Update: Short and Sweet

I am gonna keep this relatively short, as some of my more recent posts have been a bit long-winded and some might say "boring". Plus, I am kind of busy, so I want to concentrate on what is most important to me right now: work - although this blog is a close 2nd.

After the race two weekends ago I spent some time in STL. I watched the Homerun Derby and All-Star game with old buddies and played in three softball games. It wasn't all play though - I got A LOT of work done, tying up some very needed loose ends. I cleaned up the old condo in Maplewood, ran a TON of overdue errands, picked up my first commission check, and squeezed in time to build my buddy Justin a wedding-card receiving box. If you recall, I built myself a similar box for my own wedding which resembled the Sears (now Willis) Tower - in keeping with the "Tale of Two Cities" theme. He wanted a replica of his own house, with the thought process being that the money they receive as gifts will be an investment into his home, so why not have the people put the money "into his home". I thought this was a reasonable and somewhat clever idea, so I obliged... (you're welcome, J).

I left STL at around 5:30a last Thursday morning and arrived home at around 10:30a. Took out Jake, unloaded some stuff I had in the car, and headed to the office - I had some work to do. I worked about a half day then went home so I could prepare to leave for the weekend...again. We headed to KC on Friday morning and arrived at the very tiny Southwest terminal to have Justin pick us up. We went back to his house and just hung out until the rehearsal, welcoming everyone as they arrived. The rehearsal was short and sweet and we headed to a quaint little small-town eatery afterward for the dinner and some home cookin'... it was really nice. We headed across the street to Riley's Pub afterwards. They didn't want to let us in, but when they find out how many of us there were and that we were only there to drink, they changed their tune. That pretty much capped off our night. We headed back to J's and were gonna party all night, but we were out of booze and everyone was pretty tired, so we just let the night end in preparation for the big day.

The wedding was really nice and lovely, although the temperature inside the church was in the upper 90s (perceptively) and us guys in tuxes had a rough go (I almost passed out!). Afterwards we boarded a rented school bus and took some photos outside the famous courthouse in historic Lexington, MO. Off to the reception. We entered, we danced, we ate, we sang, we drank, I made a toast/speech, we made fools of ourselves in the photobooth (nice idea, ay?). It was a blast and it was good to have a last fling with a bunch of my friends and some people I haven't seen (and won't see) in a long time.

We flew back to Chicago on Sunday and went back to work on Monday - so here I type. All is well and I am working on getting this little business venture off the ground. More on that later...