My Birthday Weekend was a smash. I have work to do tonight, so it will mostly be pictures but they are fairly self explanatory. I love my wonderful friends and family and thank many for coming such a long way to celebrate with me in KC.

I had some deliciousness at D'Bronx with the above shown and the Man Behind The Counter gave me free pie because it was my birthday. We also had some home-brew at the Foundry and went back to McCoy's the next day for some lunch with the R's and their pup. 

Here is one of my excellent birthday present made by the lovely lady pictured above. Being the gracious girlfriend I am, K was made to model it for the blog:) 

My family was excellent and has contributed toward our dreams of taking a trip to Santa Fe over the holidays and we will be dutifully squirreling away our sponsorship. Thanks Everybody! 

Today we went sailing with my folks and it was a blast. I learned many nautical terms and got to "hike out" all the way horizontal to the water. Much Fun. 

Mom rigging the boat on a beautiful day. 

(isn't he handsome? I know, it is almost ridiculous) 

Our able-bodied skipper! 

Cruisin'

Great weekend, now back to work! 

First, a look behind the scenes like HBO would do.  

I try to stay on the positive with this blog, but let me tell you that this story comes with perspective. The day I will tell you about was lovely and delicious in every way. K and I walked around on Cloud 9 all day long gushing over the awesomeness of our lives. 

The next day, I cried before 11 a.m. at the impending reality of my serious lack of time with K and some work stressage. 

I prefer to dwell on the happiness and take nothing but a glancing look at the unhappiness in order to learn from my mistakes, but as all of you who know me F2F know....I am a serious worrier that is plagued by pessimism. 

I am not, as I appear sometimes in the days post Grad School, some sort of obnoxiously peppy Pippy Longstocking. 

However, part of my goal is to consciously combat my nature and realize the extent to which I am fortunate and happy instead. Plus, everyone knows that on the internet, you can be whomever you choose. 

Context Given, on to the happenings. 

Despite my working weekend I managed to squeeze in a lot of fun. 

There are limited pictures of Friday's fun because one of our oh-so-lovely friends--> no likey the pictures. However, the F of L&F acquiesced to let me document his presence in a totally fun evening with them. 

It might have been a crazy night of driving in the rain 

But we had a lot of fun with these two. Dinner was delicious at Blue Koi. Also, they gave us tootsie pops....K was stoked. 

Saturday we woke up to find the first fruits of our labor 

Yep, we grew that tomato. Only having one, however, inspired us to go to the farmer's market. So we did. 

It was packed but so much fun. Musicians, face-painting, vendors and restaurants, the River City Market is like a little state fair every weekend and we got delicious produce, local Honey, local bison and some Italian Deli. Here is K chowing down on the food from his requested "good smells" place. 

The more we get to just wake up and decide to do something spontaneous and it turns out to be awesome the more we love living in the city. Every day here makes me appreciate KC more and be seriously happy not to be in the suburbs. 

A little raw looking. But you know what? It is Saturday and we get to wake-up, not shower and sweat at the City Market. Awesome summer day. 

Looks complicated huh? 

He is the master of this universe. 

Once again, the benefits of having physical skills to show off is that his work looks cool. 

Speaking of visiting, I got to babysit Miss Nithi the other night and did you know, they make teeny tiny robes? 

Cutest! She is such a little marshmallow in this outfit and I'm not going to lie, we laid down and watched some Curious George before bed and I thoroughly enjoyed cuddlin that roly poly. 

The fluffiness did not detract from her spirit though. 

She may look like a tame bunny rabbit but she is a wild hare at heart ;) 

So, I'm not my most loquacious after many hours of conference calls today but at least I provide pictures. 

Was I brave enough to eat the food? Sort of. K ordered food and I tried a bite of each thing. 

Yep, that is something called a Frisco melt, which I am pretty sure is a grilled cheese sandwich with a burger pattie and thousand island dressing...

Don't worry though, the tale of R&K and the late night diner has a happy ending. 

We were still just totally stoked to be hanging out together. 

You never know how good Fridays are until you get back to working 40-50 hours a week. 

I have work with international people, and when you cross the world you must make calls when multiple  timezones are available. Luckily, K gets up to have coffee and cereal with me in the mornings because other than that, we have limited time. You would think that we would have similar jobs, considering our specialities are so close to one another (COMS vs. Mass COM) but it turns out they are totally opposite as of now. 

We muster through though and have still found opportune nuggets of time for goofin off. 

For example: Karaoke night saw some rousing performances from me, K, our friends and even a Duet to "Sweet  Caroline" provided by yours truly and my love. 

Two of K's best buds at karaoke with us. Nothin like a dirty bar and a rowdy crowd to make for some fun singing. 

We also did one of my favorite activities: Costco! 

Hi: My name is Studly K and I will be your guide today. 

Please, no flash photography during the tour. 

We got memberships as soon as I got a job (which I had been planning as my numero uno activity for forever). We had to methodically go through the entire store (and periodically our cart to make sure we were not loading up on ridiculous items) to discover its riches. 

....Ok so really we mainly ate the samples and played with the toys. 

There were so many toys we wanted to nab for Nithi. Also, I could not help but imagine Halloween and Miss N as a monkey:) 

K made a strong bid for buying this bear in lieu of throw pillows for the couch, but despite its astonishing $30 price tag, it would really be like buying a roommate and we are a one bedroom household. 

All in all, we work, we play, we plan a trip to Santa Fe (that wasn't an intentional rhyme but if you've got it...)