Hitched

Megan and I got married on June 20th, 2009. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception with photos, video, etc. to follow later when I get all the pictures back from the photographer.

We got back from our honeymoon a few days ago from Playa del Carmen. Check out all of the pictures at http://kevin.servebeer.com/gallery2/v/honeymoon. The resort was amazing and we had a great time. I slept like a baby every night. Some of the highlights included our trip to Tulum to see the Mayan ruins, swimming with the dolphins, and a monkey sticking its tongue in Megan's mouth:

New Colorado Pics

Finally got around to uploading pics from the Colorado trip I took with my parents a few weeks ago. Check out the album here.

This semester is almost over so hopefully I'll get my sanity back soon :)

Dad Finally Got the Muskrat

When I was in Wichita a few weeks ago, I got to check out the muskrat that dad has been trying to nab for quite some time. It's been living in the lagoon and muskrats are known for damaging lagoons hence the hatred for this little creature. Anyways, he used a trap that looked something like this to snap the little sucker's neck:

I took a picture with my phone of dad next to the kill (you can see a little post sticking out of the lagoon which is where the trap is attached to):

Here's a nice closeup where you can see its nasty yellow teeth:

Christmas in Review

As usual, I made my pilgrimage to Wichita for the Christmas holiday. It was definitely a nice and needed break filled with sweet treats and gifts.

Here's a clip of Megan (my sister) and I making Christmas cookies:

One of the low points of the trip was the crappy weather on Saturday. It was snowing and the wind was blowing so hard that you couldn't even see the street from my parent's house:

It pretty much did this all day until the afternoon. Since the weather had calmed down by the evening, I had planned on going out and seeing friends that I never get to. I didn't even make it a mile from my parents house when I ended up in the ditch on Webb road. I was traveling North bound when I gave the accelerator a tiny push. This whipped my back end 180 degrees and I ended up bumper deep in the snow on the other side of Webb. Luckily, within a few minutes, a Durango with 4WD stopped and helped pull me out. I was stuck really good and it took around 5 good tugs to get me out. The amazing thing was that my Pathfinder nor myself sustained any damage.

Christmas Eve we had a big dinner with smoked pork and all kinds of desserts with the grandparents. Needless to say, I put away at least two plates and 7-8 Christmas treats. On Christmas day, I think I ate an illegal amount of food. Seriously, if over-eating was against the law, I'd be serving 40 to life for the obnoxious amount of food I ate on Xmas. Starting in the morning, we ate breakfast casserole at my parents like we usually do. I headed down to Megan's parents around noon where we had a very tasty crab leg lunch served with baked potatoes, green beans, and jello salad. I then made it over to my aunt and uncle's house, Jean & Archie, around 3PM. They were serving authentic Mexican food of which I ate at least two plates full. The selection ranged from deep fried tacos to tamales to tostados, all of which were so good. I grazed on and off for the rest of the day and felt pretty crappy by the late evening.

I definitely made out well with the gifts this year too. Among many things, I received 3 new Wii games, several books, new tools, tailgating grill, and much much more. As always, I'm grateful for all the great stuff I get every year.

Yesterday, Megan and I took advantage of all the sales and got a crap ton of Christmas lights for next year at Target where all their Christmas stuff was 75% off. Megan had already bought us a tree and a few other things, but we picked up a bunch of icicle style lights and other lights to drape over the bushes.

Santa didn't get Ember the FURminator. I've been getting more and more frustrated with the amount of dog hair in the house, so yesterday I splurged and bought her the $45 medium size FURminator. I can't believe I spent this much on a damn dog brush, but it ended up being a worthwhile investment. The propaganda accompanied with the FURminator always has a picture of the dog next to all the hair extracted from the tool. So, I had to take my own FURminator picture the first time I used it on Ember last night. The one on the left is a picture of a Shiba from the FURminator website and the one on the right is my Shiba Ember:

I could have gotten more hair off of her, but after 30+ minutes she was starting to get pretty pissed and wouldn't let me do much more brushing. I put all my pictures from Christmas here. Here's to having less hair in the house in 2008!!

Engaged!

I'm pleased to announce that as of yesterday, Megan and I are engaged to be married!

Because Megan loves Christmas so much, she has been on my case to open presents early (like she does every year). So, last Friday, I told her that she could open one present on Sunday and she agreed that I open one as well. I hosted a poker game at my house on Saturday night, so I was less than ready when Megan wakes me up after 6 hours of sleep on Sunday morning to make breakfast and open that one promised present. I should also mention that she stole my pillow and I was forced to sleep straight on the mattress all night.

I finally managed to get out of bed as the smell of bacon brought me down to the kitchen. She was working on our traditional Sunday morning biscuits and gravy. While we were waiting for the biscuits to bake, Megan convinced me to go ahead and open the one present each that was agreed upon. I opened my first which turned out to be a new Wii game: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

It was her turn to open the huge box that she had been eyeing and periodically shaking throughout the weekend. She unwrapped it and saw that it was a large printer box with another wrapped box in it. She opened this box to find another wrapped box. She opened this box to find yet another box while I am nervously laughing the whole time. She looks and me and says "I've seen this in a movie". She unwrapped this box to find an even smaller box and than another even smaller box. Now, this part takes a little background explanation. A couple of weekends ago, I went to the Chiefs vs. Raiders game and won an iPod nano. I already have an iPod nano so Megan has been dropping subtle hints that she wanted the one that I won. So, with that said, the last wrapped box turned out to be an iPod nano box. She gives me a nasty look which I later found out why. She was think that I had just totally cheated and gave her the free gift that I got as her first present. She opens the iPod nano box and starts digging through the red tissue paper to retrieve a small little white box. I'm getting on my knee during this time and snatch the box from her, open it, and ask her if she will make me the happiest man alive and marry me.

Megan claims that she had no idea what I said, but was pretty overwhelmed by the whole situation and managed to utter out a response of "Yes". She grabbed the box and the rest is a little hazy for both of use. I later had to explain to her what I actually said, but she knew enough to say "Yes". I think she might have blacked out :) Megan is sometimes hard to surprise, but I think I definitely surprised her this time.

Needless to say, Megan called absolutely everyone in her cellphone and never actually ate the breakfast we made. I, of course, enjoyed the biscuits and gravy and the overwhelming sense of relief. I have known Megan for about 10 years but that was still the most nervous I have ever been in my entire life.

Here are some pics of the rock:

First Attempt at Recreating "The" Cinnamon Rolls

My Dad has always made these delicious homemade cinnamon rolls. I copied the recipe down the last time I was in Wichita and took a crack at making them. Basically, I made a huge mess in the kitchen, but the end results were some pretty damn good cinnamon rolls. They didn't turn up as fluffy and big as Dad's, but they were good nevertheless.

I'd also like to mention that I probably would have never been able to make the rolls without Megan's help. I was somewhat of a retard when it came to kneeding and making the mixture into dough. She came into the kitchen with me trying to make the dough by mixing it with a little fork. She just laughed, took over, and used her hands to do the mixing.

In true nerd fashion, I took pictures along the way to document the process. This shows them right after the dough was rolled up and cut into individual rolls:

Here they are after letting them raise for almost 3 hours:

After baking for 20 minutes:

Making the final touch with white cake frosting:

Hungry now, aren't you?

Silver Lining

Megan and I went to Arrowhead stadium to see the KU vs. MU game. Here's Megan doing some food prep out the back of my Pathfinder:

We ended up meeting up with my sister Megan and her friends before the game:

Here's some more pics from the game.

Yeah, yeah, I know, KU lost. But guess what? Mizzou isn't going to any bowl games and Kansas is in the Orange Bowl!!!!

KU vs. MU this Weekend

The KU vs. MU football game is this Thanksgiving weekend and guess what? I've got tickets. The game is sold out at Arrowhead and tickets are going for several hundred dollars on ebay.

We are ranked #2 and MU is ranked #4. This is one of the most anticipated games of the season, not to mention the most important sporting event at Arrowhead in the last many years.

I'll also be visiting Arrowhead the next morning for the Chiefs vs. Raiders rivalry game. My family is coming up and we're all going to the noon game.

Here's a nice little Simpsons dig at Missouri to set the tone for this weekend:

KU Homecoming

We went down to Lawrence yesterday for KU's football homecoming (went last year too). We stomped Nebraska to make our record 9-0 and #4 in the country! We went to Marsh's sisters place which is right by the stadium. Megan just so happened to be in a nearby house and came by to hang out. Ryan was in town as well for the Chiefs vs. Packers game today. I took a few pictures. Here's one of the three of us:

Underwater Pics from Cozumel

I finally got the pictures developed from the underwater camera we used in Cozumel and posted them on my gallery here. They are all mainly from Xel-Ha but there are a few from snorkeling near the resort we stayed at.

Cozumel - Day 5

After looking for a boat to go deep sea fishing since we arrived in Cozumel, Dad decided to just charter the whole boat so that him and Ryan could go. Megan, mom, and my stomachs were too weak to risk going out fishing on a boat for 5 hours. They each caught a barracuda on the trip:

The guides cleaned the fish and gave them the meat but we couldn't get any of the cooks at the resort to fix it up for us. Apparently one of the guides ripped out the liver of one of the fish and ate it raw like it was a snack :P

While Ryan and dad were fishing, the rest of us chilled at the beach and later Megan and I did some ceramic painting:

Megan finished hers twice as fast and was a lot more artistic than mine. Oh well, she took pottery in high school so she's got the advantage. They glossed them for us and we picked them up the next day before we left.

Mom got 'tatted by a lady doing hentai tattoos near the swim-up bar:

Megan, Ryan, and I decided to go to Senor Frogs again since we were leaving the next day. We had a good time again (except for Ryan dancing with some nasty locals :)). Megan was in a male vs. female contest but lost :(

We left the next morning and the rest is history...

Cozumel - Day 4

Today, we decided to take an excursion and go to the mainland to visit Xel-Ha. It's kinda hard to explain, but it's basically a huge natural aquarium that you can snorkel in. Freshwater from underground caves meet the ocean here for a unique experience. They actually filmed a movie, The Blue Lagoon, at this place. We took a ferry to Playa Del Carmen and then a bus to Xel-Ha. The map on the upper right shows where Xel-Ha (circled) is in relation to Cozumel.

The place was absolutely beautiful as you can see from all the pictures from this day including:

They had a "lazy" river that you could take a inner tube down or just snorkel the whole time. Like I said, the whole place was like one big aquarium that you snorkeled in. Half the fun was going off exploring on your own by large underwater rocks or where the underground caves surfaced. We saw all kinds of fish including tiger fish, stingrays, spikey black things, and all kinds of other fish that I had no idea what they were (including really big ones by the bridge that gated off the place from the ocean). I took a bunch of pictures with an underwater camera but I have not had a chance to develop the pictures yet. As soon as a I do, I will get them posted.

One of the funniest things about the trip was our tour guide. We couldn't help but make fun of his hilariously bad English. When he was explaining the trip to us in the bus, he would constantly repeat things like "do not forgeet your per-seen-el be-long-eens", and he explained if you swam with the dolphins you could "keeece thee dolphins" and do "fute pooshes off thee dolphins". You probably would have had to been there to appreciate how funny it was.

The only bad thing was that mom got sick while we were there for a couple hours. Luckily, though, our tour guide was there to give mom a keeece and make everything better :)

Cozumel - Day 3

More chillin at the beach in the morning. Megan and I went and checked out a kayak and took a lap around the beach. It was good exercise and we ended up splashing each other pretty good.

In the afternoon, we decided to go take a taxi into town and check things out. We went to a bunch of shops including the Senor Frogs store, tequila shop, and other miscellaneous t-shirt shops (a lot of which were pretty crappy and offered like 10 shirts for $20). Ryan got a bottle of tequila at one of the stores. One thing I thought was pretty cool was that the place where Ryan got his tequila had a "rifle" of tequila as well as Sublime tequila:









For dinner, we ate at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville for a change from the food at the resort. It was good and we had a pretty nice ocean view and saw one of the large cruise ships leaving.

Later that night, we met with Megan's "boyfriend" Enrique in the hotel lounge. He was all sweaty and acting weird as normal but offered us a coupon for a free taxi ride to Senor Frogs. So, we took it and said that he would later meet us at the club.

They were giving free shots like every hour when we got there. One of the "shot givers" grabbed my camera and took a picture of me as she injected a bunch of alcohol in my mouth:

As you can tell from Megan's face, one of the disturbing things was the phallic balloon that one of the waiters constructed for us:

Much to Megan's disappointment, Enrique never showed up...

Cozumel - Day 2

Another nice leisurely day of relaxing at the beach all morning and afternoon. The waters in front of the place we were staying were not as clear as the beach nearby so mom and I went snorkeling over there for a while. We saw tons of fish including a small stingray that my mom pretended to see when I pointed it out to her :)

Early in the afternoon, we had our rooms upgraded. This included larger rooms with a refrigerator, nicer floors, etc. The best was the sweet ocean view that the new rooms had:

In the evening, we had dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort where you had to make reservations. It was fancy and all and the appetizers were good. However, my brother and I ordered their "sirloin". It definitely was not a sirloin and had about as much fat as it had meat on it :(

Later in the evening, we went to the nightly entertainment which was a casino night. They had several tables of blackjack and one roulette wheel. Ryan and Megan almost immediately lost all their chips in blackjack. I played blackjack with my parents until we had to stop. I think I had more chips than anyone at the casino night. After combining my parents and my chips, I won a bottle of white tequila.

After the casino night, we went down to the beach with a couple guys we met and my parents. We had a wager going for Ryan to have a crab pinch his nipple. One of the guys finally caught a small one and got it on Ryan's nipple like 3 times. He screamed like a girl every time :) It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Megan has a video of it I still need to get.

We finished the night up with some karaoke. Me and this other guy sang Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. I think Megan has a video of that too. Megan was dancing with Enrique for what quite some time. There's more to come regarding Enrique later...

Cozumel - Day 1

So, we got back from Cozumel last week on Tuesday (7/30/07) and I've finally a little settled in and at a point where I can post about the vacation. I plan on doing separate posts for each day cause otherwise it would be really long. I'm still waiting on pics and videos from my sister so I should have more content eventually. The pics from everyday of the vacation are up.

Cozumel is a small island off of Mexico that is only about 34 miles long and 9 miles wide. It's very close to Play del Carmen and Cancun.

We arrived the first day around 1PM and made our way to the resort we stayed at: Melia. Not much went on today but just getting our rooms situated and going down to the beach for some much needed relaxation.


Did I mention the resort had a swim up bar??

We stayed in and had drinks and went and saw the nightly entertainment they have at their Fantasia room. This involved a lot of loud noises and Mexican dancing.

One of the funny things was this piano player that played in one of the bars the whole time we were there. He just kinda sat there and smiled and added a few notes here and there to the rest of the music his electronic keyboard was playing for him. I was able to get a picture with him in which I took over the keyboard action:



We didn't notice any difference in the music when he took his hands off the keyboard and put my hands on :)

It's Alive

I got my PC setup this evening in the office of my new house. Just had to register the free DNS service I use with the new IP address here and the site is back up and running. I can't sit at my desk for another week and a half though cause I cannot put large rugs down on the newly finished hardwood floors yet. I need the rug so I can roll around on my office chair without damaging the floor.

Getting things in the house and unpacked has been a little slower than I was hoping because I screwed my back up pretty good. I've been self medicating with some old pain medicine for relief. I was able to mow the lawn this evening though. It was getting pretty tall and really needed to be done.

My parents came up this weekend and I was able to get a ton of things done. We got everything from my old apartment moved, redid the electric box (see spreadsheet for more details), got the cable and Internet turned on with cable wired to all of the rooms, a couple trips to Home Depot for supplies, and a lot of much needed yard work done. I'm sure I'm missing something.

This week I'm having my new living room and patio furniture delivered, the outside and inside sprayed for bugs, some roof and guttering work done, and of course more moving stuff inside and unpacking.

Sibling's Day

Last Saturday (2/24/07) was Sibling's Day for Megan's sorority. Ryan came up earlier in the week and was staying at Clint's. Saturday morning, Megan and Ryan came to my apartment and we headed off to Power Play. Megan looked up the directions on MapQuest and it showed Power Play being in Independence, MO about 30 miles away (map). So, we headed off and about 30 or 40 minutes later, we were at our exit, but with no Power Play insight. Megan called her friends to find out exactly where it was, and they were saying they were at 62nd and Pflumm off of Shawnee Mission Parkway. What???? This is nowhere near where we are (Independence, MO), and I actually live pretty close to 62nd and Pflumm. So, we make a complete U-turn and had Megan (other Megan) look up directions on the Internet to the correct location. Finally, 1.5 hours later, we ended up at the correct location (map). Here are the correct directions. Megan felt real bad about it, but don't worry Megan cause we had a good road trip :)

We immediately hit up the buffet because we were starving by then. Here's a pic just after we ate (don't we look plump and full?):

I'd also like to add that it was pretty amazing we actually got Ryan to pose for a picture.

Then, we got down on some gaming. We mostly hit up the basketball and air hockey games:

Of course, Megan being blonde and in a Sorority, ended up losing the card they gave each of us that had points for playing the games. Sorry Megan, I couldn't resist. Finally, I'd like to end this with some picks of Ryan and I doing some serious cap poppin:

Welcome 2007!

I put up pictures from Christmas and New Years in my gallery today. This one is great of Ember and my sister:



Here's Marsh and I with our cigars on New Years:

My New Years weekend kind of sucked because I had to work a lot of the weekend. There has been an urgent issue the past week and I've been working on it non-stop. I was up till 3:30AM on Friday night working on it, then all day Saturday, and a good amount on Sunday. I got away Sunday night and Marsh, Tina, Megan, and I all went downtown to Romer's apartment where we met up with everyone. We ended up going to O'dowd's (map) for our New Years evening celebration. We all had a really good time and Marsh, Tina, Megan, and I ended up taking a taxi home.

I think I have two New Years resolutions this year. One is to try to get a steady schedule of going to the gym. I've had too many obstacles this year including throwing my back out and requiring physical therapy for a month, school, and randomly getting sick. The other and more important resolution is to spend more time with my sister since she is only 30 minutes away now in Lawrence. I've also got a place to stay in Lawrence now because Clint is moving there this weekend.

Thanksgiving Break

Now that I'm feeling well enough and Thanksgiving break is over, let me try to recap:

Wednesday (11-22-06)
We ordered a ton of Chinese food at work for lunch and I of course ate too much. I left work a little early at about 3PM so I could get a head start on my drive to my parent's house in Derby (map).

My brother already had plans for us to go to Old Town in Wichita for a pub crawl with proceeds going to some charity for Lou Gehrig's Disease. The idea was to go to each bar and get a new playing card. The top 3 best Poker hands won some prize. We went to several bars: The Pump House (map), Heroes (map), Loft 150 (map), Kelly's Irish Pub (map), Club Indigo (map), and that's all I can remember (seems like there may have been one more). Ryan had a full house but everyone was cheating and the winning hand was 5 aces so he didn't win anything.

All went normal except for when we got back to Clint's. Let's just say Riz somehow got left behind in Old Town and fights and cops ensued.

Thursday (11-23-06)
Thanksgiving Day! It was a pretty laid back day. Even though we already had a ton of mashed potatoes, I decided that we needed cheesy potatoes so I whipped up a batch of those. We just played it low key with the immediate family + Grandpa Peters having Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house. The food was really good and Grandpa stuck around and we played a few games of Pitch.

Friday (11-24-06)
Dad, Megan, Ryan, and I went and saw Borat. Wow! The movie was really funny. However, I could have definitely done without all of the male nudity. I think Dad, Ryan, and Megan would agree.

We watched KU beat Ball State on the parents' HD LCD. It was a pretty low-scoring-boring game and I was worried how we would face #1 Florida the next night. Oh well, at least we won.

Later that night, Ryan and I went over to Vinnie's girlfriend, Amy's place. Just hung out and played Battle of the Sexes. I can't remember who won but I know that I embarrassed myself by knowing one too many answers to female related trivial.

Saturday (11-25-06)
Rotating my tires on the P-Finder was way overdue, so Dad and I took care of this early Saturday morning. We also washed it along with Mom's car.

I took my brother and Grant to A J Sports Grill (map) to watch the highly anticipated KU vs. #1 Florida game. There was a ton of people there: Matt, Buddy, Don, Hannah, Hollie, Jordan, Romer, Jones, Marsh, Tina, Kelly and her friends, etc. (I'm sure I'm missing some people). This was a much more exciting game and went into OT where we won the game!!!!

After the game we ended up going to Mulligan's (map) and then to the Finn's for after hours.

Sunday (11-26-06)
I woke up early with my throat hurting like crazy. I thought it was because I was yelling so much when watching the game.

Grandma and Grandpa Kraus came over for brunch at 11:00AM. It was really good but I was interrupted by a customer who's production system was down. This took some time and I had to facilitate this for a couple hours of the early afternoon.

I left at around 2PM and picked up Grant to head back to Overland Park.

...Towards the end of the night, throat still hurting.

Monday (11-27-06)
Woke up absolutely miserable: throat hurting, cough, achy, argh! I went to work for about an hour and then had to leave. Spent the rest of the day resting and trying to get better.

Today (11-28-06)
Still trying to get better. Hopefully I'll be able to go to work tomorrow.

Wish List

My mom asked me to put together a wish list for Christmas for her so here I go:

• USB Flash Drive
• at least 1GB
• preferably a little loop on the end so it can be used with a lanyard or key chain
• the end also needs to be protected by retraction or a tight cap
• good deal on 2GB Kingston: http://slickdeals.net/?permadeal=8394#direct_deal_8394
• Muffin tin (shut up)
• A couple pots (I only have one)
• Plates (I only have a few)
• Nice potato peeler
• Calendar ideas:
• Family Guy
• Simpsons
• Shiba Inu (http://www.dogdecor.com/shiba-inu-calendar.html)
• Angels & Demons (Book)
• The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)
• Over the ear headphones
• the better brands seems to be Sennheiser, JVC, and Logitech
• This is an example of Sennheiser. Although these are more than $100 cheaper than anywhere else, they're still a little pricey. This is just an example of the style I want
• Family Guy - Season/Volume 4 on DVD
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy box set (widescreen and has to be the extended editions)
• Shiba Inu stuff from http://www.dogstuff.com/advanced_search_result.html?keyword=shiba+inu&search_in_description=1
• photo frame
• security sign
• bumper sticker
• The pet hair Dyson (purple DC17) - http://www.amazon.com/Dyson-103-DC17-Animal/dp/B000I5REVA/sr=8-1/qid=1164038187/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3640928-5483803?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden - hey, at least I tried :)

If I can think of anything else, I'll add it.