’ve had with someone on eBay. Anyway, I went ahead and filed a complaint through paypal. Sounds like I’ll have my money back in a week. In the meantime this must have scared the crap out of this seller, because they attempted to send a tracking number to me. The tracking number doesn’t go anywhere though, it doesn’t appear to be valid. My biggest complaint is that I still cannot play CDs in the car! Edit: I just checked and now the number appears to be working. The package was shipped yesterday, unbelievable. I won the auction close to a month ago, and they are just now shipping it. I’m gonna keep the paypal complaint open for now just to be sure that I don’t have any more issues.

So I guess we are going spinning tonight. I also need to paint the shoes I bought for my costume. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. We leave tomorrow to fly back to Ohio. Should be a great weekend, and I even have Monday off of work!

I’m having serious issues with Websense here at work. I’m actually surprised that I was able to get here, so I had to write since I can’t do much else. I cannot get to my hotmail or gmail. I cannot get on ebay. The list goes on and on, basically I cannot have any fun while at work. They call it “beefing up security” I call it “making work even more boring than it already is.”

Jeff was not teaching spinning last night, so we skipped it. I think he is teaching on Thursday though, so we’ll likely give that a try. We actually decided to do a whole bunch of nothing. I did do a little more to the sonic site though. I like it much better now.

Friday night we met everyone up at the Brooksider for a little bit and then went over to Doni & Phil’s for some pizza and cards. We started off playing Texas Hold’em. Todd taught most of us how to play since most of us had only seen it on TV, if anything at all. Funny thing is, he was one of the first ones to be out of the game. I was one of the last 3, and the last guy left. Kim ended up winning the whole game. I guess we are going try to go up to the Brooksiders poker night this week. Maybe Kim can win a free CD player or whatever it is they give away.

Saturday we tried to find some white pimp shoes for my Halloween costume, but didn’t find anything for a cheap price. We finally just bought a pair of black shoes from goodwill for $4 and a can of spray paint. We’ll see how well this works. After a full day of shopping we decided to head to the rodeo. We paid $10 for the cheap seats, but I think we had one of the best views in the place. After the bullriding was over we were treated to an Uncle Kracker concert. Man that guy sucks. I think we lasted through about 3 cover songs and 1 of his own songs, and then left. At least the rodeo was good.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours working on the Sonic website. It’s coming along, and I’m probably going to show it to Joe soon to see what he thinks. Feel free to give any feedback: sonic.edpaffjr.com

I’ve decided not to play hockey on Monday nights. That league is falling apart, and they are basically having open hockey but you have to pay upfront, $100+ for 10 weeks. I’ll probably miss a handful of those weeks anyway. I’ll just stick with Sunday and Wednesday for this session. So tonight we are going to make our return to spinning. I hope Jeff is still instructing the class.

I’m still waiting for the stereo that I won on eBay a long time ago. It was almost a month ago, and I still don’t have it. I’m gonna start looking into filing a fraud report or whatever through paypal so that I can get the money back. The worst part is that I just want a CD player in the car, I really don’t even care about the $50.

I ordered my Halloween costume yesterday, well the big piece of it. I’m going to be dressed as a pimp, but more importantly the emoticon pimp that is on the OAR message board.

Here is the suit:

I need to go searching for some shoes this weekend. It’s all coming together!

We really don’t have much else planned for the weekend, but I’m sure we’ll find something. I just realized that bullriding at the American Royal is this weekend. We had so much fun last year that we are thinking about going back…

We booked the Rock Boat! I’m so excited now, and it is still like a year away. The boat will be chartered, but it is a Carnival boat, the Sensation. The interior rooms on the bottom floor were already full when we went to book, so we are on the next floor up in an interior room. We didn’t feel that the window was worth the extra money. My first cruise…

Last night we went over to Doni & Phil’s to just hang out for a couple hours, played some cards, and had some wine. Well I didn’t have any wine, but the others did. I actually tried one of the wines and surprisingly enjoyed it…

I’ve made my shows database public. You may not notice any differences at first, but check out all of the different menu options. To start browsing click here.

I think tonight we may be going to the brooksider for their Texas Hold’em Tournament. Todd is going back to defend his 2nd place finish…

So Friday night we met up with my buddy Josh Davis and some of his friends at McCoy’s in westport. They were in town for a concert, Kim and I headed up that way for dinner and some drinks. I had them all hooked on Infamous Arties, the mix of Brown and Raspberry Wheat that I love! So good.

After that we met up with Mike and headed down to the Outlaws game. We were a little late because of dinner, but we got free parking because of it. They only open the lower bowl of Kemper Arena, so we bought the cheapest seats we could since it really wouldn’t matter. The Outlaws won the game, their first game ever. I was not terribly impressed with the level of play, but it was hockey nonetheless. We ended up playing a few rounds of darts after the game and then calling it a night.

Saturday started with lunch at PF Changs, and then Kim and I took care of some shopping. Of course we ended up at the Robert Randolph show later on that night. It was an outside show, so we dressed up pretty warm. Kim had long underwear on, and I busted out one of my winter coats. The venue was a fenced off parking lot in Westport. They had 4 portolets there, and I’m not exaggerating this. There must have been between 1000 and 2000 people there and they have 4 portolets. What an awful situation that was. Just before the show was over, Kim discovered that they were letting you leave and come back in so that you could use the bathroom across the street. They should have announced that before RR started. I spent probably a fourth of the show in line. It was a good show though, and I think my tape should be alright. There were a few drunks in the crowd that almost took the rigs out, but we tried our best to form a wall. At least we survived with no damage.

Yesterday was pretty typical. We met up with Mike and his friend Elizabeth for some breakfast. Then we tried to get some good produce at the City Market, but there wasn’t much there this time. Then we watched the Bengals lose another game to the Browns (which made Mike happy). It was a pretty lazy day looking back on it. Kim and I even watched two movies after the football game. Then it was time for me to be active and play some hockey. We got killed by a team full of young punks though. I can say that now, especially when talking about a team with an average age under 21.

I got a voicemail from the head security guy at the Hyatt. About time. He said that they are cutting me a check for the missing camera. Woohoo! According to him, there was a temporary member of the housekeeping staff on duty that weekend, and they are trying to contact that individual. For such a nice hotel, why would they have staff on a temp basis? At least they are taking blame for this.

In other fun news, it looks like we are going to go on next years Rock Boat. This years just ended, but OAR was added to the lineup for next year as one of the headliners. This fills the gap that stopped me from going this year, there is now a headliner (out of three) that I really want to see. Marc Broussard is already announced to be a part of it again next year, and I’ve heard rumors that Matt Nathanson will be there too. We are working on getting a group rate, and should have that secured within the next day or so. Looks like I will finally be on my first cruise!

I’m feeling a little better today. I don’t have the aches and pains, but my congestion is back. I think I would rather have the congestion than anything though. Hopefully this a sign of good things to come.

Check it out, Cincinnati was selected for the Beer Hall Of Fame!

We are still trying to decide what to do tonight, it’s either the first ever game for the Kansas City Outlaws or a local high school football game with Todd and whomever else. I’m really up for either one, so we’ll just see if the football game is going to happen or not. This of course is all after my dentist appointment today. Man I hate these guys…

I thought this cold was gone, but I guess it doesn’t want to die so easily. My body aches and I have felt tired for the past day and a half. None of the medicine I have taken has really helped with that. I no longer have the nose issues, but my throat is sore and I just feel like crap.

Tuesday night I got a little preliminary work done for the Sonic website, but I definitely need to put some more time into that. Last night I went to hockey even though I really didn’t feel like it. I thought that maybe I could sweat this disease out, but no such luck. I still had a hard time falling asleep because of the aches in my legs and back. I wanted to go to the Carbon Leaf show last night, but after hockey I really didn’t feel up for it. The last straw was when I went to the now infamous $1000 ATM machine, and needless to say it didn’t have any money in it. Someone must have come through earlier in the day and emptied out their account. So without the money required to get into the show, I just went home and tried to get a good night of sleep.

Tonight I’ve got a dinner meeting with my boss and a co-worker. It’s for the Kansas City Quality Assurance Association. Sounds exciting huh? :b Hopefully it goes by fast, I’m ready to take some knockout drugs and sleep for hours and hours. I need to get better by this weekend. Robert Randolph is on Saturday!