Another P.S.

Photos from our family dinner Sunday night

 

Spring break

The Southerland family had spring break this past week and Steve and I owed Quinn a birthday trip to the zoo so that is where we went Tuesday morning.  It was rather chilly and by noon, rain was supposed to be coming in but we were prepared with coats and umbrellas.  Because of the temperatures, the big cats were out and about and I got some great shots of the lion.  I like where he is sticking his tongue out at us and then it looks like he has a cheesy smile afterwards...

  

It looks like the gorilla statue is photo bombing our selfie!

If you know your Saint Louis Zoo, you will recognize the above photo - it is from the herpetarium a.k.a. where the snakes are!!!  We let Quinn decide which animals to visit and he wanted to check out all the reptiles.  I DID enjoy seeing the lizards and turtles.  NOT the snakes, however.

The rain held off until just as we were walking to the car (we got a great parking spot!) when we felt the first few drops.  By the time we were buckled in and driving away, we had to turn on the windshield wipers.  What a tender mercy that we got to enjoy the zoo without umbrellas.  

Steve's sister, Michelle, and her husband Mike flew in for a visit Wednesday night but we didn't see them until Thursday morning.  We drove over to Ballwin for lunch with Emily and kids.  Rain was forecasted for all that day, too, but after we had eaten, there was no precipitation so we decided to give the nearby World Bird Sanctuary a go and, again, the rain held off.  All the birds at the sanctuary are there because they cannot live in the wild any more - they are injured or they have imprinted upon humans.  I loved seeing the eagles and owls.  The following photos seem to all focus on the condor, though....

We enjoyed an amazing dinner at Little Fox that evening with Beckie as a perfect host.  The rain finally came later that evening and, wow, it poured all night.  I dumped almost three inches from my rain gauge the next morning!

The rain continued through Friday but it didn't deter us from savoring a BBQ lunch at the Stellar Hog and a visit to the Arch.

Saturday we visited the Soulard Farmer's Market and tried to see the Basilica but couldn't actually go inside the sanctuary because Mass was going on.  We wandered around the museum in the basement and poked our head inside the sanctuary before heading to Culvers for lunch.

Steven and Tamara came to the house in the afternoon, Elise came a few hours later and we fixed homemade pizza for dinner.  

Elise stayed overnight, Steven and Tamara headed back to Columbia and Bacon soon after dinner.  Today was church and Southerlands and Beckie are coming this evening for dinner.  So far, temperatures have been nice today and rain is supposed to hold off until tonight so we are hoping we can eat outside on the deck...fingers crossed

Michelle and Mike didn't stay with us so after they left for the night, Steve and I watched Overcomer on Thursday night and the newest episode of Picard on Friday.

 

P.S.

 Here is a photo of the wood pile we made from the wood collected at the cemetery a week ago.  It's gonna make some great bonfires in our firepit!

The Ides of March

We began our week at the library looking at Consumer Report for evaluations on good used vehicles.  So far, the Kia has been driving well and the "check engine" light sometimes appears, sometime goes away.  

Tuesday was Pi Day and our ward had a Bring A Pie potluck that evening.  What a great idea!  I brought a gluten-free lemon pie that I put on the GF pie table which also had a chocolate peanut butter pie as well as a shepherd's pie.  I had a tamale pie at home in the crockpot but we ate lunch so late (because we were at the temple that morning) we weren't hungry for it when it was time to leave for the church event so we have been eating it ever since as leftovers.   I couldn't linger at the Pi Day event as I had to get to orchestra rehearsal and as I was getting into the car, someone arrived carrying two large pizza pies.  Saint Louis celebrates March 14th in its own special way since the telephone area code for the city is 314.  Many restaurants offer discounts on food to celebrate and this pizza place had a "buy one, get one for $3.14" deal.  So many delicious pie options!

Wednesday, I was able to pick up my sewing machine, Betty White, from the repair shop and now when I sew, she purrs like a kitten

Thursday evening, Steve and I went to a Saint Louis Symphony concert and heard an amazing performance of the pieces they will be playing in their upcoming European tour:  Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges Suite, Grieg's piano concerto, and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.  I had played the dances over twenty years ago in Columbia Civic Orchestra and I wanted to hear them again.  We always get tickets in the "cheap seats" but the acoustics in Powell Hall are so fabulous, there isn't a bad seat in the house.

Friday, Saint Patrick's Day, was a bitterly cold, windy day.  We were supposed to have dinner with some friends but the wife, Karen, got a pneumonia shot the day before and was having a bad reaction so she had to cancel.  So, Steve and I enjoyed a quiet corned beef and cabbage meal all on our own.  Dinner was late, however, because Steve spent the afternoon as a judge for a regional speech and debate tournament in Ladue.  He was recruited through Steven through Tamara who teaches at Rock Bridge high school and who needed to find additional judges or forfeit some of their contestants.  

We had the temple baptistry Saturday morning followed by piano lessons at the Southerlands and a make-up cello/violin lesson with Eliza Brandt.  We were supposed to have a couple over to talk about Billion Graves and tour the across-the-street cemetery but temperatures were so cold, we rescheduled for another, hopefully warmer day.  Frankly, I was grateful because both Steve and I were out of steam and needed an evening of downtime.

It has been BITTERLY COLD much of the week.  Only Wednesday was tolerable and that was the day I got the rest of the black dirt to fill up my garden containers.  The garden is now ready for planting but I won't even think about doing that for several weeks.  In spite of the bitter temperatures, the spring plants continue to pop up and my front flower bed is looking very "springy".  Sadly, these photos don't do it justice.

Steve and I are caught up on Picard and, since we are subscribing to Paramount Plus to watch it, we saw the first episode of Star Trek - Strange New Worlds last night.  I, myself, re-watched "Cast Away" Wednesday night while Steve was at youth activities and, while he was judging debates on Friday, I re-watched "Steel Magnolias".  

So, it was a good week, even if we had to wear winter coats almost every day.  Now the dogs are telling me it is time for their breakfast so I will close....

 

A quiet week

 I took no photos this week!  Mostly because it was a very quiet week - which I NEEDED!  

Elise came for dinner on Sunday since she was still in town from the trivia night with the Southerlands the night before.  I fixed ribs and did it better the second time.  Lower oven temperature and slower cooking time.  We have two more racks left for continued practice.  (we got the ribs from Elise.  HyVee had marked them down to a ridiculously good price.  It is nice to have someone who works in a meat department.  Although Elise just started a long-term sub job as the media specialist at West Middle School and we are all hoping this might open some doors for a permanent position with Columbia Public Schools.  If that is the case, bye bye HyVee meat department)

Monday we took the Kia to have a routine oil change.  Although, with as much oil as we have to add on a regular basis, the oil inside was not really that old!  The "check engine" light had also recently come on so we wanted them to address that, too.  Temperatures got into the 70's and I took advantage of the lovely weather and picked up mulch and dirt from the mulch site.  

Tuesday the car was still in the shop.  Our service rep. didn't tell us that when a diagnostic was needed, there was a 24 -48 hour turn-around.  Good thing we have two cars!  We went to the temple in the morning as usual and I had orchestra that night as usual.  Weather turned cold and cloudy and rainy and it stayed that way the rest of the week.  At the end of the day, we finally heard back from Kia - because of so much oil consumption, it caused the failing of our catalytic converter and to replace it would cost almost $2000!!!  Oh, and our warranty doesn't cover it!  We did not approve the repairs at that time since it was the end of the day. (and we were in shock)   

Wednesday morning, before we went grocery shopping, we stopped at the Kia place to discuss things with  Alex, the service rep.  He pulled up all our paperwork from the time we bought the car and started taking it to them (less than a year) and he admitted that every time we brought it in for an oil change, we mentioned the oil consumption.  He showed us the things they did to try to solve that problem.  But, clearly, the problem wasn't solved and now the bad catalytic converter.  He said he would check with his manager to see if Suntrup Auto would pay for the repair and we left it at that.  He also said that we could still drive with a failing catalytic converter.  We waited all day for word back from Alex but heard nothing.

Thursday we again heard nothing all day from Kia.  But, we were not going to let that stop us from using a gift card that Kirsti gave to Steve for a movie theater experience.  It was to a place that also offered food so we watched the newest Ant Man and the Wasp movie and split a gluten-free pizza while we did so.  Food was delicious.  The movie was fun.

Friday we finally got the word that Suntrup Kia would NOT pay for a new catalytic converter.  By this time, after four days to consider our options, we decided to just pay for the oil change and the diagnostic and see if the oil consumption problem has been fixed for good.  NOT holding our breaths on that one.  IF it is solved, we will see what Bates Auto down the street will charge for a new catalytic converter.  But, during all of this, we will also do some research on used cars and also consider trading the Kia in for a different car.  So annoying!  Another annoying event was my sewing machine.  I sew almost every day - Monday through Friday - during Jeopardy.  I make wheel chair bags and food bags these days.  Days for Girls went on hiatus during Covid and the local group has not called me with needs ever since.  Anyway, early in the week, it was beginning to catch on the lower stitches so I thought that maybe it needed to be cleaned and oiled.  But, as I was trying to do that, a part fell off and I didn't know how to replace it.  So, I found a sewing machine repair place close to Suntrup Kia and we dropped it off before we picked up the car Friday afternoon.  The woman at the counter was quite charmed by my fifty-year old sewing machine - two toned (turquoise and white) with all metal parts and no bells and whistles.  She said that because it is so "simple", it shouldn't take long to be cleaned and repaired.   On a happy note, Beckie joined us for lunch on Friday and we had a nice visit.  Sally and Linus were thrilled to have her there.  That evening, we watched "Flower Drum Song".  My sister Juli and my high school friend, Susan Lyon, will remember Scotscapades which is the only time I had any acquaintance with this lesser-known Roger's and Hammerstein musical.  After watching it, there is a reason it is lesser-known.  Most of the songs are fairly forgettable and the most memorable one - "I Enjoy Being A Girl" - is pretty politically incorrect.  In fact, while the story line might be an accurate depiction of the Chinese-American culture in San Francisco in the mid-twentieth century, it could also be construed as politically incorrect by today's standards.  Kudos, though, for having an all-Asian cast.

Yesterday we helped with the Concordia cemetery spring clean up.  So many branches and limbs fall over the winter and they need to be gathered so the mowers can do their job.  We brought our huge green yard bag and filled it twice.  Rather than dumping it in the large dumpster they had (and that was almost full), we drove the bags home and emptied them to the side of our driveway for firepit wood. We only worked for an hour and a half but it was surprisingly tiring.  I suppose my getting into the bag several times and jumping up and down on the sticks and branches to compact them down might have had something to do with my fatigue.  The rest of the day was just puttering at home.  I finally tallied up sums (my music studio income, our medical receipts, charitable donations, etc) for income taxes.  I baked three gluten-free pie crusts and made a strawberry pie for Sunday dessert.  I cut Steve's hair.  And, we watched an episode of "Chuck" in the evening before turning our clocks forward and heading to an early bed.  

Ready or not, Spring is coming

I took this photo on one of my morning walks last week.  I am actually not sure what kind of tree it is - maybe a plum?  But our street is lined with several of them......notice the old bird nest....

The highlight of our week was going to Art in Bloom at the Saint Louis Art Museum.  Local florists are invited to create flower arrangements to mirror/match/echo a specific work of art.  There were about twenty displays scattered around the three floors and Emily, Beckie, Steve, me and a friend from church named Cinnamon went Friday morning.  Below are some of the displays.  The first one is with the piece of art behind it.  Since the painting is fairly simple, the flowers mirrored the colors.

Honestly, to look at some of the floral arrangements and the art that inspired them and to see the connection was a bit of a stretch but they were still pretty and it was a fun outing.

Here we all are with an arrangement inspired by a piece of armor (um, yeah, I don't see the similarity at all!)

This is an African tribal hat that wasn't one of the art pieces but I thought the many birds were cute so I took a photo....

 

It was a fairly wall-to-wall week full of rather mundane things - we drove down to Open Door Animal Sanctuary on Monday to get more dog food, I attended my monthly Happy Hooker meeting on Wednesday, we had dinner with our next door neighbor friends Ed and Mona Friday night, it was our temple baptistry week Saturday morning and I "babysat" Lucy, Quinn and Larkin Saturday night at their place while Emily, Joe, Noah, and Elise (who came in from Columbia) participated in a Trivia Night.  While they were taxing their brains, the grandkids and I watched "Monster's Inc" and I watched "Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" again after they went to bed.  Steve and I signed up for Paramount Plus and started watching the new season of "Picard".  SO good!  And so satisfying for us long-time Next Generation fans.