We got to go to the late session of the Big 12 Tourney last night, marking only the second time I’ve been to the Sprint Center and the first time I’ve been to a Missouri game.  A little late for the old man, but worth it.  (Check back on that statement around lunch time.)  We took the bus down to the P&L district a little before the first game, around 5:30 or so.  That gave us time to check out the crowd for a while and enjoy the atmosphere outside the arena.  We watched the first half of the Baylor-OU game on the big TV outside.  Although that one was essentially over by half-time, we went ahead and went inside to watch the second half from our seats.  The MU game, when it finally started, provided much more entertainment than the first game.  Despite some rather horrific officiating, which seemed to be deliberately aimed at making the game boring, the crowd managed to stay into it.  We decided the outcome had been decided with a few minutes left and took the hike to the bus stop.  Turns out the outcome wasn’t quite so certain, but at least they managed to pull out the win.

We did our own little inhouse Fat Tuesday celebration yesterday.  Didn’t put much effort into it but it was good all the same.  We made a big pot of chicken and sausage jambalaya, and had a few pounds of crawfish to go with it.   Several years ago we’d have spent hours on the jambalaya, but we just ain’t got it in us anymore I guess.  Our kitchen is too dang small and it takes too long to cook dinner after a day at work, so we just broke out a box of good ol’ Tony Chachere mix, threw in some andouille and chicken, and it was just fine.  We even had a King Cake for dessert, festive!

Last night we went down to the Brooksider to say our good-byes to our friend Tommy.  A lot of people showed up, I don’t think they’ve seen a Monday night like that in a while.  We will sure miss our friend and neighbor.

Wow.  Monday again.  How deeply depressing.  Got a (very) little mileage out of the weekend though, hopefully that carries me for a while.  Friday I hit the Brooksider for a short while, but since it was too cold to sit outside I didn’t stay long.  Went down to Jalapenos instead and had some dinner.

Saturday Donette headed out early for the Diva Dash in JoCo with several other girls.  Few hundred women running down the street, probably all chattering.  Yeah, I think I’ll stay in bed for this one.  I got up eventually though, and found myself mulling over a return to the Brooksider for the Border War game.  I didn’t want to go, I had specifically planned not to go…  But it turned out the lure of the free breakfast was just too much for me.  They put a out a big spread to bring people in for the game, and the more I thought about it the better it sounded.  (I don’t really understand the strategy on the breakfast;  It’s not like they weren’t going to be packed anyway.  Hey, why over-think it though, just enjoy the grub.)  Plus, it’s not every day you can go to the Brooksider at 9:00 in the morning, so I hopped on the bus and headed down there.  The decision worked out well for me, as it turned out.  Breakfast was actually quite good, and I certainly couldn’t argue with the price.  The game was good too, despite the unfortunate (if predictable) outcome.  And I hate to admit it, but I got quite a bit of joy out of the whole CBS fiasco.  If you’re one of the few people that didn’t hear, CBS switched the game off for the last several minutes and cut to the beginning of another one.  Yeah, it was sort of a mood-killer, but all the KU fans were so distraught they totally forgot their annoying ritual of running around the place screaming their senseless chant in everybody’s face.  They all just sort of shut up and filtered out.  (Apparently, to read the paper this morning, without settling up their tabs.  Typical.)  Our big mixed-fan table stuck around for a while longer after everybody left, then called it a day.

Sunday I got a good start on the day up at the gym for a few hours.  Spent all my energy early though apparently, I didn’t have anything left for the rest of the day.  We did get out for a little lunch I guess.  We headed out to Barley’s clear out in Shawnee.  Actually it’s only eight miles from the house, but it took a solid 35 minutes to cover that short distance with all the lights.  They were having a “KC Hopps” event, where they took $10 off your bill and put an extra 100 points on your reward card for coming in.  I’m a sucker for a deal.  Had a great lunch too.  We both had some gumbo, then Donette had some kind of fancy salad and I had a big plate of crawfish etouffee.  Too big, as it turned out;  It effectively restricted me to the couch for the rest of the day.  It was worth it though.

Last night Munkirs & I went on the first “group ride” of the season.  We took off at 6:30 from Brookside with the aptly named “Slow Group.”  As was the case about mid-season last year, the pace of the ride made me about half crazy.  Being about a third crazy to begin with, this puts me dangerously near the tipping point.  I honestly don’t understand how you even go that slow.  I have to brake constantly, which irritates me and wastes my very valuable energy reserves.  An object in motion tends to stay in motion, as they say, especially when said object is comfortably north of 200 pounds.  I found myself watching people’s hands to see if they were braking in front of me, and they didn’t seem to be that I could tell.  Strange, I really can’t figure it out.  Well, hopefully we can stretch our legs with this group for a few weeks, get back into the swing of things, and then switch over to the “fast group.”  We’ll see.  Last year I could never quite keep up with them, which I suppose at least provides a little challenge.