So my driver side window in my car as been acting weirdly. Basically it has not been working in the afternoons and nights. I am guess from the heat. Its a big pain when you have to go in and out of a garage where you need to roll down your window to use your keyfob. I took my car in this morning to Plaza Lexus in St Louis. They gave me a loaner car like they always do. I walked out of the service bay with the service writer looking for the loaner car. The porter said it was one of the three cars in front of the building. We couldn’t find it so asked the porter. He said it was the one we were in front of even though my key said 3 and this one was 13. It started right up with the keyless ignition fob in my hand so I didn’t think anything. The gas also matched what my paperwork said which was between 1/2 and a 1/4 so I assumed this was it.  I drove away and hopped on I-270. I noticed that I had a bunch of alerts. The first two being oil change and filter needed. Thought this was pretty weird being its a dealers car. The third one said “no key.” I immediately moved the key closer but assumed that the diagnostic screen was messed up since I was now 5 miles away from the dealer and the car started. I got to my office after a 30 minute drive then tried to lock the car with the key fob. It wouldn’t lock. I then tried to start it and it did not. Looks like I did have the wrong car. So how did the thing start the first time. Either the porter had the key in his pocket or even scarier possibility is that the car was close enough to the office that it picked up the key fob. We were probably 15 or 20 ft away so not sure the range. What is scary about that is what if that was your unlocked car in your driveway. A kid or a thief could go start your car while you were watching TV in the house. Why did the car not shut down once out range of the car? Pretty odd.

Nightlife

I took it easy on Friday since I was so tired from traveling and lack of sleep. I watched the Lakers game then briefly went to Dubliner with Mike and Dave but called it a day after a drink. Saturday was another story. I went to Blueberry Hill for Ryan Ellen’s graduation bash. But before I discuss that, I would like to talk about the possible cab scam that I uncovered. I called number I had in my phone for Laclede Cab to get a ride to the party. The lady that picked up was hard to hear but she told me she was booking a cab. After an hour with no cab, I call again. This time she does answer Laclede Cab and tells me that driver 123 is on his way. After another 30 minutes, I call the number I have in my phone for Yellow Cab. The lady answers the phone Laclede/Yellow Cab. I told her that I called twice but she did not have a reservation for me. She set one up for me and it was here in 10 minutes. The interesting thing about this is that I have used this number in the past many times but I did realized that the last two times I called a cab it did not show up nor did I get a call after we left. The last time being the night we went to Double Ds and we waited for a cab for 30 minutes. Once I finally got there, it was a good time. Everyone was nice and liquored up. The one thing I regret was all the Jager bomb shots. I have a hard time judging my drunkenness when I do shots so I paid for it the next morning.

Shopping

I finally got a night stand filing cabinet. After, I looked everywhere I got this one at Walmart. I am happy with it but it did take forever for me to put together plus I am missing two screws so I can not mount the top drawer. Like the reviews said, the instructions were horrible. It calls out different letters for each piece but there were no markings on the pieces with the matching letters. I also did not realize that it was legal size so I need to take back the letter sized hanging folders I bought. I still would have like two drawers but could not find one anywhere in an expresso finish. I might go buy another one but I am really dreading putting it together.

I also went to the Good Works outlet looking for some accessories. I found two items that I have also been looking for. The first is a magazine rack. Good Works had one with an expresso finish so it matched my coffee table that I also bought at Good Works. The second item was a lamp for my night stand. It is a stacked wood lamp with a big white cloth shade that is also expresso that matches my bedroom furniture. I also switched to all compact fluorescent lightbulbs with natural white light. Wow, what a difference in lighting.

Sports

It was a pretty good weekend for sports. The Lakers wrapped up the series which made me very happy. I was pretty worried. The Cavs did not so Lakers got back home court advantage which is key. One interesting stat that I did not know about the Cavs was their record against the top tier teams like the Lakers, Orlando, and Boston. I believe it was something like 3 wins and 8 losses. Their average margin of defeat was something like 15. I think it comes down to the fact that they do not have enough elite players like the other teams do. They must rely on Lebron way too much. The Detroit vs Pittsburgh series started up this weekend. I thought it was going to be a good series but Detroit has won both hockey games.

In fantasy news, I shutoff my opponent (Matt Smith) for my second consecutive shutout. My team had a slow week but I still pulled off the shutout so I’m happy. I have a big rematch against Rengel’s brother this week. I should be sitting pretty good because I should get a majority of my pitchers twice this week since they only pitched once last week.

Fast Eddie’s, originally uploaded by EricKrassinger.

Out enjoying some cold beers with my group.

Matt, originally uploaded by EricKrassinger.

Matt putting on his shoes

Inspirational Word of the Day, originally uploaded by EricKrassinger.

Never piss off a guy who owns a backhoe.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Test post using Flickr, originally uploaded by EricKrassinger.

Pic of all my friends passed out in Jamaica.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

What a disastrously fun weekend that was had in KC for the Big 12 Championship game in KC for the MU vs Oklahoma game.  Poor planning and some misfortune caused the disastrous part but overall it was a great trip.

The weekend started with a large group of us bar hopping on Wash Ave. We went from Rue 13 to Lucas Park to Lure. The first two were totally dead but Lure had a pretty good crowd. I suspect the small crowds were due to the utter cold. Some of us concluded the night by going to our favorite pizza place. As you may or may not have heard, I left the place “screaming” and went home. In all reality, I had some heartburn so I didn’t want to wait for everyone else to finish.

Ted, Mike, and I woke up bright early after less than 3 hours of sleep to meet my cousin at the Amtrak station downtown for the ride to KC. None of us had any clue what to expect. Surprisingly the train was pretty cool. I wish I wouldn’t have been so tired but it was fun seeing the country side plus being able to walk around wherever you wanted. If only Mike and Ted did not think it was so funny to wake me up every time I started to fall asleep.

We arrived at the historic Independence train station to find out that KC cab company that I called previously lied to me when they told me there would be cabs at this station. This station was in the middle of no where so I am not sure why they told me that. Anyways, we called a cab that arrived fashionably over an hour late after he got lost. We killed time by making friends with an old timer that was working there. We were told to go to the Sheraton because they had a good bar that was close to the stadium. We wanted to get some food plus we wanted to watch the Florida game while we waited for the rest of the group to get to the stadium to start the tailgating. They had a Mexican buffet so it was good.

Tailgating was pretty fun. It was very cold but I was wearing 5 layers of cloths so I was pretty well prepared. I did have a great time hanging out with Smith and Rengel. It is not often that they are out on their own like that.

We finally decided to go to the game even though everyone, included the Tigers team, knew they did not stand a chance. The first quarter was competitive but we fell apart in the 2nd. The combination of our dismal pass rush and Daniel’s inability to make good decisions put us in a deficit real quick. We decided at half time to find the mysterious shuttles to take us downtown.

We got downtown around 10PM. We went to the new Power and Light district. I has heard numerous recommendations on this area. I was not disappointed. The same builder of this area is supposed to be the one building Ball Park Village. I would be totally grateful if BP Village was half as cool as P&L district. I liked the area so much that it would be worth going back to KC in the summer just for it. We started out at McFadden’s. I am assuming it is the same chain that I went to in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was packed since the game was still on. It was okay but not my style. We then went to Lucky Strike. I would have never thought that a bowling alley would be a place to go to but I was proved wrong. It was a part bowling alley and part ultra lounge. I think Flamingo Bowl and Pin Up Bowl need to look at Lucky Strike’s model. We then concluded with the bar that I really wanted to go to, Angels Rock Bar. Rue 13 would be the bar that would be most similar to this because of its layout and video DJ but that is it. The thing that made this bar different was the amount of hot girls in it plus the fact that they played all Rock music. I would do anything for a bar like this in St Louis. I think it would be a great model for anyone looking to open a bar on Wash Ave. This bar along with RockIt in Chicago seem to be very popular.

We had some time to kill, approximately 4.5 hours so we decided the best bet would be to go to the Casino. We picked Harrah’s. It was packed full of sports fans. I watched Mike play roulette for a couple hours. We did run into an interesting guy probably about 25 at the roulette table. He kept placing even bets on only black and red. I kept telling him that there was no possible way for him to win and he would lose everything if it hit a zero. He kept saying that he liked paying for kids education. I think he was way to drunk. He kept saying he was going to drop another grand which he definitely had in his wallet. He at least dropped a couple hundred while we were there briefly.

After eating breakfast at the casino we decided to head to the train station. Unfortunately, it was not open yet when we arrived. Luckily a side door was open and we were able to go into this large Union Station when all the lights were off. A guard immediately came down and said they were closed but we could wait in this area until they opened. We finally got into the waiting area where we slept for a while.

We finally got on the train around 7:30 to only find out, after sitting on the train for 2 more hours, that the bad boy was not operable. The master plan was to ride a bus. They of course said it was going to be 15 minutes but it was way over an hour. We were afraid that it was going to stop at all the train stops plus be a crappy bus so we were not looking forward to it. Surprisingly, we got a brand new bus that was headed only for St Louis. The bus trip was a great time. I got some good laughs with Mike and Ted on the bus. One of my favorite classic conversations with Mike was had about McDonalds double cheeseburger after we made a pit stop. He purposedly got a double hamburger because he likes to give this image that he does not like cheese. 

The rest of my pictures can be found on my Flickr page.