A Bright Sunny Morning in Kansas City

Decorating cookies, with Marlena and friends

My Favorite Western Store

Being Silly

The Cookies

A Bradford Pear at Dawn in Tom's Back Yard

A clear morning here in Lee's Summit, a suburb about twenty miles south and east of Kansas City.  I am the first one up, as usual but Nick, my grandson has just gotten up.  He has his freshmen basketball practice at 8:00, so he's up and getting ready to go.  Because of the shortage of gym space, they have been practicing at 5:30 AM the last couple of weeks.  Eight o'clock must seem like a cake walk.  It's forty four degrees, quite warmer than the twenty eight in Chautauqua.

We drove into KC from Effingham yesterday, between five and six hours, depending on whether we stop or not.  We have a must stop at Kleinschmit's Western Store in Higginsville.  For some reason, I like this store, 19,000 pairs of boots, lots of country western stuff, my style.  I looked for a cheap pair of jeans, none however came in a 37 waist.  So I picked up a cool(so I think) Carhart sheep lined vest, just the thing for winters at the lake, burgers at the Seezurh House, prime rib at the Rod and Gun.  I miss it already.

We got to Tom's around 2:00, unpacked and waited for the family to arrive, Nick first, then Mary from shopping, and finally Marlena at 4:20, awfully late for school, as it gets dark around 5:00. I worked with Nick outside on their driveway b ball court, on his shot and moves.  He's getting good and finds out today if he has made the A team.  Marlena had two friends over, Ella and Morgan, the same two as last year, for cookie decorating.  They really enjoyed it this year, lots of laughter and silliness but the cookies ended up looking fine.

Sprint Arena in KC

With Nick and Friend at Kansas game

We had pizza for dinner, the kind you buy premade, then bake at home and they are quite good, just like New York pizza, or at least like Chautauqua, New York pizza.  Around 7:15,  Tom, Nick, his friend Mark,  and I drove downtown to Kansas City, to the Sprint Center, where Tom had tickets for the Kansas//St. Louis University basketball game.  We have gone to this tournament the last three years and have seen some really good teams.  Kansas won with a struggle and they are a fun team to watch.  The only thing I hate is the time outs, seemingly endless as a twenty minute half becomes over an hour with all the stops, thanks to television.  We left the gym about 10:30, got home about 11:00 and went to bed, all exhausted from a long day.