Yesterday a 134 year old Denver record was tied, as we had our eighteenth consecutive day with temperatures at or above 90 degrees. Today it is just a matter of time before the record is broken, with temperatures hovering in the high 80s already. This afternoon we should climb close to 100, and the predicted temperature for both Friday and Saturday is over 100 degrees! And it doesn’t end there, with current predictions having us in the 90s through the early part of next week. The streak will likely end by next Wednesday. That would be a twenty-four day streak, destroying the previous record set in both 1901 and 1874. Fortunately the humidity is low, around thirty percent most of the time, so the heat is bearable. However we still may have to escape to the mountains for the weekend.

Well another session of summer hockey has come to an end. My team had our first round playoff game last night, and being in last place we faced the first place team. Surprisingly, the game wasn’t a blowout, with a score of 1-0 through at least the first period, if not the second. One major difference for our team is a recent change in goalie, with the current net minder being much better than both of the previous ones. The final score was only 3-0, after I was totally expecting to be blown out. If we only could have matched their first goal, it could have been a completely different game. I think we are shifting some things around for the next session, so hopefully our team does a little better in the fall. I guess that can’t be too hard after finishing in dead last. The positive news for myself is that I made it through the end without injury so we should have an injury free wedding!

Let the honeymoon planning resume. So far I have attempted to plan out the first seven days of the cruise. Here’s a quick recap:

• Day One: Cannes / Monte Carlo / Nice
• Day Two: Livorno / Florence / Pisa
• Day Three: Rome
• Day Four: Naples / Capri / Sorrento / Pompeii
• Day Five: At Sea
• Day Six: Venice
• Day Seven: Venice

The eighth day of the cruise brings us to Split, Croatia, which should be our fifth country on the trip if everything goes as planned. When Split was built, everything revolved around the palace built for the retired Roman emperor, Diocletian. Outside of Diocletian’s Palace there doesn’t seem to be much that interests me in Split. With that said, I’m actually considering taking one of the more adventurous excursions offered by Royal Caribbean. A few that interest me are Canoeing on the Cetina River, an Off Road Safari, or Sea Kayaking in Trogir. Thoughts and/or opinions?

It’s nice to be back in Denver and out of the humidity of Kansas City. I can take 90+ degrees anyday, but not when it’s mixed with 100% humidity! Before leaving KC, I managed to have a nice weekend there. Kim flew in on Saturday morning, taking a quick layover on her return from Cincinnati. I picked her up at the airport and then we headed for a company picnic with many of the folks I work with in KC. We did our best to fight the humidity, but the gathering only lasted for a few hours. From there we pretty much relaxed the rest of the day, with dinner thrown in at Jose Pepper’s.

Sunday we awoke too late to get the free hotel breakfast, but it was so nice to sleep in. From there we headed down to our old stomping grounds near the Country Club Plaza. We drove past the old house, though it doesn’t look like too much has changed over in that neighborhood. From there we met up with our old friends Mike and Christie down on the Plaza at Baja 600, another Mexican place. Yeah, I had my fair share of Mexican food while in town. We then walked around the plaza for awhile before it was time for our flights back to Denver. I’m well rested now and ready for the week ahead.

I finally made it out of the Lee’s Summit area last night. After work, I headed down to the new Power and Light District with a co-worker where we met up with another fella that we used to work with. We first had dinner and a couple rounds at the Flying Saucer, which I would highly recommend. Not only do they have an incredible beer list, they also have some tasty food.

From there we wandered around the block and into a few different bars down there. First was the PBR Big Sky, which when I first heard the name thought was going to be a place where you could only get Pabst Blue Ribbon. Instead, it turned out to be a bar for the Professional Bull Riders, complete with a mechanical bull and servers wearing chaps.

Once we had our fill of country music, we headed for Angels Rock Bar, which was equally as loud and also had it’s share of scantily clad servers. Are you noticing a trend? They did have some music a little more our style though, so we hung out there for a while. Finally made it down to Tango Sed Cantina, which actually tuned out to be even more crowded than the other bars where. Downtown Kansas City has definitely changed and I’m happy to say that there now appears to be something worthwhile to go down there for.

Just over five weeks from the big wedding day. If they haven’t already arrived, invitations should be showing up in mailboxes in the next day or two. We’ve already received some great feedback on the invitations, and obviously we feel that Amy did an incredible job with them. We’ve been putting the finishing touches on lots of things recently. A few that I can remember are the church music, the readings for mass, and picking some songs for the reception band. That reminds me that I’ve yet to receive any submissions in the big Mix Tape Challenge contest I announced months ago. If you were going to put something together, please do so soon so we can get some good music together for the set breaks at the reception. Things are moving along pretty smoothly thus far, I’m sure it will be here before we all know it.

So far I haven’t done much with my free time in Kansas City. I’ve been working until six or later each day and from there I’ve headed out for a late dinner and then retired to my hotel room in an attempt to catch up on my sleep I missed over the last week and weekend. I guess it’s working so far, but I could probably use one more night of rest and I’ll be fully recovered. However I have tried my best to go out and get some good Kansas City related food, though no BBQ has been had yet. Here’s my list so far:

• Houlihan’s – dinner night one
• Planet Sub – lunch day two
• 54th Street – dinner night two

Lunch today doesn’t really count as some guys at work convinced me to try Panda Express. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really that great either. Dinner for tonight is still up for grabs, any other places I need to hit?

As I mentioned last week, we attended the first annual Mile High Music Festival over the weekend, or what I hope is the first annual. Overall I felt that the event was a huge success, easily deserving of a B or B+ grade, and with a few changes could become one of the truly great festivals in the country. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights from the weekend.

The first highlight of the event was the lineup. For me, there was no better festival lineup this year than this one, although Rothbury was very similar. Though, due to tight scheduling, I missed a few artists that were on my list from last week, I still managed to catch most of them. Steve Winwood was probably the surprise show of the weekend, he and the accompanying band sounded great and I was shocked at how many songs I knew. The headliners provided amazing shows as well, especially both Tom Petty and the Dave Matthews Band.

Another positive from the weekend were the sound systems. The sound setup on the main stage was perfect, well unless you were off to the far side of the stage, but who wants to be there anyway. The addition of a secondary stack of speakers was perfect for those of us who don’t want to fight to the front of the crowd. The sound was also very good at one of the smaller stages, aka the Bullsnake Stage. From the few shows I saw in the tents, I would also say the sound there was acceptable. The one stage that needed work was the Lizard Stage, which I felt really affected some of the performances there, especially Jason Mraz’s.

As far as lowlights go, the top of the list for me is transportation. I am still shocked that the promoters didn’t setup shuttle buses from downtown. If this is going to be anything more than a local festival, meaning people coming to town just to see the concert, then there needs to be a better way to get there. We took a cab back and forth both nights. We paid $60 for a minivan full on the way there. When we attempted to leave the festival grounds, we were greeted by a huge line of people waiting for cabs, and no cabs to be found. Fortunately we were able to get the same driver to come back and pick us up, but it came at an even larger price.

Another thing that could use some improvement were the available vendors on site. True, there were some good vendors on hand, but there is easily some room for improvement. Budweiser is easily the most unlikely vendor I would have thought would have been at the festival, but they were there and that was all that was there. That’s right, no micro-brews. This must change. Food vendors were hit or miss, and unfortunately we missed on the first night. Oh well, not much you can do about that, just hope for a better choice next time.

I’m hoping that they will learn from the mistakes and make the changes needed to make the festival even better than it already was. I know that I will definitely return.

I just got into Kansas City and into the office here. I haven’t been back for work in nearly a year, so I’ve got lots of catching up to do. More from me tomorrow…

I wish I would have gotten more sleep this week, this is going to be a long weekend. Over the next two days the first ever Mile High Music Festival is taking place in Denver. Highlights have to be seeing both Dave Matthews and O.A.R. in back to back nights, which is almost as cool as seeing O.A.R. open for DMB. Each day we’ll be getting to the festival close to the start time, and won’t leave until the headliners are done. Check out the lineup, and be prepared to be jealous. I’ll take suggestions as to who I should see perform, but I already have a preliminary list:

Saturday:

• Eric Hutchinson: 12-12:30
• Kellogg: 12:30-1:15
• Newton Faulkner: 1:15-2
• State Radio: 2-3
• Mraz: 3-4
• Steve Windwood/Citizen Cope: 4-5:30
• JJ Grey & Mofro: 5-6
• O.A.R.: 6-7:30
• Spearhead: 7:30-8:45
• Petty: 9-11:15

Sunday:

• Brett Dennen: 12:30-1:15
• Rose Hill Drive: 1:15-2
• Martin Sexton: 2-3
• Tea Leaf Green: 3-4
• Flogging Molly: 4-5
• Grace Potter: 5-6
• Roots/Black Crowes: 6:45-8:45
• DMB: 8:45-11:15

I’m sure this will change a bit, but it looks like a good start.