caseyphillips.net

The Pitch, a local semi-serious news and event site recently published this article. Since it is quite a lengthy article, I'll paraphrase the gist of it. At the construction site for a downtown sporting arena, the remains of 6 humans were discovered and determined to be the bodies of Civil War soldiers that were killed by local whores for trying to skip out on payment. I must admit I'm somewhat of a history buff, and I thought it was kinda interesting. That is, until I found out the whole thing was supposed to have been satire in response to Missouri's governer Matt Blunt allowing the Confederate flag on state property. Well, the whole thing was lost by me (as well as just about everyone else). I was a little disappointed that it wasn't true, and a little ashamed for falling for it hook, line and sinker. It's made quite a bit of buzz here, as it ruffled a few feathers.

You can read about the hoax here.

We had a pretty busy day today, but it was fun. First off, we went to the Kansas City Zoo. We've been meaning to go for quite some time, just haven't gotten around to it until today. The was a very different type of zoo than I am accostumed to. I'm used to zoos that are almost like theme parks with animals, but this zoo was like being in the woods. It was very, very wooded, and at times seemed like I was out camping or fishing (then a hippo would pop out of the water). I saw gorillas sleeping in the grass, elephants along a walking trail, and I already mentioned the hippos. I've seen all these animals before, but it somehow seemed, I dunno, more natural here since it was so wild looking you didn't really notice the fences and stuff as much. It was great fun, but we should've gotten there earlier (we got there around 2:00) because it is quite a large zoo. The guides said it would take around 5 hours to see every exibit. And, like a dumbass, I forgot my camera, or else I'd be posting some photos, but we'll be back, and I'll be sure to remember the camera.

On the way back we were starving and decided to stop by at a restaraunt we've driven by dozens of times: Cheeseburger in Paradise. I thought it to be a glorified fast food joint, but man was I wrong. This place was great. Full bar, great burgers, live music, and decent prices. Probably one of my favorite places we've eaten at so far (I'm a big fan of a good burger. Gourmet food as far as I'm concerned.). I'd even go so far to say this even beat Cassidy's in Odessa, TX. And that's saying alot.

Anyway, I've got alot of exploring to do, there's alot of stuff to do here in K.C. I especially can't wait to hit some of the blues and jazz clubs in town. Tammy's even making plans for us to see an opera or some plays (which I think might actually be fun).

Last week, my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and little nephew came up from Texas to stay up here with us for a few days. It really was great to see them all. I always hear people complain about family, especially when family out-of-town come to visit, but for me, they didn't stay long enough. There are alot of things I'd like to have done while they were here, but there just wasn't enough time. But, I'm thankful for the time we did have.

Being so far from home (Texas) it's nice to have some familiar faces around. Having my family and friends so far away has been the biggest, if not only, drawback to moving up here, but the change of scenery was something I desperately needed. I hope, in the not-too-distant future we'll have some more company. Benny has mentioned maybe coming up here sometime. Maybe we could catch a game or take the kids to Worlds of Fun

For now, I at least have a September fishing trip in Texas to look forward to!

One of the simple things I missed while living in Midland was sitting outside on my porch on a summer evening watching birds, approching storms, or generally just enjoying the air. Tammy and I would do this quite often back in Sweetwater, but since moving to Midland, having a small apartment, and the view from our "porch" was other apartments and a parking lot, we didn't indulge much in this simple pleasure anymore.

Tonight was great though. Thunderstorms were coming in the distance, so we decided to sit on our porch and watch them come in. Not only was the lightning quite beautiful to watch, but we noticed our entire neighborhood has been invaded by lightning bugs. I mean these things were everywhere. Growing up in west Texas, I only remember seeing them when I would go camping with my family, and even then it was very seldom, maybe on one or two camping trips out of dozens. It was quite entertaining to watch them blink and flash, and all in our own yard.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that with everyone. I thought it was kinda cool to be able to just sit on my porch and finally enjoy it again.