Two Jasons and a Chad

My friend Chad was in town for a few days, so our other friend Jason and I met up with him.  We went out to the Power and Light district and had a fun time.

Fuse

Recently the cigarette lighter adapter in my car stopped working when charging my cell phone.  After some troubleshooting, I figured out that it was likely a bad fuse.  I found the fuse, checked it, and sure enough it was toasted.  Time to buy a new 15 amp fuse.

Abuelo's Con Mi Padre

My dad was in town for the night, so Joanna, Meghan, and I met him at his hotel near the airport, and we all went out to dinner at Abuelo's in Zona Rosa.  The food was really good, especially the salsa, and it was great to get a chance to see my dad.

On the edge of my seat with an edger

Although my yard is in pretty good shape, it often bothers me that it's not edged.  I decided to fix that by buying an edger.  Here I am putting the finishing touches on it while putting it together.

MeghanKart

Tonight we played MarioKart on the Wii.  Natalie was satisfied with providing moral support, but Terrence felt that staring at Meghan would make for a good way to help.

Sibling Rivalry

Today the dogs took advantage of the nice day and spent a lot of time outside. This is always a nice change for Alex, who seems largely annoyed by them. This is Alex, enjoying(?) being the center of attention.

Milwaukee's Best (airport feature)

I really like the Milwaukee airport.  It has a very nice and comfortable central commons area outside of security with lots of seating and multiple large TVs.  But one of the coolest things about the airport is something I haven't seen anywhere else.  They have giant monitors showing representations of where all the incoming flights are.  So you can look at a map of the country or region and see exactly where a particular plane is as it makes its way toward the airport.  I don't know exactly how useful it is, but it's pretty cool.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

I love the World Cup, and I love the US National Team.  Today the US played Algeria.  Because England beat Slovenia, the US needed a win to advance.  A tie or a loss, and their tournament would be over.  They had a ton of chances throughout the game but couldn't convert any, and they were still tied 0-0 with under two minutes left in stoppage time, and then finally, FINALLY, Landon Donovan knocked one in, giving the US a 1-0 lead, and they won the game.  I was relieved and elated at the same time.

Summer mowin', had me a blast

As this summer has been rainier than most, I've ended up mowing a lot.  Fortunately, I sort of enjoy it.  I mean, I wish I didn't have to mow quite as much as I do, but at least I enjoy it for the most part.

Nice Rack, part deux

One of our towel bars had fallen out of the wall and, tonight, Jason worked on getting it reinstalled.

Tacos!

Tonight we had Mexican for dinner, which is one of our favorites. Sometimes I do Tex-Mex Mexican and it's really bad for you, but delicious. Today I did healthy Mexican so we had shrimp tacos which are quite light, but still delicious. Here Jason enjoys a taco.

Patron of the Arts

Meghan and I were going to go to a play tonight at the Off Center Theatre at Crown Center, but Meghan wasn't feeling up to it.  Since we'd already bought the tickets, she suggested that I go anyway and then I could determine if it was good enough for us to go on another night.  It turned out to be decent but not great.  So we might try to attend another showing of it, but we won't make it a high priority.

B&V

Most of my customer visits for work are out of town, but today I had one here in KC.  I attended the meeting in person while my colleagues dialed in over the phone (I guess it wasn't worth the trips from California and Toronto).  It wasn't as productive as we'd hoped, but at least it didn't cost my company any money for me to go there.

Two Short

Tonight our group met at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  There are normally five of us, but only three could make it tonight.

At Least the Bruises Aren't Bigger

Today I went to Texas to visit our client. Somehow everytime I travel, I get injured by my baggage. Today I got a bruise from the strap of my bag. Here is a picture of me in my hotel room showing my bruise. It's always good to see people in person, but I will be really glad to get back home too, hopefully without further injury.

A New Squirrel

Today I got Natalie a replacement squirrel. Each dog has their favorite toy. Terrence really likes his octopus, but Natalie loves her squirrel. She was thrilled to get a new one that has a working squeaker.

Screening

We don't use the screen door outside our sliding glass door very often.  This is partly because the dogs would shred it by scratching at it, but partly because it doesn't slide very well at all.  Fixing it has been on my list of things to do, and tonight I tackled the project.  After some adjustments, I got it working, and now it slides smoothly.  Now if only we could teach our dogs not to scratch it, we might have a useful screen door.  Oh well.

Sorry, George

In the past year or so Meghan has really embraced outdoor grilling for our meals.  Although I still do a lot of the grilling, she's more likely to use it for a random weeknight meal.  This means our old George Foreman grill isn't getting used much anymore.  Here Meghan grills some chicken and vegetables while Natalie forages for crumbs.

Dinner with Friends

Today we went over to our friends', the Hansons, house and ate dinner and hung out. It was nice to catch up with them. Callie made a great dinner and this is us right before eating.

Business Road Trip

I had to drive to St. Louis and back today for a business meeting.  Well, I could have flown, but I love driving and the weather was nice, so I figured driving would be a more fun option, so that's what I did.

Car Cleaning

It'd been awhile since I had cleaned out my car.  Since I'm driving it to St. Louis tomorrow and will be picking up a coworker at the airport there and driving him to our customer meeting and back, I decided tonight would be a good time to vacuum out my car.

And in disappointing news, the vacuums at my car wash of choice now charge $1 instead of 75 cents for one vacuuming session.  Stupid inflation.

Dazed and Contused

When I took this picture at the hospital, I thought it was going to be a picture of me with my broken foot as a result of racquetball incident.  Instead, nothing was broken, and I just had a bone bruise/contusion.  I pretty much never go to the doctor for things, as I feel that most things just heal on their own without expensive intervention.  So I was going to do the same for this one, but after I thought there was a very good chance it was broken, I felt compelled to go in.  But since it's only contused, I have to deal with pain and limping, but that's much better than the alternative of crutches and casts.

It was a dark and stormy day...

Today was one of those days where it rains and storms pretty much all day, and even though it's daytime, it looks like nighttime out, as the skies are dark and streetlights are on.  Although Meghan doesn't like stormy weather, I love it, so today was a good day for me.

Budget Night

Monday night is budget night.  Meghan balances our budget and enters any new transactions and pays any bills that are due.  Here Meghan and Natalie are working on the budget, although their levels of contribution are slightly different.

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes

Today Meghan made some delicious cupcakes.  She filled them with lemon curd filling and topped them with raspberry frosting. They were very tasty. We had more than we could (should?) eat, so I'm bringing some in to work to share with my coworkers.

A $700,000 View

For our Date Day for June, we went to KC's Urban Tour 2010, a tour of downtown lofts, condos, and other houses.  We're not planning to move, necessarily, but it's always fun to see those places.  We toured one particularly awesome house with a rooftop deck and amazing views of the city, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to get a good picture while we were there.

Eat at Joe's

Tonight we celebrated the end of the week by going to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. We hadn't been there in several years because I always feel like the food isn't that great yet is really expensive. Our opinion didn't change this time so it will probably be another several years. But we had a really enjoyable time eating on their patio and enjoying the weather.

Total Recall

Our new car is only a few months old, but already a recall was issued for it.  Apparently the seat heaters can catch on fire.  Meghan, not being a fan of driving while engulfed in flames, decided we should bring the car in to get fixed.  Not that we're using the seat heater in June, but it's just better to do it now while we're thinking of it rather than planning to wait for the fall but then forgetting and ending up in the ER with third degree burns caused by our own vehicle. 

Habanero Jammin'

Meghan makes an awesome pineapple habanero jam.  It'd been awhile since she'd made it, and pineapple's in season right now, so tonight she made a batch of it.  Here she is during the jar sterilization part of the process.  Unfortunately, I really want some of it now, but it won't be ready till tomorrow, which is disappointing.  But at least now I can look forward to something very tasty tomorrow. 

Not an Electrician but Close Enough

Today the electrician came and redid the light and got the wiring all set, but the dimmer switch had been damaged in the fall. Jason bought a dimmer and is working on installing it.