Another weekend gone, but it was well spent.  Friday night we went to the Royal’s game.  The game itself kind of stunk, but it was fun; good, cheap entertainment.  The fireworks were awesome too.  We’ve got season tickets with the Martin’s, so next time we go on a Friday night I’m taking my camera.  Probably won’t get any good pictures of the fireworks, as my camera seems to have issues focusing in the dark, but I’ll give it a try.

Saturday we went up North to Jeremy’s (Doni’s nephew) graduation party.  Ate too much, but it was a good time.  Of course the guest of honor was gone the whole time, but that’s to be expected.  Dang kids, what can you do.  That night, I went to a bachelor party for one James Munkirs.  Ahhhhh, yes, proof positive that you’re never too old to find that special somebody.  Sigh.  It wasn’t so much a “bachelor party” in the true sense; we’re too old and wise for that.  More of just a “gathering” at Paddy O’Quigley’s at 119th and Roe.  Yes, I went “out there.”  What the heck, it was a special occasion.  I made it up until the karaoke started.  Eeesh.  Plus, Doni kept calling me screaming, something about a bat flying around in the house.  I figured there was likely no truth to her rantings, probably just a large moth or maybe a sparrow.  Just in case though, Todd and I went to the Brooksider and hung out for a few more hours.  Why take chances.

Sunday afternoon, as I was making my lunch, there was a loud ruckus upstairs.  Investigation showed that we did indeed have a bat in the house.  Big fella too; wing span of about six feet, and two-inch fangs.  If I’m exaggerating, it’s because my perspective was skewed by sheer terror.  I don’t think I am though, this thing was huge.  Very aggressive too, and almost certainly rabid.  We did manage to open all the doors before retreating to the safety of the kitchen to plot our defense.  After several minutes, the most rational plan I could come up with was to ram my car through the west wall of the house.  Surely the resulting hole would leave plenty of room for the evil creature to escape, as well as provide us with additional living space.  After properly arming myself with a broom, I headed out to get my car keys.  Upon entering the living room, however, the bat was nowhere to be found.  So far he hasn’t made any repeat appearances; either he flew out the door or he’s hiding behind a picture or something, waiting to pounce.  At this point we are considering just abandoning the house and letting the bank take it, bat and all.  We were so shook up over the whole incident that we had to go sit on the deck at the Brooksider for the remainder of the afternoon.  About six or so, we headed over to Susan’s for the weekly “Sopranos” party.  I don’t care for the show so much, but we have dinner and lively banter, so it’s something to look forward to.  We had tacos last night; good stuff.  The show itself got thumbs down from everybody.  It was a tad too bizarre.

The links page has been updated a little bit finally; not with particularly interesting information, but at least all the links work.

We went to O’Dowds last night, just to wind down a bit and enjoy the tolerable weather while it’s here.  After several near-death traffic incidents and finally finding a parking place, we had an enjoyable time.  While I’m on the subject, this is probably as good a time as any to share my vast wealth of knowledge on driving.  This is not to imply that I am an exceptionally good driver, only that everyone else is exceptionally bad.  So, here is a comprehensive list of driving habits, and drivers, that annoy me.  Please make a conscious effort to avoid committing any of these heinous transgressions on your next trip to the store.

Phil’s List of Bad Driving Habits

1.  Going too fast or too slow
Next time you are meandering down the street, take an occasional glance off to your right.  You will notice several white, rectangular signs with big black numbers in the middle of them.  These are “Speed Limit” signs.  (Presumably named because they say “Speed Limit” at the top.)  Not to play the part of Captain Obvious here, but these signs indicate the approximate speed at which you should currently be traveling.  Bear in mind, this number could change frequently!!!  If all else fails, just take a look around you; if you find yourself consistently having to avoid running over the person in front of you, or notice a two-block line of cars behind you, you probably need to consider making a speed adjustment.  If you’re on the highway, go whatever the heck speed you want, I don’t care; just don’t do it in my lane.

2.  Any Johnson County driver
I try to be a little understanding on this one, as I realize this region is still new to the entire concept of motorized travel.  But come on now; when you laid down $40k for that fancy new horseless carriage, did it ever occur to you to find out how to operate it?  Read the manual!!!  That little lever on the left of the steering wheel?  It’s called a turn signal.  I know you probably don’t have a free hand, with your cell phone in one and your cigarette in the other, but at least make an effort.  Speaking of your cigarette, surely if you paid that much for a car, it came with an ashtray.  If it didn’t, you got ripped off.  What in the world possesses you to throw your trash out the window when there’s an ashtray right by you?  (Don’t answer that, I already know.)  All those pedals down by your feet?  Those are for speeding up and slowing down, and each should be used in different situations.  And believe it or not, all those differently shaped signs and pretty colored lights all have significant meaning.  The lines on the road?  You guessed it, they mean stuff too.  Go take a class.

3.  Plaza drivers, no matter where they’re from
For some reason I have not yet figured out, all common sense and courtesy ceases as soon as anybody hits the Plaza boundaries.  Those are city roads and the same rules apply there as anywhere else.  You can’t just stop in the middle of the road and gawk in the store windows.  There are other people on the road trying to get someplace.  If you are going one direction, and want to go a different direction, this would necessitate a “turn”, and consequently an accompanying “turn signal”.  See how that works?  Just like anywhere else.  Now about those crazy white lines at the intersections, and if you’re really supposed to stop at them like popular legend says… I’m indifferent on that one.  Go with your instincts.

Believe me, there are plenty more to list, but that will do it for now.  I want to allow ample time for these to propagate throughout the city, and then when all these have been solved I’ll move on to others.  There’s also a lengthy list of items that fall under “Things that bother other people but not me” that I could go over.

We’ve returned from our Vegas weekend.  We aren’t any richer, but we aren’t any poorer either.  We only gambled away three or four bills, which ain’t bad for high rollers like us.  And those bills were George Washingtons, not Ben Franklins.  Doni got bumped on her flight home and got a $200 voucher, so the way I figure it we won $200.

I enjoyed the trip more than I thought I would.  I must have been having a pretty good time; we stayed out until 1:00 every night, which is 3:00 KC time.  Quite wacky for us.  I thought about calling the Brooksider and seeing if they could kick me out over the phone, since I will almost certainly never stay out that late here.  We saw a concert at Mandalay Bay hotel while we were there, and THAT was cool.  Rather strange venue; they had a big stage out by the swimming beach, and they gave you towels to sit on when you came in.  There’s a very good chance my knees will never straighten back out from sitting on the ground for that long.  Actually, we sat through the Gin Blossoms and then went up front and stood in the pool for the Spin Doctors.  Very loud and a little wet, but fun.  We took a tour to the Hoover Dam too; that was very cool but we’d already seen it so nothing new.

Photos are up here.

Here’s the fantabulous new format for the current events page.  I’ve been resisting using this, mostly because it’s called a “Blog”.  Gimme a break.  Fat Boy Phil was blogging when blogging wasn’t cool, man.  I should have sued when they came out with that word.  It ain’t a “blog”, it’s “current events”.  Whatever.  You say tomato, I say current events.

Anyway… I’ve been slacking off a bit already on the updates.  BUT, the site has not been totally idle.  I’ve been working on “stuff”.  IMPORTANT “stuff”.  And then there was this thing with my “production” pc that shut me down for about two days.  I was out messing around on some rather nefarious websites, researching some rather nefarious information, see.  (No, not THAT kind of nefarious… I was looking for a particular sequence of alpha-numeric characters, relative to a particular program.  Get your minds out of the gutter.)  Next thing I know, I got browser hijacked like never before.  Holy smokes, it was nasty.  If you ever open Internet Explorer and your default homepage has been changed to “searchpage.html” and your Media Player no longer works, get ready to do some research.  Not as easy as changing your homepage back and running Ad-Aware, I’ll tell you that.  Bad stuff man.  Serves me right I guess.  All is well now though.

Doni is out in Las Vegas right now, some kind of work convention.  I’ll be joining her on Wednesday night, for a little vacation.  Being as I despise gambling almost as much as the word “blog”, I’m not sure how much I will enjoy it, but it should provide a little entertainment.  Sounds too hot for my taste.  I am hoping for some good food though, and we’re going to see a concert, so who knows.  Being optimistic and open-minded by nature, I’m sure I will have a good time.