Over the weekend we bought a food processor to replace the as seen on TV “quick chop”. As much as we use fresh vegetables in our cooking, we figured that a $20 or $30 processor would be worth trying.

Last night was the first time we used it to make a vegetable soup. I found a recipe online that looked pretty good and we just left the corn out (because of my supposed allergy). The processor easily chopped the onion, maybe even too easily. The potato was also no match for the blades. The slicing of the carrots and celery worked alright, not the most consistent cuts, but it worked. The end result is delicious! I’m eating some right now.

The only other thing I did last night was that I gave up on the Olympics. The closing ceremonies have already happened and I was still four or five days behind. I went ahead and deleted the rest of my recorded episodes. Better luck in four years I guess…

Finally a relaxing weekend. After work on Friday we had a few beers at home before heading down to George Brett’s. We met up with Maria and her friend Elizabeth, who was in town for the weekend. Typically we just have drinks at George’s, but this time we sampled a variety of their food as well. I would highly recommend the Turkey BLT Sandwich or the BBQ Chicken Pizza. After a couple of hours there, we headed home for the night.

Saturday was spent mostly in the apartment. Kim took care of some studying while I worked on the next version of edpaffjr.com. After hours and hours of that, we decided to put together homemade lasagna. The rest of the night was spent eating, drinking some wine, and watching a couple of movies. First up was Kim’s choice, Must Love Dogs. I’ll make my review of this movie short, it was terrible. I don’t think Kim liked it either. We then watched March Of The Penguins, a film that I’ve been wanting to see. I was obviously expecting big things because of the hype that surrounded it last year. Honestly, I was a little let down. It was a good movie but it was far from amazing, after all it is still a documentary. It was made to be shown on omnimax screens across the country.

We started off Sunday exactly like Saturday. Luckily we made it out of the apartment later in the day for more than an hour. We started off with a long game of tennis at the gym. We had planned on doing an inside workout, but the nice weather changed our minds. When we ran out of time, the score was tied one set to one. I was trying to conserve my energy for my hockey game later in the day. I guess I didn’t save enough though, we ended up losing our game and are no longer undefeated. We still hold a one game lead over the team that just beat us.

Earlier this month I mentioned that Dominique was moving down to Atlanta. He has been down there since then and seems to be doing well. Big Brothers Big Sisters wanted me to get matched up with another kid, but I think even one kid is demanding enough for us. Besides, this move may not last forever, and Dominique could be back in KC at some point in the future.

Anyway, we hung out with Bianca last night. I got home after work and found her and Kim doing some science experiments in the kitchen. I finished making the dinner that they started while they cleaned up from an incident involving vinegar and baking soda. We ate dinner very fast and then head off to Bianca’s school for the Blue Jay Fair, basically an open house. The school was much nicer than I was expecting, and Bianca’s teachers were mostly young and energetic. Previously I assumed that the teachers likely didn’t care much about the students or their education, but I was definitely proven wrong. The kids’ poor grades must be due to their lack of interest and effort. I wish I could find a way to convince them that it’s for their own good.

With Kim in Iowa overnight last night, I took advantage of the situation by eating Chipotle for dinner and then working at my computers for the rest of the night. I finally finished my project of moving my web server from Phil’s old machine, to Ringo (my old machine). I immediately noticed a slight improvement in overall performance. Upon further investigation, I noticed significant improvement involving my upcoming redesigned site. Now that this design is not horribly slow, I can continue on and hopefully release it in the future.

What does this mean for you? Absolutely nothing…well hopefully. I don’t think I missed anything when moving everything from one computer to the other, but there is a slight chance that I did. If you notice anything strange, please let me know about it. In the meantime, enjoy the slightly faster website!

We had our final game of volleyball last night, and once again I’m waiting for the results to be posted. The team that was in first (one game ahead of us) was in the middle of their match when we arrived. We saw them lose one game, and I think they won the other two. Obviously we realized that if we won all three games, then we would be tied with them for 1st place. Although a couple of the games were close, we actually wound up winning all three or our games last night.

I’m now wondering if the delay in the results is because they are trying to figure out how to break the 1st place tie. There are two other teams that could join this tie, if they won all three of their own games last night.

We better get a t-shirt!

With this session now complete, I am announcing my retirement from volleyball, at least for now. Time to conquer something else…

For your sake, I hope that tonight is a little more exciting than last night. I am totally fine with lying on the couch and watching outdated coverage of the Olympics, but it doesn’t make for much to talk about:

me: Did you know that the US men’s hockey team lost to Slovakia?
edpaffjr.com reader: Again? They just played on Saturday.
me: Not again. I just got around to watching the game last night. I’m still three days behind…

The most productive thing I did last night, besides cooking dinner, was adding our pictures from Omaha to the site. This took all of ten minutes right before I headed to bed last night. Usually it wouldn’t even take that long, but I was trying to get a video added along with the pictures. I thought that I could do it, but I haven’t had any luck yet. It’s pretty dumb anyway, just some guy doing a Napoleon Dynamite dance in between periods.

We took it pretty easy on Friday night. Kim was a little tired from her trip to Minneapolis, and I was equally tired from a busy day at work. Neither one of us wanted to cook nor were we very hungry, so we decided to walk down on the plaza for appetizers and drinks. As soon as we stepped outside, we knew we were not going to make it far. It was freezing outside and the wind wasn’t helping. We settled on M&S Grill, mainly because it is the one of the closest places to our apartment. I had never been inside, but I knew that it was related to McCormick & Schmick’s so I wasn’t expecting much. If you didn’t already know, I’m not a fan of seafood. I like my fish in a tank and not on my plate. The little food that we had wasn’t bad but it wasn’t really good either. I was happy to have a few rounds of beer though. Mike, Christie, and Christie’s parents also stopped by for a few drinks. Her parents were really nice and I wish we could have hung out with them more.

We took a little road trip to Omaha on Saturday with Doni and Phil. After arriving at the hotel we quickly walked over to the Old Market area. We had a round at Upstream and then headed to Jobber’s Canyon (another microbrewery) for dinner and some of their beers. I think I’m a bigger from of Upstream, although I will rarely complain about a microbrew. Next stop was the Civic Auditorium to watch UNO take on Michigan. We had great seats for the game (center ice, less than 10 rows up) thanks to Doni! It was a great game that ended in a 4-4 tie. Of course I would have liked to see someone win the game, but at least we got to see a good game with a bunch of goals. After the game was over, we continued on our tour of the Old Market bars which included T. Henry’s, Mr. Toad’s, and finally the hotel bar. Another great trip to Omaha!

After the long drive home on Sunday morning/afternoon, we decided to be lazy on the couch and watch some Olympics coverage. We did eventually head to the grocery and get some dinner, but it was a pretty lazy day. Late last night, the Kansas City Moose won yet another hockey game to remain undefeated in this session!

Everyone’s favorite summer time party is back! Pig-Fest XIII will be held this year on July 8th, so mark your calendars now. If you have any ideas for logos let me know. I could just use this year’s bonnaroo logo, like I did last year. I just got confirmation that Greenstreet will be back again this year.* I’m also talking with another band’s manager who is also interested in joining in the festivities this year.

Last night I spent an hour or two finalizing the layout for the Sig Ep site that I’ve been designing for the past few weeks. Feel free to critique it using comments to this post. Now I just need to get the content that they want to be displayed on each page. From there I headed out to Charlie Hooper’s for the infamous import night. I met up with a couple of guys from work and friends of theirs. It was nice to get out of the apartment for a bit, while Kim is in Minneapolis wondering around the Mall of America.

In exciting work news, I got another raise yesterday. Go me!

* Greenstreet goes from confirmed to unconfirmed in one day. The 8th is the same day as the singers mom’s 50th birthday. I guess that means they are out, and it’s probably too late to consider alternate days for the party. Hopefully I have better luck with another band.

Well I must have spoken too early about volleyball. I thought that we had a chance to at least be co-champions, but after last night I don’t know if it’s possible. Going in to the match, I thought we were pretty even with the opposition, but that was quickly proven untrue. They took a quick lead on us in the first game and never looked back. We tried a few other strategies against them, but I don’t think we ever had a lead in any of the three games. In the end, we lost all of the games to ‘Kinky Sets’ and they are now in first place, one game ahead of us. We are currently tied for second with two other teams. Hopefully we can redeem ourselves next week against the worst team in the league…

I have been trying to stay up to date with the Olympics, but have fallen a day or two behind. I setup the ReplayTV box to record every appearance on NBC that would not conflict with an already existing recording. I believe that right now I have nine hours saved that I have not watched. Of course it will take me much less time to watch all of that, with the skipping of commercials, any talk of Michelle Kwan, and sometimes figure skating in general. :) While browsing the web this morning for Olympics coverage I found a few interesting sites related to google maps or earth. First I found a mashup featuring daily schedules and results. I then found another mashup showing all of the Olympic venues. And finally a placemark file for google earth (the link works only if earth is installed) that again will show the venues. More on this at the Google Blog.

Pictures from this weekend are up! Our dress was not as complicated as some of the other teams, as you’ll see in the pictures, but I think it fit the best with our team name. A group of guys on the bus said that the winners from the year before were dressed as characters in Caddyshack. I guess if it was done well enough, that deserved to win, but personally I don’t think people like the pimps have what it takes. I’m a fan of something with a little creativity! Who knows if/when the results from this year will be posted on their website…

Oh yeah, happy Valentine’s Day!