Blues Fest 2010

Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival celebrated it's 25th anniversary this year and we were there for the celebration! Known as King Biscuit Blues Festival since it's inception, the name had to be changed several years ago. But thanks to a very profitable, successful festival, it's going back to the King Biscuit name!

Dad has been stage managing the main stage for years and years, John has been working the stage crew for 7, and I make my way down there whenever I feel like it. (one of my main deciding factors is if Corrie is going!)



Corrie, Anson Funderburgh and me

                                                  

John and Chad

Kerrice and Corrie

 We had a blast! Music was fantastic, weather was great, and we just enjoyed seeing everyone. Kerrice joined us this year and she made friends with everyone she met!

We saw B.B.King, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, Marcia Ball, Reba Russell, Anson Funderburgh, James Harman, Wolfman Washington and the list goes on.

One of our favorites was Preston Shannan, the first act on Saturday. We were staying out of the sun,

chilling behind the stage, still recovering from Friday...when they started to play. A really solid set...Preston was great on the guitar and backed by a talented band. When they did their version of "Purple Rain", we all just looked at each other...it was really well done. Just a great, great start to our final day at the Blues Fest.

With Preston Shannan

Dad and B.B. King

Exhausted, we drove home on Sunday, talking about all of the fantastic music we heard and realizing how lucky we were.

Ichabods in Colorado

We are pretty involved with Washburn University. John graduated from there and currently works for Washburn, and he was just elected to the Washburn Alumni Board of Directors. For several years now, Washburn's first football game of the season has been against Colorado School of Mines. The game this year was in Golden, CO and we talked about going. Plans solidified when I found out Ray LaMontagne and David Gray were going to play Red Rocks the Monday after the game. I talked John into it and in turn, he talked Javier and Brenda into going with us. We turned it into a fantastic weekend!

Drove to Denver on a Friday, I scheduled a detour at the outlet malls in Castle Rock, everyone bought something at Coach! We made good time and checked into the Sheraton Denver West--we got great rates using Hotwire. That night Washburn Alumni gathered at a sports bar near Cherry Creek for a get together. Our friends Robin & Scott were there and we had a lot of fun visiting and trying new beers. I'd done a little research and read about a burger place in the Cherry Creek area, after hearing some more great things about it, that's where we went for dinner. Cherry Cricket was nearby...food was great and we had a blast hanging out at the teeny bar in the back, talking with the bartender.



Washburn played on Saturday, it was sunny and warm, and we cheered the Ichabods on to victory. Yes, Ichabods. If you need more info on why the Ichabods are the Ichabods, go here. "What's an Ichabod?"
We stopped at a joint right across from our hotel for happy hour...Jose O'Shea's...seriously some of the best margaritas I've ever had. And I love margaritas.





Sunday, we drove to Colorado Springs. We had brunch at the Broadmoor and it was outstanding...gorgeously done, everything you could possibly want. We changed into some casual clothes and took a drive. Patsy's for some saltwater taffy, then checked out Green Mountain Falls, where John and his family vacationed for years. Finally ending up at one of my favorite places, Garden of the Gods. A few hours were spent here...



At the end of the day, we were finally hungry again and I casually mentioned that there was a good German restaurant nearby, Edelweiss. So happy that the gang said that sounded good! Oh my goodness, I was in heaven...gemichste salat, rahmschnitzel, spatzle.

On Monday, we touristed up and got out to see a few things. Breakfast at Snooze in Denver was a very wise decision. So was the Denver Museum of Nature & Science--it was free that day to Colorado residents. We tried to pay but they waved us on through. Then back to Golden to tour the Coors Brewery. Time was running out but we stopped at another place I'd read about, Empanada Express, right there in Golden. Venezuelan empanadas and arepas, some fried yucca and plaintains...all good!

Breakfast nirvana...


Beer(!!)Tour...


We were worried about getting to Red Rocks on time...we had general admission and wanted to make sure we got there to have seats together. I was warned about the trek to the amphitheatre but I truly had no idea. Combine the altitude with my general outofshapeness, and I was wiped out by the time we made it to our seats. Brenda thinks they should take pictures of us and put a sign at the bottom of the steps..."If you look anything like these two women, don't attempt".
It was worth it, the show was great...beautiful setting, gorgeous night.



We packed a lot into that long weekend! I love Colorado and hope we can go back soon.

My kind of town...

Chicago is. We went for a long weekend in July with our friends Javier, Cheri, Scott & Robin and had a blast. It was John's first trip to Chicago and I hadn't been in over 15 years. The trip was planned by Washburn Alumni, but it was very much a do your own thing kind of trip.


We started off with a Chicago architectural boat tour and I highly recommend it! That night we went to a great cocktail party hosted by Washburn for us and Chicago alums. We drank all of the free cocktails we could, then walked to the original Pizzeria Uno where, amazingly, our group of 7 got right in and ate ourselves silly.



The next day was spent in Wrigleyville. Drinks at a friend's apartment, Cubs game, and more drinks at Murphy's Bleachers. Again, we found ourselves happy & hungry, so we trekked all the way to a Costa Rican restaurant we'd heard of, Irazu in Bucktown.


Saturday was spent negotiating Michigan Ave. where Transformers 3 was filming. We had breakfast at a place we'd spotted the day before, e.leaven, delicous! We made it through the crowds and did some shopping. We ended up on the 96th floor of the Hancock Center for two and a half hours drinking the most delicious mojitos we'd ever had. Then we hit Tiffany's where Cheri did some major damage and John bought me the sweetest pair of earrings. I've decided that we should always have cocktails before shopping for jewelry! Again, happy & hungry, I dragged us several blocks to get some food at Portillo's.
That night we went out for Italian at a place Cheri's friend had recommended, Rosebud on Rush. We went for a long walk afterwards and ended up stopping at Billy Goat Tavern to pick up a cheeseburger for Robin. (I think she and Scott were suffering from too much fun)




Sunday, we were a little lazy and walked to Millenium Park and grabbed some breakfast on the way. We'd flown out but were taking the train back, so we ordered pizza from Gino's East to take on the train with us. I wanted Lou Malnati's but was talked out of it. I really didn't care for Gino's East, especially when compared to the Pizzeria Uno from Friday night. Next time, it's Lou Malnati's!


It was our first time on Amtrak and we loved it! (Except for Cheri, I don't think she liked anything that day) But John, Javier and I would definitely do it again! It was a long trip, but time flew and we spent most of our time playing cards in the observation car.



We can't wait to go back!

JulySuperFunTimes

A belated post with July goings on. 4th of July party at Javier's house! A little rain, lots of beer & food and more fireworks than should be allowed. (Children pictured are courtesy of our friends Shayne & Autumn)






Soon after, it was time for Fiesta! We'd be on our way to Chicago a few days later, so we only had one night to hang out in North Topeka, eating tamales, drinking beer, eating tacos & tortas, drinking beer, eating enchiladas, drinking beer and drinking beer.

Kunst und Bier

Art and Beer. That pretty much sums up our weekend. It was a nice start to the summer, I can't believe it's June already. Friday night was spent with my family. Uncle Robert was in town for a golf tournament and we spent a fun evening at Mom & Dad's. Saturday morning, we got up a little early and hosted a breakfast for friends. Cheri brought the champagne! After a few cocktails, we headed over to Washburn and the Mulvane Mountain Plains Art Fair. This is one of my favorite events in Topeka. We always see fantastic pieces in all price ranges. Several pieces in our home are from past years. This year we came home with two Asian prints for our upcoming master bedroom makeover, a few pieces of jewelry and two prints from an artist I've admired for a while. Check out her etsy store, Rural Pearl.



The first weekend of June also means it's time for the German Fest! Javier and Cheri came over & we left for North Topeka about noon and got in line for lunch. Sauerbraten, bierocks, German potato salad, etc. The line was a little long but moved quickly and we were happy to buy a couple cold beers for appetizers. Afterwards we found a shady spot in the biergarten and settled in for a couple of hours. We remarked that we hadn't run into any friends and then we saw the Ybarra family. John Ybarra brought a pitcher over to our table and we helped him drink it. I discovered that mixing a little frozen margarita into my beer was delicious! It reminded me of one of my favorite summer drinks, wheat beer & lemonade.
John even found time to fit in nine holes late afternoon!

Javier!

Javier is back. After 7 long months, he is back in Kansas. Everything has been approved, he's just waiting on the final paperwork. And he's happy to be back at work.

We took a small group and a limo to pick him up from the airport. Brenda, Cheri and Eileen joined us and we started celebrating on the way there. He was surprised to see the limo and I think he got a little teary. We opened the champagne and celebrated all the way home. I was glad I'd made the baked ziti the night before because all that celebrating was getting to me.

Because his house is being rented out, he's bunking with us for awhile. He settled in his room and waited the week before he could start work. He was back in time for Robin & Scott's wedding on Sept. 26th and we all had such a great time at the reception.

On the 2nd, we threw a little party and we had a nice turnout of folks, all thrilled to have him back in Topeka. We stayed up way too late, but the guys made it to the stadium just in time to grab our spot for Washburn football.

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. We love having him back and truly enjoy living with him. I hope he feels at home!

Fiesta '09

It was Fiesta time in Topeka last week. A great big fundraiser for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church with food, beer, music, dancing, rides, and lots and lots of people. And it's usually the hottest week of the year. But not this year! We went on Thursday night and it was absolutely gorgeous out. Our friend Griff met us downtown and we took the bus to North Topeka. I've never seen the line for food so long, I think it was the nice weather. But we were getting tortas, and our line was much shorter. My friend and coworker, Laura, told me about the tortas booth last year and John couldn't wait to get one again. Marinated, slow cooked, pulled pork piled on a bun with guacamole, salsa and cheese. It was just as good as we remembered and went so well with the cold beer that Griff & John kept buying.

We went for a walk past all the booths and ended up at the Washburn booth talking to Becky. Friends we haven't seen in a long while found us and we couldn't believe it...it had been a long time since we'd seen Kim & Brian, Jewel & Farhan, and we got to meet Farhan's mother.

We ended up spending the rest of the evening hanging out with Kim & Brian...missing Javier, Brenda, Genell and Cheri.


Last week we also found out that Javier has been approved for permanent residency, I guess this is just the first step, but it was very good news!

Fourth

I love long weekends! John barbecued some chicken Friday night and I tried to create a healthy version of potato salad. It turned out pretty well. The chicken was delish. We headed over to Julie & Jeremy's to hang out in their driveway with a dozen other folks. We did a few fireworks, but mainly we just drank some beer and caught up. John found a new cigar buddy in Jeremy.

Saturday was relaxing. We saw a matinee of The Proposal. It was entertaining, cute but not great. Certainly not laugh out loud funny as my coworker led me to believe. We were some of the youngest people in the theater, I think the median age was 60.

That night, we went to our friends' house for a small bbq. Robin and Scott had the backyard all set up for us and Scott was the grillmaster. We hung out, ate, played a little ladder golf and had a time out for the doofus who set off a firework in his freaking hand. I've never seen anything like it, what an idiot. He did end up going to the hospital, but luckily it turned out to be a very minor injury.

I made frozen margarita pie for dessert and everyone seemed to like it. It's the third time I've made it and it's usually a hit. I'll post the recipe sometime. We had a nice little fireworks show in the front yard. Scott and I had fun setting them off.

We made it out to the lake on Sunday with our friend Brenda. We took the boat out---hadn't done that in a while. Turned out to be a beautiful day. Took a few pics with John's Blackberry...

Tee-Par-Tee

This weekend John played in his first tournament at the club. He invited his older brother Tim to play as his guest. I adore Tim and his wife Jennifer and was very nervous to have them as our houseguests for the weekend. We did a lot of work, a lot of buying of new sheets & towels, framing artwork, cleaning baseboards, etc. And we really needn't have done all that, as we were all much too tipsy to have noticed. (I kid, they were very sweet and appreciated all we'd done) But tipsy we were. Loopy, silly, straight up drunk.

The weather was perfect for golfing and the guys had a blast. We stayed up late Thursday night, drinking wine & listening to music. On Friday night, my folks, Uncle Robert, Greg & his girlfriend Kerri joined us for party food and cocktails. We ended the party on the front porch around 3am...too much fun. I wasn't sure if John would feel up to another round of golf! Jennifer and I slept in and spent the rest of the day reading magazines and napping.

The tournament ended with dinner & dancing on Saturday night. I haven't dressed up in a little while so I had fun with white slacks, a sparkly top, gold heels and fake hair. I love fake hair and I'm taking that thing with me to Vegas in the fall!

We said goodbye to our guests this morning and have spent the day recuperating. I am sooo not ready to go to work tomorrow.

There are some pictures somewhere...if they surface, I'll add them later.

oh dear...

We came home from a wonderful, short trip to Houston and received some sad news. Our friend Javier is waiting for his green card application to be approved and apparently there is a long delay. The company he works for put in a request for a tourist visa--this would allow him to stay a little longer and wrap things up---but this was denied. So he is leaving for Costa Rica this weekend. We knew he'd have to leave soon to wait for news of his green card, but we thought we had a little more time.

I know everything will work out in the end...I know it will. Javier will be back soon. We will take him to the airport on Saturday, but I know we'll be picking him up soon. In a limo, with lots of music and laughter and champagne. John and Javier will drink Johnnie Walker Blue Label and all will be right with the world.

Now is the time for pictures of Javier...