Category Archives: Uncategorized

KSU Wildcats win in Miami

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After expecting to lose – and lose big – the Wildcats swaggered away from a huge fight at the University of Miami.  The Florida heat and humidity didn’t keep the guys down.  Excellent defense and methodical offensive drives resulted in a score of 28-24 in favor of the Wildcats.

During the last few minutes, the Hurricanes marched down the field and found themselves one the 2-yard line with 1st and goal to go.  The Wildcat defense was remarkable with four stops.  41 seconds remained and Colin Klein was able to run out the time with quarterback keeps.  What an exciting game.

Now back home with Baylor coming next week.  What once was a nearly lost season has now turned around with some confidence.  At the end of game one (against Eastern Kentucky), it was thought we’d be 1-2 at this point; instead, we are 3-0.  Let’s go, Cats.

Kansas City Symphony opens season in new Kauffman Center

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Last night, after a filling dinner at Cinzetti’s Italian Restaurant, the four of us spent an evening in the comfort of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  What an absolutely beautiful concert venue.  The above picture is a panorama of the gathering space from within the building.

The Symphony did not disappoint – what an electric choice of music.  Director Michael Stern (son of famous violinist Isaac Stern) started off with Stravinky’s Fireworks.  This was followed by Emanuel Ax playing piano on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor).  Intermission followed and we were treated to the world premiere of Chen Yi’s “Fountains of Kansas City”; this piece was commissioned for the opening of the Kauffman Center.

We were finally treated to the “Pines of Rome” by Respighi.  Wow – what a wonderful piece that sounded absolutely amazing in the new Helzgerg Hall.  Amazing, amazing, amazing.  We can’t wait to go back for the next concert.

Here is the view from the seats we had last night (our normal seats are elsewhere, but we had to trade evenings for this particular concert).  Notice that we are sitting behind the stage; this was such a unique viewpoint and the sound was fantastic.  The acoustics in this hall is such that a person can speak from the stage without using a microphone.

Its been WAY too long

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I am extremely embarrassed about the fact that its been a month since my last post. In fact, A LOT has occurred since my last post. We went to Colorado for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (a bike race in the Rockies involving the same cyclists from the Tour de France). I also finished up five years at Saint Johns Hospital and am now working at Overland Park Regional Medical Center (which is significantly closer).

I plan to share information about all of these things and more. Plus, I plan to post much more regularly. Im a lot better at reading other blogs than keeping mine up to date.

Heres to doing a better job in the near future.

Violin Recital for Anna

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Anna had her first violin recital a little over a week ago.  Anna has been taking lessons for several years, but has never had a recital.  Each of the students were given challenging pieces at the beginning of the summer; the hard work paid off as evidenced in the video.

100,000

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My 5-year old Jeep passed the milestone 100,000-mile mark today. Appropriately, it did so as I pulled into the parking lot at work. My commute has put a lot of miles on the vehicle.

Fortunately, the commute comes to an end in about 3 weeks. My commute will then be by bicycle. Wonder how long before I hit another 100,000 miles on my car!

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Heather visits and the Deanna Rose Farmstead

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Linda and Heather have been best friends since high school.  Unfortunately, she moved to the east coast several years ago and we don’t get to see her and her children near enough.  However, lucky for us, she decided to load the car with her 3 kids and road-trip back to Kansas a couple weeks ago.

There were quite a few visits back and forth between Kansas City and Lawrence.  Of the many visits, I was only able to attend one (thanks to the many days I got to work in the ER this month).  We met up at the Deanna Rose Farmstead before the heat could claim any victims.

We walked around and saw the many animals available to view and feed.  We fed just about every baby goat available, using up a third of the quarters in Johnson County.  There is an American-Indian settlement replica built with educational artifacts; tee-pees are erected also.

There is a replica of an old-town bank on the site, providing us with a bit of respite from the heat with some air-conditioning.  What a relief that was!

My absolute favorite picture of the day is all of the kids at the water pump.  This was where Anna and Emily would love to play when they were younger.

You may remember this old post that was a Blast From the Past.

Nikita and the Sunset Safari

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As members of the Friends of the Zoo, we get access to the zoo after-hours once a month for the Sunset Safari at the Kansas City Zoo.  Certain sections of the zoo are open and there are special educational presentations that help us get to know the animals better.  Linda and the girls are fans of the zoo and could go weekly.

One of the newest acquisitions at the zoo is a polar bear, Nikita.  We got to sit in an air-conditioned area and watch him chase after frozen treats that were thrown into the water.  He’d retrieve the treat and then climb back up on a rock and then shake the water off.  It made for wonderful picture opportunities.

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Just to show just how much Linda and the girls love the zoo, Linda donated last year to Nikita’s exhibit in the name of Anna and Emily. Notice in the picture the free snow cones (and the obligatory cell phone being carried).

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