Walking around downtown at lunch the other day enjoying a very clear, cool, breezy day I came upon some ornamental grass putting on a show. They have turned color and are positively iridescent.
For other views of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.
The Missouri Botanical Gardens were a total surprise to me. Sweetie wanted to go see them and I said “OK” without a whole lot of enthusiasm. Once I got there I was wowed. They are huge. They cover almost 80 acres and extensive and varied and very very cool. They just go on forever. We spent several hours there. Turns out they are 150 years old.
Plants they had, flowers, shrubs, trees, grass, whatever. They were beautiful, even in mid October.
And more plants, some with thorns on the leaves.
I love water features. They had water features everywhere.
We had lots of FUN that day. We were bushed when we were done.
I recommend that Gardens if you are ever in Saint Louis.
As part of our Saint Louis road trip we took in mid October the Yogi’s visited their City Museum near downtown. It is a unique fun mish mash institution. It has everything from caves to explore that finish with a wild 7 story corkscrew slide, the “Monstrocity” outside a very big jungle that soars about 30 or 40 feet in the air and incorporates two airplance fuselages and a castle tower, a small but fun aquarium, a museum of Mirth, Mystery, and Mayhem, and in interesting collection of terra cotta and stone remnants of torn down buildings.
Sweetie and SuperPizzaBoy in front of Monstrocity. (We climbed up to the airplanes.)
SPB taking off!
Here comes Sweetie climbing through the maze.
Inside the museum building SPB heading up into the caves.
Deep within the bowels of the caves you come upon this massive organ.
Here is a view of the slides. There is no elevator to the top. You climb. Quick ride down. No coffee needed the rest of the day. A girl behind me said “You can go a lot faster if you lay down on your side.” Thanks kid for letting me know what not to do.
I loved their architectural remnants from long gone buildings.
I’ve had days like this
And Bob’s Big Boy – Been a while since I’ve seen one of those. I love SPB’s smile in this one.
They have a little aquarium at City Museum. They were featuring doctor fish. Stick your hands in there for about 5 to 10 minutes and you get a great manicure. They just mob your hands and eat off the dead skin and hangnails. After the initial surprise of getting nibbled by dozens of fish it actually feels good, and it worked as advertised also.
I saved the worst for last. A video of me going down a kiddy slide at City Museum. Of course the only part of me you can see is my shoes.
I rate City Museum in Saint Louis a solid 4 out of 4 stars. Budget at least half a day. Bring some good shoes and loose fitting clothes. This a fun place for the whole family.
I just love Sherman Alexie’s writing. I love the ironic humor in his fiction. Much of it is humorous but with a point, often a very blunt point.
War Dances is a collection of short stories and poems. Most of them involve Native American characters. Alexie is a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian. He wrote the screenplay to one of my favorite movies, “Smoke Signals.” One of the scenes in that movie has become an inside joke with Sweetie and I, “John Wayne’s Teeth.”
I loved this book. I read it in less than 24 hours. It’s 4 stars out of 4.
A couple weeks ago the Yogi’s went on a road trip from Tulsa, OK to Saint Louis, MO for SuperPizzaBoy’s Fall Break. We have never really been on a Fall Break trip before so we were excited.
The day we got to Arch the weather was cold and cloudy. The arch was otherworldly. It just seemed to come from out of the outer space to the ground.
You know something about the Arch that none of the guidebookstell you? The grounds of the Arch are absolutely gorgeous. It is a park with ponds, grass, and trees. It is a beautiful space that would be noteworthy without an arch.
To go up in the Arch. First you have to go down underground to the visitor center. They have a nice museum down there and your choice of movies. They have a mock up of the elevator car used to get up to the top of the Arch. Its a good idea to check it out if you think you are claustrophobic. I’m mildly claustrophobic but I didn’t have a problem. Here are Sweetie and SuperPizzaBoy in the mock up.
The top of the Arch is ok. I had to go, the Arch is on my bucket list after all. But the Arch is a lot more impressive on the outside than on the inside. You lay down at a 45 degree angle and look out little portholes.
Ironically, for a monument to celebrate Westward Expansion, there is not a whole lot to see to the west.
The more interesting views are to the east. At least if you like baseball. Even if you are not a Cardinals fan.
I’m not a Cardinals fan but I would love to see a game in Busch Stadium. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Cardinals. When I was a kid in Utah and Arizona I was a big time Boston Red Sox fan (Carl Yaztremski, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Lonborg, Sparky Lyle, Rico Petrocelli – the only better baseball names are Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig and Mickey Mantle as far as I’m concerned) and I regard the 1967 World Series between the Red Sox and Cardinals to be the epitome of baseball. The Red Sox lost but I was proud of them. The Cardinals won and I respected them, after all, they beat the Red Sox! Oops, sorry, I’m a little off track. Hey I’m entitled. At Eagar, Arizona Elementary school in 1967 in seventh grade we got to go across the street to someone’s house and watch the World Series on a SONY COLOR TELEVISION. Does life get any better than that? Even if the faces were a little purple?
For photographs and stories of places from all over the globe check out That’s My World Tuesday.
Rough Country is a new whodunnit by John Sandford. It stars Virgil Flowers, investigator for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Minnesota. Boy, I wish we had something like that in Oklahoma. It would be nice to apprehend more criminals. Virgil is quite a guy. He has long hair. For work he wears jeans and obscure rock band tshirts. He doesn’t like carrying a gun. He keeps it under the seat of his car. He talks to God every night before he goes to bed.
He is also pretty confident. Mostly about the women he pursues. He has “an active social life” as he describes it. He has this bad habit though of keeping his cell phone close to hand. One of the memorable lines in the novel is “Virgil . . . For God’s sake you left your phone on.” I think he likes his phone better than female companionship.
In this book Virgil has his work cut out for him. I’m not going to spoil anything for you. Lets just say he has to solve a murder that involves country music, multiple lesbian and heterosexual love triangles, some Deliverance type guys, old unsolved murders, fishing, gardening, boating, hunting dogs, and NASCAR. There is something in this book for everybody.
All kidding aside this is a great book. I rate it 4 stars out of 4.
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (NIV)
Photograph taken at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis.
Their web site is here.
Check out “That’s Baloney” for other perfect pairings.
Last night was Freaky Fun Night at SuperPizzaBoy’s school. Everybody had a great time.
We started out early evening with an almost full moon.
SuperPizzaBoy was a ghostbuster. He has his work cut out for him, the place was full of ghosts.
SPB’s friend Nicholas was Zeus
SPB scarfed down some pizza. But, is that really news?
Sweetie was a Gypsy, a cute Gypsy. Sorry for the blurry photo Sweetie. I like it though.
There were games. I made this last year. It has seen lots of use at various events.
SPB’s other friend Quinn got the Scariest Costume award. He scared me, I’ll tell you that.
The joint was jumping!!
Sweetie helped organize the event. I sat in on a meeting with her and the other women organizing the event. They were amazing. You know, I’m thinking about that. I’m tired of hearing about Obama this and W that and Bill this and so on. How about we get Michelle and Laura together and let them run things.I tell you what, we would have decent health care and a balanced budget. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars would get figured out as well. We guys, we just need to be told what to do, and we are fine.
Hey, I’m not done! (Yeah, well I am you mutter) I ran a race today. The Tulsa Run 15k. Its my 16th. This won’t take long.
Here is the starting line. It took me about 3 minutes to get here when the gun sounded.
I only took one picture during the race. This is at about 6K I think.
We finished in front of the BOK Center.
Runners get candy bars courtesy of Quik Trip. This year they had Snickers bars left so I grabbed a couple.
At the finish line we had a band led by Oklahoma’s own Grady Nichols.
They had a very long line for the beer. I hate beer lines. I like it when you just mob the beer truck. I’m pretty good at getting to the front. I don’t elbow anybody. I find a seam, turn sideways, and move through. Square up, find another seam, and repeat. Works wonderfully. Not much can be done with a line.
I got my cup of suds. I think they were running out. The people doing the serving seemed to be in a sour mood. Runners can be pretty demanding. We like to get our moneys worth of free beer.
So right now Sweetie is carving a pumpkin and we are going to go trick or treating tonight.
Who says white middle aged guys can’t wrap. From a family web site.
I rate it four stares out of four stars. (sic)
I generally ignore office parties and decorations and such but hey I love Halloween so when the office had a pumpkin decorating contest I decided what the hay, I’ll enter.
So I bought a couple of pumpkins and a gourd and set them out..
And I won!
Now, don’t be smirking especially when I say that they had three prizes and three entries.
A prize is a prize.
I am now an award winning pumpkin decorator.
Have you won any prizes lately? I want to hear the details!