Royal Blue

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

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

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

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

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