Bill and Traci

Let's go Chiefs

2011-01-15T18:19:00.000-08:00

um,yeah... that is what I yelling when the game started but ended up walking out of the stadium wondering what the heck happened to our division champions.

Kevin and I went to the Chief's final season game against the Raiders with high hopes. We had the whole day planned: Breakfast at the Corner Cafe, take the sneaky short cut to the stadium, a tour of the stadium pre-game, cheer on a beat-down of the Raiders, eat some BBQ and hoop it up with all the other Chief fans.

From the end zone

Kevin and I

Scary Radier fan

Everything went according to plan until the game started. Unfortunately, we got worked from the start of the game. At least the sun was shining down on us and making the freezing temperatures bearable.... ok, that went away as soon as the game started. :-)

A packed house

Regardless of how the Chiefs played or how frigid the temperature was, the experience was awesome and it was great seeing the words "2010 AFC Division Champions" on the highlight board. I am looking forward to the 2011 season.

Go Chiefs!!

Here's hoping your team goes all the way!

Bill

Gone Fishin'

2010-10-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

It has been several years since I have been fishing. As a matter of fact, the last time was off of the San Clemente pier. A couple of weeks ago my buddy Kevin and I decided to do a men only weekend in Branson, Mo which included lounging around and fly fishing.

My prep for the weekend included purchasing a fishing license with trout stamp and fortunately all the fishing equipment was supplied by our "fishing guide" (Brett) in Branson. We kicked off our 3 hour drive with a hearty dinner from Gates BBQ and then hit the open road.

A meal fit for a king - Burnt Ends

We crashed out as soon as we arrived in Branson and I was up at zero dark thirty waiting for the sun to come up over the lake and enjoying the sounds of the wilderness. When Kevin woke up, we went to Breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then were off to Brett's.

What a view

Here comes the sun

The start of our adventure

Once we arrived at Brett's, we spent about 20 minutes on his front lawn going over fly fighing techniques and suiting up in our waders. We then hit Lake Taneycomo and spent about 5 hours walking around the lake. This was my first time fly fishing and I had a blast! I caught a fish on almost every cast for the first hour and got pretty good and popping the little fly hooks out of the fishes mouths and setting them free.

Down the barrel of the fishing pole

We fished near the dam for a couple of hours and I learned that the dam is used to generate power. A loud horn blows to indicate how many units are being started and then the water level quickly rises. It was quite the experience.

You get a line, I'll get a pole...

Kevin and a waterfall by the hatchery

I thought fishing was supposed to be a relaxing sport... When we arrived back at the the house, we ate some pizza and were both struggling to keep our eyes open. We gave into the sand man and got a good nights sleep in preparation for another round of fishihg. Brett was going to pull his boat to the dock behind the house at 7:30am and take us out for 4 hours.

Early morning fishing

Fly fishing from a boat was an interesting experience. The following things need to be taken into consideration: 1) Don't let your line get caught around the prop 2) Don't hook anyone when casting 3) Don't hook anyone when trying to set your hook 4)always keep the tip of your pole down or you will snap your line. We caught more fish that we could count and the nice part was that Brett positioned himself between Kevin and I and removed the hooks from our fish. Proof that I caught a fish

Chillin on the boat

When finished fishing, we jumped into the truck, turned on the Chief's game and headed for Kansas City. On the way, we stopped by Lambers "home of the throwed roll" and enjoyed our last manly meal together. The highlight of the meal was when they brought out fresh rolls as the staff would throw the roll to you regardless of how close or far you were from them.

View of the dock and house from the boat

Watch out for the rolls

May your fishing adventures leave you with several of these --> <ºj))))><

Bill

Rooting for the other side

2010-09-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

I did something that I never thought I would do in my lifetime. I not only went to a KU football game but I rooted for them. And not just the "let's go KU.. clap, clap, clap, clap, clap,clap" it was a full on Waving the Wheat and high fiving all the other crazies.

My company gave away a bunch of free tickets a couple of weeks ago and as luck would have it I was free the weekend of the game. After I received the tickets, I had to figure out who I was going to invite. There was my one friend who loves KU but punches stuff if they lose and then the other one who...wait, I only know one person who likes KU. As it turns out, I learned that a friend from church was a pretty big fan and this would a good chance for us to get to know each other better and boy did we ever.

Tom picked me up at 9:30 and we were on our way to the land of the dirty bird. Since this was Tom's country, he drove us on all the back roads and I was able to experience some of the beautiful country side. We found excellent parking right away (Anything free is excellent) and made our mile trek to the stadium.

As we got closer to the stadium, I could feel the school spirit coming from all the people hanging out on their porches drinking, grilling and playing tailgating games. Beer pong is a very popular sport in Lawrence! Our walking journey was coming to an end and the stadium lay before us in all her glory. I was getting pretty jazzed about the game and Tom was texting loving words to his wife so neither of us noticed the car speeding down the road. I had just enough time to scream at Tom to stop and save his life. His version of the story may be a bit different... :-)

The road to the stadium

Tom

Here comes the stadium

Larger than life

On the way into the stadium, I heard the familiar sounds of "Hog calling time in Nebraska"; however, this version was in tune and was sung with lot of heart. Unbeknownst to me, the band has a tradition of singing this song before every game. You can listen to them sing it here (Hog Calling Time in Nebraska). I got chills when I first heard it and again when I heard it on Youtube. Listen closely as the 2:35 mark.

The KU marching band

Once in the stadium, we enjoyed the pregame festivities and ran into a few people from work. Our seats were perfect, the weather was just right and I was ready for a victory!! There was a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks and Then the National Anthem went off without a hitch.. well, except for the Air force refueler that flyover during the first note of the anthem.

Can you read it? KU

A view of campus from the stadium

The final score before the half

The game was stupendous! The Jayhawks played their hearts out the first half and left the crowd wanting more as they ran off the filed. The half time show was also pretty cool. A flag the size of the football field was stretched out, taps was played and they acknowledged all the people who had served in the armed forces, police, fire and paramedics.

The flag

Unfurling the flag

The second half was just as crazy as the first and KU beat down a ranked team. This is where is waved the wheat, high fived everyone and basically lost all self control. The crowd lost it too and charged the field at the end of the game. Tom and I made our way around the stadium and heading out to get some of the best BBQ in Lawrence. If you ever head out that way, try the spicy BBQ sauce... way hot!!

The final seconds of the game

The crowd reacts

And storms the field

Final Score 28-25

From the opposite end zone

1/2 mast for 9/11 remberance

Quote of the day (From the lips of this hippie dude before the game): "dude, it is a great day to be a Jayhawk" What and the heck does that mean???

I hope you are able to let is all hang out once in a while!

Go Hawks (last time ever.. swear!)
Bill

48 Hrs in the City by the Bay

2010-09-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to travel to California for work. The trip was scheduled for about 48 hours and we would be within 30 minutes of San Francisco. As most of you know, I am all about getting the most out of my travels especially if they are free. :-)

Our plane landed on Monday about 5pm and we had about 2.5 hours of daylight to hit all the major landmarks in the city. As our plane was descending into the "city by the bay", I spied with my little eye a very large fog bank. I was still determined to show my K.C. guests what the city had to offer. Once we had our rental car, we were off on our journey.

The fog bank

We hit Twin Peaks which are a couple of hill peaks that over look the entire city. Unfortunately, the earlier mentioned fog bank was resting directly on the peaks. We then headed to a beach located in the vicinity of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked on the beach for a few.

The view from twin peaks

Hemal,Jason,Me,Ted

The beach

The Golden Gate was our next destination... When we arrived, there was nothing there. I had to explain to everyone that there was indeed a big bridge that went across this large body of water. We had to walk about a 1/4 mile onto the bridge before we could see any proof that a very large bridge did exist. I think some of them were still in doubt.

The Golden Gate is behind us. Really

On the bridge.

Since we were all still on Kansas City time, it was really two hours ahead of the local time and dinner was in order. We enjoyed a very messy dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and then made our way to the hotel in Walnut Creek.

The dinner crew

Ted after a satisfying meal

The client visit took up the entire next day and as dinner approached I had a craving for the best burgers in the U.S. According to google, In n Out was a short drive down the road so we loaded up the rental and headed out to get a bite to eat. As we were contemplating our next moves, we heard a pack of police vehicles and a helicopter go screaming by on the freeway. It was a high speed chase! The next day we read about it and the guy they were chasing had done some very bad things. When they caught him, the ended up shooting him and found a body in his car... that is crazy!

Burgers beyond belief

dinner time

We all decided that we needed to give the Golden Gate another chance and headed into San Francisco for a late night viewing. Our "Never Lost" navigation system took us on the scenic route and after about an hour of driving and following in the tracks of the high speed chase, we made it to the bridge. The drive over the bay bridge at night was breath taking! We drove by AT&T park (the Giants were in town and playing), through China Town and up and down all the steep roads that make San Francisco, San Francisco.

I hope your business trips are eventful as mine.

Bill

2010-08-26T20:57:00.001-07:00

Below you will see the flyer for our upcoming fundraiser! We are accepting donations big and small for our Adoption Benefit Sale...if you are local please stop by and say hello (and maybe even find a treasure or two)! If your not local you can still help out by praying for our benefit sale to go smoothly and that we would be blessed by great weather and lots of shoppers! Thank you so much!

Locust Day 2010

2010-08-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Traci and I headed East to celebrate Locust day with our friends Steve and Tracy. What? You say you have never heard of Locust day? Well, not many people have... Our friend Tracy made it up when she was 10 years old. She felt bad that there were no holidays in the middle of August and decided to celebrate the fact that these noisy creatures were out and about during this time of the year. She started a yearly tradition of celebrating the return of the locust every Aug 17th.

This year's celebration was held at their new residence in Rocheport, MO and included several friends, family and neighbors. Traci and I were the only ones who made the trek from Kansas City and we enjoyed lots of good food and great conversation.

The celebration kept going until about 2 in the morning and ended with a tour of their 150 year old house. Traci and I were fortunate enough to get a room less than 200ft from their house at The Dorm Room. These are rooms specifically designed for bikers who are passing through on the Katy Trail. It consists of a bunk bed, full bath, TV, small refrigerator and queen size futon.

Stairwell in Traci and Steve's house

The Dorm Room

The next morning we enjoyed a light breakfast and walked around the town, river walk and part of the Katy trial. If you have never been to Rocheport, I recommend you make the trip and enjoy everything the town has to offer: Several bed and breakfasts, wineries, the Missouri River, Katy trail and the friendly people of the town.

Tunnel on Katy trail

Other side

Trail up to look out point

Look out point - view of Missouri River

River Walk - Traci way off in the distance

Bench overlooking the Missouri River

Missouri River

On our way home, we stopped by the Ethnic Festival in Swope park and enjoyed several hours of ethnic dancing, music and fantastic food from around the world. The day was topped off by a group of Ethiopian dancers.

Ethnic food and goods

Domo Arigato

By the time we arrived home, I was ready for a nap!

Hope your weekend was as eventful as ours.

Bill

My man cave rocks!!

2009-10-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

For the past month or so Traci has been threatening to turn the garage into a man cave for me. I think the plan was put into motion about a year ago, when we purchased a refrigerator for $20 and she has slowly been working on the transformation. Phase two was to have the cable guy run a drop to the T.V. that miraculously showed up on top of the refrigerator. :-)

About two weeks ago, she asked what I thought about putting a Royals' and Chiefs' logo on the wall of the garage. I am sure I just mumbled something like "yeah, sounds great...blah blah blah". Last week, as I was pulling into the garage I noticed an overhead projector and the outline of the logo's. To add to the magic of my new man cave, I purchased an old school Royals garbage can at an estate sale for $1.50. The last surprise came when I was driving home Thursday or Friday night. I learned that she found an electronic dart board for $20 on Craig's list. Apparently someone was selling it for $50 about a month ago and Traci emailed them and offered $20. She never heard from them and thought the deal was off; however, received an email indicating that if she wanted it, she could have it for $20. Only Traci could pick up a brand new $190+ dart board for $20...

I spent yesterday putting up the board while she painted the logos. She then spent a good portion of today painting and touching up. Everything is now done with the exception of the white parts of the logos. We ended the night by throwing a few games of darts and enjoying her artwork.

May your man cave be as kick butt as mine!!

Bill and Traci

Corporate fun

2009-10-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

This past month, the company I worked for held two significant events.

One of them was our 24th annual health conference. This event was expected to bring over 6,000 health care professionals to the K.C. area over a 4 day period and provide them the opportunity to discuss current health care topics, listen to keynote speakers, and explore some of Cerner's new solutions(Software) in the solution gallery. I manned a booth for the department I work for (AMS - Application Management Services)and was able to share what we do and why with several people. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius packed the seats and had people standing on the back of the room for her keynote speech. The conference came to a conclusion with a bash at the Power and Light district where a variety of free food was served and Three Dog Night played for every one's entertainment. I left early and did not have the honor of hearing "Joy to the world".

The other event was our annual town hall meeting. In addition to the company town hall meeting, I was also scheduled to attend the consulting town hall which meant that I got to spend an entire day sitting in Kemper Arena. The consulting town hall was scheduled to start at 8:30am and the company at 1:30. A handful of us thought it would be a good idea to get together about 7am for an "bag omelet" and coffee tailgate. We set up a tent, got some water boiling and prayed the rain would hold off until we made it into the building.

Getting a boost with caffeine- Scott and Sam

Ron, Michael and Sal

The bags were too thin and melted. Good thing Omelets float

AMS associates in front of Kemper Arena

Let the celebration begin - Confetti

Cerner's mascot - PING

Both of the town halls were very motivating and a reminder as to why I work for the company I do. We ended the day by celebrating our 30th year as a company and giving a standing ovation to our three founders.

May your job bring you as much happiness as mine does.

Bill

Cerner Impact day

2009-09-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

The company I work for is a big advocate of giving back to the community and twice a year they hold an event called "Cerner Impact Day". This is a day where all associates are encouraged to volunteer for one of the many events that have been coordinated in the Kansas City area.

Traci and I have participated in this event for past year and a half and were a part of the Cerner Impact Day this past weekend.

We volunteered to assist an organization named KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in Kansas City Missouri. Our task was to stencil and paint the KIPP logo and motivational quotes and organize a storage closet.

Traci and I along with 14 other volunteers met in one of the classrooms for a quick overview of what KIPP was. Traci and I volunteered to help organize the closet and 2 others joined us. I figured how hard could it be to put a few things in boxes, straighten out a few shelves and sweep a dusty floor. As the doors to the storage closet opened, I knew we had our work cut out for us. :-)

Before picture

Traci, Lisa and Joann cleaning up

We spent the next 2 1/2 hours moving everything around until it looked just right.

... and the after

The other volunteers were putting the finishing touches on their artwork as we linked back up with them. The staff from KIPP were very appreciative of our work and a few of us celebrated by heading the to the art festival in Westport.

Michael cracking the whip

A motivational quote
A quote by Robert Frost

We hope your weekend was as rewarding as our was!!

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 6 & 7

2009-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Day 6 & 7 (Friday and Saturday Aug. 7th and 8th)

The fun was quickly winding down and it was hard to believe that our vacation was coming to an end. If we just had another few days... :-)

We slept in and slowly meandered down to the beach for walk and hunt for shells that had washed up on the beach. There is nothing quite like the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore or the screeching of a seagull hovering overhead.

Relaxing by the beach

We had the beach to ourselves

I knew my tripod would come in handy :-)

As it started to heat up, we made our way to the shaded pool area where relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. Later that evening, we had dinner at the resort buffet. This was the first time, since we had landed in Mexico, that I saw lettuce or a salad for that matter. It is the little things you miss when you are in a foreign country... drinkable water, salad, ice, etc..

The buffet hut

Catherine and Traci

Bill, Traci, Catherine and Michael at dinner

One more of the group

After dinner, we did some night swimming and then made our way back to the chocolate.

The next day was more of the same. Relaxing by the pool and one more trip into the Play Del Carmen for an authentic meal and more shopping (YEAH!!). Rather than take a chance and eat somewhere where the food might not be so good, we ate at the same terrific place that we did the other night. As 4pm rolled around, it was hard not to think about having to wake up in 12 hours to head back to the reality of Kansas. :-) We milled in and out of the local shops looking for more fantastic deals and then caught a taxi back to the resort.

"El Fogon" My favorite Mexican restaurant in Mexico

We spent the remainder of the night in the pool and packing for the trip home. We finally ate our kisses and closed our eyes about 1am.

The shuttle picked us up before the crack of dawn and we spent 2+ hours getting to the airport gate. The flight back was uneventful and customs was very little hassle in Texas.

Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico

We hope your future trips provide you with as many memories that ours did!

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 5

2009-08-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Day 5 (Thursday Aug. 6th)

We had a snorkeling trip scheduled for 1pm and decided to do as much sleeping and laying by the pool as possible. We accomplished both and wandered down to meet our boat by the beach around 1pm. We signed in, tried on our gear, and waited a Mexican minute to our boat, the "Moby Dick". Mexican minute was a term that was used often by the crew of the ship and it ranged anywhere from 1 min to 15 mins. :-)

Waiting for our boat

Ready to take on the ocean

A view from the beach

Some scary looking clouds

The plan was to hit two snorkeling spots on the local reef and then kick back at a private beach before we headed back to the resort. As our boat headed for the first spot, a HUGE storm was brewing over the peninsula. Looking inland we could see lightening striking every few seconds and the thunder would echo all around us. I kept telling myself "I won't get electrocuted.. I won't get electrocuted". The storm was heading the opposite direction of us and I didn't die a horrible shocking death. We spent 45 minutes in the water and saw a handful of fish. We took plenty of underwater pictures that I will share once I develop them... Who knows when that will be.

Heading out to sea
The pier from the water

Our resort

A beach

Milling about in the water

The second spot had fewer fish than the first; however, it was nice floating around seeing all the coral. The current was pushing us North so rather than resist it we went with it and the boat moved to a spot where we would meet up with it. We loaded up and headed for the private beach. A handful of us spent the time in the water relaxing while 20 or so people spent the next hour playing soccer on the beach. Once the game concluded, we loaded up once more and headed back to the resort. The crew of the ship were very nice and let us know that it was O.K. to tip them if we enjoyed the trip (What a relief). Once the members did his version of the dance "On the catwalk" and had people shoving money in his shorts. You can tell he did this for a living and he walked away with a pretty good chunk of dough.

Heading to the 2nd snorkeling hole

AArggg!!! A pirate ship

Pulling into the private beach

...And I do my little dance on the catwalk

Once on land, we went back to the room showered and headed back into Playa Del Carmen for dinner and more shopping (YEAH!!!). :-|

The best Mexican food EVER!!

Enjoying our authentic Mexican meal

We spent the remainder of the night in the pool and then crashed out after enjoying our nightly Hershey's Kiss.

Tomorrow we do NOTHING... O.K., we lay by the pool, swim, walk on the beach and eat at the buffet.

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 4

2009-08-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Day 4 (Wednesday Aug. 5th)

We started off this day at 5:30am and kept going for next 16+ hours. We jumped in the car a little after 6am and headed for the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza. We were able to take a toll roll for 99% of the trip and maintain a pretty good rate of speed. The only time we had to slow down was for the toll booths, people riding bikes in the wrong direction on the road, and a few stray cows. After 2 1/2 hrs. of driving across the Yucatan Peninsula, we arrived at our destination.

The toll road

The toll booth

Traci enjoying the ride. The Jolly Ranchers - not-so-happy after sitting in the sun

We we were approached by several of the locals offering their services as a tour guide. Based on the research that Michael conducted, it was recommended that we wait until we get inside as we could find one cheaper. The plan was to walk around until we heard a "PSST" and then we would get the deal of a lifetime. As we wandered around looking for our deal, we were accosted by several people trying to sell us their wares and were approached by an older man with a cane who waved a newspaper at us and said something in Spanish. We ignored him and continued to look around like lost puppies. Finally, we made a decision to go back to the main entrance and grab a guide. As we were leaving, the paper wielding man said "You need a guide?". And so the negotiations began. He offered to take us around the old and new sections and spend no more than 2 1/2 hours with us for $500 pesos (about $40 U.S. dollars). We agreed and our tour began.

We made it

Ernesto our tour guide

The High Priest Temple

Bill and Traci in front of the temple

In front of the observatory

There were lots of Iguanas around

Incredible

Seated in one of the ruins

See the snake head at the top?

The Tiger and the Eagle

The temple of the Warriors

See the face in the mouth of the snake?

The Rain Gods

The Castle

A Cenote

Skulls everywhere

The Great Ball Court

Put a rubber ball through the hole, you win and you die... Congratulations!

A distant view of the Castle

Enjoying the view

One last photo on our way out

Our guide, Ernesto, had been in the touring business for 48 years and did a great job explaining the history of the Mayan people. He stopped at every pile of rock, wall and temple and explained the significance of the structure and pointed out details that would definitely have gone unnoticed. 4+ hours later, our tour wrapped up and Ernesto went on his way to find another group of tourists to show around. If you make it to Chichen Itza, I recommend going early before the sun or crowds show up.

Our next stop was about an hour away and it was a restaurant that was recommend by a fellow traveller on line. There is a restaurant that overlooks Cenote Zaci that is in Valladolid. The ambiance of the restaurant was pretty cool but the food was average at best.

Unfortunately, we were unable to climb any of the ruins at Chichen Itza as someone slipped and died a few years ago. Coba was on our drive home and we could climb to our hearts content. In order for us to get to Coba, we had to take a different route that was a single lane highway and wound through several small towns. As luck would have it, it began to rain very hard and we wound up behind several slow vehicles. There were several signs that indicated that you should not pass; however, being in Mexico, is was more of a recommendation. Needless to say, we started passing a truck and Michael stepped on the gas to ensure we made it around the truck and not into the dashboard of the oncoming traffic. The second he applied the gas, the tires spun and my life started to pass before my eyes. NOTE: Never ever try to pass a truck in the rain with bald tires on a two lane highway where people do not obey traffic laws. :-)

After another hour of driving, the rain let up and we reached the ruins of Coba. We paid the entrance fee and were notified that they closed at 5:30. We had about an hour to get to our ruin, climb it and get back to the main gate... how hard could that be? We tried to rent a bike but they said it had to be in 30 minutes before closing time and they knew we wouldn't make it. So, we started on our speed walking journey. We found a sign that pointed to the "Grande Temple" and indicated that it was 2 Kilometers away. As we neared the temple, Michael agreed to stay at the bottom and take pictures as we all raced to the top and then I would take some when he started his climb. We spent a few minutes enjoying the view and then descended to begin our 2 Kilometer walk to the front gate. We made it with time to spare and were completely wiped out from the walk and climb.

Map of Coba

The ruins

We begin our ascent

Almost there

Michael and Catherine at the top

We made it too :-)

Going down

Traci and Bill

A gorgeous walk back

We arrived back at our resort about the time it was getting dark and were ready to relax. It was a full moon and we couldn't think of a better way to enjoy it than to chill out in the pool.

Day 5, we go snorkeling

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 3

2009-08-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

Day 3 (Tuesday Aug. 4th)

Day 3 was to be the "Day -O- Shopping" and not the normal shopping that most of you are used to but Traci Vega style. That means you go into every shop, turn over every item, and you don't leave until all the shopping money has been spent. :-)

Shopping of course means we need shopping money. Unfortunately, I had been unsuccessful at withdrawing any money from the local ATMs and received a message on each machine that indicated that there was an error and I should try again later. Rather than make any more attempts at the same ATM, we went to the resort next to ours and tried their machine. Everyone who approached the machine was able to pull out some dough except for us... I spoke with the concierge and asked if he had ever seen this problem before. He mentioned that sometimes a bank would put a card on hold if they saw charges from a foreign country. He asked for the international number on the back of the card and made a collect call to BofA for us.

I spent the next 1.5 hours on the phone waiting for someone to pick up. I was afraid that I might have ended up on a line that would never be picked up and asked Traci to call the number on another line. Within 10 minutes we had a live person on the other phone discussing my problem. I learned that there were two levels of "Mass Compromise" that morning and that my card was at the level where it needed to be inactivated. The person on the phone explained that someone had made several attempts to take out money. I told her that every one of the attempts was me trying to get cash. She said she understood but that my card still needed to be inactivated. At this point I was yelling into the phone "DO NOT INACTIVATE MY CARD" and asking for a manager. She put me on hold while she searched for her manager and came back about a minute later to let me know that she could not find her manager and that she was going to inactivate my card and get a new one out to me. Again, I started with the yelling and told her to get her manager's manager and if she couldn't find them to keep looking until she found one. I finally got a manager on the phone and with a click of a mouse we were able to take out some money. YESSS!!!

On hold with BofA

We rode the shuttle into town and had lunch while Traci strategized her afternoon attack on the stores. We had 5 different cups of chili to choose from that ranged from tomato sauce to fire in your mouth. I tried the whole range and paid for it in sweat. After finishing up our meal, we were ready to hit the shops.

A tasty lunch

yummy cow

We spent the next 4+ hours going in and out of every shop looking for that ever elusive "perfect item". For those of you who have been to Tijuana and know how aggressive the shop people are, this was no different. I was accosted by every shop keeper wanting to know if the happy honeymooners wanted a necklace, t-shirt or wooden mask. The only thing I wanted from our day of shopping were postcards and a picture of me with a parrot. We never found the parrot; however, were able to find a monkey named Lola who was willing to take a photo with me.

I settled for a picture with the monkey

Lola liked Traci more than she liked me

Traci, Lola, and Bill

We then spent some time at the beach watching the locals and enjoying the ocean breeze.

The shops near the beach in Playa Del Carmen

The terminal to Cozumel

We walked back to meet our shuttle and headed back to the resort. Once at the resort, we went to the pool and swam until our fingers shrivelled up.

The plan was to turn in early as Day 4 was going to be a long day and would start at 5:30am. As we were getting ready to head to bed, there was a knock at the door. It was the maid with four Hershey's kisses in her hands. I took them from her and we enjoyed the chocolate before turning in.

On day 4, we explore the Mayan ruins.

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 2

2009-08-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Day 2 (Monday Aug. 3rd)

The day started off with me waking up at 6am and wanting to go for a walk on the beach. That thought quickly vanished as I lay my head back on my pillow and crashed out for another 2 hours.

Traci and I walked down to the pool by the beach and spent the next 4 hours floating, bobbing, and swimming around. The resort coordinated several events throughout the day and one of them was a trivia contest. Traci and I had no intention of participating; however, when I heard the first question I knew I was destined to take it all. This is how it went down: The person running the event would ask a question and if someone knew the answer, they would yell "aqui, aqui, Raul". There were over a hundred other swimmers participating and 90% of the questions referenced American music or T.V. shows. When a question was answered correctly, the winner received poker chips and the person who had the most at the end won. I ended up in a tie with some other dude. So we went head to head for the final question. We both were stumped by the first two questions and I finally overtook him by correctly identifying "don't let the sun go down on me". For my efforts I received a coupon for a free drink at the bar.

Traci by the beach

We had our own little pier

Prior to travelling to Mexico, we made plans to rent a car. Based on the research we did, it would be cheaper and save us a bunch of time to drive ourselves around. Michael was designated as our Mexican driver and I was to be his navigator. We ended up getting a sweet 4 door compact. Michael picked up the car in the afternoon and we took a drive into Playa Del Carmen to do some shopping and eat dinner.

We ate dinner at one of the local restaurants in the market area and checked out the shops. The dinner was nothing spectacular; however, hanging out and checking out the local scene was very cool.

Dinner

It says Heart Street for those of you who don't' habla

People everywhere

Tuning up their instruments - eye, eye, eye, eye

As luck would have it, there was a Walmart in Playa Del Carmen. The Walmart was much like one you would see in the in Kansas City, except everyone spoke Spanish... O.K. so that wasn't too different. We purchased food for breakfast and picked up several jugs of drinking water. We heard the water was safe to drink at the resort but didn't want to take the chance. The bread department was an interesting stop. As you entered this area, you were given a pair of tongs and a pizza tray. The bread was made daily and put into baskets around the walls. When you found something you liked, you simply used the tongs to put it on your tray. They even had pizza slices and cake sitting on a table for the taking.

Anyone need some cake?

Lots of food

Lots of agua

We almost died twice while driving around town. The locals do no obey stops signs and drive very aggressively. It was just a taste of what the rest of the week was going to be like.

Our bed was once again turned down and the kisses were waiting for us.

Day two was all we expected it to be and more! Day 3 go shopping.

Bill and Traci

7 days in Paradise- Day 1

2009-08-10T19:29:00.001-07:00

Traci and I just returned from a 7 day journey to Mexico. After turning 3 shades darker, sampling some of the hottest chili ever, and floating around in the pool until our fingers pruned up, we returned home. Rather than write about every day in one posting, I will spread it out over a handful of posts. :-)

Day 1 (Sunday Aug. 2nd)

After staying up until about 1am, Traci and I dragged ourselves out of bed at5am and made out way to the airport. Our flight would take us from Kansas City to Houston and finally to Cancun. We made our first leg without event; however, once in Houston the games began. We travelled from one end of the airport to the other to make our connection and upon reaching our gate learned that our plane was being worked on and would leave about an hour later than expected. The flight was overbook so they were offering $300, food, and a hotel room to leave the following morning. It was a very temping offer and we would have taken it but we had to meet up with our friends Catherine and Michael in Mexico.

After 30 minutes of waiting for the repairs to be completed, an announcement was made that our plane had been grounded and we needed to head to an alternate gate for a new plane. The new gate was of course on the other side of the airport where we initially landed. At this point, the airline had sweetened the overbooked deal and was offering $500, a hotel room, food and first class tickets on the first flight in the morning. Had we been able to call our friends, we would have gladly given up 24 hours of our vacation.

Once we boarded the plane, there was a newly wed couple who were sitting apart and wanted to be seated next to each other. Ahhhh, how sweet... The lady was sitting next to us and her husband was a few rows up. The flight attendant offered a seat in first class to anyone who was willing to move so these two could sit together. As I leaned over to tell Traci to go for it, she was already half way down the aisle with all her personal belongings ready to jump into her big comfy 1st class seat. Needless to say, most of the peole on the flight burst out laughing at her willingness to leave me sitting alone.

Minutes before she left me for 1st class

Off the coast of Cancun

Jungle, jungle, jungle, runway - whew

This trip had been in the works for the past 6 months when Catherine and Michael invited us to join them on their Mexican get away. I went to college with Michael and we both took a job at Cerner in 2003. I worked with Catherine during my first year at Cerner and they met at a Halloween party. They ended up getting married and now live in Phoenix... Ahhh, yet another sweet story.

We met Catherine and Michael outside of Customs at the Cancun airport and boarded a shuttle that would take us to what was to be our home away from home. We arrived at The Grand Mayan and checked into our room. We each had our own room complete with Jacuzzi tub, a kitchen, living room and a pool on the balcony. Directly behind our room there was a jungle and to the East a view of the ocean .

The Lobby

Check in desk - check out the thatch roof

Welcome to the Jungle

Our room

The bed was so big it was almost like having the bed to myself

The kitchen

Living room

The balcony pool

We spent the remainder of our day walking the grounds gawking at how beautiful everything was, checking out all the pools and eating our first Mexican meal at the hotel restaurant. We were treated to a lightening storm and were amazed to see all the crazy people swimming while it was going on. When we got back to our room, the bed had been turned down and a couple of chocolate kisses had been left.

It is as awesome as looks

Pool side beds for maximum relaxation

They even brought the beach to this pool

A 15 minute rain storm

Our little Paradise

Michael and Catherine

The pool at night during a severe lightening storm

We look forward to sharing the rest of our time with you!

Bill and Traci

We got veggies

2009-07-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

The garden has finally begun producing edible produce. We picked a couple dozen cucumbers and a handful of peas and banana peppers. The tomatoes are getting close and watermelon are not far behind.

The Peas looking very healthy
HUGE tomatoes

Cucumbers galore

Our 16 stalks of corn

The watermelon taking over the yard

If you lived in K.C. we would share the bounty with you!!

Bill and Traci

Need a vacation from my vacation

2009-07-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I took off a couple of days to hang out with some South Dakota friends and show them around Kansas City. Jeremy and Melissa headed South on Wednesday night and arrived at our place about midnight. Along for the ride was Reagan, their daughter, and Chris who is a cousin from Chicago.

Our first adventure took us to Oceans of Fun for a full day of swimming and sliding. We kept as a group for most of the day except for when I had to jump out of line due to weight limitations. Most people would have said "The heck with it" and risked it... I think I am finally at an age where I care if I live or die. :-) And death by way of water park slide is not my way of departing.

We left the park later in the afternoon and headed for one of Kansas City's best BBQ joints, Author Bryants. We went to the original one off of Brooklyn street in downtown K.C. where we were treated to piles of tasty meat, endless BBQ sauce and greasy fries.

Day two found us at the Kansas City Zoo. We saw every single animal in the place and walked almost every inch of the property. I was surprised to find that each of the animal's environment was very natural and looking around the skyline it was near impossible to tell we were only 20 minutes from downtown.

Ready to take on the K.C. Zoo

Traci and Bill

I was thinking about my little sister Brenda when I took this

The feeding of the elephants

The dirty rhino

Baby zebra to the far right

The fries were good!

Thinking about Brenda again ;-)

Traci and Bill

Saturday morning Chris, Jeremy and I went to the WWI museum and spent a few hours learning about the war and venturing 217 ft. to the top of the tower. We met the girls down in River Market and jumped into one car for a trip to see the Royals take on the Tampa Bay Rays.

Liberty Memorial

The artwork is moving

The base of the tower

From the base looking up

A view towards downtown Kansas City, Missouri

Traci and Bill

It was a give away night and we arrived early enough to get our cool statue. As we watched batting practice and begged each player to toss us a ball, Reagan sat quietly and waited for one of the players to notice that a cute little girl didn't have a baseball in her possession. It didn't take long for one of the Players to offer her a ball and as he was about to toss her the baseball he notice that she was wearing the "devils wardrobe"... A Yankees t-shirt. Before tossing the ball, he made her promise to root for Tampa Bay when they played the Yankees. It was a perfect night for a game and the Royals kept up their streak. They gave up their lead and lost the game in the 8th.

Sunday was spent recovering at the Legends where everyone, but Chris and I, popped in and out of every shop looking for a bargain.

We said our goodbyes after the shopping was done and they headed home. We went home, took a nap and went bowling later that night. We had a great time visiting and getting to know our city a bit more.

Hope your vacations are as exhausting as ours!!

Bill and Traci

The 4th in South Dakota

2009-07-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Last year, I promised my liver that I would never never treat it as badly as I did last year. I am happy to report that I kept my promise and my liver has never been happier. :-)

The 4th fell on a Saturday this year so we spent Friday driving North to the place that Traci calls the mother land. Friday was spent at the local watering hole mingling with Traci's high school buddies, listening to 80's music and observing the "interesting" people from Baltic. The night officially ended at 4am after a short drive to the local park and hours of Traci and her buddies getting caught up.

I spent the next morning hanging out with Dave and the kids. We picked up fireworks, dug up some Asparagus, and I spent some time checking out the old buildings on the farm. Later that night we had a handful of people drop by with fireworks, kids and food to share. As the night descended on us, everyone grabbed their chairs and waited for the show to begin. Shane and I spent the next few hours running back and forth setting off every last firework that everyone brought. The best firework that night was a rocket that someone spent $3.71 on. It had the most impressive take off, climb and final explosion at the height of its flight. The best part came after the explosion when the nose cone and tail assembly came tumbling to the ground and sent everyone scrambling.

The local fireworks tent

View of Baltic from a nearby hill
The Baltic Water tower

Asparagus growing wild by the river at the farm
It is as peaceful as it looks!
The farm from the river
The old hog barn and farm house

The barn

it is a leaner

Traci and her daddy

Hunter, Allie and Rich

Bill and Traci

The Dybvigs

Debbie explaining how to properly brush your teeth

Shane lighting a mortar

BOOM!!

We built a fire for some smores and after the kids went to sleep we did whatever every grown man would do. We loaded all the empty tubes and misfires into the fire pit. There is nothing funnier than seeing three grown men running away from a whistling firework that is about to go off.

We like to call it "firework Roulette"

We hope your 4th was as explosive as ours!

Bill and Traci

Garden update

2009-06-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

Last week I took some pictures and wanted to share them. So far we have not had any incidents with the bunny. I think the shiny trap scared it off. :-)

Traci used the extra desk stain to stain the border around the garden

Tomato plants

Asparagus

Snap Peas

Bell Peppers and Habanero Peppers

Watermelon

Cucumbers

Corn

Have a great weekend!!

Bill and Traci

A work of art

2009-06-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well... It took 2 men 3 days to caulk, repair, primer and put two coats on the house. Below are the results of their efforts.

Some of the additional items we added:

- Shutters for front windows.

- Front door painted black.

- Word art added to the front door "Welcome".

- Glass/screen door so we can open the front door without the cats running away.

- New house numbers that we picked up in Tubac, Arizona.

If you need a good and affordable painter, let us know.

Bill and Traci

2009-06-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Traci and I have been a couple of "busy beavers" the past couple of weeks. Due to the cold winters and hot summers in Kansas, the stain on our deck has taken a beating and was in severe need of a new coat.

Most people we spoke with recommended that we powerwash the desk before apply stain; however, we ended up going a different route after speaking with the paint guy from Lowe's. He recommended some stain remover stuff you sprayed on with the hose and then rinse with water. We went with that option due to not having a powerwasher or the fact that it would only cost $7 for the remover and an hour or so of our time.

The weathered deck

The stairs look horrible

It took us about 6 hours to apply the stain with brushes. Unfortunately, that day ended up being the hottest day of the year and the sun beat down on us the entire time. We went with a darker color and were very happy with the results. We stopped staining so we could go bowling with some friends in our new bowling league (More on that in a future blog) and I resumed staining at 9pm. It was pretty dark out and my only hope was that I didn't miss any big spots. :-)

First the rails

Then the decking

Almost done

In addition to our deck needing attention, our house was hurtin for certain. The paint was hanging off the house in some places and we even had some boards exposed. We had several people come over and give us a bid and ended up hiring a man named Bill who had the best rates, encouraged us to go and look at some of his other paint jobs, and genuinely seemed like he cared and enjoyed doing what he did.

It took him and his crew a day and a half to caulk the house, primer the bare wood and pound all nails in. They then spent another 1/2 day putting on two coats of the base. They have been true to their word and have done an incredible job. Once the house is complete, I will post the finished work.

Caulking and primer

The original color is gray

Now it is sawdust (Trim and door still needs to be painted)

The finished desk and back of the house

Nothing looks better than a fresh coat of paint/stain and we hope you all have some bright colors to brighten your day.

Bill and Traci

Our garden part duex

2009-05-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Traci and I spent a few nights over the past couple of weeks getting our garden started. We planted some of the same things that we did last year plus a few new ones. We started the following from seeds and clumps of "stuff"- Watermelon, strawberries, onions, cucumbers, snow peas, and corn. Tomatoes, bell peppers, peppers and some watermelon were started a few weeks ago in the house.

The garden is in the back corner of the yard

Where all the magic happens

Last year the cute little bunnies ate up all of our snow peas before they had the chance to grow so this year we put up a small fence to protect the small plants and just to be sure that the rabbit doesn't nibble on anything else, we are setting up a live trap tomorrow night to try and catch it. I will keep you posted on our efforts. We planted two rows of corn just to see it grow and we hope to get a couple of ears from the stalks. :-)

Corn

WatermelonTomato and Peppers

Onions
Asparagus
Snow Peas

We will keep you updated as everything grows and hope your garden brings you lots of veggies this year.

Bill and Traci

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend and we enjoyed every minute of it! The time that wasn't spent sleeping was dedicated to floating lazily around Smithville Lake, staring at the camp fire or listening to the Kansas City Symphony play American classics.

After work on Friday, we headed to Smithville lake for a couple of nights of relaxation and sitting around the campfire. Jeff and Jamie have been our camping partners for the past two years and this year was no exception. The weather was hot and muggy and our camping spot about 500 meters from the lake. The camp grounds were completely sold out so we had plenty of company for the weekend.

Our home away from home is the one on the left

Jamie and Traci getting settled in

Now that's a fire

Saturday was spent sleeping, reading, listening to the Royals get beat on by the Cardinals and more staring at the camp fire that night. Traci and I busted out our floating rafts and enjoyed the cool water for about an hour. We got up bright and early Sunday morning and headed for home.

Sunday evening we went to Union Station to watch the Kansas City Symphony play for a couple of hours followed up by a firework show at Liberty Memorial. This was our second time attending this event in the past 3 years. If a touching event for a few reasons: 1.) The purpose behind the event is made known throughout the entire show. It was a tribute to everyone who help make our country free. 2.) The audience was said to be over 40,000 people and of that many veterans were in attendance. 3.) There was a tribute to each branch of the service by playing each of their songs/hymn, having each color guard take center stage and as each song/hymn was played and all service members were asked to stand. The crowd would applaud and cheer as the service members took to their feet.

Union Station

Liberty Memorial

The Kansas City Symphony

The Marine Color Guard

Patriotic colors

Closing number

Fireworks over Liberty Memorial

We spent Monday mowing and catching a few more Zs. :-)

We hope you were able to take some time to reflect about those who have fought and died for our great country!

Bill and Traci

Only in California

2009-05-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I spent 14 years of my life in Southern California and a majority of that time was spent near the sunny beaches and a small fraction in the Mojave Desert. The time near the beach was awesome because of....THE BEACH and the time spent in the desert were some of the most peaceful years I can remember.

Nothing can compare to waking up at 5am and hearing nothing but the wind blowing and a pack coyotes howling to confuse its prey. From my house in Yucca Valley, I could see the snow capped mountains of San Jacento and Big Bear, the rock formations in the Joshua Tree National Monument and thousands of Joshua Trees stretching their branches to the sky.

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to have my company send me and small contingent of consultants to California to meet one of our clients. The client was located smack dab in the middle of both places I mentioned above. I was fortunate that the people who travelled with me were tolerant and ok with me taking them on a trip down memory lane. :-) We spent one evening watching the sunset from the pier in San Clemente, enjoying the lights of the boats in Dana Point Harbor and driving up the coast to Laguna Beach. We spent another evening driving to the Mojave Desert and stopping at all the "interesting" spots along the way. The goal of this trip was to stop at a restaurant I used to frequent in 29 Palms (If it was still there).

The first stop on our trip took us to a landmark that was made famous by Pee Wee Herman from his first movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure". There are two life size dinosaurs at a truck stop that one can stop and take pictures with and for $10 take a trip into the body of the T-Rex. None of us were that into it, so we settled for a few pictures and were on our way. Our next stop was the windmill farm.

It was very windy

Relaxing on the feet of T-Rex

Michael and T-Rex

There is an area by Palm Springs were a couple of mountains come together and wind is forced through a small area between the mountains. The wind constantly blows in this area and over the years, people has put up wind mills to the wind and turn it into energy. It is pretty cool to see the miles and miles of wind mills on the desert floor spinning in circles. Once we had our fill of watching the spinny objects, we headed for the high desert.

Miles and miles of windmills

For the next 40 minutes we drove up hill to the place where the Joshua Tree grows. We entered the Joshua Tree National Monument and drove for the next hour or stopping and taking pictures when the mood struck us.

Can you hear it? NO NOISE :-)
Sal, Bill, Erin and Michael under a Joshua Tree

Rock formation in Joshua Tree Park

Sal conquers the formation
A dam in the middle of the desertYou can see the water mark on the rocks A view from the top of the dam. There is a little water

In case you were thinking about taking a dip

Desert cactus in bloom
Incredible landscape

As the sun set, we made our way to 29 Palms and to find an old restaurant where I used to eat BBQ. Even though the BBQ was nothing like Kansas City BBQ, I enjoyed sitting in this familiar place. We finished up our meals and started on our trek home. We crammed a week of Southern California site seeing into two 3 hour day trips. :-)

May all your trips be as memorable as mine.

Bill

A visit to the most haunted city in Kansas

2009-05-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Traci and I skipped our annual trek to the Brew Fest in Parkville, KS for the adventure of a lifetime. Our friends Jamie and Jeff invited us to go to Atchison, Kansas and take the "Haunted Tour" and then check out a house that was supposed to be inhabited by a ghost or two.

We drove about an hour North of Kansas City to the small town of Atchison and pulled into the Chamber of Commerce about 2pm. The haunted tour started at 6pm so we had some time to kill. We all decided to take the "Historical City Tour" and then go and grab something to eat. The city tour consisted of a ride on a pseudo trolley train through the streets of Atchison. We saw all three birthplaces of Amelia Earheart, the bluff that Lewis and Clark rested on for two days, lots of huge houses, and a half dozen haunted houses.

Our city tour chariot

Traci and Bill getting ready to board

The only way to ride.. back seat

This was a party house back in the day. The 3rd floor is a ball roomA view from the porch of the party house
Amelia Earhart's birth place

A picture of Amelia Earhart made of flowers

The tour lasted an hour and we were dropped off at the Chamber of Commerce with 3 hours to kill. We decided to drive back to some of the sites we saw on the tour and explored them on foot. We grabbed a bite of Mexican food and headed back for our 6pm scary tour.

Our haunted house tour chariot

The Gargoyle house

The gargoyles

The haunted house tour took place on the same trolley and went up and down some of the same roads we had been on earlier. The main difference between the tours was that the haunted one played ghost stories with scary music from an MP3 player. One other interesting thing that we noted on the tour was that there was LOTS of houses that had people gathered on the front porches. Not just one or two people, but 10-15 and they were grilling and drinking beers. Each group would stop what they were doing when the trolley rolled by and waved to us. I felt like a celebrity waving every couple of minutes to all the town folk. :-)

About an hour later, we completed our tour and wound up back where we started. One of the houses we saw on the tour was the Sallie house. This was a house that was allegedly haunted by a small girl that died from a ruptured appendix while she was being operated on before the anesthesia took affect. This place is usually closed to the public; however, it has been opened in the past for ghost hunters and some TV shows looking for ghosts. We were in for the treat of a lifetime as the house was being opened to the public for the first time ever and for a mere $10 a piece we were on our way.

We pulled up to the house and were greeted with a brief history of the house and asked to put on a pair of booties. The house was empty with the exception of an operating table, a bed, and some children's toys. People were milling about in every room taking pictures, laying on the floor and sharing ghost stories. The basement had been blocked off and no one was allowed to venture downstairs... more later... We took pictures all over the house and then ventured back on the porch to chat with the tour hosts. While on the porch, we were looking at the pictures we took and noticed that some of them had these white orbs in them. One of the hosts, Cindy, explained that these images were ghosts and we were lucky to have captured them.

The front of the Sallie house

The scary basement

In the living room... we have matching booties

Orb in one of the rooms

After dark orb

This got Traci, Jeff and Jamie all pumped up and they headed back in for more pictures. I spent the next hour getting to know the town people and hearing lots and lots of ghost stories. I learned that people thought that there were a couple of ghosts in the house. 1 was the small girl and the other was a not so friendly ghost who lived in the basement. Cindy explained that a while back a TV crew had been in the basement taping and ended up running out of the house as the ghost in the basement completely freaked them out. The crew said that they thought there was a vortex in the basement and they felt a lot of evil down there. Cindy believes that this is the reason the owner was keeping people from going down below. The house finally closed down at 9pm and Traci and company were kicked out. :-)

Two freaky things happened while I was perched on the porch. A lady came running out of the house completely freaked out. She was looking down into the basement and said she felt all the hair on the back of her neck stand on end and heard something coming from the basement directed at her. The second freaky thing came from a girl scout who was visiting from a nearby city. She took a picture out of one of the upstairs windows and in the reflection of the window was the image of a person in a dress. A real ghost hunter had been roaming around the house and was very interested in the picture. I saw the picture a couple of times and can confirm what was on the camera view finder. Weird stuff!!!

After the closing of the house, we went on a drive to find a place called Molly's Hollow. It was a place that was haunted by a girl who died after she professed her love to a boy and he told her to get lost. The Hollow was in the middle of a very dark park and we drove around for 15-20 before giving up on finding it. I asked everyone if they wanted to get out and walk in the park but no one stepped up to the challenge. :-)

We started our journey home and arrived about 11pm. We were all exhausted from our ghost hunting adventures in North Eastern Kansas.

I hope all your adventures are as exciting as ours.

Bill and Traci

Royal's home opener 2009

2009-04-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

This year's home opener has already come and gone. Friday, April 10th was not only Good Friday but also the opening day for the Kansas City Royals. Every year one of our dear friends has access to a handful of tickets to opening day that includes a pre-game party, T-shirt and a ticket to a future Royals' game. This year a handful of tickets were reserved for fellow Cerner peeps and friends.

Bill, Scott, Bryan, Julie and Sarah "Cerner Peeps"

Last year, the weather was cold and rainy and unfortunately, it looked like we were in for more of the same as it was 44 degrees at 9am and raining pretty hard. Mother nature did her thing and by noon the sun was out and it was a balmy 50ish degrees out. About a 100 people gathered for the pre-game festivities and the game itself was sold out.

Bill and Traci

Matt and Amy Sims

Matt "double fisting"

Joy and Chuck

Julie and John Stoner - Yes, it is a Snuggy

Over the off season, the stadium underwent some significant upgrades and changes. Two major changes that were "supposed to" make a huge impact were more concession stands and a higher ratio of toilets per person. Either the area we sat in had LOTS of people or the stadium failed in their efforts. I spent about 3 innings waiting for the bathroom, they ran out of Miller Light and I didn't even attempt to get nachos as the line was TOO LONG at the only concession stand that sold them.

Statue of Royalty??

The Royals just came off a winning road trip and I was feeling pretty confident about taking on the Yankees and coming out victorious. The National Anthem was played by a jazz player on the saxophone and four A-10 Thunderbolts did a fly over.

A10 flyover

Regardless of the fact that we were in the nosebleed section, the view was incredible and we were one of the only sections that experienced sunshine for the entire game. The Royals ended up losing the game 1-4 and we ate way too many sunflower seeds and peanuts... My lips are still numb. Once the game was over, we sat on the tailgate of my truck and watched the mass exodus.

Bill, Matt, Amy and Traci

Someone has been working way too hard. ;-)

I hope your Good Friday was as good as ours!

Bill and Traci

How do you define a friend?

2009-04-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

The picture below was taken about 8 years ago at Magic Mountain in California. We were getting ready to go into the park for a day of roller coaster madness when the camera people stopped us to take this picture. I purchased the picture later that day as it was one of the best times I had had in a while. I screamed like a girl the entire day. :-)

Me, Mike and Patrick McQueen

This picture has had a place on the top of my desk through all those years. It made the move from Tustin to Tucson and now with me in Kansas City. The other day I was looking at it and realized that I had a fanny pack on... funny, I didn't remember ever wearing one of them back in the day. ;-) So I asked Patrick, the guy in flip-flops, if he noticed that I wore a fanny pack. He laughed so hard and said "yeah man, I remember that fanny pack". I asked him why he never said anything to me or gave me crap and he said "that was just you".

So to answer my question: A friend is someone who will hang out with you regardless of how dorky you look. :-)

I hope you find and stay in touch with your true friends!

Bill

Oh boy

2009-04-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

A while back the company I work for asked me to do a recruiting interview. The taping was to take place in a part of town known for its cool shops, fancy restaurants and basically a nice place to spend the day walking around, The Country Club Plaza.

As most of you know, I do not fair well in high heat and humidity. As luck would have it, the day of the interview the temperature was warm and the humidity level was just enough to suck the moisture out of my body.

The interview was 30+ minutes of them asking questions and me answering them with little to no thought behind what I was going to say. I am usually not short on words; however, with a two cameras in my face I found it difficult to remember my name.

About a month later, I received an email letting me know that the recruiting video had been edited and I could view it. I was pleased to see that they only used about 5 seconds of my entire interview. I think I said something like, "The Chief, Royals, blah blah blah.... :-)

This past weekend I took a recruiting trip to Arizona and made the most shocking discovery. The remaining portion of the interview was used and put on the Cerner recruiting site for all the world to see.

If you go to the link below and click on "Campus Candidates", you will go to a new page that has 5 silhouettes. Hover until you find me and click to enjoy my sweating story.

http://www.cernercareers.com/

Take care and I hope your surprises are a big as mine!!

Bill

Spring Break 2009

2009-03-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year again. Traci and I packed up and headed out to see my family in California. We planned out the trip so that we would arrive in Sacramento on Sunday night, drive up the coast and through the redwoods on Monday and hang out in Paradise until Thursday afternoon.

Our travel to California was uneventful and Monday morning excursion went off as planned. We drove from Sacramento to Fort Bragg in the morning and enjoyed some quality time on the beaches and cliffs overlooking the beaches. Our rental car was a convertible which made the trip up the coast that much more memorable. There is nothing more refreshing than having the wind whip through your hair and feeling the rain catch you on the forehead from time to time. Yeah, it rained on and off again during our drive but the faster we drove the more the rain went right over the top of us. :-)

Fort Bragg

You have to love the Pacific

Professing our love in the sand

Our coastal chariot

We left our scenic Highway 1 drive and headed inland to Highway 101 to go through the redwood forest. Traci had mentioned that she took a trip with her family many years ago to the redwoods and during that trip drove through a huge redwood tree. I broke the news that there were quite a few redwood forests and that the odds of finding that same tree were pretty slim. As we were making our transition from Hwy 1 to the 101, there was this LARGE sign that read "Drive through redwood tree ahead" and as luck would have it, it was the same one that Traci experienced as a young one. :-)

Traci re-living one of her childhood memories

We made it.. barely

We spent the next few hours getting in and out of the car to gawk at the monster redwoods and walk through the forest. The time spent out there was priceless! A light mist was falling, the wind was whipping through the tops of the trees, and the sound of the river could be heard when we were walking around.

Where the redwood trees live

One of many small rivers running through the redwoods

Redwood, fern, and us

I mapped our route in Kansas City and so far everything was going as planned. We were on time and about where I thought where we would be at 4 in the afternoon. According to the map, the most direct route to Paradise was Highway 36 and based on how fast we had been driving we should have been able to cover this distance in a couple of hours. That was before we knew that it was an old logging road that went right over the tops of the mountains and was nothing but curves. If you have been on a curvy road before, you have seen the 25mph warning signs for sharp corners. This road had them every 1/4 mile and the slowest warning was 10mph. We experienced the following during our 4 hour journey: Stripped cars, the lines disappeared from the road for several miles, clouds on the road, snow, rain, and unbelievable views.

We eventually made it to Paradise after spending 13 hours in the car and were able to spend some quality time with the family.

Hope your Spring Break was as exciting and memorable as ours.

Bill and Traci

5 years already?

2009-03-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Holy cow!!

Can you believe I have been employed with the same company for 5 years? I am not surprised that I am still working for the same company; however, I cannot believe 5 years have come and gone.

Friday we had a company lunch for all those folks who reached this milestone. We went to Skies which is one of the nicer restaurants in Kansas City. This is the same restaurant that I had lunch at before I started. Skies sits atop the Hyatt Regency and rotates 360 degrees over the course of your two hour meal. We were each presented with a real marble clock that includes our names, company logo and "5 year anniversary".

5 year gift

I started with about 52 people and as of Friday there were just 14 of us left. The ones who are left are the ones I thought would have lasted this long as they are passionate about what they do and are driven by challenge.

My Start group

I hope you are enjoying what you do and that time goes by soooo fast you say WOW every now and then. :-) You know the saying.. Time flies when you are having fun.

Take care,

Bill and Traci

Spring!

2009-03-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so as many of you know Bill is the blog-master in our household. I just have not gotten into the whole blogging thing yet. Guess it's because anything I would write about, Bill has already blogged about : ) Plus, I am a huge fan of talking on the phone!

But, I finally have a topic to blog about...the weather in Kansas City.

First, a little background to those of you who don't know me as well. I grew up in South Dakota and lived there my entire life until accepting a teaching position in Kansas City 9 years ago. Now, South Dakota has 4 lovely seasons which consist of almost winter, winter, colder winter, and summer. Therefore I never truly experienced the lovely Spring weather that I now get here in Kansas City. I must admit, this is my favorite time of the year.

I think it is several factors that make me love Spring so much: the temperature (obvious), the flowers begin to bloom, everything begins to turn green and so full of life, the birds return, gardening begins, and the wonderful smells of Spring return.

Now, I don't know if I just realized how wonderful Spring is this year because of the extremely cold winter we had, or if it is because I had my 30th birthday this last year and I am getting old. (It always seemed to me things like birds and flowers are associated with the old people because my Grandfather loved them so much).

Regardless of why I appreciate it so much more now doesn't matter. It's just great to have had that change in my life. It really gives more meaning to the old phrase "Stop and Smell the Roses."

Traci and Bill

Lake Lata-hoo-ya

2009-02-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

This past Friday, Traci and I took a drive out to the Lake House in Lake Lotawana to watch the band Alter Ego play. The crowd was mix of business folks, a church group and some locals looking to swill some beer. Joy, the lead singer, works with me at Cerner and we make every effort to get out and watch them from time to time. They play classic Rock and Roll and were the band that played at our Kansas City wedding reception.

Alter Ego in action

Joy and Bill

Joy's better 1/2 and Traci

The Lake House is as big as it sounds. It is a small cozy bar that is about 45 minutes from Kansas City out in the middle of no where. Traci and I went on one of our first real dates at the Lake House and whenever we go back, we are always taken back to time we spent 2hours staring into each others eyes (ahhh).

Traci and Bill

It is definitely worth the drive and the music was rocking!!

We hope you had a great weekend!

Bill and Traci

A taste of Missouri (Mizzeraa)

2009-02-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Traci and I went on a day trip to the small town of Weston. Weston is about a 45 min. drive from our house and is about 15 minutes off of one of the main interstates (I-29).

The weather was an unseasonably warm 72 degrees and the wind was kicking up pretty good. We arrived in town about 2pm and made out way to one of the many antique shops on Main Street. Rather than roam up and down the street and hope that we found something interesting, I asked the owner of the shop if he could make some recommendations. He said he would do so and offered to give us a history lesson. The three of us walked to the front door of the store and he proceeded to tell us how the Great Missouri River used to run right across the street and that a fire destroyed the entire town in the mid 1800's. He also mentioned that at one time, Weston's population was 3 times that of Kansas City. After he finished his story we began our stroll around the town.

We walked across the street to where the river used to flow and peered into a tobacco drying warehouse, the Weston Burley House. There were several people inside milling about as we took pictures and stared.

Tobacco drying

Next stop was the Weston Brewing Company where enjoyed a beer, lunch and some Irish music. At first, the music was sort of soothing to the ears and enjoyable; however, after listening to it for over an hour we were ready to stick pencils through our ear drums. Every song was the same!! About some man droning on about a girl who wanted gold or love or something... :-)

At lunch

As we were leaving, we overheard some people talk about going to the bar next door. We followed them and made our down to one of the coolest bars I have ever been to. This place was at least 75 feet underground and had a guy singing the same annoying music we had heard upstairs. We hung out for a beer and then made our way back down to Main Street for some more shopping.

The cool bar

See the guitar dude to the left

The lower level

Main Street

One thing I failed to mention earlier was that the old man from the store said that the world's largest ball of twine was located right here in this town; however, failed to tell us where it was. I asked a few of the other store owners where the twine was and none of them knew what I was talking about. I was beginning to think the guy was having fun with us. Weston's Town Hall was across the street from our current location so I wandered on in and asked the lady with the poodle in her lap where the ball of twine was located. :-) She gave us directions and we headed back to the brewing company. We found the ball of twine chained up like circus animal hidden in one of the corners of the patio. It looked pretty sad and was probably not the biggest in the world.

The chained up ball of twine

I was feeling pretty strong

We wrapped up our trip by driving through the cemetery looking at old grave markers. The cemetery was located on the side of a steep hill and many of the markers were from the 1850's.

If you are ever in Western Missouri and want see some of history, I recommend taking a stroll through the town of Weston. Who knows, we might be back as I hear they have a great Irish Fest.

Hope your weekend weather was pleasant!

Bill and Traci

Underground running

2009-01-25T19:46:00.000-08:00

Today I came to three realizations:

1. I am not as fast as I used to be.

2. I am not in as good as shape as I used to be.

3. Going to a run alone sucks!

As most of you know, I love to run. For most of my life, I was pretty OK at running and could go at a pretty good pace for some distance. I would get into how far I used to run and how fast I used to go but it would get boring pretty quick.

So why am I writing about this? On Wednesday of this past week, I received an email from my work indicating that they had paid for 100 people to participate in a 5k/10k run today. There was no way in heck that I was going to pay $30 to jog 3.1 miles but if someone else was going to pick up the tab, I was all for it.

The run was in one of the local storage caves where the temperature was much warmer (70 degrees) than the 20 degrees outdoors. The run is called the GroundHog run and has been run for the past 25 years. As I rolled out of bed this morning at 6:30, I looked out the window and asked myself what I was doing as I watched flakes of snow falling from the sky. Traci was snuggled in the warm blankets and was still recovering from Friday; however, was doing better and planning on heading to Church at 9am.

I arrived at the caves around 8am and signed in for the 5k that started at 9am. This is the first time I have even gone to a run alone and plan on not doing it again. I kept looking for a familiar face in the crowd.. no luck. Cerner, the company I work for, is a corporate sponsor so I had access to nice restrooms and free food and drinks. As I moped around sipping free water, a co-worker spotted me and we chatted for a bit. I didn't run with her as her pace was about a min faster than mine.

I felt really good for the first mile, OK for the second, crappy for the last and the remaining .10 of a mile I tried not to die. :-) My run time was 30:56 and I came 58/95 for my age group... Old man group.

I have been running a couple of times a week and working out about the same. I plan to pick it up a bit and see if can improve my time in the next couple of months.

Wish me luck!

Bill

Nerves of steel

2009-01-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of the expression "Curiosity Killed the Cat"? If you have not, go adopt a cat and you will soon learn what that means. I have owned cats almost all of my adult life and to date none of them have disappointed me with their fearless adventures.

Funny story #1: I almost smothered Connick last year when we were putting a skirting around bottom of the bed. I lifted the mattress up to put on one side of the skirting and then set it back down. Within seconds I heard a strange moaning sound coming from under the bed and immediately thought one of the cats was coughing up a hairball. Traci and I looked around and couldn't locate the ill feline. Then we thought the noise was coming from the T.V. so we lowered the volume and still heard the sound. It hit me all at once and I realized that Connick might have moved under the mattress when I had it raised. I lifted the mattress up and he came stumbling out gasping for every little kitty breath he could get. After about 5 minutes of gasping, he came back around and was ready for his next adventure.

Funny story #2: This past weekend, I needed to change one of really really high light builbs in the living room. I pulled out the 18 ft. ladder and set it up in the general vicinity of the light. I then went and grabbed a new bulb, a dust rag (Traci figured that if I was up that high I might as well dust off the fan), and a light bulb removing tool that is nothing more than a long pole with a suction cup. By the way, that is one of our favorite wedding gifts!! THANKS!

As I walking back to the ladder, I noticed Mr. Fearless climbing to the top. Once there, he froze and realized there was no easy way down. He thought about jumping to the fan or the fireplace mantle but quickly realized that when he leaned in either direction that the ladder leaned with his fat body. After about 5 minutes, he laid down and waited for one of us to climb up and get him. I think he learned his lesson as he stayed clear of the ladder for the rest of the time that I had it out.

Busted

What meow?

I think I can, I think I can

I know I can, I know I can

ok... Get me down

If you have never owned a cat, I recommend you go out and get one. You will never use words like "No way" or "You have got to be kidding me" or "honey, come quick you have got to see this" unless you own one of these fearless/brainless creatures.

Have a great weekend!

Bill "meow" Traci

Royal Blue

2009-01-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Traci and I were invited to go to the Royal's Fan Fest at the Overland Convention Center. I normally wouldn't go to these types of things as they tend to feel more like a Star Trek Convention. But, instead of people running around speaking in Clingon with their phasers set to stun, they are clutching their photo albums filled with baseball cards and quoting baseball stats. Our friends Jeff and Jamie pulled through and offered us a pair of free tickets and you can't turn down free. :-)

David DeJesus, Shane Costa and Coco Crisp

Traci and I in the outfield

Jeff and Jamie

We arrived about 3 pm and started our stroll about the building. They had cages set up for batting, throwing, wiffle ball home run derby, and an area where you could catch fly balls. The Royals also brought out all the historical paraphernalia for everyone to gawk at. If you were hungry or thirsty, there was a bar and snack bar to take care of that. About every hour or so the Royals Blue Crew would come out and toss out "stuff" to the crowd. I am talking about cool stuff too!! Two different types of blankets, Jose Pena Jr. bobble heads, Royal's banners, hats, squishy balls and t-shirts. We walked away with a bag full of stuff and so did just about everyone else who held up their arms. I ended up giving away all of the squishy balls to kids as I was walking around. It is incredible how excited kids get when they find something unexpected. :-)

Now a Fanfest would not be complete without a good ole' photo session and autograph signing. Traci and I got in line to get autographs from John Buck and Zach Greinke. We were in line for about an hour and then we realized that the line had been cut off and not moving. Apparently the first 250 people are guaranteed to get an autograph and the rest have to wait until the next batch of ball players come out. The new names were posted and Brian Bannister was one of the players. We decided it was worth the wait to get a Monarch's hat and Major League Baseball signed. After about 20 mins, they allowed us to move forward and up to the tables. I noticed that all the seasoned Fanfest people began to take a squat and relax. I asked why everyone was sitting down and someone said that it would be another 50 minutes before the guys came. Traci and I both looked at each other and mouthed the words "Yeah, Right..." Needless to say, we jumped out of line and went to the makeshift bar.

There was one last event that we could participate in and that was the photo session with John Buck, Mike Aviles, and Luke Hochever. We were guaranteed a photo as we were 5th in line. We were level 5 excited and were planning how we were going to pose for our photos. When they came out, they all sat next to each other and the first person stood behind them and their photo was snapped. I think the girl said something about wanting to take a photo with just one of the players and they split them up. Crap, now it was going to take 3 times as long to get our pictures taken. The players were super-friendly and John Buck allowed Traci to kiss his cheek. :-) When I got up there, he asked me if I wanted him to kiss my cheek. What a guy!!

Traci laying one on John Buck

John Buck and I

Traci and Mike Aviles

Traci and Luke Hochevar

NO, I am not on his lap

The night was capped off by us tracking down Slugger and me getting a picture with him. If you ever get a picture with him, beware... he smells like Febreze and whoa!!!

My buddy Slugger and me

My buddy smacking me across my mug

We had a great time and look forward to going to the season opener this year. It falls on a Friday and we get the beat the Yankees!!

Go Royals!

Bill and Traci

...A lot like Christmas

2008-11-24T18:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah...

I typically like to wait until after Thanksgiving to start listening to Christmas music or pulling out the lights and tree. So, when Traci got all wound up about putting up the lights, deer, and tree I went on the defensive. As I lay watching the Chiefs get worked over this past weekend, I could hear the faint thud of a staple gun. She started without me...

The only thing going through my mind was a vision of me walking outside and seeing Traci sprawled out on the driveway with a string of lights wrapped around her body, staple gun in one hand and the other hand grasping for the ladder that she just fell off of. Needless to say, I ended up going outside and helping her put up the house lights.

We purchased a new ladder over the past year that was high enough to reach the inside ceiling but low enough to not reach the gutters. After watching Traci stretch and stand on tippy-toes, the neighbor offered their extension ladder to us. Unfortunately, there is a weight limit on most aluminum ladders and of course I was just over the limit. :-)

Traci was a trooper and had the lights put up in no time at all. Later that night we took a walk around the neighborhood to look at the competition. There was only one house that came close.

So being the Pre-Thanksgiving-bah-humbug guy that I am I still insisted that we keep the lights off until after Thursday. Traci agreed and unplugged the lights. It didn't last very long as I came home tonight and thought about how much joy it brought her to see the deer heads bobbing up and down.

Bottom line: The lights are on and they are beautiful. I guess there is a first for everything including me getting into the Christmas spirit 5 days early.

I hope the Christmas Spirit finds you all soon!!

Bill and Traci

We did our duty

2008-11-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

This is the first year that I can honestly say that I paid attention to who was running for office and voted for the person that I thought would do the best job. Kansas is one of the states that allows for early voting so Traci went in last week and took care of business and I went in this morning. The county that we live in is kind of special in that it is the only one in Kansas that was allowed to vote at 6am and the rest of Kansas had to wait until 7am.

I got up at 5:30 and got ready to head to the polls. I arrived about 5:55am and waited in line with about 50 other people. To my surprise, I was out of there in less than 20 minutes and on my way. I was surprised to see that almost everyone I ran into at work had voted or were going to take the time to go vote later in the day.

After work, I went to they gym and spent about 30 minutes on the stairclimber watching the news and listening to the reports come in regarding the results of the election. I was glued to the set listening as each state turned in their results and excited to see how close the race was.

As I am typing this, the results from the West coast came in and Obama was projected to be our next President. VERY EXCITING!

Although the election was exciting, the best part of this night is yet to come...because there will no longer be any election commericals on the TV and radio! That is really VERY EXCITING!

Take care,

Bill and Traci

Go Chiefs.. yeah, right

2008-11-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

We received a call on Friday night from good ole Chuck and Joy asking if we wanted to join them on the 50 yard line at Sunday's Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay game. There were numerous reasons for us saying yes and going to the game... one of them was not that they were going to win.

Here are a handful of the reasons we decided to go:

*The tickets and parking are free. Can you believe "they" charge you $22 to enter to the parking lot?? And if you want to drink inside, you better bring a stack of cash as the beers at $8.75 a piece.

* We would get to hang out with Joy and Chuck and meet Kevin's new girl

* The weather for Sunday was forcasted to be breezy and 75 degrees. Can you believe that? Nov. 2nd we would get to wear t-shirts.

* We would have the opportunity to wear the chiefs shirts that we purchased last year. By the way, the Chiefs lost then.

This morning we got up bright and early so that we could meet everyone at 9am by the stadium. As predicted, the weather was incredible and we spent 2 hours chatting, eating and enjoying the perfect weather. We entered the stadium about 30 minutes before game time and watched all the pre-game activities. The Chiefs did a great job of honoring the men and women who had served, were currently serving and were going to serve in the next year or so.

Tailgate Traci

The highlight of the military tribute was when 20+ youngsters did their initial swearing in for service. They marched onto the field, stood at the position of attention and made their commitment in front of everyone during the half time show. It brought back the memories of my initial swearing in back in 1987. Good times. :-)

Honoring all service members

The Chiefs kicked butt during the first half of the game and then lost all control and were beat in overtime by a 35 yard field goal. Up until the last minute of the game, everyone thought the Chiefs were going to win this one for us. Another bummer game!!

Kick off

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't have high hopes that they would win the game and was mentally prepared to take the loss. I could not say the same for some of the other die hard fans that were sitting around us. Regardless of the outcome, we had a great time!!

Hope you all are fantastic weather wherever you may be.

Bill and Traci

Go Storm

2008-08-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

I neglected to mention that last month Traci and I made a special trip to South Dakota to watch the championship game of the Souix Fall Storm. We tailgated in the parking lot before the game and went in all pumped up to watch them demolish the Louisiana Swashbucklers. The game ended up being a nail biter down to the very end with the Storm pulling it out at the last minute. Rich (see below for who Rich is) drove us home, as planned, as he was the only sober person within a mile of the stadium. Three of us rode in the back in the pick up truck (yee haa)... Not sure if that is legal or not in the great state of South Dakota but we took the back roads, so I guess you can pretty much do what you want as long as you don't get caught.

The loudest cheering section

The Storm is an indoor football team that has won back to back championships for the past 4 years and set the longest winning streak in professional sports history with 40 wins in a row.

The Storm is a special team for a number of reason. The number being that Traci's sisters brother in law, Rich Wirkus, is the assistant coach to the offensive and defensive line. He has been doing this for the past 6 seaons and unfortunately, this was his last. Hopefully he can keep the pipeline open for the cool Storm shirts. :-) Rich was also my flip flop partner in crime for the 4th of July melee.

The Wirkus family (Jamie, Rich, Mike and Dave)

Hope you all had a winning season as well!

P.S. The University of Arizona plays their first game on the 30th of August against Idaho. I know I can count on all of your votes!! BEAR DOWN.

Bill and Traci

Harvest time

2008-07-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to put a picture up of what we pulled out of our garden last week. I have been sharing the tomatoes and cucumbers with everyone at work. Traci has made 11 jars of salsa and is working on a batch of spaghetti sauce.

Hope all is well with you and yours!

Bill and Traci

... and the rockets red glare...

2008-07-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

I have spent the 4th of July in many different places. Northern and Southern California, Arizona, Missouri, Kansas, Royals Stadium, foreign countries and now I can say I spent it in a very small Midwest town.

This past 4th of July, Traci and I spent it in South Dakota. We drove up on Thursday night to hang out with some friends in Centerville, population 910. Jeremy and Melissa invited us to come up a day early and attend the Centerville street dance. I had never experienced a street dance up to that point in my life and if you have not, I recommend you find one.

Where is all happens

We drove down the main street of Centerville to Don and Vonda's house. Don and Vonda are my BFF Jeremy's parents. Like most of the people we hang out with in the Midwest, they had a cooler full of beer waiting for us. We sat around and drank for about an hour before I began to wonder if we were going to head to the street dance. Jeremy said that most people stay at home until about 11pm and then walk down, after having grown up beverages.

Jeremy, Melissa, Traci and Me

So after a few beers, we started walking towards downtown Centerville. The event is open to everyone (even Melissa and Jeremy's 5 year old daughter Reagen) and is an area of downtown with a temporary fence built around it. There was a band playing some 50s,60s and 70s music and the volunteer fire department was transformed into a bar, complete with very affordable beer. I have never seen so many Miller Lite beers consumed in my life. We spent the next few hours, drinking, talking to everyone (Jeremy knew just about everyone) and dancing when the songs were good. By the end of the night, the ground was sea of empty Miller Lite cans.

The walk downtown

No small town would be complete without the General Lee

Traci and her BFF

Anyone want to dance

Looks like Melissa and Traci want to dance

As last call was sounded, the band wrapped up their last song, we made our way back onto the city's main street. We still had one more event to participate in to make the night complete. We headed to the only remaining place open, a cafe, and paid $8 for an all you can eat breakfast. The breakfast consisted of eggs, biscuits and gravy, orange juice, bacon and sausage. Once we finished our hearty meal, we made our way back to the house and crashed out as we had to get up early to go to a 4th of July parade in the city of Lennox.

Rock on

Morning came way too fast and my head was still foggy from the night before. We had breakfast (again) and headed to a city that was just a little bigger than Centerville where we met up with Traci's sister and her two daughters. I was really looking forward to the parade. I attended the 100th year celebration in Baltic, Traci's home town, a couple of years ago and was completely impressed with all of the huge tractors and fire trucks. I was hoping to see some of the same at this parade. Unfortunately, the only thing we saw were some older (antique) tractors, fire trucks from all of the surrounding community's volunteer fire departments and all of the people running for office in South Dakota. This parade was really made for kids as almost everyone who went by tossed candy.

At the Lennox Parade
The famous horned quad - the highlight of the 4th of July ParadeThe family

Once the parade was over, we headed North to Baltic to spend some quality time on the farm. The farm is in the middle of no where and has the Sioux River running right through the middle of their land. The weather was perfect and we were the only people around for miles. Nikki, Traci's sister, invited about 20 people to come over to eat, drink and shoot off fireworks. We had a full day playing Cornhole, drinking and hanging out. As night fell, the kids were getting restless and wanted to get down to business... FIREWORKS. The kids got their wish and lit off all the cool kiddie fireworks. Smoke bombs, tanks, firecrackers and several other bangy-boomy fireworks. Once the smaller fireworks were done, a couple of the adults went into the middle of one of the fields and shot off about 50 minutes of mortars and misc fireworks that blew up in the air. It was great, seeing everything up close and having our own little pyrotechnics display.

I enjoyed the display from the comfort of a chair with a drink in hand. Once everything was done, Dave, Nikki's husband, rode around on his quad to look for fires and ensure that we were clear to continue partying. While he was riding around, one of Nikki's friends let me know that she still had a big box of fireworks that needed to be set off. Needless to say, the fireworks crew didn't want any part of it. So, Rich, Dave's brother, and I volunteered to run the show. Did I mention that I had been drinking most of the night and had flip flops on or that the field that we were firing off of had just been plowed and was all uneven and soft? Now that you have that in mind, picture this: Two grown men in flip flops running out to the mortar tubes with punks (used to light the fireworks) and racing to see who could get theirs lit first. Once the fireworks were lit, we raced to the safety of the grass about 50 feet away. Repeat this about 20 times and you have a clear picture of the fun we experienced! I was a sweaty dirty mess by the time it was all said and done.

Once the fireworks were done, we lit a bonfire and sat around until the sun came up. I am not sure my liver can handle another 4th of July like that, but I am willing to give it a try.

You gotta love South Dakota!

Hope you had a great 4th!!

Bill and Traci

PARTY! PARTY! PARTY!

2008-07-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's right, I said Party!! The weekend of June 27th Traci experienced a birthday milestone. She turned 30 and we celebrated until the wee hours of the morning. As most of you already know, it is next to impossible to keep a secret from Traci so I didn't even try to keep the fact that I was throwing her a party from her. The party was supposed to be a dual-30's party but her partner in aging was unable to make it down from Rapid City, South Dakota. We poured a beer in B.J.'s honor.

B.J and Traci "Brain Brothers"

I managed to keep one small secret from her. Her Dad and Debbie were coming down with her sister and she had NO CLUE. I almost blew the secret when I told Traci that Nikki was about an hour away from the house. Once I said that detective Traci went to work: Where did she call from, how did she call, she doesn't have a cell phone, Dave wouldn't let her use his phone, was there someone with her her, what was the number she called from... She went on and on. I finally mumbled something about she might have borrowed a phone and walked out of the room. I am not a very good liar and she would have seen it in my face. :-)

Nikki and Traci

I invited a whole slew of people from all walks of life... School mates, family, friends, people she likes to hang out, ect. Jamie, her K.C. B.F.F, came over early on Saturday to help me decorate the house and ensure that there were some girly touches. I kept busy setting up the Bocce Ball court in the backyard, picking up the keg, food and birthday cake. It all came together nicely as the birthday guests started arriving around 2pm.

Hanging out on the deck

Jamie and I running the Bocce Ball court (I think)

As the night progressed, people milled about, drank beer, ate food and played games. Traci received one of the most unique gifts that night from Tommy and Craig. It was a chicken that hopped around and did the chicken dance. The only way to stop if from hopping around was to grab it by its neck and once you did this it did the most incredible thing. It gagged and choked until you let it go. I knew it was time to shut down the party after we were sitting around choking the chicken at 2am on the back porch. If you are wondering, yes, the chicken was just as funny the next day.

Evidence that she aged

Evidence that she still needs to grow up

She huffed and puffed

YEAH!! Cough Medicine

The chicken before we knew about the neck thinggy. 5 p.m

2 a.m. shutting down the dancing chicken

In honor of the brain brother who could not make it (B.J.)

For those of you who were able to make it out for the birthday celebration, we are thankful for you coming out. For those of you who could not, there will be many more.

Thanks and may your birthday celebrations be as memorable... without all the chicken choking.

To view all photos from the party, you can go here: Traci's Birthday

Bill and Traci

A reception made in Paradise

2008-06-25T22:07:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Traci and I went back to California to celebrate our marriage with my family. My sister Cindy, Brenda, and my mother spent the past year planning to ensure that our visit would be memorable. The original plan was to have the reception at one of the local Indian Casinos; however, after some consideration, everyone agreed that it would be more intimate if we kept the guest list to about 50 and held it in Cindy and Jack's backyard. Several people contributed in many ways to make our special day unforgettable. Before I write anymore, I want to give a special thanks to the following people: Cindy, Jack, Brenda, My Mother, Liz, Christine and Aunt Belen.

The Vega Family

The Oberg's

Grandma Rose made it out for the event

Cindy did a heck of a job of keeping the guest list at around 50 people and had spent the last year getting in touch with friends that I hadn't seen in years (some as many as 15), close friends of the family and most importantly our relatives. It was great re-uniting with everyone and introducing them to my new bride... Even though the wedding was almost a year ago, I still consider us in the honeymoon phase. :-)

High school buddy Mike

As most of you know, I grew up not knowing my father. As a matter of fact, before the reception, I had only met him twice. Once when I was about 13 (I remember very little) and the other time was when I returned from Desert Storm where Cindy, Jack and I went bowling with him and had dinner. Since our visit, I have spoken with him about a 1/2 dozen on the phone. Cindy made contact with him and encouraged him to come up and see us. He came up a day early and we were able to spend a little quality time getting to know each other. I learned that I have 4 brothers and 1 sister somewhere in the Bay Area and that he is a very hardworking man who spent time as a police officer, beautician (he said he did this to meet chicks.. he met my mom) and has spent the better part of his life running his own janitorial business, Mr. Clean.

Me and my dad John

Mom, Me, Traci and John

In case any of you were wondering where I learned how to be a smart ass... well, I can now tell you that the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. He gave my mom the business his first night in town. :-)

On the day of the reception, Traci and I helped set up and readied ourselves for the exciting evening ahead. Everyone started arriving about 4pm and I had an incredible time getting re-acquainted and introducing Traci to all these special people. The night was perfect!! We had a catered BBQ dinner, Tiki lamps for ambiance, a keg of Dos XX and two beautiful cakes. Cindy had two cakes made, a carrot cake for me and a strawberry one for Traci.

Brenda testing the keg

Our cakes

Being very nice

The day following the reception, family members who had kids were invited back to and hang out with Traci and I and help eat the leftovers. We played some cards, opened gifts and lounged around trying to recover from the night before.

Jack cleaning up the last of the mess

We left Paradise a couple of days later with enough memories to last a life time!! Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us.

If you would like to see all of the photos, you can click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/traciandbill/ParadiseReception

Bill and Traci

Garden Update

2008-06-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to throw up a few pictures of what the garden looks like now. The tomato plants are out of control. There are bunches of little green tomatoes on all of the plants and it is just a matter of time before they ripen and we can start to enjoy them.

The carrots

There is a cucumber in there if you look hard enough.

Our pride and joy :-)

It would appear that the rabbit got the better of the Peas and we will not have any this year. It might be worth it to plant them again next year to keep them from eating anything else.

Since we have already harvested all of the radish, we decided to plant a jalapeno plant and habenero.

Hope all is well with you.

Bill and Traci

I left my heart... in San Francisco

2008-06-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Traci and I have been planning a trip to California for about a year now. Since my family is huge and most members were unable to make the wedding in South Dakota, they did the next best thing and invited everyone to Paradise for a reception. Unfortunately, the only time that worked for everyone was about a year later. (I will write more about the reception later)

We left Kansas City on June 3rd headed for the West Coast. Our first day in San Francisco was supposed to start around 11am; however, due to fog, we did not get on the ground until about 2 that afternoon. A close friend of the family, Liz, offered to let us crash at her place and use her extra car. We are very appreciative for her helping us out.

Immediately after our plane landing, we started on our journey around the town that is known for its cable cars, buses, trolley's, boats rides, and heavy traffic. We quickly learned how to use BART and made our way to Liz's place in San Bruno.

Getting ready to board BART

So many places to go

We spent the first afternoon and night driving and walking around Fisherman's Wharf. For those of you who have never been there, it consists of restaurants, shops were you can buy trinkets, lots of boats and LOTS of interesting people to watch.

Fisherman's Wharf

The Golden Gate Bridge was screaming at us to come and check it out so we had no choice but to head that way. The fog had not yet burned off and the wind was howling as we made our way across this beautiful man-made creation. There were tons of people out that doing the same thing we were doing. We spent about an hour enjoying the views and then made our way back to Fisherman's Wharf to have dinner at Joe's Crab Shack.

Walking across the Golden Gate

The Golden Gate in the fog

Traci is a pretty good planner and had purchased tickets months ago for a tour of Alcatraz. So the next morning we woke up and made our way to Pier 33. Liz offered to drive us as she has years of city driving experience and would be able to get us downtown in the quickest manner. Mario Andriette has nothing on Liz in the city. She knew every shortcut imaginable and was bobbing and weaving through the stopped cars. We arrived at the pier in time to make our boat and in one piece.

We spent the next 4 hours or so walking around the tiny island of Alcatraz. It used to be a prison back in the day, a one time Native American Cultural Center and now it is a tourist attraction. I am sure many of you have seen the prison in film: "The Rock" or "Escape from Alcatraz". If you have not been there, I highly recommend setting some time aside and making the trip.

Alcatraz "The Rock"

The Main Entrance

Once we were back on the mainland, we made our way to some of the local beaches and cruised through a few of the local parks. Castro is a part of town that we had on our "to-do" list. There is not much to do here but walk around, check out the people and stare into some of the local shop windows. The Castro district has a high concentrate of gay people living, working and shopping and has been considered a gay district since the late 70's. Since we weren't there to eat or shop, we snapped some pictures walked up and down the road and then moved on to the next item on our list.

San Francisco's Castro District

If you ever want to get a great picture of the city and its surrounding area, I would recommend driving up to the top of Twin Peaks and checking out the view. The view is breathtaking and the only thing you can hear is the wind blowing.

The view from Twin Peaks

After making our way around both hilltops, we made our way to an area that was made famous by the 60s, drugs and the free spirit of those who frequented the area. We spent about an hour and a half walking the streets of Haight-Ashbury. This is a cross street that houses several head shops, smoking lounges and more interesting people wandering the streets.

The corner were it all happens

On our final morning, we headed to ChinaTown to see what it had to offer. If you are into LOTS of people milling about, fresh fruit, fresh poultry and digging through jade jewelry, then this is a place that you must visit. Everywhere on our trip, we had to pay something for parking. In most place we could park and pay 25 cents for 15 minutes or 2 hours of free parking. I think I emptied out all the change in my pocket to park for 45 minutes. The going rate of the meter that we parked at was 25 cents for 6 minutes. If you want to make some money, I would recommend going into the business of ripping of parking meters. You could probably retire after grabbing one or two of them.

China Town

Our San Francisco trip was incredible and we did so much. I could go on writing about some of the other things we experiences, but will save it. :-) You can view all of our pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/traciandbill

I will do my best to write about our experiences at our California reception in Paradise. It was perfect!!

Take care,

Bill and Traci

Let's Eat!!

2008-06-10T22:47:00.001-07:00

The garden has been growing like crazy! A few weeks ago Traci and I were able to pull and eat almost all of the Radishes and all the other vegetables look like smaller versions of the real thing. :-)

The garden as of 5/19/08

The tomato plants have come a long way

Our first Asparagus sprout

The sign says it all

Looks ready to be pulled

The "pluck"

The only thing that is having a problem growing are the peas. This cute little bunny comes by everyone morning and evening and nibbles on all 50 or so plants. To date, none of them have been able to climb on the trellis. That reminds me of a joke I heard a while back. How do you catch a unique bunny? Unique up on it... How do you catch a tame bunny? Tame way, unique up on it... It is funnier to hear it. If you give me a call, I will tell it to you.

The "bunny Peas

We left town about 8 days ago and are looking forward to seeing how out of control everything is. I promise to post pictures of everything. Our neighbors were so motivated with the work that we did that they spent the past couple of weekends turning dirt, moving logs and planting "stuff". I apologized to Sean (the man) for causing him to do so much work. ;-)

Life is good and I look forward to the day when I can post a picture of a big juicy watermelon that was picked from our garden.

Take care,

Bill and Traci

Our Garden

2008-04-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Our Garden

ok, ok... I have heard from a few of you that you had almost given up hope on me adding any more updates. I will make more of an effort and write more. Now that the weather is nice out there will be more to talk about.

About 2 weeks ago we mad a trip to the local landfill and picked up some compost for the garden. If you live in one of the neighboring cities compost is free and we are fortunate enough to have some friends in one of those cities. My guess was that one truck-load would fill the planter box and my vision was to back the truck right up to it. Well, it ended up taking three truck loads and we had to move every ounce of compost by wheelbarrow.

That's a lot of dirt!!

We let everything sit for about a week and continued to ensure that the ground kept moist. We were fortunate that we had a few major storms roll through the area and did not have to fire up the sprinklers.

Meanwhile, the tomatoes and bell peppers that we started in the house were itching to be put into the ground. So the first day that we had good weather we spent 1/2 the day planting and building cages for the younger plants. The cages were made by cutting coated fencing into small sections and cutting the two bottom pieces off so we could push them into the ground. We were able to close the cage by cutting the wire so that we had three pieces of wire to act as hooks.

Tomato and bell pepper cages

Look how big our plants are getting

Traci went to the Better Homes and Gardens website to find a layout and we followed it as closely as possible. We planted the following: Watermelon, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Peas, Radish, Lettuce, Bell Peppers, Carrots, Swiss Chard and Asparagus.

Where the peas live
We added 4 lights for some night time ambiance

I will provide updates and pictures of the veggies as they start to appear.

Take care and we hope your garden makes you as happy as ours does!

Bill and Traci

The Garden

2008-03-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

About a year ago Traci and I engaged in some idle chit-chat about putting a garden in the back yard and how much fun it would be to grow our own vegetables. Well, little did I know that our chit-chat would turn into our next project.

About a month ago Traci came home with a bag full of seeds and some containers to start some of the seeds. We spent the next couple of hours placing seeds in the middle of these things that looked like dirt slinkies. The dirt slinkies start out compact and then expand when water is applied. Once they are fully expanded, you drop 2-3 seeds in it and then wait for something to happen. Over the course of the month we got to watch the plants break dirt and reach for the sun.

The seeds

Pushing the seeds into the dirt slinkies.

One of three types of tomatoes.

One of two trays of seeds.

While we were waiting for the seeds to grow, we started on the above ground garden box. After much conversation and a recommendation from someone with building experience, we started on our 20ft by 10ft box. We picked the back corner of the yard and started digging. Little did we know that before our house was built there was a cobblestone-type road that ran right though where we were going to put our garden. Rather than pull up the stones, someone decided to just lay sod over the top of it. So we spent a good 12 hours pulling up huge rocks and leveling out the ground. Since we had no need for the rock, we put an add on Craig's list and offered the rock for free. It was gone within 24 hours.

In the final stretch.
Some of the rock. We doubled the size of the pile by the time we were done.

The neighbor boy came over and offered his assistance digging up the rocks. I think he enjoyed the fact that we let him get as muddy and dirty as he wanted. He wasn't coming into our house, so we encouraged him to dig and move the bigger rocks. ;-) We even played this cool game with him. It was contest to see how long we could go without saying "Hey Bill". I think he went a full two minutes and lost he competition.

We finally finished up the planter box and dug up most of the rocks last Saturday. I called the landfill to see if we could get some compost and they said it would not be available until the first week of April. So we are in a holding pattern until then.

The finished planter box minus the compost and veggies

This morning we transplanted some of the tomato and bell pepper plants to bigger containers and had to find a place in one of the rooms where the sun could reach them but the cats could not. Once these get big enough, we can plant them straight into the ground, cardboard and all.

The plants in their new home

We will keep you posted on their progress and more than likely share some of the tomatoes with you as Traci will not eat them... that is ironic as we started about 40 plants.

Hope your gardens are green and the snow stop falling.

Bill and Traci

The aftermath

2008-02-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

Below are some pictures of the tree and my mother's house. VERY SCARY!!

Side view of house

The backyard

Your Prayers are welcome

2008-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

All,

Just wanted to add a quick note regarding my mom. Earlier this afternoon I received a call informing that a huge oak tree had fallen on her home of 20+ years. Fortunately, she was at the movies with my sisters when this happened. She learned of the horrible event from my Uncle Dewey. He ran into the movie theater yelling her name.

When she arrived home, the emergency vehicles were still there and she saw the damage. The tree fell through the living room, kitchen and back room... I am confident she will not be able to continue living in it. Her and my brother-in-law Jack were able to grab some of her belongings but the rain and wind made it much too dangerous to be in the house. The insurance adjuster contacted her within 20 minutes of letting them know of the accident and she will talk with someone else from the agency tomorrow.

For the time being, she is staying with my sister and can use your prayers.

Thanks,

Bill

Here Kitty Kitty

2008-02-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we were invited to partake in a yearly celebration with some of our friends. Every year, Lai and Billy have a Chinese New Year Party and this year was no excepion. We had been invited in the past;however, this was our first time attending.

2008 is officially known as they Year of the Rat in the Chinese Zodiac. There are a total of 12 animals in Chinese Astrology: Rat, ox, rabbit, Tiger, Dragon, Snake,Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. I was born during the year of the sheep and Traci during the year of the horse.

Bill, Traci and Lai

The party consisted of LOTS of homemade Chinese food, 15-20 friends, bubble tea, too many deserts and some Chinese Karoke being piped through a laptop computer. I brought a bottle of Sake that I had been holding onto for about 18 years. I figured there was no better time than a Chinese celebration to crack open the Japanese beveage. I won it while on the island of Okinawa in 1990 participating in a sumo-wrestling contest. I beat three people and won two bottles of Sake. I was finally beat by one of the local sumo champs.

Me, Lai and Bill enjoying some warm Sake

Someone cooking da bird

Beef or Chicken... I swear

Egg with shrimp

If you ever have the chance to attend a Chinese New Year event, by all means, do it!

Zai Jian (good bye)

Bill

Heavenly Voices

2008-01-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

The weekend of January 26th Traci and I made an unplanned trip to Vermillion, South Dakota where we attended the funeral of Larry Torkelson. Mr Torkleson was her College Choral Director, friend, academic advisor, private voice coach and inspiration for singing.

I say that it was an uplanned trip;however, we knew that the day was coming just not when... Mr. Torkleson had been in a battle with cancer and in his last days had planned his service. He had several wishes and one of those wishes was for the Alumni Choir to sing a handful of songs that he selected for his funeral.

Traci had prepared me before we headed to South Dakota that we were going to meet up with several Alumni and friends some of which she had not seen in years.

We pulled into Vermillion about 11pm on Friday and promptly headed for one of the local establishments. She spent the next 3 hours getting caught up with her friends and sharing wonderful and funny stories about Mr. Torkleson and their time at the University of South Dakota (USD). I had the pleasure of listening to it all and enjoying their company.

I got full nights sleep in preparation for the next day's events as Traci tossed and turned for most of the night. The events included choir practice in the morning, lunch with friends, the service, and finally another night on the town sharing more Torkleson stories.

We arrived on campus and headed to the choir practice room about 11am. The plan was for the Alumni Choir to meet up and practice the songs that they were going to sing later that afternoon. I took a seat in the back of the room and sat as quiet as possible and watched as 50+ people assembled to join voices. I experienced the most amazing thing over the next hour.

The Alumni Choir consisted of former students from the 1970s to 2001 and as they walked in, everyone took their place without coordination. Even though a majority of these people had never met eachother, they knew where to stand and sang like they had been singing together for years.

For the most part, I was looking at the backs of heads and could see the sides of some faces. Everyone was singing with so much passion that it brought goosebumps to my arms and I choked up on more than one occasion as I saw tears welling up in some of the singers eyes.

The Alumni Choir

Mr. Torkleson was a lover of music for his entire life. I would go into detail but know that I could never articulate the magnitude of this man's passion. I do know that he helped commission a piece of music by Peter Williams and he develped a relationship with Mr. Williams over the years. One of the requests that Mr. Torkleson had was that the choir sing "Agnus Dei", the piece that he helped commision, and a song that the USD choir learned to love.

Mr. Williams was present to pay his respects and conduct the choir in their singing of this incredible song. When Peter Williams stepped in front of the choir, they appeared to stand taller and reach deep inside for a voice that was filled with power and emotion.

Mr. Williams also took a few moments to share some of the same wonderful stories with the alumni that they had shared with each other the night before.

Peter Williams conducting the Alumni Choir

Traci and some friends from her class

Once practice ended, we headed off to a South Dakota hot spot for lunch... Dairy Queen. Not sure how we picked this place out of the 4-5 options in the tiny town of Vermillion but the vote was overwhelming. ;-)

We arrived at the United Church of Christ about 1:30 and were seated shortly thereafter. The service was one that I will not soon forget. The pastor gave a wonderful sermon and shared many stories about Mr. Torkelson. The congregation joined together to sing "When in our Music God is Glorified" and "How Great Thou Art". Then the Alumni Choir then took to the stage around Mr. Torkelson's coffin and sang several wonderful songs to honor a man they all admired. Then came the time to sing Mr. Torkelson's favorite song. Once the choir started singing, it was apperant that "Agnus Dei" was everyone's favorite. I heard this song earlier, during practice; however, I was sitting behind the choir and did not realize that sitting in front of the singers made a difference. WOW!!! I cannot even begin to describe how powerful this song was. Everything about it was perfect... the singers, the words and most of all the emotion that filled everyone singing around Mr. Torkleson's coffin.

Alumni Choir at the funeral service

Following the service, we drove to his grave site. His site was located the edge of a hill overlooking the local airport. Music was not his only passion... he also loved to fly. We gathered around the site and everyone said their final goodbyes. As we were walking back to the cars, a plane flew overhead, circled and came in right over tops of the trees. It was one of his flying buddies paying tribute and saying his goodbye.

We met later that night at the same establishment that we met the night before and everyone picked up right where they had left off. One of Traci's friends, Elizabeth, brought several photo albums and everyone spent the night looking at the photos and reliving the memories of concerts, plays and parties of yester-year.

Celebrating the memories

Before we left, everyone expressed an interest in getting together yearly to honor Mr. Torkleson. As of today, I think the wheels of planning are in motion and we will more than like make a trip a year from now, up to Vermillion, for another round of singing, drinking and memory sharing. If anyone is interested in attending or wants to help to coordiante the next event, Anthony Burbach is the man to talk to.

A memorable quote from the weekend:

"Wow, there must be at least a million dead people here" From one of Mr. Torkelson's grandchildred when we arived at the cemetery.

Until next year...

Much love,

Bill and Traci

Handy Dandy

2008-01-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Traci never ceases to amaze me with the "stuff" that she can do. She plays music, teaches children, re-landscapes the whole yard, can troubleshoot and identify issue with a car engine, can drive in the snow and ice, paint, clean (not the normal type either...) and most recently I learned that she can resurface floors.

When I moved to Kansas City 4 years ago, from California, I learned to adapt to a completely different life style... well, almost. The pace that people live life is way slower, there are actually 4 seasons throughout the year and for some unknown reason the bathrooms have carpet in them. I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would do something like that and have not been able to find anyone from this area to explain the reasoning behind it.

After several months of discussion Traci and I decided that something needed to be done about the funny floors. We agreed that anything but carpet would be an upgrade. So we spent some time at Lowes bending every single piece of linoleum they own. We settled on a tile that was fancier than the linoleum on the roll; however, not as fancy as ceramic tile.

We purchased everything we needed to get the job done and borrowed some tools from one of our friends who is re-modeling his whole house. My plan was to tear up the carpet one weekend, clean the floor the next, pull out the toilet one night during the week after dinner, lay the tile the following weekend, and then complete the project the following weekend by installing the baseboard and transition (metal piece between the carpet and tiles). I also thought that it would be a good idea to start downstairs in a bathroom that we rarely use and learn from our mistakes.

Here is how the project unfolded: We ripped up the carpet to see what the floor looked like underneath.

The floors after the carpet was pulled

Traci was laying the 12x12 tiles within 12 hours and had begun ripping out the carpet upstairs withing the next 24 hours. We finished all 3 bathrooms... I mean, she finished all three bathrooms in under a week. She was a machine. :-) And here I was envisioning us giggling, taking turns laying the pieces and enjoying each other's company while we transformed these three rooms. It was just the opposite, as Traci was a cutting, tile laying, caulking machine. My job was to pull the toilets, nail in the baseboards and stay clear all other times. I was really good at number third one.

The completed downstairs bathroom

The upstairs guest bathroom

Our bathroom

I can't wait to "help" build our raised vegetable garden once the ice thaws.

More to come.

Bill and Traci

Happy New Year!

2008-01-06T10:04:00.001-08:00

Well.. we are a few days into the new year and it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted anything.

Christmas turned out to be way better than I had imagined. We were able to visit with many family members and spend some quality time with my Grandma; however, visiting with Grandma Rose is both good and bad. Good because she loves to tell stories about when she was younger, tell us her thoughts and feelings on Vera family issues and most of all she loves Traci. :-) From the first time that Grandma Rose met Traci, she knew she was a special person and always makes a point of telling us.

The first time Grandma met Traci

Me, Mom and Traci

Traci in Paradise

I said that visiting with Grandma can be bad too and the reason I say that is that she thinks I have been gaining weight at a constant rate since 1991. She will hug me, look me up and down and then the words "Gordo" come out of her mouth. She isn't mean when she says it, she is just pointing out the fact that I appear to be occupying more space. Christmas was no exception... I am Gordo and getting more Gordo for 15+ years and running.

2008: Unfortunately, we welcomed in the new year with some hacking, sneezing and a double shot of NyQuil. My cold didn't start until the day we arrived back in Kansas and Traci's started Dec. 30th. We watched the ball drop on the East Coast and then turned in for the night. It was pretty pathetic considering my mother stayed up longer than us to ring in the new year.

I have never been into resolutions. I feel that I make plenty of changes throughout the year and making one on this particular day makes me feel like I am making a resolution just to make one. I am definitely not against them and feel that for some people they can be life changing especially around the new year as I know some people treat the new year like a starting block for the next 365 days. **Sorry... just a random thought that came to my head

I did make a commitment to run the Lincoln Half Marathon on May 4th. I ran it last year with my friend Cari from Nebraska where we both agreed to a 10 min. mile pace and trained separately. We almost didn't get to run the race last year as a monster lightening storm settled in over Lincoln and there was concern over the lightening. I did my 10 min. miles and she ran it a bit faster as she is not as Gorodo as me. My official training starts tomorrow and I hope to better my time by 30 seconds per mile. I will keep you all posted on my progress. When complete this, I am considering running the LA Marathon next year. This will be my 3rd running...

I want to wish you all the best year ever!! If you made a resolution, STICK TO IT!!!

Love Bill and Traci

Christmas in California

2007-12-23T21:30:00.001-08:00

Traci and I boarded flight 102 on Friday evening and headed for California. This is where I am originally from and I make every effort to make it home at least 2 times a year. Christmas is always a good reason to visit and I can always count on one of my sisters to plan an "event" to bring us back a second time. My hometown is about 100 miles North of Sacramento and is named Paradise. The town was named for the gambling that took place during the gold mining years.

We spent Friday night with my sister Linda and had the opportunity to catch up with her and the Molina family.

Linda and Bill

It's always great to see the little ones in our family and see how much they have grown. Most of them are at the stage where they are just learning how to walk, talk and remember faces. Unfortunately, since our visits are so infrequent, the remembering faces is not working out so well and we end up having to re-introduce ourselves to the younger nephews. Linda and Jason worked with Noah prior to us arriving and when we walked in, he knew us as Uncle Bill and Auntie Traci; however, when morning came, we were the new people.

Saturday morning Jason, Noah and I took Noah's new tricycle for a spin in the parking lot. This wasn't the same tricycle I had when I was a kid. Mine was all metal with hard tires. Noah's tricycle had pressurized tires, a wooden deck on the back for push kicking and a ringer to warn people he was about to run them over.

Noah and Bill

Saturday we drove to Paradise and had an early lunch with my aunts, uncle, sister Brenda and mother. My mom is an incredible cook and loves to make me a meal when I come home. It is a good thing I only come home for about a week or I would ended up looking like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka... Good home cooking will do that to a person. :-)

While at my mom's, Traci and I had the opportunity to "try" and bond with another nephew. Issac is the very tall 22 month old child of Brenda who had just woke up from a nap. Traci was able to engage him in a level-5 game of peek-a-boo and I got him to stand still for a quick photo. He is such a smart kid. A few of us were going to watch a 70s band play at the local casino and were going to leave Issac with Grandma. He could sense that we were going somewhere and that the key to us not leaving was to keep Brenda within arms reach.

Brenda got him to sit down and watch "Cars" and then said she needed to go into the other room. Her plan was to sneak out the back door but Issac knew better... He jumped up, hugged her legs and began to moan and groan about her leaving, I let him know he was lucky that he was staying home with Nana and watching a great movie. He looked at me with his squinty little eyes and shook his head back and forth very slowly. :-) We ended up making making a run for the door and enjoying a night of 70s music and getting caught up.

Chocolate covered Issac

We are looking forward to our remaining days in Paradise.

A "Wild Night" in the midwest

2007-12-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

This past weeked we had a few people over for drinks, music and "Cat Entertainment". If you do no have a cat, you really do not know what I am talking about... So allow me to explain.

Cats are very needy... when they want to be. They will come around when they need love and attention and stay at arms length when they have had enough. Saturday night was a night when Connick and Asia needed lots of attention.

The night started off with Connick climbing up the middle of the Christmas tree and wedging himself between two branches. His favorite thing to do is to get into tight places and make himself fat so that it is just about impossible to pull him out. There is only one sure way to get him to come to you and that is to shake his favorite toy. The toy is pole twith a string attached to the end and on the end of that string is a stuffed mouse with a bell inside of it. He loves to chase it, chew it and lay on it.

Connick in the Christmas tree

He is not budging

When he really gets going, we can get him to jump a few feet in the air. Asia has been watching for the past few months and if starting to get into the act. The cats are good for about 10 minutes and then need a quick break to catch their breath and then are ready to pounce back into action.

Traci and Cora warming up Connick

Super cat

Asia giving it her all with Connick cheering on in the foreground

Needless to say, if you have a party and want to liven it up, you will need the following:

1. Cat toy --> on a stick.

2. (2) Cats that need lots of attention.

3. Friends who have nothing better to do that sit around with you on a snowy Saturday night, drink beers, eat food, and watch the "Cat Entertainment".

Hope your Saturdays are as exciting as ours. :-)

Bill and Traci

The Wedding "South Dakota" style

2007-12-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

It has taken me most the day to begin feeling "normal". Traci and I attended Jamie and Mitch's wedding in Baltic and then reception in Brandon at the Holiday Inn express. The wedding ceremony was perfect! It was held in the Lutheran church in Baltic and about a 100 people were in attendance. The only thing that could have made it better was warmer temps outside. It was about 10 degrees out and all the roads in Baltic had a sheet of ice/snow on them. Jamie is Traci's sister's husband's sister and Mitch is.. Mitch. :-)

Jamie and Mitch

Traci, Hunter and Saige braving the cold for a picture

The reception was about held about 20 miles away in the city of Brandon. http://www.brandonsd.com/ The food was great and there was about 2 hours of open bar and two kegs when that was gone. This was the first reception I have attended where I stayed until the last dance and had the lights come on after... That is always a scary event! Bright lights combined with sweaty people, running make up and the effects of alcohol on every one's smiling faces. EEEEKK!!

Bill and Traci at the reception

Bill and Hunter on the dance floor

Did I mention that it was an open bar?

Alex VanHangover and Jimi HenDrinks showed up later that night

Dave, Saige and Zoe cutting a rug

We spent a short amount of time in Mitch's parent's room drinking beverages and getting to know each other (this was the first time I met them). After that, it was off to the gas station in about 0 degree weather to pick up a bag or Doritos for Dave (my new BFF and Nikki's Husband) and a Rice Crispy treat for Traci. By the time we walked back Traci was ready for bed and Nikki (Traci's sister) was already 1/2 asleep. Dave and I spent the next hour munching on the bag of chips and surfing all 75+ channels on the T.V... I believe that is something that only men would find enjoyable. I finally crawled into bed about 3:30 and got up around 9am to a knock on the door. It was my two nieces Saige and Hunter with a plate of food. The food hit the spot and I was back in bed within 10 minutes. I called down to the front desk around 10:30 and requested a late check out of noon as we were a bit behind in getting packed up. You can request a late check out at most hotels without an extra cost to you.

4 hours later we ended up at Debbie and Richard's house where I mosied off to our room for another 2 hour siesta. :-) I woke up to the smell of Prime Rib and other foods being cooked up in the kitchen. As I mentioned yesterday, we are celebrating Christmas early and part of the Dybvig tradition is a family dinner. Unfortunately, Grandma Dybvig was unable to make it do the extreme cold weather and the fact that she fell a few days ago. she didn't get hurt in the fall only a bit bruised.

Dinner was excellent, as Debbie is a fantastic cook, and the company couldn't have been any better. After dinner, we sat around, opened gifts and enjoyed watching the kids tinker with their new toys.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. A big ice storm rolled through Kansas City and most of the cities that we will be driving through received snow tonight and will continue to accumulate snow until about 4am. We roll out of here about 8am and will take our time. I will report on the drive and post some pictures from the wedding and our early Christmas when we get home.

Bill

One more time

2007-12-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

We made the long drive to South Dakota again. This time for a wedding and an early Christmas with the Dybvig and Wirkus families. Everyone agreed to an early Christmas as we will be in California on the 25th and the wedding made it convenient to celebrate early.

The drive up was not as bad as the last trip. It snowed last night but the road crews did a fantastic job of cleaning the roads and the trip was not as scary as our last one. We saw about 10 vehicles in the ditch... there was everything from small pick-up trucks to a huge U-haul pulling a car all on their sides and covered in snow.

Last night Traci insisted on driving since she is 1/2 Eskimo and knows how to drive in the snow and ice but conceded this morning when the roads looked pretty good. I was thankful as I am pretty much a control freak when it comes to driving. I am confident that the control freak comes from being in too many accidents where I wasn't driving.

Today was also a celebration of our 1 year engagement anniversary. It was difficult for me to decided what day to ask her to marry as I needed the day to be easy for me to remember and also one that Traci would not guess (she is a very good guesser). Pearl Harbor was the perfect day as it is a day that I can remember and one that Traci did not guess.

We hope all is well with you and Merry Christmas (early).

Getting into it (The Chrismas spirit... that is)

2007-12-01T12:14:00.000-08:00

Last week Traci and I spent some quality time putting up lights around the house, staging lighted reindeer around the yard, and putting the finishing touches on the tree.

This morning I decided it was time to get a picture with Santa. It is a surprise and Traci has no idea that I took Jezebel to meet with the white bearded man. Santa Paws is an event that is held by the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. They fly Santa into town for about a week to sit with all the good cats and dogs from the KC area. The print out and put the picture into a card for $7 and will send you a copy for an additional $10. All the money that is paid, goes to a good cause.

For those of you who have not met Jezebel, she is our runt Min-pin that has been a part of Traci's life for about 8 years and mine for 2. She loves walks, burrowing in her favorite blanket and hanging out with her brother and sister Connick and Asia.

I figured it would be safe to post the surprise on here as I know Traci doesn't read our blog as often as I write in it. ;-)

Hope you all are getting into the spirit of the Holiday season. If you are not, maybe the photo below will help jump start it.

Bill

Jezebel and Santa 2007

UofA vs K - WHO

2007-11-26T23:22:00.000-08:00

Yeah...

So, we purchased tickets and went to the KU vs AZ game in Lawrence, KS on Sunday night. KU was nice enough to set aside a handful of seats in the uppermost corner of they gym. :-)

Before the game we went to the JayHawker in downtown Lawrence for a prep-rally. The rally included 15 - 20 UofA Alumni, an autographed basketball giveaway and a motivating speech from the interim coach O'Neill. He really did a great job of laying out our current situation and appeared pleased to be visiting with us.

Coach O'Neill telling us how it is

Kyleen won the autographed ball... Lucky!!

We entered the gym about an hour early to watch the Cats warm up and locate our seats, in the event that they were had to locate. We went to the game with the knowledge that KU was ranked 4th in the nation and that our chances of getting annihilated were very good. Arizona ended up holding their own and caused the game to go into an overtime. There were two moments in the game that I wanted to point out as I won't soon forget them.

1. A KU player completely missed the basket and we did our best "AIR BALL" chant that we could muster and got the attention of the crowd on our side of the stadium. The look on their faces said "Who and the heck is... oh, yeah, I almost forgot they were here".

2. The 1/2 time show consisted of a man dressed in an Indian costume connected to 4 dummies all in various village people costumes. As he moved about the other dummies moved in unison. He entertained us for about 15 minutes of dancing, singing and doing the hand and arm signals to YMCA. During one particular line in YMCA... 'You can do whatever you feel..." he seductively rubbed the dummies shoulder in front of him. YIKES!!

A view from the rafters at Allen Fieldhous

Oh the memories!!

Bill

The Thanksgiving kept giving and giving...

2007-11-24T18:23:00.000-08:00

**NOTE: As you are reading this, please keep this in mind, Traci and I are home and safe and sound.

Our Holiday weekend started on Tuesday night with Traci baking some cookies and me packing for our trip to South Dakota.

The weather, during the day, on Monday and Tuesday of last week averaged about 70 degrees. As we were heading out of town at 3pm, the weather began to chill and we were heading directly into bone chilling weather. A storm was passing through parts of Iowa, Northern Missouri and Nebraska as we began our journey. The storm ended up dropping a minimal amount of snow but left the roads slick as heck and as night fell, so did the temperatures.

We decided it would be a good idea to grab a quick bit to eat from one of the many truck stops. We each loaded up a hot dog and jumped back into the car. The "quick meal" from a truck stop was our biggest holiday mistake.

As we entered into Northern Missouri, the temperature gauge that displays the temperature on the outside of the car began to plummet. As we came upon the first of many bridges, we notice several emergency vehicles and approached with caution. As we drove on the overpass, our tires began to slip and spin and we immediately knew it was going to make our normal 5.5 hr drive into a lifetime as the bridge was covered with black ice. If you are not familiar with "black ice" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice, you are fortunate. It is hard to detect and slick as heck! It also forms on bridges quickly because air can travel underneath the bridge and cool the bridge super fast.

That horrible scene that we had just encountered was repeated another 3 times in the next 45 minutes. We saw a total of 17 cars in ditches and as we passed each car we said a quick prayer that each person was be joined with their family shortly.

After driving for 2 hours at 45mph and using a death grip on the steering wheel, the danger had passed and we finally relaxed and could enjoy our drive.

We arrived into Baltic, South Dakota http://baltic.govoffice.com/ about 10pm I was more than ready to drink a few beers with Dave, Traci's brother-in-law. My first beer went down very smooth and I started in on my second one. I got the hick-ups and started feeling "not-so-well". I noticed that Traci looked a bit peaked and thought that maybe the long drive had worn us down. We crashed out and ended up getting up throughout the night feeling ill. The next day brought no relief to our stomach pains and we determined that the culprit was a bad hot dog from the truck stop.

Thanksgiving dinner was spent at Richard and Deb's house. (Traci's dad and step-mom). The guest list included: Grandma Dybvig, Richard and Deb, A.C and Patty, Molly and the Wirkus clan. Our feast included all the trimmings and was given the honor of carving the turkey. Traci and I were still feeling ill but managed to eat a portion of everything. :-)

We turned in at 7pm that night so that "we" could get up at 3am and go stand in line for 2 hours in the 12 degree temperatures. 3 am came around and Traci popped up, got ready and headed out with her sister, to wait for the stores to open. I crashed out, work up at 7am and spent the next 21 hours staring at the t.v. wishing I could rip my guts out.

Once the shopping was done, Traci gave into the illness and jumped back into bed.

We got up this morning, still reeling from the "bad dog", and heading back over to Richard and Deb's for a Saturday morning snack. Once the meal was complete, we said our goodbyes and headed for home. As we drove by the truck stop, we both vowed to never stop there again.

We are still not operating at 100% and remain hopefully that we will wake up ready to take on the world... or at least feel well enough to enjoy going to the KU vs Arizona game in Lawrence tomorrow.

Holiday tips:

1. Black ice is bad stuff and should be avoided. If it cannot be avoided, do not use your brakes when you hit it.

2. Hot dogs from truck stops are bad news!!

Hope your Thanksgiving was as memorable as ours!

Bill and Traci

Christmas in November

2007-11-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

3 posts in one day... Wow, this surely won't happen everyday. :-)

It seems to me that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year. Here in Kansas City, one of the radio stations started playing Chrismas music on Halloween day. I try to avoid this station as much as possible but seem to get sucked into it whenever I ride in Traci's car. I pretty much refuse to think about Christmas until at least Thanksgiving day.

One of the good things about being married to Traci is that she has Christmas in her heart year around. Keeping that in mind, today was spent putting up decorations and setting up lights in the yard. We are not sure if the association will allow the lights this early but Traci is willing to take the risk.

Big hair day

Traci loves the lighted Christmas trees

They do look nice!

In case you were counting, there are 37 days left

Yesterday

2007-11-18T17:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a pretty signficant day in our lives.

1st, our little Connick is another year older and 2nd Traci and I celebrated our 2nd year together. How many days are couple supposed to celebrate? I can think of three signifcant ones, but wonder if there is a rule: 1) Date we started dating 2) engagement, and 3) wedding. I suppose it is not a bad thing to enjoy each one of those event.

Connick at 3 months old

Connick at 2 years old

First Post

2007-11-18T07:39:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it has taken me so long to set this up. I have always had "best intentions" of creating a blog but never pulled the trigger on it. There have been so many events in the past two years that I have wanted to share with everyone and have resorted to e-mail and letters.

This is our opporunity to send out up to date information on a day to day, week to week, and month to month happenings of our lives. I will make an effort to post pictures, thoughts and misc. ramblings (I should be pretty good at that).

Thanks for taking the time to read this and we look forward to sharing some of our life with you all.

Bill and Traci