Bob Delaney At Large: Bartolino's South

04 February 2024

Weekend: Saturday Night with Julie; Sunday Mostly at Home

Yesterday morning (3 February), after a rather busy week at work, I was taking care of some personal matters. This included forwarding mail for Mom and Rick, as well as grocery shopping.

Home that afternoon was mostly chilling out before Julie came by late that afternoon to pick me up to take me to dinner. She wanted to get the start on my birthday celebration (my big day is this Wednesday). We started the night with dinner at Bartolino's South in Green Park. Julie and I enjoyed a nice dinner at the fine Italian restaurant--I had the manicotti--along with some wonderful conversation.

After dinner, Julie drove us to the Plaza Frontenac Cinema to see the new movie Origin. This drama was inspired by Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson in the movie, which tells how Wilkerson tied the subjugation of African Americans, Jews in Nazi Germany, and Dalits in India to common hierarchy structures. This movie sure gives you plenty of think about Both Julie and I thought this movie was very well done.

After the movie, Julie took me back home and I thanked her for the wonderful evening. We will meet up again in a few days to celebrate Valentine's Day together.

I was mostly in the house today, but I did go out this afternoon to run a few errands. It was also a chance to drive Mom's car for awhile. It needed air in all four tires, which I took care of using a self-service air pump at a Mobil station. The car's battery needs charging, but otherwise it ran well. After adding air to the tires, I drove to Dollar Tree in Oakville to buy some plastic forks for my work lunches and a set of combs for myself. I then went to the nearby Schnucks to browse for a while.

After that bit of shopping, I treated myself to a drink at Honey Bee Tea, a boba tea place in Oakville. It was my first time in this place. I ordered a jasmine milk tea, which I drank in the place. It was a nice way to treat myself after all I was doing this weekend.

This weekend, I also did a bit more work on the 1:200 scale Saturn V model, which I hope to have done later this month for the IPMS Gateway Chapter meeting's first 2024 Modeler of the Year Contest. This contest is Out of the Box (no modifications or additions to the kit parts). I have had a bit of difficulties with this kit, but I should have it ready in time for the contest two weeks from this Tuesday night.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

Bartolino's South: Bartolinos South – Fine Italian Dining in South County (bartolinosrestaurants.com)

Plaza Frontenac Cinema: Theatres - Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema - Landmark Theatres

Origin: Origin (2023) - IMDb

Mobil: Welcome to Mobil™

Dollar Tree: Glass Vases, Party Supplies, Cleaning & More | DollarTree.com

Honey Bee Tea: Boba Tea Coffee Smoothies - Honey Bee Tea (honeybt.com)

IPMS Gateway Chapter: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)

30 May 2022

Memorial Day Weekend 2022

After a busy Friday (27 May) at work, I came home for dinner with my mother and relaxed at home. The next morning, I cut the front and back lawns, then relaxed at home until late afternoon, when I left for Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Town and Country. They were hosting the annual St. Louis County Greek Fest this weekend. This year, it was only a drive through food ordering and pickup, so I placed my order and came back a while later to pick up my dinner: Pastitsio and Karithopita. They were tasty.

I ate that while driving to the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood for Art Outside, a festival it was hosting this past weekend. I bought a can of Schlafly's Dortmunder, a lager beer, and browsed among booths staffed by various area artists offering paintings, sculptures, jewelry, housewares, and leather goods for sale. A cover band was performing rhythm & blues classics for the crowd. It was a nice event to attend.

Home on Sunday morning (29 May), I watched the Grand Prix of Monaco on TV, then the pre-race coverage of the Indianapolis 500. I could not watch the race itself, as I had to be at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton. The final day of the Gateway Memorial Classic, a youth soccer tournament jointly hosted by St. Louis Scott Gallagher and Lou Fusz Athletic clubs was yesterday. I was assigned to officiate two finals in the under-11 age group. In my first match, I was in the middle for a girls group final, which went well. After a nice break, my crew did a boy's match with me on a line. That also worked out well. The only thing bad about that match was the heat--it got up to 85 degrees F (29 degrees C) but felt about 10 degrees warmer on the artificial turf field.

After that match, I got home and quickly took a shower and changed clothes before driving to Bartolino's South Italian Restaurant in Greek Park. Our neighbor, Ed Reinhardt, was moving to a senior residence in Texas, and his daughter Jill threw a dinner in his honor. My mom was already there, along with Reinhardt's son Ed and his wife, Ralph and Charleen Sartori, and a few other friends of Reinhardt. It was a very tasty dinner with some enjoyable conversation.

Today, I chilled out at home, except for taking mom out to Walmart to buy some groceries. We stopped at Steak n Shake to get lunch before coming home. I spent time after lunch restoring the headlights on my Toyota Corolla, which had yellowed over time. After about 45 minutes of work using a restoration kit from 3M, my headlights are much better looking. More importantly, the headlights will be more effective with a clear lens.