This was a weird week. When I was six or seven I got a dog and have had a pet pretty much since, with one short exception. A little over a year ago I wrote more about my family and pets when our cat, Stryker passed. Last week Thursday our other cat, Siena passed leaving us with a pet-less house. Misty and I met in early 2007 in Washington, she moved to Denver in May, and a series of logistical type events caused us to move in together in July. Fast? Sure, but things worked out well. A few months later in October we added our first addition in Siena. Misty and I profile organized and calculated, but also prone to whims. This is one of those whim stories.

Siena AKA Other Aliases

Misty grew up in San Diego with cats. I grew up on a farm with cats and dogs. Pets have always been in our lives. I went to college in my hometown. While I did not have a pet in the house I made to my parents at least weekly to see the family cat. After college I moved to Denver and lived with my buddy, Clint. Clint had a super cool boxer dog named Cassidy. Misty and I worked for Clint’s family business in hotels in Washington. Cassidy and another boxer named Billy Bob were always around. Sometime around September we noticed the distinct lack of fur and chaos only a pet can provide in our Denver apartment. We had a loose, semi-casual at best conversation about getting a cat sometime.

We lived in a city atmosphere apartment and decided: cat over dog. No yard seemed to unfair and we both love cats. A couple weeks later I went back to Hays for a Fraternity reunion around FHSU homecoming. Misty had to work and couldn’t join. Something compelled me to hit the Humane Society and look at cats. I called Misty and asked if she was cool if I brought one home for her birthday. She quickly said yes, which was great… because I already picked one out. This was so spur of the moment I didn’t have a carrier to take the cat or food to feed it when I got to my parent’s house. I opened the car door and the cat sprung to escape. My hands quickly secured her and she was ours from that moment.

Introductions

I made it back to Denver on Sunday evening to Misty waiting in the parking lot to meet her new friend. It was love at first sight when she met her pretty, tri-toned girl kitten. Misty studied abroad in both Italy and Chile during college. Her Italian residence was the city of Siena in Tuscany. Something made that name perfect for our new little hell raiser. Siena was a super crazy kitten. She waited around corners and pounced our feet, batted at everything dangling anywhere, tested her jumping at every possible moment and always made her presence emphatically felt. Like Stryker we gave her multiple names. The first one was Gatita, which later became Gatita Waweeta and then simply Weeta. Her personality earned the name and designation Skitty Bitty Riddy Kitty.

The naming took a turn for the reasonable when we established Nenny and Nen as her primary names. Viv came in 2013 and ran with Nenny, so that was probably her actual name. I called Siena a stereotypical cat in the last column. All the stuff I said about Stryker being great with the kids. Siena wasn’t the complete opposite, but it was close for the longest time. The kids learned quickly to leave her alone. Sad Cat Diary is one of my top five favorite all time videos. Siena is the two belly rub cat. As the kids aged she accepted their attention more. They would count the two pets and always avoid the third, per protocol. As Siena aged she became more affectionate and attention seeking. Here favorite method was getting brushes. Basically being pet without anyone actually touching her. Such a cat.

Siena was a skittish little kitten until she got fat and became a cat. She was standoffish and sometimes combative until she wanted attention. Stryker’s passing emphasized this. In the end she was a cat that suddenly and rapidly aged. We could all see the end coming and began thinking about the end. Ultimately she went out on her own, laid down one night in the basement and never came back up.

Pretty Siena, you were perfectly you, and we love and miss you. Thanks for all the memories.

Our Modern Day Cartoon

Speaking of animals and CHIEFS our meme-inducing super fan, ChiefsAholic finally found his way back to prison. The character started a bizarre string of events late last season when he missed a game. He was never on my radar prior. My social presence in CHIEFS circles grows daily through the Arrowhead Kingdom push. One day right after the Houston game the SOS popped up about ChiefsAholic missing a game. Notes flew from many genuinely worried people. I no more than reposted a message when news broke of his safety. The pacified concern quickly erased when news broke that sounded like a real life Scooby Doo episode of back robberies and wolf costumes. He was in jail and we all learned his real name, Xaviar. A few months later the oddities resumed when he ditched the ankle band and fled the state and house arrest.

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I’m nowhere near a lawyer, but fully understand a few principles about the law. A major one involves time and place. Do something wrong in multiple states and the crime becomes federal. Such crime situations rarely end well and this is shaping up the same way. The luck finally ran out for Xaviar as the authorities caught up in the Sacrament area late last week. Charges of robbery and money laundering and amounts close to $1M fly rampant. Lost in all of this are stories like ESPN’s. It seems like a ton of collateral damage for something as trivial as attending football games. We have some interesting times on the horizon. My hope is all involved parties finding some level of inner peace.

Please note the guy is innocent until proven guilty.

All Work and Some Play

July is a chill month for the wedding scene in Milwaukee. We have mountains of summer activities like festivals and concerts, and couples wisely choose not to compete for the hotel space and vacation days. About a month ago my sales manager called me asking for a DJ to make a trip to Cedar Rapids for a wedding on July 8th. I was free and jumped in committing to the four-hour drive, and didn’t think much beyond helping out the couple and other Complete locations. Saturday came and I made the trip. The couple and their parents all went out of the way to thank me for making the trip. Late in the night the bride told me the rest of the story. Her DJ cancelled due to a health issue a couple days before she found us.

Cedar Rapids is wedding heavy in July, so pretty much everyone including our area complete locations booked solid. I literally saved the day and entered the building a hero. The dance was incredible and the crowd loved classic rock and country a bit more than most I work with. I had an absolute blast and left a legend. My time in wedding service turns 21 in December. It’s so second nature at this point I sometime forget about the impact my line of work has the ability to make on people. This was a nice reminder.

Sunday offered the opportunity for some extra fun.

A Little Bit of America’s Past Time

Cedar Rapids is home of the Twins Single-A team call the Kernels. First, incredible name like many minor league teams. Their Sunday opponent? The Quad Cities River Bandits, Single-A team of our KC Royals. A ticket behind third base for $15, a 20 oz craft beer for $9 and I was ready for first pitch. Minor League baseball is the best. The weather was pure misery in the form of blistering heat, so I retreated to the shade of the concourse behind home plate. No need to conquer the sun, just live in the shade. The Kernels accommodate such things with folding cocktail tables all over the place for standing views with food and drink. Mine had a Miller Lite ad that read “The Beer That Invented Light Beer.”

My buddy Adam, of Boys of Summer fame, lists American light lagers and pilsners high in his list of general dislikes. Naturally I sent him a photo of the table top. We are both huge fans of The Onion and all satire, so I included a line about local company ruining everything. Let’s talk beer.

BEER!!

First note: I’m a fan. I love trying new beer and going on tours. My favorite is Lakefront in Milwaukee, and number two is Steam Whistle in Toronto. This is not new information. I could walk into a about any brewery, crash course their history, and give a tour. (Did I just invent a new show?) Craft tours are my favorite, but I have checked the big three boxes too. Coors is the best due to prevalence of air conditioning and mid tour beer stop, Bud is second for the animal stables and overall cache, and Miller is local and fun. Bud loses major points for the over the top arrogance all the employees have about their mass produced rice cut beer. The big three breweries all unite in one unfortunate way.

Every single one has a long soliloquy about the founders’ Bavarian roots and dreams of bringing the beer of their ancestors to the US. It’s laughable at best watching the guides talk about honoring ancestors while peddling a product that effectively desecrates their graves. The Lakefront tour is my favorite because it’s beer guys presenting like beer guys. Most craft breweries mention, but Lakefront takes time to describe and contextualize the Bavarian Beer Law AKA The Purity Law of 1516 AKA the Reinheitsgebot. The article and research about it are great reads, but I can quickly synopsize. In feudal times lords paid serfs in beer, unscrupulous lords cut costs and made garbage (sometimes literally), the ruling brothers of Bavaria took exception and passed a law dictating beer’s composition of  barley, water and hops with wheat as an exception.

Ode to Mass Beer Production

I’m a beer guy, and a craft beer guy. My main love is IPA, test me with the hop amounts. Second is amber, and third is cold. I also love Coors Light. After all the shade aimed at the big three I admit liking their products. I believe there is space for everyone to drink what they please. My only ask to all is be cool. Hate craft beer? No worries. Just do me a favor and keep the comments like “normal beer” to yourself when you’re in a brewery. Order a kolsch and bide your time. Love craft beer? Leave the craft beer haters alone unless they are raising hell in a brewery. Big brewery? Cool, thanks for all the contributions to the industry. The big three all made incredible contributions to the hospitality industry as a whole.

Budweiser figured out how to get cold beer across the country. Coors invented recycling by designing the aluminum can and refusing to patent. Miller cut the calories as the beer that invented light beer. These are game changing positive things. My only ask to the big three: cut the nonsense. Dial back the ancestor honor when talking about the beer, and focus on how impressed the scope of their reach would make them. Stop insulting your industry and customers with claims that corn syrup is more of an abomination to Reinheitsgebot than using rice to brew. While I’m at it Bud Light needs to go all in on rice and become gluten free. I’m a Coors loving, Milwaukee living, anti St. Louis Bud hater (note this is all sports hate type hate). Misty is a beer lover with a gluten intolerance. Solve a problem for her and millions like her, make a beer available in gas stations, and take your crown back from Modelo.

Cheers to Patrick Mahomes

This keeps getting better. Mahomes is a force. He achieves a goal and status and moves his own goalposts. This weeks’ edition features going absolutely viral via photos of his new house, becoming the star of a new Netflix series, and winning the ESPY for best male athlete.

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Add in a couple adorable kids, sincere palpable love and happiness with his high school sweetheart turned wife, budding business empire and mass amounts of charity work, and we have the perfect face of Kansas City, the CHIEFS, and NFL (0:40).

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I plan to watch Quarterback ASAP.

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Media of the Week

This literally came up as I was finalizing the column. My son, Carter walks in my office, starts dancing and singing “I’m a gyrating, pollinating, son of a bee.” Um…ok. He leaves the room. Misty walks in shortly after with a slightly concerned look. She recaps asking Carter where he heard that and him saying YouTube. I look up the video. Misty then asked me if I wrote this song and we agreed we are cool with him singing it. This is gold, enjoy (1:36)!!!!

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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom

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