I shall do my best to struggle through some semblance of an update, given my rather lackadaisical effort last week.  That said, I am still rather disoriented from vacation.  I did however put pictures up already so hopefully that provides some kind of diversion.  Some of them are from Kelly’s camera, so that’s the reason for all the different resolutions.

We spent all last week in Arizona with the Martins.  Home base was Sedona, which proved to be just a fine little town.  The weather was nothing short of glorious all week, and according to the locals that was just for us.  Apparently it is generally on the chilly side in mid-March.  I vaguely recall our trip itinerary, which I shall attempt to run down.  We flew out Friday the 13th, not being particularly superstitious.  As a matter of fact, it turned out to be a rather lucky trip when we took a bump in Denver in return for some travel vouchers.  On the downside, we didn’t get to Sedona until 2:00 in the morning KC time.

Saturday we slept in, then went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in big downtown Sedona.  It was quite possibly the lamest parade ever, but then we hold our parades to a rather high standard.  It passed the time at any rate, and given the weather made for a decent diversion.  (OK from here on out exact dates and times are kinda fuzzy so don’t hold me to this timeline.)  Sunday we started the day with an early morning jeep tour.  I don’t know who’s bright idea it was to paint the jeeps pink.  Call it an insecurity but I never was totally comfortable riding around in a bright pink vehicle.  I had to admit they were pretty bad machines though;  They ran them over some impressive terrain.  After that we drove to a nearby trailhead and went on a 5-mile hike.  It was rather moderate terrain, but I think everybody agreed 5 miles was a bit excessive.

Monday we enjoyed a lovely drive out to the Grand Canyon.  It took like 9 hours I think.  Or maybe 2…  All I remember was it was very, very long.  It was worth it though, the canyon was very scenic indeed.  I’d go so far as to say “grand” even.  We spent all day out there hiking around.  Tuesday is a lil’ fuzzy.  I think the Martins went hiking and we stayed back at the condo and sat by the pool reading.  We cooked up some corned beef & cabbage for dinner and…  Some other stuff.  Wednesday we made the arduous drive to Surprise AZ to catch a Royals game.  Our original plan was to roll a Cubbies game into the afternoon also, but they were all sold out.  The Royals provided us with a decent amount of entertainment though, although they lost.  Donette got Zach Greinke’s autograph, which she was excited about.  At least she claims it is his autograph;  It’s quite illegible and the photo Dakin took was not exactly proof either.  Thursday we took a nice little bike ride.  Maybe not an over-the-top crazy mountain bike adventure, but it was fun and once again the weather was perfect.  Friday we flew back to KC, picked up Gabe, and went home.

The weekend was mostly spent trying to get our clocks back on track.  Saturday we did get down to the Power & Light and sat around watching the basketball games on their big screen.  We intended to go back there Sunday but it didn’t happen.  Instead we went down to the Brooksider to try and watch the MU game, but all the Jayhawk fans were naturally taking up two or three parking places each so the lot was full.  Wouldn’t want a door ding, you know.  While we were circling the lot I took a quick census of the handicap spots too;  Sure enough they all had Jayhawk bumper stickers.   Just pointing it out.  I guess we could have walked down there, but they steal chairs also, so it just wasn’t a safe option.  We walked Gabe up to the library and back, and then sat around the house the rest of the day.

We are in Phoenix celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and as such I am wholly unable to update this.  While the weather might be fantastic, the Internet connection isn’t.  As I write this, I am balancing on one leg while hanging over the deck in Martin’s room, stretching my laptop as far towards where I imagine the nearest access point to be as I dare without risking severe bodily injury.  I’ll write up our little vacation later.

My countdown to vacation has begun.  All I have to do is struggle until Thursday, then we are flying to Arizona on Friday for a week of whatever-you-do-in-Arizona.  While I am admittedly a bit less than enthusiastic about spending my hard earned money on a trip within the continental US, I am none-the-less looking forward to a little time off.  Maybe we’ll hit the lottery soon and I can get someplace a bit more tropical next time around.

The weekend started off nicely with a tasty lunch at Fiorella’s BBQ.  If there’s anything better than a BBQ lunch, it’s weaseling it out of Kevin Brown.  Yes, he actually picked up the tab, in a manner of speaking.  I had the lamb ribs, which I’d never tried before.  I’m now on a city-wide hunt to find some I can make at home though, because they were awesome.  If I could make so bold a statement, I think I’ll even say they were the best thing I’ve ever had there.  I probably need to go back and make sure it wasn’t just a fluke.  After lunch I went back and served the rest of my hard time at work, then went and met my friend John up at Bobby Bakers for an end-of-week celebration.  We hung out there for a while, then I went home to find Donette hard at work in the kitchen as usual.  She went on some kind of crazy binge with the KitchenAid, determined to grind up everything in the house.  She’d fed two whole pork butts and a beef roast through it by the time I got home, resulting in rather massive batches of italian sausage, breakfast sausage, and chorizo.  (All this wonderful product she spent all day on, and I got frozen pizza for dinner;  Not sure what happened there.)  After dinner we decided to watch a movie to kill some time before a little Rock Band session.  We decided on The Changeling, which sounded engaging enough.  As usual, I was fast asleep five minutes into it, and my day was over.

Saturday morning, after a tasty biscuit & gravy breakfast,  Gabe & I took a rather overdue trip out to Mom’s to see what was happening in the southlands.  I finally got her doorknob fixed on the front door, although I managed to turn the 20 minute install into a two hour project as usual.  I also hooked up a battery charger to my motorcycle, which is sitting in her garage, so hopefully the weather will cooperate this week and I’ll be riding again soon.  After that visit, I went back home and found Donette STILL working in the kitchen.  She’d whipped up two enormous batches of red sauce, one with meat and one without.  Out of control.  And, as on Friday night, I went without dinner.  I guess all this food is just fer lookin’ at, not eating.  I slugged around on the couch all evening not doing too much, because I had to work later in the night and needed to rest up.  I did get in a solid two-hour Rock Band session with Ed, which was fun.  I didn’t lose my connection once either, so all my work last weekend musta paid off.

Ed & I wrapped up our jam-a-thon around 11:00 Saturday night, then I headed upstairs to work for the rest of the night.  Between staying up all night and the Daylight Savings crap, I was all out of sorts on Sunday.  I’m still a bit disoriented as a matter of fact.  I’m not sure what exactly transpired during the day, but I do somewhat recall the Martins coming over for dinner.  Donette actually served some of the food she’d been making all weekend;  I guess because we had company.  We had a tasty spaghetti dinner.  She even made the pasta from scratch, although it kind of tended to stick together.  (She insists she is going to try that experiment again tonight, we’ll see if she comes through.)