Our entire volleyball team was finally complete last night. For the previous three weeks, at least one core team member has missed the match. With everyone there, we had our best matches yet, against one of the best teams we have played. What’s scary is that somehow the other team is in last place, they must have a tough early schedule. We won the first and last games, and probably should have won the middle game, but all their stupid rules kept getting in the way.

There is the rule that if the ball is hit more than once on your side, then one of those hits must come from a girl. The sad part is that the girls are the best part of our team. They should make a special rule that at least one guy must touch the ball. Occasionally Pavia will hit the ball to me, in the net, and I have no choice but to hit it over. These plays are illegal according to the above rule, but when you see the play, it’s clear that it should be legal. We stink. :)

So our team is now 6-6 and sitting in 6th place. In the next two weeks we are playing both of the teams that are tied for 4th place with 7-5 records. Hopefully we can knock one, if not both, out of those positions! Check out the full schedule and results here, once again our team is Dig This.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I put my pictures from the O.A.R. show up on the site. There are a bunch of good ones, so check them out!

Here goes another exciting sports update. Kim told me that these are boring to read, but honestly I don’t have much else to write about currently. Monday nights are usually either dedicated to a late night hockey game, or just sitting around the apartment watching TV and recovering from the weekend. Last night was one of those hockey nights.

Our team is not playing very well right now. Yeah, we had a pretty bad goalie, who let in some soft goals, but we didn’t score nearly enough. I was on defense again last night, but managed to get one of the three goals that we scored. So far we have only beat one team in the league, and we’ve beat them a couple of times. Hopefully we play them again soon.

My fantasy teams are looking better though. I won two of the three, and the one that I lost was only by five points. I did play a couple of the wrong players in that loss though, so I guess doing my own picks isn’t any better than using those fantasy advice sites. Maybe this week I’ll use a combination of both. As of now, my record stands at 18-9, still winning 2/3 of the time.

Friday night we went out to dinner for Kim’s birthday, just a couple of days early. We headed over to our favorite Italian restaurant on the plaza, if not in all of KC, Figlio. The dinner was great, the wine was good, everything went well except for one little incident involving Kim, a bottle of olive oil, a smashed wine glass, and my own dirty clothes. You may have to user your imagination a little bit, but you should get the idea. From there we went reVerse for a couple of drinks to finish off the night.

Saturday we headed up to Ames, Iowa to see O.A.R. I bought tickets the day they went on sale, and lucked into a couple of front row center tickets. Our friends Steve Christy, Courtney, Stacy, and Tarah all made the trip as well. The show was definitely a good one, and the venue is awesome! I should have some really nice pictures from our seats, that I’ll try to get online soon. I saw O.A.R. play at this venue back in 2003 during the spring break trip, and once I saw the date I knew that I had to go again. We hit up a couple of the college bars before and after the show. It was well worth the 4 hour drive.

Sunday, after a stop at Famous Dave’s for lunch, we got back into town just in time for my hockey game. We lost yet another game, but I think I played one of my better games of the season. We have another game tonight, and one our forwards might miss it, so maybe I’ll get to play forward again. This was not a terribly exiting birthday for Kim, that’s why we went out on Friday. For a few months she will once again be older than me. :)

Kim returned to KC yesterday afternoon from her work trip to Charlotte. At some point she must have decided that the rabbit’s ‘allergies’ were a bit too much and she called a vet. As a little background, the rabbit has been sneezing for a few months and lately has developed sores around his nose that we were attributing to his scratching. Anyway, the vet told her that rabbits don’t have allergies and that he probably has an infection that he cannot fight off himself. She decided to take the $70 plunge and take him into the office for an evaluation.

I’m told that the $70 wasn’t just for a visit, but also to cover the medications. Amstel got a shot of antibiotics into his system and some drops that we have to apply to his nose a few times a day. I don’t think they even had to numb him before getting the shot, the giant dogs in the office likely sent him directly into shock. The most surprising thing is that the doctor diagnosed him as having syphilis. Yeah, you read that correctly.

At first I wasn’t sure how that could be possible, since he has been a solitary rabbit since he was tiny. But after doing some research, he does have many of the symptoms of the disease:

• Lesions around the nose and/or mouth: check
• Sneezing: check
• Lesions around the genitalia and/or anus: Uhhh… I haven’t checked

Finally one article I read said that the disease can be maternally transmitted, so I guess that’s the only explanation. Hopefully he will be all cleared up in a week or two.

Last night I went to see Matt Nathanson along with Matt Wertz in Lawrence. Earlier in the day I was a little reluctant to go, but I was convinced by several people to go. I hitched a ride over with Courtney and along the way we picked up a friend of hers. We met up with Beth and a new friend Emily, who was generous enough to give me a free ticket to the show.

There actually was another act opening the show, but we arrived too late and missed her. We saw about half of Wertz’s set, which I thought was pretty good. I’ve heard some of his music before, just never seen him live. Nathanson put on a good set, mostly with a full band, and rocked the place. The turnout was much better than the last time he played the Bottleneck, so that was a nice bonus. Overall I am very happy that I went to the show. I could have used a little more than four hours of sleep though.

The setlist for those that care:

Wings
Then I’ll Be Smiling
Sad Songs
Lucky Boy >
(I Want You To Want Me – Cheap Trick)
Princess
Bent >
(Such Great Heights – The Postal Service)
(Improv Funk Song)
Lost Myself In Search Of You
Stay
Angel >
(Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes – Paul Simon) >
I Saw >
(Trip Through Your Wires – U2)
Fall To Pieces
Church Clothes
(I Want It That Way – Backstreet Boys)
(Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson)
Little Victories
Lose Yourself – Eminem
Detroit Waves
Laid
Answering Machine
Encore:
(Anyway You Want It – Journey)
(Dust In The Wind – Kansas)
Suspended

From a bad (fantasy) sports update to a much better sports update. Late last night we had yet another volleyball match. If you remember from the previous two weeks, in each of those matches we lost two of the three games played. Last night we seemed to finally figure it out though and we won two out of three games. We started out a little rough, losing the first game, with yet another addition to the roster playing for us. But from that point on we dominated the match!

I was going to write this update much earlier this morning, but I was waiting for the league to put up last nights results along with the standings. ‘Dig This’ is now in sixth place, up one spot from last week. Our overall record is now 4-5 and our next match is against the last place team in the league. Look out!

Typically Tuesdays are when I rejoice and realized that I’m not as bad at fantasy football as I once thought. Today is not a typical Tuesday though. I sucked this week, although I guess I only lost by a few points each time. I lost two of the three games but I probably could have won both of those if I had played the right people. Maybe I shouldn’t listen to those ‘expert’ sites that tell you who to play and who not to play. This week I’m going to make all of my own picks, or at least try to. My overall record is now 16-8, meaning I am down to only winning 2/3 of the games played.

Last night I worked on a new e-commerce type site for a guy at Hot Records. My buddy Mike has been working at their office for a few days now, and this guy Victor asked him if he knew anyone who did websites. Thankfully my name was mentioned, and we are now trying to figure how to get it all running. I’ve never done anything that required credit card submissions before, so this is a big learning experience. We are still hoping to set it up without using a site like paypal, but in the end we might have to. Anyway, last night I put together an idea I thought of earlier in the day. It seems to be working good so far, but it still needs some work. Feel free to check it out and provide any feedback.

After work on Friday we met up with Maria and her boyfriend, who was visiting from Chicago. Amanda also met up with us at George Brett’s for dinner and drinks. It was a nice and fairly relaxing night.

Kim woke up early on Saturday to catch a flight to Charlotte, where she will be for most of the week. I slept in and drove down to Wichita later in the afternoon. I hung out with Steve Christy at his place for awhile. Later in the night we went out to a couple of bars and observed all the freaks in costumes.

I made the long and boring drive back to KC early on Sunday afternoon. By the time I got back, it was almost time for my hockey game. I finally got to play forward again, but maybe I would have been better on defense. We probably would have lost regardless.

Not a terribly exciting weekend, but it felt like a busy one.

So we skipped the last dance class last night. Both Kim and I were supposed to head to the Virginia Coalition show instead. Kim didn’t get enough studying done throughout the week, so she opted to stay in a finish up. I thought a few other friends would be coming along to fill up the 4 guest list spots that I had, but the only one who came through was Courtney. Thanks to my buddy Scott for hooking us all up anyway.

VACO was opening for G Love in a brand new venue at Harrah’s called the VooDoo Lounge. In fact, VACO was the first band to ever play on the stage. The venue itself is incredible, which I sort of expected given that it is part of a casino. The sound was good and the crowd was mediocre. It started getting fairly full towards the end of our night, which was before G Love even hit the stage. Due to conflicting start times from ticketmaster, the show was delayed for quite some time. Regardless, VACO put on a great show and definitely earned some new fans. I cannot wait until the next time I get to see them headline a show, who knows when that will ever be though.

I hope this venue markets itself well enough to pull in some decent shows. It actually fills a hole in Kansas City for medium sized venues in the 1000+ person range. There is the Beaumont Club, but I have really grown to hate that place. Besides that dump, I cannot think of another venue around this size. The only downer is that it is north of the river, much further than the rest of the venues in the area. I look forward to seeing another show at the VooDoo Lounge.

I spent another night at Charlie Hoopers last night. A couple of the guys from work were heading up there once again for import night. Kim stayed home so she could study for an upcoming insurance test. If you remember from the last time I went up there, a couple weeks ago, I did a tour of England. Well this time I decided to move the tour over a little bit to the west. The land of choice was The Netherlands, although I think their menu labeled it as Holland (which I’ve learned is just a province of The Netherlands).

First on the menu was Grolsch, which I may or may not have had before. Not a bad beer, pretty similar to Heineken, which is also from the area. I did really enjoy the bottle top though! From there I tried a Bavaria. This wasn’t a bad beer, but nothing really stood out to me. That left either Heinken or Amstel Light. I had to go with the rabbit’s namesake and drink the Amstel. This is one of my favorite light beers ever, so it was a nice way to top off the night.

In site news, as my mom pointed out in yesterday’s comments, I put some pictures up of us carving pumpkins with Dominique and Bianca.