where I talk with my inside voice
In January, I received a summons from St. Louis County to appear for jury duty in Clayton. The letter itself is not surprising – the surprising part is I’ve lived in the county almost my entire life and this is the first time I’ve been selected for jury duty. I showed up around 8:15am and waited around in the assembly...
Because of my volunteering, I was rewarded with the Boeing box seats at the Fox for a performance of The Phantom of the Opera. Because Noah wasn’t home, Josie invited her friend Selby to join us. This production has updated the set, but it is still impressive. I couldn’t resist snapping an illegal photo of my favorite number (“Masquerade”).
The Crossroads Arts Council in Wentzville, Missouri, hosts an annual art show that showcases the work of high school students in the area. Homeschoolers aren’t explicitly invited, but they aren’t excluded either, so Josie entered three pieces in the show. She didn’t win, but we were all in agreement that the judging was, if not biased, at least flawed.
It wasn’t clear to me when I ordered the tickets back in July that Noah wouldn’t be home in time to go see our annual SLSO concert. He got home the day after. But it was okay, because Grandma Linda took his place, and she had never seen the symphony before. It was a such a good show, with just...
Not only was today the beginning of my two-week Christmas break, but I was also able to announce (finally!) the names of the first Mizzou students to be awarded the Pipes Family Foundation Scholarship. I hope this is the start of a long tradition, although I have to admit the selection process this year was longer and more painful than...
The Missouri Botanical Garden hosts a huge Christmas light exhibition every year, but this is the first time we’ve ever gone. Laura invited us to join her and Jane to go see it, and we’re so glad we did. It was so pretty and the lights are really impressive. There was also a model train exhibit in one of the...
I don’t know if it is actually possible to eliminate hunger in the United States – seems like if it were, we would have done it already – but after witnessing yet another government shutdown that lasted over a month and the suspension of SNAP benefits in Missouri, I proposed to the ECF grantmaking committee that we make an unsolicited...
I became a donor to the Employees Community Fund shortly after I started working at McDonnell Douglas – increasing my contribution each year by one dollar. My contributions to this organization increased significantly in December 2019 when I joined the board as a grantmaker. Then my contributions increased again when they foolishly elected me president in December 2023. But as...
Josie had never been to see a ballet before, so when I was offered complimentary tickets to the St. Louis Ballet at the Touhill, we jumped at the chance. This was a pretty unique performance with three acts in three different musical styles – including one set to Dave Brubeck’s jazz standard Take 5. We both enjoyed the show.
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....
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...
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...
When we heard that Alan Walker was coming to St. Louis, we decided to get tickets and give them to Josie for Christmas. This was her first concert, and my first time at The Factory. It was a really good show – although we were both glad we brought our earplugs. There’s a short video below.
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