And it stoned me to my soul

It was eerie standing on my front stoop. The torrential rain had abated so I was no longer worried about getting soaked.

I watched the ghostly white meteorites plant themselves in my front yard and ricochet off of my house and cars. The otherwise quiet neighborhood echoed with the crash and smash of the hailstones. The bang of the stones off of shingle roofs and cedar siding sounded like a war zone.

I just hoped for minimal damage.

When it was over, I collected a few of the golf ball-sized specimens to show my daughter in the morning.

tagged: storm, hail, Kansas, eerie, weather

KGB Carnival for June 12

I'm back after a couple of days hiatus. Everyone should take a blogging break every once in a while, just to keep the addiction in check.

But I can't think of a better first hit than the weekly round up of Kansas blogs. So here we go, just remember that it's customary to pass the dutchie on the left hand side...

• LadyGunn reveals Why I Am The Nutjob I Am.
  
  
• Lyn Perry isn't just Cloning around at Bloggin' Outloud.
  
  
• John B.'s beautiful mind presents In which the Meridian confesses he has unconsciously behaved like John Nash for 3 months posted at Blog Meridian.
  
  
• Melissa looks Pretty in Pink posted at Space and Time
  
  
• Shea finds out that Kansas can be a hot spot at A California Girl in Kansas.
  
  
• JD has some advice for Republicans at Evolution.
  
  
• Old timer Joel Matthis waxes nostalgic about old time entertainment at Cup o' Joel.
  
  
• The Whole Wheat Blogger doesn't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.
  
  
• John Mason finds an enemy within at Right Minded Thinking.

And this week's Honorary Kansas Blogger:

• Kevin Surbaugh has some tips for Recycling Almost Anything & Saving Money at Becoming and Staying Debt Free.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB, Iraq, John Nash, Zarqawi, entertainment, clone

What a long, strange trip it's been

Finally back in good ol' KC. It' great to be home and see the family again. I just have a few random thoughts to close out this trip:

• Travel (especially business travel) while stressful is a great opportunity for people watching. And I saw some very interesting people during my trip from, celebutantes to redneck race fans. Lindsay Lohan's bodyguard was a really nice guy. Very genial to the wait staff and gawking fans. Even pretty decent to the paparazzi. Of course, it didn't hurt that one of the photographers slipped him a $20 to find out where Lohan and Co. were going next.
  
  
• But the best people-watching experience was seeing Spiderman walk through the lobby of the hotel last week. Seriously, your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. The hell of it was that nobody really acted that surprised. Just another day in Manhattan.
  
  
• Air travel really sucks. I took the Amtrack from Manhattan to Wilmington, DE, then again from DC to Manhattan. Great experience. No waiting, comfortable cabins, lots of room. Why anyone would want to take a plane when a train is available is beyond me.
  
  
• Speaking of Delaware, I was surprised how undeveloped it is. Very rural. Even the beach town we overnighted in seemed to be a decade or two behind the times. I think there's a lot of potential there, especially since there's no sales tax in Delaware. Of course, I was only there for two days, so what do I know.
  
  
• To the two gentlemen dining beside me at Sardi's, sorry again for spilling my water on your shoes. How embarrassing is that.
  
  
• T-Mobile hotspots really suck in Manhattan. I pretty much wasted $20 or $30 on shitty wifi connections.
  
  
• The West Village redeemed the Big Apple in my mind. Previously, my experience had always been in the Times Square area and the blocks around there. Yeah it's urban and all, but too "touristy." I'll definitely have to make a point to visit Greenwich Village again when I go back.
  
  
• How busy does it have to be for a city the size of Manhattan to have no hotel rooms available. When I arrived at the Grand Hyatt on Park Avenue and gave me their reservation number, they said my room wasn't available and the hotel was full. But if I could wait a few hours the could put me in the VIP suite on the 34 floor (rooms 44 and 45). Well, if that's the best they can do I suppose it will have to suffice. (score!)

Sometimes the lights are shining on me. Other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been.
tagged: travel, New York, Manhattan, Delaware, Spiderman, Lindsay Lohan, Amtrak, Sardi's

I'm not much of a celebrity watcher, but...

We stop for drinks at an al fresco sidewalk table at Da Silvano's in the West Village after dinner last night, me and four business colleagues.

Sean nudges me and says "Check out Nicky Hilton's hair extensions." Sure enough, sitting at the table four feet away is Miss Hilton with a girlfriend and a couple of emo boys.

I excuse myself from the table and walk a few yards away to make a quick phone call to check in on the wife and kid. Priorities of a business traveler.

Sean has placed my order for a Glenlivit, neat, and it's at the table when I return. What's more, Linsdsay Lohan has joined the Hilton party. Evidently, according to Sean, she has bad hair extensions, too. Plus, Sean says, she's unhealthily thin and must be "purging" after her meals. This theory is reinforced by her extended trip to the lady's room after she eats.

The brush with celebrity makes for interesting conversation at our table. Sean remarks how ugly the celebutantes' friends are. I suggest that celebs like to hang out with ugly people because it makes the celebs look better by comparison.

It's all a little dull for me. I don't really keep track with the gossip mags and the Hollywood so-called elite. Frankly, I don't get the whole celebrity worship thing. I mean, what has Lohan or Hilton ever contributed to the world that they should be the object of paparazzi attention.

But, the second glass of Glenlivit helps mellow my harsh. That, and the appearance presently of Kevin Connolly who plays Eric on the hit HBO series Entourage, which coincidentally kicks off its third season on Sunday.

Now I'm interested. I'm a big fan of Entourage. I think it's the best show on TV since The Sopranos.

Sure, this story sounds a bit far fetched. But here's the photographic proof (courtesy of the horrible resolution of my camera phone).

Here's Kevin Connolly having a smoke. You can see Nicky Hilton's back (she's got a thing going with Connolly, her hands were all over him) and the head of an anonymous emo boy.

The backs of Lindsay and Nicky.

tagged: celebrity, sighting, New York, Da Silvano, Nicky Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Kevin Connolly, Entourage, Sopranos

YouTube Tuesday: Momma, I'm goin' fast!

In honor of my recent trip to Dover and my first experience with NASCAR race, this week's YouTube Tuesday is dedicated to Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

This latest Will Farrell joint has all the makings of a summer comic blockbuster. I tell ya, Ferrell is on a roll. He's dynamite, baby. DYNAMITE!




tagged: movies, YouTube, video, Will Ferrell, NASCAR, humor

Dela-where?

I was able to update my "States I've Visited" map when I drove through Delaware the other day. Actually, it didn't even take a day.

Delaware is one of those states that people forget about. It's understandable. The state is only about 40 miles across at it's widest point. That four-zero miles, folks. The KC metro area is wider than that.

It's about 90 miles long, so driving from one end to the other along the single major highway is like driving from KC to Topeka. Still, it's a quaint a pretty state. And, as the residents I talked to were quick to remind me, it was the first state to ratify the Constitution.

My business travels took me to Dover International Speedway, home of the Monster Mile and NASCAR's Neighborhood of Excellence 400. This gave me a chance to see about 100,000 white people with red necks sit in the sun watching custom-made mega-gas-guzzling cars drive around in circles for four hours.

During a sun-stroke induced trance, I looked for some meaning to the pattern of numbers. The race was 400 miles long, roughly 4 times the length of the state. And there were about 100,000 people watching the race, about one eighth the population.

It seemed a bit too neat and coincidental to me. I thought there must be a Dan Brown novel in there somewhere.

As for the NASCAR race itself, it was a first for me. As you can imagine, the rednek factor was pretty high. But I did get a tour of the infield/pit area including some up-close and personal time with the cars. Amazing machines, though I suspect they don't do much for the price of gasoline.

Anyway, it's back to NY tomorrow for a couple of days.

tagged: travel, Delaware, NASCAR, Dover, race, New York

KGB Carnival for June 5

Here we are at another Monday, that means another round-up of Kansas Blogs. We've got a few new members, so things are getting good. Here are the featured Kansas blogs post from this week:

• Melissa is Pretty in Pink posted at Space and Time.
  
  
• John B. breaks down The Metaphysics of the Clothes Care Center. Part I: Reading the Sign posted at Blog Meridian.
  
  
• Josh posted Undertaken lightly? posted at Thoughts from Kansas...
  
  
• It was a response to JD's post about Iraq...
  
  
• Which is a response to Patrick Quinn's post about Iraq here.
  
  
• KGB founder Lyn Perry makes at triumphant return to blogging by Talking Da Vinci at Blogging Out Loud.
  
  
• Bill at Happy In Bag learns a new vocabulary word.
  
  
• Simon has a good day at Big Simon.
  
  
• The D provides comic relief with Joke Thursday at What the Deuce?

And, this week's weekly Honorary KGB Blogger of the week (yes, that is a triple redundancy, we're very careful here at the KGB) goes to:

• Paul Decelles who posts pics of the first Monarch of the Year at The force that through...

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB, Iraq, metaphysics, monarch, joke

Virgil's

"That's the best barbecue in the city," the cabbie claims as we roll past Virgil's through the slow midtown traffic on the way to my hotel.

It's a bold claim, and I wonder to myself how good can the best barbecue in New York City be?

It rains again that evening, and since I don't want to walk very far in the rain, I decide to put the cabbie's claim to the test. I cross 44th Street and enter Virgil's domain.
It's like stepping 1,200 miles back to Westport in Kansas city. The rustic decor definitely elicits the barbecue mood. I request a table for one. The place is packed, as I imagine most restaurants in Manhattan would be on a Friday night, raining or not.

I'm seated and order a Brooklyn Ale and the beef short rib. While I'm waiting for the food to arrive, I browse the placemats that tell a short story about Virgil's quest for great barbecue. It shows a map of the eastern half of the United States (they don't eat barbecue out west), along with markers for the best BBQ by region.

Happily, I see the KC metro with the highest concentration of notes:

• Kansas City, Mo.: Haywards Pit Bar-B-Que, made "burnt ends" into an art form.
• Kansas City Masterpiece, great example of KC style brisket.
• Arthur Bryants, a Kansas City tradition.
• Lenexa, Kansas, home of Paul Kirk, the "Baron of BBQ" world class cookoff champion and our Mentor and Hero

Presently my dinner arrives. The short rib is served in a bed of sauce and grits. It was good, though probably not worth the $25 price tag. Then again, diner was on the company tonight.

As for whether Virgil's is the best barbecue in the city, I really couldn't say since I didn't sample any other barbecue.

All I know is that it's no Oklahoma Joe's.

tagged: travel, New York, barbecue, Kansas City, Lenexa, Broadway, Virgil's, Oklahoma Joe's

Dinner for one

"Will you be dining alone this evening," said the well-tailored maitre d'.

I'm sipping my second glass of Healdsburg Carbernet Sauvingnon, and it's the fifth time since I sat down that I've heard the Latin host ask the same question. Each time the answer has been "yes," and we have all been seated in the same section.

The plate glass window in the dining room of the Restaurant Charolette frames a rainy street scene outside. People huddle under the neon-lit Broadway canopies of Virgil's Barbecue, Jimmy's Corner and other bars and restaurants as a thunderstorm pours down.

It strikes me that it rained the last time I was in New York.

My companions are dining with their Blackberries, checking email, responding to voice mails, tending to the never-ending minutiae that business travelers tend to in order to occupy themselves when business traveling alone.

I watch the huddled masses yearning to stay dry through restaurant picture window. I know I'm not the first to consider the irony of being alone in a city of 8 million people. It's strange and awkward to dine alone in a city. Even for an INTP like me.

I glance around at my fellow lone diners. They are now watching the picture window too. I wonder if they're thinking the same thing I am.

I wonder if they'll blog about it.

tagged: travel, New York, alone, business, blog, Carbernet Sauvingnon

Present and accounted for

A few months ago I received a gmail from Pete Dulin, editor and publisher of local e-mag Present Magazine.

He wanted to interview littl ol' me for a feature he was working on for the June issue about local bloggers. I figured he was doing a best-of/worst-of thing and needed a worst of, so I did the interview.

Fast forward to today, I get another gmail letting me know the June issue has been published (you can download the PDF doc here).

Present is a really cool publication. Pete and his writers do a great job covering the local scene, and since I learned about it I've developed a habit of printing it out and taking it to the bathroom at work for a few hours... but I digress.

The point is, the June edition has several entertaining interviews of local bloggers along with a nice column about the sociological place of blogs within the greater human condition.

And I was surprised to see Three O'Clock in the Morning listed among some really great blogs like Death's Door, Tony's Kansas City and NctrnlinKC.

So do yourself a favor. Go download the magazine and read how much of a jackass I made of myself.

PS- JD, don't get too bent out of shape on this one, it was a Kansas City article, so you really don't qualify. Feel free to submit a post to the KGB carnival, tho.

tagged: Kansas City, blog, magazine, culture, present