Not a Bad Week

It was rather pleasant this week, with mild (for August) temperatures making the days go easier. Plenty of work so far at the car rental branch, with many vehicles to prep for rental.

Off early on Tuesday (25 August), as I'm working this Saturday morning, I chilled out at home. After supper, I traveled with two clubmates to Doug Barton's house in Foristell for this month's IPMS/Gateway business meeting. We planned the September general meeting and discussed the upcoming Region 5 Contest on 12 September. Preparations for that show are going well. I am looking forward to that event. More on the club and the regional here: http://ipms-gateway.com.

Off work today, I got my hair cut and did a bit of shopping. The latter included a nice new external hard drive for my computer. That will make it easier with all the images I have and will have. I was also put in contact with a local newspaper reporter wanting to do a story on the IPMS Regional Contest next month. It will be great to get some more publicity for this event.

I also spent some time this week editing a few more items for the Fall issue of Naturally Autistic magazine, due out in early October. I had some glitches in getting some stories downloaded from email to edit, but once that was overcome, the editing went well. More on the magazine here: http://www.naturallyautistic.com.

This weekend after work, I'll be a volunteer at the International Institute's Festival of Nations, a multi-cultural celebration in St. Louis' Tower Grove Park. I'll help staff a drinks booth on Saturday and a souvenir stand on Sunday. Hope to see you there! More at: http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/.

Later.

Work, Meetings, and A Thrilling Match

Work continues to go well, and keeping me busy. A week ago Saturday (15 August), I stayed nearly an hour over our closing time to help our assistant manager get some last minute customers into vehicles. It was a lot of effort with only two of us in the branch that day, but we got the customers taken care of, and that's the important part.

After that, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to Creve Coeur Airport for the Missouri Aviation Historical Society's meeting, held on a special day. This was to accommodate the guest speaker, John Roper, co-author of the book "Kansas City B-25 Factory." It tells of the factory in Kansas City that produced B-25 Mitchell medium bombers during World War II. I missed Roper's presentation, due to being held over at work, but I did catch the screening of the movie "Catch-22" that followed the talk. I had never seen that movie before in its entirety and thought it was pretty good. More on that meeting and the group here: http://moavhist.org/.

After work Tuesday (18 August), I headed right for Calvary Presbyterian Church in Mehlville for the IPMS/Gateway meeting. I opened the fellowship hall up and helped get it set up for the meeting, which featured a demo on judging ships and figures. We also had another very nice turnout for the Model of the Month "Beauty Contest," plus one more plug for the Region 5 Convention we're hosting on 12 September. More on the club here: http://www.ipms-gateway.com/.

Two days later, I was off work and headed for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to pick up my Mom, who was flying back from Los Angeles. She spent two weeks with my brother Doug, his wife Helen, and their twin boys born over four months ago. Before arriving at the airport, I said hello to a colleague now working at our firm's Airport location and shopped at the Boeing Store near the airport. After arriving at the airport, I read on the monitors that Mom's flight was delayed, so I headed to lunch at a fast food restaurant and visited some stores before returning to Lambert. Mom's flight arrived and she was there for me to welcome her home. After getting her baggage, I drove Mom home.

That night, I was at Worldwide Technology Soccer Park for Saint Louis FC's match against Charleston Battery. This was the return fixture, as both teams played to a 1-1 draw in Charleston the previous Saturday. Charleston went up 2-0 scoring in the first 18 minutes of the match before Saint Louis FC pulled one back later in the first half. Saint Louis FC leveled it seven minutes from time, and won it in second half stoppage time off a free kick. I was seated as usual near the St. Louigans supporters group and we went nuts over that winning goal at the death. Right after the match, I joined other fans on the pitch celebrating the win before walking over to catch the shuttle bus back to Smugala's Pizza Pub. Quite a game. You can read more here: http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index. Also, http://stlouligans.com/.

Next weekend, I'll be at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis to help out at the Festival of Nations, a multicultural celebration. Hope you can come. Here's their website: http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/.

Later.