Rainy and Sunny Soccer Weekend

Last Saturday evening (1 June), I drove out to World Wide Technology Soccer Park (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/SOCCERPARK) for the USL Championship (https://www.uslsoccer.com/usl-championship) match between Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) and Memphis 901 FC (https://www.memphis901fc.com/). The night began as usual at the St. Louligans (http://stlouligans.com/) tailgate, which had bratwurst and beans for dinner and for which money was collected for Playing for Pride (https://www.playingforpride.org/), which supports Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transaction, and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ) rights.

Some players of Fire & Ice WPSL (https://www.fireandicesoccer.com/page/show/4693840-fire-and-ice-wpsl), a club in the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) (https://www.wpslsoccer.com/), and head coach Lindsay Eversmeyer were at the tailgate. The team was there to promote their season, which began the next day. (More on this later in the post.)

I marched with the St. Louligans into the stadium for the match and we were settled in ready to go, when the match was postponed just before kickoff. Lightning was detected in the vicinity of the stadium, so we were ordered to evacuate the metal seats and take shelter in the tented Budweiser Biergarten (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/biergarten) to ride out the storm. We were there for just over two hours when word came that the match was postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date.

During the delay, we were watching Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the St. Louis Blues (https://www.nhl.com/blues) and the Boston Bruins. We were disappointed as the Blues lost this game, 7-2; however, a 4-2 win two nights later evened the best-of-seven Final at two wins apiece.

The weather was much better the next day, when I traveled to Althoff Catholic High School (http://www.althoffcatholic.org/) in Belleville for Fire & Ice's season opening match against FC Wichita. A number of fellow St. Louligans were also there to support the home side.

The teams traded first half goals, then Fire & Ice scored in the second half to win the match 2-1. It was a very nice time in the sunshine.

After the match, I shopped for cargo shorts at two shops in the Belleville and Fairview Heights area. I found two pair that should work for me.

Later.

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.