Squeezed in another 3-day weekend;  Can’t get enough of those.  We got up early-ish Friday and rolled down to the Plaza for a pancake breakfast at the Cheesecake factory.  They were having a fundraiser for a good cause, and we like pancakes, so it seemed a reasonable start to the weekend.  After that we went back home, threw some clothes in a bag, loaded the car, and headed towards Harvard, NE to visit our friends Dan & Denise.  They achieved empty-nest status several years back and moved to a farm outside of Harvard, but we’d never made it out there due to the horrifically long drive.  That’s only a slight exaggeration;  It was a pretty doggone long trip, especially with an antsy dog pacing around the car.  We did finally make it though, with a only a few slight navigational snafus.  For the record, we tried three products to get us to their house;  Our trusty Garmin (with recently updated maps,) the new iOS maps on our iphones, and Mapquest.  The Garmin was ruled out right off the bat when it couldn’t find road 321.  Both the Apple and Mapquest offerings mapped it out, but with significantly different endpoints.  Given all the bad press the new Apple maps have been getting, we went with the Mapquest route. Bad decision, it sent us about 15 miles east of their house.  Switched over to the Apple map and it took us right to their front door.

Saturday we woke up to some great weather and drove to a nearby town to watch two of their grand kids play soccer.  The kids were 5 and 7-ish years old, so they were on different fields.  We walked back and forth watching them, and it was quite entertaining.  The older ones actually had a pretty good grasp of the game, we saw some good plays over on that field.  The little ones were just a pure comedy show.  They’d be running the wrong direction, or standing around in a big group waling away on each others shins while the ball was 10 yards away, or they’d just suddenly lose interest and start wandering off.  We got a good show on both fields.  After that we headed back to their house, and started getting ready to throw a watch party for the Huskers game.  When we planned this weekend a while back, we originally intended to drive to Lincoln and have a tailgate party.  As it turned out all the hotels there were full so they decided to just host the party at their house.  Good plan for me;  I was done driving anyway.  The game started at 7:00, and we had quite the party.  I will admit only a slight interest in the game, although they fixed me up with a Cornhusker shirt and coozie so at least I’d look the part.  Of much more interest to me was the feed table.  One of his boys brought out a large smoker and spent the day cooking up a ridiculous spread.  He did a brisket, several slabs of ribs, stuffed pork chops, bacon-wrapped shrimp, cream-cheese stuffed chicken breasts…  We did NOT go hungry.

Sunday we spent the day driving home.  The WHOLE day.  For whatever reason it seemed a lot longer trip heading that direction.  I was struggling to keep my eyes open most of the time, and Donette couldn’t take a nap because she had to keep an eye on me.  Whew, I’m too old for parties like that.  Teagan was totally wiped out too, she was immobile in the back seat all the way home.  I think she had as much fun as we did over the weekend.  She was an…  “acceptable” house guest.  There were a few mild squabbles with their dog, and she wasn’t overly fond of the horses.  (Especially when Donette went for a ride on one.)  For the most part she just enjoyed the big yard and all the fascinating new stuff to check out.  She had a big ol’ time at the party too.  Lots of kids to throw her ball for her, people dropping food all over the place, holy smokes it was a pittie paradise.  Next time she goes to a party and everybody feeds her treats I’m going to require they spend five hours in the car with her the next day to suffer the consequences with us.  Whew.

After a summer of rather lackadaisical training, I finally got in my century ride for the season.  I like to work in one big ride per year, and this year it was the MS-150.  Saturday morning I met up with a few buddies out at the Garmin plant in Olathe, and we joined a few thousand other riders heading towards Lawrence, KS.  Munkirs and I had done the 100 mile MS-150 ride before, but last time we went the opposite direction to Sedalia.  It was my friend Don’s first try at a 100 mile ride.  Overall, I’d say it was a positive day.  All three of us finished, so it’s a win in my book.  The weather, as far as the temperature went, was nothing less than perfect.  On the downside, we fought a brutal wind the majority of the way. Holy smokes, I’m not sure I’ve ever ridden in a wind like that.  It had to be a good 20 mph all the time, with gusts that would nearly put you in the ditch.  And, as luck would have it, it was always in our faces or across us, except for a stretch near  the end when we actually got to ride with it for a bit.  I guess we were in it for the challenge, and it certainly added to that.

For the most part, I’ll give the ride a passing grade.  The wind stunk, and I made the unfortunate discovery that Kansas is the biggest proponent of chip-and-seal road surfacing in the nation.  (I think my arms are still vibrating from that nasty crap.)  But, we had Donette and Teagan at a few spots along the route cheering us on, and I had a good time in Lawrence when we finally got there.  We got checked into a hotel and cleaned up, then met up with Don and his wife for a celebration pizza dinner.  I’d have liked to stay out a bit longer, but I was struggling to keep my eyes open so we headed back to the hotel to watch TV.  I think I was asleep by like 7:30.

Sunday morning, I got up early and headed down for day two of the event.  Don and Munkirs had made the (probably wise) decision to get back to KC by way of motorized transportation, so I was on my own for this ride.  That seemed to be a popular choice;  I’d say there were no more than a few hundred riders heading out.  It was a brisk start to the day too, a crisp 34 degrees.  It warmed up pretty quick though, and I popped in my headphones for a nice little ride.  It was so nice out that I gave a (very) brief thought to riding the whole 72 mile route, but luckily common sense kicked in and I opted for the 38 mile ride.  I’d had some nasty leg cramps during the night and I didn’t want those coming back, plus I was experiencing some discomfort in my… errrr… well… “contact points.”  Six hours on a bike seat will do that I guess.  Fine weekend of riding, I tentatively plan on doing it again next year.  I like the Sedalia route about ten times better, but unfortunately I don’t get a vote in the matter.

Oncall again last weekend, rats.  It comes in streaks I guess.  I still managed my fair share of fun though, if a bit toned-down fun.  Friday I dropped by the Brooksider, but only because it was a mandatory meeting of the TFB-BBQ team.  The American Royal is drawing near, time to start planning!  I stuck around 30 minutes or so, during which time we decided to A) Show up at the contest and B) Try to turn in our entries.  Planning is a slow process with this group.

Saturday I headed to Lee’s Summit and met Munkirs for the last Spin Pizza ride of the year.  I’m not entirely sure why they are cutting off the season so early, but whatever works.  These rides are just your typical “group” ride, similar to the Mission Farms and Brookside routes I go on nearly every week, but they put a bit more enticement into it.  They teamed up with Bike Source and occasionally raffle off gift cards, and sometimes they give away cycling socks or other cool stuff.  If you go on enough rides they will even donate to your MS-150 ride, but I ended up just a few short this year.  (I usually ride from the Main Street location if I go with them, and I don’t particularly care for that route.)  All in all, they are just good supporters of local cycling, and they got some dang good pizza too!   At any rate, for the last ride of the year, they offered a 40-mile option, which is just what we were looking for as we wind down to our “big” ride next weekend.  It was a decent route and we finished with a good time.  I sorta actually enjoyed the two trips up “The Hill,” as they called it.  That reference was to the big hill on the south side of Longview Lake that I used to ride up and down as a mere child growing up in Grandview.  Just as it was then, it’s a lot funner to go down than up;  I think the Spin team needs to consider reversing the route direction.  After that, Donette and I headed down to the P&L and had a late lunch at the recently opened Dubliner.  They were offering 100 extra points on my KC Hopps reward card for going there Saturday, and I’m always a sucker for those events.  (I wear that card out.  At one point last year they owed me over $400;  Then I decided it would break my heart if they folded and I lost all that money so I brought it down to a more reasonable level.)  This was our first trip to this restaurant since it changed over from Raglan Road.  The food was actually quite good, but being considerably out of our normal geographic dining region I doubt we hurry back any time soon.

Sunday was a low-key affair.  I watched the atrocity that was the Chief’s game for a bit, before flipping over to the Royals.  Neither game provided a whole lot of excitement.  I was pulled away from those train-wrecks around 2:00 to take Donette to the airport, as she will be working out of town all week.  After that, I pretty much sat on the couch and flipped between bad football games and bad movies.  Cinematic picks for the evening featured the Russian-language offering “Black Lightning,” which was a sappy action movie.  Eh, it passed the time.  After that I switched over to the horror genre, selecting “The Descent II.”  It was about as good as it sounds.  On a related note, we are seriously considering turning our cable back on.  I’m about 1/2-mad from watching too many low-quality movies on Netflix, and I’m tired of missing Monday night football already.

Another 3-day weekend, score!  And not a bad one at that.  I had Friday off due to my dedicated service as the oncall last week.  I started this fine day by taking Teagan out to the new dog park at Swope.  It’s right on Gregory Blvd, about five miles east of us, making it much more convenient than Shawnee Mission park.  Make no mistake, it’s not as NICE as Shawnee Mission, but a reasonable substitute.  If only they had a small lake…  But what can ya’ do.  We still had a good time I guess;  She fetched until she dropped, then we headed back home.  She took a good nap, then around noon her “private tutor” came over.  I think Teagan has noticed all the other neighborhood kids going back to school, and she felt a bit left out of the action.  So, I hired this lady to come over and give her a little schooling.  It went OK I guess.  We did some walking up and down the block, checked out her back-yard issues a bit, and went over some basic obedience.  As it happened, none of her usual “distractions” were available to give the lady a practical demonstration her nuisance behaviors.  The class went something like:

• Her:  “Ummmm  there really is nothing wrong with your dog.”
• Me:  “This is a scam!  She’s horrible!!  She’s putting on an act for you.”
• Her:  “She is acting perfectly.  She’s probably not going to bring you coffee or anything.”
• Me:  “She’s eating the neighbor’s garage!!!  LOOK AT IT, SHE DID THAT!!!”
• Her:  “Sure she did that.  Ohhhhh look at that lil’ face, she didn’t do that.”

Little monster, I tell you.  Oh well, it was sort of fun.  After that I headed down to the Brooksider for my Friday afternoon fun-time, and so went my day off.

Saturday was rather nice too.  Some of Donette’s running friends invited us up to Lake Viking, so we headed up there for a little boating, BBQ, and fun stuff like that.  Dakin joined us for that event, and I quite enjoyed the day.  Definitely scored on the weather too, it was NICE!  We even took jackets just in case, although it turned out just right for tee-shirts and shorts.  Good afternoon, but the drive wore me out.  (As most drives will do…)  When we got back home I hit the couch, and that was it for the day.  Queue the bad movies for the rest of the evening.

Sunday I started off strong, as did Donette.  She headed off for a group run with her sister (a 5k if I remember correctly,) and I set about a few household chores.  My major undertaking was re-siding my poor neighbor’s garage, which the dog really HAD eaten.  I swear, she did it!  We had to go to a custom lumber store, and bought 24 ft. of beveled cedar siding.  Want to know how much those boards were?  If I could bring myself to say it I would tell you.  Of course now the back of their garage looks a little patched up, (I’m not painting it,) but I guess it’s better than a big hole.  Hey, we’re the ones that have to look at it anyway.  I finished that project just in time for the Chief’s game.  I rolled down to the Brooksider for the event, but it was just too loud and crowded for me so I headed right back home.  One game kind of led to another, and I spent the rest of the day in front of the TV.  (The rest of the games were considerably more entertaining than KC’s, too.)

We actually left the house last night, an event worthy of a mid-week update for sure.  Donette went out for one of her Team Challenge training events, while I joined Munkirs on our regular Tuesday night bike ride.  My ride finishes at the Mission Farms shopping center, which we decided would make as good a place as any for a quick dinner.  We decided to have a bite at Blanc Burger, due in no small part to the fact we had a Groupon.  I’ve only been to Blanc once, and not the Leawood location.  I guess I do enjoy their burgers, but they seem a bit overpriced for my admittedly tight wallet.  The Groupon took care of that part though;  It brought it down well within my range.  Donette ordered the “INSIDE OUT” and I had the “BISON,” and we shared an order of the sweet potato fries.  Wow, solid burgers.  We cut them in half and swapped plates at the mid-way point, and I really didn’t decide which I liked better.  (Donette gave a slight edge to the Bison.)  As to the fries…  Well I don’t really even like sweet potato fries, can’t explain why I ordered them.  It was a great meal though, we will definitely be back in the near future.  I should say, we’ll definitely be back at least twice, because we’ve got two more Groupons.