Happy Birthday Kristen

That's right, today is Kristen's 31st birthday. Tonight we have a couple friends coming over to help us celebrate and enjoy our weekly Sunday night shows (Entourage, Lucky Louie, and Tourgasm). We're making it simple again and having burgers, brats, smoky baked black beans, and corn-on-the-cob. Should be very exciting.

Last night, to celebrate Kristen and Ruth's birthday, we went to Laurie and Randy's. There was quite a turn out and we were also greeted by new kittens in the family: Scamper and Spook. Scamper is a fantastic little boy who is already capable of fetching paper balls and bringing them back to you - just like his cousin Yoshi. Spook, as the name suggests, is a female kitten who is easily scared by her new surroundings. She did get a little curious about Scamper's fetching and came out for a few minutes.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Sounds like you did. Here are a few pictures from last night. Stay cool everyone...


The Dack's House


Tom, Howard, John, Kristen, Laurie, and Nancy


Emily, Lola, Kyle, Cleota, Ruth, and Margaret


Howard and John


Kristen, Tom, Margaret, Emily, Nancy, Laurie, Howard, and John


Lil' Scamper


Kyle, Alex, Kristen, and Emily

Images of Colorado

If you've gone to Quinlan's blog lately you've noticed that Gene, Linda, Jennifer, Phil, and Quinlan made a trip to Crystal, Colarado to spend some time in their friend's cabin. I won't go into too much detail about how long it takes to drive there, but it's a very long time. Trust me! I've seen the DVD. However, from that video and these photos, it certainly looks like it's worth the trip. Boy would Kristen and I love to go there for a few days to get away from our neighbors...

Note: The last two pictures are taken of Crystal Mill in Crystal, Colorado. You can read a little bit more about the town and mill, including how it's one of the most photographed landmarks in Colorado, by clicking here.

Thank you for sharing the photos Gene...


La Maison du Starr

Garde de la Maison

Quinlan, Phil, and Jennifer

Gene and Quinlan

Jennifer, Quinlan, and Phil

Linda and Gene

Crystal Mill

Crystal Mill

Happy 5th Anniversary!!!

This past Friday was our five-year anniversary and we spent it at the Lake of the Ozarks. I still can't figure out how I got so lucky. Not only that, but she's put up with me for over eight years. There should be an award for that because I can be downright psycho sometimes. Anyway, Happy Anniversary Kristen. I Love You!!!

Molly Dali

Today, Shrimpy explained a truly terrifying, yet extremely lucid dream she recently had:

I had a dream last night we were all in T-Town and there was a power line outside the houe buzzing and then popping. I ran from the basement up the stairs and saw a huge tornado. Then, the french doors by the downstairs fireplace blew open and there was a super-vacuum sucking everything out of the room. i was on the stairs, and looked down the hallway and there was Mark, Blue, Sony, and Yoshi just looking at me completely normal. Then, I got sucked out of the window right after Kristen.

She then explained that the dream could be her subconscious trying to scream out and warn us of the dangers of the downstairs window as, due to her pregnancy, she has been gifted with supernatural psychic powers.

An Eventful Starr Weekend

In addition to me having homework and Kristen having work to do for...well…work, the two of us had a somewhat eventful weekend. Friday night we went downtown to the First Friday celebration and drank with some work friends at The Cashew. I have never seen that area of town so crowded before. The weather was absolutely amazing, though, and we had a really great time as a result.

Yesterday, Kristen decided that it was time for her to finally clean her car. And when I say clean her car I mean wash, wax, vacuum, and shine the tires. I almost fainted. Actually, I should say I fainted because it was hot as hell in the garage yesterday and trying to vacuum all the dirt out of her car wore me out. I’m here to tell you, though, that it looks better now than it has in about two years since the last time we waxed it.



Yesterday afternoon Kristen wanted brats. I’m sure it had something to do with having them at Phil and Jen’s last weekend. I didn’t know what else to make with them, but we knew we wanted it to be healthy (on account of the brat fat). Therefore, I decided to make some green beans since they were so beautiful at Hen House yesterday. I sautéed the beans with onions, garlic, and tomatoes. We also opted for some “healthy” Michelob Ultra to stick with the idea of battling the fatty brats.



Last night we went to play tennis for an hour or so. I must admit that Kristen is making a lot of progress after only three trips to the courts. I am very proud of her. Not to mention the fact that she just really loves to play tennis. We will probably have to go again today since she’s so addicted to it.

Tonight we finish our work for school and work and watch the weekly Sunday night HBO lineup of Entourage, Lucky Louie, and Dane Cook’s Tourgasm. Should be awesome as usual.

Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. We spent a good part of yesterday cleaning out different parts of the house: drawers, closets, and refrigerators. We also went to see Superman. Kristen liked it but I thought it was a bit too long and mediocre. It seemed to have about four endings. The theatre was packed, so I guess they're making their money on it.

Last night, we went to Phil and Jennifer's house for a bratwurst and burger. Both were good. Kristen and I took over a batch of Sangria we'd made the day before. When we got there, the first thing we saw was a naked Quinlan in the driveway. We wondered if we had possibly arrived at the wrong time, but we were assured that he does it all the time. I tried to get Kristen to do it too, but no luck. It was a fun time and we got to see fireworks in the process. The weather was also gorgeous, which is a drastic change from how it's been the last couple of weeks.

Coping with the KC Heat

I got up early this morning to mow the yard. Let's face it, that's the only time you can mow and not melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. So once I got that accomplished, Kristen and I went to the grocery store to get some dinner items for tonight. Here's how it went...

First, we got the flowers ready on the table and mixed them with some of the others we had left over from Molly's shower last weekend. The purple colors were amazing together.



Next, we made a huge batch of Sangria out of the ingredients seen below. And let me tell you, it is some good stuff. I am surprised I have spelled everything corektly so far. Or have I?



After getting the table set and having some of our Sangria, we decided to start dinner. I made Grilled KC Strip with Saffron Risotto and Asparagus. It's been a long time since I made risotto, but it was very good. I'll be damned if we didn't eat almost every single bite of it.



We couldn't leave Blue out of the event. He wanted some good food, too. I became his hero after I shared a few pieces of my steak with him. You can see how attentive he is below. Too bad he doesn't look that way now. He's currently passed out in front of the fan dreaming of ice cream from Randy's at the Lake of the Ozarks.



But the heat, for lack of a better word, has been hell in Kansas City today. I think the actual temperature outside right now is about 134 degrees. I'll have to head out here in a bit and water my grass so it doesn't go up in flames.

HAVE A GREAT 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!

M & K