Man it got cold out in a hurry.  I may have missed my window of opportunity to (comfortably) get my motorcycle out to Mom’s for winter storage.  If you happen to see somebody screaming southbound on 71 wearing five layers of clothes, that might be me.

That was a moderately entertaining weekend, if not too productive.  That’s a good thing;  I’ll take entertainment over productivity any day.  We started off Friday night by meeting the Martins at the Crossroads district to check out the First Friday event.  That’s been on our list of “things we should probably do” for quite some time now.  You pretty much go down there and walk around looking at all the interesting characters our city has to offer.  There’s also a lot of art to look at, but I didn’t find that part nearly as interesting as the people-watching.  One of Donette’s friends was showing a few pieces of pottery, so we checked that out, and that was really about it.  I expect First Friday has been crossed off our list for a while.  After that we stopped by the Power & Light for a bit, and had dinner at the Flying Saucer.  Despite being a long time fan of that place, I’d never eaten anything there but the cheese and cracker plate.  It just never really looked like the sort of place that would have good food.  This hunch proved to be true;  It was rather marginal.  At least now I know.

Saturday we got up early and headed across the state line (gasp) for our friend Katy’s birthday party.  She put together a nice little breakfast spread for everybody, which was quite delicious.  Most of the group planned to have breakfast and then head to Westport and the boats, but we decided we’d just eat and run.  I stuck to the plan, but Donette fell victim to peer pressure and headed out with the crowd.  Later in the evening we met up with the Martins again and went to a party over at our friend John’s house.  He throws a big Blues and BBQ party every year, which we have only managed to make it to once.  The calendar was all clear this weekend though, so we got to go again.  John hosts the Blues Kitchen show on KKFI, so he’s got access to all kinds of good local blues bands, making for a night of quality entertainment.  Last time we were there the party was in his big garage, which I guess is pretty much just a big metal outbuilding.  Same building this year, but he’d done the entire inside of it in barnboard with a corrugated tin ceiling.  It’s a pretty cool place, not to mention the music sounded a lot better.  We stayed through the third band, mostly because they had probably the coolest bass ever and we wanted to check it out.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Martin isn’t out shopping for an upgrade as we speak.

Sunday we got up and went to the gym again;  Two weeks in a row!  Didn’t do the buffet this week though.  We decided that, for the same money, Jalapenos is a better choice, so we headed there instead.  After that Donette called it a weekend, and went home to curl up on the couch.  Meanwhile, I spent my afternoon in the Brooksider watching all the games and listening to many fascinating recaps and views on the week’s political events.  Mmmm hmmm.

A quick scan of the previous paragraphs seems to indicate incoherent rambling;  I think I’ll quit now.  FYI, I have caved in to the will of the people and reverted back to the lame, spam-ridden message board of old.  Ingrates.

We spent our weekend in Branson, for the second time this year.  I don’t think I’ve been to Branson since I was just a little ‘un, (with the exception of their emergency room) and here I’ve been twice already this year.  Not a good sign.  I really don’t have any explaination for the trip;  We just happened to have a free room, gas was cheap, and we like to go out of town on Halloween.  So we went.  In our defense, at least we didn’t do anything Bransony while we were there.  (Like that word?  Made it up myself.)  No shows, no minature golf, no go-carts…  We pretty much just read books and relaxed.  I think the highlights of the trip, for me anyway, was lunch at Lone Star Steakhouse (woo-hoo) and watching a bunch of feral cats attack the garbage sacks that somebody left outside our door.  Yeah, I entertain pretty easily.  Actually, the cats really did provide me several hours (yes, hours) of amusement.  Got to see a few pretty good throw-downs, and at one point a fox came and chased off all the cats.  I was kind of hoping for a bear or something to come chase off the fox, but it never happened.  Guess he was the top of the garbage-bag foodchain at the condos.  Oh, and I got a phone call from work, reporting “We’re having a firewall problem, and we need a hand-made quilt or a pecan roll to fix it so we called you.  Please call us back when the Andy Williams show is over.”  Ahhh, what a bunch of comedians I work with.  I guess we did spend the obligatory afternoon at the outlet malls too.  That was Friday, and it was storming so bad there wasn’t anything else to do.  Donette bought a new purse, which seemed to please her immensely.  It was… Brown.  Please contact her if you need additional details.

Sunday we were feeling rather rested from our relaxing trip, so we got up and went to the gym.  Sundays at the gym are good because they’ve got a nice brunch set up.  So, we basically worked out for about 15 minutes, showered, then ate several plates of bacon, sausage, hash browns, and biscuits and gravy.  I often question the actual health benefits of our “gym.”  Oh well, what the heck, it’s good food.  After that Donette drove up north to get Gabe from Ronda’s house, who baby-sat him while we were gone.  I was quite dissappointed to learn that he’d gone on another of his little anxiety attacks and tore her front door all up.  I thought he’d finally grown out of that phase, but I guess that’s not quite the case.  The boy just doesn’t care much for being left alone.  Meanwhile, I spent my afternoon down at the Brooksider watching football.  They had the TV’s set up on the back deck, and I intend to enjoy this weather as long as it holds out.  Martin wandered in after a while and we watched a bit of the late games, then meandered down to try the pizza at the Blue Grotto.  Donette and I have walked through there several times but never actually sat down to eat because it was always too busy.  Martin and I were able to grab a couple of seats at the bar though.  The pizza was solid, if a bit hoity-toity.  (Like the rest of the place.)  It was really very good, I just think I’m more for the Waldo style of pie.  Geez, I didn’t even see pepperoni on the menu!!

I survived my much-dreaded oncall week, and now have a nice, easy two-day week ahead.  That starts with today, which I have off for no particular reason.  I’m sure it will be well-spent though;  It’s certainly off to a bang-up start.

I went to happy hour at the Brooksider on Friday, for no other reason than that’s what I do on Friday.  I only made it about an hour though, then went home and sat around working on my itunes playlists.  So ended Friday.

Saturday went rather poorly, at least as far as website material goes.  I woke up with the fascinating idea of switching my website from Unslung to SlugOS… and there went my Saturday.  I’ve used Unslung for about 4 years now, and it works fine, but the SlugOS had a few new features I wanted to try out.  Plus, I dunno, I was thinking maybe chicks would find me cooler if I was running a bit more complicated operating system.  (The validity of that theory remains to be seen, although things aren’t looking good so far.)  Anyway, it certainly wasn’t a light undertaking, and it killed most of my day.  About the only other diversions were taking the dog for a walk and going out to dinner.  The dinner plans sort of fizzled though;  My original plan was to go up to Waldo Pizza and watch the MU game in their new “Sports Bar.”  As it turned out though, they had the room reserved for private parties, so I guess that will have to wait for another day.  We did go ahead and order a pizza since we were there though.  By the time we got back home and turned on the TV, the game was effectively over, but I sat down to watch it anyway.  Due to the score though, I found myself inexorably drawn back to my computer chair to do more work on my web server, and the rest of my evening was spent in a horrible vortex of dorkiness.  I almost got everything working I think;  Right now my biggest concern is that the logo on my home page says “uNSLUng,” when it’s really NOT anymore.  Gosh, is it any wonder I don’t sleep well at night.

Sunday was a bit more adventurous, at least as far as my Sundays go.  Determined not to waste my day sitting in front of my television watching football, we waited until game-time and then took a good three mile walk with Gabe.  It was a nice day out for a walk, perhaps with the exception of the rather chilly breeze.  That little stroll killed some time, then we went down to the Brooksider to eat lunch and watch some football.  So, my plan worked quite nicely;  I wasted my day sitting in front of somebody else’s television watching football.  That’s a good place to watch the games though;  They have so many TV’s you can watch all the games at once with just a slight turn of the head.  Saves wear and tear on my clicker thumb, you know.  On the downside, there was a brand new waitress working, which had everybody a bit out of sorts.  I took advantage of the uncomfortable situation though, and really shook things up by ordering a sandwich I had never tried.  It was a very successful experiment too, I think I have a new favorite sandwich at the ‘Sider.  After the games, I went back home and finished fine-tuning my new webserver, and then sat in front of the TV all evening alternating between the baseball game and low-grade horror movies.  I generally enjoy bad horror movies, so this is my favorite time of year for TV.  Last nights offering though, The Pumpkin Karver, was so bad I eventually turned it off.  Wow, it was poor.

Boy do I like Mondays.  A chance to start another week fresh, full of the promise of excitement and productivity.  Every Monday I wake up and think, “THIS could be my week.  To HECK with the last 2,210 of them, this week is gonna be different!!!”  Ahhhh, yes, I do eagerly anticipate my Mondays.  I was oncall last weekend, which contributed mightily to my extra-rosy outlook this morning.  If there is one thing I enjoy more than a good phone conversation, it’s having one in the wee hours of the morning with somebody I don’t know.  It just makes me feel…  Needed, I think.  Yeah, yeah, that’s it.  Like I’ve got all kinds of friends all over the country that just have to speak with me, and can’t wait until daybreak.  It’s really a super-duper feeling.

It wasn’t all fun and games all weekend though, I had to do some other stuff too.  Friday evening after work we bought a pizza from Waldo and barged in on our neighbors across the street.  Last Friday we crashed their party, ate all their pizza and scared their guests, so this week we felt we should make up for our prior intrusion by banging on their door and having ourselves over for dinner.  It made sense because their house is always cleaner than ours, they have a bigger TV, and their patio is a lot nicer.  Don’t you wish we were your neighbors?  Hey, at least we brought our own food this time.

Saturday we got up semi-early and walked up the street with Gabe to watch the KC Marathon.  It must have been pretty entertaining because we sat there and watched it for over two hours.  Plus we couldn’t really do anything else if we wanted to;  It effectively had the streets shut down every direction from our house.  I took several pictures, which I suppose I’ll get posted some time or another.  Not much to see though really…  A bunch of people running down the middle of Wornall road, woo-hoo.  After that we headed down to Sharp’s for a little late breakfast.  They were absolutely packed with people from the marathon, but luckily we walked right up and found two seats at the bar.  (Yet another benefit of the smoking ban;  No matter how busy a place is, two people can almost always find seats at the bar.)  After that meal, we digested a while and then rode the motorcycle down to Chappell’s to celebrate Josh’s 18th birthday.  It was a fine afternoon for a ride, and we had a good lunch too.  I can’t really remember if I’ve been there before or not, but it seemed like a solid enough place.  Probably need to go back there and eat again;  Since we’d just eaten a few hours before we didn’t really have much to eat for lunch.  The ride back home was all good too, except I blundered right into the middle of that stupid Obama rally down at the Liberty Memorial.  Good grief.  Friggin’ morons.  Seventy-five thousand people and not one of them knew how to properly cross a street.  Actually, cross the street however you want, just don’t do it in front of me.  After we finally navigated through that cluster, we spent the rest of the day watching disappointing college football games and intermittently napping.

I worked all night Saturday, so I didn’t even get out of bed Sunday until around noon.  Quite possibly the latest I’ve ever slept in my adult life.  When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I decided to start off the day with a semi-masterpiece of an omelet.  Sausage, tomato-pepper cheese, fresh basil, and jalapeno peppers.  Top that off with a side of hash browns, and it was one delicious “late breakfast.”  After that, I hunkered down in the living room to watch my Fantasy Football team take their weekly thrashing.  As has become the trend, I was not disappointed in that regard.  I really didn’t even have much intention of getting out of my pajamas since the day was 1/2 over anyway, but later in the afternoon the neighbors got home from the Chief’s game all cranked up and rallied me a little bit.  I don’t know how they could have still been wound up after watching that debacle of a game.  Anyway, we headed down to Jalapeno’s and had a little dinner, and that was about it for the day.  I stayed up and watched the late game, which managed to add a little insult to injury on my Fantasy team.  This is my last year I’m throwing my money away on that silly game, and this time I’m SERIOUS.

Happy Monday.  I really should try updating this silly thing on Sunday, before Monday hits and I start my rapid descent into foul-ness.  It might bring a cheerier tone to the page.  Yeah, I’ll put that on my to-do list.  Anyway…  We started the weekend off on Friday by, of all things, going to the Brooksider.  We really don’t go there much anymore, but I do enjoy my Friday afternoon table-time there, particularly when it’s sunny and 75 degrees out.  There was a rather festive crowd there on this particular afternoon too, so we had just a fine time.  Martin and Brice even showed up, and we spent a little time developing our plan for next years BBQ season.  (As usual, not much of the plan has to do with improving our scores;  Just how to make things easier on ourselves.)  After that we headed back home, then went over to our neighbors house and crashed their party.  We stayed just long enough to eat up all their pizza and meet their guests, then retreated back to our house.  Didn’t want to overstay our welcome, you know;  We were just hungry.  I can’t understand why we don’t get invited over more.

Saturday I got up pretty early and didn’t have anything to do, so I headed off to the gym to goof around for a while.  I should probably do that more, it’s a rather nice diversion.  That killed a few hours, then we walked Gabe down to the Brooksider for a little lunch.  Did I just say we didn’t get to the Brooksider much?  Well, it was a nice day for a walk, Gabe likes hanging out there, and we were hungry, so it just happened to work out.  Gabe did just famously of course.  I think he enjoys the attention from everybody.  He was a little too well behaved actually;  I tried to get him to eat a few of the noisy KU fans that were gunking up the patio, but he was having none of it.  After that, we headed across the state line (shudder) and went to my cousin Megan’s wedding.  Wow, my suit has been out of the closet twice this year, a new record.  The reception was at the Hobb’s Building downtown, which was a rather interesting place.  We enjoyed all the good food and the jazz band for a while, then headed back home just in time to catch the end of the Missouri game.  Shoulda stayed at the reception.

Sunday I got up with high hopes of implementing my new plan of using the day wisely.  Didn’t really work out though.  Hey, there were some really exciting games on, what could I do?  Heck, for a while it even looked as though my fantasy team might win their first game.  (Didn’t happen.)  Donette, meanwhile, went on a rather rare cooking spree.  She spent her afternoon making a big pot of chili, and baking a birthday cake for one of our neighbors.  I found the cake a rather curious undertaking.  I’ve had a good 20 birthdays since she has known me, and she hasn’t made me a cake on a single one of them.  Yes, curious.  Probably because I don’t really like cake that much.  Yeah, that’s probably it.  Anyway, after wasting my day in front of the TV, I finally managed to migrate from the couch to the patio to enjoy the nice evening weather a bit.  We made a nice little fire and sat around eating cake;  Can’t beat that.  The cake, incidentally, was quite good.  Maybe I’ll get one for my birthday next year.