Introducing Sydney

We went to Columbia, MO, this past weekend to meet Jon's beautiful new goddaughter, Sydney. Congratulations to Chris & Marianne. This trip was much different than the last one. Some of you may remember that a month ago when we were there, I spent most of the night in the bathroom after an evening out with Jon's college friends and my bottomless beverage. (There's a first time for everything, but that's all I'll say about that here.) This time, we all fell asleep on the couch watching the baseball game after dinner. I don't know what excuse Jon and I have (we're old?) but Chris and Marianne are understandably tired from getting used to feedings and diaper changes every few hours throughout the day and night. Sydney is beautiful and expressive and has the exact same haircut as Chris. (Chris isn't bald, you just can't see Syd's full head of hair in the picture.)

Here are a couple of shots from the Cardinals game last Thursday night. It was a dismal night at the ballpark. The brats were good, the company was fun, the new stadium is pretty, but the game was just painful and it was really cold. We ended up leaving in the 5th inning with the Brewers up 9-1. They went on to win 9-4. Oh, and the Blues lost also. (Thank goodness it was only preseason for them.) Just a stellar night for St. Louis sports. Somehow the Cardinals made it to the postseason, beginning with a game this afternoon against the Padres. Overall, this weekend was a good one for St. Louis sports - the Rams, Cardinals, and Mizzou all won. Oh, and so did Jon's flag football team, 41-0. For some reason that one didn't make the news, though.

Rants

People who sit on the same side of the table at a restaurant - Why is this necessary? We noticed 3 couples at two different restaurants this week that squeezed into one side of a booth or table, leaving the other side open. In each case, I immediately assumed another person or two would be joining the table but I was wrong. Now, I know that I am not the most elegant person when I eat, but I have never had a date/friend/family member ask to sit on the same side of the table with me in order to not have to watch me eat. This configuration is also not conducive to conversation, but maybe these couples have run out of things to talk about and are just trying to keep up the illusion of closeness. That might be rather harsh but I can think of no other excuse for this behavior. If any of you have ideas, please enlighten me. Note: all 3 couples in question were eating pizza. Does that mean anything? Is there a pizza eating custom that I don't know about? Should Jon and I start sitting on the same side of the booth every time we go to Imo's?

Dress Barn - No woman wants to buy their clothes at a barn. Besides conjuring up images of sawdust floors and smelly stalls you have to wonder what is being implied in the name - I generally do not want to be thinking of myself as a cow or a pig when dress shopping. Not surprisingly, I never see any shoppers in this store when I drive by. While still awkward, a better name might be Dress Palace (for princesses and queens) or even Dress Garden (for delicate flowers).

[End of rants]

Did you know?

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically valid sentence. Thanks, Planet Dan! (Go read his blog. He is funny.)