10 April 2014

Walking for Coffee, and Refereeing

After work on Friday (4 April), I went to Il Bel Lago, an Italian restaurant and bar in Creve Coeur, for Stress Free Fridays--my first in several months. I had a good time there, especially in chatting with a gentleman who does legal research for lawyers. He told me he was impressed by my background and had a few ideas I might try on my search for a job in my field. I thanked him for that.

The next morning found me in downtown Maplewood, Missouri for their Coffee Crawl. I went with some fellow members of the St. Louis Singles (40+) Meetup group, but soon got separated from them. It was a nice time, sampling coffees and teas from area roasters set up at 12 local businesses. I had a mug that I received when I got my ticket for this event the previous weekend that I used for this crawl. I really had a fine time at this event, getting around and visiting several places I have seldom or never visited before.

Right after the Coffee Crawl, I was in my car at Schlafly Bottleworks (one of the crawl's venues) to phone in my co-hosting of "Writer's Block," the monthly show on ANCA Radio. Host Tim Pylypiuk and I discussed how authors use visualization to place their audience in a story's setting, and Western (as in Old American West) literature. The show is archived and can be listened to or downloaded for podcast here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autistic-people-/2014/04/05/writers-block--10-am-pstradio-drama-bill-boutin-grooming-hour--11-am-pst. We're back with a new "Writer's Block" on Sat., 3 May at 10 am Pacific Time (Noon, Central Time; 1700 hours GMT).

Sunday (6 April) found me at Columbia High School in Columbia, Illinois for youth soccer games--my first outdoor refereeing assignments since last October. My crew had four games scheduled, but only the first and the fourth games were played. The second and third games weren't played as neither team showed up, so we were kept waiting nearly three hours between games. Obviously a scheduling glitch. I was assistant referee both games Sunday and I felt pretty good in my legs afterward. (These were under 13 and under 12 girls' matches.) I'm back at is this Sunday afternoon.

Last Sunday also marked my parents' 51st wedding anniversary. They had a low-key celebration at home, due to my dad's health problems.

Work has been going well this week. After pressing on through a rainy Monday with many vehicles to be prepped, we enjoyed warm, sunny days on Tuesday and yesterday. I am off work today, and hope to get a computer software issue fixed today.

Before work Tuesday, I voted in the election for the Mehlville School Board and the St. Louis Community College Subdistrict Trustee. All the candidates I voted for were elected, so I was happy. (I was also happy to hear that my Mehlville 1982 classmate Debbie (Fiedler) Hopper won election to the Parkway School Board.)

Later.