Shopping in Kansas and fixing display issues......

We went out to look for some appliances for our new home. We decided to head over to check things out at Nebraska Furniture Mart, which is about a 15 minute drive away from our apartment on the Kansas side of Kansas City. It's a huge warehouse with everything from electronics to appliances to flooring. It even has tons of furniture (in case you couldn't figure that out from their name).

We headed over to the appliance section first, since that was the main purpose of the trip. I was momentarily distracted as we passed the grilling section of the store (4 burner grills?!?!?!), but managed to pull myself away to look at refrigerators. There are so many different forms of refrigerators. It's quite mind-boggling. We just wanted to look at the features for now. I'll be measuring the space in the next week or two to figure out what we can fit in that space. Freezers on top, freezers on the bottom. One door, two doors, three doors(!)........anything you want pretty much is available. I did gawk at some wine coolers as well, but we're going to have to hold off on that for a bit.

Next we headed over to the washing machines/dryers. I actually had done a lot of research in that department already. There's a really nice model that GE makes that has all the features and size of the high-end models, but doesn't cost quite as much. Most of the reviews are very good on these machines. Consumer Reports gave it the 'Best Buy' stamp in front-load washers and dryers. We took a look at it and it's a really nice machine. I do need to go out and read up some more on it. I didn't see any specific information about these machines that said whether or not it cleans up big messes that little kids make. I'm guessing I'll need that in any washer/dryer that I buy.

We then looked around at some furniture. Tons of stuff available. We looked at bars, chairs, sofas, beds, tables, lights......the list goes on and on. We aren't actually going to buy all that stuff, but it's nice to just look around and see what's available. We also wandered into the baby area and checked out some cribs. One of the amazing things that they have now is something called convertible cribs. I'd never even heard of this kind of thing. Basically, after the kid gets too big for the crib, you can take off the sides of the crib and the front and back of the crib become a headboard and baseboard for a twin-size bed! So you don't have to actually go buy a new bed in that case. Pretty neat idea. I'm not sure we'll be getting one, but a nice way of making the furniture more useful for families.

At one point in our trip through the warehouse, I happened to notice that there was a large display area of college logo door mats. I noticed a glaring oversight in their display.......no Mizzou doormats! As I got closer, I realized that there was some tomfoolery going on. The Mizzou mats were on the bottom shelf where they could barely be seen. Not only that, someone had thrown two pink (!) doormats over the stack of Mizzou doormats! I personally believe that this was no accident.

1. The pink rugs was obviously intended to show that the person that put those rugs there thought that Mizzou was filled with a bunch of sissies.

2. The placement of the Mizzou rugs in a place that was mostly out of sight was also no coincedence. They wanted to make sure that the clientel didn't have to look at a logo that puts the University of Kansas to shame.

I quickly remedied the situation. I pulled the pink rugs off the top of the Mizzou rugs and put them somewhere else on the display. I was very happy with my renovation of the rug display and we headed home. We may not have bought anything, but we did a great deed and service for the University of Missouri, so it was definitely a good trip.

Finally, we have a home!!!!

Well, we finally got the word that our offer on a home has been accepted. We had to wait a few days because someone had a contingent offer on our home, but they couldn't get together enough resources to make a firm offer, so they had to cancel their contract. We're going to be moving to the north part of Kansas City. Really good schools and a new neighborhood that is mostly built in already.

It will be really nice to get into a permanent home. We've been moving all over the place for the past year and a half. Plus, with a baby on the way, we wanted to get established somewhere just so we're relatively stable once the baby arrives. Nova will be excited to finally have his own yard again. Plenty of big trees to mark as his own.

Our house will probably be somewhat sparsely populated with furniture to start, but I'm sure it will fill up soon enough. We're going to take it slow in that regard. It will just be nice to have an actual home for the first time in 15 months.

Good news on the chunky dog front........

Our dog Casanova is succeeding in his crusade to get back to a normal sized mutt. At his highest weight, he was in the 106-108 area. After a couple of months, I'm happy to report that he is down around 90 pounds and is not far from his ideal weight of around 80-85 pounds. So he gets major kudos for his hard work (although some of the credit goes to the fancy diet food that he switched to recently). He's living proof that you can have a mid-life weight crisis and quickly fix the issue. He's a beacon of hope for all those struggling to lose weight after they turn 40 (in dog years).

The other day, I went through my usual routine of getting ready for work. After my shower, I put a used washcloth on the floor. I took Nova outside to let him do his business before I left for work. After that, I headed out the garage door to go to work. When I got to the car, I realized that I had forgot something. So I went into the apartment to get what I needed.

When I walked into the door, there was Nova standing in the hallway, holding the used washcloth in his mouth. I don't think he thought I was coming back in. As soon as he saw me walk into the door, he immediately dropped the washcloth, acting like he didn't know how it got there. I asked him what he thought he was doing. He immediately sat like he usually does in these situations, appealing to the side of me that wants to believe that my dog never misbehaves. I didn't chastise him in any way, because he didn't intend on doing anything wrong. He just wanted to take the washcloth somewhere and roll around on it because he likes the soap smell.

As I drove to work, I suddenly realized that this type of behavior may have been occurring for some time now and I just didn't realize it. In the past, I had often found towels or washcloths sitting on the bedroom floor. I usually attributed them to my somewhat messy wife, thinking that she had just been in a hurry and had dropped them wherever she was at the time. I never said anything to her because I didn't want it to seem like I was telling her what to do in any way. So I'd usually just pick them up and throw them in the dirty clothes hamper. I now know that Nova was the one that was spreading her towels all over the bedroom and bathroom. So it's a good thing I didn't get on my wife about the towels! Truly, this is a case where you actually CAN blame something on the dog.

Good night at the poker tourney......

I played in our monthly poker tourney last night. Really did quite well. I played some pots well early to increase my chip stack by about 50%. I slowed down my play at that point a bit.

I eventually got AA and raised it up a bit. Got one call, but then they folded, so I didn't make too much off my monster hand. Next hand, I looked down and found..........AA. Are you kidding? Best hand possible two hands in a row? Unfortunately, I raised and got no callers. Pretty disappointing to get a monster hand two hands in a row and not make much off them. But, it's always better to get a small win rather than lose big.

Several hands later, I got KK. I raised it up and got one caller. Flop was K73. Trips! I checked hoping to induce a bet out of the other person. He checked as well. Next card was a 5. At that point, there's a possibility for a straight out there, so I need to make a decent bet. I did bet and he folded. Think I got as much as I could out of that hand.

I slowed down and didn't get a lot of hands for awhile. My chip stack was starting to get low and I looked down at QQ. I went all in and got called by QT. Got to love that. I doubled up. Soon after, we moved to the final table.

I picked up AA early in the table and managed to pick up a big pot early on. I made a great read on another player a bit later. I had 53 and just called a bet. The flop came 643, giving me bottom pair and an open-ended draw (i.e. I could get a 7 or a 2 and get a straight). The pot was 4,000 and the other guy bet 2,000. He was leaning forward and bet quickly, two signs that he might be weak for most players. I thought it was a pretty good read and so I raised 8,000 more. I heard him audibly sigh and knew it was a good move. He asked me a couple of questions, trying to get information, but I knew he was in a bad spot. He folded and I now had a good stack.

I eventually got into the final two against the hostess of the event. Played pretty well and controlled the heads-up match for the most part. I made a bad move late that really cost me dearly. I made a bluff bet on the river with basically nothing. That move would have been a good one earlier in the hand, but on the river, she didn't have many chips left so she was forced to call with almost anything. It was my only major misstep and it probably cost me a win, but I beat out 16 other players, so I can't complain.

Haircuts get in the way of big things......

I went to the local 'Great Clips' franchise near our apartment to get my hair cut the other day. My hair was getting a bit long. When it gets long, it feels like a stocking cap during the summer months. It's at that point that I know roughly how my long haired dog feels during the summer. It must be pretty hot laying around in that fur coat all summer long. He can thank his mother for having him out of wedlock and dumping him on the streets of Raytown, Missouri. Thankfully we picked him up at the pound and put him in an air-conditioned home. But I digress....

Anyway, as I'm getting my hair cut, a guy comes in with his 7 year old kid. The kid is walking quickly ahead of his dad. The dad talks with the receptionist and a lady tells the kid that she'll be the one cutting his hair. The kid responds, "We need to make this quick! I have a play date at 3:00 PM!".

PLAY DATE?!?!?! What happen to just saying that you wanted to go play with the neighbor kid? This kid's world is so busy that he has to schedule play time around all his other obligations? What else does he have to do? I'm going to guess that this is just an Overland Park, KS phenomenon. Pure craziness.

This day of the year never gets any easier......

Well, it's a sad, sad day here in Kansas City. As of last night, the Royals have been mathmatically eliminated from the playoffs. Just because this situation has occurred with alarming frequency over the last 20 years or so does not make it any easier. The one year the Royals were poised to make the playoffs in the '90s, Major League Baseball officials cancelled the rest of the season because of a player strike. That's just how badly the powers-that-be want the Royals to remain a failure.

Thankfully, it would appear that there are brighter days ahead of the team thanks to a lot of good moves by the new general manager. 3B Mark Teahan is blossoming into the All-Star caliber player that most projected he would be. LF David Dejesus has been consistantly hitting around the .300 mark all season. C John Buck has turned into a solid catcher with occasional power. 1B Ryan Shealy, who was stuck behind an All-Star first baseman in Colorado, was traded to KC and is playing very well. Players like OF Billy Butler and 3B Alex Gordon are in a prime position to see significant playing time in 2007 or 2008. P Luke Hochaver, who was drafted #1 this year, has signed a major league contract and is expected to be in the starting rotation sometime next year. Scouts are raving about how well he is pitching in his first starts in the minors.

Yes, it's time to look forward to next year with a month and a half remaining in the current season. 'Tis a shame, but that's just life as a Royals fan. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the new prospects that the Royals acquired. Now we begin to pray that the light is not a train coming down the tunnel in the opposite direction.

Belly pics - Week 15

Three weeks to got until the midpoint of the pregnancy.......

Nova's destructive powers.......

This is a picture of a wall outside the front door of our apartment........



See that barren area of ground along the edge of the wall? That's an area that Casanova regularly 'marks'. We don't feed him anything other than dog food. Yet that dog has something in his system that literally kills anything living where he does his business. My mom once claimed that one of her bushes/flowers was taken down by Casanova after he visited for a few days. It would appear that this photograph proves that her claims were quite likely true.

Good day at the poker tables today.......

I played in a couple of tournaments today.

First tourney was a $2 buy in tournament. I actually had enough bonus points (earned by playing at the website) to buy in for free with my points. There were 211 people in the tournament and the top 30 places paid out. I played very well and finished in 25th place. I won $3.40 for my effort. I actually got all-in on my last hand with the best hand. Unfortunately, the other player hit one of the three queens in the deck that could save him on the last card, so I was out.

Second tournament was a $5 buy in tournament. There were 220 people in the tournament with the top 30 places paid out. I played very well in the tournament and finished in 19th place. I won $8 for my work in that tourney. Irony struck in the final hand as the other player caught one of the three queens in the deck on the final card after I was a 4.5 to 1 favorite when I put my chips all-in. Twice beat after both players had a 6% chance to win on the final card. Tough to have that happen not once, but twice in one day. But you want those types of situations. Always better to be the one not praying in those circumstances.

Past the 'danger' timeframe and all is well......

Mrs. Lime just got done with her baby checkup and all is well. Got a heartbeat this time without problem. The 'danger' area for a pregnancy is the first 3 months. We found that out the hard way last pregnancy. After a miscarriage, I'm not sure that the danger zone isn't the whole pregnancy. Too many stupid things just 'happen'.

I'll take a baby with a head, two arms and two legs at this point. If the baby comes out with good form on his/her jumpshot, that's just icing on the cake.

Mrs. Lime will find out if her wish comes true much sooner. She's obviously hoping for a swimmer. I hear the baby starts kicking around pretty soon. She'll find out the hard way if the kid has good kicking strength.

Also, for what it's worth, I haven't put on any sympathy weight as of yet. Mrs. Lime has gained some weight, but not all that much. I think the baby appears to be using up quite a bit of what she's eating.

Roadway mess......

Saw an unfortunate situation on the highway the other day. I was driving down a 4 lane highway in the area. Suddenly, the pace of traffic slowed down to a crawl. After about a mile or so going very slowly, I noticed on the right side of the road that there was a car with their hazard lights on. At that point, I'm thinking, "Good Lord, all of this traffic for a stalled car on the side of the road????".

As I got closer, I notice that the car had a flat tire. Certainly a bad thing, but nothing that should cause this bad of a back-up. Then, in front of that car, I saw another car with a flat tire as well. Hmmmmm........

By the time I finished passing by all the cars, there were 12 cars on the side of the road with flat tires. 2 of them had ALL 4 tires flat and a couple of the other ones had at least 2 tires flat. Evidently, someone had some sharp objects come off of their truck or trailer and they went all over the roadway, resulting in a ton of busted tires. I made sure to follow the tires of the car in front of me as closely as possible, hoping that anything that might have been left on the road would get stuck in their tires and not get my tires. Thankfully, I made it through without incident.

Tail chasing is (mostly) behind us........

Yes, pun was intended.

It appears that our dog, Casanova, has finally started to overcome his tail-chasing problems noted a couple of weeks ago in the blog. He is now sleeping comfortably overnight without any problems AND without his pretty flower collar. He's quite happy that he doesn't have to wear that anymore. He suffers an occasional relapse when he gets excited when we come home or when he gets to do something like go for a ride, but it's quickly handled at this point.

Mrs. Lime has been doing some contracting work over the past week and a half in the area. That has left Casanova at home by himself. The other day, things turned a bit crazy. The night before, I had left a garbage bag sitting open in the corner of the kitchen. I had a couple of more things to throw away before I tied it up. In the morning, I headed off to work. When I got back, Nova greeted me at the door and then trotted off to the bedroom. I asked him where he was going, but then quickly realized he was heading in to hide. The contents of the trash bag were strewn all over the apartment. The leftover spaghetti and chicken breast that were thrown away were nowhere to be found. Needless to say, Nova received a stern discussion regarding his impromptu fling in the apartment.

The weird thing is that we've done that many times before and he's never misbehaved or touched the bag at any time. Strange stuff. Mrs. Lime said he may have been bored because she wasn't around. She'll be done with her contract in a couple of days, so he won't be alone much longer. He'll have plenty of attention at that point.

Belly pic - Week 14

A foreigner's glimpse of the United States.......

While it seems to be very en vogue to take shots at our country because of the battles we currently fight, the United States is still seen as one of the greatest countries in the world by most.

I am a huge fan of George Will and his opinions. There's not a person that I identify with more than him from a political standpoint. I found this excerpt from a George Will speech that I thought I would pass on. If you would like to read the whole speech, send me an e-mail and I can forward it to you. It was just a bit too long to post in its entirety in the blog.


I want to read you something. This is a story told by a foreign diplomat who was in his own country overseas, and he had occasion to visit the United States Embassy in the capital of his country.

This is the story he tells:

I arrived a quarter to six, after official office hours, and was met by the Marine on guard at the entrance to the Chancery. He asked me if I would mind waiting while he lowered the two American flags at the embassy. What I witnessed over the next ten minutes so impressed me, that I am now lead to make this occurrence a part of any ongoing record of this distressing era.

The Marine was dressed in a uniform, which was spotless and neat, he walked with a measured tread from the entrance of the Chancery to the stainless steel flagpole before the Embassy and, almost reverently, lowered the flag to the level of his reach where he began to fold it in a military fashion. He then released the flag from the clasp attached to it, stepped back from the pole, and made an about face and carried the flag between his hands, one above, one below, and placed it securely on a stand before the Chancery. He then marched over to the second flagpole and repeated the same lonesome ceremony.

After completing his task, he apologized for the delay, out of pure courtesy, as nothing less than incapacity would have prevented him from completing that task, the simplicity of which made the might, the power and the glory of the United States of America stand forth in a way that a mighty wave of a military aircraft or the passage of a super carrier, or a parade of ten thousand men and women, could never have made manifest. One day it is my hope to visit one of our embassies in a far away place and to see a soldier fold our flag and turn to a stranger and say, "I am sorry for the delay, sir. I had to honor my country."

Probably should have thought about that a bit more....

I went into the kitchen at work to heat up my lunch. It's rice with steak and bell peppers. Really good stuff. As I'm heating it up, a 'big boned' lady walks into the kitchen area. She smiled and said, 'Mmmmmm......green peppers'.

Without thinking things through, I simply replied, "You sure do know your food smells!". She didn't say anything, but given her weight problem, I'm pretty sure she took that one the wrong way.

Belly pic - Week 13

Week 13. Not too much change, but a little growth.

Setting the record straight.......

I felt like I should get some random thoughts off my chest. Consider this my way of telling the world to clean up their act or I'll do it for them.

-If you are one of those people that are under the age of 70 and still wear velcro-strip tennis shoes, please go to the nearest shoe store and get a new pair of shoes! It's obviously understandable to get those velcro shoes if you have troubles tying your laces, but there are some people that simply wear them for all the wrong reasons.

-If you are one of those people that drink and drive a boat on the Lake of the Ozarks, please consider sobering up a bit next time. Estimates from the Missouri Water Patrol are that 30% of nightime boaters on Lake of the Ozarks are legally drunk. During the day, estimates run in the 20% range. If you do head out on the lake, be sure you have the boat equivalent of a SUV. One more good reason to stay at the house and swim off the dock.

-Is there some type of unwritten rule that the sale racks at women's clothing stores must be packed full of clothes in order to be considered a sales rack? It's no wonder that women's stores often end up with clothes strewn all over the place. It's impossible to get anything off the rack without knocking off two other additional hangers in the process.

-I found out from my financial advisor some sobering news. If I want to retire at 60, live until 100 and want to have $120,000/year (in 2006 dollars) for every year I'm retired, I have to have $8.7 million dollars saved in one form or another by the year 2034. In order to move toward that goal, I'm eating 99 cent frozen meals for lunch for the rest of my natural life.

-I have determined through careful research within my home that pregnant women do not actually eat for 2 as has previously been suggested. They actually eat for 1 1/2. I thought it was important to make that clarification.

-Note to the media: Just because a heat wave migrates across the country to the east coast does not make it a top news story. It's August. 100 degree heat happens all of the time. It's not like this is a new phenomenon. If you don't like heat, stop paving over every available foot of land on the East Coast.

My moral dilemma in the bathroom......

I walked into the bathroom today at work for the obvious reasons that you walk into a bathroom. There's two urinals in the men's bathroom along with a couple of stalls. I noticed that the blind man that works on our floor was taking a leak at one of the urinals. I walked up to the other urinal to do my business as well.

After a couple of seconds, I heard a slightly different splashing noise than what I had heard before. I looked down at my feet and noticed that the blind guy was evidently missing the urinal and was peeing on the floor. Of course, this presents quite a quandary for me. I'm busying going to the bathroom, so I obviously can't retreat from the urinal without pissing on the floor myself. I thought about saying something, but I don't want to embarrass a blind guy who's only fault is not being able to see his target.

Thankfully, he was nearly done when he started missing the urinal. He stopped peeing, not even knowing that he had left part of his waste on the floor. I finished up as quickly as possible and backed off to avoid stepping in anything. I went over and washed my hands. The blind guy walks up to the sink, unfazed by what just occurred, and said hello to me. I just smiled and said hello, never knowing whether the poor guy knew that he just peed all over the bathroom floor.

Tequila and Tennessee.....

I've been asked to post one of my best poker stories by more than one person, so I've decided to go ahead and throw it up on the blog today. This occurred long before the blog existed, but it's worthy enough that it should definitely be put up.

During the day on Friday, I was playing poker at the Excalibur poker room. I was seated at a table with the usual wide variety of people that you often see in Vegas. Late in the poker session, a black guy sat down at the opposite end of the table with his girlfriend sitting down right behind him. He was about 6'2", 270 lbs and wore sunglasses at the table. As soon as the first cocktail waitress came around, this guy ordered a double shot of Cuervo. I always give players names to make it easier for me to remember how they play. I started calling him Tequila at the table and he actually liked the new nickname. The nickname seemed to stick a bit more after I saw that he would order a double shot of tequila every 45 minutes to an hour.

Tequila and I actually got along quite well for the 2 hours or so that we played at the table. We just made small talk at the table, cracking a joke here or there. (Note: You always want to do that at a live poker game. If the players are having fun, they're more likely to put more money in the pot.) Tequila and I did get involved in one hand against each other. Tequila raised before the flop and I reraised after I saw that I was holding AA. Tequila just called and the flop was King, 7, 2. He bet and I raised. He just called. The 4th card was a 7. Tequila checked and I bet. He called again. The final card was a 3. Tequila bet and I raised. Tequila gave me a disgusted look and said he shouldn't call this. After a minute or so, he said he didn't believe me and called. I flipped over my Aces and he flipped over Ace/King. He laughed and said, "Well at least I know now!".

I headed back to hang out with everyone else for the night. The next afternoon, I told Mrs. Lime that she should head down with me to the poker room and play some cards. She decided to come along. We were able to sit at the same table together. Had a group of pretty nice people at the table who were very social. We had one player at the table who had been drinking for some time and was playing very aggressive. Whenever a player is playing all kinds of hands like this guy, your best bet is to wait for some good cards and then take advantage of his bad play. Most people at the table were doing exactly that except for the occasional lucky break that he would get. Somehow, the whole table started calling him Tennessee, though we later found out that he was actually from Kentucky and was insulted by the Tennessee nickname (too many hillbilly fights with each other I guess).

After about an hour at the table, a familiar face sat down at the table. Tequila was back! I said hi and he smiled and said hello. His girlfriend was not in tow this time. But he did sit down and order a double shot of tequila before a hand was even dealt to him. He kept ordering those drinks like clockwork throughout the whole game. Everyone was getting along fine EXCEPT Tennesse and Tequila. Tequila didn't like Tennessee stealing some pots and Tennessee didn't like Tequila telling him that he was doing something wrong by stealing those pots. They exchanged barbs here and there throughout the next couple of hours. You could tell that Tequila was getting frustrated and was losing chips. He actually bought back in twice while we were at the table, so he was down quite a bit. Meanwhile, Tennessee just kept talking and stacking chips, mostly at Tequila's expense.

At some point, there was a hand where Tequila had some good cards and kept betting. Tennessee kept calling just to see if he could beat Tequila. As we later found out when they showed their cards, Tennessee was way behind in the hand with one card to come and there were only two cards in the deck that could come out that would make him the winner. Well, of course, one of those two cards was the final card and when the cards flipped over and Tequila realized what had happened, he was not pleased. Tequila immediately snapped that Tennessee was a 'lucky SOB'. Tennessee just laughed at Tequila, only irritating him more.

The liquor that these two had consumed finally boiled over. Tequila said that he was 'nothing but a punk for laughing at him'. Then came one of the funniest and strangest moments I have ever seen in a poker game. Evidently the fact that Tequila had called Tennessee a 'punk' somehow enraged Tennessee. Out of nowhere, Tennesse screamed, "Tequila, my forefathers owned your forefathers!".

Tennessee was, of course, relating the fact that his forefathers were slaveowners and that Tequila's forefathers were slaves. I have no clue why he shouted this other than he's a redneck from Kentucky who had drank far too much and had no idea what he was doing. Tequila immediately stood up, all 6'2" and 270 lbs., and said a few choice words about Tennessee's mother and said he was going to beat him up (obviously, he used different, more colorful words, but I'll try to keep the blog relatively clean). Tennessee fired back a couple of colorful phrases and the dealer was threatening to call the floor manager. As this was going on, I was trying to be the diplomat due to my friendship with Tequila by repeating, "Tequila, be the bigger man.", over and over again.

Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and the table began to play cards again. However, what was once a very social table was suddenly very quiet. I think everybody was generally in shock. We came within an eyelash of seeing a small redneck from Kentucky get body-slammed through a poker table in Las Vegas. Honestly, that's probably the only thing that would have made this story better. But you don't get to choose how Vegas stories end.......

The Bald Tail Incident.........

Let me start about 3 months back. Mrs. Lime's sister, Blondie, noticed that our dog, Casanova, would chase his tail on occasion. She encouraged this behavior to the point where after a month or so, Casanova would simply start chasing his tail on command. He would also start chasing his tail anytime someone new entered the house just to try to get attention. There were two dogs in the house and that was his best way of getting people to pay attention to him instead of the other dog.

Casanova was a pretty big dog at that time. Over the past couple of months, he's dropped about 10-15 pounds. Unfortunately, that means he can now actually catch his tail and pull on it. As a result, he started pulling out the hair on his tail when he would catch it. So now, the last 4 inches or so of his tail are void of hair for the most part.

So, on Saturday, we head over to my sister's house to play poker. We took Casanova along so he could play with her dog and cat. He walked right in the house and, after establishing who the alpha dog was, started chasing his tail to make sure he got attention from everyone in the house. He even went to the extent of chasing his tail under the table when people stopped paying attention to him, just so he could get some attention.

My parents were assuring me that something was wrong with him. They worried (as parents often do) to the point where they actually consulted the vet in their area and determined that Casanova may have a brain tumor! Obviously, they had not seen his slow learning process and understood that this all goes back to it being an encouraged behavior.

So, in order to avoid any further worries, action has been taken. The following is an open letter from Casanova to Blondie:

Dear Blondie,

You told me that chasing my tail for attention was a good thing. Since then, I have been told I was sick and may have a brain tumor. As a result, I had to go to my vet (which you know I just hate with a passion).

I have now been told that I have a behavior/discipline problem by my vet. He says that everything you taught me is wrong. I told the vet that was impossible, but he told me I had behavior issues. So, in order to break this habit, I get to wear this stupid floral thing that the vet gave us around when my humans are away from the house and also when I go to bed. I put up with it, but I'm not really happy about it.

The vet says if this doesn't break me of the habit after a week or so, I will have to receive further behavior training to break me of my tail-chasing habit. I personally wish my tail would just quit following me. It would be much easier to stop chasing it that way. Maybe I'll be born without a tail in my next life to avoid this whole situation.

I've asked Lime to enclose a picture of me so you can see the stupid floral thing I have to wear.

Sincerely,
Casanova

Trip out to Kauffman Stadium......

I went out to the Royals game last night. Not a really great game from a fan's perspective. Got to see two homeruns land in the fountains, so that's always cool to see the big splash. Unfortunately, they were off the bats of the Royals' opponent. Royals lost 8-4 and Chicago hit a couple of bombs, one by former Royal Jermaine Dye.

My friend Rudy invited me to the game. He's a HS choir director and his choir was performing the national anthem last night. I showed up just a couple of minutes before they performed. It was around 95 degrees at gametime, so it was a pretty hot night. As I was walking in, I saw Rudy down on the field in a polo shirt, khaki shorts and Birkenstock sandals. Birkenstocks? Good lord. I was sitting next to Rudy's mom and asked her if she was responsible for Rudy wearing sandals to his big performance. She said she wasn't responsible for any of his fashion mix-ups since he's married. She said Mrs. Rudy is attempting to correct the situation with mixed results.

After the national anthem, I started a conversation with Rudy's mom regarding on of her other sons. Evidently, Rudy's brother is now a teacher in South Korea. South Korea?!?!?! Rudy's father quickly pointed out that his son in South Korea is now a millionaire (he's paid 1.35 million in South Korean currency annually). Evidently, he's teaching English to Korean kids as a second language. Note that he's teaching kids that are 5 years old! Also, he knew no Korean when he first went over in February. Evidently, he's learning the Korean language as he goes along and is running into the same situations as the kids who are attempting to learn English. Room and board are provided along with a flight to and from South Korea at the beginning and end of each school term. Sounds like a pretty good experience for a guy just out of college and single.

Around the second inning, they have a promotion where a kid tries to hit a ball out of a field just outside the stadium. The pitcher is Slugger, who just celebrated his 10th year as the Royals' mascot. It's shown on the videoboard and if the kid hits it out, the fireworks are shot off just like when a Royals player hits a homerun. So, the second inning came along and on the second pitch, the kid hit the ball out of the park. He circled the bases and the fireworks went off in the outfield. Everyone claps and then the third inning gets started.

After a half-inning, I look off beyond the outfield fence where the fireworks are located and notice a fire engine. I looked to the left and notice that there is smoke coming from the area where the fireworks mortars are launched. Evidently, something went wrong because the firemen are out with the hoses putting out a fire. Given the dry conditions in the Midwest right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the grass had caught on fire as well. Eventually, the fire was extinguished. I'm simply amazed at how the simple act of a boy hitting a ball out of a ballpark can trigger such a chain reaction. They should make that boy pay for the damage.

Another amusing form of entertainment between innings is the kiss cam. This seems to be used in most all of the ballparks at this point. For those that don't know the premise, the cameras focus on a couple and that couple is supposed to kiss while being shown on the videoboard. There's always a wide range of scenarios that seem to occur.

First is the young kids in love or somewhat recently married. Generally they lay a pretty good kiss on each other and follow the kiss with a smiling waive at the camera. The crowd generally doesn't respond with much of a reaction, because they fully expect exactly what they see. One younger couple did get a rise out of the crowd when the guy went in for a kiss with tongue fully extended.

Next is the older people (70+). There's something about older people kissing that seems to just drive women to say 'awwwwww!' quite loudly. I think it's the ideal that they want to be married to the same guy when they're that age and still be in love with them. It's that 'princess' ideal that women seem to have about relationships. They had 3 or 4 older people kissing that went off without a hitch. There was one couple that when they saw themselves on the screen the lady kind of gave this forced smile to the man sitting next to her and he gave the same forced smile back, so they evidently knew that neither one would be kissing the other. Worse yet, I got the feeling that they actually were a couple. Too bad.

Finally, there's the mistake pairings. These are two people that the camera operator evidently thought were a couple but it becomes quickly obvious that they are not from the reaction. There's often laughter followed by the universal sign for 'No way would I kiss that guy/girl!'. Last night, they had a mistake couple up on the board both waiving their arms. Fortunately, the guy in the couple had a buddy (male) who leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, making sure that the kiss cam wasn't a complete failure in regards to this specific couple.

If you go to the ballpark in the near future and any of your 'kiss cam' couples do not meet the criteria of one of the three groups I listed, you let me know. I simply don't believe it's possible.