Friday night we met up with Doni and Phil at Jalapenos in Brookside for dinner. Good food as always! From there we went back to their place to play some cards. It started with Euchre which Doni and I won. We then played Pitch which is something Doni and Phil have taught us. The link is to the best site I found describing how they play this game. Again Doni and I were victorious! Eventually Kim and I headed out and stopped over at Mike’s place. After an hour or two they headed out to the bars and we ventured home. Quite a busy night for us…

Saturday we walked over to the new plaza library and discovered that it is not quite done yet. I guess it will be open in the spring. As I mentioned before the Chipotle is right there, but we didn’t stop since we were still full from breakfast. We walked through a few plaza stores and then headed up to Mike’s rooftop. It was a pretty nice day so him and Jeff decided to take some drinks up to the roof deck. We joined them and started another Euchre game. Mike and me versus Kim and Jeff. We won two out of three games, it was a good card weekend for me. We then headed down to Tomfooleries for dinner and drinks. The food was excellent and I had a few of the new Bud Selects, and it was even on tap. So far I am a fan and will have to pick some more up sometime soon. Jeff went home when he got a call from his sick girlfriend, and the rest of us went to our place. Kim went to bed shortly after, while Mike and I watched my all time fav Mallrats. He could quote just as much of the movie as I could, good times…

Sunday we spent the afternoon over at our gym but we weren’t working out. We sat in the hot tub, saunas, etc. I guess it was about time that I used these facilities. Not a bad way to spend the day. We had lunch at Panera, finishing up the last of our xmas gift cards and later in the night went to Susan’s for her Oscar party. I didn’t get to see much of the show because of hockey, but Chris Rock opened it up pretty well. Speaking of hockey, we won! That’s 3 weeks in a row I believe…

Kim’s friend Corinne is moving to Denver from Cincy and will be stopping in KC tonight…

So I was a little bored the past day or two and thus decided to redo a bunch of the show database code. I created a version of the code for my buddy weeba to use, but I don’t think he ever got it working. While doing that I found some spots to make improvements, and so I have added those changes along with other stuff to my own copy of the code. Most of it will go unnoticed since it is backend type code, but one cool feature is that my ticket stub scans are back. Click here to see what I mean. The problem now is that very few of my ticket stubs have actually been scanned. I stopped scanning when I moved out of my parents’ house and no longer had a scanner to use. So if you know of a deal on a scanner, or just have one lying around let me know and then hopefully I can keep that up-to-date.

I finally finished my oarsa.org interview with O.A.R. It’s a pretty good read, although I guess I’m a little biased. If you want to check it out, just follow this link…

Someone must have forgotten to cross their fingers. VW wants over $300 to fix the door problem. Kim told them to shove it, or at least I wish she would have. We may call around to get other price quotes, or just suck it up for the time being. The good news is that as of yesterday it seems as if the sensor has completely died. Now it is like the door is always shut even when it’s open. So the lights will not turn on when the door is opened, but we rarely drive when it is dark out anyway. If we do decide to go out at night, I guess we’ll just have to travel in pairs or more, so that the other doors will open and the lights will come on. :)

No big plans for tonight. I’ll probably make some dinner and I bet that we watch the OC. We have to rest up for tomorrow night; it is Mike’s friend Elizabeth’s last night in KC…

Last night I dropped Kim off at the movies and headed to the Brooksider. It felt like I haven’t been there in years, but it was still the same old place. Todd was actually in our part of town once again, so I had to stop by. I guess he has moved downtown into an area that Doni & Phil once lived in and Kim and I thought about moving to. Hopefully we get down there sometime to check it all out. I wasn’t able to stay very long though, I had to go play hockey…

This morning we had to get up extra early since we needed to take the car to a VW dealer. Over the weekend, the drivers side door starting acting up, just after the car passed 50,000 miles which ended the warranty. From time to time the sensors would think that the door was open and this would cause the lights to come on and a very annoying sound to fill the car. The solution was to open and close the door until it stopped. This eventually got worse and the previous method would not work. We called VW and they said they might be able to extend the warranty and fix it, if not it would cost something like $300 to fix. You see when VW updated the Jetta in 99 or so, they removed the typical door sensor that you find on most cars and instead they somehow installed it in the door latch. You can no longer simply mess with the little sensor button, you now have to replace an entire latch. Anyway, they are evaluating the situation, so keep your fingers crossed. If they won’t do it for free we are going to shop around…

Slight downtime yesterday afternoon. This router has a little glitch in it that makes it think my computer is virus infected. When this event happens, it blocks access to my web server, ftp server, aim, and quite a few other applications. I guess it blocks anything that is capable of spreading this “virus.” I have a support ticket open with netgear and I hope they get back to me soon. If you have any other potential solutions, let me know. I have googled this subject like there is no tomorrow but the only results are in Chinese. :(

Last night I went over to Blaney’s with Mike to celebrate Jeff’s birthday. You might remember him from our night out at the falloon, haha. Anyway, is was just us three and Jeff’s girlfriend as well. Not terribly exciting, but it was nice to get out. I had a few Boulevard Irish Ales, which is the current seasonal brew. I was quite impressed with it, and I may have to stock up on it. Kim was in Ida Grove, IA for a little business trip. The town sounds pretty small and she is supposed to come back with some pictures…

I’ve heard a rumor from Steve Christy that everyone’s favorite band, Virginia Coalition, will be at this years Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS. I have no clue where this place is, but if VACO is there consider us there as well! I guess the dates are on pollstar.com!

Good news, I haven’t been sick for quite some time, knock on wood. With that said, I guess we had a pretty productive weekend…

Friday Kim took her test (we later found out she passed it, so congrats to her!) and then picked me up from work. We headed home and had a little celebration with an Italian dinner and some wine. I think these early morning workouts are killing me though, because I was asleep by 10 or 11 on the couch, if not earlier. Nothing too exciting for Friday night.

Saturday we woke up early and headed to d’Bronx for lunch, once again it was very good pizza! From there we started our never ending day of shopping. The original agenda would be bar stools but that expanded into so much more. First we headed to Lowe’s with $20 in gift certificates. They had some cheap bar stools that were the standard oak colored circular stool (we later realized that every store has these for the same price). We decided to move on, but before we could Kim spotted the window curtain aisle. We bought a few different kinds to use on the big glass porch doors (as you can see the red ones were not working that well. We then headed to Nebraska Furniture Mart which had every stool imaginable, but most of them were too expensive. We knew that we needed between 3 and 4 stools and anything over $40 would be costing way too much. That store is massive though, they have so much stuff. Since price was on our minds we decided to head to a Big Lots furniture store. Where we ended up was the normal Big Lots store where we bought all kinds of crap that I guess we needed to buy anyway. We then went to their furniture store which was just down the road a little further. We almost bought some stools here but I honestly cannot remember what they were like. Kim ran into Goodwill while I dropped off two bags of clothes to them. She swore that they had a stool in there identical to some we had seen in Target before and it was only $12. Of course we then headed over to a Target to see if this was true. What we soon realized was that the Global Bazaar section that Kim loved was ending and everything was 30% off. We did not find the exact stool that was in Goodwill, but we could not pass up this stool for $35, so we bought 4 and crammed them into the car. At this point I was ready to collapse, so we headed off to find dinner. We ended up at Houlihan’s which I loved! We went there quite a few times when we first moved out here, but haven’t been back recently, I think we will be soon though. We thought about meeting up with some others for a drink, but we decided to just head back home and do a little work. We setup the bar stools and realized we only needed 3 of them. We also decided on which curtains to keep for the porch doors. I believe I was out on the couch again by 10, so lame. :)

Sunday was another early morning. I made some pancakes and then we were off once again. We first headed to Target to take the extra stool back. From there store entrance I could tell that they discounted the entire Global Bazaar section even further to 50% off. So we did what any other penny pinchers would do and bought 3 more stools so that we could take them back and gain $10 for each one, making the final price per stool only $25! We couldn’t get out of that section of the store with only the stools so we also picked up a wall mirror, a side table, a giant 2 foot candle and a bowl to hold fruit on the kitchen table. All good buys and for less than we originally spent on the 4 stools. I think they are going to discount the section even more this week, so we may be going back out to a Target store at some point this week. We had a late lunch at Chipotle, which finished off all of the gift cards I had from Christmas. :( I guess my birthday is coming up though, haha. Speaking of Chipotle, I have discovered that they just built one within walking distance of the apartment, just off of the plaza. For you KC folks, it is right next to the new library that they just finished building, 48th and Main I believe. We also hit up the grocery, and before I knew it I was off to play hockey. It seems like we never really stopped all weekend, and when we did I would be sleeping within minutes…

Yeah I’m bored I guess. I added a “sidebar” to the blog for easier access to past posts. It shouldn’t affect any functionality, but if you encounter any problems please let me know.

Kim is taking her insurance exam today, I’m sure she’ll do fine. From there she is going shopping I guess. Hopefully she buys me some new sun glasses since she stole my cheap pair. We both got our federal tax returns back, so we do have some extra money to burn. Perhaps we should buy those bar stools we’ve been eyeing.

I did not get my state tax return back because Kim mailed it before I signed it. Or I just forgot to sign it. You can take your pick of excuses. They sent me some signature form, so hopefully I’ll get it before too long. I also need to file my city tax form and pay them the required money. Hopefully this downtown arena is done before I leave KC, so I can enjoy what I’m paying for.

Not too much is planned for this weekend, yet. I just hope I can stay healthy enough to enjoy this one for a change…

The shows last night were awesome! I am impressed more and more each time I see Marc. I headed straight from work and had dinner at Chipotle. From there I went over to the Borders store and immediately setup my gear. No more than 15 minutes later Marc was up on “stage” singing a few songs by himself. Afterward I got him to sign a poster. He immediately recognized me although he can never remember my name. We had a short convo and then I headed out to Lawrence. I got to the Bottleneck before doors even opened so I went across the street to another Borders to read a copy of The Pitch while listening to some various music. After a half hour I decided it was time to head over and get inside the venue. Once again I got my gear all setup and then I started running into some friends and fellow music lovers. Sons Of William opened the show. The frontman is actually one of Marc’s guitar players. They were a little heavier than I was expecting, but a pretty solid three piece act. Next up was David Ryan Harris, who I’ve heard of quite a few times but never really heard much of. He was quite good and entertaining as well. I would definitely go see him again, and I just might cut up my recording of him. He played solo and does a little of the record and playback style. Broussard was up next. I’ve seen him with a band a couple of times, but I believe it was always a four piece. Now there was an additional guitar player in the lineup to create an even fuller sound. They definitely had the packed house rocking! What a show! It didn’t end until after 12:30 and with the 45 minute drive home I didn’t get to sleep until around 2:00. That makes for an exciting day today, I just hope I don’t fall asleep. At least I’ve got my recordings to keep me busy…

Ed Paff :)
I’m sure this won’t be nearly as exciting for any of you as it is for me. After flirting dangerously close to 200 pounds last year, I have crept under 180 for the first time in a long time. After our workout this morning I stepped on the scale and rejoiced as it read 179.0! It has been my goal to get under 180 and I did it. Not sure what an ideal weight for me would be, but I hope that whatever it is I keep losing weight until I get to that point…

Kim left for an overnight business trip this morning. That leaves me with nothing to do but see Marc Broussard multiple times. First he is playing an instore performance very close to my work, so I’ll head there around 5. Then there is a full show tonight in Lawrence. I’m sure I’ll be up late tonight, but you only live once right? :)

Once again I have convinced myself that I need to build up my PC music library. It is my goal to have every CD I own saved on my PC as mp3 files in addition to any other album or song that I want. With the recent crackdown on peer-to-peer file sharing I have started to decrease my use of these targeted applications (kazaa, morpheus, etc). I never really used them that much before, but now you will rarely find me on any of them. Then how am I getting all of my music? My friends and I have all started sharing our music collections via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Using this very popular instant messaging service, you can select a directory on your PC that others are allowed to connect to and then download files in that directory. The great part about this is that you can limit access to your library to only users on your buddy list. This is currently how I have my file sharing setup. If you wish to see all that I have and are not on my buddy list, just send me a message and I will likely add you to my list. While Kim has been busy studying for her insurance exam on Friday, I have been busy downloading music from all of my friends…

Only one thing has been standing in my way. I haven’t found a decent application to rip all of my CD’s to mp3. If you have any suggestions shoot them my way…