From Coffee to Cocktails: A Bookish Day Out

We had a fun time a week ago Saturday where Erin, Carrie, and I decided to try out a new coffee spot in Topeka called Higher Grounds. We took our books and hung out for a few hours reading, drinking coffee, and eating delicious food. We had a great time and even saw some of our neighbors from down the street that we spoke to for a few minutes. I believe the staff said Higher Grounds had been open for about a month. It is located on Topeka Blvd near the corner of 21 St. Food was delicious and coffee was too.

Reading and Drinks at The Spot

Following coffee and breakfast at Higher Grounds, we decided to stop by The Spot to continue reading and enjoy some adult beverages. We ended up meeting up Greg, Eddie, and Joan where we continued conversation and played card games. What a fun morning and afternoon.

I am trying to up my reading game as I have fallen behind my goal for the year. According to Goodreads, I am six books behind schedule of my 25 books for the year. The past few weeks, or months, I have not read as much as I had intended. I have read everyday, but often times I am reading as I am going to bed and only a page or two before falling asleep. I went out last week to find some "short" books that I can read quickly, but I am finding even those "short" books take me a while to read.

I am hoping to get some reading in today on a Sunday afternoon. No Royals playing today, so it would be a good day to catch up on my reading. 

Have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful week! Until next time...

Haverty.NET: The Website That Needs a GPS (to Find Itself)

Working with hosting company, we got the the issue somewhat resolved from last week regarding Haverty.NET. I am still seeing issues if I try going to haverty.net where the page will not load. It has to have www.haverty.net to load every time. Again, working with web hosting company to try and resolve. Of course everything should redirect to https://blogger.haverty.net which is my blog, but I want all sites at haverty.net to be secure.

This should not have been this difficult to set up but here I am two weeks later only slightly better. If I can get the issue where the page redirects properly regardless of what address is entered, I will be happy. Work continues and waiting to hear back from hosting company on how to resolve.

More on this later and hopefully by next weekend, this will all be resolved.

Update on haverty.net sites not working and continued troubleshooting

I wanted to provide an update to the status of my website (www.haverty.net). A week ago I started a process to provide secure connection when going to sites other than the blog. It has not gone well. This has broken all sites except for https://blogger.haverty.net which is hosted is still working. I am working with my hosting company as well as domain registration company on the issue. For now, I have tried to set it back to how it was set prior to the changes so that email and some web pages will work again.

If you are having problems accessing Haverty.NET, this is the reason why. I was hoping to resolve it over the weekend, but most pages were not working as of Sunday morning which required me to revert back to prior to making any changes. I am waiting for my issue to be escalated to help with this issue.

Have a great rest of your Sunday and I hope to have an update later this week on this issue.

Thank you for visiting.

Hattitude and Happiness: A Royals Fan's Perfect Sunday

Showing Off Our New Hats

Carrie and I attended the MIAA Day at The K game on Sunday, July 21. We had a great time. We got our new hats (pictured to the right) that have the Royals and Washburn on them. It was fun seeing other MIAA attendees with their hats. It seems as though Fort Hays State University had the most people attending the game as I saw their hats everywhere. It was a fun day and I am glad that we decided to go somewhat last minute (the day before the game).

The hats are really sharp. We tried to get additional hats but we were told they are not available. Sold out or something, but later I saw boxes of hats as we were leaving the game. Could easily put those on a site to sell them as they look great representing the Royals and Washburn.

The day was beautiful even with our seats in the sun but soon the clouds moved in and provided the perfect ending to the day. We met up with the Mosers' briefly before the game to have a quick beer. Plus we saw the Ybarras' in the ball park.

Section 248 at Royals Game

Our seats were good sitting in section 248 row MM. Good crowd on a Sunday afternoon which was good. It has been fun watching the attendance continue to increase as the Royals continue to win. This was my third Royals game to attend this season and so far the Royals are 3 - 0 when I attend their games. 

We need to find our next game to attend. This next week we play on the road the whole week. We are back in Kansas City starting August 5. Probably good we are away this next week as high temperatures are back in the area starting tomorrow.

Royals Win!

The Royals won 4 - 1 this day. Got a little burnt on my knees but overall it was a great day. So fun to go in for the Sunday game and back in time for Sunday evening relaxing. As I mentioned, we need to do more of these when it is a Sunday afternoon game. It is easy to get into the games and we are having fun watching our Royals play ball.

Until next time, have a great rest of your Sunday and a wonderful week. Go Royals!

Air Supply, Hurricanes, and Ham Sandwiches: A Weekend in Houston

Rainbow on way to KC Airport

Carrie and I made what was supposed to be a quick trip to Houston, TX to see a concert and also see our friends. We left for Kansas City to stay at a hotel Wednesday evening; on our way, we saw the rainbow stretching across the sky. We actually saw a double rainbow, but the second one was a little difficult to see in our picture. It was beautiful. The rainbow was forecasting that we would be stuck in Houston after the weekend due to the hurricane.

Cash and Cooper

We arrived in Houston Thursday morning following connecting flights on American Airlines from Dallas to Houston. No direct flights on American Airlines to Houston, so we wanted to get points to and stayed with American Airlines for our flights which was actually cheaper than trying to do another airline that was a direct flight. We had the chance to meet the newest member of the Flora family, Cash (pictured in the background to the right), and of course Cooper (in foreground to the right). Cash is about six months old and full of energy. We had a fun time getting to know Cash. It reminded me of Oliver when he was a puppy with all the toys everywhere. 

Tommy Cooking Burgers

On Saturday, we were able to enjoy a pool party at Tommy's house where he cooked us burgers. It rained most of the morning but cleared off enough where we could get in the pool. This was just a rain storm moving through and unrelated to the hurricane that was moving into the area Sunday evening and Monday morning. We had a great time spending time with Tommy and then Chuck and Melissa also were able to join us that day too.

Selfie at Air Supply Concert

The purpose of our trip to Houston was to attend Air Supply on Sunday night. The hurricane was due to move into Houston Sunday night into Monday morning. As the days led up to Sunday, we wondered if we should leave Saturday or Sunday morning, but then flights started being canceled and the decision was made we would attend the concert. On our way to the concert, it rained like crazy and we debated about turning around although it was a rain storm and not the hurricane, it was intense.

Air Supply

The concert venue announced earlier in the day that with the hurricane moving into Houston, the concert would start at 7 and end by 9 pm. Sure enough, they started at 6:57 pm and with one encore, the concert was done by 8:45. We had a great time with a good crowd considering what was moving into the area. This was the second time Carrie had been to an Air Supply concert and my first time attending an Air Supply concert. We had a great time and it was fun singing to so many songs we had heard for so many years. Our friend Javier was supposed to join us, but he was unable to make it because of work. 

Encore by Air Supply

I am so glad that we made the trip to see Air Supply. Good idea by Corrie! We wondered prior to leaving Topeka if we would be stuck down there, but we were hoping for the best. We had a great time at the concert and left the venue to blue skies, birds chirping and no rain on our way back to the house.

Monday morning I awoke about five-thirty or six as there were a couple of power blips that caused the fans to stop for a brief moment. Luckily I got up, checked work email, and send a couple of messages saying we were delayed because a short time later, internet was knocked out and our cell phones were not getting any signal either. By six-thirty, the rain and winds were beating against the window and causing the power to flicker every now and again. We never did lose power at the house but the wireless in the house was out and would remain out until after we left.

Tommy lost power at his house, where we had the pool party, and so he came over to Corrie's house. We spent the morning watching the news of reports coming out of Houston from flooding, trees down, etc. So many people were stranded in locations where it had flooded and had to be rescued or they just left their car where they got into trouble. The reports of power outages grew through the day with over 2 million people without power. 

Tommy and John Eating

The reports were not to leave the house unless absolutely necessary, so we remained at the house. Corrie had stuff at the house for us to eat, so Carrie made Tommy and me dinner of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. They were good! Following dinner, we went back to watching the news to see what was happening. Tommy got a hotel to stay in so he could have internet for work, so he left us to head to the hotel.

Our flights had been rescheduled to Tuesday and then we received notices that those flights had been canceled and rescheduled for late Tuesday. We did all leave the house to eat out for lunch on Tuesday. Many places still without power, no wireless at the house, and phones not working, we had to drive around to get cell signal to call places to check if they were open or when we were driving we would see which spots were open. As we were finishing up eating, we checked that our flight for later that afternoon was still on schedule and through conversation, we realized that instead of IAH airport we were now at Hobby airport. Good thing we checked and Corrie said something or we would have gone to the wrong airport.

Drinks at Airport

Following lunch, we went back to the house for a while before Corrie drove us to the Hobby airport. We hung out at the airport as we got there a few hours before our flight not knowing how busy security would be to get into the airport. We found a spot to have some drinks, read, and I caught up on work email with the available wireless. On our way to the airport, it was crazy to see all of the places in Houston without power. Gas stations that looked like parking lots with cars waiting for gas and cars going down or around the block waiting for gas. 

We were again flying from Houston to Dallas before arriving in Kansas City. We arrived in Kansas City after midnight and got home around 2 in the morning. A crazy final ending to our trip, but glad we were able to fit it in to make the concert, see our friends, and have stories to tell.

Until next time, have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful week.

Nashville Birthday Bash: Honky Tonks, Brunch, and Bourbon Steak!

On Our Way to Nashville

Here we are in the middle of July and it is hard to believe that a month ago we were in Nashville, TN for the 50 birthday celebration for Corrie. We had a great time. I meant to write this following the trip, but we were busy following the trip and did not get it done. We had a wonderful time in Nashville and plan to go back in the future. We went to so many great spots to listen to great music, drink, and of course we ate at some great spots too. This will be a few of the places we went but not an inclusive list.

Drinks at Assembly Food Hall

We were in Nashville from June 13 - 17. We packed in a lot during our time there. We would sometimes sleep late to about 9:30 or 10, but we were out the door and doing things in Nashville everyday we were there. We would not head back to take naps or breaks, but it was nonstop and a great time. Picture to the left was a spot we ended up a few different times called Assembly Food Hall. A variety of places to eat or get drink. Fun spot!

Group at Brunch

There were ten of us total on the trip although all ten were together I believe only two days together. Picture to the right was brunch at Adele's where we went Saturday morning on June 15. We all came away stuffed and happy. I want to go back there in the future for dinner. We spent that day going between drinking spots while the ladies went shopping. 

I am jumping around a bit, but on Thursday we spent the day on Broadway going around to the various bars. It was so fun with great bands at each and every stop. Some places would have multiple bands playing at the same time, but the way the bars were set up, you could only hear one when in the vicinity of that band. Most bands would take donations with a bucket or with a QR code to send money. We did both methods while we were going around Broadway listening where we would drop cash into a bands bucket or send Venmo through their QR code.

Dinner at Bourbon Steak

The highlight of the trip was the birthday dinner for Corrie at Bourbon Steak. We had reservations for ten and we had talked about doing a private dining room but ended up leaving it in the main dining room. When we arrived, we were surprised they took us to the private dining. It was incredible with the views, the food, and the company. The picture to the left, or the others in Flickr album, do not give it justice. We had our own wait staff that took good care of us. Javier was in charge of the wine and we had three bottles of wine through the night. It was a fantastic evening! 

To see all photos from our trip, you can browse them using the images below.

Fun memories to celebrate the birthday for Corrie. It was fun hanging out with everyone to celebrate big birthday weekend for Corrie. Carrie and I hope to go back to Nashville sometime soon.

Happy July 4, 2024! Have a Happy and Safe Holiday!

t always feels like a sign that summer is half-over as July 4th weekend comes and goes. The summer is speeding by and only gets faster. I hope you have a fun and safe holiday.

No fireworks purchases for us this year, but we might watch some as others fire off their fireworks. Hoping our dog, Oliver, can remain calm and not be too bothered by the sound of the fireworks from neighbors. It is pitiful to watch him outside the past few nights as people fire off their fireworks. 

If you shoot something that goes into the air, please follow safety protocol. My sister, Dina, has had one too many fireworks chase after her. I remember one time it hit her and put a hole in her shirt. She was far back from the fireworks, but somehow they managed to seek her out.

Happy 4th! Stay safe and keep all of your digits.