Interesting night at the poker table.....

I went over to the local casino to play some live poker last night as Mrs. Lime was busy for the evening. Results were quite good from a poker perspective. I won just over $200, so a great night as far as that's concerned. But of course, that's not what I'll be blogging about as there were some interesting people at the table.

Early on, I showed up around 7:30 and there was a guy that was fully drunk and giving the table plenty of action. He was drinking Red Bulls and beer, so he was drunk AND full of energy. He left the table shortly after I arrived and I didn't have a chance to make any money off him. He left with his girlfriend and the $500 in chips that he had left and he said he was heading out to play some blackjack.

A guy named Mike came into his seat. I could tell that Mike was a good guy and struck up a conversation with him. He started working straight out of high school. He worked at a local car dealership in the area. He started as a salesman and then worked his way up to where he's not a finance consultant. Works 6 days a week and has a wife and two kids. He wore a Steve Bono Chiefs jersey. Now, most would say that's kind of silly because it's an old Chiefs player that's not even on the team anymore. What I see when I see people wearing old Chiefs jerseys is a person who has his priorities in order and doesn't waste his money buying a new jersey just because the names on the back of the jersey change.

Mike and I chatted for awhile and then a guy name Kyle sat down on the other side of me. Immediately, Mike leaned over to me and said that Kyle looked like a military man. I told Mike that if he was a military guy, God bless him. Mike did appear to be right because Kyle had a tight haircut that just screamed military.

Mike (to Kyle): Are you in the military?

Kyle: Yeah, Army Reserves.

Mike: Cool, my brother was in the military.

Kyle: Which branch?

Mike: He was in the Marines. Have you gone overseas at all yet?

Kyle: Nope, not yet. I'll get my chance soon enough.

Me: You say 'was'. Is he all finished with his time in the Marines or on leave?

Mike: No, he's actually passed on.

Me: Oh.

I just kind of left it at that and busied myself with playing the current poker hand. After a minute or so......

Mike: My brother was killed in Iraq on August 3rd, 2005.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

Mike: He was killed when an IED exploded next to his vehicle. August 3rd, 2005.....

He kept repeating the date. The date seemed to be etched in his mind. I later found out it was his only sibling and it was his older brother. He was probably a role model to him. Also, I could tell by the fact that he kept talking about it that he was very proud of his brother and the ultimate sacrifice that he made. He spoke about his brother and his death openly at the table. I could tell that he really wanted to tell about his brother.

While Mike and I were the only ones conversing, I happened to look up a couple of times and noticed that the rest of the table was quiet and listening to every word we said. The poker was secondary. Everyone was listening in an odd sort of reverence toward Mike and his brother. Some were probably people who support the war effort. Others were probably people who don't agree with everything about the war in Iraq. But at that moment, everyone didn't care about their beliefs. They were focused on Mike.

At some point, Mike switched the conversation over to Kyle. We found out that Kyle is a college student going to school in northern Missouri. He gets his school paid for by the U.S. government. He talked with us about the fact that he hadn't totally decided what he was going to major in. Really smart guy who will definitely have a great impact on people whatever he ends up doing.

I looked at the time and realized that it was past time to head home. I was so involved in chatting at the table that I totally lost track of time. I told Mike it was nice to meet him and wished Kyle well in college.

As a side note, I looked at the Internet when I got home and found the following info regarding Mike's brother......



Age: 26
Military Rank: Corporal
Unit/Location: Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio

Killed August 3rd, 2005 when their Amphibious Assault Vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device during combat operations south of Haditha, Iraq.

Iraq War Heroes page for Kenneth

Stairs are not a problem.......

There's a lady that works on my floor that walks with a pretty severe limp because of an injury to one of her legs. She gets around the workplace just fine, but it takes her awhile to do so. I'm always amazed that she has such a great attitude about the whole thing. Some people in similar situations let the problem get them in a bad frame of mind. Not this lady.

I went downstairs to get a drink from the cafeteria this morning. I came back out with my drink and noticed her heading into the stairwell just up the hall from me. That's the first thing you should note. She's got a pretty severe injury, but she always takes the stairs and never takes the elevator. I think it's this kind of attitude in regard to something like stairs not being an obstacle for her that shows how strong-willed she is.

She's quite feisty as well. I walked into the stairwell behind her and slowly followed her up the stairs. Halfway up, she said I could go on by if I wanted to do so. I told her that I was in no big hurry. She laughed and said that was a good thing if she was behind me. I told her that I was used to walking slow anyway because my wife was quite pregnant right now. She said with a chuckle that she was glad that she was walking slow because of a limp and not because she was pregnant. She said she had done that a couple of times before and wasn't really interested in doing it again. She did say that she was happy she had the kids.

Always nice to see people who make you feel stupid for ever lamenting your situation when they have more obstacles than you do.

Trash time at Christmas.....

People never cease to amaze me.

Our trash pick-up day is usually Wednesday. However, due to the Xmas holiday being on Monday, everyone's trash day is pushed back one day. So, we don't have to put out our trash this week until Thursday.

Normally, we are limited to two bags of trash a week and unlimited recyclable items. The system is run that way and helps to reduce both waste and costs by about $7/household in our city. If you want to put out more trash during a normal week, you just buy stickers from the city for $1/bag and you can put out as many extra bags as you want. However, Christmas week is different. There's no limit on trash for this week since the city is obviously aware that there will be a lot of trash/boxes/etc from the holidays.

A new neighbor down the street evidently didn't get the memo about trash days being moved back during holiday weeks. So he put out his trash today thinking that it was going to be picked up when in fact, it won't be picked up until tomorrow. Normally, that's not such a big deal. However, this guy decided that he would put out the boxes from his Christmas presents on the curb. So now, everyone driving by his home today knows that he received a 42" plamsa TV, a computer, a new tool chest, a very nice light fixture, and several games/toys for his kids. For those that aren't aware of it, this is generally an excellent way for thieves to scout out what they could obtain in a house before they even enter it. Not only that, if that computer or TV goes bad and he needs to return it for warrenty repairs, he's not going to have the packaging to ship those items. I'm sure the guy is nice, but I have no clue why he put all those boxes out there without at least attempting to mask them somewhat.

You can be sure that the only thing that anyone will know I got for Xmas will be a storage shelf unit for my garage. I'm guessing that won't move easily and it won't sell well on the electronics black market, so I should be good.

The lady behind us......

We went to see a movie the other night at a theater in the area. It was called 'The Good Shepard'. It was about the beginnings of the CIA. Pretty interesting movie. It makes you appreciate just how much some of those people sacrifice in the service of their country. Little notoriety, but a whole lot of risk for the individual doing the work.

After the movie, we came outside. Mrs. Lime and her sister were pulling up to the curb to pick up her mom, who walks with a cane. A lady in a car behind Mrs. Lime decided that she didn't like the hold-up and honked her horn at Mrs. Lime. I shot a few dirty looks at the lady and she was in her car yelling in the general direction of our vehicle. It was blatently obvious that we had a lady with a cane getting into our car. We got everyone in and headed off.

I will never understand what possesses people to act like that. There's a lady who can't walk well trying to get into a car and these people don't have the time or patience to sit there for 1 minute or so while she gets into the car. I would have loved nothing more than for that lady to walk a mile in my mother-in-law's shoes. She'd stop laying on the horn and have the respect to wait for one minute without raising a fuss. Unfortunately, that lady will likely repeat her behavior in the future without every thinking about how silly her actions are in the given situation.

It doesn't take much to earn a little respect, but it is a lot of work to mend the damage caused by disrespect.

One more Christmas come and gone.....

Well, I survived Xmas. I helped my wife cook a meal that would feed a full homeless shelter. Nevermind the fact that we only had 6 people over for dinner. That's not important.

We watch the movie 'Pearl Harbor' yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Lime's family hadn't seen it before. It was bashed by the critics when it first came out, but it's a good movie. It paints a pretty vivid picture of the attack. They don't sugar-coat it at all. About halfway through the movie, one of the female characters is killed in the attack. I just happened to stand up moments after it happened to go into the kitchen to refill my drink. Mrs. Lime was sitting at the kitchen table and she was starting to cry. I asked her what was the matter and she said, 'That girl just died'. Tally up one more score for the emotional roller coaster that we call pregnancy. She cried again later when another main character was killed.

We're now coming up on a month until I have a kid. I'm sure the thought of now having to deal with me and the new baby is something my wife is looking forward to more than anything. I can't imagine why she wouldn't. If she can deal with me on an every day basis, she shouldn’t have any problems with a child.

Slow time of the year at work.......

Today is the beginning of the holiday workdays where not a whole lot goes on. Everyone saves up all their vacation so they can take time off around the holidays. I usually just work around the holidays because there's not a whole lot going on in general. It some easy workdays that pay just the same as any other day.

I've received 5 different X-mas ornaments from people in the office. Being in an office filled with mostly women, you get plenty of 'cute' stuff around the various holidays. I received a snowman, a bell (made of a cut-up egg carton and painted with glitter), a stuffed animal, and a snowman painted onto wood. All quite unique things.

Also, they held something called a 'cookie exchange' at work the other day. Basically, everyone that wants to participate brings in 2 dozen cookies. They then lay out all the cookies in a 'cookie buffet' of sorts and then everyone gets to go through and pick up 2 dozen cookies, resulting in a large variety of cookies for everyone involved. I'm not sure how many of the cookies actually made it home to families as most of the cookies were being eaten throughout the day by the ladies. But the workplace was very pleasant that entire day, so they can eat all the cookies they want if that keeps happening.

The bathroom button........

If there's one thing that the government is great at, it's taking care of people who are disabled that work for the government. There's a lot of people with varying disabilities who work in my area. They all get around and are able to do things very easily. It's certainly good to see those people have the opportunities that they have.

In our bathroom, they have the buttons installed in the bathroom that allow people to push the button to open the door automatically. Really nice feature for those that need it.

Some people in the building use that button as a sanitary crutch of sorts. People have this concept that if they touch the bathroom handle, they will be touching one of the dirtiest surfaces known to mankind. While it's certainly not the cleanest surface, it is general knowledge that public bathrooms with daily cleaning (as we have at my workplace) are actually cleaner than bathrooms in a private home. The reason is that they're cleaned much more often than a home bathroom.

I've seen people do various things to avoid touching the handle. The most common is to wash their hands, dry them with a paper towel, and then push the button holding the paper towel to avoid touching the button or the door handle. Probably is the best way to do it if you do truly fear bathroom cooties.

The second method is to wash their hands, dry them and then just push the button with your bare hands. That would seem to kind of defeat the purpose of pushing the button in my mind. You're touching a surface that has been touched thousands of times by hands and, most likely, is just as dirty as the door handle you're trying not to touch. Not sure how this is any better than just opening the door by grabbing the door handle.

The third, and very rare method is to wash their hands, dry them, and then hit the button with either your elbow or bumping it with your backside. This may be another good way for the person to avoid contact, but how would those people who hit the button with their bare hand feel about someone's backside being used to push that button? I'm not sure I want them to know.

Another thing I've noticed is that several of the people that appear to be germaphobes are actually people who don't practice a lot of personal hygiene. People, if you're going to show a willingness to avoid germs at all costs, the least you could do is to practice good personal hygiene! Without that, it would seem that the battle is lost before it even starts.

Me? I just grab the handle and open the door all by myself. I don't have time to avoid germs and I fear that the time I use the automatic open button will be the one that causes the door-opening motor to go out, thereby keeping any handicapped people from getting into the bathroom. I simply can't have that on my conscience.

One year down, many to go........

I'm sure no one happened to make note of it other than me, but today is the one year anniversary of my blog. I've posted a lot of stuff on this blog over the past year. I even ran into a mini-crisis when I ran out of room on the blogger site to post pictures. Thankfully, I found the Photobucket site where I can dump all of my pictures to easily post them to my blog. I've been through two cities, two jobs, three 'homes' and two pregnancies.

In the coming months, I think this will quickly change over to a blog based on stories about my child. Lots of baby stories. Today she cried, today she spilled her milk, today she fell down and thought it was funny, etc. I'm sure that I'll be pretty different one year from now. Until then, I'll just keep telling stupid stories until my daughter decides to pop out and turn my life on its head.

The gift that keeps on giving.........

Just when you think that your Christmas can't go any better, your brother-in-law steps in and takes care of business.

We had our family Christmas on my side of the family this past weekend. We did that because we have a few people in our family that will be working over Christmas weekend, so it's easier to just do it on a day when everyone is available. We got some great gifts for everyone. We went with couple presents (i.e. Mom and Dad got one present, Sister and husband got one present, ets.) because we could get them some really nice things that they could use for roughly the same price as separate presents. Probably won't do that every year, but it worked out well this year.

My brother-in-law told me the night before we opened presents that my gift would be good, but then it would get even better. I had no clue what that meant other than I was prepared for whatever may happen.

I finally got my present the next day. He handed it to me and it looked like some sort of gift card. I'm good with that. I pull it open and it's a Best Buy gift card. I am always finding things I want at Best Buy, so kudos there.

I pull it open a little further. There's another gift card in there! I pull it open to find a gift card to my favorite white trash eating establishment.........Hooters!!!! Visions of chicken wings dancing in my head. Those that know me know that I LOVE Hooters! Chicken wings, chicken sandwich, bucket of clams, curly fries.........they're all just fabulous. I don't go there that often for fear I'll suddenly over 300 lbs, but man, do they have good food. Honestly, if Hooters Air gave out chicken wings for snack on flights, I'm not sure I'd fly with any other air carrier. I'd pay $50 extra round trip just to eat wings on a plane flight.

It will only be a matter of time before Mrs. Lime and I head over to use that gift card. Mrs. Lime loves hot and spicy food, so I'm guessing we'll have to get two orders of wings. I can't handle the heat like she can. I think she's got a mouth without nerve endings. It's amazing the way she can eat that spicy food without any severe repercussions. I can't say the same for me.

Marital bliss (sort of).......

I walked in the door about 5 minutes before I usually do when coming home from work. As I walked in, I heard Mrs. Lime's voice upstairs......

Mrs. Lime: Hello?

Me: Hello!

Mrs. Lime: Hi! You're home early!

Me: I'm only home about 5 minutes early.

Mrs. Lime: (having just woke up) I was going to take a shower and get cleaned up before you got home.

Me: Well, I'm home now, so that's not going to happen. You acted surprised when I came in. Are you hiding a boyfriend up there?

Mrs. Lime: (laughing) Yeah.

Me: So while you're out talking to me, he's putting his clothes on in the bedroom?

Mrs. Lime: Yeah, something like that.

Me: So you said 'You're home early!' to me followed by you whispering to Bill that he needed to get out of the house?

Mrs. Lime: (now downstairs and hugging me) Yes.

Me: OK, fair enough.

Thus ended the quickest extra-marital affair we've had in our 6+ years of marriage.

R.I.P. Lamar........

There's got to be some sort of strange irony to this. On the morning that I was going to put up a post detailing my trip to Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Chiefs/Ravens game, I heard the news that Lamar Hunt has passed away at the age of 74. With the abilities that modern medicine now has, even 74 years of age seems too young to die.

People who aren't huge sports fans will see this event as the passing of a NFL owner. Most people in Kansas City know that we lost much more than that last night. Mr. Hunt, along with another sports owner named Ewing Kauffman who helped bring the Royals to Kansas City, were two men with great foresight who allowed Kansas City to become what it is today. The businesses, the people, the economy, etc. are all here because they took the risk of bringing a professional franchise to Kansas City. The charities and trusts that they created in Kansas City have helped thousands of people better their lives. Their vision helped create the Truman Sports Complex, which most of the other major league cities now emulate in their current stadium developments. It was way ahead of its time and the stadiums are still considered some of the best stadiums in their respective leagues.

It's disappointing that these two men are no longer in the owner's suite at their respective stadiums. We probably won't see two people have this much impact on Kansas City for quite some time to come.

Belly Pics - Week 29

This picture is from December 1st. The baby is getting really active and REALLY growing at this point.

Belly Pics - Week 27

I've been late on getting up pictures of Mrs. Lime's ever-growing tummy.

Job security and 'Office Space'.....

Well, my job security just increased in leaps and bounds today. I test roughly 6 systems along with one other person in our group. Today, she announced that she's leaving our group in a week and a half. So, I now am the sole tester on all 6 systems. The good part is that I have great leverage and job security now. The bad part is that I have little backup when busy periods occur. Such is life. I could always have it worse.

I watched the movie 'Office Space' with Mrs. Lime last night. It's a comedy about the office/cubicle-style workplace. If you've ever worked in a corporate environment before, I'd suggest it as a must-see movie. Most people will still find it very funny even if they haven't worked in the corporate cubicle environment, but it's even funnier if you have. Regardless, it's a great movie.

On a side note, tonight is the peak of a large meteor shower. Look just to the left of the constellation Orion in the east/southeast sky. The peak of the meteor shower will happen between midnight and 4:00 AM when 2 shooting stars per minute will be visible. Even if you don't want to stay up late, you can see one shooting star a minute as early as 9:00 PM. Great opportunity to see some very bright and long-lived meteors/shooting stars.

How one idiot ruined an afternoon......

I had to come home a couple hours later than I usually do last night due to some extra work that needed to be done. No big deal. It should only add about 10 minutes to my commute, right?

Normally that would be a true statement. However, the gods of fate decided that day would not be a normal day. Some guy in a compact car decided that it would be a good idea to cut off a truck carrying an oversized motor home. This resulted in the truck having to swerve to avoid the car and the motor home ending up tipped over on 1 1/2 lanes of the 3 lanes of traffic. Translation: a traffic tie-up.

Not only that, but in the slowdown that occurred afterwards, there was a lady who's car stalled in the middle lane of traffic. So there were people that were having to avoid the middle blocked lane in one section of the backup and then everyone had to avoid the motor home that was being moved back onto the trailer in another section of the backup.

As for the guy who caused the truck to swerve in the original accident, I hope he had to pay for the damage to the motor home. It would serve him right after all the problems that he caused.

5 year old birthday party........

One of my friends had a 5th birthday party in the pool house in our neighborhood. It was Cars-themed party with specially printed candy bar wrappers and coloring books for the kids. I went to help set up ahead of time. We put popcorn into popcorn bags for the Cars movie that they were going to watch. We moved around some furniture to give the kids ample room to do what they do best (which is run around like a chicken with its head cut off).

Then the kids started showing up. I have never seen so much energy in a room. One kid randomly started doing jumping jacks for no particular reason. Three other kids started a game of tag that ended up being a game of tackle tag evidently. Another girl quietly made a keychain on the table (God, please let that be my daughter). Kids kept coming into the party and the chaos continued to grow.

I left for a bit and came back 2 hours later. There was STILL tons of energy at the party (some of it probably had to do with the thick icing on the birthday cake that they just finished eating). There was still a random game of tag going on. Some kids were watching the movie and eating popcorn. Others were just running around in circles for good reason other than to burn off some energy. I had to sit down on the couch just to rest after watching it all. I'm ready for parenting, but I'm not in any big hurry to get there after attending that birthday party.

'Perfect Storm' for the Republicans.......

The presidential race appears to be shaping up well at this point for the Republicans. The two candidates that will create a perfect matchup for the Republicans to retain the White House are now leading their respective races to win the party's nomination for President.

First, Hillary Clinton is leading by a wide margin over Barack Obama (30% to 12%) in a poll with a margin of error of +/- 3%. While the Bill Clinton supporters in the Democratic party see her as a link to their past success, she is the worst pick out of the Democratic candidates as far as Independent and Republican voters to secure the win. The poll also shows that more Republicans and Independents will vote against her than any other Democratic nominee. That isn't likely to change much given the general impression that most voters have about her. The real shame is that if she is nominated and loses badly, it could sour both parties on nominating a woman for the presidency in the future. That doesn't make sense because her loss would have a whole lot less to do with the fact that she is a woman and a whole lot more to do with the fact that she's a terrible candidate in general because she doesn't have any appeal to independent or Republican voters.

On the other side, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani leads John McCain for the Republican nomination (30% to 22%). Rudy is a great candidate for several reasons. First, he is not in the mold of a deeply conservative candidate. He is quite moderate and even sways to the liberal side on some of his opinions. He also does not pander to the religious right, which is a key in getting more votes from independent and some Democratic voters. His handling of the 9/11 situation some would argue was even better than Dubya in that he directed the recovery efforts extremely well. He's got a very outgoing personality that makes him a 'people' person.

The polls for this matchup between Hillary and Rudy indicate a sizable win for the Republican Party. It's a perfect situation for the Republicans. They can retain the White House while putting in a candidate that offers a lot of differing opinions when compared to Dubya. I've said from the start that I'd love to see Hillary as the Democratic candidate. I wouldn't be shocked to see Republicans voting as Democrats for Hillary in Democratic primaries simply to make sure that she leads the Democratic ticket. It would be the best way to make sure that a Republican ends up in the White House.

Which one?????

Conversation overheard in my office area today:

Lady 1: Those dishes are lovely.
Lady 2: Yeah, I use them for just about anything.
Lady 1: Where did you get them?
Lady 2: I got them as a wedding gift.
Lady 1: Which wedding was that?
Lady 2: I can't remember. It was either my second or my third wedding. I divorced them both, so these dishes are my favorite part of both of those weddings.

I'm going to go ahead and set a lifelong goal to never have to remember which marriage I received certain gifts. It makes it a lot easier to remember if you just stick with one wife. I plan on achieving that goal with relative ease with occasion course corrections by my wife that may be needed along the way.

Tried out a new restaurant......

We went to a new restaurant last night called Tutti Mare (translated, it means 'fruit of the sea'). We went in thinking it was an Italian restaurant, not knowing the translation at that time. Nice place that wasn't too busy. We looked over the menu and neither of us were extremely keen about the choices of the main platters. So, we did something different and decided to order every one of their sides and try a bunch of different things.

We ended up with:

Lobster-poached asparagus
Risotto with calamari
Gnocchi with some sort of cheese cream sauce
Grilled portobello mushrooms
Some type of creamed peas
Garlic mashed potatoes
Tomato bisque
Lobster ravioli

The definite must-gets were the lobster ravioli, the portobello mushrooms, the garlic mashed potatoes and the asparagus. I liked the peas, but Mrs. Lime thought they were undercooked. Tomato bisque tasted good to me, but Mrs. Lime was so/so on it. I liked the calamari on top of the risotto, but the risotto itself and the gnocchi were just a bit too strong and heavy for our taste.

Overall, it was a really nice restaurant (they had wine lockers for regular customers) and we got to try a lot of different things. The staff was very nice and the manager took time to come by to see if our food was good and invite us back. Maybe next time we'll actually try one of their entrees.

3 legs and a whole lot of attention needs.......

I was working on putting some baby furniture together when I happened to look out the window. It was still cold outside from the winter storm that blew through our area. Walking down the sidewalk was a 3-legged dog. It appeared to be a bit lost. Mrs. Lime wanted to go down and check the dog's collar. She'd open an animal shelter in our home if I ever let her.

We went out and I whistled at the dog and told it to come over. It was very happy to see us and she immediately wanted her tummy rubbed. I got the number off the collar and gave it a call. I only got the answering machine, but it did have a phone number to call the vet directly. I did that and spoke with the vet. I explained that I had a German Shepard mix with 3 legs that I had found wandering the street. He immediately knew who owned the dog because he didn't care for that many 3-legged German Shepard mix dogs.

He knew the name of the owner, but he was in the Denver Airport and couldn't give me a contact number. I told him that I was in the north part of town and that puzzled him because the dog owner lived in the south part of town, roughly 25-30 miles away. So we were confused as to how the dog got up north. The vet said that his office would open in the morning, so he couldn't do much other than suggest calling his office in the morning. He also said we could drop off the dog at the vet hospital nearby tonight and that they could get the dog back to the owners in the morning.

We brought the dog in and gave it a couple of treats. It was very well behaved around our dog and sat to get a treat, so we knew it was an well-treated dog. She tried to make herself at home on the couches, but we kept her from doing that. Even then, she listened well. I made the executive decision to take her to the vet hospital (after alleviating my wife's unfounded fears that they would put the dog to sleep overnight) and look for her owners on the way out of the neighborhood. Honestly, I think my wife wanted to keep the dog, which wasn't going to happen under any circumstance anyway.

We drove around the circle and saw our home builder out in the neighborhood. He knows everyone in the area, so we asked him if he knew anyone who owned a 3-legged dog. He initially thought we were making a joke, but then quickly realized we were serious when he saw, strangely enough, a 3-legged dog enjoying a ride in our back seat. He suggested that it might be a house up in the neighborhood, so we drove off to give that a try.

I started looking for Kansas license plates in the neighborhood, thinking that someone might be visiting up north and happened to lose track of their dog. We saw a Kansas license plate in one of the driveways and so we stopped and Mrs. Lime went to knock on the door. Moments later, she came back out and gave the signal. We had found the dog's owners. Turns out that her name was Millie and she was very happy to be back home. The owners didn't even know that she was outside. A happy ending for our first 3-legged dog search and rescue.

Made it through the snowstorm.......

Great win for Mizzou last night against the Arkansas Razorbacks. I went down to Columbia last night in the midst of a snowstorm to go see the game. There were some cars on the highway that had no business being on a snow-covered road in the middle of the night. Most of them ended up in the ditch. There were also some semis that went off the road. My question is why those semis were even trying to drive through that weather. They have a hotel room in the back of their cab. It's not like it is that difficult to just pull over and sleep off the storm.

We made the 100 mile trip from Columbia to Blue Springs in about 2 1/2 hours. So we averaged about 35-40 MPH, which wasn't too bad given the conditions.

The only real problem was the blowing snow. We got back at our meeting point in Kansas City and found the two cars we left there both sitting in snow drifts. One side of each car was snow-free with the other side covered by a snow drift. We spent about 10 minutes cleaning off the cars and then I helped push one of the cars so they could get out of the deep snow in the parking lot onto the road, where the snow was cleared off. Everybody got out and home just fine. Despite the storm, we had a good time.