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!

'' 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.

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!

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!

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.

Our nearly forgotten trip to the Humane Society

I almost forgot to write about our trip last month to the Humane Society of Missouri!

The kindergartners had done a school-wide service project with the school counselor, making toys for the pets at the animal shelter. Allen had donated a bunch of beige-colored fleece I had left over after a project for a friend's baby shower.

Well, when the time came to donate the toys to the shelter, Mrs. Grossman invited any kids who were interested, and their families, to come on a special "field trip" on the weekend, to present the toys and get a tour, and learn about the important work the shelter does to care for unwanted pets.

A great idea... a laid-back, weekend field trip where families are in charge of their own transportation? We are in!

We met up with the Donovans when we got there, and Allen and Nate were soon busy learning about pet overpopulation.

We met a brave and beautiful three-legged dog named Marshall, who had been rescued from an abusive owner and adopted by one of the shelter volunteers. The kids tried some exercises -- looking for ways to find homes for all the "paper pets" in the Humane Society classroom. And we took a nice tour... where Emilyn and Allen left 5 dollars each in the kitty room. It seems they are cat people, just like their grandparents (and much to Daddy's chagrin)!



It was a nice way for the kids to connect their service project with the real challenges faced every day at the animal shelter. And it's a nice, easy pace for a field trip! Tomorrow's trip, kindergartners at the zoo, promises to be not quite so laid-back! We'll blog about that one later.

Mother's Day with berries. And more berries.

It was pretty much a perfect day to head out to the farm with my favorite field hands and pick some strawberries!

The non-winter led to berries very, very early this year, and I was afraid that they might all be gone by Mother's Day -- the time they traditionally are just getting started! But Thies Farm didn't disappoint... there were plenty of "ruby jewels" to choose from when we got there Sunday morning.

Daddy was by far the most picky, so his were by far the most pretty. Emilyn won the award for "smallest possible berries," while Allen got the award for "most straw in the box."

After a quick trip to the store for angel food cake, Daddy whipped up some real cream and we scarfed as many berries as we could... for lunch AND dinner. And we still had SO many berries left over! I have a feeling that's a problem we won't have for long. Mmmmmmm.



That has to be one of the most frugal Mother's Days ever. 11 bucks for strawberries, plus ice cream, whipped cream and cake. A great way to spend my day!