I’m a bit out of sorts this week.  I went out of town over the weekend (for work) and didn’t get back until Monday evening.  This threw my entire week off.  Granted, I get derailed rather easily when taken out of my routine.  I’m quite sure my weekend contained nothing of relevance, so I’ll go with the “random news” format.

In major life news, today is Donette’s last day as a teacher.  She is retiring from her life as an educator of our city’s children.  I do hope the little ones can cope, and this doesn’t throw them into a downward spiral of life.  Time will tell.  I imagine they will pull through.

Almost but not quite as exciting was my birthday last week.  I quit counting but I’m somewhere in the mid-to-upper forties.  Remarkable.  Proof that good living and a healthy lifestyle aren’t necessarily required for longevity.  I went out for a nice steak dinner, and bought myself some new motorcycle tires and a pair of sunglasses.  (Neither of which have actually shown up yet.)  Yay.

In far less captivating news, I upgraded the code on my webserver and switched it to a wireless connection.  Then I promptly switched it back to wired.  This is part of my grand plan to install a new drive in it and get a bit more practical use out of it.  You know, some use other than serving up web-pages to three readers and catching 40-50 spam comments a day.  Optimistic but quite feasible;  Stay tuned for more fascinating progress on this project.  (In slightly related news, has anyone seen the prices of hard drives lately??!!  Eeeesh!!  I bought a 1 Tb drive in Oct 2010 for $54;  Now that same drive is $100.  That ain’t the way it’s supposed to work!)

Not an all bad weekend, considering I was A) oncall and B) left home to fend for myself.  OK, not exactly “fend for myself,” I was left portions of food clearly labeled with what to eat when.  Being oncall took out any opportunity of entertainment, so it was a pretty laid-back weekend overall though.

As I mentioned, I was left to fend for myself.  In greater detail, Donette had driven to St. Louis to attend our niece’s graduation ceremony and the accompanying festivities.  I’d have been there, but the dreaded oncall precluded my attendance.  So, I sat home and did a whole lotta nothing.  Got a good 1/2-dozen more foreign language action movies under my belt.

Saturday I got some exercise in.  Munkirs came over and we rode our bikes down near the Plaza to participate in the Tour de Nicu ride. We opted for the 45 mile route, which we completed without too much trouble.  Honestly, it was a rather marginal ride though, not sure I will do it again next year.  The route covered all the local Neonatal Units, which is certainly a worthy enough cause.  However, this resulted in a 45 mile ride with all the rest stops squeezed together in about a 10 mile span.  Good idea, just not very practical as it pertains to a bike ride.  The route seemed to be mostly uphill too, and most definitely spent too much time winding through neighborhoods.  Geez, I felt like I’d ridden around the block 80 times to get the miles in;  One stop sign after another.  Add to that a good stiff breeze in our faces the majority of the time and it just didn’t make for an entirely enjoyable outing.  After that I laid around on the couch the majority of the remaining day, with the exception of heading over to Leawood to attend my cousin’s baby shower.  (Well, not really a “baby shower,” because guys don’t go to baby showers…  She’s already had her baby, so it was a “meet our little girl” party or whatever you call that.)

Sunday I walked Teagan up to the nearby school for some fetch, then my Mom and sister picked me up for lunch at Houston’s.  I don’t know if it’s the rather stringent diet the wife and I have been following lately or what, but I think that was the best salad I’ve ever tasted in my life.  Holy smokes it was good.  Seared tuna chunks over mixed greens with mango, avocado, and pickled ginger, and a cilantro vinaigrette dressing.  Whew.  I killed that thing, and if they had asked if I wanted a free refill I think I’d have knocked out another one.  After that I lounged around the rest of the day, watching the Royal’s rather exciting game and waiting for Donette to get home.  On a whim, I fired up the fire pit in the back yard and burned up a bunch of scrap sticks that have been building up.  While I was sitting in a chair throwing sticks in the fire Teagan decided she needed some more fetch, so I tossed the ball to her for a solid two hours or so.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so worn out.  She didn’t even get out of bed for her breakfast this morning;  I can’t really quantify that statement other than to say I’ve never seen it happen before, she is a rather enthusiastic diner.  Probably should have held a mirror under her nose or something.

I might not be able to view my site from a phone, but now I can post from one. Wonderful times we live in.

I spent my weekend up in St. Joe at the eighth annual Apple Blossom BBQ.  It took so much out of me that I really don’t think I can type much up here.  I’m exhausted and sore, and our coffee maker is on the fritz so I’m not quite awake yet.  Perhaps I am getting a touch old for sleeping in lawn chairs.  Good time though I suppose.  Not much of the team showed up for some inexplicable reason.  It was just Chad, Zim, Martin, Brown, and yours truly.  Skeleton team.  We managed though, even talking Chad into cooking ribs.  I didn’t really care to cook anything at all, but finally conceded to grilling up a few chicken thighs.  We did typically horrible;  We always do horrible up there.  I say we cut the competitions to just the Royal;  At least then you know you’re not going to win anything.  For that matter I guess we knew we weren’t going to win anything in St. Joe either, since we didn’t bother sticking around for the awards ceremony.

Sunday was a rest and recovery day.  Donette was down at the City Market running a charity garage sale thing, which was promptly rained out.  We decided to head down the ‘Sider to enjoy some hotdogs and fries and watch the ballgame.  Alas, we ran square into the stupid Art Fair.  I didn’t even bother looking for a parking spot, just turned around and headed for Waldo, where we landed at Tanners.  It proved a serviceable viewing spot, even if the game was rather crummy.

I’m sure you noticed the site is ever-closer to a finished product, thanks to some help from Ed.  Had to make a few tweaks in the mysterious “style sheet” thingie…  Geez I despise those things.  I like the results better than the old one though.