Jazzoo

|I scored some tickets to the annual Jazzoo gala in Kansas City, so Friday night Becky and I had a date. Jazzoo is a “creative black tie” affair to raise money for the Kansas City Zoo, and it’s held at the zoo. Now in its 15th year, it has become quite a social event. The cheapest tickets are $150. Fortunately, my good clients at La Parrilla gave me the tickets. La Parrilla and its sibling restaurant, Zen Zero, had booths at Jazzoo, along with about 80 other top KC area restaurants. It made for a lot of good eating while walking around to listen to live music in four venues. The “big name” was Martha and the Vandellas, wahoo. One of the acts was a Beatles impersonation which, amazingly, wasn’t too bad. The weather was perfect and an almost full moon accompanied our midnight drive back to Lawrence.|
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Indy 500 Day

Indy 500 day. :driving: My excuse for not helping Becky with housework. When I was a kid, I’d listen to the race on the radio with my dad, working on sports cars in the garage on Missouri Bottom Road in Hazelwood, MO. It was called the Auto Grotto. Later I became a dad and sometimes Stephen and I would listen to it on the radio in the back yard playing catch, or painting, or sometimes watch it on TV. Now I don’t have any guys around to share the race with. It’s different. But it still works for getting out of housework. Somehow, not very satisfying. :blush:

Wow, she’s throwing out a lot of stuff! :duck:

The least I could do is work on some of the files I brought home from the office. But every time I sit down in front of the computer I end up messing with WordPress, or reading news articles, or toying with that website I’m working on for Jeffrey’s friends.

Speaking of tornadoes, they mostly all landed to the east of us in Missouri last night. The TV stations were running continuous weather reports instead of regular programming, but the weather here in Kansas never developed. Some pretty impressive stuff in the next state, though! Some flooding, too. :boat:

As you can see, I’m having some fun with the smileys. Okay, that’s it! I’m going to think of something productive to do now! :scratchin:

Tornado Alley

After a mild sunny day we spent most of the evening watching the TV meteorologists on most every channel with their radar displays and other visual aids showing where the dangerous storms were. They appeared to be on us and all around us but, luckily, they were just all around us. Got buckets of rain and lots of lightning, but not much wind or hail. The tornadoes went north and south of us. We did, however, at one point prepare the downstairs closet under the steps for hasty retreat, just in case. It was, I think, May 8 last year when the twister hit a few blocks away. Ahh, life in Tornado Alley! Such a thrill.

And then as I lay in bed reading at 1:00 a.m. there was a huge bang and the back yard lit up like a flare had gone off. That got the adrenalin going! Obviously a transformer, but not one affecting us, as our power was on. Looking out the window, I could see the pole next door, shooting fire and sparks into the air, and into the trees. Like one of those Fourth of July fountains, with roman candles in it. Kinda cool, actually, but obviously hazardous. So I called the police, and then went next door to see if anybody was home. They were, and had already called. Then the police roared up with lights flashing in front of our house, so I pointed them next door. Then the fire truck roared up with lights flashing in front of our house, and I pointed them next door. Then I went back to bed.

p>. :fright: