A Stop in Downtown St Louis on Our Way to Osage Beach

Do not ever accuse me of being cheap. Carol and I stopped and stayed one night at the St Louis Hilton at the Ballpark on our way to see Vinny and Carolyn at Osage Beach. Check out the ridiculous room price - nothing too good for my lady though. (I paid 11-cents on the dollar via a rate from Hotwire.com.)

One Quarter of the Hilton rooms have a nice view of the Busch/In Bev (sorry, couldn't help myself) Stadium. Very nice location - guess that is why they dream of the 899.

From our room (609) we had a great view of this beautiful white building - I was going to check out its history but when we ran by it (literally because it was raining hard and I was too cheap for a taxi, even though Carol won some money in the casino...) we never did stop to see what it was.

The Womens Basketball Final Four was in St Louis. The Hilton hosted one team: U-Conn so they changed the fountain colors to U-Conn orange in their honor. Carol and I rode up the elevator talking about being SDSU fans and wouldn't it be great if they had made it to St Louis. The man in the elevator with us appears to have been the head U-Conn coach. Carol recognized him on the TV broadcast tonight. (She had noticed/commented later on all of his fancy championship rings in the elevator.)

A picture of the blazing orange water that the Running Man is running through. Carol called me from Room 609 (hotel in background) after I took this picture and informed me that she was watching the way I was intently watching the attractive young black lady that was trimming the nearby sidewalk. (Boy did I covet her John Deere 688 - that is a 459 dollar weed wacker.)

This is a picture of the arch as I was walking to it to go to the top. The good thing about a wife that refuses to go high is that you go as a single. That means, in this case, you jump to the front of the line to fill in the transport car that accepts 5 people. Funny story - a guy commented on my being a single, I said, "Yeah my wife is afraid of heights and the last time we came, I made her go and she got sick as a dog." The guy looked sheepish, I thought he was embarrased for asking about being a single. I felt bad for him so I elaborated a bit more on how sick she got. Then I suddenly realized he was sheepish because his wife was getting sicker by the foot. (She made it up though. I went with another group back down. Funny story, eh...)

This was my first picture that I took of the arch as we were driving downtown to find the Hilton.

A picture of the arch shadow from the top of the arch. This is cool stuff - everyone should be retired so they can go around the country, take pictures and put them into a blog.

A picture of the In Bev Stadium (sorry, I cannot help myself) from the top of the arch.

A picture of the downtown, including the pretty unknown white building, from the top of the arch.

A perspective of the arch that probably just about everybody takes a picture of. I put the camera up against the base south wall of the arch and shot at the angle that would get as much as I could. (Not sure where the vertical line came from, I did not see it when I took the picture.)

A Trip To Lake of the Ozarks With Vinny and Carolyn

Boy was it exciting driving back and forth from Osage Beach to Clarksville. We ran into very heavy rains both ways - this is a picture on the way back home.

We spent an hour in traffic on I24 near Paducah because of a Washinton Limo Service bus incident. Not sure what happened but they did a job of making some heavy tire tracks in the medium of the freeway. For an exciting ride, call 618-632-52??. Tell them you want the bus driver that prefers to drive down the middle of the road. (The median - see if they laugh.)

As I mentioned, we came home in some heavy duty rain and Carol took this picture of a Cumulonimbus (CB) that had cleared the Cirrus layer. Cool stuff - see the top of the CB sticking through the wispy Cirrus layer. (The cirrus is probably 30,000 feet and is composed of ice crystals. The CB is supercooled water vapor that does a great job of birthing hail as the updraft brings the moisture to the top of the cloud. The water freezes in the supercooled atmosphere and after the updraft cannot support the ball, the hail then falls due to gravity - "Lookout below!!".

Carolyn and Vinny and Carol in front of the restaraunt that we ate at on Saturday nite. I asked them to pose in front of the KC Chiefs logo since they had just surrendured their tickets. Thank goodness Lamar was not in for dinner that night. (They were long term season ticket holders.) Vince had Carol in a cracker neck hold because she was rubbing his budda belly making wishes. Carolyn's wish is that she wasn't in this particular picture.

Vinny and I lost our lovely ladies at the Outlet Mall (like 400 stores there). I had this idea that Vinny liked to find them. We went to Security and posed as undercover shop lifting police. We told them who we were looking for - two very attractive dark haired slender women - that shop lift out of boredom - not because their husbands are not successful or handsome. At any rate, the surveillance cameras caught them exiting the Off Saks Fifth at 4:48:12 (see above) and Vinny and I sprung into action. We got quick to the LOI ("Location of Importance" for you all not familiar with police lingo) and cuffed them. We put them into the back seat - quite bruskly for the show of the gathering crowd - of our unmarked car (1998 Lexus ES300 with 458,000 miles) and took them home for debriefing. We did a SVMT (Sales Versus Merchandise Tally) just for fun and recognized that they spent more money on their grandchildren than they did for themselves. Well that earned them a KFGAWJ (Kiss For Going Along With the Joke) and we put them on no restraint probation for the rest of the evening.

Carol and Doug after the parole is over. I love playing cops and robbers.

Carol, another good reason for not buying a boat!!! Remember when we lived in a trailer house in Rapid City and our friends used to post signs in our yard that said, "Trailer Trash!" Well here it is again... At the Osage Beach Marina, they do not want anybody off the boats hanging around at the pool or clubhouse. No boat for me...

Carol and Carol looking sweet after their previous day near arrest. (Doug noticed that he was missing $20 bucks right after this picture was taken.) Vinny said that I spent it at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Well, I did remember Vinny eating a chocolate covered bananna - but I thought it was a dream - I mean the way he ate it in two bites and all...

The condo that Vinny and Carolyn own is in a complex right on the lake. Some of the condos are single and built on a pedastol on the the edge of the lake in a singular, private fashion. This is a picture of one of them. Apparently it is owned by a nudist because all of the windows are sand blasted. It doesn't appear that anyone can see in or out.

Vinny showing his true affection for my wrinkled face. My wife sometimes falls into the same trance. Is it me or is it memorex?

Jodie, Keith & Myra's Visit - Great Time Had By All

Jodie visited from the West coast and Myra and Keith met here at our house for a mini family reunion. We all had a great time. Thanks for coming Jodie. Thanks for driving Keith and Myra.

Jodie and Amaya

Keith, Myra and Carol trying to work off supper by taking a walk around the neighborhood.

Presents! A signed copy of Peter Rabbit for Amaya.

Keith is almost 52 so we took the opportunity to celebrate his birthday.

Myra has never felt very old but now that Keith is 52...

Myra and Keith brought the "Corn Hole" game and of course we played it for several hours after supper. Everybody managed to win once after the teams were parsed 12 different ways.

It was a wonderful surprise - Brian came to visit for a short time. He brought his wedding tux and Jodie happened to have her dress in her suitcase so we had a reenactment. It was fun. We all realized that the honeymoon was over when they walked up the street to the Dairy Queen for their honeymoon.

Keith brought some great champaigne and Carol opened a big bottle of her 2002. We all had a good time.

Carol and Amaya

Amaya and Jodie

Amaya and Myra

Amaya - 5-weeks, Keith - 2,704-weeks

My, my, my - I felt loved this week...

The New Denver Airport Sculpture - I Like It! A Tribute to a Fun, Beautiful, Vibrant City and an Obviously Talented Sculptor

This Review of the sculpture from the LA Times

"At first look, the 32-foot mustang sculpture overtaking the Denver skies looks like a beast from the book of Revelation. With its callous blue skin and fiery red eyes, bucking into the heavens, “Mustang” is as iconic as it is ominous, screaming into the night as planes roar by its permanent perch outside Denver International Airport. The sculpture, created by New Mexico artist Luis Jimenez, was commissioned by the city of Denver in 1992 at the cost of $300,000. After years of delay and contention, the airport finally wrangled the sculpture, which now sits on the access road to the main terminal. Jimenez died in 2006 when a portion of the sculpture dropped from a hoist and pinned him against a steel support beam. He was 65."

A Visit to the Jim and Linda's Place in Colorado

It was a nice flight from BNA to DEN but we happened to have a few cumulus clouds on the final to Denver. I suspected that we might catch a brief halo image so I had my camera ready. Sure enough, a nice halo reflection - isn't physics wonderful. This phenomena is quite familiar to the hanglider pilot, less common when you are traveling at 350 mph with the sun usually in the wrong orientation. I think I will send this picture to to the Southwest Spirit Magazine and see if I can win something grand. (I will let the my blog followers know if I do.)

First night, everyone helps in the kitchen. (Doug does dishes, no one lets him cook.)

Doug, Carol and Linda went to the Nature Center to hike - Doug looked at the 35-mile start line and backed up quickly to Starbucks in the mall next door. I did take a picture of the relative humidity scale - I doubt it. Denver felt almost as dry as Phoenix - well, that might be a slight exageration. (To be safe, with conflicting evidence of unclear safe environmental conditions, I decided I had better not chance anti-dehydration. This little known physical ailment is caused by hiking with too much humidity that will quickly (I think) fill your lungs with water.)

We had a grand time in Colorado, but hey, I have to admit it, I did miss my raquetball!! I took this front window shop picture from the Apple store at the mall next to the Nature Center. As I might have mentioned before, Carol and Linda hiked 13 miles... I walked at least 13 minutes getting to the mall. At a reward for our outstanding efforts, Linda later bought ice cream at Cold Stones. I had "Really Really Vanilla" with a dollop of "Hot Fudge". It was really really swella with heart fillup of mo sludge... (Ok I am no poet... I knowet.)

On one of the days, we drove through Golden to the top of Lookout Mountain. (I wanted to see where the hanglider pilots launched to legally land below at the Colorado School of Mines.) I saw evidence of hanglider pilots - several wind streamers at the very top and a pickup with a glider rack, but no confirmed pilots ready or able to launch. Pictured here, Doug, fledgling pilot, with his very lovely ground based wife Carol.

Next to the Lookout Mountain Nature Center there was a restored family hunting lodge given to the city by the somebody somebody family. It was restored very nicely and serves as a wedding, etc site. We stopped to pose for a picture before we left.

Kristin, Doug and Carol to Copper Mountain

Kristin driving to Copper Mountain from Denver in less than 45 minutes. I asked her if she was ever nervous about getting a speeding ticket. She said, not really, her husband was a cop and she would just ask for a "professional courtesy." She drives really really fast... (I am just kidding of course... sort of... but then I am old, she is young, speed is all relative to each generation.)

I accidentally took this picture at Copper trying to turn the camera off. Just goes to prove that some of the best things that happen in life are accidents.

On the way to Copper, I tried to ignore the telephone poles buzzing by my head like a picket fence. I realized, once we got to Copper, and after I changed my shorts, that I had indeed done a "Tricky" Saduko in an absolutely unbelievable time of 45 minutes. This is mindblowing and will go into my annals of fantastic personal achievements. As I look back, all I can remember about this out-of-body experience in the back seat of Kristin's car is that I kept thinking, "My time may be short Lord, please let me finish this puzzle."

I was so impressed that I arrived at the beautiful Copper Mountain alive that I arranged to give the girls a sleigh ride before the snow lost its crisp nature and the horses would have a problem. Although it was quite a costly affair, since the horses had to be quickly trucked in from Vail, it was indeed a terrific little outing. If you enlarge the photo, you can see more detail of the horses.

Kristin and Carol with two of Kristin's friends that must drive even faster than she does since they got there an hour earlier.

Kristin, Carol and Doug at the foot of the mountain.

A Visit to the Lance, Jennifer, Skyler and Quinn Family in Colorado

You are greeted at this warm house with a collage of art - some of it from Skyler, some of it from Quinn - and that cool dude smoking Turkish you-know-what. "Well that came from a National Geographics photograph that I painted in high school." Likely story Jen, it was too well done - obviously you are trying to take false credit for someone that has tremendous art skills. (Please e-mail me a picture of that picture - I want it for my blog.)

What a cute family!! And we even caught Lance home from his worldly travels. Huh? Oh! Well, ah, umm, I guess that Lance is home alot now... That be a good thing right? "YES, say the girls and mother too." (Most of the time at least.)

How tall are you really? Well, Jennifer is stabilized, Carol is getting shorter and it is quite likely that both Skyler and Quinn will be looking down at these ladies soon.

Doug convinced the girls to all hop up onto the trampoline for a picture. He then convinced the little ones that Carol used to be "hot stuff on the tramp." They then proceeded to egg her on until she shed her shoes and did a few tramp spreads high in the air.

Carol was indeed impressive. Her trampoline jumping technique was even hotter than I remember it back on those hot, steamy Benicia nights in our quiet, private back yard after the kids went to bed. At the time of this picture, you can see that she had generated so much molecular frictional energy with the low/high humidity conditions that her hair was sticking straight out. It was stupifying, my mouth went dry! I watched intently as small, miniature bolts of lightning zig zagged from her finger tips. As she continued to jump, I started thinking "Holy smokes, I wonder if we could camp under this thing tonite."

We had a wonderful picnic in their beautiful back yard under the gas lamp. We all gave thanks for family and for the natural gas placed under Colorado that need pipe lines for delivery to the rest of the country that pay dearly for it since it is this cycle of energy dollars that eventually finds its way to the retirement benefit coffers of steel mills with retired metallurgical engineers. Amen and pass the chicken.

Linda, Skyler and Quinn holding down the hamock.

A long story, to be told at a later date, with one of the chapters being called, "Holy cow this really is a rare dinosaur tooth and not just a cow bone." One of Lance's petrified wood specimens that his Grandfather found in Wyoming many years ago.

The Ultimate Man Cave...   Lance: Zero, Visitors: Zero but the Crown and Ginger race has not yet started.   Wow... Michael and I want a man cave like his some day.

I remember when our two little girls were about this size and I still had hair. What a pretty family. Thanks to the Ted Williams Fan Club Family for having us all over!!

First Mow of the Season: 3/18/2009

All I know is that I beat Carter in the lawn mowing contest since he is still in Florida. Boy, he will be mad - he is supposed to have the best yard in the neighborhood.