Boy it looks like a beautiful week to go camping, am I ever excited!!  I hope the basketball tourney is on satellite radio, because we’ll need something to pass the time while we sit in the car watching the rain/snow mixture come down.  Geez, we’ll probably have to send a look-out canoe ahead of the main group to call out icebergs.  Oh well, so far it looks like it is going to be just a bit warmer than last year, and we survived that one.  Last Easter it dipped into the teens at night, forcing Munkirs and I to snuggle in one sleeping bag just to survive.  (Nah, we’d have frozen to death before that happened.  It was cold, but we stayed well on our respective sides of the 6-man tent.)

Remarkably, we actually left the house a few times this weekend.  Friday was a non-event however, so I’ll substitute Thursday’s outing for the sake of some material.  That evening, I went up to the bowling alley in Raytown and hung out with some co-workers, as if I hadn’t seen enough of them during the afternoon.  That’s the second Thursday in a row I’ve been to a bowling alley…  Suspicious.  They’ve got two-fer-a-buck tacos though, can’t go wrong there.  I hung out there for a while, and then headed back home.  Mid-drive, however, I was notified that the neighbor girls were watching the Big 12 tourney on TV down at the Brooksider.   Donette was up North having dinner with her family, so I figured “What the heck” and stopped by for a while.  We watched MU get thrashed by the mighty Nebraska team, then I headed home, since it was well past 7:00!!  The neighbor girls, meanwhile, decided it would be a good idea to go hit Westport for the evening.  Ahhhh, to be young.

Saturday got off to a rough start, but rebounded later.  I woke up early, and decided to start the day with a solid breakfast.  A quick inventory of the ‘fridge turned up all the stuff for a ham and cheese omelet, which sounded like just the thing.  I must say, it turned out masterfully;  Sharp’s ain’t got anything on that omelet.  I enjoyed a few bites of it, then decided I needed a glass of milk to accompany my meal.  As soon as I turned my back to go into the kitchen, Gabe and Kane got into one of their all-too-common disagreements.  You would think Gabe would be the instigator of these events, but Kane has been observed more than once taking an unprovoked swat at his nose, so I’m not really sure who started this one.  (He might not be the smartest kitty in KC, but I’ll wager you he’s one of the fastest.)  Anyway, I got everybody all settled down, then returned to the table to find that Kane’s path of escape had been right through the middle of my beautiful omelet, as well as my full cup of coffee, which got dumped all over my unread paper.  I think I blacked out for a few seconds, but when I came around I was still screaming at those dumb animals.  I’m not sure they cared though;  Heck I think Kane was rather pleased at the delicious coating of mexican-blend cheese on his paws.  I can’t really blame him anyway;  I suppose if I had a snarling 75-lb. pitbull snapping at my heels I wouldn’t really care whose breakfast I ruined getting away either.

So, after a delicious meal of cold cereal, Donette got out of bed and we took the bus downtown to check out the Big 12 scene.  (Wow, a two-paragraph day!!)  I had a pair of tickets to the games, so we went down a few hours early to walk around the new Power & Light district.  I’ll give it high marks so far;  Pretty cool spot, especially for around here.  We bummed around a while, then went over to check out the new arena and watch a little basketball.  Unfortunately, our seats were so high up that the game was kind of hard to follow, so we only made it until half-time of the KU game.  It was still early, so we headed back across the street and had a remarkably good lunch at Gordon Biersch.  I say “remarkably” because they seemed to be struggling a bit with the crowd, so I wasn’t expecting much.  It came out very good though, if a bit slow.  After the basketball game was over, the place got just ridiculously crowded, so we bailed back to the bus stop for the ride home.  Of note regarding the ride home, I actually initiated a conversation with a complete stranger!  And after all the grief I give Donette about talking to strangers, sheesh.  I noticed the guy was wearing a Pellet Envy jacket though, and it piqued my curiosity.  Turns out that he and his wife (who was with him) are indeed the Pellet Envy team, and we had just a fine chat about competition BBQ’ing on the way back to Brookside.  (Remarkably, he was not familiar with the Triple Fat Back moniker.)  It also turns out he is entered in the Memphis In May competition for the first time this year, so he invited us to stop by his booth while we’re there and check things out;  Score!  Weary from all this interaction, I spent the rest of the day on the couch watching TV.  I watched Hostel II and some other horror flick that was so bad I can’t even remember the name of it.  Whew, busy day though.  I even took some pictures of the tourney and a few of the dogs playing in the back yard;  They are posted in the photo gallery.

Sunday I was still tired from the previous day’s events, but I managed to rally and get down to the gym for a while.  After a grueling 10 minute workout, I headed back to the Brooksider and joined Martin to watch the championship game on TV.  It wasn’t even that crowded down there;  I guess everybody was downtown watching it maybe?  We hung out there most of the afternoon;  I even had a cigar and then we sampled a few of the Boulevard Smokestack beers.  They were quite interesting brews, if maybe a bit on the expensive side.  Unfortunately I forgot my wallet and Martin had to pick them up, so money was no object.  After the game Donette came down and visited for a while, then we went and had dinner at Tanners to wrap up the weekend.  Oddly, we ran into our new bestest friends from Pellet Envy there again…  I think they are stalking us.