All is still well in sunny Kauai.  The sun is shining, the beaches are warm, and the waves are breaking.  Saturday we moved from our timeshare property to a nice 4 bedroom rental right on Poipu Beach; a nice little upgrade.  My chief concern with the new digs was the lack of high-speed Internet access, but my fears were allayed upon finding a nice strong wireless signal from some benevolent neighbor.  Now my only worry is the #)$*%^ ROOSTERS THAT @#$(*$%^ CROW ALL #$&%^$ NIGHT LONG!!!!  DON’T YOU EVIL CREATURES EVER SLEEP???!!!!  Feral chickens aside, we’re having a heck of a nice time.  As of this writing, Colleen is upstairs preparing a hearty breakfast of pancakes and eggs, after which there is a very solid chance we will go sit on a beach.

We’re out of town, so let’s keep things brief.  We kicked off our bi-annual Kauai vacation on Saturday with a rather miserable flight.  Nineteen hours from the time we left our front door until we opened the door to our hotel.  Sheesh.  After taking a little siesta to adjust to the 4 hour time change, we settled into our routine of snorkel, eat, sleep, snorkel, eat, sleep.  Things are good.  Seeing some whales, doing some relaxing, that kind of stuff.  Of course I managed to sunburn my melon right off the bat, dang it.  Get it out of the way, I guess.  Haven’t even taken my camera out yet, so no pictures to post.

Due to the recent outpouring of passionate opinion on the message board, I put up a BBQ Survey.  It will be available for 30 days.  This is the first link that came up when I typed in “free survey page”… There well might be something better out there.

I was the poor oncall sap this past weekend, so not much in the way of “fun” to relate.  Friday night was Doni’s office Christmas party, so hopefully Christmas is now officially OVER.  We went to that dinner theater out behind Microcenter; The exact name escapes me but I am sure everyone is familiar enough with the “Microcenter” landmark to know what I’m talking about.  (If you’re not, you should be.)  That was pretty good entertainment, as office parties go.  Dinner was very good, and then was followed by a play.  (Hence the term “dinner theater” I assume.)  I appreciated the performance very much, especially in the sense that it removed any sense of obligation to interact with anybody.  Anyway it was a decent play… And then we went home.

Saturday I was SUPPOSED to be driving to Hasting, NE for a big “Army buddy” reunion.  Alas, I got caught up in the whole oncall thing and had to cancel the trip last minute.  This threw me into a rather bitter funk all day, so I just sat home and pouted.  Actually I did make it out of the house to take Gabe out for a while, since it was such a nice day.  THEN I sat home and pouted.  I was somewhat amused by the dozen or so voicemails I got from the Nebraska crowd, but I have to think it would have been more entertaining to actually be there.

Sunday I worked on my fancy “new car.”  Doni scored a company car, so I commandeered the Accord.  I guess we are going to sell the Civic, which makes me a bit sad.  Personally I would rather hock the Accord but hoity-toity Doni won’t drive the Civic.  Sheesh.  So, I moved my XM receiver over to the Accord and took the bike rack off the Civic.  I am planning to move my super-duper Polk Audio speakers to the Accord too, but haven’t decided if that’s worth the trouble.  Anyway, after finishing all that, I took Gabe to a “play date” out in Olathe and wore him out, then went and watched the Pittsburg/Cincy game down at the Brooksider.  I was still pouty about being oncall, so I refused to have fun of any type though.  I was somewhat comforted with the thought that in another week I would be laying on a beach, kicking off two weeks of lethargy.

Happy new year and all that business.  This shall serve as the first official post of the year, so I should probably kind of ease into things with a brief, uninspired bit of drivel.  That way I will leave room for constant improvement during the upcoming year.  If all goes according to plan, this page should be a veritable entertainment mecca by July or so.

We started off the weekend on Friday with something of an impromptu gathering (for us anyway) down at the less-than-desirable spot known as the Granfalloon.  Ed and Kim (of edpaffjr.com fame) had roughly a bajillion friends and family in town for the upcoming Chiefs-Bengals game, and they all converged there to kick off their weekend.  I didn’t have my camera with me, but Ed’s family were snapping photos like a bunch of Chinese tourists so maybe he’ll put some pics up on his site.  As an added bonus, my almost-favorite-ex-waitress from the Brooksider had our section, so we got to catch up with her a bit.  We stayed out later than we should have, but had a great time meeting everybody and listening to their rather bizarre Bengals “chants”.  I was glad to be a Chiefs fan, I could never memorize all those little ditties.  I’m doing good to remember the words to the KC “nahhhhh-nah-na-na-na-nahhhhh” song.

Saturday we took it easy most of the day, resting up to make a run at actually ringing in the new year.  Gabe and I ran around a bit but mostly we kind of laid low.  We headed over to Todd’s around 6:00 for his New Year’s gala.  Despite our rather low estimate on the turnout (we were counting on Doni and I, and Susan if she was really bored) there was quite a crowd there.  I think there were about 20 people crammed in there at one point, and I am guessing 30-40 over the entire evening.  When the clock struck midnight though, it was just Doni and I, Todd, Susan, and the Scottens.  We all hung around and talked and partied for another 18 seconds or so, then headed home.

Sunday the football game took up the majority of the day.  We watched it down at the Brooksider, and somewhere around the mid-fourth quarter the Cincinnati gang stormed in and joined us.  They handled the crushing defeat rather well, apparently buoyed by the prospect of next weeks playoff game.  They seemed to have had a good time at the game though, despite less-than-hospitable treatment from what they termed “The biggest gathering of redneck crack-heads in central Missouri.”  (OK, that was my term… I think they used something like “sorta rude.”  Same difference.)  I was reminded of why I prefer to watch the games on television.  But then again, the Cincinnati gang had dined at Gates and labeled it “inedible swill” so I can’t really say much for their character either.

Monday I had lots of plans but none really came together.  I did make it out on a few computer-distress calls, but I watched little-to-no football, didn’t take Gabe exercising, and didn’t get to the store to buy all the “stuff” that I need.  (Headphones, a few XM radio accessories, and batteries in case you were wondering.)  Before we knew it, it was 5:00 and we had plans to meet Doni’s parents for dinner.  They took us and Ed and Kim to Hereford house, where I enjoyed a nice 20 oz t-bone.  We built a couple of websites for their trophy business so they were hooking us up for that.  Plus, it was Doni’s Dad’s birthday; But since he picked up the check I’m not sure we can count that as part of the deal.  Might have to go back tonight…