Wednesday Night in KC - the most happening party in town

Hey everybody. As i write this it's 1:30 am on Friday morning, but let's get back to Wednesday night because it was a lot of Fun.


It was a good friend's 30th birthday so i decided we had to throw a party. Since my life is so busy lately, getting the party together was a real last minute affair. The key to making a last minute party successful... free alcohol. After that just put out some festive lights, play some good tunes and everything else falls into place. Oh, and balloons are a must.





It really was a great night, old friends and new friends hanging out and sharing some laughs. Oh, and be careful if you buy candles for a birthday cake. The trick ones aren't labeled very clearly and then you end up with a cake topped with 30 candles which are practically impossible to extinguish. Superman couldn't blow these things out.

• The Jayhawks played Wednesday and it looked like Baylor gave them about all they could handle. i couldn't really watch since we were having the party, but i see that once again Collins had a huge night. He put up 28! The man is on an absolute tear lately. Crane Tech's finest.
• That reminds me, very soon i will have a guest columnist providing post game analysis of the KU basketball games. Stay tuned.
• i'm late by exactly one month on this one, but It's Joe Strummer, which means it's always the right time - December 22, Joe Strummer tribute.
• More Joe Strummer
• More Joe Strummer
• More Joe Strummer
• More Joe Strummer

Chow

Text Message of the Week - and a little baby

Hello everybody. My domicile has power again so i'm up and running at 100% efficiency.


This week's text has several different things going on. Obviously 'Preadator' is a totally bad ass movie, it needs no explination. Then there's the fact that it really takes you back in time to that instant when 'Predator' was on channel 72, were you watching? But what i like best is the refernce to a certain outstanding tv show, do you know the show?




Besides reading texts i also got in a ride last night, we had a good group, then we all dined at McCoys in Westport. Plus we got to hang out with the little baby. He's a cute kid.

Technical diffulcities - stay tuned

i blew a fuse in my apt last night.

The text message of the week will be posted tonight around 9pm.

Thank you

Saturday Night in KC - getting drunk

It seems like it's been a while since i went out and hit the town, so last night we went to Gilhouly's over on 39th st. I love that place.

It was packed and there was no place to sit but before the bartender had even brought us our drinks, another employee / bouncer had brought over a table and three chairs. That's service. It was like something out of 'Goodfellas.' Plus you get 5 plays for $1 on their Jukebox, that's unheard of these days! Plus the junkbox has great songs to choose from. Oh, and someone left 20 unused credits in the juke box so i happily used them all. 7 and 7's, good company, great music... i was in heaven. Oh, and i just remembered i made a bet with my friend that he won't complete the Chicago Marathon this October. 100 bucks! You near that N, and E is a witness.

Here's a sample of some of my jukebox songs.

• New Order, 'Ceremony'
• The Band, 'The Shape I'm In'
• The Strokes, 'The Way It Is'
• The Clash, 'Lover's Rock'

Adios

Street Cred! - it's a bike race people

Today was stage 2 of the Street Cred series.

What is Street Cred you ask? it's a series of un-sanctioned/ guerilla bike races in kc. i guess it's been going on for four years but this is the first year i've done it. Today was a 'crit' race. About 10 of us did around 18 laps of a short loop thru side streets and parking lots. the race lasted 30 minutes, which is longer than it sounds.

For the start we laid our bikes on the pavement, and then stepped back about 50 ft...





When it was all said and done i think i finished in around 5th place. The official results haven't been posted yet. I fell about halfway thru and hurt my writst, nothing serious. Luckily it happened right in front of a group of people, i think they enjoyed it. The brakes on that cross bike suck big time. Oh, and the course was peppered with snow, slush and ice. That sh*t's been on the ground for the past three weeks! Oh, and also, parked along the route were two moving vans, with movers coming and going. Honestly though... it was a very awesome time and i'm glad i got to do it. How great is it to have really run racing that's practically in your backyard?!?!

After that we pedaled thru downtown (lots of fog today) and up to Parkville to check out a local Cross race and visit a nice bike shop. i rode in the car for the last part of the ride but not before i purchased a giant pixi-stick from a very pleasant gentlemen on the side of the road. Sorry, no pictures of that. Anyway, The bike shop had a Paolo Bettini signed Rainbow Jersey! Awesome. We also stopped to have a quick beer. On the ride home i noticed they butchered one of the trees in my neighborhood. The Boulevard Smokestack Series 'Double-Wide Indian Pale Ale' was and is lovely.

KU had a basketball game today but I missed it completely, that doesn't happen often. Nevertheless... i see they stomped Texas Tech. Marcus Morris had 20 pts. Whoop Whoop.

Ciao for now

Thursday night in Kansas City - baseball bats and mtn biking

Hey everybody. It's friday evening now and i can already tell it's going to be a lazy night. Yesterday was fun though.

I keep a baseball bat in my office, it use to be sitting in our warehouse so one day i adopted it. I'm not a violent person but works been stressful and i feel like beating something with it, not a person but maybe my computer... or the fax machine. I should be okay though, bike riding is an amazing stress reducer.

So after work there was time for a quick change and then i was off to drink espresso and read some of the Star. I can't imagine what life is like in Haiti right now. It's terrible. For anyone interested... you can text 'Yele' to 501501 and it donates $5 to the Yele Haiti Organization. That's the one founded by Wyclef Jean. He seems like a good person. (Editors note, 1-17-10... Concerns have been raised about the accounting practices of Wyclef Jean Foundation inc. and Yele Haiti, you may want to donate your money elsewhere.)

Later in the evening i headed downtown for some urban mtn biking. Did i mention how awesome the new wheels and tires are? They are totally and completely bad ass. And i'm gonna keep hyping Volker Bicycles too, they made it happen. Whoop Whoop!

While i was out i snapped a photo of the 'still under construction' performance arts building, which is nice. Then i made a great, great dinner. grilled ckn , baked potato, broccili, carrots, tomato, butter and olive oil. Salt & Pepper. All cut up nice and neat. All in one bowl. Bam.

Finally i changed some tires and played with a new Garmin do-hickey. i like Garmin.

Adios

• Here is another great song and video by the late Jay Reatard - Jay Reatard, ' See Saw'

Wednesday night in KC - It's not freezing anymore.

Hey everybody. It's late and I'm tired so here's the day in a nutshell.


As 5 oclock gets closer and closer the sun begins to shine into my office, it's a great transition into freedom. As soon as work was over i grabbed a quick car wash (and by the way, the best part of the car wash is that you have to drive really fast down Ward Parkway to help the water dry off,) and then i immediately hit the homestead to grab the mountain bike, complete with my new Mad Max wheels and tires, thanks to Volker Bicycles for hooking it up. Oh, and the Mad Max thing is my own personal nickname for the wheels & tires. They're actually called something else. But they are brand new, and they are bad ass, and they do look like something Max would use, if his V8 ran out of gas.) They work great and made for an even more enjoyable wednesday night ride.


It hit 40 degrees today! that's warm. After the bike ride it was strait into the shower, which as you'll see is still having problems. Now the shower head is f*cked up so i removed it and it's like taking a shower under a hose, which surprisingly is not too bad. Next it was time for the KU - Nebraska bball game (KU won, i only partially watched but Sherron seemed to have another big night, i love that man) plus we had dinner at Coaches. Unfortunately, while at Coach's we didn't get around to playing shuffle board, maybe next time.


peace

• January 13th, a Humphry Bogart tribute - Casablanca
• January 13th 2010, R.I.P. Jay Reatard - Jay Reatard, 'It Ain't Gonna Save Me'