where I talk with my inside voice
I challenge anyone to watch the documentary Food, Inc. and not be influenced to make at least a few changes in the way you eat. More than likely, you’ll change a lot. You’ll look at that half-pound chicken breast and wonder if the chicken was still able to walk, supporting its unnatural weight. You’ll wonder what dose of antibiotics you’re...
If I haven’t mentioned it before, I really like Sketchup. Yesterday I spent less than an hour designing a new play table for my daughter Josie, and tonight I spent about an hour cutting out the pieces. Talk about rapid prototyping! If it’s not obvious from the image, this table will sit in the corner of her room and be...
In almost every project around our house, we invariably reach the point where this phrase is uttered. It happens so often that it’s a running joke. Today, Father’s Day, was no exception. It began with us simply wanting to swap out the hangers in both of the kids’ closets. Noah’s clothes have gotten big enough that they don’t stay on...
I took Noah to Powell Hall tonight for their Sound of Music Sing-a-Long. They showed the movie complete with lyrics in the subtitles and everyone had a blast singing along. Before the movie started, they had a costume contest, so a lot of people dressed up as characters, including an adorable pair of little twin girls dressed as nuns (who...
It’s a typical St. Louis summer. We are barely into June and it’s already into the 90s, with a heat index above 100. So to beat the heat, it’s time to fill the pool (and upgrade our slide, thanks to Craigslist). Our humble little pool is barely big enough for the kids but this year we have another family member...
Day two of our staycation took us to see the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. We watched Albert Pujols et al finish a three-game sweep of their long-time rivals the Chicago Cubs, defeating them 3-2 in the 10th inning. It turned out to be a beautiful day despite the forecasts of record heat and humidity, and though we were...
As a consequence of our canine commitments, an extended vacation this summer was not in the cards, so we decided to do a “staycation” this year. And since the kids haven’t seen many of the St. Louis landmarks, we figured this would be a good option for us. First up: a trip to the Arch. But we started with breakfast...
Today we made the trip to The Paw Pad to get our little goldendoodle named Ellie. Here’s a quick video of our first meeting, and there are a couple of photos from our trip home in my album.
We are pretty excited about the newest addition to our little family. Her name is Ellie (Noah picked the name) and she is now four weeks old. Only a few more weeks before we can pick her up! We haven’t told the kids yet, but they are going to be thrilled when they find out we are getting a dog....
We took the kids to the St. Louis City Museum today, and it was amazing. If you’ve never been, you really need to go — at least once. But if you go once, you’ll most likely want to go back. I know I do. The kids can’t wait to go back either. It’s a giant playground for kids and adults...
The three most important people in my life came home from their trip to Florida, and I am so happy to see them. It was getting pretty lonely around here. Trips to the beach, trips to Gatorland — it sounds like they had a great time. I’ll share some photos soon. But for now I’m just happy to have my...
Today’s the first day of summer, and it felt like it too. Hotter’n Hades. I spent the day (and most of yesterday) doing yardwork — what was I thinking? This was a fairly productive weekend, but I didn’t get everything done that I wanted (as usual). I can’t believe the year is almost half over. The weeks and months just...
We celebrated Father’s Day a week early this year, and spent the day with the grandparents. Dixie got me the yard cart that I’ve had my eye on for a while, and the kids benefited from this purchase as they got a mini-hayride (minus the hay) around the yard before having fun in our mini water park. It’s not Oceans...
We just got back from our family vacation to Kansas City. It was a crazy busy week. We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel on the Plaza. We hit a number of the sights, including Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We also visited the Steamboat Arabia museum, which I found fascinating. A couple...
If you want to “go green” for environmental reasons, that’s great. If you want to do it for financial reasons, that’s great too, but what I’ve discovered is that it might be difficult to quantify exactly how much you are saving. I’ve been waiting since last year to calculate the savings from our solar water heater. I put together a...
