Spring!

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

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)

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

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

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