As you probably noticed, Saturday was just about a perfect spring day around here. Plenty of sunshine, mild temperatures, with only a gusty breeze to possibly complain about. And if you're complaining about that, you need to cheer up.

With the nice weather in mind, my family and I hit the road and headed west to Lawrence. I had been there several times on news stories, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to just hang out. What a great place to spend a nice day.

We started off with lunch at Local Burger. (Try the Elk burger, it was great.) Jack felt really cool sitting up at the counter with some college kids as Barb, Kate and I sat at a table. He's only five and already he's looking for excuses not to sit with his parents. From there, we took a stoll down Massachusetts street. We had planned to head to campus and see the Natural History museum as well, but there was so much to do on Lawrence's main drag, it took us all day.

I'm ten years removed from college now and I chuckled at the shops Barb and I chose to visit. In years past, I would have headed straight to the CD shops to check out the great selection of independent/local music. I didn't even stop in. This time, we made sure to hit the kids clothing shop, the home furnishing store and, of course, the toy store. My, how things change.

We wrapped up our day at Jefferson's restaurant, where I did continue one tradition from my college days: consuming dozens of hot wings. Jack drew on a dollar bill and posted it on the wall, as is the tradition at Jefferson's. He was so proud to do it that he made us promise we'd come back again so he could check on his buck.

Again, we really had a great time. Even if your college days are long past, a college town is a great place to spend a day. Even if you're not cool enough to sit with your kids anymore.

A dancing fool. That's not a term that has been attached to me very often in my life, but over the weekend, that was probably the most apt description.

After weeks of practice and preparation, the big night finally arrived on Saturday. The first annual Kansas City "Dancing with the Stars" competition. As we've been talking about on First News and I've written about here on this blog, both Donna Pitman and I were among the seven local "celebrities" who hit the dance floor with professional partners. As I've mentioned before, I had no idea what I was in for when I agreed to do this, and the gala event Saturday night only extended that.

Perhaps in the back of my mind I hoped we'd have a small crowd (although I wanted the Christo Rey school to raise a lot of money), but that was certainly not the case. It was standing room only at Starlight Theatre, with more than 400 people ready to watch my attempt at a Cha Cha dance routine.

All of the local stars involved in this were absolutely incredible. Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star danced a sensual Argentine Tango, restaurant owner Manny Lopez did a great job waving his cape in a Paso Doble, retired Chiefs star Bobby Bell thrilled the crowd while flipping his partner during their swing routine, and Crosby Kemper III was great dancing an American Tango, complete with a rose. I was completely impressed with each and every dance. But the winner of the evening after the audience vote was Jan Stephenson, former manager of the Raphael hotel. Jan's fun and flirtatious Fox Trot was deserving of the top honor. Congratulations to Jan and her partner, Kyle.

But I have to say, Donna and her partner, Louis Bar, really brought the house down with their "swing hustle." They danced to the classic 80's tune "Bad" by Michael Jackson, but they were anything but bad. It was both an incredibly technical routine and a crowd pleasing, fun one as well. Donna even pulled off a perfect moonwalk. Kudos to Donna and Louis: your hard work paid off and you were both fantastic.

By the way, if you want to see highlights of all of the routines, we've got video right here on thekansascitychannel.com. Just click on Entertainment.

Okay, so what about my routine. I did a Cha Cha with my partner, Laura Cantu. Many of you may have seen some of the video of my practice sessions with Laura, and let's just say, it was obvious I had no previous dance experience. But thanks to Laura's amazing talents, I think our routine was a success. The crowd liked it and so did the judges. And I really had fun doing it. This whole experience is something I will truly never forget.

Most importantly, the event was a big success for Christo Rey and all of the great kids who will now be able to get a wonderful education at the school. Now my call goes out to other Kansas City "stars": we need you next year! Nobody wants to see me convulsing around out there on the dance floor again, so we need some people who want to have fun for a great cause. Don't forget, you'll learn some wonderful dance moves as well. I can't wait for next year. I won't be dancing, but I plan to be there cheering everyone on.

Today on First News, I read a script that made me gulp. We were once again talking about the "Dancing with the Stars" competition that Donna and I are in, and I realized it's only 10 days away now. Oh boy.

I certainly have lots of work to do before the big night. If you want to get an idea of just how much work, you can check out video of my routine here on the KMBC website. Just click on Entertainment on the left hand column and look for the local "Dancing with the Stars" link. Also, you can vote for your choice for top dancer between Donna and I. I've been getting some sympathy votes, so if you want to add your vote to my total, please feel free to do that. No, I'm not above using my blog for shameless vote begging.

You can still get tickets for the big show, which is Saturday night, April 14th at Starlight. Ticket information is available on the page with our dance videos. I can promise you it will be an entertaining night. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go practice my salsa dance moves. I'm running out of time.

Have you ever had a day where everything went right? A day where, no matter what, you could simply do no wrong? Well, it happened yesterday for Dayton Moore and the Kansas City Royals.

Moore is the new General Manager of the club and he's made a major impact on the team coming into the 2007 season. In fact, his moves have caused many Royals fans to have guarded optimism about how their favorite team will do this year. If they play all year the way they did on Opening Day at the K, they'll win the World Series.

Just about every move Moore made looked like a stroke of genius on Day 1. He signed starting pitcher Gil Meche for $55 million, a move that was laughed at all around the big leagues. The "experts" said he had vastly overpaid for a mediocre pitcher. They may still be proven right. But on Opening Day, Meche was everything you want from a #1 guy. Moore's move paid off, at least for one day.

Another big roster move recently was to demote struggling (that's putting it kindly) shortstop Angel Berroa to the minor leagues and trade for Tony Pena, Junior. Yes, he's the son of the former Royals manager. Again, Pena made Moore look great by hitting two triples.

All the other pieces fell into place as well before a delirious crowd at Kauffman Stadium. I was there to watch Royals fans soak up a big victory over the Red Sox. Opening Day is always a blast, but sometimes reality hits once the game actually starts. Not this time. Royals fans were treated to some great baseball on a picture perfect day. Now... can the boys of summer keep this up? Stay tuned. True genius is measured over an entire season.