This just in, my official job title is now “Software Quality Engineer 2.” Too bad they gave me a bunch of business cards that just say “Quality Assurance” on them. I guess I better order some new ones. In addition to the title I finally got my long awaited raise this morning. Ever since we first heard of our company’s buyout we were told that our salaries would be evaluated to make sure that they are on par with the area norm. I will say that the raise I got was more than the other two previous raises put together, but I’m still a decent amount below the average according to salary.com. I guess it’s better than nothing though. Now if I could only get out of here a little early to start the celebration! Good weekend to you all.

If you haven’t already noticed I’ve added some pictures from our recent trip to Seattle. Most of them are either from Kerry Park or the Argosy Harbor Cruise. I still have some pictures of our camping adventures that I need to sort through but this is a good start. I also have some panoramic shots that I need to “sew” together. I tried doing this over the weekend but the software was refusing to work. Here are a couple of the pictures, be sure to follow the link above to check them all out!

This coming Sunday I will be joining Phil and Doni for the Walk to D’Feet ALS as part of the “Stormin’ for Norman” team. Please join me in the fight against ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) by making a contribution in support of my walk. Sorry for the late notice. I should have posted this a long time ago but it slipped my mind. I would appreciate any donation you can make and I’m sure the rest of the team would as well.

Lately my blog has been overrun by posts in the Sports category. With the return of football season this sort of makes sense, but hopefully this is the last one for this week. I enjoy sports, obviously, but I also enjoy writing about other things as well.

Anyway, a quick update on my fantasy football teams. My teams won in one league and lost in the other, although both games were fairly close. My victory was by one point! My loss was by less than four points. I played almost all of the right players but they just weren’t good enough. Both of my teams have a few players that I’m still waiting to recover from injuries. Hopefully my rosters will be at 100% for week two.

One last sports related note for the week, my mom has posted all of her pictures from this weekend: Page 1 | Page 2

The final prediction from last week was pretty darn close. Only five points off. Just one more field goal and a safety. That’s the only way I can think of getting 5 points. After seeing the final score (23-10) you have to know that the game was a blast for us! We had over twenty people in town for the game, enough Bengals fans to occupy an entire top corner of the stadium. I could have done without the rain. I definitely could have done without a few of the fans in the stadium, but for the most part Chiefs fans are welcoming and kind. We only had one beer bottle thrown at us this year, which was better than the elbow that I received last year. I digress though, the season opening victory was glorious!

We were a little worried in the first quarter of the game, but once the Bengals tied the game at 3 and then went on to an impressive 14 point second quarter, we were loving life. With the score at 17-3 at half we could already begin to taste the victory. Obviously things took a turn when Trent Green went down. I hope he gets back on the field soon, I already have tickets for a Chiefs game later in the season. One thing Kansas City needs to work on is their offensive line. The Bengals had seven sacks yesterday. On the opposite side of the ball, the Bengals all looked pretty good and I don’t really have any complaints about their performance. This was much better than the last time we watched the Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium.

Hear that Bengal growling, mean and angry…

It’s official: Quarterback Carson Palmer, the Bengals’ best offensive player, will play. And if the preseason is any indication of how well Palmer has rehabbed off a blown-out knee, Kansas City’s defense is in for a nightmare. But playing in front of the NFL’s loudest crowd will not do much for Palmer’s confidence, so he must lean on the legs of Rudi Johnson.

The Chiefs open Herman EdwardsÂ’ tenure at home with new starters at offensive and defensive tackle. The once high-powered offense was nonexistent in the preseason and the team’s faithful better hope Larry Johnson has the legs and back to carry the offense in ’06.

Final Prediction: Bengals 28 – Chiefs 10

Bengals Gameday
Chiefs Gameday

I’ve had enough of Red Friday. Go Bengals! Look for me at the game!

I was alerted to an article in The Pitch this week by a post from KCHockeyBuzz. KCHockeyBuzz has been tracking the progress of bringing a tenant to the Sprint Center for 2007, whether it be hockey or basketball (although obviously they’d prefer a hockey team, and I would agree). For those of you who don’t know, and if you don’t you must be from out of town, the Sprint Center is the new downtown arena that is currently being constructed and will be complete in October, 2007, just over a year from now. As of right now there is not a team set to occupy the building upon completion. The only thing they have confirmed is that the arena will bring the Big 12 Basketball Championship back to KC in March, 2008. However it could be closed by that time with all of the dust filled seats and empty concession stands.

From the House of Blues mailing list, via my buddy Mike:

The Dave Matthews Band closed The Gorge Amphitheatre 2006 Summer Concert Series over Labor Day Weekend, drawing 64,468 fans and grossing $3,360,485. The new attendance record eclipsed DMB’s previous Gorge attendance record of 61,337 set during the band’s 2004 performances at The Gorge. Since The Dave Matthews Band’s first headlining appearance at the venue in July 1997, they have performed 24 shows at The Gorge and drawn 488,832 fans to the award-winning venue in Central Washington State. The audience comes from all over North America, with tickets sold to people in all 50 states and most Canadian Provinces.

Said Jeff Trisler, Senior Vice President at House Of Blues Concerts, “Never in the history of the touring business has there been such a perfect match between artist, audience and venue as there is with the epic Dave Matthews Band concerts at The Gorge. To break their own attendance record in their 10th season at The Gorge is a true testament to the depth of the band’s fan base and the remarkable quality of the shows. House Of Blues Concerts is honored to be a part of this great ongoing legacy.”

In 2006 The Gorge Amphitheatre (nine time winner of Pollstar Magazine’s “Best Large Outdoor Venue in North America) hosted 14 concert events that attracted 244,818 paying customers, setting a new average show attendance record of 17,487 for the 22,000 capacity venue.

No mention of O.A.R. but we all know they were the reason for the boost in attendance. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend, I know I did. Here’s a summary of what we did while in Washington.

We arrived in Seattle pretty late on Wednesday so we found the hotel and rested up for the next day. Thursday started with a trip up Queen Anne Hill for coffee and views of the city. Both the view and the drinks were great. I only hope that my panorama shot turn out as good as this one.

From there we headed down to the Pike Place Market. It was still pretty early in the morning but the market was already fairly crowded. We didn’t want to spend too much time there and couldn’t really buy anything so we just watched the guys throw some fish around for a few minutes. From there we walked down to the water and bought tickets for a Argosy harbor cruise along with the aquarium. I’m really glad we took the cruise. It provided great information and wonderful photo opportunities.

Later in the evening we walked around Seattle Center and before too long called it a night. All the walking we did and the time change got the best of us. We still managed to see pretty much everything I wanted to see and did it all in one day.

Friday morning we left for the Gorge. The drive there was very scenic as we drove through the Cascades. After a couple of hours we arrived at the campsite. Getty’s Cove sits right on the Columbia River and there is even a bridge you can jump off of into the river. It’s a great place to stay when seeing a show at the Gorge. Speaking of the Gorge, it is everything you expect and more! The view from the seats truly is incredible. The shows were amazing and I’m so glad I can finally say that I’ve been there. When can I return?

Seattle on Dwellable