Beautiful KS night to hang out in the truck

RIP, Mr. Palmer

Cool pic of BJ at the park on Saturday. He and I ran errands on Saturday together, we made a mostly good team. He's growing up.

***

I had the honor of meeting Arnold Palmer once. It was really cool. Kinda crazy, but cool.

I was lucky that I wasn't a life-long fan, or else I would have been reduced to mush. But I did recognize who I was meeting.... and that made me nervous.

I've met most every golfer out there — Watson, Player, Billy Casper, Tiger, McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Mickelson...

I've met celebrities — Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong, Stan Lee, Kurt Russell, Tom Morello, Owen Wilson, Cal Ripken Jr. — Mr. Palmer was one of the few times I was nervous.

Because he's Arnold Palmer!!! Legend.

Cheers, Mr. Palmer.

***

I'm so pissed off, re: concert tickets. I think I kinda/sorta got scammed on Saturday night, when a fake website led me to believe the Local Natives concert at Crossroads was going to be live-streamed. So I signed up, and it just didn't work.

I called their customer service rep (of course by now I've plugged in my credit card info for a FREE five-day trial) and she's curt, tells me live-streaming isn't what they do.

ANYWAY, I call the CC company and tell them, they say cool, we'll keep our eyes open, not your obligation anyway...

(But what if I just wanted to see Local Natives in Kansas City?)

***

Now I see that Banks and Steelz are in town, featuring the lead signer of Interpol, with the RZA. And yep, I'm on the outside looking in.

Whatever.

The origin of Koko Jones

The kids made "vote for Koko" signs to campaign
for us choosing that name for the dog.

Adrianne and Koko enjoy nice weather on the back deck.

The ride home for the yet-to-be-named Koko. She likes the truck.

Last Saturday, we had nothing going on. It was great. No soccer games, nada.

Adrianne said to me in the morning over breakfast (I love making breakfast on Saturday), "You need to run to Office Depot, I would like to go to Tuesday Morning... so let's do that. And then, want to stop by the pound?"

A couple hours later we were in Lawrence, and I kind of forgot about it. Evey went with her grandma, so it was just Adro, Boyd and I in the truck.

We debated stopping, but we had time, so we popped in. Saw my pal Gaus there with his family, his boy and my son are now classmates at Montessori. We entered the kennel...

I thought we were done. I saw a few dogs I liked, but I wasn't going to make any recommendations. It was nice to look. Lots of nice animals there.

Then I said to Adrianne, "See anyone you like?" This was after we had finished the tour, and were standing at the next-to-last dog kennel.

"Yeah, this one!" Adro said. "Will you see if we can get her out?" So I did.

Adrianne fell in love right away. She's a sweetie. Approximately two-years-old, a labrador retriever/beagle mix. Adro liked the dog's demeanor (real mellow) and thought maybe it was a sign that the shelter acquired her on Adrianne's birthday.

The dig was great with Boyd, so I was interested. It's been a year since Snickers died. Felt like the right time to try again.

Koko enjoyed the drive home, and explored the backyard. Our day of no plans turned into a day of sitting in the backyard on a beautiful day, day-drinking, smoking meat, hanging with my sister, surprising Evey and Judy, and watching the dog explore the backyard.

I traveled this week, so I was only around her for a day and a half and then I left. When I returned on Wednesday night, she barked at me when I entered the house — the first time any of us had heard her bark.

We kicked around names for a while, and I kind of think I was the first one to suggest "Cocoa" or "Coco" or "Koko," but I may be wrong. We were sitting on the back deck, enjoying the weather, and we were bouncing around names. Evey really liked Lea (after the princess) but Adrianne and I weren't as excited. There were a few others, I can't even remember them.

She's changed the dynamic in the house, mostly good. Boyd really adores this dog, and Koko allows him to put her in headlocks, to lay with her, etc. Evey's quite fond of the dog as well, and likes taking her for walks. Koko sleeps in Evey's bed at night, which means now Boydee sleeps in Evey's bed at night. There's enough room, and the kids really enjoy this, so we're cool with it. And me and Adrianne get our bed back to ourselves (Boyd oftentimes would come over to snuggle with his mom.)

The dog has chewed up a few items in the house, a couple stuffed animals and one of my old T-shirts. So we've got to be careful what we leave on the floor.

She's only had a few accidents and she doesn't beg for food, or hunt for food under the table. She does not like other dogs, so when we're walking her we keep her separated from other dogs eager to sniff her butt. She has tried to run out the front door a couple times, even though she doesn't know where to go, but we've got to kind of watch her getting out the front.

All in all, she's been a really nice addition to the family.

Welcome Koko Jones!

The weekend that was, 9.16.16

Me, Ted, Heather and Adro at the Urge concert at VooDoo Lounge.

The kids and Koko lounging on the new upstairs furniture.

What a great weekend! A little bit of everything...

***

On Friday, Adro, Judy, Evey and Boyd went to Ikea and Adrianne bought these new seats that fit perfectly in front of the upstairs windows. Even better: Adrianne even assembled them Friday night! She got the whole thing assembled and put together, no problemo.

That night Evey had a sleepover at her friend Kali's house, so it was just the three of us (and the new dog.) It was kind of quiet, but productive.

I'll admit I was in a bad mood for a bit on Friday. A cluster headache, combined with driving the truck to Ikea in the rain, plus a vet appointment for Koko, had me a little keyed up. I managed to settle down with a few cold beers and some errands around the house, though...

***

Saturday morning was just perfect out, after all that rain on Friday. We opened the windows wide and enjoyed the new view. I went and picked up Evey from her sleepover, she had a great time. I whipped up a serious breakfast burrito breakfast for everyone, and we chilled out and enjoyed the weather.

Boyd celebrating Batman day.

Watched the KU football game for a little bit, that was awful. Then Judy came over, and Adrianne and I loaded up and went to meet Ted and Heather for the Urge concert in KC.

The show was solid! I hadn't seen those guys since college, probably. The opener played rap covers, that was fun. Then out to the casino for a little gambling afterwards. I hit four 7s on video poker, for a net gain on gambling. I won't tell you what my bar tab was, though...

***

Sunday morning Judy took the kids to church, allowing me and Adro to sleep in, which was great. We headed to Lawrence early and took everyone out to Pie 5, the new pizza place in Lawrence where you choose your own toppings for your pizza... kinda like Subway, but for pizza.

Me and the Mrs. toast a beer at VooDoo Lounge.

The kids LOVED it. Evey said it was her new favorite restaurant, Boyd said it was his new favorite pizza.

The Urge, still getting hectic.

Then we hustled up to the Rod and Lupe's pool, where we swam for the last time this summer. The Johnsons joined us, I grilled burgers and dogs (Jess later saw that it was "National Hamburger Day," so we did in fact celebrate that day.)

It took me about 40 attempts (not exaggerating) but I finally nailed the diving board basketball shot at the pool. Jett made it, so I couldn't not make it. Diving in and getting out of the pool that many times really wore me out.

Now I'm chilling at the house, watching NFL football. Kids are tucked in. Adrianne has been fervently cleaning for the last few hours, and the house is looking great.

I'm going to sleep the good sleep tonight, get off to a good start for the week. I feel very alive!

Great weekend, let's do it all again.

Guess

Who got a dog this weekend!?!