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.

Look alikes

Last night we took Amanda out for dinner for her last night in KC. We wish her well as she starts a new chapter of her life in Minnesota living with her uncle's family.

We went to Olive Garden for the Never Ending Pasta Bowl. The service was slow and our waiter seemed pre-occupied but he kept our needs meet. Out of the blue near the end of the meal he looked at me and said "you know you have a celebrity look-alike, don't you." I was like "'huh?" because he really hadn't spoken a word to us other than to get our order. He proceeded to try to name my celebrity twin although he couldn't remember her name and he said the movie she was in was something about a dozen. Riley figured out that he was talking about Alyson Stoner from Cheaper by the Dozen.

Maybe there is a slight resemblance, but I don't think we look alike, not to mention the fact that I am 27 years older than her. I did think it interesting that her role in Cheaper by the Dozen kind of portrays my tom-boyish personality.

Tri #2

I completed my second triathlon of the year on August 1st, the Win For KC Woman's Triathlon. This is my favorite course and event of the year. It's the race's 4th year and my third time. Word has spread and the race sold out before June 1st. The free spaghetti dinner the night before was packed and I heard there were over 650 women participating.

Storms were moving out when I woke at 5am. I took my time getting dressed and had a light breakfast. I was set to leave at 5:30am but my truck wouldn't start so I resorted to plan-B and moved my borrowed bike and bags to the car and pulled out of the driveway a few minutes later.

The drizzle stopped just as I pulled into the grassy field to park a little after 6am. It was a chilly morning but I left the wetsuit in the car figuring there was little chance of the lake being 78 degrees or less in August.

My race number was 26 so I was allowed on the rack closest to the exit. This race is a staggered start so one person starts every 3 seconds instead of a mass start. The start order is by swim time ranking with the fastest going first, I would be the 26th to start.

Just as they were calling the pre-race meeting it was announced that the water temp was exactly 78 so I quickly rode back to the car and grabbed my wetsuit and headed for the pre-race meeting. I've been in enough of this windy director's races to know that the meeting will last at least 15 minutes. As Clay thanked many sponsors I wiggled into the wetsuit and immediately started sweating. At 7:45 we all hug the woman standing next to us and lined up for the start.

My swim felt pretty good and I passed about a dozen or so women on the way. I got out and saw my watch said 6:55. Holy Cow that was a really fast swim!! I ran up the hill passing another on the way. Once in transition I slowed to a fast walk so I wouldn't be breathing too hard on the start of the bike.

I was lucky enough to borrow the bike I'm considering buying from Epic Bikes: Specialized Ruby Expert 56cm. I took it out for a short 4 mile ride on Thursday and it rode smooth and quick. This bike is similar in quality to my current bike (carbon fiber frame and ultegra components), however it is 16 years newer and sized perfectly to me.

Back to the race ... the bike leg is an out & back and 10 miles in length with the first & last half mile on the road leading out of the park through Paradise, MO. As usual, some really fast biker women passed me in the first mile and I knew these were the die hard triathletes. I was feeling pretty good but unfortunately, the borrowed bike didn't have a computer so I couldn't tell how I was doing pace wise. As I passed mile marker 3 I tried to calculate my pace based on the elapsed time and I concluded I was doing okay. After the turn-around between miles 6-8 I saw most of my friends riding the opposite direction (remember I had a head start being #26). As I entered the park in Paradise, MO I noticed my time was nearing last year's time so I picked kicked in and sprinted the last 1/2 mile. My final bike time was 1 minute slower than last year. A bit disappointing but I blame it on not knowing how fast I was /wasn't going.

In transition I switched shoes, had a quick drink of water and took off running. I was still making good time from that killer swim leg. After about a half mile I pooped out and couldn't keep my heart rate down. This problem started about 10 days earlier and without explanation. I didn't have a monitor on but I'm sure it was over 180. I ran the rest of the 2.6 miles by jogging one minute then walking 3o seconds, then jogging 1 minute again, etc. Needless to say my run time was awful.

My final time was just one minute slower than last year. It is almost a month later and I still haven't figured out what is wrong with my heart rate. On a better note, only 4 other women swam faster than me. Two were on a team, and thus were finished after the swim and didn't have to save anything. The other two were 20-24 yrs old, so I'm impressed with this 43 yr old body of mine. The fastest swimmer was only 2o seconds faster than me and she won a Garmin fitness watch for being the best. If only would have known I would have gone 21 seconds faster!!!

This is me with the race director, Clay Myers-Bowman.

This is my buddy Christine celebrating a little too much with mimosas at the finish line festival!!!

I'm looking forward to the 5th annual Win for KC Tri in 2010!!

Disney World 2010

Our family vacation was to Disney World this year. In the wee early morning hours of August 9th we took off from KCI headed to Orlando. We touched down around 10:30 local time, had lunch in the airport and then caught the Disney Transport bus to Disney's Carri bean Beach Resort. Next to us on the bus was a Disney FANATIC. This dude moved to Ft. Lauderdale to be close to WDW. This was going to be is 196th night at Pop Disney. He knew everything about everything at Disney. I've ready about these kinds but had never met one in person. OMG.

The resort was well equiped and we could have spent our entire vacation just three. Our room was finally ready around 2:45pm so we napped and then headed to Magic Kingdom. The park seemed smaller than I remember but we still couldn't get everything in during our 6 hour stay. We did the Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland Race track, the Peter Pan ride, Winnie the Pool, Aladdin, Stitch's Great Escape, and probably others that I can't remember. I refused to ride the Mad-Hatter's Tea Cups with Riley because they spin too much and she didn't want to ride alone. She refused to let me ride Splash Mountain alone, so I had to returned early Thursday morning while she was still sleeping. I also got to ride Thunder Mountain t00. Space Mountain was closed but that was okay with me. I didn't particularly like it 20 years ago.

The next day we went to Blizzard Beach in the morning. This is a water park with a really cool water slide: Summit Plummet is almost a straight drop for 12 stories where you go 50-60 mph. Riley was nice enough to wait an hour for me because I just *HAD* to do this. As I neared the top I was actually nervous and full of adrenaline. This is the longest, fastest, tallest waterside on record in the world! Its over in about 4 seconds and gave the biggest wedgies I've ever had in my life, but it was really cool. Thanks Riley, for riding the Cross Country Creek lazy river around the entire park 3 times while I fulfilled my need for adventure. At almost 43 yrs old, I wonder if I will ever loose that thirst?!?

Monday Night we went to Downtown Disney and had dinner at the globe Planet Hollywood. We also shopped some and played around in Disney Quest; a 5-story arcade.

We slept in Tuesday then went to Epcot. We were one of the last to get a fast pass to Soarin'. We got there around noon and our pass was for 6:15, so we spent the next several hours playing around. We created a video game starring us in Innovations. We had "Turtle Talk with Crush" from Finding Nemo. We did "Journey into Imagination with Figment" which was my favorite 20-yrs ago but it didn't live up to my memory. We watched the "Circle of Life" show which I think is the same one played at the KC Zoo's IMAX theater. We played the Kim Possible Adventure, and our mission took us to Mexico. Around 4:30 we had dinner at place in China. it was so hot that day and so we just found the first sit down restaurant in air conditioning. After dinner we made our way quickly thru the countries and finally made it to Soarin. The line was 2-hrs long so I was very happy to have a fast pass. This was the coolest ride in Disney in my opinion, and I didn't even get motion sick despite all the warnings. The world showcase was closing soon so we rode Spaceship Earth and then headed home. I though Riley would really like Spaceship earth because she likes history but she wasn't really phased by it. I enjoyed it.

Wednesday was Hollywood Studio's day (f.k.a. MGM Studios). I was pleasantly surprised by this park. we didn't get any fastpasses because Riley wasn't sure if she wanted to ride Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania was out for the day. Our first attraction was Beauty and the Beast live on Stage, a 40-min shortened version of show. It would have been much better if it was in air conditioning. We also saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid live, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, and Studio Backlot Tour, the American Idol Experience Finals, and Journey into Narnia's Prince Caspian. As it was getting dark, Riley decided she would ride the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror so we got in the hour-long line. In front of us were some teens from the Dominican Republic so the hour went by quickly as we talked to our new friends. This ride ranks almost as high as Soarin in my book and despite it being a thrill ride Riley fell in love. We had to return to the park another day to ride it two more times and buy a t-shirt.

Thursday brought us to Animal Kingdom. We watched It's Tough to be a Bug, a multi-sensory show based on Bug's Life movie. We saw this show at Disneyland in 2003 an it was still just as good. Afterwards we got a fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safari and then looked around the park. It was really hot and there were few places to duck into a/c except for the souvenir shops. The Safari was nice as we saw giraffes, lions, elephants, wildebeests, and such. Afterwards we got a fast past for Dinosaur and shopped around some more. Riley discovered that Dinosaur was a roller coaster and decided she didn't want to go, so I gave her fast past to a kid from London. Fastpasses let you go to the front of the line and just as we were getting on the ride it broke. they tried to fix it for 25 min and then made everyone leave. Once again, Riley was bored waiting for me, but at least she found a cool place to sit and wait. This picture is of Riley playing the bongo's at Africa in Animal Kingdom.

Friday was our last full day. We went back to Hollywood and Epcot. At Epcot we toured all the countries in World Showcase. This pic is Riley at an pub in England with a knock off Beatles band in the background. It is really neat how everyone who works in the countries is actually from the particular country even down to the hostesses in the restaurants. I can't really say what my favorite country is there but we spent a lot of time in Japan and Morocco. I do think they should have a space for Greece.

All my days are blurring together, but one day we went to Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours one day. The wave pool there is the bomb! Every minute or two it lets out a huge tidal wave that you can surf.

Saturday morning I went to Animal Kingdom early while Riley slept in. I finally got to ride Dinosaur and I think she would have liked it. It wasn't a roller coaster but more of a jeep on a jiggley track. I also rode Expedition Everest a thrill coaster. We check out of the room at 11 and swam in the resort until we had to leave at 1:30.

All-in-all it was a good trip; tiring, but fun. I consider my parental obligation fulfilled. We went twice to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Disney Quest and we went to each water park once within a 6 1/2 day span.

Our resort was nice but big, the main area was an 8-10 min walk from our room which made it difficult to get our free drink refills or be around anything convenient. We stayed in Barbados which wasn't the furthest away! The rooms were clean and the grounds were landscaped nicely so I have no real complaints.

The transportation system is very convenient. We normally waited 5-10 minutes for a bus and the longest wait was 18 minutes. They could get crowded but I didn't mind standing up for a 10 min bus ride every now and then. Staying onsite is the only way to go, otherwise you have to pay to park in a lot a mile way and take a hot tram to the gates. The internal bus system picks you up 100 ft from your room and drops you off at the park's front entrance.

We mostly ate the fast food at Disney. $8.75 for a greasy 1/3rd lb burger and fries plus $3.50 for a soda. The sit down mediocre resaurants run about $70 for the two of us. The best Disney food we had was at the buffet at Hollywood. I'm sure if we would have gone to the fancy restaurants that require reservations 3 minths in advance we would have been more impressed. Luckily I found Flipper's Pizzaria, a local shop that delivers all day to your resort. They had good pizza, salads, wraps, pasta and sandwiches. Riley and I could eat 2 meals for $25. We ordered twice :)

Where will our 2010 vacation be to?

Addition

Back in March our church youth pastor ask if we'd be willing to host his girlfriend for the summer. Riley and I discussed and decided we have plenty of room and it would be fun to have a house guest!

Riley & I worked hard during May to clean out the spare room (Matt even helped some) and Amanda arrived May 25th car packed to the rim. Right away she fit in with our little family.

She and Matt grew up together in the small town in northwest Pennsylvania. Matt attended undergraduate school in Nashville and just finished his first year of seminary here in Kansas City. Amanda has been attending a small college in Ohio.

Before she arrived she decided not to return to her school in Ohio, but rather move to KC and got to cosmetology school. My first thought was that she was altering her future for a man .... (big no-no) but I soon learned that she was really just looking for a change in life. KC offered her the chance to get away and make anew, and Riley and I are excited to be a part of it. Unfortunately, she & Matt decided they were better off as friends.

Having her around the house is a blessing. She is a big sister to Riley and huge help to me. One of the best parts is that I've become more disciplined about eating dinner at home. It's much easier to resist the temptation for carry-out or dining-out when I know I have help at home. Often dinner is prepared when I get home and family dinners are enjoyable.

Next week she is taking Riley shopping for school clothes. This is a win-win situation because I despise this annual chore and I think those 2 girls are really looking forward to it!

In a month or so things will change. Amanda has lots of free time right now only working 18 hrs a week. She and Riley will be headed back to school and free time will be scarce for the both of them. I'll be running Riley around to her various activities and Amanda will be working in the evenings.

iNeed2Change

Our pastor started a sermon series titled “iNeed2Change” and today’s focus was Attitude. This will be one that hits home for me .

My intent when I started to blog 3 years ago was not to portray my negative side, which often dominates me. I live a pretty good life, but recently I have been in retreating deeper into my content little circle peering out at the bigger world around me with negative eyes. If I let my mind wander I naturally see the glass half empty, everything from global issues like society’s decaying morals to petty minor issues such as neighbors not treating their growing crops of dandelions.

My sister told me I need to blog more, though when I’ve felt like blogging lately, it has been a desire to convey my attitudes about things that irk me rather than how I see life positively. In addition, my life has been pretty routine lately and not exciting enough to share :) I got to work, come home, cook, clean, workout, and relax a bit by reading, playing on the computer or watching TV. Sometimes the order of these activities is mixed up a bit, but generally that is my typical weekday.

Now I don’t share my negative opinions much, but I do believe in karma. Could it be that my two accidents (toe and bike wreck) this summer have been a result of negative thoughts? Maybe when a friend confides that they don’t understand why their diet isn’t working all the while eating a bag of butter pretzels, maybe I should tactfully explain instead of sarcastically thinking “DUH!!!”

The message at church today was how to live life with a more positive attitude. Does complaining really help solve problems? Attitudes are contagious and removing negative people from your life while still showing God’s love will have a positive impact on how you see life. From today forward I am going to look for the half-full glasses. I’m happy that my friend recognizes the need for a healthy life even though the implementation of a diet isn’t successful.