So on Friday, we went out to lunch and there was people everywhere making this movie Transformations 3. When you see that movie come out, there should be a blue convertible Corvette in it, and when you see that car, you can think… “I know a guy who walked by that car once.”

Later that night I met up with Bethie and her mom and cousin at a charming restaurant on the river. By the way, you can now follow Bethie’s mom on Twitter.

Then we went to John and Deanne’s housewarming party on South State street. It was kinda hot, and we talked with some couples about what married life is all about. “Does your wife not know how to squeeze a toothpaste?” “Does your husband just throw those little drycleaning tags on the ground and not in the trash?” and so forth.

On Saturday, Bethie had it in her mind to lounge around, but I said “No way, we are going to the park!” Lots of little, tiny, tiny kids playing baseball in the park. Well, kind of playing baseball. Mostly just standing around waiting for the adults to tell them what to do. It’s kind of like how I play softball.

So then Bethie sits in the yard reading a book. I fixed her a sandwich and also rigged up the sprinkler for her so she could be entertained.

That night, we went to a high-powered business dinner with some business associates. Lamb chops were served along with drinks made of tequila and orange soda.

Sunday we did some more walking, and then we tried to make Thai food for dinner. The local grocery store does not have a very extensive “Thai ingredients” aisle, so we had to drastically scale back our plans. We did wind up making some pretty good chicken satay’s later on that night.

We also went to yoga, where they were having a handstand competition and I’m pretty sure I came in third. It used to be I could do handstands for days… back in my youth.

So then I finished out last night playing Red Dead Redemption. I went to Fort Mercer to get that Williamson feller, but he had slipped out before my gang got there. So I’m chasing him over into Mexico, and once you get to Mexico for the first time, this song starts playing, and there’s this big ol’ Western moon, and I spent a long time just riding around from mesa to mesa thinking “This is beautiful. I can’t believe this is a videogame!” Then I went out and lassoed and broke a rare, white horse and I was riding it around looking for some wild boars to kill so I could get my “master hunter” ranking up, and this cougar comes out of nowhere and kills my rare, white horse! So naturally, I killed it and called up my less good horse to get me out of there. I stopped off by the “hanging rock” to find a buried treasure, then I went around looking for some herbs I needed to give to this guy back in Mexico so he could get his airplane to fly. I was going to stop and get the latest edition of the newspaper, but it was getting late so I shut the game off.

So Thursday, I had to hustle out of work to drive the dog across town and drop him off at his dog jail. We still go to the same dog jail in Lakeview as when we first moved here because it’s cheap and dependable and beats the hassle of having to find him a new place somewhere closer. I get home and negotiate packing with Bethie, trying to economize the amount of stuff we bring.

Friday morning, we take the bus to the train to the plane. We were flying out of Midway, which is pretty convenient, save for one excrutiating detail - the outright lack of Starbucks. I’m not trying to promote for Starbucks, but in an airport setting, you can always count on their consistency compared to some of these other more “fly by night” (pardon the pun) coffee operations. Actually, we didn’t need the caffeine because we both slept on the plane. Upon arriving in KC we DID go to the Starbucks, but Bethie poured a ton of sugar in my pre-sweetened drink and so I had that to deal with.

My parents picked us up along with my sister who got there at the same time. We went to a big ol’ Missourah fireworks combo liquor store. They had some great old-timey looking bottles of $7 bourbon, like “Cabin Still” and “Old Grand-Dad” but I obstained. I spent $40 in the fireworks tent and Bethie, as per usual, thought I was crazy for blowing up that much money.

We stopped in Lawrence for lunch, and I found the food at Free State to be better than usual. The beer is always good, but the food can be hit or miss. Bethie has decided she’s a KU fan now, so we went up the Union on campus to do some T-shirt shopping. The less-refined K-State-supporting side of my family had to grit their teeth as we walked up that big hill.

We got to Junction City, and had to get Bethie right to that pool. We had some beer and I alternated between reading old issues of the New Yorker and People magazines. For dinner, my parents boiled up some crab legs. Good as usual. We spent the rest of the evening doing some fireworks and planning out how we could get rid of 200 or so sparklers that we had left over from the wedding.

Saturday was the big parade day, and Bethie and I were planning to go visit my grandma. We walked downtown, got some coffee and went to the Senior’s Apartments. Had a nice visit, then walked home, just missing the parade. Apparently, they changed the rules of the parade this year and nobody could throw candy from their float. I was imagining this a pretty politically-conflicting decision. On the one hand, free candy… on the other hand, a kid could get run over. I don’t know what side I’d fall on.

Bethie and I go back to the pool. The sky was going to fall soon, so we needed to do as much swimming as we could get in. After the pool, we go down to the park for about 20 minutes. Bethie reckoned that was the perfect amount of time. I reckon I could have spent a little more time, but it started raining so we went home. We played dominoes for a while, listening to Stevie Wonder. For whatever reason, we were waiting until super-late at night to eat ribs and shoot more fireworks. The ribs were great, but we didn’t eat until 10:30.

Sunday was the big party, but it was a total rain-out. Everybody stayed inside and ate. Nick, Kayley, BJ, Kelly and Chris came over and we proceeded to drink it up. Did wind up going swimming despite the pouring rain. Got pretty drunk.

Nick gifted us a .380 to celebrate the supreme court overturning our Chicago handgun ban. We all sat at a picnic table looking at this gun. Bethie would freak out whenever anyone would touch it; which was pretty funny because she’s actually said more than once that we should get a gun. Nick was real excited, telling us how it was the perfect condo gun. I thought it looked more like the perfect “in my parent’s basement” gun, which is where it is now. Hopefully, next time we’re in Kansas, we can shoot some cans or something. I bet Bethie throws up.

So then, we got my mom to drive us over by Jake’s parents house to see him and Kristin and Ben. Jake had made some fantastic beer. Even in my heightened drunken state I could tell it was really good.

We got back to my parents around 11 and ate leftovers, whilst everyone was in the driveway doing even more fireworks. My mom was talking a bunch of stuff about “sparkler bombs” and how dangerous and stupid they were. So, I went ahead and conducted a little social experiment, wherein, I made one and handed it to my mom, then went back inside for five minutes. As I had hypothesized what would happen, despite my mom’s initial protestations that it was dangerous and stupid, I went back outside in time to see three of them running across the street to light it. Point Proved. Despite how dangerous and stupid something is, the curiosity to see what might happen will overwhelm common sense! My construction was a little off, so it wasn’t as impressive as the ones we had made in high school, but it was still a rewarding process.

On Monday, Kelsey and I went with grandma to visit grandpa. Then, Bethie and I left for Kansas City, stopping at the mall so that I could buy this video game she’s been wanting me to get. We got back to the CHI, I went across town to pick up the dog, and shop in a practically deserted grocery store and then the weekend was ovah.

Technological issues had kept me off the ol’ internet for a spell, but now we got those issues all sorted out and we’re back in business. It seems my Web Hosting Reseller, Matt Cassity, needed to do some negotiating with his Authorized Hosting Provider and get their webserving systems sync’d up on the backend.

In the meanwhile, I had an awfully suburban weekend the last weekend. Bethie’s parents had a big graduation to-do for Michael on Friday night and then we spent the night out there. Saturday, I did a day-drinking session then went to visit ol’ BJ who was in Chicago for the weekend.

Sunday, we went back to the suburbs, I won $275 on a $1 bet at the racetrack, and then we ate bison burgers.

Bethie and I finally got our wedding video delivered, so we watched it the other night. Boy, that was a big deal. A real event! I kept telling her she really lucked out. But maybe we BOTH lucked out?

She is out of town for the weekend so she can’t tell me what to do. I’m going to wrap lots of foods in bacon.

Do you give a RIP? Because I don’t give a RIP!

(I know, that video is pretty old, but I was just thinking about it.)

Highlights of this weekend included buying some new shirts and taking in the Cubs game. That was pretty much all of the highlights of this weekend.

Memorial Day is a holiday that sneaks up on you and catches you completely unprepared. You forget to plan to go anywhere, because you forget that you have a three-day weekend.

So Bethie and I stayed local.

On Saturday, her little brother came by and accompanied us on a grocery shop, then we drank sangria and played xbox. We took him downtown to the metra so he could make it back to Mt. Prospect, stopping on the way for a beer or two. Then Bethie and I attempted to go shopping at Macy’s, but our heads weren’t in it. Instead we went to meet up with some folks at The Gage, where we dined on fried zucchini, poutine and fondue.

We had 8:30 tickets to go see Mike D’s Ballhawks movie. It was brilliant. But then, you know me and how much of a nut I am for baseball.

On Sunday we socialized with Bethie’s parents and then had a fantastic dinner at Joe’s. Absolutely fantastic. Maybe the best ever? Maybe.

Monday was rainy and I went for lunch with James. Bethie went to see The Sexy Cities, Too.

Last night I went out for Rich’s final going-away party at Goodwin’s house, then at Danny’s. Real good vibe. We all sampled the Malort.

I left to go home, and wound up walking instead of dealing with all that hassle of paying a cab driver. (I should have just paid a cab driver.) In my wanderings I seemed to subconsciously steer myself in the direction of Arturo’s. So I got a burrito, and I was so excited to eat it that I stopped halfway home and ate it standing up in an empty parking lot. That felt weird. But man was that a good burrito. I think because I ordered it in Spanish. I don’t know Spanish except when it comes to ordering food. (”comida”)

Just now I went to go buy a record from this store down the street but it wasn’t open, so I went to the coffeeshop instead. It felt like a “Friends” episode circa-2010. I had a brief exchange with this feller I know who was having a latte, and with the guys who run the place. The topic discussed was record stores. There are three nearby but none as close as the one that was closed.

At the coffeeshop they were playing “American Beauty” and everybody seemed to be nodding along. Say what you will about the Grateful Dead - I wouldn’t really say anything about them, because I’m not into that scene - but that is one really good record. Every song is good. Maybe I’ll buy that record if I ever go make another attempt at an in-store purchase.

So Bethie and I had a vacation planned to the Mexican region of North America. At first the plan was to go to Cabo, but then we changed that plan and went to the Cozumel island instead on account of all those creatures they got down there underneath their waters. It was fantastic.

The trip all came together at fairly the last minute. On a Saturday, we went to a friend’s wedding at a Greek church, and then a reception at a non-Greek Hilton. Few to no togas, fraternity members, columns or discussions of democracy. But they did have this whole big spread of Greek desserts that all the family and friends had put together. Oh bah gosh. That was a highlight.

We woke up early Sunday morning and took to the skies. We flew to Cancun. (A pleasant, short flight.) We tracked down the bus to Playa Del Carmen ($8 a person, about an hour’s drive.) We waited at the touristy restaurant by the pier (For about an hour.) We took the ferry to Cozumel. ($12 a person, a 45 minute trip.) We took the cab to the hotel.

We stayed at the Presidente Intercontinental Hotel and Resort and Snorkeling Facility and Iguana Refuge. It was super-nice. Our week consisted mostly of doing dives and reading books. At one point we headed to the MEGA to stock up on snacks and beers and get a styrofoam cooler. At another point we went to a really good seafood place for ahora de comida. We had a giant shrimp ceviche and a fried fish.

The key takeaway was that we think Cozumel might become our go-to vacation destination. It’s beautiful, and tropical, and kind of quiet and somewhat easy to get to.

We came back on Saturday and thanked my parents for having stuck around to watch the dog.

Working lots. It gets a little overwhelming at times.

Friday night we had our pizza party like we do.

Saturday morning we went to the dentist and had to get some teeth drilled. I was telling Bethie how it’s all a big scam and there was really nothing wrong with my teeth. She is BFF’s with the dentist, though, so she wasn’t trying to hear all that. But then, when the dentist was drilling on her teeth, she flipped out and got real mad at her because of an exposed nerve or something.

I didn’t like that, because I was new to this whole tooth-drilling scene, having never had a cavity before. But my procedure went smoothly and didn’t hurt. Afterwards, we went shopping at the Macy’s. The Macy’s benefited on that day, by being located conveniently next door to the dentists.

Then we went home and did our walk with the dog. He’s old, but he still loves to cruise around the park.

Then we watched some dumb Christmas movies.

Then I went out and had some beers.

Sunday, we did our walk, and then I left with James to go see the futuristic motorcycle stuntman show.

James works for the production company that puts the show on, so he had free tickets. It seems that in the future there was a nucular war, and the only people that survived were motorcycle stuntmen and exotic dancers. So they have to challenge one another to doing motorcycle flips off of ramps while fireballs explode all around, and then the exotic dancers have to fake-shove one another and do pole dances. In the end, <SPOILER ALERT> they realize they are not so different, the rival motorcycle gangs, so they join forces to become the “Nuclear Cowboyz!”

Afterwards, I had to go to the Starbucks across from the arena to contemplate this bleak future world, and wait for Bethie to come pick me up. Then we went to celebrate her uncle’s birthday with some tequila and sausages.

Despite Kansas’ bad finish, I came one game away from winning the office pool. Go figure.

This weekend…

Bethie and I had dinner at Mado on Friday night. Bethie and I went to Tereasa’s book party on Saturday night. I went with James to this place for brunch on Sunday. Last night I boiled turkey legs in 7-UP and then put them on the grill.

Sick of it all! I don’t want NOBODY to win the tournament now. I want them all to perish! This is why we need a BCS system instead of this flawed bracketing system.

My biggest concern now is I can’t figure out who I want to succeed less. If I had to rank them, I think I’d go:

5. DUKE
4. Kentucky
3. K-State
2. K-State
1. K-State

And I suppose the teams I least dislike to win it would be Xavier, Baylor and maybe UNI. But UNI is an ugly team - not just in terms of their play - also appearance-wise. They look like a bunch of meth addicts.

After the loss, Bethie and I went to play in a charity beer pong tournament at a place called “Uncle Fatty’s Rum Resort.” Look out Señors Buffet and Hagar, the beach-themed sports bar landscape just got a little more crowded.

So, I’m not one of those “germ-y” types that complains when stuff is disgusting, but I was pretty surprised there weren’t some of those types at this thing, because it was utterly gross. “Hey, we’re all strangers, right? Let’s take turns drinking beer out of the same plastic cups! Oh, did you drop your ping pong ball on the disgusting beer and dirt-covered floor? That’s ok, because you can just rinse it off in this cup of water. A cup of water!”

Well, Bethie and I managed to make it farther in this tournament than KU made it in theirs. Until the third round, when we ran into the Big-10 college equivalent of these guys. This one fella thought he was going pro in beer pong, and his teammate was the only member of his entourage.

Also, we picked up our new car this weekend and it is SHARP!