Spring is Springing!

 

Even with all of the crazy weather patterns we're seeing, the flowers are starting to bloom!  This makes me happy!

Queens of the Stone Age

 

For Andy's birthday, we went to see Queens of the Stone Age at the Beaumont. What a great show.  It seriously exceeded my expectations.  We got there early enough that we were able to find a decent standing spot on the 'balcony' (more of an elevated bar area really).  We went with a couple of our friends, and met up with a friend and former bandmate of Andy's.  The boys got these sweet x-ray posters that are already worth far more than they paid for them (Thanks to Miguel!).  

Anyway, the show.  Josh (Homme, the frontman) didn't interact with the crowd as much as I expected, especially not at first.  I later read some articles that said he'd been ailing that week, so perhaps that was why, I'm not sure.  He might just not do a lot of that anyway.  The good news was, he didn't really need to.  The show was incredibly tight, and it was all about the music.  This tour was to mark the re-release of their debut self-titled album, so they played that in its entirety, with "The Bronze" tossed in there.  After they played that album they essentially did 2 encores: 1 of requests, and 1 that acknowledged Songs for the Deaf (their most popular album...ya know, the one with "No One Knows"), and also included "Make it Wit Chu", much to my delight. 

All in all, it was a great show.  When I think back on it, it's almost as if I were in a trance.  I remember dancing and enjoying myself, but it's all kind of one blur.  It might have just been that I was about to pass out from the heat, though.  

Two thumbs up!

B(E)LT!

Jenny texted me this morning, offering to buy me breakfast at either YJ's or Succotash.  How could anyone say no?!  We went to Succotash, and I had the B.L.T. (it's called that on the menu but it also has an egg on it), and the Cubano (fresh juice - pineapple, cucumber, apple, mint - YUM).  The half of sandwich that's left over is going to be SO good for lunch later this week.

 

 

I feel like I should also include that since Jenny has now mentioned YJ's, I will be needing to go there soon.

American Legion, Claycomo

Tonight was the celebration of Andy's late cousin.  His birthday falls on Monday, the same as Andy's.  His mom decided to have a birthday party of sorts.  It was at the American Legion in Claycomo.  I didn't even know this place existed, but it's actually only about 2 blocks from where my aunt & uncle used to live, when they were first married.   It was a divey little basement bar, where I paid $3.50 for a PINT of Beam & water!  By the end of the night it had gone up to $4.50 and gotten weaker, but even then it was a great deal!

A night out with the Mays is always fun, and this was no exception.  It was also cool because my parents came.  We watched some of the most ridiculous karaoke ever.  The highlight of my karaoke watching was an old gentleman who, as my dad aptly put it, had "a church voice".  He sang songs by Englebert Humperdinck and he shook his old man hips, and he was adorable.  The lowlight (also a highlight in its own way) was probably the one Andy called Quasimodo.  He was a strange looking guy, wearing biker leathers with blue flames on them.  He 'sang' George Thorogood, and it was as if he'd never heard the original songs.  I later found out that he rode in on a scooter - not a cool Vespa even, but more on level with a moped, which added that much more. 

  

Andy's aunt & her BFF, making the DJ uncomfortable (yeah, a crappy picture...the only one I took, though!)

Wine Tasting @ Gomer's North

 Any time Gomer's has a wine tasting on a Monday or Wednesday, I make every attempt to go.  Since Andy was at the farm and I had a reservation for 2 I brought Jenny this time.  It was an exceptional tasting - wines of the Pacific Northwest, as well as one 'special surprise', a Napa Valley wine called Shafer Relentless, at a super marked down price.  Even at the marked down price, I shouldn't have bought it, but I justified it by calling it a birthday gift for Andy.  A yummy birthday gift.

 

Besides this the other standout was an Oregon pinot noir (of course) that I can't remember the name of offhand!  I'll add to this post when I remember/check!  

Highly Coveted Beer Treasures!!

Right before Valentine's Day, Boulevard and Christopher Elbow (a renowned local chocolatier, if that's a word) collaborated and came out with a chocolate ale.  I believe I mentioned it in my V-Day Recap.   Kansas City went batshit-crazy over it, and rightfully so, as it is delicious.  We were lucky enough to catch a few glasses on tap.  After it was totally official that I wouldn't find it anywhere in town, I started calling friends out of town and asking if they could find it.  Long story short, Erica found some in St. Louis and bought 4 bottles for us!  Mi Ángel de la guarda!  

While we were in Rolla for St. Pat's other beers distracted us from making the switch, but when she came to town this past weekend she brought them, wrapped up in her underwear in an incredibly heavy backpack.  

 

Yum. 

 

WyCo Armored Truck

 

 ....need I say more?

Children & Random Cheap Shit

After the previous night's Dark Horse power hour, I had a bit of a headache.  Erica was in worse shape.  But being the dedicated and lovely people we are, we were off to Lil Reggie's birthday party at Fun Run in Liberty.  I'd post a link, except I never want to go there again.
In my mind it was going to be like TunnelTown used to be.  I say used to be, because as far as I know the only one left around here is in Lee's Summit, and that might as well be the opposite end of the earth.  If you don't know what Tunnel Town is, you must have had an awful childhood.  It's basically a building full of a maze of tunnels, and rope bridges, and all of the fun things that come with tunnel playgrounds.  It was not uncommon to find a small child in there sobbing because they could see their parent through the porthole but not get to them.  Pussies.
ANYWAY, in reality it was a strip mall space full of inflatables.  You know what I'm talking about, shit like this.  There was also a 'town', which some poor sap built from plywood and labeled with Sharpies.  In the town was a jail, a fire station, and a Build-a-Bear-esque shop which I believe they called a 'pet store' but I could be wrong on that one.  Apparently there was an arcade on the other side, but I didn't venture that far.  They had a snack bar, and the people who worked at it were all assholes.  I didn't go to the bathroom there either, but I was told by hungover/pukey Erica that the toilet didn't work.  When she went to tell an employee they said "Great."  ALL OF THIS FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF $7.50/child!  If I didn't have such lukewarm feelings toward children, I believe I'd buy a large metal building and fill it full of those eyesores and only charge $6.50. I should probably say here that I'm sure the place is lovely if you have children.  I just don't think it measures up to Jungle Jim's Playland from the days of my youth - yeah, you remember that?!  Apparently there is still one in Utah - luuuuckies.

Birthday Boy (:

After dropping Erica off at Union Station and a failed attempt to visit the WWI Memorial, Mom and I went to Red X.  Now there's a link worth posting.  Red X is the kind of place that you have to set aside an entire day if you really want to experience it all.  It's a store, sort of.  It's almost like a combination liquor store/discount grocery/flea market/hardware store.  They have an area of weird off-brand shit, where I found a genuine BADGER toothbrush, they have an area of cheap t-shirts, lots of groceries, tobacco products, a huge liquor selection, and it's also where bells go to die.  I probably should have taken a picture of them to demonstrate what I mean...It just seems like every time a bell (we're talking large bells, church bells & such I assume) around town is no longer going to be put to use they drag it over to Red X, where there are at least a dozen large bells outside.  I wonder if there's a story behind that.

They also have fun house mirrors.

Project Inspiration

Okay, so I found something I want to do.  Of course, all project ideas are on hold until we return from our Hawai'i vacation, so I snapped a picture in case I forget.  

The strand of Christmas lights on my back porch has officially stopped working.  Whether it was the elements or the fact that several bulbs have gotten crushed by the bathroom window, I am not sure.  In any case, I need to take them down.  I was getting sick of looking at them anyway.  There are 3 light fixtures on the porch, but they are just too bright for drinking/partying, so I was trying to come up with some sort of easy & cheap way to get some 'ambient' lighting out there, when we went to Dark Horse for Power Hour.  (Erica came to town!  HOORAY!  We didn't do a whole lot (read: just drank), but I had a blast.).  I've done this many many times, but I've never sat at the bar before, which we did this time.  Above the bar they have these lanterns:

  

...Made from Patron bottles!!  By golly, I think we've got an idea!!

Doin' it Up, 21 Style

Tonight we went out for Miss Miriam's birthday.  We went to The Final Approach, a (lame) bar near the airport.   When we got there, Danny was a little bit drunk already.  About an hour later, Danny was REALLY drunk, and they cut him off at the bar.  Just a few minutes later, he fell out of a chair, and was then kicked out of the bar.  About an hour after that, Miriam fell and was kicked out of the bar.  SO by 11:30 it was all finished.  Jenny & I came back to the house for a power hour.  We're practicing for St. Pat's!

P.S. While we were at the bar, KC's "Best Country Rock Band" was playing.  I certainly hope they're just putting baseless claims on their flyers.  I hate to think there's no better 'country rock' band than them...

 

 

 We had the pleasure of being a part of THIS on the way home today.  It took us a painfully long time to get home after an accident on I-435.  

YUM

I got my tax refund today!  I know I'm spending it on our Hawaii trip, but when everyone was going to Piropos for Robert's birthday (Happy birthday Robert!), I couldn't resist.  I had a delicious steak and asparagus and chipotle mashed potatoes.  Piropos is muy excelente....if you've never been you should go.  It's pricey, but worth it as a splurge every now and then!!  I prefer the Parkville location over the Briarcliff, and that's where we went.  Andy's friend also tends bar there, but I don't know him well enough to approach him when I'm not with Andy....Anyway, that is all for today.

 

Fiiiii-re (dun dun dun)

The weather has been so wonderful this week!  Next week it's supposed to be crappy & snowy again, but to take advantage of this spring teaser (and to get rid of the many boxes we accumulated through online Christmas shopping), we had the family and a few friends over, grilled out, and burned shit.  These are a few of my favorite things!

 

Wherein I Discuss Desserts. Sort of.

Today I introduced some coworkers to Lucia's, an Italian restaurant that is a favorite of Andy & I.  It's possible I've mentioned it in this blog before, but I don't have much luck when I search it to find these things out.  In any case, we had a nice lunch.  I had the eggplant parmigiana, which is what I always get.  It's done just right, which is hard to find with eggplant dishes.  They have great homemade salad dressings, and we've always had wonderful service.  Once we were all done, he tried to coerce us into some of their homemade desserts.  Sarah started to cave when he mentioned tiramisu, and then he said something about a huge chocolate cake, and Mike decided to order it for us all to share.  Between the 4 of us, we didn't finish it. 

Booty Blaster

The frosting was like fudge.  It was SO rich, and SO chocolatey.  And I then entered a chocolate coma upon returning to work.

Moving along, Andy and I stopped at the grocery store to get some things, and I wandered to the bakery to see what kind of treats they had dreamed up for the impending Valentine's Day holiday.  I found this gem of a cookie cake:

"I'll always forgive you don't worry"?!?!  What the hell!?  It's like, 'Here baby, take this $5.99 cookie cake, which is also a free pass to do whatever shitty things you want to me and know that I won't mind one bit!'  I thought it was just the strangest message to put on a cake ever, and it was surrounded by 'TXT ME' and 'LUV U' cakes.  I should have bought it; $6, what a steal!!

The Decemberists/Mountain Man

Months ago, I heard a rumor the Decemberists were coming to town.  That was on a Friday.  The following Monday it was made official, and the date was announced - Feb. 7 at Uptown.  Prior to the date announcement my friend Katie (who lives in St. Louis) was talking of coming up to see the show, but when it turned out to be on a Monday she couldn't justify the 4-hour drive and/or missing work for it.

I was still bound & determined to go, until I got a bill from American Family for my homeowners' insurance.  I'd never gotten a bill from them, as it is supposed to be billed to my mortgage company.  I had to pay it in order to make sure my house stayed insured, and they are supposed to reimburse me after Wells Fargo pays them, 'within 3 weeks or so'.  Basically, I had no spending money.  So when The Wayward Blog posted that anyone could comment on their Decemberists Facebook post with why they should give you tickets, and they'd pick a winner, I figured I'd give it a shot.  I posted about the insurance mix-up, AND I WON!  WOOHOO!


So Jenny & I went.  AND THEY WERE AMAZING LIVE.  Also, Mountain Man was the opener.  It's 3 ladies and an acoustic guitar that 2 of them pass back & forth.  I really really enjoyed them.  I planned on buying the LP on my way out but they didn't take cards, and I didn't know my PIN to get cash out of the ATM (long story). 

So Mountain Man came out and wowed with their vocals.  They all had kind of old-fashioned voices, but in very different ways.  They were also great as far as crowd interaction.  They ate up the crowd's energy.  It was just a fun, light-hearted show.  The people behind me were making fun of them, but you know how hipsters are.  If they haven't heard of something, it's obviously because it sucks.  Before the show, I read a quick review of them that compared them to Fleet Foxes.  My first reaction was skepticism.  I love Fleet Foxes, and wasn't sure that anybody quite compared to them...but sure enough, it was a pretty apt comparison.  Only the female version.  Mountain Man's Facebook page lists their genre as night music, which is also pretty appropriate.  Check them out!

Then the Decemberists took the stage.  Having never seen them live, I wasn't sure what to expect.  My first impression was that they were a tight band, but didn't do much to engage the crowd.  A solid show, but a tad stuffy...which would have been disappointing after the humorous, if somewhat goofy, introduction from the mayor of Portland.  Luckily, I turned out to be VERY wrong.  After a few songs, Colin Meloy started talking to the audience more, and he and the drummer John were funny.  By the end of the set, when they closed with a version of  The Outfield's "Your Love" (You know it - 'I don't wanna lose your love, to-niiiiight'), with Colin on drums and John singing, I was smitten.  I wanted to take Colin home with me (not in a dirty way!  although that'd probably be okay too), and be best friends with Jenny (Conlee, the keyboardist/accordion player).  They were incredible live, I can't say that enough.

At one point Colin ended up in the right balcony, a la Ben & Tyler, with the owner of the Uptown and his family.  He stood above the crowd and played the guitar behind his head, showing off just a little bit.  Oh!  And Sara Watkins, that was a nice surprise!  Nobody is quite like her on the fiddle!
  
Anyway, I'm told they did 2 encores, but I had to find Jenny after the first one and we ended up leaving.  But I left happy.

Little Drummer Boy

It was a good weekend.

Andy is in Nashville, and I miss him, but I got to spend some time with the fam which is always usually good.  I played Rock Band with my parents.  My dad still refuses to sing, but they're both getting better at drums and guitar.

Dad & I had a 6-beer lunch (that's 3 each, not 6 each...should I have said 3-beer lunch?) at Grinder's.  If you've never been there, do yourself a favor and head to Crossroads.  It'd been far too long since I had their wings and Philly cheese, not to mention they have great beers on tap.  We met up with Mom and Krista afterward at Paul & Jack's in North Kansas City.  Their beer selection is not so great, but we tried 2 other bars before it which were both closed.  Mom had some food, and a family friend bartends, and they're pretty cheap, so it was a good time anyway.

Sunday was of course the Super Bowl.  Before that we made it to Agave to try their new breakfast menu, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Krista came over and brought the boy, and he played in the music room.

He's pretty good, I think, as far as 2 year olds go.  I don't know the capacity of the average 2 year old for a drum set, but he was keeping steady rhythms, AND he had a drumming face.  My friend Jake, an excellent drummer, once told me that the first step in becoming a good drummer was having a 'drumming face'.  You have to screw your face up, close an eye, stick a tongue out, and look as weird as humanly possible.  Apparently this helps you keep tempo...Maybe not, but in any case, the Z Man had his tongue stuck out and his face all shifted to one side.  I don't think I've ever seen him concentrate on something for so long, or maintain interest in any one thing for that long.  It was entertaining.

So the Super Bowl....we went to the aforementioned bartender friend's house; they have a party every year.  I don't remember much of the game, but I had a blast!  Also, I've always thought the Packers were my second favorite team, but I have to mention I found myself rooting for the Steelers.  Perhaps just because they were behind, and I like both teams.  I'd decided beforehand to root for whichever team was on defense.  Anyway, the moral of the story is that Andy and his black and gold blood seems to have rubbed off on me.  I'm still happy for the Packers, though, so - Go Pack Go!

A White February

We, like a large part of the country, got slammed with this crazy winter storm. It didn't really kick up until the afternoon, so I went in to work. The problem was, once I got there, they weren't being very accommodating of people who wanted to leave early. Eventually I did anyway. Andy said it was starting to get bad, and he didn't feel comfortable waiting any longer, so I left work about 1:15. I should have left sooner...or about 15 minutes later. Long story short, the roads were terrible. This mixed with rear wheel drive doesn't make for a pleasant trip home. It wasn't TOO bad until we got almost home. The state highway we live off of wasn't really plowed, and we got stuck in the turn lane. I had to get out and push, and eventually we made it through there. We then made it to the street we live on, which hadn't been plowed at all. We tried and tried to make it up the hill, and we were about to give up and park at the bottom, despite the fact that we'd get plowed in. We decided one more try, and ended up in the ditch.

A neighbor and I tried to push out, but the way the wheels were stuck it just made things worse. I called a tow truck, and they said it'd be 30 minutes. As I was on the phone with them, here comes the plow. They did a round and then stopped and said they weren't allowed to hook up chains but they'd help try to push. As I was explaining that only made matters worse, a neighbor stopped on his way home and said he had chains and would run up and get them. He got back and started talking to Andy. He said, 'I'm no physics major, but I don't think I can pull you guys up the hill....', which was pretty true. They decided to pull us out of the ditch down the hill. After a lot of flopping around in the snow, they found something to hook onto under the Mustang and they were off. I stood in another neighbor's driveway and we watched.

Andy & the neighbor, hooking up ;)

He got him out, and the neighbor I was next to said something to the effect of 'All right, he got him out!', and I was watching and replied, "Yeah, now if Andy can get his car stopped before he hits the truck," which was punctuated by the sound of the 2 cars hitting. Our neighbor, who we think is named Justin(?) pulled Andy out & stopped and Andy had too much momentum and not enough traction and sailed right into his trailer hitch. Luckily it didn't do anything to the truck, but the hitch mount poked a square hole right in Andy's rear bumper. Definitely a huge bummer. Come to find out, the tow trucks were gouging people for $300/ditch, so in the grand scheme of things I guess it's alright. The bumper will surely cost more than that, but it's not money we have to come up with TODAY, so that part is at least a relief. Even after all of that, we had to push the car up the hill to my house, and at that point it had been plowed.

When we got home I was exhausted and dirty and freezing. We hunkered down in our pajamas and just hid out from the cold. In the early evening we heard something outside, and another neighbor was blading the driveway for us!!!

Neighbors make rural living preferable.

So now we're trying to figure out something to make/buy for them. Andy's thinking of smoking some stuff. Shocking, I know, but I think that would be pretty cool - way better than baking cookies or something like that...

Be safe out there. Or better yet, don't go out there.

Petes-ah!

We met my parents for beer tasting, and we were planning to go to get some greasy In-a-Tub tacos afterward, but they gave us this:



so we all went to Pizza Shoppe. It was nice; it felt like we hadn't seen them much in a while. Everyone's hunkered down for the winter, I suppose.

Largely Frozen

When we got home from Audrey's apartment last night, I noticed this:

MONSTER-CICLE!

SNOW!

Toes in the sand....sort of.

I have to say, except for whole the trying to go places thing, I enjoy the snow. I want to play in it. And when it's dry and powdery like it has been this year I want to sled. When it's wet, I want to build a snowman. Andy does not share in any of these desires. He does not think, like I do, that there are few things more beautiful than undisturbed snow.

Something neither of us desires and must be done, though, is shoveling the driveway. After a sick day in the house today, we realized we had to dig ourselves a hole if we wanted to leave in the morning. We headed outside to shovel in the dark, and a quick 2 hours later we had a path cleared.

As you can see, I got sidetracked. My Wellies sure look dirty in the snow!!