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.

 

Back at work tomorrow morning. It will be a busy morning for sure.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

St. Louis County Greek Fest: St Louis County Greekfest (stlouisgreekfest.com)

Schlafly Bottleworks: Bottleworks Brewpub - Schlafly Beer

St. Louis Scott Gallagher Tournaments--Gateway Memorial Classic: St. Louis Scott Gallagher — Club Soccer in Saint Louis (slsgsoccer.com)

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

Walmart: Walmart.com | Save Money. Live Better

Steak n Shake: Steak n Shake | Steakburger & Homemade Milkshakes

3M Headlight Restoration Kit: 3M™ Headlight Restoration Kit, 39194, 4 per case | 3M United States

Having Cabin Fever and Liking It

Yesterday (11 January), I drove to the Schlafly Bottleworks (https://www.schlafly.com/bottleworks-brewpub/) in Maplewood for their annual Cabin Fever festival. I arrived just before it opened at Noon. After a hiccup regarding my ticket purchased online (the scanner didn't pick it up at first), I received my wristband and sampler glass, then headed to the beer tent.

The tent had taps with 30 Schlafly beers to choose from. I would ask the server for a particular beer, which they would pour into the glass for me. They were all good, with beer styles that included lagers, pilsners, ales, stouts, and meads. I tracked my samples on the Untappd app (https://untappd.com/) on my phone. By the end of the day, I had sampled 15 of the available beers.

My friend and Enterprise colleague Melissa Maciorowski was there. She moonlights for Schlafly as a beer server for their special events, and she helped with a merchandise booth. We chatted for a bit and posed for a selfie.

Early on in the event, I did eat a bowl of chili mac, which helped me to better accept the beer. Later, I had an order of chorizo nachos.

In the store inside the Bottleworks, I did purchase a Schlafly/Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) keychain. (Schlafly is an official sponsor of the team.)

Hung over from all the beer, I walked about two blocks to the lot where I parked. I turned on the motor to have the heater going while I waited to sober up. However, the car's battery soon ran out and I needed a jump start. I was able to call AAA Emergency Road Service (https://www.autoclubmo.aaa.com/automotive/roadside-assistance.html), but had to wait for over an hour for the service person to come to my location. He did come, and after checking my driver's license and AAA membership card, he got my car jump started. I drove through the snow coming down that night home safe and sound, though I felt a bit uneasy in my gut.

I did sleep pretty well. This afternoon, I turned on the car's motor for a couple of minutes to test the battery, and it worked fine.

Later.

Cabin Fever in a Good Way

Late yesterday morning (19 January), I drove to the Schlafly Bottleworks (http://www.schlafly.com/bottleworks-brewpub/) in Maplewood for the company's Cabin Fever festival. This event was scheduled for the previous Saturday, but postponed due to the snow that came the night before. There was a possibility of more snow coming down yesterday, but fortunately this did not happen.

When I arrived, I received a small sampler glass and headed for the beer tent. The day was cloudy and bitterly cold. Temperature at midday was about 31 degrees F (-1 degrees C), but the winds made it feel more like 11 degrees F (-12 degrees C). Fortunately, I had my long underwear on and that helped.

I was joined by three others from the St. Louis Food Lovers Meetup group (https://www.meetup.com/St-Louis-Food-Lovers/) and we chatted, comparing the different Schlafly beers available for sampling. I had 12 of the 40 beers available that day, a mix of ales, lagers, and stouts. Very nice variety to choose from.

After about an hour, I went to the food tent to get an order of Goulash with dumplings, which really hit the spot. About an hour later, all four of us went inside the Bottleworks for a more substantial lunch. I had the Bottleworks Burger with French Fries, washed down with Schlafly Northeast IPA beer. We all shared in dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding.

After a while back in the beer tent, the three others decided to leave the festival. I stayed around for about one more hour, leaving the Bottleworks lot minutes before Cabin Fever ended. On the way back to my car, I stopped by Foundation Grounds Coffeehouse (https://www.foundationgrounds.com/), where I enjoyed a cup of latte and got warmed up (inside and out).

Later.

Snowstorm 2019

While taking care of business this past week--including work at the rental branch--I was made aware of a possible snowstorm coming to this area. I was glad I was able to finish up the IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) newsletter, The Arch Scaler News, this past Thursday night (10 January). The next afternoon, the snow started to fall.

At the rental branch, my colleagues and I worked hard to get as much done before the weather hit hard. When it started to snow, we had plenty of vehicles to process from customers wanting to turn them in before the weather got too bad. I made several trips that afternoon to return customers to their residences--while traffic on the roads got much heavier. As the snow increased, we were not concerned about washing the exterior of the vehicles. Things wrapped up about closing time at 6 pm.

It was then that the real trouble began for me and other commuters. Streets were jammed with traffic and vehicles had problems with the snow and ice on the streets and highways. After nearly an hour of being stuck in traffic, I rerouted my way home using the Maps app on my phone. This involved taking side streets for the most part. They had very little traffic, but were tricky to drive on due to the snow that had not yet been plowed away. It took me about an hour on this route, but I arrived home safe and sound that night.

Waking up the next morning (12 January), I got dressed after breakfast to begin shoveling snow off the driveway. I first measured the snowfall to that point on the driveway. We had 7 inches (17.8 cm) here; other parts of the St. Louis area received up to 12 inches (30.5 cm). Then, I began to shovel the snow, and it was hard. The snow was wet and heavy, so it was a greater effort to move it than if it was a light powder type of snow. I took frequent breaks to rest up and reduce stress on my heart.

Sometimes, I came inside to rest, including having a cup of hot chocolate. That was most welcome on this day. I took some time to rest that afternoon, watching "The Grand Budapest Hotel" on DVD in my room. (The satellite TV was out until mid-afternoon, due to the weather.) Finally, I completed shoving all the snow off the driveway late that afternoon.

Because of the weather, three events I had planned to attend that day and night were called off. They included the Missouri Professional Communicators (http://www.mpc-nfpw.org/) meeting at the St. Louis Artists' Guild (https://www.stlouisartistsguild.org/) in Clayton, and the Cabin Fever festival at the Schlafly Bottleworks (http://www.schlafly.com/events/cabinfever/) in Maplewood. These will be held this Saturday (19 January). Also, a party for area Enterprise (https://www.enterprise.com/en/home.html) rental employees at Start Bar (https://startbarstl.com/) in downtown St. Louis was called off; it will be rescheduled for another time.

Just taking it easy at home today. Roads should be much better for tomorrow in getting to and from work, and Tuesday for the IPMS/Gateway meeting at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/).

Later.