Nostalgia Drags

We went to the Muscle Car Reunion & Nostalgia Drags at Gateway today.

That's some shiny chrome!




Chris got sunburnt where he didn't put sunscreen, and my part got it too. Ouch! It was worth it though.

Up

We went to the movies together this evening. We saw Disney's Up. I was afraid it might be tough to get tickets, but our 7:30 showing was only about half full.

I cried during the movie. It costs $50 for a family of three to go to the show and get popcorn and drinks. (That's not really what made me cry, but I came close then too.)

Strawberry Pretzel Squares

I made Jello Strawberry Pretzel Squares for the company potluck today.



Mmmm, so good. I'm very proud of how well these cut and plated. They stayed together and did not run all over. Yea!

What I'm reading

Dream State: Eight Generations of Swamp Lawyers, Conquistadors, Confederate Daughters, Banana Republicans, and Other Florida Wildlife Diane Roberts.



Why: I will be in Florida in exactly one month.

Thai Kitchen

We went to Thai Kitchen last night.

I had a veggie yellow curry. It was good, but I didn't eat the onions. Too hard on my stomach.

Dennis got wonton with bbq pork soup. The portion was very generous. This is a good place to experiment and share.

Chris didn't order anything at all. He used to beg us to go to Thai Kitchen when we lived over that way, but he seems to have developed a fear of ethnic food lately. I think the menu may have gotten to him. It is pretty long, but the descriptions seem easy to understand. I don't know what is up, but he ordered chicken fingers at a taqueria recently too.

Censorship Sucks! or Cooter Cleavage

I heard the Camel Toe Song on the radio this morning.

This is the first time since the wardrobe malfunction that I've heard it.

The FCC calling off the dogs is change I can believe in.

That changes the whole sport!

Well, we got shot at today.

All we really wanted to do was shoot 25 clay birds.

The people on the trap next to us thought it would be much more sporting to continue shooting their clay birds while we were downrange unloading our trap machine.

This is a new version of bunker trap we had not heard of. I don't think we'll play again any time soon. Or we'll at least take our guns downrange with us so that we may return fire as necessary.

Camp Log Day Two

We also stopped at the Mexico (MO) Wal-Mart (wheee!) last night for citronella candles and bug bite goo.

We ate well on this camping trip. I pitched our tent over a hole. Since it was my butt sinking into it, I think it was a sinkhole to the center of the earth. Between that and the time I fell down on Friday, I can barely move today. Good thing all we have to do is break camp, drive home, unpack and clean everything up.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Camping & other fun things

Graham Cave State Park is infested with mosquitos. The minute we stepped out of our cars last night, we were swarmed.

After a healthy breakfast,


We went for a hike. Dennis "enjoyed" the local songbirds.


Then we went to Crane's Country Store.

When it rains it's hot

So now that my fuel pump and radio work and my car is all packed up to go camping this weekend, my air conditioner conked out on the way home from work.

I quit!

My car has never been a huge POS before. I guess I'm just "lucky" or something.

"All New" Neon

Dennis is replacing my fuel pump.

This is how my car got home after work. It has never been towed before.

"All Old" Neon

Well, I didn't want an "All New" Camaro eariler today, but now that my car is dead in the Schnuck's parking lot and I took an inadvertent 90 minute lunch, I guess I'd take one!

"All New" Camaro

I saw an All New Camaro with dealer plates on it this morning. It was crossing the bridge and got off the highway at Earth City. My guess is it was going to the casino to sit around for a special promotion.

There is zero engine noise on the highway, and the guy wouldn't give me a look over so I could get him to rev it up or anything. I think it was a V6. There were no markings signifying it as an SS, and I don't think it had the extended facia the V8 cars have.

It was nice to see, but it did not make me want one. The exterior styling is, well, bland. It wasn't just that it didn't photograph well.

Donkey donkey

What do you call a donkey with one leg?
A wonkey donkey.

What do you call a donkey with one leg and one eye?
A winkey wonkey donkey.

What do you call a donkey with one leg and one eye and makin’ love?
A bonkey winkey wonkey donkey.

What do you call a donkey with one leg and one eye makin’ love while breaking wind ?
A stinkey bonkey winkey wonkey donkey.

What do you call a donkey with one leg and one eye makin’ love while breaking wind wearing blue suede shoes?
A honkey tonkey stinkey bonkey winkey wonkey donkey.

What do you call a donkey with one leg and one eye makin’ love while breaking wind wearing blue suede shoes and playing the piano?
A plinkey plonkey honkey tonkey stinkey bonkey winkey wonkey donkey.

What do you call a tiny donkey with one leg and one eye makin’ love while breaking wind wearing blue suede shoes and playing the piano?
A dinkey plinkey plonkey honkey tonkey stinkey bonkey winkey wonkey donkey.

Better late than never.

The tomato bed is finally planted out. The tomatoes have been out there since May 3rd, but I've completely forgotten to take any pictures of them.

Now they have serrano and banana peppers and a whole bunch of annual flowers.



Now I need to weed and fence this bed and mow the grass and blah. I've lost my garden momentum already this year. The rabbits and grass have just taken the wind out of my sails. I'm not going to get to them this weekend either, so they'll just have to get hardier or die.

Slacker Gardener

There's a tiny little broccoli head in there!


Despite a complete lack of care, and a few rabbit attacks, the strawberries are still trying to produce.

Goodbye little friend

Scarlett has found a new home! She's living just around the corner, so we should be able to see her from time to time.

I didn't know she was leaving today, but luckily I did get to take a nice nap with her on the couch earlier.

I'm really glad we were able to help her while this family was waiting for their dog. It has been about a year and a half since their yorkie passed, and they're finally ready to move on.

Scarlett is going to love it!

Storm damage

The weather Wednesday didn't pan out too well for us in St. Charles, but up by Mom & Dad really got it.

There was an EF0 tornado and a downburst in Gillespie.

Taqueria

We went to Taqueria la Pasadita. We got a very nice old Taco Bell window view of a pretty GOOD thunderstorm while we were there. My family went all gringo on me - Dennis got a BBQ chimichanga and Chris got chicken fingers and fries. I had a torta de carnitas and most of Dennis's discarded horchata.

Taqueria la Pasadita is good. My torta was good. The carnitas were moist and flavorful. They also have chicharon on the menu. It is worth a second look, but it will not replace Taqueria Los Tarascos right up the street as my favorite Mexican restaurant.



I want to get a horchata and put coconut rum in it.

Commuter

My commute is about 17 miles each way. This is the stuff I usually look at every day.

A catalpa tree on the Lindenwood campus.


Under the St. Charles water tower.


The Blanchette Bridge is the busiest bridge in the state.


Eight lanes over eight lanes with fun flying ramps!


LSX


Metrolink


Alberici's windmill.

This doesn't happen every day

We don't get dynamics like this all of the time in St. Louis. SPC has had us pegged in a moderate risk bubble since Sunday. We had a pretty good batch of hail around 4:00 this morning from an elevated storm, which even my 4:00 am still sleeping brain took as a sign of impressive instability.

I'm especially interested to see if we get any supercells forming out in front of the main frontal squall line.

DAY 1 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1112 AM CDT WED MAY 13 2009

VALID 131630Z - 141200Z

...THERE IS A MDT RISK OF SVR TSTMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING OVER PARTS OF OK...SOUTHEAST KS...NORTHWEST AR...MUCH OF MO AND MUCH OF IL...

...SYNOPSIS...
VIGOROUS TROUGH AND STRONG POLAR JET MAX MOVES EWD FROM NRN PLAINS TO UPPER GREAT LAKES LATER TONIGHT...WITH GREATEST CONVECTIVE POTENTIAL REMAINING ALONG THE SRN PERIPHERY OF THIS SYSTEM WHERE THE RESERVOIR OF MOIST/UNSTABLE AIR MASS RESIDES. COLD FRONT EXTENDS FROM THE DEEP LOW WRN ONTARIO SWWD THRU UPPER MS VALLEY...CENTRAL KS TO NRN TX PANHANDLE THIS AM.

VERY STRONG SWLY LOW LEVEL JET AOA 60KT FROM SRN PLAINS INTO LOWER MO VALLEY CHARACTERIZED BY A PRONOUNCED EML ATOP A VERY MOIST BUT RELATIVELY SHALLOW MOIST LAYER. STRONG ISENTROPIC ASCENT UNDERWAY ACROSS MID MS VALLEY WITH CURRENT ELEVATED THUNDERSTORMS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE AND LIKELY BECOME MORE INTENSE THRU THE AFTERNOON.

...MID MS VALLEY/LOWER MO VALLEY...
PERSISTENT ELEVATED THUNDERSTORMS MID MS INTO LOWER OH VALLEYS WILL TRANSITION INTO A MORE SURFACE BASED SUPERCELL THREAT BY MID AFTERNOON AS TEMPERATURES CLIMB ALONG WITH DEWPOINTS TO THE S AND W ACROSS MO INTO SERN KS. WITH MID LEVEL LAPSE RATES IN EXCESS OF 8C/KM AND DEWPOINTS RISING THRU THE 60S F...MLCAPES UPWARD OF 2500
J/KG WILL DEVELOP WITH WEAKENING CINH BY MID AFTERNOON UPSTREAM FROM THE ONGOING ELEVATED STORMS. WHILE DEEP LAYER SHEAR OF 40KT IS NOT PARTICULARLY STRONG FOR TORNADIC SUPERCELLS...THE ENHANCED LOW LEVEL SHEAR VICINITY OF CONVECTIVE BOUNDARIES WILL LOCALLY ENLARGE HODOGRAPHS AND BE QUITE FAVORABLE FOR AT LEAST A COUPLE SUPERCELLS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG TORNADOES BY LATER THIS AFTERNOON/EVENING GIVEN THE EXPECTED INSTABILITY. IN ADDITION VERY LARGE HAIL SHOULD OCCUR WITH ANY SUPERCELL AND WIND DAMAGE WILL BECOME MORE OF A THREAT AS CONVECTION TRANSITIONS INTO MORE OF A LINEAR MODE BY THIS EVENING.

ANOTHER FACTOR IN TODAYS CONVECTIVE SCENARIO WILL LIKELY BY THE MCV NOW INTO SWRN MO. AS AIR MASS DESTABILIZES ACROSS SRN MO IN ADVANCE OF THIS FEATURE A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM THREAT WOULD LIKELY DEVELOP BY MID AFTERNOON.

Second Monday

My car would not start this morning. With no warning whatsoever.

It went "crank crank crank" "crank crank click" "click click click".

I turned to Chris and said, "You'd better start walking." So off he went, violin case in hand.

I opened the hood and started poking around. Sure enough, the entire protective boot on the positive battery connection was packed with corrosion. EW!

Baking soda watered down to a paste will really clean your battery terminals quickly. After about 40 minutes of cleaning, prying, scraping and rinsing, my car was running again.

I've had it for almost 11 years, and this is the first time I've been late to work because of it, so I guess I can't complain. I still feel like complaining though.

Space Invaders

Stuipd stupid stupid grass is taking over my garden beds.

I'm spraying it with Roundup today and delaying my main planting yet another week.

Mother's Day-trip

We went to the Lake of the Ozarks for the day today.

There was a lot of water coming over the spillway at Bagnell Dam. There were a lot of people out netting shad. There are also a few good sized paddlefish living in the power plant output area.



Then we went to Ha Ha Tonka State Park to hike and enjoy the scenery. The dogs really enjoyed themselves.





We capped of the day with a buffet dinner at Shoney's in Osage Beach. I didn't know there were any Shoney's left.

YHEC Practice

No peas for you!

I have a Snow Pea Nazi.



My peas lived through a snow storm, but they couldn't survive this guy.



Jerk.

Margarita Number Two

2 oz tequila, 1 oz Cointreau, 1 oz lime juice, 1 oz simple syrup (2 parts sugar, 1 part water).



The Cabo is much better. Yummy!

It doesn't have the "sea breeze" taste of the best margaritas I've had, but it would sure hit the spot on a hot hot hot sunny afternoon.

What I'm reading

A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold.

Coldplay

One billion violins!

This is the entire St. Charles public school orchestra - from fourth grade through High School.



Chris's spring concert was this evening. Way to go kids!

(That was Viva la Vida, by the way.)

Seven years ago today

It was Kentucky Derby day. I was upset about missing the derby, but I was also enjoying a good time at MoPark 2002. That's where I met Dennis. We knew of each other before this because we were both in the same car club, but this was the day Dennis decided he like me enough to contact me after the fact.

They've even got a picture of me sitting on the picnic table where I had my first big conversation with Dennis. Whatever charming and bewitching things I said, I've now forgotten, but I do remember talking to him for quite a while.

Front landscaping

We actually installed the front landscaping today.

All day.

Even my pains hurt now :)

Before:


A Purpleleaf Sand Cherry in tree form is our focal point. (Prunus X cistena):


I am doing mostly woodland herbacious perinneals. Foilage includes Annabelle hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'), Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora), Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans 'Stairway to Heaven', Heuchera (Heuchera 'Regina'), and Hosta (Hosta x fortunei 'Francee'):



There are also Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra formosa 'Luxuriant') and Liriope (Liriope muscari 'Silvery Sunproof'):


They're just babies right now, but they'll fill in.


I am still looking for a tall (12 - 15'), columnar (6 - 8' max width), shade loving, probably evergreen for the corner. The whole front just drops off to a sharp edge on the far right waiting for the magical gardening unicorn to stop by with a basket of options.

Shut the front door

We've had a commitment problem. With the paint color for our unpainted but primed front door.

We've had paint chips taped up for a week or two, and finally settled on Belle Grove Victory Blue.



Three coats later. It is supposed to look like the middle color on the sample.


Let the waiting begin. We'll have a front door again in about 8 hours.

Margaritaville? Not quite yet.

I am going to perfect the Perfect Margarita. (3 parts tequila, 2 parts Cointreau, 1 part lime juice* or thereabouts, I'll let you know when I find the perfect Perfect ratio!)



It looks pretty.

The Jose Cuervo Especial Gold is just not up to the task. Apparently you can't buy perfection for $17. The aftertaste is just - bad. EW!

*This one was 1.5 oz tequila, 1 oz lime juice, .5 oz Cointreau for the record.