I finally got to another show on Friday night, Robert Randolph & The Family Band. Mike, Maria, Joel and Amanda all met us at our apartment before the show, and after a couple of drinks we headed up to the show. They played one of the longest sets I have seen in awhile, it must have been over two and a half hours. I started my recording a little early, before they started playing, but they were still playing when I reached the three hour recording maximum. Oh well, there were a few other tapers there. I think everyone had a good time, although I did hear Mike comment on the length of some of their songs. He swears that one song was 45 minutes long!

Saturday we had to get up early to prepare for the Barstool Open, a pub crawl involving a miniature golf hole in each of the nine bars. Team “Hole In Juan” starred Mike as Jose, Christie as Rosa, Kim as Zita, and myself as Juan. We started the morning off at the Levee and then moved on to Mike’s, Charlie Hooper’s, the Brooksider, Lew’s, Tanner’s, Dark Horse, and finally Kelly’s. You might have noticed that the list is only eight bars long. The crawl was so popular, and the bars were so crowded, that we didn’t have time to make it to all of them. In fact, we only putted at six of these eight bars. Luckily, they only count your top six holes, so we made it to enough bars to qualify for the prizes. I think we only really have a chance at winning the “best dress” though, since our putting wasn’t that good. Wait until you see these pictures…

Speaking of pictures, I added Kim’s San Antonio pictures to the site over the weekend. Sunday was a relaxing day. I caught up on some Olympics action and messed around with the computers while Kim ran some errands and hung out with Bianca. Later in the night, I finally got to play hockey again. I think the last time I played was about a month ago, so it felt really good to be out there again. I’m happy to report that our team is still undefeated this session!

Friday night started off pretty relaxing, with some pasta for dinner and a couple of drinks. Then Mike and Christie came over and the euchre games began. I would advise never playing euchre with Christie as she gets more loner hands in one game than I have ever had. From there we headed down to The Levee for additional drinks, some dancing, and great times!

Saturday was spent cleaning up the apartment and rearranging the office in preparation for a new computer desk that can hold my growing home network. I finally got the new computer on the network, and the process of transferring files has begun. Later in the evening we hosted a party for the recent engagement of Christina, one of Kim’s coworkers, and Taylor. The party eventually shifted down to O’Dowd’s, where Tanner Walle and friends were putting on a show. It was nice to see them again, even if they were playing only cover songs. Hopefully we can make it out to another show soon.

Yesterday we took the kids out to the movies and saw Dreamer. It was a nice family movie that everyone seemed to enjoy. We then spent a little time at a pet store and called it a day. I was able to play hockey last night even though my toe is still a little sore. We won once again and should now be in first place in the league.

Friday night was the Great American KC office Christmas party. Kim did a bunch of planning for the event and I was happy to hear that we were heading back to the New Theatre. I bought tickets to this dinner theatre a couple of years ago and we both really enjoyed the evening. This time was no different. The food was great, the play was funny and entertaining, and I think that most of Kim’s coworkers and guests would agree. Afterward we headed to George Brett’s to polish off the night. I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of this bar/restaurant, mainly for it’s location (one of the closest to our apartment) and the fact that it is rarely overly crowded. Their happy hours also have some pretty good deals!

Saturday we got haircuts, ran a couple of errands and then hung out with the kids for a little bit. We went to a community center and spent most of the time playing basketball. I am happy to announcement my first place finish in the around the world competition. I was trying to play nice but Kim kept trying to win everything. Later on we headed down to Christie’s apartment for another Christmas gathering. Other than the gag gift exchange, it was just another party with a bunch of our friends here in KC. It was nice to finally see everyone again. It seems like everyone was on conflicting schedules for the whole month of December.

Sunday got started a little later than we were hoping. We did some shopping in the early afternoon and then headed down to the Brooksider to watch some of the Bengals game. It was like a mini Steelers nation in there, so we left before half time. Actually I had to leave early due to the poor scheduling of my hockey league. The good news is that we are finally back to winning! With the start of this new session we have a website for the league at kchockey.com, which is complete with standing, stats and schedules. I got credit for a goal last night, but I don’t remember scoring. Oh well.

What a weekend! I was a little worried that we were going to be too stressed to actually enjoy everyone’s company, but I don’t think it could have been any more fun than it was. Thanks to everyone who made the trip, I hope you enjoyed the festivities as much as I did.

Now for a little recap. When I finally got off work on Friday I headed down to the Granfalloon where some of the visitors had been since around noon. If you remember from the last time my family visited, we spent almost an entire day in this bar. They must have liked it so much that they led others there to do the same on this trip. They took over the back room and forced everyone else out with multiple occurrences of the Bengals Growl. Later in the night we also made an appearance at O’Dowd’s, although it was a much smaller (and less rowdy) crowd.

We started off Saturday as we normally do with visitors, going down to the Boulevard brewery and taking the tour. And of course, no tour is complete without free beer. From there we attempted to have lunch/dinner at Oklahoma Joe’s but it was too crowded for our mob of 30. Instead many stocked up on alcohol for the next day’s tailgate before everyone headed over to Gates to eat. The combination of beer and food sent the crowd in various directions. Some napped, while others headed over to Todd’s place for the traditional NYE whiskey tasting. This led right into the party that we were having at our apartment to ring in the New Year. This was definitely the best party we’ve had at our place. We were slightly concerned beforehand about the size limitations, but it all worked out. Heck, there was even a little duckfood reunion show!

Sunday morning came early. We took a caravan of cars down to the lots around Arrowhead Stadium and began our tailgating. Fortunately the weather was great and the beers were flowing. The game on the other hand was not exciting. Everyone knew that many of the normal Bengals starters would not be playing much, but I was hoping we could still score at least one touchdown. Oh well, it was still a good time and we didn’t get too much crap from the Chiefs fans. After the game we took everyone down to the Brooksider for awhile. Slowly groups of black and orange left the bar and prepared to make the trip back to Cincinnati. Some left late that night and by early Monday afternoon everyone was gone. Hopefully they call can make the trip back out sometime soon!

Last night we also went out to dinner at the Hereford House with Doni, Phil, and Doni’s parents. Doni’s parents were treating us all to a nice dinner for the work we did on kingwoodtrophies.com, although I’m not sure what the girls did. Be sure to click on Phil’s name above to check out his website, and the current events section to read his comments on the weekend.

After work on Friday I stopped and picked up a couple of six packs of winter seasonal brews and a pizza from Papa Murphy’s. Joel, Amanda, and Maria all came over and we had a little party to start off the weekend. I gave out my first copy of NOW 2005 and also helped Joel fill up his new iPod nano. It was nice to hang out with all of them again, since we hadn’t seen them in quite some time.

The mixing of all sorts of different beers on Friday night didn’t sit with me to well on Saturday morning. I only got out of bed once before 2 or 3, to make breakfast and to eat a little bit. Eventually we had to get out and finish up some Christmas shopping, and I also needed to shop for a sweater for a party that night. My buddy Rob from work was having a bad holiday sweater party. We found the perfect sweater for Kim a couple weeks ago at a local Goodwill, but had yet to find one for myself. Kim’s sweater was a bright blue with multiple snowmen sewed on with lots of beads and glittery things. After searching many racks at a Salvation Army store, we finally found a pretty good one back in the women’s coat area. It was more of a zip up fleece with all sorts of animals and snow flakes on it. Words cannot describe the outfits at this party, so hopefully someone took some good pictures. The party was a great time though, even though neither Kim nor I felt 100%.

We spent Sunday morning and afternoon cleaning up the apartment. We realized that we wouldn’t have too much time between now and when almost 30 Cincinnatians will be at our place during the New Years weekend. Our shopping is done (besides one more item for a gift exchange), the apartment is clean (enough), and we only have four days of work this week (woohoo)!

I had a busy and short day of work on Friday. The company closed 4:30 so that everyone could make it out to the holiday party by 7. Everyone started off at the Buddha Bar on “Martini Corner” for drinks and appetizers. They also gave away some gifts using a raffle format. I won one of the better prizes of the night, $100 cash! Once our private party ended at 9, many of us headed across the street to the Velvet Dog, which I spent most of my winnings buying everyone’s drinks. It was a great night out with my co-workers!

I was a little slow to get up on Saturday, but by early afternoon I was ready to get some lunch. We had a slight problem though, our car was still at Martini Corner. So we caught the bus and then walked a few blocks to the car. From there we headed out on our day full of shopping. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we finished over 75% of our shopping in one day, mostly at two or three different stores. Once we were both exhausted, we headed over to Cupini’s to pick up dinner. We watched a couple of movies and ate some great food that we finally got a chance to try. I think we will definitely be heading back there sometime soon!

Sunday we had to throw on many layers of clothes and head out to Arrowhead to tailgate for the Chiefs game. We had a group of 25 people from work all heading out to the game. We partied in the lots for a couple of hours, and had a catered brunch as part of our package. The game was a good one, despite the freezing temperatures. We had to leave a little early so that I could make it to my hockey game, which we finally won. As a note for those of you coming out to KC for the Bengals and Chiefs game, it is going to be hideously cold. I’ve added these items to my list of potential items to take to the game:

• Piece of carpet to stand on
• Heated and padded seat cushion
• More socks
• Lots more alcohol (a must)

I delayed writing this in hopes that the slackers over at the Johnson County Park and Recreation District would update the volleyball stats from last night. I am now giving up hope. Maybe they have the day off, unlike the rest of us. Anyway, we lost two out of three games again last night. Do you notice a pattern? I thought we played pretty well overall, so maybe we just aren’t ready for the intermediate league. We are now 8-10 and probably in 6th place just like last week.

We are leaving KC in few hours to make the lovely drive to Cincinnati (actually we are going to Hueston Woods first). If you are around the area this weekend, give me a buzz, same number as always. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Things you can say ONLY at Thanksgiving…

1. Talk about a huge breast!
2. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.
3. It’s Cool Whip time!
4. If I don’t undo my pants, I’ll burst!
5. Whew, that’s one terrific spread!
6. I’m in the mood for a little dark meat.
7. Are you ready for seconds yet?
8. It’s a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
9. Just wait your turn, you’ll get some!
10. Don’t play with your meat
11. Just spread the legs open and stuff it in
12. Do you think you’ll be able to handle all these people at once?
13. I didn’t expect everyone to come at once
14. That’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen
15. How long do I beat it before it’s ready
16. You still have a little bit on your chin
17. You’ll know it’s ready when it pops up
18. Wow, I didn’t think I could handle all of that

This weekend was the famous American Royal Barbecue. As I mentioned before Phil, Todd and a handful of their fraternity brothers were once again in the competition, competing as the ‘Triple Fat Back’ team, aka TFB BBQ. I wanted to get down there earlier this year than last but of course I was stuck at work until nearly 5:30.

When I finally got home a group of our friends were already gathered on the porch, pregamming for the event. Before too long we were up at the bus stop waiting for the MAX to take us to Union Station. The city was offering free parking and shuttles to the Royal from Union Station (and a couple other stops downtown). We stood at the front of Union Station in a pretty short line until one of the shuttles flew right past us. At this point we realized that the people at the front of this line had just assumed they were in the correct spot, when in reality the line was behind the building.

At first glance of the real line, we decided that we need to find a different way to get there. The line was massive, at least a thousand people. So we just started walking in the direction of Kemper Arena and the Royal. After a quick stop at a bar, and nearly two miles of walking, we were at the gates of the party!

This year, the TFB team had reserved an even larger spot than the previous year. This meant more people and more beer than ever before. Soon after we got there, their 5th keg ran dry. Once the random party-goers realized this, they all left and then it was just friends of the team hanging around. So the team got a couple more kegs, which actually only lasted another hour or so. It was a kickin’ party!

No official word on the standings of their meat entries, but I believe they are hoping to place in the top half. There are 500+ teams, and anything above 200 would be a great finish. I also heard that the team took in over $600 in donations for the ALS foundation! I’ll keep you posted on the results…

The rest of the weekend was fairly boring when compared to Friday night. Saturday we had breakfast at the Classic Cup on the plaza, which I highly recommend. After that I framed some of my O.A.R. concert posters and hung them on the wall. Kim did some other cleaning of the office, her closets, etc. We never really made it out of the apartment the rest of the day.

Sunday I finally got a haircut, I really need it. We then hung out with Dominique and Bianca for a few hours and then from there met up with the regulars up at the Brooksider for the end of the Chief’s game. We were supposed to do some more errands from there, but somehow we were convinced to head over Doni and Phil’s to watch some TV, eat some pizza and have a couple more drinks. Before we knew it, it was 10PM and so we headed home to end the weekend.

Katie and Bill got into KC at the same time that I got home from work. We hung around our place for a little bit and then went down to the plaza art fair for a couple of hours. We could not stay out too long though, since we had the race in the morning.

The race went really well, especially for only running once between the 10K and this one. Kim and I finished with a time of 23:29 (7:34 per mile) and Katie was just behind us with a time of 26:04. Kim actually finished in 16th place overall for women. I finished in 51st overall. Full results can be found here. After our run we watched some of the marathon runners pass close to our house. Some of them make it look so easy!

From there we went over to The ‘Falloon to watch the OSU/Iowa game. Of course the OSU fans were really outnumbered, but we quickly shut them all up! :) After the game was over we took the bus down to Oktoberfest. We’ve gone down before and didn’t really enjoy it that much, so I was hoping for a better time, but this wasn’t the case. I guess we are just spoiled because of Cincinnati’s crazy party. And to make it worse, we had to wait for like an hour to get a cab, we were not very happy about that at all.

Once we did get a cab we headed over to Kemper Arena for the NHL preseason game. We got to see the St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators 2-1. It was nice to see NHL hockey again even though it was only preseason. There was a high school game afterward that Mike and I stayed to watch a little of. I’ll have to try and get to another one sometime soon. I’d also like to go to a big high school football game here, if there is such a thing.

Sunday Bill and Katie got an early start on the drive back to Cincinnati. Kim and I were pretty lazy up until noonish, when we had to pick up the kids and head out to the Royal’s game. I guess we picked the right game to go to because the Royal’s actually beat the Indians in a pretty exciting game. After the game was over we dropped the kids off and then did some typical Sunday afternoon errands. It was definitely a fun weekend, hopefully Bill and Katie can come back soon!

We didn’t do much on Friday night. I made some pasta and we watched a little TV. That pretty much sums it up.

Saturday we got up at 6 to get ready for the race. We met up with Todd out in Kearney and sooner than later we were on the start line ready to run. There were only a hundred or so people total, and most were running the 5K. I know for a fact that there were only 26 people running the 10K. We started off pretty fast, the first mile took about eight minutes to finish. I think it was the downhill start or the fast 5K runners who caused this. Of course we slowed down and in the end we finished with a time of 52:20. I was really happy with this performance, especially since my goals were to finish and if possible to finish under an hour.

We attended the awards ceremony. Kim got first in her age bracket, the only female runner between the ages of 25 and 29. I got second in my bracket, aka last place for ages 25 through 29. Todd didn’t place, somehow the majority of runners were all around his age and fast. I think we were all happy that we finished though!

From there we watched a little bit of the parade with Doni and then headed out to the festival grounds to see what was cooking. The “Triple Fat Back” BBQ team were putting the finishing touches on their competition meat. We were there to help sample the leftovers. I had both the turkey and chicken that Todd cooked and they were both very tasty! I believe that Phil’s brisket won second third place, so it seems that these guys are ready for the real competition in a couple of weeks, the American Royal.

Kim and I left before the cooking was done because we had to get back to our place for a little party we were throwing. We had all of the regulars over along with my friends Steve Christy and Courtney. Joel and Amanda brought over most of the food, which Mike and I grilled up for everyone. From there most of us partied along the Falldo Waldo Crawldo (noisy site) route for a few hours. It was a great time and most of us even made it to all six bars.

Sunday was a lazy day for us. We were supposed to participate in the Walk to D’Feet ALS but someone had a “stomach bug” that prevented that from happening. Thanks to my parents though I was able to raise a little bit of money for the cause. The majority of the day we were on the couch watching TV, recovering from the run and party the day before.

One thing that really sucks happened over the weekend. My favorite local radio station, 97.3 The Planet changed formats and is now Max FM. Somehow The Planet had the lowest ratings in the city and I guess they were forced into this. I’m not sure what I’ll do in my car now, perhaps I should start looking into satellite radio.