Yay, KC gets Trader Joe's!!

Adrienne and I are soooo excited, she sent me a post this morning, but its going to take a whole year, waaaaaah! 

Trader Joe's coming to Kansas City

BY KAREN SHIDELER

The Wichita Eagle

Trader Joe's is finally coming to Kansas.
The Kansas City Star reports this morning that the specialty grocery chain will open two stores in Kansas City in 2011, one on each side of the state line.
Trader Joe's was one of the top 10 businesses that Eagle and Kansas.com readers said they most wanted to see in Wichita in a poll earlier this year. It ranked No. 8.
The Star said the chain plans to open stores at Leawood's One Nineteen at 119th street and Roe Avenue in Kansas and at Ward Parkway Center in south Kansas City on the Missouri side.
The stores carry about 2,000 items, nearly 80 percent of them under the Trader Joe's brand. Trader Joe's also is known for its Charles Shaw label of wines, dubbed the Two-Buck Chuck in some markets.
But the Leawood store will not sell alcohol, the Star said, because Kansas law allows grocery stores to sell only 3.2 percent cereal malt beverages.

Dream Visits

I love it when my relatives visit me in my dreams. Last night it was Brandon. The back story isn't very interesting, because it didn't really make a lot of sense. We were at a public swimming pool and I guess  I can relate the setting and the feeling of being there with Brandon to the night that we all went to the pool when Glen and I stayed at Brandon and Angela's in June. The powerful part of the dream was the feeling I had of hugging Brandon and just being able to touch him, which is what I miss when I only get to talk to my sons on the phone. It is so surprising to wake up from a lucid dream like this one and actually feel a sense of satisfaction, as if I really did hug Brandon.
Devin and Adrienne appear as main characters in my dreams, too. The last time Devin visited me, he was a child and we were living on the farm. These are "yearning" type dreams, I always wake with a bit of sadness.
Dreams of Adrienne have a decidedly "current" theme, very much like her appearances in our lives now, here for a visit and gone, or we are on a mission to accomplish something.
I'm not "into" dreams as much as I used to be, I share this blog only because Brandon's visit is still so fresh in my mind and I wanted to capture the feeling from it. I no longer have nightmares like I used to either. It's too freaky to share a nightmare about a loved one...and the fact that I rarely have them or remember them anymore is fine with me.
You started something with your Chocolate dream, Devin!

Dreams

I love to hear the stories my grown children tell about their dreams. For instance, Devin called this evening, and as so often happens, he was telling me all about his weekend and I got distracted and forgot to ask how his diet is going and instead started telling him about Royal's latest problem. During the course of this conversation, he told me about his lucid "Chocolate" dream. In the dream, Chocolate ran up to him and Devin was so excited to see him and petted him. Naturally, this rekindled my feelings for Chocolate. He was such a young, small puppy when we got him from Nate of Fairport. He fit in the pocket of my jacket and we took him with us to a track meet the first week we had him. He was very popular that day. What he lacked in size, (a miniature rat terrier), he made up for in his big, exuberant personality! He was fearless and cocky, definitely the pack leader around our farm! He chased a big, husky salesman up onto the picnic table one evening, and the man refused to come down until we came out and called Chocolate off!
I don't want to think about why we gave Chocolate up or what happened to him after...but I do. What I am certain of is that we all loved him and that we gave him a good life while he was with us. RIP little buddy! 

Run Royal Run

One of my favorite canine activities is taking Royal to the dog park! We went to Heritage Park this morning...a gorgeous beginning to the day. They have done lots of good stuff to the park since we were last there, solar powered restrooms for owners, new entrance slab, and the park was mowed nicely. Royal hasn't been since last spring, probably April!
You can see how much he loves to run in this photo. It is so fun to watch him, too. Someone at the park will always comment on how fast he is. He's really just trotting here, but I love how Glen got the shot just as his ears were thrust upward in mid-stride! It makes him look like an exotic dingo.
We stayed for about an hour and Royal made a few friends, which is another interesting aspect of dog-parking. Apparently, dogs pick out other dogs to associate with much like people do. Some dogs will get a passing glance from Royal, some he completely ignores, others will get his attention immediately, and he will engage in play or chase right away. Today he chose a nice looking border collie, first. The collie chased and chased trying to catch Royal, all the while he had a huge grin on his face as if to say, Ha! You'll never catch me!
Royal likes dog owners more than he likes dogs, I think. He always picks out pretty blonde girls, little kids, or grandma ladies. He likes men, too, but they don't usually talk to him like the others do. He gets pretty excited and jumps up for kisses, which most folks don't really appreciate! 
He's pretty tired right now, laying on his cushion all rolled in a ball. Guess he knows its time for football and he better get his nap in before the yelling starts!

Friday Dinner @ Stonewall Inn

Glen got talked in to buying one of those "coupon books" from a former golf student, so we have to use it until we get our $20 investment back. I looked through it 3 times before I found something I thought would be worthy of the drive out there. Brandon had told me about Stonewall Pizza years ago. He said he wanted to eat there if he ever figured out how to get there. You can see it across the 35 right of way, but you obviously can't get there directly. Well, a few years later (I know...) we realized it is right on Pflumm St. in Lenexa, Ks, established in 1978 and successful all these years later. We stopped to try it out that day, but we were too early in the day and then never got over there again. We noticed there is also a Stonewall Inn in the same lot whose specialty is pan-fried chicken, (I'm thinking this could be another Strouds!).
Long story short, we chose the Stonewall Inn coupon and headed out. Although it wasn't even 5:00, there were lots of cars in the parking lot. People were sitting outside eating pizza and drinking beer or at the Inn eating fried chicken. The inside of the inn was rustic and homey, with a dining room, bar area, and a large outdoor patio.
I ordered the fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans. Glen had the special, fried fish and chips. We agreed the food was good and we left just as the place was filling up. We also agreed that we would come back and try Stonewall pizza so we could tell Brandon whether it was as good as he had heard, although, he doesn't much care anymore.