First Day of School

Monday, August 13th was Taylor and Hale's first day of school. We had all anticipated this day soon after arriving in Missouri. Anticipated it because we realized there was no one around here for the girls to get to know, except for the senior citizen crew that resides on our street. They are friendly enough, but I don't think they'd make good spend the night material. Except for maybe Vicki. As long as she brought her dog. She seems about as air headed as Taylor.

We had open houses for each school the week before. For those who don't know, Taylor is going into the seventh grade and Hale the fifth so they are at different schools. Open house went okay for the most part. Taylor's school is pretty big compared to where we came from. There may be about 800 kids in her school. It's 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. All of the halls are divided into grades which is pretty neat. There is hardly ever any interaction between the grades. The only interaction may be foreign language, band and choir. But even PE is grade specific. I like that. During Taylor's open house, all the new kids and parents were separated and taken on a tour of the school. There were about 7-8 new kids including Taylor. Tom and I were both there. As our guide was taking us around she stopped at the choir room. She asked if anyone was in choir (Taylor is) but no one motioned that they were so Tom held Taylor's hand up and said, "she is". That really embarrassed her. Taylor's face is normally a shade of pink but her face got truly beet red. I noticed a boy was really watching her hard. He thought it was very funny and was smiling during this brief interruption. He looked at her a little longer than anyone normally would. After the tour advanced, i told Taylor about what i witnessed to tease her. I thought the boy was very cute and thought she would, too. He has this kind of surfer, what's up dude look to him, (not the Jeff Spicoli look).The tour ended and that was that.

The day started early. She was up at 5:45. Her bus comes at 7:03. That's and entire hour sooner than in Virginia. She got up though on her own and got ready for school. (During the summer, we were lucky to see her out of sooner than 10:00.) She left with her dad walking her to the bus stop. That was not cool with her. He only to walk her half way though. As soon as the bus stop became visible and she saw there were kids already there she made him leave. There were about 6 boys and two girls. No wonder she couldn't find anyone to hang out with during the summer. At 7:15 she comes home. The bus never showed up and school starts at 7:15 so I took her to school. This is funny because she learned where all of her classes are coming from where the bus drops them off, not where parents drop kids off. She had no idea where to go. She said it took her about 15 minutes to find her hall.

At some point that morning she went to the school store to purchase two locks. One for her locker and one for her PE locker. Normally, she would have used lockers last year in sixth grade, but her school was being renovated and there were no lockers. This was her first year using lockers and the typical combination locks associated with school lockers. So she purchases her locks and puts one on her regular locker, backwards. I don't that stood out in her mind at the time. When it was time for lunch she returned to her locker to get her lunch but she couldn't get her lock open. She asked a teacher for help (which I'm still stunned about) and the teacher couldn't get it open. The teacher calls for the custodians and they couldn't get it open so they decide they have to cut it off with bolt cutters. So they cut it off and Taylor opens it to find it's not her locker. She never realized the way to distinguish your locker from all of the lockers that look identical with all of the other locks that look identical was to look at the number at the top of the locker. Harsh lesson learned. I make her carry around $5 for the poor guy whose lock got cut off.

So far, as this is Thursday, school seems okay for her. One friend she's made in the neighborhood I have yet to meet. I hope there's not a reason for that. But i think she's going to fit in fine. And by the way...the cute surfer dude is in about three of her classes. He's even asked her to be his class partner. She's says he's excessively hyper and is a dork. I see love in the air.

Now Hale...she is my social butterfly. She could argue with a rock or make friends with it, which ever she was int he mood for at the time. Her open house was a little disorganized. That day it was 100+ degrees. The open house was at 2:00. We got there at about 1:45. The doors were locked. They did not open the doors until exactly 2:00. They did not have a new to the school tour as the middle school did so we had no idea where we were going when we got there. During the summer when we registered, there was construction and we were not allowed to walk around. The first thing we encountered when we walked in was a teacher whose boobs could have been a shelf for her chin. Sometimes you can just tell when they're fake. It's not like they were huge they were just out there it seemed for all the little kids to see. She did little to conceal them with the tank top and the half unbuttoned button down shirt she was wearing. And the lipstick was hideous as well. I think if I see her like that again, I will complain. Or I can just send Hale to go tell her she's got too much skin showing. She does that to me when my shirt is shorter than the waist line of my pants.

So we finally find our way to Hale's class. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Benac. Pronounced bee-nack. I was hoping for some french twist to it, but it's just as redneck as the beer guzzlers at the soccer park. Bee-nack. She seems nice enough though. Spent allot of time with me, knowing Hale was new, answering all of my questions even though she had lots of other parents. That was thoughtful. I just hope she can contain Hale's mouth. Hale's open house was much quicker than Taylors, thankfully. I will never wear flip flops to another elementary school again. Once we left I asked Hale if she spied anyone she thought she could make friends with. She said she did. I asked if she talked the person and she said no. When she came home from school on her first day, she proclaimed, "I have five new friends." I asked her if the girl she had spied before was one of them, she said it was and that she was the best one so far. Turns out, she lives pretty much right behind us. Her first day home, not ten minutes after she got home, the phone rings. I thought i was just Tom checking to see how their day went, but it was Mattie checking to see if Hale could play. She called another three time int he next fifteen minutes. She must have been checking to see if the phone number was real. After she finished her homework she went out to play with Mattie. Mattie rode her bike to our house to get Hale and to take a tour of our house. When she rode up, i could swear it was Hale. They look just like each other. Except if at all possible, Mattie has longer skinnier legs than Hale.

All in all, school has been great. Come September, I may have another new "First Day of School" posting as Tom will be starting his first days of Washington U. Then we may have "Tracey's First Day at the Mental Ward."

Sweltering in the Sahara hot heat

Yeah, it's hot. Yahoo has us posted at 100 degrees at 8:00 pm. We have our own digital thermo reading set up and it registers 96 degrees. I think once you get over 90, a couple degrees here or there makes no difference. It's been hot to say the least. All last week was in the 100's with indexes reaching a few degrees higher. I can say though, I don't think humidity has been that bad. It's been so damn hot, you can't really tell the humidity. When we first moved in, our thermostat reading was kept at about 72 degrees by the previous owner (or maybe that was the contractor since he was here for about two months). Once we got moved in we were all freezing. We were bundled up as if it were December in Virginia. It did take a few days to figure out the thermostat was designed to function on different cooling zones during the day. Early am was set at 74 degrees, later in the day was set at 72 degrees and then evening was set at something else. We finally, after being in the house for a few days and freezing, figured out we needed to reset the cooling times. We pretty much have it adjusted to 74 degrees for the entire day. Today, however, after seeing 104 degrees on our thermostat, the house reading was at 76, i think. But we still felt great. Even enough to occasionally have to put on a light jacket.

Last Wednesday was the last time I was able to take Taylor and Hale to the pool before school starts Monday. Yes this Monday. A full two weeks earlier than in Virginia. It was almost too hot to be at the pool. I'm not one of those types that likes to get into the public pool. Too many kids without diapers for me. I had no choice. The sweat starting dripping every fifteen minutes or so and I had no choice but to cool off. If not we would have left after 30 minutes.

So in today's heat, we had Taylor's first soccer game. It was a 3:30 game in a series of fields with not the first indication of shade. These fields are flanked on either side by corn fields. Made me feel a little like I was back in Virginia. When we left was when the thermostat reading was at 104 (which i have a picture of). At the field it was 102. We've had some reservations about this team Taylor is on since the beginning. The team started out as the Woodchips, then the coach decided he'd move the kids to a different club called Swanner United. Swanner appears to be a better club, but the coach is still the same. The team only has 11 girls. And U13 soccer plays 11 v 11. So easy mathematics tell you all 11 girls play all the time. We just made our club fees check out to, guess who, the coach. Normally we make a check to a club or league. He explained in order to get a checking account in the name of the club required incorporation and this was too much trouble for him to do. Yes, I know major red flags. But after many bend over and smile experiences in St. Louis so far, we're keeping our eyes open.

If you've read any previous blog postings, you'll know that alcohol is the preferred beverage in this town regardless of the extreme heat. The games were running a little over today so Tom and I made our way to the side lines to wait for the previous team to finish their game. We set up our chairs to wait for prime midfield spots. It's just to the two of us. We don't take up much room. So as the previous team is finishing here come St. Louis rednecks out of the mill works. They swoop in behind us like birds of prey (which are many here, perched high in their own concrete jungle feeding on pigeons). Just like the rest of St. Louis, do what you can to get ahead (or make a buck) without thinking of who you might screw over. Yeah it's a small thing, not a big deal unless everyday you got screwed over one way or another. As soon as the past game's parents are packed up and gone they jump right into our territory, midfield.

Back to the booze. As we're sitting there waiting for the game to start, I here that familiar pop of a carbonated drink open. I glance up and the woman next to me (the redneck bird of prey woman) has popped open a beer. I'm sorry to stereotype people, but I come from a family of proud rednecks so I think I'm an expert at identifying them. She fit the description. She's drinking a beer at her daughter's soccer game. There's nothing more redneck than that. I don't even think my family would do that. Not in public anyway. She wasn't worried about hiding it. I guess there again, that may be the culture around here. The list of classifying redneck traits...beer drinking at your daughter's soccer game, smoking at a sport were normally smoking is not acceptable, the Dale Earnhardt Junior Umbrella, the demin cut off shorts (sorry Tammy), the tattoo of a wolf on your too small bicep (the husband), the foul language regardless of who may be around and the nonstop talk of how good our daughter is, even though she is already at age 12 about 20 pounds over weight. Oh, don't let me forget the echo of "air you go". Maybe not as prevalent as in Virginia, but still heard it even in the Midwest. Kaeli, that was for you! But this couple seemed to have a following. There were plenty of people hanging around them. I never would have imagined. I tried to make my talk small, so as not to appear stuck up but was very annoyed by them. Oh the drama ensues.

This was Taylor's first game, with a new team, in a new state...a guess what. She scored the first goal of the game by either team. Yes I said that right. She scored the first goal of the game. It was awesome. I know it made her feel good and it built her confidence for the rest of the game. She was close at two other goals but was denied. Her team went on to win, 3-0. Her last two seasons in Virginia, they only won 2 games. That's two seasons, not just one. She was growing frustrated understandably. I think what she never grasped was that her first year she was younger than the rest of the kids minus two and was added in and then the next season those three were teamed with a group of new kids to form a completely new team again. Kids don't understand you need time to work as a team to understand what each other is thinking. Or maybe that may not be the case. This team today, with little time to practice all together at any one time, did pretty damn awesome. Who can say what it is. All i know is she did a great job today and she made her parents very proud of her. That goal is what it took to prove to these kids in this over privilege society that she can do just as good as they can if not better. She's been turned away by some of the better clubs for bulls**t reasons. And sometimes i wonder about her own intentions with the game, but either way she can play and if she wanted it bad enough she could blow all of these a**holes away.

So, 9:23 pm and it's now 92 degrees. SAHARA HEAT!

Any of you who know Hale go to crown-ridge.com. This will be her ultimate experience. I'm going to do the Siberian VIP tour with her and then eat some buffalo!

Sorry for the long get away. Have been busy home decorating and pool escaping. Will post pictures soon.

Taylor's soccer team website is swannerunited.com.

A Lost Passion and a Newly Found One

This past weekend, I discovered two things. One I rediscovered and the other something I didn't know I'd have such interest in.



The first, a new found passion. The family went to an air show Saturday at Scott Air Force Base just over the state line in Illinois. I thought I remembered attending one or more of these as a kid in Beaufort, SC. My memories are vague if even there by only witnessing some of the fly-bys by chance. I always begrudge Tom when he turns the TV to the Military Channel but I think after the weekend I can watch it with the same earnest Tom shows. Saturday was a hot day, a very hot day. I think the thermostat reached 95 degrees easy. The walk from the parking area to the gates was at least a mile, easy. Once inside, and after having our bags and chairs searched, I caught a glimpse of a B-2 Bomber in a hanger to the right of us. That is the only aircraft I can identify without help. It was impressive and massive. There were about 15 aircraft on display. I actually got goosebumps and a giddy excitement welled up in me. I think the last time I felt that way over metal and rubber was at my first stock car race many years ago. We found a place to put our chairs, about 12 feet from the fence of the flight line. Man it was hot. I read it was at least 10-15 degrees hotter at the flight line. As we were driving in we could see many of the aircraft already in the air. To welcome us, was the Geico skytypers team. (Just as much advertising here as a stockcar race, too.) That was an awesome sight. They wrote "Welcome to Scott AFB, Heritage to Horizons, Geico skytypers", in a circle. I don't know all of the aircraft that were in the air, but was impressed by them all. Seeing Tom get so excited made it a little more exciting for me. He's very knowledgeable about history and I'm rather embarrassed about my ignorance of history. His excitement and my impression of this airshow have sparked enough interest that I think I'm going to start researching past American battles and general history. The fourth of July, Memorial Day and Veteran's Day all mean something to me and they always have, but I think I need to know more. I want to know more. I read a little about some of the aircraft I saw in literature handed out during the airshow so that's a start.



After the airshow we stopped at the famous Soulard Market. We haven't been there yet since moving to St. Louis but due to it's rich history in this town wanted to make it a stop soon. It's only open Wednesday through Saturday until 5pm. We were cutting it close by arriving at about 415 pm. The best stuff is always gone first, but the last stuff they let go cheapest. There is a huge variety of wares. Produce, meats (we won't get any meat from there, however), coffee, perfume, spices, flowers, pets. You name it. We were mostly interest in the produce. We left with pineapple, the most beautiful collard greens ever, okra (again, beautiful), tomatoes, a zucchini the size of a football, broccoli, and crowder peas. I'll bet most of you have never heard of crowder peas. When I went to visit my grandmother in Savannah as a kid, we'd go to the farmer's market and after we got back, I'd find myself sitting at her cramped table in her kitchen shelling crowder peas. Sometimes 3 or 4 pounds at a time. After cooking these peas for dinner last night it reminded me of my second rediscovered passion. I had forgotten how much I like to cook. I cooked allot for a few years and then kind of slacked off as we started eating healthier but since moving and having a little more time on my hands I've made a few pretty good dishes. All still healthy. Our first that I was impressed with was pasta with a Bolognese sauce. I was watching Food Network and caught a quick glimpse of some so found my own recipe and made my own. It was also the first night we had company for dinner; the cable guy, don't ask. Tom and Taylor are usually my indicators for how well a dish turns out. Taylor will try anything and will continue eating it if she likes it. She seemed to enjoy her bolognese. Then the next all Tracey dish that I was happy with was Beef Carnitas with avocado and black bean salsa. I had to totally make this my own because the recipe left it tasting like beef stew. Turned out awesome. Only problem is I used fat free flour tortillas, not good. I almost forgot, for the fourth of July, Tom smoked a pork butt and i made some collard greens (not the ones from the farmer's market) and some fresh green beans with red potatoes. Both turned out okay considering they both came from the grocery store and were not the best quality to begin with. Last night I made the collard greens from the farmer's market and the crowder peas. I feel as if i may have outdone myself with the peas. Even Hale liked them. Partly because she and Taylor were the ones shelling them and she felt a sense of ownership.



My recipe for collards (if anyone wants to try-I know most people don't care for them).

about 12 servings (cause we like left overs)

3 bunches of big voluptuous bright green collards

smoked turkey leg (or wing)

crushed red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

vinegar

oregano

onion (if you want)



I cook the turkey leg for several hours in water until the meat falls off the bone. Take the leg from the water to let cool. Add the collards after cleaning and removing leaves from the stem, to the leg water. Unless you have a large stock pot, you'll have to add in sections. After getting all of the collards in the pot, add about 1/4 cup vinegar to the pot, salt and pepper to taste, about 1/4 teaspoon of the red pepper flakes and about a teaspoon of oregano. While the collards are cooking down, pull the meat from the leg or thigh and add it to the pot. Simmer the collards for about an hour until wilted and no longer tough. Add the onion about the last 30 minutes of cooking to prevent them from being macerated (unless you like macerated onions).



My recipe for crowder peas

About 1 pound of peas in the shell will yield about 4 small servings

1/2 pound of pancetta (a thick slab so you can dice it up)

three garlic cloves (mashed or minced, depending on whether you want to eat large bites of garlic)

pepper

oregano

bay leaf



Cook the pancetta with a little olive oil (depending on how much fat is on it) until it browns some

add garlic (making sure heat isn't too high to burn garlic) cook a few minutes

add about 2 cups of water, the peas, and other ingredients, simmer over med heat for about 45 minutes to an hour until peas are soft and yummy.



I hope my grandmother would be proud.



Cook up your own creations and share them. If anyone tries these recipes, please let me know how they turned out.

Flashback

Just thought today about the drive up here the day we moved. That whole process was a pain in the rear end. As we have moved in the past with and without the benefit of professional movers, I can say for sure, having people move you is the way to go. They can try your patience however, and make a cold beer before, during and after the process quite enjoyable. (I chose upon the delivery day, a wonderfully crisp ale called, Skinnydip.)



Our move coordinator advised us the packers would not touch our bedrooms (ours was going to be a two day event; packers the first day and movers the second day) so that way we'd have a bed to sleep on, clothes to wear and toothpaste to brush our teeth. They showed up at 9:oo am on time and said, "we're going to start in the bedrooms first and work our way down since heat rises." I protested. I had no choice, I didn't have any clothes packed or anything pulled out. They just laughed when I repeated what the move coordinator said about not touching the bedrooms. (No I didn't think about when it would get done, I just wanted a bed to sleep on.)



As they started packing, I wanted to be out of their way, so I left and ran some errands. I started thinking about what they said about the heat (our apartment isn't the most energy efficient place either) so when I returned I went to turn the thermostat down to make sure they were comfortable. No need, they had already turned it down to 68 degrees. They were done in about 4 hours. Very impressive. We don't have a ton of stuff, but four hours seemed awfully short. After receiving our stuff in MO I found out why it only took four hours. They crammed anything they could get into a box. There was no method to packing a box. There were coffee cups mixed with the remote controls to the TV. There were cleaning supplies mixed with shoes. The boxes were so poorly labeled, too. The handwriting appeared to be a subtext of Cantonese. There was no way of knowing what was in what box. This is important because when they deliver our household goods, the movers need to know where to put stuff. Lukily, each box is prestamped with where in the house the contents came from, e.i., master bedroom, living room, basement, etc, they just have to put a check mark. Well we have five more rooms in this house that in our apartment. This is one of the reasons it took so long for us to unpack. Curiously enough, the packers give you a survey to fill out after they pack you but before you unpack. How can you possibly fill it out objectively? Worry not. When it was all over, I got another survey from the moving company and gave a more complete assesment.

The packers were slackards to say the least, our driver was something else. He called a day ahead to ask if there was anything he could start moving. We checked with the packers and they were less than thrilled and complained amongst themselves, loudly. We told him to come anyway if he wanted to, he could at least see for himself. He showed up in a budget rental truck. Like I said, I know we don't have alot of stuff, but I was sure it wouldn't fit in one of those. Anyway, he's the expert. He came and I took him through the house and then the basement. I showed everything that was going and was staying. While in the basement, he saw all of the soccer equipment we have and started talking about his kids and what sports they play and how old they are and how he doesn't get to see his wife much, yadda, yadda. I thought, great, he's not going to get anything done. After ten minutes or so, I lead him away from the basement and the objects distorting his focus. At this point, I had been unable to assess what kind of person he really was. After going through the house, I walked away and left him to it. He pulled around to the basement and in less than two hours, the entire basement and garage was empty minus each single item I said was to stay. All done by himself. Then he came upstairs and loaded what he could get by himself, which was most everything on the first level. Very impressive. Again, leaving everything I asked him to leave. Very quickly his truck was reaching capacity and nothing in our upstairs had been loaded. I asked where was the rest of the furniture going? He explained his 'big truck' (tractor trailer) was parked down the street because he wasn't able to get it into our driveway, parking lot, whatever you want to call it. He was loading all of our stuff on the smaller truck and would then unload and reload it to his truck that evening. So this guy, again all by himself, loaded our stuff to one truck, unloaded and reloaded it again. I hope they pay him well. The next day he came with his loading crew. Two local guys he's never met before. He directed them like Clint Eastwood would. In three hours our apartment was empty. During this time he gets a phone call and is on there for quite some time. After he's done, oh by the way, you'll not get your furniture until Friday now instead of Wednesday. If he wasn't such a great guy, I would have found it easier to yell and scream, but as it was, there was nothing we could do. He left.

The kids came home from school, Hale in tears, Taylor too emotional to show emotion. Both walked in to a bare apartment. It was quite emotional for all of us. We all took a stroll around to remember the last seven years of our lives. Lots of things happened in that place. Good and bad, but all things that have brought our family closer together. Even the cats walked around in disbelief, looking for something to jump on or something that was a familiar smell or sight. There was nothing, but the memories each of us could remember.

We left soon after to grab some lunch before beginning our 400 mile (that was the requirement from Tom's employer in order to be reimbursed for mileage and gas, etc.) trek to the midwest. One last juicy cheeseburger and fattening fries from Ruby Tuesdays. I noticed on my way to another errand a short time earlier a weird sizzling noise coming from under the dash of my car. I didn't think much of it, just thought it was maybe AC runoff hitting something hot. On the way to lunch, it was worse and water flooded the front passenger floor. Another snafu. We called the Honda dealership, explained our predicament and that we were on our way out of the state for good. They said it appeared to be a minor problem and we could drive by one our way out of town and have it looked at. By this time its already 1:30. 400 miles is about 7 hours if you don't stop and there is no traffic. 4 cats and two kids, you'll have to stop. I'm thinking we'll wait atleast an hour to even have it looked at. But we have no choice. Taylor and I leave early while Tom and Hale load up the cats. Kudos to the Honda dealership. They did just as they said. They got my car in there in 15 minutes and took another 15 to fix the clogged AC line. And they didn't even charge me. They said so long, we'll miss good customers like you. Only time we've gotten quick friendly service in three years.

So by this time Tom and Hale and the cats have made it to the dealership. We gas up, switch out kitties and are on our way. I've got Stitch (the seizure kitty) and Fly. They get along pretty good so they are together. Different carriers, same car. I expected lots of noise from Stitch on this trip. He doesn't care much for car rides and I anticipated a seizure riddled trip. Turns out Fly was the noise maker. Stitch pretty much just slept. No seizures. However, a couples hours into the trip (even though we withheld food) Sabre had to let one go. Tom pulled off at a rest area so I could clean up his mess. Thanks! Not a bad mess, at least he kept it off of himself. Flyers, the trouble maker kept peeing on her blanket. I never could tell who it was until he got to the hotel because they were both dry. She somehow managed to pee only on her blanket.

During one of the legs of our travel, we encountered harsh rain and wind. Even with a full tank of gas my car is light. Must have been the first day because Taylor was with me. I swear, my car was lifted slightly off the road. Very scary. The wind was that bad twice on Afton mountain that I remember. Not a fun feeling at all. Both days of driving were pretty uneventful excpet for the weather. Getting into St. Louis, I had a scare. I got a navagation system for my car before heading to St. Louis. I wasn't very familiar with how to use it but didn't think I'd need it. After all I was traveling with Tom and it's a straight shot; west on 64 the whole way. I noticed soon after we started the second day, the power to it cut off, even though it was plugged into the AUX adapter. Didn't worry about it though. As well, my cell phone was on it's very last bar and I had no charger in my car. We get into the city (St. Louis) and hit traffic. Stand still for a while. Then it starts to pick up and before I know it cars in front of me are letting in other cars and the distance between me and Tom gets wider and wider. By the time traffic is back to normal speed, he's nowhere to be seen. Again, has anyone seem National Lampoons Vacation? I start to panic of course. No idea where I'm going or where I am. I was able to squeeze the final juice from my phone just to learn Tom is only a mile or so ahead of me. Take a glimpse into my anxiety over driving in an unfamiliar area.

Part two to follow...

STL Rage

We've had issues with our carpet since it was installed. The carpet guy, who is a real genuine down to earth guy, came back today to fix a threshold and to listen to my grips about his work (but my grips were his son-in-laws work, not his). This guy was contracted by our contractor to do the job. This was a side job for him as his regular current full time paying job has been installing carpet on one of the casino riverboats. We did not know this and at this point we're not sure if it matters. The guy, I'm sure knows what he's doing. I get the impression, that he either doesn't come in contact with many people during the day or he just likes to talk. Today was the second time I was in his company. His conversation is pleasant enough, nothing that really offends me. Of course through our conversing he knows we just moved from Virginia. He informed me today that Missouri is known for two things, one is a certain venerial disease (due to teen promiscuity, he further informs) and the other is road rage. According to his source (which is unknown, cause I didn't ask), MO is worse that Detroit (?), Miami (?), and what ever other cities he listed. I have found the one thing I agree with this guy on, there is a definate high level of road rage. I think I've pinpointed the problem(s). I'm running for some elected post after this revelation.

Two things I have discovered: one, every corner has some road construction where another building is being built which in more cases than not closes at least one lane of traffic. Most times you can drive by (just like I've seen in VA, so this is nothing new) and no one is doing anything. 10-12 men standing around looking at the hole they just dug or watching the huge Caterpillar earth mover in the distance. This in turn creates traffic to back up, and back up. The stop lights here are at least 3 times longer than anything I've experienced in VA. You have time to paint your finger nails if you wanted. I took Taylor to soccer practice yesterday for the first time. I asked the coach how long it would take me to get there so I could be prepared. He said, "with no traffic 15 minutes, with traffic, who knows," his words. Practice was at 6 pm, I decided to leave at 5:15. (Partly because of the high level of anxiety I have over driving in an area I'm unfamiliar with. Ever see 'National Lampoon's Vacation')? I got there at 5:58. This was 10 miles away. The drive home, which was not at peak traffic took 12 minutes. Construction around every corner contributes, but just the shear number of people here doesn't help.

Problem number two: just happened to bear witness to it; again while at soccer practice. I was parked and waiting at my car for the kids to actually start practice. A guy with his wife, kid attending soccer practice (a different team than Taylor) and another younger kid in the car pulled in next to me. By this time I've gotten out of my car, gathered my things to walk to the field and I look over and this guy is turning up a beer (not modestly either, right there for everyone to see if they chose to, it was like he was tailgating), a Budweiser. Now let's not forget where I am: St Louis, MO, home to Anheiser-Busch. Maybe he works for them and he advertising for free. So much for the drink responsibly ad campaign. If this was the first instance I've seen, I may have turned a blind eye. But no, everywhere you go, someone is turning up something and most of the time it's while behind the wheel. Tom and I went to see John Mayer at the Verizon Wireless St. Louis Amphitheater last week. While driving down the interstate, you can see, in broad daylight, several cars full of people turning up a can or a bottle. (Funny, it is all an Anheiser-Busch product). We wondered if maybe there is no open container law here, which means passengers in a car can have alcholic beverages open as long as the driver does not. As soon as we questioned that, we see the drivers turning up thier own beverage. And these are not adults (not that it matters) but kids tend to make more stupid, rash, decisions. Okay strike that last sentence! But come on. No wonder people are doing the stupid crap they do. Everyone is drunk and late. Even without a car, that's enough for some people to lose it. So we called the state police with license tags. Maybe someone will call one of these kids' parents and they lose a privelege. That's another thing. There is so much privelege here. But that's another story.

BTW, carpet guy said to tell him what we want him to do to fix the carpet and he'll do it. Only decent guy I've met so far.

So this is my first posting to a blog site. I got the idea from my husband who got the idea from his friend, Tim. I'm sure my first outing won't be quite as entertaining as Tim's have been in the past, but maybe with a little practice I can come up to speed.

My main reason for doing this is because we just moved 750 miles west to St. Louis from Virginia. I've made a great number of friends in Virginia. Many of which I hope to remain friends with. If I were to email each and every one of them with news of our move and current events I would find myself on my computer from the time I wake up til I go to bed. Not a way I wish to spend my day. This way I can share information with everyone at the same time in one sitting.

This in no way replaces personal emails or personal stories that I will want to share from time to time or hope some of you will want to share with me (Heather, you'll have many stories over the next 7 months). Not all of you want to hear about everything.

And those of you I worked with for so long at WAH may pass along this blog site to any other of your coworkers. I can imagine I will often refer to some of you as you all pass through my mind regularly and will appear from time to time in my thoughts as I type them down.

Tom has some clever name for his blog and I'm sure as I spend more time doing this I will come up with some clever name as well. If there are any suggestions, feel free to pass them along. Sorry, I don't think maggot mail or parasite post will work. My WAH ex coworkers can appreciate that.

To that end, i will end this short posting and will revisit later.