Saturday Night in Fenton

After a wonderful dinner at our favorite neighborhood Mexican Restaurant, Julie, Cath and I hit the suburbs last night for 27 holes of putt-putt silliness. My PutterCam experiments didn't work (except for making Julie laugh so hard she nearly plunged off her fake boulder and into the Tidy Bowl blue fountain), but I will revisit the technique on a later excursion.

Hanging out in South CIty

Our favorite design consultants came to visit last night, so we hit the Lowe's to look at paint chips and sundries.

After the funeral at the pool party

Julie's grandma died Monday night. After the funeral this morning, Julie's aunt had everyone over for lunch and a swim.


Julie's right, I should have turned the jar to make the label more obvious.

Walking in the Central West End

I think this pup gets to do this a lot. He was off his leash a block away. We watched him race directly to the fountain - no distractions for him. He knew the water was coming back.


Now, I know I don't do a lot of wildlife shots, but I want to assure everyone that I was perfectly safe while I was taking this. The hippo was far too engrossed in the mountain goats to think about charging me.

Flashback: Fort Ligoneer Days, 1972

I don't know what was up with the "Little Madonna of the Wagons" pose. Maybe I'd tied my belt to a spoke or something.

The ric-rak on my pants was part of my mom's clever ploy to disguise the deep hems she built into all my clothes.

metal lathe @ Dad's

I went back to work today. You know, work at my day job, the 8-5 one where I supposedly keep clean all the time. So have some more photos of my not so clean vacation.

Elaine Sings for her Supper: Chihuly at Phipps

My step-mom wanted some snaps of the show at Phipps, so she took me down to the garden Friday night.







For more, check out my Flickr slideshow.

Edit: In other news, all is now back to normal in my home office! Froderick, my workhorse, my repository of all photos, my scanning, editing, printing PC is alive again. His power supply died Monday as I was getting ready to leave. After Julie picked me up at the airport this morning we decided we were already half-way to St. Charles, so we ran up to EPC for a new 575W power supply and a more reliable UPS. Considering I left with a new power supply, 2 small UPS's, and a brand new laptop bag for around $75, it was probably worth the extra drive.

Sunrise at PIT

 

Travel time, again. We made good time to the airport, despite the inbound tunnel closure. Dad's not going back through the city to Murrysville this morning. He's going to head south, then east, and should be in Confluence in time for second breakfast. I'm a little jealous, but I guess I should be back in STL in time for lunch, so I can't complain. It was a good visit, but I'll be happy to get home.

Stay tuned for photos from last night's trip to Phipps. (I have an hour til I board, so I might as well be productive, right?)

Canned program on the CNC

A CNC machine uses the drawings you make in CAD/CAM software to control a milling machine. Heres a clip of Dad's cutting a sample project. I came to Murrysville to act as tech support - the computer Dad wanted to use for this machine was ailing.

Short trip to Verona, PA

For the record...

In NYC, you can spend enough money on one month's rent for a 500 sq ft alcove studio apartment to pay my mid-western 3 bedroom mortgage for 3 months.

Safely in Murrysville

The Old Folks fetched me from the Pittsburgh International and whisked me off to the comfort of home, with one brief stop at Panera since they knew I must be starving. Yup, I flew from St. Louis to Pittsburgh to go to the St. Louis Bread Company. And, just for the record, I ate a chicken salad sandwich, not a bear claw like some folks did.

I'm beat. The computer the folks were having problems with is running fine now. I'll tweak it and install the CNC software tomorrow.


Anne tried to take me to the Chihuly show at Phipps tonight, but tonight is Tuesday. Phipps is only open late Wednesday-Friday. I think we'll try again Friday.

More as it happens.

Traveltime @ Gate A2, Lambert International Airport

Well, I'm through security and at my gate in record time. Not a lot of traffic on Tuesday mornings, I guess. I've been at the gate long enough to confirm that there is no wireless signal. (I'll be posting this later, I guess.) Also, no electrical outlets for those of us wary about draining out batteries first thing in the morning. I thought I remembered electrical outlets. Oh well. I haven't flown for a while.



There's a small band of roving consultants to my right, all guys. They're probably techies - they have that look. They're not buttoned down enough to be management consultants, and they aren't talking about golf scores.

Surprisingly, I'm not the only one here with full sized headphones. I brought mine for their full strength "back off, I can't hear you, I don't want to hear you, go away" image. Also, they sound really good & earbuds bug me. These things are totally worth the extra bulk.



Time to board. More later.

Bandelier Boulder

Since I'm not going on a big photo trip this summer, I'm taking a little time to look back at old summer pictures. This is from Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the late 90's.

Last Night @ La Tropicana

Julie gave me a treat for dinner last night - we stopped by La Tropicana, our friendly neighborhood Cuban grocery store, and picked up a roasted chicken, some tortillas and some chihuahua cheese. It made a wonderful front porch feast.

the store


part of the deli cabinet


the sidewalk labyrinth in front of the closed cafe we parked beside

Sunday Recap

How I spent my day:

- sanding, cleaning & painting this firewood rack someone was kind enough to give us for free (along with all the firewood it had been holding) - installing a new door closer on the front screen door - masking Grandmother's metal trunk for it's last round of painting - scraping the bbq and the charcoal chimney so I can repaint them with high temp paint - replacing an outside light fixture - installing a threshold in the bathroom doorway -

How Julie spent her day:

- working her butt off cleaning - running loads and loads of laundry - scrubbing every bathroom surface available - mopping - more scrubbing in the kitchen - drinking much water - reminding me to drink more water - finding places for the things I leave laying around everywhere -

How Rudy spent his day:

- underfoot in the bathroom - undermop in the kitchen - playing with my screwdrivers -

How Pammy spent her day:

- staying out of everybody's way - ignoring our commotion - sitting patiently by the water bowl (in case I would happen to drop an ice cube in it) - stealing my red bandana from me - telling me I smelled bad -

Shopping in DiGregorio's on The Hill

Stuff you won't find at you local megamart.

Fireworks @ Sublette Park last Saturday

Backyard Camping in Ste. Genevieve

Last night's itinerary:

1. Leave work.

2. Drive to Festus.
2a - Stop at Magre's Liquors for supplies. (You know where it is. Yeah, it's right next door to that scary pickup bar.)
2b - Stop for dinner. (Yeah, pull into the Sonic we can order drinks and eat this yummy leftover Brie & baguette at their picnic table.)

3. Drive to Mom's House.
3a - Help snap that last tent pole into place.
3b - Chase Jordan.
3c - Build fire.
3d - Burn / roast / singe hot dogs.
3e - Burn / roast / singe marshmallows.
3f - Chase Jordan (reprise). (Yeah, I know you brought out another flashlight. Jordie snagged that one, too.)

4. Drive home.

Figure 2b


Figure 3b


Figure 3f

Supermarkets silliness

It's just my personal preference, mind you, but I don't think cakes should look like frightening technicolor cheeseburgerish things.


I would love to put Bailey's on my waffles.


Remember, now, no drinking & scooting.

Seen While Walking toward Coffee

Saturday in the park with Ann

Ann and I went to Lafayette Square Park and snapped a few pictures before the rain scared us off. I decided to play with my infrared filter.