First of all, happy new year to you all! Can’t wait until the first time I write 2004 and then have to somehow find a way to change the 4 to a 5. Always an adventure…

I can’t really remember all the way back to Thursday night. It seems like forever ago. I bet that we just went to the gym and worked out, then went home and cooked a meal. Wait I think it’s all coming back to me. We had dinner and watched the movie Terminal. We also watched Twenty First Dates at some point in the weekend.

Friday we headed down to the plaza Panera for lunch. We meant to go down for breakfast, but by the time we got there we were ready for a sandwich and soup. From there we had our day of shopping with gift cards we had accumulated, and also exchanging a few things here and there. I was pretty tired of shopping by the end of it. Throughout the day we had many conversations with Joel and Amanda about what to do. We had gone back and forth with the all inclusive Uptown Theater idea or the cheaper Pomeroy show at the Lucky Brewgrille. We eventually decided to try and save some money and do the Pomeroy show. We found out that if we went and had dinner at the restaurant that we could get in for free to the show (a $25 ticket) so we went early for dinner. It wasn’t bad, but the fact that we got in for free made it all worthwhile. We had the closest booth to the stage, so it was like we were VIP for the night. It was an excellent time, and we even got free mini bottles of champagne. All in all I think we spent close to the price of the Uptown, but I think we had a much better time! I put some pictures up, so head on over and check those out…

Saturday we headed to Todd’s place once we finally got moving. He had a few different bottles of premium bourbon whiskey that he wanted me to taste. We made some skyline dip and the 4 of us (Phil stopped over as well) destroyed it in no time at all. The football games were entertaining throughout the day. Doni eventually stopped over as well, just in time for the pizza dinner. It was a nice relaxing day!

Sunday we had Chipotle for lunch. I’m so glad that I got so many gift certificates there, it was excellent! From there Kim and I decided to clean the apartment. We mostly concentrated on the floors since I think we had only done them a couple times before. The apartment looks pretty good, but I’m still holding out for the one across the hall. Hopefully we hear something about that this week…

I’m starting a new project at work today. I am automating many of the test scripts that we run occasionally on the software. We should run them more often, but don’t have the time to do so. Hopefully once I get this done, we can run scripts on the software frequently so that we can catch problems before the clients do. :)

Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday. I had a cold and was away from my computer the entire day except for when I was working. I feel much better today, but it is still lingering around a little bit…

Updates from last week. Last Friday I just hung around the apartment and got a few different things done. I was a little tired from the night before…
Saturday I met up with Todd at the Brooksider to watch some college football. I kept up to date with the Bearcats score that was scrolling at the bottom of the screen. I couldn’t believe it, but they actually lost to Army. Army hadn’t won a game in 19 tries, but somehow UC lost to them. Unbelievable. I hung out there at the bar most of the day. Kim called to let me know that she was going to give up her seat on her flight to take a later one and get a $200 voucher. Can’t beat some free delta dollars. After that news I went home to kill time until I could pick her up from the airport. Nothing else too exciting really happened.
Sunday we ate at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and went down to Brush Creek which runs along side of the plaza. A couple weeks before we bought a $5 duck that would race in the duck derby. If you’ve never seen one of these, they dump thousands of rubber ducks into a river and let them race to the finish. Well the genius that setup this race had the ducks going against the current. The wind was blowing from east to west and had the current of Brush Creek going opposite what it usually does, so I guess it wasn’t completely their fault. They should think about having the race some place else though. I use the term Creek very loosely. There are parts of this stream that are less than a foot across, but the region they used for the race is pretty wide because of a dam they built. Anyway they use waverunners and a fire hose to get the ducks to move upstream. It was one of the funniest things I have seen in awhile. After that excitement we cleaned the apartment for hours and then I had a late night hockey game.

As I said, I was sick yesterday so I really didn’t do much of anything. I struggled through work the entire day, and when I got home I just collapsed on the couch for the night. We ate pizza and watched the documentary “Super Size Me” where a guy eats nothing but McDonald’s for a month. I knew there was a reason I never go there. :)

Hopefully today is a much better day than yesterday…

The end of last week was very typical, all work and no play. We did join the Kansas City Ski Club though. I think we are going to be heading to Winter Park, CO in very early December. It’s a weekend trip that will allow us to go and not take any work off. Sounds good to me!

On Friday Kim, Mike, and I headed down the American Royal. Stepping off of the bus and into one of the lots the smell of smoked meat was everywhere. It was as if all the lots surrounding Kemper Arena were one giant smoker. We pay the admission price, and immediately get a map of the place. I was amazed at how big this event really was. After walking for what seemed like miles and miles we find Phil & Todd’s space. They’ve got a few kegs, although I think they were on the last one by the time we arrived, and they even rented a port-o-potty for the weekend. Everyone was hanging around the fires to keep warm, and trying not to spill beer on their hands. :) Eventually we wandered around the whole complex in some sort of hippie parade, taking in the sights and smells. I’m not sure I would eat most of the stuff that was cooking, but it did smell good…

Saturday we watched Men In Black on the TV, I was shocked to find out that Kim had never seen it, so I made her watch it. Afterwards we ordered some pizzas and went down to Mike’s apartment to watch the Ohio State game. It was kind of an early night for us since I had to drop Kim off at the airport the next morning. After dropping her off, I spent most of the day at the Brooksider watching all of the football games. Then later on I had my own hockey game in a new league. A guy I play with on Wednesdays asked me to join his A league team. I think I might like playing all of this good hockey all the time!

Kim is gone all week in Cincy, so I’ll be bacherloring it up again. The Chiefs are on Monday Night Football tonight, so I’ll likely be entertained watching them become 0-4. :b

Friday I met up with Kim along with Doni & Phil at a wine tasting at a store just down the road from their house. Fortunately for me, it was more of a beer tasting, with just a couple bottles of wine. One that I remember trying and buying was Kelpie Seaweed Ale, which is actually much better than it sounds. We also bought some Russian beers and even one from St. Louis. The names of all of the others are escaping me right now. We took our purchases over to Doni & Phil’s and yes they were drinking too. :)

Saturday was a rainy day, all it did was rain. Kim and I took care of some errands and even found time to see Fahrenheit 9/11. Very interesting movie, although most people probably already know that. Kim and I are a little slow in getting to the movies. I’m convinced that Michael Moore can prove any point he wants to, he is a pretty good film maker. I’ll just leave it at that, I’m not very political, and I don’t really know enough about all of this stuff…

Sunday was the usual day as always. We did get a game of golf in though. We had to play the par 3 since the water on the regular course was too high. Kim and I both got 44’s, which is only 17 over par. I think we are getting better maybe, haha.

Tonight is the night, OAR in KC. Should be a great night!

Friday night was a relaxing one for us. I stopped on the way home to pick up a couple six packs and then we were just gonna hang out and drink a little. We had our first Boulevard Zon’s of the year. I’m not sure why it took us so long to get our hands on some, but we finally did. Great beer! We watched the VH1 special with Dave Matthews and Trey Anatasio’s trip to Africa, finally. It aired a long time ago, and I missed it then, but my buddy Tim burnt it to DVD for me so that I could watch it. Very cool hour of TV. I’m excited for the live DMB release that comes out on Tuesday. It was filmed at the Mecca of venues, the Gorge in Washington. A DVD is included with this as well, so hopefully it is equally as cool…

Saturday night Kim and I went see moe. We’ve seen them once before, two years ago at Jammin’ On Main. I hardly remember watching them, but we decided there wasn’t much else going on, so we went. What a show! These guys can really play, and have a huge mix of styles. Their light show is incredible as well. I’ve been hearing that these guys may take over Phish’s crowd once Phish breaks up. I can understand why, they have a great show, and apparently their studio stuff is just as good.

Today was a typical Sunday, we did the laundry and went to the grocery. We almost went to another show tonight, but were way too lazy. Instead we picked up a couple pizzas and watched Something About Mary. Kim almost turned it off, but I made her watch it and I think she actually enjoyed it. The editing they did to the movie was hysterical, at one time someone was called a froggin ashpole. I was on the floor laughing so hard.

I’m pretty tired already tonight, so I think it may be an early night for me. Back to work tomorrow…

We had another night out last night, but not nearly as long. We had dinner and drinks at a new place called Lew’s while watching the Royals choke again. We then headed to Bobby Bakers for a “nightcap.” Pretty good night out!

I’m heading to Vegas today! I’ve been waiting for this for a little while now, and it’s finally here. Phil and I fly out at 6:30, and thanks to Todd we now have drink tickets to start of the vacation! I know we are going to that Spin Doctors and Gin Blossoms show, but not much else is planned. I do want to go see PJ Loughran at least once. I’ve really been getting into his music. I think I have read enough to play some craps while I’m there. Hopefully I don’t go broke! I shall be back on Sunday…

I didn’t see as many shows as originally planned. We did go and see the Swing Crew on Friday night. I ended up being the DD, which was alright with me. I was starting to feel a little sick that day anyway. They packed the bar, and we were stuck all the way at the back. Fun show with lots of crowd involvement, I would like to see them again sometime just as long as we are close to the stage…

Saturday was pretty lazy, but nice. I got some much needed work done on my computer, and Kim did some shopping. I started to feel worse and worse, so we decided just to hang out and watch movies all night. We saw Kill Bill and Cheaper By The Dozen. I enjoyed Kill Bill, but Kim felt differently about it. I guess there was too much fighting and blood in it for her. Definitely check this movie out though, especially if you liked other Tarantino films. We both enjoyed Cheaper By The Dozen, which was supposedly written about Kim’s family, or at least that is what she said. :)

Sunday we woke up at the crack of dawn to go running. Sounds kinda psychotic, don’t you think? :) We did alright though, running 9 minute miles. I think we should have trained a little better for it though, or something. I think this slight cold I developed didn’t help either. The results are online, although I don’t think the pictures are yet.
My Results
Kim’s Results
I ran into an old family friend of ours finally. The Reynolds lived across the street from us in Huntsville a long long time ago. Anyway, while we were running, I had a quick chat with Mr. Reynolds. Pretty cool that he recognized me. :)

I feel pretty sore today, and I have my last hockey game for quite awhile tonight. Oh well, I should still be able to skate alright…

Friday night my buddy Steve Christy came into town from Wichita for the Steve Poltz show. We took at cab to the show so we call could drink after a long week of work. The minivan cab picks us up, but this thing was PIMPED out. It had to TV screens, a laptop, DVD players, etc. The cabbie made us play guess the one hit wonder, Steve was really good at the game, hahahaha. The show was a blast. Poltz is one funny dude, and he helped Jewel write her big song “You Were Meant For Me” so he has some really good stories to tell. My pictures are up on the site, and I’m working on my recording. After the show we went to the dueling piano bar again, and it was dead. We had a late night dinner and then called it a night. Good times for sure!

Saturday Kim and I just watching School Of Rock. Pretty good movie…

Today we went out to lunch with Doni & Phil to a good Mexican restaurant! Then did some shopping, but I didn’t get anything cool. Oh well, my birthday is right around the corner. :)

Today is the one year anniversary of Marchtober, the huge party we had at our college house last year! Great memories of such an awesome weekend…

Kim and I found a dueling piano bar on Friday night called Frankie’s On The Plaza. It is actually one of the closest places to our apartment on the plaza, we just never went there cause it looked a little too nice to be much fun. We walked by it heading to another bar, and after we finished up at that bar, we walked by again and saw some people playing pianos, so we walked in. It was not nearly as much fun as Crocodile Rocks in Myrtle Beach, but we had a good time. They played the same kind of music, but just weren’t as funny. That probably has something to do with the clientele however. It was still a good time.

Saturday we did see Miracle. I must say that the movie was excellent. The theatre was packed, and for a good reason. I was surprised to see as many kids as I did, but I’m sure they enjoyed the hockey parts of the movie as well. Go see this for yourself!!!

I did take a few random pictures this weekend, that I’ll hopefully put up tonight, so check back soon. :)

I was just about to leave work and then I realized I didn’t put anything in here yet today…

I’m really kicking myself in the ass for not carrying my camera around with me all the time. There were a few times I wish I would have had it yesterday, and I would have even liked to shoot a few snow pics while here at work today. I haven’t been bringing it to work, because I figure that nothing exciting will happen. So I either thought wrong or I’m just too easily excited. :b

My airbag light came on in my car while driving to work. The first “problem” I’ve had with it so far. The guy at the service department told me that the snow is probably the culprit. I’m supposed to make sure that the under the front bumper is clear of snow. It wouldn’t surprise me snow is messing with something, we do have close to a foot on the ground!!

This weekend I’m going to try to see the movie Miracle. From what I’ve been reading it is supposed to be great, so get out and see one of the best sports moments in history!

I won my first rock auction on eBay!