Labor Day Weekend 2018

Up early Saturday morning (1 September), I turned to KTVI Channel 2 (https://fox2now.com/), for two of my IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) colleagues, Bill Wagner and Rick Keasey, were appearing on "Fox 2 News in the Morning." There, they and the anchorman talked about scale modeling, our club, our Invitational this Saturday (8 September), and our raffle there to benefit Toys for Tots (https://bridgeton-mo.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/default.aspx). It was an approximately four minute segment, and I thought it went great. It will be interesting to see how many people come to the show based on that segment.

Then, I went to work at the rental branch that morning. We had some business from people wanting vehicles for the Labor Day Weekend, but it wasn't too busy, and I was able to leave just after closing time at 1:00 pm. Usually, I would be there until close to 2 pm on a Saturday, staying to help clean up vehicles on our lot.

After grabbing lunch at Jet's Pizza (http://jetspizza.com/) in Ballwin, I came home to relax. Later, I ran off flyers for the IPMS/Gateway Invitational, which I took to both Checkered Flag Hobby Center (https://checkeredflaghobby.com/) and Schaefer's Hobby Shop (http://schaeferhobby.com/).

Late Sunday morning, I was at World Wide Technology Soccer Park (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/soccerpark) to referee matches at the Gallagher Friendlies youth tournament (https://slsgsoccer.demosphere-secure.com/tournaments/gallagher-friendlies). I worked three under-12 matches, including the middle on the first one of the set. They went well, despite the heat (we took water breaks midway through each half of these matches). They were fun matches to do.

Monday (3 September), the Labor Day holiday, I went to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis' Central West End for the final day of its annual Greek Festival (http://www.opastl.com/). It's always a great time, and this was no exception. I got a nice lunch--shish-kababs and rice pilaf--and then enjoyed watching Greek dancers perform. I also toured the sanctuary while a priest talked about the Orthodox Church and this congregation. It was a most interesting presentation. After a dessert of loukoumades, I headed home.

Back to work yesterday, it was quite a busy day, thanks to all the returns off the holiday weekend. We got things handed well, tough, and I was on my way home by 6:20 pm.

Off work today, I did some work on a model I am working on for the contest this Saturday. I went to the show venue, the Holiday Inn St. Louis SW--Route 66 (https://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/st-louis/stlsw/hoteldetail?qAdlt=1&qBrs=6c.hi.ex.rs.ic.cp.in.sb.cw.cv.ul.vn.ki.va.sp.nd.ct&qChld=0&qFRA=1&qGRM=0&qIta=99504425&qPSt=0&qRRSrt=rt&qRef=df&qRms=1&qRpn=1&qRpp=20&qSHp=1&qSmP=3&qSrt=sBR&qWch=0&srb_u=1&icdv=99504425&dp=true&cid=28784&glat=SEAR&setPMCookies=true). I took some photos of the exterior and interior, and peeked into the ballroom where our show will be held. Also, I am getting my laundry done.

Later.

Ethnic Festivals and Back into Soccer

After work on the end of the last full week of August, I was at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis for the International Institute's Festival of Nations (http://www.festivalofnationsstl.org/) on that Sunday (27 August). I spent some time walking around the grounds, checking out the various food, shopping, and information booths. I then spent two hours helping at the Viva Brasil STL (http://www.e.vivabrasilstl.org/) booth, where I helped spread the word about Brazil and our organization. I then helped tear down the booth. After that, I worked at one of the Festival's drinks booths for the final shift of the day. Then, I assisted in tearing that booth down. It was a very nice day and a real good turnout of people for the Festival.

Back at work the next day, it was a busy morning as usual, and quite busy the rest of that Monday. The work was fine that week. Hopefully, I will get help in vehicle service soon at the branch.

I flexed out Tuesday afternoon (29 September), and got the oil changed on my Corolla at Jiffy Lube (https://www.jiffylube.com/) in Mehlville. They also changed the automatic transmission fluid (well overdue) and rotated the tires. All this should help my car run better in the coming months.

That night, I hosted the IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) business meeting at home. We discussed the final preparations for our contest this Saturday in Sunset Hills. Overall, things are in very good shape for the show. We also discussed some other club business, including my taking over as editor of the club's newsletter in the near future.

Off work Thursday (31 August), I took Mom to the airport, where she caught a flight to Los Angeles. She's spending a few days visiting my brother Doug, his wife Helen, and their sons Luca and Matteo.

I worked Saturday morning (2 September) and it went very nicely. Then, I began to enjoy my holiday weekend. I relaxed at home the rest of the day and night.

Yesterday morning, I was at World Wide Technology Soccer Park (http://www.saintlouisfc.com/soccerpark) in Fenton to referee matches in the SLSG Gallagher Friendlies (http://slsgsoccer.com/tournaments/gallagher-friendlies). I worked three matches, including the middle on a under 13 girls contest. The referee coordinator there gave me a new referee shirt, which I changed into after the first match, which is of the new style and pattern. It feels cooler than the previous one. My legs were tired--these were my first matches since last spring--but am looking forward to more games this fall.

After the matches, I drove up to Mark Twain Hobby Center (http://www.hobby1.com/) in St. Charles to drop off some flyers for this Saturday's IPMS/Gateway show. They had a few already at the front of the store, but the manager was happy to have some more flyers promoting the show.

Today, I was at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (http://www.sngoc.org/) in St. Louis' Central West End for the final day of its 100th annual Greek Festival (http://www.opastl.com/). I stayed briefly, enough for a lunch (gyro and spanakopita) and watching a bit of Greek dance in the auditorium. Still, it was a nice little time.

Back to work tomorrow. Should be busy. The rest of this week will be too.

Later.

Labor Day Weekend with Japanese and Greeks

The end of last week went well for me at work on Friday (2 September) and Saturday morning. After work on Saturday, I came home to rest. I just chilled out at home that day and night.

The next day (4 September) found me at the Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/) for their 40th annual Japanese Festival. It was quite a few years since I last attended this event, but I am glad I went--even if alone. After a sushi lunch from Drunken Fish (http://www.drunkenfish.com/home), I began walking the Garden's grounds. I browsed among the various vendors--clothing, food, bonsai plants, and other Japanese items--and took in the Japanese Garden, Seiwa-en (garden of pure, clear harmony and peace). I also took in a performance of Japanese drum-based music performed by St. Louis Osuwa Taiko. I did buy from a vendor a Japanese headband of the kind used by kamikaze (divine wind) suicide pilots in World War II. I thought it looked nice on my head.

Work was closed on Monday (5 September) for the Labor Day holiday, and I spent part of it at the 99th annual Greek Festival held at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (http://www.sngoc.org/) in St. Louis' Central West End. I grabbed lunch--an authentic gyro sandwich and a spanakopita (filo dough filled with spinach and cheese)--before watching some Greek folk dancing performed on the stage by the young people of the church. I also browsed among the souvenir stands before leaving the festival. Another nice time, albeit alone.

Back to work on Tuesday, which felt like Monday. It was one very busy morning at our branch, with all the returns from the holiday weekend. However, we got through all that fine.

After work that day, I drove to Mark Twain Hobby Center (https://www.hobby1.com/) in St. Charles. The scale modeling group formerly known as IPMS/St. Louis was meeting, and I found out that it was renamed the Mark Twain Hobby Club. There was a nice crowd there--about 15 people--and I presented an update about tomorrow's IPMS/Gateway contest (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/invite2016.html) in Sunset Hills. We had a show and tell of current projects and recently completed models (I brought in three models in progress), plus a demo on using Bare Metal Foil as trim on models. I have to hand it to Chris Morosko and Brett Avants for restarting this club, and I plan to stay with it.

It was appropriate that, after work Wednesday (7 September), I was at my Portuguese class at St. Louis Community College at Meramec (http://www.stlcc.edu/MC/) on Brazilian Independence Day. Priscila, our instructor from Viva Brasil Association of St. Louis (http://www.e.vivabrasilstl.org/home), acknowledged that holiday before going into that night's lesson.

Yesterday was a busy off day from work for me. I started by getting a dozen doughnuts from Krispy Kreme (https://www.krispykreme.com/), which I then took to the Enterprise branch in Brentwood. I was honoring a promise made to Hannah, when she left Ellisville to become Brentwood's assistant manager, that I would bring some doughnuts to her branch. Alex, the manager (who I also worked with when he was at Ellisville), and Hannah greatly appreciated my gesture and were very happy to see me.

After a short stay, I then headed to Weiss Toyota (http://www.weisstoyota.com/) in south St. Louis County, where I had the front passenger airbag inflator replaced per a major recall of such items. This was free of charge to me. The service advisor then said I should get the front brake pads replaced, the brake fluid exchanged, and the windshield wiper blades replaced. I told him to do it, and it was done. It cost me about $370 for the job, but it would have been $42 more if not for a coupon they happened to have that week on brake pad replacement.

This morning, I stopped by Krispy Kreme to buy a dozen doughnuts for my colleagues in Ellisville before going into work. It was a soggy morning--much rain since the night before--and work was fairly show until late this afternoon, when it got very busy. We got it all done, though. As usual, the doughnuts were much appreciated by the Ellisville staff, which included Kory, back to us after several months at the Airport location. (Miranda just started work at the Airport a few days ago, transferring from Ellisville.)

Now to relax before a big day tomorrow--the IPMS/Gateway contest, then Brasil Day in midtown St. Louis (http://www.brasildaystl.com/). More on those events, plus Sunday's IPMS/Gateway picnic, in my next post.

Later.

A Terrific Scale Modeling Show

A week ago Saturday (5 Sept.), I co-hosted "Writer's Block," from Autistic People. Host Tim Pylypiuk and I discussed the unique languages of some literature, including works of William Shakespeare and Anthony Burgess' novel "A Clockwork Orange." You can listen to the archived program (and download it for podcast) here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/autistic-people-/2015/09/05/writers-block-loose-lips--10am-pstradio-drama-grooming-hour-11am-pst. The next edition of "Writer's Block" is Saturday, 3 October, at 10 am Pacific Time (Noon, Central Time; 1800 hours GMT).

After the show, I went to an ATM to get some cash for the weekend, and I picked up several copies of the South County Times. That newspaper had a piece on International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS)/Gateway Chapter and the Regional Contest we're hosting a week later. The newspaper interviewed me and others from the club for the story, which was prompted by show information I shared with the paper's calendar section. It was a very nice article and the club members who saw it agreed. Here's the online article: http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-Features-c-2015-09-03-196405.114137-sub-Plastic-Modelers-Share-OldSchool-Art-Form.html.

I went to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis' Central West End (CWE) for its 98th annual Greek Festival. It's a great ethnic festival, with food, music, dance, crafts for sale, and church tours. I have gone the past few years and have enjoyed it every time. After spending time at the Festival, I walked up Euclid Avenue to Left Bank Books (http://www.left-bank.com/), an independent book store, where I browsed for a while before walking back down Euclid. After having a ginger ale at Coffee Cartel (http://thecoffeecartel.com/), I walked back to my car and drove home.

I chilled out at home that Sunday and enjoyed some more of the Labor Day holiday on that Monday (7 Sept.). (The rental car branch was closed that day.) Late that morning, I joined members of the St. Louigans at Worldwide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton to help them paint two banners for Saint Louis FC's final regular season matches this month.

Back to work the next day, it was VERY busy, with much traffic coming in (mostly renters back from the holiday weekend), plus renters getting vehicles for the start of the short week. We got through it, though, and the rest of the week was much calmer by comparison.

On my off day Thursday, I went to Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield (http://spiritairport.com/spiritairport/index.jsp) to see aircraft from the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) on display this past week. The three World War II-era aircraft I saw were a Beech C-45 Expeditor transport, a General Motors (Grumman) TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, and the star attraction, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress named "Fifi." I saw these aircraft on the ramp and took a good number of pictures. I also entered the B-29's cockpit and admired the view. It was a great time for the aircraft buff. More on the CAF's aircraft on tour here: http://www.airpowersquadron.org/.

Yesterday (12 Sept.), I was at the Holiday Inn St. Louis SW--Route 66 in Sunset Hills, Missouri (http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/st-louis/stlsw/hoteldetail?qAdlt=1&qBrs=6c.hi.ex.rs.ic.cp.in.sb.cw.cv.ul.vn&qChld=0&qFRA=1&qGRM=0&qPSt=0&qRRSrt=rt&qRef=df&qRms=1&qRpn=1&qRpp=12&qSHp=1&qSmP=3&qSrt=sBR&qWch=0&srb_u=1&icdv=99504440&siclientid=9948&sitrackingid=733967223&glat=SEAR&dp=true&icdv=99504440). This was for the International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS) Region 5 Convention, hosted by IPMS/Gateway. (Region 5 was made up of IPMS/USA chapters in the Midwestern US.) It was a terrific show all around. I took money from attendees at one of the two entrances, and later helped judge the model contest. I don't have figures for how many people attended, but it was a lot for a show of this sort. People came from as far away as Minnesota and Kentucky for this event. We did have nearly 400 contest entries, including four of mine. My 1:48 scale Jupiter C rocket took second place in the Real Space category (within Space and Science Fiction)--my first regional IPMS contest award since a second back in 1995, also in St. Louis. No complaints from attendees and we all had a great time. We can't do much better than that.

After the show, I had dinner at Smugala's Pizza Pub in Sunset Hills (http://smugalas.com/smugalassunsethills) before boarding the shuttle bus for Worldwide Technology Soccer Park. There, I cheered on Saint Louis FC as they defeated Charlotte Independence 2-0 in the next to last match of the season. They had a record crowd of over 5,600 for the match. Yes, the St. Louigans were there in full force. Saint Louis FC (http://saintlouisfc.com/landing/index) finishes the season this Saturday night at home against Louisville City FC. By the way, this past week I renewed my season ticket for 2016.

Several of us in IPMS/Gateway were at the club's annual picnic, hosted by Brad and Julie Vaughn in House Springs. We enjoyed a barbecue lunch and good company. Our club's next meeting is this Tuesday night at 7:30 pm at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Mehlville. More on the club here: http://www.ipms-gateway.com/index.html.

Later.