Day 241: Helping the Cordray and Travelbee Family

Last week Lawrence had a family lose everything but their lives and a handful of belongings in a fire.  The Lawrence School District posted a list of items the family needed this afternoon, and as I scanned the list I realized that Eric and I have a lot that we could spare to help them on their road to recovery.  I loaded up my car with as much as I could fit - a desk, lamp, blankets, towels, games, books, etc.  The family was so bright and inspiring, focusing more on where they're going than the tragedy that transformed their lives.

Here is the Lawrence Journal World story and video - http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/feb/12/fire-destroys-belongings-not-spirit-family-thanks-/  I know we don't have a lot of followers, but please consider dropping off or mailing a donation to the "Cordray/Travelbee Benefit Fund" at the Douglas County Bank, 300 W. Ninth St., Lawrence, KS 66044.

This isn't quite all of what I brought to them, but I was glad to be able to help the family while also clearing out a large amount of our storage space!

Day 174: Goodbye (Lawrence) Old Chicago!

Oh the memories!  In July of 2008 I started work at Old Chicago in Lawrence, it only lasted about an hour before I went home sick because of appendicitis.  Then I started working there again in August, and Paul, Deb, Eric, and I started the World Beer Tour.  1 WBT, many beers, pizzas, balsamic french fries, mini tours, and T-shirts later, Lawrence OC is closing it's doors.

Eric and I met up with Brian, Jen, Paul, Shannon, and Cody to celebrate and share one last round.  We were trying not to spend too much money, so we just had one big beer each and an order of  balsamic fries.  We had been waiting on the fries for at least twenty minutes, so I asked our waitress if they would be out soon.  Moments later, another server delivers them to our table, but it is the smallest order of fries I'd ever seen, and I wasn't going to pay $4 for them!  So I waved down the manager I used to work with and he said he'd bring out a fresh batch.  Right after that, our server walks up with an order of fries for us - not realizing that the other server had already brought them out.  She shrugged and passed them too us anyway, hooray!  We hadn't celebrated this success for long before the manager walked over with the largest portion of fries I'd ever seen - great success!  3 orders of fries for the price of one!

See the pennant behind my head - there were two there until a girl walked out with one of them under her coat.  She got caught - look how big it is, you can't just walk out with that!