NickTrip.com

So, while in Kansas, I hit the ground running from the first full day. I was in Lawrence Fri and Sat, taking part in the pre-wedding festivities on Fri, and then the wedding Sat. Good time that weekend. The food was great. We went to a place on Fri just off of Mass St., on New Hampshire, around 12th or so. Can’t remember the name of it, but it was great. And no, it wasn’t Qdoba. Wedding was great. I managed to cut a few dance moves, not too many. I learned what the cupid shuffle is, and I also learned that gettin giggy wit it is harder to dance to than I thought. That song moves.

So, like I said, I did see a movie, went to BR for ice cream a few times, and met up with some friends for lunch, dinner, etc. Ate a decent sandwich at the Blue Moose in Prarie Village. They don’t have great food, but I do like their sandwiches. Also, ate at Italian Delight, and again, went with the pizza. Good stuff, and HUGE slices. If you haven’t been, I recommend it. And the food is all good.

I did buy some new shoes. Hopefully (at least I’m telling myself this) it will help my back. My old shoes were really worn out. I played some video games with a friend of fine, which I don’t do very often. Of course, I spent enough time in my youth playing video games. A little tecmo bowl, brought back some good memories. My mom and I ate at Chili’s one night. I love Chili’s. I could eat that grilled chicken sandwich or the Old Timer all week long. I still to this day haven’t had the baby back ribs though.

I went to a frisbee golf course in Olathe, played a 2 man scramble. We got beat by 5 strokes through the first 18 holes, so in my poor attitude state, declared that if we played again, our team would win. My brother and his teammate obliged, and we played well for 7 holes, down one, but then after 9 were down 3, hec, maybe 4. It was over. I melted down at one point and threw (what I thought was going to be a great shot) one of my shots 20 yards backwards and about 30 yards to the right. I’ve never seen a shot so bad. And apparently neither had my teammate, who was the only witnesss, but he told the other guys about it as we were finishing the hole. I thought that I had gotten away with anyone seeing it, but no. I was mocked, as I should have been.

And, my mom and I went to a friends house for dinner one night as well. Had some wonderful lasagna, topped off with a slice of tippins pie. The pie came after dinner of course, not on top the the lasagna.

So, the St. Johns social and seeing Inception could be the last items on the list, although just hanging out with family is a good option too. Although, the wildcard is the Royals play 2 games tonight. One starts at 6, the other after 9:30 I would assume. Midnight at the K! Probably won’t happen, but the weather would have cooled off by then. So, here’s to another good trip in KC. Oh yeah, I headed downtown as well, and went to lunch with a friend who took me to see the Bridge of the town of Kansas, near 3rd and Main. Cool view. If I ever figure out how to take pics from my phone onto the computer, I could post them so you could see. KC has a lot of bridges, like Portland.

The great thing about Kansas is that it can be 95 degrees one moment, rain may kick in and drop the temp about 10 degrees or more, and then its right back up to 95 within hours, and a bit muggy. You get all the jungle aspects of Costa Rica, without the nice beaches and food. Other than that, Kansas is just like Costa Rica.

So, its been a great trip. I got whooped at dominos last night with my family. I finished 5th out of 6, not a great showing. I couldn’t believe how mad I was getting. I kept it all in, but that just made it worse. Clearly I’ve got competition issues when I ticked off that my great aunt and uncle are beating me in a game of dominos. But, like Herm Edwards says, “Hello?! You play to win the game!” The slice of tippings chocolate silk pie made things slightly better though, and seeing them and my bro, sister in law and mom have fun, and I was having fun too, laughing a bunch as we all were during the night, made it a great evening.

So, my niece is having a birthday party, should be fun. Good weather to be swimming today. So, I will be present for that. Note, I say present, not necessarily active. I’ll just supervise. I did go see Despicable Me and got some ice cream a couple of times with my niece, which was fun. The movie was good. I enjoyed it.

Just watched Man v. Food, didn’t know they were in KC. I think they were there in May to film. If you didn’t catch it, it’s a good one. They stopped by Oklahoma Joes and Strouds. I’ve never been to Pap Bob’s BBQ, in Bonner Springs. I’ve been through that part of Bonner, I guess I just never realized that it was there. I would have no chance at that sandwich, with the fries is 6 1/2 pounds. The burgers is what kept him from eating it all. 45 minutes, that’s tough.

Just watching the chicken being cooked at Strouds made me hungry. Man that looked soooooooo good. I think that I did a man. v. food challenge once in Phoenix a few years back, maybe 2009. I ate two 4×4’s at In N out Burger. Basically, two quadruple burgers. I had some fries with that also. I haven’t been back since but I’d like to do that again, but also add a shake to it. I want to try the Buffalo Wild Wing challenge as well. I think that it’s 12 hot wings in 6 minutes. I need to research that one a bit more. I’m just a JV eater, but I can hold my own in the food eating challenges. Is that something to put on a resume?

I went to see that the other night. Good enough for me. I think the audience wanted more laughs, like obvious laughs. People don’t want to work very hard anymore at anything, not even to laugh. I enjoyed it, and I would have laughed more, but I would have been the ONLY one laughing. I know the movie geeks rated this one low, so maybe it wasn’t that good. But good enough to get me laughing. In the end, that’s what I’m paying money for, me to laugh.

I’m hoping to head out to a place called Hagg Lake near Portland (well, within an hour). I’m still searching for that first Oregon bass.