Posting for the next couple of days will be sporadic at best. After work today we are heading up to the airport and flying to Seattle. From there we’ll spend tonight and all of tomorrow in downtown Seattle. I’m sure we’ll do all sorts of the touristy things, since neither of us have been to Seattle. Thanks for all of the suggestions before, it is going to help a ton.

Friday morning we are driving with a couple of friends to meet up with even more friends at Getty’s Cove. This will serve as our home for the following three nights as we take in a Dave Matthews Band and O.A.R. concert each night at the glorious Gorge Amphithetre! I’ve been waiting for years for a trip to the Gorge and it is finally here. I cannot wait any longer!

We ran outside this morning for the first time in a long time. The weather has finally cooled off enough so that it’s bearable. Kim put us on a training schedule for the Kansas City Marathon 5K, which takes place on October 7th this year. I’m still not sure why they scheduled a marathon the day after the American Royal BBQ big party night, or why Kim signed us up, but she did. So I guess if we are going to run it then I might as well do some training for it. One a positive note, we do get a $25 food gift certificate valid at City Tavern and Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbeque just for registering for the race!

Anyway, we started off with a nice and easy two mile run this morning. Well it would have been nice and easy if it weren’t for all of the hills we encountered. We are using MapMyRun.com to plan out routes of various length for our training. The downside is that you can’t really judge the terrain (well without Google Earth installed). The one we ran this morning measured out almost exactly to two miles, so if we are running two miles again maybe we’ll try running it in the opposite direction. It felt like I was running uphill way more than downhill this morning. Or as Kim says, maybe “I’m just a big wimp!”

It’s fantasy football time once again. I started the season off with a draft last night with some friends of mine. Many of them know a lot more than I do about fantasy sports and even football in general. I remember last year showing up for the draft and frantically making decisions in the minute and half given for each pick. This year I wanted to be a little more prepared so I actually ranked many of the players (with the help of some websites) and tried to mark off each one as they were picked. This seemed to work a little better. If my picks aren’t any better, at least I made my decisions quickly. Here’s my roster:

M. Hasselbeck QB
A. Brooks QB
R. Moss WR
T. Houshmandzadeh WR
L. Coles WR
Mi. Clayton WR
J. McCareins WR
L. Tomlinson RB
K. Jones RB
R. Dayne RB
T. Heap TE
A. Smith TE
S. Graham K
Carolina DEF
Atlanta DEF

Advice? Anyone I need to get rid of?

Don’t forget to watch the Bengals on ESPN tonight for the season debut of Carson Palmer!

No time to write today. Crazy day at work. I need the weekend now! Until next week…

My! Very educated morons just screwed up numerous planetariums.

Hopefully I didn’t convince too many of you to watch Treasure Hunters. In the end the show was pretty awful, especially the finale. This final episode was an hour long but the winner of the competition was revealed within the first ten or fifteen minutes. The remaining time was spent talking to all of the teams, some of which I didn’t even remember being a part of it. The series could have ended with one less episode and it would have been better. It still wouldn’t compare to the Amazing Race, but it would have been better.

I’m a little leery of recommending any other shows, but I just realized that Rock Star is back. I enjoyed the first time this show was on when INXS was searching for a new singer. Now a new band, Supernova, is also searching for a singer. The band is comprised of Tommy Lee on drums, Jason Newsted (formerly of Metallica) on bass, and Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N’ Roses) on guitar. The remaining singers in the competition are all pretty good, minus a girl named Storm. Each of them is way different from the next, so it will be interested to see who the band (along with the fans) picks to front Supernova.

There’s one thing that’s more frustrating than gas prices and its gas stations that are no longer accepting credit cards. I guess I could use my card as a debit card, but they aren’t accepting those either. The gas station that is right outside my office hasn’t been accepting credit cards or debit cards for weeks now. At first I thought it was due to a change in ownership, but I checked yesterday and the pumps still have duct tape over the card slots at the pump and a sign saying cash or pre-approved check only.

I headed down the road to the next station, forgetting that I actually had my check book with me in my work bag. After pulling up to a pump at the second station, I noticed the same thing at these pumps. Unbelievable! I thought for sure I was going to run out of gas but luckily there was a station a couple exits down the highway with pay at the pump and it worked! Typically I’m not one to carry cash, but I am considering it if this trend continues.

Is this something that is only affecting me or have some of you experienced the same thing?

If you didn’t already know, I love pizza. It consistently ranks on top of my favorite foods list. There are two things I bring back to Kansas City from Cincinnati: LaRosa’s pizza sauce and Skyline chili. I have taken advantage of the lack of LaRosa’s restaurants in the area by trying many of the different pizzerias in Kansas City. This weekend I found another one that I can add to the top of my list, Papa Kenos.

Despite what their website says, there is a location in Missouri and this is the one we visited on Sunday afternoon. If you are a Kansas Citian, it’s on Westport Road near Broadway. We arrived at the restaurant a little before noon, only to realize that we would have to wait a few minutes for them to open. The wait was well worth it though. Kim ordered a slice of “Mama Keno” and I chose the “Denver” both of which we loved. We also sampled some of “Mama K’s Pesto Fromagio” which was equally as delicious. In fact I am finishing the leftover appetizer right now and it’s just as good reheated.

Other pizza places around town that I enjoy:

1. Minsky’s
2. Waldo Pizza
3. D’Bronx – no website? hmmmm.

Before Kim headed down to Pinehurst for work in May we were golfing fairly regularly, but after her trip we pretty much quit. With that being said, I’m not entirely sure how I was convinced to play 18 holes this weekend with a few friends of ours. Prior to this weekend I had never played 18 holes and typically I had only played at one “practice” nine hole course.

Our tee time was for 11:30AM on Saturday way out in Olathe, Kansas at Heritage Park. Despite being outside for over five hours, I enjoyed most of it and played much better than I thought I would. My final score was 101, which was much better than the 120 I predicted. And to top it all off, I didn’t even cheat that much! It made it easier when the guy I was sharing a cart with was even worse than me. He didn’t have his own clubs so he borrowed a set of irons and put them in one of those bags used to hold a folding chair. It was hilarious! I wish I had my camera with me. Overall, I think all four of us had a good time. Maybe I’ll even do it again one day.

Does anyone have recommendations for golf score tracking sites? Something to track your handicap and such…

We made our return to Starlight Threatre last night to see Rent. Unlike plays in the past, I actually did a little reading about Rent before attending. I think it helped in the end, otherwise I think I could have been really lost at times. At times during the show the music would drown out the performers’ vocals and other times the singers were just hard to understand. Thought you could still get a sense of what was happening based on actions and props.

Overall my review of Rent can be summed up in one word: interesting. If you aren’t familiar with Rent, “the musical centers on a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Alphabet City in the early 1990s, under the shadow of AIDS.” Wikipedia continues, “Rent was one of the first Broadway musicals to clearly feature gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender characters.” Although the characters may be hard for everyone to relate to, the plot contains themes that touch everyone’s lives.

On a more positive note, I thought the music and singing was spectacular. Rent is referred to as a “rock opera” and the band that was playing last night certainly did rock. Most all of the performers had great to amazing voices and the collaborations were excellent. I’d recommend seeing Rent, just once in your life, for the music alone.

Last night I made some long overdue changes to the TrustEd Designs website. It’s not really much of a site, just a placeholder really until I get time to create a new site. However, it’s much better than it was before, which was just a copy of the old edpaffjr.com. At least now I have little screenshots and links to all of the sites that I’ve designed completely or parts of (I think). Did I leave something out? If so, let me know. Otherwise, spread the word about my little design company.