On Saturday evening we participated in a flip cup tournament with around 24 other teams. Each team consisted of five players and were required to have a theme and costumes. Since we joined just a few days prior, and weren’t felling too creative, we just threw on some Hawaiian shirts, some leis, etc. and became Team Hawaii or Team Buffet, as we used both names interchangeably. Other teams were a lot more creative and came complete with elaborate costumes, just check out Blades of Glory or Double Dare.

We played against the hosts of the party in a practice round and got beat badly. So we re-arranged our lineup and had a little more success. In our first round match we still lost, but it wasn’t as much of a blowout as before. Not to worry though, there was a losers bracket. In our first match of the losers bracket, we lost the first game, but each match was a best of three competition. We went on to win the next two games and took the match. Unfortunately that was our last game, as the tournament ran out of time and the losers bracket was canceled. I’m not sure who won the tournament, but it was a great time regardless.

I posted a few more pictures on my flickr page.

Well if you weren’t there let me tell you that you missed yet another awesome Pig-Fest! Fortunately I think a large number of my visitors were there. We had some of the best weather ever, with a high right around 80 degrees and the low temperature somewhere in the 50s. You know the weather was good because of the record number of tents around the yard. Typically people cram inside the house for the night to escape the heat, but this year the majority of folks who stayed over camped out back. It even got too cold for some who ended up moving inside to escape the cold.

My buddy MER came back again this year for some night entertainment and definitely rocked the party! Hopefully he will come back for years to come. I recorded his performance and will work on getting it online today. We should definitely be able to relive the party by tomorrow.

Pictures are starting to appear online. My mom has posted her’s on her flickr page. We’ll also get some pictures up on the official Pig-Fest website. For now links to everyone’s pictures can be found on the front page. Thanks to everyone who made the trip in for the party. I hope that everyone had a great time and hopefully we’ll see you next year.

As I mentioned earlier Kim and I headed to North Carolina last Thursday to attend the wedding of our friends Amanda and Joel. These two were some of the first friends we made in Kansas City, and it was nice to be a part and help them celebrate their wedding. Kim was a bridesmaid in the wedding along with our other friend Maria. So it was nice to see all of these friends of ours again. Despite a couple of canceled flights, and some lost luggage, we eventually made it to Wilmington, NC after nearly 18 hours of travel time. We met up with our friends Mike and Christie and Mike’s parents’ condo, which was conveniently located about ten minutes from the site of the wedding.

The rest of the long weekend was spent golfing, sitting around pools, checking out the beach, and other wedding related activities. Mike and I, along with two of Joel’s friends, won the golf outing that they had. I contributed a few shots in the scramble despite playing with a set of rental clubs since my clubs didn’t show up until late Friday night. Needless to say, I will never fly US Airways again, at least not by choice. The wedding activities I attended were all very nice and mostly outdoors. We had great weather for the most part, even though it was quite humid. The ceremony was held outside and was very picturesque, although most of my pictures didn’t turn out too well because it a little too overcast, but the good ones that I do have can be found here. Congratulations Joel and Amanda!

I’ve been meaning to write about our weekend but the events of the past couple of days have kept me a little preoccupied. So, this past weekend we headed to Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend the wedding of our friends Gabe and Brad. I think the last time I wrote about these two, was way back in the days of Hurricane Katrina and their experiences living down in New Orleans (links to these entires:1|2|3|4). Well they are now living in Michigan and decided to have their wedding ceremony at Wellerss Carriage House in Ann Arbor.

The actual ceremony was fairly quick and simple and took place outside in a beautiful garden. This was a nice change when most of the weddings I go to are inside a large Catholic church. After the ceremony we had cocktails in the garden for a little while, and then were seated inside the carriage house for dinner, which was excellent! After eating our meals and having a couple of toasts some of the tables were cleared out while the band setup on the stage. It’s always great when there is a live band at the wedding, at least in my opinion. The rest of the night was filled with dancing, conversation, and many vodka tonics. It was a very nice wedding and reception, one of the tops in my book. Congrats Gabe and Brad!

PS I would post pictures but we only took a couple. Besides, I’m waiting for Amy to put together a slide show.

Kim and I spent Saturday in Boulder, mostly at the Boulder Reservoir for the Kinetics competition. Kinetics is an annual competition that involves teams who have built their own craft to traverse both a water and land obstacle course. In addition to the race, it is also a huge party and concert. The concert is what caused me to buy tickets at first as Robert Randolph and the Family Band were playing this year, along with Los Lonely Boys.

However, the concert took a backseat, at least for me, as the race was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was very entertaining to watch these teams struggle through the course, and it appeared to be much harder than I was initially expecting. And to make it even better, beer and food could be purchased for enjoyment along the course. I took lots of pictures from various points on the course, and put many of them online in this album, although I’m not sure the photos will do the competition justice.

The time has finally arrived; Pig-Fest invitations have gone out! It was hard to pick a date for the fourteenth annual Pig-Fest with so much going on this summer. Hopefully this date will work okay for you to take a trip to Loveland, Ohio. The theme for this year revolves around this year, 2007, being the Chinese year of the Pig. The future of Pig-Fest was a little uncertain after the events of last year, but there was no way we could let this tradition end. I have not finalized musical entertainment for this year, but I am working on it as I write this. Regardless, be sure to add this date to your calendar as this continues to be one party that you don’t want to miss. If you didn’t get an invitation, and would like one, just let me know.

There’s lots going on in Kansas City this weekend. At the top of my list is the American Royal BBQ, which is where I will be for most of tonight. Once again, Phil and many other friends of ours are in the competition and are having a big party tonight. If you’ve never been to the Royal before I highly recommend checking it out, especially tonight. Many of the teams in the competition cook up lots of food for visitors to eat and many of the teams also have a bunch of tasty beverages as well. See you there!

Over the weekend we made the obligatory appearance at the Plaza Art Fair. I say obligatory because I think we’ve gone every year since we’ve lived in Kansas City, even though the only things we’ve ever bought are overpriced beers and maybe a little food. I enjoy some of the works that are on display, especially some of the photography. Other pieces look like they could have been done by Kamala, the painting elephant. Perhaps my opinions are in the minority, but you may want to compare some of Kamala’s paintings to those of artists and even a preschooler. It’s not that we couldn’t use a little art for the house, we could, but no way I’m paying the obscene prices I saw on Saturday.

Over the weekend I was rudely awaken from my Saturday afternoon nap by the sounds of jet engines. I must have dozed off watching the miserable football game between Notre Dame and Michigan. I immediately leapt from the couch and ran outside to see what the noise was coming from, but it was too late, there was nothing in sight. I knew that the air show was taking place at the downtown airport so I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Stealth B-2 Bomber. I never did see the B-2, but we did drive downtown on Sunday to watch most of the Blue Angels performance.

It had been many years since I last saw the Blue Angels at the Dayton Air Show but their performance was just as I remembered. I recall being amazed by their performances when I was younger and I’ll admit that little has changed. People were stopping their cars wherever they pleased to investigate the rumble from above. Many of these people were probably experiencing this for the first time and I’m sure they were just as amazed as I am every time. For them I hope that the air show continues to be a yearly event. And although I doubt it compares to the Dayton Air Show, next time I’ll try to catch a little more of it.

Over the weekend I finally gained some key Kansas City knowledge, how to use a smoker for cooking. Our friend Todd gave us a smoker shortly after we moved into our house. He won it on eBay and then realized that he had nowhere to put it at his apartment complex. I gladly accepted the device and even put it together, but then it sat covered and unused for many weeks. That was until this past Saturday afternoon.

I asked Phil “Dr. Brisket” Kenagy to come over and assist me in smoking a couple of chickens. We did one “beer butt chicken” and another chicken with a can of Pepsi inside. If you’ve never heard of this BBQ method, it involves a whole chicken that is resting on a can of your favorite beverage. This helps to keep the bird nice and moist and also adds even more flavor. I forgot to keep track of which was which, so I’m not sure if one was better than the other, but I must say that it was all very tasty.

After a pool party up at Woodside we had a little after party at our house. Kim and Amy, who was in town for the weekend and desperately needs to update her blog, put together lots of side dishes for the party. Everyone in attendance agreed that the chicken was really good. Phil and I think that we may have cooked it just a bit too long, but it was definitely a successful first effort. The guys over at Triple Fat Back Barbeque better watch out!