It's just another week.

Nothing too exciting to report for this week. Just a bunch of random stuff.

My old boss and my new boss were in Las Vegas this week for a work-related conference. I'm jealous and bitter I didn't get to go this year. They went to see the Beatles version of the Cirque de Soleil show. I've always wanted to and yet have never seen a Cirque show. My old boss said it was weird and interesting. They also ate at Keith Urban's restaurant and said it was loud, overpriced and the food was terrible. They didn't have much to say about the actual conference, though.

On the home front, there was a roller coaster of emotions because of some new decisions that were made in connection with the closing of the boat. I'm not going to write about it because it's ongoing and not really my place to express an opinion, even on my own blog. (But it sucks and it's wrong. So very, very wrong.)

Also, an employee at a sister property died this week from a car accident over the weekend. I didn't know him well, but he seemed nice and I never heard a bad word said about him (and that means a lot because I know a lot of bitchers and moaners). R.I.P. Arnie.

Tonight, I will be baby-sitting for the fourth time in my life. If you remember me writing about dog-sitting for Pickles, the world's cutest corgi, well I'm baby-sitting for his 8 year old owner. Hopefully, it all goes well. Humans do a lot more random, unexpected things than animals, so this could be a real craps shoot of an experience.

One more random thought, Jeff and I went to see "Kick Ass" over the weekend. It was totally bizarre. Yet, in a fun, wacky way. Using my new movie rating system that equates food to movie experiences, it was like eating a Monte Cristo Hot Dog from the Iron Barley in St. Louis. Strange, but good. Anyway, it's very violent and if you can stomach that, I would say give the movie a shot.

Rest In Peace, Dixie Carter.

Dixie Carter died on April 10, 2010. Her roles as Julie Sugarbaker on "Designing Women" and Orson's mother on "Desperate Housewives were amazing. It was always a delight to see her on television. Like Corey Haim, I may not list her among my favorite actors, but her role as Julie Sugarbaker in "Designing Women" permanently entwined her in my childhood memories.

"Designing Women" and "Murphy Brown" are two of my favorite sitcoms from my childhood. The writers, along with those of "Golden Girls", provided great examples of strong, independent women that were role models for the younger generation, that I wish I saw more of on television today. They were wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, and friends, but they were also professional women with individual identities that were separate from those other roles.
Okay, well maybe "Golden Girls" not so much with the professional stuff, but definitely with the strong, independent role models. Yes, the writers perpetuated the myth of "Supermom", women who could balance all of those roles perfectly in their lives without missing a beat, but even though we may not be perfect, at least someone was saying the pursuit of a slightly messier version of "Supermom" was possible and worthy of our time and efforts. I also miss the eloquent and succinct monologues the writers wrote for their characters. They addressed the issues of the day with such a clear, efficient way with words and actions that I still remember some of the monologues decades later, long after those shows were cancelled. Dixie took those beautiful words and breathed life into them, and without that partnership between writers and actor, the world would have been worse off. Rest in Peace, Miss Julia Sugarbaker. You will be missed.

Baseball Ticket Draft

Friends of my sister purchase several sets of Cardinal season tickets every year and then organize a group of people to split the tickets up. My boyfriend was able to purchase a "half-share", so we get to see 5 games this year.

The ticket draft was at Llewellyn's in Soulard. They let us hook up laptops to their flat screen TVs so everyone could see who's turn it was and what tickets had already been chosen.


They chose the order of who was picking by drawing numbers and my boyfriend got #3. He is so lucky! Games versus the Cubs are in high demand and they are only coming to St. Louis twice this season. Thanks to being #3 we were able to get our first pick of which Cubs games we wanted to go to. We continued to be lucky for the rest of the draft and got tickets for his birthday and my birthday. My birthday happens to be the last game of the regular season and my sister and her friend got a set of tickets for them on that day, too, so we can go all go together like one big happy family. I can't remember what the other two games that we got tickets to were but we were excited at the time when we got them.

Preston and Billy

Everyone staring at the schedule, waiting for their turn.

Flooding. Pickles. Easter and Bogey.

The last week of March (and the end of the quarter), the river rose and we had to temporarily shut The President down due to flooding. We re-opened on Thursday, but I had to work up the street until I could get back to my office.

Then I spent Easter weekend Pickle-sitting. Pickles is the most adorable Corgi that was rescued from a puppy mill and was fostered by my sister's friend, Michelle, and adopted by a co-worker of theirs. On Easter my sister and I went to church and then she cooked some ham, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. It was tasty and she did a good job.

After Easter weekend, my sister had to go out of town to attend a conference for work in Branson, Missouri. I was house-sitting/dog-sitting for my sister's dog Bogey and my mom's dog, Dora, my sister's two cats and my one cat. It was a full house. Dora is visiting St. Louis, attending a puppy boot camp and was at my sister's house while her trainer took care of some family business.

When my sister's conference was over on Friday, she stopped at the Outlet Mall on her way home and got me a Coach purse for dog-sitting her dog.

Random memories from 3/15 through 3/29

I can't remember the order of what happened with these things, but these are some things that happened during the 3/15 through 3/29 time period of my blog hiatus.

I decided to move. Goodbye Soulard, Hello South County!

My sister-in-law had a birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mary-Elizabeth!

I did send her a text, but didn't send a card or a gift or write on her wall, so I'm a bad sister-in-law. But I still plan on getting on that soon, if that counts for anything.

Did nothing on St. Patrick's Day.

I saw the movies, "Remember Me", "Green Zone", and "Hot Tub Time Machine". I decided to use a food system for my movie reviews from now on, so in order of listing I felt these movies were Quiche, Steak and a Twinkie. (http://www.rockbirdreviews.blogspot.com/ (also not updated in forever, just like this blog))

I watched my DVR down to 0% for the first time since my current one was installed almost a year ago. This means I watched a crap-load of movies in the last two weekends, but I can't remember any of them at this point in time, which I'm guessing means they weren't that memorable.

I think that's about it for that time period.

I'm not very observant.

I was using Google this morning and didn't even notice that they had changed their name for April Fool's Day, until I read an article about it on a newsite, that I had used Google to look up.