This is a view along the two-mile stretch we travel during our evening walk. On the other side of this fence run several horses of varied colors. If they are close enough and aren't preoccupied with grazing or taking part in some horseplay, they will stand and stare at you. One of these days, I am going to challenge them to a staring contest to determine which one of us is the stronger species.
Amber has been suggesting we take a walk every night after dinner. Thank goodness she's there to push us because this guy needs the exercise. She's a good motivator, even though I hate every step of those two miles. It'll get easier, but not before it gets cooler. It's already pretty warm in the evenings...at least to me. It's gonna be a long summer. I need to check my calendar to find out when fall begins.
We have a beautiful tree next to our driveway. It's very strong which gives the kids something sturdy to climb, and is always full of leaves in the summer giving us cool shade to enjoy. In the fall, it turns a bright orange/yellow/brown, giving us something beautiful to look at. We give it the winter off, since it works so hard the other nine months of the year. This tree will no doubt make an appearance again later this year.
I let Andrew title tonight's photo. I gave him a confused look because I didn't make the connection. He explains it like this...
Whatever happened to Pug? Whatever happened to Dick & Jane? Now, there's "Candy Planet" and "Wafflehead". I want to go back to grade school.
On our walk tonight, we crossed paths with a very friendly (but very fast and very strong) free range canine. He was wearing a collar with a tag, but the tag only listed the name of the vet where shots were received. There was not tag with the dog's name or owner's phone number. I can't tell you how many stray dogs we come across when we're on our walks, but I CAN tell you that none of the dogs carry this information around their necks. Let me urge you to get this dog if you have an animal. Here's why. We kept the dog on a leash while we called our local animal control while at the same time hoping that his owner would drive by looking for him. Animal control told us they had no one on duty on Sundays but we could haul him into Wichita to a shelter. No thanks. After about 30 minutes, we made a tough (and maybe incorrect) decision to release to find his way home. Not 10 minutes later, someone drives by looking for the dog. All we could do is point toward the direction he ran. I hope they found him. If the dog had his name and owner's number, we would've called and the search would've been unnecessary. People in a small town will call you if they find your dog. In a city, most dogs are chipped and the shelters can find the owners info. So, do the right thing and get it done! Especially if you live in a small town.
NCAA tournament. #1 Kansas vs. #9 Northern Iowa in the second round. KU loses 67-69. Sending all of my energy to the OSU Cowgirls in their run through the NCAA Women's bracket.
Another night in an arena. This time, we had the added bonus of engine fumes and ear splitting roars from Monster Trucks. It was my first time at Thunder Nationals, the monster truck competition. Probably my last, unless we get free tickets. We saw Grave Digger tear it up and do some damage but really liked the Scarlett Bandit showing the boys how it can be done. If you've never been to one of these events, it's a lot like a rodeo, but with engines and gasoline. The picture above was taken during the National Anthem before the show started.
Took Andrew and a couple of his buddies to the Spring Fling concert at Hartman Arena. That's a picture of the first of several acts at the concert. Her name is Carmen Reece. Other performers were Cartel, The White Tie Affair, Kevin Rudolf, reigning American Idol Kris Allen, and Flo Rida. I was really impressed with Cartel, thought White Tie Affair was great, and enjoyed Kris Allen. The kids liked Cartel and Flo Rida. We had great seats in a Loge box. That means we had our own wait staff, free popcorn, and access to the Hartmoor Club where they had a mini taco bar, fruit bar and cheese & crackers...all for free! Extra bonus...while the boys were out watching the show in the private box, I was able to sneak away and watch KU play on the big-screen in the Hartmoor Club. Very nice! 
The day after the last basketball game of the season, Andrew told me, "Next season starts today." He is determined to be great. I LOVE THAT! He's still participating in track and baseball and football, but those things are just means to an end. Those keep him in shape for basketball. Honestly, outside of those days with snow or rain, I think he's been practicing basketball everyday. I said he's determined to be great and to play basketball at a Division I college, preferably in the Big XII, preferably KU (but we're not gonna be picky if another school comes knockin'). You know what? I think he can do it. Stay tuned, and someday, you can say you remember reading about that guy when he was just a kid.
Sara and I went on a walk with Sonny. Amber rode along on her bike. We didn't do any fishing, even though we could have. After all, it was only 7:15.
Just finished watching the bracket unfold for WBB on selection Monday. The Oklahoma State Cowgirls were handed a 4 seed, exactly as I predicted. Good guess, I guess! Briefly, we considered going to the game on Saturday since everyone is on spring break. Then, we saw that it was an 18-hour drive. That squelched any of the 1st round travel plans we had. Although, we promised ourselves that if God smiles upon the Cowgirls and they make the final four, then we're definitely going to San Antonio. Crossing my fingers!
I found some time to finally download my photos from the Billy Joel/Elton John concert a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it's been a busy stretch. A lot of the pics turned out really great. Many of them I just deleted because they were so bad. I do what I can with this little Canon PowerShot. It's perfect for concerts, though because security doesn't usually allow anything bigger through the door. Now...help me out. Where's the best place to post pictures to share with the rest of the world? Leave a comment.
We made the trip to Kansas City to watch the Oklahoma State Cowgirls play the Oklahoma Sooners in Bedlam III at the Big XII WBB Tournament. Well, we got a bonus. We arrived early enough to get to watch the undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers WBB team play Texas A&M. Something went terribly wrong for Nebraska and terribly right for A&M with the Aggies handing the Cornhuskers their first defeat of the season. But we were in good company. We were surrounded by the Texas A&M Aggie Dance Team. First, they outperformed the Nebraska halftime routine by a country mile and, second, they were the nicest group of girls to the kids. They took time to take pictures with them and talk with them. Very admirable! They were a class act all the way. Then, we watched Bedlam III, OSU lost in a tough battle to OU, and we went out to eat some Kansas City BBQ with the rest of the family that was there. (Thanks, KB!) Oh...and my sister-in-law played a contest during a timeout and won $500 in fuel from Phillips 66. Those basketball skills must run in the family or something. The end. 
What a nail-biter tonight! It was the quarter-finals of the Big XII Tournament in Kansas City. OSU (7) was paired up with Iowa State (2) tonight after beating KU (10) last night. Iowa State was gonna be a fight, and a fight it was! I won't go into details. Just know the Cowgirls emerged victorious! Tomorrow is Bedlam III! OSU vs. OU (3)! I know the team is tired but...you gotta BELIEVE! Go Pokes! Yee-haw!
I received a cool promotional item from the network today for a comedy that begins airing soon. No, it wasn't a guitar. It was the cactus plant...or is it cacti plant? When I opened the box, I noticed the poor guys had a rough trip from California to Kansas. I don't think the shipping company paid attention to the "This Side Up" stickers on the box because the pot was empty, dirt was everywhere and the poor cactus plants were buried and gasping for air. So tonight, we gave them a quick shower, got them cleaned up and placed back into a comfortable bed of dirt. Then (since they were all gussied up) we snapped a picture. They're handsome boys, aren't they?
While I took a break from working out the notes to Billy Joel's "Angry Young Man", the kids sat down just to play around on the keyboard for a bit before bed time rolled around.
I'm staring at them. They stare back...and they never blink. Slowly, I am conquering them, but tonight, technology is fighting back. I had hoped to burn the final copies of Disc 6 and there is something keeping that from happening. Error messages haunt me. I will try at work tomorrow, when they're least expecting me to attack them. If that fails, the next step will be drastic. It's a horrible thought, but the task will be necessary to move forward toward completion. If my work approach doesn't work, I will destroy Disc 6, recreate it which will take 4 hours of precious time, and try copying again. Crossing my fingers that it won't come to that. Humans are better than technology and tomorrow, I will prove that. Now, I must slumber to prepare myself for battle and finally close the book on this project.
Sara had a meeting tonight, so that means it was "Dad's night to cook"! The kids always choose that I "cook" Spangles, so off we went. The entire restaurant has a retro theme and tonight, we sat near the movie monsters and robots from the early days of motion pictures. "Tobor the Great", "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", "Forbidden Planet", and "The Bride of Frankenstein" are just some of the greats featured on the wall. It was raining pretty good outside so we spent some extra time talking about each other's day and, of course, the monsters on the wall.
See the pepperoni? They're shaped like the letter "O", and "O" is for Oscar. Oscar night means pizza night at our house. This tradition has become standard for other awards show nights, too. Grammy's, Golden Globes, ACM's, CMA's, AMA's, etc. We eat pizza a lot at our house.
I dare you to walk in to buy just one thing, and walk out having purchased just that one thing.
I wonder how many visitors the title of this post will bring me?
Last night...Billy Joel & Elton John. Tonight...this. Andrew had his spring band concert tonight and did a great job! I guess this is what they mean by "covering the spectrum".
Sitting at the I-B-A in Wichita waiting for Billy Joel & Elton John to take the stage on their Face2Face tour. I saw Billy Joel in concert on his Storm Front tour back in 1990, I think. 7th row center on the floor. Great concert. I've never seen Elton John in concert before. I'm more of a Billy Joel fan than I am an Elton John fan, but I ended up being impressed with both. Elton was good and it was great to see a music legend perform live. But I gotta tell ya, Billy Joel knows how to entertain and engage an audience. It's like sitting in his arena-sized living room while he tells stories and plays music. Just awesome. Favorites tonight: Elton John - "The Bitch Is Back". Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start The Fire". I have plenty o' pictures to share so check back on this post for a link to see more from the show.
Amber had her school program tonight. Afterward, we usually go to Sonic for ice cream or something. Since we hadn't eaten dinner yet, we ended up at Pizza Hut. They recently gave the place a much-needed remodel and decorated with jerseys from sports teams around town. Original, right? Well, in a small suburb, that can be a pretty big deal to the community. So, you get a picture of the Thunder hockey jersey hanging above our booth. It gave us something to look at while waited too long for our dinner to arrive.
I went to a meeting tonight to discuss summer baseball for the kids. Not my favorite activity by any means. Tonight's meeting was less painful than most. I have a particular notebook I use for these meetings because of it's leather cover. It reminds me of a baseball glove. It's actually a promo item for a failed TV show called "New Amsterdam". I never saw the show but it looked liked a good one. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the saying on the front cover. Maybe if I had seen the show, it'd make some sense.
