Well I guess it’s time to start my updates again.  Unfortunately I don’t have any news to share on Gabe.  Given the length of time, I have to think he fell into the wrong hands.  Thanks to everybody for helping us look for him, especially Donette’s parents who spent entire days out there hanging signs and passing out fliers.

That was a “decent” three-day weekend.  I had Friday off for being oncall.  Didn’t get to wacky, I spent the better part of the afternoon at the pool.  My catfish-colored bellies are now a nice glowing pink color.  Ouch.  In what turned out to be something of a trend for the weekend, I then watched the Royals game on the deck at the Brooksider.

Saturday shaped up somewhat similar.  I did venture outside the area for a short time though.  Kevin Brown’s Dad was having a birthday fiesta up in Kearney, so Team TFB cooked up a rather large amount of bbq for the event.  Martin & I drove up there around noon and met up with Zim & KB.  We pretty much just got everything set up to serve and took off.  I hope they were expecting a large crowd because there was probably food for about 100 people.  I was back in the Brookside area by two or so.  Kicked around the house for a bit, then once again headed down to the ‘Sider for the Royals game.  Yes, I do have a TV at home, it just seems more exciting watching it with a crowd.  After the game we headed over a few doors to Domo Sushi for some dinner.  They’ve been open for a few years I think, but we’ve never been there.  It was good, although a bit out of my normal price range.  (My normal price range is “cheap-skate” so it probably wasn’t that bad.)

Sunday I got up early and headed down to the airport to do a little cycling with Martin & Munkirs.  It wasn’t very windy for once, so we had a pretty good ride.  Munkirs & I got in a solid 20 miles, Martin couldn’t hang and stopped at 15.  (Actually he blew a tire, I suspect intentionally.)  After that brief bout of exercise, I met up with Donette & Susan at the pool for a little more belly-roasting.  Slow learner.  It was a bit warm out for my liking, so I headed back to the deck at the ‘Sider for, you got it, the baseball game.  Buoyed by the victory, I went home and grilled some chicken for dinner;  Fine way to end the weekend.

Well that was one of those big weekends that didn’t quite work out.  We got up pretty early Friday and headed off driving to St. Louis to celebrate one of our niece’s high school graduation.  But, as soon as we got there, we got the news that Gabe had escaped from the kennel we left him with.  We decided to go ahead with the weekend plans, but really weren’t enjoying ourselves too much.  Finally Sunday we gave it up, checked out a day early, and headed home.  We did a few hours of driving around yesterday but no luck.  Hopefully today brings better results.

Got over “the hump” for the week.  Yay.  We did it in style too.  Headed down to the Brooksider after work and managed to get in a cigar on the porch with the boys before it started pouring again.  It was actually pretty nice out, maybe a bit chilly.  Once it started raining we left though;  I don’t like sitting inside so much.  We headed down to Jalapenos with our friend Susan and had a fine dinner.  Burrito night, yum.  It was still raining pretty hard after dinner so we called it a night;  Headed home and watch the rather exciting Royals game.

Last night, for a little change of pace, we hit the “Brewmaster’s Dinner” up at 75th Street Brewery.  We’ve been to one of these events before, but it’s been quite a while.  They sell about 40 tickets, and sit you at group tables for the dinner.  It’s a rather obscene amount of food, but it’s all so good I can actually put it all away.  I noticed several people boxing up their last few courses last night;  I maintain that is cheating.  Anyway, the whole dinner is usually based on some kind of theme.  Last night was in honor of “American Craft Brewer’s Week,” which it just so happens to be.  They bring all these dishes out one course at a time, and then walk around to the tables and tell you a little something about it, why they paired it with the selected beer, blah blah blah.  It’s quite interesting actually, not to mention delicious.  The whole thing takes like two and a half hours.  Here’s a scan of last night’s menu.  My favorite dish?  I would be hard-pressed to pick.  I’ll say I didn’t care for the “roasted root vegetables” but I seemed to be in the minority on that one.  Beets, blech.  Everything else was so awesome I don’t think I could pick out the best.

After many years of talking, I finally rode my bicycle to work this morning.  After all, it is KC Bike Week you know.  So, at least for one day, I went from 70 mpg on the scooter to none at all.  Oh yeah, reduced that carbon footprint way down there.  I took off from the house (late as usual) around 6:45 this morning.  I haven’t exactly been training very hard for this little experiment, so luckily Family Bicycles was hosting a rest break at Gregory & Wornall.  Had a nice little snack break and chatted a bit, gave me a chance to catch my breath.  Nice Lady:  “So, do you bike to work much?”  Fat Phil:  “No, first time.”  Nice Lady:  “How far have you been this morning?”  Fat Phil:  “Oh ’bout 1/2 a block, my house is the green one right over there.”  I’ll have to be sure and stop by this afternoon again on the way home, I think she’ll be pleased (or surprised) that I’m still kicking.  The ride went remarkably well actually, especially considering my total lack of planning.  I wasn’t entirely sure what route to take.  But, seriously, how lost can you really get between Brookside & Downtown?  I took Brookside down to the Plaza, then went east a few blocks and kind of meandered up side streets the rest of the way.  This “plan” ended up taking me through a few, shall we say, less than desirable stretches, but whatever.  No worries.  I think with a few tweaks I’ll have a good, low-stress route worked out.