stuff i think

You know you had a good time....

...when you start here for dinner and migrate across the street for desert.

We went to the plaza last night with Billy & Maribeth. If you've never been to Kansas City, the plaza is an upscale shopping district in the midtown area...the sort of place where beautiful people park their expensive cars to walk around and buy fancy things. I am not entirely sure how we, poster children of the Walmart tribe, ended up there. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic time.

After our dinner and desert parade, we walked around for a while, although because this is Kansas City, all the beautiful people had gone home and the stores were closed. A lot of things in KC close at 9 pm. At 10 pm everything closes. By midnight, the city ceases to exist entirely.

One interesting thing was the presence of street musicians; particularly because the streets were nearly empty. On one corner, a guy was hammering away on an electric guitar and singing into a microphone while his buddy pounded on a snare drum. It looked like a postmodern Salvation Army outreach. A block down - in the middle of an area where literally no businesses were open and almost no one was walking (two words: poor location), a woman sat on the street with a clarinet, playing John Denver music. On a clarinet. To no one in particular. John Denver music. Who says this town has no soul?

We also walked down along a canal that snakes through the area, dodging goose proof (that is, proof that geese had been there) and hitting the street a few blocks further to wander back to our truck. We walked past a pretty amazing metal sculpture, which, of course, I thought would have been improved upon greatly if only they could plumb it with gaslines and hook up the propane. All in all, a good start, though.

As always, it was great to be with our friends. We have a lot in common with these two...years of youth ministry, each family has three boys, and we came into the IHOP world within a few days of each other. Some of the most entertaining times here have been exchanging observations of the IHOP world with Billy!

We are reinvesting them into the Atlanta area, although that's just a nice way of saying they're moving back. Our loss, Atlanta's gain.