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  A fun night ensued after a random opportunity to head out and watch the KC Diamonds take on the Atlanta Smoke.  The girls played their heart out but just could not overcome an early deficit, losing 6-5.  It did not seem to matter to anyone a whole lot.  All smiles in a subsequent autograph session with their younger fans, as well as the dance party on the field, they had played well.  That was enough.  Shine on, you crazy diamonds!  We look forward to catching another game soon!

  The rodeo at the Platte County Fair caught our interest this year, turning out to be a great time in the relatively cool evening in late July.  Temperatures in the low 20s °C made for a comfortable evening. Early enough for the Mutton Busting championships, the crowd cheered all the contestants.  More especially, one young man the chased them all down and hung on until the announcer said "Ok!  You can let got now. He hung on tight and bowled through lingering crowd of sheep abandoned by their previous riders.  The video below shows his entire ride. The cowboys and cowgirls were up next, including bareback and a little wrastlin' and ropin'.  We didn't make it much further than that though.  There might have been some bull riding too, and just as we were leaving, we overheard announcement of a injured player.   He turned out ok, or so we assume.  The stadium cheered after a lengthy hush and there are no reports of incident.  Video s...

In spite of a full day of rain, clouds were few and far between by the time Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry took the stage at Freedom Fest in Gladstone.  The country band hammered through nearly every track that had made them relatively infamous to a good size crowd singing right alongside them.  The Elders were the only others to take the stage, playing their fun array of folk tunes just prior to that.  Thankfully, the organizers kept with the intended schedule, or we might have been there all night waiting on bands to finish up so we could to the fireworks. The change of venue this year to Happy Rock Park, from the usual location at Oak Grove Park, appeared to work out much better for the increased attendance, offering plenty of parking and space to move about.  If it had been a perfectly sunny and temperate day, it might not have worked out so well.    Fortunately, the culmination of various conditions shined down on the event p...

A few back-to-back, information-packed days discussing Agentic AI and tech strategy in Las Vegas with Info-Tech Research Group wrapped up with a Wednesday night party at Blake Shelton’s iconic Ole Red on the Strip. Walking into the second floor and grabbing some liquid refreshment, we looked over the edge to take in the music. Desert Heat was banging out popular tunes for three floors of the four-story setup, while the catering crew was already in motion setting up a delicious Honky Tonk buffet. The fourth-floor rooftop presented a slight shift in tone. Country duo Nathan Dean and his wife Mandy Jean brought a similar musical style to an electronic-enhanced acoustic stage. Their performance, under the warm desert evening sky, alongside the Las Vegas Strip backdrop, with an array of misters keeping things cool, proved the most satisfying to me. The music wasn't the only draw, though. Huge screens throughout the space had the game on, keeping most folks distracted. That al...

Random cancelled plans let to other cancelled plans, leading us to improvise, ultimately ending up in Lawrence for a completely chance sighting of an invasion of buskers. We did not even know it existed before that morning and it appeared reasonably safe, in spite of weather that seemed to be leaning in an unforgiving direction. While cloud cover edged towards an all encompassing stance, the sun shined down on the early part of the afternoon. A quick lunch at Free State Brewery, home of the event sponsor, set the tone for us to take to the streets between Vermont and New Hampshire on 8th and enjoy amusements available.  The entire situation really did not feel too far out of line with the normal for Lawrence, even though the event has been described by some as a "once-a-year-get-weird" for the town.  It is usually a weird town all on its own, without any supporting cast.  This just centralized the weirdness, if it can be characterized as much....