Happy New Year Everybody!

Well.....today was a nice Spring Day. Or at least it felt like it, at any rate. Good grief! 74 degrees? That is insane, and by FAR the warmest New Year's Day I've ever witnessed. I went walking at 6:20 tonight in shorts and a T-shirt (replete with Black socks and crappy tennis shoes- more on that later.) This winter so far is shaping up to be a dud as usual. I know there are many of my friends, family, and students, who hate the snow. I love it. I've said as much countless times on this site. But we've received nothing so far, and most of the forecasts I've read for the coming months do nothing to assuage my concern. Oh well. Who needs Snow Days any way?

Me.

Okay, back to the weekend.

Natalie and I went to Kansas City for an Anniversary/New Year's Celebration. We left on Friday and came back on Saturday. It was a nice little trip. Friday night we met my parents (who were in KC as well for the Chiefs game- more on that later) at Harrah's Casino. We ate at Toby Keith's 'I Love This Bar and Grill' restaurant. I was completely underwhelmed by the food. The atmosphere was cool, so long as you like Toby Keith videos played over and over (and, for some strange reason, lots of Tim McGraw songs as well. Could there be a joint financial stake here that we don't know about?) The prices weren't TOO bad, and we didn't have to pay a dime because my mom had a $60 food voucher coupon. I'm glad we got there when we did, because the Friday night crowd was monstrous....the line for the buffet was literally fifty yards long, and as of this evening, the family of Koreans in the back STILL haven't been seated. We didn't do any gambling because if you've ever been to a casino, you know that

A. they are no fun if you have no money to gamble with and
B. Everyone who enters seemingly is required to smoke 40 cigarettes before they leave. My mother met us outside to use her Harrah's perks to get us some free valet parking (pretty sweet), and when she greeted us she smelled like Santa Claus after he'd been stuck in a 1930's era coalfactor smokestack. She hadn't even been IN to the casino yet! Natalie is pregnant, so we opted to avoid the smoke and instead head back to our hotel for some swimming.

Saturday I spent most of the day driving around KC looking for a Barnes and Noble. Boy do I feel stupid knowing now, after having consulted an atlas and actually deciding to LOOK IN A PHONE BOOK, that I had driven RIGHT by one at least three times already. Duh. And by the time we found one, it was 5:30, and they closed at 6:00 because of the holiday. Great timing!

So Saturday we went to Babies R Us, which is approximately 400 acres of baby stuff spread out all over the place like a World War One battlefield. Admittedly, there were a lot of cute things in there, so I can't say it was ALL bad. I did have fun imagining what little Audrey would look like in some of those outfits. However, I eventually got overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. I simply was astounded that there could be so many variations of diapers, baby furniture, room decorations, and cloths. Did you know that according to the Babies R Us guide for registering for baby gifts, a newborn child requires roughly two thousand different cloths PER WEEK? What would a BABY use that many cloths for? To create an escape rope from their nursery if they live in a particularly tall tower? There are receiving cloths, burp cloths, changing cloths, washcloths, hoodiecloths, snugglecloths, terry cloth, dishcloths, cheesecloth, Three toed Cloths, wipecloths, sanitary cloths, Santa Cloths, wipeecloths, and my favorite, "Cloth the Door! I'm Peeing!"

We spend a moderate amount of money on decorations for the baby's room, which actually I'm very excited about. We've chosen an animal jungle/savannah/African theme. I hope I'm not subliminally encouraging Audrey to move to Africa to work with Lions or anything like that, because I'll be darned if I'm going to fly to Kenya to celebrate Arbor Day.

Anyway, we saw two flicks- "Munich" and "the Producers."

I liked Munich.

I think.

Actually, I'm not sure, because it was so depressing. It was very long.....and depressing. Yeah, I think I liked it......maybe. Yeah. I'm sure of it.

That's all you're going to get out of me because I haven't the energy or inclination to waste anymore time with a wittier, more verbose description of the movie's flaws and strengths. I will say this: when Eric Bana's Character Avener comes under fire from PLO terrorists, I half expected him to turn green and start whooping butt. If you don't catch that reference, you are not very sharp.

As for the Producers, I really found it hilarious because I'd never seen the 1968 original and despite my desperate pleas during our last trip to New York City this past summer, the Broadway show had eluded my grasp as well.

I thought it was great. However, it would be a better musical on the stage than on the screen.

Nuff said.

The best part of the trip was seeing Dick Vermeil's final game as an NFL head coach as the Chiefs obliterated the Cincinatti Bengals 37-3 in a game that really wasn't even THAT close. Larry Johnson cemented his claim to the starting running back position in 2006 by rushing for 201 yards and 3 scores, including an amazing cut-back run from 20 yards out late in the second quarter to give the Chiefs a commanding 20-3 halftime lead. It was a good season. Too bad the inept Detroit Lions couldn't beat the Steelers. Oh well. There's always next year. (Here's to better seats!)

Now the worst part.

I drive, in a word, a piece of crap. It isn't so bad on the outside, and actually it runs quite well. Honestly, I shouldn't be badmouthing it because I've never had engine problems or anything else with it except for the battery. There is an electrical drain SOMEWHERE in the car's system that makes the car impossible to start if I haven't driven it at least once every single day. We've never found it- I've had it in several mechanics and they all say they've fixed it when I know they haven't....... but anyway, My car hadn't been driven for 8 days. It was dead as a doornail. No dome lights, nothing. So I jumped it with Natalie's car (which we paid off December 20!!!) I drove it to Subway about 1 mile away, and turned it off. Big mistake. After ordering our subs to go, we came out and I turned the ignition. Nothing. Natalie just gave a big sigh and I tried it again. Zilch.

Luckily a guy next standing out smoking with his girlfriend was parked nearby and gave us a jump. This part I don't have a problem with, because we have had to jump my car all the time. My car's been jumped more than a country club boy walking down Prospect in Kansas City. The problem was that we looked like the ultimate trailer trash couple EVER. My wife, pregnant and showing, resplendent in her pajama pants, heavy coat and T-shirt that was WAY too big.....me, in the crappy tennis shoes with the hole in the front left toe, the black socks (one of which was hiked up to my calf), running shorts that are too small, and a stained red T-shirt and Hat-head. Plus I hadn't shaved in a few days, so let's just say that I was REALLY attractive at the moment.

Somewhere, in the distance, a banjo was plucked and a toothless man looked at his sister in an impure manner.

Thus saieth the Chad.