Sunday at Cafe Ventana

A shiny new cafe has opened next door to my esteemed University. Julie and I gathered there with a couple of our friends last weekend. Free wi-fi, of course. I give it good marks on its pastries, beverages, and overall decor, lower marks on its air conditioning (way too cold) and on its wooden chairs (too small and hard). Next time we're bringing an extension cord and making ourselves comfy in the big easy chairs in the corner.

Unexpected Music at the Festival of Nations last weekend

I think someone had taken its batteries, but he loved it anyway.


Yeah, she was beating his head for a solid 5 minutes at least while they were watching the Polynesian drummers.


I wish I had gotten a better pic of this. His shirt says: "punk's not dead."

Caddy at Costco

Someone drove to Costco last weekend in their lemon yellow classic Caddy, so I had to admire it. No, I wasn't just being lazy and not helping load the car. Such an idea!

Manchester in Maplewood 2

Date night, Walking along Manchester in Maplewood

We'd had enough of eating, so we decided to take a walk.

Date night, Saturday night at Michael's

After the Royale, we stopped at Michael's for calamari & wings.

Pale ale goes well with wings.




No, I'm not good at taking pictures of fried food. Not much practice. That's probably okay.

Date night, Saturday night at the Royale

Every once in a while Julie & I like to make a meal of little plates. Saturday night we split our time between the Royale on Kingshighway, and Michael's on Manchester. We thought about getting desert at the Bottleworks, too, but we decided we'd had enough.

Here's what the Royale had to offer us.





Check out Julie's coverage for a rundown of our mixed feelings for The Royale.

Friday night @ Dunaway

Between beer and dinner, we find books


with Anne


at Dunaway, with their odd section groupings.

Hungry Young Poets at Duff's

This summer's last installment of Hungry Young Poets gathered at Duff's last Monday. It was another packed house. Julie will be the curator again next year, so if you know a talented youngish, bookless poet with some connection to St. Louis, point them her way.

Don't point them my way. I'm illiterate.






This is Erin. I liked listening to Erin.

Saturday at Work

Coming to you live from a friendly and helpful Help Desk, I thought I should check in, say "hi," and promise more updates for later. Let's see what to I have to show & tell? Well, Anne Haines came to visit last night, on stop 2 of her "Stalk Springsteen Across the Midwest" tour. That was fun. We grabbed a beer at the Tap Room, some books at Dunaway, dinner at the City Diner, and desert at Gelateria Del Leone. Yeah, I'll tell you about that later. Right now I have to be ready to help someone get their Mac hooked up to the wireless network.

Lounging at Mississippi Mud

Julie & I took our computers out for drinks and sandwiches Sunday afternoon.

Brunch at Shangri-La Diner

How SLU improves my quality of life

Okay everyone. Time to leave offerings for Touchdown Jesus.

Soon, I too will be able to signal a touchdown.

Under the guidance of the big brains of SLU Hospital's orthopedic specialists, I'm going under the knife (a tiny little arthroscopic knife) to get my left shoulder stitched back together on September 19th.


I've been at varying levels of grumpy for a couple years thanks to a vicious yank on left arm. At the time I really thought not falling down the stairs was the better option. Not that I really had time to think about it; one second I'm starting down our amazingly steep narrow south city staircase, same second I'm hanging my full Rubenesque weight from my left arm and howling. In hindsight, I probably should have just rolled. I would have gotten stuck a couple stairs down, and the bruises would have been gone in a week or two.

I'm only mentioning this by way of an early apology. I may not be going to be going out as much for a while during recovery, so "I Don't Know, Where Do You Want to Go" is going to be even more domesticated and sleepy than usual. Plus, I won't really be able to use my good SLR. On the bright side, I got to try on my recovery sling. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to tuck my pocket camera into it.

PS: If anyone asks, don't tell them how I really hurt myself. I usually just say it was a tragic sex accident.

Salon SoHa in South City

Yay! I don't have to cross big scary Hampton any more to get my hair done.

Saturday with Jordan in Aunt Carolyn's Pool

Jordan kind of likes the pool. And water guns.


The standoff.


Aunt Julie surrenders.

Epic Mayhem at Schlafly Tap Room

Another blast of a show from Epic Mayhem. Mixed with with a ploughman's plate for dinner and my best bunch of friends, I was set for an awesome Friday night.

Hanging at CBGBs on S Grand

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