So the weekend was another fun one in Cincinnati! Kim and I drove straight from work and got into town at 2:30 in the morning, and immediately went to sleep. We then hung around my parents house for awhile on Saturday, and later on went to her friend Julie’s new place. This was my first exposure to the cicadas since they aren’t at my parents house. These things really gross me out, they are HUGE and dumb. They can hardly fly and often end up running into everything. I have some close up pictures of them to put up here eventually. After attempting to avoid them for what seemed like hours, we headed over to Kim’s parents place. We were going to take her brother Jason down to the Taste of Cincinnati along with a few of his friends. We had a couple hotel rooms downtown so we could enjoy the festivities without having to drive around. We all had a great time down there, and met up with a bunch of people. The Rusty Griswolds were great as always!

Sunday Kim and I visited her brother Michael for a little while and then headed back out to my parents house for the graduation party. Good time at the party for sure. I got to see a bunch of the family as well as meet some of Tim’s buddies. I even convinced my buddies Jon and Ken to come over. We ended up drinking beers and chatting until 3 AM. Always good times with them.

Yesterday we drove home of course. We did get to stop and see Kim’s sister Bobbi’s new apartment. It is really nice, well much better than my old place near school. The cicadas were all over Clifton though too, so I tried to stay inside.

This week I think we are going to be working out at Woodside a bunch as well as starting some golf lessons. The Hemmelgarns gave me an old set of clubs to use, so big thanks to them!!!

I must have forgotten to post today with all the excitement of tornadoes coming our way. During the morning commute the weather guy on the radio was saying that we could have tornadic weather starting at 2 pm in the days. I watched it throughout the day and it seemed that the storm would arrive a little later than he said. I decided if I left work at 5 I could make it home without hitting the storm. I made it and Kim decided we should go for a run!!! I think she is nuts. :) Somehow she won and we went out for a quick 2 mile run. We got back had dinner and the storms started. They started reporting tornadoes just to the west of us in Lawrence and other areas. We watched it closely, but the tornadoes all died before getting in our area. We were given a few minutes of intense rain and lightning and then in the end had an impressive lightning storm. They are still issuing tornado warning all around us, but I think it has all passed finally…

Anyway, the weekend was great. Friday I met up with everyone a little late at the Brooksider. Most of the happy hour crew stuck around until 9 or so, but I decided that hang around and just take the bus home. I had a great time with Susan and her work friends, and just barely caught the last bus home.
Saturday I met up with Todd at the Harlings to see Mama Ray, who is an old Jazz/Blues singer. She has a solid band behind her and even some guests every time. I stayed there until it was time to get Kim from the airport, thus ending guy week. :) We decided to meet up with everyone at Kelly’s in Westport. Good times for the rest of the night, highlighted with the multiple bachelorette parties that were going on at Harpo’s. I have some pictures that I’ll have to get up once my battery is charged again…
Sunday we did the normal errands that we always do, and topped it all off with the Soprano’s party over at Susan’s. We ate some Chinese from one of those carryout places. I didn’t really care for it all that much, but most of you know how picky I can be. I do however like the Asian food that we have been making at home. Good stuff, lots of spice!

Kim and I are considering joining a gym that Doni and Phil joined. It’s called Woodside is just over a mile from our place, which is really nice. We could run there and then take a dip in one of their many pools. They have all of the cardio equipment and weights, along with a bunch of tennis courts. Can you picture me out there playing tennis? Hahaha, should be funny. Kim is really thinking that we join, so we probably will end up going there on a regular basis. I do like it much more than the YMCA that we tried to get in at before…

My mom was worried about me since I didn’t post in here all week. I got an email and everything. :)

Anyway, if you couldn’t tell I’ve been keeping super busy in Kim’s absence. Of course there is work, which is never fun, but after that is all done I’ve either been working hard on oarsa.org v2.0 (which I’m happy to say is looking really nice) or I’ve been going out to the bars with the guys. That pretty much has left me with no time to sit around or run, haha. I actually thought about running last night, but that was as far as that got. I’ll just wait until Kim gets back to make me go. :)

Tickets for 311 and The Roots go on sale today at 3:11 PM (how cute) and I’m going to pick up a couple seats. That is one heck of a lineup, if only you could tape…

Tonight I’m gonna try to make it to the Brooksider for happy hour, and then I’m not really sure what else to do. I’ll just play it by ear…

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Well Friday Kim and I headed off to Cincinnati. We were flying delta so that we could go directly there, but we always end up getting delayed on delta. They board everyone on the plane and then say that we are overweight, so they had to kick 3 people off the plane. We did eventually get to Cincy, and were able to easily rent a car. We headed downtown to the Hyatt to check in to our hotel. I got the room for $35 using biddingfortravel and priceline. We quickly got ready and met up with Liam, Fighty and Reif. From there we walked in the rain down to the show. We were just in time to get some beer before it was cut off at 10:45 (an hour and 15 minutes before the show would end). We then headed over to see Howie Day. I haven’t see him in a long time, and haven’t really had a desire to do so. He has been playing with a full band and that just ruins his old sound in my opinion. The good thing about this show was that it was just Howie solo, like it used to be. I was still unimpressed with most of the show though. After seeing Keller Williams a few times, I don’t find Howie’s looping skills to be all that great as I did before. I enjoyed some of the older songs that I heard so many times before but overall I doubt I’ll see him again anytime soon. After that we went to the hotel bar for a drink and went to bed…

Saturday we heading to the Hais’ household. It is always fun hanging out over there! I saw a few cicadas, but that was just because Kim’s brothers were out hunting them for bait. I bet they will be really bad when I got back to Cincy in a couple weeks. I also visited my mom and brothers. We took Tim with us back to Jammin On Main. We had a few rounds of beers in the hotel bar and headed to the show. Right as we were walking in Marc Broussard started his set. Good little show from Marc and the band. I think they gained some new fans for sure. We then spent the rest of the night running into old friends. I heard a few tunes from both G Love and the Offspring. We headed out to a bar downtown but didn’t stay very long.

Sunday I had LaRosa’s pizza! Man I have missed that place. Kim and I went to a few soccer games, and then headed back to the Hais’ for Amy’s birthday bash. We got to play some cornhole, although Chip and Chris killed me and Kim. We’ll get them next time…
I then had to head to the airport for my flight home. Before leaving I was making jokes about the plane being overbooked and that I would have to stay another night, etc. Well I get to the gate and the flight actually was overbooked. They were offering $400 in vouchers plus hotel and meals for switching to the first flight out Monday morning. I couldn’t refuse this offer, so I am now back in KC $400 richer than before!
Kim is in Ohio for the whole week, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to get work done as well as time to get out with the guys!

So after work last night we headed out to Lawrence. Todd thought about tagging along, but in the end decided he couldn’t “hang with us youngins.” We get to the venue around 7:30 expecting to pay $5 a person, but the guy at the door checked our ID’s and asked for $9 each. I hate when they do that, and it got worse when the show was supposed to start at 8:00 but they pushed it back to 9:00. I could tell that Kim wasn’t very happy with that at all, and she ended up leaving around 8:00 to go home. We did get her money back though! My buddy Tim Maus was at the show, and he offered to drive me home, so it worked out. The show eventually started at 9 with Dave Barnes. I was pretty impressed with this guy even though he only played for a little over half an hour. Pretty funny guy too. Pete Schmidt played next, and I really cannot get into him and his music. It isn’t bad, but it doesn’t do much for me, perhaps I am just growing tired of this singer songwriter genre. Tanner Walle played next with Mike and a couple of the other guys from his band. Good show as usual, and I’m excited to hear that they will be releasing a CD somewhat soon. Finally! :) Marc Broussard played last with a full band. Some of you may remember that the opened up for OAR when I followed their tour last spring break. Well when he opened it was just Marc and a bass player. I though the was really good then, and I’m happy to say that his show is even better now. The band really complimented his sound, and didn’t take anything away at all. The energy was on, and the new songs they played all sounded great. After the show I just told Marc that he played a good show. Immediately he recognized me and said didn’t you follow the OAR tour about a year ago, like the whole tour. Ah memories. We talked about that for a minute or two, and he said that he had seen Liam a few times since then. I told him that we would all be down at Jammin’ On Main, and he seemed excited to be playing there. Hopefully I get to see another excellent show this weekend!

Back to work for my 3 day week…

For those of you that don’t know, and most probably don’t, my man Dave Matthews will be on VH1’s (Inside)Out this Saturday at 10PM…
Trey Anastasio (Phish) and Dave Matthews’ trip to Dakar, Senegal this past January is documented in an hour-long program and will premier on VH1 on May 8 at 10 PM EST. In the program, Trey and Dave journey to the capital city for a cross-cultural exchange with seminal West African band Orchestra Baobab. Trey and Dave toured around Senegalese capital city Dakar, attended an Africa Cup soccer match (where Senegal edged out South Africa 2-1), gave an acoustic performance off the coast of Dakar on Goree Island, watched singer Baaba Maal perform an intimate show (Trey called it ‘one of the best concert experiences of my life’) and then rehearsed and performed with Orchestra Baobab at “Yengoulene”, a small club in Dakar.
That sounds pretty sweet! I’ll have to try to remember to record it since I will be in Vegas!

The Damien Rice show was pretty good, however it was different than what I expected. His CD is mellow and full of solo singer songwriter type songs. I figured that this would be how the show was as well. I’ve even heard people complain about the radio version of Cannonball (his single), since it has drums and other instrumentation. All of these expectations were shot down from the start though. He plays with a drummer, bass, cello, and sometimes keys, electric guitar, etc. Distortion is another thing that was really shocking to hear. He even has 2 mics, the first is normal, but the second is a totally distorted mic that he often yells into. This gave the show an almost Radiohead like feel. Some songs had the mellow feel that I was expecting, but more than half were the other songs that I wasn’t expecting. Much more rockin’ that what I was thinking it would be, but still a good show. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to see him…

I forgot to mention before, but the gap coverage for my car came through. I don’t owe anything more on the loan, and to make it even better the gap coverage was for more than needed. Just over $500 was put into my saving account at the credit union. Kim is making me keep it there for now, I was thinking I would just gamble it all. :b

I may be going to Cincinnati the weekend of May 14 & 15. Kim is going to be working in Cincy the week before, so I’m considering flying out for the weekend. I’m sure it would be a good one, especially since it is Jammin’ On Main weekend! I’ll let you all know…

After work last night we headed over to Tomfooleries for food, drinks and music. The band was called Simon Wonder Brown and they are probably one of the best cover bands I have seen. I don’t think they play exclusively covers, but that is all they played last night, but you are pretty much forced to when playing on the plaza. Anyway, they played everything from classic rock tunes, to piano acts and hard rock. They played Kim’s favorite Billy Joel tune Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, and actually did really well. That was the first time either of us have ever heard a cover of the song. They play every Tuesday at Tomfooleries, so perhaps we’ll see them again soon.

Tonight is Damien Rice. I’ve been hearing some really good things about his show, so I’m expecting a goood one for sure…

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…

We keep on losing our hockey games. :( We only have one more game next Monday. That will be the last game I play until June, unless I go to open hockey or something else happens…

I bought tickets to see The Spin Doctors and The Gin Blossoms in Vegas while we are there! That is some quality old school music! I’m really looking forward to this trip…

For those of you that don’t already know, you can now access the site using www.edpaffjr.com. I’m just about done with a new version of the site as well, so be ready for that!