My lucky birthday

My lucky birthday started earlier in the week on Wednesday, because I won a contest at my apartment complex and one of the management staff brought me a free lunch from Rich N' Charlie's to work. After work, my co-worker/friends, Angie and Cindy, and I had a couple pitchers of margaritas at The Bean House, a local Mexican restaurant (it's more American-Mexican than traditional Mexican) and Angie gave me cookies for my birthday to share at work. Then on Thursday, my boss bought me lunch from Sen, my favorite Thai Restaurant in St. Louis, and my friend Cindy brought delicious carrot cake cupcakes.

On Saturday, my parents drove down to St. Louis. They brought pasta dinners from my favorite restaurant, Gallina's Pizzeria. I had stuffed shells and some of their homemade bread. It was delicious. My parents got me a Pannini Grill and cash for my birthday and my sister got me a gift certificate and a pretty necklace.

On Sunday, which is my actual birthday, my boyfriend, sister, her friend Michelle and I went to the last home baseball game for the Cardinals. The weather was great. The other four games we went to during the year were so hot because when you sit in the bleacher seats you have the sun on you all during the game with no shade. During the summer, that sucked, but on my birthday, it kept us warm in our short sleeves and there were people trying to steal our seats for once instead of us trying to steal someone else's seats. We got even luckier because we went browsing at the gift shop and my sister called us and told us we missed our seats being called for the free $50 Card Cash. If we had just gone by ourselves to the game, we would have missed the free Card Cash, but thanks to my sister's watchful eye we got it. We did miss being put on the jumbo tron, but my sister and her friend did get put on the big screen and that was the second time in a month that had happened to her (they were both on the camera during the Missouri vs Illinois game). Anyway, since I'm a Cub fan and not a Card fan, so we used the Card Cash to get my boyfriend a new windbreaker he'd been wanting. After the game, we had drinks at Lewellyn's Pub in Soulard.

Later that night, Jeff and I went to dinner at Shogun, my favorite sushi restaurant in St. Louis. We didn't get my favorite drink, the Scorpion Volcano, because I was already a little drunk and that drink is pretty powerful. After dinner, we went to see"Social Network" at Ronnie's 20, and when I used my Wehrenberg card, I won a free medium popcorn. So, that was my lucky birthday, and now it's over and won't be back for another year :(.

Girl's Weekend 2010 - St. Louis

Every year, my high school friends, JJ and Stacia, and I try to meet up for the weekend and catch up. This year was my year to host. The family I dog/house-sit for needed me to watch Pickles, and I told them I couldn't, but their alternate dog-sitters fell through and took their alternate alternate dog-sitters with them. So, the owners said we could stay at their house, if I could just help them out. Since their house has more room and is cleaner than my apartment, I said yes.

I met Stacia and JJ at the airport with a pitcher of appletini's and two glasses. After that, we headed to South County to get manicures and pedicures and then headed to dinner. We went to 54th Street Bar and Grill and had a few more drinks with dinner.

Then we walked to the movie theatre and watched "Eat, Love, Pray". Luckily, Ronnie's 20 sells cosmopolitans and a drink called stilettos. I had a stiletto and JJ and Dues had cosmopolitans. I love Julia Roberts and enjoyed the movie. It moved pretty slow and wasn't the most exciting film, but it was relaxing and filmed in some beautiful locations. I'm not usually a fan of Javier Bardem and don't understand why women think he's hot, but I understood after seeing him in this movie. After the movie we went to the Pink Galleon (no, it's not a gay bar) to play video games and have more drinks. JJ, the resident golfer in our group, kicked our butts at video Putt-Putt. My boyfriend, Jeff, beat us all.


We had planned to take the train to Hermann, MO and go to the wineries on Saturday, so my sister and I had made other plans to have my car get an oil change, emissions test, etc. on Saturday morning. But, the plans for the winery fell through and now we were stuck without a car or an idea of what we were going to do. We headed back to the house we were staying at and pretty much went to sleep and left the plan making to the next day.

The next day we slept in. I don't know a lot about the neighborhood Pickle's family lives in, but thanks to ideas from my sister, and Stacia's magic iPhone we ended up with a successful morning. We used her phone to navigate our way from the house to the restaurant, which was pretty neat. We walked (1.7 miles according to the iPhone) through Tower Grove Park and ate at the Three Monkeys.

My sister and mom dropped my car off at the Three Monkeys after it was finished, and we decided to go to the Anheuser-Busch factory and take a beer class and then take a factory tour. This is us in class and then me with my certificate that says I'm a Beer Master.

This is Stacia and JJ with the A-B Eagle and then having a drink after the beer tour.

We were treated to two free adult beverages after the tour. I had a Bud Light Wheat which I love. Stacia tried a Wild Berry beer which tasted like blueberry juice. JJ went for the Bud Light Wheat like me. Then we headed back to the house for a nap. When we got up from our naps it was after 8 pm. Stacia used to live in St. Louis many eons ago, so I asked her if there was anywhere she wanted to eat that she missed. Since she had fond memories of The Hill we headed there. The Hill is an area of St. Louis known for it's Italian restaurants. It's got narrow roads, crappy parking, and seems to always be busy. We decided to go to Zia's and when we got to the restaurant around 8:45, we still had to wait 20 minutes for a table. The food was amazing, we had toasted ravioli and some kind of shrimp, cream sauce, cheese stuff on little mini sliced toast for appetizers. For our dinners, I got the seafood ravioli, Stacia got mostaccioli, and JJ got the mostaccioli with chicken, mushrooms and broccoli. No desert since we were very stuffed and sleepy all over again. So even though we had had a recent nap, we all went to sleep when we got back to the house.

The next morning we all slept in again. My big plan for the day was to have breakfast, and then to get the iconic St. Louis photo, a picture with the Arch in the background, and then head for the airport. You would think it would be easy to find a good picture with The Arch in the background, but it really isn't. If you get too close, you can't get the entire Arch in the picture. If you are too far away, you pretty much have old ugly buildings clearly seen in the background with The Arch not so noticeable in the distance. It's a delicate balance. So, I've only found two good spots. One has the Old Missouri State Capital in the background along with The Arch. The other is from the balcony on the fourth floor of The Four Season's hotel. So, it was my idea to have breakfast in Soulard and then head to Laclede's Landing. We picked up my mom so that she could take the picture with all 3 of us in it and we wouldn't have to rely on a stranger to be there and willing to take our picture. Then we headed to the Soulard Coffee Garden and had breakfast in their back garden area. My mom and I had eggs benedict, Stacia had french toast and JJ had an omelet. It was very nice, relaxing morning until I went to pay for my meal and realized I had left my credit card at Zia's the night before. This instantly stressed me out. I made calls but there was nothing I could do to find out where it was at until Monday and I couldn't check my balance to see if there had been any unauthorized purchases until I could get to a computer which wasn't going to happen until after I dropped my friends off at the airport. So, we headed to Laclede's Landing to get the picture I wanted...and then proceeded to run into a crapload of traffic. The Rams game was going on downtown and there was nowhere to park, the traffic was terrible and there was no way I was going to get Stacia and JJ back to the airport on time. So we abandoned the picture, which frustrated me a great deal. If I had thought ahead about the game, we could have avoided the traffic or taken the picture on Saturday after the beer tour instead. Stacia and JJ rarely come to St. Louis, so the chance to get a picture with The Arch in the background has passed and isn't likely to happen again for a long time. But whatever, life goes on. Anyway, after the failed picture attempt, I dropped JJ and Stacia off at the airport and they went safely home. It was a really fun weekend and I was glad to spend time with them again. I hope we keep up this tradition for a long time.

Visiting Kansas

My friend Summer is being deployed to Iraq. She's leaving behind her husband and two kids for 15 months to take care of our troops. It makes me sad.


So, I spent Labor Day weekend hanging out with her and her family before she goes.

I was late getting to the airport to leave because my sister bought a new car and it took longer to tie up the paperwork than we planned. I think I checked my bag with less than 20 minutes before my flight and still had to get through security. Luckily, everything went smoothly and when I got to the gate everyone had already boarded. I had to sit in a middle seat, but that was okay because the flight was only 45 minutes (The landing was not so smooth. Probably the worst I've ever experienced, but we all landed alive and unhurt).

Summer picked me up and we headed to Applebee's for lunch before continuing our journey to Fort Riley. When Summer and I were in college we would go to Applebee's for their after 10 pm Happy Hour specials, so that place always reminds me of her and Lindenwood. After we got to her house, we hung out for awhile and then went shopping at Target before getting dinner at Panera Bread. Her house rocks, but my favorite room was the mini theatre in their basement. There was a pull down screen and projection system with surround sound and reclining comfy chairs. While at Target we picked up a bunch of movies, so Friday night we watched "Daybreakers". I'm going to have to say I liked it even though is was a little gory. I don't know why I liked it. I can't pick out anything that I would say was good about it, but I liked it.

On Saturday we had lunch at Chili's and then went to The Sunset Zoo. They had a new baby chimpanzee. Apparently, chimpanzee's usually live to about 60 in captivity. The baby was born to a 56 year old mom. They took her off her birth control for medical reasons and they thought she was too old to have babies, but they were wrong. I felt a little sorry for the mom, though. Chimp babies can't grab on to their moms until about 3 or 4 weeks, so until then the mom has to carry her baby. Since they use all 4 limbs to walk, she was having a little trouble walking with her baby since she was so old and already stiffening up with old age. But I guess she's an inspiration to any old lady who still wants to have kids.

This is the otter who started freaking out for someone reason and trying to escape his cage when he saw me. I think he was in love with me.

Summer made some delicious Chicken Parmigiana for dinner and then we watched "Zombieland" that night and I had already seen it, but I really like that movie, so I enjoyed seeing it again. We also watched "The Back-Up Plan" with Jennifer Lopez. Better than I thought it would be, but not great.

On Sunday, we went to the mall and had lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's. Summer's daughter wanted to get her ears pierced, so we went to Claire's and we thought her daughter was going to cry and freak out, but she was so calm and such a good girl. She jerked in surprise as the ear guns went off, but then she just took a few deep breathes and was fine.

This is Catie letting her mom do her hair in the morning and then later when she got her ears pierced.

We hung out more at her house in the afternoon and we tried on Summer's deployment gear. This is Joey playing dress up in his mom's clothes. (Just teasing, Joe.)

We had Papa Murphy's for dinner. Then we watched "Mulan", Summer's favorite Disney princess movie, and then "City Island". I had never seen Mulan, but that is a really good movie. City Island was different, but I still liked it. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it was still good.

On Monday, we drove back to Kansas City to drop me off at the airport again. We had lunch at McDonald's and when we got to Kansas City we went to The Legends Shopping Center. We played for awhile at Dave and Buster's.

And then visited the place that's like The Rainforest Cafe, but is about dinosaurs instead of the rainforest. It even had a "Build-a-Dino" instead of a "Build-a Bear". Very cute.

Before we left, we got some ice cream from Stone Cold Creamery and then headed for the airport. I was a late check-in. The alarms went off again as I checked my bag. When I got to my gate, they had already started boarding, but I made it just in time to get in line for my boarding group. I still had to sit in a middle seat, but at least my bags made it on the plane even though I checked them late. I got safely back to St. Louis and made it home before my friend finished driving back to Fort Riley from the airport.

It was nice seeing Summer again. I should have visited before now. I can't wait until she gets back safely again and she comes to visit me in St. Louis.

My car died :(

My poor car died. About a month and a half ago, my car started to act weird and finally she rolled to a stop in my apartment parking lot two weekends ago. After a tow to the car shop we found out my little car with 110,000 miles on it was going to need a $4,400 to $5,500 fix.

Sadly, we made the decision to trade her in. So, good-bye to my lovely. I will miss you.

Erin and Ross' Wedding

One of my friends, little sister, got married over the weekend. Erin and Ross had a beautiful wedding in my hometown. I was late coming home because I didn't think I needed to set my alarm clock, but apparently I did because I got a super late start, and then ran into traffic issues. So, I skipped the wedding because I thought it would only run 30 minutes, and I was going to be at least 10 minutes late, so I didn't think it would be worth it to try to make it to the wedding. But I guess Catholic weddings last a lot longer than the average because the ceremony wasn't over until at least an hour later.

My friend JJ, her husband, kids, brother, brother's fiance', and parents all attended the wedding. My mom volunteered to watch her kids during the dinner, so they wouldn't have to sit through the stuff kids get antsy during. Since she was coming, too, she offered to drive and pick me up after the reception was over. For the wedding, I bought a new pair of heels from the Jessica Simpson collection and since I usually wear flip flops or comfy shoes, I was walking like a trannie in her first pair of heels, but they never got so uncomfortable that I had to take them off, so there was that. The speeches were wonderful, the food was great and the dancing was fun. Erin has great style and she and Ross made great choices in their wedding decisions.

At the end of the night, I was tired and my feet hurt. I had asked my parents to wait until I called to come pick me up because sometimes weddings go later than scheduled if everyone is having a good time, and this wedding went late, but when I went to check my phone there was a message from my parents. They were waiting downstairs for me. Nothing makes you feel more like a little kid than having your parents pick you up from a party.

Erin and Ross.

Erin and her sister, Stacia.

Erin, Me and my friend Stacia.

Jerry, Stryker, and JJ's dad, Mitch.

My friend JJ and her mom.

My friend JJ's little brother, his fiance', Sarah, JJ and her husband, Jerry.

Tori and Stryker, JJ and Jerry's kids.

The wedding cake.

The center piece.

Jeff's Birthday 2010

On June 28th, 2010, for Jeff's birthday, we had tickets to the Cardinal's game. It was excruciatingly hot. We went to see the Cardinals play the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is the view from out seats:

This is the view of my drink:


I got a pineapple flavored vodka with sweet and sour mix. It was in a plastic mason jar. I liked it but it wasn't really that refreshing in the heat. I'm still searching for the best drink at the baseball game when it's scorching hot.

We left the game at the top of the ninth, when the Cards were losing because Jeff wanted to "miss the traffic". The Cardinals came back and won the game in the bottom of the ninth. Instead of watching the win live, we got to watch the replays on TV when we went to the bar to cool off after the game, which only made Jeff more bitter.

The President's Last Day

My boat had her last day June 17, 2010. It was supposed to be June 30th, but the river rose and she didn't get to enjoy her last days of service.


I had started moving my stuff out of my office shortly before the river started rising, but didn't get everything out. It took two and a half weeks before the water went down enough so that I could finish the job. It's been pretty sad, all the way around, but at least it's over.

Tara's 7th Annual Floating Circus

This year's float trip had the best weather, yet. Hot, but not too hot. The water was warm to swim in. The float was 5 miles like most years, but it went much faster because we didn't stop very much and didn't stay long when we did. It was the first time I didn't spend the last hour of the trip wondering when it was going to finally end. I was actually surprised when the trip ended this year.

It's been awhile since the float trip, so I'm just going to list the 10 things I learned during Tara's 7th annual Floating Circus and elaborate on things to fill my blog post.

1. Bosch has giant Muppet feet. - Bosch had the weirdest shoes I've ever seen on his feet when the float trip was over. The were rubber like crocs, but they were molded to look like bare feet. And since he has giant feet they looked like giant muppet feet when he propped them up on the coolers.

2. When it comes to packing, Tara values Jello shots on the Float Trip over dry clothes after the Float Trip. - Tara left her bag of dry clothes sitting on her bed at home instead of putting it in the car. We did manage to pack 5 gallon size bags of jello shots, though. Billy was nice enough to get some jammies from the camp store for her because she was too stubborn to get her own.

3. Preston likes to slurp T.C.'s melon(s)...flavored jello shots. - I made about 150 jello shots for the trip in the flavors: watermelon, pineapple, cherry, grape, and tropical fusion. So, Preston was amusing himself by making jokes about my sisters "melons" and the jello shots.

4. Don't spray Off insect repellent in a small enclosed area unless you want to die. - I went to take a shower after the float trip and decided to spray myself down in Off insect repellent before I got dressed. The room I was in was an individual shower room with little to no ventilation. I thought I could spray myself down and get dressed before it got too bad, but I was wrong. It was just seconds before I realized I was poisoning myself, but I couldn't open the door to get some air because I was still naked. I almost died.

5. Billy isn't what you call a fan of singers under the age of 10. - When I got back to the camp after taking my shower I didn't feel well, so I laid down in the tent and took a nap before dinner. I woke up to obviously young girls screaming into a microphone pretending to do karaoke. They didn't stop for hours. The rest of us were pretty tolerant, but Billy, the most laid back in our group could not stop talking about how much he hated listening to the singing and felt no one should be allowed to sing under the age of ten.

6. Thanks to the game "Catch Phrase", we know Tara and Michelle think Penelope Cruz is a two-bit whore and Preston likes motorboats. - This was the first time I ever played "Catch Phrase". It was a lot of fun.

7. Newlyweds putting up a tent together for the first time is fun to listen to. - Tenille wasn't feeling well and her new husband who just moved here from Spain was doing the macho man role of taking the lead in putting up the tent even though the tent was Tenille's and she had put it up by herself many, many times. So the combination of those two attitudes went about as well as you thought it might.

8. Wearing "cop" sunglasses seems to naturally give you a "cop" attitude. - Michelle had "cop" sunglasses on and her sister Angie was giving her a lot of guff about them the entire float.

9. Dogs like shit. Vivi rolled in it and both Bogey and Dolly dropped a load in front of large audiences. - That's pretty much self-explanatory.

10. Four U.S. state capitals have the word "city" in their name and Led Zeplin is the best Rock n Roll band of all time. - While we were waiting to start the float trip, there was a large group with a lot of children, so the adults were trying to keep them occupied by asking trivia questions. It was actually a little bit interesting. (The cities are: Carson City, Oklahoma City, Jefferson City, and Salt Lake City.)

My last tidbit of info from the trip that isn't on my list is that I saw a funny shirt in the camp store that said on the back: "Hold my beer and watch this!". I guess you have to go on a float trip to know why this is so funny.

So, on to the pictures:

This is a beer in my friend's wedding reception favor koozie. I decided I'm going to try to take it on whatever trip I can and photograph it, just so that I can be "that girl". (But seeing how, I'm almost two months behind on my blog and I promised myself I would write once a week, I'm not holding my breathe for this plan.)

These are my $4 Hannah Montana sunglasses that I bought so I wouldn't lose my $12 sunglasses with rhinestones.

This is a piece of the annual friend chicken Michelle brings every year.

Preston and Michelle in their canoe with Vivi swimming nearby.

Rebecca and her husband on the raft.

Dolly Madison, Michelle in her cop sunglasses and Vivi.

Marie and Bosch in their canoe.

Bogey in his life vest. Tenille and Tara.

The newlyweds, Tenille and Ruben. Michelle and her sister, Angie.

Bogey and Tara. Liz and Michelle.