Yippeeeee!!!

Found this funny little tidbit via this blog. You'll have to check out the entire cat gallery. My favorite is the "I has a flavor" kitten. I've put words in many a cats mouth, but never quite came up with that one...

We're goin' to a show!!!

I just bought tickets to go see SPAMALOT!!! My lucky kids are even going, although they may have to do rock, paper, scissors to see who has to sell a kidney to help pay for the tickets...anyhoo, WE'RE GOING!!! Every time the commercial would come on for it, daughter the eldest would beg and plead to go. I can't wait til they get home from school today so we can tell them we've got tickets for Thursday.

I've loved Monty Python since I was a young kid trying to keep the antenna adjusted to get a clear picture on the remoteless TV. Times have changed, but my love for their humor hasn't. They are silly-smart, and that gets me every time.

Spam-Spam-Spam-Spam, Spa-a-a-a-m, wonderful Spam!!!

Just in case ya didn't know...

CARDS WIN!!!!!!!!

Another trip to the Art Museum

On Sunday, we all piled into the vehicle and headed over to the St. Louis Art Museum. We met our old next door neighbors to check out the exhibits and head out for a bite to eat afterward. We all agreed the way coolest thing we saw that day were two installations by an artist named Tara Donovan. She takes common, everyday objects and creates mind blowing art with them. Betcha can't guess what the hazy, cloudy wall above was created with...DRINKING STRAWS!!!!! As we walked from one side of the wall to the other, the effect was amazing.

Here is a straight on view close up.

The second installation was made from plastic cups. The above photo was from another museum, but it shows the scale of the work better than any from the SLAM. I have no earthly idea how many cups she used here, but the number had to be gi-normous. My friend Sherry wanted to nudge one of the ouside edge cups just a little to see what would happen, but there was plenty of museum security around to keep her from giving in to her inner moppet.

This is a close up view of the St. Louis installation.

Afterward, we headed to Fitz's to get a bite to eat. The kids drank enough root beer to float themselves home. We couldn't watch any bottling being done, because Sunday must be "swab the decks" day. They were cleaning when we got there, and were still going at it when we left 2 hours later. Kinda reassuring, that.

Hugs and kisses, y'all.

A little music always helps.

Worked on the house most of the day Friday. Queued up some CDs and hit random. I was in a bit of a mellow mood. The selections were as follows:

Plans - Death Cab For Cutie
A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay
Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks
Airstreams & Satellites - Garrison Starr
Why Should the Fire Die? - Nickel Creek

I look really spiffy in my big wireless headphones vacuuming away. Anyone could come right in and carry the entire house off, as long as they stay out of my direct sightline. It sure does make cleaning a lot more enjoyable. I would have used my mp3 player, but don't have all of these CDs loaded into it yet. Maybe that should be my next project.

Am I the only one who has to use motivational music to get my butt in gear and shovel through the house? If you do the same thing, what kind of playlist motivates you? I'll admit that many times my muse is an obnoxious 80's dance mix, with one of the standouts being It's Raining Men.

Hallelujah!

Summer's winding down.

The days are getting shorter. The kids have posed for the obligatory first day of school photo with backpacks on at the front door. End of season allergies are kicking in.

It's been a very strange summer...oscillating between joy and despair. Loved ones have passed on, trips have been taken, family has come and gone in a whirlwind of suitcases and playing children, the kids have had a summer's worth of good night kisses and good morning hugs. Time passes and smoothes over some of the sharp edges just a little.

I'm ready for a change of seasons this year. I puttered around in the craft room with some clay and even bought a little yarn for a new project. The house seems all cluttery, and I'm working my way up to caring about it...baby steps, people, baby steps.

The photo above was taken on the Kaskaskia river just as the sun was setting. Those are my two little ducklings tubing behind the boat.

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

On Wednesday we took in a Cardinals game. Yes, Wednesday, when the heat was still on. Being an experienced mom, I made sure we were armed with Squeeze Breezes and personal fans. We spent more on ice cream than the GNP of a small country. Not really an ideal night to enjoy a game, but the tickets were already bought and paid for...so you suck it up and go. BTW, the Cards got their butts handed to them 16-8.

We took the Metrolink instead of driving in, so we headed out a little early to try to beat the huge throngs herded onto the platforms waiting for a turn on the train. The metrolink workers were already directing folks into tight "train sized" clusters. People were hot, sweaty, and in no mood to be screwed with. Thank God we just had to wait about 8 or 10 minutes for the next train to come along. I noticed one older gentleman standing in the row beside us who looked like he was just about to collapse...seriously. I reached between people and turned my little fan on him. I was miserable, but he looked sick. Just getting a little air moving around him seemed to perk him up a little. A little side note: When we're moving in a crowded place with the kids, D's job is to do the blocking and room making. I usually bring up the rear to make sure all the kids are herded between us. Now, when it came time to get on our train, D and the kids pushed on and I was getting blocked out by the crowd. That same sweltering fella kept an eye out for me and made sure to give me room to get on before he did.

I know that story doesn't sound all that earth shattering, but here's the point. It always kind of surprises me when strangers repay a small kindness. With the world the way it is today, I just don't have all that high of expectations.

It's nice when it all works out.

The photo above is a shot of the time/temp display inside the stadium. The temp stayed within a few degrees the entire time we were there.

A trip to the zoo.

Daughter the Younger was away from home having some sleepover fun, so I asked Daughter the Eldest what she'd like to do with the day we were spending with Granny. "Go to the zoo!" was the reply.

It was hotter than the hinges of Hades when we made our way to the zoo on the 15th. We had an amply stocked roll-y cooler, and a vow to not get in too big of a hurry. A highlight was going through the Penguin and Puffin area, which is kept really cold. Like 45 degrees cold. We pretty much made it around to everything but the River's Edge area. Daughter, Granny, and I made it back home and pretty much collapsed into the wonder that is a cool, air-conditioned home.

Even though it was eleventy billion degrees, we had a good day.

Above is a photo that the young 'un took of the sweet little prairie dogs. They were studying us every bit as much as we were studying them.

Another goodbye

On July 2nd, after a short illness, my mother-in-law Ann passed away.

We are all still reeling from it. Ann was a wonderful mother, grandmother, and friend. I've been sitting here typing and deleting so many things, because the words just aren't right, or enough. The sun keeps coming up and setting and the world is still turning, I just feel a few steps behind it right now.

Goodbye for now Ann. We'll keep you in our hearts until we see you later.

-k

RIP Sweet Boy

I really don't know how to start this, so I'll just begin. On the 10th of May, I had to make the decision to put my sweet little Zippy cat down. He was a constant in my life for 19 years. That's a long time, I know...but you never really feel like it's enough time. He had been suffering from chronic renal failure for who knows how long, really, and it just seemed to spiral downward in the last few weeks of his life. He grew steadily sicker and weaker. We tempted him with his favorite treats, carried him to the litterbox when he could no longer make it himself, and spent his last days loving him as much as possible. He went peacefully with the help of a wonderful, caring vet staff. I was able to hold him the entire time, so the last thing he felt was being held and petted.

It's odd...grieving for a pet. I feel as if I can't really talk about it too much for fear of being the "crazy cat lady". I keep wanting to just get up and dust myself off, but grief doesn't work like that. It's sticky and messy.

-k

A fun little time waster.

You can spell anything with Spell with flickr. I love the "ransom note" quality of the results. The spacing was kinda wonky, and I have no idea how that could be remedied, but all in all a fun little toy.

Yes, please.

You Belong in London

You belong in London, but you belong in many cities... Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sidney. You fit in almost anywhere.And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

What European City Do You Belong In?

I've actually been to London and LOVED it! The things we consider old and historic here in the USA don't even hold a candle to what the Europeans have. It's also true that while I was there, I kept thinking of all the OTHER places I'd like to go...

City Museum!!!

The kids had an unexpected day off from school yesterday, so we headed over to St. Louis to make the most of it at the City Museum. It's not like a regular museum. It's filled with all manner of recycled bits and bobs from local buildings that are re-used in all kinds of crazy, fun ways.

There is a "forest to climb through and explore. The "Enchanted Caves" are a wacky conglomeration of concrete caves and Mad Max looking decayed industrial levels to climb.

We spent some time on the 3rd floor in Art City. There are always art materials out for the visitors to use, and most are free. We looooovve the free stuff!!! The snowflake lady was there, so we all cut our "animal" snowflakes. She sells books with patterns all kinds of snowflakes. We have a few of the books, and they're lots of fun to do.

We spent a lot of time outside the building in MonstroCity. It's not for the faint of heart. There are twisty, turny, HIGH tunnels to crawl in all the way up to the third floor of the building! There's lots of places to snag the seat of your pants (just ask Daughter the Eldest!) and make the mistake of looking down and suffer heart palpatations. The preferred method of going down from one area to the next is one of the slides.

While the kids were busy climbing and sliding, I sat in the centrally located "tree house" and listened to some podcasts. The most telling description I could give of MonstroCity is that it looks like something my Uncle Byron would make just for the hell of it.

If you're going to be in St. Louis and are looking for something fun to do and see, then you MUST go to the City Museum...

just don't take the bus.

It got a little windy yesterday.

This is what's left of the HUGE shed that we parked our boat in. Our boat is the one with the bit of aluminum lying ever so jauntily across the bow of it. This property is only about 1/4 of a mile down the road from our home. We were so very fortunate that the only problem we had at home was a few missing shingles. I guess they weren't technically missing, as they were still in our yard.

There is also a home in front of the "shed". Fortunately, the only big damage to it was that the front eaves were snapped up and lying on the roof. The kindly neighbors who let us use the space in their shed weren't home at the time, so no one is hurt.

The beautiful subdivision just across the street and down from us took a pretty big hit, i.e. roofs blown off, entire backs of homes just gone, etc. The police weren't letting anyone in that didn't live there. There is still a squad car posted there today.

We missed most of the excitement in our neighborhood as this was happening. We were on the way home from a matinee with the kids . The theater we went to is in Belleville, just south of Fairview Heights, so I wanted to drive home via Fairview to use a Borders coupon before it expired that day. I rarely let one of those go unused. Anyhoo, as we were heading northbound on Rt. 159, the traffic lights started to go dead. That's not a road you want to be on when that happens, because it takes freakin' forever to get through all the congestion. The sky was black and the rain was really coming down, so I weighed my options and decided that paying full price for something at Borders might not be so bad, and proceeded to change direction and head straight home. We were blown about, rained on and pelted with hail for the rest of the ride home.

God must have had a hand in those annoying dead traffic signals. At just the time we would have been getting to Borders, a store in that very same area collapsed (there was a fatality involved), part of the roof was blown off of the mall across the street, and power lines were down everywhere. I think they're still clearing debris away today.

There were emergency vehicles and police everywhere as we got close to home. We were so happy to see our house still standing there. D got up on the roof to patch it up. We retrieved our planters that had blown down the street, checked on neighbors, lit some candles, had some cereal and counted our blessings.

Here is a link to a story that I found. The Borders mentioned is the very one we were heading toward!

Spring may really be here after all!

I'm SO ready to see some hummingbirds. Here's a neat little place to track their progress. Looks like it's time to get the feeders cleaned up and ready for the hungry little creatures. I really don't have a lot of luck in attracting birds, but the hummers and goldfinches usually feel sorry for me and set up shop in my yard.

We have a back porch/lanai type area on our house, and we love to sit out there and watch whoever decides to come in for a little lunch. One time I could swear that a little hummer was reading the paper with my mother-in-law.

Aaaahhh...pretty soon, I'll be sitting out with my glass of iced tea, feeling the warm air, and watching the show.

Ciao.

Birthdays really are nice.

Thanks to all of my family and friends that remembered little old me on my birthday. I made the crew take me out to eat Imo's pizza. I'm the only one in the family that likes it, and the last time we had it was for my birthday LAST year!!! BWAAAHAHAHAHA!!! Being queen for a day makes me absolutely giddy with power!

As you can see from the ginormous candles on the cake, I am 44 years old (or young, as all the old people say), but I prefer to think of it as 22 folded in half.

Ciao baby.

This is my new idol.

I don't even know how I landed on this. Irene has no problem whatsoever in her wardrobe choices. She just may have the solution to all my worries about my wardrobe. She's stylin' and happy. What more could you ask?