Munkirs & I went on our weekly “Brookside Ride” last night.  Feeling a bit risky, we decided to take off with the faster group again.  It went… errrr…. OK.  I think we kept up fairly well, while I admit we were towards the rear of the group.  It was definitely a quicker pace than the group we usually ride with.  We hung with them for about ten miles, then they zigged and we zagged.  The fast group rides a slightly different route than the one we are used to, and we weren’t feeling that adventurous so we stuck to our known path.  One other guy took the turn with us too, making for an interesting last five miles.  Rider #3 was roughly the age of Munkirs and I put together.  That might be a slight exaggeration, but honestly not much.  I thought to myself, “No big deal, he looks pretty fit and he’s made it this far, and we ain’t in a hurry anyway.”  That guy flat rode us into the ground.  He was merciless.  If you slowed down to take a drink or shake your hands out, he was gone;  You’d spend the next five minutes standing, trying to catch back up.  It was evident he wasn’t even trying hard either.  Oh well, another lesson learned.  After the ride we slunk off to the Brooksider and had some cheeseburgers.  He was probably over at Hoopers gloating with his buddies.

Wow, the morning commute on the ol’ scooter is getting a little chilly!  About time to dig out the jacket I think.  Dare I hope that the heat wave is over?  (No, I dare not, I know better.)  I rather fancy it while it’s here though.  Last night I headed down to the Brooksider for the sole purpose of enjoying the nice cool evening.  And enjoy it I did;  Sat out on the deck for a solid three and half hours watching TV.  Donette, meanwhile, was at the big Arrowhead Stadium open house with her family, presumably enjoying the weather also.

Tonight is the weekly bicycle ride in Brookside;  Anybody want to go besides Munkirs and myself?  A finer evening for a ride there may never be.  Afterward, the group all heads to Charlie Hoopers for a little post-ride wind down too.  Well…  “the group” with the exception of Munkirs & I;  We go to the Brooksider for a hamburger.

Munkirs & I headed out to Leawood last night to try out a new bike ride.  I give it a thumbs up, I thought it was a pretty decent route and a nice size group too;  Probably about twenty riders.  Didn’t take any “rest stops” either like on our Thursday evening ride, which was a plus.  Seventeen miles, one hour, done.  Throw a few breaks in there and you’re looking at 1.5 hours, dangerously close to crossing my attention span.  I’d rather just get it done.  Not to mention, when we finished up it was around 7:30 and dangerously close to being dark.  Kind of makes me wonder if we’re going to be able to see the road when we finish up this Thursday night.  After the ride, the group gathered at Los Cabos restaurant for some good food, conversation, and general frivolity.  We skipped that part.

Last night we headed up to 75th Street to help them celebrate their 17th Anniversary.  This event, coupled with the fact that we usually go there Monday nights anyway, made for a pretty easy decision on our evening entertainment.  It was quite festive, and we stayed there for quite a while.  They gave out scratch-off tickets and we won $10 off our bill too, so we got out cheap on dinner.  Mostly we sat around watching the Royals game and playing a few dozen rounds of our favorite video game, “picture match.”  I think it’s more geared towards third graders but we’re rather fond of it anyway.  (Hey, I wonder if they make that for our Wii??)

I seem to be in something of a lull on this thing.  Never did get around to updating all the exciting news from our week and a half vacation, and by now I’ve darn near forgotten all the finer details.  We did a lot of mountain-biking and hiking, and I went on my first horse ride.  Went to the Mile High Music Festival in Denver, which turned out great, but of course you can just read Ed’s site for that recap.  I’ll guess I should at least post some pictures eventually.  But not today.  Or tomorrow.

Not too much happened last weekend.  I really don’t think I’ve quite snapped out of vacation mode yet, but I’m trying.  I did start the weekend strong down at the Brooksider.  I met up with a good portion of the BBQ team down there after work, and we spent the better part of the evening laying out our strategic plans for the upcoming competitions.  We pondered for several hours, eventually resolving to meet again at some later date and do some more pondering.  After that Donette & I headed up the street to the Corner Cocktail for one of their fine hamburgers.  Delicious.

Saturday I got up with best intentions of heading out on a bike ride.  Didn’t happen.  I ended up bellying up to the computer desk and messing with my old webserver all day.  I got the idea in my head that I should switch databases, which ended up being a far greater undertaking than I imagined.  Talk about a waste of a day.  Oh well, I must have been entertained because I sat there all stinking afternoon.  I did head down to the Brooksider for the Royals game again.  Simultaneous Royals and Chiefs games on the TV’s;  The excitement was almost too much to bear.  I headed back home at half-time, and then Donette joined me at 75th Street to watch the rest of the baseball game.  We headed back home after that, where we decided it was time for some late dinner.  She fired up the grill and made some tasty chicken…  Quite delicious.  After that I tried to watch the second game of the double-header, but I don’t think I even saw the first pitch before falling asleep.

Sunday was even less eventful.  I again managed to let myself get sucked into the mysterious database project.  And, unlike Saturday, actually got it working finally.  So I wasted two days on it, only to find it really doesn’t perform any better than the old one.  Sigh.  In between geek sessions, we went down to Jalapenos for our Sunday afternoon burrito fix.  I stopped by the Brooksider on the way home, intending to catch the Royals game on the back deck.  I grabbed a table, and quickly noticed that there weren’t any other “regular” patrons in attendance.  I decided that was OK, I was just going to stare at the TV anyway.  Then I noticed the unfamiliar waitress patrolling the grounds.  Well, that was just a little too much change for one day, so I got up and left.