What I'm Reading

Bob Dylan Behind the Shades Clinton Heylin (1991 version).

What I'm Reading

Isadora: A Sensational Life Peter Kurth.

Second Amendment Celebration

We shot sporting clays at St. Louis Skeet & Trap Club today. When I say "we shot sporting clays", I mean "Dennis and Chris shot sporting clays and I picked blackberries."

Birthday Trip: Chicago

Last night after the concert was a little unbelievable. I had a room reserved at the Red Roof Inn in Willowbrook, IL. When we got there, sometime around midnight, I was informed that they had no more rooms. The young guy working the front desk was unhelpful, and the 800 number said I needed to deal with him. My credit card reservation entitles me to a night at another hotel on their dime if they overbook their hotel, but he took so long I just gave up and left. I drove south on I-55 until I came to the Springhill Suites at the Bolingbrook exit. It is $35 more than the reservation, but it was a bed to sleep in.

We got downtown early, because I was worried about traffic and parking. Neither of these were an issue. We drove right up Lakeshore Drive and straight into a mostly empty parking garage on Randolph Street.

We went on a segway tour with City Segway Tours. It was a rainy morning, but the tour was really fun!





After our three hour tour (a three hour tour), we ate at Giordano's in the Prudential Building.


We ate dessert first:


Then stuffed pizzas:


Then we walked through the theater district up to
The Sears Tower. Except it is officially called "Willis Tower" now.







On the way home, Chris accidently threw ketchup all over my car:

Birthday Trip: Chicago

Crossroads Festival was extremely awesome!

We got there early and got pretty good seats:


Then we spread out our blanket and got ready:


The music was amazing. My personal favorite set was Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, and Ronnie Wood. I. SAW. CLAPTON. LIVE. There were a few other "bucket list" moments too. ZZ Top is freakin' badass. Warren Haynes, Robert Cray played Chicken in the Kitchen, John Mayer?!?!??, Jimmie Vaughan played Six Stings Down - OMGJEFFBECK - and Jeff Beck's BASS PLAYER! Shuuuut up! I can't believe I actually saw this concert!

Ron Wood, Buddy Guy & Jonny Lang:


ZZ Top:


Clapton & Winwood "Had to Cry Today":


Finale:

Birthday Trip: Chicago

Chris and I left for Chicago after work today. We ate dinner at Cozy Dog Drive In in Springfield.



We're staying near the concert venue tonight so we can get to Toyota Park early tomorrow to hopefully get good seats for Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010.

Bonus! Our hotel room smells like hamster pee.

The Not-Cheap Seats

Dennis got some infield-box seats for a Cardinals' game from a vendor.





The seats were great, and the Cards won 9 - 3. My giant pretzel was very dry, but good. I'm glad Dennis got the giant lemonade to wash it down with!

What I'm Reading

An American Story Debra Dickerson

Garden update

The garden seems to be doing well this year. I didn't move the beds down the hill, so it is still more shady than I'd really like.













The lillies are in full bloom right now, and my hydrangeas are getting a good start too.

Washington D.C.

Chris is planning to participate in an amazing educational program to Washington, D.C., next Spring with his friends and classmates from St. Charles! They’ll spend a total of five days together in D.C. learning really cool things about our country. Here are some of the awesome activities that are planned for them on their Discover D.C. program:

• The Capitol: seeing the Rotunda and the Senate and House chambers where Congress meets.
• White House: visiting the most famous house in America - home to our president and the executive branch of our government.
• Lincoln Memorial: paying tribute to our 16th president and reading his famous Gettysburg Address.
• Arlington National Cemetery: seeing the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Eternal Flame at JFK’s gravesite, and the Challenger Memorial.
• Smithsonian Museums: visiting the many Smithsonian museums located on the Mall in D.C., including the Air and Space Museum and Museum of Natural History.

In order to take part in this totally unique adventure, he needs to raise a total of $1707. Please help him by sponsoring a portion of his trip. Any contribution you could make would bring him that much closer to this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Please contact us for details on how to send in your contribution.

Please call or email me if you have any questions or want to hear more about this really great learning opportunity. WorldStrides is the educational travel company organizing the trip, and you can check out the Student Center on www.worldstrides.org to see tons of videos, photos, and interviews with other kids who have already traveled. Thank you for your consideration.




I'll continually update this post as we get closer to the goal and trip time.

What I'm Reading

I've been hitting the biography reading list hard lately.

Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography Anne Edwards.



For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter and Kris Stoever



An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us James Carroll



An Hour Before Daylight : Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood Jimmy Carter



Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter James S. Hirsch



Colors of the Mountain Da Chen



The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History Joseph M. Marshall III



Life and Death in Shanghai Nien Cheng

There are plants in my garden!

I finally built the chicken wire and conduit fences from the materials I bought last year. I spread black landscape fabric over my beds to hopefully kill off the crabgrass that got into my garden last year. Now I've got plants in the ground!

I didn't get this done earlier because I knew the fabric would make direct seeding difficult.


Lettuces, petunias, monring glories and pole beans.


Cantaloupe, cukes, nasturtium, marigolds, perennial herbs.


Tomatoes, borage, amaranthus, mairgolds, peppers.

What I'm reading

The Gate Francois Bizot.



I am back on the boigraphy reading list I started on a long time ago. It is good to have time to read again.

HP Sauce

I just got some HP Sauce from World Market.

Oh joy!

Now I need to make meat pies or something deliciously yummy and English.

Chris and Dennis vetoed canned spotted dick.

What's in the fridge

Irish Extra Stout again.

2010 Garden Plan

I think I'm going to replant last year's garden plan this year.

We're going to move the beds down the hill and level them soon. I'll test the ground in the backyard. Only the top layer needs to soften up, so we might be able to get this done this Sunday. It is supposed to be over 40 in the afternoon.

I am going to have to put down some kind of weed barrier this year. Crabgrass got into the beds last year, probably from our lawn trimmings in the compost. I think I can just staple 4' x 4' sheets of black weed fabric over the tops of the beds.

I'll have to refill them to the top to make this work to its best advantage.

I am also going to have to build the fence before I start planting. I think I can make something that will work out of the chicken wire we bought last year. I need to keep squirrels out immediately, rabbits once I put in plants, and birds once there is visible fruit. You'd think they'd get their fill from the neighbor's St. Francis statue garden.

I still really want to see this happen in real life.


I don't really feel like starting any seeds indoors this spring. I'll have to review and revise based on what is available in the garden centers later.

Chess Pie

Chess Pie #4

Sugar Cream Pie

1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
7 T ap flour
2 c evaporated milk
1 T diced butter
1/4 t ground nutmeg

Mix the sugars, flour, and milk. Pour into crust. Dot with butter and sprinkle with nutmeg to look pretty. Bake 300 degrees for 1 hour.



This is also not really Chess Pie. Dennis and I both identified evaporated milk when we were eating at Gus's Fried Chicken, and it is their Chess Pie I am trying to recreate. This isn't it, but it is good. It has a bit too much flour taste to me, but I think real cream would solve that. I also think going pure white sugar would sweeten it up. I would like that, because you can't get a pie too sweet for me.

BB King & Buddy Guy

I just got back from seeing BB King and Buddy Guy.

BB's set was plagued with sound problems. How disappointing. The crowd was not into it.

Mr. Buddy Guy played the panties off of everybody. He burned stuff down. Wow! He played an Albert King song so low down and dirty that I almost cried.

I feel privileged to be able to see these men play. I noticed there were not that many people my age in the crowd. Hippies, stadium rockers, hair banders and kids around Chris's age were all represented, but I just didn't see that many from the MTV generation. Where are you guys?

Chess Pie

Chess Pie #3

Jefferson Davis Pie

1/2 c softened butter
1/2 c white
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 c heavy cream
1 egg
1 T ap flour
1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c heavy cream
1 t sugar
1 t bourbon

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix white sugar, brown sugar, and flour. Add softened butter, cream, eggs and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Pour into unbaked pie shell.

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 and continue baking for 45 to 50 minutes.
Whip cream and add sugar gradually until stiff peaks form. Once cream is whipped, gently fold in the bourbon. Serve with pie.



Ok, this is not really Chess Pie. It is sugary and caramely. It goes really well with the bourbon whipped cream.

Presenting Chester A. Rathur

We have a new family member!



In honor of President's Day, his name is Chester A. Rathur.