Birthday Girl

We celebrated JoAnne's 77th birthday yesterday (7/18) by having dinner at Elliott's with Karen and Norman. It was a wonderful evening. On Wednesday Karen and Norman hosted a birthday dinner at E. Indiana Avenue serving lamb chops. Uummm good! All in all, I have to say despite all the years, she still looks pretty good.

The Cabinet

Anne's post re Gracie's talents in the kitchen prompted my yearning for any one of my three girls to be here with me in my time of need.  I do a lot of personal business on my computer at home and my desk has become more and more cluttered with unorganized papers (as has the kitchen table, the top of the washing machine and my underwear drawer).  I decided I needed a filing cabinet.  I didn't want to put an ugly Staples-variety 2 drawer metal cabinet in my beautiful kitchen, so upon googling "decorative file cabinets"  I discovered the perfect piece - a red, antique finished console.  When I saw the huge box sitting on my front porch I was so excited!  I tore into it only to find a 50 page set of "building" instructions, 1000 screws, sliders braces, etc etc etc.  Where are my girls when I need them?!  Anyone who knows the Thompson girls, knows that their idea of a perfect, rainy Sunday afternoon is spent with such a project.  So here I sit, waiting for Rudy (our favorite albeit crazy, handyman).

Gracie Master Chef

Either Gracie is a culinary prodigy or just very good at bluffing. Since coming to Kansas City earlier this summer, she claims not to know how to boil water and yet she has amazed us time and time again with her skills in the kitchen. She can follow a recipe, yes, but even more impressive: she can improvise a recipe into something even more delicious using nothing more than the ingredients we have lying around the house plus her own ingenuity!

Case in point: Justin and I were out of town and Gracie whipped up the most incredible chicken salad I have ever tasted - with sour cream instead of mayo, capers instead of relish, plus a dash of white wine vinegar, chopped cucumbers, green onion, and a couple of other surprising ingredients I'm sure I'm forgetting.

For our 4th of July BBQ fiesta, Gracie reinvented one of mom's old standbys (pasta primavera) and made it her own with a whole new set of veggies, red pepper flakes, feta, and her own brand of vinaigrette. It was the hit of the party, with several people requesting the recipe.

Most recently, Gracie decided to bake regular old Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, but found herself 1/4 C of butter short. No problem - she decided cream cheese would be a good substitute and - 10-12 minutes later, we had some of the most delectable, most perfectly-textured cookies I have ever tasted.

Needless to say, we are very impressed and very sad at the prospect of losing her at the end of the month!!

New Toy

Ralph is now the proud owner of a new iMac. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor that smokes along at 2.66 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and a 300 GB hard drive. Drool everybody. 

New Page Elements

Sharp gazette readers will notice a couple of changes to the sidebar of this website. We are now featuring our very first readership poll. Check it out on the top of the Lefthand sidebar. As soon as you enter your vote you will see the total results of all gazette voters. This poll is structured so that you can choose more than one option, but they don't all have to be like that. Do you have a question that you'd like the Gazette readership polled on? Let me know!

Also, at the bottom of the sidebar is a listing of Gazette readers' websites for all purposes. Do you have a website that you want to share? Let me know, and I'll post it up!

Long Hard Week

This past month I assumed the role of Build Coordinator at work. This involves managing all the code releases for about fifteen developers in preparation for monthly releases to the production environment. As the scheduled release date approaches the builds get more and more frequent as items are pushed through testing and staged for deployment. Finally, on the night of deployment into the production environment, I have to be on-site until about midnight. We deployed last Thursday.

On Saturday I slept in until noon and then went with Wendy to pick up a used Franklin Stove to install on our back screened in porch. Have you ever tried to move a Franklin Stove? Have you ever tried to lift one into and out of a van? Not too easy, especially for those of us over the age of 40 whose main job consists of sitting on a chair. On Sunday I continued in the new office downstairs installing tongue and groove cedar as wainscoting. This was not too strenuous but did involve a lot of squatting and standing. Today my legs are sore but the office is looking great and the back porch will be a great place this winter.

Flag Football Superstar

Those of you who know my husband probably know how much of a football fan he is - both as a spectator (a painful experience, of late, for Chiefs fans) and as a player. And I have to give him credit: he is just as dedicated, competitive, and passionate about his sport as he was in college...despite a hectic work schedule, demanding puppies (and wife), and the physical repercussions of his athletic history that have finally started to catch up with him!

Every spring/summer, companies across the metro area participate in the annual "Kansas City Corporate Challenge," a charity event that works kind of like a mini-Olympics for businesses headquartered in KC. Justin quickly became one of UMB's most enthusiastic volunteers, and, of course, captain and active member of the co-ed flag football team. (True Story: Back when I worked at UMB I thought it would be a nice gesture of wifely support to play on Justin's team. After signing up and coming to all the practices, I peeked over Justin's shoulder one day only to catch a glimpse of his final roster...without my name on it. Yes...he had cut me from the team.)

This year, Justin started preparing for his season in March - reading up on the new rules, crafting elaborate play cards, and organizing scrimmages to get his team whipped into shape. And, it paid off - UMB clinched the silver medal in what turned out to be a highly competitive division. It was the highest finish for a team sport in UMB's entire history and I am very proud - congratulations, Justin!

Support Ben's Bike Charity!!!

Hi!!!

Please see the email below from my boyfriend Ben. Over the past year, he has gotten really into competitive cycling, and in July he is participating in a charity ride in New Hampshire to raise money for Cancer research. He has been going to this ride since he was a little boy and this will be the first year he has ridden. He needs sponsorship, so if anyone is interested in donating a couple bucks, click on the link below!! Thanks!!

Mary

hey everyone,
i am participating in the audrey prouty ride in nh july 12th. this is a fund raiser for cancer research, im doing the 100 mile ride and need sponsorship. no donation is too big or too small, seriously you can donate 1 dollar if you want, im not looking to break anybody's bank. this event is in its 37th year i believe and has had a major impact on cancer research. so, if you would please click on the link below, follow the instructions and give whatever you can!
best,
benjamin woodbury
http://theprouty.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=262683&lis=0&kntae262683=6BDE2C59845D4A6F85AEFC0092DE44F9

if this doesnt show up as a link, you can just copy and paste. i promise this will take you less than 5 minutes and is soooooo so so worth the time!! thanks again!!

Anniversary Trip to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

DSC_0870
Originally uploaded by mikekrankota

Alison and I celebrated our 7th(!) anniversary on June 16 with a trip to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It's a great time - you drive through the park (good to have a hybrid: it's nearly silent at low speed) and can feed/pet any animals that wander up. Highly recommended. Many more photos like this are here: Mike and Alison's Fossil Rim photos on Flickr.

Number 17

After 22 years of misery, the Boston Celtics will hang championship banner #17 in the rafters of Boston Garden. Karen, Mary and I saw the final game last night, a blowout of the hated Lakers. We stayed up to see all the post-game interviews, the championship trophy presentation and the giddiness in the locker room. No one can imagine how happy I am.

CGC and TDI

Today Bailey passed the tests to become certified as a Canine Good Citizen and a member of Therapy Dogs International. This will allow him to visit nursing homes, hospitals, schools, etc. to spread his brand of good cheer. Ralph is very proud of him.

yet another little monster in kansas

Well it happened. Even though Justin specifically said that no animals could come back with us from the farm, somehow I got a hold of a little 6 week old kitten named Sawyer. We are getting along just great! During a wonderful and exciting trip to Justin's dads farm, I was fortunate enough to find this little baby. He is about the size of my hand and literally just got off the bottle. I know that some people may have been a little bit worried at first but really, I will have no problem doting on him night and day. He woke me up at 6 am this morning and I was actually happy! that has to say something! I hope everyone welcomes him into the family and I know I am excited!!!

Enjoy the first of many pictures

Symphony in the Prairie

On Saturday evening, Justin, Gracie and I attended the annual Symphony in the Flint Hills. It was exactly what the name suggests: a performance by the Kansas City Symphony held about 1.5 hours outside of the city in the Middle of Nowhere, Prairie, Kansas.

The event is a fundraiser for the Flint Hills region, which is home to a vast expanse of untouched tallgrass prairieland. At one point in time, 1/3 of the continent was prairie - today, 95% of the little that remains is in the state of Kansas.


Fortunately, the weather cooperated and the show went off without a hitch, complete with gorgeous sunset and a cattle stampede in the background.

Mile-long walk to the tents

Anne and Gracie on the prairie

KS Governor Kathleen Sebelius addresses the crowd

The Boys in Green

For those of you who have been not following our (Karen and mine) boys from Boston, we are playing for the first time in the NBA finals in 21 years and are leading the Lakers 2 games to nothing. We are halfway home to a championship which will make me so very happy. I am not yet banking on it, but am quite hopeful after 2 great wins in Beantown. Game 3 is tomorrow in LA and if we win that.......oh boy. Game 4 is Thursday in LA and if we win that, champions, and Karen and I open the bottle of champagne which I have not yet purchased.

At Last -- A New Home Office

It has been over a year since this project first got started with a dumpster and demolition work. Following demolition (where I removed many interesting things from walls and ceilings) I replaced the "wiring" (mostly daisy chained extension cords) with fully grounded in-wall service and replaced hanging bulbs with recessed can lights. A new wall was added to hide the plumbing and electrical service as well as to create a closet and computer rack enclosure. The old gravel floor was replaced with reinforced polished concrete and two new insulated windows replaced the two single pane units that came with the house.

Along the way there were several obstacles. The first was a leaky pipe in the upstairs bathroom that the previous owner had tried to stem by wrapping it with fibreglass insulation. Then there was the water leakage over Christmas during the pouring rains. This was abated with French drains that Wendy may have mentioned in a previous post. Finally there was the plumbing leak under the house that created such a stench that we had to have the underside of the house drained and fumigated before the plumbers could fix the leak. Well now almost all is behind us. We are still awaiting a French door to replace the old garage door, but the walls are finished, the ceiling trimmed in tongue and groove cedar and all the computers are safely racked up.

There is still work to be done -- the floor needs to be mopped and buffed up; an area rug could be added, the desk needs to be oiled and polished, but a recent appraisal of the entire Dilbek shows that we have increased our equity in the house by $45K in the two years we have had it!

Therapy Dog

Bailey's cast is now off and he is preparing for his Therapy Dog test on the 18th. He will be joined by Dylan who will take the test for the 2nd time this time with Karen as his handler, not because he failed the first, but because Karen was out of town and Ralph took him.  As a result, only Ralph would be allowed to take him on "visits" and even that could be problematic because when Dylan and Ralph got home, Ralph noticed that he was listed as Ralph Finegold on the certification. It will be interesting to see how timid Bailey reacts around wheelchairs and crutches.

Not Much to Report

Everything is up to date in Kansas City - hot, humid, and periodically tornadic. Gracie starts work at UMB on Monday, and is as of yet unprepared to accomodate Justin's 7:15 am departure time.

Speaking of starting work on Monday, Home Depot has finally informed us that they have everything they need to begin the process of gutting and remodeling our (one and only) full bathroom. They have promised to minimize the number of days we will be completely sans shower/bath tub, but in preparation for a worst-case scenario, we have contemplated a temporary solution that involves the dog pool and backyard faucet.

Justin and Gracie spent most of this morning planting our tomatoes and weeding the many overgrown beds. Justin spent last night fishing, while Anne and Gracie caught the new Sex and the City movie. If the big tornado finally hits - at least we'll have plenty of tomatoes, basil, catfish, and limoncello.

First Women on the Moon

New Office, New Website, and 500 New Unethical Business Cards

In the past week, I have moved to a new office. This office is closer to home, more attractive, and less insane than the old one. I absolutely love it.
The new diggs come with a new Law Office of Alison Grinter website (courtesy of Mr. Michael Krankota) and of course new business cards, designed in house by the aforementioned graphic genius.
So, after a long move I asked Mike to please lay out some new cards to be printed right away. I wanted to list the types of cases that I handle on the back of the card so that I might stop getting calls from people (friends and family of happy clients) who want me to do their child custody cases (I'd rather clean the toilets of the Lew Sterrett Justice Center). So Mike laid out the cards, dutifully asked me to review the proofs, which I approved, and had them printed.
So as I'm unboxing them today, I think to myself "Specializing in Criminal Defense"? I would never have approved that. You can't say that on a card unless you're Board Certified a designation which only about 5% of attorneys hold. It's certainly a goal of mine, but I'm not even eligible to sit for the exam for another 3 years . I made a quick call to the Texas Ethics Help Line, hoping that I was wrong about that, but alas. I must reprint. This time with the heading "Practicing Criminal Defense" instead of "Specializing in Criminal Defense". Oh well.
So if anyone has a table that doesn't sit level, I have 500 unethical business cards that might help.

Our Anniversary

We exercised our option for one more year during happy hour last night. There was very little negotiation this year - we're both pretty happy with our life right now.



In the morning when I got to work I found an anniversary card from Rick in my bag. This one was in addition to the ones we exchanged at home over coffee.



We went to the Rotti Grill for dinner - right across the highway - Indian food - pretty casual - the food was very good - we'll go again.



After dinner we took a drive along the lake with the top down, listening to a Rod Stewart collection of Love Songs (the Boss chose it - I swear -I was as surprised as you are right now - may have been a coincidence).



We drove through the "Big Thicket" area on the East side of the lake as the sun was setting. The weather was perfect, there were sail boats, couples sitting on the benches, fishermen, ducks, joggers, and kids -- a Kodak moment to be sure.

KC, Again.

Had to add my two cents!  I was lucky enough to spend a few days with A, J, & G before heading back to Southern Pines.  We had a great time, culminating with a trip to the dog park with the traditional after-swim ice cream cone at Mickey D's (Rick, if no human enjoyed even a bite, does this count?)

A Happy 60th!

It's hard to believe that my fun-loving, young-at-heart husband turned 60.  We celebrated quietly at home with mom, dad, Baily, Dylan, and Brett.  Meat loaf, green beans, roasted tomatoes and chocolate brownie cake. Our last minute traveling forced cancellation of a surprise trip to Charleston which we will take later on in the summer.  He DID, however, get a new set of irons which he has been playing with for about a month and really enjoying.  Tonight we are going out for dinner for our anniversary, then home early to watch the Celtics in game 6!

Summer in Kansas

SO I have been in Kansas for over a week now. Anne and Justin have made me feel right at home and I am having a great time with all the animals! Kansas city has changed since I was here last! The downtown area (from what I remember) is completely revamped. There are tons of new establishments around and the city is really looking vibrant and exciting! After a long and tiring week of job hunting with mom, I found a couple of options. However, it was Justin who really got me an exciting opportunity. I found out just this morning that I will officially be joining the UMB staff this summer! I will be working independently for the arts management department. It turns out I came to KC just in time to help set up their new database system! Since working with databases was something I just learned about last semester this is perfect! I will be working closely with actually pieces of art owned by the museum, in particular the work of an artist named Benton. I am so excited and this opportunity is sure to help me out a TON in the future!

Jamie came in also early this morning from Ohio! He will be spending the weekend here and I am really excited! Conveniently, the Indians will also be in Kansas City playing the Royals and we are going to go to a game tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy 32nd to Rick and Wendy on Thursday the 29th!

Happy 9th to Karen and Norman on Friday the 30th!

THE CELTICS AND MORE

Firstly, the Celtics. They can drive me to drink. They go to a 7th game in round one vs. Atlanta. Ditto for round 2 vs. Cleveland, and now it looks like a third time as they are tied at 2 games apiece vs. Detroit. A win in this round takes them to the NBA Championship against either the Lakers or San Antonio. No easy trip, for sure..

Tomorrow, May 28th, I turn 60. I don't believe it. And on Friday, Karen and I celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. I do believe that.

California - Part 2

Justin and I returned to Kansas City on Saturday, after a wonderful week's worth of wishing we lived on the West Coast - despite the sunburn, traffic, and, of course, LAX.

Highlights of the trip include a dinner out with some of my college friends, a trip to Venice Beach with one of Justin's high school friends, Adam's graduation (with honors) from USC School of Engineering, and the aforementioned tour/off-road excursion through Santa Barbara wine country.

Back in the Midwest, the weather is just as hot but about 100 times more humid than on the West Coast - the dog pool is officially open for the season!

58 Years and Counting

On Friday the 16th, JoAnne and Ralph celebrated the 58th anniversary of their getting pinned. For those of you who don't know what pinning is, it is when a boy gives his girl his fraternity pine and she links it to hers with a little chain. It signifies "engaged to be engaged." They celebrated by having dinner in the formal Henley Dining Room.

New Sibling

Ralph's Callaway square head driver now has a younger brother — a Callaway Squareway 5 Wood. He used it for the first time yesterday and it performed like a charm. He hits it both further and straighter than his old 5 wood. He shot a 94 on Whispering Pines difficult River Course.

The DeeBAP

Twenty-two residents of Belle Meade journeyed to the DeeBAP (Durham Bulls Athletic Park) to watch the Bulls take on the Toledo Mud Hens. The weather was perfect and the park is beautiful. 

Trailing by two runs going into the 7th inning, the Bulls scored 6 runs in the 7th and 6 more in the 8th to win by a score of 14 to 4.

This year, by the way, marks the 20th anniversary of the movie, Bull Durham, starring Kevin Costner.

Sad News

After a long and difficult six months, Jules Herstone (Norman's step father) passed away this afternoon.  Although it is a blessing, he will be greatly missed.  Doris is doing very well under the circumstances.  Norman and I will be traveling to Florida tomorrow to stay with her up until the funeral which will be on Sunday.  Julie is in a better place, probably on a driving range in the clouds!