Slight downtime yesterday afternoon. This router has a little glitch in it that makes it think my computer is virus infected. When this event happens, it blocks access to my web server, ftp server, aim, and quite a few other applications. I guess it blocks anything that is capable of spreading this “virus.” I have a support ticket open with netgear and I hope they get back to me soon. If you have any other potential solutions, let me know. I have googled this subject like there is no tomorrow but the only results are in Chinese. :(

Last night I went over to Blaney’s with Mike to celebrate Jeff’s birthday. You might remember him from our night out at the falloon, haha. Anyway, is was just us three and Jeff’s girlfriend as well. Not terribly exciting, but it was nice to get out. I had a few Boulevard Irish Ales, which is the current seasonal brew. I was quite impressed with it, and I may have to stock up on it. Kim was in Ida Grove, IA for a little business trip. The town sounds pretty small and she is supposed to come back with some pictures…

I’ve heard a rumor from Steve Christy that everyone’s favorite band, Virginia Coalition, will be at this years Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS. I have no clue where this place is, but if VACO is there consider us there as well! I guess the dates are on pollstar.com!

The shows last night were awesome! I am impressed more and more each time I see Marc. I headed straight from work and had dinner at Chipotle. From there I went over to the Borders store and immediately setup my gear. No more than 15 minutes later Marc was up on “stage” singing a few songs by himself. Afterward I got him to sign a poster. He immediately recognized me although he can never remember my name. We had a short convo and then I headed out to Lawrence. I got to the Bottleneck before doors even opened so I went across the street to another Borders to read a copy of The Pitch while listening to some various music. After a half hour I decided it was time to head over and get inside the venue. Once again I got my gear all setup and then I started running into some friends and fellow music lovers. Sons Of William opened the show. The frontman is actually one of Marc’s guitar players. They were a little heavier than I was expecting, but a pretty solid three piece act. Next up was David Ryan Harris, who I’ve heard of quite a few times but never really heard much of. He was quite good and entertaining as well. I would definitely go see him again, and I just might cut up my recording of him. He played solo and does a little of the record and playback style. Broussard was up next. I’ve seen him with a band a couple of times, but I believe it was always a four piece. Now there was an additional guitar player in the lineup to create an even fuller sound. They definitely had the packed house rocking! What a show! It didn’t end until after 12:30 and with the 45 minute drive home I didn’t get to sleep until around 2:00. That makes for an exciting day today, I just hope I don’t fall asleep. At least I’ve got my recordings to keep me busy…

Ed Paff :)
I’m sure this won’t be nearly as exciting for any of you as it is for me. After flirting dangerously close to 200 pounds last year, I have crept under 180 for the first time in a long time. After our workout this morning I stepped on the scale and rejoiced as it read 179.0! It has been my goal to get under 180 and I did it. Not sure what an ideal weight for me would be, but I hope that whatever it is I keep losing weight until I get to that point…

Kim left for an overnight business trip this morning. That leaves me with nothing to do but see Marc Broussard multiple times. First he is playing an instore performance very close to my work, so I’ll head there around 5. Then there is a full show tonight in Lawrence. I’m sure I’ll be up late tonight, but you only live once right? :)

Once again I have convinced myself that I need to build up my PC music library. It is my goal to have every CD I own saved on my PC as mp3 files in addition to any other album or song that I want. With the recent crackdown on peer-to-peer file sharing I have started to decrease my use of these targeted applications (kazaa, morpheus, etc). I never really used them that much before, but now you will rarely find me on any of them. Then how am I getting all of my music? My friends and I have all started sharing our music collections via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Using this very popular instant messaging service, you can select a directory on your PC that others are allowed to connect to and then download files in that directory. The great part about this is that you can limit access to your library to only users on your buddy list. This is currently how I have my file sharing setup. If you wish to see all that I have and are not on my buddy list, just send me a message and I will likely add you to my list. While Kim has been busy studying for her insurance exam on Friday, I have been busy downloading music from all of my friends…

Only one thing has been standing in my way. I haven’t found a decent application to rip all of my CD’s to mp3. If you have any suggestions shoot them my way…

Starting this morning Kim and I are going to be heading to the gym before work. I’ve thought about trying to do this many times before and the last straw occurred last night. We went to the gym at our normal time (between 5:00 and 5:30) after work, and there were no available treadmills, even the ellipticals were all taken. We eventually got on a couple of the ellipticals, but the treadmills never really opened up. I thought the fad of everyone working out would be ending with their short lived new years resolutions but apparently it’s time for people to do things for Lent. Anyway, it was decided that we would start morning workouts. I think we are going to try to go everyday too. We’ll run 3 days a week and do some lifting the other 2 days. We woke up at 5:30ish this morning and were able to get to work before 8:00 still. Before today, we were getting up at 6:00, so there really isn’t that big of a change except for we will now have extra free time after work. We can go to all the happy hours we want and eat dinner as early as we want. I haven’t found any downsides to this new plan yet, but only time will tell…

I am finally putting a new song of the moment on my site. Sorry for the huge delay, but we’ve been busy. One CD that I haven’t stopped listening too in quite some time is the new Ray LaMontagne disc, Trouble. It is mellow disc, but the amazing part is this guys voice. I highly recommend picking up the CD or at least downloading my new song of the moment. The song is “How Come” from a demo disc, which is slightly different from the version on the CD. Check it out!

Sorry about the downtime this weekend, but I think that I have finally fixed this latest issue. Turns out Microsoft may not be to blame after all. For some reason my router thought that my computer had a virus on it and I think it was limiting it’s connection to the internet. I just had to reset the router and everything was back to normal. Now I just need to figure out how to stop it from doing this again…

This weekend was a good one but went by a little too fast. Friday night I did go to the Shaking Tree show with Steve, his friend Marcus and his girlfriend. They played quite a bit of new material and will have a CD coming out in the next couple months…

Saturday night I went out with Mike to the Granfalloon. We watched some basketball and ended up being there for a long time. Good times again though…

Sunday I took care of some errands and also had a hockey game. The pretty typical Sunday. I couldn’t fall asleep last night so that should make for an interesting Monday…

I put up some pictures of the new apartment, go check them out…

The initial lineup for this years Bonnaroo Music Festival has been announced, and I want to go more than I ever have before. I really don’t know how I can though, I only get 10 days vacation and a floating holiday. Right now I’m using 3 days for San Diego, and I’m sure I’ll use another 3 to 4 for the cruise and extra time in New Orleans. So I’m up to 6 or 7 already without any trips to Ohio. I might have to just go to Wakarusa and pretend that it is just as good. Only time will tell…

We got a key for the new apartment last night. There are a few minor repairs that I hope will get done soon. Kim called the electric and gas companies and they should be started asap! Once we have light we can start cleaning, although heat might not be a bad idea either. Everything should work out for a weekend move!

Wichita was a good time. We get to Steve’s place and immediately head down to the venue for the show. We get there just as the place runs out of beer. I guess they just had one keg or something, I never did get the whole story. Anyway the show was a good one. The venue is an old theatre that is restored on the outside but not so much on the inside. It is decent though, just showing signs of its age. From there we went to a few bars. The highlight of the night was definitely in America’s Pub where we sat at a table and watched the dance floor. Quite an interesting mix of people were in attendance and they provided non stop laughs for us. A good night in Wichita!

Saturday we drove home and headed straight towards our never ending day of apartment tours. It started off pretty bad with SoHo West where we saw what I hope is their worst building. It wasn’t terrible but it was a definite downgrade from where we are now. Kitchens from the 80s were in each unit we saw. Next up was the River Market Lofts. Again, not very impressive. We then had extra time so we stopped in at Clubhouse Lofts which is in the old Kansas City Club (one of those exclusive male only places you often hear about). This is our favorite of the places we saw. It just had a great feeling to it and the units were amazing. They are only a year old and some of the units have never been lived in at all. This of course comes with a price that we probably can’t afford right now. We will keep this in mind though. We then went to our last appointment of the day at Library Lofts, probably the runner up in our hunt. Their workout center is very nice. The units are carpeted for the most part, but it is new and looks pretty good. One thing we didn’t really care for was the size of the place, it seems like there were millions of units. This would not be a bad choice though. From here we went home and had dinner and then headed out on the Plaza for a little bit. We met up with Amanda and Joel over at the Granfalloon. Mike and a new friend Jeff also made an appearance. We also went to Tomfooleries before the night was over…

Sunday we woke up and soon realized that we had another appointment with apartments for the day. We went to KC Loft Space. Of course we looked a places on the lower end of the scale, but they were still really nice. I didn’t like them as much as the last two from Saturday but they are a great choice if you want to live in the River Market Area. After a quick lunch at Minsky’s we went to the last place that we wanted to see in the “Great Apartment Search.” This place would be New Quality Hill. They seem to own about 8 blocks of buildings on the west side of downtown. They have everything from large buildings with lots of units all the way down to townhomes. We looked at a few different units and heard some pretty good pricing from them. They are not quite as nice as some of the other places, but seem to be a good value. Kim said that if she knew they were around the same pricing that we have now that she would have considered moving there from the beginning. Another place to keep in mind…
Later in the day we watched more Sopranos and ate dinner at Doni & Phil’s. I then had a hockey game, which we ended up losing, but I think I had a pretty good game. 1 goal and a post in the first shift of the game!

As far as apartments goes, I think we will just be moving across the hall for now. The management is supposed to call today so we can work out the details but it should be no problem at all. Then we will keep these other places in mind for later on. It was nice to see what is out there though…

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 all of the downtime lately. I have been trying to install a router so that I can hook up the ReplayTV box. This has given me nothing but troubles, and so therefore I have removed it until after the holidays. I still believe there is something funky going on with my web server, but I’m keeping a close eye on it.

Not much has gone on this week. Kim left yesterday and headed back to Ohio. They are getting killed with snow right now, and I really hope the roads are ok for my drive tomorrow afternoon. I have burnt about 20 copies of NOW 2004 so far, and I’ll probably be making copies until I leave tomorrow morning. Hopefully some of you have been able to download it and are enjoying it.

Tonight I’m heading over to Doni & Phil’s for a little party. A group from the Brooksider go caroling every year, and their house is on the list of places to stop. I can’t stay real long though since I have hockey tonight at 9. In the meantime I’m burning CDs and packing my bags for tomorrow!