Shane Life

I have an exciting announcement to make.

Alli’s artwork will be showing at the Starbucks at 135th and Blackbob for the whole month of June!

We got up very early this morning and trekked to the store to install her show.

It was a nice morning. The people at Starbucks were super nice and EXTREMELY helpful. One of the baristas even came over and told Alli that her work was beautiful (which it is).

I’m really excited for her. If you are in the area, stop in there. She’s got 8 paintings up in the store. Check them out…you won’t be disappointed. If you can’t get to the store, or if you’re reading this out of town, check out the work here. Alli also has some more pictures and information over at The Shane Fan Club.

I have a little bit of an addictive personality.

When I got hooked on the Harry Potter books, I read all 6 very quickly. The same could be said for a lot of things.

This last winter, I finally found a drink at Starbucks that I like - the beloved Gingerbread Latte.

Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the Gingerbread Latte was only SEASONAL. Boo.

I’ve realized that I can drink coffee now. And as I drink more, the more coffee I want. I started off getting the Gingerbread as a Misto (the Starbucks equivalent to a Cafe Au Lait, which is regular coffee with steamed milk). As I got more used to the taste of coffee (it used to be unbearable to me), I began to be able to drink more coffee-like drinks. I used to think that it was the espresso that I couldn’t handle, but it truthfully was just finding something that I liked.

After the Gingerbread Latte went on hiatus, I had to find something to get there. Starbucks replaced the Gingerbread with a new item, the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, a cinnamon and brown sugar concoction of awesomeness that at first I thought was…get this…too sweet. I settled on drinking a Vanilla/Cinnamon latte, which I liked. Over time, I like to try different things, so I tried the Cinnamon Dolce a couple more times and the more I drank it, the more I liked it. Now, I am getting a grande nonfat sugar-free (if they have it) Cinnamon Dolce Latte, and if I’m feeling extra saucy, I’ll even add an extra espresso shot.

Re-read that last line. An extra shot. Little boy’s all grown up, I guess. I’m even looking into buying a coffee maker. I know. Who is this guy?

Or I could just buy my own Starbucks franchise so I wouldn’t have to pay…that would be ideal.

To celebrate my triumphant return to the blogodome, I’ve decided it would be totally sweet if I posted something every day for two weeks straight. It might be difficult considering that we are taking the Senior High group to Branson this weekend, but I’ll just get ahead of the game.

Be on the look out for some new posts coming soon. I’ll be accepting recommendations, but I’ve also got some stuff slated to talk about, including the following:

• A post about my Jayhawks disappointing loss to UCLA in the tournament
• A movie review of Reign Over Me
• A top 10 list - the Most Grossly Mis-Cast Movie Roles
• A commentary on dentistry and orthodontia
• My new Starbucks addiction
• My first book review of the year
• the possible launch of a new topfive blog
• …and many more!

Keep an eye out for these posts and more. The first to come by midnight today.

My last day at Perceptive Software was November 10. I start my new job on November 27. I think my new employer would have liked for me to start on November 13, but I really needed this time off to decompress and prepare myself for my upcoming new position.

I’m thrilled to be starting this new job. I can’t wait to get in there, but for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been really enjoying not working.

Since Alli works for herself, she has been able to schedule herself available as well. We’ve had such a blast just hanging out the two of us in the house, getting Starbucks and muffins from our Price Chopper and so many other memories that I have to list some of them here:

• Starbucks and muffins from Price Chopper every day
• Chipotle almost every day
• Our annual Shopping Day
• Our Chiefs Excursion
• Alli punching Clay Aiken at Sam’s
• Seeing Casino Royale and Stranger than Fiction in a span of less than 24 hours
• Our Netflix trial and seeing Roman Holiday for the first time
• Watching Today, Regis & Kelly, The View, and The Megan Mullaly show. Seriously.
• Talking ourselves out of spending $3,000 at Nebraska Furniture Mart
• Seeing Tim Gunn and Angela Keslar from Season 3 of Project Runway at the Leawood, KS Macy’s
• Meeting little Stella Anne less than 24 hours after she was born…you guys make good-looking kids, K&S
• Naps
• Interviewing a new member of my new team
• Snuggling with the dog
• Spending Thanksgiving (and Ashley and Tom’s birthdays) with Alli’s family
• Late night text-messaging with Jake
• SUGAR COOKIES
• The onset of Christmas music, including our newest Christmas CD, Wintersong
• Finishing 2 books (Review of Fletch Reflected coming soon)
• The Chiefs beating Denver on Thanksgiving
• Staying up late by myself to watch the KU-Florida game go into overtime and have KU win
• Returning home
• Relaxing
• Spending 2 weeks with my best friend

Some of that might mean nothing to you readers, but it has meant the world to me. I’ll try to be a more prolific poster, but with the new job starting, we’ll see.

I’ve never been a huge fan of coffee.

I think I’m in the minority there; but the truth is that when I go to Starbucks, I’ll get something without caffeine like a chai latte or a steamer or something tasty like that. Alli loves her mochas, but I’ve never been able to get into them.

That’s not to say I haven’t tried. I have. But it seems to me that everything about coffee has messed me up.

Until now.

On a whim, I tried something that my friend Kevin suggested to me a while ago at Starbucks. It’s called a Cafe Au Lait in most places, but at Starbucks they call it a Misto. The difference between a Misto and a Latte is that instead of Espresso, it contains brewed coffee with the steamed milk. For good measure, I added some of that tasty pumpkin spice syrupy goodness that the kids are talking about these days.

Good stuff.

I figured out that the problem that I’ve had with coffee wasn’t the coffee necessarily, but moreso the espresso. I don’t know why…I just don’t like it. Coffee on the other hand, I can tolerate. It’s milder and packs a much larger punch in the caffeine department. Consider the following:

A cup of brewed coffee contains up to 3 times the caffeine as a shot of espresso.

And guess what…it tastes better! (To me, at least).

Anway, I was pleased to figure that out this weekend. It gave me the buzz I needed to get stuff done on Saturday.

And Sunday.

And this morning.

I’m headed to Seattle all next week for a conference. I’ll be posting from there and trying to keep my flickr photostream updated.

Before I go, I have a volleyball tournament tomorrow and we’ll see how my ankle handles a day of jumping up and down. Cross your fingers! As for the rest of the weekend…tonight is the Gardner Dance Team’s Light Show…it’s their final performance before their big Spring Show.

I’m interested to see what Seattle is like. While I’m not a big fan of seeing it without Alli, I still am interested in the city. We are planning to go to the original Starbucks location as well as see Pike’s Market and all that other touristy stuff. But mostly we’ll be in sessions from 8 in the morning until 6 at night.