3 years ago, my buddies had an idea. Since most of us were in town during the holidays and since most of us lived in either Gardner or Olathe we should have a football game on Thanksgiving weekend. Thus, the Gardner-Olathe Annual Turkey Bowl was born.

This year was the first year I was able to play. In 2006 I was in Council Bluffs with Alli and in 2007, I had just had that back thing happen to me and I wasn’t really in any state to play.

I had thought that my absence was perhaps the reason that Gardner had won back-to-back games. I learned today (as they went back-to-back-to-back) that Olathe SUCKS at flag football. Two hours later, I’m defeated, demoralized, cold, wet and REALLY tired.

But it was a lot of fun.

I figure, while I’m still young, I probably should take advantage and still play. My sore body would suggest otherwise.

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I’ve got a lot to be thankful for and I try to remember that daily and not just because the pilgrims told me to.

On this day of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for:

• My beautiful, loving, talented wife. She’s my best friend and the first person I want to talk to in the morning and the last one I want to talk to at night.
• My awesome family. All of them, immediate and extended. My family is fantastic.
• My great friends. I’m blessed with a large group of great friends who are a lot of fun to be around. I’m looking forward to our Gardner-Olathe football game this Saturday.
• And so much more…

I hope that this day finds you healthy, thankful, and blessed. Thanks especially to those who serve our country overseas and cannot be with their families on this day.

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Two of my favorite shows on TV (which happen to be on the same night) are returning with new episodes on Monday.

The Big Bang Theory

How I Met Your Mother

I highly suggest these shows, particularly HIMYM to those of you who miss Friends. You can thank me later.

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So I’m not sure about how this will work since there are many people who read this blog that I’ve actually never met IRL, but it’s such an interesting concept that I thought it would be fun. I first saw it on Rachel’s blog and then Alli did it and put her responses to comment on there, so I figured I would return the favor and answer her question, which was:

“on a scale of 1-10, how much do you hate that I am a vegetarian?”

At first, it was an 8. It was a hassle, particularly because it severely encroached on my meat-eating. You’ve always been very good about making stuff for me, but preparing food for one is a pain and I’d much rather eat together than eat separate food. Lately though, as I’m realizing that I’m healthier and my weight is coming off easier, it’s more like a 5. Do I wish you weren’t a vegetarian? Absolutely. But I understand your reasoning and I support you.

Now for the rest of you…here’s how this works.

Comment on this entry, and I will:

1. Tell you why I am friends with you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I’ve always wanted to know about you.
6. In return, you must post this to your own journal/blog.

For those of you I’ve never met, I’ll do my best.

Chimpotle

1. I read your blog because the title is absolutely genius and you are funny.
2. I associate you with the site Kissing Suzy Kolber because your shared items always appear in my Google Reader feeds.
3. I like that you were the first person to donate to my Heifer project.
4. I’ll say your favorite post of recent Yelp review of In-A-Tub. Made me laugh. Very Hard.
5. I’ve always wanted to know what you actually do all day long.

sirfwalgman

1. You’ve been a feed reader of mine since 2006 and you like poker.
2. I associate you with poker and a weird name.
3. I like that you come from nowhere to comment on my blog and I haven’t a CLUE who you are.
4. A memory I have of you was the first time I found you were reading my site. I was still using Bloglines and you could see the people subscribing to your feed. I saw you on there and I thought…who is THIS guy?
5. I’ve always wanted to know where you found my blog.

Alli, my loving beautiful wife

1. I am friends with you because you are my emotional equal. We have different interests and talents, but we communicate well and we work. Our conversations can be stupid or deep and I always love them.
2. I always have and always will associate you with Georgia O’Keeffe. I didn’t know about her before you and now I will never forget the beauty of her art.
3. If I had to pick one thing I like about you it would be how you smile with your soul and also how you encourage me to be the best version of myself.
4. Man, there are too many memories to count. One of my favorites from the past year was sitting in the sunbeam that shone through the oculus of the Pantheon in silence in Rome.
5. I have always wanted to know: “If you ever managed to meet Gwyneth Paltrow, what would you say to her?”

Jen

1. I have known you since childhood. We have gone to the same church for well over 20 years and our friendship has certainly grown in adulthood.
2. I associate you with the clarinet. You’ve played for so many years, but I’ve only recently come to appreciate just how wonderful it is and how much I wish I played an instrument.
3. I love how you parent Katie. She dotes on you and that’s totally obvious.
4. A memory that I have of you was sitting with you before church a month or two ago on that small bench in the foyer and talking. It’s one of the best one-on-one conversations I’ve ever had with you. Let’s do that again.
5. I’ve always wanted to know what it was that drew you to science.

Brother Jake

1. I am friends with you because you are my brother, my business partner, and my buddy. You make me laugh and you interrupt my days with random six degrees challenges.
2. I associate you with poker. You may be better than me, but the last time we were heads up, I won. So I still have scoreboard.
3. I like after 27 (almost 28!) years of living with you, being annoyed by you, fighting with you, ignoring you, that you haven’t held a grudge against me for the way I mistreated you as a little brother and you and I are now best friends.
4. Our 21st birthdays. Even though they occurred 3 years and 3 months apart and I remember them for very different reasons, they were both memorable because of you. Your multi-national rendition of Happy Birthday made me laugh harder than just about anything I’ve ever laughed at in my life.
5. I’ve always wanted to know what your favorite songs of all-time are. Perhaps non-311…

Brian D

1. I am friends with you because your brother told me I should be friends with you. We like the same stuff. We’re both nerds. We both blog. If we lived in the same city, we’d hang out.
2. I associate you with two things: curling and Washington DC
3. I like your commitment to a financially secure future. It seems like a really boring thing to like about someone, but we need more people like you that are vigilant about their finances and don’t rely on Washington politicians to bail them out of the debt they put themselves in.
4. A memory that I have of you is really around the first time that we started reading each other’s blogs. I remember that I just started one day and you started one day and there was no introduction. We just kind of became friends from the start.
5. I’ve always wanted to know who exactly where you work. I for some reason think that you work for the State Department and can’t tell me. But I wanted to ask.

KC Sponge

1. I am internet friends with you because you linked to me before you’d even commented. That was cool.
2. I associate you with blogger meetups, even though I have never been to one.
3. See the reason I’m internet friends with you. I remember reading your post about my blog and thinking…wow…this is pretty cool. You also contributed to my Heifer project, which is pretty cool.
4. My memory of you involves the YouTube video you posted of the kids you teach hip hop to. That was sweet.
5. I’ve always wanted to know what kind of law you plan on practicing. And can you get me out of my ticket I got a couple months ago?

Laura

1. My friendship with you goes back to Graceland, but really took root after we got married and were attending the Olathe congregation (with it’s incredible new website) on a regular basis.
2. I associate you with singing in church. When I was growing up, my dad’s voice was the only voice I could ever distinguish when hymns were being sung. With him being gone so much, I’ve found that I can hear you. And that makes me happy.
3. I like that you and I have matching computers now. Wonder Twin Macbooks UNITE!
4. Provocative. Shane. Need I say more?
5. I’ve always wanted to know what your favorite movie of all-time is.

Mike D

1. I am friends with you because when we were 17 and you were 18, your volleyball team took it easy on us at a tournament and we spent some time together in Iowa playing ball and being nuts.
2. I associate you with Chicago. No matter how long you live here, I will always associate you with the Windy City.
3. I like that you came to my wife’s art show. And I like your volleyball swing. I always have. You have the single best volleyball swing that I’ve had the fortune of playing with.
4. FFB. Thanks for that. You suck.
5. I’ve always wanted to know what it was like being Mr. Mom.

Christy

1. I was initially friends with you because we lived in the same neighborhood and thus went to the same schools, etc. I think we became better friends through theater and I reconnected with you thanks to Heidi’s blog
2. I associate you with…duh…YOGA. I am determined to come to one of your classes once you start teaching again, but I am completely terrified.
3. I like that I have known you for over 20 years, but my first memory of you is similar to my last one. You’ve always had a strong sense of self and I think that’s really cool.
4. The last time I saw you was when you came to Alli’s art show. That meant so much to her and so it meant a lot to me. Your appreciation of my wife’s art is something I will absolutely always remember.
5. I’ve always wanted to know what your favorite theater role you played was.

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Last night, the boys and I got together at former New York Nationals star Jordan’s house for some poker.

Despite the fact that we started entirely too late and that my back (seriously, more on that later) was in shambles by the end of the night, it was a decent showing for me, considering I haven’t played in ages. I started off slow and dumped an early hand to the aforementioned Harlem Globetrotters nemesis. Then, I staged a pretty significant comeback.

It started when I was dealt 9♥9♠. I was out of position, but with only seven relatively tight players (and perhaps the most aggressive to my right), I raised it just a little before the flop.

The flop was pretty good:

9♦9♣J♠

It’s never a bad thing when you flop four of a kind. Everyone had been scared off by my sissy little raise except Josh. I wanted to keep him in the hand as long as possible. I checked, hoping he had maybe a pair of something or had caught the Jack. Next card out is an Ace and Josh bets it and I think to myself, “I’ve got this.” I raise his bet enough to get a call.

The final card is a blank, but I’ve got Josh on AJ, which puts me in a great position. He checks and I bet about 8 times the blind…about half the pot at this point. I want him to call me and he thinks about it for a while, then makes a move that would have been really difficult for me (and is an example of why I’m a bad poker player) — he folds the hand.

He shows me his AJ and for fun, I show him and the rest of the table the quads. That built my stack up considerably, which allowed me some freedom to play more aggressively than I typically do. I’m rolling right along as chip lead for most of the night until I run into a freight train driven by Josh.

I am dealt J♥J♣ under the gun. Jake has gone out by now so Josh is right behind me in the big blind and last to act. I limp in (my first mistake) and a couple other stragglers do as well.

The flop comes out 4♥10♥4♣, a great flop for me with my over pair. Small and big blind (Josh) both check to me and I bet out about 4 times the big blind (about the size of the pot). The two others in the hand fold behind me and Josh goes all in. I think back a moment to a time that Josh had smacked me in the face with A4, so I consider laying it down, but I can’t.

I call and am crippled when Josh turns over 10♦4♦. Stupid big blind hand flops a full house. Ouch.

After that, I manage to play pretty close to the vest, doubling up a couple times where I shouldn’t have, but finally managing a 3rd place finish. I end up in the money, which is better than I expected before the night started. It was a decent night of poker, but one I am not anxious to repeat with the way my back felt when I finally got into bed around 12:30.

Why does my back hurt? you might ask. More on that later.

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Vegas baby. Vegas.

So we surprised my buddy Jason for his 30th birthday with a trip to Vegas. 10 of us piled into two rooms for the weekend at Harrahs. He was unbelievably surprised…it was so much fun.

Alli’s post pretty much sums it up. Great trip. Awesome surprise. Well done, Brooke.

I’ve experienced such amazingly bad luck in a trip to a casino. I played poker with Jason one night and I’ll tell you what…I didn’t get but maybe 2 hands that I could play. When I finally went all-in, I had K-J, which was by far my best hand of the night. Guy called me with A-J and his A won. That’s weak.

I would win some money at the nickel slots (I think I won about 50 bucks…not bad for nickels!), but I got worked over playing Let it Ride.

One of the highlights to the trip (besides the trip itself) was getting to go see The Beatles’ themed Cirque de Soleil show at the Mirage, LOVE.

It was so unique and brilliant and it featured such incredible music and told a great story. Totally worth the money to go. We all really enjoyed seeing it. My dad will absolutely love it when he finally gets to see it.

Other funny highlights of the trip:

• Stalking Coach K in the high-limit slots at Harrah’s
• Watching Stowell go on perhaps the best blackjack run I’ve ever seen
• Brooke getting hooked on high-limit slots
• Brooke being “too tired to eat” on Sunday morning
• Taking naps at the pool on the first day because our room wasn’t ready (in our normal clothes)
• My 7-team parlay that would have paid me $1000 if I wouldn’t have missed 4 of the games (stupid KU, Penn State, Saints and Chiefs!)
• The random girls from Chicago that our girls met in the bathroom
• Seeing Kevin Richardson from the Backstreet Boys at Caesars
• Seeing Old Downtown Vegas for the first time (no, seriously, we can walk there…really, Jason?)
• Seeing why no one goes to Old Downtown (what a hole!)
• The free ceiling show in Old Downtown
• “Who is that guy? Is he famous?”
  “He must be, he’s driving a Bentley!”
• “Jason, thanks for last night…signed, Vegas Showgirl at Harrah’s” funniest picture
• High fives all around to the casino
• Almost getting kicked out of Chipotle thanks to Brooke
• Watching the Bellagio fountains…seriously never gets old…so incredible
• Not winning a single sports bet that I made (out of 4)
• …so many more

Great trip all around. Fun stuff. When’s the next one?

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We began at about 8:30 a.m. or so on Saturday and when the last tile was laid, it was almost exactly 12 hours later. Many thanks go out to our tile helpers -Â Brett, Dave, and Tom - and our yardwork helpers - Carol and Ashley (who in a stroke of pure genius, did our mowing and weedwhacking because there wasn’t much room for them to help in the kitchen). And Mom for taking pictures during the day.

There were no major injuries (save Tom’s sleepy foot and my small hand gash, see below) and the final product looks amazing. We are so excited to finish up the grout and then to tile the area under the fridge (had to wait on that one).

We could not have done it all without the help of Dave and Brett. They were so crucial in us getting this project done and we are so thankful for their leadership and assistance. We tiled just over 300 square feet in about 12 hours and the final product (well, almost final…no grout yet) looks amazing. Alli and I are anxious to get all our stuff back into our new kitchen. It looks awesome so far…can’t wait to see it when it is totally done.

Below is the best picture of what it looks like. Once we get everything in, we’ll take more photos and post them up.

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OK, so I realize it has been a while, but with all the crazy traveling I’ve been doing (Friday Morning to Sunday Evening in Florida, Monday afternoon to Thursday night in Las Vegas), it’s been difficult to sit long enough to compose anything worthwhile.

No worries, though. I’m back. I have several updates upcoming…I hope that you like them.

Let’s start with Florida.

OK, so I should preface by saying IT WAS SO FREAKING EARLY IN THE MORNING WHEN WE LEFT. 6:45 a.m. flight…had to be at my mom and dad’s by 4:30. I made it around 4:40. I had only gotten another 2 hours of sleep, bringing my 3 day total to about 10 hours. To say I was tired would be like saying to Hulk Hogan that he looks like he’s been lifting a little.

Friday was filled with travel. Flight to Tampa, then Fort Lauderdale, then a 3 hour drive to Islamorada. The weather was pretty crappy…lots and lots of rain coming in ahead of Tropical Storm Alberto. I ended up falling asleep in the back while trying to read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (that book has put a serious cramp on my reading list). I woke up and we were in the Keys, driving along the 2-lane Highway 1.

The Keys weren’t really what I expected at all. They were kind of dingy and significantly older than I expected. With all of the development happening all around the country, they seem to be the Land that Time Forgot. The people were surprising too. I expected wealthy, beautiful people, but I walked into a Jimmy Buffett concert. And our hotel (if you can call it that)? It looked like something out of a horror flick…similar to the one in the movie Identity. It was surreal.

Once we got settled and took a nap, we were off to enjoy the first wedding event, dessert at the Marker 88 Restaurant and Bar. It was pretty cool and I got a really good shot of the sunset going down over the dock there. It was also the first we got to see of our good friends, the Steeles. It’s been about 3 years since I’ve seen Gabe and Kristi and it was the first time I met their adorable little boy, Zane.

I was so excited to see them and obviously, the bride, Shannan, Gabe’s older sister who has always been something of a sister to me as well. We got to reminisce and talk and I also got to reconnect with one of Gabe’s old friends, Pete, who I last saw about 7 years ago at a different wedding. Pete is an actor who has been in and worked on a lot of really cool stuff. He had tons of stories to tell us about how he got into the movie Seabiscuit and who does what in L.A. and stuff like that. Me, being the total entertainment junkie that I am, totally soaked it up. (Alli would have loved it too…I’m sorry you missed it, honey!) Anyway, we turned in somewhat early because the wedding was the following morning at 6 a.m.

The wedding was really neat. Shannan and her husband Joseph really planned a great service, set to occur at sunrise on the property of Shannan’s mom and step-dad, Rodney. It was an amazing property that they manage for someone who lives there 2 months out of the year, a pretty sweet setup for them and a great setting for the wedding. It was a great, short service and you could tell it was totally personal to them. Gabe sang the Beatles song, Blackbird and played it on bass and it was awesome. To further add to the awesomeness, 3 blackbirds flew over as he was singing it…totally sweet.

Once the wedding finished, we had a great brunch. After that, we were all so tired and full that most everyone dispersed to their respective hotels and beds for some more nice naptime. We returned later (after some rain) to basically hang out, play some volleyball, and walk around on the sand, much further out than before because the tide had gone out. It was really weird though…it was so humid that my camera got fogged over…check it out:

We stayed as late was we could, talking and hanging out with our good friends. Jake and I hung out with Gabe and his friend, Pete a lot. Pete’s an actor and he’s worked on a lot of really cool stuff. He’s got some great stories about actors that he’s hung out with, shoots he has been on, advice he’s received…all great stuff.

Here’s Pete (foggy camera again):

Look for him in American Wedding…he’s the football guy who is the mock minister when Stifler stages the wedding prior to the real wedding (”Dearly beloved, blah blah blah”). It was fun hanging out with him…I’m looking for him in all the movies and TV shows he told me to now…it’s pretty cool.

We got out of Florida just before the Tropical Depression hit. I was glad to go home. In my opinion, Florida is really overrated and not all that pretty. Plus, I really missed Alli a lot. It sucks going to events like that without her. I was ready to go home and see her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t home for all that long…

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I have three four new blogs to announce. Two of them I helped set up and in the other one, I’m mentioned in the first post (WORD!).

Last weekend, Alli and I traveled to St. Louis to visit our good friends Julie & Bret Mahoney and Rich & Sarah Allen. Now, what last names do not indicate is that Julie and Sarah are sisters. They are what I like to call THE SISTERS STEELE.

The Sisters Steele now have blogs.

Sarah, the compassionate environmentalist (who got married on the same day as us):
Living Compassionately

Julie, the independent, elder sister who loves poetry and Dog the Bounty Hunter:
Insatiable Articulation

Both have a couple posts up now, so go check them out…they’re good people.

The third blog is Scott’s. Scott is a guy that I have gotten to know better in the past year through the great family that he’s marrying into. There’s Brad, June, Travis, Rachel, Chelsea, and now Scott. I’m excited for him to blog because he is a funny guy and one that I am certain that I’ll enjoy learning more about.

So, here’s Scott’s blog, also known as either Scott182 or Sammy182.

UPDATE: I also need to make sure and include JenB on here: Have you seen her other hat?

I really enjoy reading the blogs of my friends, not just because they are my friends, but because they are fun people as well.

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