St. Louis Cardinal Game

For a long time I've been wanting to take my grandson to a St. Louis Cardinals game. I'm a life-long Cardinal fan and what with one thing or another I haven't been able to get him there. A few weeks ago I finally got to take the grandson, the granddaughter and the daughter to a game. We had a really good time.

It takes about 2 1/2-3 hours to get to St. Louis from my home. We left early enough so that we could be there when the gates opened, and to have time to roam around the new Busch Stadium. Once we parked and walked over to the stadium, we saw the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile parked on the side street. What a blast from the past! When I was a child it once came to my town, but this model is wayyy cooler than the old one I saw back in the day. Looked pretty much state of the art.



They were asking people to sign up to win a backyard barbeque for Labor Day. The Weinermobile could come to your house and feed a group of like 25 of your closest friends if you win. So we signed up. I noticed the young man who was with the Weinermobile had a sack full of Weiner Whistles. I remembered them and asked if the kids could have one. He said he only could give them to people who could sing the Oscar Mayer song. The kids looked at me and I belted it out, "Oh, I'd love to be an Oscar Mayer Weiner..." They looked totally amazed that good old g-ma knew it! Of course the kid wouldn't give me two - I had to sing the Oscar Mayer Bologna song for another. "My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R..." Once again the grandkids looked at me as though I were a Goddess. Mission accomplished and weiner-whistles in hand, we walked the rest of the way to the stadium.

We were still early, so we waited in line. My son and his girlfriend were meeting us there, so they found us in line and we all waited about 10 minutes for the gates to open.

Once we got inside, we headed for the kid/family area. We were given a free red popsicle, courtesy of North Star. The kids posed with their mascot, the penquin.


From there we went into the family center. I signed up both the grandkids for the Kids Crew, a Cardinal club that gave them a truly cool bunch of stuff. They got a backpack, ball cap, bobblehead doll, baseball cards and other items. I would definitely recommend anyone to get it for their kids - it was more than worth the $20 fee. They also have coupons to get back into another game at half price.


After the family center, which the grandson enjoyed but the granddaughter not so much, it was her turn. We headed for the Build-A-Bear shop on the other side of the stadium. It's a mini-version of the full-sized shops you see in malls, but it was just as much fun. She decided she wanted to get a Fredbird, the official St. Louis Cardinal mascot.


Once Fredbird was ready, we made our way to our seats, way up in the rafters. It's all good, though - I love the rafters. They have shade and you can see the entire field.


The tickets we purchased included a hot dog and soda (worth $9.00) and after getting those, we sat down for the game.

My favorite part of the day was watching my grandson put it all together. He's played baseball for three years now and he is a pretty good hitter, but not much of a fielder. I watched him and his mom talk about why a player was doing this or that, and listen as she explained the double play. He was so into it, he didn't want to get up even to go potty.

The next week at his own baseball game, I watched the effect of this game. He FINALLY got it. He threw to the right bases, he paid more attention, he really did an excellent job in the field. So not only was this a fun day, he truly learned something. I love it when that happens.

Nathan Gunn Photos

I actually had someone other than my blog buddy write and tell me that she liked the blog, especially the Nathan Gunn photos.

I haven't posted any photos of Mr. Gunn for awhile, so here you go...

As Father Delaura in the 2008 Glyndebourne Festival Opera "Love and Other Demons"

As Pappageno in the 2009 Los Angeles Opera production of "The Magic Flute"

As Tarquinius in the 2009 Opera Company of Philadelphia production of "The Rape of Lucretia"

With Nikki Boxer from Aspen Public Radio July 2009

Baritone Nathan Gunn and wife Julie hold a master class with students from the Aspen Opera Theater Company July 2009

Julie and Nathan Gunn in their publicity shot from the 2009-2010 Krannert Center brochure

Good looking talented man - good looking talented wife.

Oregon, June 2009

I can't believe what a bad blogger I am. I thought I had posted this entry, but apparently I didn't hit that all important "publish post" icon. So I'm setting the way-back machine to June, Sherman, so you can see the mini-vacation I took with the daughter and grandkids. We went to see my veterinarian son who has made his home and large animal practice in the area around Portland. They hadn't been before, so we squeezed just about everything possible in the short 4 days we were there.

We arrived on a Thursday, mid-day. The flight was long - about 6 hours - with a change of plane in Salt Lake City. When we got to my son's house, he was still out doing a herd-health, so we ate lunch on him. We had to - he'd bought just about everything known to man for lunch and I would have felt bad if it had gone to waste. When he got home, he took us bowling. Here's my granddaughter jumping to make the pins fall:


Later we had dinner at the large mall nearby. I love that place - they have a P. F. Chang's and other fabulous places to eat. After that we went back to his house and crashed.

Next day he took us to the Portland Zoo. The zoo is huge. Really well done and lots of animals. The kids had to look at the farm exhibit, of course, since that is their uncle's specialty.


They had amazing water animals as well - here is a gigantic sea lion that swam up to the kids and then headed to the surface.


After the zoo, we had a picnic lunch nearby in the park. I felt so bad about all the money he had spent on the lunch stuff that I insisted that we take a lunch with us everywhere. It worked out well, though, and eventually we ate everything. He was incredibly thoughtful - only one of the reasons I love him.

Once lunch was done, I wanted to go to the Portland Rose Garden. They were having their annual show of roses. It is absolutely unbelieveable. There must be every variety and color of roses possible there. Here are a few examples:




After that, we headed back for dinner. I'm pretty sure it was something simple, but I honestly can't remember. Crash time for the kiddies, who were pretty tired considering the two hour time change.

On Saturday we headed for the coast. My son had arranged horse-back rides for the grandkids as my grandson wanted that more than anything.


Next we went to the beach in a nearby state park. We hiked up the hill to see the view - it was unreal.



We had to ferry the baby (my granddaughter) back down - she kept telling me, "Oh, Grandma. I'm so tired" over and over.


We counted the mileage after we got done and discovered the hike was about 6 miles total. So it was a miracle that either of them made it all the way through.

After yet another picnic lunch, we headed back to the beach in town to play.


The weather was chilly - I estimate the water temp was like 50 degrees. When it flowed over my feet while I stood on the beach I actually jumped it was so cold. That did not stop my grandson from immersing himself, though. He'd been waiting for months for the chance, and although it was against my better judgment, we let him.


We headed for Portland again after the beach to eat dinner at an artisan pizza place. I helped the kids occupy their time while waiting for dinner by coloring.


The coolest part of the restaurant is that the windows that made up the walls retracted and we were more or less outside with only the ceiling over us. It was truly neat.

On Sunday I took the kids to the latest Night at the Museum movie so that my daughter and son could go winery tasting. He lives in an area that is smack-dab in the middle of wine country and there are winerys everywhere.

Later in the day, we took the kids kite flying.



In the park where we flew the kites, this cell tower resided. I have never seen such an attempt to make a cell tower look like a tree before. They really didn't want to ruin the landscape!


We left on Monday and spent another lovely 6 hours on two planes to get to St. Louis, then a 3 hour drive from there to home. We were tired, but I think we can declare it a successful trip. I enjoyed it, anyway. And isn't that all that really matters? :)

Las Vegas - Day 6

Today was fairly low key regarding classes. We attended sessions in the morning and were scheduled to work as volunteers through the lunch meeting. When we went to the volunteer/registration counter to sign in, we were told that we weren't needed...that the election of officers for the group was not going to require more than a few people and that they had that covered. Hooray! We didn't want to do it anyway, so this allowed us to eat and get out of there a whole lot quicker.

After the crazy lunch of a lasagna piece with a blanched carrot and string bean on top (really, that is what it was!) and a strange cookie-crust custard thing, we grabbed my son and husband and took off.

We went to the Stratosphere to ride the rides. Seriously. If you've ever been to Las Vegas, you'll know the Stratosphere is on the north end of the strip and towers above the landscape. About ten years ago, at another conference at the same hotel, I went with my daughter to ride the Big Shot on the top of the Stratosphere. Back then there were two rides on the top - the Big Shot and a roller coaster than curled around the top. I would never in a million years have done the coaster. I mean, come on! It was insane to think about it. Here's some footage of the coaster from YouTube:



But the Big Shot just goes straight up and straight back down. You start on concrete, you land on concrete if the worst should happen. Seems better, somehow, than going in a circle around the outside edge of the top of the building and if you fell, it'd be straight down to the street. Here's a sample of the ride from YouTube:



It goes up so fast, it's insane. I had forgotten that part, however, when I agreed to go again with my son. It is one incredible rush and my son, who had never been on the ride, yelled as loud as he could. Didn't help, but made him feel better.

To make it worse, he wanted to ride their newest ride, Insanity. Here's how this one goes, once more courtesy of YouTube:



And there's more - they have one more ride but neither one of us had the guts to go on it. It's called the X-Scream and it is insane. Here it is from YouTube:



It just dangles right out over NOTHING. NOTHING. No way would I ride that thing!

After the fun of the Stratosphere, we headed back to our hotel for the conference banquet. The DH didn't want to go, so only my son, my co-worker and I went. It was the WORST banquet I have ever been to. The food selection was incomprehensible. It still don't understand who make those choices. The meat was beef with small rolls to eat it with. That was pretty normal. Next to it was a Louisiana "station" with white rice, red beans, shrimp to be cooked and some kind of crazy chicken sauce thing.

The "fresh vegetables" were actually roasted carrots, zucchini, cherry tomatoes...it was so strange! No dip, nothing to eat with them.

The dessert, rather than a collection of cakes/pies, etc. was the only bright spot. But if you didn't like it, you were out of luck. It was one thing only - bananas foster. Vanilla ice cream with a rum-based banana laden sauce on top. It was good, but the other stuff was blah. Needless to say, I didn't stay long. We ate what we could and went out for one last "fling" at the casino.

I won $33.00 on slots, so I quit. That leaves me down about $30.00 for the trip. Not bad, really.

We went to bed early due to the long travel day the next day. Didn't help. It took 14 hours to get home in total. Yep. One layover, one delay and an hour car trip at the end.

Guess I won't complain. I was happy to be back home. Traveling is fun...returning has its own charm as well.

Las Vegas Day 5

Today we had labs - those are sessions that are hands on with the software. I love those. I learn so much more by doing instead of being lectured. I was happy that these particular labs covered problem areas of the reporting software and I learned a number of tricks - some useful, some not so much. Doesn't matter, I still would rather have a day of hands on than a day of sitting still.

For dinner my co-worker, my son and I went to Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak restaurant. In case that name isn't familiar he is the head judge on Bravo's reality cooking show Top Chef.


The restaurant is beautiful. All wood and metal.



We all decided to eat from the Spring Tasting Menu. For $60 per person, we had a huge dinner served family style.

The first course was:
Shaved fennel salad
Grilled quail, vincotto
Buffalo mozzarella, red pepper caponata
Persian cucumber, lemon vinaigrette

Main Course was:
Prime Beef Flatiron
Grilled Angus Skirt Steak
Diver Sea Scallops

Side Dishes:
Yukon Gold Potato Puree
Sugar Snap Peas, Ricotta Salata
Roasted Shiitake Mushrooms

Dessert:
Chocolate melted cake with vanilla bean ice cream
Rhubarb Crisp with Vanilla bean ice cream
Carmelized Monkey bread with Banana ice cream

The entire dinner was possibly the best food I have ever eaten. I have never had quail and it was wonderful. My favorite thing was the Angus Skirt Steak. It melted in the mouth. Next favorite was the potato puree. Unbelievable.

This restaurant has just become my favorite place in Las Vegas to eat.

After dinner we walked over from the MGM where the restaurant is located to the ESPN Zone in the New York, New York casino/hotel. Bought a few things for the grandkids and returned to the MGM to leave.

Back at the hotel I resisted the urge to gamble again. I'll play tomorrow night (our last night here) for a bit, I think. We'll see.

Las Vegas Day 4

Today sessions began and I attended all day.

After "work", my son and I went to the Paris hotel. We went up the Eiffel Tower to the top and looked around and took pictures for about a half hour. It's not as high as the real one, but it is still pretty high up there. Here's the proof:


The real reason I wanted to go to the Paris was to go to Le Notre, the pastry shop in the corridor between Bally's and the Paris. Yum yum. It was late in the day so the case is not as full as I have seen it but here it is:


These are the ones that I bought:


They are so rich, we shared each one of them, but they are fantastic.

After that, came back and I finally got to do some gambling. Played craps for about two hours and ended up losing it all. Hit the slots and got quite a bit back, so as of now I'm only $67.00 down. Could have been worse!

Las Vegas Day 3

Conference didn't really start till later in the day, so I, the son and the husband went out to do a few things.

Went to the M&M Store and the Coca-Cola Store to buy some totally useless junk for several family members.

Went to the Luxor to find Egyptian items for the son, only to find out that they aren't selling that stuff anymore. WTF?! The last time we came here (like 5 years ago) they had a huge gift shop of just stuff from/about/relating to Egypt. What is the point of the whole pyramid thing without accompanying crap?

Went to Mandalay Bay for the son and went through Shark Reef, a huge aquarium thingy. Lots of fish, sharks, etc. to see.

After we went everywhere we wanted to, we came back to the hotel where I had to work the conference registration desk for two hours. It was hectic, but the time went quickly. Once that chore was over, we went to dinner.

After that we went to see Penn & Teller. Their show is based here at the Rio and it was really good. Before the show there was a jazz duo playing on stage and I looked at the bassist really hard - I just knew it was Penn playing. The man at the piano asked all the audience to go up onstage and look over a wooden box there and to write our name down on an envelope that was there. So we did.

Later in the show they sawed the box in half with a woman in it and used the envelope for another trick. I don't want to explain too much 'cause the show is good and you should go see it.

After the show was over, both Penn and Teller were in the lobby and let everyone get a photo with them, signed autographs, etc. I asked Penn if he were the one playing on stage before the show and he admitted that he was. Cool!

Finally went to bed - long day.

No gambling yet, but hopefully soon.

Las Vegas Day 2

So I got my chance to go to the pool...where the software company sales people managed to get me falling down drunk. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I had a number of yummy drinks that were totally deceptive. Didn't really feel all that bad at the time, but about an hour after I left the pool area I was pretty well hammered.

Stayed in the room mostly that evening and felt like an idiot for being a lightweight, drink-wise.

New resolve - practice more!

Viva Las Vegas!

Okay, the title was a bit much, but I'm here. It took all day and two planes, but I'm here. By the time I got to the hotel, it had taken 12 hours to get here from leaving home. Blurgh.

The place is a lot different than I remembered from last time. More hotels being built, different way to pick up rental car at McCarran, more people. Or maybe that is my inner old person speaking up. It just seems crammed to the gills with PEOPLE.

I had also forgotten that smoking is allowed in the hotel. Yuk. I hate the smell and I hate the lingering stench that permeates everything.

The rooms I booked for myself and a co-worker said they were "Premium Suites". Okay, but they are just a tad bit bigger than a regular hotel room. Certainly adequate but not exactly luxurious. I should have known for the price. It does have a more than adequate view, however, of The Strip. I tried to take photos but they didn't exactly capture all the color of the lights. Here are two:



And speaking of price, the conference folks have done everything but offer to pay for airfare to get people out here. After arriving last night I'm wondering why. The place seems to be booming with business. All I've heard is that this is the least attended conference since 9/11 and that the organization is going to have to eat a lot of fees, etc. You couldn't tell it from the jam packed casino/lobby/restaurants here.

Well, today is Mother's Day, so I've asked for and been granted two hours at the pool to just lie around. I'd better go get those two hours before someone decides they'd rather go to another hotel to gamble.

Getting Ready

I'm off work today to get ready for the Las Vegas trip. I'll be traveling tomorrow (Saturday) so today is a trade-off.

A bit of dilemma regarding clothing. I'm figuring that the conference center will be kept quite chilly if past experiences hold true. So I'll need a bit warmer items for day, but once conference time is over I know I'll be outside, wandering the strip, drinking, etc. I need less warm outfits for that.

I'm thinking that I'll wear my longer capris for the conference with a knit shirt and over-sweater. Then I can change the capris for shorts and ditch the sweater for after. Does that sound like a plan? I'm trying to stick to one suitcase for clothes and a smaller one for shoes, toiletries, etc. The airline is going to charge me $50.00 for two suitcases but I can't do a whole week with less.

That is the plan so far. Now I need to go try on everything to see if it all still fits. I had the cancer+20 (like the freshman+20) added last year but I think I've gotten rid of all of it now. Still I have enough doubt to want to check while I can still go pick up a few things if necessary.

Excitement and the usual nervousness is setting in. I love traveling but as a born worrier I always anticipate something going wrong.

Most Boring Day EVER

This morning I attended our local Community Leader's Breakfast with 6 of my co-workers. We sat down for the usual rubber scrambled eggs, mushy fried potatoes and hard sausage. No worries, we've done this before, so we know what to expect. EXCEPT...today, the new city manager came to our table and asked if he could sit down with us. OMG.

Well, of course, we said sure. But what a tense experience. Did I say the right things, did I drool? Did I sound stupid or needy or like a suck-up? Who knows? Everyone at the table became someone else. Unreal. The worst thing is that the speaker for the breakfast was excellent - spoke about generational differences with workers, etc., but it was very difficult to pay attention to her.

From there we went onto a meeting in Bloomington. It could have been a good meeting, but unfortunately it was without doubt the worst meeting I have ever attended. The speakers droned on and on - if I hadn't had my blackberry there for comic relief I might have had to hurt someone. Two hours of complete torture.

When we finally were released, we ate lunch, then indulged ourselves at Cold Stone Creamery. Yum yum - I had chocolate with raspberries. Only a little, though. Too many calories otherwise. I did have a taste of the flavor Sweet Cream. It was awesome but I'm mostly a chocolate girl. Maybe next time I'll give the Sweet Cream a shot.

So the day wasn't a total loss - could any day that involved ice cream be all bad?

Just when I thought the week could not get worse...

...my son was hospitalized. Not super serious - just not responding to oral antibiotics for lung infection. He'll be allowed to come home on home IV therapy soon.

Just one more brick on the pile, so to speak, as he was hospitalized in St. Louis, Missouri at Barnes-Jewish, meaning a 3 hour drive to see him and a 3 hour drive back.

It's all good, though. He could be a lot worse.

Difficult Work Week

This week is going to be difficult for a number of reasons.

Last week, one of our firemen died in a non-work related accident. He was working on a vehicle when the jack slipped and the vehicle fell on him, cutting off his air supply for quite a long time. He was kept alive for awhile and when it was determined he would not recover, life support was withdrawn. The family donated his organs so that others might live on.

If that weren't bad enough, one of our policemen had a child die on Friday. The child had a medical condition however the death was unexpected at this time.

Tonight I will have to go to both visitations and tomorrow attend one or the other funeral since they are happening at the same time.

It's really a shame and makes you think about life and how quickly and unexpectedly it can end.

Montessori School Grandparent Night

Last Wednesday night I accompanied my grandson to his school's grandparent night.

We were served cold Domino's pizza and Gatorade. The cold pizza did not affect my grandson one bit - he ate two pieces. I picked at one and ate a couple of bits of cold cheese. YUK.

After eating, we all moved to the auditorium to sit in rock hard wooden seats and watch the movie Bolt.

I'm glad I went for his sake, but man it was tough. Next time I'll eat before I go.

My 32nd Wedding Anniversary - YIKES!

My husband and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary on April 28, 2009. It's really hard to believe those numbers. In many respects it seems like only yesterday but then again sometimes I feel every year of it.

Overall I think we've done pretty good.

We went to dinner with the kids that live here in our town and the grandkids. It was very enjoyable, especially now that the grandkids are almost human beings.

Here's hoping for another 32!

University of Illinois Football 2009 Spring Game

On April 25th, my son, his girlfriend and I attended the annual spring football game, which is just a nice way of saying a team scrimmage.


It was general admission and pretty poorly attended, although I don't know why. The proceeds went to Coaches Against Cancer, a charity that I can definitely get behind, in light of my recent bout.

There is a clothing sale in the concourse before the game, and I was able to pick up some shirts for the kids very cheaply.

The special draw this year was the appearance of former football coach Mike White, who signed stuff and gave autographs. I got a pic of him as he passed me.


The game itself was not particularly exciting, but it was a beautiful day and I got to spend time with my son, so all was good.