OK, the new site is officially online, albeit in something of a beta status. There are still a few tweaks pending. As you likely have not noticed, the recipe section is missing. That’s because I can’t decide how to lay it out, not to mention nobody uses it anyway. It’s return is likely in the “long range” category. I haven’t moved any of the old pictures over either, and I’m not really planning on it. Lastly, I have already come to hate this WordPress thing that is running the Current Events. More to come, this stupid thing won’t even work. I’m done. Please to be checking back Wednesday.

OK, the new site is officially online, albeit in something of a beta status.  There are still a few tweaks pending.  As you likely have not noticed, the recipe section is missing.  That’s because I can’t decide how to lay it out, not to mention nobody uses it anyway.  That’s probably in the “long range” category.  I haven’t moved any of the old pictures over either, and I’m not too sure I plan on it.  I am not sure I like this WordPress thingy either, which is running the Current Events page.  It uses an SQL database, which seems to be a bit taxing on my poor little 133 Mhz processor.  Hence the ~6 second lag when you hit this page.  At any rate, everything seems to be functional, so I’m happy with it for now.  Thanks again to Ed for all the help with the layout and other random issues that cropped up.

Wow, we had a relatively busy weekend.  We started off Friday with our usual meet-and-greet at the Brooksider.  We spent a few hours there, and then our friend David met up with us.  He was on a driving trip from Chicago to Albuquerque, so he took a little layover to visit us.  For the most part we just sat around and caught up on news, and enjoyed the El Pinto salsa he brought us.

Saturday we started things off by laying down a good base of grub down at Sharp’s in Brookside.  David needed some carbs to continue his drive, you know.  I’ll have to say, I’ve been kind of down on ol’ Sharp’s lately, but they served up a good breakfast Saturday.  Might have to put them back in the rotation.  Todd joined us for breakfast too, and after feeding we took off to the dreaded Johnson County to watch Ed’s hockey game.  We finally found the place in time to watch about the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game, after wandering aimlessly up and down 135th street for at least an hour.  Most of this hour was spent either sitting at one of the thousands of unsync’d traffic lights, or trying to get around the idiot KS drivers who seem to revel in going 10 mph under the speed limit.  Mark my words, I will never, ever, ever, ever go down that street again, no matter what the occasion.  MISERABLE.  After the hockey game, we hightailed it back across the state line and hit the Red X to do some shopping for Todd’s big party on Sunday.  All that driving wore me out, so I sorta hunkered down at my computer for the rest of the day.  Doni and I hit Carmen’s in Brookside for dinner, and then watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith for evening entertainment.  (Thumbs down on the movie.)

We kicked off Sunday by participating in the annual Trolley Run.  Although I was fully prepared to skip the event, Doni surprised me by actually wanting to get up and go.  Personally I was kind of counting on a rain cancellation, but what the heck.  Kevin B. had hooked everybody up with entries from Capitol Electric, so we already had the shirts and everything ready to go.  (Which is the most important part of any run, bike ride, etc.)  As I mentioned, I was taken off guard somewhat when Doni got up and made the “go” call on the race.  I was even more surprised when she took off jogging right from the start.  We had signed up to WALK, and believe me I had every intention of doing just that.  Not to be shown up though, Martin and I gamely joined in the trot.  At least I was wearing some semblance of running clothes; Martin was wearing khaki cargo shorts.  Anyway, to make a long, arduous, painful, agonizing story short, we actually jogged “most” of the four miles.  Rather remarkable actually, considering my last jog of any note was last year’s Trolley Run.  While it is possible that I may be in moderate to severe pain for the next few days, it was rather enjoyable.  After the run, we all met up at Todd’s for his post-race fiesta.  We undid any possible healthy effects of the run with some mimosas, muffins, and the James-Family-Recipe breakfast casserole that Todd’s Mom brought.  We were having a festive good time, but eventually the run took it’s toll and I had to go home and take a nap.  After a solid sleep, we had our usual Soprano’s gathering.  We had a little larger crowd than usual; Bruce, the Martin’s, Susan, and Todd all came over.  We had a little spaghetti, watched the show, and called it a week.

Well, I actually had what I thought to be a much better post put together earlier, but when I hit “save” it disappeared into WordPress never-never land.  Sigh.  Learning curve I guess.  If this one gets eaten too there is a good chance I shall (literally) throw the whole thing out the window and go back to Blogger.

Well it was another shoddy weekend at the Kenagy household, in the entertainment department anyway.  Work is very overrated, but I suppose so is not working.  Can’t win.  Anyway… We started off good Friday night, for what that’s worth.  I met a few friends down at the Brooksider for a little happy-hour action on the deck.  Nice, sunny day.  After an hour or so in the sun, I headed inside to join “The Regulars” in the dark, smoky confines of their usual table.  Gotta protect my fair complexion, you know.  After enjoying their usual barrage of jovial banter and bad jokes, I met up with Doni and we headed down to the Plaza for a game of Euchre at Ed and Kim’s apartment.  They bought a house and will be moving soon, so we have to enjoy their convenient location while it lasts.  They will be migrating at least a mile or so, clear to the other side of the Plaza; Might not get to see them much anymore with a drive like that.

Saturday, for the most part, was spent working in the yard.  I bought a new weedeater to replace the one I fixed, so I had to catch up on edging and trimming and all that good stuff.  Gave all the bushes their Spring clipping too, and cleaned up the flower beds a bit.  After wasting the entire afternoon in this manner, we grilled some chicken for dinner and then just kind of sat on the back porch and enjoyed the weather.  I had to go into work later in the evening, so I had to stay rested up.

Sunday started off relatively decent with a good lunch down at Jalapenos in Brookside.  On a whim, I decided to branch out from my usual Sunday tamale plate, and instead ordered the rellenos.  Now, truth be told, I am not even a really big fan of Jalapenos in the first place.  I think perhaps they’re a little traditional for me; I lean more towards the Tex-Mex side of the house.  However, they do meet the criteria of “cheap and convenient” so it’s not too hard to drag me down there.  All this leads me to usually order the tamales.  My reasoning is, since I don’t particularly care for tamales, it doesn’t really bother me that the ones they serve aren’t that good.  However, if I was to order the rellenos, which I really like, it would be truly heart-wrenching if they weren’t any good.  Twisted logic, perhaps, but that’s the way it works.  At any rate, it was a successful experiment, as they were actually quite tasty.  Anaheim chiles, which I like, (not poblanos,) and lightly battered instead of the inch-thick coating you get at some places.  It is possible that it has been so long since I’ve had them, they just tasted good at the time.  But hey, whatever it takes.  After lunch my phone rang from work, and the rest of the day was spent in the abysmal horror of conference calls and cipherin’ on my laptop.  I even missed the Soprano’s party last night.  Bummer.

I claim a bye week on the update, due to Easter.  There is nothing that happens at Float Trip that needs to be rehashed on a public website.  Either you were there and experienced the horror first hand, or you weren’t there and don’t need to know what went on.  It was a good float; 50 canoes, hot weather, and good food.  That’s all I can say, under penalty of a grunching.  While “The Great Carl Incident of 2006” was rather interesting, “That Tree Thing” truly amusing, and “The Wounded Pledge” story fascinating, they are just not tales that can be recounted.

For the Holiday itself, we went to Mom’s for a traditional ham dinner.  I guess it’s a tradition for my family anyway, if not everyone’s.  The day was cut short though, due to a rather unfortunate situation involving a ladder, a tree limb, and a trip to the emergency room.

“Weakend?”  Get it, get it?  Catchy, huh.  Friday and Saturday were, for the most part, blown on work.  Necessary evil I suppose.  We did have a “movie night” Friday evening;  We made dinner and watched “Dodgeball.”  Man, it was just as funny the 22ncd time as it was the last 21.

Sunday was the only day of note, and it was rather boring even at that.  I mowed the lawn, so there’s twenty minutes accounted for.  After that, I embarked on a mission to fix my weedeater, which breathed its last breath in the Fall.  I started with the easy stuff; I figured after 8 years it was probably time for a new spark plug, so I replaced that and fixed the sticky throttle cable that had plagued it for a long time.  Then I decided to get fancy and take it all apart and clean it up.  This decision was probably the beginning of the end for the ol’ Ryobi.  I replaced all the gas lines, cobbled together a makeshift air filter, and took apart everything that had a screw in it and cleaned it up.  Upon re-assembly, I anxiously pulled the cord a few thousand times, and… Nothing.  Not even a sputter.  Not too remarkable really, considering the motor doesn’t even look the same.  I didn’t end up with any extra parts, but something just doesn’t look quite right about it.  I guess, bottom line, I’m just not a very good mechanic.  Now this may come as a surprise to those of you familiar with the considerable time and expense the U.S. Military spent training me to serve just such a purpose, but, no, it’s true.  Truth be told, putting a wrench in my hand may have been one of the single biggest wastes of taxpayer dollars in government history.  Plus, you know, there was a lot more to my training than just mechanic stuff.  They also threw in all kinds of other valuable life skills, like how to survive on a diet of crickets and dirt, and how to gnaw off people’s ears and noses and stuff.  Of course I never caught on to any of that either.  Gosh, 8 years of my life down the DRAIN, I can’t even fix a WEEDEATER.

FLOAT TRIP IN TWO DAYS PEOPLE!!!!