Entry 416: Minnesota Here We Come

We have had a plan for quite some time to go and see the Royals play an away game. Our original plan was to go and see them play in Tampa, but with work and other things that have happened we settled on Minnesota. We are going to split our time between the Mall Of America and the Royals/Twins game. It should be a great time.


The luggage is packed/


Julie's sign for the game.

Entry 415: Lunch With New Friends

What we are beginning to notice is that we are getting to know a lot of people at the Royals games and really enjoy talking to them. Today we went to the stadium to get Mike Moustakas's autograph and saw some season ticket holders that sit in our section. We talk to them quite a bit at the games and while talking to them today found out that they live about 10-15 minutes from us. After we got our autographs we decided to meet up for lunch at the Dish Pizza and we really had a great time. Bill works for the water department in Gladstone and his wife, Kim, works as an early childhood special services teacher in Kansas City. We talked about the Royals of course, our jobs, and other things to get to know a little bit more about each other. It was a great time and we are already making plans to go to a BBQ at their house so Lance can see Bill's autograph collection.

Entry 414: A Little Problem

After dropping Julie off at work today, Lance came home to this blocking the entrance to our street.

Entry 413: New Ceiling Fan

Julie has been bugging Lance for quite some time about buying a new ceiling fan for the guest bedroom. Lance finally gave in and we purchased one on Saturday. Julie's dad, Kent, came over on Sunday and helped us install it. Below you will see the finished product.

Entry 412: It's Getting Hot In Here

When we got back from Lance's birthday dinner we were greeted with a surprise; our air conditioner decided to stop working. This wouldn't be such a big deal, except for the following problems:

- It was 9:45 at night when we found out that it was broken.
- It was a Saturday night and Monday was the 4th of July.
- It had been incredibly hot and humid the past few days and it wasn't supposed to be getting any better.

Lance went down to take a look at it and as expected had no idea what the problem was. We decided that we should at least make some calls and see if we could get someone out to take a look. We actually found a few places that had 24 hour hotlines and tried them. The first place we called said that the earliest they could get out was Wednesday and that wasn't even guaranteed. The next place we called was C.M. Mose and Son and they actually said they could be here tomorrow, yes Sunday, around 12:00. Lance naturally thought, "yeah right", but Sunday rolled around and the repairman actually showed up at 10 in the morning (yes early). Lance liked the repairman right off the bat because he was from Ottumwa, Iowa and they talked for a few minutes about Ottumwa. The final diagnosis was that the cylinder motor was fried (Lance's term, not his) and needed to be replaced. We were thinking that we were going to be paying an arm and leg for a Sunday visit, but we were shocked at how reasonable it was. Thanks again to C.M. Mose and Son.

Entry 411: Belated Birthday Celebration

Even though Lance's birthday was this past Wednesday, we celebrated with friends this past Saturday. We went to eat at a great Italian place called Salvatores. Julie ordered the Spiedini Di Pollo Giovanni and Lance ordered the Ziti Con Broccoli. The food was delicious and the company was just as good. Julie enjoyed the fact that the waiter was calling her honey and was making fun of Lance the entire time. It was a great birthday dinner wrapped up with dessert at Dairy Queen. Thanks Anita and Tyson for going with us.

Entry 410: Puppy Cone

One of our favorite custard places is Sheridan's. We always enjoyed it, but now the dogs can enjoy it also because they give out puppy cones to dogs. As you can see below Bobby is in love with this concept.