Travelling Week

The week went by pretty quickly, all things considered. Had a nice time. Am happy to be home. Not that there was too much worth the telling, but here's roughly how my week played out.

Sunday July 13, 2008

Left pretty early. Those 7:00am flights mean I have to get up at about 4. Ouch. But the nice thing is that I get in early, too, at about 8:30 (central time). As we have the past few times I've flown out to Kansas City, my brother and I met for breakfast at a little place which seems to sit about midway between his house and the baggage claim where I usually call him to let him know I've arrived. This place has amazing biscuits by the way – begging the question of why it is I moved to the south but I have to fly back to the Midwest to get amazing biscuits. On the menu for me that morning: small order of biscuits and gravy (one of said biscuits covered with enough gravy to harden the arteries of everybody at your current table plus the table next to you) and a bacon-egg-cheese biscuit sandwich. If you're into that sort of thing, the Corner Café at either location in the northern Kansas City area is pure heaven.

Then, par for course, he and I went back to Mom and Dad's house for a few hours of Warcraft which is much more fun when you're playing with someone sitting next to you and which is a game we still hang onto after a year and a half because otherwise we wouldn't hear much from each other (i.e., it brings us together on the battlefield where we kill monsters and such fun stuff as that). Break for lunch at a local barbecue joint – Arthur Bryant's, another delicious choice – at which point I was feeling the effects of the early morning. Mom made meatloaf for dinner. We watched a movie (or, rather, I snored through it) and called it an evening.

I like traveling in early on the day before I'm supposed to report to the office. It gives me time to catch up and get ready for the work week. It's fine if I have to fly in on Monday morning, but the past several times I've done this, I've really enjoyed hanging out with the family on Sunday.

Monday July 14, 2008

Just a day of meetings. Nothing spectacular about it. We went to a little sports bar that the local guys have discovered for lunch. They describe it as a "skanky version of Hooters." I won't elaborate, but the serving gals look as if they at least know someone who walks the streets and may have taken a few fashion tips from these them.

Good food, though.

A word or two on my staff in the Kansas City office: it's shrinking. I'm down to 3. Granted, they are 3 of my key most senior players, but still... I used to have 5 out there. One left on her own to spend more time with her kids. The other decided he couldn't work for me any more (long story) and moved on to another department. Alas.

Tuesday July 15, 2008

More meetings. Can you believe it? Yeah, well, that's why I came out here. Had to get in to the office at 6am (!!!) which meant leaving the house at 5 because Mom and Dad live all the way across town. So I left early that afternoon, at about 3:30 when I'd wrapped everything up, and took a nap when I got home. Later we all went out to see Wall-E at a 7:00 show. They loved it, and I loved it even more the second time around. (I enjoy taking M&D out to these feel-good type movies. The last time I was home we went to see Juno together.)

Wednesday July 16, 2008

We had a "team building" event planned for the evening, so after work we all drove to a place called Dave & Busters. Have you ever been there? Quite a concept. Sort of like an arcade targeted at adults, though at least at this one, kids were more than welcome. 3 bars, 1 restaurant, and enough games to keep you occupied for hours.

We started the evening with a beer and some pool, but among the four of us, we have skill levels that range from shark to simpleton, and I won't tell you where I fall on that scale. Dinner after that where the food seemed to aspire to "average" and managed to hit "merely tolerable" somewhat consistently. Then you get these debit cards where you put in money and swipe them at the various machines where you want to play. I put $20 on each card, and that lasted us several hours. The neat thing about it was we could play together. Most of the games allowed at least 2, if not all 4, of us to compete against or with each other. We killed aliens, zombies and Nicaraguan bad guys. We raced around speedway tracks, through mountains, and down the streets of Chinatown. We played skeeball – a decisively low-tech option – and air hockey (some of us are old school) and it seems that yours truly is somewhat of a savant at that Wheel of Fortune game where you have to hit a button to stop a circling light on a number – which determines how many "ticket" you get – or, more preferably, on the "Spin the Wheel" icon which, as promised, spun the wheel giving you a chance to get up to 450 tickets at one go. I got that once. I used up the remaining credits on my card to get about 800 tickets for one of my guys so he could bring home assorted plastic crap to his kids. Quite a blast.

Got home completely beat and crashed. Apparently I can't party like I used to.

Thursday July 17, 2008

More meetings, nothing special, but we took one of the guys out for lunch to celebrate his recent citizenship. Houston's down at the Plaza is still one of my favorite steak joints. Their filet is to die for. Salads melt in your mouth (if that's even possible) and I haven't had a bad side dish there. This week, the side was creamed corn, which I've never liked until now.

Friday July 18, 2008

Last day in the office. I took the guys out for lunch and we bade each other farewell after that. I'd originally planned to go home Friday, but got the Saturday morning flight instead. So Mom and I took a drive downtown to check out the new Kansas City library which was moved into a restored bank building (dating back to 1900). It's quite beautiful. The library lovers in the world will be well served by checking it out next time you're in the area. It's on 10th and Main.

Watched two movies with M&D that night: Lars and the Real Girl (previously reviewed on these pages) which they both loved, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which Dad loved and Mom skipped.

The Flights

Nothing dramatic this time. My flying horror stories seem to limit themselves to longer trips. Now that we have a direct flight from Raleigh-Durham to Kansas City, I seem to get off the hook. The most I can say about these is that on the way out, the flight attendant spent almost the entire two-and-a-half hours talking to the guy in front of me about some rare illness that they share (the name of which I missed, regrettably, and I felt it would be in poor taste to stop them later in their lengthy conversation to ask) and how much medication they would be taking the rest of their lives to keep it in check.

Nice.