Renaissance Festival 2009

My niece came in town for the weekend and we took trip to the KC Ren Fest. It was a treat having Vicki here because she has lived out of the country for 6 years so I miss doing things with her.

It has been 3 years since I've been there and nothing really has changed much. Riley's friend, Megan, came along and the two almost-teenagers went their own way while Vicki and I wandered about. They found us when they ran out of money :)

We watched a few skits, including a large bird show (picture on right) and a rather vulgar show on indecent fighting. Of course, we had to watch the human Jousting at 3pm where Sir Thomas, the good guy, looses only to become the victor at the 4:30 show.

We shopped around but Vicki was unable to find the perfect bodice as she hoped at the Boss Wench. I bought my usual dated souvenir mug to go with my collection. We had some great novelty food including the turkey legs in which the Ren fest is known for. A new item which was very tasty was the cream-cheese filled pretzels. YUM!

Riley & Megan rode the spinning pole thing (don't know the official name) and enjoyed it. Its neat to see the carnival-type rides that use only human power and gravity to run. It's also nice to watch the human power and their muscles :)

The girls had to attend a birthday party at 6:00 so we lefta little early so they could get cleaned up and to the party on time.

Vicki and I decided to have dinner at Strouds (they choke their own chickens!) the chicken place that always has a long line. Strouds has several acres to roam so we brought our books to enjoy the peacefulness by the pond while we waited for our table, though it wasn't as peaceful as expected because a large swan decided it was his dinner time also. I captured this video of him eating grass. A few minutes later he came very close to where I was sitting and hissed at me. It was his way of saying that I needed to move so he could eat the popcorn by my feet. I gracefully scooted to the other side of the table, but if he is anything like a dog I'm sure he smelled my fear. He could probably take a chunk of flesh off my leg with beak if he wanted, but thankfully he only wanted the popcorn at my feet.

Remodeling the back yard

When I moved in 8 years ago I vowed to do something with the back yard. The space under the deck had a small fence around it to keep in the previous owners dog. I soon tore-out that fence and with the help of a buddy put a 4-ft fence wooden fence around the entire yard. Since then the space under the deck has done nothing but grow weeds and collect junk.

A few weeks ago my neighbors marked their yard for a concrete slab near the back. I decided to have a concrete patio poured under my deck at the same time. I originally wanted a brick patio installed but it was difficult to find someone to do it without tearing up the grass. Besides, the concrete was about half price of bricks.

They did a good job, though the grass is about 3-5 inches below the top of the patio. So now I am going to do some landscaping and put some timbers about one-foot from the edge and fill it with topsoil and some flowers and stepping stones. It will be something that will need weeding in the future but it will look really nice. I'd like to put in a small pond off to the side with maybe some small goldfish. Stay tuned ....

P.S. if you know anyone looking for a free wooden dog house send them my way. That too was left over from the previous owners and Buster has no interest in it.