Going Greek on Memorial Day

I basically stayed home for Memorial Day weekend, relaxing after a long week of work. The branch was closed on Memorial Day last Monday (27 May).

In the middle of that morning, I did venture out to Assumption Greek Orthodox Church (http://www.assumptiongoc.org/) in Town & Country, Missouri for their annual St. Louis County Greek Festival (http://stlgreekfest.com). I parked about 0.5 mile (0.8 km) in an office complex parking lot, then walked to the church.

After browsing among the craft vendors in the tent located near the sanctuary, I walked into the gymnasium for lunch. I ordered dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with ground beef, rice, and herbs, topped with a light lemon sauce) and spanakopita (chopped spinach, seasonings, and feta cheese in layers of buttered filo dough), with lemonade to drink. It was most tasty.

After lunch, I walked outside to see some Greek dancers perform to recorded music. It was nice seeing the routines from different areas of Greece, with the dancers' costumes from those different areas.

After the performance, I went back inside to treat myself to karithopita (honey walnut cake with a light syrup) with Greek coffee. This was most satisfying.

Soon after that dessert, I walked back to my car and headed home. I had some personal matters to attend to before watching Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final that night between the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins. Let's go Blues!

Later.

Photographing Models at the IPMS/Gateway Meeting

After work Tuesday night (21 May), I headed to Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) for this month's meeting of the Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS) (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home). Stormy weather outside--including a tornado warning--kept the crowd low this night, but the meeting went on without weather incident.

This meeting had the second 2019 Modeler of the Year contest, with the Special Category "6 is a Serious Number." That is, the subject has a 6 (six) in its name or designation. We had 20 total contest entries, including eight in this Special Category.

We also had a clinic on model photography. Rick Keasey brought in his photo studio and invited members to bring their models to be photographed, and their cameras to take pictures. I took photos with my Canon (https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/cameras) PowerShot digital camera, including of my submarine Turbulent, which took Third Place at the Military Modelers Club of Louisville (http://www.mmcl.org/) Invitational the previous Saturday. This clinic was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again another time, when we hope to have more members attending to take part in this.

During the meeting, we got updates on the St. Louis Blues (https://www.nhl.com/blues) playoff game. I was home later that night when the Blues won the game, becoming Western Conference Champions, and sending them to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1970. The Best-of-Seven Final against the Boston Bruins starts this Monday night.

Later

Honoring the Missouri CAP at MOAHS

Last Sunday afternoon (19 May), the Missouri Aviation Historical Society (MOAHS) (https://moavhist.org/) had its bi-monthly meeting at Creve Coeur Airport (http://crevecoeurairport.com/). This meeting honored the Missouri Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) (https://www.mowgcap.us/publicwpsite/).

After a color guard presented the colors, several officers from the Wing spoke of their missions: emergency response, youth development, and promotion of air, space, and cyber power. Although I was still a bit groggy from my long drive home from Louisville the night before, I found this a most interesting presentation.

The next MOAHS meeting is on Sunday, 14 July at 2 pm at Creve Coeur Airport.

Later.

Scale Modeling and Soccer: One Saturday in Louisville

Before dawn last Saturday (18 May), I left St. Louis by car to drive to Louisville, Kentucky. Arriving there around 10:15 am Eastern Time (9:15 am Central Time) after over a four-hour long trip, I came to KYANA Classic Car Club (https://kyanaregionaaca.org/), venue of the Military Modelers Club of Louisville (MMCL) (http://www.mmcl.org/) Invitational model contest and swap meet. I entered three models in the contest, which was located in the lower level of the venue, while the vendor room was on the upper level.

I brought flyers for the IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) show this September, which I left on the registration and admission tables. Additionally, I donated a stock car model kit to the raffle. It was very nice to see the quality models in the contest, and shopping among the vendors. I chatted with a few attendees about IPMS/Gateway's show, and they were looking forward to coming to St. Louis for that event.

After getting lunch at a food tent set up just outside the club house, I helped to judge Figure models in the contest. One of the MMCL members, Lee Fogel, joined me in judging the figures. There were some very good items in this category, and it took quite some time to evaluate the entries before determining the top three places in each of the figure categories. My Turbulent took Third Place in Submarines.

After the show ended, I drove to Scale Reproductions Hobby Shop (https://www.srihobbies.com/), where--taking advantage of a discount flyer from the show--I bought an aircraft model kit. It's a very nice shop, and I can definitely recommend it.

Next, I headed for downtown Louisville, where I paid a brief visit to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory (https://www.sluggermuseum.com/). I didn't have time to take the museum tour, but I did shop in the gift shop, buying a St. Louis Cardinals (https://www.mlb.com/cardinals) mini bat and some postcards. I also looked over the names of Major League Baseball players who used Louisville Slugger bats over the year, including quite a few members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

After that, I made my way a few blocks east to Louisville Slugger Field (https://www.milb.com/louisville/) for the USL Championship (https://www.uslchampionship.com/) match between Louisville City FC (https://www.louisvillecityfc.com/) and Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/). This derby is known as the King's Cup, as Louisville and St. Louis are named for French kings named Louis. I joined with some fellow St. Louligans (http://stlouligans.com/)--many of whom arrived on two chartered buses--in the tailgate with our counterparts, the Coopers (https://louisvillecoopers.com/). Louisville City and the Coopers are our "frenemies;" rivals, but ones we can have fun with at the same time.

Some minutes before kick off, we St. Louligans marched into the stadium for the match. Our section was in what is normally the left field bleachers for baseball games. (The Coopers were situated in the left field boxes.) Although Louisville City had the fun of play, Saint Louis' defense was up the the task and the match ended in a scoreless draw.

After the match, I waited in the parking lot for traffic to let up before going home. I chatted with several Coopers for about 25 minutes and we looked forward to meeting up in St. Louis for the return fixture in October.

I then got in my car and started the long drive home. I finally arrived in St. Louis just past 1:00 am, Central Time. After bringing my items in from the car, I finally got some sleep.

Later.

Honors for My PR, Editing, and Blogging

Last Saturday (11 May), I braved the rain to drive to Mike Duffy's Pub & Grill in Kirkwood (http://mikeduffys.com/kirkwood/). This was for the Missouri Professional Communicators (https://www.facebook.com/MissouriProfessionalCommunicators/) Communications Contest Celebration. This event honored MPC members whose work in 2018 was judged worthy of an award.

My friend Linsey Daman (https://linseydaman.blogspot.com/) was there as my guest. We and the other attendees ordered lunch off the menu, and we had some nice conversations. Linsey had to leave to take care of some personal matters, but I did cover her lunch bill and I also gave her money in return for an airplane model kit she wanted me to build for her.

After the luncheon, MPC's Janice Denham presented the awards certificates, with judges' notes on what they were for and what the contest judges thought about these submissions. Yours truly received four awards for my work: A First Place and three Second Place honors. The First Place was for a press release I wrote and distributed on behalf of IPMS Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) about its $371 donation last December to Toys for Tots (https://bridgeton-mo.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/default.aspx). The judges noted that this release was well-written and organized, and there was nice coverage. The judges also liked how the release detailed how the money was raised and the history of the club's Toys for Tots drive. This First Place honor made my release eligible for consideration in the annual Communications Contest run by the MPC's affiliate, the National Federation of Press Women (https://nfpw.org/).

Another IPMS/Gateway press release--one announcing the club's annual model contest and swap meet in September--took second in the same category as the Toys for Tots release. Judges mentioned in their notes that this release was nice written and organized.

Another Second Place award was for The Arch Scaler News, IPMS/Gateway's monthly member newsletter. The judges praised it for being very nice and packed with information for its intended audience, and for the great deal of work that went into the publication. Additionally, judges liked the live links for websites and emails in The Arch Scaler News, and the nice photos in each issue.

Finally, this blog took second place in the category of personal blogs. This is a fun blog, according to the judges, who especially liked the entry from last October on the Spirit of St. Louis Air Show, with all the photographs in that post. They also thought the slideshow of photos as a nice idea. Judges told me to keep up the good work, and thought this blog looks like a lot of fun. (I agree!)

After the awards presentation, the event broke up. Denham took my picture with the certificates, then I headed to Starbucks (https://www.starbucks.com/) on Kirkwood Road to celebrate with a hot beverage. While there, I chatted with my acquaintance, Glenna Gossett (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ggossett/), who happened to come by. She was very happy to hear of my honors from MPC, and we got caught up on things. I stopped by the nearby Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery (https://www.smallcakescupcakery.com/) to get a cupcake to take home.

Later.