North Carolina, Days 3 and 4

Holy moley (sp?), I have done a lot of sleeping on this trip.  So far I think the earliest I've woken up is maybe 8:00, but the earliest I've gotten out of bed is probably 9:30!  Lazy bones!

Days 3 and 4 of our trip were very similar: treats and snoozin', snoozin' and treats.  With the exception that day 4 was my birthday.  So...that happened.

We went to what ended up being lunch at Rue Cler, a super cute French restaurant near mom's old apartment in Durham.  We all shared an order of beignets, and then I had the omelet special (asparagus, mushrooms, turkey, and...something else).  There was a lot of lying around by the fire at mom's house in the afternoon, working on Charley Harper puzzle, reading, and snacking.

Speaking of eating, for my big birthday dinner, we went to a place in Raleigh called Second Empire. They printed up a special menu for me with "Happy Birthday Meg" on it!  How cool is that?  Anyway, it was a fabulous (and large) meal.  I started with the soup du jour, which was a cream-based cauliflower and roasted red pepper soup.  Then it was on to the scallops for my main, and I realized our waiter wasn't kidding when he said the chef liked to have a lot going on on the plate.  There were lots of flavors and different little things - shreds of veggies, different flavors.  That tart was delish.  But it all worked and wasn't even too overwhelming, I think because it wasn't a huge portion.  Then for dessert I forewent (is that a word?) the chocolate souffle and opted for a trio of ice creams/sorbets: lemon buttermilk, mango, and white peach.  A nice, light way to top of a filling, southern meal.

Apologies that I've been so bad about the photo-taking of late.  I brought my camera and everything!  I've just been lazy.  Are we noticing a theme here?

North Carolina, Days 1 and 2

So, I'm putting the first two days of my trip together for a few reasons:
1. I flew in the first morning, so that was gone.
2. I slept through three hours of the first afternoon, so nothing much to write about there either.
3. I slept until 9:45 a.m. on day two, and didn't get out of the house until 12:30, so lacking in activity there as well.
4. The evening of day two was our Christmas celebration, which I wrote about already.  So...

Not much of note at the airport in St. Louis, except for obscenely long security lines.  We probably waited for 45 minutes to get screened.  Once the smarties at TSA decided we were not terrorists and allowed us to continue to our gate, T helped himself to a healthy breakfast of candy and soda while commenting on the super-awesome pink hard hat that a woman at out gate had poking out of her bag.

Mom rescued us from the airport and took us to her house for some delicious lunch, and then T and I passed out on the uber-comfy blue couches for the duration of the afternoon.  (I had gotten two and a half hours of sleep the night before, and I think T had gotten two.  We needed it.)

When we awoke, we went for a short jog, then E and M let us tag along to a birthday party for their friend A.  She turned 29.  For the eighth time.  Or maybe the ninth.  I can't remember the details, but I can remember that there was lots of wine and some darn delicious dinner.  And - remember the pink hardhat in the airport in St. Louis?  Turns out that it belongs to A.  She and her hubby were on our flight that morning!

This morning I woke up to discover (a) that it was raining (so no jogging - I wasn't in the mood), and (b) that mom had stocked the kitchen at E's old apartment with some good eats!  T and I had coffee, juice, eggs, and toast for breakfast.  E rescued me and we headed off with mom to pick up K at the airport.  While we were off doing girl things (shopping for wedding dresses for K at a couple of cute places in Cary and Raleigh), T stayed back to study.  K found and bought a beautiful dress - the first one she tried on, though she tried on a few others before making the purchase just to be sure!


We came home from shopping and had Christmas #4, which you can read about here.  By the end of that, everyone was so tired that it was straight to bed for the lot of us!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Christmas Extravaganza, Part IV

Early in the morning on Boxing Day, K drove T and I to the airport, and we headed to NC for some additional festivities.  (More on the rest of the trip in upcoming posts.)

K arrived herself the following day, and we spent yesterday evening having one final Christmas celebration.  It was an Italian Christmas - mom made salad, garlic bread, and lasagna, although we did have a very lovely and French buche de noel for dessert.  It was delicious, with raspberry jam as part of the filling!

While E's boyfriend M kept Molly quiet, we all sat around the fire and opened presents.  Some were shipped down here ahead of time, others made the trip in suitcases.  The same will likely be the case for the return trip to St. Louis.  Except for the wearable gift, which will probably go home on my person.  Thanks for all the hard work, mom!

Still one thing left to do: watch Love Actually!  I can't believe I've been in NC for a day and a half and we haven't watched it yet!  Possibly the only movie mom has seen more times than that is Green Card, and that's only because GC has been out longer!

Christmas Extravaganza, Part III

I'm so behind on my Christmas posts!

First, please enjoy photos of our lovely tree, and all of our delightful-looking presents!

Now that you've done that, I can tell you that I just wrapped up my fourth - fourth! - Christmas celebration!  This has been quite a year!

Christmas #1 was with a small portion of T's family.  We went to his aunt and uncle's house for dinner, presents, holiday cheer, and antler headbands on Christmas Eve.  That was followed shortly thereafter by preparations for Christmas #2, which was to be brunch at our house the next day.  Mere moments after getting home from Christmas #1, I set about cleaning and doing food prep for the Christmas morning brunch.

The next morning, I awoke to find K and J in the kitchen working on their portion of the food prep.  We readied for our guests and were showered just in the nick of time.  We had a total of 11 for brunch, and the food was a bit of a group effort, but I think it all turned out quite well.  We had a present extravaganza and some whirlwind cleaning, then it was off to Christmas #3.

This one was again with T's family, but a different group.  There were lots of presents, including some interactive ones (lottery tickets - I won $37!).  My other gifts were food-centric: cheese and a cheese knife, a Williams-Sonoma gift card....they must know me!

[Christmas #4 to follow....]

Also, a bit more about the cookie business.  I wanted to make chai spice cookies, but I never got around to that.  I'll have to do it next month, when it's cold and miserable and I'm drinking lots of chai.  What better time to eat chai spice cookies?  Though I am sadly without a picture of it, I cannot go another Christmas post without a shout-out to K's awesomely-iced hat cookie.  It's one of the sugar cookies we made, and she iced with with stripes.  Of sorts.  It's pretty artistic.

Some special Christmas wishes to the family from Uncle P can be found here!

And finally, I watched The Polar Express!  This movie is awesome, and Tom Hanks is spectacularly talented in the voice department.  He does the voices and image-capture motion for half the characters in the movie!

A Shout-Out to Valley Park

You heard me: Valley Park, MO.

As a suburb, there is not much to recommend Valley Park.  However, it has the best Post Office in the St. Louis metropolitan area.  It's small (space for just two people at the counter at a time), but as it turns out, that's plenty of space.  It's never crowded - the longest I've ever had to wait is probably two or three minutes.

And the best part is yet to come: the USPS employees who work there are nice.  That's right, nice - unlike the grouches who work in, say, Clayton.  They know me by name (it's close to my office).  They smile!  It's incredible.

Yes, I still think all these things about them two days before Christmas, when they're busier than ever.  How's that for an endorsement?

Best post office ever.

Am I S.A.D.?

I've always liked winter.

I like snow.  Don't particularly mind cold weather, once I get used to it and remember that I have to dress appropriately.  I drink lots of tea and hot chocolate.  Catch up on reading, movies, and TV shows.  Work on projects around the house.

But this year.  Sheesh!  This year I have been nearly completely incapable of keeping my eyes open.  Every time I stop moving even for a minute - at my desk, at a red light, in front of the TV - I just want to go to sleep.  I came home from practice this morning and passed out for an hour and a half.  Needless to say, I was late for work.

So what's the deal?  Am I generally deficient in sleep?  Yes.  But that's been the case for years!  I've never been this prone to narcolepsy before - not in past winters, and not in summers ever.  So I'm self-diagnosing: I'm S.A.D.

How sad.

(Also I'm getting old.  And, as T is so kind to point out, it's gray and miserable in St. Louis all winter.  Those two things probably don't help either.)

My Philosophical Bermuda Triangle

I have, of late, found myself in a philosophical dilemma.  It started here:

"Why do we ask questions that we already know we don't want to know the answer to?"

As I was debating this issue, I began to wonder if I really wanted to know the answer to that particular question.  If we're doing things that are only going to hurt us, why do we do it?  Are we all gluttons for punishment?  Like to pour lemon juice on our paper cuts?  What does this behavior say about us?

Ponder, ponder, ponder.

I started to think back to some of the times that I've asked questions I knew I wouldn't like the answer to, and this is what I discovered: it's not really that we don't want to know the answer.  It's that we already know, but there's some sort of therapy in hearing it from someone else, rather than just inside our own heads.

That's one answer.  But I wasn't satisfied with that, so I asked around, and I liked this answer, from J: "I suspect the fear of getting the answer we expect is outweighed by the hope that the answer is something else."

So with that, I'll ask away.  I leave it to others will decide whether I'm masochistic or hopeful.

Christmas Extravaganza, Part II

More Christmas fun!  Believe it or not, I've made more cookies.  I started with pfeffernusse, and then I made sugar cookies, which K was so kind as to help me decorate.  She has mad artistic skills.  Oh, and I attempted peppermint bark.  It's tasty, but I need to tweak the technique next time I think.  I'll report back if I try it again next year.

T and I went to the Sheldon for their Christmas concert.  I like the Sheldon because it's small.  Concerts feel more intimate in a little venue.  There are trade-offs, of course, but they have a small choir, so it works well.

Then a few days later, K and I went to the St. Louis Symphony's holiday concert!  Other than the fact that I had a coughing fit near the end of the first half and almost died (I was in the middle of the row and couldn't get out!), the show was great.  The choir was made up of kids from four local public high schools, and the soloist was a guy who's sung all over, including on Broadway.  And you can tell, because he had a totally Broadway personality - you know the musical theater type: big, boisterous personality to make up for his small stature, lots of big arm motions on stage.  But he could certainly sing. 

Oh, and our conductor, Ward Stare, was another little guy, but he was great to watch, dancing around on the stage.  He was totally into the music, way more than most conductors are. So fun!  And by the way, Powell Hall was basically build to be decorated for Christmas.  All that red velvet is awesome when you add spruce trees and twinkling white lights!

I've also done lots of gift wrapping.  Most of the gifts are purchased (although there are still a couple mysteries out there), but all the ones I've gotten have been wrapped!  And there's a big, pretty pile of presents under the tree, with some help from T and K as well.

And I've gotten started on my Christmas movies!  On Friday afternoon I started it all off with The Grinch, and then last night T and I watched Little Women, which I love!!

Seriously?

K and I just got ding-dong-ditched.

Do people really still do that?

What I Watched -- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Despite the disaster that was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, I decided to brave On Stranger Tides.  In the latest edition, there is a four-way race between Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Blackbeard and his pirate daughter Angelica (Ian McShane and Penelope Cruz), the Spanish, and our indomitable hero Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) to find the Fountain of Youth.  Conspicuously absent are Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, but they're replaced by some seductive and kinda scary mermaids.

This movie is a definite improvement over At World's End.  None of the sequels have touched Curse of the Black Pearl in terms of enjoyment, humor, story (such as it is), or swashbuckling fun.  But there are some good bits, and Ian McShane plays a totally nasty Blackbeard.

Bottom line: watchable fluff.

What I Watched -- Out of Africa

Actually, I watched Out of Africa while I was on my break from blogging, but I left it out of the appropriate post.  But in the spirit of the earlier post, I'll keep it fairly short.

Here's the deal.  Lady moves to most rural Kenya in order to marry a rich dude.  Rich dude turns out to be not so rich (though he is nonetheless a baron), and also not so into the idea of having a wife.  He spends most of his time off hunting, leaving wife to try to make heads or tails of the coffee (coffee?) he just planted.

Enter the handsome stranger.  He's also a hunter, not to mention a friend of the baron.  But he and wife (aka Karen, played by Meryl Streep) have an understanding, if a somewhat sad one.  Their relationship is honest and harsh, passionate and lonely.

The hunter/boyfriend is played by Robert Redford, obviously, though he was far handsomer then than now, not to mention an incredibly sexy combination of rugged and refined.  In fact, then he looked rather like a clean-shaven Brad Pitt of a few years ago, don't you think?

Bottom line: a classic.  And the scenery is stunning. 

Christmas Extravaganza, Part I

Yes, the Christmas celebrations have begun.  (And you might recall from last year how much I like Christmas.  If you somehow forgot, you can refresh your memory from last year's posts here, here, here, here, here, and here.  And from the year before that here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

This year it is some of the same, although I'm doing some new things too!  We started out with baking cookies (not surprisingly).  The first round included almond crescents, Santa snacks, apricot squares, and rum balls.  I'm just getting going on round two, which consists of pfefferneuse cookies, sugar cookies, and molasses crinkles.

Where outings are concerned, for the bargain price of $10 I was allowed to attend the SJA Christmas concert.  Is it a high school concert?  Yes.  Is it clear that they are high schoolers?  At times, yes.  But sometimes they're really good.  And I love choral music.  And I get to sing along.  And I saw some of my old teachers.  So, all in all, totally worth it.

T and I also went to the opening night of festivities at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  They do a night of celebration for members, when the garden is all yours.  Our first stop was the Gardenland Express, which this year has a traditional pagan theme of trees and presents.  Then we wandered around the second floor looking at the wreath exhibit (turns out this is also an auction? I didn't know that.).  Props to the guys at the Dierberg's floral department, who did a darn good job with their wreath.

 Train cars wrapped up like presents!

My first new holiday adventure this year was Christmas at the Cathedral.  First things first, though.  We stopped for dinner at La Gra in Dogtown on the way to the CWE.  They call themselves a tapas restaurant, but they're really not.  If you go expecting that, you'll be disappointed.  Also if you go expecting subtlety, you'll be disappointed.  Much of what we got was driven by one single, powerful flavor: the hummus plate by garlic, the arugula salad by red onion, the Charlie's Special by basil (which I don't mind, but beware if it's not your favorite), etc.  Most everything was good, but not great.  T got the white wine sangria, though, and I easily could have sipped my way into a wicked hangover on that stuff.

Then off we cruised to the cathedral for the holiday show.  The first half consisted of selections from Handel's Messiah, while the second half was more traditional carols (including some audience participation portions!).  We had great seats, which made it easy to hear the soloists.  I was a little concerned for people in the back that they might not be able to hear them, but otherwise everything was simply lovely, and it's a phenomenal setting for Christmas music (or really music of any type, probably).

Quote of the Day

"You're that stubborn?"
"I'm that right."
  -- James Cromwell and Diane Lane as Ogden Phipps and Penny Chenery Tweedy, in Secretariat

Recap Part IV -- Books -- Take 2

Super-short recaps of books I read while not blogging:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: original post here.

I read this for book club, and I liked it.  The vignettes I mentioned that fill the first half of the book I found to be more enjoyable than the second half, which is composed mostly of the legal side of things.  Which I should find interesting, shouldn't I?  But it just wasn't as colorful as all the background.

The Sunset Limited: original post doesn't exist.  Sorry.

This is a short, rather plotless tale of two men having a conversation.  The white man, we come to discover, is a professor who just tried to commit suicide.  The black man is a formerly drug-addicted ex-con who's made it his life's work to try to help other people like him.  They debate life and religion and reason.  It's a short book and an easy read, but one that I've come back to several times since I finished it.

HBO did a movie version (trailer) of The Sunset Limited starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.  Haven't seen it, but if I do I'll let you know.

Quote of the Day

"It seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table...."
  -- The Eagles, Desperado

Recap Part III - Other Fun Stuff

Lest you all think that I only do fun stuff so that I have something to write about, here's a sample of other things that I did while I was on my break from blogging:

London Tea Room: T and I went here once before, and it's so cute that I took a few hours off work to go downtown and try it again!  They were super slow and overwhelmed this time, but it gave us a chance to sit and chat, so it was okay.

Copia:  Another downtown outing!  Look at me go!  Copia fancies itself sort of a wine bar, but really it's just a restaurant with a big wine selection.  To me, "wine bar" means more tapas style, with small plates for sampling and lots of wines by the glass so you can taste.  (Technically, they call it a "wine market."  I'm not really sure what that means.)  This is a restaurant with a regular menu and most of their wines are by the bottle.  Which doesn't mean it's not good.  Indeed, everything was delicious.  But our waitress seemed very put out when we didn't want a bottle, and instead opted for glasses of different types.  Sheesh.

Addie's Thai House: Location-wise, there isn't a lot to recommend Addie's Thai House.  It's in a nondescript suburban strip mall/blight at the corner of Olive and Woods Mill (across from another hidden gem of St. Louis, Paul Manno's - a restaurant so great they don't even have a website).  But once you're through the door of Addie's, it's easy to forget what's outside.  Asian flavor permeates the decorations and fabrics, the menu is extensive, and what we had was quite good - although I said 3 on a 1-5 scale of spiciness; 1 or 2 would have been a better choice.  If you're out that-a-way and need a bite to eat, it's definitely worth a visit.

Is that a real bumper sticker?

I know it's hard to read, so I'll help you out:

"My child was INMATE OF THE MONTH at County Jail"

You must be so proud.

More Fun in the Solar System

Have we all accepted the fact that I love the Mars Exploration Project?  Exhibit A.  Exhibit B [I'm still a little sad about Spirit].  Good.

Some other fun at NASA:

-- Voyager 1 and Voyager 2: these guys have been flying since 1977.  1977!  That makes them older than me!  And Voyager 1 is sending back signals to Earth from 11 billion - billion - miles away, on less power than it takes to run three household lightbulbs.  How is that not amazing?

In the next billion miles or so, Voyager 1 is expected to cross through the edge of our solar system and into interstellar space.  I wonder what's out there...  In any case, their little nuclear reactors are projected to last until 2025 or so, so we have some time to find out.

-- Mars Science Laboratory: a new Mars rover named Curiosity launched four days ago.  It's bigger and heavier than Spirit or Opportunity, and has all sorts of fancy-schmancy equipment to tell us all about the Red Planet.

I hope they're teaching kids about this stuff in school.

Tangentially, NASA should get more money.  They're about the only government department that seems to get stuff right.

Recap Part II - Other Movies

Yes, it's true.  In addition to the many, many SLIFF movies I saw, there were others.  Witness:

The Princess Bride: ahh, a classic.  We watched this one over Thanksgiving.  Nothing like Billy Crystal as Miracle Max, young Fred Savage, and lovely Robin Wright all in a movie together.  With sword fighting.  And a giant.  It doesn't get much better than that.

3:10 to Yuma: Russell Crowe is a pretty good actor, it turns out.  He plays a good tough guy, with or without a soft side.  And I've loved Christian Bale forever - from Empire of the Sun to Little Women to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  (He even voiced characters in Pocahontas and Howl's Moving Castle!)  Winner.

Roots, episodes 1-4: working my way through these, but I still have a long way to go.  Quite an impressive undertaking by Mr. Haley, I must say.  As well as by me, for watching them!

Recap Part I - SLIFF

Lots has happened!

For starters, SLIFF was going on a couple weeks ago.  I saw lots and lots of movies!

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (with K): varied oral histories are good to hear, but I would have liked a little more analysis.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (with K): starring Tilda Swinton, this is a super-serious film about a woman's attempt to understand herself and her troubled teenage son.  Probably would have won the Audience Choice Award, if it had been up to me.

9:06 (with K): a Slovenian detective who comes to inhabit the life of the man whose suicide he's investigating.  Weird.

The Welcome (with K and M): inspirational and intensely personal story about a group of vets from various wars coming together to heal, and being welcomed back to society by the town of Ashland, Oregon (home of the famous Shakespeare Festival).

Circus Dreams (with K): great movie about Circus Smirkus some really dedicated and hardworking kids whose dream it is to run away and join the circus.

Hell and Back Again (with K and mom): another story about a vet returning to society, this time after major injury.  The Welcome is less intense, but I think I liked it better anyway.

The Athlete (with T): the story of the perseverance of Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila.  Q&A session with the filmmaker/lead actor afterwards.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day, loyal readers!  In case you're finding yourself short on things to give thanks for, here are some ideas!

Wrap-Up

A few loose ends to tie up:

Went to Game 7 with T and his friend.  It was awesome.

Finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  Liked it a lot.  Even went to a book club.

Read The Sunset Limited.  Interesting.  I think there's a lot more in there that I just haven't thought about yet.

Tried to watch Secretariat, but fell asleep.  Don't blame that on the movie - I've had extreme narcolepsy lately.  Going to give it another shot at some point.

In other news, I think I'm going to take a little break from blogging.  Not sure how long it'll be; if I were interested in reading this blog, I'd probably check back every few weeks to see if I'm at it again.  It might be two weeks; it might be two years.

52 Weeks of Dresses -- Week 26

Otherwise titled: Chez Leon

Chez Leon used to be located in the CWE - in the same spot Brasserie by Niche is now, if I'm not mistaken.  And I have to say, I liked their old space better.  They're now in downtown Clayton, which earns them bonus points for proximity and (shockingly!) ease of parking, but they've lost something in translation, as it were.

Their new spot could be cozy and intimate: the walls are dark, there are heavy drapes and pillows in the front window.  There is an interesting and eclectic collection of art on the walls.  The white tablecloths are okay, though a darker color would seem to suit the place better.  But what's really awful are the overhead spotlights.  As T said, whenever he eats there, he feels like a french fry (haha).  The light was way too bright and harsh given the other surroundings; the need some recessed lighting and wall sconces.

Despite the poor lighting choices, the food was delicious.  I of course had onion soup, which was cheesy to the extreme.  Then I had the roast chicken, which was moist and tender, and came served with saffron rice and all kinds of veggies: thin asparagus spears, a root vegetable medley (carrots, potatoes, and the like), and a brighter medley of zucchini, red onion, and....something else which I forget.

And there was dessert.  We shared a huge, fluffy souffle filled with a Grand Marnier cream sauce, and it was heavenly!  (It's not on the online menu, but they reprint menus daily so all the specials are included.)  I had the Hugel Riesling to go with my meal, and T had a glass of one of the Bordeauxs.

Our waiter was a bit casual, but knew his stuff and didn't rush us out of there, even though we were only two sitting at a table that could have held four.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner -- Take 2

What can I really say about this book?  It's light and easy.  More Twilight, with a less annoying main character.  Frankly, Bree is someone I feel much more sympathy for than Bella, who's whiny and annoying.

Bree Tanner (unlike the full title thereof) is short, so good for what I needed it to be: something I could get through.  It's the literary People magazine.  (Although it feels strange to even call it literary.  In the alternative: "It's the prose version of People magazine.")

He is the Walrus

"Keystone, meet the porcupine.  But be careful, he doesn't like to shake han....!"  Damn.  Too late.

Think this dog will ever learn to stay out of trouble?  I think not.  Hope you feel better soon buddy!

What I'm Reading Now -- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Another book on audio!  I've apparently made a habit of breaking my one-book-at-a-time rule. I actually have this book in book form somewhere, but it's packed away in a box and I haven't gotten to those yet.  One of my book clubs is reading it this month, so I needed to get on it!  I went to my trusty library for the audio version.

So far, so good.  I'm only now getting to the meat of the story, but even up to this point, it has been interesting, full of little vignettes of quirky Southerners in all their charm and glory.  And then someone dies.  Cue the creepy music....

52 Weeks of Dresses -- Week 25

Otherwise titled: Echoes of Erin

Despite my plans to be somewhere at 4:00 on Friday (yes, that's 4:00 in the morning), T and I went to the Echoes of Erin concert at The Sheldon on Thursday night.

I'm still not 100% sure, but what I gather from the banter was that Echoes is an annual (or almost annual) tour of mostly younger Irish musicians, singers, and dancers.  They work with local Irish music and culture organizations to arrange the concerts, and often the musicians will stay in the homes of people involved in the local organizations.

They were a quintessentially Irish little bunch: thick, lilting accents; chubby cheeks; names like "O'Connor" and "Moriarty."  And they played truly Irish music - not pub music like "Irish Rover" and "Molly Malone" (not that there's anything wrong with those - I love pub music!), but very traditional jigs, reels, and those beautifully mournful laments.

There's something about Irish music that is so evocative of the place from whence it comes.  The longing of the accordion or the concertina or the pipes, the soft harp, the melodic fiddle.  It really just seems to be of somewhere, in a way that a lot of music lacks.  David Gray could really be from anywhere.

In a nutshell, good show.  Low key and relaxed.  I wish the audience had gotten a little more into it, but what are you gonna do?

 

Sadly you can't see the bottom of this dress.  It has these fun long flowy bits of fabric that hang down asymmetrically, longer on one side.  Or at least they're fun until you step on them.  Maybe I'll have to do a "Week 25, Part Deux" just so you can see.

The World Series!!

T and K to the rescue again!  Actually, "rescue" probably isn't quite the right word, but whatever it was, it was awesome.  I went to see Game 1 of the World Series right here at Busch Stadium, and we won!

It was cold last night - air temperatures in the 40s, and windy - so everyone was bundled up to stay warm.  It was "Salute the Veterans" night, so the opening game festivities included a huge flag draping most of the outfield, and visits from a local vet and the First and Second Ladies.

Yeah!!

And look, they brought their friends from the Secret Service too!

Carp winds up early in the game

Full house at Busch.  You can see some of the Secret Service agents on the roof under the lights.  They were stationed in four or five spots around the roof, as well as elsewhere in the stadium.

Big Al knocks one towards center field (which was, sadly, caught).

 Not gonna lie: Motte looks pretty intimidating while he's waiting for the sign.

So, I've posted a lot of pictures, but haven't actually said much about the game.  The truth is that most of the people who read this blog either watched the game or have already read about it.  (If not, here is the MLB recap for your reading pleasure.)

If you don't want to read all that, here's the abbreviated version (of the abbreviated summary): Cards score two in the bottom of the fourth (Pujols was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a Holliday double; they scored when Berkman singled); Rangers answer with two in the top of the fifth (does anyone care how that happened?); at the bottom of the sixth the Cards scored the game-winning run, though just barely (Freese doubled, Punto walked, Craig [pinch hitting for Carpenter] singled to right, scoring Freese).

 

 Me, after the game, and my proof that I was there!

52 Weeks of Dresses -- Week 24

Otherwise titled: Wineries!

Can you believe that I've spent all this time in St. Louis and never been out to the wineries?  At least not for real.  I've ridden my bike past them, but I don't think that counts, for some reason.  We remedied that situation this past weekend, on a lovely, sunny, fall day.

We went to Montelle Winery for food and wine.  They have a lovely west-facing patio, where we enjoyed a thin-crust pizza and a wrap, as well as partial bottles of two of their wines - I think we settled on the River Country White and the Norton, although we debated for so long I can't even remember for sure.  Oh, and there were these amazingly delicious apple-pie-spiced pecans, which they have at Schnuck's!

After having a run-in with a very drunk woman there for her birthday, we went on a little driving tour of some of the other wineries in the area.  Blumenhof will probably be our next stop, whenever we get another nice day!

The Unthinkable -- Take 2

I'm a little surprised to announce that I found The Unthinkable fascinating and easy to listen to.  I'm not sure why that's surprising; maybe it was the product of some unfortunate marketing which made it seem a little too fluffy.  But it's actually a very interesting and understandable look at response to disaster, expressed through countless anecdotes and interviews.

The author researched events and conducted interviews on events big and small but (sadly) common: 9/11, various tsunamis, Hurricane Katrina, hostage crises, school shootings, maritime accidents, airplane crashes and near-misses, police shootings (or near shootings), "crowd crush," et cetera.  She highlights three primary responses to disaster: panic (which is less common than you'd think); paralysis (the most common); and heroism (which takes a certain type of person, and usually training).  The various responses people exhibit, and the reasons for their behavior in these situations - is interesting in the extreme.

Mostly we're talking "soft science" here: psychology, sociology, behavioral economics, and the like.  But there is some biology thrown in there too, as well as a fair amount of common sense.

On the whole, nothing you learn is groundbreaking, but the obviousness of it is part of why it kept my attention.  These things seem so clear when someone says it, but unless someone says it, you never really stop to think about it.  So, all in all, an enjoyable and informative book.

As a brief discussion of format, I mentioned earlier that I was listening to the audio version of this book.  But unlike Room, which I listened to on CD in my car, I listened to The Unthinkable on my iPod.  And you know what the genius of that is?  You can speed up the playback.  So from now on, all CDs are being uploaded into iTunes.  Just one more way the digital world is taking over my life.

My Day in St. Louis

What a busy day!  But it was just lovely out - actually the whole weekend was; more on that later - and we made the best of it!

After an early trip out to the lake and a delicious bowl of cereal (Quaker Oatmeal Squares never tasted so good), T and I embarked on our usual Saturday excursion to the Tower Grove Farmers' Market.  But this time, I took my camera!

Seriously, look at that sky!

Lots of delicious varieties of tomatoes...

...other tasty veg...

...and seasonal produce!

Well, at least they're honest about it.

Every Saturday, we get a tasty grilled cheese!  This week, it was mixed greens, balsamic, and chevre.  Notice the kosher salt sprinkled on the bread as it's just off the griddle - lovely touch!

Nothing like a few flowers to perk up your day.

We packed all our cold goods into a cooler we brought along for the occasion (though little did we know, we'd also be taking home ice cream), and then headed down the street to Tower Grove Creamery for some dessert.  TG Creamery serves, for those who can appreciate the significance of this, Central Dairy Ice Cream!

I got a mix of Extreme Moose Tracks and Muddy River.  Holy chocolate overload, Batman!

It was so good that we also brought home a couple of pints: burgundy cherry and chocolate chip cookie dough are currently hiding out in my freezer.

Just a couple doors down from TG Creamery is Dunaway Books - which I had heard of but never been to - so we poked around for twenty minutes or so.  Bonus points to the folks at Dunaway for letting us browse with our ice cream!  I even managed to not spill it on any of the books, just on my own sleeve.  Go me!

At this point we had a choice.  Go see Moneyball, which we had bailed on the night before, or go see the Da Vinci Machines exhibit.  Moneyball lost again.

So, Leonardo, it turns out, was a pretty smart dude.  And he was a decent artist to boot.  Look at all the stuff he came up with!

An early catapault

Say goodbye to your sails when this bad boy shows up.

Sweet dreams and flying machines.

The power of pulleys to lighten a load.

The Air Screw, an unsuccessful flying machine ("in pieces on the ground").

Archimedes' Screw: a clever little contraption to move water uphill.

Probably almost as fast as a collegiate 8+.

Need to be able to tell time in the dark of night?  Just light this carefully measured and formed candle, and it'll count the hours from dusk until dawn.

Ball bearings!  Is there anything this man couldn't do?

Across the street from the building where Da Vinci's machines were on display is Citygarden, a fairly recent creation of two city blocks, turned into a sculpture garden with walking paths and even a little restaurant called the Terrace View (with delicious food).  Sadly, citing a lack of dinnertime traffic, Terrace View's owner Jim Fiala has decided to close the restaurant at the end of the year.

I was really there!

Due to the lovely day and our out-of-doors adventures, another thing that didn't happen (but was supposed to) was a trip to the grocery store to buy the staples for the week.  Oh well, maybe tonight.  Hard to force yourself inside sometimes!