I seem to have woken up on the figurative “wrong side of the bed” this morning.  Despite this hindrance, I will do my best at summarizing my 3-day weekend, which actually was rather entertaining.  Maybe the fact that it is over has thrown me into this foul temperament.  Who knows.

So anyway, Friday I had the day off, as previously mentioned.  I spent the greater part of the day on the PC in my endless quest for bicycle wheels.  A fruitless search, as always.  I did take advantage of my free day to join “the boys” down at the Brooksider for an early happy hour around 3:00.  That’s when they show up every day, one of the many benefits of retirement I suppose.  I hung out there for a while, even tried to have a cigar on the deck.  Too cold though, that didn’t last long.  We headed back home for dinner, then I tried to watch “Toy Story 3.”  As usual, I promptly fell asleep as soon as it started.

Saturday we joined our friend Ann for her annual “Snowball Softball” game.  Legend has it that softball was actually a part of this event many years ago.  That must have been a good many years ago because we’ve known her for a considerable time and I can’t remember that part of it.  Then again, I’ve never actually attended the event either, giving me a rookie status this year.  Basically the “game” consists of a pub crawl around several local dives, each location making up an inning.  It was a fun day, and I actually went to a few places I’d never been to before.  (This doesn’t mean I will necessarily go back to them though…)  Two such places were Flo’s Polka Dot Lounge and Tommy Farhas Cafe.  Not only had I never been to these places, I’d never even noticed they were there, despite driving by both countless times.  They were…  “Interesting.”  If nothing else they had good diversions;  I played several games of pool at Flo’s and they had a dart board at Farhas.

Sunday there was some football game on.  I don’t think anybody I knew was very interested in the game, but it did provide a good reason for a party.  We went to our friend Steve’s house way out in the southlands.  We don’t get to see them very often so we spent most of the time catching up with everybody, not to mention enjoying ribs, brisket, pork & chicken.  There was a big crowd there, and I really don’t think anybody watched much of the game.  We left at halftime, and I watched the rest of it at home.  Yawn.

I have the day off;  Should you be likewise blessed you should contact me asap as I am in need of entertainment.  I’m pretty much up for anything, as long as it’s cheap, warm, and within a mile of my house.  Other than those small qualifiers I’m raring to go.  I have even briefly considered heading down to “suicide hill” for a little sledding.  I pass by there every night on my way home, and it sure does look fun.  It doesn’t fall very squarely in the “warm” category though, and besides that it’s too early in the year for a trip to the emergency room.

Last night was another in my current run of uneventful evenings.  I essentially sat in front of the computer and watched craigslist all night, waiting anxiously for that perfect set of bicycle wheels to pop up.  They never did.  Sigh.  Guess I’m doomed to ride on a bent wheel all season, should the “season” in fact ever arrive.  By the time all this crap melts off it will be too hot to ride.  (Or too windy, or too rainy, or too dark, or….)

Wow I about froze my patootie off this morning.  It’s a pretty long walk from the bus stop.  When I finally stumbled through all the snow, I looked at weather.com and it said minus nine.  Brrr.  Double-brrr even.  I was bundled up pretty well though.  Last time we were out in Colorado I picked up balaclava on clearance.  I figured for ten bucks, what the heck.  I have long since gotten my money’s worth out of that thing.  I wear it all the time on the scooter under my helmet, it’s nice and toasty.  My other key purchase was a set of YakTrax.  While an admittedly ridiculous sounding idea, they work very well.  If they don’t shovel the sidewalks downtown soon I might pick up some snowshoes next.

We stayed in and cooked dinner last night;  Not too much to write about there.  Well, other than Donette’s batch of coconut & macadamia snow ice cream she whipped up for dessert.  Fancy!  But, rather than detail that delicacy, I’ll put up a picture of Kane’s latest acquisition, a Kitty Water Fountain.  Yes, this is what we have sunk to.  Here he is enjoying a cool drink of water from his new luxury.  The hand towel to his left is so he can wipe his mouth when he’s finished drinking.  Why ever did we purchase such an oddity?  Well, the boy has some kind of problem with water.  If you leave a 1/2-full water glass out, there is a 100% chance he will knock it over.  He has a full bowl of water all the time, but he rarely drinks from it, just sticks his paw in it and swishes it around.  Not only weird, but annoying.  I suppose the simple solution would be, “Don’t leave 1/2-full water glasses sitting around.”  Well, I just can’t seem to adapt to that idea, and I’m tired of finding all my papers soaked in water that he’s knocked over.  As it turns out, his behavior isn’t all that weird.  A little google-age seems to show that’s just what cats do.  (Making all cats weird in my book.)  They like running water.  Who knew.  Sure enough, he drinks regularly from this contraption, he will even sit and just watch the water flowing now and then.  Money well spent I guess.  (I’ll just keep telling myself that.)

Is this to be my last post for a while?  Will my website go down for an extended period, buried under two feet of snow and ice?  Oh the drama.  Honestly I think now that they have officially predicted “the worst snow storm in 50 years,” it is going to miss us for the most part.  You heard it here first;  There will be no significant snowfall in KC.  Just visit www.pkenagy.com for all your weather needs in the future.  I am a remarkable 2 for 6,564,348 predicting rainfall, we’ll see if that accuracy rate holds for snow too.

We went out for dinner last night, mostly because the news is telling us we will be home-bound for the next few days.  We decided on 75th Street, since it’s close and familiar.  Not much detail to go into there…  Uhhhh, we shared a pizza.  A very delicious pizza, as a matter of fact.  I elected to pay the dinner tab with our “points” for once.  They have one of those reward card systems, like darn near everybody else in town, where you earn points for money you spend there.  We’ve had a card for several years and although we don’t go up there that much, we have still managed to amass quite a few dollars.  (For whatever reason we don’t ever cash them in, we just keep saving them for who-knows-what.)  Well, in another one of my bold predictions, I have the feeling the restaurant is struggling a bit.  Wouldn’t it stink to save all those points for years and then walk up one day and the doors are locked?  Add to that the fact that we seem to be perpetually broke lately and I think it’s time to go on a run of free 75th Street dinners.