Ugh, my Uverse is still broken.  I thought they were going to come up with some miraculous fix, but by now I’m rather resigned to the fix being “wait until my contract is up and switch services.”  What a drag.  I think I MIGHT be getting close but there are still weird intermittent phone problems.  Oh well.

So today is my big birthday.  By “big” I refer to the number.  Large.  Huge.  Unfathomable.  I was having trouble coming to grips with the whole situation, but at the end of the day I guess it’s unavoidable.  At least I got some mileage out of it, in the form of a weekend-long party in KC.  Now THAT was fun.  We flew there on Thursday with another couple from CA.  By the time we got all checked in to the hotel and stuff it was pretty late, so we just kind of hung around the area we were staying in (Westport) and showed them the lay of the land, so to speak.

Friday morning we got things started with a 10:00 tour of Boulevard Brewing.  I’m not sure how many times I’ve done that tour, ten maybe?  It never gets old though, seems like there is something new every time.  This time, the biggest change wasn’t to the brewery itself, but the tour format.  You used to have to sign up online, and it was almost impossible to get in one.  They were booked nearly a year out.  Now you just queue up at 10:00 and get your tickets, first come first server.  We showed up a little early and stood in line for a while, and had no trouble getting in on the first one.  After that, we gave our friends a quick tour of the Brookside area.  After hitting a few of my favorite spots, we moved downtown to the Phoenix and caught the Lonnie McFadden show;  Always a good time there.  After a good dose of jazz trumpet, several friends from Nebraska let us know they had arrived.  We took that as our queue to go grab some food, so we moved up the street to one of the finest dining establishments in KC, The Peanut.  Can’t beat chicken wings, BLT’s and nachos for dinner.  After scarfing that down, we headed back to Westport and met up with the NE group at Kelly’s for a good round of story-telling from The Big One of ’91, as we always do when we get together, then moved on to some other spots for more of the same.  We shut down Westport, I think it was like 3:00 when we left.  Or maybe 9:30, somewhere between there.

Saturday started off with a solid lunch at Jack Stack‘s Plaza location.  I wouldn’t call it my all-time favorite, but it’s always a solid bet for sure.  At first they said they wouldn’t be able to seat our large group, but they came through and got us a huge table.  After an extreme gluttony session, we had to go back to the hotel for a nap.  For evening entertainment we headed down to the always-fun Knuckleheads to catch a Rainmakers show.  That was one of our favorite bands (way) back in our college days, so it was a fine coincidence that they just happened to be playing that night.  The only downside was they’ve opened a new enclosed building at Knuckleheads, and that’s where they played.  I much prefer the outdoor area, although I’ll admit it was pretty darn chilly out that night.  I had a great time at any rate.

Sunday the event-of-the-day was the Royals game.  Donette had rented the Hall of Fame suite, and several friends were able to join us to catch the game.  After a week of rain predictions, it turned out to be just about the ideal day to watch a baseball game.  Actually, it turned out a bit on the hot side, so it was nice to have the air conditioning to retreat to whenever we wanted.  Extra bonus, they even won, albeit in a rather drawn-out fashion.  After blowing their scant lead in the ninth, they pulled it out with a walk-off homer in the 13th.  Whew, long game!  We wrapped things up with a little food at Grinders, and then it was time to head back to good ol’ Cali.  For a quick weekend trip, I feel like we did a good job of hitting a lot of my favorite places.  Can’t get to ’em all, but maybe for my 60th.  I did an absolutely abysmal job of pictures, but I have a few.