Here are some old blogs from the archives. A note that might help make more sense of these posts: The primary audience was my mother. She was living in Arizona and this was before she was on Facebook. My sister Deb or Mom’s neighbors would print the posts for her to read. Also, note that none of the links from the original posts are active.
January 2005
January 1. Another New Year's Eve at the Val-Air Ballroom and, as always, a lot of fun. The same group, the Conroys, the Mays, the Burdettes, and the Robinsons did our lemming-like return to the ballroom and shuffled on the dance floor after gorging on the great food catered by Christiani’s VIP Catering Service, LTD. The featured band was “Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits”. He is the original “Herman”. Great show! We got autographs after the show and I recommended that he change the words from “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” to Mrs. Greenwood You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”! There was kind of a hush all over the room.
January 8. Well, we now run our own homeowners association. Remember the old adage about getting what you want may be the worst thing to happen. That may be true here. At the very least it will be a lot of work for the first months and years. I have been holding almost weekly board meetings in my basement. The other board members are a great group of guys and the process has been fun.
January 12. I set up a lunch with Syd Vanderlinden, Ron Wilson, and Jack Martinez. We went to PF Chang’s at the new mall. What a great time to rehash old times together. We agreed to get together at least quarterly. They plan to invite Bob Plunk to join us when he is in town.
January 19. We canceled our trip to CIC in Minneapolis due to bad weather. Now the trick is to find a time and place to reschedule.
January 30. Momma Mia with the Robinsons and the Mays was a delightful evening. Linda scored great tickets in the second-row center! Mike May paid cash for dinner so nobody could track his purchase. Hmmm. …points on the credit card vs. privacy-is it down to that?
February 2005
February 2. Debbie, Jackson, and I went to see “Dora the Explorer and her Pirate Adventure” at the DM Civic Center. It took Jackson a while to get past the fact that there were people in the costumes but pretty soon he was clapping and singing with the rest of the kids. Debbie and I would like to think that people thought we were the parents instead of the grandparents but that may be wishful thinking.
February 8. Debbie and I hosted a poker game for the Progressive guys, Scott and Murli. It was very low stakes and, of course, I had great cards all night. The best way for cards to turn cold is to increase the stakes.
February 12. The format of our website has changed as we have moved to a new Internet service provider. It will take some time to re-post the pictures. Watch for the pictures and many new and cool features soon!
The “with the kids” birthday dinner for Aimee was attended by Debbie, Aimee, Mikki, Donna and me. Aimee picked a truck stop (Grandma’s) and the food was great! it was followed by a few hours at Prairie Meadows playing the slots. I think Mikki was ahead when we left but the rest of us more than covered it for the house!
February 19. Debbie was in Kansas City for the Sales Directors meeting and I joined her on Friday and we stayed until Sunday am. We went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Our favorites are the works by Van Gogh, Monet, and Cézanne. Of course, we went to the Plaza (I prefer our own Jordan Creek Town Center now!). And we made the obligatory tour of used book and DVD stores. Debbie scored the first two seasons of “King of Queens” and I now only need seasons 4 and 7 to have a complete set of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
February 20. February family birthdays were at our house. It was for Aimee, Chris (really a January birthday) and me. We broke with many years of precedent and had a giant cookie instead of cake. Also, this was one of the few family events I was unable to get a picture of Luis snoozing.
February 23. I attended a “Star Award” dinner at Wakonda Country Club with a group I nominated because of the “Make a Payment” project. I got to wear one of the new suits that Debbie picked out for me last month.
March 2005
March 5. GuideOne just announced a new personal lines program that gives extra coverage for people that attend church. The Iowa branch of the ACLU attacked the idea so that proves it will be successful. All career agents were in Des Moines for the event. It was good to see everyone again. Of course, Don Page requested a poker game and I got to use my new sets of WPT chips for the occasion.
March 25. Easter is early this year. Why does the date move around? We went to church at New Hope at 10:45 with lunch at Mom’s at 1:00. We had to keep Katie away from the piñata again this year.
Check out your home from a satellite picture or flip to an elevation map on Terra server. Remember the catalogs from Pueblo CO? Here they are online at the Federal Citizen Info Center.
January 2005
January 1. Another New Year's Eve at the Val-Air Ballroom and, as always, a lot of fun. The same group, the Conroys, the Mays, the Burdettes, and the Robinsons did our lemming-like return to the ballroom and shuffled on the dance floor after gorging on the great food catered by Christiani’s VIP Catering Service, LTD. The featured band was “Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits”. He is the original “Herman”. Great show! We got autographs after the show and I recommended that he change the words from “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” to Mrs. Greenwood You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”! There was kind of a hush all over the room.
January 8. Well, we now run our own homeowners association. Remember the old adage about getting what you want may be the worst thing to happen. That may be true here. At the very least it will be a lot of work for the first months and years. I have been holding almost weekly board meetings in my basement. The other board members are a great group of guys and the process has been fun.
January 12. I set up a lunch with Syd Vanderlinden, Ron Wilson, and Jack Martinez. We went to PF Chang’s at the new mall. What a great time to rehash old times together. We agreed to get together at least quarterly. They plan to invite Bob Plunk to join us when he is in town.
January 19. We canceled our trip to CIC in Minneapolis due to bad weather. Now the trick is to find a time and place to reschedule.
January 30. Momma Mia with the Robinsons and the Mays was a delightful evening. Linda scored great tickets in the second-row center! Mike May paid cash for dinner so nobody could track his purchase. Hmmm. …points on the credit card vs. privacy-is it down to that?
February 2005
February 2. Debbie, Jackson, and I went to see “Dora the Explorer and her Pirate Adventure” at the DM Civic Center. It took Jackson a while to get past the fact that there were people in the costumes but pretty soon he was clapping and singing with the rest of the kids. Debbie and I would like to think that people thought we were the parents instead of the grandparents but that may be wishful thinking.
February 8. Debbie and I hosted a poker game for the Progressive guys, Scott and Murli. It was very low stakes and, of course, I had great cards all night. The best way for cards to turn cold is to increase the stakes.
February 12. The format of our website has changed as we have moved to a new Internet service provider. It will take some time to re-post the pictures. Watch for the pictures and many new and cool features soon!
The “with the kids” birthday dinner for Aimee was attended by Debbie, Aimee, Mikki, Donna and me. Aimee picked a truck stop (Grandma’s) and the food was great! it was followed by a few hours at Prairie Meadows playing the slots. I think Mikki was ahead when we left but the rest of us more than covered it for the house!
February 19. Debbie was in Kansas City for the Sales Directors meeting and I joined her on Friday and we stayed until Sunday am. We went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Our favorites are the works by Van Gogh, Monet, and Cézanne. Of course, we went to the Plaza (I prefer our own Jordan Creek Town Center now!). And we made the obligatory tour of used book and DVD stores. Debbie scored the first two seasons of “King of Queens” and I now only need seasons 4 and 7 to have a complete set of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
February 20. February family birthdays were at our house. It was for Aimee, Chris (really a January birthday) and me. We broke with many years of precedent and had a giant cookie instead of cake. Also, this was one of the few family events I was unable to get a picture of Luis snoozing.
February 23. I attended a “Star Award” dinner at Wakonda Country Club with a group I nominated because of the “Make a Payment” project. I got to wear one of the new suits that Debbie picked out for me last month.
March 2005
March 5. GuideOne just announced a new personal lines program that gives extra coverage for people that attend church. The Iowa branch of the ACLU attacked the idea so that proves it will be successful. All career agents were in Des Moines for the event. It was good to see everyone again. Of course, Don Page requested a poker game and I got to use my new sets of WPT chips for the occasion.
March 25. Easter is early this year. Why does the date move around? We went to church at New Hope at 10:45 with lunch at Mom’s at 1:00. We had to keep Katie away from the piñata again this year.
Check out your home from a satellite picture or flip to an elevation map on Terra server. Remember the catalogs from Pueblo CO? Here they are online at the Federal Citizen Info Center.