After work last Saturday afternoon, I headed to Creve Coeur Airport (http://crevecoeurairport.com/) in Maryland Heights for a vintage aircraft fly-in. It was neat seeing quite a few aircraft--mostly light planes--on hand. I also saw some mates in the Missouri Aviation Historical Society (https://moavhist.org/), who just had a tribute to legendary McDonnell test pilot Bob Little. I arrived after the party ended, but did get some food--including a slice of birthday cake--and chatted with them for a bit. Additionally, I browsed through the aircraft on display at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum (http://www.historicaircraftrestorationmuseum.org/), which was open and free to the public that day. Interesting to see the aircraft on display there.
After coming home to change, I went to St. Joseph Catholic Church (http://www.stjoemanchester.org/) in Manchester for the annual Taste of Brazil Dinner, presented by Viva Brasil STL (https://sites.google.com/view/vivabrasilstl/home). I came there to be a volunteer server at the dinner, which followed a mass in Portuguese in honor of Our Lady of Aparecida (http://www.officeholidays.com/countries/brazil/our_lady_of_aparecida.php), Brazil's patron saint, whose feast day is 12 October. This year marks the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the Virgin Mary statue by fishermen working on the Paraiba River in southeastern Brazil. This 4th annual dinner was very well attended in the church's cafeteria and celebrated life along the Paraiba River. After appetizers of Pão de Queijo (cheese bread) and Pate de Atum (Tuna Pate), I helped to serve the main course. This consisted of Frango Caipira com Batatas (Brazilian Soul Food--Chicken and Potatoes) and Cuscuz Paulista (a vegetable couscous from São Paulo).
After helping serve all the guests, us volunteer servers were invited to eat, so I got the main course and sat down with a few others to eat and talk. It was nice to get to know these people at my table, neither of whom I had known before. Then, it was time for dessert, which consisted of Doce de Banana e Queijo (Sweet Banana and Cheese) and Doce de Abobora (Pumpkin candy). I helped serve this before getting my share. I drank fruit juice and a bit of wine; they also had beer and soda.
There was a slide show on Viva Brasil STL, a raffle of a nice pen and pencil set to benefit the organization's scholarship fund, and a trivia quiz. After this ended, I helped to clean up and straighten out the cafeteria. I also received a jar of Doce de Banana as thanks for my efforts that night.
The next morning (15 October) found me at World Wide Technology Soccer Park refereeing three under 12 girls soccer matches. I worked all three matches in the middle, as my two crewmates were young officials not yet ready to be in the middle. The matches went well, overall.
Back to work the next day, and we had a pretty full day at the branch. Same for Tuesday, though Wednesday was a calmer day. That afternoon, I was sent to our Kirkwood branch to help with car prep and driving there the rest of the day. Their vehicle service agent was out sick and their manager was at a meeting, and they were short handed. I was most glad to help my colleagues out.
Tuesday night (17 October) after work was the IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) meeting at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/). This featured a demonstration of model parts casting with resin, which was very interesting. The model of the month "beauty contest" was also held, and there were a good number of entries there.
Off work Thursday, I got my hair cut at Great Clips (https://www.greatclips.com/), which did its usual superb job. I then visited Enterprise (https://www.enterprise.com/en/home.html) branches in Ballwin, Manchester, and Creve Coeur. I chatted briefly with my colleagues there and dropped off cookies for their branch staff, which were most appreciated.
That night, I met up with four of my soccer referee colleagues and went with them to America's Center (https://explorestlouis.com/meetings-conventions/americas-center/) in downtown St. Louis for the 47th annual St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame (http://www.stlsoccerhalloffame.com/) induction banquet. After drinks and conversation in the hallway, we entered The America's Ballroom for a nice sit down dinner, followed by the program, with Bill McDermott as master of ceremonies. Eleven St. Louis soccer legends were inducted, including my Saint Louis University friend Pat Baker, a goalkeeper and later a youth coach, and my refereeing colleague Herb Silva. Several special awards were also presented. Our party did not stay the whole time, as it was getting late for us. Overall, it was a wonderful evening and it was great for me to be among local soccer legends.
Yesterday at work was great, and not just because I brought in some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme (http://krispykreme.com/). Our new vehicle service agent was there that afternoon. He started the day before with us--he had previously been at our Creve Coeur location--and will work Monday mornings, all day Thursday, Friday afternoons, and Saturday mornings. That is a major help to my branch mates and I. We were able to get out of there last night before 6:30 pm, some time earlier than before he arrived.
Later.
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