Beaumont Trip

Well, I'm back from my fabulous trip to Beaumont. Molly looks fantastic and is getting along great. She has her diabetes more under control and was giving herself shots several times a day. She also conned Mom and I into having our blood sugar tested a few times as well.

Unfortunately, my Yankee blood must be pretty sweet because I received around 30 bug bites the first day I was there. There are mosquito control planes that fly 100 feet over the city and trucks that drive the streets spraying pesticides. Molly calls them cancer planes.

Saturday morning, Molly had a baby shower at her friend's house. There was a HUGE turnout including mostly coworkers and attorney's wives from her firm. Her two friends from SMU, Sophia and Kelly, were there as well as her friend Nancy from Lafayette, LA. It was a great time and she received many wonderful gifts! She's getting all ready for the upcoming birth of Sweet Baby James!!!


Deuce's Cake

Me, Molly, and Koffee at the Shower

Molly's Coworkers and Friends

Molly and a coworker

-KS

Boys' Weekend

It's been almost a week since I've seen Kristen and I'm beginning to think she's never coming back. No - actually, she and Kathy went to Beaumont, TX to visit Molly since Colin is away for a wedding. So I had the pleasure of going to the lake with Scott this weekend. Blue, as usual, was more than happy to accompany me.

Friday night, Scott and I went to the grocery store to stock up on food, beer, and other items for the house. On Saturday we went out for a morning boat ride, and when we got back I proceeded to assume the postion you see below...


24 oz Coors Light, Floatee, and Me

While in the process of "getting my float on," Scott and I worked with the dogs on their commands and threw their dummies to retrieve. Let me tell you, it's damn hard to get these two out of the water when it's time to leave. In fact, as I've said before, you could leave Blue there full-time and he'd be perfectly happy.


Blue and Chili

After a few hours of playing and turning into a prune, I decided I'd better get out and start working on dinner. I had been thinking of a pasta idea for a long time and decided this weekend would be the perfect time to see it through. Here it is...was...


Fusilli Pasta with Beef, Roasted Peppers, Arugula, & Goat Cheese

All-in-all it was a very nice weekend. In addition to the above, we watched the Chiefs Saturday night and also caught a couple episodes of Miami Vice. When Kristen gets home tonight I'll tell her that she needs to get everyone up to speed about her trip to Texas.

-MS

626 Horses in Lawrence

This past weekend, after a long bike ride at Shawnee Mission Park, Kristen and I cleaned up and headed to Lawrence for lunch. We went to Free State Brewery and had a few beers and lunch. After, we decided to walk around Mass St. for a bit. As we were getting closer to the end of the street, Kristen yelled "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?!?" Pointing toward one of the side streets, I replied, "HOLY CRAP, THAT'S A MERCEDES MCLAREN SLR!!! THEY'RE RARE AS HELL!!!" I went on to say, "those frickin' doors open straight up - not out like normal car doors." I then proceeded to tell Kristen that the car probably cost about $180,000.00, has 626 horsepower, and that we were seeing one of the rarest cars made today. It was extremely exciting to see it. Needless to say, it was a very cool car.

Later that evening, after returning from Lawrence, I decided to go online to see just exactly how much the SLR McLaren costs brand new. I didn't really know for sure, and I didn't want to tell Kristen it was a $180,000 car if in fact it was only a $100,000 car. Well...boy was I wrong. Brand new, MSRP is actually $452,750. That's half-a-million dollars people!!!

So see, we really did witness something otherwordly in Lawrence on Saturday. Needless to say, I drove around the block a couple times to get a few extra looks at it. I still find it odd that the car doesn't come with a personal body guard. I know I wouldn't have left it there alone on the street like that. So then I think I'm going to have to get one of them now.

Here's a video from Top Gear...

-MS

V is for Visitor

The Starrs have had quite the reptilian summer thus far. Earlier, on a weekend at the lake, we awoke to find a Northern Water Snake munching on a fish along the shore. After corralling the water dogs so they weren't bitten by the water snake, we realized that there was not one, but two snakes and they had apparently created a homestead under a rock on the beach. Viva la Ozarks!



Continuing the Summer of the Snake theme, Mark and I got up early today, loaded up our bikes, and headed to Shawnee Mission Park for a long morning ride. We wanted to try and "scale" a giant hill out there. (Get it, scale?) Along one of the trails, we came across a snake that was approximately 2-2.5 feet long winding itself across the path. I got a close look as I rode past to look it up when I got home. Fantastic! Turns out, it's a Northern Copperhead. Excellent! Glad we didn't have the water dog out there today for this chance encounter.



And to add some anticlimactic icing to our reptilian cake, I also saw a common garter snake today. Snore.



-KS

OK GO!

Not much to report since it's been a fairly uneventful week. But to send you off into the weekend, check out this video by the band OK Go. It's been all over the net lately and is probably one of the silliest videos of the year. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Oh Glorious Chipotle

I don't know how many times Kristen and I have eaten at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Their burritos are probably one of my favorite things on the planet. I'll be damned if I didn't find the coolest site devoted to everything Chipotle. It's called chipotlefan.com.



The best thing about the site is that you can click on "nutrition info," choose the type of burrito or tacos you normally get, and it will tell you how many calories are in that particular meal. It really helps if you're trying to cut back on calories like we are.

Right now, my favorite is chicken burrito with tomato salsa, cheese, and lettuce (no beans or rice). This only has about 689 calories compared to the 1249 I used to get. Kristen's favorite is a chicken burrito with black beans, rice, corn, tomato salsa, sour cream, and cheese. That's about 1274 calories (no wonder she never wants to go). But it's that addictive.



And need I even mention their guacamole? They make it just like I make mine at home, and it's perfect. Of course I'm a bit biased, but it's definitely better than anyone else in town. So see, it's helpful to know these things. There's even a message board. So go there if you ever get bored enough. And by all means, eat their food. It's cheap and awesome.

Greetings from Chicago

Buon Giorno. I'm back in ole Chi-Town. Da Bears! It's good to be back, although it's the hottest place on the planet right now.

I've had an odd evening in the fantastic Westin Rosemont Hotel reviewing some of my recent camera phone photos from the past few months. I think a few are definitely blog-worthy. I hope you enjoy!





My beautiful, pregnant sister - who I get to see in a few short weeks. Yay!



Koffee sipping some sweet, soothing Sangria.



The "thousand legger" that still haunts the deepest corners of my psyche. He put up a good fight...In the end.



I miss you all and will see you real soon!