Wow, the Kenagy’s have been busy.  We are just goin’ ON, I tell you.  Yet oddly I can’t think of a single thing we’ve done…

Last Thursday I made my inaugural bike ride in preparation for our Katy Trail run, which is now a mere month away.  I would have liked to have been training a lot more, but that’s how it goes.  My bicycle has been broken since early Winter, and I just now got if fixed.  (Actually “broken” is not quite the correct term; it was working fine until I decided to work on it.)  We went 20 miles on the Corporate Woods trail, and I lived to tell about it.  After the ride we met up at the Brooksider to rehash the details of our arduous trek.

Friday night Doni and I went out on a DATE of sorts…  We started off with dinner at the Double Dragon, down at 50th and Main.  Not too shabby… Cheap, tasty, and fast.  As a bonus, the waitress’ accents were so strong that they provided a little comedic value to the dinner.  Doni did an admirable job of translating; I honestly had no idea what they were saying.  After dinner we met up with Doni’s new co-worker Mike at the ‘Sider, but didn’t last long.  Ate too much I guess.

Saturday, I started off the day with “spinning class” at the gym.  Apparently nobody knows what spinning is, so I’ll throw out the definition that it’s stationary bike riding.  Stationary bike riding with loud, annoying music and a demented instructor, both of which contribute nicely towards distracting me from the sheer boredom and frustration of riding a bike and not actually going anywhere.  I’ve been taking these classes 2-3 times a week, also as preparation for the Katy Trail.  I figure fake bike riding is better than no bike riding.  After recovering somewhat from that event, we worked on one of our ongoing “projects” at the house.  There is now some actual hope of one day completing “The Room”, which we started the day we moved into the house.  Faint, distant hope, but hope all the same.  For the money and time we’ve sunk into it, we likely should’ve just torn it down altogether and had a new one built, but we won’t go there.  Saturday night we didn’t do anything, because I had to work.  Boo Hoo.

Sunday was easily, without a doubt, the pinnacle of our weekend.  I slept until 11:00 because of the late night working, but upon finally waking up I was immensely pleased to find we had a lunch date scheduled with none other than Mr. and Mrs. James Munkirs!  We decided to “think outside the box” so to speak, and stay away from the usual haunts like the Brooksider.  This was, after all, a special occasion.  After much negotiating, we decided on 75th Street Brewery.  Alas, upon arriving, they didn’t open until noon.  Naturally, this left us totally stymied and just a bit dismayed, so we retreated to the comfortable confines of the Brooksider.  Just goes to show what happens when you try to get fancy and branch out.  We sat out on the deck and engaged in hours of lively banter.  We caught up on old times, and just generally reveled in the wholesome conversation.  Or, we might have just talked about Float Trip.  Something like that.  After lunch it was back to work on the house, specifically “The Room”.  We put up rolled insulation in the walls and ceiling, trying to get ready for the sheetrock guy.  Man that stuff was nasty; I still itch all over.  Little fiberglass splinters in places that I am quite sure did not come into contact with the insulation.  Next time I’m going wrap myself in saran wrap before I touch that stuff.  That project took us something like 14 hours (or maybe it was 4…) and then we went over to Susan’s brand spankin’ new apartment to watch the Sopranos.  Yep, Susan sold her house and is moving down to the Plaza.  Naturally this poses something of a grave inconvenience for us, but we are trying to be supportive.

Not too much to report for that weekend.  Doni’s Grandmother passed away last Wednesday night, so we weren’t able to attend Float Trip.  Pretty much all we did over the weekend was drive back and forth to Iowa.  Initial reports back from Float Trip were positive though; sounds like a good time.

There is another training ride Thursday night at 5:30, at 107th and Lee Blvd.  Bring your mountain bikes and come on out.  In other news, Doni will be out of town until Wednesday.  So if you want to, let’s say, come over and help me with a few projects around the house, just give me a call.  Wink wink, nudge nudge.

OK, I will make an effort to get back to Monday updates.  There’s usually too much going on Monday morning to be typing on this thing, but today looks pretty mellow.

All-in-all, I’m going to label that a “good weekend”.  I am not sure what the exact qualifiers are for one of those, but it met them whatever they are.  Friday night I left work a bit early and went to the Brooksider.  That turned out to be a good move; I think it was the last of the cool weather we are going to see.  Not too much else to say there… sat on the deck until it was time to go home.

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early to go help Mark start building a fence around “Smith Farms” in Lathrop.  You’ve probably heard of the place; it is a large cattle ranch in Lathrop that raises Black Angus.  I was kind of excited to see the cattle… I’m thinking about buying one of the calves so I got to see them and take a few pictures.  Anyway, four of us were on hand for the hole-digging party.  I think it served as a very suitable reminder to us all that our Mon-Fri jobs ain’t all that bad.  Manual labor is very, very over-rated.  Mark had rented a big two-man auger, which was pretty much a 5 hp motor stuck on top of a 10″ wide, 3′ tall corkscrew.  Sort of a medieval torture device with handles.  At the end of the day though, we had completed our mission; 50 holes in one day.  Whew.  After I poured myself back home, Doni and I went out to dinner at Strouds.  For some reason fried chicken and mashed potatoes just sounded good after a day on the farm.  And, as a matter of fact, it was.

Sunday we did the “regular stuff”.  Went to the gym for a while, sat out at the pool for a while, and then went over to Susan’s to watch a few old episodes of The Sopranos.  Susan sold her house so those events are coming to a close pretty quickly, gotta enjoy it while it lasts.  I worked on my picture section a little bit too.  Posted a few pictures of the fence building event and of the nieces and nephews.

On the plate for this week: The preparations for the big Katy Trail ride are kicking up.  Remarkably, I have yet to actually ride my bike, which is probably not a good thing since the ride is only a month and a half away.  But, I am taking spinning classes twice a week so I’m counting on that to help me survive.  I definitely need to get some real ride time in though.  Our first “training ride” was scheduled last Thursday but I ended up working late and missing it.  Bummer.  I’m also working on reloading my mp3 player… the current songs are getting a little old.  Haven’t decided on a general “genre” yet.  You got your “spinning music” and your “workout music“, both of which are about equally annoying.  (Right-click those and choose “save target as” if you really want to hear them.  Don’t play them around your kiddies though; I have no idea what they are saying but I’d bet it isn’t good.)

Well, the good news is my site is fixed.  Stupid firewalls are overrated.  The bad news is I didn’t get to go biking this evening.  So I am bitter.  Bitterer, whatever.

This is just kind of a test post.  If it’s out here on the site, then my problems are over.  All is well.

Training has begun for the big “Katy Trail” ride.  Four fit fellas will attempt to traverse the wilds of Missouri, from Sedalia to St. Charles, in a mere 3 days.  Training rides are on Thursday if anyone would like to join in the fun.  We’ll be riding the Corporate Woods trail most of the time, and riding mountain bikes.  Fat tires only welcome, don’t be showing up with your 8 lb. road bike with the 4 cm. tires, we have no need for you.