That was an interesting day of weather in KC.  I got my first-ever tour of the basement in the building where I work;  Perhaps an over-reaction but nobody was complaining.  By the time we went back upstairs, the sun was shining and it actually looked like a decent day out.  After work the sun was still out, so I pulled my motorcycle out of the parking garage where it had spent the last few nights because of all the rain, and made the ride home warm and dry.  Emboldened by my good luck, I hopped on my bicycle and rode down to the Brooksider to hang out with the boys for a while.  That’s pretty much where my luck ended.  It sprinkled on me all the way down there, and as soon as I pulled up a seat on the patio it started pouring.  It would stop for a little while, then start up again.  Donette cruelly refused to come get me, so I had to ride my bicycle back home in the rain.  After that we headed up to 75th Street for some dinner, which was delicious as always.  Actually I sort of had my heart set on some mexican food but we have some Groupons that are about to expire so that dictated the menu for the evening.

In lieu of any actual content, I again offer up a fascinating tidbit of news I came across this morning.  The USDA has revised their recommended cooking temperature for pork to 145 degrees.  I’ve followed that for a long time myself;  I hate dry pork chops.  Nothing wrong with a lil’ pink in a nice lean cut of pork.  Now I have to buy all new food thermometers for the kitchen though.

My days are all messed up.  I worked all weekend in St. Louis and my elderly brain is having a hard time adjusting to the change in routine.  This is a thinly veiled excuse for the late update.

I’ll throw up a quick, disinterested rehash of my weekend, for the sake of an entry.  We (Donette came with me) left KC on Friday afternoon.  Her parents had offered to watch the pup, so we had to drop her up there, and then we were on our way.  We had quite a miserable drive of it, as it stormed the entire way.  When we finally showed up in St. Louis it was nearly 8:00 in the evening, so we stopped by Trailhead Brewing in St. Charles for a quick dinner and then hunkered down in the hotel for the evening.

The next few days were a blur of working weird hours and seeing how long I could stay awake.  I’m sure nobody is particularly interested in the details surrounding that, so I’ll fast forward to Sunday afternoon.  After getting done at the office, we headed over to the Jones’ residence where they fixed me a stellar birthday lunch.  I was barely awake at the time, but luckily I was conscious enough to shovel down a good amount of food.  Dessert was about the last thing I remember, then I woke up on the couch at the hotel several hours later.  Semi-refreshed from the long nap, we headed out for a late dinner at a nearby steakhouse.  It was no Plaza III, but at less than 1/3 the price I couldn’t complain.

Yesterday we spent our day driving back to KC, and it stormed the entire way again.  Man, driving in all that rain wears me out.  When we finally made it back home, I spent the rest of the afternoon baling the lawn, which was about six days overdue for a mowing.  Blech, I hate that.  After that unpleasant project, we headed up to 75th Street for dinner and called it a day.

Another year, another birthday gone by.  I considered this a “milestone” birthday at forty-five, as it puts me on the downhill slide to fifty.  Most people guess me at around 58 anyway so it doesn’t really matter.  For the big event, I was secretly hoping to spend my day sitting in a small cubicle staring at a monitor.  What do you know, I got my birthday wish, just going to show that dreams do come true.  In addition to this exciting afternoon, I got some nice gifts too.  Besides lots of nice well-wishes on good ol’ Facebook, my Mom and Donette’s parents went together and got me a new fork for my bicycle.  (They do not know this, but they did;  Thank you!)  It has been brought to my attention by a few different people that my current fork (the part that holds the front wheel on) is not exactly, well, “safe.”  I’ve been intending to replace it all year, but a new one is just a bit pricey.  I guess I should specify, the new carbon-fiber one that I want is just a bit pricey.  I could get a considerably cheaper one, but I think everyone would agree that it’s better to wipe out in a spectacular fiery crash than to be seen riding around town on an alloy fork.  Makes sense to me.  From myself, I got a  USB TV tuner for my home theater PC.  This little toy goes back to our recent unplugging of the cable TV.  I don’t remember if I’ve rambled about this before, but our plan was to hook up an antenna and just watch local TV stations.  Well, as it turned out neither of our TV’s have built-in tuners, effectively wiping out this idea.  So this little gadget fixes that problem, as well as giving me a DVR and some other cool little features.

For my birthday dinner, Donette took me out to Plaza III.  I haven’t been to this fancy-schmancy place in quite a while;  High School prom I believe was the last occasion.  Took me that long to save up enough money to eat there again.  Heck I probably spent more at prom, because this time we had a coupon.  Seriously.  I used to feel a bit funny using a coupon at places like that, but I think I’m getting over it.  Donette had the prime rib and I had a strip steak, both of which were awesome, then we finished things off with a slab of strawberry cheesecake.  While I will continue to maintain that no dinner on earth is worth those prices, it sure was delicious.  After dinner we walked over to Brio and had a cup of coffee, then headed back home, as it was well after 9:00 and the old man had to get to bed.

Last night I got out for a bike ride with Munkirs.  Generally we leave from Mission Farms shopping center on Tuesdays, but I was car-less last night so instead we left from my house for a 17-mile loop.  On an unrelated note, we haven’t had two cars for long time, why have we run into so many issues with transportation lately?  Who knows.  Anyway, it was a fine night for a ride, a nice change from the recent low temps.  Little on the breezy side, but that would be nit-picking.  After our short bout of exercise, we headed down to the Brooksider to watch some baseball and eat a little dinner.  (Munkirs had been exiled from his own house by a group of bunko players.)  Might have stayed just a little too late, it was a chilly ride back to the house, but oh well.