Work, Scale Modeling, Soccer, and Seeing Mom Off

The weather is typical for St. Louis this time of year--hot and humid. Still, I carry on with everything. That includes work at the car rental branch, which has been steady busy of late with vacation travelers and business customers in the mix (along with those needing loaner cars). This past week our branch said goodbye to two management trainees: Nick, who's off to help manage the Cape Girardeau branch, and Mel, who's going up the street to our Kirkwood branch. I wished them all the best in their new positions.

Following work last Saturday morning (1 Aug.), I drove to Bridgeton for a working meeting of the St. Louis Space Frontier Meetup group. I was late, but got into the meeting as members discussed some business. This included membership rates and structure, a website for our group, and upcoming events. I found it very interesting, and hope to contribute to this group in the coming months. This group is on Meetup here: http://www.meetup.com/Saint-Louis-Space-Frontier-Meetup/.

After work last Tuesday (4 Aug.), I went to Mark Twain Hobby Center in St. Charles for the IPMS/St. Louis meeting. I gave my colleagues a report on the IPMS/USA National Convention in Columbus. One of the attendees offered to give a demonstration on using pigments to weather models and will do so at next month's meeting (1 Sept.). More info on this group here: http://www.ipms-stlouis.com/.

My mother departed for Los Angeles this past Wednesday, visiting my brother Doug, his wife Helen, and their twin sons. She's be with them for about two weeks. I'm sure mom is so excited seeing her latest grandchildren.

Last night, I went to Smugala's Pizza Pub in Sunset Hills for a beer before hopping on the Pub2Park bus for Worldwide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton. There, I cheered on Saint Louis FC against FC Montreal. Despite several good chances in front of a record crowd of 5,321 fans, Saint Louis went down to defeat, 3-1. Before the match, I did stop by the Mission Taco Truck in the tailgate area for dinner (which was good). Saint Louis FC has some great support. I just wished the team would be doing better on the pitch. We'll see with their upcoming fixtures against Charleston Battery (away this Saturday, home five days later). More on the club here: http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index.

Later.