World War I rolls into town

A couple of big chores laid in front of us still before closing on the old house... We had to get all of our reinspections (town, fire and gas) done, and we had to get the rest of our stuff out of the basement and garage.

But we're never ones to let a big job distract us from something distracting... So, when Steve heard on the news that the World War I Museum's traveling exhibit was in town, we decided to procrastinate for one more day and head down to the History Museum to see it.

It really was a tractor-trailer filled with artifacts from the era... Lots of reproductions of photos and newspapers hanging on the walls, uniforms and helmets and the like. Thanks to Steve, I've absorbed a lot about World War II, but I didn't know much about the Ninteen-teens, except for what I learned about the Spanish Flu. Learning about this period was pretty fascinating.

Inside the museum, we saw the great St. Louis 1904 World's Fair exhibit and an exhibit about fires and firefighting that Derek and Tyler would have loved... They even had a little fake campfire that you could sit around and have a pretend cookout.

Being down at the west end of Forest Park naturally led to lunch in the Loop... a trip to Cheese-ology for three different kinds of mac 'n' cheese. Emilyn and Daddy had the Buffalo chicken. Mmmmm. Dough to Door, sadly, was not open!

We did make it back in time for the Ballwin reinspection at the old house... We passed! I also bagged up a bunch of garbage in the garage... more on that later!

Dinner on the deck

After a pretty quiet Father's Day -- Steve made pancakes and then went with his boy to the car show at the Museum of Transportation -- I headed back to the kitchen to whip up more food for dinner with my friends Ron and Colleen, the first guests to officially join us for deck-sitting.

Deck-sitting was an important part of Staycation 2012. Steve has been working hard on our giant back lawn, and I relished the chance to enjoy his handiwork. The deck goes into the shade about 2 p.m. or so... normally just in time for me to go to work. But for this stretch of time, I was able to enjoy my favorite part of day -- evening -- in our own beautiful yard, and I took advantage of it. (And the weather wasn't too shabby, either!)

I got a new grill, same as my old grill, and cooked some marinated Kickin' Chicken... I made some more potato salad and some ramen salad, plus some tomatoes and mozzarella. For dessert: Peaches and strawberries over angel food cake and ice cream! Delicious!

Thanks, Ron and Colleen, for helping us christen the grill and the deck. More guests coming soon!

Barbecue at Nate's

Allen's friend Nate and his family were sweet enough to invite us over Saturday for hot dogs and hamburgers... this, of course, touched off Mommy's grand kitchen scramble... I made ramen noodle salad and tried once again to refine my potato salad method. A little bit too much pickle this time. And my egg-boiling once again was a disaster. I might be a totally lost cause in that area.

Anyway, lunch at the Donovans' was delightful... I had three sweet teas, which led me to run off at the mouth some (caffeine has that effect on me), but Stacy and Jason are super-smart, funny people. After lunch, the kids and Steve started an epic Monopoly battle -- reminding me why I dislike that game so... Hours later, the four players merged into two teams, and Allen Crabbe, the master hotelier, was declared the winner (paired with Daddy)!

We have to have the Donovans over to our house soon. No Monopoly, though. Maybe they like Whoonu or Apples to Apples!

'' If I can't eat svickova or cream donuts . . .''

Boy, impressing this man on his birthday is sure hard since Prague.

But, I gave it a shot. I bought him a Shop-Vac (for cutting his hair) and a big garbage can on wheels (to avoid the rental fee that the trash company charges) -- with a jaunty red bow! -- and had him pick where he wanted to go eat.

He chose Bacana Brasil... the all-you-can-eat Brazilian meat place. We headed off, took a loooong detour around road construction, only got a little lost, and then -- found out the Brazilian place was closed for good. When did that happen? Harumph!

What to do? Daddy chose another favorite, Espino's, home of the make-your-own s'mores.

How does it feel to be turning 42? Tasty!

We ordered the flaming cheese appetizer... and the s'mores... and we asked the waitress if there was anything else on the menu she could set on fire for us.

(Earlier in the day, Emilyn and her friend Celine had rehearsal for All-State Choir, coming up in July! Stay tuned!)

Staycation - Magic by night

On Daddy's birthday eve, he fortified us all with his homemade chicken marsala (and please, ask him about the crunchy broccoli).

I had purchased tickets for my main goal of Staycation: the Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. I borrowed a tripod from my good friend Ron and was ready to take some pictures!! In the dark!!

We got there before dark and milled around with at least two bus-fuls of tourists... There were quite a few senior citizens.

Then, at 8, the lights came on! Amazing!

I was learning on the fly the best way to capture the details on each lantern... It was hard to see how intricate they were in a wide-angle photo. They really were magical, though. Such an amazing amount of work obviously went into each one. An incredible undertaking!




The special exhibits at the garden are really one of the great treasures of living in St. Louis. I wish you all could have seen it in person, but I hope our photos are the next best thing. For all our shots from the Lantern Festival, click here.

Staycation - Suite view of the game

I was pretty nervous about this company-sponsored trip to the ballgame... Emilyn and I had to spend part of the day relaxing at the spa so that I could deal with it. She got a facial and I got a pedicure -- with Cha-Ching Cherry polish.

Now, I might have serious trouble going back to the cheap seats.

I decided to bite the bullet and see what was going on in the corporate luxury box Wednesday night. Be it a loyalty test, or some glad-handing with Lee honchos, I was ready for anything.

What I wasn't ready for was getting to see a great game. With free food and drinks. And people I actually like.

And all in a luxury box at Busch Stadium. Which are so classy that it's nearly impossible to even find the way in! They segregate you from the regular fan rabble and steer you up to a private escalator and ring of walkway that is pretty much inaccessible unless you have a golden ticket.

The hoi polloi have to walk up the regular ramps. I was across the way on the super-secret luxury box level.

When you walk into the suite, it looks like a hotel sitting room, with a big-screen TV and mini kitchen. This particular suite was outfitted with hot dogs and a nacho bar, plus beer wine and soda, and unlimited popcorn!



Outside the box is what amounts to a "front porch" with 20 comfy seats for watching the game. A sliding glass door keeps the air conditioning inside, or lets it all out if you leave it open, as my colleagues did. They also took full advantage of the free beer. Reporters love free beer. Just sayin'. I had a Coke and a cookie. Copy editors love free cookies.

I guess there was some glad-handing going on, but I was there to watch the game -- and so was one of my colleagues, Mandy. So, we took seats out on the "porch" and were riveted by quite a pitchers' duel. And I kept experimenting with the zoom on my camera.




I ended up eating a company hot dog. And the Redbirds ended up winning a squeaker, 1-0.

For all the photos from my weird, but fun, night at the ballpark, click here.

Staycation - Long walk in the park

Tuesday was a bit of a weird day... Allen, Daddy and I had decided to go on a hike. On our way to the park, I got a call on my cellphone from Maureen at work. Odd, and terrifying, in light of the recent and still-painful layoffs of my friends.

One of the first things she says is, "This is a good phone call." Well, thank you. She is calling to tell me that "my name is on a list" to use the corporate box the next evening at the Cardinals game. I'm thinking, "Yay, we can all go!" Then she says, "No, it's just for you to spend some time with your colleagues."

Now I'm thinking it's some kind of loyalty test... which makes me very uncomfortable. Do I want to go and glad-hand with the very people who just fired my friends and are very likely plotting me out of existence??

Then I'm thinking, yes, I should take any and all oaths offered. I should get down on one knee and kiss their rings if that's what it takes to keep my job. If there's a list of people who move forward in the New World Order, and a list of those left behind, I know which list I want to be on!

Well, it turns out I overthought the whole thing. More on that later.

We got to the park and chose the three-mile Grotpeter Trail. It has a very steep ascent called "Cardiac Hill" -- with a handy bench at the top -- which we scaled with aplomb. Daddy got to see the baby birds that Allen and I had seen a few days before. And we survived an encounter with a scary (but wounded) hissing turtle!

It was a great hike, and we travelers were really proud of ourselves at the end.

Later on, we spent some time around our new patio table, working Cryptofamilies puzzles, which Emilyn said were "addicting." She and Allen also ran through the sprinkler... and we all decided that deck-sitting should be a major part of this particular staycation.

Staycation begins

On our first day of "staycation," Daddy went on a long bike ride with his friends, so the kids and I kind of had a slow day at home.

Then, on Monday, Allen's friend Nate came to play. Steve, Emilyn and I took the opportunity to tackle the garage -- which up to this point had been stacked with stuff we hadn't had time or space to unpack. We needed to cut down the clutter in there to make room for even MORE stuff we still had to move from the old house. It was a rare rainy day, so it was a perfect excuse to get the job done.

Later on, when the weather dried out, we took a drive to Lone Elk Park, mostly because it's where Emilyn likes to practice driving. We saw a beautiful deer, and baby buffalo...

But the native animals were restless! This mommy elk charged our car! That's why she's blurry!



Daddy (as always, running the pedals) kicked up some gravel getting away from this angry lady. Apparently they are super-protective of their young. And I bet they've been harassed by other idiots in the park, so they probably have good reason to be cranky.

A rough week

Well, I got robbed of my first two days of vacation, and for a very sad reason... Three of my colleagues got the ax from the Post-Dispatch, and suddenly we were scrambling to fill their shifts. On Saturday the 9th, three people were scheduled to work. All three had been laid off. Hmm. That's a poser for management, huh?

Well, the obvious answer is Jennie works the Friday and Saturday that she had been promised off leading into vacation. And, with so much stuff with the house still up in the air, we weren't going anywhere. I decided to agree to those two days -- but no more! My two weeks of vacation was on, and short-staffing be damned. It wasn't my idea to fire 40 percent of the copy desk.

So, yes, it was the end of a pretty rough week. Allen and I decided to get out and get our blood moving before I had to go to work... a hike in the woods is always our first choice.

We got to Castlewood State Park and powered straight up the hill, drinking in the beautiful view from the top...

We came down the switchback way, which is almost harder on the knees -- and where Daddy famously wiped out in an attempt at mountain biking. We saw some shelf fungus and checked out bugs and whatnot on the trail.



At the bottom, we watched while a mommy barn swallow swooped in under a pavilion and fed her four hungry babies. We even saw one turn his butt around and poop over the side! Big fun for an almost-first-grader!



And, then I headed off to work. Last day before our big staycation! Whoo-hoo!

First lost tooth !

Emilyn lost her first one soon after Allen was born, so she was almost 7 too! I'll have to dig up that picture... I think it might have been the same tooth!

Well, the boy came to us the other day with a wiggly tooth, a little alarmed at the prospect of a piece of himself coming off. Understandable! But, within a day and a half, it was out.

"I pushed it down," he says, "and it got stuck in the down position... When I pushed it back up, it popped right out!" There was no blood, and it didn't hurt at all, he said.

The boy's a little jaded already for the tooth fairy... "I told Daddy to give me some money," he says. Actually, he had to wait until the next day, when I told him to go into my wallet and pull out a five-spot. "I believe in Santa, though!" he insists.

We have buyers - and radon !

Yikes! Radon in the basement? What is this, New Jersey, 1987?

Well, here's the update on the house sale. The day before our second open house, "cute couple" Will and Melissa (getting married in the fall) made us an offer that we, um, could refuse. LOL. They accepted our second counteroffer of $152K. Hooray, the crops are saved!

Yeah, no. Their inspection showed that we have radon in the house! RADON?! Safe levels are 4.0 picocuries per liter of air. We have 4.2 picocuries. That's two-tenths of a picocurie. Whatever the hell a picocurie is!

Long story short, Tom of St. Louis Radon is coming out Friday to "remediate" our problem, to the tune of 750 bucks.

More fun comes Thursday when the city of Ballwin and the Metro West Fire Protection District do their inspections. Apparently, things have gotten a lot more strict in the 13 years since we bought this house! We'll most likely be needing to install more smoke detectors and more GCFIs -- outlets that trip breakers when they get overloaded. More cash for Bob of Roberts Electric, no doubt!

Counting down 24 days until closing. God, help us through this. Thank you!

Quick trip to Ballwin Days

After our latest round of layoffs, which claimed two very close friends, I'd been feeling pretty sorry for myself... It looks very likely that I'll first be asked to train noneditors to do my job and then be unceremoniously shown the door. I'll be surprised if I'm still working at the paper in 2013.

I was kind of wallowing in darkness over that prospect, but I decided to keep myself busy Sunday to fight it.

Allen and I started with breakfast at IHOP, then on Kmart to look at some patio furniture that I wanted to buy. We saw it was still on sale, and took the chit to the checkout... only to find that the table box couldn't possibly fit in the Ford. Hmmm.

Mommy decided to make it an even more productive day by renting a U-haul van and picking up the table, then moving some more big stuff from the old house to the new house.

We loaded up the table and headed over to the old house, tossing in two more big patio chairs, a table, our patio fireplace, and whatever other stuff we could lift -- including the vacuum cleaner. Let Will and Melissa handle their own "realtor beige" carpet from now on! heeheehee

We rolled up to the new house and saw Daddy had returned from his bike ride... Everyone unloaded the van, and Allen and I got back in to drop it off and walk over to Ballwin Days.

We took a quick, beautiful, perfect ride on the smoothest Ferris wheel I've ever felt. It was a perfect moment to relax and reflect... Life is good. Priceless.

Magic and more magic

Thanks to the move, Emilyn had to get rid of some books she had outgrown, and Allen was exposed to the wonderful "Magic Tree House" series by Mary Pope Osborne.

The espoused "nonfiction only" reader was quickly enchanted by the exploits of Jack and Annie, siblings from Frog Creek, Pa., who travel through time on missions for Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. Suddenly, he's learning all about ancient Egypt, prehistoric mammals and the "mad genius" Leonardo da Vinci.

While Allen was tearing through the books, we noted that the Magic House, our treasured children's museum, is having a special exhibition inspired by the series. So, we had to check it out!

Three books were represented in the three sections of the exhibit: "Twister on Tuesday" deals with life on the prairie during pioneer days; "Civil War on Sunday" sees Jack and Annie teaming up with Clara Barton to treat wounded soldiers; and "Thanksgiving on Thursday" shows what life was like for the pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony.

Allen drew some Beyblades on the chalkboard in the one-room schoolhouse, before we climbed in the "storm shelter" to listen to the howling wind of a simulated tornado. Later we'd found that prairie kids really did play with spinning tops! Holy cow!

In the Civil War hospital tent, Allen pretended to be a soldier who was injured in battle. He cuddled a shark and wrote a sweet letter to his mommy: "I love you" -- and he put it in the leather mail pouch. He tried on an itchy wool coat and played a drum. Over at the Pilgrims exhibit, he landed on Plymouth Rock, ground corn, harvested vegetables for the first Thanksgiving, and hoisted the giant turkey (I love that picture).



Later, in the mockup of Jack and Annie's tree house, Allen read the first three chapters of "Twister on Tuesday," which he later bought in the gift shop, along with "Civil War on Sunday." We spent some time in the rest of the Magic House, but we had to get back to take Emilyn and Sarah to the mall. Great day of learning, imagination and fun!

To see all our photos from the Magic House, click here.

Greek Fest - and a nap

Memorial Day weekend was threatening to get away from us... Mommy had a rare two days off and wanted to do something festive... Pastitsio! A brainstorm! Greek Fest at Assumption Church!

After a pleasant shuttle ride to the festival site, we waited on a pretty long line (which got way longer later) to get inside to eat. It's like Czech Fest, but way bigger. I had lamb and rice... we had stuffed grape leaves, gyros, salad and pastitsio (kind of like a Greek lasagna)... and of course, the 10-dollar pastry sampler, which naturally included baklava.

I think the traditional Mediterranean diet calls for plenty of napping... and our new couch is up to the task.



Happy start of summer, everyone!

Last day of kindergarten !

Well, whaddya know? Allen knocked kindergarten out of the park!

I guess I never really had anything to worry about. This month, we also got the results back on his battery of IQ tests... 146. So, he qualifies for Parkway's special school for gifted kids. BUT, he's doing so well at Sorrento Springs, we'll put that decision off for down the road, if ever we have a problem. For now, he'll be going to "Mosaics" -- the gifted program -- with Ms. Wilke one day a week. Looking forward to that!

My favorite last-day tradition is the Academic Rally, which I think started when Emilyn was in second grade, just before she had her appendix out, actually!

Allen got Outstanding Achievement, Super Citizen, Excellent Effort, Homework Hero, Star Musician and Community Builder awards! He was very proud of being the Star Musician... because only two kids in his class were so honored. Thanks, Mrs. Lay, for keeping Allen jazzed about music! I hope she and he can keep it up.

Anyway, Allen made some great friends in kindergarten, and we have Mrs. Kelley to thank for keeping him challenged. He's enjoying his classmates!



Thanks, Sorrento Springs, for a great year! For more photos and video, click here.

Corpse flower disappointing . . . Lanterns intriguing !

Well, it doesn't happen very often. And it's never happened here. So, Allen and I just had to head down to the Missouri Botanical Garden and see the corpse flower in bloom.

The line was plenty long! But the flower itself was a letdown. Not very big, not very stinky.

What was not a letdown -- the preparations for the Lantern Festival, opening in six days and running all summer long -- the first festival of its kind in the U.S.!

We saw a junk... that was made of actual junk! (4,600 water bottles, to be precise.)



And we found out it takes 15,000 medicine bottles filled with colored water to make this magnificent beast.



Oh, mark my words: When we go back to the Lantern Festival -- at night! -- in a few weeks, I will be taking more pictures. I think it just might rival our trip there to see the Niki de St. Phalle sculptures. Or possibly the Chihuly glass. Whenever they host these amazing exhibits, it's like a whole new garden. I feel very fortunate to live so close to such a cultural treasure!

For the rest of our photos from the garden on Sunday, click here. And stay tuned for more on the Lantern Festival -- Magic By Night!

More fun with Steve's odometer

The latest MILE-stone from our favorite Ford Taurus.

Allen's first Field Day

Ahhh... Sorrento Springs Field Day! And we're back to the morning session, because K-2 starts the fun at 8 a.m.! The smart families (who had been there countless times before) found a spot in the shade and watched the spectacle unfold.

Mrs. Kelley's class was on the Blue Team, and there were a lot more events this year where everybody joined in. Allen was involved in Flag Tag; Shoe Find; Punt, Pass and Kick; One-Lap Run; All Student Body Run; and the always epic Tug of War. (Yes, Mrs. Kelley got so into that last event that she ended up with a broken arm. Seriously.)

But, as far as I could tell, no kindergartners were harmed in the making of this Field Day. Allen seemed to have a lot of fun, and it was neat to watch him strategizing with his team and really cheering them on. His punt led him, Nate and Ali to victory in the Punt, Pass and Kick!

That winning feeling! You just can't duplicate it!



For all the photos and videos from Field Day, click here.

Kindergarten fun at the zoo

Almost done with kindergarten. Unbelievable!

One of the last big hurrahs was the kids' field trip to the St. Louis Zoo -- one of our favorite destinations, and we could not have asked for nicer weather!

I'd call this a "right-sized" field trip. I got two kids to wrangle -- Nate and Allen -- which is just the right number for me. And we fit in one seat on the bus. And we didn't set off until 9. And we got back on the bus at 1. Just right!

In that time, though, we were able to see all of our zoo favorites... We got to the Children's Zoo before 10, when they start charging. The boys (reluctantly) took a few minutes to pose for some pictures... I remembered how I had taken the same photos of Emilyn and Sarah when they were little... Awww!



Allen and Nate were (mostly) good sports about it, and I got some really cute pictures.



The super-great thing was we got a very good look at baby elephant Kenzi and her mom, Rani. Kenzi was born last summer and just went on display in September of last year. She was really, really cute. Elephants are just amazing, and our zoo is lucky to have a long run of good luck with breeding them.



After lunch, it was on to the bears, penguins and apes. The penguins were swimming and splashing anybody who got close. The chimps were getting a nice lunch of cabbage and cauliflower.



Great job, Allen and Nate! I'd chaperone you guys anytime.



To see all of our photos from the zoo, click here.