Do you Fringe?

We like to go to Kansas City's Fringe Fest every year. It's an art festival with a lot of different hour-long shows and we just choose some and see what they are like. There are always some that are really great and others where you wish you could get your hour back. This is us after our last show, which was definitely the best. We had a really good time.

Not a Fan

This is me with our kitty, Alex. For some reason he doesn't like me that much so he will walk around meowing and wanting attention, but when I pick him up, he just tries to get away. He only likes it when Jason pets him.

Good-bye, XRK 379

It's a sad day.  Something I care way more about than I should is the combination of letters and numbers on my license plate.  Some combinations are just way better than others.  I loved the one I had for the past three years since I got my car.  Unfortunately for me, Kansas finally found the funding to resume their project to replace all license plates (it was on hold for awhile), so now I have a new-style plate with a less desirable combination.  I guess I'll live, somehow.

Daylight Landing

When I travel for work, I'm almost always flying home after an afternoon meeting, so I'm regularly getting home in the evening or late at night.  Today's meeting was in Milwaukee at 9 AM, so I was able to catch an early afternoon flight and still make it home by mid afternoon, resulting in a rare bright and sunny drive home from KCI.

Milwaukee News

I used to fly to Minneapolis a lot, but this year I've hardly gone to Minneapolis but instead have ended up in Milwaukee a lot.  Today I flew here for a business meeting tomorrow morning.  In the airport there's this weird wall that says "Milwaukee News", although I have no idea what this refers to, as it's not part of any business or anything, and the local newspaper isn't named that.  I could probably ask someone, but then I wouldn't get to ponder its meaning every time I pass by it.

Tofu and Eggplant

I am overall an adventurous cook, but I am not big on tofu. Although I enjoy it at restaurants, they either use different tofu or cook it differently because every time I try to make it, it seems soggy, not crisp, and I have tried multiple types of tofu and multiple ways to prepare it. So normally I steer clear of it, but when I saw a recipe for an Asian stew that involved tofu and eggplant (one of my favorite vegetables), I decided to try it. I think Jason and I both thought that ordering pizza was a very real backup plan for tonight. However, it ended up being pretty good. I did end up mincing the tofu into teeny tiny pieces so as not to be very noticeable. And I might use a different protein next time (like maybe serve it over quinoa instead of rice. 1 cup of quinoa has 8 grams of protein.), but overall it was pretty darn good and certainly better than we expected.

Organizing the sock drawer. No, seriously.

Today we had a cleaning/organizational day.  One of the the many things we did was Meghan adding some baskets to the dresser drawers to help organize them.  It's not just an excuse to get out of a bad date, it's also a productive task!

Pizza, Salad, Gelato, and Friends

Today we met my friend Jason and his fiancee Kelli for lunch.  We ate at Spin! Pizza, which has delicious food.

Mariachi Meghan

Outside one of our favorite restaurants, there are statues of mariachi band members.  Here Meghan poses with one of the cast-iron musicians.

July Bugs

This year Terrence decided that he likes to eat June bugs.  I don't think he ever noticed them before.  But this summer he realized that they are delicious treats just waiting to be eaten.  Natalie noticed him eating them and tried them herself, and she likes them too.  So they enjoy spending their evenings and nights out on the back deck vacuuming up the bugs like anteaters eat ants.  Together, I think they are putting a serious dent in our neighborhood's June bug population.  Sadly for the dogs, although June bugs last a little longer than June, they're a seasonal delicacy, and they'll soon be gone.  Here Terrence forages for them in the sliding glass door frame while Alex observes.

Red Bus, Not Short Bus

Tonight I got back from my trip to San Francisco.  Because I flew out on Frontier and flew back on United, I landed at a different terminal than the one I left from, so I had to take the red bus to the Frontier terminal where my car was parked.  Here I am in the empty red bus on the way to the parking lot.

Putting the barf in bar food

Tonight we had our group event at a sports bar in downtown San Francisco.  While sports bars are known for having sports, they're not known for having good food.  At this one there were plenty of TVs and pool tables, but they also had several stations of food set out for us, and the food was all pretty much terrible.  Here I'm eating some sort of potsticker, and the sauce on it was so wretched, I couldn't help but make this face.

I'm on a Boat

As part of the festivities every year at my company's annual sales and marketing kickoff, we have an evening event on each day of the meetings.  For today's event we went out on a large boat into the San Francisco Bay.  Here I am as we pass under the Golden Gate Bridge (shortly after we passed Alcatraz), drinking a beverage out of a glass with the glowing plastic ice cube party favors, and singing karaoke with Michael, one of my coworkers. 

Third Piercing

I have wanted a third hold in my ear for awhile now and I finally did it. I really like the way it looks although it makes me think diamonds are kind of a scam since I feel my $35 piercing studs don't look dramatically different than the good ones I have in my second hole.

Kicking Off in San Francisco

This coming week I have my company's annual sales kickoff meeting in San Francisco.  Because they don't want to keep us all out of the field for too long, the first day is a Sunday, so I'm flying out tonight to ensure I'm there for the start of the meetings tomorrow.

North

Today we tried a new restaurant called North.  It's supposedly modern Italian.  The decor in the restaurant was also very modern.  The food was decent, but we still like Olive Garden better, and Olive Garden's quite a bit cheaper, so we'll probably be going back there instead of back here.

SmashBurger

Tonight my friends and I went to SmashBurger, which is yet another entry in the gourmet burger chain craze.  It was good, but it really didn't seem to be much different from Five Guys.  One of the unique things they have are the smashfries, which are regular fries with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary.  They were better than regular fries, I suppose, but not by a lot. 

Chauffeuse

My car was in the shop today, so Meghan drove me to and from work.  Here she is arriving with front-door service when picking me up after work.

You'll never shine if you don't glow

Although I love to watch sports, I don't get the chance too often these days, but there are some events I really try to catch throughout the year, and the Major League Baseball All-Star game is one of them.  Tonight I had other things to work on at the same time, but I was able to work on my laptop and keep an eye on the game.  Oh, and the National League finally won for the first time in 14 years, so that was good.

Abby's Shower

Today I went to the shower that the Nicholl family threw for Abby, who is marrying Matt in September. It was a really nice time at the Cheesecake Factory. This is a picture of everyone who attended. Julie and Joanna made Abby a really cute sash and crown so there was no mistaking who the guest of honor was.

Midnight Run

Last year I had hoped to run in a 5k in the fall, but I got injured during soccer season and wasn't able to train for it.  I'm hoping to run in it this year, so I'm trying to train more by running outdoors, as the race itself is outside.  As I often stay up late, that sometimes works out as the best time for me to exercise, so tonight I went for a run very late at night.  Plus, when it's July, running after 11pm is a pretty good time to do it anyway.

My Hill Valley

Meghan and I went through Lansing today, and I decided to stop by my old house from high school.  It was weird seeing it, as the landscaping had changed, some trees were gone, some were added, and others were way bigger.  The new owners apparently have added a fence, a shed, lots of bushes and shrubs, rebuilt the decks, etc.  It was like it was almost right, but very different, similar to when Marty goes to Mr. Strickland's house in the Biff-induced alternate reality in Back to the Future II.  So here I am taking the risk of angering a potential gun-wielding resident by posing for a picture on my old driveway.

Chili's

Today I met some of the people I used to work with at Sprint for lunch. Here we are at Chili's.

Dude, I Got a Dell

Since my old laptop was quite old, a fire hazard, and no longer portable, we decided it was time to upgrade.  Dwindling business, unfortunate component supplier issues, and fleetingly popular but ill-fated marketing campaigns aside, I still felt Dell was the way to go, and my new laptop finally arrived.  Also I'll now have Windows 7 at home instead of just at work, which is a good thing.

Ribs, Soccer, and Cruise

My friend Jeff was in KC today, so I took the afternoon off so we could hang out.  We went to Gates BBQ for lunch and had some disappointingly salty ribs, watched the World Cup semifinal game between Spain and Germany, and then went and saw Knight and Day, which was decent but not great.  But we always have a good time when we hang out, so it was a fun day.

Kansas City Ink

We have a great wireless printer.  It has five ink cartridges, two of which are black for some reason.  The good thing is that when one of the colors is empty, you only have to replace that one, which theoretically saves money.  Although several are low right now, one of the black cartridges was completely empty, so I replaced it.

5th of July

Because of the weather in KC last night, some of the fireworks shows were postponed until today.  So we figured we'd take advantage of it and go to a second show.  So tonight we went to the Corporate Woods show.  On our way, we saw a bunch of people set up to watch it from JCCC, so we figured that it must be a good spot. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite a ways away.  Still though, getting to see a fireworks show on both the 4th and the 5th is a pretty good deal.

Independence Day

Tonight we went to see fireworks, but it was a windy and rainy night.  It looked like the show would be canceled, but after a long delay they ended up squeezing it in during a short break in the weather.  It wasn't even a full-length show, but at least it was a show.

24

My favorite show is 24, but I lost my recorded Season 7 episodes when we upgraded our DVR, so I had to wait until it came out on DVD.  So this spring I've been watching episodes when I have time.  I had some free time tonight, so I caught up on a couple more episodes.

Apps on Deck

Tonight Meghan made us appetizers to enjoy out of the deck.  She made one of my favorites, chipotle cilantro tomatillo salsa with goat cheese and a new one, margarita shrimp cocktail. Delicious!

Enjoying a Mid-Summer's Night

Today we went to Shakespeare in the Park to see King Richard III. Even though neither of us are huge Shakespeare fans, we enjoy being outside and picnicking and supporting the local arts so we had a fun time.