That was a busy weekend for me, but didn’t really provide much fodder for an update because I spent the whole time on a motorcycle trip.  I could cover our “week in dining” experiences I guess, just for the sake of typing.  We’ve been trying several more of the local restaurants since the smoking ban took effect, and have hit on a few winners.  Last week we tried The Gaff and a new Mexican place at the corner of 75th & Wornall.  The name of the Mexican place escapes me at the moment…  Cantina Del Rey maybe?  It got high marks in my book at any rate, it might even bear a few repeat visits.  The Gaff was good too, but the atmosphere was a bit boisterous for old folks like us.  This was mostly due to one particular patron though;  Maybe she won’t be there next time, or maybe if she is Munkirs will lend me his tranquilizer darts.  Or who knows, maybe she’ll find her “indoor voice” over the next few weeks.  Or perhaps, equally more unlikely, noisy people will cease to bother me, you just never know.

Anyway, my weekend was spent riding my motorcycle up to Des Moines for my Uncle Roy’s 60th birthday party.  After carefully watching the weather forecasts all morning, I finally took off Saturday afternoon.  The map I printed out estimated my travel time at 3 hours;  Some how or another it took me 5 1/2 hours.  Man I know I don’t exactly break the sound barrier, but I didn’t think I was going that slow.  I did dawdle in Indianola for a while I guess.  That’s where Mom is from, so I drove by my Grandparent’s house (I think) and a few other local “landmarks of my youth.”  It was a fine day for riding, that’s for sure, so I enjoyed it no matter how long.  Not too often you get an August afternoon in the low 80’s around here.  I’d made a few key equipment upgrades since last year’s ride to Hermann too, all of which helped out in varying degrees.  Probably the biggest improvement was my new seat, followed by the mesh jacket, and then the much-maligned tank bag.  The tank bag served no purpose other than to carry my map in a readable position, but that helped immensely.  Oh I also got some new headphones for my Ipod recently, and they performed just famously.  They are the kind that mash in your ears with the silicone pieces, so they fit very nicely under my helmet and effectively seal out most of the wind and traffic noise.  That way I can hear my tunes at a decent volume, without having to crank it up to an ear-drum damaging level.  Plus, I’ll never even hear the semi coming just before it turns me into a grease spot, which should cut down on my anxiety.  I think the only thing left on the “upgrade” list is a windshield, but I’m just not sure I’m ready to turn that corner yet.

I made it to my Uncle’s house around 5:30, just in time for the party.  Roy is something of a gourmet, so he had quite the assortment of feed out all evening.  There were several artisan cheeses, prociutto-wrapped figs, a walnut/parsley salad, tuna, pepper relish (big hit,) and even some anchovies, which I ate way too many of.  In addition to the birthday celebration, the fiesta also marked the unveiling of his new patio, which had been completed a few weeks ago.  It was quite an impressive structure;  I would have taken pictures to share but I don’t want Donette seeing it.  She’d have a contractor on the phone in minutes.

I spent the night at their house, then after a solid base of biscuits and gravy at the local diner and a driving tour of Des Moines, I headed back south.  They directed me to a large four-lane structure near their house called an “Interstate,” and this seemed to make a considerable difference in my travel time on the way home.  It was another fine day out so I still didn’t get in too much of a hurry, sort of alternating between I-35 and 69 hwy, depending on how I felt at the moment.  This new route shaved a rather remarkable hour and a half off my total trip time though.  Good grief there were a lot of bugs out yesterday though.  My formerly solid grey helmet is now a rather mottled pattern of varying color.  Might want to add “windshield wiper” to the upgrade list too, if they make such a thing for helmets.  I pulled into the house around 4:00, and we promptly headed down to the Brooksider for a travel-recap and a little dinner, then I went back home and wiped out on the couch about 7:00.  That motorcycling will take it out of you I guess.

That was a quiet weekend in the Kenagy house.  I should say, it was a quiet weekend out of the Kenagy house, as we spent most of our time on the back deck.  Lil’ Gabe is suffering from one of his all-too-common tummy ailments, and he has rendered our entire house uninhabitable.  I can say with all certainty that there are few, if any, things stinkier than a gassy Gabe.  I’m thinking about picking up some roadkill on my way home today and throwing it in the living room to mask the odor.  Thank goodness the vet will be open today, we can’t get him up there fast enough.  If there are any bright spots to the situation, I’m at least happy the weather was so nice over the weekend, ’cause there ain’t a single window shut in our house.

Saturday morning, inspired in no small part by Gabe’s “situation,” I decided to go on a motorcycle ride.  A longgggg ride.  There was a BBQ competition going on up in Excelsior Springs, so that served as a fine destination.  I had a quite nice ride up there in 70-degree weather, then spent the better part of the day hanging out in the Red Buffalo tent watching them work, and feasting on no small part of the product.  That pretty much took up my whole day.  Meanwhile, Donette retreated to the pool with “the girls” and did whatever it is that they do when they go there.  That sort of wrapped up Saturday.  Aside from making a rather tasty pasta dinner, we had an entirely uneventful evening.

Sunday morning, inspired by watching the Olympic “men’s pursuit” event the night before, I broke out the bicycle for a little ride.  I had good intentions of meeting up with some guys I met at the Brooksider the weekend before and joining them on their Sunday ride.  I thought that downright social of me, but I soon realized that I couldn’t remember what time they were meeting, or where.  Or even their names, for that matter.  So, I scrapped the “social” part of the ride, put on my headphones and took off by myself.  Probably for the best;  I think I need a few more outings before I’m ready for a group ride.  The weather was near perfect again, and I ended up riding a lot farther that I had planned.  Might as well enjoy it while it’s here, I figure;  It’s gonna get hot again soon enough.  By the time I got back home, a rather large crowd had gathered in the street for an impromptu “block party” of sorts.  Isn’t that just downright quaint.  What the heck, it was a great night out and it kept us out of the house.

Wow, kind of a struggle for a title this week.  Had to fall back to “generic.”  Generic is a good word for the weekend though, so it’s fitting.  We shook things up a bit on Friday and went to the Brooksider for our evening entertainment.  We sat at our same table, with the same people, and talked about the same things.  I find some comfort in monotony though, so this was all good.  It doesn’t make for very good news, but then precious little in my day to day activities does.

Saturday we got a rather late start on the day.  I got sucked into my stupid game of Bejeweled on the computer and couldn’t pull myself away.  It’s probably the most ridiculous game in existence, but I continually find myself playing it for hours on end.  For the record, I’m currently in the middle of my all time high score, just about to turn over 27 million points at level 100.  I was kind of expecting some kind of fireworks or spectacular graphics when I hit level 100 but nope, it just said “100.”  Oh well, it wasn’t the first or last let-down in life.  I finally tore myself away from this gripping waste of time around noon, and we headed out for a shopping trip.  After a tasty lunch at 75th Street, we walked around the corner to our friendly neighborhood shoe store and bought me some new shoes, which I was in dire need of.  I found a pair I liked, which was a good thing, but rather sad in that it marked the end of my beloved Salomon shoes.  They were a fine pair pair of footwear, but alas, they had fallen on hard times.  The soles were worn through, the insoles had collapsed, and they smelled like Gabe had been using them for a chew toy.  Which, as a matter of fact, he has on more than one occasion.  So, pleased with my new Keen boots, I had to throw away the old ones.  Well, actually I just set them beside the trash can, I couldn’t bring myself to actually toss them.  After that mildly traumatic event, we headed downtown to Kemper arena for the first annual “Wine & Brew Ha Ha.”  We weren’t going for fun though, Donette had volunteered us to work at it.  Ah, the life of a public servant.  It was a good time though, I must say.  We actually stayed for three hours after the end of the event, hanging out with the people from Flying Monkey (an Olathe brewery that apparently has no website) and a few other volunteers.  Quite social of us I thought.

Sunday got off to a similarly slow start.  I eventually drug myself outside to mow the lawn, and Donette headed off to the pool with a few friends.  After my yard work I turned on the Olympics, which occupied me for roughly 20 minutes, then Gabe and I took a nice stroll down to the Brooksider.  We hung out for a while watching the Royals game, then walked back home.  There was still nothing on TV, so I turned back around and went back to the Brooksider.  Donette showed up a while later, sporting a fresh sunburn, and we ended up making an evening of it.  Donette wouldn’t quit talking to strangers though so we had to leave after a while.  I got all socialized out Saturday night I think.

Golly am I glad to be back at work, with the free air conditioning and all the other good stuff.  The free a/c is all that jumps to mind right now, but I am sure there are other perks.  All in all, I guess that was a solid weekend.  Friday I stopped the Brooksider after work for Happy Hour, but the heat kind of drove me off after about 30 minutes.  Yeah, I could have gone inside, but I haven’t actually been through the door in over a month and I hate to break a streak.  I hear they have remodeled since I was last in there;  Guess I should at least check out the new digs some time.  After that short social interlude, I went on home for dinner.  Grilled chicken, if you care.

Saturday I spent the better part of the day over at Brice’s house, participating in a semi-official BBQ practice session.  I guess technically I didn’t actually participate, unless product sampling counts.  Remarkably we stayed outside the entire afternoon, despite the rather stifling heat.  Gabe came with me and joined in the fun too.  As it turned out, he and Bob’s dog Smokey probably aren’t going to be bestest buddies any time soon, but they did OK.  He got good and worn out at any rate, which is good for him.  The rest of us played some cards, watched the smoker…  Played some more cards…  Yeah that’s about it.  It must have been entertaining though, I ended up sitting there all day.  Granted, I’m pretty easily entertained.

Sunday I waited until it got good and toasty out and mowed the lawn.  On the surface that probably sounds like a foolish plan, but it’s actually part of my new diet that I’m developing, which is sure to make me rich.  Sure enough, after I finished the lawn I weighed in at an all-new low, proving that my diet actually works.  Some people refer to this condition as “severe dehydration,” but I prefer a more healthy-sounding spin on it.  After I recovered from the recurring waves of nausea, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing a little grocery shopping at Costco.  That’s a pretty solid summer Sunday afternoon there:  Cold a/c and free food samples.  Like I said, I’m easily entertained.  After that exciting outing, we went back home and got to work on some dinner.  John & Susan came over and joined us for some grilled hamburgers.  Last time we got together for dinner with them they fixed lobster, so we had to show them life on the east side of Wornall.  Of course we did grind the burger ourselves, for what that’s worth.

So I guess my vacation for the summer is over.  I’d say we pretty much maximized our time off though;  I’m absolutely worn out, and I definitely don’t have that feeling of having just left a few days ago.  As I mentioned briefly last week, we started things off at a two-day music festival in Denver.  It was all things that your standard music festival should be:  Brutally hot, exhausting, loud, and crowded…  But in an entertaining kind of way.  About the only bad thing I could say about it was that I didn’t like the four different stages;  Way too much walking for an old man.  This setup resulted in me missing the Black Crowes show entirely, as I was just too worn out by that point to walk across three soccer fields again.  And, I didn’t even know The Whigs were playing until just now as I was scanning the list…  Guess I missed them too.  Can’t complain though, we heard plenty of music.

After Denver, we headed further west to Vail to rest up.  I didn’t envy Ed & Kim having to work on Monday after the festival, I don’t think I could have done it.  We straggled into Vail late in the afternoon and got checked in, and proceeded to do not a whole lot for the next three days.  I don’t know if there just isn’t that much to do in Vail during the summer, or we were all worn out from the Denver trip.  (I suspect the latter.)  About the only “activity” we did the entire three days was renting some bicycles and coasting down from Vail Pass.  That little jaunt started off kind of rough, as it rained on us pretty hard the first 1/2 hour or so, but then the sun came out and we had a nice little roll down the hill.  The Martins rode the bikes a few other places during our stay, but we stuck close to the hot tub and pool ourselves.  Other than that, I guess we walked around a lot, ate a lot, and enjoyed the 75-degree weather.

Thursday morning we got up and started heading back east.  After dropping the Martins off at Denver airport, we kept on driving to Lovewell Lake in KS, a trip that took us a rather unexpected ten hours all together.  When we finally got there, we met up with the “old army buddies” for a reunion of the 295th Ordnance Company’s tour of Germany during Desert Storm.  One of the guys brought a boat, so we got in some lake time;  I even did a little tubing for the first time since my last ill-fated outing.  All my joints stayed together this time though, due mostly to the fact that we never exceeded 3 MPH, and the tube was so enormous I don’t think it could have flipped.  The rest of the weekend was spent grilling, and sitting around a fire re-telling our “war stories.”  The weather wasn’t quite as nice as Vail, but the company was a lot better so it made up for it.  (Thinly disguised stab at Martin there.)

Sunday we headed back to KC, which didn’t take too long.  We picked up Gabe from his Aunt Ronda’s house, then headed back home for a much-needed shower and nap.  The house looked the same as ever, with the exception that my Aerogrow garden had quite a growth explosion;  It now occupies the better part of the dining room.  I don’t know what’s on the dinner menu this week, but I imagine it will all have lots of fresh herbs in it.  I put up a quick 50-pic synopsis of our journey in the photo section…  How’s THAT for timeliness?