Together Again

There's an interesting convergence happening in St. Louis this weekend. All 6, that's right, all 6 of the contributors on this blog will be together for the first time, as best as we can remember, in 5 1/2 years (see picture at right). I am so honored that the other 5 have all made the effort to be here to celebrate with me at our luau. Ladies, I can't wait to see you all. Safe travels!

More Links From The Hole

Flushing Cat

Top Gun 2 (by Jon's friends)

Pee Here

How To Poop At Work

Class Project Gone Wrong

Scary Giant Bunnies

St. Louis Barbies (apparently there are pictures floating around but I can't find them)

The Bears are winners in Africa at least

Don't Tell Me Congratulations

I called one of my mom's good friends the other day to share with her the big news and instead of saying "congratulations" she said "best wishes and blessings." She said she heard somewhere that it was bad luck to say "congratulations" to a newly engaged woman. I had a hard time finding an explanation for this anywhere but I did find one reference. "When speaking to a woman who has gotten engaged one does not say congratulations. It is considered an insult, equivalent to an insult as if she could not get a man. Go figure! It seems like it would be perfectly fine, but instead say something like 'that’s wonderful,' 'my blessings,' and 'what wonderful news.'"

Our First Gift

Two of Jon's aunts, Neuza and Lidia, sent us our very first gift. They are on the ball! We were at their house last weekend and they had the most current Vosges catalog. Many of you know this is my favorite place for truffles and if we've ever been downtown in Chicago together I've probably dragged you into the shop. Anyway, the aunts let Rachel and me sample some of the Aztec Elixir Cocoa - what a treat! It is thick and rich and, yes, downright spicy. It was wonderful. So Wednesday night when we walked into Jon's house after work there was a box waiting for us from Vosges with a box of the cocoa and a frothing stick (which I haven't figured out how to use yet, but even if I don't it will make a very handsome decoration). It was also the first time I had seen my name-to-be on anything. I kind of wish I had kept the shipping label from the box.


Here's a picture from Mike & Melissa's wedding last Saturday. One of Jon's uncles kept asking when they were going to get to have a party like that for us and I would just kind of laugh it off. Jon was laughing too, but on the inside, because he knew what he was going to ask me the next day. I never picked up on it. He's a sneaky one.


All of you must try www.librarything.com. You will love it. All you do to create an account is enter a screen name and password on the main page and as long as no one else has the same name, you're golden. Then, just start adding books. You can add by title, author, keyword, ISBN, etc., and LibraryThing searches Amazon, the Library of Congress, and other databases for a match. You can add 200 books for free, an unlimited number for one year for $10, or an unlimited number for life for $25. It's cool because you can see how many other users have the same books, you can sort lots of different ways, you can add tags, you can organize by Dewey, and you can even get it to recommend new books to you based on your library. As you can imagine, this has been quite the time-waster for me over the last couple of weeks.

St. Louis is hosting the MLB All-Star game in 2009.

Embarrassed to be seen in a swimsuit? Try a burkini.

Harper Lee made a rare appearance at an Alabama high school last week.

Tonight should be fun. It's the meeting of the parents...

Random and Miscellaneous Thoughts

I have had some posting problems over the last couple of weeks so some of this stuff is way overdue. I know I still owe a marathon post. I promise, I'll do it soon, as long as Blogger stops acting up. (Really, Amie and Rachel, I promise.)

Concert: Had a great time at O.A.R. with Jon, Jeff, and Amie a couple of weeks ago in Columbia. Also looking forward to Ray LaMontagne in December, box seats for the retiring of Brett Hull’s sweater at the Blues vs. Red Wings game on December 5, Texas in December, cruise in April (only 138 days).


Confession: I started listening to some Christmas music over the weekend. I don’t know why, there is no good explanation, but it happened. There. It feels good to get that off my chest.

Contest: One of our own won Miss Monkey’s Tom Swiftie contest. Make sure to read the wonderful ode to Kelly that Miss Monkey wrote in honor of her win.

Congratulations: to my friends Christina and Terry. They got engaged a couple of weeks ago.


St. Louis: We are one of the angriest and drunkest cities in the nation with some of the worst drivers and the cheapest gas. And now we are the most dangerous. Take that, Detroit! You’re #2 in baseball and you’re #2 in danger. (Go Cards.)

Quote: Can anyone tell me where this is from? I can’t remember and googling hasn’t helped. “Bacon. It’s the candy bar of meats.” Update: My brother tells me this is from a Jack In The Box commercial. Click here to watch it on YouTube. Because you just can’t have enough pig. Thanks for solving the mystery, Robbie.

New trend: I’m going to start it. I propose that if we can make Google into a verb (as in, “I spent all afternoon googling myself”) then we can do the same thing with iTunes. For instance, “I heard a new song that I really liked in the overhead at work so I went home and iTunesed it.” What do you think?

Yovo Yovo: She’s off to Africa again. Check this out for more details and for information about how you can stay in touch with her while she’s gone.

Thanksgiving plans: Megan, to answer your question, I’ll be spending part of the day with my family, part of the day with Jon’s. No details yet except that I will be eating a lot of turkey. I get to close at work on Black Friday and the Saturday after.

Thai Kitchen: Finally, a good Thai restaurant has opened in St. Peters. Please, everybody, support this place so it will not close. The food is delicious and reasonable, the restaurant itself is clean and cozy, and the people are super friendly. I recommend the spicy noodles (similar to pad kee mao), pad thai, and panang curry. Everything I’ve tasted so far has been wonderful. The phone number is 636-447-1883 and they are located right off of I-70 at the Cave Springs exit, next door to Petco. They deliver Monday through Friday. Please, please, please eat here often.

And that's a winner!

Sorry, Sarah. Oh wait, no I'm not.

Go Cards!

I'm not quite sure how the Cardinals made it to this point, up 3 games to 1 in the World Series after their mediocre finish to the regular season. If we win tonight (and that's if we don't get rained out which is looking quite likely), it won't have been a particularly elegant road to victory. As often happens, our wins in this postseason have been at least partially determined by the opposing teams' errors. Still, it is an exciting time for Cardinal baseball fans and would be a felicitous end to the inaugural season at the new Busch Stadium. Sarah, I understand your reasons for having to cheer for the Tigers, but the rest of you better be cheering for the Redbirds tonight. 

 

I know I still owe you a marathon update with pictures. I promise, it's coming.

Chicago

Couple of quick things before I leave for Chicago!!! That's right, in just moments we will be leaving for the Windy City. Oh, I can't wait. My list of eateries that I must visit is daunting but I think we can do it. We picked up our matching Team IW hoodies last night. We are so going to stand out in the crowd. There is no way that our runners won't be able to see 13 people in bright gold with signs and a cowbell. We will be obnoxious and wonderful. I'll post a picture next week.

My mom painted the bathroom. Visit this old post (http://apartmentfiveb.blogspot.com/2006/07/do-not-adjust-your-set.html) to see why this is a big deal. Actually, I should say that my mom made my dad paint the bathroom. It is all white once again. I'll post a picture when all of the fixtures are reinstalled.

That was the best Monday Night Football game ever. So cool. The Bears defense is awesome. Yay Brian Urlacher.

What is wrong with my Cardinals.

I'm not going to talk about the Blues until the Cardinals are finished.

I applied for my passport. So exciting.

By the way, sorry if the formatting is a little off on this post. I don't get the same options when I use an Apple that I do with my PC.

This & That

Things are Apartment Five B might be a little quiet for a while. Kristy, Megan, and Katie post about as often as they go to the dentist. Kelly is busy molding young minds and having her own mind molded. Sarah is in countdown mode. And I simply don't have much that is very interesting to say. I offer this modest post so that we can at least average one per week.

Facebook

You all know that I've become a bit of a MySpace nerd. I know it is a little silly, yet it is still fun to update my profile and check out my groups and post stupid comments on other people's spaces. Recently, I got an email stating that Facebook is now open to anyone and everyone. I never knew it was closed to some people but now that it is apparently available to me for the first time, I had to give it a shot. I do not like it - it is awkward and restrictive - but ladies, I have reconnected with two of our favorite people from Wheaton - Clayton and Efrain. Anyway, in case you guys stop by to check out the blog, hello! Welcome! Glad to know you again. Clayton, tell Shireen to hop on here and say hello to us. Maybe we'll even let her post something.

Movies

This weekend is the opening of a new movie about Queen Esther called One Night With The King. It is a very limited release so check the website for a theater near you. There is also a film coming out in December called The Nativity Story. Looks sort of like the Christmas version of The Passion of Christ. Keisha Castle-Hughes (Paikea in Whale Rider and Queen of Naboo in Star Wars III) plays Mary and Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Lake House and House of Sand and Fog) plays Elizabeth. Interestingly, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who is just 16 years old, just announced she is pregnant. Also on my To See list: Marie Antoinette and The Queen and Jesus Camp.

Countdown to Chicago

One week! I cannot wait. I haven't been there since February and I have missed it so much. Jon, Matt, and Carlos have worked hard preparing for the marathon. We expect to have about 15 people cheering on Team I-W. Jon and Matt had fast enough half-marathon times that they qualified for a preferred starting area, behind the elite runners but ahead of the bulk of the 40,000 crazy people that think running 26.2 miles on a Sunday morning in Chicago in October is a fun thing to do.

St. Louis Sports

Blues home opener is tonight. Go Blues! And the Cardinals play game 1 of the National League Championship Series tonight in New York against the Mets. Go Cards! (As of 9:11 p.m. Central Time, both teams are losing.)

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.)

Go Cards!

I seem to be the only one that remembers how to post on this thing. Hello, out there! Anyone?

I'm headed to the Brewers/Cardinals game tonight. It will be my first time at the new Busch Stadium. We perhaps did not pick the best day to go as the temperature this evening is likely going to dip into the low 40s. Most of you know that I get cranky in cold weather, which is probably a bigger problem for the people I will be spending the even with than for me. I could wear The Coat That Changed My Life but that might be overkill. No one else is going to be in a knee-length parka. Anyway, I'm not sure where our seats are yet. Christina and I got up early and waited at the stadium for First Pitch tickets which are almost like rush tickets. We each got a pair of vouchers for $11 which we will exchange for actual tickets at game time - anything from standing room to a field box. That means Jon and I probably won't be sitting with Christina and Terry. It's all very complicated but I'm just happy that I'm finally getting to go to a game during the inaugural season at the new stadium. Jon is feeling pretty sick today with what is probably a bad cold so I'm a little worried about him going to the game tonight, especially if we end up with standing room tickets. He absolutely has to get in a long run tomorrow (3 hours, maybe more) to stay on schedule with his marathon training.

Thankfully, the Cardinals snapped their 7-game losing streak last night. Their magic number now stands at 4. Kristy, I love you, but I want the Astros to lose, lose, lose.

I Bleed Blue

Just in time for a potentially disappointing end to St. Louis' baseball season, we have what can only be an encouraging start to our hockey season. After 24 consecutive trips to the postseason (which was the longest streak in all of professional sports - NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA), the Blues finished the regular season last year with the worst record in the league, 21-46-15. It was only the 4th time in Blues history that they did not make it to the playoffs. It was embarrassing and disheartening. There are a lot of new names on the roster, a new name for the arena, and a new owner so hopefully this will all add up to a successful season. I've been considering what new element to add to my Blues game-day ensemble. I already have a signed jersey, hat, blue nail polish, Blue note Zamboni earrings, and stickers for my face. I guess the next logical step is socks (pun intended).