where I talk with my inside voice
My friend Albin Quiko invited me down to his house in Ozark, Missouri this weekend. He just bought a new boat last month, and I was honored to be one of the first of his friends to take it for a spin. We spent a few hours cruising around, and then we stopped a place for lunch. Since it was...
Noah came home this weekend and so we had our traditional Labor Day cookout on Saturday night. I forgot to take any pictures, but we did have an exciting visit from a juvenile hawk of some kind that I caught on the surveillance camera. He thought Selena looked tasty, and if Dixie hadn’t scared him off by screaming, it might...
With Noah away at school, the three of us attended our first performance at Stages St. Louis at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. This was a pre-Broadway musical that imagines Jane Austen’s creative process while writing Pride and Prejudice. It was a really good show, and well-performed, although Josie and I agreed that none of the songs is particularly memorable....
We got Noah moved into his new room at Hatch Hall – he was hired as a Resident Assistant this year, so he had to move in two weeks early for training. I have fond memories of those weeks when I was an RA, although it doesn’t sound like they do as much team-building as we did back then. I...
Jane turned 80 this month, so we couldn’t let that milestone pass without a celebration. Laura organized lunch at The Boathouse in Forest Park, and she also paid Josie to digitize all of the Zyk family 8mm film. Lunch was yummy, and we all had a good time.
Earlier this summer, I told the kids I wanted to take a history field trip to Springfield, IL, to see the Lincoln museum. They were open to the idea, so I scheduled it and bought tickets. Josie ended up catching some bug that was going around, so she stayed home. Noah and I enjoyed seeing some of the sights, including...
Tonight was our last show at The Muny this summer. I agreed to split the cost of Linda’s season tickets, and we ended up trading in a couple of shows that we weren’t really interested in, so more of us could attend. The sets and costumes were really good (especially the balcony scene) and the actress playing Eva Perone had...
Josie was among 30 high school students in Missouri selected to attend a week-long career camp called Life Science Quest at Mizzou. Each day was spent touring different facilities and labs, along with a couple of visits to off-campus locations, all with the purpose of exposing the students to many different career paths that are available within the College of...
When I started the blog on The Pipes Family Foundation website last year, I didn’t expect to be spending so much time doing genealogical research. I mean, it’s been an interest of mine for at least twenty years, and I really started to immerse myself in it during the pandemic, but then it was just for me. Now I’m investing...
My wonderful family indulges me every year with a day trip somewhere that they might not otherwise have gone. Whether it’s to visit an alpaca farm or to climb around on the trains, they always seem to enjoy themselves. Or they do a good job of faking it. This year it was the AB brewery tour downtown, followed by lunch...
Alas, poor Yorick, even though the Shakespeare Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary year, we have never been to a performance – until today. I was offered seats through ECF, so we saw a modern reimagination of Hamlet and it was really good. I was getting a little tired by the end – it’s hell getting old – but I...
Laura was planning to take Jane to a UFL game and she asked if we would want to go along. Noah has gotten more into football his first year at college, so he was interested, but this was our first time going to a UFL game. It turned out to be a really good day. The Battlehawks beat the Birmingham...
Just a couple of years after Noah took it, we signed Josie up for the BRAKES defensive driving school. This is a really cool professional driving course that is designed for kids to learn some valuable techniques behind the wheel and, as the name says, Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe. She got to learn how to recover from a...
The past year has been tumultuous. I haven’t really talked about it here, but with the loss of both of my parents last year and the upheaval at my employer, when I got to the end of 2024, I had to spend some time reflecting on whether or not I was on the right path. After ten years as a...
Last week we took Josie to SEMO, and this week was Mizzou. We recently learned that she got a 36 on her ACT, which is amazing (though not surprising), but that means she has some great options. I don’t think she has made a final decision yet, but the Environmental Science program at Mizzou is going to be hard to...
