More Soccer and Work

Late Sunday morning (4 March), I was back at World Wide Technology Soccer Park (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/soccerpark) for Saint Louis FC's (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) second pre-season match of the weekend against FC Denver. I joined the St. Louligans (http://stlouligans.com/) in a tailgate before we marched into Toyota Stadium for the match. Just like the previous day's match, Saint Louis FC had much more class than their opponents, running out 5-0 winners this day. FC Denver's goalkeeper did his best to keep his side in the match with his saves, but it was too much for him and his teammates in the end.

Before the match, I chipped into the St. Louligans' raffle for an FC Denver warm-up jersey. I didn't win, but the visitors sure did: St. Louligans' tailgate raffles and donations yielded $1000 for FC Denver's Lamar Hunt US Open Cup (https://www.ussoccer.com/lamar-hunt-us-open-cup) campaign this season.

Back to work Monday morning at the branch, and it was a busy one as usual. We all pitched in and got the job done well.

Right after work, I drove to Hollywood Casino (http://www.hollywoodcasinostlouis.com/) in Maryland Heights for Saint Louis FC's Meet the Team event at 99 Hops House. I joined with other season ticket holders and with corporate sponsors to meet the 2018 squad. They payers and coaches were introduced to the crowd, the 2018 uniforms were modeled by some players, and the crowd was addressed by a few players, head coach Anthony Pulis, and assistant coach Tim Leonard. There was complimentary beer and food for the crowd, and the new home jersey was available for sale. I had to guy one, and did. It's a hunter green color, darker than the kelly green shirt used in the previous two seasons. I do like it a lot and will be proud to wear it to matches.

By the way, Saint Louis FC plays its final pre-season match this Saturday in Evansville, Indiana against defending USL (https://www.uslsoccer.com/) Cup Champion Louisville City FC. Oh, Louisville, we hate you!

After another full day of work on Tuesday (6 March), I drove to Mark Twain Hobby Center (https://www.hobby1.com) in St. Charles for this month's Mark Twain Model Club (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1908352139489409/) meeting. I plugged IPMS/Gateway's (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) contest in September, and then took in a very nice demo on car model finishing. I won an aircraft kit in the raffle held after the demo.

Yesterday at work alternated between busy and quiet, ending in an extended session getting some dropped vehicles to bring back to the branch and cleaning them up so they would be ready for the next morning. Earlier that day, I picked up a customer in Wildwood and we struck up quite a conversation on the drive to the branch. This woman had been an editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and was now doing some other work. I mentioned my background and she was very interested in my story. Just after arriving at the branch, I gave this woman my networking card, in case she ran into anyone who could help in my job search. I added to the card the site for this blog; she mentioned that she wanted to check it out.

On my off day today, I did my laundry and got my contest entries ready for this Saturday's KC CON (http://www.ipmsgreatplains.org/KCCon2018.aspx) show in Kansas City. I will enter four of my models in this contest, and I typed out the registration forms from the show's website, to save time when I get to the show. I also had some IPMS/Gateway show flyers run off to take with me to KC CON. I also got the car washed and bought a couple of items for my model workbench.

Later.