where I talk with my inside voice
The weather this weekend was supposed to be uncommonly good for August, so I asked Dixie if she wanted to go somewhere to look at birds. We had not decided on a place yet, but then coincidentally, I ran across a garage sale on Craigslist that had Lego listed, and it happened to be right next to Rabbit Run Park...
Josie begins her college career in the same place her brother did – Wolpers Hall. We got her all moved in today, and classes start on Monday. She is excited about her classes this semester and making new friends. Our timing was good and we were able to meet Josie’s roommate Naledi, and her parents, who are from South Africa....
This show shares a lot of DNA with another show we saw earlier this year at the Fox: Spamalot. What with the winks to other Broadway shows, and the humorous references to life in medieval times, it clearly was influenced by Eric Idle’s creation. But, where that one takes its cues from Monty Python’s greatest movie, this one takes its...
On Thursday I got notice that they were giving away free tickets at work for the GnR concert at Busch Stadium on Sunday. I texted Josie to see if she would want to go, and by the time she had responded 5 minutes later, most of the tickets were already claimed. But we got a couple of seats behind third...
The Minifig Shop has been in Kirkwood for a number of years, and I’ve taken the kids there a couple of times. Today they had the grand opening of their second location in Chesterfield, so Josie and I went to see what they had. It’s a much larger store, so they have a lot more inventory, and they hired a...
One of the last shows of the season is Meet Me in St. Louis, so Josie and I went down for her last show before she moves to Columbia. It was a really good show, although they had a technical glitch during the trolley song, which took a few minutes to rectify. We’re going to miss our summer visits to...
My wonderful partner has been employed by the Atlas Academy for the past 16 years, teaching our two students, and getting them ready to be productive members of society. It was a lot of work, and she did such an excellent job, I couldn’t let the occasion go by without some form of recognition. The kids and I spent the...
Like her brother before her, Team Tappmeyer had a going-away lunch for Josie before her departure for Mizzou. Around the time he left, she started volunteering on Saturday mornings, helping them run the community garden in Millennium Park. They have enjoyed having both of our kids on their crew, and we are grateful for the experience.
As part of the America250 celebration, I signed up for a project called Connect250 which is sponsored by StoryCorps and NPR. The premise was take two Americans (somewhat) at random, and record them having a conversation about what life is like in 2026. I was paired with a delightful woman from Zanesville, Ohio, named Sylia, and our 40-minute discussion will...
It was our turn at the Muny this week, so Noah and I went to see Newsies. It was a good show, and while the songs weren’t quite as memorable, the choreography was excellent. Really talented cast.
As part of the America 250 celebration this year (which has been lackluster at best, thanks to President Camacho), the Union Pacific railroad sponsored a nationwide tour featuring the last operative “Big Boy.” So I dragged Noah down to Union Station, in the 100-degree heat, along with 10,000 of our closest friends, to see it. It was still pretty cool.
After having visited The Home of the Brick in Billund, the bar is set pretty high for me, and I’m not sure I will get much out of these Lego displays anymore. But the St. Louis County Library was nice enough to celebrate my birthday with Lego Night at the Clark Branch, so I figured I had to go check...
This is probably the last year we will have season tickets at the Muny. I hate to lose the great seats, but there are rarely more than two or three shows each season that we want to see, and it’s such a hassle exchanging the tickets. Linda has said she’s done, so in the future I think we’ll just buy...
We took Josie to Mizzou today for Summer Welcome. It has been two years, almost to the day, that we took Noah to his Summer Welcome. This time Dixie and I chose not to stay overnight, and she is driving back tomorrow morning to pick Josie up. But the program was largely the same, and met in the same auditoriums...
Because Noah was having some friends over today, and both Dixie and Josie found errands to run outside of the house, I figured I better find something to keep myself occupied too. So I went down to the History Museum and visited the exhibit on the Mill Creek neighborhood in downtown St. Louis. The neighborhood, which was a black metropolis...
We are two for two with Stages St. Louis at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. Last summer we saw Austen’s Pride, which was really good, and this time it was the Putnam County Spelling Bee, which was very funny and had some talented performers. Stages has also applied for an ECF grant this year, so we may be going back...
We just returned from our Nordic Odyssey to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It was quite a trip, with both highs and lows, but we survived and we had a good time overall. Dixie sprained her ankle, and banged up her knee, when she took a fall at the train station on Day 3 of the trip. And we missed our...
