I am starting to look slightly diseased. The american mosquitoes are happily sucking on my blood any chance that they can get and I have bites all up and down my legs and arms, hands, fingers, toes - you name it!

There is also something in the air today that I am extremely allergice to, so I went to Walgreens the Pharmacist today and walked out with my arms full of after bite, mosquito repellant and aftersun for my sunburn.

Two days ago was my first full day in Kansas and I had asked Drew if there was any possibility of going to a Baseball game. I was in luck as the Kansas Royals were in town playing the Baltimore Orioles so we headed up to Kansas City to watch the game. We got excellent tickets about 5 rows up from the field, right behind 3rd base. Drew was great at explaining to me what was going on, especially advising me to be very careful when someone hit the ball as we were directly in line for a number of foul balls that might come our way. In the end only one ball came in our direction but thankfully it sailed right over our heads.

The game was a lot of fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Our seats were directly in the sunshine and it was quite a hot day. Every three innings or so we would go up onto the concourse to get a beer or some more cold water. We wanted to get a hot dog at some point also, but I was just far too hot, I didnt have an appetite.

The game lasts a while and there is plenty of entertainment to keep people going in between innings. One of the most popular games is when one of the mascots or publicity girls throws out free hot dogs. The kids go crazy for it, and sometimes not just the kids either! They also had a kiss cam, which would focus in on various couples around the stadium and they would oblige by kissing for the whole stadium to see.

The Kansas Royals apparently havent been doing too well recently, but we were very lucky and they won the game!

We drove the hour or so home and noticed our sun burn along the way. It had been a hot day, and we hadnt noticed just how red we were getting under the sun.

That night we walked down the street for a couple of blocks and ate in a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Drew's tennant also joined us for dinner and as we were eating I brought up a couple of things that I had noticed since I have been in the US.

Firstly, coins which are marked Nickel and Dime do not indicate their value in numerical terms. Of course I have heard of Nickels and Dimes, and I could figure out what a quarter dollar was, but I had no idea how much a nickel or a dime was worth. Most americans that I have pointed this out to have no idea that the value is not indicated on nickel and dime coins.

Secondly many of the houses in all of the states that I have been to have big red, blue or bronze stars on the outside of them. I asked some of Drew's friends yesterday what the stars mean and they told me that they were just decoration. I googled it today and it seems that the stars are 'Barn stars' and indeed have been used for quite a while to decorate barns and more recently houses, sometimes thought to be a bit of a good luck charm, like an upside down horse shoe.

The third thing that I have noticed is how proud everyone is to be american, and how easy it is to display this pride. Many people have a large american flag raised on a flagpole outside thier house, many businesses also display the american flags, and the american national anthem is sung at the beginning of every sporting activity.

We pondered these thougths while trying to finish off the enourmous plates of food we had been served, and eventually wound our way home.

The next day Drew took me to the town of Lawrence - a university town that has an impressive main street of shops and restaurants. We went to the Mad Greek for lunch, and I had Pasta. Wonderful beautiful pasta that I have not eaten for so many weeks. It made me very very happy indeed!

As we had arrived in Lawrence quite late it was rather too hot to fully explore the main street, so we thought we might save it for another day. Rather instead we headed over to Topeka, where Drew works, to join his colleagues for an after work drink. I have been lulled into forgetting to take my ID with me, as most people know Drew in this small town and dont question my age, but it did get questioned in the bar in Topeka. We managed to convince the landlady that I was older than 21 and I settled down with my Bud Lite to talk nonsense with Drew's friends. Eventually we finished our drinks with the younger group of friends and headed home where I quickly at the leftovers of the pasta that I had had for lunch and we took a quick stroll down the road to Drew's local private club to hang out with his older friends.

There was a group of men surrounding the bar betwen the ages of 60 and 80 and they were all clearly very good friends who passed thier time chatting, making fun of each other, and putting away drink after drink after drink. I drank my first drink quite quickly, getting carried away with the chatter and ordered my next drink which lasted me the rest of the night. I am only young and have not had the years and years of drinking practice that these old guys have had and simply could not keep up! I was feeling distinctly poorley on my way home and thought it might have something to do with having been too hot, or maybe too cold in the airconditioning, or maybe I didnt re-heat the pasta properly when I ate it. Of course, this morning I have admitted to myself that the poorley feeling was nothing to do with any of these things, and rather more to do with the fact that I had had a touch too much to drink!

Today was my third day in Kansas and both Drew and I were ready for a down day. I woke up late, headed quickly to the pharmacist to get some antihistamines and bug stuff. I took two antihistamines as soon as I got home and fairly quickly fell into a long morning doze.

We summoned up the energy to go to the Sandbar for something for lunch and then we came back home and I had yet another snooze. We are gearing up for a lazy evening in and getting our energy back fo another day of proper sight seeing tomorrow.