What Is She Doing?

Being an idiot in St. Louis' first Idiotarod!




What it is? It's a 4 mile race through downtown St. Louis with checkpoints where challenges will be performed.

What's with the cart? The race is executed with a cart and 5 team members. Each team has a theme for which the members dress up and decorate the cart. We are the Sorta Sheep.

Why are people doing this? It's a fund raiser for Operation Food Search. Please go to the Virtual Shopping Cart, and when you are at the check out, be sure to list "The Sorta Sheep" as the company. [Remember those grade school fundraisers everyone hated...yea, well, they're back!]

I still don't get it... I don't know how else to explain this to you, but here's a shot with help from the organizers: "Downtown St. Louis Idiotarod, which pays homage to the Alaskan tradition of the Iditarod in which dogs pull a sled and musher across the Iditarod Trail. Our event is similar, except replace the dogs with people and the sled with a shopping cart, put it in downtown St. Louis, and add a heavy dose of weirdness"

Wow, this really sounds like something you'd do! You are right!! I've been envious since I heard about in New York where a friend participated. I was beyond happy to see it finally arrive here in St. Louis! My team mates are Amanda Sutter, Amy Henke, Dave Ulrey, and Chris Trowbridge! Wish us luck!

Meet Me in St. Louis

Take some time out of your busy schedule to swing by the St. Louis Science Center on Saturday, February 6th to get some knowledge on earthquakes. 10am-2pm

I'll be there, along with many other nerdy, knowledge friendly people demonstrating what earthquakes can do, how they are caused, what to do if you are in one (as well as after), and what a person can do to be safe (and I'm sure there are other things too).

I will have my home-made shake table on hand as well!

Come on, you know you want to!

NaBloPoMo Day Nine Post Seven - Oops!

Okay, so by the title I would hope you could infer that I missed two posts. I would hope more so that you are one of my two readers that pay attention often enough to simply know that I missed two posts.

Anyway, I'm way off the course of topic which is "how and why I would miss blogging"! I would like to blame work, since it is after all overwhelming me these days! I cannot though. As you may know, I was off to Berkley, California for a couple of days for a volunteer meeting for SEI (Structural Engineering Institute) that I am involved in since I am the local St. Louis Chair. It's not grand. You could even go so far to say I am Chair only because I lost the election. To be true though, I enjoy it some times as I altruistically love structural engineering. Sorry, off track, I won't dwell there but will get back to my point. I returned on Saturday, my first missed blog day/post. I would have sent a short blog from my phone, but was traveling non-stop in such a manner that my phone was on airplane mode most of the day. When I did get back to St. Louis, it was late, and so I only got a chance to do anything besides move at around 10pm; at which time I crashed into bed holding on snugly to my dogs that I missed dearly. It didn't occur to me until later in the day Sunday that I'd missed a day. I had sort of made a silent vow to blog Sunday with an extra to make up for my mistake. Well, you see how that went!

None the less, the bloggity guilt has overwhelmed me...and as such I will spend an enormous amount of time today catching up! Now is the time to either really try to focus with me, or to simply scroll to the bottom for your words!

-Thursday mom had surgery. She is doing well, but in a lot of pain. Thanks for all the well wishes!

-Thursday I flew out to Oakland, took the BART to the North Berkley station where I waited for a hotel shuttle to pick me up. Turns out two of the other meeting attendees were also waiting, so I got a head start meeting people!

-Friday I went to my meeting that went well. We then took off for a boat ride around the bay to look at the old, new, and still under construction Bay Bridge. I encourage you to go check out baybridgeinfo.org. We had a great guide and an all around great trip on the bay (despite my innate fear of water, I enjoyed myself). See pictures below.

-Upon returning to the hotel (that sits in a marina) I discovered that I didn't need to go to any meetings that evening, but only to a dinner that was several hours away. I decided to take that time to go for a jog in a nearby park, Cesar Chavez Park (see below for location and pictures). While jogging I literally had to stop to catch my breath from the over powering view. At the North end of the park as one turns the corner from the East, you can see out over the bay to the mountains, to Yogi Bear Island (see a map for real Island name), to the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, and even to San Fransisco. Breath.Taking!

- I flew home on Saturday leaving some meetings early. Saturday was the 7th, my anniversary. Considering how this year has gone, it's a small miracle we've even made it to three years. I choose not to air laundry on my blog, not the place nor the time. But, it should be noted that we did have a third anniversary and I did make it home for part of it!

- Sunday was a gorgeous day that started by taking the dogs to meet Amanda and Lou in a dog park in Edwardsville. They were worn out pretty quick, thankfully! From there we took the pooches home to then headed over to Kitchen Conservatory where I bought a knife as a gift, but the best part was that it was made in Germany (not China). I also bought some Vanilla Extract Paste.

-I made a small donation here...

Donate Here!

Words...
disco nap: Sleeping when you have something going later on that you need to get ready for.
Kraft singles: Dollar bills. Derived from another slang term that refers to money as "cheese".
audible: To make an unexpected, last-minute decision. This definition is derived from its meaning in football.

My Heart Is With You Ruben

Have you ever met someone that you know deserves everything wonderful the world could provide? The best smells you can think of, the best flavors imaginable, the best feelings you could encompass yourself with ... these things should belong to Ruben Aya-Welland and his beloved wife Kara (http://kayawelland.wordpress.com).

On July 13, 2009 at 10:30pm, Kara passed away.

Her heroic six year battle against a very rare cancer has come to an end. She was 36 years old. And we just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. -Ruben

If you pray, then pray for them, and if you don't, please just think of them. Good people always deserve so much more than they are given to work with, and yet they make the best of life in ways most of us may never understand.

My heart and thoughts are with you Ruben. The pain may never go away, but it gets easier. Know that you always have a friend in St. Louis!

My Itinerary

For those of you that choose to keep track of me, like Amanda, Holly, and Drew (for mom) . . . here is my itinerary for next week. (This is also my back up copy).

[For reference, STL-St. Louis, ATL-Atlanta, DUB-Dublin, LHR-London Heathrow, GLA-Glasgow, all US flights are Delta booked through Northwest]

DUBLIN
JULY 14 Flight DL1723 STL-ATL 15:15; arrive 17:57
JULY 14 Flight DL0176 ATL-DUB 20:55; arrive 10:00 (+ 1 day)
Hotel Jurys Inn Parnell Street (353 (0)1 878 4900) [In-15th, Out-16th]

LONDON
JULY 16 Flight BD124 DUB-LHR 11:40; arrive 13:00 (44 (0)13 3264 8181) [REF#32L4ZX, bmi]
Hotel Euston Square Hotel (44 (0)20 7388 0099) [In-16th, Out-18th]

GLASGOW
JULY 18 Flight BA1492 LHR-GLA 17:35; arrive 19:00 [REF#32FWHT, British Airways]
Hotel Victorian House Hotel (0141 332 0129) [In-18th, Out-20th]

DUBLIN
JULY 20 Flight AL225 GLA-DUB 10:55; arrive 11:50 [REF#25FJ2N, Aer Lingus]
Hotel Jurys Inn Parnell Street (353 (0)1 878 4900) [In-20th, Out-21st]

HOME
JULY 21 Flight DL0177 DUB-ATL 11:50; arrive 15:45
JULY 21 Flight DL0909 ATL-STL 17:35; arrive 18:20

Anyone wanting to drop me off and/or pick me up at the airport or a Metrolink station may volunteer! ha, like how I threw that in there!

City Garden, Where They Grow . . . Odd Things?

Today for lunch Crystal, Christine, and I went to City Garden to check out the coolness. It is very true that engineers think in terms of practicality and function rather than appearance and oddness. I am one of those engineers. However, before an engineer, I am a devout oddity. I appreciate art. I appreciate the rare. I really appreciate this park. It is both functional, unique, and exactly what we needed in St. Louis! Yea for a new place to eat lunch and people watch!!

Wind Sculpture, Two Different Angles
Weird Animal Carrying A Geometric Shape
Sexy Lady Walking [Just for you Amanda]
My Favorite Sculptures [Maybe Anywhere]
Steel Sculptures
Bunnies
Me And The Odd Thing!

Painted-face-a-phobia?

Oh boy, lots & lots to say...this could become a rambling mess, but I'll try to focus it up a bit...

1. Thanks to Janet, I found this pool of pictures called "Looking Into the Past"; pictures of pictures . . . please take a look for yourself! I think JPo would really appreciate these.



2. This may be totally morbid, but that is me. I went to dad's grave for Father's Day. I took him flowers and beat myself up the rest of the day because I can no longer remember what his favorite color was. It's hard to lose memories you can't bear to lose. Before you know it, they are gone.



3. Bella has some odd bumps all over her bully dog body. Best guess is that they are hives. Can't find the cause, they don't appear to be getting worse, but I can't say for certain they are getting better. My poor sweet baby! Any ideas?

4. I am going to start Geo Caching. Not sure what it is? Well here is my summary: modern day hidden treasures. Go check it out for yourself. James already told me that he is in for this adventure, and I know Amanda will be involved. It's very interesting, though I need a GPS unit! Here is a website you can check out: GPS GeoCaching

5. DUDES, no one told me that Tim Burton was making an Alice in Wonderland. Even worse is that no one told me Johnny Depp is going to be the Mad Hatter. Oooh, let the nightmares begin! (Trust me on this, A-in-W has always scared me to the point of nightmares, so yes, I am a complete and total sissy (side note: make up covering the entire face and masks really really scare me) could some one please tell me what this phobia name is)!



6. Some quotes from the book I'm reading that some of my readers will find amusement from:

"I have it on good authority that her feet are like ferryboats. They strap them under her gown to keep them from flapping when she walks."

"I don't trust anyone who appears so trustworthy. They must be up to no good." (Click here to recall why this sounds like me)

"Do you think [they] are poofters, or are they, you know, just fucking French?"

7. A 105 degree F. heat index is really much warmer in St. Louis than Jamaica. Maybe it was the rum in Jamaica that made it feel less painful?

8. An ad in the Planetizen online mag., for HOK, my employer:



9.Words:
man stand: The act of a man standing outside of a shop while his wife/girlfriend/partner shops inside. Man standing involves looking into space, at other women, or in the case of multistory shopping centers, leaning on railings of an upper floor watching people below.

break the seal: The point at which you first [urinate] after you have been drinking alcoholic beverages. After that you will have to [urinate] a lot more often.

Another Rainy Day

...it's another rainy day in St. Louis. This morning, at approximately 3:30 AM, I was awaken to the sound of ridiculously loud thunder. Took me about a half hour to fall asleep again. I am just so thankful that I was able to go back to sleep!

I think my dreams were very pleasant, but I can't be certain since I no longer recall them. I just know that when I was awaken at 3:30 AM, I recall my dreams as having been pleasant.

I will be posting a blog for HOK soon (hoping today, but this week for sure, waiting for some approvals first). Be sure to stop in and check for it randomly. In fact, just go check it out! HOK Life!

I don't really have much to say right now. If you are my Facebook or Myspace friend, you can go see my pictures that I posted from Indiana.

Word-
absurdicus: Absurd and ridiculous at the same time; insane.

Motorbikes in Glass Box

There is a bank near where I work located at the corner of Olive and 8th(?). At the very corner of the bank is a windowed location for displays. Of all the things a bank could potentially display, they often display motorbikes and scooters. If I had to guess, I would say they get them on loan from the Moto Museum here in St. Louis. I've always meant to get a picture of each bike/scooter I see in the window, but I often forget. Today however, I was on my way back from lunch and thought to pass by with my camera. Sadly these are the best photos I got ... but enjoyable to me none the less!

Only Kids Can Ever Imagine

Downtown St. Louis smells good today. It has a sort of fishy and rainy smell. In Kiener Plaza, the landscapers are out mowing the lawn, and there, in that tiny location, it has the heavenly smell of fresh cut grass! But really, it's not what I am here to write about. I don't want to waste your time, so I'm getting to the point . . .

I read in another blog about a young art director . . . please I urge you to go read it because it's adorable! And, best yet, artistic in ways only kids can ever imagine! If I were at all artistic, I would borrow some one's child to get some ideas for art work!

Bill Zeman and his Daughter

Now, be supportive of the arts and buy something from this guy if you like him, but please DO NOT steal his work and use it. You know how it goes . . . you gotta make a living some how right! Images © Bill Zeman.

Yep, Busy Busy Busy!

I'm going to start this blog off by tracking back in time. A time I call . . . "yesterday"!

I left work late to get a couple of extra hours in since I won't be at work on Friday (going to KC Fri-Sun). As it usually goes on evenings that I don't have an automobile, I took the Metrolink to the 5th & Missouri East St. Louis station. The bus to Collinsville shows up about quarter to the hour. I get there a bit early to ensure I don't miss it. While sitting there, Eva calls to tell me there is a major drug bust at the meth house just a few houses over from her house. We are talking about the SWAT truck, SWAT team with guns aimed, and PERCUSSION GRENADES! PERCUSSION GRENADES!! Damn the luck of my profession; I want to use percussion grenades!

Anyway, for those of you who may not really know who I am (and even for those people that do); I used to live at Eva and Jami's place in West Granite. That is West Granite City, Illinois. Now, it's not the best part of town. It's considered "the other side of the tracks", literally it is the other side of the tracks. But I liked it well enough, still do. It's the same atmosphere as any town/city. You have the wealthy, you have the poor, and you have everything in between. West Granite just seems to house most of the drug producers. Meth makers. Duane. Duane got his ass some percussion grenades yesterday!

Now, back to the bus . . . I was waiting with a large group of people for the bus. I've done this often. I've never felt scared, awkward, or in danger. Yesterday changed that!

The bus arrives, we all stand to get on, one by one filing onto the bus offering our tokens for a ride. I offered the fellow by me the "next in line" spot, he declined and said, "after you". I thought it was polite, thought nothing else of it. I got on and went to my well chosen seat. I put a lot of thought into the seat I choose (shown below).

This particular seat has a plastic thingy behind it so that no one can reach over the seat. I can sit in the aisle seat and set my belongings in the window seat. The only major downfall to this seat is that the seat across the aisle faces my seat. This is where the "polite guy" sat (see below). From now on, "polite guy" is now "weird guy".

I had headphones on, which I thought was the universal signal to say "I do not want to speak". I guess he took it as "I am just listening to music until someone bothers me, please come bother me". He started his line of questioning, "how was your day", "how was work", "what do you do", "what does that mean", "how long have you been doing it", "does it pay well", "do you like it", "where did you go to school", "where did you grow up" . . . etc. I seriously started to feel as though this were the East St. Inquisition. There was finally a break in speech. I turned my head, put the headphones on, turned my body so it's language said "leave me alone", and pretended to be busy with my cell phone. Yep, busy busy busy.

Then he lightly touches my arm which scared the crap out of me. What is much more scary is that when I turned to see what it was that he wanted, he was standing, rather haunched next to me watching my every move with the cell phone. I think he got close to smell me or something of that nature. He kept touching my arm despite my uncomfortable inching away from him. This is a major violation of my personal space for sure! Thankfully he got off at the horse racing track which he referred to as his "second home". Before exiting the bus he grabbed my shoulder, held it for what felt like hours, and told me how great it was to talk to me.

Ugh!

Anyway . . . so now fast forward to this morning. I took Metrolink today, but completely bypassed the bus option (imagine that)! I had to run to catch my train; that's okay. Nothing like a brisk run to get your heart rate up in the morning! And alas, here I am, at work, blogging. Yep, busy busy busy!

But tonight I will be taking a tour of St. Louis' largest recycling plant. I am very excited. I would take some photos to share, but that's not allowed.

I have a few things I wanted to comment on this morning. 1) Yes Drew, magnets would be a good idea, and surprisingly some one else mentioned it yesterday, jokingly though. It would be great if we embraced what is natural to make structures, roadways, etc. In this case, no chance of magnets. I will have to come up with something much more clever to make my stair float, yet withstand gravity and lateral loading. This is going to take some Voodoo, if anyone has any suggestions, I am totally open! 2) Fuck, Becky, warn me by saying "These images are not suitable for Stephy's eyes". Ugh! 3) Mike, you shall be amazed by what I will learn about soccer. I'll make you proud! Oh, and from Chris, "soccer's for girls". 4) Watch Amélie, it's one of my favorite movies, and I watched it yesterday. 5) I will be in Kansas City Friday through Sunday to visit Erika and family as well as to catch the English Beat. I will try to blog, but I might have to disappoint Mike by not blogging more than once. Sorry friend!

I will leave you now with the word of the day . . .

downchuck: the opposite of upchucking. When you vomit a bit, and you accidentally swallow it. Leaves a nasty taste in your mouth and can often happen many times if you are hungover. [Editor's note: gross]

Snow in April

I should have put this in my earlier blog, but I didn't get to it, rather didn't notice until now, BUT, as a commentary on life . . .

It is snowing in St. Louis in April!