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!

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.

Saved from the mower

Look who Daddy found when he was mowing the lawn! A box turtle!

This last shot is very bad photojournalism on my part. It looks like he might be enjoying our snack offering of green peppers and tomatoes. In fact, he ambled right over this plate and crawled into the bushes. And moving pretty fast for a turtle, I might add!

The world's simplest cicada hunt

We had been seeing a cicada shell here and there... and Allen suggested this afternoon: "Let's go on a cicada hunt."

Well, it turned out to not be much of a "hunt"... In our yard and our neighbor's now, you can check out any tree and find dozens of cicada shells hanging from the trunk and branches -- and even catch some of those buzzing bugs in the act of molting!

The shells hang like little ornaments, and sometimes they catch the light pretty nicely! Sadly and grossly, though, you can also hear bugs and shells crunching underfoot if you're not careful. Allen has collected nearly a hundred of the empty shells!

Allen and I are embracing the science we have found right in our own front yard... We learned all about the 13-year periodical cicada... It burrows down and eats the sap from the tree roots, then emerges as a "nymph" on a 13-year cycle (some are 17-year)... It crawls up the tree trunk, molts, dries its wings and then flies away. We saw the whole life cycle in action over two days!

It was pretty cold on the day most of these guys were molting. We expect the noise to get a lot louder over the next couple of days as the bugs get to be fully developed and start their droning mating call in earnest.

They make their sound with special organs on their abdomen... Little membranes that click in and out -- kind of like Snapple caps! The clicks come very close together and produce that signature drone, which Allen and I found out can hit 120 decibels! That's loud enough to damage human hearing, if it gets close to your ear!

Wow, super science, super close. To see more of our cicada photo album, click here.

Attack of the caterpillars !

It's that time of year again... Allen the Bug Whisperer is in full force. The caterpillars at school are in their chrysalises, and Allen cannot stand that he hasn't been to school since Wednesday!

But at least there's plenty of nature right here at home. Allen found one little fuzzy guy in the yard... For some weird reason, the caterpillar did not crawl away when he had ample chance... Daddy and Allen then found another one that was a bit bigger that actually moved. When they put them together, they both started moving. So the put them in a jar, and the caterpillar hunt was on!

Then Emilyn wanted in on the fun... When she and Allen went on a caterpillar hunt the other day, they happened upon dozes and dozens of the furry guys, undulating on an oak branch. Emilyn is still having nightmares. But at least there are plenty of caterpillars to go around! Now we have two jars full.

Double rainbow

Well, we didn't expect this when we went outside to shoot some hoops... A sun shower, and a double rainbow!

Even brighter in the back yard! It was spotted all over West County, and photos even made the news websites!

A pretty lazy Easter Sunday

I'm pretty sure most moms and dads weren't awakened on Easter morn by the sound of a very happy boy saying, "I got the plague! Wahooooo!"

He was so happy with his little black death that he let everybody sleep in until almost 10, which was really nice.

The rain broke long enough for the annual Asilomar backyard egg hunt -- maybe it went quicker because somebody was watching through the window while I hid the eggs.


Daddy's famous pancakes and turkey bacon quickly followed, and many candy eggs were popped open and devoured!

Then we got down to some serious egg-dyeing.


They did come out really pretty, but that was probably the fastest turnaround between dyeing and egg salad ever! Mmmmmm. Egg salad. Even Daddy liked it!

To see the rest of photos from Easter, click here.

The snowpocalypse that wasn't

Oh, boy, the weathercasters were foaming at the mouth. We were gonna get slammed by three days of superstorm, bringing an inch of ice and then a foot of snow.

Well, we got the ice... but more like half an inch. And instead of snowing all day, it sleeted in our corner of the world, piling up 3 inches of teeny ice pellets.

It did eventually turn over to snow, but that just left us with an inch or two on top of our slippery sleet base. Then, the bitter cold came and froze it all into a multilayered mess.

So, everyone was terrified and stayed home on Tuesday, and the kids got three days off of school. But it didn't turn out to be the end of the world, by any stretch. But it sure has been a cold and annoying winter. We're ready for spring!

Yet another snow day !

It's only Jan. 20, and the kiddos have already had three snow days... More like this, and it'll start cutting into our spring break!

The roads were a mess for me getting home last night, and for Steve getting to and from work this morning... but they were pretty OK by the time I had to head to work this evening. Maybe because lots of people stayed home... The Post-Dispatch has discovered, though, that snow = clicks -- on the website that is. So, why don't you check it out?

For my part, I made sure the Crabbe-lets got their gear on, at least briefly, and got out in the snow for a few pictures. If we didn't, what would be on next year's calendar in the month of January? (Thank you, Norma, for the hand-me-down boots and snow pants!)

Allen sledded for all of five minutes, then consumed three cups of hot chocolate to recover from the experience. Emilyn showed more fortitude -- and bravery -- and tried out snowboarding on her sled. I sledded too, and shoveled, and tried to get everything on camera.

They say it's already the ninth-snowiest January on record in St. Louis, and there's more on the way this weekend!

For more snowy shots, click here.

I'm dreaming of a . . .

... Well, you know!

And we got a doozy. A full day of snow on Christmas Eve. Steve said it started to snow just as his last plane of the holiday season pulled away. Picture-perfect! And since we had no place to go, as the song says, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Even Allen suited up for a walk through the silent night -- and didn't even spoil it by whining about the cold. (Although he did have sore feet after once around the block.)

More snow for the turkey made for another delicious holiday meal. The rest of the evening went toward making cookies for Santa -- and the inaugural Crabbe family hand-sculpted gingerbread! (Weird, but so tasty when paired with Steve's homemade icing-that-wasn't!) Perhaps we ought to invest in some cookie cutters...


Anyway, eating so much kept Mommy up for much of the night, but I cannot report a firsthand Santa sighting. It's safe to say, though, that the snow and home and hearth made it a very happy holiday for the Crabbe Trap. Hope yours was just as full of joy!

A sad end for Stander and Kbely

Well, that was fast. I cleaned the tank on Sunday, switched out about half the water... The guppies were happy as heck, but the frogs stopped eating -- and today they both died. So sad!! I really liked those little buggers.

So, back to Petco we go tomorrow to see if we can cash in on the 15-day guarantee... They'll test our water to see if they can blame us, or maybe they'll be nice and give us two new frogs.

And next time, I'll be sure to age that new water at least two days! I guess treating it with tap water conditioner just isn't enough to get rid of the chlorine. Sigh.

Meet our new tank friends

Well, we filled up the old crawfish tank and ran the filter for a day, then headed to Petco for some new friends.

Stander (left) is our skinnier, more active African dwarf frog. He likes to spend time inside the filter. No joke. Kbely (right) has a bigger belly and the spots on his head are more prominent than are Stander's. He's also more shy... He might like to spend time in the filter, but he's too darn wide.

Our golden apple snail, Gary Jr., eats pretty much everything. I think I saw him nibbling old skin off of Stander! All I know is, Stander came out nice and dark and shiny.



Emilyn's guppy, Shimmer, has a yellow tail. Allen's guppy, Swimmer, has an orange tail. The guppies are friends. Very shiny friends! They like to bounce off the smooth glass rocks at the bottom of the tank. We have not yet been able to figure out why they do this. Some websites say it's indicative of parasites on their skin, but when they do it in turn like they do, they sure do look like they're playing! Or at least trying to communicate with each other.

Allen's beans !

Look what my boy grew! From tiny seeds! He planted them a while ago in little green cups in his Sesame Street greenhouse that we got at Lowe's. And we replanted them in the garden when they got bigger. First, little purple flowers, and now... yummy fresh green beans! As Daddy says, there's nothing better.

Baby robin

"Mommy, do you wanna come see the birdie?"

Well, Allen wasn't kidding! This baby robin was sitting in our front yard, and letting us get very close. He was not yet a good flyer. I got a chance to take lots of pictures.

Later on, he hopped/flew down the sidewalk, and when we came out later, he was gone. Hope he's leading a happy birdie life!

Allen the Bug Whisperer

We were out in the back yard, and a couple of painted lady butterflies were flitting around... One flew around Allen a bunch of times. I told him to be still and put his hand out... And this butterfly landed on him at least 8 or 9 times! And stayed around long enough for me to take LOTS of pictures!

CSI: Asilomar

You don't have to be Grissom to figure out what happened here... Either last night or this morning, Steve ran over this frog in the garage. The real trauma didn't occur until Allen stepped in it. Barefoot. He screamed like a banshee and about came out of his skin. At least we know he's not a sociopath!

I prescribed what I prescribe for everything... a nice warm bubble bath! Seems to have done the trick.

Spring's big bang

Spring sort of exploded into being last week, because it was so darn warm here. We had days near 90... even a record high last Wednesday I think.

So, all the trees burst forth with flowers and leaves at once. I swear, it happened so fast you could almost watch it.



Not good for the nose, perhaps, but great on the eyes. Well, not good for the eyes either, really. When you get past the itching and watering, though, it really is sweet for the soul.

Happy Easter !

My kids are "hopped" up on chocolate after the Bunny hid a couple dozen plastic eggs in the back yard yesterday... Filled with Hershey's Eggs, Nestle Eggs and Whopper Eggs! Mmmmmm. (This egg-hunter looks like he's trying to remain anonymous... but he actually was just fighting the morning sun. And he really doesn't like getting his picture taken!)

On the dyeing front, we colored a dozen and a half, using the Paas Tie Dye kit and the traditional kit -- but double the dose of color tablets, on the advice of Steve's doctor, Dr. Houston! Here, Emilyn models a pair of the tie dye eggs (and in a tie dye shirt! Groovy...)


We've got the cooking down pat, but the peeling is another story altogether. Plan to have some particolored, mutilated egg salad very soon.

Hope your Easter was filled with family and surrounded by signs of spring. For more pictures (and some egg-hunt video), click here.