Yes, that's my kid

This picture reminds me of quintessential Jonathan, my happy, sweet boy.

Today was hot here. Hot and muggy. This summer is going to melt me.

The day started at 7:00 a.m. when I walked to Wash U to room supervise the SAT. Testing took forever today because it was the Reasoning test. J.D. and Jonathan surprised me by walking to the school. We walked home together and then went to a neighbor's backyard potluck.

Jonathan had a great time running around with other kids. He is very outgoing and affectionate and wants to play with everyone. He gets a little too excited. One boy was 22 months old. Jonathan ran toward him with his arms out for a hug, and the other toddler started crying. My little Sagittarius is definitely a free-spirited extrovert & I love him.

There was a green football he ran around the yard holding while exclaiming "Ball!" He also enjoyed getting into the recycling bin, the cooler, etc. He found cups of water left unattended and carried them around. He wanted to carry around an empty beer bottle, but that wasn't happening.

They had two small chickens in a coop. Jonathan liked inspecting them. He smiled and laughed at the chickens. Then later, once dinner was served, I offered Jonathan a piece of BBQ saying, "Here, have some chicken." So he runs over to the chicken coop and bends down to point at them. "Not those chickens sweetheart."

After awhile we were so hot and tired we wandered home. J.D. and Jonathan sat on the couch with their shirts off. We just sat there and all enjoyed the cool air and the episode of Futurama about grad school and evil cats trying to take the Earth's orbital spin away.

Busy, hot, but good day.

J.D.'s Victory at 'Ard Boyz

J.D. recently won round two of the 'Ard Boyz Tournament. He placed first at both rounds. He got a 3,000 point army for winning and a ticket to Minnesota for the final round. Go Ogre Kingdoms!

Goodbye

This is our last night in the old apartment. My list of goodbyes:

Goodbye old apartment, phone number, address
Sink that overflowed my first day of graduate school
Tree out front with huge roots
Square foot of land where I tried to grow flowers
Walls I taped to stop the paint chipping
Cement steps a female firefighter called "hazardous"

Stove that caught on fire

Hardwood floors and large windows
Dining room where we played games with friends
Common area where the cats caught crickets
Basement from which I heard strangers snoring and neighbors doing laundry
Thin walls I heard college kids partying until 3:00 a.m.
Home of our first family with Figaro and Marley
Location where we started again with Sophie and Athena
Living room where we watched so many movies
Computer room where I wrote so many papers
Outside stairs where I sat on pleasant days
Space where we hosted family and friends
Place where we lived eight years
Where Marley died
Where Jonathan started life
Where we grew into our marriage
Where we leave with regret, relief, and more than a few memories.

"Best if served chilled"

I took my glucose test today. At 8:25 I downed the flat, super-sweet orange drink. I did have a choice of that or lime flavored, but I decided to go with a known evil. I found the writing on the label highly entertaining: "Best if served chilled." Yeah right. Let's just say it was not chilled, but I'm not sure that would have helped much anyway. I copied this part of the label too: "Administer test in the morning, when possible, and advise patient to remain quiet for duration of the test." Remain quiet? What, so I can't complain about feeling queasy? :) I waited for an hour; they took my blood sample, and then I walked home.

It was a beautiful day here. On my walk there were tons of September roses in bloom. They smelled lovely. Once I was home I took a nap, and then J.D. came to get me for his company's fall picnic. I really enjoyed being out of the apartment and getting a little vitamin D, having a hamburger for lunch, and laughing with J.D.'s co-workers. Good times.

Relaxing in the shade with J.D. We were watching the "Washers" tournament, which apparently is a Midwestern thing. We later played a game against Steve and James. J.D. and I both scored a "ringer," the most difficult throw. The game involves throwing 3 to 4 washers into a box. If it goes into the box, you get a point. If it lands really close to the box, you can also possibly score a point. If it goes into a cup inside the box, then you get a ringer, worth 3 points. It's a pretty simple game. Everyone throws the washers one at a time. Except me-- I tried throwing them all at once, and ironically, that is when I did my best! I called it my "cheater-cat" move, but we all laughed. It was a lot of fun.

I saw my first "keg stand". . . don't worry, the pregnant lady did NOT participate. (Nor would I ever). Although J.D. said he has done a keg stand before (read: college Kappa Sigma days). He said he lasted about 20 seconds and hated every one of them. The female pictured here lasted about 8 seconds before she started spurting beer everywhere. I think someone else did 12 seconds, but they almost dropped that person on her head. We didn't stay long once they started the food and beer consumption games.

J.D., Steve, and James.

A very good day.

Our house in St. Louis

Built in 1908, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1,906 sq. ft. Located near my school and J.D.'s work.


The outside-- it's your typical brick St. Louis style. I'm really looking forward to hanging flower baskets on the porch next spring. Maybe J.D. will even make me a swing for summer mornings out with the baby.

Front entrance-- pretty glass door, green slate flooring.

Stairs of course-- I'm day dreaming about decorating them for the holidays already. I'm silly. :) Door to basement sort of showing too.

French doors to master bath. Curtains will be good here I think. :)

Sanctuary from the world (the bathtub that is). :) Will be much used and loved.

Another sort of rest place I suppose, with a privacy wall.

Master bath-- double sinks.

Living / sitting room on the main level.

Kitchen-- new stove, with counter space... highly valued by me.

Kitchen island with sink and dishwasher (holy cow! I'll have a dishwasher!). I don't know why they didn't turn the lights on for these pictures. It's much nicer in the light. :) You can still sort of see the back door and an open area for a dining room table. The lower bathroom is to the left.

Downstairs half-bath with tile floor (like kitchen) and granite counter.

Still need some pictures of the backyard, deck, garage, & bedrooms. We'll have to add some later, since I just took these pictures from the listing website. Well, that's it!

It's almost our house! And we're so excited!

I think J.D. and I will be very happy here. It's a good first place to raise our son.

Lifting a Heavy Day

My body aches. The stress is building up in my neck and back. J.D. and I are both on edge. He just left for work, and now I should get to work too. Maybe I'll read poetry out loud to the baby while lying down for awhile, that might help me feel better.

Eight years ago we were newly married and had just moved to St. Louis and into this apartment. While things here have been mostly good, we're both ready for a change. We want something of our own. And I guess since we've been waiting for a house for so long, one wouldn't think a couple of days would be a big deal, but even a couple of minutes feels like ages right now.

I keep wanting to picture: my shade garden out front, the hanging baskets of flowers on the porch, my vegetable garden in the back yard. J.D. mowing the new lawn we would plant. BBQs and dinners on the deck, maybe with company. Filling the bird-feeder and watching for Cardinals. Doing laundry upstairs in our own washer and dryer. I can't even picture using the dishwasher. Folding the baby's clothes and having a place for everything to be neat and organized (at least in the beginning). Then long, wonderful soaks in that beautiful bathtub. I dream about maybe getting a small, potted fragrant olive tree by the front entrance area and stairway, so the whole house would smell delicious (or maybe we'd have to put it on the deck). I picture trying to place our swap-meet furniture to its best advantage. We would joke with everyone to come see our crappy furniture. But mostly, we'd just have a place we could continue to grow.

But regardless of what happens, we have each other, which is all we need. Especially today, when thinking of the loss of many families, to have your loved ones is really to always have a home.

smell that?

I went to put a load of clothes in the dryer around 10:30 p.m. As I did, I noticed the scent of gas. It seemed to be coming from inside the dryer. I closed and opened the door a few times just to check my nose. Yes, it was gas. I went upstairs to get J.D., who had just taken off his shoes. He put them back on. But when he was downstairs with me this time we didn't smell the gas. We only smelled the clothes beginning to dry.

J.D. said it was fine. He's trying to sleep now, since he has to get up at 6:00 a.m. to go in extra early for work.

I am not so easily pacified. I looked up "dryers/gas smells" online and found the consistent advice to call with even a light scent.

So I called Quadrangle's emergency number and spoke to a woman there. She took my report and called someone at Quadrangle's maintenance. He said it was OK, it was probably just the dryer failing to ignite or spark and a slight build-up of gas, but that everything would be fine, and he would send someone in the morning. He said the fact that it was there at first but then we didn't notice it 2-3 minutes later was significant. But I wasn't convinced.

So I called Laclede Gas. They took me very seriously. She said it was the right thing to call, even with a slight, disappearing scent. I just got off the phone with them. They told me to leave lights off that were off. Leave things on that were on. But they said it would take 60-90 minutes for someone to come inspect it. So, now I'm just waiting. In the meantime, I figured I might as well blog about it, especially since the computer was already on. I figure it doesn't hurt to have a record of such things either.

P.S. Love you. :)

P.P.S. Update. The Laclede guy arrived around 12:30. Oh man, J.D. is going to be upset. They're in the basement right now making all sorts of noise, although I asked them to please be as quiet as possible. The guy came to the front door and rang the buzzer multiple times. He said "Gas Man." (Odd way of introducing yourself, but true). He walked through my apartment to get to the back door and basement entry. If he would have come to the back door like I requested when I put in the call we could have avoided waking J.D., scaring the kitties, and making more unnecessary noise. Also he had to navigate his big bucket of tools around J.D.'s bicycle by the front door-- but whatever. People don't listen. I didn't listen myself, so I guess I can't slight others too much for the same thing.

Initially, he inspected things around the dryer. He has a meter that clicks rapidly when it detects gas. He waved it around various pipes. Then he walked over to the gas meter on the wall. After that, he called one of his buddies and said, "Hey, do you want to work late?" (Oh great, now I hear a loud BUZZZZZZ sound. Like a mini chain saw). Please, please still be asleep J.D. Although I don't know how that could be possible. They are directly under the bedroom, and I'm across the apartment. J.D. is so tired from work. . . and then I go and do this.

But Gas Man said there is a little leak. He said the meter was off. So, I guess I did the right thing, right? Also he said they may have to shut down the gas for the entire building. Great. Guess who would be to blame for that: Miss Can't-Leave-Things-Well-Enough-Alone. Still, exploding is probably not fun (of course, that's a highly improbable worst case scenario by far).

Hopefully J.D. will forgive his anxious wife for a bad night's sleep and LONG day at work tomorrow. Blame it on my Watterson nose. . . we just smell things rather well.

P.P.P.S. Apparently our basement is leak heaven. He called me down to show me the problems. I think he said almost every line had a leak of some varying size. They shut off gas to the whole building. No stove. No heat. No hot water. Sorry neighbors. He said the pipes in the building are around a 100 years old. It's true the landlord collects rent every month but doesn't put any back into the actual building. Still, they won't be happy, that's for sure. But we have a right to be safe. I did what I had to do.

Goodnight. 1:36 a.m.

Too much to ask?

Crime Report

Location: Mehlville in University City
When: Friday, February 20, 2009 at about 9:55 pm
Specifics: At approximately 9:55 pm on Friday, a student was walking on Mehlville in University City north of the Danforth campus. The student was approached by two subjects and one displayed a handgun. The suspects took the victim’s wallet and cell phone and then fled. The victim was not physically injured.

Would it be too much for the police to SPELL the street name right!? I have to say, this is not encouraging that they will be "on top" of this case. Evidently, they don't know where it occurred.

And I guess every 3 months was inaccurate. They've stepped up their game. It wasn't even a whole month this time! J.D.'s comment: "That's what happens in a shitty economy."

Would robbers believe me if I told them I didn't have a cell phone? What if you really didn't have anything to give them?

Among the Best of the Worst

Today we saw that St. Louis was ranked the 10th most miserable city. It must be due to the recent problems we've been experiencing in the area:






Now you have to admit, that's a rather serious problem. Also, you've got to wonder. . . what do the top 9 cities have going on?

Robbery, a thoughtful gesture, looking forward to laughing

"At approximately 12:34pm Wednesday, a graduate student was walking on M--- in University City north of the Danforth campus. The student was approached by four subjects who asked him for money. The student continued to walk on by and was then struck by one of the subjects with a fist. The subjects then took his cell phone and some cash and fled to the north."

(Sheesh. This is why I don't walk around at night with my wedding ring. It seems like every 3 months there's a robbery on the corner, well, actually they seem to be happening more frequently. I'm beginning to get desensitized to it.)

On the happy side today I got a holiday card from a former student. That made me smile. He said we should have a "Writing 1 Reunion." LOL.

We'll be leaving soon to see Craig Ferguson at the Pageant. It should be fun. I really like Mr. Ferguson. I think he's easily the most humorous late night guy. Hopefully it will be fun.

Well, there's nothing else too happy right now, so I'll keep my whining to myself. I'm so scattered right now.

4th place is good...right?

Well, it looks like they don't think "we're #1" anymore, or even second place for that matter. St. Louis has fallen to fourth on the list of "most dangerous cities." It was ranked #1 in 2006 and #2 in 2007. Here's this year's top 5 honors:

1. New Orleans, Louisiana
2. Camden, New Jersey
3. Detroit, Michigan
4. St. Louis, Missouri
5. Oakland, California

See Mom, it's all good. :)

St. Louis things

They asked people what they would most want to do one last time before leaving St. Louis. I've decided to break them into things we've done or have yet to do. (Assuming of course that we would want to). Also some things on the list get really stupid toward the end. I think it turns into people advertising their businesses or a single person suggesting his or her favorite place for dinner. I deleted "Visit my high school." :)

I had no idea a lot of these things existed. I still don't know what some of them are, but a lot of fun memories came up while going through the things we have done.

Done It:
Cardinals game
St. Louis Zoo
Ted Drewes
Go up the Arch
Forest Park
Eat Toasted Ravioli
See a show at the Fox
The Loop
Imo's pizza
Botanical Garden
Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour
See a Blues Game
Grant's Farm
Crown Candy Kitchen
Blueberry Hill
Great Balloon Race
City Museum
Gus' Pretzels
Sledding down Art Hill
St. Louis Science Center
Forest Park Boathouse
St. Louis Art Museum
Tony's St. Patrick's Day Parade
Rams game
The Magic House
Boat ride on Mississippi
Shakespeare in the park
Cahokia Mounds
Butterfly house
Solider's Memorial
Lambert Airport (The airport, really? The question wasn't "what would be the last thing you would literally see.")
Soulard Market
Drive into St. Louis from the East
Concert at the Pagaent
Fourth of July on the riverfront (very briefly, just for fireworks)
Concert At Touhill
The Melting Pot
Soulard bars and restaurants (Counting the hot peppers and Pat)
King and I restaurant
Haunted Lemp Brewery
I added these:
Meramec Caverns (although I would not go back again-- 3 times is enough!)
Floating Meramec River
Lafayette Park
Fitz's Rootbeer
Pie at the Blue Owl (Adventure!)
Mile High Pie or Foot High Pie
Hiking at Rockwood
South City Diner

Haven't Done It:
Show at the Muny
Visit Augusta Wineries
Main Street St. Charles
Drive the Great River Road
Missouri History Museum
Beer and Bocci Ball at Milos
Experience caverns under St. Louis
Tilles Park at Christmas
Dinner at Rigazzis
Big Bang Piano Bar on Landing
Jefferson Barracks
Fast Eddie's
Lone Elk Park
Hodak's Chicken
Shop Central West End
Fritz Custard
Pizza at Black Thorn
Soda Fountain Square
Show at the Black Repretory Theater
Visit Memorial Park Cemetary
Jewel Box
Visit Seven Falls in Forest Park
Metro bus ride to downtown at Christmas time
Merb's Chocolates
Eat a pork steak
Drive back roads to Hannibal
Golf at Forest Park
Playing darts at Hill
Top Inn
One more visit to Lion's Choice
Protzel's for corned beef
The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner
Toasted Ravioli at the real Rich and Charlies
One last visit to McGurks
Pirrones' Pizzeria in Florissant
Visit to rural Illinois (Driving-by doesn't count I'm guessing)
Bicycle on the paved routes in Madison County
Eat at Moxy Bistro
Play 18 holes at Annbriar Golf Course
Shopping at Vivianos on "The Hill"
Ride on Screaming Eagle
Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park
Babler State Park
Joe's Cafe
Fishing at Klondike Park
Stroll through South Grand
Citizen Kane's
Schlafley's Brewery
"Just Sue's" in Edwardsville for pizza
Papa Vito's in Waterloo for best roast beef
Corndog at Woofies Hotdogs
Single Chuck at Chuck-A-Burger (Sounds really gross)
Museum of Transport
Wabash Frisco Rail road
Cunnetto's
Powder Valley Nature Center
Wax Museum on landing
Cherokee Antiquing
Back roads of Hermann, Missouri
Downtown Charlie Gittos
Breakfast at Uncle Bills
Shake at Olivette Diner
Dinner at Seamus McDaniel's
Laumeire Sculpture Park
Tower Grove Park

What the Bowling Hall of Fame didn't make the list? What else did they leave out?