The Animal Capers of Kamryn Drive

There was one little hiccup in our Mizzou game day. We got a phone call from Brinks Security Systems Saturday afternoon. Our alarm had been triggered and "if we were concerned" we were suppose to call them back. Yes...I think my alarm going off when I'm not home might be cause for concern!

Brinks sent the police. I sent my parents. I had horrible visions of Pinky being scared or getting out of the house in the cold or getting hurt (people can be mean). Mom and dad ran to the rescue.

Mom called back and told me that my basement window screen was torn all to shreds. What?!? Great! The funny thing was that it wasn't the basement alarm that went off. Other than that...all was well inside my house and there wasn't any sign that anything out of the ordinary had happened in the living room (where the alarm had been triggered).

The next day we headed home - and I had a feeling of dread in my stomach. I didn't like the idea of someone ripping my screen off or being anyway close to breaking in. Ugh! As soon as we pulled into the driveway we headed straight to the back yard to check out the damage.

The screen was trashed. Broken out of the bottom channel and snapped on the left side. It seemed odd to us that someone would destroy a screen and then not bother breaking the window. Then Ryan says "are those paw prints on our window". I jumped into the window well (and its deep - chest high on me) to investigate. Sure enough ... there were little 5-fingered prints on the glass. The more we looked the more signs we found of a raccoon trying to get out of the window well. There were paw prints, snags in the screen, scratch marks on the window frame, even some course black/grey fur.

Huh.

We know that a possum got stuck in our neighbor's window well. Can you imagine what that sounded like? That raccoon trying to climb out? Good grief!

And we're pretty sure that Miss Pinky Lee the cat set off the living room alarm. The Brinks man told us that if she jumped right in front of it she could set it off. We've got a wine bar about 2 1/2 feet away from the sensor. And there was a new scratch on top of the wine bar and possibly a few kitty prints on the top.

Was there an animal party at our place while we were out of town? My friend Misti seems to think that Pinky might have thought she found a way to bring us home. Set off the alarm! Good try Pinks!

Mizzou Football!

This past weekend Ryan and I packed up the car and headed to Columbia, MO to watch the MU Tigers take on Kansas State. I'd try to explain the excitement that was buzzing around our house all week....but words really can't describe it.

We've been planning this trip / game / tailgate for months. Our friend Veronica (a fellow black-and-gold-bleeder) and I started talking Mizzou football this past summer. When we'd finally settled on a game (OSU) we called to get tickets. Gone. Sold out. Zilch. Panic set in and we grabbed the first conference game we could get our hands on that still had seats available. K-State it was! And actually...its a good thing we didn't go to the OSU game. The Tigers had a rough game that weekend - the first loss this season. It would have been a sad game to watch.

The down-side to the K-State game? The cold!! Oh. My. Gosh! It was cloudy, windy and only about 43 for the high. But we pushed onward! By 11:30 Ryan, Veronica and I had secured a tailgating spot and were ready to get on with the festivities! We were joined by Chrissy, Brent, Brock, and Joy a short time later. And then Misti and Blaine joined the party. The game wasn't until 6pm (great for tailgating.....not so great for the cold) so we had all afternoon to hang out.

It was cold....but we had plenty of drinks and food, and a canopy with a windscreen (the best $$ I've ever spent). The group next to us supplied music all day and we were pretty content :-)

The game was great! Mizzou won 41 - 24 (and it shouldn't have been that close - Mizzou let K-State score twice in the last few minutes of the game. I hate when they do that!!!). I had a chance to sing all the old Mizzou songs, scream "-ZOU" a thousand times, and see Chase Daniel on Senior Day play his last home game as a Tiger. It was a great day!!!

I wish that I had some pics of the gang from Saturday to post in all our cold weather gear. But it was cold enough that I never actually got my camera out. Here's a pic of Chase leading the Tigers to victory!

Election Day Is Here!

Finally! I love the fact that we as Americans can vote. I love the freedom we enjoy. I love that every person has a voice. What I do not love....campaign ads. Ugh! I think that we need to vote in a law saying that only 25% of campaign ads can be mud-slinging ads. Stop telling me what your opponent did or didn't do, and start telling me what YOU ARE going to do!

Sorry....got off on a tangent for a minute!

Everyone get off their butts and vote today! Don't let one of our greatest freedoms go to waste! Let your voice be heard!

Feliz Cuplianos!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!

What happened in 1976?

-1976: Chinese year of the Dragon
-Cambodia is renamed Democratic Campuchea.
-The first commercial service Concorde flight took off.
-1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.
-The 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal Canada July 17 - August 1.
-Darryl Sittler sets NHL record with ten points in one game.
-Rock group KISS releases the legendary album Destroyer.
-Patty Hearst is found guilty of the armed robbery of a San Francisco, California bank.
-The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC subway system is opened.
-Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
-The Gong Show debuts on NBC.
-NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1
-Tom Brokaw becomes news anchor of the Today Show.
-The Meadowlands racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey opens.
-The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA
-R&B singer Stevie Wonder releases the classic double album Songs in the Key of Life.
-The Eagles release one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Hotel California.
-The US celebrates its bicentennial, marking the 200th anniversary of its independence
-Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13
-Median Household Income (current dollars): $12,686
-Cost of a gallon of Gas 59 cents
-The $2.00 bill Issued
-Super Bowl: Pittsburgh defeats Dallas (21-17)
-World Series: Cincinnati defeats NY Yankees (4-0)
-Kentucky Derby Champion: Bold Forbes
-George W. Bush is arrested and fined for driving under the influence of alcohol
-Freddie Prinze Jr., Reese Witherspoon, Colin Farrell, 50 Cent, Fred Savage, and Shannon Elizabeth are born
-Charlie's Angels and The Muppet Show premiere
-The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.
-First laser printer introduced by IBM - the IBM 3800
-Matsushita introduces the VHS home video cassette recorder to compete with Sony's Beta max system.
-Top movies: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, All the President’s Men, The Omen, Taxi Driver, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Rocky
-Billboard Top Hits: 1976
1. Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John & Kiki Dee 2. Dream Weaver - Gary Wright 3. Love Machine - Pt. 1 - The Miracles 4. Let Your Love Flow - The Bellamy Brothers 5. Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry 6. Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers 7. Fooled Around And Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop 8. I'd Really Love To See You Tonight - England Dan & John Ford Coley 9. All By Myself - Eric Carmen 10. Theme From S.W.A.T. - Rhythm Heritage

Friday Date Night

Ryan and I have a tradition...we try to do a date night once a week. Sometimes its on Friday and sometimes its on Saturday. It just depends on other plans. Its something that our pastor, Pieter Van Waarde, encouraged when we went through our pre-marital counceling at our church (I miss you Woodcrest!). He stressed the importance of dating even after you've gotten married. Piet's a smart man!

Work has been a little on the crazy side for me lately. I've been putting in lots of long hours and have had to work the last several weekends. The plan for this week: I knew that I'd have to spend part of Saturday at the office, so I was going to leave on time Friday and we'd do date night. Well it became glaringly obvious at about 3:00 on Friday that the plan wasn't going to happen. Things were coming up at work that we hadn't anticipated and it was going to cause me to stay late on Friday too. I called Ryan and told him - he was bummed. He leaves town next week for the entire week and we were both sad that we weren't going to get to hang on Friday night.

I was still working away at 7:45 when Ryan called and said he was on his way over to my office to pick me up for dinner. He wanted to know if 1) I wanted him to pick up dinner so I could work through or 2) pick me up and get me out of the office for a break. I chose #2.

He picked me up around 8:00 and we just headed down the street to Chipotle. It was good to see him, get out of the office and get some food in my stomach. After a quick stop at Petsmart to get Pinky some food he drove me back to my office.

Here's the part I wasn't expecting....he had planned to spend Friday night date night in my office. He had packed a cooler, a camping chair, his laptop and a movie. :-) He set up in the back of my cube and I continued to work while he watched and I listened to Into The Wild. It was a good choice....I didn't have to see the screen to know what was going on. Although I think I missed out on some gorgeous scenary!

I don't know many other guys that would have thought of that. Ryan's truly something special. Our date night wasn't as conventional as usual, but it meant so much to me.

M-I-Z *sigh* Z-O-U

Well it happened. The Mizzou Tigers lost their game on Saturday night. Ryan and I had planned to go to the OSU game earlier this summer. But by the time we called to get tickets it was sold out. I guess its probably better that we didn't go to that game. The screaming and cussing was probably better kept behind the closed doors of my house.

I don't know where my Tigers were on Saturday! I was convinced that the MU vs. OSU game was going to be a showdown between offenses - both teams average more than 50 points a game. But it was the defenses that stole the show. And OSU's D got in Chase's face way too often.

Speaking of Chase - I am loving the mohawk. I know that its a little funky for our All-American boy but I like the spunk of it!

So what does this loss mean? Besides falling from 3 to 11 in the poll, it means that we're going to have to work out butts off the rest of the season. The sports world is too quick to dismiss Big 12 talent and very slow to recognize it. We know that MU has a great football team, and 1 loss doesn't mean the end of our season. If anything it makes the game between us and number 1 Texas on Saturday bigger than ever. We've got to prove our place among the powerhouse teams. And I think that we've got the ablility to do it!

Go Tigers!

The American Royal

Last weekend Ryan was part of a BBQ team at the famous American Royal. Our friend Blaine works with a guy who has a team and he had 2 extra spots on the roster. Sign 'em up! So Misti and Blaine drove in to KC on Friday night in preparation for a BBQ feast on Saturday.

Saturday started as the laziest day ever. I think we sat on the deck for 2 hours drinking coffee and chatting. Then it was time for BBQ! Ryan had gotten us a hotel downtown with his travel points (the only perk to his work travel is the points he earns). We checked in, caught the BBQ express shuttle and were whisked off to Smoke and Hickory Land.

Really Ryan and Blaine didn't have to do much. Cut some meat, add some cuts of meat to the fire, flip some ribs.....oh and chop some wood. Check out that picture! But really we just got to hang out and meet some new people. It was great! We snacked all night, chatted and roamed around to see the different teams (some of the names are awesome - Hickory Nuts, Holy Smokes).

We decided to end the experience by catching a bit of the concert. I don't even know who was playing, just that it was a country band. Anyway, we saw the BIGGEST fight I've ever seen in real life!! Holy cow!! No pun intended. Fists were swinging, chairs were flying.....the funniest part was that the fight started and stopped twice before the last round (when the police got there). I watched this blonde police woman sweep a man's knees out from under him and sit on him while she handcuffed him. Wow!! It was something!

We caught the shuttle back to the Power & Light District, made a quick stop at The Flying Saucer and hit the hay (heehee!).

Music Addicts Unite!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love music. I mean LOVE music. I love to go out to bars and hear random bands. Or buy tickets to a full-blown concert. Or download random new artists onto my mp3 player. I adore all things music. In fact....let's have a moment of silence for my missing mp3 player. I hope it turns up soon.....

Last year we headed to Austin, Texas for our first Austin City Limits Music Festival. Its something that we've wanted to do every year but had never made it. Last year it blew us away. So we've decided to make it an annual trip. Last year we had a big group of the Ark-La-Tex friends that were able to go. This year it was a smaller group but the amount of fun was definately no less!!!

We met up with Miles and his fiance Kathryn. The 4 of us had a blast! Miles, Ryan and I have shared a ton of hotels over the years. And its always an adventure. Kathryn I'm so glad that you and I got the chance to hang out!! We'd get up, eat Embassy Suites sweet breakfast, take the shuttle to the festival, rock out for 11 or 12 hours, grab dinner on the way home, hit the hot tub / pool and then hit the sack. Repeat 3 times .... that's what she said :-)

ACL is 3 days of pure music bliss. 8 stages, 12 hours a day of every kind of music you can imagine. Plus sun, drinks and super delicious food (I already miss the Chick-Avo Crispy Cone). We saw a ton of acts - here are some highlights....

• Asleep at the Wheel - always awesome
• Vampire Weekend - ok, the sound was sort of mixed bad..bet they'd be great otherwise
• Eli Young Band - go see them if you get the chance!
• G. Love & Special Sauce - great! It was a total throw back to college
• The Mars Volta - Wow. In a scary way. Loud, angry, may induce punching
• The Fratellis - 3 brothers from Scotland, pretty good
• CSS - from Brazil and their name in spanish means "tired of being sexy", fun, wierd
• Band of Heathens - great band
• Robert Earl Keen - a TX staple, always awesome
• John Fogerty - blew my mind. I was expecting "eh" but it was one of the best acts all weekend
• Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - 2 of the best together = fab!
• Beck - ugh! He was totally lame. Well what we saw. He quit 20 minutes early in a short set. Diva.
• Flyleaf - really suprised me how good they really were
• Xavier Rudd - Austrialian who plays the didgeridoo. Really great act!
• Blues Traveler - super fun to see them live
• The Raconteurs - FABULOUS! I "heart" Jack White!
• Band of Horses - one of the best acts....go buy their CD!
  
• Foo Fighters - They brought their A-game for sure!
  

And that's just to name a few! Needless to say - we're getting tickets next year! We've already got a room reserved at the Embassy Suites and people buying tickets. Yay!! ACL 2009!

And one other thing....I have to give a shout out to Whataburger (why don't we have these in Missouri?). I always want to get my Whataburger fix while I'm in Texas. I think every night on the way home from the festival about does it. Or does it only feed the craving?

Here Comes the Bride...

Our friends Becky and Adam tied the knot on Saturday, September 20th in Palmyra / Hannibal (service in Palmyra, reception in Hannibal). Sounds like a road trip to me!!

Ryan and I drove into Jeff City to crash at Chateau Preston on Friday night. Our friend Robert and his girlfriend Julie were coming in that night as well. Have I mentioned what a gorgeous house Misti and Blaine have? Its incrediable!

Saturday morning (after another Blaine breakfast) we headed out for Hannibal. It was a beautiful day and we chatted all the way up to Hannibal. After a quick stop at Hardees (Ryan....please take us to Hardees!!) we checked into the hotel and started getting ready. Opps...suddenly it was way past time to head to the church. Thank goodness Blaine has no fear of driving 90 miles an hour! We arrived with a few minutes to spare. Whew!

The service was beautiful and Becky looked gorgeous! Adam....you looked great too! :-) We threw rose petals on the newlyweds as they climbed into a classic car and then we headed back to the hotel for the celebration.

Dancing, friends, eating, good wine, wedding cake and ice cream (great idea Becky and Adam).....it was a great night.

But the party doesn't stop just because the reception does. How's that go? Closing time...you don't have to go home but you can't stay here. Well we just moved the fun to our room. We had a mini dance party and discovered the fine art of bed jumping for pictures. If you've never tried it you should. Call me, Ryan, Misti or Blaine up sometime and we'll give you a crash course. Heehee!

Labor Day = No Work and All Play

This Labor Day weekend Ryan and I headed to the Lake with friends. I can't think of a better way to spend a 3 day holiday weekend...water, sun, friends, fun. Perfection.

We headed to Jeff City on Friday night to crash with our friends Misti and Blaine. It was the first time we were going to see their new house in real life (she had been keeping us up-to-date with pics and stories on her blog). I couldn't wait to see Chateau Preston and spend the evening with friends. Friday was low key - burgers on the BBQ, a few drinks and conversation. Misti and I ended up staying up way to late. Those wussy boys crashed out early. Well if you call 1:30am early.

Saturday we started the morning with one of Blainer's famous super breakfasts. My gosh that boy can cook! He fixed a little of everything - bacon, eggs, toast, fruit, french toast, sausage....if it comes on a breakfast menu we had it! Then it was off to the lake! Yay! We met up with some other friends who were already on the water, tied our boat to theirs and just coved out for the day. Music, food, drinks, dancing.... I wish I would have gotten a picture of our neighbor a few boats down. He was loving the music - but only if it was 80's throwback music that would complement his sweet gold chain and mullet. We finished off the evening with the Mizzou game against Illinois at Shorty Pants. Go Tigers!

Sunday we got a call from Jason Watts asking if we wanted to spend the day at his parent's lake house. They've got a dock with jet skis, speakers, a diving board....so we were all over that! So we met the Watts and rode to Jason's parent's house on their boat Thunderstruck - this awesome 40-someodd foot super boat. Then we spent the whole day lounging at the dock.

At the end of the day Ryan and I decided to take a jet ski ride. You need to know 1 very important fact - I've never been on a jet ski before. We didn't grow up going to the lake except to fish and I never had friends that had water craft. Ryan assured me it would be fine. My last question - will I get very wet? Mostly because we were leaving for dinner after that and I didn't want to be a drowned rat at Horny Toad. He told me I'd get a little spray but it would be fine. Well.....then a big boat went by, we jumped the wake, made the turn - yay! But that turn happened a little too fast and centrifical force was working against me. Off I came. Splash! Off Ryan came. Splash! The last thing I saw as I went under was a large boat heading in our direction. I have no idea how Misti got to me so fast. She was next to me as soon as I popped up. Ryan told me to hang out, he'd pick me up. Did I mention the big boat. I swam my butt to the jet ski right behind him. At the time I thought I'd just lost 1 earring and my ability to not look like a drowned rat at dinner. But I was so wrong.....

After dinner I realized that my ankle was killing me. It kept getting worse and worse. But I am stubborn and a trooper and refused to say anything. Finally after everyone else was in bed I told Ryan how bad it hurt. It was super swollen so he made me go to the emergency room. 2 hours later and a pair of crutches I was released. Ugh! I'd bruised my bone (they thought I'd torn my ligament but that turned out to be untrue - thank goodness!).

Here's my moto - at least I hurt myself doing something fun! It was a great weekend :-)

Vroom-Vroom

Be warned...I'm backtracking a little.

So back at the end of July Ryan and I made our annual trip to Indianapolis to visit friends and see a little racing. Every year a group of us (a group that gets bigger every year - yay!) meet at Jim and Sue's house in Zionsville. Jim and Sue are our friend Robbyn's parents. They have this fab house where they let all of us crazy "kids" crash for the weekend. Its the best time!!

This year there were a total of 10 adults and 4 kids staying for the weekend. Most of us got in sometime on Friday night. Saturday we packed up 2 carloads of adults, kids, car seats, snacks, strollers, and NASCAR excitement and headed to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Saturday is qualifying day so there's a lot of cars but no actual race. If you've never been to a NASCAR event I highly suggest that you go. Now. Its so much fun! 1) the people watching is top notch. You'll see every kind of person you can imagine. My favorites this year were the 30-somethings who had each taken a white trash bag, filled it with ice, added beer and were carrying their seperate "coolers" around with them, and the guy who's friends had used sunscreen to write "88" on his back. Smart. Lets burn all of you except for Little E's number. 2) if you've never seen a car driving almost 200 miles an hour you will be amazed. The first time I saw it I literally stopped walking and asked Ryan if those were actually cars. He sort of laughed but at that speed it was hard to make out their edges at first.

So Saturday we walked around, ate some race food (giant hot dogs anyone?), bought some merchandise to support our favortite drivers and watch some qualifying races. Good times were had by all. Saturday night was BBQ and the traditional group trip to Dairy Queen. Yummy! Thanks again Jim and Sue for getting us all ice cream :-)

Sunday the boys headed to the real race. Its always hilarious watching them pack up all the gear...t-shirts, ear protection, coolers, scanners....all while Terry is dancing around wondering why they weren't there at 4am waiting for the gates to open. Someday we girls are going to be going too....we're just waiting for the little ones to get a little bigger. But until then - Sunday is girls day! Some years we've gone shopping. Others we've hit the zoo. This year....it was the back yard. We just chilled and talked and played with the kids all day. It was nice, relaxing and just what we all needed.

I'm already looking forward to next year's race weekend!!

Sometimes Life Throws You Lemons....

....and you have to make lemonade with them.

Whew! I can't believe how long its been since I posted anything! I can't believe how many things I have to blog about. Its a good thing its a slow day at work. Ok...not really slow. I have a gazillion maps to print today. But its one of those days where I can work and play at the same time :-)

I know that I've been MIA. Things have been crazy busy in my life. Work has been beyond chaos - we've had huge projects with completely wacky deadlines. So I've been blowing past 40 hours a week for awhile now.

Then there's just life in general. Sometimes it takes up more than the 24 hours there are in a day. That doesn't leave much time for blogging.

But I'm back! And catching up on a few events that have happened over the past few weeks. Its good to be back!

Southbound 35

The Kansas City Power & Light District needs a new marketing department. One of the coolest things that they are doing are all these FREE summer concerts. They do them on Wednesdays and Thursdays, its all kinds of music, and there have been some big name acts. Here's the problem....they don't advertise them very well. Which is how 2 super big Pat Green fans like Ryan and I didn't know about the FREE PG show until the end of last week! But a crisis was averted, we found out about the show, and last night we got a little Texas in our souls.

This was one of the best crowds for a show that we've had in a long time. We stood by really big fans who were all really nice. One of the girls from my gym randomly was right next to us, we had a group of crazy drunks behind us who were nice AND acted as the brut squad for all those people who didn't get there early and were still trying to push their way to the front, and a group on the other side of us who loved Waylon Jennings.

We were were only about 7 people deep from the stage - perfect! Close enough to see but not so close that PG couldn't see us :-)

He put on a really great show! I'm always so impressed when an artist does a free show and still gives it their all - it says to me that the reason for being a musician is still the same even after they've gotten big...they love the music and love the fans. PG definately brought the love last night!

THEN...he signed some autographs! YAY! After getting in a word fight with a super rude girl who cut in line (ugh!) I actually got to meet Pat! He took his pic with me and signed a koozie. YAY!!

Melting Love

Last Friday night Ryan and I got to go somewhere in KC that we've been trying to get into since we moved here. The Melting Pot. Its this great fondue restaurant on the Plaza. Our good friend Veronica had given us a gift certificate (thanks Veronica!) as a going away gift when we left Columbia. Well.....we finally got to use it!
Now let me just say that we'd been TRYING to go. I mean, we'd called several times to get reservations and the answer was always the same. Either 1) sorry we're completely booked or 2) yes, we have a table...at 10:30pm. Finally we caught on and called way in advance. :-)
Let me just say that if you've never been to this place you should go. Now. As soon as possible. It was wonderful! They have this Big Night Out - its basically a 4 course dinner. We started with cheese fondue, then salads, then came the main course. Now....I've never had fondue as a meal. Cheese and chocolate fondue - that's where my knowledge ended. They bring out this fondue pot of broth and a plate of raw food - beef and chicken and pork, along with a plate of raw veggies. We actually got to cook the food in the broth! Stick it on a fondue fork, put it in the pot, wait 2 minutes, wha-la! Its great because you take your time and get to talk. We ended the night with chocolate fondue. Veronica told us to absolutely not skip this part and she was soooo right! A big bowl of chocolate with all kinds of things to dip - strawberries, bananas, cheesecake....it was heaven! You should visit heaven.

Confessions of a 30-Something Wanna-be

Way back in December the HR person, Juanita, at my office started planning a 50th birthday celebration for another woman we work with. Juanita was determined to give Patti a 50th that she wouldn't forget. What's the best way to do that? Make it a surprise. Want to make it even better? Take Patti who is in LOVE with Elvis to an Elvis-themed dinner theatre show.

So for months the all-girl surprise crew has kept it quiet, and last night was the big reveal. We showed up at the dinner theatre early, waited patiently (ok, maybe impatiently) for the birthday girl to show up, and then got all shook up (bad pun, I know...) over some Elvis music.

Now, I have to admit...I don't love Elvis. Don't get me wrong - he's got some great music and he was nice to look at, but I've never gotten the obsession that some people have with him. But I do have a confession to make - I'm in love with the theatre. And an even bigger confession - I would absolutely LOVE to be in musical theatre. Yup. There it is. Everytime I see a musical or a live performance with backup dancers or a show at a resort there's a part of me that wishes that I was one of those performers. So there you have it - confessions of a 30-something wanna-be.

The show last night was fun. Very Grease meets Shakespeare's As You Like It. And honestly...I don't know if I've ever met a musical that I didn't like.

Gold Metal TV

Is anyone else out there as obsessed as I am with the Olympics? Every 2 years I become glued to my television. I don't want to do anything but watch every minute of it. Its killing me that Beijing is 13 hours ahead of us and tons of events are on 1) while I'm at work and 2) while I should be sleeping at night. My bedtime has been pushed w-a-y back every night since they started.

And its not like I just like to watch a few events. Oh no. I have to watch every. Single. One. It doesn't matter if its swimming (holy cow Michael Phelps), track (love it), equestrian (curse work for interferring with this one) or some I never watch except during the Olympics (handball anyone? Fencing?).

And of course there are all the athete stories that go along with the events. You know, the ones that make you cry. What? You don't cry? Ok, the ones that make ME cry. I love them. All of those stories are so inspiring and make me want to watch even more.

Well....I've only got a few more days left to watch. If you need me - you know where I'll be :-)

Pre-season Tailgating

Break out the red shirts, the BBQ grills and the coolers!! Chiefs football is here!! Saturday night was the first preseason home game for the KC Chiefs. Ryan and I couldn't wait to hit the stadium and support our team. Getting into Arrowhead was a little more tricky this year. They've got so much construction going on and our usual sneak-in-the-back-way-and-miss-traffic route was closed. Oh no! We had to go in a different gate - and then try to weave our way to our usual parking lot. We tried to go over a grass median - no dice...the drop off was too steep for our VW. If we'd had a truck... We had to ask a nice woman working there how to get to our spot. She didn't know! Apparently the construction has everyone confused! We got as close to our normal spot as possible and set up camp. Chicken kabobs, chips and dip, a few Cuba Libres, gorgous weather...we were in heaven! The guys behind us provided a great tailgating soundtrack. Thanks random boys! The game wasn't nearlyl as successful. We lost to Arizona 17-27. Ugh! Let's hope we're getting those kinks out now...before regular season starts! The kicker of the night...someone stole the lid (just the lid) off of our BBQ grill. Really? Who steals just a lid? I think I would have rather that they took the whole thing. At least then I would know that somewhere, someone was using the grill. Now I just have a useless grill. You sort of need a lid. I guess we're off to find a new grill before the next game.

Banana Pancakes

Ryan and I bought tickets w-a-y back in May for the Jack Johnson concert, and Friday night I FINALLY got to see the show! That's the worst part about summer concerts...the tickets go on sale in the spring and you have to wait months until the show! Our friends Kathryn and Matt drove in from Columbia to hang out with us, and we all met Tom and Alexis for a pre-concert dinner. The show was awesome! I "heart" Jack Johnson! And the show was everything that I expected - laid back, full of good music and comfy. People sang along, beach balls (Jason Mraz's balls!?!??!) bounced through the crowd and Jack seemed like he was just hanging out with a group of friends and jamming! Loved it! There was even a shooting star at one point in the show!

Well....here I go.

Hello! Welcome to Casa de Lanclos! I've never had a blog before and you might be wondering what on earth made me decide to start one up. Well....a lot has changed over the past year and half. Ryan and I have moved to Kansas City from Columbia. We've both gotten new jobs (I've actually had 2-the 1st one wasn't exactly my cup of tea). We've bought a house (a completely un-planned adventure). So there seems to be lots to talk about. But most importantly - many of our friends and family are scattered across the country. My good friends Misti and Taisia recently started blogs, and I'm addicted to them. I read them all the time. So I thought that I'd start one up too - as a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Thanks for the motivation girls!!