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5-9-7 8:18am

I think I am going to tour the insides of seven houses in the Waldo and south of Waldo area tonight. 4 of these houses Heath and I checked out from the outside over the weekend and liked enough to come back the other 3 we found on the website and they sound good. So wish me luck in finding my future home tonight. I gota move out of my current house before August 1st so I hope to get things going soon.

Last night I packed up the truck with lawn equipment and tools and went to Heath's. I had planned to mow the lawn, cut down a stump (not a stumpff), weed eat the lawn, add a couple bolts to the sandbox, put up the swing set, trim some bushes and whatever else the yard needed. I got there and attacked the stump first because I like to play with the chainsaw. The rotten stump went down easy and I was done with the chainsaw in like 5 minutes. Then I tried to start the ridding lawnmower and it was dead so I pushed it to the truck to jump it.

This was an action I would get very accustomed to over the course of the evening. It literally took me the entire night to get the lawn mowed. The ridding mower was riddled with problems in the tall damp grass. The blades were very dull and the motor did not have any power behind it so it died regularly. Also the belt for the blades popped off a few times and anything that could be a problem was. I'm sure I had to take it apart and jump the battery at least a dozen times. We got out the self propelled mower which is needed for tight spots anyhow but it had gotten soaked in all the rain and the air filter was ruined and would not let it get any air. We spent some time trying to dry it out but did not have good results here either. So at 9:00 it got dark and 95% of the yard was mowed a little was weed-eated the sandbox was unchanged, the swing set was still in a pile, no bushes were trimmed, I had not eaten dinner, I had barely drank any beer, both mowers were about broken but the stump was gone.

I was disappointed in the evening and sat on the tailgate for a beer then ate dinner and got cleaned up. Heath is in charge of doing some maintenance on her equipment (sharpen blades, new filter and belts) and Jon and I will need to make some adjustments to the air and gas flow on the ridding mower and with these few changes I am confident next yard night will go much better.

I'm also going to mention that Friday night at my house we will be celebrating a guest appearance by Mike "Stormy" Strohm home from Denver. No concrete plan is in affect but we will eat something then play and drink stuff and everyone is welcome and encouraged to come over. Saturday I'm heading down to Pittsburg for Grant's first campout. We will be setting up somewhere near my sisters house and fishing and having a fire and all.

Ohh yeah stooks, "poison ivy, poison ivy, poison ivy"

 

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5-8-7 8:16am

Did you guys see woot.com today? Could have gotten double atomic watches. I do like my current one though I wear it daily now. I did have to take out 3 links and tighten it down as much as I could though. Wal-Mart took out the links for Heath for free, that place is great.

While we are on the topic of great businesses lets talk about the Asian Alternator and Starter Rebuild shop. You may remember I took my starter there a month or so ago and for "no more then 70 dollar" they would rebuild it for me. (Disclaimer: no more then $70 means $70 every time) I got it back the next day and they had spray painted it silver? but I connected it to the boat and it spun really fast in test situations at my house.

So a few weeks later we took Grandma to the river and Jon and Steven were in the boat and I was lowering them into the water with the truck. Grandma got in and they turned the key and the motor started no problem a few seconds later the motor made a bad sound and died. They then realized they were drifting to the Missouri river with a motor problem and I had forgotten to bring the paddles. 

Luckily they floated to shore and we tied up and examined the problem. The starter spins a small gear like this.

It goes around in circles and each revolution climbs higher until the gears meet up with the big fly wheel and cause it to spin. Normally once the flywheel spins it starts the motor and then the starter drops back down below the flywheel and stops spinning. (this is probably a confusing description of the process and if you are more curious go to howstuffworks.com or ask me when we are standing near Grandma)

Well last night Jon and I confirmed our suspicions that the no more then $70 Rebuild Shop put the small gear on upside down so once is spun to the top of its cycle and caught the fly wheel it was just pushed up further until it got completely wedged into part of the starter and then it locked up the fly wheel. 

While on the river we just took off part of the starter with the small gear and since Grandma is such a dream boat we pull started it with ease.

So after work I went to the hardware store for a part to help Jon and I unwedge the very stuck starter gear, then to CVS for a 30pack of $10.49 beer, then to Jon's garage.

With my new coupling nut, Jon's vice and "big boy" ratchet and a couple pieces of wood we got the gear unstuck and drank a couple beers and talked about life. Then I went to mom's and met up with Heath and Grant, we made spaghetti and watched 24. It was a great episode. Then I tried to fix her vacuum cleaner and humidifier. Then I left and went to bed.

 

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5-7-07 8:05am

Today	Tomorrow	Wed	Thu	Fri
Strong Storms	Isolated T-storms	Isolated T-storms	Isolated T-storms	Scattered T-storms
High: 76°Low: 62°	High: 78°Low: 62°	High: 79°Low: 65°	High: 77°Low: 62°	High: 77°Low: 63

Well no sun in site, I guess it is going to rain forever.

Friday night Russ threw a housewarming party and we brought over a grill and wood and had a nice fire on his deck and grilled up some burgers and dogs. This was followed by some speed quarters and who knows what else.

Saturday morning we tried to recover as best we could after what proved to be a long exciting night. Then we got together the outside toys and headed to the park to play. A friend of friends, Jen was throwing a graduation party with a blues band, Oklahoma Joe's BBQ, coolers of beer and we were excited to be going. I think everyone had a good time but I can't be sure because I was only there for 1/2 a beer. I got tricked by a salad...

So we got there and fixed lunch plates first thing and I got a BBQ beef sandwich, some beans and a seemingly harmless salad. About the time I was finishing everything off I noticed something strange in the salad and in my mouth, Heath told me it was a pine nut and that my skin was turning really red. I was starting to sweat and breath heavy so Derrick drove me home like a race car driver and we ran inside for a shot of adrenalin and some Benedryl. When we got there I was spitting out mouthfuls of mucus, dripping sweat, bright red and my chest was heavy. I read the directions on my epinephrine shot that had expired in 05/03 and then plunged it into my leg.

Then I took some Benedryl and drank some water. I immediately cooled off and started to return to my normal color. Derrick made sure I was doing all right for a while then went back to the park and I laid on the couch and recovered from the attack. At like 5 something I was very drowsy and my chest was a little tight but otherwise I seemed fine. I went met up with the gang at the park but we pretty much just packed up everything and went home. I never really got better for the rest of the night and was barely awake. We did go eat some Waldo Pizza and I drank like a piture of iced tea. Once I got home from a big pizza meal I got in bed and crashed out in no time.

I woke up at 2:30am feeling 100% and still felt great Sunday morning. I convinced Heath we needed to go for a run in the rain and we decided to check out brush creek. We ran three and a half miles up and down the creek and it was pretty cool to see all the water everywhere. After the run we got some groceries and then went to my office and got an adapter for my laptop and applied for a few loans online. Then Heath and I made some chicken pasta stuff for lunch and watched several episodes of the Black Donnelly's on TV through my laptop. It worked really well.  Eventually Heath got sad that Tommy was not going to be a painter and instead would run the Irish gang.

So we got on the realtor's website and looked for houses. We got a good list together and then drove around looking at houses (mostly in Waldo and surrounding area). I think we ended up with 4 houses with follow-up stars by them that we will try to go look inside at this week.

After the house search we visited Jon in the garage a bit then went home and cooked up some stir-fry with some deer tenderloin. It was great.

 

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5-4-07 8:24am

blurb and pic day

YEEee-HAuwww, it's Friday and I think we should play today. Let's play find your favorite hair picture and link to it on the comments section. I bet we can find some good ones. If I find some free time this weekend I want to get mine cut because it is curling into my ears and that is when it drives me nuts.

Kentaro how was Spiderman 3? NPR reviewed it as not that good this morning.

I'm still itchy but well rested.

(no ivy on my neck)

There is a chance we will not be rained on tonight and tomorrow, that could make the weekend a lot better. Sunday on though it is back to the rain fest.

For some reason Ice Cream Social popped into my head the other day. Is this type of event totally dead or do groups still throw an Ice Cream Social now and then? Does someone want to throw one and invite me? Can you make it fun for people my age? Beer and Ice cream don't go together you know.

Stooks mentioned it yesterday and I forgot. George Clinton and P-Funk Allstars will be here next Wednesday night does anyone want to think about going?

Did you know the Hindenburg crash anniversary is today? Some random facts: No one knows why it caught fire, everyone who stayed on lived, people who jumped off did not, Japanese people are likely behind it.

 

Thanks for 2 of the 3 facts NPR.

Allright lets see some funny hair!

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5-3-7 10:51am

First off I am sorry about being so late today.  Second off I am not going to do a good post.  I need to get some work done and my ivy is really bugging me. I went to an Urgent Care office and they gave me a shot in the butt and some pills to take but it's going to be a while before this really kicks in. My ivy arm is swollen much bigger then my other arm and it's hot and red.

Last night I ate at a place called Fire Mountain. It was an American buffet and we ate a lot. The food was good but not great.

 

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5-2-7 8:28am

First off where do you all recommend or not recommend getting a loan for a house? I know several of you have done this fairly recently and I'd like a list of places you like or dislike. I think Saturday morning I will do some applying for loans.

The house we toured at last night was defiantly not for me. Maybe a little old lady could love it but she would have to be pretty little and not have much stuff.

The poison ivy battle continues and I was not able to make it through the day yesterday after lunch I was:
                very tired,
                            very full
                                     and very itchy and so decided to:
take half a sick day,
                    take some benedryl
                                       and take a nap.
                                                     ZZZZZZZZZZzzzz...

Heath woke me up at 5 something to go look at the house after that we went for a run but neither of us were really into the run and we did not run to far. After the run we sat on the porch and had beers to cool off. I could not just sit arround for long before the itches started to drive me nuts so I cleaned the kitchen made dinner cleaned up some more and tried to keep busy all evening. I took an extra long, extra hot shower before bed and applied salt, baking soda and dish soap to the rash. Before the shower I did a brief interweb search and found this page http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/kitchen.html about poison ivy remedies. At the bottom it suggests: "This is sounds silly but it works if you go get Cortaid Cream and wrap the infected area with saran wrap real tight real tight it will go away. When the infected area begins to sweat the poison ivy or oak opens up and the cream gets in the poison and clears it up."

So after my shower I put hydrocortisone on the ivy and Heath saran wrapped it for me. I took some benedryl and fell asleep. I had a good night of sleep and I can't really tell if it's better or the same but it is not worse. 

 

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5-1-7 8:25am

Well last night I went home and played with my new toys in the garage. First I put the weed whacker together and fired it up. I was pleased with it's ease of operation.

Then I got after the compressor. I had originally put it together at Heath's with limited tools so I got out wrenches and sockets and put the compressor together and then went after all the hoses and attachments to make sure they were all on tight and had Teflon on them.  I then took out the nail gun, paint sprayer, impact chisel thing and drill and looked at the manuals for them and started to put on their connections.

Heath showed up and we left my place to go look at some houses. We started using her cousin as our realtor and went to look at a few houses they found for us. We liked one we saw at 47th and state line and may go tour it and a few others tonight.

 

We worked our way to mom's for 24 and grilled up some steak, burgers and shrimp then watched the show. Mom had gotten me 12 polo shirts.

So a fairly normal night with nothing out of the ordinary.

unfortunately my night was only half over. I fell asleep around 11 I think but slept until just 3am before being unable to fall asleep.

I once again have a fairly wicked case of poison ivy or something. One arm is nearly completely coated from my wrist to wear my t-shirt is the other arm is more spotty and both my knees got it pretty good. So I laid in bed and tried to will myself not to itch for a while, then decided to get up I drank a glass of milk and turned on the latest Heroes episode on the DVR.

It was a great episode so I did not feel bad that I was missing my sleep. I tried to go back to bed afterward but could not get comfortable and I could feel my arm throbbing. I think I laid there for 30 minutes before Heath's alarm went off and she got ready for work. I watched tv in bed for a while then after watching a fishing show for a while I fell back asleep for like an hour before my alarm went off and I came into work.

This morning I took a special anti-itch shower and I am feeling pretty good so far just need to go get some coffee.

Chris' Anti-poison-ivy shower

- get the water hot

- try to get it hotter still (this helps to open the pores in your skin)

- this will turn the rash all red and swollenish

- get out of the water stream

- carefully rub table salt into the rash

- let it sit for a while (burns just a bit but not as bad as the hot water)

- rub dish soap onto the top of the rash and salt

- the dish soap will help get rid of the oil that causes the rash

- rinse the dish soap, salt and poison off with hot water

- cool the water down, get it as cold as you can

- this soothes and gets rid of all the irritation you just caused

 

 

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4-30-07 8:20am

Friday night was rainy and I can't remember doing anything to exciting but Saturday morning Grant woke me up fairly early and we started our day while Heath was flipping pancakes.

First I made some bacon and pancakes for breakfast then we got dressed and headed out to Hillsdale for some fishing.

There was a ton of boats and fisherman in our cove but we found a spot and fished for about an hour but had no luck. Then we went to my house and I ran the stroller to loose park and we played at the playground and fed the ducks. Then we went to my house and started a fire and cooked up some hot dogs. After lunch we took a nap and while Grant was asleep I got pizza dough made and made some pizza sauce and chopped up some toppings. When Grant woke up we made the pizza and then Heather showed up and we ate it all up. Then I left and headed to Lansing for my friend Joel's Batchelor party. I am fairly sure there are laws about reporting what went on a bachelor party so all I will say is that we rented a 12 passenger van and went to Lawrence for most of the evening.

I went home very early in the morning and then slept in. Later on I went to Heath's house and we went to Home Depot. I decided it was time to buy a weed whacker. They were out of the one I really wanted but I found a nice gas one that I think I will like. While there I went ahead and got a compressor too. I have wanted both of these items for a while and was hoping I would find someone trying to get rid of one or see one at a garage sale but I gave up and bought them both. The compressor is really cool 1.2 HP motor that blows air at 125psi and it has an 8 gallon tank. It also came with some cool (but likely poor quality) accessories. I got a paint sprayer, nail gun, drill, and some other stuff with the compressor.

After Home Depot we went to Heaths house and started a fire in the backyard and cooked up a bunch of Pork Chops, grilled shrimp, green beans, carrots and steamed rice. We stayed in the back yard most of the evening eating on the porch and playing in the new sand box.

 

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4-27-07 8:24am

Today there could be lots of announcements because, my watch showed up, my article got printed, pops got a new job and is moving and I got these two awesome Polaroid pictures to show you.

    

My day is running a bit behind schedule but I had to take the time to scan these in for you all.

So last night when I got home from work I found my watch had been delivered. You guys did not mention the sweet case it comes with, I thought this was really cool. I too need to get some links taken out so the watch will fit better because it is too big but I don't think I will be too big once it fits snug on my wrist.

Then I ate a sandwich and went to Jon's to get working on this house project he has going. Basically he has to get a dump house ready to be rented out. So take out all the stuff that has been left in the house over the years and make the doors work again and put new glass in all the windows. Last night Jon had a dumpster delivered to the house and we started clearing out all the stuff. It was one of the worst projects I have been involved in for a while. Most of our time was in a dark nasty basement that was full of mattresses, lots of clothes, trash, boxes and all sorts of random things. Also someone stole all the pipes out of the building so everything was soaking wet and really heavy. We hauled up the big things like mattresses first then got big strong plastic bags and loaded them up with nasty stuff and carried them up a tiny windy stairwell to the backyard and the dumpster. I really can't guess how many loads we carried up but it was lots and we even swept up after we were done. Then we moved into the kitchen and loaded up everything there, all the dishes, pots, pans food etc. It was kinda gross but I am used to dealing with dirty dishes so was not nearly as gross. Then we took out all the furniture and beat it into flat pieces with Jon's maul. After this the dumpster was just about full and the house was nearly empty. This had taken less time then we expected so we had a beer then got to work on the back door.  We had found several prizes in the house that we didn't throw away. My favorite was a huge 5 gallon glass jug that has to be good for something. We also found these pictures above, a new bag of bug killer and Jon got a nice big load of various metal to scrap. We about filled his truck bed with pots and pans and anything metal that he can turn in for money.

Just before dark we boarded up the house for the day and I went home for a long hot through shower and hoped I had not just gotten hepatitis or scurvy or something. Then Heath showed up and we at some leftover soup and sandwiches. I had to do a few things at work last night so around 9:30 we headed to the office. I put RAM in some servers, installed a new KVM extender and got Heath to help out installing updates on servers and rebooting them. We got everything done and headed home around 10:30.

Tonight I'm going to go back and help Jon after work for a while then met up with Heath and Grant for a run and dinner. I'm probably not going to run the trolley race but we'll see.

 

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4-26-07 8:05am

Today there are no announcements because, my watch didn't show up yet, my shoes are still missing, my magazine article didn't come out yet and I don't know of anyone's birthday or anything.

My plans for last night and tonight got flip flopped so after work Jon and I went to Mikes until Heath came over then Heath and I went to look at houses. We ended up with a huge stack of fliers, many with "Chris + Heath's follow-up star", and several numbers to call for more info. We also got to tour a house on 96th between Wornall and Holmes. I really liked the house because it had a monster deck and a big lawn that curved into some woods. It also had a premade boat parking spot on the side of the house and was on a cul-de-sac. Heath has probably convinced me that it is to small and she believes the basement to smell funny. (yeah amazingly Heath has a sense of smell still)

After a lot of house shopping we were hungry and gathered up Steven and Becky and headed to BB's Lawn side BBQ. It was all 4 of our first trips out there.

There is a massive construction project on 85th and Troost so getting there was kinda crazy but we eventually made it. I was surprised that the place was nothing like I imagined it. I knew what I wanted before we even decided to leave from earlyer conversations with Jon and I quickly found it on the Menu.

The Smoked Catfish is farm raised and then gutted and skinned leavening all the meat attached to the bones and tail. Then I believe they apply some sort of rub and stick it in the smoker for some amount of hours then pull it out and fry it. It's served with some tasty cole slaw and battered French fries.  Of course the bones are a bit in the way but easier to deal with then a trout and the meat is like no other catfish I have ever eaten. The BBQ smoke really gets in there and makes for some good moist meat. They also had $2.75 draws of any Boulevard beer that they claimed to be 16 oz but looked a lot smaller to me. All in all I was impressed with BB's and I plan to go back and try more on the menu. Heath got the BBQ meatloaf and it was tasty but I have had better (from my oven). We were all shocked by the very Un-Kansas City sauce on the table. It was loaded down with brown sugar or molasses or something that was not KC's signature vinegar base.

I am leaning toward running on Sunday and starting at the back of the pack and pushing Grant in the stroller. I have not run since my 1/2 marathon a few weeks ago but the stroller should pull me down the hill.

 

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4-25-07 8:22am

I don't have a lot to report on last night I got some stuff done around the house then met up with Heather and Grant for dinner at Heath's Aunt's house.

This morning I started thinking about the Trolley Run that starts in Waldo Sunday morning. It is 4 miles and supposedly all downhill. I will be babysitting Grant all day Saturday with no Heather around and then going to a bachelor party on Saturday night so starting a 4 mile race at 7:45am the next day could be a disaster or best case mildly inconvenient. So I am looking for other folks to join in and run hung-over or not. I have not registered yet but will if I can get anyone else to do it with me. It's $30 if we sign up before Sunday morning. 

2007 Sabates Eye Centers Trolley Run

The Sabates Eye Centers Trolley Run is the largest four-mile run/walk in the United States. Runners/Walkers come from 38 states and 3 countries to participate. The Trolley Run holds the female and male four-mile American Best Times, making it the fastest course in the U.S.!

 

I think my latest article in Radio World comes out today but I didn't see it yet so maybe I am wrong. I get excited about these so you are sure to hear about it.

Also e-mailing woot.com is on my list of stuff to do today. My watch has not shown up and I don't have a valid tracking number so I am worried that something went wrong. I really hope I don't have to go get a mac mini now.

Tonight Jon and I are going to be working on the house near his apt that his garage is on. Instead of paying rent on his garage he does work for the landlord. Last year he built/fixed the garage for his years rent. This year he is working on the house next to it. This house really torn apart and we need to get all the junk out of it and fix the doors and windows. The house is often a victim of squatters moving in w/ out permission and tearing the place up then moving on. Someone recently broke in and cut out all the pipes in the building to sell the copper. The building needs to be bulldozed over or burnt to the ground but the landlord wants to keep putting on new windows and doors so that is what we will do.

 

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4-24-07 7:58am

Well I looked around this morning and still no atomic watch delivery. The7:45a tracking number they gave me for FedEx does not seem to work either.

Yesterday at lunch I put together a vegetable beef soup and took it to Heather's house last night. Her stomach was bothering her so I kept it fairly simple and tame. Since dinner was an easy heat up job and it was so darn nice out. We got to work on the long grass, the questionable lawn mower and the sand box. The mower does not seem to run great and the battery is not charging when it is running. The mower probably died 5 times and each time I had to jump it with the truck again. This was very time consuming and annoying. Eventually we got it figured out enough to mow the lawn with it. Since I had gotten it started so many times then pushed it back to the truck the lawn had strange areas that had or had not been mowed.

I had never used a ridding lawn mower to mow a lawn before and it was lots of fun. Since you can't go back and forth easily like when you push I would make race tracks then follow them on the inside after each loop. I started out w/ Grant on my lap going at a reasonable speed but once he got off cranked it up all the way and tried to go around the race track as fast as I could with it getting smaller each loop and the turns getting tighter and harder to make. I'm sure I looked crazy out there speeding around the lawn turning back and forth. This experimental mowing technique did not do well for the lawn. Heath and I also took turns pushing the normal mower around to get the really deep spots that killed the riding mower and around the trees and obstacles that were hard to get close to on the ridding mower. I think the blades on the two mowers were set at different heights so the lawn really looks like Heath hired the special Olympics to come out and mow it for her but the grass is short and all 3 of us had a lot of fun playing.

After the lawn was done we decided not to worry about finishing the paint job on the sand box and pushed all the sand together then put the box on top of it.

Grant had been playing in the sand pile when he was not getting a ride on "the tractor" and when there was a box around it he got really excited because now he could make a pile and then jump off the box onto it.

Then we went to Sonic and got some sundaes and Grant ran around the playground until dark.

 

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4-23-07

Well I have lots of good stories from a good weekend in Kansas City. I think it would be too big a post to talk about all the stories I can think of. Here is a list of potential topics to discus today:

- Building a dog house

- Getting a lump on my head

- Stooks and I walk to Brookside

- Stooks' obsession w/ Charlie Hoopers

- Breakfast at Bell Street Mama's

- Jon's terrible house project

- Getting Grandma to the river

- Asian boobytrap gets my starter

- Ohh no, no paddles on board

- Let's build paddles

- The giant tunnel (what is this)

- The catfish and the limb lines

- Great rock bed for fire dinner and views

- The giant tunnel part 2 (the other side)

- Squatter fisherman steal the spot

- Getting a muddy Grandma home

- 1st Run since the race

- Cleaning up after everything

- 1st communion party

- family get together

- Chocolate milkshakes at Winstead's

As you can see I have a ton to talk about today so I am just going to pick a few things to mention. Since I have pictures I will talk about those topics first.

The dog house project got started shortly after work on Friday night. It had been previously determined to go with a mostly flat roof so Ranger (my sister Kelly's black lab) could get on top of the house if he wanted. I was not sure exactly what to do but first started constructing a large box with a crooked top. Then I decided to make an awning on the front like this.

Here is the finished shape:

It has a removable front (not pictured) to make it warmer in the winter. The house is really heavy and very solid. 

Late Saturday afternoon Jon, Steven and I took Grandma Natty to the Convergence. 

Remember where the rivers meet.

 

We had some early trouble with the starter, and then found out I forgot the paddles and then realized the boat was drifting toward the fast current of the Missouri River. It made it to the bank before getting to the Missouri and we got the starter taken apart enough so we could bypass it and pull start the boat. Then we cruised up the Kaw a ways and made some paddles out of drift wood and trash.  We continued a slow pace up stream just enjoying the river and drinking the beers. Then we saw a boat come out from a cove with a drainage tunnel in it. We cautiously made our way into the tunnel. We slowly drove Granma in deeper and deeper until we could see light from the other side. Eventually the ground got closer to the boat and the motor hit a rock and stopped. We paddled upstream a little way then gave up and drifted out of the tunnel. It was really strange looking on the other side and we were very curious what was over there. However we were also really hungry and came out and set up a temp camp site on a rock pile just outside the tunnel. Someone had built a huge fire ring on the rocky edge and there was plenty of good wood around.

Tunnel and our Fire (we just used the edge of the ring)

We built up a fire and then grilled a bunch of double cheeseburgers. As we were grilling the sun set and we had enjoyed some nice views. We still had a nice shot of the city downstream from us.

OK I am out of pictures now but want you to know we got long sticks and went back into the tunnel and got the boat up until it was very shallow then we tied it up and walked up to the other side. It was a construction project where a creek comes into the river. When we came out fishermen had taken our spot and fire and we took the boat over to them and talked for a while. The end of the tunnel is full of bait fish (minnows and shad) according to this guy so we want to come back with a throw net and get some.

My post seems plenty long so I will just mention one last bonus story. Matt would be sad if I did not mention the glass in the toilet at Hoopers full of puke. It was disgusting.

 

 

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4-20-07 8:04am

First off what are you all up to tonight. I'd be up with doing something, if not I'll probably take some Natty into the garage and work on some projects. Tomorrow I think Jon has a plan for Grandma Natty and the river.

Last night I took the lawn mower back to Heath's house and got it running again. I was missing a screw for it so we did not cut the lawn but instead gave Grant rides around the yard.

(note the partial paint job on the sandbox in the background)

He was nervous when I first got it running and drove up to him. The mower is very loud. But once we convinced him to sit down and grab the wheel he loved it. I drove him around the yard until I was bored then Heath drove him around the yard until the kielbasa was almost done.

Heath prepared a nice pork chop dinner w/ broccoli and ruby red grapefruit and we all ate it up before playing on the lawnmower but I had broughten over a sausage and decided to put it on the grill while we worked on stuff in the backyard.

We were all full from dinner until Heath started slicing the sausage and we could smell the polish goodness. Grant really tore into it and we had to monitor how many slices he could put in his mouth at once.

After the sausage was gone I went back to one of my other projects, the sandbox. Sandbox w/ primer coat

Last night we gave it a coat of primer spray-paint and then a coat of flat white. I think it may need one or two more coats of white or we could call it good enough and let Grant start playing in it. 

I am a little concerned with the sandbox and the ant population around Spring Hill. When I took the tarp off the sand pile I had put down earlier this week I found it to be covered with little ants. There is always lots of ants in Heath's yard and they seem to enjoy the soft sand. It will kind of suck for Grant (and probably me) if we get covered with ants anytime we play in the sand. Does anyone have any ideas for keeping them out? Heath puts some poison around her house that does a good job of keeping them out but since Grant will be in the sand box poison seems a little risky.

 

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4-19-07 7:29am

Ohh 7:29, I came in early this morning.

Last night we hung out on my porch until close to 6 then headed over to Nate's for the BBQ. He had a good backyard with Ladder golf and horseshoes set up.

There was 8 of us men there and a whole lot of meat and beer. Nate had some really tasty baked beans, chicken drumsticks, burgers, dogs, pork chops and dear tenderloins.

(look at all that meat)

He kept the grill full of meats and we worked on the increasing pile on the plate to the side. I am fairly sure everyone ate their fill and then some, everything I ate was really tasty. After dinner we got more serious about the drinking and the games. Once it got to dark to see what we were doing we put all the stuff away and headed out.

I got an e-mail that my new watch is on the way and was shipped Fedex Smartpost.

 

 

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4-18-07 8:41am

First off for the announcement to really have it's full effect I'd like to set up a little story about it...

Imagine a deep scary hole in the ground that looks really deep. In front of that hole is some vegan PETA dude with a bowl of cuscus. He is telling me that meat club is bad for animals he says "meat club is madness". I say "madness"? and look over at a giant bacon cheeseburger,

it nods it's head and I kick the vegan PETA dude right in the chest and say "This is MEAT CLUB".

(no meat was harmed in this visualization)

Back to Business:

So last night I rushed home from work and fired up my lawn mower, It was still running well from last season and I got busy on my lawn. I took a break and took out my oil plug and filter then mowed the rest of my and my neighbor Ray's lawns. Once the lawns were done I finished the oil change and then Heath showed up and we got out a couple bikes and headed southwest.

We got to Waldo and aired up the tires at the free air machine at the QT there, then went next door to Sutherlands to check on their ability to cut glass. (FYI: Sutherlands will cut you out just about any size of glass you need)

Then we got back on the bikes and headed off the trolley trail and into the neighborhood. We cycled around and looked at houses for sale. We found several houses Northeast of Waldo that we liked. There were 4 that we really liked that seemed to have good prices and meet my needs. Heath is calling them today to get some more info on them.

Ridding bikes all over before dinner was wearing us down and eventually we headed back to my house. We grabbed a couple of ice cream bars and hopped in the car. We drove back to Sutherlands and got the glass and some other stuff then went back and got the info on the houses we really liked. We got home just after 8 and it was about dark. I cooked up some spicy Mexican chicken dish and we watched House and The Shield.

++=

 

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4-17-07 8:06am

Well last night I was running around a bunch right after work. First I went home and changed, loaded the garden tiller into my truck, grabbed the fry daddy and a tarp. Then I headed to mom's house and met up with Heather. I unloaded the tiller and went to the nearby Aldi for my groceries.

 We put them in a cooler and drove to Ace Hardware.

I got a bolt that was missing on the tiller and a bag of weed and feed for mom. Then I went next door to the Hen House and got ice for my cooler and a new tooth brush.

Then we went to my friend Brian's house and shoveled some sand out of his sand box and into a wheelbarrow then out of the wheelbarrow and onto the tarp in my truck bed.

We took several loads then headed over to moms.

She had cooked up quite a dinner. We had a nice beef brisket w/ sauce, a salad with chicken on it, fresh pineapple, 7 layer dip, and French fries from my Fry Daddy.

 Before dinner I ran the tiller in the garden for a while. Then we ate and watched 24. After the show I drove the sand out to Heather's and we pulled and pulled on the tarp until it finally poured off the truck and onto the ground by the sandbox. 

Tonight I am thinking I will do some window repair and a nice bike ride. I'd also like to change my oil and mow my lawn but we will see about that later.

 

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4-16-07 8:29am

Well Friday I ended up working late and then went out for a couple drinks with some of the KCUR gang and Derrick. We went to Jimmy Jiggers or JAZZ and braved the rain storm. Afterward I drove to Heath's house and found it snowing heavily there. I passed all kinds of cars in the ditch on the highway.

We went to bed early and slept in.

 

Then eventually started our journey to St. Louis. The drive out went well in spite of stopping every 45 min or so for Grant to take a bathroom break

but it was worth it because he had no accidents the whole time.

Once in St. Louis we went to the Magic House and Grant ran around crazy for a few hours.

(no pictures of mine beyond this point, think about abandoning the post)

Yesterday morning Heath and I got up at 5:45, got our stuff and headed downtown.

We found a parking spot fairly easily and walked up to the starting line area. There were runners everywhere for blocks in every direction. We eventually got into the crowd somewhere in the middle and waited for the run to start. It reminded me of being on the floor at a big concert. You could not move with out bumping into someone and yet everyone was jumping up and down and stretching themselves in strange ways. It was also very unlike a concert. The very old and very young were right there with everyone else trying to get a good spot and stay "warmed up". Lots of people had a garbage bag wrapped around themselves (I guess to keep the heat in). There was lots people wearing shorts smaller then they should make shorts and there was spandex all over the place. It was interesting, attractive and disgusting all at the same time.

Eventually after much yelling into a microphone and everyone getting pumped up the race began ... and we all stood there... then took a step forward... then started walking at a slow pace... this went on for about 10 minutes before the people in front of me had gotten spread out enough to run. It was around this time that I actually passed the starting line. The first mile or ten was kinda crazy people everywhere going very different speeds from walkers to sprinters. You were constantly weaving through people and trying to cut your way into some open space. And to make it more challenging people were already losing clothes. First garbage bags all over the ground then more clothes, sweatshirts and pants, gloves hats you name it people were dropping it to be more comfortable and more likely to try and trip me up.

I have done some smaller runs before and have dealt with a crowded start but noting like this and I never got over how amazing the view was when approaching a hill and you could not see the road but just a crazy moving crowd in front of you. Then you look back and it is the same thing behind you. It seemed like after 7 or 8 miles things calmed down a bit and it was somewhat easier to get through the crowd.

My foot had been great all day Friday Saturday and Sunday for the first 1/2 mile. I could not even tell there had been a problem but after that first 1/2 mile the problem reminded me it was there. It was not bad at first and I remember a particular bend we had to go around at mile 8 where I stepped down strange and the foot really started hurting. After that I felt every step I took but decided I was going to be able to keep running till the end. I felt fortunate that my foot had behaved so well for so long.

Heath and I finished the 13.1 miles in about 2 hours and 10 minutes. Actually me in 2:09:04 and her at 2:11:13. We stuck together until the last mile when the cheering crowd got the best of me and I took off with some sort of secret energy supply that surprised even me.

Once done they gave us emergency blankets, medals and most importantly beer.

 Good old Anheuser-Bush had a beer tent set up and we got to start drinking immediately. The beer tasted great and made me much happier then the banana or bagel.

 

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4-13-07 8:30am

Well last nights working in the garage plan went really well. First Jon and I looked at Heath's new ridding lawn mower. We took out the carburetor, took it apart, cleaned it up, covered each piece in carb cleaner, put it back together and put it back in. Then we turned the key and the lawnmower noisily came alive. We spent some time tweaking with it to get it to sound and run better and even took it for a couple of rides.

 

I really like the lawnmower, it has 7 speeds and 7 is pretty fast. It seems to run really well now and is old enough to have no safety "features". You can stand up while driving since there is no sensor on the seat. This also means you can fall off and it will keep right on going. Even more exciting is the blades swinging below you. There is a handle to engage them and to move then down. When I first got on and drove around the mower hit a bump and the blades dropped. Also they seem to spin in the off position periodically.

We got out Jon's welder and installed a piece to keep the blades from dropping on their own and then moved on to the roto-tiller.

The tiller was also having trouble starting but once we took off the little air cleaner cap and squirted in some carb cleaner she fired right up. We let it run for a while and it never seemed to really take off. We could make the blades on it go but they never went very fast. We started messing around and found the throttle cable that controlled how much gas it got was sticky and not working well. We took it out cleaned it up and put it back on then it started and ran much better.

Then we moved on to the boat and got the depth finder connected to the ignition key so it could have power. The monitor came to life and showed us to be in 6ft of 40 degree water. I think it should work fine once the boat is in the water.

After the boat was done it was getting kinda dark and cold out so we put stuff away and went in to get some dinner. Heath showed up after dinner and we went for a 2 mile run. My foot hurts a little while I run but seems better each day. When I got home my foot felt fine again and I was excited to find it not sore today. The 13mile run this weekend is certainly going to be a challenge and I am not sure how it will go exactly.

What happened!!! I know I am a few days late on this one (keeps slipping my mind in the morning)  The black Donnelly's is apparently canceled that is terrible it was such a good show. There are petitions online but I wonder if those really do anything. Does anyone know the story here?

 

 

 

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4-12-07 8:12am

Kinda dragging this morning, may need a cup of coffee. First off yesterday's trip to Walsh's Cocktail Corner was a success. It's a small bar with quite a crowd on Wednesdays. We had 6 of us packed onto a pedestal table w/ 3 chairs for a while and then got to move to a table built for 4 later on. Just before the waitress showed up to take our drinks I noticed the tap proudly sporting the old school Natural Light

We ended up ordering pictures of this classic beverage and I was already impressed with the place. 

We had drank a couple pictures before ordering 6 bacon cheese burgers, all with cheddar, 3 with fries and 3 with onion rings. The burger and side combo was $4.00 and as suspected fairly small. The sign on the wall advertised them as 1/3 lbs. precooked weight and I feel that was probably a fair estimate of the size. The burgers were all home formed patties made with good meat and covered in some sort of tasty cheddar goo and good crispy bacon.

The fries were home style, looked like someone in the back was cutting up potatoes with the skin on. So the meal was good but small, If they had a jumbo burger or we had ordered some appetizers it would have been fine. 

I think we ended up ordering 5 natty pictures, 6 burgers and 3 amaretto and cokes. Our bill was $36 and some change. We discovered the pictures were $3 and we were only charged for one.

We all left tipsy and happy and slightly hungry.

Before this all began I changed Heath's oil and ran a mile. The mile run went well and my foot felt ok last night and more importantly good today. I think I'll try a couple tonight. Heath's oil change did not go as well. First I bought the same gallon of 10 W 30 oil I use for my truck then opened the hood and saw it required 5 W 20 so we had to take it back. Then I opened the oil filter and it looked all wrong so I sent Heather back to the store to check it out then I pulled out the plug that was on the side of the oil pan instead of on the bottom so the oil came out with some force and ran right down my sleeve. I had trouble locating the filter and looked in the manual. It said not to change the oil until the oil light on the dash told you to and gave no information about the filter. Heath brought the filter back and I found the old one and switched it out and we replaced the oil and everything worked out all right and I was very relieved I had not been drinking because this new Saturn may have gotten the best of me. 

 

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4-11-07 8:11am

Rain, rain and more rain. Last night I went to Heath's and made some kind of chicken Mexican dish, lets call it burritos w/ chicken, refried beans, corn, tomato, onion and peppers.

Then we decided to head outside even though it was raining. I finally finished getting Grant's sandbox put together and now it just needs paint and sand. Then we went to Home Depot to get paint for the box and a few other things.

So tonight I am planning on changing the oil in Heath's car in preparation for our trip to St. Louis this weekend. If I have time I may work on the dog house or boat. We were also going to try out a short jog. Then (around 7:00) we plan to go play some shuffleboard, drink some beers and eat some burgers. I'm not sure what the place is called but they have a burger special on Wednesdays.

 

 

YUMMY-FUN-TASTIC!

Also it is supposed to rain today and again tonight so we may have to do all this in the rain.

Then it is supposed to rain Friday and Saturday while we are going to St. Louis and running in the rain. Last time we did a 5 or 10K it was raining though and I was glad so that's not too bad but it is supposed to be in the upper 30s so it may be a cold wet run. I'm a bit nervous about this marathon now. It has been a week and a half since the last time I have ran at all or done anything very athletic. My foot has been acting weird and I have been resting it in hopes of it being better for the race.

Also Meat club is exactly 1 week away so start figuring out your schedule and let me know if you can make it.

The extended forecast says 70 degrees next Wednesday so that's lots warmer then today. Ohh yeah it is supposed to rain on Wednesday too. However I doubt they are accurate at predicting rain a week away.

 

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4-10-07 8:11am

Well it was another exciting evening of 24 at mom's. After work I went home and worked on the boat for a while and I think I am out of stuff to work on now until Jon is there to help me out or the weather gets warm enough to do some paint. I have a few things on my list I really want to do before boating season and a few I want to look into. Need to paint, improve the seating, find a hub for the trailer, work on the trailer lights, connect sonar to battery, and strengthen or replace the winch, test the speakers. I'd also like to look into installing a car gas tank up front, replace the steering wheel, and build a removable deck up front.

After working on the boat I got started on my sister's dog Ranger's dog house. I'm not real sure how I am going to build it yet. I have seen some plans online for the classic style

but I also like the idea of an A-frame

or a nearly flat roof.

The almost flat roof is appealing because it allows the dog to climb on top of the house and sit up there like snoopy always did.

Regardless the house will be about 3ft high, wide and tall.

Around 6 I left my garage and went to Waldo Hardware for 8 self threading screws. I saw several intresting houses for sale near the hardware store on my way out of there heading toward mom's house. At mom's I used the screws to put the bed liner on my truck tailgate back on and get it nice and tight.

Then I got out the tiller.
(like this but bigger, rusty and yellow)

Mom wants to plant a couple vegetables in the garden and I am in charge of tilling up a part of the garden so she can plan there. The motor on this little guy had gas and oil, I followed the starting instructions and pulled the string a bunch but it would not start. I took out the spark plug and it was pretty dirty and old but when pulling it seemed to have a spark through it still. I played around for a bit longer before loading it in the truck for me to take it home for some more serious tinkering.

We ate lots of Easter leftovers for dinner then watched 24.

 

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4-9-07 8:26am

Well Monday posts are never the norm and today is no exception. I decided to come in early today and replace the receptionists computer before she got in to work. This went much quicker then I anticipated and I was on my way home around 7:15 to shower and get ready for work. I'm still in my Easter clothes. However just as I was about to leave I was notified of another problem with a news booth and I have been working on it ever since.

So before I can do a good Monday post w/ pics of the boat and my garage and Easter I need to finish fixing this computer, go home and change, take some pictures and come back to work.

Here is an Easter pic to tide you over until I get back:

11am update

All right I'm back and ready to go. Easter was fairly normal. Grant woke up and found eggs aground his house. Then I made breakfast and we went to church with my family then back to mom's for Easter and the Easter bunny had hidden 300+ eggs. Then we ate lunch and he went to Heather's uncles house for more Easter. Then relatives came to Heather's for more Easter.

Friday and Saturday were much more interesting. First I got after my crazy cluttered garage. Transforming it from a huge mess that only had one small walkway through the middle to this delightful open space.

Then I made a list of things to do to the boat and started getting after them Note the fish/depth finder here on the dash. The monitor and sensor are attached and most of the wires are run and buried to connect it all. I left off the connection to the battery because I'm not real comfortable with the meter and I really need to know what wires near the key are (+) and what are (-). I did connect the finder to my battery charger and it worked good as far as I could tell with no water or fish.

Also Heather and I did some other work on the boat and Grandma is really getting close to ready for the season.

We got to make a quick trip to Cabalas' over the weekend and I found another prop for the boat on sale for $14.99. So now we have a river prop and a ski/tube prop. I'd really like to get a good stainless steel prop but they are about $200 each.

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4-6-7 8:03am

When I got home last night Jon was already there working on the boat motor. I joined in and we soon had the starter all attached. My wonderful $80 rebuild had left the starter with some noticeable differences.

1.    It had been spray painted silver (possibly to make it faster)

2.    It was missing several of the nuts that bolted it to the motor (we found extra ones in the garage)

3.    The little gear on top looked to be upside down and while still used looked much less chewed up then previously. (we were unsure if they knew what they were doing when they flipped it over)

We noted all these changes and decided to get it well connected as is and see if it works. Once all hooked up I turned the key and nothing happened. We followed the wires for it and Jon took some measurements w/ his meter and then jiggled a yellow cable. Then we turned the key and the starter spun. We made sure the wires were in good shape then tried to start it. The rebuilt starter had a much different sound and we soon realized it spun way way faster then the old one ever did. The boat (being cold and sitting outside for several weeks) started up very easily and roared to life.

(Getting the motor started last season)

Jon and I were quite pleased and took to fixing the gear problem. While spoonbill fishing the boat suddenly lost the ability to go in reverse or neutral. So once started it was moving forward and if you needed to slow down or stay in one spot you had to turn the boat off. While installing the starter I noticed a missing nut on the back of the motor and traced it to the gear changing cable and saw that without the nut when you moved the throttle nothing happened to the gears. So this was an easy fix. We found the missing nut and washer inside the boat motor and made some adjustments and tightened it down better then before.

Then we moved to the riding lawn mower and had no success there. It was decided sometime we had more time we would take the carb apart and check it out.

Then we got a little cleaned up and got some Wendy's and I went to Mikes with Heather, Derrick, Bobby, and Jon. I had several $1 PBRs w/ my Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and then went to Ward Parkway mall and watched "300". I enjoyed it quite a bit, a lot more then the Caribbean Pirate movie I saw last time in the theatre.

   

 

 

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4-5-7 8:13am

After getting my starter back after work I went home and prepared to test it, then realized my boat battery was nearly dead so instead I charged it and did some work striating up my very very cluttered garage. It has been very difficult finding anything in the garage lately mostly due to the ice house pieces and all the extra wood I have been collecting. Also just before the house was appraised lots of stuff got moved to the garage to keep it out of the way. I created a makeshift table out of some of my stuff and then cleared out an opening to the garage door and things already started looking better. Then I found my lawn mower gas tank and decided to try and get a self propelled lawn mower that Steven gave me working. I put in a bit of gas, pumped the bulb ten times and she fired up on the first pull.

 So I have 2 working lawn mowers now and maybe 3 not working or semi working ones at my house right now. At 5:30 I decided I had better get going and got some gas in the truck and dropped off my rent check. Then I stopped by Harbor Freight and got some new pliers, wrenches and a socket and ratchet set.

This will make boat/and misc. work much easier. I think I have 1/2 of what I bought but it is very lost in the garage or somewhere.

Then I went to Heath's and warmed up some leftover Mexican hamburger helper stuff I had made the night before. I used deer burger (of course) and added a bunch of peppers onions corn, tomatoes and stuff. It was really good and we ate it up. Then we had some pudding and Heath did some bills while Grant and I watched some snakes on TV then we died a dozen eggs for Easter. Grant had a tough time understanding "careful" and the first raw egg went on the floor. Then the next 3 or so went into the pot very hard and got very cracked and sprung egg leaks all over. I think H broke a couple trying to poke holes in each side and blow out the goo. So we maybe 4 eggs boiled and died with out breaking.

Luckily Grant had made 8 eggs at the baby sitters house and we could end up with a whole dozen to look for Sunday morning.

Tonight I plan to work on the Starter/Ridding Lawn Mower/Boat gear problem/Garage for a little while then go to Mike's for a drink or 2 and maybe take some food in then Heath and I are going to go see 300 since she got some less terribly expensive tickets. So if you want to join in any of the fun let me know.

   

 

 

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4-4-7 8:27am

Yesterday I rushed home after work put on some shorts and flip flops and got to work taking out the starter on my boat.

(not taking it apart like this but just disconnecting it from the boat motor by taking out the bolts and screws and wires that hold it against the motor)

Obviously the starter is responsible for starting the motor. When it is sent electricity from the battery a solenoid causes a small gear to spin and rise. This gear fits into the large gear you often see on top of the motor and makes it spin this gear forces the pistons to move and hopefully generate a spark that gets the motor going. So the starter has a fairly simple but important job. With out it you have to find another way to force the large gear to spin fast and get the pistons going. We have gotten quite efficient at "pull starting" with a rope wrapped around the gear and pulling it quickly to start things off but it is not nearly as fun as turning a key.

So I got the starter off fairly quick and rushed off to my local NAPA parts store in hopes that they would have a replacement. The young man at the counter did not have much luck but the old timer there got interested and found me one in Detroit that they could send over. However it was a $300 plus tax part. Wow that is more then I paid for the boat I thought. I got the part number from the guys and left to try out the other shops. At O'Reilly I got another young guy at the counter and immediately said they don't have boat stuff then got curious and asked around and started looking through books. He too found a part but had no price or availability information. He would need to contact the where house in the morning and find out what the price is on the part and if they have any. So I decided I would try back in the morning unless Advance could help me out.

Advance typed every number on the starter into their system and never found anything that matched. They never got out the old books but instead I "take it up to East West". I had no idea what they were talking about. They told me that there is a shop at 36th and Troost called East West that will rebuild any starter or alternator in about an hour.  This was another option I had never considered so called Jon and he said to check it out but not to pay if it was like $100 to get it rebuilt.

 I decided $50 was reasonable

 $100 was not.

I found the small tan shop and walked in the opening where a door belongs and into a dark cement shop with a small area for customers blocked by a large counter. All I could see where racks of parts. I noticed movement behind the racks and soon a small Asian man appeared. "Yes I would like to find out about getting this starter rebuilt please" I say. He looks at watch then says "ready in morning". "how much does that cost? I ask" "ahh most is $80,... $80 is very most, pick up tomorrow morning"  So the guy just wrote down Starter on a note pad and Chris next to it and our transaction was done.

I decided I may get it done for $50, sure it could also be $80 w/ lots of other taxes and bogus charges added to it where I pay over $100. So I am excited to go back this morning and find out if I get a deal or screwed.

 

 

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4-3-7 8:15am

Well yesterday was Monday and so it was 24 night and normally I go to mom's and we watch 24. However 2 weeks ago I was in Utah on Monday and neither of us had watched 24. So this week mom came to my house at 7 and we watched last weeks 24 and then this weeks episodes back to back. Since we were mixing things up I also prepared the dinner and tried up an experimental recipe of mine. I didn't take any pictures last night of the finished product but I can show you all the ingredients so you can visualize what we had to eat.

First I got some water boiling and got us each a big pile of noodles.

Egg Noodles

and Spinach Stuffed Rigatoni Noodles

I topped the noodles with some chicken

This was no rubber chicken though,

 I took some chicken breasts

 marinated in Italian dressing

and sliced them up extra thin

then I put them into a ziplock bag

with a couple of eggs.

Once the chicken was coated in egg, I pulled out each slice of chicken and battered it in a mixture of breadcrumbs
 

Then I took all my battered chicken slices

 and put them on a pan
 

The pan went into the 350 degree oven for 15-20 min
 

Once cooked I topped each persons pile of noodles with a few crispy chicken slices and then pored on some tomato spaghetti sauce

On the side we had some vegetable mix

A side salad

pineapple

 and garlic toast.

The experimental meal was a great success and turned out quite tasty.

I also had a nice fresh catfish

and so battered it in cornmeal

and put in in there w/ the chicken.

Can you just about taste it or at least imagine what it looked like?

 

 

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4-2-7 8:06am

Well this was my first weekend at home in a while and it seems like a lot got done. Friday after work Derrick and I went out and set the trot line. It was not too cold but the water had gone up a lot with all the rain and setting it was a little difficult. Then I went to Heath's and cooked up some Chineese food and did some home improvement stuff for her. We put up blue curtains in Grant's room and fixed up her screen door. We also watched KCUR reach our fundraising goal on the webcam.

Saturday was a long day for me. I woke up at 5:45am and Heath and I went up to Hillsdale and ran 10 miles. I took my GPS and it took us 1 hour and 55 min. After our run I tried to take a nap but was not able to fall asleep. I got up and made peanut butter tortilla treats for Heath Grant and I then drove back to the river to check my trot line w/ Jon and Stooks.

We had gotten some serious rain the night before and my line had broken and rolled itself into a big mess of leaves and tangled hooks. It took us an hour to untangle, repair and put back up. I was worried about what the water was going to do and about some meddlesome kids nearby.

We went to my house and fired up the grill for double cheese burgers w/ onion, jalapeno, mushroom and pickles. Also we fried up a batch of crinkle cut fries. All morning the weather had been great but partway through lunch it started to get windy.

I had brought home a ridding lawnmower that someone gave Heath and we decided to see if we could get it running. She was told all it needed was a good battery and a belt. We took out the battery and hooked it up w/ jumper cables to my truck. After a bit of tinkering we got it to start. We then put it away and went to get a battery.

Advance did not have the $50 motorcycle battery it was supposed to use. So we bought a $15 lawnmower battery and rigged it up to work. However we could not get it to start anymore. Jon believed it to be flooded so we went inside to warm up because it was really getting cold out now.

Once inside out of the wind and warm we gave up on the battery and trot line and laid around for a while. Eventually we got cleaned up started drinking and went to 75th street brewery. We had grown to a group of 8 now Geoff, Kevin, Derrick, Bobby, Stooks, Jon, Jenna and I. The food and beers were great. Afterward we went to my house and had a great night of speed quarters and guessing what song would come on next.

Sunday I helped Jon fix a misfire in his truck from a bad coil then went to Penguin Park with Grant.

Penguin Park is North of the river and a really cool kids park with lots of giant animals to play on. Grant was crazy about it and never stopped running and laughing until it was time to go.

Afterward we went back to my house for another cheeseburger BBQ. We had similar delicious sandwiches and fries but added corn, baked beans and pears.

After dinner I decided I had to bring in my trot line. It had rained then got cold then gotten really warm so I was fairly sure the whole thing was destroyed. I was hoping to reclaim a few hooks and clasps from it. When Heath Grant and I got there I saw it was still up and was really glad. I was not surprised to see 75% of the hooks were way out of the water since the river had gone down so much. I started bringing in the line and stowing it away when Heath saw a fish on it. I caught a nice catfish and a lot of trash in the small section that was still in the water.

 

I put up the line and cleaned the fish then got me cleaned up and went to bed. 

 

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3-30-07 9:33am

I had a meeting from 8-9:30 this morning so I am working on the post now.
Last night I went home and got some dinner started then enjoyed a drink or 2 on the porch with Steven. Then Derrick and I ate premade enchiladas homemade Mexican rice and canned chili beans. During dinner Jon showed up and wanted to play hackey sack. We watched South Park then went out front and hacked for a while. Then I encouraged the guys to go pick out a couple of good spots for my trot line this weekend. We drove out to the river and found 2 good spots and even a few good limb line spots. On the way home we talked about Grandma Natty and decided to ask at a few of the local auto parts stores about getting a starter for it. Nappa was closed, Auto zone stopped carrying the parts and O'Reilly and Advance needed a part number off it to even look for it.

So with the weather getting warmer I am getting overloaded with projects to work on and Grandma Natty is a big one. Jon really wants to get his Bronco running and build a fence for his landlord. Heather wants me to fix her ridding lawn more, build her a shed and several other home improvements, Kelly wants a dog house, I want to clean up the garage get lots of stuff done to my boat and a few done to my truck. All of these projects sound like good fun stuff to do but the enormous list is a bit overwhelming right now.

Over the course of tonight and tomorrow morning I will be setting my trot line and going to Heath's for a 10mile run, pepper chicken Chinese dinner, fixing her screen door, loading up her lawn more, getting Grants sandbox ready for summer, hanging curtain rods in Grants room and whatever else arises. Then Tomorrow afternoon I'll check my lines and play w/ Stooks.  So Saturday evening I will be ready for a nice evening sitting on the porch drinking cold nattys and seeing where the night takes me.

 

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3-29-07 8:10am

All right looks like today is lots better then yesterday. I am still having a somewhat busy morning even though I came in extra early but nothing like yesterday. First off Stooks is coming to town this weekend and I am going to try to convince him and Derrick to assist me in running a trot line this weekend.

Anyone want to be involved with that? I plan on driving the 10 min to Blue River a few times over the weekend and brining a few of these tasty guys home. Maybe fry them up for lunch on Sunday with a pile of fries.

Best News of the Day:

Thanks to Steven's assistance most of my Utah backpacking pictures are back.
(older Colorado picture)
Steven found me a program to help out with data recovery and it found over 300 pictures on my messed up SD card.  It looks like about 80 of my 96 Utah pictures were able to be recovered. I am still getting them ready to put on the site and hope to have them ready to go shortly after my post is done. I will have a link in the photo album and from HERE.

I have these 3 so far (some are Tony's)

We were all over this area most of the time we were hiking.

 

Tony took this shot of me looking out over the hills.

 

This was our home the first night. The ground was pretty rocky and far from level but we were happy to have it.

As I mentioned above I anticipate things slowing down at work this week and I am going to try to put together a nice website w/ a lot of pictures and stories from our first backpacking adventure.

Last night Heath, Grant and I went out to Hillsdale Lake for a run, a picnic and to throw rocks in our cove.  It was so nice out and we all had a really fun time. Seeing the cove really got me excited.

The water looked deep and our island was under water again. I really need to get on the ball and get the boat fixed up more and ready for this season.

Tonight I hope to open my bags from my trip and start unpacking and stowing all the gear.

 

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3-28-07 10:19am

I know I am really late on my first day back to posting. It is also my first day back to work and I have quite a list of stuff to take care of here too. I wish I could just stick up a few pictures from my trip and say good enough for today but I have some bad news about the pictures I took. It looks like my SD storage card died near the end of my trip. I think I had about a 100 pictures on it. I have not gotten a chance to play around with it today and figure out what is going on and if they are for sure gone but it does not look good and that is really sad.

Dad just called and said they are getting 2 feet of snow in the mountain today where we were early this week so we really lucked out on weather.

I have no idea how to tell all the crazy stories from our trip on the site especially on such a busy day. Maybe I will get some free time later on to try it out.

 

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3-22-07 The trail begins about here...

3-21-07 8:12am

Boy I'm feeling good today. I just finished eating the best apple I have had in a while a nice big red juicy one I got from Heath last night.

I'm about to finish a big glass of milk and a couple of hard boiled eggs too, quite a nice start to the last day I have to work for 6 days.

That's right I head to the mountains tomorrow morning very early (leave my house at 4:30am). Tomorrow we plan on driving around the Stansbury mountain range just south west of the Great Salt Lake. We will try to figure out where we want to start and finish our backpacking trek. Then Friday morning Pops will drop us off w/ nothing but our backpacks for our adventure into the wilderness. We hope to climb to the highest point in the range Deseret peak. We also have aspirations of hiking to a couple of mountain lakes, hot and cold springs, old mining operations, waterfalls and maybe we will see some moose or other animals.

      

We will stay in the mountains until sometime Monday afternoon and take all the food we will eat and supplies we will need with us. If the snow is not too difficult to travel on we will likely hike between 30-50miles.

(this is the Stansbury Range where we will be)

Ok now we will go out of the future and into the past. Heath found my camera, Grant had put it in a drawer inside an end table for me. So I have the fish pictures. Remember this fishy was about 13inches to small to keep.

 

   

At the same time Kelly snagged that cute little spoonbill I was destroying this poor little cat fish. The hook was bigger then the fish.

 

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3-20-07 8:41am

Well I worked a bit last night so I came in a half hour late this morning. It was a very active evening last night. I left work a bit early so I could get my backpack ready and me and Jon went back to Swope park to practice out our backpacking abilities. We still had rocks and lots of water in our packs to get them extra heavy. We hiked at the 2 mile trail all the way around and then back (4miles total) in just about an hour. So 15 minute miles this was a very fast pace and we only stopped to pee and make adjustments once. We decided that we were really getting the hang of backpacking and are really excited about our trip this weekend. 

Shortly after my backpacking training I decided to do some training for another up coming event. I have less then a month until the Saint Louis 1/2 Marathon.

I drove out to Corporate Woods and met up with Heath and Grant. We quickly got Grant in the stroller and took off at a fast pace. We also ran two miles then stopped and took Grant into the woods for a potty break then ran 2 miles back to the cars. Then we went to moms house for 24, dinner, and so I could go through the basement looking for any gear that may come in handy in Utah. I found lots of good stuff but not a tent I was really looking for. There is supposedly a good backpacking tent in the basement that packs small and light but I was unable to find it anywhere. That is not a big deal though because I have this tent.

and it is fairly small and light.

After mom's I drove to the KCUR station to get some work done that can only be done at night. I was lucky and everything went very smoothly and now all my servers are up to date and running tip top. I got done at 11 and went home to take a shower. (I had developed quite a funkiness from all the activities). 

Then I went to bed. Tonight I am going to make one last exhaustive search for my camera. I had it at the lake and then I remember looking at in in the truck on the way home. I thought I put it in my pocket at Heath's house to take it to the trail we hiked on but once in the truck it was not in there. If I don't find it tonight I may need to make an emergency purchase for my backpacking trip. 

 

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3-19-07 8:35am

Well the spoonbill trip did not go exactly as we had anticipated. It was really cold this weekend at the lake and that made it kinda tough. Also our hooks did not seem to find there way into the fish as well and we wanted. We only snagged one spoonbill and it was about a foot too short to keep. It was still a good time though and we all had some fun. 

Heather took this picture right after we got started, there was a cold wind on the boat and Grant only stayed out for about an hour. We decided 3 people snagging on the boat was probably better then 5 anyhow.

Here I am w/ a snagging pole.

I took more pictures out on the lake but have not moved them to my computer yet and I could not find my camera this morning. So hopefully tomorrow I will add some more pictures some with fish in them.

Kelly and Grant with Ranger. Ranger is Kelly and Chris' 11 week old black lab puppy. He is fairly small now but is expected to be over 100lbs when full grown.

Friday night and St. Patrick's day we went to "Fattys". It is a bar near the lake house that everyone in the area goes to. The food was good and the drinks were priced good ($1 draws on Sat.) They have keno and the little loto pull tab game. Grant loves pulling the pull tabs and even won $5. Of course they have Karaoke and Heather got up and sang.

We caught our fish first thing Sunday morning then packed everything up and drove Grandma Natty home. She did really well on the trip and started with out too much problems. Most importantly the radio worked great the whole time. Of course Grandma eventually had a little problem with the gears. I could only get it in drive so no reverse and no neutral. This may not seem like a big deal but when you are pull starting a boat in gear it can get a bit hairy.

Once home Grant and I took a nap while H went to work then the 3 of us went to a nature trail out by Hillsdale and walked around the woods or "jungle" according to Grant. I had a normal backpack with me so Grant curled up in the bag with just his head and arms out and rode around. We stopped by the lake for a potty break and his poor legs were asleep so the way out he rode on my shoulders.

 

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3-16-07 8:20am

Well good morning and happy Friday. I hope you enjoy the special green page for the holiday.

 

It's brought to you by Guinness
and the Irish Car Bomb
who urges you to stay away
from this police this weekend.

 

 

Steven and I are working on a batch of deer jerky and I think it is about ready. Probably will be done between 9 and 10 this morning. I am kinda excited to see what we got. I made 3 lbs and 3 flavors: Jalapeno, brown sugar and garlic. All three were marinated in a teriyaki mango cure stuff. Heather helped me pack the meat gun that I used to squeeze out the jerky strips.

+=

Also last night I was frantically getting things ready for my weekend fishing trip. I ran into some trouble getting the boat motor to start, getting the lights on the trailer to work, and getting the last tire aired up but with some determination all these problems worked out well and I am just about ready to pull the boat down to the Ozarks. I also put together a nice pork roast in the crock pot with potatoes, onion, carrots and BBQ sauce. Then got a bag of snacks and stuff ready to keep my new fishing buddy happy.

If it does not rain and the fish are biting we should have a great time... Wait a minute Spoonbill never bite they just swim around and digest stuff in the water so more appropriately... If it does not rain much and the fish are swimming in the same area of the lake as our giant hooks then it should be a blast. I don't think I have ever caught a fish as big as these should be.

A catfish I caught last year.

Kelly and a spoonbill she snagged last year.

Chris and a spoonbill he snagged last year.

Both of last years spoonbills were too small to keep.

Here is a pic of some guys with an old record holder they brought in.

Something anywhere near half this size will absolutely fill poor Grandma Natty up. It will already be holding all our beer and snacks plus Kelly, Chris, Heather, Grant and Me.

 

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3-15-07 8:30am

Yesterday Jon and I went for a practice backpacking hike. After work we got ready and then loaded up our backpacks with extra water and rocks to get them extra heavy. We weighed them and adjusted them until we were both carrying between 65 and 70lbs.

 Then we tossed them in Jon's truck and drove over to Swope Park. Once there we easily found the Fox Hollow Hiking Trail.

"The 2-mile trail offers limestone bluffs, riparian forest and wetland valley as well as a presumably adorable litter of eastern cottontails released at the trail’s head on dedication day." The trail was right behind the Nature Center http://www.lakesidenaturecenter.org/index.htm

We were surprised to find that it was a really great trail, lots of hills, big rocks, streams. Also it was fairly clean and not an easy walk in park kinda trail. We went all the way around once then most of the way back in about an hour and a half. Since this was a short training hike we walked really fast and as mentioned above carried the heavier then normal packs. I think we will get in two more trips before we fly to Utah and do the real thing next week.

I'm sure I will tell you all about our trip but I'll mention that we will be climbing Deserete Peak and the area around it.

   

Jon, Tony and I will be backpacking and camping on our own in the mountains for about 3 days.

In the more recent future tonight after our run Heather and I will be going to an advanced screening of an NPR show that is going to be a TV show soon. Here are the details.

 Get a sneak peek of the new This American Life TV series, Thursday, March 15
Celebrating 50 years of broadcasting, KCUR and 8-9-3, Young Listeners of Public Radio, invite you to attend an advance screening of the newly-adapted-for-television series, This American Life. Catch a sneak preview at Screenland Theatre on Thursday, March 15th, at 7 PM. Screenland is located in the Crossroads at 1656 Washington. The event is free and open to public radio listeners of all ages.

If you are interested in joining us let me know the more the better.

 

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3-14-07 8:25am

Wow the top of my site looks so bare now. I guess I should think of something new to talk about up here. Is Brew to Brew going to happen? We may be too late on that one.

Well last night was the second meat club if you don't remember and we had shish kabobs. I came home from work and immediately checked on the fire Steven and I had started at lunch. It was still going just a little so I added some wood and went inside to get the refrigerator organized for more drinks to be added to it. Then got the baked potatoes started. People started showing up and we moved outside and hung out by the fire for a while.

kinda like this:   

Eventually we were not as thirsty and more hungry so we got out the meat.

and put it on the grill.

We filled the grill w/ kabobs like this twice. Russ got the corn and dinner rolls ready. The kabobs cooked up and we dug in. It took a while to get rid of it all but we all had a potato, rolls, pile of corn and lots of kabobs. We let the kabobs stay warm on the grill and worked them over for maybe an hour before we finally ate them all.

After that we did not do much standing or walking around. Everyone stuck to their chair near the fire and did some major digesting. We discussed cooking up the cinnamon rolls a few times but no one had any room for them.  So we spent the rest of the evening hanging out by the fire drinking some beers and conversing about things men talk about. 

Today's Post was brought to you by

 Miller High Life Light

For tasting so good w/

dinner last night.

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3-13-07 8:39am

 

The second somewhat-monthly meeting of  Meat Club is tonight, MARCH 13

I have meat for 6. Russ, Derrick, Stephen, Matt, Brian and me. I can still fit one in if anyone changes there mind. Meat club will officially begin at 5:30 but the men are welcome whenever it is convenient.

The Menu for this evening, each man gets:

 
- an average sized baked potato w/ cheese and butter (maybe sour cream and bacon bits)
- 2 dinner rolls
- sweet corn
- pile of shish kabobs
- dessert jumbo cinnamon roll

Now since this is meat club I have packed the kabobs to the max.

1 lbs     of deer loin meat
1.25 lbs  of boneless pork rib meat
1.25 lbs  of boneless skinless chicken breast
2.5 lbs   of boneless beef chuck roast
1 lbs     of farmland blazing bacon

Each meat is currently marinating in it's own mixture of select marinade and seasoning. And this afternoon I will take them out and skewer them with a mixture of onion, green pepper, pineapple, and mushroom. They will all be cooked on a bed of oak and elm coals.

 

Bring your appetite, $7.00 and beverage of choice.
 

 

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I am running a bit late even though I woke up extra early this morning. Let me explain

 Last night I went to Corporate Woods with Heather and Grant again. Grant snacked in the stroller and Heath and I think we ran about 5 miles. We did stop a couple times so Grant could: play at the park, look at a group of 6 deer, hold a sleepy toad, and pee on a stick. With the time change it stayed light out longer so it never even got close to dark before our run was over :). Then we went to my mom's house for 24 we ate ribs, pizza, potatoes, strawberries, salad pudding and blueberry muffins. Grant went downstairs with the kids to watch "Finding Nemo"

and Mom, Heather and I watched 24.

Then I drove to the Price Chopper by Heath's to buy steak and other meat club supplies. I picked out 7 potatoes, 2 bags of corn, cinnamon rolls and then checked out the meat section.

They were closed for the night and there were lots of good looking steaks in the racks but I could not find 6 of the same cut and size. I decided to get the other stuff and go to my Price Chopper in the morning and look at the meat there. I paid for my other stuff and got in the truck. Then I started to panic a little thinking, I don't have 6 steak knives, what if more people want to come, or less people, paper plates wont work for steak, can I fit 6 steaks on the grill, do I marinade or not, rub or not, hot fire or warm fire, what do I know about cuts of steak??????

Then a thought popped into my head, "shish kabobs". I can incorporate many of the meats I love, I can do various marinades rubs and seasonings, I can have everything already cut, the fire won't matter much and everyone loves them. So I decided to pick out various kinds of meat and my trip to Price Chopper this morning went much easier. I was in and out with just what I needed and speedily set out to get everything cut and marinating before work.

So that's why I am running a bit late this morning. 

 

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3-12-07 8:20am

Well it feels like I had a productive weekend a bit sore and tired but feeling good. Friday after work (actually got started on my lunch break) I took the wheels off my boat trailer to be fixed up and then started taking off the hubs that the wheels attach to so I could repack the bearings inside them. I really didn't know how to do this or what all it involved but did know that everything had to come apart. I got one side completely apart and the other side almost there then Jon showed up and gave me some guidance on what to do. Then we planned our weekend backpacking trip and discussed our Utah backpacking trip (in less then 2 weeks). Heath showed up and we went to Jon's garage and aired up a tire and picked up my boat battery to get it charged up for my spoonbill fishing trip this weekend. Then we went back to my house and Heath vacuumed her car and I got the rest of my bearing taken apart and found some of them to be all rusted and ruined. Heath and possibly me were asked to fill in at someones indoor soccer game so we left and went to that to find out guest players had to spend $10 for a card to play. So we went back home and stopped at a few part stores on the way to get all the little things I needed to fix up my trailer. I cooked up some Mexican tilapia and stuff and we did no do a whole lot after that.

In the morning I got my backpack all packed and went back to work on the trailer. Soon Jon and Tony showed up and we drove to Lawrence for some Burrito King then North to Perry Lake. We hit the trail at 12:30 and set out a (literally) blistering pace. We stopped  every few miles to rest our legs, backs and hips but not long breaks. We hiked 9 miles along the trail then found a creek and headed into the backwoods following it. We needed to camp out along the hike and it's not allowed on this trail so we needed to get off the trail a ways and wanted to shortcut the 30 mile loop. I am guessing we followed the creek for about a mile then it ran way too close to a trailer park so we turned off it and started following north on our compasses try to avoid civilization. We maybe went another quarter mile then Jon suggested we camp here. We could not see any houses or signs of life and decided that was a good plan.

 

We set up the tent and quickly put together our home for the night before dark. I think it was between 5:30 and 6:00. We had drank almost all of our water during the hike (I had drank well over a gallon). And just before finding our campsite we filled up our bottles in the creek we had been following. So once camp was set, we got started boiling water. We boiled 2 quarts then poured in another quart and a pile of macaroni noodles. They started to get hot then we ran out of propane. (We had purchased more propane, fishing hooks, and some rain gear ahead of time and left it all in the car) So we built a tiny fire and got all our noodles cooked and water boiled. In the pot of noodles we added a packet of alfredo sauce, powdered milk, and a bag of tuna. We also ate fresh green beans, granola bars and beef jerky. It was a tasty dinner. We ate and sipped on some generic Canadian Whiskey. We could hear dogs not to far from our tent and now see lights at houses not that far in the distance so put our tiny fire out and sat by a candle for a while. Sometime around 9 we turned in and slept. I think it was almost 8 when we got up, but felt like 7 from DST. We quickly packed up camp, ate a granola bar and pushed our way through the trees, still trying to head due north. We soon popped out by a house and a road and realized how close we were to peoples houses where we were camping. We followed a small gravel road east for a way until it took us to the road we came in on and we followed that north until we got to the car. It was a very fast walk and we had gone the 3+ miles back to the truck in no time. Here we are walking up to the truck. 

I think we learned a lot for our trip to Utah and will be much better prepared for it. The rest of Sunday Jon and I worked on my trailer and boat getting the trailer all set and the boat motor running. The starter seems to be fried but it pull starts alright. Then we made some amazing bacon cheeseburgers for an early lunch.

 

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3-9-07 8:09am

Well after work last night I

drove to

 Corporate Woods

to go for a 5 mile run

with Heath and Grant.

We saw lots of ducks

and people running and biking.

We got done running just before dark

and went back to Heath's

house to make dinner.

I got 2 cups of moist sticky white rice cooking

w/ shrimp, pineapple,

brockoli and some other vegtables.

I made a sweet sauce to drizzle it all with. It turned out very yummy

and we all enjoyed it a lot.

Well that is enough of that. This weekend I am going to Perry Lake for a practice backpacking trip I also hope to do some work on my boat so I can take it spoonbilling next weekend.

 

 

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3-8-7 8:30am

Well the truck is back in action. Last night we got a little bit of a late start because Jon got stuck in a meeting. So we got into it between 5:30 and 6:00pm and things seemed to go fairly well. We had a little bit of trouble getting the seals in just right and dealing with one troublesome bolt. This bolt was a bit bent so we had to fix the threads and straiten it out but eventually we got it back where it belonged. Other then that the new one went right in where the old one had lived. I think it was just before 9 when we had it back together. Then it was time to take it out of Jon's garage and this was a bigger trouble then I had expected. He has some concrete damage and backing the truck out was really tough on this and his ramps. Then it was time to test drive. First the breaks were really noisy but they soon went back to normal (kinda noisy). We drove around the block and everything was good, then we took it on the highway and everything was good, no crazy noises or anything. Then we got it off the highway and did some 4 wheel drive testing. First I kicked it into 4 high and drove up and down this cliff off 37th street.

 

 

 

That went pretty well the front wheels seemed to hold there ground so I went ahead and eased it into 4 low and drove through these wavy hills in this painting. 

 

 

 

So I have just short of 90 days to return the differential but so far it looks like a keeper. I think I saved myself about $1000 w/ using a salvaged part and doing it myself Thanks to Jon and  Derrick's help.

Other news my landlord Max has gone balls to the walls in getting the house ready for appraisal and  really done a nice job getting everything painted and cleaned up I am very curious to hear about the sale.

I think I am going to try to get my boat trailer ready for a road trip a week from tomorrow. It's going to be a close call but I may be able to get the wheels/tires fixed and get the bearings packed with grease and ready to roll. I hope to take it on Kelly and Chris' Spoonbill extravaganza.

 

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3-7-7 8:32am

So last night I walked home from work and met up with Heath. We ran over to the trolley path and then to 79th street and back, about 7 miles. It was really nice out and the run went great but we were really hungry. After the run we showered up and put on some halfway fancy clothes and went out to dinner. We went to a fairly new Japanese place in Brookside called Domo, I think. (Yes, like domo aregato mister robato) It was a nice fancy place with slightly scary prices at an initial glance. We ordered both of the house specialties and asked for some miso soup and spring rolls. After a bit of sitting around and taking the place in we decided to get a large order of hot house saki. We received this and our spring rolls early on and both were good. The spring rolls were like nothing I had seen before they were cabbage, shrimp, noodles and probably some other stuff wrapped in a nearly clear plastic looking membrane stuff. It was good though. The saki was served hotter then I remembered ever getting it but it was quite good. Then I got a very pretty plate of salmon and white fish and Heather got a nice order of albacore tuna. We both shared each others and they were great. There was an older Japanese lady in a kimono sitting at the bar near us that was very concerned with our happiness. She brought us free rice and and some special hot sauce stuff and said we ordered her favorite stuff and really worked us over about how good the food is.  She also went to great lengths to apologies and explain the sushi chef. She told us that he was trained for 15 years and is an amazing chef and blah blah he is great but... he is Mexican not Japanese. I thought this was pretty funny. Then our waiter came and explained to us the story of the guy who robbed Commerce Bank then ran into the store and ordered a steak and some beer then was apprehended by the police. We cleaned our plates and our saki jug and received our $40 bill. I figure this is not bad for appetizer soup, rice, fish and drinks for two. The bad part was that afterwards we were hungry and made a huge plate of nachos then turkey sandwich before we were full. But how can we expect the Japanese to understand an American hunger.

 

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3-6-7 8:19am

So Heath is very wound up about the Royals Home Opener and it's come to my attention tickets are all sold out. I'm considering going anyway and having a tailgate party in the parking lot the whole time. It's been a while since I have had a Bacon Burger Dog and if the weather is nice it could be a good time. Your boss doesn't have to know you don't have tickets right?

Possibly even more fun because we could get tickets and I don't actually know of anyone going before we could go see the KC Brigade Arena Football team play sometime soon. I enjoy watching the games on TV and think I would like them even more in person. Has anyone been? Does anyone want to schedule a game to go to and tailgate for?

Last night Jon picked me up at about 4:15 and we went to the local O'Reilly Auto Parts to get some snap ring pliers and a fancy new drop light. The place was packed full of local yahoos and it took us forever to get what we needed and be wrung up. But we did escape and made it back to Jon's to work on the truck. Now I should mention that last Sunday we barley got started on the truck because most of our time was spent cleaning up pepper spray. We washed the heck out of everything. I should mention that last Friday Jon was working in the garage and blew a fuse he continued to work w/ no power for a bit then closed up shop and went up to his apartment and flipped the breaker then decided to go back to the shop and get something. This process set off the mace bomb. Now I should mention that a couple months ago Jon built a mace bomb that totally wreaks his garage and makes it terrible to be inside. Now I should mention that several months ago some people decided to break into Jon's garage and steal all his stuff so he needed something to keep them out and came up w/ a mace bomb.

So back to last night. There was still a terrible lingering pepper spray presence that we had to deal with and I decided that every time I work in Jon's shop I feel like I am getting the flu, my nose runs, I cough and sneeze all the time and my lips taste spicy for hours afterwards. We bucked down and got to work though and really struggled with some small plastic snap rings that had to come off to get the axle out. They were really small and in a tight space and I think we spent most of our time getting them out. Once they were out we flew though getting the axles out and the bolts on the differential. It seemed to come out in no time. Once out we took an air brake outside and decided to get started on installing the new ones but decided we should get some new seals from the parts store before we put the differential in. It was 7:45 and we rushed up to the store trying to get there by 8. (found out later they were open till 9) We went to Advance Auto parts and both employees were busy at first but then one on the phone helped us look up our parts. He started to cough and sneeze from standing near us and we giggled. They were out of the seals so we went back to O'Reilly and promptly bought 2 seals they assured us were correct even though we asked about them being the same size and maybe should be different.  

Of course they were the wrong size and did not fit on the right or left side so we took off the old ones and brought all 4 back up to O'Reilly. One sales associate looked around on the computer and eventually in a giant book for information on our part taking breaks to talk to a friend on the phone about some part he needed. The other guy smoked a cigar besides the back shelves and sipped on a coke. After what seemed like hours we gave up on either of them figuring this out and just asked for a refund. Then we went to Auto Zone to axe them but they were closed. So we went back to Advance and ordered the seals from them. This also took a long time and they made me pay for the part in advance even though it may not be the correct part.

So then it was too late to do anything on the truck and we closed up for the night.

And the moral of the story is... All the Auto Parts stores near me are full of idiots (customers and employees) my only satisfaction is that we made all of them feel like they were getting the flu while we stood in the store watching them waste our time.

 

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3-5-7 8:15am

Well just as you all suspected we had a very productive trip to Tony's farm. First off a before shot. This was taken about 10 minutes after we arrived early Saturday morning.

3 things to notice:

    -The wood stack is not all the way to garage

    -The wood stack is the same height as my jacket on a stool (on the far right)

    -The pile of assorted wood in the foreground is large and full of nasty wood. (nasty because it has lots of odd sizes and knots and branches in it)

Well we left Kansas City just before 6am Saturday morning and drove up here to get this nasty pile cleaned up, add some wood to stack, play on the tractor and have some fun.

We attacked this pile with a serious furry right away going balls to wall, splitting anything that could possibly be split and building a chunk fire for the parts that were too gnarly.

About lunch time we stopped...

 

Now check out the 3 things again:

    -The stack goes all the way to the end of the barn.

    -The whole stack is a few feet above my jacket. (used to be just above waist high, now shoulder high)

    -All that is left on the ground is a smoldering pile of gnarly chunks.

    -And as a bonus we have two truck beds full of nice split wood.

So we ate a lunch of big meaty sandwiches, chips, granola bars and beer and devised a plan for the afternoon. It was decided to get rid of more of the chunks that were out in the woods scattered about and to cut up/split 3 strait medium oak trees.

  Of course we had to pose by our stack first.

I had Tony take a picture of my pulling one of the oaks out of the woods.

I took a walking break and rode this nice big chunk back to the fire.

The 3 oaks split in about 1/2 an hour and the rest of the day was spent adding to the chunk fire and trying to keep the fire as efficient as we could. We had a serious amount of wood that we wanted to be gone by the time we left. And if we were going to be able to get it all burned we had to strike while the iron is hot and feed the fire lots of chunks. We made the extra effort to get each piece in the perfect spot and even set an alarm in the middle of the night to get up and make sure all the chunks were together in a pile so it would be gone in the morning. When dealing with a chunk fire this large you have to get while the gettings good even if the gettings are good in the middle of the night. Here is the fire at one of her biggest stages of chunks. 

All this and more is nothing but a pile of ash now. (somehow the tractor and trucks were not harmed)

 

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3-2-7 8:12am

Last night Heath came over after a busy day of getting a root canal

and then going visit w/ Stook's parents to get Joe to do her taxes.

She took a little nap and I made soup. I cut up 2 chicken breasts, and a large head of broccoli, then I added carrots, celery, noodles and some spices and stuff. I topped it off with shredded cheese and whipped up some jumbo butter biscuits on the side. We ate with Derrick and parked ourselves in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Well actually Heath and I ran to Aldi so I could stock up on groceries for a week or so while my truck is out of commission. I hope to go get my new front differential today at lunch and start taking the old one off tonight after work. It does not sound like we will finish for several days. So after eating, grocery shopping and taking anything good I may need out of my truck it was just after 7 and we started to watch My Name is Earl, we were disappointed it was a rerun but watched anyway, then the office came on and it was also a rerun. Then we looked ahead and scrubs was next and a new episode. However once we started to watch we discovered it was a new episode that consisted of clips from past episodes. Then we decided to give 30 rock a chance. We had watched the first episode and given up then heard it was actually really good. Last night was not that great and I'm not sure I'll make an effort to watch it again. Now it was 9:00 and we had no idea what to watch on TV but a commercial came on for a show called The Black Donnelly's http://www.nbc.com/The_Black_Donnellys/ we decided to give it a shot and watch the shows premier episode.  After 30 minutes of being glued to the TV we got our first commercial break and were all impressed with the show. I set the season record option on the DVR and watched the rest. It was a great episode and I am really looking forward to the rest of this show. Watching it feels like sitting at a movie not a tv show, Heath compared it to snatch but I am thinking more like that movie with the 2 Irish guys that get into trouble and become assassins, they drop a toilet on some guy... Im drawing a blank on the name of the movie. Anyhow this tv show is a bunch (4) of Irish brothers who take over their neighborhood gang from the Italians. You too can watch the premier at that web site address earlier in the post.

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3-1-07 8:16am

Wow that 3 up there really makes me think of spring. Luckily it's not real warm yet and Tony, Jon and I are going to be able to have one more cold weather wood cutting trip. We will go up by Cameron, MO where the weather is supposed to be...

• Tomorrow night: Snow showers early with a chance of lingering snow showers later. Low 19F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 50%.
• Saturday: Windy, flurries possible. Highs in the low 30s and lows in the mid teens.
• Sunday: Sunshine. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the mid 20s

This is probably not enough to keep us from sweating all day but at least it's not 50 and if we get some snow we may be able to stay up past dusk playing on the 4 wheeler. Once again I would like to encourage you to come and split some wood.

(beard optional)

I don't have a menu yet but I'm fairly sure we will not be eating ham and cheese on blueberry bagels. We will leave very early on Saturday morning and hope to get started just after dawn. Then come home sometime near lunchtime on Sunday probably.

The weekend after this is our practice backpacking trip, then after that is St. Patrick's day/Spoonbill adventure and the weekend after that is the real backpacking trip in Utah. Then one weekend home, then Easter weekend and after that is my 1/2 marathon in St. Louis. After the marathon I don't have any weekends scheduled and things may slow down a bit so I can get Grandma Natty running and get her out to the lakes and Rivers.

Other upcoming events:

->Meat club part 2 is less then 2 weeks away not this Tuesday but the one after that. We don't have a location yet but if the weather is going to be nice lets go to someone's house and grill, if it's not going to be nice I have heard good things about the Casino's steaks.

->Brew to Brew run is sometime in April I think. I'd like to form a 9 person team and am currently very short. Heath and I are in, we could maybe talk Kevin and KK into it, and maybe Geoff and Ashley but that still leaves us short. As a reminder its about 4 miles each and we run between breweries in KC and Lawrence. Anyone want to come or know someone that may be interested?

->Our House is appraised a week from today and Max will be in town to start the selling process possibly to UMKC. Last night Derrick and I got everything spick and span and ready to go. Russ is all moved out, Derrick, Jenna and I are going to stay till summer though.

Yesterday I tossed a pile of ribs into the crock pot with BBQ sauce, some seasonings and an onion. Then after work I made some mashed yellow potatoes w/ the skins on and some peas. I went and bought a case of natty and a bottle of CVS generic brand Canadian Whiskey. So we ate like kings then drank like peasants but it worked out good for cleaning and the cheep Canadian whiskey turned out to be delicious.

 

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2-28-07 8:31am

Yesterday at about 10am I got the stitches in my nose out and it did not seem to be a big deal but the nurse apologized a lot and then mentioned something about it bleeding. Then she had me sign a waver that I didn't need to see a Dr., spread on some Neosporin and sent me out the door. When I got to my car I did not see any blood and the cut looked the exact same but without the black string running through it. Then last night I took a shower and the hot water made my skin soft and the scar came right off making the cut look much healthier. Here it is moments ago.

Last night after work I drove to Pick and Pull gave them a dollar in change and wondered around the lot for about 30 min. I did not find any Ford or Mazda trucks or SUVs that were newer then 1994. After that I went home got dinner started and went for a 4mile run. When I got back I finished dinner then got stuff ready to go visit Heath and Grant. As I started to drive to their house I realized I had committed to doing some radio station work at 9pm tonight so I turned around and went home. Derrick and I went up to Mikes for a few beers then I went home took a shower, put on pajama pants flip flops and a T-shirt and went to work for an hour and a half or so. I had 3 things to get done and 2 out of the 3 went great and the 3rd I just had to give up on and go back to the way it was before I got there.

Tonight right after work Russ will come home with his dad's truck and we will load all his stuff into it. Then we take on a cleaning and tidying up project. Durring the "Spring Clean Fling" Derrick and I discussed drinking some beers and this morning I set out some Ribs to eat for dinner. 

 

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2-27-07 8:08am

So yesterday was 24 night and I had to get everything accomplished before 7:00 when I would head over to mom's house to watch and eat dinner. Right after work I went for a run I wanted to run between 5 and 6 miles but am not sure I made it that far before I ran out of time and had to get home to meet with Derrick and Jon and take down our Wall. If you are unaware of the wall look at the pic link above. The wall came down much quicker and simpler then I realized it would. We pulled out a handful of screws and each module came apart. After we got it down we cleaned up around it and took a bunch of junk to the curb for big trash pickup Wednesday morning.

Then we took at look at my truck and the problem it has been having. Jon has determined we need to replace the front differential.

So today and tonight I hope to call salvage yards and go to Pick and Pull and look for a 98-2000 4 wheel drive Ranger or Explorer with a 3 54 Gear Ratio. Wish me luck and if you see one laying around let me know. A kinda weird thing happened while Jon was under the truck and Derrick and I were standing around watching him. A girl comes walking down the street and we pretend not to be looking at her then she says "Hey are you replacing the differential?" Then continues to spew out car knowledge that no normal girl walking down the street should know. All three of us are shocked and barely mumble anything before she gives up and wonders down the road, leaveing us wondering what just happened.

After all the truck excitement we went in and Jon looked for the parts online while I started cleaning up some in the family room and Derrick cooked some dinner.  

 

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2-26-07 8:32am

Well Friday I got out of work kinda late and had to rush to my house to pick up Heath and get to Lew's in time for happy hour with Steven and Becky. Luckily during lunch I had swapped trucks with my mom at lunch so I had my brothers and she had mine. We enjoyed cheep drafts and 1/2 price appetizers then Heath and I drove out to Kansas City, KS to pick up an entertainment center for Kelly and Chris' new house. By the time we got it and made it home it was about 8:30pm. I started packing all my other stuff and decided to stay in KC Friday night and head out in the morning. I woke up at 8 finding it quite rainy out. I stuffed a futon mattress in the cab of the truck with me, secured the entertainment center and a bed frame in the bed grabbed all my stuff and took off.

It rained all the way down, sometimes hard sometimes soft. I found Kelly's house easy enough and we called Tony and got everything unloaded. The new place was pretty cool. Just north east of town and on a great piece of land. The house was cheaply built (cement floors, chipboard walls, sidding) but they did a good job of making it look nice (nice paint, good appliances and furnishings). Also they had a new puppy. "Ranger" a 9 week old black lab has joined the fun. Right now he is a small clumsy lazy guy but looks like he is going to grow over 100 lbs.

Like this but chunkier

We took two good walks through the wooded area around Kelly's and found a really big Pit that will be great for swimming and fishing this summer/spring. They also had a fire pit that was about ready to go so we built up a nice pile of wet fire wood in about 2 inches of standing water. With enough small sticks, cardboard, used motor oil and care we got it going and soon had a large fire full of big chunks of wood. We got a massive pile of red coals in the pit and the fire was big enough to keep people warm even though they had to stand fairly far away to be out of the mud and water. Kelly, my mom and probably others made dinner while we got the fire going and we took a break to go eat then came back out with everyone to enjoy the fire for a while. Eventually the wind picked up and a rainstorm poured down on us and we fled to the house. The fire did not seem to mind and kept burning most of the night. Jon, Jenna, Tony, Heather and I went to the bars in town and then got some Taco Bell before crashing on Tony's floor.

We all left fairly early and went back to KC. I got cleaned up and went to Jon's to help work on his truck. I think his truck spent some time at the bottom of the ocean or something because everything is very rusted and stuck together inside of it. I helped him take things apart until a little after 3 and then went home and got cleaned up again before heading to work.

A few of us got together last night at Liberty Memorial to set up a remote broadcast for a live broadcast today there. This will be a big broadcast w/ the mayoral candidates all together in front of a live audience, 3 tv news station cameras and our listening audience. This was kinda cool to set up and looks really neat. If you watch the news look for it.

I got home around 8:30 and made a great BLT. I have some good thick wheat bread and I spread on some mayo then coated in shredded Colby Jack. I toasted this to make it crispy and melt the cheese. Then I put on some red onion and jalapenos. I did not have any fresh tomatoes and almost abandoned the project but remembered I had some cans of stewed tomatoes so opened one of them up and found some nice big flat tomatoes and piled them on top. Then I bypassed the regular lettuce for some big leafy spinach. As I was working on this the microwave was cooking up a whole plate of bacon for me. Once ready I split the pieces in half and laid them across the sandwich in 3 layers. Then I topped the sandwich with the other piece of toasted wheat w/ melted cheese and mayo.

It tasted great and the stewed tomatoes worked great, even giving me a stream of juices running down my arm. I finished it off with a pile of cottage cheese and chocolate pudding.   

 

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2-23-07 (night before)

the fairly uninteresting story to come...

the culprit...

OK yesterday I got 5 stitches in my nose as seen above. It was bout 10:30 in the morning and Robin (my chief engineer) and I had gone out to our transmitter to pick up a piece of equipment. that was bolted to the ground just to the right of this picture. We disconnected it and got it loose then Robin went to measure my truck bed to see if it would fit and I piled up all the nuts and bolts at point A. I then tried to rush off to help Robin and stood and turned in a quick motion jacking my nose at point B.

I didn't realize I had done any real damage and kept walking away to my truck. Then I saw a drop of blood and assumed I had gotten a somewhat frequent bloody nose. So I pinched my nose and kept walking to get a napkin out of my truck and figured out it was not a bloody nose but a cut on top of my nose. Then Robin saw me and claimed that I had to go to the hospital immediately. I looked in the rearview mirror and it was fairly deep and bloody and I don't think I really had a choice so off we went.

We had a terrible time finding an urgent care or an ER to go to that was covered by my insurance. We were in Independence but did not know the zip code there and had a tough time getting a person and even when we did they were not that helpful. After ending up and a child's pediatric office and a hospital that was not on my United Healthcare plan we finally drove to Shawnee Mission Medical. As I was getting worked on we found out that since this would be a workman's comp issue we should have gone to another, probably closer hospital but it was too late now.

I got cleaned up, stitched up, checked up, gooed up, papperworked up, and released. We got some lunch and went back to the transmitter and got the equipment and brought it back. I had to show a few coworkers my nose then go home. I really have not had any trouble with it since. Slept pretty good and only feel it if I scrunch my face or touch it. It is slightly swollen but not as bad as I thought it would. It is just barely visible to me so that's kinda annoying but allright. Here it is this morning.

(Not much change.)

 

unrelated picture I just found.

 

 

 

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2-22-07 8:02am

How about this weather, it has been so nice lately.

After work I had a beer on the porch with Steven and then tried to work on some computer stuff. First for the radio station, I was testing some stuff then I began to look into a new way to do my website. Don't worry/get your hopes up yet though, I'm just thinking about changing the site.

 

Jon came by and we moved around some stuff in the garage and eventually went to Mike' s for some beers.

After Mike's I fried up a bologna sandwich and went to bed.

Shortly after Heath called and wanted me to meet her at the Levee for drinks. I was very against this bar for 3 reasons.

1. I was already in bed

2. The Levee did not let us in on the first triathlon run.

3. The Levee typically has overpriced covers.

So I told Heath my reasons and went back to bed. Then she calls back 15 minutes later because the Levee had a high cover charge and she didn't want to pay it. Somehow she talked me into getting up though and coming to see the room at the Embassy Suites her work had put her up in.

It was really big and nice.

 

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2-21-07 8:26am

Well Monday night I came into the station for a few hours and replaced a computer and did some work on another one that had to be done after hours. So yesterday I did not come back to work after lunch to make up on some hours. I began a cleaning effort on our house to get it ready to be appraised and sold. I gathered trash from my garage and elsewhere and about filled my truck. I got the garage, back yard, front yard and basement all in good shape. Then Heather and I went on a 4 mile run and sat on the newly cleaned porch to enjoy a beer. Then Heather left and I got caught up on some TV programs until I heard a water running noise coming from the bathroom.

Our toilet has been doing that thing lately where it runs until you jiggle the handle and I assumed that was the noise and waited for a commercial to get up and do some jiggling. As I entered the bathroom I realized it was not the toilet making the noise and discovered water coming out from the cabinet under the sink. I frantically tried to find the handle thing under the sink to shut off the very hot water but soon realized the break was before the valve and it would do me no good. Shortly after Derrick and Russ came to help and we ran downstairs looking for valves to turn off. There was water dripping all over the newly cleaned basement. Luckily a couch we planned on putting out with the big trash caught most of it. I called Ben and we got the water shut off and an emergency plumber called to take a look. I mopped up all the water in the bathroom and the plumber came and fixed us all up.  

 

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2-20-07 7:58am

Well yesterday I had to go to the Truman Library for a special presidents day broadcast of our Walt show. I didn't realize this when I started my post and had to leave before it was done. So here is the rest of our ice fishing trip.

Warning I used up all my good pictures yesterday and this post is a monster.

So we headed out Friday night after work w/ a truck fully loaded with gear food and wood. We stopped in St. Joseph for McDonalds dinner and for a break from the terrible blowing snow that made driving rough. Then we kept driving up I-29 for a while until we heard a whine coming from under the car. We pulled off on a ramp and checked it out. There was a small oil leak from the 4 wheel drive stuff up front. I had not been using 4 wheel but all the gears and stuff spin as the tire spins all the time and something was going slightly wrong. We decided to try to slowly drive it to the nearest truck stop to investigate further. We put on the hazards and took off at about 45mph. Eventually there was a pop noise and we pulled over again. This time we dug the jack out of the truck and somehow without much for tools were able to take off one of the little caps on my front wheels that connect the front wheels to the 4 wheel drive gears. Then we slowly drove the rest of the way to a truck stop. At the stop we looked for more tools and found nothing very useful so took of the cap on the other side and decided to hope the 4 wheel gears were not turning and that we could make it.

We drove the rest of the way great, no noises, no pops, the truck ran fine. When we got to the lake we found a curvy steep icy road leading down to the ice and the parking lot. We decided to try it our even without the 4 wheel drive working and made it down. We got out cautiously tested the ice then found some foot prints and followed them. They led almost to the farthest part of the lake but there we found a recently frozen over hole. I punched the hole a few times and the hole was clear. Then I pulled up my sleeve and plunged my arm in reaching for the end of the ice. I was all the way down to my elbow before I found it. So it was plenty deep. We decided to make this our home for the weekend.

Now came for the hardest part carrying over the 10 pieces of wall/roof/floor/door piled up with our firewood, stove, gear, food, etc. We put one or two pieces on our shoulders w/ some gear on top and carried them across the lake then ran back to the car. Shortly after our last load the wind really picked up and we had to fight our gear from blowing away. The wind got stronger and stronger. A 24 case of natty would barely hold down large items. Jon's rolled up sleeping bag took off several times.

We laid down the back wall and screwed the two large pieces together then stood it up to attach the side walls. I held it in place so Jon could screw in the wall and when the wind hit hard I could barely stay on my feet holding it up. Somehow w/ some serious adrenalin pumping we got each piece together taking time to chase down blowing gear occasionally. It was very intense and we were never quite certain we would get it up. Then once up it was in danger of being rolled over by the wind. We started to install our brand new never tested floor and found it to be too big. The pieces overlapped instead of fitting together. We decided since there was only 2 of us the upper deck would easily sleep 2 and we would have a split level home. We screwed the floor into the walls so that if it wanted to roll over it would have to lift up all our stuff and us first. This seemed to do the trick.

So we were finally inside w/ a set up hut and eventually got a nice fire going in spite of our wood being wet and full of snow. In fact about everything we brought was wet and full of snow from the blowing snow. We created a web of twine along the inside of the roof and hung up all our stuff and kept the fire going. Then we pushed snow up along the bottom of the hut and sealed up lots of other cracks in the hut with duck tape and foil and most importantly opened a case of natty. Shortly after things went from crazy to heavenly. The hut was comfy and warm. It often got to warm but that helped dry things and soon all our stuff and even the walls and floor were completely dry. We drank and dried and perfected our home until about 3:30am. We had a draft from the door so sealed it up with duck tape, locking us in for the night.

So we were full of beer and sealed in w/ only one escape for pee, our ice hole. The ice hole turned out to be very useful for lots of stuff. When we were sealed in we peed in it, when we had leftover food it went down there, when things needed to be rinsed out, we went to the hole. In the morning we decided to make the hut legal and put on reflectors and Jon's address. According to Iowa rules each side of a hut must have an address in 4 inch letters and reflectors.

I have lots more to tell but this would be too long. All the food we cooked was great bacon eggs corned beef hash, meatballs w/ spaghetti, pork chops w/ potatoes and corn. The stove is a bit slow to cook on so works best to put everything in a skillet covered with foil and let it simmer for an hour or two. Any Questions unanswered?

 

 

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2-19-07 8:24am

Here is a picture of the frozen lake with our hut on it.

This is the woodstove with a pan of spaghetti sauce and meatballs warming up.

This is Jon with the chainsaw cutting us a 2nd hole in the ice not far from the ice hut.

There she is up close Saturday afternoon.

The inside from the far corner on the sleeping/living level looking down at the storage/cooking/fishing level.

Ok now I guess I need to explain more about the trip. First off you may have noticed there are no pictures of fish. That's right we did not catch any fish. We actually never got a bite, never lost any bait, never saw any signs of fish other then the minnows we were using. We talked to a few other fisherman on the lake and they had the same no fish experience.

 

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2-16-07 8:52am

First here is my a picture I took of my truck this morning at Price Chopper.

The picture does not really do this load justice but it all fits so far. However we need to add at least 1 more bucket a chainsaw and a few other odds and ends. It's kind of amazing that with this load we can set up a house, a heater and all the wood to burn, cut a hole, cook all our meals, all the beer we will need and our sleeping bags and clothes. (wow that is a messed up sentence)

       

We found a closer and maybe better lake in Iowa called Mile Hill Lake. I am going to call about it today and that would cut down our drive time to just over 3 hrs. If they won't let us put up the hut we will try Summit Lake in Tekumsa, NE or a system of Lakes in Freemont, NE.

Last night we built the floor and I am really pleased with it. We used thicker chip board and made a secret removable hatch that we can put on top of the ice hole.

 

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2-15-07 8:20am

I'm starting to be less stressed with getting caught up from my vacation and overcome with excitement for my Ice House's debut. The fresh paint looks good especially since it was free dumpster paint and the eggshell color completely covered our initial light purple coat. We leave as soon as we can on Friday so tonight is our last chance to get everything together. First we need a floor and improved heat shields to protect the hut from the stove. We also need to assemble some accessories to add while out there like hooks and shelves for our gear. We need to get all our beer and food and pack it in 5gall buckets. Also any personal gear and sleeping bags need to go into buckets. Tomorrow we will load up the truck with a load of firewood. (we are low on wood so I have raided piles from Heather's house, my mom's house, Steven and Jon's wood and possibly some of the wood off my porch.) On top of the wood will go the 8 pieces (maybe 10 w/ the floor {all about 2 inches thick}) that form the ice hut. On top of the hut will go the stove, and buckets (also the maul and chain saw will be in there somewhere). I imagine this mobile ice fishing unit will be quite a site to see and do wonders for gas mileage. I'll be sure to get a picture. Also I hope to get a good pic or two of the ice hut from a distance where you can really see what it is like. And of course pics of the fish we pull out. On the Yahoo news today I saw this ice fisherman and his fish.

 

In this photo provided by Darren Horness, Darren Horness of Howards Grove, lays on the ice next to the 72-inch, 102-pound sturgeon he speared Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007, on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. The fish came up within 6 inches of the surface inside his ice shack, he said. About 8,000 fishermen spearhunt sturgeon each year on Lake Winnebago and its upriver lakes. In his seven years, Horness hadn't come close to a fish that big. (AP Photo/ Courtesy of Darren Horness)

 

 

I don't think we plan on trying to spear fish but you never know. Anyhow if we don't have much luck I can always put my head on this guys body and wait for my family and friends to spread the word it's me.

Since we are talking about fish here is last nights dinner

Well not this one but another piece of Tilapia. I battered 5 nice fillets first dipping them in a mixture of tequila lime marinade and some egg then in a mixture of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, cornmeal, lemon pepper and other spices. Once these were baked I put them atop a nice pile of rigatoni noodles

and a homemade alfredo sauce. 

It was quite tasty and even Grant nearly had a happy plate.

sorry the fish went too fast for food pics.

 

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2-14-07 9:29am

Sorry I am so late. Work has kept me hoping this morning and I even came in early. I do promise to do a real post including possibly the grossest edible dish I have ever made so stay tuned.

First I would like to say I ate the whole thing except for what I could fit into an old small yogurt container and I enjoyed it.

I took 1.5 cups of rice and put it in the steamer with most of a red onion diced up. While it was steaming I dumped a can of kidney beans into a skillet then added some milk, different spices and peppers. I noticed Heath had part a can of spinach left over from her dinner and added it in. I kept it fairly hot and just below a boil and stirred often I added a small amount of flour to thicken the sauce and when the steamer dinged I dropped in a can of tuna minus the juices and mixed it all in. Then I took this plate and piled on all the rice then covered it all in the tuna bean mixture. It was much tastier then it looked and my only regret was not putting enough water in the rice so it was a bit burned and not as moist as I like. Also I have no idea what to call it and I have been a bit gassy today.

After dinner Grant and I ran around with an old pampers box tied to a string calling it his race car and it only crashed twice.

I did get all my ice hut pieces painted and ready to use this weekend assuming we get a floor built tomorrow.

Ohh I do have a fancy pants good sounding and tasting dinner planned for tonight but it's top secret.

 

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2-13-07 8:33am

Well I've been back in town less then 2 days and I am frantically trying to get things ready for my next adventure. The ice hut gets it's first trip to the lake this weekend. Jon, Steven and I are going to drive it up to Tekamah, NE and do some fishing, camping, grilling and drinking. I think it is a little over a 3 hr drive but I am still putting all the details together. My ice fishing adventure in Utah really got me excited about this longer trip and Jon got the ball rolling in no time.

(some of my ice fishing group last week)

I still need to finish painting the house and put in a floor before we leave Friday evening but I think we can get this done tonight and Thursday.

Last night I started to paint then realized I was a week behind on 24 and this week was a 2 hr special starting at 7. So I put away the paint stuff, quickly watched last weeks 24 and rushed off to pay rent at Ben's then meet my uncle at Microcenter to get him a new hard drive. Then I got to mom's at  6:45. We talked about my trip and I showed her the pictures then ate and watched 24. It was her birthday and there was all sorts of decorations and activities going on but from what I could hear it was a great night of 24.

 After the show I went to my uncles to get his computer so I could put the hard drive in then back to moms with some birthday presents from him. I got home a little after 10 and went to bed.

I stocked my minifridge at work yesterday with all sorts of treats and I am going to try to get my nightly run in during lunch today then eat stuff from the fridge.

 

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2-12-07 8:35am

Ok it's my first day back after a week of playing in the mountains. Of course I am overloaded with things to do today and this week in general and I really want to tell you all about my trip as well. I'm going to start working on some pictures now and will add to this as soon as I can.

Last you heard I had just finished ice fishing, snowshoeing and eating sushi. Well the next day Dad Heath and I went to Brighton resort and snowboarded/skied. It was another great day of skiing and we had great weather. This was dad's first trip out this winter.

The next day we rented cross country skies and all learned how to use them. 

I thought they were really fun. It was not too hard to walk around in the skies but you did have a tendency to kind of tip over because they are really thin. We skied a little over 6 miles and it went by fairly quick. Part of our trek went over a frozen lake covered in snow.

The next day we flew out of Salt Lake to Denver and Mike picked us up. We went to Golden w/ Heather's friends Audrey and Christine. We ate some calzones and did the brewery tour and made fun of some ugly people we saw. That night we hung out at Mike and Justin's place then went out to some bars.

In the morning we got up kinda early and drove out to Idaho Springs and played around on the mountain.

We made the mistake of not renting snow shoes and we fell through the snow allot and got all our boots full of snow. But we made the most of it and had lots of fun exploring. We even found a frozen lake to play on.

 

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2-7-7 8:11pm (Mountain Time)

Allrighty, I have been awfully busy and have done lots of stuff so I will keep it brief and try to get to the pictures soon. We flew in Monday morning and arrived just before 11am. Then ate some pizza took dad to work and went to the ski rental shop. From there we drove to Park City ski resort. We got free lift tickets w/ our plane tickets and started skiing at about 1:30 while there we found out the free tickets included night skiing and we could stay till 7:30pm. After skiing we went to Cabelas to eat dinner with dad. We got some great steak sandwiches then went home and got cleaned up and went to bed. The next day H and I woke up early and did a little shopping, then went to SnowBird Ski resort and skied all day. Both day's skiing were great. Lots of sunshine and snow. At about 3 we went back to dad's got cleaned up, picked him up from work and went out to eat at "Chuck o' rama" an American buffet place. Then this morning we ate some waffles and ran by Cabelas for some supplies and went Ice fishing w/ a bunch of dad's buds from the store. We fished all morning and H and I each caught a trout. Then we went snow shoeing this afternoon to stewart falls and back. After that we did some sledding but the hill was too steep and icy and hurt to much. Then we went out to eat dinner at a sushi and Chinese restaurant. 

 

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2-2-7 8:01am

Monday I go to Utah to see dad and then on Saturday Colorado to see Mike. I will be back to work a week from Monday. So today is the last post for a while. I imagine at some point I will get some free time and will be able to tell you all about it and put up some pictures but I am afraid it will not be every weekday morning. As I have done in the past I am going to ask that you send me a guest post to put up on the site while I am away. So if you get motivated and want to write up a little bit about something I will put it on the site and everyone can praise you or ridicule you. Stooks and KK, I believe you guys could do some really interesting posts if you tried.

Woot is selling my old camera today. It's a good one but a bit large and sometimes you can break the screen if you hold it while sledding down a large hill, so be warned.

Last night after work I did some coauthoring. Me and a guy I work with sat down and cranked out a 1,200 word article on Podcasting for Radio World magazine. We still have some editing to do and reading though of the article as a whole but we were amazed at how well and easily it all came together. After such a successful bout of writing we walked up to mikes to celebrate with 9 $1 PBR drafts.

We got a little wound up and then went home to admire the wood stove talk about some other plans and stuff then he went home and I watched some TV with Russ and Derrick.

I believe we really enjoyed The Office and My Name is Earl this week. Heath showed up a while after that and I realized I never ate dinner so ate a bunch of crackers and chips before bed.

(I think I had a dream about a girl eating a hot dog on some sort of dock fishing trip, not really but this picture is awesome)

 

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2-1-7 9:01am

I just got into work. Last night I came in to work for about a half an hour at 7ish I think. But it was a quick fix and not at a bad time. I did miss my run so Heath and I got up and ran 3.5 miles this morning.

I think it is going to be a busy morning at work and maybe all day today and tomorrow since I will be out for all of next week.

When I got in today we were having a coffee taste test for the new KCUR blend at The Rotisserie. I liked A much more then B. 

Last night besides phone calls and remote desktop sessions to work Jon and I did some disassembly of the Ice House and then got a coat of paint on it in the garage. We tried to get a nice thin coat on now and plan on really glopping it on good for the next waterproofing coat of paint. I am really pleased with how sturdy but light all the pieces feel. I am looking at taking it out Feb 16-18th but still need to find a frozen lake and check the date out for sure. This is the weekend right after I get back from Utah but that may not matter.

Derrick did his taxes online last night and had no problems so maybe I will try it out first and see if I get a nice amount of $ back then if I am not pleased with my results take it to Stooks' pop.

No pics today since I am in a rush. For today only please post the funniest picture you can find as your home page.

 

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1-31-07 8:22am

Well Heath is taking some test to make more money at work today so wish her good luck.

Last night I went to her house and cooked some strange Caribbean pork dinner. And we took turns running our 3.5 miles and staying home with Grant.

 

I have noticed a weird problem with my left foot when I run more then 3 miles.

Everything feels fine then all of a sudden my left foot feels numb. I think this happens almost any time I run 3 miles strait. Last night it was not a big deal because I only had 1/2 a mile left when it happened but the day before I ran about a mile with a numb foot and I remember when I did a 10K (6miles) my foot felt numb for much of the race. Anyone have any idea what the deal with this is? wiggling my toes as I run seems to help.

So after my run Grant and I played with one of those wooden train sets for a while as Heath talked to some lady.

Then we sat down to eat. I had taken two large pork chops and set them on a bed of onion, carrot and pineapple then sprinkled them with some jalapeno seasoning and then covered them in more onion, pineapple and carrots. Then I poured Caribbean marinade all over everything and covered it in foil. I put it in the toaster oven at 350 for an hour or so and make a few cups of rice and steamed green beans, broccoli and the rest of the pineapple.

Once we served it up it was an odd bunch of food but tasted good. The pineapple chunks were spicy and had absorbed most of the jalapeno seasoning and the pork chop was tender and juicy enough to cut w/ a fork. The three of us finished it all and a few wheat rolls, then Grant and I split a bowl of Life cereal.

  

I think we are going to paint the ice house tonight and do any other finishing touches we can think of. I really need to start getting things all ready for my trip to Utah and Colorado. I leave on Monday morning and still have no way of getting to the airport. If no one volunteers soon I will look into leaving my truck there somewhere. Do you guys do your taxes on your own or pay someone? Have you got started?

 

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1-30-07 8:00am

Meat club was just what I had hoped for and Jess and Jims did a great job in my book.

I think all of our meals were around $40 and we each got a nice steak, a couple beers, giant twice baked potato, garlic bread, good salad and some beats. (I discovered even Japanese people don't care for beats)

My favorite moment of the meal was when we had just gotten done eating the salads and I heard a sizzling noise moving up behind me and turned to see a small cart full of potatoes and steaks still sitting on the pans they were cooked on. They were dished out quickly and the cart disappeared.

 

In other news Heather and I want to put together a Brew to Brew team. I know I push running and exercise on everyone a lot but at least I always make sure you are not thirsty. The brew to brew is a 13 year old lame copycat of the badass 2 year old theprewitt.com triathlon. However I still really want to do it. But first I need a team. I would like to get 9 people to join the team and commit to running a 4ish mile stretch of the trip from Boulevard Brewery in KC to the FreeState Brewery in Lawrence. It costs like $11 a person for a good meal at the end with a beer. Here is all the information about this years run http://www.brewtobrew.com/. It's not till April 1st so if you are worried that you can not run 4 miles today, maybe you can in a couple months.

 

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1-29-07 8:25am

Before you get to hear what I have been doing/eating lets talk about meat.

We meet tonight at 6:30pm at my house and go to Jess and Jims. What do you all think about getting a website for the club? We could pick an official name for the club, find a domain for it and then allow everyone to post about meat. We can talk about places we go or recipes we try on the site and set up a calendar for our events. I'd like to encourage everyone to go to www.godaddy.com or similar and look for a domain that would be good for us. Surprisingly meneatingmeat.com is available as is kcmeatclub.com and beefcircle.com. Lets here what you are thinking.

 

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This was a very active weekend. Friday right after work Matt was at my house and we went to get some food and drinks for the weekend then Jon called and we went to Max's for cheeseburgers. We were disappointed to find out that Steven's claims that the new owner had changed the place were true. Smaller pattys, not as toasted buns, different flavor. After we ate we got started on the Ice House and Steven joined us. We spent all night on the ice house taking it down installing cardboard and caulk and brace boards then we put it back up and cut a hole for the chimney and got the stove all installed.

-side view (note caulk on seems and chimney)

-cardboard insulated interior w/ wood stove (this monster gets hot)

Once we had the stove setup secure we got a fire going, put in some chairs, brought beers close by and celebrated the house.

Saturday morning I slept in more then I wanted but got up and cooked some breakfast sandwiches w/ Matt and Heath. We got plain bagels and spread on some cream cheese then pilled on egg, bacon, onion and American cheese. After breakfast Jon and Jenna joined Heath and I for a hike. We had a little trouble getting there but eventually got on the Rim Rock Trail and hiked around.

 I liked the trail and the terrain was great, hilly, snowy, rocky, lots of streams to cross, lots to look at. Things got a little hairy in the middle but we found our way back and even made some shortcuts on the way back thanks to my GPS deal.

After the hike we got some crummy Mexican food and went to Cabelas for a bit. Then Heath and I took a nap. After the nap Matt came back over and we made deer meatballs. ravioli and some noodles for dinner. Then got cleaned up and went to Hoopers to celebrate Kevin's birthday. We stayed at Hoopers most of the night. In the morning Matt left and Heath and I slept in then ate a big lunch and prepared to go on a run. Heath was not feeling well though so instead of running we drove around and looked at houses for sale.

"Houses for Sale???? you say". Yes in case you have not heard from

 local gossip Geoff

or me, our landlord will be selling the house in the next few months. I'm still unsure how this will all work out yet but the wall will come down and Russ or I will move out.

After looking at some fairly cool houses Heath started feeling worse and went home for a nap and I took a small run on my own then did a strength and stretching workout. Then later on I got cleaned up and met Heath and Grant at Chucky Cheese for Grant's cousins birthday party.

I have not been to CC in a long times and did not seem as cool as it used to be. Only one robotic mouse and he didn't do much.

Also looked like less rides and stuff to do. But the kids loved it and Grant even earned enough tickets to buy a tootsie roll and a paper airplane.

After CC I went to BK for a Texas Double Whopper w/ jalapenos. I had one of these burgers 6 months or so ago and was not impressed but this one was great. Maybe I was just really hungry but it tasted great and had loads of jalapenos on it and even better had enough juices that they squished out of the burger ran down my arm and formed a little pool under my elbow inside my new fleece chiefs jacket that Kelly game me. After the burger I checked out the construction dumpster near Heath's but it only had pallets in it and a bunch of broken drywall. So I just brought back a couple of 16ft 2x4s that I had left at Heath's house. Second comments section so you gota post lots today.   

 

 

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1-26-07 7:47am

Many days it is hard to think of a new announcement but today I had several in mind but I knew it was Kevin's birthday so I would not be needing any of the other ones. I thought you may want to know what else I have to announce though so...

Sub Announcement A: My Camera Replacement Showed up last night.

Sub Announcement B: 2 posting days until MEAT CLUB.

Sub Announcement C: CTB (KK, Kentaro) will be at MEAT CLUB

Sub Announcement D: Matt Stooks will be in town this weekend for Kevin's birthday.

Sub Announcement J: My cell phone is acting up again.

So last night I rushed off to Heath's house after work with a partial meatloaf, my new and old camera, and my running stuff. I got there and put the camera together and checked to see if it would turn on and charge. Then I put the finishing touches on my dearmeat meatloaf. I added an egg, corn, stuffing mix and even some triscuits before stirring it all up.

Then I stuck it in the oven and Heath, Grant and I went for a 3.7 mile run. We ran through the small Spring Hill Cemetery at sundown and I took a picture.

When we got home the meatloaf was nearly done. I put in some dinner rolls and French fries and covered the loaf in sauce.

About 15 minutes later pulled it out and served.

It tasted great and we all put forth a good eating effort but could not quite finish the dearloaf. So we decided to put away the dishes and get cleaned up.

Then we ran a few errands  for Heath (showing her new car off). My cell phone got all sorts of messed up around now. I had to totally erase everything on it to get it working again. After the errands I decided I could not let the meatloaf get the best of me and came home and made a big sandwich with the last of the meatloaf. The cold sandwich was just as good as the steaming loaf.

Tonight after work we are going to get some work done on the Ice House again. It's supposed to be nice and warm plus I believe we will have a fire going.

Tomorrow Heath and I (and anyone else interested) are going to go on a 12mile hike to check out a new trail that I have been wanting to do forever.

Saturday night I'll be following Kevin around yelling happy birthday occasionally.

Monday night I will be eating a nice big juicy steak w/ a beer while I belittle the Japanese people.

 

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1-25-07 8:17am

Well everything is back to normal this morning. You get a normal post at a normal time and I even have pictures. I could not help breaking out my old camera with the broken screen on it and taking a few shots for you.

So last night instead of making meatloaf I went home and got together with Jon and Steven and worked on the ice house. Our first task was to build some braces on the side of the house to help keep the wall and roof pieces together at the same place each time we put it up. There are 4 braces on each side 2 wood ones and two metal ones.

Once we had all the braces set we went to the hardware store for tort screws and McDonalds for dinner.

Then we went home, and got out the marker to mark the boards so we would know what pieces go where. After we were comfortable with the marks we took it down piece by piece and moved all the modules outside.

Once all down we set to putting it back together. We had a basic plan for when to put what together and though things did not go perfectly on our first try, it took less then an hour to reassemble.

Here is what it looked like the morning after:

-door closed hard to tell how big that is 

-door open "come on in"

-ohh look what's inside

-well that's nice and cozy.

I think our biggest hurdle was the dark and the fact that most of our markings did us no good. Also Steven had left before we put it up and we plan on having 3 people when we do it instead of just 2. It did look about the same when we were done and even better once we plopped the wood stove in the corner and laid down next to it. It looks like it will sleep 3 fairly easily (as long as Tony keeps his huge nose pointed up). 

After we were done with the ice house I was going crazy looking at my blank arm and decided I needed a new watch ASAP. We put our stuff away and I drove to Wal-Mart. I found a watch I really like on sale for $14.88 and was back in business in no time.

 

 

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1-24-07 9:54am

wow almost 10am and I have not even started my post. I decided to sleep in this morning to catch up on lost sleep last night and I had a lot to do when I got in.

Last night Heath and I had a 3.5 mile run and then ate some pork chops and cauliflower. The cauliflower I prepared in a method I got from men's health.

I put it in a bowl with some olive oil and mixed it all up so everything was coated. Then add salt and pepper and mix then a bit more olive oil and mix. Then spread it out on a baking pan and put in the oven for 15-20 min at 425 deg. This makes it all crispy and have a good flavor. I did not have a ton of cauliflower so I put some red onion and frozen french fries on the pan too.    

Then I tried to make some cinnamon apples but they were not very good.

After that H wanted to go get a drink but I was too worn out from the night before so we watched the recorded Heroes from the night before.

In sad news my watch died and my wrist is bare today. It's already driving me nuts. and I decided to trim my beard a bit last night. I like it because more food goes in my mouth then on my beard now.

 

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1-23-07 12:40am

Well here I am again at the station way to late.

It all started at like 4:30 when a news reporter called and asked if I could restart one of our server tonight for him. I told him I could and tried to do it from home at 9:30ish. It did not work perfectly so I ran up to the station for 2 min of work getting it just right. Then I saw another server that needed to install some windows updates and reboot and decided this was a good time to do it. I got everything installed and restarted but the computer would not start up. It would turn on then get stuck. I tried everything I could think of, looked up the error code and tried everything I could find on dells site. Then I called dell and tried everything they could think of until it was determined my motherboard was broke.

Since this is the new streaming media server and no one can listen online without it I decided it was urgent and to use the 4hr service plan and have them rush me out the mother board and a technician. So it's nearly 1am and the guy should be here at about 1:30 to fix the server.

UPDATE: 12:38pm

Allrighty so the UPS driver and the Dell tech showed up around 1:30 and we got the new parts and the tech got to work. It took him over an hour to replace the board which seamed reasonable when I saw what a tough board it was to get to. After doing some testing with him and some reconfiguring I was out of the office at about 3:15am and in bed at 3:30. At 7:45 I got a phone call with a false alarm from the station and another at 9 something with a real problem but a fairly simple fix. By then I gave up on sleeping and went to breakfast and now am at the station again.

This is already such a slow week, it's only Tuesday. Tonight I plan on taking it fairly easy (other then the 3.5 mile run H and I are scheduled to do) but tomorrow I have dreams of doing some bracing and then taking apart the ice hut and putting it together in the back yard. 

My sister Kelly has just rented a new place in Pittsburg and is pretty excited, its on 10 acres and has a strip pit and some woods and is connected with another couple hundred acres that they are free to use. I believe she will have a housewarming bonfire or something when they get all settled in.

I guess our Theprewitt.com's Meat Club night is nearly here. I'm up for suggestions on the plan but here is my thoughts. Next Monday we will meet at my house at 6:30 and go do some real eating. I'd like to leave the option there to grill at a man's house or go to a restaurant and have different kinds of meat other then beef steak but for the first week we need to start it off with a restaurant steak. I'm not sure of a location but Steven has a place in mind. Who is in? What do you all think?

 

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1-22-07 8:15am

Well it was a busy weekend again and Friday night seems like so long ago. I got out of work early and headed to my uncle and aunts house. They had some trouble installing Adobe Photoshop and asked if I could take a look at their computer. It turned out they had bigger problems and was 3 hours before I got everything working and left. Then I went to mom's house and quickly replaced her garbage disposal and then got her computer back on the internet. Then I went home and hung out for a little bit. Jon and Jenna were heading to Mike's so I decided to join them. We walked up there only to find a $15 cover so we decided to try out The Record Bar but they had a $7 cover. Then we went to Buzzard Beach in Westport because they claim to never have a cover. We got there and saw a sign out side proclaiming just that and went in to find $1.75 draws of PBR. After a few drinks it was decided we really liked this bar. It was dark, had fish stuff all over, the barstools look home made out of 2x4s, good prices, not crazy loud, nice artwork (stuff people wrote on walls) in the bathrooms and an interesting crowd. I don't remember if I did anything after that. 

 

Saturday I got up early and went to Apple Market and got a bunch of pork and some fresh fruit then Jon and I got working on the wood stove for our ice house for a yet unplanned ice fishing trip. We worked on this most of the day and about 4:30 I rushed home to shower and then head to Heath's for dinner w/ her grandma. After dinner I drove to a housewarming/birthday party for a few of my KCUR coworkers. It was a cool house and a nice little gathering despite the terrible weather. By this time the roads were terrible. I left at 11ish and went home to find a house full of drunks. They pushed my truck into the garage and I went in and quickly put on my snow gear and Derrick Jon and I began the .7mile walk to suicide hill w/ 3 sleds and 15ish beers. We would be joined later by Russ and then his 2 friends Adam and Jake. 

It was close to midnight when we arrived and the hill was packed with people our age all armed with drinks and sleds ranging from disks to wooden rail sleds to tubes to dumpster lids, recycle boxes, cardboard or anything they could find. Speaking of sledding on anything after an hour or so of moderate sledding and heavy drinking we noticed some guys trying to lift up a double long pick nick table. So we went went down the hill to check it out. Eventually a dozen of us carried this long table all the way up the hill, flipped it upside down, then pilled 25 or so people on it and everyone rode down the hill together. It was fairly glorious. After that we did more drinking, sledding, wrestling and trying to fly over a big jump. The hill stayed strong and still had a lot of people playing after 2 when we had been out of beers for too long and went home.

Sunday Jon woke me up at 11 and we went back to work on the wood stove. It was nearly done but we needed to add legs, a cooking surface and the angle for the chimney.

This did not take long and once done we took it to my house and set it up in the driveway and built a big fire in it to burn off any leftover insulation or anything that would smoke on the surface of the stove. Other then a few minor kinks the stove worked great, put off lots of heat and even made a chugging sound when you really got it hot.

Now remember my camera is broke but this morning I could not resist taking some cell phone pics for the site.

   

Around lunchtime we were a bit worn down and already had quite the sense of accomplishment so we put a pot of water on the stove to boil and sat down to watch the game. The new stove made us a pot of spaghetti for lunch and we spent the rest of the day watching football.

 

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01-19-07 12:15am

Well I have been at the station late again tonight and plan to sleep in again. But I will tell you a story about my evening including running out of gas and having to walk a bit.

1-19-07 10:20am

Well I am back at work after a fairly full nights sleep. I did get a bloody nose in my sleep last night and thus did not have a great night but anyway.

So last night I came into the radio station to check on some of my work from the night before and to run some spyware/virus scans on computers that are used all day long on the air. Once I had these scans running I had some free time and convinced Heath to come get me and go to a bar for a few drinks while I wait for them to run. We went to the plaza and first stopped by Odouds. We both got Boulevard Wheat for $2.50. They had a live band that was good. They played all covers and sounded like they just copied a play list of 96.5 the buzz w/ out any of the cutter music. After our beers we walked over to the Gran Fallon and they were kinda slow and boring we had a bud light then headed back to the station but we didn't make it.

We were cruising around in Heather's new car and when she left the dealership earlier they told her the car was low on gas but not to fill it up because they would fill the tank and clean the car from her tomorrow when she delivers her old cars title.

Well it didn't make it and we ran out on Volker and Oak. We parked the car and walked to the radio station to get my truck. I checked on some scans and closed some and started some new ones then went to my house to find a gas tank. I had:

• 6 gallon tank full of boat gas

• 6 gallon tank full of boat gas

• 5 gallon tank full of boat gas

• 2 gallon tank full of lawnmower gas

• 1 gallon tank 1/2 full of chainsaw gas

And none of these would run the car w/ out damaging it.

So we filled up the chainsaw, then poured the rest of it in the lawnmower. We also grabbed a empty gallon jug of windshield wiper fluid and filled them up at the gas station. Then got the Saturn running and I went back to work and H went home to bed.

Russ, Kevin and I will be eating some steaks on Jan 29th and would like you to join us if you are a guy and help us think of a name for our trip.

I am in town and up to no good this weekend so give me a call if you have something fun to do or want something fun to do.  

 

 

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01-18-07 12:52pm

Well I just found out a meeting I had this afternoon is canceled so I have some free time. Stooks just sent me the pictures from beginning to work on the mini wood stove so I figured I would complete today's post. To refresh your memory...

H found a hot water heater on the curb in her neighborhood.

We stuck it in the truck and hauled it to Jon's Garage.

Matt Jon and I decided to strip it down to the water tank and start cutting the shell for a wood stove out of it.

It was covered in a thin white layer of sheet metal, then lots of sticky insulation and wires, heating elements, pipe fittings, and all this had to be removed from the thick black tank.

Once it was all scraped, twisted and pulled off we could cut the middle out of the tank to make it shorter.

Then we could weld the top and bottom back together, cut a door and stove pipe hole and install legs and a stove pipe.

(no pictures beyond this point)

Speaking of no pictures my new digital camera is broke. It will not charge, it will not turn on, it won't do anything. Last I used it I was taking pics of sledding and then it never worked again.

...Disaster you say...

No not too bad, HP is on the ball and sending me out a new one. Since it didn't even make it 90 days (closer to 30 days)

So no pics from me for a bit but I bet they will be back soon.

I already have missed some good photo ops. At lunch today I got out the pancake griddle and put it on the stove and heated it up. Tossed on 2 burger patties and an egg. Then diced some onion and added that. Then I spread some mayo and catsup on some bread and laid them on. Once everything was cooked I stacked bread, then mayo, burger, grilled onion, Swiss cheese, fried egg, burger, onion, Swiss cheeses, pickle, catsup, mayo then bread. It was a tall burger but nothing too troubling. I did get quite a bit of Swiss in my mustache.

 

 

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01-18-07 12:50am

Well I ended up working way late so I will not be posting for everyone's morning enjoyment. I do plan on coming into work about 10:00 for a meeting though. I got to drive around in a nice new Saturn with Heath earlier tonight and we both really liked it. Maybe she will buy this one. My camera never seemed to charge so maybe its broke. I will research this a bit later today.

So Men how does Jan. 31st work for a nice steak dinner, cold beer, good conversation and no ladies?

(Will we end up on mini dirt bikes?)

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01-17-07 8:10am

Yesterday after work I went home and watched "Beerfest" then went for a 3 mile run on the ice. Then drove to where I believed a Lowes was on Banister to get my mom a garbage disposal then went to a Home Depot across the street from where I believed a Lowes was but they were out of the right size. Then I went to China Star with Heath for lunch then we went to a different Lowes. Then I went to Heath's house and messed around until Grant woke up from his nap at the sitters then I picked him up and we went sledding and cooked dinner. Heath came home and we installed a curtain rod and stuff around her house.

Important facts from above:

• Beerfest was indeed just "ok".

• Running on ice is hard.

• I believe the Banister Wal-mart that closed will be reopening up in the building that I thought was a Lowes.

• I did not choke on any food at China Star

• The same garbage disposal is $20 more at Lowes then Home Depot so I didn't get it.

• I made sloppy joes for dinner (w/ deer burger of course)

This weekend was also pretty good, I can't remember if I took any pictures but the battery in my camera is dead from a sledding trip last night so I can't share them anyway. Friday after a short work day I met up with Stooks and we went to Jon's house to tear apart a hot water heater and build a wood stove. Matt took some pictures and video of this but I forgot to ever get them from him. Then we went to DaBronx and got some great pizza. We took the pizza's over to Gahoolies for beers.  After we were full we went back to my house and met up with Kevin and my roommates. After my house we went to Mikes and then back to my house again.

Saturday Heath Matt and I went on a nature hike in the cold ice then to Gran Fallon and watched some KU basketball. Then back to my house to mess arround, watch football and Matt, Heath, Jon and Jenna played scrabble. That night H and I went to Lew's for dinner with Steven and Becky and then tried out the Kansas City Margarita recipe. It was quite tasty but we all got worn out soon after.

Lets start thinking about setting a date (a few weeks away) for the first Man Meat Extravaganza.

 

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01-16-07 8:02am

Well college sure ain't what it used to be. I just got into work and started reading my e-mail. The first 3 e-mails I opened this morning.

1.   

Date / Time: 01/16/2007 - 01/16/2007 11:59:00 PM
Author: Brian
Subject: Campus Closing
Message Body: UMKC, including the IS Call Center, is closed today, Tuesday, January 16, due to inclement weather in Kansas City. Day and evening classes will not be held and University administrative offices are closed.

2.   

UMKC is closed today, Tuesday, January 16, due to inclement weather in Kansas City. Classes will not be held and University administrative offices are closed.

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And a forward from Jon with just a website  

http://digg.com/lbv.php?id=1181057&ord=1

So I guess I am going to post this and go home. Not sure what to do today. Yesterday I played with Grant all day since I had the day off. The last 2 nights I have been at my moms watching 24. It's been fairly good a nuke has already gone off. Also we had some good chili the first night and I made my first ever wheat crust pizza the second night.

I gota figure out what I am going to do all day now. I want to get out of here before real work shows up and I get tricked into staying. So my post about the weekend will have to wait.

 

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01-12-07 8:36am

I'm fairly excited that it's Friday already. This is one of the few weekends lately that I don't have anything planned and I am going to get to stay in Kansas City.

If you have been thinking about getting a digital camera but didn't want to spend the money today's woot www.woot.com may be just for you a 6megapix for $99.

Last night Heath, Grant and I did a 3 mile run then some stuff at the track and then some strength training exercises.

Then we ate a rotisserie chicken that

I had injected with Tequila Lime marinade.

We ate it with Broccoli

With cheese on it

After dinner we cleaned up real quick and went to

Dicks Sports.

Heath got a new pair of running shoes

and a new pair of hiking boots

(buy one get one 1/2 off).

 I got a cool Chiefs hat on sale. (like this but a baseball cap and grey ohh and  has a Chiefs arrowhead logo on it)

I'd like to mention Heath first did her shoe shopping at Cabalas but they did not have any good running shoes.

After our trip to Dicks we went home to eat "Banana Treat" (frozen banana slices)

and read a book.

Grant and I read Jack and the beanstalk.

Then went to bed.

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01-11-07 8:10am

Well I am feeling 100% today.

(just like this, but stuck at work)

Yesterday I was iffy most of the day but started feeling better around dinner time. Last night I went to Heath's and made a garlic chicken and vegetable Chinese dish. We ran a couple miles and went to Wal-Mart afterward we picked up a thrown away hot water heater. This big heavy heater will be cut apart and welded together and used as the mini wood stove for our ice house. After we got this heavy monster into the truck and it squired Heath with it's old rusty water I went to the new house development area and raided the dumpster. On first glance it was full of pallets, then I discovered lots of long 2x4s. On top of the dumpster it was very cold and crazy windy. The dumpster really made me work for the wood. fighting me with piles of roofing materials metal straps and piles of small boards.

Speaking of cold and windy, weather.com seems to think it will begin raining this evening, then tomorrow we get a little freezing rain and on Saturday a light winery mix turning into snow showers on Sunday. I was hoping to spend some time Saturday checking out the 12 mile Rim Rock trail but if it is really nasty out I may not. This sounds like it could be the making of some really crazy weather if it gets all wet then freezes then puts down some snow. I may get to spend my day off sledding and drinking hot coco and peppermint schnops.

I'm curious what all is going on this weekend. The house boat chop project is either canceled or postponed, Matt Stooks is possibly in town, we may get some bad(fun) weather, 24 season premier (2hr 2night special), KK is still in Japan, a mini wood stove needs to be built and it's a 3 day weekend.    

 

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01-10-07 8:45am

I got into work a little late this morning because I did not wake up until 8:10am. I've been having some weird problems with my phone and the alarm did not go off this morning.

Last night I got in bed a little after 8pm. Something was wrong with my stomach and I could not eat dinner or anything. Right after work I went to Mikes with some guys from work and felt fine, then Heath and I went for a 3 mile run. I was fine for about 1/2 the run then started to feel bad. It just got work as the evening went on.

I am thinking I ate something funky at lunch. We had a senior staff lunch meeting yesterday at a place called Cafe Sebastian inside the Kemper Museum. It was a fancy pants type of place that did not serve burgers but lots of salads and fish and stuff. I ordered the Grilled Pork Tenderloin and it was all right. I'm wondering now if it was undercooked or something about the sauce did not agree with my stomach.

 

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01-09-07 8:15am

Last night Derrick, Jon and I worked on the ice house. When we went into the garage it smelled fairly strong of cheeseburger grease. Last time we worked on the house we grilled some burgers by setting a grill on top of the wood stove. I tried to plug some holes in the grill with aluminum foil but it did not work that well and grease got on the stove. To fight this smell I got out a pan and cut a bunch of apples into thin slices and then covered them in cinnamon, brown sugar and butter, then I placed the pan on top of the stove.

The apple cinnamon mixture produced a nice smell but not really strong enough. The apples tasted fairly good but we decided they needed more cinnamon, brown sugar and butter and also thicker slices would make them better. I may even peal the apples first next time.

Well we were in the garage for more then just cooking desert and so we built 2 more modules that would fit together for the last wall. (these pieces but 7 instead of 6 feet total wide)

These sides took some giant screws and we had to take turns standing on each others backs to get them in tight. After we had the wall up and screwed down good we put the hinges and door up. Both sides took some tweaking but turned out nice. Once it was all together we put in 3 chairs, a stand w/ cinnamon apples on it and a fresh round of beers.

Now we need to work on making a mini wood stove to heat the hut and cook on and figure out ways to make the hut easy to take down and put up. Once we have the stove going I want to have a Hawaiian party in the ice hut. Get it really hot in there and make some Kansas City Margaritas.

Tonight Heath and I need to run 3 miles as part of our 1/2 marathon training schedule and I am not sure what else is on the game plan just yet.

Everyone keeps saying we are going to have a heck of a storm this weekend, what's the story there? I don't have to work Monday and may be up for something exciting Sunday.  

 

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01-08-06 8:11am

Another successful woodcutting trip.

First so you believe we actually worked hard and got some wood cut here is a look at the wood pile we created last month when we went to the farm.

and here is a picture of the wood pile we left yesterday afternoon.

 

Besides cutting down a few trees that were in the way and splitting a long pile of wood, we burned off lots of  brush,

hauled out some wood, got Jon's truck stuck in the mud,

Pulled the truck out with the new tractor

and played in the tractor.

  me in the scoop while Tony drives (yeah that's a sweet fur hat).

Jon trying to roll over a root ball.

Tony pulling Jon's truck out of the frozen mud.

This tractor is a heck of a fun toy and easier to use then you would initially think. It's got tons of levers and pedals and various controls and speeds and looks a bit overwhelming from the drivers seat but once you know what you want to do it's fairly easy to make the tractor do it.

The pot roast we had for dinner was great and lunch was not bad considering Jon brought blueberry bagels to make ham and cheese sandwiches on.

We made some good progress on the ice house and just have one door/wall left to have it up. It is set up in the garage and takes up nearly the entire garage so I can't take a picture of the whole thing. Once we take it out or I find a good angle I'll add a picture to the site.

 

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01-05-06 8:32am

I gota admit I am not really motivated to post today, or work, or surf the internet. I think that will pass though and I am looking forward to work being over and the weekend beginning.

Tonight after work I'll probably make a quick visit to Home Depot for some screws and another new chainsaw blade. I say another because I have bought like 5 of these and each time I decide I will learn how to resharpen them or find a shop that will resharpen them before I need another one but I always forget about it. After Home Depot Jon and I are going to work on the Ice House and hopefully get it standing in our yard. Saturday morning around 6am we will leave for Tony's Farm. This trip is extra special because of a new toy out at the farm.

Tony's dad got this little prize and we may use it in our wood clearing projects. We hope to do a lot of cutting and splitting this weekend in spite of a huge break in productivity for the chiefs game and small breaks for eating. We are going to have simple meals and maybe no campfire for cooking anything (just big bonfires of brush). However we are going to have a mighty pot roast dinner. I bought 3.5lbs of beef that will cook in the crock pot all day in BBQ sauce, onions, carrots and potatoes w/ a side of dinner rolls. 

Speaking of food, last night Jon and I had a double date. The girls took us out to Gojo's for some Japanese Steakhouse eats. The food was great and we were all really full. I was a little disappointed in our chef. He did not do many tricks, not even the volcano.

I think he didn't like our table because some poser vegetarian girl was giving him problems. She ordered the veg plate which is sad to a big fake-Japanese (mexican) cook and then she has the nerve to ask him not to use any butter on her food.  Now in case you are unfamiliar these cooks have one big cooking space in front of you and they cook everything on it from your steak to your vegetables to your shrimps. He cooks all the chicken in a pile all the scallops in a pile, all the vegetables in a pile, etc. They are continually squirting the piles with oil, teriyaki, soy sauce and piling on the butter. This is why the food is so good. Sure he could make the Veg Girl a separate pile but he should not have too.

Lucky for us he didn't. The Veg Girl took a shot of Saki and then disappeared (to the bathroom to barf or to the car to smoke up are my theories). While she was gone he did most of the cooking and did things as normal but did not show us much for tricks he flipped a bowl in the air and caught it in his hat. He tossed a few shrimp at our mouths and he pretended to scrape all the burnt up stuff on the grill onto the Veg Girl's plate.

After the tasty dinner we walked to Beaumont Club and found it closed so walked to Kelly's and split a piture.  

 

 

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01-04-06 8:34am

I imagine you are all eager to find out about the house boat and what I am planning. We think the boat is between 8 and 10ft wide and very heavy. Too big for my truck to pull so to get it to KC we would need to rent a trailer and a truck or have it hauled here. But where we would put it once it arrives. Neither Jon nor I have anywhere to put it. Maybe we could convince Heath to have it in her yard but what then. We could work on it, get it all running and looking nice but then what. If I wanted to keep it I would have to have it again hauled to a lake somewhere or buy a new truck and trailer for it. Once at a lake I would need to rent a slip to keep it in or put it in and out each trip to the lake and it would not be as easy as Grandma Natty. Also the lakes near my house are probably not big enough for this boat. So if I used it for myself I would probably tire of doing loops at Hillsdale. This also makes it tough to sell here. The only real option for selling it would be ebay.

So instead of trying to revive the beast we are going to ask to destroy it. I am going to propose that we scrap it for free saving my uncle $3k. You may want to take a break today and go through the Boat Chop photo album above. We hope to take down a bunch of saws and other implements of destruction and take the boat apart. We would take 3 trucks and 2 trailers. Save the engines and all the propeller and whatnot attached to them. Save the generator and all the metal on the boat including wires. We will pile up all the junk wood on one of the trailers and eventually burn it all. We will save anything of value and then haul the rest to a recycling center for $.

Then we will keep anything useful to us and eBay the rest. I have a far off dream of using one or both of the motors on a pontoon boat. I will e-bay my uncle today with our proposal. If anyone else wants this boat for nonsalvage reasons let me know.

Kevin isn't your birthday coming up soon?

Here are some paint drawings of our Ice House.

           Side View                      Front View

   

The Ice house must be made of parts that can fit in the bed of a Ford Ranger so 4ft X 6ft is the maximum size. We have built 4 modules at 4x6.

2 of these modules are the sides of the house and 2 of them are the roof. We now need to build the front and backside of the house. Both the front and the back sides will double as a door. On Friday we plan to build 2 of these and install hinges in the middle of them and then set it up. Once the house is built to be stable and easy to take down and put up. We will have 2 things left. Build a mini wood stove and chimney to both heat the house and cook our meals on. (No the stove will not sit directly on the ice, it will have legs) Also we plan to insulate our 4x6 modules Jon has a bunch of roof tar that we will spread on the inside of them and then we will stick cardboard to the tar and staple it all together. This will seal up all the seams and provide a heat trapping layer.

 

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01-03-07 8:15am

So I am going to copy an e-mail I received from my uncle into the post today and I would like to hear your opinions on what I should do.

Hey Chris,
Remember I was telling you Danny's houseboat sunk at Lake of the Ozarks in ice snow storm. Well the marina wants $3,000 to scrap it. I know nothing about this but he'd probably give it away if there's someone crazy enough to try to fix it up. On the other hand it is a Crist Craft wooden boat (somewhat of a classic) that attracted a lot of attention when we were there last summer. I think it sleeps four in beds, more on the deck. You would have to research how much it would cost you to fix it up and what's involved if interested. If not that's fine also.

The boat has been totaled and the Marina is trying to charge me $3,000 to take it and scrap it. They basically are crooks and over charging everyone. It is worth something to someone if they want to fix it up. I would say it is worth at least $2,500 to someone now. The problem is there are 3,000 + boats in the same condition now at the lake. If Chris is interested let me know. It is out of the water and ready to be hauled somewhere. The motors have been pickled. Meaning that water and oil have been drained and fill back up with diesel fuel. He would have to have it hauled to K.C. or somewhere he can work on it. The marina would charge to much to store it. I would give him the boat. It has two 327 Chevy's and a 6.5 KW generator. The boat could be fixed up and could be a good boat again if someone could start at $.00. I have to much into it already. I need to know soon.

Here are the pics of the boat after the storm:

I have a few ideas and possible plans but I don't want to lead you all into anything so I'll tell you what I'm thinking tomorrow.

Unrelated news I have a cool recipe I am wanting to test but have not gotten the chance yet. While at an NPR deal this weekend one of my coworkers wives shared it with the group and they decided to call it...

The Kansas City Margarita

12oz Frozen Limeaid concentrate

12oz 7up

12oz Tequila

2 bottles of Corona

 

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01-02-07 10:03am

Seems like lots to catch you up on. First the explanation of the announcement, Saturday morning I went back to eggct, (home of the cold biscuits and gravy and the sub par burger) with Stooks and Heath. The place was pretty full and smelled fantastic when we got in there so we agreed to wait 20 min for a table. I decided to give the place another shot since I had never tried the eggs and that may be their specialty. All three of us ordered omelets and they looked amazing when they arrived. Unfortunately they did not taste amazing. They were all just all right, they were nice and hot but I think they didn't have enough stuff inside, eggct was real skimpy on the cheese and other stuff inside. So it was mostly just eating a plain egg. not terrible and not great.

On Friday night Mike, Matt, Audry, Heath and myself played a lot of Jenga after the pizza and then walked up to Mike's Tavern. They had a $7 cover so we waved goodbye to the large bouncer and hopped in a cab up to The Brooksider. We found a table in the basement for a while then went to Hoopers for a while. We taxied it home and scarfed up the rest of the pizza. I went to bed around 3am and was woken at 6am with a radio station problem. I went into the station and had it fixed in 5 min and went back to bed. The woke up a few hours later and went to breakfast.

Saturday afternoon I worked for a while and Heath and I went to the park for a run. We also went to Wal-Mart and found it was having a sale and that the banister store was shutting down. They had all sorts of good stuff on sale. My best stuff was a lantern and a camp stove. That night we went to the Peach Tree for dinner with a bunch of NPR and KCUR folks. It was a great free meal and we met some interesting characters.

New Years was a good time and very busy early on then quiet (for me) until around 12:30 and then busy again. At 12:30 we were done and had to take everything apart and put it away. There was lots of broadcast gear to take care of. Luckily a coworker of mine brought a nice bottle of tequila and the owner of the Blue Note brought over some champagne to make the work more fun. We drank and snaked and worked until sometime after 2am then I got a ride home and showed some folks around the house and had a few beers.

I had a bad headache in the morning. My truck was 5 miles away, no one was in town and nothing was on tv. I laid around on the couch drinking water for a while and then realized I was supposed to go shopping at Cabela's with Kelly and Chris. I decided to bike my way to the 18th and Vine area and find my truck. I took Paseo all the way and luckily it was mostly down hill.

Just as I neared my truck Kelly called and said she was getting ready to go. So it all worked out ok. I got some new boots to wear hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, a goofy fur hat and some propane to use in my new lantern and stove. 

I'm tired of typing so not much happened the rest of the day I rested, after dinner Jon and I went to the garage and built 2 walls and the roof of our ice shelter. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow.

Saturday and Sunday I will be playing lumberjack and harvesting tons of wood again. Feel free to join in if you feel like a weekend of killing trees. We will break to watch the Chiefs beat the Colts. 

 

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12-31-06 10:51pm

It's nearly an hour until the new year and I have a bit of time to kill so I thought I would get a post in since I will probably not get a chance tomorrow and I may not go into work Tuesday until late.

I've been working since about 4pm today and should finish sometime between 1am and 4am. I am at the American Jazz Museum assisting NPR people from Chicago, New York, Washington DC, and New Jersey. My primary job seems to be gofer but I also make sure they get internet ok and can print. It's been a fairly exciting and fun night so I don't mind missing out on New Years celebrations. We are broadcasting New York right now and they are about to count down.

All right that's all done.

Mike "Stormy" Strohm was in town for the holidays and we had out fajita pizza on Friday night. The word got out and Stooks came in from Manhattan and Heath's friend Audry came in from Cheyenne, WY.

The pizza was a meatfest and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

 

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12-29-06 8:03am

I apologize for not posting yesterday with no warning. I had the day off and forgot to let you all know. I took off Thursday to baby-sit Grant while his sitter had the week off. I thought you all might be sad but I never expected Stooks to call me in tears fearing the worst.

By the way check out the HYPERlink above and listen to some of his recent shows he is getting to be too funny for Manhattan. (not too funny looking though cuz there are some wierdos out there and he fits right in)

On my day off Grant and I had lots of fun. Best of all was our trip to Hillsdale Lake to run the trail there.

I set out all cocky thinking we would run 6 miles with a break in the middle somewhere to play at a park. I aired up Grants new styling running stroller, loaded up all our snacks, juice boxes, GPS, phone, camera, etc. and took off running.

Hillsdale has a chat path (small rocks bigger then sand and smaller then gravel) that goes an undeterminable distance and is really nice to run on ordinarily but yesterday it was a struggle. It had rained and the trail was sloppy and had a lot of sand and mud in it. It was like running on the beach. Pushing the stroller is usually not a big hindrance to my running but yesterday it was quite a chore, the thin wheels really sank down in the sand and I had to really push hard to keep it going. We ended up only going about 3.5 miles with 2 breaks to throw rocks in the water and never made it to a park. It did feel like a good workout though and my arms and back were sore.

Grant and I also made a tasty breakfast and lunch, did some grocery shopping, picked up my pictures from Wal-Mart, took a nap and watched Cars at my house while Derrick cleaned up after Russ.

(Russ had a whole week off to make messes then leave Derrick to clean up the whole kitchen and me to clean up the family/living room).

Heath was driving around in a borrowed 06 Hyundai Tucson last night. I drove it around a bit and really liked it. Has a V6 and 4x4 and one of the shifter deals where you can control what gear your in. Also it has the same paint job as my truck with mostly white paint but a dark grey section at the bottom. They look pretty sharp next to each other.    

Now after picking on Stooks and Russ, here is what I would have posted about yesterday.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Jon and I had a heck of a hall Dumpster Diving

That's right Wednesday night after work we drove to the northland for some pillaging. We were after 2x4s and chip board and found several really long 2x2s and tons of chipboard. We also got a shovel, digital camera, authentic military camouflage clothes, screws, nails, a whicker chair for grant, 2 full cans of paint, some assorted wires and transformers, a toy samari sword and probably some undetermined diseases. Here is a pic of the wood in the garage.

This pic does not even have all the 2x2s we got. Then later wed night I went to Heath's and checked out a construction dumpster near her house to find it full of chipboard too so I got another load on top of the one above. 

I'll be doing quite a bit of radio station work this weekend and totally be out New Years Eve. If you miss me lots listen to the Jazz themed broadcast on 89.3 KCUR and maybe in the credits they will say my name on the international broadcast. 

 

 

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12-27-06 8:14am

Well yesterday was a slow morning and a busy afternoon. I got a bunch of pictures ordered from Wal-Mart and they shipped out last night. I am hoping I can pick them up at the Wal-Mart on 51st and Roe on Friday.

I always get excited when I get my pictures printed and can put them up. I got 21 8x10s so I will be putting a lot of pictures up.

I think Jon and I are going lumber hunting tonight. In the northland there are some major housing developments going on where there will be 5-10 dumpsters on a newly made block. All the used wood gets tossed into these dumpsters to be hauled out. We will most likely jump into each dumpster and pull out all the large chip board scraps and any 2x4s that are more then 6ft long. Last time we went hunting we were in the middle of the wall project and so had specific needs of 8ft 2x4s and 4ft chipboards and even trimmed down boards that were too long. This time the main need for lumber is for an ice fishing hut. I'll describe the hut more when we really get it all going and figured out but it will need to hold 3 to sit and fish, to lay down and fish and be transportable in the back of a Ford Ranger.

After the lumber hunt I will probably meet up with Heath who is supposed to be car shopping. She found two 06 Hyundai Tucsons that she really likes. I'm not sure the color or anything but they look like this.  

The main improvements over her current car is working windows, working speedometer, working sunroof, intact interior, and linkage not held together with electrical tape. I like the way these look and the 10 year warranty. Some girl liked hers so much she went and got a tattoo of it.

 

I'm thinking she will get a good deal being the end of the year and the salesmen needing to make quotas, anyone think this is true or she will be better off waiting till next year when the car is a year older?

 

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12-26-06 8:38am

Christmas with Grant and Heath

Grant gets his own copy of Pulp Fiction

At Heath's Family Christmas

My Family Christmas Eve

I'm not sure what to write about today it was a very busy Christmas break. We all ate a whole bunch, got to see a lot of people, got all kinds of good presents and even had some fun. I'm looking forward to starting to build an ice fishing hut and making fajita pizza with Mike. I am not sure on dates for either of these events.

I am guessing only about 1/2 of you are working today, so in theory I only need to put up 1/2 an effort of posting something nice.

 

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12-22-06 8:15am

Busy busy. I am going to be all over today working on wireless connections and ISDN lines in an effort to make sure things will be working for a national NPR show that takes place here New Years Eve. For those of you that don't know what ISDN lines are (everyone but Stooks), they are special phone lines hooked together and connected to some cool boxes that allow you to send good quality audio from one place to another that is very far away. It seems like they are fairly wacky in getting set up sometimes though so it's a bit tougher to get going then plugging in your phone. If you don't know what wireless connections are you are missing out...

So I still am waiting on 4 presents, both my sisters and my brother have no present from me yet and a small part of Heath's gift. I thought I ordered everything far in advance but maybe not. I'm not sure what to do there.

Last night my mom and I went to get her gift at the Best Buy in Olathe. (It was not too busy at all) After an hour of looking she picked out a washing machine she liked and we decided to get it. Then we found out they didn't have any there or ordered and would not be able to order a new one for 2 weeks and were not sure when it would arrive. They gave us a $50 discount on a similar model and we agreed. Then the receipt machine was broken and our salesman got lost but eventually we all found our way to my truck with a giant box and got the appliance loaded up and taken home. Mom and I got it set up without to mush trouble and even started a test load.

It looks kinda like this but not exactly it's a Frigidaire high efficiency front load washing machine and mom really likes it.

Sorry but I gota cut it short and work so happy holidays and Mike Stormy good luck getting here from Denver.

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12-21-06 8:25am

First off thanks for the help on the CD yesterday I think it turned out really good, we listened to a bit last night and it was very annoying. We could not make it all the way through the disk before getting sick of the songs.

I am still waiting for 4 presents I bought on the internet to arrive and really hoping they come today but I guess tomorrow would be all right too. Other then those I have everything wrapped even the gag gifts.

Besides wrapping gifts last night I watched the movie Lucky Number S7even and decided it would have been more properly named "The Kansas City Shuffle" however everyone would have assumed it was boring or about dancing.

After the movie we got a little bit wound up and headed to 75th Street Brewery for the Wednesday special $0.75 brews. The special starts at 10pm. Derrick and I talked about going at 9:30 or right at ten or just whenever we were ready. We did not know what to expect, it's a great deal but would it be hard to get a table?

Well arriving at 10:30 was a disaster, and any later would have possibly been worse. The place was packed and we could not get a drink, they had very few bartenders and very very many people trying to get drinks. There was barely room to stand, after failing at making our way to a bartender we went to Kennedy's next door. We walked in and immediately got a few $1.50 bottles (twice the price but still a deal) and shortly after we got a pool table. Then it started filling up and soon was just as crowded. It was never as hard to get a beer but the room got very hot, loud and smoky. I got my fill awhile after midnight and went home with Heath leaving Derrick and "that guy on our couch" also known as Adam to stay and hang out with their friend Jen and her crowd.

Heath and I went home and cooked a frozen pizza that was only $0.89 but quite tasty.

     

 

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12-20-06 8:00am

Well I have started to get a lot of inquiries about my plans for the weekend. Tony V even sent me an e-mail saying "I hear the plan is your place Friday night". Unfortunately this is not true and I am likely to be tied up celebrating Christmas from Friday afternoon until after Christmas day in various functions. I've already been to 2 Christmas party's and skipped out on 3. Friday night is probably going to be the best one with just Grant, Heath and I. Then Saturday I'm going to one of Heath's family gatherings, Sunday morning a different one, Sunday evening church and then to my grandmothers house. Monday I celebrate at my mom's house in the morning and then drive down to my other Grandma's house to celebrate there. Monday night I believe I am a free man but have to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday or Thursday night I have another Christmas dinner at another of Heather's relatives and then I prepare to work for the radio station on New Years Eve.

In more exciting news I have gotten all my and 99% of Heath's shopping done and a good portion of wrapping presents taken care of. I am fairly stoked about all the gifts I came up with for people and I got my first taste of this excitement last night when Heath, Grant and I delivered some plastic Jesus, Mary and Joseph statues and the manger I built to Heath's mom. This got her all wound up and excited so I guess Christmas is not all terrible.

Off the subject of Christmas (thank god) I am looking for silly songs to make a cd compilation. By silly I mean anything that is funny for anyone specifically Grant. The two songs that come to mind for me are:

Peanut Butter Jelly Time - http://www.ebaumsworld.com/2006/06/peanutbutter.html

Banana Phone - http://www.transbuddha.com/osaka/osakaphone.html

If you have not heard these, they are quite ridiculous and really get stuck in your head good. Does anyone else know of anything similar?

Grant has a terrible CD of kids songs that are just terrible remakes of old popular songs sung by kids with anything possibly not PC changed. He is addicted to this and I need to find something even more ridiculous for him.

Ohh last thing, if you didn't read the comment yesterday about the 51st and main peanut go read it. Mostly I did not have an incident to really explain why I want them out of business but I always get terrible service, overpriced drinks and some terrible old man bartender. I do like the other locations I have visited though.

 

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12-19-06 8:15am

Last night after work I went home and really got some things going on x-mas type projects. First I worked on the toolbox set I am giving Grant. I bought a bunch of cheep kid play tools like plastic hammer, drill, screwdriver, saw, etc. and I painted an old tackle box white. Yesterday I printed off and then glued on some pictures and then gave it a couple coats of clear sealant paint.

   

While the paint dried I started wrapping the other presents. When Derrick got home we got to work on his computer. We swapped out parts with mine until finding out that his processor was the only thing not working. So now he has to find a processor he is fond of. It's also important that the processor likes the slot in his computer and then we need to get them together. I am thinking this will be easier for Derrick then finding a date but we will see.

  (check that out ladies)

After playing computer I had to get one of my last presents, it's for H so I will not say much about it but I had to go to an old lady store to buy it and the store was a long way away. The store was painless though and I got in and out.

When I got home I started cooking dinner, started a fire in the wood stove and resumed wrapping presents. I ate a few healthy bowls full of deer meat, Aldi brand hamburger helper stroganoff with onion, corn and tomatoes added. I ate and wrapped until Jon came over and the Monday night football game began.

We went out to the garage and watched the game in the warm radiant heat of the stove. We discussed some of the good and bad parts of Christmas time and all the stuff we have to do.  

 

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12-18-06 8:22am

Friday I spent most of the day in bed until about 4. Then Jon and I drove down to Pittsburg for my sisters graduation and because we had not been down in a while. When we got to town we met up with Tony and went to "The 311 Club" for some pool and slim jims (32oz glass of beer for $2.75). Once Kelly's graduation party began we went to her apartment. There were quite a few people there. After the party we went to 505 and then over to JB's. At JB's we met up with Kelly again and finished the night there.  

Saturday morning we packed up some supplies at Tony's house, then went to Wal-Mart for beef, buns, catsup and shortening. We took all this stuff out to a strip pit for a fire and lunch.

(note the oven rack from Tony's house)

We grilled up cheeseburgers and French fries. The burgers were extra tasty from sautéed onions we made on the lid of the Dutch oven. 

Midlunch Heather and Jenna met us out at the pit with a huge jug of rum. They had some fries and split a burger. After lunch we wondered around our site for a while and then decided to take a nature walk. We were not far from the pit we used to go to all the time in collage and decided to walk over there and see what had changed. We ended up walking all over the pit and had fun horsing around.

After the hike we went back to Tony's and got cleaned up. Then we went to a new Chinese restaurant called Yummy's. It was a good place, food was all hot and tasty plus they had some unique stuff like sushi and crawfish. I had my first crawdad and thought it was good, real buttery taste. After dinner we went back to 311 and watched some football and had more slim jims. After 311 we went to Morman's and played some pool and drank some pitures. Jon and I decided to walk to Tony's at the end of the night and we went strait to Taco Bell and talked our way into a truck at the front of the drive through lane. We bought our new friend dinner and got some tacos and water for ourselves. After receiving our food we were unable to talk the guy into driving his truck around in the mud so we got out and walked back to Tony's house and went to bed. In the morning we got all cleaned up and then went to Chatter's for my favorite burger of all time. The Gorilla burger is still the best burger I have ever found at a restaurant.

  (yeah that's an egg you see, and bacon and Velveeta and ...)

Then we drove home and got ready for the KCUR X-mas party.  Heath and I got to the Levee at about 6 and stayed till about 10pm. They had a fajita bar and an open bar. It was a lot of fun and all the food/drinks were really good.

 

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12-14-06 8:14am

I picked up the Personal Property Tax Bill for my boat last night from my mom's house. Any guesses how much tax I have to pay for the year on Grandma Natty?

   

No that's too much it costs $11.80. The Assessed Value is 125, I'm not sure if that is a dollar amount or what.

Last night was nice out and I got to have a fire in Heath's backyard.

 

I think I am getting a cold or the flu or something so we did not make a big production of the fire. Mostly we just burned the log cabin down and cooked on it's coals. The night before we marinated some deer steaks in beer, whiskey, melted butter, brown sugar, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, season all, and Montreal steak seasoning. The steaks and some onions soaked in this mixture all night/day and then I tossed them on a grate over the open coals.

The fire was hot and it did not take long to cook everything and get a pot of water boiling. Inside we cooked some frozen green beans in a skillet with garlic and soy sauce and seasoned oven French fries. Then brought in the meat, onions and water. We made hot coco from the water and ate the rest w/ a little BBQ sauce. Everything turned out great. The deer steaks were tender and had a real nice flavor.

As promised yesterday I will describe my new club idea. I forgot the website link and when I talked to Derrick he had already left the house too and could not get it. I'll try to remember at lunch to update the site with the link.

In a FHM magazine I read an article about a club of guys in New York (I think). These guys get together once every 2 months and practice being carnivores. They all meet at a predetermined restaurant or house and eat meat. They were trying to get guys in other cities to start up their own clubs and do the same thing. I think it would be a really fun club and I think I know a lot of guys that like steak. These guys all had nice matching polo shirts with some meat emblem on them and even got nice matching steak knives that they took to the meatings (misspelled on purpose, get it). Is anyone interested in starting such a club? If we have enough interest we could do a trial run and pick a restaurant and all meat there for some steaks. Once I find the website of these other guys we can decide if we want to do the same as them or go our own direction.  Girls sorry but this seems like a good opportunity for us to get away from you and fart and talk about gross stuff. If you ladies are jealous maybe you could start a cuscus club.  

Update: the website is supposedly fhmus.com/carnivores but that does not seem to work. The article was on page 24 of the October06 magazine. The other Meat Men are called "The Ancient Carnivorous Social Club" and they live in Rochelle, NY. The Co-Founder and President is named Ryan "Punchy" O'Leary. They have 23 members and do go out once every 2 months for red meat and beer.

 

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12-13-06 8:41am

Kansas City Weather:

• Today: Plenty of sunshine. Warmer. High 58F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tonight: Mainly clear skies. Low 42F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

That sounds peaty warm but not as warm as

• Tomorrow: Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 63F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy skies. Low 37F. Winds light and variable.

Due to the high temperatures expected for today and the low wind speeds, we are going to start a fire in Heath's backyard. Grant and I built a nice log cabin style fire layout this weekend and got it all ready to go.

(this is not quite right but close)

Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the fire.

Last night I got the last coat on my manger set up and H and I attempted to glue straw to the roof. We may need to try this part again. Afterwards we went on a good run, made a great taco salad and then visited the new Clark family to pay rent.

Then we stopped by Target. I almost got all finished x-mas shopping. I just have 1/2 a gift left to get. I really don't like shopping and luckily I have been able to get most my stuff online. I've also taken a trick that my grandma loves and bought several people the same thing. We always know if one cousin opens a pair of gloves for x-mas we will all be opening a pair of gloves. My cousins and siblings always make fun of this but it is nice to nock out lots of shopping in one swoop.

I wanted to post today about a plan I am working on for a club but can't remember the web address I need to look forward to that tomorrow.

 Ohh yeah it's a men only club I think so ladies don't look forward to it. You can think about this instead.

 

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12-12-06 9:03am

Is anyone making it to this page? I am getting a few comments now.

Here Mike

OK well I have been awfully busy since I got back from Colorado and I have a few ideas to push on you all. Lets not start out on an empty stomach, how about breakfast pizza.

Grant is crazy about pizza, wants it at every meal and can eat it quite a bit of it. So Sunday morning while making scrambled eggs I decided to try out this pizza breakfast for him.

I put a piece of bread on a pan in the toaster oven so only one side would toast. I put eggs, green pepper, turkey, pepperoni and some milk in a fry pan and cooked it. Then took out the toast and cut the egg mixture into a square. put them together, added a thin layer of salsa and a thick layer of cheese.

 Then I melted the top and cut into triangles.

Sunday night I went to a work x-mas party for Heath's pancake gig. We went to the Cris Cakes building and had some appetizers and beer. Then got in a party bus and had all sorts of different drinks.

  (in bus)

I stuck to Amber Bock and some patron tequila. We drove around celebrating and looking at Christmas lights, until everyone really had to use the restroom. Then we went to The Melting Pot on the plaza and had a 5 course meal. We were stuffed and a bit tipsy by the end of the meal and decided to walk it off. We walked toward my house until Russ picked us up.

On Sunday during the chiefs game I began a new project in the garage. Heath's mom really wants a big manger scene for the front yard. So I get to build a manger. I got it mostly put together during the game and then H and I stained it last night. It just needs one more coat, some straw glued to the roof and my brace system so it can't blow down then it will be done.

 

Also we now have a Christmas tree at my house. I cut it down last night and stuck it on an end table this morning. I hope to get it properly mounted tonight, possibly trimmed and in some water.

 

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12-11-06 8:50am

Allrighty I am back and full of stories. First off though I am planning another trip in less then 2 months and want to get tickets soon. I will be going to Salt Lake for most of it and spend at least a weekend in Colorado. I hope to snowboard, cross country ski and snowshoe. Please let me know if you have any interest in joining either trip.

   

The CO trip was great. We left at about 8am on Tuesday morning and had a fairly decent drive to Bolder. We went to a bar Tuesday night and got lots of food and some drinks. Tony got a huge slab of beef ribs. Wednesday morning we got up at like 4:30am and got ready to drive to Vail. Steven's brother Brian got us a good deal on lift tickets and the snow was great. The mountains were also nice. There was not many people skiing in the middle of the week this early in the season. Wednesday night we were exhausted and went home to make some burgers and crash out early. Thursday Steven was not feeling well so Tony and I drove to Copper Mountain together. We had another great day on the mountain with no crowd good snow and lots of nice runs. This was probably the fullest day of snowboarding I have ever had. We were up and down the mountain nonstop and I have no idea how many runs we got in. We cooked up some Beef fajita soup and some sandwiches in the parking lot for lunch.

 

That night we went to a local bar with great happy hour burger and drink deals. Since burgers were cheep I got a double, the staff seemed impressed. My burger was 2 beef patties, slices of ham, onion ring, cheddar, Swiss cheese and bbq and mayo.

Friday morning we went and ate a good big breakfast then headed up the mountain for some snow shoeing. We stopped on the way to check out a 1/2 frozen waterfall. Snow shoeing was lots of fun and we figure we went 5miles +/- . It was not as hard as we expected and I want to do it again.

           

Friday night we packed up and then went to Denver to see "Stormy". That's right Mike Strohm finally has a nick name and thank god it's not mistro. His coworkers had come up with the new Stormy name. We ran all over Colfax street in Denver hitting lots of bars and even a good cheeseburger place. We all had lots of fun.

 

 

 

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12-04-06 8:34am

Update: Picture Link above!!

It was a very busy weekend and I have a lot to tell. I am also going to be very busy today and tonight getting ready for my trip to Colorado tomorrow.

Friday night after work I went to the newish Best Buy in Olathe to pick out a camera. I had done a little research and everyone was in favor of me getting the Canon Elph. I got there and looked it over good and compared it to some others and decided to go with an HP Photosmart R727. I have owned a few other HP cameras and liked them until I lost or broke them. This one was about the same size as the Elph with a few features I liked better. Heather showed up and liked both of them and some others in my price range. 

   

After buying the camera ($199) and a new bigger(512k) SD Card ($15). Heather and I went to the AMC Theatre there and got 2 student movie tickets for the Borat movie. It cost me $16 and I remembered why I don't go to movies. After the movie we were starving and walked/drove to a few places in the area but they were all packed with people. We went over to some small Mexican place off Santa Fe. We were seated right away and really liked the place. We ordered fajitas for 2 and got a huge skillet with 3 kinds of steak, chicken, shrimp, ribs, peppers, onions and a side plate of rice, beans, guac, lettuce, tomato, etc. It was only about $2 more then our movie tickets. After dinner we walked around Big Lots for a few minutes then called it a night since we had the big Triathlon the next day.

Saturday Heath made pancakes for some job deal and I went home and cleaned up, made chili, folded laundry and got things ready for the run. I went to Osco Drug and found it to be renamed to something else and they gave everyone in the door a $10 gift certificate. Just like 90% of the other customers I was there for alcohol and got a 30 pack of Bush for $3.

Around noon people started showing up for the triathlon for predrinking, preeating, preparing, prepumping-up. By 2:30 we had everyone ready to go and headed out. The run was a great success and almost all of us made it to all the bars and everyone got plenty of exercise and plenty to drink and I think everyone even stayed warm. I got 63 pictures to go through but should have up an album by the end of the day if I don't get to busy here. There was lots of controversy (Russ bitching) on the Joggermeister title and everyone was too wound up to take the time to name one. So I am going to go ahead and announce Jon as this years joggermeister and give honorable mention to Kentaro and Danny Bristow. Jon was easily this years choice until he ran the wrong way and got lost and had to take a taxi to the last bar.

I won't get into all the other excitement from the run but no one was hurt, we all ended up at mikes a few people had minor slips on ice and lots of people were sore the next day. After the run we all went back to our house and devoured a big pot of chili in seconds. Then we all passed out between 10 and midnight. Sunday we had some adventures on a trip to Georgie Porgies for breakfast, then watched football in the garage by the warmth of the stove.

After the game H, Grant and I went to Crown Center to see SANTA, eat at the train restaurant and play at some Crayola village thing. It was a good time, my quadruple burger was great, Grant had a lot of fun (at least when Santa wasn't creeping him out), and I got to use my new camera. I'll think about adding some cute pictures later.

  Poseing by choo-choo

Crayola Village

Santa Clause

Eating dinner (can't sit still)

Break from eating to dance

 

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12-01-06 8:15am

Well I took lots of pictures last night and most are fairly entertaining. My roommates and I were trying to get a nice family portrait to put up on the mantle. I will need to tweak on them for a little bit before we find the best one.

I got out of work early and went home and watched some TV until Derrick came home. He thought we should go to Mikes and convinced Jenna and I to join him. It was actually fairly crowded for Mikes and we were barely able to get a pool table for me to beat Derrick at (once). Russ joined us when he got home and we played until we were too hungry and eager to sled to stay.

Once we got home we took the family pictures and started cooking an experimental, untested dish called Deeraroni. Once I found out that everyone was prepared to test out this dish it became Deeraroni Supreme.

Recipe for Deeraroni Supreme:

In one pot, make 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese (or Kraft cheese and macaroni) as instructions say.

In a skillet brown deer hamburger, cow hamburger, and chop up and spread in cooked bacon.

Drain any grease off.

Pour in 1 can of chili beans.

Add spices (cumin, red pepper, cayenne pepper, onion salt, etc.) and mix well.

Stir pot of mac and cheese into meat/bean pan.

Add layer of shredded cheese and serve.

   

It was a lot of food, even split 4 ways but we easily ate the whole pan in no time. After dinner Jon came over and we got the sleds and the boys ready for some sledding and started walking/running to the park. We filled the sled with beverages and Russ even stopped along the way for some fun in the snow.

Once we got to the hill we found a much different scene then Jon and I saw the night before. It was packed with little kids, big kids, old kids, news trucks, tow trucks, and lots of snow and quite a few people drinking.

We took turns riding the 2 sleds down the hill and standing at the top watching and drinking. It was fairly chilly and our drinks got slushy in no time. Also there was a vicious wind to deal with. I took more pictures but they are mostly worthless. The display screen on my camera died when we tried to shoot some action shots on the hill. I am even more motivated to get a new one now.

Eventually the news truck got things going and started doing some broadcasts from the hill. We tried to get in a few shots but I'm not sure how successful we were. Then 5 guys on ski bikes took the attention of everyone.

They were all going to ride the bikes down the hill at the same time and the news truck would film them. It was all fairly lame but everyone was really into it. Including Russ and my toboggan. He lined up on the side of the hill, hidden in a crowd and waited for the bikes to head down the hill. Once they started down he took off in a diagonal pattern. The bikes were fast and looked to be ahead of Russ and they all were but one. Some guy was ridding a girl ski bike and not as fast as the others and he paid the price. Russ' arm and shoulder plowed right into the front of the bike sending this sucker rolling down the hill with the crowd watching, laughing and cheering. The collision didn't even slow Russ down and he nearly caught the other lame-os. 

 

 

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11-30-06 8:41am

Did everyone get snowed in last night/today?

KC really got wound up from the ice storm and sounds like everywhere was closed and canceled and lots of traffic and wreaks and stuff. After work I went home and worked for a while via e-mail and stuff. Then Jon came over and we fired up the wood stove in the garage and got things warmed up. Derrick came out with a jug of whiskey to help and we got the garage nice and cozy.

Eventually we came up with the plan on making some spiked hot coco. We set a pot of water on top of the wood stove and played while it warmed up. It quickly started to boil and I went in to find the hot chocolate. Ohh no it was not there. We had no hot chocolate. All I had was chocolate chips and sugar. Jenna had some baking coco and we tossed all 3 ingredients into the pot and simmered. It turned out great and was not bad w/ a dash or so of whiskey. After a few mugs Russ came home and soonafter he and Derrick decided to play video games for the rest of the evening.

Jon and I decided to get out the toboggan and do some sledding. First we played on my ice coated street. We could easily make it all the way down to 55th with a lot of speed but had to bail out at the intersection so we moved to 55th. We could keep an eye on traffic better down there but it was not as steep so we moved on. We went to a park on 57th street just east of brookside. Here we found a very steep, very fast long hill. This was perfect, we took turns flying down the hill on the toboggan then running back up the hill. We did this for about half an hour before our fingers got cold and we got tired of running up the hill. Then we went back to my house. Then I ate a late dinner, Jon went upstairs with Jenna and Russ and Derrick played more video games.

 

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11-29-06 8:04am

Well yesterday I finally got the streaming server replaced. It was a little rough going in and I got stuck at work late tweaking some things on it, but it's nice to have it done.

Since I was late my plans for the evening were changed and I needed to stay close to my cell and e-mail to answer questions for people. After work I went for a run, watched Heroes and then cooked my first meal with the new deer meat I got from Chris. I made spaghetti and meatballs. I have never made meatballs before from any kind of meat so I just made it up as I went. I put about 1/2lbs of meat in a bowl and then dumped in onion, pepper and some garlic and Italian seasonings and 1/2 a package of stuffing mix (like I use for meatloaf). I got it all mixed up well and rolled out 7 large balls. I tossed these in a frying pan and simmered them for a while. Once they got darker in color I poured in more onions, mushrooms and a jar of spaghetti sauce and let all that simmer. I boiled some noodles and then put it all together. I had low expectations since I didn't know what I was doing and the deer meat is a bit tricky but they were great.

After dinner I went back out to the garage to finish up my TV stand. There was not much left to do, just add some screws everywhere and put on the top. I considered adding some diagonal pieces for additional support but decided against it since it felt very sturdy and Jon didn't think I needed it.

  Nearly finished shelf

Once I was done I waited until 10 (for our programs to be done recording then Derrick and Russ helped me move out the old one and in the new one. We got it all wired and then stocked up in no time.

 

We soon found that we have almost just the right amount of dvds. We will be able to squeeze in a few more on the last shelf but it's almost all full.

It's just too bad that I rarely watch movies any more. Other then "Cars" of course, Grant has that movie on non-stop at Heath's house.

I hope to buy a digital camera tonight to use on the triathlon. Steven has recommended the Canon Elf and I hope to find time to look into it today.

 

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11-28-06 8:41am

All right, things should be back to normal today. Sure I am a little late and still a bit drowsy but otherwise things seem normal. I've got apples, I remembered my ice tea, the streaming server is scheduled to be started again but still sitting in my office.

I am starting to get kinda excited for the Triathlon on Saturday. So far it looks like it will be in the upper 30s but sunny. Supposed to rain and snow between now and then though.

Last night I spent almost all my time in the garage out back. This weekend I set up a sweet little TV setup in the corner of the garage, so I could somewhat keep up on Monday night football while playing carpenter.

It worked out great and seems to really fit in the garage. Last night I started working on a TV stand for our family room. The current thing our TV sits on is not designed to hold a big TV and looks like it is about to fall over. It leans way to one side and sags to badly the drawers won't close correctly. I have been waiting for it to fall over for a few months. The new one looks like this so far.

   

It is 4ft tall and my TV will sit on top of it. Below the tv will be 1 small shelf to hold the DVR and the DVD/VCR Player. Then under that is 3 shelves for DVDs. Each shelf holds about 67 DVDs I think. I am not sure if we have more or less then 200 DVDs. I can add another DVD shelf at the bottom or leave it big so we could stuff blankets or other big things down there.

Tonight I may be setting up Christmas lights on Heath's house or buying a new digital camera or working on the shelves or something different but I am not sure yet.

 

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11-27-06 11:30am

Well it was a long weekend and I did lots and lots of stuff. I am really running late today and have lots to catch up on though.

Football on Saturday went well

Thanksgiving at Grandmas    

   

Best Pizza Crust Yet last night

 

 

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11-22-06 8:17am

Last day of work before a 4 day holiday weekend. I imagine things will be very slow. My weekend will be shortened a bit though. Sunday night I will need to do some work at our transmitter and we will be taking down the station around midnight on Sunday.

Last night right after work Matt and I went to Mikes to have a few beers and kill some time while waiting for everyone to be ready for the Gut Bomb. Eventually Russ and his friend Jake met up with us and then we went to The Gaff. We became a group of 9 and ordered 7 gutbombs and a bunch of blue moon w/ orange slices. The service seemed kind of slow and the place was a bit more fancy and expensive then I appreciate but all the food I saw looked good and the drinks were tasty. We were all starving and eager for our food so when they brought them out our excitement was quite high. Here is the standard GutBomb w/ all the toppings and a side of onion rings $9.95.

   

This is a side angle of Russ' trimmed down sandwich w/ just the meat (pork tenderloin and bacon), cheese, bread, egg, and onion. It was served with a side of fairly plain French fries (still $9.95).

There was another side option of sweet potato fries that looked really good but I did not get the opportunity to taste them this time.

I had a pretty good buz going by the time we got to eat but I thought the sandwich was great. I have nothing bad to report really. My onion rings were hot and tasty, the tenderloin was tender and crispy, maybe more BBQ would be good for on the sandwich but otherwise it was just right.

Everyone was able to uncomfortably finish one and all their sides but Matt. He was finished after a half and tried to get me to eat 1.5. I knew it was a bad idea and avoided it. Luckily Jake stepped up to the plate and decided he would try.

(stock photo of Jake eating)

He tore into the 3rd half w/ very large bites and got about half way through before realizing how full he already was. Unfortunately for him there was no turning back. He had a crowd of guys watching his every bite to see if he would make it. He took a couple of deep breaths and went right back into it with a bit slower more strained chewing. He did power his way through and the waiter took away an empty plate, leaving Jake victorious over the huge sandwich and a half.

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving and there was some confusion on what I could bring to the meal at my grandmothers house. Not much was left of the typical foods so I decided to bring a melon platter, a salad, and cranberry sauce. My uncle always deep fat fries a turkey in one of those big propane fryers and after last nights meal sweet potato fries came to mind. I think this will be a cool twist on a traditional food.

football FootBall FOOOTTBALLL!!!

That's right we have decided to try to keep the game alive. This Saturday afternoon we will round up as many players as we can and play a nice game of tackle football. Please join in and tell all your friends. Once we have some folks lined up we will pick a field that is convenient for me.   

 

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11-21-06 8:07am

Have you seen the weather lately?

• Today: Plentiful sunshine. High 62F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.
• Tonight: Mainly clear skies. Low 42F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tomorrow: Sunny skies. High 63F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tomorrow night: A mostly clear sky. Low 41F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
• Thursday: Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 60s and lows in the mid 40s.
• Friday: Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the upper 50s and lows in the upper 30s.
• Saturday: Plenty of sun. Highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid 40s.

This is way to nice for thanksgiving weekend. Yahoo says high of 64 on Thanksgiving. It seems like everything is already shutting down for the holiday. Matt Stooks will be in town early this afternoon and we will be going to the Gaff for our premier of "The Gut Bomb" with Kevin and anyone else who wants to join. We discussed afterwards getting a few drinks with any survivors. If you missed out on the Gut Bomb conversations It is possibly a very large pork tenderloin sandwich with letus, tomato, mayo, bbq, onion ring and 2 eggs on it. Kevin is the only person I know who has seen one and I get the feeling he ate half of one.

Speaking of Kevin, Anyone know the story on our annual football game? Tomorrow's post will be thanksgiving inspired and then I will probably not post again until Monday so if we are going to play some football this weekend lets have some details.

Last night I went to Wal-Mart and after a long weekend of no pocket knife I broke down and bought my 3rd Gerber Mini Paraframe Pocket Knife.

 

My first one changed my life by being the first (non-keychain) knife I made a point to hook on my pocket and carry around everyday. It lasted for several months then got lost after a campout. The second I only had a week or two before I took it off to go to a chiefs game and it disappeared in Jon's truck. I am hoping that this one will stick around for a long time and possibly I will find the other two as well.

Ohh and since I still have an expensive streaming server in my office, I'll switch CDs and surprise you with a mystery artist.

 

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11-20-06 8:09am

Friday seems like a long time ago. After work Heather and I went for a run and then out to eat. We drove around for a while trying to pick a place then went to Da Bronx and had a few sandwiches. Afterward we walked across the street to a bar called Gahoolies (something like that) for a pitcher. Once finished we walked around the KU Med area and then went to the Jazz restaurant down there and sat at the bar for another pitcher of beer. It was a fun place, everyone there was really wound up and there was a band and looked like good food. We hung out there for quite a while and decided to come back during happy hour (3-6) sometime for cheep drinks and appetizers.

After this we went to Jon's garage to check on him and warm up by the woodstove. He was making more progress on the security system but ready for a break so we decided to head to Mikes only to find a band and a $6 cover. This was unacceptable so we went to my house and drank a few beers and watched the classic country music station on tv.

Saturday I got up ate some cereal and headed over to Jon's to work on the security system. Derrick came over a little while after me and we had terrible luck in the morning. All the motion sensors that Jon got were really flakey and we could not seem to make them work right. We went to Cici's Pizza buffet for lunch, worked on them some more and then went to Sutherlands to buy a new one. It worked much better and gave us some insight into what was wrong with the other ones. We quickly got everything working as it should.

So now if someone breaks in a crazy loud horn will go off continuously until the motion stops. This horn is super sensitive and will go off before they even get into the garage. If an intruder continues into the garage anyway after 60 seconds the room will begin to fill with pepper spray mace.

Of course we tested everything thoroughly, including letting the mace go off while we were in the garage. We set it off and continued to move around until we heard the mace spray. Then stood by the door for a little while. It did not seem like it sprayed long enough so we started to go check it out and then found the cloud of fumes and started coughing and sneezing and stuff. Derrick got a bit in his eyes but seemed fine shortly after. We stayed away from it for the most part and so were not affected that heavily but it was certainly unpleasant. Jon put on a painter mask and made some adjustments then we set it off again.  Shortly after this test we got the heck out. When Jon went back the next morning the garage was fine, no more fumes or any ill effects.

Saturday after maceing ourselves we got cleaned up and went to Waldo with Heather, Jenna and Amanda Smith. We ate dinner at Lews. This is a little bar and grill who's menu advertises the 12oz Big Lew Cheese Burger. Jon and I, though still full from pizza buffet ordered the Big Lew and were not disappointed. It was a great burger, I am going to say the 2nd best in Kansas City behind the Double Max burger with cheese at Max's. This puts it around 4th overall since Pittsburg has the Gorilla Burger and the 1106er. The Big Lew is also served with some great fries or the house special homemade chips.

After everyone was full we went to several bars in the Waldo area. We stopped by Finn's Waldo Bar, 75th Street Brewery and Tanners then went back to our house for a few beers.

Sunday morning I got up and ate a nice breakfast Jenna had made, went for a run and then worked in the garage until the chiefs game. Watched the chiefs pull out a win and then Heath and I went to a KCUR Volunteer appreciation dinner. It was at Lidia's by Crown center and it was awesome with great food and free beer and wine.

Tom Petty is the stream today since I'm still delayed.

 

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11-17-06 8:19am

Last night I got home from work and had no plans. I was not sure what to do, I wanted to run and figured I needed to change my oil and finish up some dishes but all I was sure of was I did not want to sit in front of the TV all night. Then I remembered our nasty drain problem in the bathroom and got it all fixed up, and the tub, sink and floor all clean. Derrick and I did the dishes and got the trash and recycles ready for pickup. I got dinner going and then called Jon. He was working on his makeshift security system so I went over there to check it out.

He had put up motion lights and had a pile of, wires, fuses, solar panels, batteries, motion detectors, and other stuff. Last night he was working on the mechanical part that would push down on a can of mace when it was set off. As I understand the plan is for someone to break in and set up a motion detector when the do. This would set off lights and a siren and a timer. After 30 seconds or however much time Jon sets up the garage will fill with mace. After some trouble with batteries and understanding the solenoid parts in a starter we came up with a device that went connected to power would easily push down the button on a can of mace. Then we decided to go to Wal-Mart so Jon could get a battery to run the device and a can of mace. (Also I needed some trash bags and stuff). Somehow we forgot the mace in all the excitement at the banister Wal-Mart. After getting back to the garage and testing the mace I went home to eat dinner and talk on the phone. I called dad but he did not answer and so I called Mike and we talked for quite a while about my trips through there and what was new with us.

Tonight I think I am going to the Gaff with Kevin and whomever else can handle a Gut Bomb. So eat a light lunch and join in the fun.

Ohh Today's stream is Pretty Girls Make Graves, some little cutter band that KK, Lucy and I saw open for Franz Ferdinand a while ago. 

 

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11-16-06 8:02am

Today is my Dad's Birthday and while I am not sure he will check the site I think there is a good chance he will and a good chance he will expect a hard time. I think this because the last e-mail I got from him finished with, "You sound pretty busy. I keep track by going to "theprewitt"."  This e-mail was sent with a picture of a snow penis (if you don't know what that is go to Google click images and type "snow penis" in).

Last night I went to Heath's house and started a fire even though it was really too windy. Grant and I played for quite a while burning stuff then Mom showed up and Heath came out then Jon and Jenna came over. We grilled some nice burgers (covered in onions and fiesta cheese) and some polish sausage and mom brought over a tortilla soup that went great with the cold. It was too windy and cold to try to eat outside so we went in after all the food was ready and then never got motivated to go back outside to make our smores. Luckily we had rice crispy treats and natty for desert.

Yesterday I got my Colorado Trip mostly planned (even though I can't get Mike to call me back). Tony, Steven and I will drive out December 5th and return December 10th. We plan to ski a couple days and hopefully keep everything very cheep. If you want to go let me know soon. I am still planning another trip in early February to go to Colorado for a few days then to Utah if you are short on vacation until after the 1st. 

I got my e-mail confirmation on our shirts final design today from customink and they look great. I can not wait for them to be delivered.

Led Zeppelin is the stream of the day, please enjoy.

(don't worry you only have to see pops at the top of the page today, I'll be back up tomorrow)

 

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11-15-06 8:31am

I have been all about fire lately. All weekend we had at least one fire going and then last night I burned quite a bit of wood before and after grilling some steaks. They turned out really good and juicy. I also made mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) with cheese. I had a nice evening sitting by the fire reading a book, listening to Johnny Cash and drinking some beers.

Tonight I'm going to keep the streak up and go out to Heath's house for another bonfire. Jon, Jenna, and My mom are going to join Heather, Grant, and I and we are going to cook up some dinner. I think H has some burgers and buns, I am going to bring some catfish, and I know Jenna and Heath are crazy about marsh mellow smores. If you feel like a fire give me a call or just come on out.

As mentioned in yesterdays announcement I am planning a few vacation trips and I would like to recruit anyone that wants to come. I think one will be Colorado and one will be Utah. I don't have any details figured out yet but would like to try to get more people to join us. I think I will do some downhill skiing, some snow shoeing, cross country skiing, and some hiking. I am thinking one trip will be in December and one in February.

Sine the streaming audio server project has been further delayed I get to keep playing with it and today we are listening to "The Killers".

   

 

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11-14-06 8:10am

Allrighty look above for the new cutting wood section of pictures to see what we did this weekend. I have combined it with pictures from my last trip so to see the new stuff you will need to scroll down a bit.

Also above I have changed the stream to Phil Collins for today. This may be the last day for a stream of my CDs.

You would not guess it from the pictures but Tony and I actually worked really hard too. The three of us cleaned out a lot of trees, burned a lot of brush, split a lot of logs, made a nice pile of split wood and a nice pile of to be split wood. Jon and I both brought back truckloads of rounds that will need to be split at some point. The weather on our trip seemed to work out pretty well. Friday it was too windy and we even got to see some snow falling. Then Saturday when we were doing all the work it was cold and sunny with very little wind. We stayed sweaty and hot all day, then it really cooled off at night and we had a big fire of brush and motor oil. Sunday it was windy again and cloudy but all we really did was pack up stuff and clean up from all the splitting we had done the night before.

Tony's dad put in a pond not too long ago and the bulldozers knocked down a bunch of trees and pushed them into a big pile. We cut up several of them but there is lots left and other trees that need to be taken care of on the farm so we hope to go back again before too long while it's cold out and then again when it warms up to swim and fish in the new pond.

 

Last night's ribs turned out pretty good and I am looking forward to the leftovers at lunch. Heather and I ran 4 miles to a park at like 70th and Holmes while they were cooking and found a roller hockey ring. Then afterwards went to Mikes with Jon and Jenna.

Tonight after work I will be starting a little bonfire in my BBQ grill and once I have a nice bowl of hot coals I'll throw on some giant steaks Russ, Derrick and I got as a gift.

 

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11-13-06 8:07am

The Eagle's Hotel California Album is my constant stream for today. I did not think I would still be streaming CDs but instead streaming KCUR however this was pushed back again so I still have a very expensive server to just play with in my office. Sounds like maybe Friday.

 

This morning I forgot everything at Heath's house, my laptop, my camera, my fruit (last night I bought grapes, apples, oranges, and pears), my lumberjack clothes, my hydrogen peroxide (I got this while buying fruit). I took several pictures of my weekend adventures and plan to show them off but I guess it will have to be tomorrow.

I think I'll avoid telling about my trip until I have the pics ready but I can tell about before the trip and after today since I did not take pictures of that. Friday I took a 1/2 day and went to Tony's grandparents house to cut some small stuff that turned into a lot of stuff. We cut down a few trees and cut off some branches from some other trees and then hauled off as much as we could get in one load to the Olathe Dump.

I was surprised that Olathe offers a free dump for its citizens, you just show up with a water bill and drivers license and you can drop off all you want. For our efforts we received $100 from Tony's grandparents for food on our trip. There was only 3 of us and we only needed 2 dinners, 1 lunch and 1 breakfast and the beer had already been donated by Kelly and Chris so this was plenty of money for our trip.

So we ate over 3 lbs of sirloin steak w/ fried potatoes for dinner, then nice big butter biscuits and gravy with hash browns and eggs for breakfast, 1/2 cheese burgers with onions and sides of french-fries for lunch and a stew made from 1.5lbs of beef, corn, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and spices for dinner. At dinner we also had 2 loafs of fancy garlic bread and a homemade pineapple upside down cake.

After the trip Kelly called to tell me her boyfriend killed a deer for me. He is going to get it processed into hamburger and steaks for me then I'll split it and the costs with Heath. I am excited to get it. The butcher told him that it was the biggest doe he had gotten.

So it's time to start cleaning out my and Heath's freezers. Tonight I am making a big slab of ribs with potatoes, green beans, and peaches.

 

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11-10-06 8:22am

So if you missed the run section above I am ordering shirts today. Please let me know your size or if my runners list is not accurate ASAP. Also if you didn't notice my streaming music links above are playing White Zombie today, enjoy yourselves. And if you missed the announcement I am taking the afternoon off to warm-up for my weekend in the woods by cutting down a tree at Tony's grandparents place in Olathe.

I am really looking forward to this weekend and I think Jon and Tony are too. Every time I see Jon we mention that we can not wait to get out there. Call me crazy but I get more excited about working hard cutting down trees then going to a great party or bar etc.

Last night while juggling a soccer ball Jon and I were talking about what to do with all the wood we bring back. We are only taking our 2 trucks this trip. Tony's dad does not need any wood, my mom does not, I could use a little, Jon could use a little more but we will easily bring back more then we need. We discussed storing lots of wood at Heath's house and try to sell it to people but decided against that. Also we want to make it out there at least one more time this winter and that will be even more extra wood.

Then Jon came up with a good plan I think. Next time before we go we can place an add in the news paper for 2 truck loads of wood. (I believe the measurement is a rick of wood) So we would sell 2 ricks ahead of time and plan for it to be delivered Sunday and then go cut wood all Friday and Saturday and have it all ready for our customer. We would not make tons of money but it would pay for our gas food and beer for the weekend.

Besides that conversation while juggling we tried to decide if Russ should stay in KC or go to Pittsburg and we had a pigeon divebomb us and crash into some bushes. Russ picked him up and we played with him for a while then tried to let him fly away but he was pretty dumb or blind and just flew into stuff and pooped all over.

 

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11-09-06 8:00am

Good morning everyone. I'm going to have another busy morning so I came in early to knock some stuff out. I had hoped to order T-shirts today but I don't have sizes for most of you. check the comments above for more info.

I had a semi crazy night going strait from work to Hooper's and staying there way too long drinking way too many $2 import beers. Heath and I jogged up there this morning to rescue our cars. We both liked the early morning run motivation but I felt a bit dehydrated to run much further. After the bar I convinced several of my coworkers to go to my house for an experimental BBQ sandwich. I sliced up a bunch of polish sausage in long thin slices and tossed them in a hot frying pan. Once they got really going I added a bunch of BBQ sauce and simmered and stirred for a while. In another pan I sautéed a pile of onions and peppers. We tossed these onto hamburger buns and ate them up. I think they were really good but will need to try them again before I can be sure.

I ate lunch yesterday at the new campus cafeteria deal. It seems like a good lunch. I got the impression they always have a salad bar, pizza buffet, cereal section, sandwich stuff, desert bar, and grill with burgers, fish patties, grilled cheese, tator-tots and fries then they have a couple other stations with something unique for the day, yesterday was a ravioli section and a taco station. They also do breakfast and dinner in a similar fashion. I think it's like $4 breakfast, $5 lunch and $6 dinner but I don't remember for sure. I got a slice of pizza, burger, taco, rice, salad, banana, cookie and a couple of glasses of tea and it was all tasty enough. I hear breakfast has an omelet cook and a waffle iron. This cafeteria is open to the general public and starts at 11am on weekends.

Not sure of my plans for this evening probably need to get stuff ready for my lumberjack adventure.

Ohh and Cory told me Roy and Daniel cleaned up the kitchen. :) 

 

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11-08-06 8:20am

I have several urgent things I need to take care of this morning before my post. I will do it in an hour or so. Don't expect much though I mostly just sat on the couch with Russ and Derrick and caught up on TV shows. Good old DVR.

9:50am

All right I am back. Yesterday I setup a special setup for the election coverage stuff and It had to be all back to normal by 10 today for our live shows. I'm afraid I will not hear anything today that does not deal with the election stuff.

So like I mentioned earlier I didn't do much last night. Ran 3 miles, ate some chicken taco salad, drank a few beers and watched tv. Luckily I had a lot of catching up to do and did not have to watch much with the election results popping in. Since I did nothing last night I was really unsure about what to post about today. Then I thought you guys are usually good for helping me figure out my problems/difficulties. So here is one for your help.

Since some of you may know the people in this story I will change their names so they can remain anonymous. Lets say a theoretical man named Cory lives with 2 guys named Roy and Daniel. Also a Julie lives in a bungalow apartment above the house. Now Cory has lived in a rented house for a few years. A few months ago Roy and Daniel moved in. The new roommates know where to put toilet paper and are usually up to some fun that Cory enjoys. But Roy and Daniel are a bit sloppy and don't do a lot of cleaning up after themselves (at least in a timely manner). Cory by no means is a neat freak and has been called out before on his dish washing. But his dishes are washed soon after they are used and Roy and Daniels dishes look like this for weeks at a time

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Occasionally they will tame this pile but immediately let it build back up. Often times they hint to Cory that they intend to work on the pile soon. Since they have started living with the dish pile the roommates have had at least one mouse move in. Cory does not own the house and pays equal rent so can not make rules the roommates must follow but he does not like this pile and finds it annoying when trying to find a fork or clean his own dishes. What should Cory do? Can he make a 48hr rule on dishes or a once a sink is full clean it rule? Should he wash the dishes and bill his roommates for his time? Do all the roommates need to make a chore list and take turns getting them done?    

 

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11-07-06 8:23am

Computers and doing things on them seem to have taken over me yesterday and probably at least the rest of today. Work has been busy and then I have been doing too much outside of work with them also. I somehow got my Aunt and Uncles computer running again last night and was not able to turn down their money so I'm going to use it to buy a new hard drive.

So I am ready to escape computers for a bit on the site and then really escape this weekend. I'd like to throw out an invite to cut trees all weekend with Tony, Jon and I. If you have ever wanted to be a lumberjack now is your chance. We will be working hard all day all weekend cutting up logs and splitting them apart. We will build fires, cook manly meals, fart lots, drink some beers and get really sweaty.

Since I will be creating such a big pile of wood this weekend I would like to slim my current pile down a bit. If anyone wants some wood let me know and I can try to bring it by this week. Ben I am thinking of you. esp.

Last night as mentioned yesterday I went to mom's and we all played pizzeria and cooked up some calzones. We made 4 good size calzones out of homemade dough and filled them with a special sauce I came up with also some cream cheese, pepperoni, ham, onion, mushroom, black olives, green, yellow, and red peppers and a bunch of cheese. We ate every bite of them up.

 

 

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11-06-06 8:08am

N.P.H. is out of the closet. That's right Neal Patrick Harris (Doogie Houser MD) has announced that he is homosexual. I just wanted to let you all know. I really enjoy his new show "How I met your mother" and found this quite surprising.

   

Well as you may have anticipated it was a very busy crazy fun weekend. Of course I forgot my camera for much of it. So Friday night was Ben and Allie's wedding. It was lots of fun, good food and free bar. Somehow there was a guy there taller then Ben. It seemed like everyone drank a lot and ate a lot. Kevin can eat a lot more chicken tenders then BBDs. I wore belt and tie no suspenders because my pants had no buttons for suspenders. Again I wish I had pictures.

After the reception we went to an after party in the hotel for a bit then to Burger King and back to Kevin's for a bit. I got home at 3am and quickly went to bed. In the morning I woke up too early and started to get everything in order for the PSU game. Everything including my camera. The tailgating rocked and the game blew, other then KK's cheers. I think these were the tastiest BBD's I have made yet. We set up a great tailgate spot with lots of grass, and open space, big grill, table full of sides, coolers full of pop, water, and tea. Ohh yeah and a Miller/Coors distributor sponsored the tailgate and provided a huge cooler full of Coors Light, Miller Light, Miller Highlife, and Red Bull. Ohh they also had a big yellow PSU and Miller flag to help direct people to us. Here are some pictures from the tailgate/game.

People and the sides table

Our Flags

The Grill all loaded up

KK opens his foil, there ready

Prepare the buns and plates

words can't explain

Russ is so happy

Wow that's yummy

Heath must take a bite before her plate is even made

I think someone played football, Not PSU.

After the game we continued the tailgate until it was almost dark out. Then we loaded up and headed back home. We still had a lot of beer so decided to drink it. Jenna and Heather went to Waldo Pizza, my roommates went to Mikes and Jon and I sat around drinking. Eventually we got motivated and started to walk to Westport. Heath and Jenna called us on the way and picked us up. We met with Tony and his buddies at Kelly's and ran around to a few bars drinking and having fun. Jon got taught some lessons in pool by some terrible lesbian and I really enjoyed watching the good foosball players. Eventually we got hungry and Jon and I ran to Chubby's. The girls drove over later. We ate and then went home and passed out. I got up at 8am and tossed some chili into a crock-pot, turned it on, drank a bunch of water and passed out again until a bit before noon when the chiefs game started. We watched and ate for several hours. After the game I went to my uncles to look at his broken computer and then over to Heath's. We excitedly went to a newly opened Wal-Mart in Gardner then Grant and I made dinner and watched some TV.

 

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11-03-06 8:28am

WEATHER REPORT:

• Today: Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 59F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
• Tonight: Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 42F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. High 63F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow night: A few clouds. Low 43F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
• Sunday: More clouds than sun. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the low 50s.

Looks like another nice weekend. And to make it nicer I have pictures from last night of me and Grant making Bacon Burger Dogs. I'm kind of pissed because only 3 of my 6 pictures turned out. I need to actively start looking at buying a new camera.

<-Possibly the BBD's founder.

 

 

Luckily I have an old stock photo of cooking BBDs to fill in.

I made 10 super BBDs and 5 regular BBDs and 1 plain BBD (for Russ). Your super is a polish sausage wrapped in cheese, squirted with special sauce, wrapped in burger patty, wrapped in bacon, garnished with red, yellow and green peppers, onions and trace amounts of Jalapeno peppers, another squirt of special sauce and wrapped up in heavy duty aluminum foil. Regular is about the same but w/ a standard Hot dog and light on all the good stuff.

If you are looking for tailgate plans here is all I got. We will assemble at my house at 10am and head to Arrowhead. Park in line and begin festivities until 11am when the gates open. Find a nice spot with some grass and get to the important matters of drinking, eating, tossing footballs, hackysacks and whatever else comes to us.

Last weekend at the Chiefs game I had a new tailgating idea I may try to implement tomorrow. Let me know what you think. I bring 3 poles (like for a tent), a tarp, string, and a 5 gallon bucket. We stick the 3 poles in the ground making a triangle big enough for one person and wrap the tarp around them, tying it up with the string. Put the bucket in the middle and we have our own porta-poty so no lines for us?

Also I got into an argument with 2 women last night about men's fashion and I would like some clarification.  When a man gets dressed up with nice pants, shoes, socks and shirt he has a small choice to make belt, tie, and suspenders. Are all of these items allowed to be worn at the same time?

Belt and Tie no Suspenders-OK?

Suspenders and Tie no belt-OK?

Belt and Suspenders no Tie-OK?

I believe 2 of the 3 are ok and one is not, what do you think?

 

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11-02-06 8:19am

Check out this spice rack:

   

Yeah that's right, we have a new spice rack in the kitchen. It's long, it's narrow, it's white, it's crazy cool and it holds all our spices and stuff.  I made it last night with old leftover wood scraps while talking on the phone. I still need to secure it so it won't fall off in case we have an earthquake or something. I think this rack will really come in handy if I ever get my squirrel snaring plan off the ground. I did way to much talking on the phone last night. Luckily I found out I can use any mp3 as my ringer so I had a cool new ringer to listen to so I was ok with so much talking. Does anyone have any recommendations for good ringer songs I should use as ringers?

Tonight I'm playing moving truck and taking a bunch of chairs and a table and stuff to my moms house and then I'm going to go pick up my grill and trashcan and other stuff from Heathers house and take them back where they belong.

 

I will also be playing god and mixing cheese, bacon, burger, and hotdogs together and wrapping them in foil in preparation for Saturday's big tailgate party and football game. I am going to go to the store and get supplies and get my tailgate food all ready to go because its really the last chance I have before the game. Right now I am making food for:

Me, Koko, Yasu, KK, Russ, Derrick, Heath, Jenna, Jon, Kelly, Chris(BF), And a full to go order for Kevin

and maybe for:  Mom, Tony, Taran.

Please let me know what your BBD status is.

 

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11-01-06 8:25am

So I did not set up the grill on the porch and drink beer as I had planned. I actually only gave out candy to one kid but he was pretty excited about it. We went to Mike's Tavern and played some pool early on then I went over to Heathers to clean up some of my stuff from the bonfire.

I'm clueless on a post today so I'll flood you with a bunch of random thoughts. I may have stolen this technique from Matt. But I don't think he has done it in a while and I think I did not like it when he did it. 

I'm ready for all this election BS to be over.

It's getting kinda cold out.

I like how it's light out in the morning again but still not used to dark at night.

Should be nice out this weekend.

I'm hungry and I gota go to the bathroom.

Have you heard "Photograph" by Def Leopard?

My throat is still funky from the Chiefs game.

Anyone know if Kevin is planning a thanksgiving football game?

I think I really like the TV show "Heroes"

I have heard of but not seen the new 24 previews but it's not till Jan so i'm not sure I want to yet.

I gave up on New Years and agreed to work this year

If you are interested in some Lumberjacking and oozing with brawn let me know I have a tree killing plan in the works

I can't think of anything else to bring up today. Click on our friend THE MANATEE for an interesting cartoon/blog site.  

 

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10-31-06 8:11am

Things seem more back to normal today. I have recovered from the weekend, got plenty of sleep last night and feel much better today. At work the IS department is doing a chili fest potluck lunch deal today for Halloween and I brought my cocktail wieners that went over so well last time.

 Are you guys doing anything at work for Halloween?

I think I may get a hair cut after work today. I usually try to get one before Thanksgiving each year and it's getting to be that time. I do plan on keeping the beard though. Since my roommates and I never made a plan to carve pumpkins I will probably carve mine after my haircut. 

I probably will start a fire in the BBQ grill tonight on my front porch and hang out in the front by the fire giving any kids that come by some candy. I'll carve my pumpkin out there, eat dinner and drink a few beers. I would like to invite you all to join me and I will give you some candy and/or a drink.

Reminder the Pitt state game is this Saturday morning. I am taking orders for bacon burger dogs. I know both my roommates want one plus me and Heath, Jon maybe Jenna but who else will be there and need a nice pile of meat.

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10-30-06 10:05am

Well this is not as late as I assumed it would be but I had trouble getting any real sleep in so I came into work instead.

My server has/is having some mysterious problems and you may have found the site unavailable over the weekend and earlier today. I am really not sure why it is working at the moment.

It was a great weekend, very busy, very outside, very tiring. Friday night I did some work around Heath's house then watched "Cars" with her and Grant.

Saturday we got stuff set up for the bonfire and trimmed a bunch of trees. The bonfire was a good time, lots of people showed up and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We did not burn as much of the wood as hoped but it was still a nice fire. I thought everyone was hitting the keg pretty hard but we still have a lot left. There was also a ton of food.

Sunday morning I got up an hour too early and went to the Chiefs game.  We grilled some huge (3/4lbs) burgers drank some beer and watched a great close game.

Then we played in the parking lot for a long time and went home.  Heather took me to Culver's for dinner last night and then I went to bed.

 

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10-27-06 8:31am

Last night Jon and I became much more productive then we have been in a while. At first we were going to work on some projects at my house but found out all my tools were at Heath's and all his were still stolen. So instead we went to his apartment to figure out this security camera. I wish I could say things went smoothly right away but that's not true. We had to fight it for a while and we did put a new plug on his cat 5 cable and then ran into some trouble with the windows firewall but eventually we got it working, but his internet would not work. We could only get one connection to work at a time. So I convinced Jon to buy a new router. Before he had even finished buying it online both connections mysteriously started working. But he got a great deal on a new wireless router from microcenter for $7.99 after a rebate. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=243560

Once we were done playing/testing the camera we decided to go to Home Depot so Jon could buy a new cordless drill. Surprisingly the insurance company check was in the mailbox so he had the money he needed. We dealt with a mentally slow staff but somehow were able to get out with a drill some bits and screws. Then we went to finish one of my little projects.

With winter coming I have begun to think about putting the boat up for the year. Over the winter I would like to paint the underside, put in the depth finder, tighten up the steering, replace the steering wheel, finish the seats, repair my wheel bearings and whatever else comes to mind. Jon has offered the use of his garage for these repairs and it's size will really come in handy, plus all the cool new tools he will have soon. I would like to get in one more good fishing trip on the boat but it looks like all my weekends are booked for a long time so it may be time to put the boat up for the year.

This weekend I will be going to Heathers tonight to finish putting up her screen door, hang pictures and whatever else is needed to prepare for the bonfire. I get the feeling a lot of folks will be there and I have already heard of people planning to set up tents and camp in her backyard. The weather is going to be fantastic both Saturday and Sunday. So come on out to Heathers for free hot dogs and keg beer Saturday. The fire starts at 7:30 but I think people will be there before that. Then Sunday look for me in the crowd at the Chiefs / Seattle game.

 

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10-26-06 8:38am

Last night I made my return visit to China North in Westport and came out with several stories. My plan was to jog there with Heath after work and eat at the buffet then go next door to Fitz' Blarney Stone and have a few beers with Jon and Jenna. But it got late and dark too fast so I ran in my neighborhood then Heath and I drove up here. There was lots of confusion with getting everyone coordinated and no one really knew what was going on. Heath and I decided to get a beer first in case Jon and Jenna were going to meet us first. They didn't show up after the first beer so we went to eat.

China North is not the most nicely decorated restaurant I have been in and it does not have the nicest staff and it does not really make you feel safe and clean but it is cheepish and I really enjoy eating there. Actually everything on the buffet I tried I liked other then the egg drop soup not being hot enough and the egg rolls being a bit stale (I still ate 2). The noodles were great, the steamed rice was not dry, the green beans were crisp and Heath was excited that they made the squeaky noise on her teeth that she likes. All the meats we tried were tender and juicy. What I really liked about the place was the crowd that was eating there. We were the young couple smelling of beer and cigarettes from the bar next door but there were a few other interesting couples there.

 

The Two Large Man-hating Angels:
These ladies were my favorite. I didn't really look around before I had my food and sat down but I soon started eaves dropping on their conversation and was curious about them. One had recently seen some movie (I didn't catch the name) and she was very excited about it. She really liked the movie because some man got played by some woman. This was very exciting for a man to get what he deserves. These ladies were so sick of getting played and it was about time some men were getting played. They went on about this for a while and soon I stopped listing to them and talked to Heath. Once my plate was cleared though I was excited to get up and check them out. I found 2 girls maybe younger or similar age to myself nicely dressed and going after their meals. Each one took up most of their side of the booth. Ahh these are the two who are "getting played by men" I was excited to realize. While standing by their booth loading up my plate I overheard one say "I really wish I knew more about angels" and the other reply "Yeah, it's really hard to learn about angels". I was very surprised/confused by this statement but was very glad I got to hear them say it. 

Attractive Black lady and The Black Man in the big hat:
These two came in and ogled the buffet for a bit then decided they would do the buffet to go. They got a big Styrofoam container and started putting in their dinner. They excitedly discussed what to put in and had the attitude that they were getting away with something sneaky by loading up the container. She starts to point out something she wanted in there and then stopped short, "Ohh hell yeah, you know what's up" she declared as he had found the hard boiled eggs cut in half and started pileing them in. This item had made the night for these two. For some reason the eggs that they could have boughten at a grocery store 12 for $0.59 were the greatest thing on the menu. I was very entertained by this, wondering what makes these eggs so good, or do they not realize how easy it is to boil an egg and cut it in half. Maybe letting them sit under a heat lamp in a buffet of Chinese food adds the extra flavor. I was not curious enough to try one.

The Interracial Couple:
These two were nothing all that special, they also had trouble deciding if they wanted to eat there or to go and if they wanted to order off the menu or go for the buffet. They ate at the restaurant and got the buffet. They were comprised of a old white goofy man and a young big black woman. He seemed like a goofball and real wirery and Heath said she said some funny stuff that I didn't hear. 

After dinner we went back to the bar and met up with Jon and Jenna. The girls played "Photo Hunt" and Jon and I discussed important issues. Then Jon and Jenna left and Heath and I had another. Something went terribly wrong in my stomach and it was killing me for like 10 minutes and then I was fine. It felt like I ate to much and then trying to add beers caused it to be upset but maybe I ate something wrong like the shrimp and imitation crab. Heath claims it was the cat-on-a-stick that I enjoy so much and call a pot sticker. If it was cat meat, at least they are good for something.

 

 

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10-25-06 8:10am

Seahawks at Arrowhead noon this Sunday!

 

Jon and I will be there. He got two tickets from a Black and Veatch salesman.

I am really looking forward to going. This is my first and unless something else comes up only game this season to see in person. We have not made plans yet to cook bacon burger dogs or egg burgers but have agreed we will get there early to grill and drink some beers. This will be easier said then done though. Saturday night is Heathers Keg Bonfire party and I imagine it will be a late night.

Last night I went to Heathers to help her get things ready. I was not as productive as I had hoped to be and only really got a good list of stuff to do created and almost got a screen door in the front installed. I say almost because 2 screws are loose and the handle is not in yet. I did not have the necessary drill bits to make handle holes or get the last 2 screws in all the way. I still need to put up a screen door in the back, get in the crawl space to drill a hole and some fun wood stuff with the chain saw.

We have a nice pile of wood ready and the weather should be nice so come on out and help us kill Heath's keg. Directions to her house are above on the "-directions-" link.

Dinner was kind of pushed to the side last night in an effort to accomplish as much as possible outside before it got dark. So I brought over a 4 pack of salmon I purchased at ALDI. It was spicy mango marinated and we tossed it in the toaster oven while working then served on a bed of steamed rice w/ a vegetable blend of carrots, corn, peas, and broccoli and then we had grapes, applesauce and pudding. It was all pretty tasty but nothing phenomenal.

Speaking of getting things done before dark. I miss the sun already. It seems like it's always dark or getting dark now. I have to run in the dark before work because the sun is not up yet and I have to rush to get a few things done after work before it's dark. The time change this weekend will help some but still I wish we had some daylight.

 

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10-24-06 8:12am

Last night after work I quickly did my run and ate some dinner then headed over to Jon's house to help him set up his security camera in the garage. His garage was broken into a month or so ago and he is making it very secure now. Luckily he had everything insured and has already been sent a check for over $5K. Part of the new super secure garage setup is a security camera. It has inferred night vision, motion sensors, audio, and sends all the data it picks up to an e-mail address or FTP.

 

So if someone breaks in it will begin recording and sending all the video from 15 seconds before the break in until the motion stops. It also has contact closures on it that could be used to trigger lights, alarms, and other surprises for thieves.

Jon bought and installed a 100ft cable from his apartment to his garage. Both ends of the cable barely made it into the room so he had to add extensions to it (a coupler and a short cable to the camera in the garage and another coupler and longer cable to his computer in the apartment) . Also he cut off one end of the cable while running it up the building so he had to put a new plug on the end.

It took us awhile to get this all rigged up and once we did it did not work. I am not that good at putting the ends on Ethernet cable so we cut it off and tried again. This time it looked perfect but it still would not work.

 We tested all our other cables and couplers and the camera works great in the apartment but anytime we go through the 100ft cable the camera thinks it's not plugged in. We tried everything we could think of and could not get it to work. We eventually came to three possible problems: Jon damaged the cable while running it to the garage, we still have not put the end on correctly, or the 100ft cable is run to the garage with the power cable and they are both twisted up all the way down and the power cable is causing too much interference on the Ethernet cable.

(almost the exact wood stove Jon has)

We eventually gave up and retired to the garage to sit by the wood stove and discus this problem, wood stoves heating houses, girls and Chinese restaurants. While running up and down the stairs to Jon's apt I found a flyer for a Chinese Buffet that advertised a $4.85 lunch and a $5.25 dinner buffets. They also had takeout. It's hard to find a buffet that cheep anymore so I was excited. Both of us were a bit hungry, not enough for a buffet but about right to split an order of lo mein noodles. China North is located at 38th and Broadway (across the street from Chubby's) and we drove up and bought the noodles in quarters and took it home to eat by the heat of the stove. It was a great tub of noodles with many nice big chunks of juicy steak but the tub was far too small and not as good a value as China Feast by my house.

 So I think this will be a great buffet but not a great take out place.

Tonight I play handyman at Heath's to prepare for the Bonfire party. I will be wacking some branches with a chain saw, putting nails in the wall for picture frames and possibly even putting screen doors up in the front and back. I hope to come up with something interesting for dinner too.

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10-23-06 8:35am

Since the site is so slow today lets play a guessing game. Here is a description off a new item I purchased recently can you guess what it is? lets use the comments for the day below.

IN A WORLD GONE SOFT, THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO STILL HIKE, FISH, HUNT, CLIMB AND TACKLE THE TOUGH CORES LIKE YOUR FATHER DID. FOR US THAT'S REASON ENOUGH TO KEEP PUSHING, INNO-VATING AND REFINING OUR ______.  ______ ______ ARE THE PRODUCT OF OVER SIX DECADES OF HARD-EARNED KNOWLEDGE ABOUT FORM, FUNCTION, MATERIALS AND NATURE. YOU'LL KNOW IT BY THE WAY THEY BALANCE IN YOUR HAND, HOLD THEIR ______ UNDER STRESS AND FLAWLESSLY PERFORM THE TASK AT HAND.

Well I am not that late at all. I decided I could not run this morning because I had to be back to the office early this morning to help out with some auditors.

You may recall that I was going on a fishing trip this weekend. Well we only fished about 5 minutes late Friday night. On Friday we set up camp and cooked dinner and ate and relaxed for a while before we went out in the boat. Once out it was very dark and we soon lost interest in fish and took interest in beer. We did not stay out in the boat long and soon went back to camp. It was a nice night out; no clouds, no wind, not to cold and lots of stars. It was very late before we turned in for the night. A few hours later everything changed. It started to get cold, clouds must have rolled in and it started raining. We slept in hoping the rain and headaches would stop but it kept raining. Eventually we got up to see how wet our stuff was getting and luckily we were in pretty good shape. We began to set up tarps and even a structure we could cook in.

We cooked up some breakfast burritos and began drinking in hopes the rain would pass. It would not pass but just rained harder, got colder and the wind began to pick up. We could not get in the boat, we could not fish, we were done cooking and eating for a while, the fire was going but we got pretty wet standing next to it so we just sat around the pick nick table.

Eventually we all gave up and started packing all the wet stuff away and into the trucks. We went home defeated men.

I got home and put away some stuff, sat around watching movies in my underwear, cleaned up, did some work and then took a nap. When I got up Heather and I made dinner plans and went to Governor Stumpy's with Chiaki, Koko and KK.

I had a fantastic plate of Chicken Parmesan and a side salad. Then we all went back to my house to see what my roommates where up to.

We played some games and drank everything we could find in the house and had a great night. Derrick went to bed very early after drinking too much or possibly just worn out from a vigorous night before. We did not leave him out of the fun though.

 

Eventually we all turned in. Heath and I got up early and ran some errands before the chiefs game. After the game we went to her house and played pizzeria with Grant.

spreading out the dough

roll it flat

add the toppings

eat it up

We cooked a taco pizza (hamburger meat w/ taco seasoning, refried beans, salsa, Mexican blend cheese, and veggies)

and a supreme pizza (pepperoni, hamburger, mozzarella, black olives, onions, green peppers, mushrooms)

We ate the heck out of both of them them.

 

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10-20-06 8:08am

It has been very slow in my office this week. The radio station is doing "pledge drive" where we will make a bunch of money to get us through the next 6 months and I am not supposed to make any changes around the station. One exception to this is a little web cam we put in the talk studio so we could watch what was going on during the pledge drive. Its not terribly exciting but if you want to see click http://winmedia.umkc.edu/kcurvid.asx  I enjoy watching it when my coworkers are in their messing around so I set up a computer to just have the video on full time. So I get to play unofficial security guard, monitoring the station.

Anyhow where I am going with this story is I took a picture of my desk now with me working hard.

 (monitor, monitor, monitor, cell, laptop: all at theprewitt.com)

I will be at Smithville Lake all weekend feasting on delicious bass. I know you are wondering if I will come back with a topless picture of me holding some massive fish above my head. Well I don't know. It's going to be cold and wet and I don't do much bass fishing. I'm more of a trot line catfish catcher and the occasional little guy on a rod and real. I will do my best to catch a fish big enough to get me to take off my shirt and hold it over my head. Heck I have had my shirt off in worse conditions.

Last night I went to moms as expected and drove around a bit in her brand new Toyota Corolla.

It's actually a sporty silver 2006 one.

Have a great weekend everyone and wish me luck. Ohh also Saturday at the lake is going to be a freeforall of sorts where everyone can come join us... even girls, I'm not sure what kind of fishing trip I'm getting into. 

 

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10-19-06 8:09am

What happened to theprewitt.com yesterday?

I'm sure you are all very interested in where my homepage was yesterday so I will briefly describe the problem so you don't have to listen to a bunch of computer mumbo jumbo.

Time Warner sells me my internet and I don't pay extra for a static IP address (never changes) so I end up with a dynamic IP Address (occasionally changes). At like 11 yesterday my IP address changed. So my my website was up and running just fine but it had moved to a new address and I had not alerted the post office yet so no one knew where I was.

I like to think about it like my website is a trailer house and I keep it at the north end of Joe-bob's Trailer Park.

   

One day Joe-bob gets drunk and while I'm away at work he hooks up my trailer to his truck and drives it to the south end of the trailer park and then laughs when I freak out that it is missing.

Back to real news.

I need to start collecting money from you all if you want a T-shirt. I think they are going to be $12 (that is a great deal for such a stylish shirt and its red this year so you can wear it to Christmas w/ your green corduroy pants).

 If they are not $12 when it's all said and done we can figure it out on the run by buying drinks for each other till we are even. Today I will play a little bit with paypal and see if I can collect the money that way. Obviously I would like to do it all in person just to see you and how your moustache is coming in for the run but I understand that paypal may be easier. If you give me an IOU and then don't show to the run or pay for your shirt Ben and Kevin have strict orders to scissor kick you with their long legs.

Last night Steven, Jon and I got some 1/2 price appetizers and $1.75 draws at brooksider after work, not a bad deal. I think I ate dinner for like $5. I got chips and salsa and a dozen wings. Then I came home and dicked around with the website problem mentioned above and Jon and I played in the garage and basement and really accomplished very little. I'm headed to mom's house tonight for unannounced handyman type projects, mystery Mexican dinner, and Grey's Anatomy. Then I will go home and get all my stuff packed and ready for my camping/fishing trip tomorrow.

 I will be going to Aldi at lunch today to get food supplies. Here is a copy of what I sent to the gang for our eatings on the trip.

Food:

Here is what I am thinking I'm very flexible if you guys want to do anything different or change this up.

Friday night- Chicken Breasts wrapped in bacon with onions and marinade or BBQ sauce all wrapped up in foil, also backed potatoes wrapped in foil, (We can toss these on the fire and be busy fishing setting up camp drinking and not have to mess with them too much), If we are motivated apple cobbler for desert.

Saturday Morning- Breakfast burritos toss sausage, hash browns, eggs, onions, and peppers all in the dutch oven and then scoop out into tortilla shells.

Saturday noonish- Hot dogs and chips (or delicious Bass if we can)

Saturday night- delicious bass (or chili and Fritos)

I'll volunteer to go to the store and get all this and get it ready to go and then split the bill with you guys if that sounds good to all.

 

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10-18-06 8:13am

That is a picture of the shelf above my desk at work.

Last night Heather and I were a bit wound up. Once I got to her house I started making dinner and she got things ready for a bug guy that was coming to spay her house. I got dinner about ready and she got the bug guy started then we went on a pretty good run, while running we checked out "The Hideaway" bar in Spring Hill and checked out the liquor stores ability to get a keg for Heath's BBQ. Then we went home and ate and got cleaned up. After dinner we went to Heath's mom's house and took apart an old swing set for her and took it to Heath's backyard for Grant. Then we went to the bar. It was a good place: reasonable prices, nice crowd, pool table, no cowboys looking for fights. We had a few beers then decided to pick up some beer and go back to Heathers. Once we got there we decided to take shots first then drink our Nattys.

What did you make for dinner Chris?

EXTRA CHUNKY SPAGHETTI

I chopped up and simmered in a pan: onions, mushrooms, black olives, celery, garlic, green pepper

I added ground beef

I added sauce (from a generic Aldi jar)

I boiled water and tossed in whole wheat noodles (or Heath's hippie noodles as I call them)

Combine and eat ... delicious

What are you doing after work tonight Chris?

Brooksiders right from the office for beers and 1/2 appetizers (I hope). I'd like to see everyone show up.

Afterward's I may work on some projects with Jon or juggle the soccer ball.

 

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10-17-06 8:06am

Well last night after work I watched last weeks Grey's Anatomy then went for a run. After my run I talked to my roommates a bit about the triathlon and the slogans and various things about the site. Then I went out to the garage and got the boat and the garage all cleaned up and somewhat organized. This weekend I plan to go on a bass fishing trip with some friends from work in Grandma Natty. My garage had become a huge mess and it was tough to find all my fishing/camping supplies so I cleaned everything up a bunch. I was quite pleased with it. Then I ate some dinner and watched the Bears / Cardinals game.

I think I will have about nothing to do all day at work so I may go ahead and order the shirts for the run after looking at some more slogans and doing some design playing around. We are in the middle of a pledge drive where we get all our money for the next 6 months. During this time I am not allowed to change anything or take on any projects. I just need to be ready and to keep things running smoothly.

I'm having trouble thinking of stuff to write about today. Tonight I am headed out to Heathers neighborhood, we will go to some small bar in spring hill. I am assuming it will be full of cowboys looking for a fight. 

 

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10-16-06 8:00am

It was a great weekend. Friday night Jon, Jenna and I started things off with a trip to Rosedale BBQ. It was not very tasty and none of us were very impressed at l

east with the beef and turkey sandwiches. Fries were good but nothing special and the beans tasted like they came out of a can and some just some green pepper had been put in.

After dinner we went back to my house and watched part of a movie called "Rolling Thunder". http://www.sd455.com/movierollingthunder.htm

Its about a group of people that fight crime in trucks that have been outfitted with machine guns missiles, armor, etc.

After this amazing movie we fixed up some bikes and went for a ride to Waldo. We bar hopped in the Waldo area until close then rode back home.

I got up too early and headed out to Heathers house. We took Grant to a huge pumpkin patch out in Louisburg. We wondered around and picked out a bunch of nice pumpkins, Grant had a blast. Then we went to Heathers house and ate some tacos before Grant and I took naps. After our naps we helped Heather around the house by putting up a towel holder and then went to the park to play. Then we were hungry and went home for me to cook a teriyaki shrimp dinner that I was testing out.

BROCCOLI AND SHRIMP TERIYAKI MEDLEY  

I got out my rice cooker/vegetable steamer and put in 2 cups of rice. Then in the vegetable tray I put in a bunch of broccoli, carrots, onion, celery, and green pepper. I then added a bunch of cheep frozen shrimp and drizzled the whole pile in teriyaki marinade. Grant pushed the start button and we let the cooker do it's thing. Once we heard the ding I stirred it all up and served. It turned out to be great even the rice had a nice flavor from the juices that dripped on it from the teriyaki and vegetables. The rest of the night we relaxed and watched movies and got ready for the run.

Sunday we got up at 6:30 and got ready and headed out in the rain for the Abby's Run. We met up with my mom and sisters and brother and a few of their friends and then started the run. I pushed grant in the stroller and we had a really good race. It was a lot of fun even in the rain and I think we did really good. I'm fairly sure Grant was the first stroller at the finish line. Then we ate a bunch of free pizza, doughnuts, fruit, granola bars, cinnamon rolls, etc. Next was the Tot Trot where little kids run short races for a ribbon. Grant was in the last race and started out very fast but once the crowd cheered he got scarred and ran back to Heather at the start line. There are tons of pictures here http://00673d3.netsolhost.com/photoalbum_index.htm/10-15abby/index.htm

The best two are:

   

Once the trot was over we were thoroughly wet and frozen and went to Mom's house to sit in the hot tub. Then we went back to Heather's and Grant took a nap while H and I watched some terrible horror movie with Anent Benning. Then I went home and joined my roommates in some football watching. I don't even want to mention the chiefs. So once it was over we smothered some chicken breasts in BBQ then wrapped them in bacon and tossed them on the grill. We ate them with mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, dinner rolls and some peaches.

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10-14-06 8:19am

Yesterdays 3 mile trial run went very well as did the Buffalo Wild Wings trip. I love wings but for some reason I decided to try the ribs and chicken tenders platter w/ buffalo chips and a side salad. I am not sure it was a good choice. They have the chicken figured out for sure but you don't get the same satisfaction of getting wing goo on your fingers and the fun of trying to pick all the meat off the bone with a chicken tender.

 I had noticed BBW has recently been advertising their ribs so I thought I should check them out. They were very tender and juicy and each rib had a good amount of meat but something was not quite right about them. The menu said we would receive a pound but it was just 3 meaty ribs so I was immediately concerned. They tasted like liquid smoke and Heath said it best when she said they seem like fake ribs. It was like you had taken a McRib and stuck it to a bone instead of on a delicious sandwich with pickles and onions.

So next time I'll stick with the wings.

I'm not sure what is going on tonight yet. I will probably be up for some fun. Saturday morning I need to go get some pumpkins in my truck and then later I think I will cook a bunch of pasta to get ready for the run.

 

 

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BONUS UPDATE: It's your lucky day. Check this out http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2003088n The whole Asian Carp in the rivers thing seems to be common knowledge now but this is the best video I have ever seen on it. I really want to go to this next year. The Redneck Fishing tournament in Bath, IL. Last year 70 boats caught 1,800 fish, and lots of people got hurt. WOW

 

10-12-06 8:35am

Wow I feel great this morning. I'm not sure why either but everything seems fantastic. I felt kinda crummy yesterday afternoon but woke up at 100% today.

So something crazy is going on with ants in our bathroom and I don't get it. For about a week now there is always giant ants in there. Usually somewhere between 2-5 in the sink. These ants while they look very large are always dead or dyeing when we find them. I don't have any poison or traps or anything but it's like the ants come to our sink to die.

Every time we go in there we flush them down the toilet and shortly later 2-5 more dyeing ants are back. It's very odd that there are never huge amounts of them and never none and it's odd how messed up they are. I really don't get it. Does anyone have any ideas?

I have been bad about running the past few days and that's not good since I have a race this weekend. I've decided tonight I need to take a 3.1 mile trial run to prepare for the race. I plan to try to talk Heath and Russ into doing it with me and invite everyone else to join in. I am thinking of running on the corporate woods trail and getting on it at 103rd and Metcalf. After the test run we could get something to eat Buffalo Wild Wings does their $.50 leg deal tonight I think but also Hardees's is close and a number of other tasty places.  Anyone interested? Ohh yeah I will use my little GPS deal to keep track of pace/distance/time/altitude/etc and last time we ran this there were deer right off the trail so I may take a camera.

 

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10-11-06 8:38am

I'm not sure if you have been following the triathlon link above but it looks like Nov. 18th is the projected date. Please comment up there if you have not already on how that date works for you. I probably need to get on the ball making shirts and collecting $ for them and also picking out bars and a path to run. I would also like input on that above, what bars we should/shouldn't hit, time of day to start, start and finish bars, slogans or design ideas for t-shirts. Please post any thoughts you have above or if you design something send it to me in an e-mail. Chris@theprewitt.com

Nothing to exciting from last night got some stuff done around the house, went to home depot with Russ and Derrick, ran a bit, wired a car stereo thing for Heath and watched Nip/Tuck.

I started using Windows Vista instead of Windows XP yesterday and so far my computer is running really well. I have put it on computers before but they had lots of problems for me.  

 

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10-10-6 8:12am

No squirrels yet and I think maybe we need to take a look at what we are doing and adjust it. I guess it is going to get chilly today so maybe I should put out some peanut butter or some other bait.

Last night I went to Heritage Park with H and Grant for a practice/training run. It went well and afterward we cooked up some great tequila lime chicken, fried potatoes, green beans and something called Couscous. For some reason H is often trying to push substitutions to good old white rice on me and the current thing is couscous.

It is edible but not white rice and I have yet to find a way to make it where I want to eat it. Does anyone eat this stuff, or have you tried it? The first time we had it, we just ate it by the recipe on the box but this time I looked for a recipe for it on the internet. I was in a hurry and did not find anything that did not take a whole bunch of ingredients we didn't have. So I splashed some salsa in the pot and stirred it up. This was better then plain but still not something I like to eat and not in the same category as rice.

Enough about food I can't make tasty, how about some that can't go wrong: wieners and beer. Heather is throwing a keg party/wiener roast/bonfire bonanza. She wanted to pass the invitation on to everyone that comes to my site and I decided that if you mention theprewitt.com at the door we'll let you in free. Heather made a really nice flyer and I will be printing a bunch off to hand out. It does not look as nice and organized on the website but it still has all the information and pretty pictures.

 

Heather and Grant’s Backyard

Saturday October 28,

7:00pm  

              

 

Please join us at

 709 S Webster

Spring Hill, KS 66083

913-206-4460

For an open house & halloweenie roast.

We will provide a Keg/Soda, Hot dogs, buns and condiments. You bring your lawn chairs, kiddies, and any sides or drinks you want. There will be extra parking at Signature Bank, across the street from our house. If you want to stay, there will be plenty of space inside, or bring your tent and camp in the back yard!

HOPE TO scare YOU THERE!!!

 

Please RSVP by Wednesday, October 25^th @ 913-206-4460 for accurate weenie preparations

 

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10-9-06 8:50am

Very active and different weekend to report on today. Friday's BBQ went good. We found plenty to drink and fired up the grill several times throughout the night.

 We had a nice fire and played washers, ping pong and beer pong. I really enjoyed myself and thing everyone else did too. Things died down just before 1 and I went to bed. I got up kinda early and ate breakfast and watched Godfather II.

 I also went for a run and cleaned up from my gathering.

 Then in the afternoon Heath and I went for a walk and then over to Kevin's to watch football and drink some beers. Around 7:30 Heath dropped Kevin and I off at "The Other Place" for Ben's Batchelor Party. Now I am not sure on all the rules about what happens at a bachelor party stays at a bachelor party or how that works so I am not going to report much about it (that or my memory is fuzzy). I will let you all know that Geoff now has a Mohawk and Ben likes to sleep after he wrestles. Ohh also KK and I typically crave double cheeseburgers after drinking. Luckily Ben lives very close to Steak and Shake so we took care of that and then crashed at Kevin's house sometime between 4 and 5am. I got a bunch of phone calls and other distractions early in the morning and finally got up around 11. KK and I went to my house and juggled the soccer ball with Jon. While playing we decided to start on the snare plan and went to the hardware store for wire. We made some snares and put them on a 2x4 and leaned it against a tree.

Then played with the soccer ball until Heather showed up and I was ready for lunch. I made some big pile of pasta stuff with all sorts of things in it, even spinach (no I'm not worried about ecoli).

 Then Heath went to sleep and we played with Jon's security camera and juggled the ball with Derrick untill game time. We watched an emotional chiefs game with a small crowd at my house.

   

Once the chiefs had one the game most people left. I went to work for a bit and then ate and went to bed. I got 10.5 hours of sleep and am tip top today.

 

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10-06-06 8:15am

Last night I was awfully busy cleaning, shopping, playing hacky sack, and setting things up to have folks over tonight.

Does anyone know much about snaring?

Jon and I went out to lunch yesterday at China Town Supper Buffet at 75th and Wornal. It was all remolded and nice. Lunch after tax was $7.13 and that came with a drink and a really packed buffet. They even had a taco bar if your not feeling the Chinese. Jon was especially crazy for the green bean things. When we got done talking about what good food we found we started talking about hunting. Neither of us own a gun or have ever really gotten into hunting but like to play outside.

I decided that when you are young, you like to play outside and you don't need any excuse to go play in the woods. You are entertained by sticks and leaves and that is fine with you and everyone else. As you get older and older you need to come up with better reasons to go play in the woods. There now must be a purpose, to camp or to fish or to swim or to hunt.

Hunting is an expensive hobby guns cost money, gear costs money, permits and licenses and training all cost money. Also it seems like a slippery slope. The first year you shoot at squirrels and rabbits and walk around looking and the sticks and leaves. This is fun but you see a few dears and hear your hunter friends talk about the monster buck they shot. The next season there you are with more gear sitting in a dear stand with a dear permit watching the sticks and leaves from high in a tree. Once you shoot a few deer you hear about elk and then moose and caribou and then grizzly bears and now you are a dedicated hunter and don't care about the sticks and leaves.

Jon and I discussed starting down this path in life and decided for now to delay it. Instead we will learn how to snare. Or the trot line of the land animals. From our crude understanding of snaring we will set up various types of traps that always involve a loop of wire that closes down around a critter. We will start in wooded areas near out houses and go for squirrels and rabbits. We decided this is a valuable skill to learn. If we can consistently catch squirrels and rabbits we will be able to survive in the woods without food.

Also as a man that loves his food. I really want to get good at making rabbit and squirrel stew or chili and share the recipes on my site.

 

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10-05-06 8:31am

I have a lot of potential topics to post about. I have lots of leftover things from the weekend still plus more from my sick day or my poison ivy or weekend plans. Or my day at work yesterday.

To tell you the truth I'm not wild about any of them.

Tomorrow I will rush home from work and start a minibon in the backyard. I'll probably play some washers and ping pong, drink some beer and ice tea and eat some meat. I invited some friends from work over right after work but I plan on hanging out by the fire all night and anyone is welcome to show up. 

Yesterday I did a remote broadcast at a Columbian Restaurant. It was kinda interesting and the food was good, lots of meat: steak, chicken, fish, shrimp, ohh and lots of plantains and rice. I got to go along because the station needed an internet connection at the site and could not get one. My new phone lets me plug it into a laptop and then use the internet on the laptop through the phone.

Maybe tomorrow I can do a better post, what would you like to hear about? Ohh I did make a wild chicken noodle soup last weekend when Heather was sick I could talk about.

The Wild Chicken Noodle Soup
(As heard on THEPREWITT.COM earlier today)

Of course you need noodles and chicken so I defrosted several chicken breasts and covered them in olive oil and Italian seasoning while I went to the store for noodles, celery, and chicken broth. I found some giant Amish homemade noodles that looked really tasty and celery was easy but I could not find chicken broth. I could find cans of cream of chicken soup and chicken gravy in a can. I decided not to worry about the broth and got both these cans.

When I got home I cut up some carrots and a potatoes and tossed them in the bottom of the pot. Then I cut up the chicken and tossed it in. After a bit of cooking I poured in the juices from a can of mushrooms and a can of black beans. Once the chicken looked mostly cooked I put in the celery, some green peppers and some onion. Then I added the gravy and soup cans. I filled the gravy can with water a few times and dumped it in. Then I added all my noodles. After they began to soften I added the mushrooms, beans, more celery, and some spices. There may have been more stuff in it but I am drawing a blank now. I let it simmer until Heath showed up and I added bits of milk along the way so it would stay soupy and creamy.

It was delicious and made her feel much better. It does not seem that wild now that I read what I did but the black beans and chicken gravy are kinda weird. 

 

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10-04-06 8:24am

I'm sorry I am behind on posting. I've got some nasty poison oak or ivy or something itchy and a bit of a cold or something too. here is a pic of the back of my knee that got the worst part of the itch.

(its hard to see all the little bubbles of itch but basically the red stuff is itchy)

Last night I did not do much, watched Nip/Tuck, ate some awesome enchiladas that Heath made for my roommates and I, and went to bed early. On Saturday night Heather's car shifting problem came back so Monday night I fixed it. As with my old saturn I decided old license plates would be the primary material used.

I cut out two plates with my angle grinder and then put one on each side and bolted them together.

So far so good but Heath is looking into getting a new car. Also she did not take the job if you were interested. She decided that while it was an increase in pay the health plan blew and she would have to spend more money to get her and Grant covered and she would end up with less money in the end.

Many of you probably don't care but in a month the Pittsburg V Northwest game is at Arrowhead. I would like some information on a plan for this game from you all and let me know if you are going. I assume I will be making my annual large batch of

BACON BURGER DOGS

and drinking a few beers in the parking lot. But I am curious who all is going so we can all get together and if you want the ultimate in football meat put in your order for a Bacon Burger Dog.

PS. I don't make 1/2 orders but if you order a whole one maybe you can wrap it up and give the other side to Kevin.

 

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10-02-06 8:08am

Man what a nice weekend. Great weather, great fishing, great vittles.

I have to go to the radio station tower soon but I will try to get as much posted as I can before I go. Right after work on Friday I headed south to Stilwell, KS where I met with Jon and Jason. We packed up Jason's Excursion and headed to La Cygne. We went to Jason's uncles house. He had a bunch of land with some ponds and a strip pit on it. Also he was just a couple miles from the Mitriloa(?) river where we would run our trot lines. When we got there we fished in the strip pit and had a few beers while waiting for Jason's uncle. Jason caught a 3lbs Bass and a water moccasin. When his uncle showed up he let us into a small pond and gave us some worms, we quickly caught a bunch of bait (live perch). We took these perch to the river and borrowed Jason's uncles canoe and trolling motor. It was starting to get dark so we quickly set up our trot line and a few limb lines. Then we started a fire, grilled some burgers and drank some beers. We just enjoyed the evening until close to midnight. Then we hopped back in the boat and checked our lines.  We ended up with one catfish maybe 3 or 4lbs.

 We took this guy to Jason's uncles house, cleaned him did some drinking and went to bed around 2:30am. We woke up at 9am and went back to the river and caught 2 nearly identical 10-12lbs catfish in the morning. I liked these fishies and took some pictures on my new cell phone.

 Once we were done cleaning these we went back to Stilwell so Jason could get some stuff done. We cooked up one of the fish from this morning and some French fries for breakfast/lunch.

Then we went back to Jason's uncles house to catch more bait fish out of the pond. We filled a cooler with probably 50 perch in no time. And took them out to the river to add more limb lines and add another trot line. We loaded up the river with hooks and lines all over the place and felt really good about our chances for catching some big ones.

(Jason digging out our biggest perch for our biggest hook and limb line)

(Jon and Jason getting a limb line set)

  (Setting up the second trot line. It is tied to the log you see in the background and runs along the side of the boat.)

We went back to the gravel bar where we had our fire the night before and luckily it still had some coals going so we tossed on some wood and stoked up a blaze.

 We were a bit hungry but had not brought anything but beer and tortilla chips to eat so we drank and waited for some fish to get hooked so we could cook dinner. Our buddy Troy showed up and we all hopped in the boat to check the lines. We caught these two cute guys and cooked them up for dinner.

 After dinner, around midnight we went back out and checked again. This time our lines were empty and one of the trot lines had broken. Something big had gotten on and torn it up, then escaped. We were a little disappointed but a lot tired so went home to bed around 2 again. Jon got us up at 8am to check the lines. We only had one cat, so quickly cleaned up, packed up and headed home.

I tried out a new seasoning for the fish this weekend given to me by my friend Brian and it was great. I will write up a bit more about it when I get some time.

 

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9-29-06 8:30am

Just as I suspected a fishing trip has been planned for tonight.

 

I will be heading south right after work with camping supplies, new batman fishing pole, bag of burgers, case of natty and as long as traffic is not too bad a big grin. After a quick stop in Stilwell KS, we will head to a river near La Cygne, KS. I am not sure what the river is called something like Miaola or something? Rumor has it that some 50lbs catfish came out of this river early this summer and if we get one 1/2 as big it will be awesome. We will pole fish for bait and then set out our trot line(s) in hope of catching some big guys.

I am having busy work problems so maybe continue this later.

 

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9-28-06 8:20am

I am dragging a bit this morning but not too bad. Heather, Jon, Jenna and I went to Charlie Hoopers for $2 all import bottles last night and had a few drinks. We were surprised to not find Kevin there. Maybe he is not as gay for Charlie as I thought? Anyway I had a Modelo especial, a Newcastle brown ale, a Red Stripe, and a Carlsberg. They were all delicious choices.

 After Hoopers we went to Jenna's lounge (new selective and intimate hang out spot with a nice view but cramped bathroom, located above my kitchen). We had some snacks and finished off everything we found in the fridge to drink.

I volunteered to work at the career fair today so I will be out of the office after 9:30 for a while. I get to sit around in the gym and hand out magnets, mints and fans. Also I tell ambitious students that we are not hiring at KCUR but the FCC wants us to be there.

I am loving my new phone and think I will switch to it for all my telephone needs.  

 

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9-27-06 8:09am

It feels like a good day. I got a fast paced run in this morning at "Tower Park" off Holmes at like 75th. I have never been there before but drive past it all the time. It is a small loop so I did it twice at a speedy pace. Yesterday I was grumpy and my knee hurt and I was all limpy but today I got a good night sleep and loosened up my knee with a good run. Also my new phone started working this morning, I have a yummy breakfast waiting for me and have some fun computer stuff on my to do list.

Do you guys use to do lists at work or home? I keep a little pad with me all day and add things as people ask me for help then I check them off when they are done. At work we have to keep track of how many things we do all day so then later on I type all the checked things into the computer.

Last night Heath gave me a Sonic coupon and while the deals where pretty good I was mostly impressed by the advertisement on the back. "The Spicy Southwest Super Sonic burger [Two beef patties, two slices of pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, crispy jalapeno strips and out creamy Chipotle sauce]". I don't know why everyone decided jalapenos on a burger was a good plan all of a sudden but I am on board. I can not wait to try this burger, I don't anticipate it being as good as the Hardees' one but still think it will be tasty. I think it was early this summer when I started always cooking my burgers with the onions on top once it has been flipped once. I get one side done then flip and put slices of onion on, then wait a bit and toss the cheese on to melt over the onion and beef. This worked well and Jon (a man who loves a good burger but is quite picky about making them just right) even liked this addition and adopted it himself. It did not take me long to say "I need more" and I added jalapenos with the onion and when available mini bacon strips. Letting them cook on top of the beef and then melt in with the cheese has become a standard for me. I'm not sure if I was inspired by Burger Kings jalapeno burger that came out early this summer or if they were inspired by me but jalapeno is the new lettuce.

>

 

After work and an attempted power nap last night I went to mom's house for some yard work and dinner. Mom's got some giant bushes in the front yard and they had become quite unruly. I like to cut trees and plants down but I don't do it with any finesse, grace or style. So I was new to the trim the bush to look nice idea. Mom and my brother didn't know much about it either. So I just got the electric trimmy device and went at it. I got all but one done and the top of another that I could not get to even on the latter. I am absolutely not an undiscovered Edward Scissorhands but they don't look like a kid on the special bus cut them either.

I may get to do some fishing this weekend, Jon hinted about running lines on the Kaw. I'm sure you will find out more.

 

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9-26-06 8:04am

Last night I was kind of busy. After work Russ helped me proofread an article on streaming media I am working on then Heather and Grant came over. We went for a big run and ended up at the park. We played in the sand for a bit then went home. A few of my roommates friends had come over and Kara brought dinner. Heath and I ate and fed Grant then they left. I took a shower and went to Mike's with the roommates and friends. The Casey bartender wanted to charge a cover but ended up letting me in for free since I am there so often anyhow. After about an hour I went over to Ben's house to pay for next months rent and deliver a load of wood for his chiminaya. (outside ceramic fireplace that I can't spell) We got to talking about the house and neighborhood I live in. He asked me to mention a few things from our conversation on the site and I am having some trouble thinking of what they were. I know he was excited when I told him my neighbor gave me a big ball of butt that took me a few days to get rid off (describing the large BBQ rump roast that my neighbor gave me). Also I referred to another neighbor as a pirate when I meant pilot.  

Work gave my whole group a new toy yesterday and I am hoping to start using it today.

    

Once I start using it and figure out how much I like it, I am planning on discontinuing the use of my personal cell phone and direct all my calls to this new work cell phone. I will keep you posted on what I decide.

 

 

 

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9-25-06 8:38am

I just got into work a bit late today but it seems like no big deal. I didn't have any problems waiting for me or anything. It was a good weekend here in Kansas City. Friday night I went to an interesting party at the peanut downtown. They had rented out the upstairs for someone's birthday and people dressed in something they would not ordinarily wear to a bar. My group of friends took this to mean anything you would not ordinarily wear to a bar but everyone else took it as dress like you are going to prom. Here are some pictures.

Russ in my St. Patrick's Day outfit (he would not wear the matching hat though) and Derrick dressed like a metro sexual (I don't think he did the whole costume thing).

Playing some free pool, I didn't really dress much differently but was glad I could wear my cutoffs to the bar.

Jenna's hair being lifted up with balloons and Jon looking evil.

We never really seemed to get too wound up at the bar and spent most of our time playing with the little firework things they had on the tables.

After the Bar we stole Jenna's door and took this picture

Saturday I went to a KCUR dinner and drinks event with heather and we had lots of fun then came home to the start of a small party that my roommates were hosting. I crashed out fairly early but enjoyed some nice cool porch time. Amanda Russ and Derrick

  Heather Chris and Sean

  Derrick involved in some funny business that I bet he does not want on the internet.

 

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9-22-06 8:22am

Well as promised I have some information about the Cricket Crawl in Westport this Saturday evening.

Cricket Crawls through Westport: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Don’t crawl, run on over to the The Cricket Crawl for Big Brother Big Sisters in Westport.  Join Cricket and radio stations Q104, Star 102 and Mix 93 for this first ever Fun Raiser.  Look for Cricket booths where you can buy a glow-in-the-dark Cricket tumbler or Cricket light-up ice cube for $5 to get $1.04, $1.02 and $.93 pricing on beer and Cricketini’s at participating bars. All proceeds go to Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Kansas City.

This is the website where I got that from but each of those radio stations have their own pages about it. If anyone want's to go talk to me but I think I will go to KCUR's own little party. It starts at 8 and is BYOB. I believe it will end early. Perhaps I will host

 

 

The Prewitt Crawls to the refrigerator: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Don’t crawl, run on over to the The Prewitt Crawl for having some fun.  Join Chris and radio stations mms://theprewitt.com/porch.   Look for The Prewitt booths at his house or some bar where you can buy your choice of warm or cold nattys from Chris for $0.89 (no change available). This can take place at his house, your house or at participating bars. All proceeds go to buying Chris some tickets to a Chiefs game.

Anyway what are you all up to this weekend. I am happy to be in town with no major commitments.

 

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9-21-06 8:18am

I am sure no one really likes to hear work stories. I know I like to avoid work talk when not at work. However that is too bad for you today because I have a story to tell, most of you are probably at work and ready to hear anything, and I made a cute little paint drawing of it.

 

Well yesterday at work was pretty crazy. A little after 10am we stop broadcasting NPR and have 2 one hour local shows (shows that are done live from our studio). Robin the chief engineer and I wanted to move our satellite dish and this is the best time to do it. Our signal from NPR was not as strong as it should be so we figured the dish was a little off.

Some background info for you. NPR shoots all the programs to the green satellite called galaxy I believe then it shoots them all over the country and NPR stations like us receive them in big dish and cable brings them into computers in the station that save them or put them right on the air.

So we had a 2 hour window to move our dish up and down and back and forth and try to get a better signal. There is a lot of science and technical stuff involved in this that I don't understand at all but we connected a little box to the cable and it gave us 2 numbers, one should be as high as possible and one should be as low as possible when those criteria are met your dish is pointed right at the satellite. The little box was up in the station with Robin and I was at the dish loosening nuts so I could push the dish around. First we moved the dish up and got a bit better signal so left the height there. Then I began to loosen the side to side nuts and Robin made some changes on the box to see other numbers that mean nothing to me.

When we got ready to move side to side, the dish lost the satellite. We were getting no numbers for it. I moved it side to side, up and down but we could not get any numbers. So no signal from the NPR satellite at all. We panicked a bit then Robin brought the box down to the dish and connected right next to it. We called NPR and The AP News desk (associated press) people looking for advice/help but everyone just wanted us to put it back like it was. At this point we would be happy to do that if we could find the spot.

We used up our whole 2 hour window and still could not find the right spot. Then the AP guys said they would send out a tech with a tool called a spectrum analyzer that would help us but he was 20 min away. For some reason once we heard this news we got a week signal. We were close to be pointing to the right spot we slowly moved the dish down and to the right watching the signal get stronger and stronger until it began to get weaker. Then we went back just a little bit and decided to leave it there. Shortly after the spectrum analyzer showed up and confirmed that we were in the right spot. We put the station back on NPR about 40 minutes late but we had a little better signal then when we started.

Looking back over this post I realize I did not make it seem as intense as it was at the time.  I missed breakfast and lunch yesterday and once we got everything dish related fixed up I helped a few computer problems and got out of there. Instead of going home and making a sandwich or something I went to Mike's to celebrate an exciting day. Then after too many empty-stomach beers I told the story several times.

 

 

 

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9-20-06 8:10am

Man I am thirsty this morning. I already finished my iced tea and I just sat down. I did run last night and this morning and drank quite a few nattys before bed so it makes sense but this is quite a thirst.

Speaking of drinking, I am looking forward to testing some new coffee today. "The Rotisserie" (Kansas city coffee shop) is making a new KCUR sponsored flavor for our 50th anniversary and our staff is helping adjust the flavor for our likening.

Speaking of drinking, I have not been to Mike's in too long. I think I will try to go after work tonight. Early and then get out in time to do some stuff at home.

As promised I have more pictures from St. Louis.

Heath and Grant by the Tram that drove us around Grant's Farm

I really think a pet goat would be great

At the brewery for you NASCAR folks

And the moment you have all been waiting for

The's Jalapeño Burger story

(picture may or may not depict "the's" actual feelings for burger)

On the way to St. Louis, we barely got out of Kansas City before thoughts of what to eat for dinner started popping into our heads. I told Heath that St. Louis has a lot more Hardees then KC so we should eat it for every meal. She did not agree but as we went through Oak Grove, MO we needed gas and there was a Hardees right next door.

Heather had some trouble picking a meal and somehow we really confused the order taker girl but soon enough she was bringing out our order and I laid my hands on the special burger. Warm and soft and wrapped in a nice wax paper sleeve to hold in all it's greatness. I took a bite...

...Jalapeno ... cheese ... angus beef ... tomato ... and bun ... fantastic

I did not do much talking during this fast meal. I was in a hurry to get back on the road and this burger was good. Before I realized it was all gone and it took my fries with it. Heather and Grant were like 2 bites into their meals and I was done, ready to get another one or get on the road. It looked like a big enough burger I thought to myself, I must be full but not realized it yet. I decided to go get the gas for the car and come back letting the others catch up.

When I got back I was still not full so I helped them finish their meals instead of ordering anything else (Hardees is kinda expensive for fast food). And that was my first Jalapeno burger experience, tasted great, didn't stuff me though.

My tale continues on the way out of St. Louis. It was about 1:00pm and we were leaving the brewery and getting on the highway to go home but wanted to eat before we got on the road. Then a Hardees appeared and I managed to convince H to give it a shot. As I pull through the drive through a solution comes to mind. I ask the order taker "Do you have a double jalapeno burger?", "What?" she asks "You know a jalapeno burger with 2 patties", "No, we don't but I can put another patty on there for $something", "Sounds great I say". I didn't hear what the extra charge was and I forgot to look on the receipt. I pulled around front and waited for her to bring out my special order. She came and I dug my box out of the sack and it felt heavier, I opened it and reached inside to find just what I envisioned. I decided I may want to remember this moment so I grabbed the camera and took my own picture with the burger while Heather was in the bathroom. Then I took a bite and it was perfect (just like every other bite on the sandwich it had a noticeable jalapeno presence). Heather came back and offered to take another "better" picture and I agreed. The burger was tough to finish but very do-able. It left me full, happy and quite content.    

 

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9-19-06 8:10am

Allrighty I am back from my long weekend in St. Louis and ready to get some stuff done around here. First I will show a few pictures from the Zoo and the Arch. 

   Heath and Grant with baby Elephant

      Grant and me with giant Catfish

   All of us riding the train

    Grant and I with the arch

   Heather and Grant on Steamboat with arch and flag in background

We got into St. Louis Friday night and we played in the pool, got unpacked and planned out our Saturday morning. Saturday we got to the zoo a little after 7 am. We were so early because parking was free this early (usually $9), the children's area was free and the zoo was uncrowded and nice and cool. If you show up between 7 and 8 you can join the Wildlife Walkers club and walk around the zoo for 2 hours with the old folks. After the Zoo, Grant took a nap and then we went downtown and saw the arch and other stuff along the Mississippi river and Laclede Landing area. We stopped by brewpub called Mortons I think and had a few beers while Grant ate a mini pizza. Then we went back to the hotel swam, cleaned up and went out to eat at a great Japanese restaurant.

Sunday we got up and went to Grant's Farm.

This is a little wildlife area that Anheuser Bush runs Where Ulysses Grant lived. We rode around on a little tram thing and saw the animals then roamed a petting zoo type area and got 2 free beers. This is where the giant Clydesdales live that we see on Budweiser commercials. Grants Farm usually has a $8 parking fee but it was waved on Sunday and we were given a card saying that the free beer would not be available so parking would be free but when we got in we still got the beers, so who knows. When we were about done it started pouring rain and we went to a little pizza restaurant and then back to the hotel for a nap. Then I watched the Chiefs game and after we went to a Mexican restaurant. I got something called the Sun devil platter I think. It was a ton of little grilled pork tenderloins covered in a sweet Jalapeno jelly sauce with a pile of rice, and black beans. It was really good. Heather got the steak fajitas and loved them as well. We had several "ok" margaritas and then headed back to the hotel to swim and relax a bit.

 Monday we packed up and then went to Science City. We had to pay the $8 parking fee and then were mostly disappointed by the stuff inside. It was far to educational and not fun enough. Grant was too young and we were too old plus to do anything good they wanted you to buy tickets. Grant loved the dinosaur exhibits though.

After too much science we went to the Budweiser Brewery and found out there was an hour wait for a tour so we just looked around the lobby and got some stuff in the gift store. Then headed back to Kansas City.

I only had pictures from Saturday on my laptop so I will add some more from the other stuff tomorrow hopefully along with my "tail of the Hardees's Jalapeno Burger"...

 

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9-15-06 8:44am

All right I am not at work today but still getting a post up. I am about to start packing and getting things ready to go for St. Louis.

Last night we had a fantastic soccer game and nice time at Pizza 51. The park was full of people walking around and whatnot so we were often very distracted.

I am doing this post from Heathers computer remote into my work desktop so things are slow and not a ton of fun so I'm going to keep it short. I would like to add more this afternoon when I am home but we will see how things go.   

 

 

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9-14-06 8:10am

I am really wound up this morning. Eager to get work done, get my site posted, do a little research on St. Louis and clock out. I have a 4 day weekend starting tomorrow and yesterday I was dragging along so today I feel like getting busy.

We will see how I feel when my morning run wears off and my tea is gone. I still don't have any apples and I was out of alternatives this morning so no breakfast at all.

I took tomorrow off to prepare for my trip to St. Louis.

Last night I changed the oil in Heath's Saturn and we got snacks and toys for the ride to keep Grant happy. Tomorrow I will get the rest of things squared away and packed so we can head out in the afternoon. Grant and I will be on our own most of the day. I think this will be lots of fun too. Normally I have a hard time making a post when I am not at work but I am going to make an extra effort to post something for tomorrow. It is Heather's Birthday and I know how much everyone loves to see birthdays on the announcement. 

       

Tonight is weekly soccer and our first trip to Pizza51 afterwards. Soccer will be at 6:30, lets try to meet at St. Theresa's unless there are people there already then we will meet by the tennis courts at Loose Park. After soccer (@ 8 or 8:30) we can head over to 51st and Oak and sit on the porch and grab a beer and a slice. If you are painting, preparing a proposal, waiting for more people, brushing your hair, cleaning out your crevices or have some other excuse not to play soccer on possibly the nicest evening for the next 6 months think about heading over to Pizza 51 afterwards anyway. Girls are encouraged to participate in either or both events.

           

 

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9-13-06 8:30am

Running a bit late this morning. I got a call at about 5:30 this morning and though it was not a big deal I decided to come into the station and take care of some upgrades that happened last night. Then I went home and ran and got ready for work. I am having some trouble thinking of what to write about. I went on 3 different runs yesterday, cooked a good dinner and otherwise had a fairly uneventful day. 

I found 3 really good websites yesterday that I can share with you:

First is http://www.tonyskansascity.com/ this is a very active blog about Kansas City. Well it's about lots of stuff I guess but the guy has a good sense of humor. He is much funnier then any Tony I have met in real life.