a great night

what a night. i'd call it darn near perfect. a mix of old friends, good entertainment, a great (and quad-burning) ride throughout kansas city and a nightcap with some of my favorite people. after a long day and then a bum rush to get some errands run after work, I jumped on the Trek to pedal downtown to the Sprint Center to see two former clients/friends who were working the absolutely amazing Komen for the Cure mobile unit outside the Garth Brooks concert (no way was I going to brave parking/driving down there tonight). it was a great night to be downtown. stopped at JP to get some requested hot chocolate and it was packed to the gills. each bar/restaurant I rode past was equally full. this is Garth's final of 203 shows he's played in the past week. anyway, it was so nice to see these folks and hang out for a second in a very, very relevant mobile execution - which was PACKED by the way. love it.

then, rode the bike through the craziness that was DTKC tonight (I love seeing and being a part of the energy down there), up hospital hill and through Crown Center and Midtown to Westport where I met some friends for a pre-screening of the movie Juno. wow. see this movie. if you put Arrested Development, Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, Superbad, Singles, Once and Goonies in a blender, you'd have a Juno shake. and you'd love it.

juno is going head-to-head with "Once" as my favorite movie of '07. in a dry, sarcastic, very "i'm-a-kid-dealing-with-things-way-above-my-maturity-level way." it's charmingly crude. it's sweet. it's romantic. it's troublesome. the group i was with laughed throughout and was stilled by some very well-played scenes. the soundtrack also seems great...the signature song is "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches (the other songs sort of bite). the song gives you a good idea of the ironic, innocent feel. granted, the movie is a little bit of a disenchanted hipster anthem...but it's far from intolerable. in fact, you want to be in this movie. i'll give it to Fox Searchlight, they are in tune with the Andy this year. just saw Darjeeling Limited and love it as well.

we cruised down the road to Harry's, then i rode home. perfect night. old friends. current friends. seeing kc from wheel level. can't beat it. for the gear geeks reading this, i sported a couple new additions to the winter wardrobe tonight. both fared very well. threw some SmartWool liner gloves under my cycling gloves for added warmth. they worked well, distributed heat evenly, and were thin enough that shifting/braking wasn't an issue. i had my new corduroy Walz Cap on under the helmet tonight...loving this hat (as most who've seen me in the past week know). it worked great as a noggin-warmer, and converted nicely to a stylish cap to wear to the bar. i was going to wear the new Ibex Meru cap...but the dang thing's back-ordered. should be on my noggin by the 17th. yay.

alright. time for another Fat Tire and some QT with the Monk dog.