Smashing Debut for St. Louis CITY SC2

Last night (25 March), I came straight from work to Robert R. Hermann Stadium on the Saint Louis University campus. I was there to witness the opening regular season match for St. Louis CITY SC2, the reserve team of St. Louis CITY SC, which begins play in Major League Soccer (MLS) next year.

This night saw St. Louis CITY SC2 host Rochester New York FC in the inaugural MLS NEXT Pro match. A sellout crowd of just over 6000 were on hand. Fortunately, I had bought my ticket last month and it was on my phone when I came to the gate.

I arrived at the stadium about 10 minutes before kickoff, and soon headed to the supporter section where my fellow St. Louligans were there in force. They had a tailgate party at the parking garage earlier that night before marching into the stadium, but I was on my way from work in Ellisville when this occurred. I was still able to find a standing place among my fellow supporters.

The St. Louligans were in good form with our chanting and drumming. The crowd as a whole was in good spirits. Our efforts were rewarded in the 19th minute, when Wan Kuzain scored off a loose ball in front of the Rochester goal. CITY2 took this 1-0 lead into the halftime interval.

I stepped away from the grandstand late in the first half to get into a concession stand line for a light meal, but the line was much too long. Instead, I used my CITY app to get a badge on my profile there, signifying my attending my first match. I also chatted with another CITY fan for a bit before returning to the supporter section for the second half.

CITY2 dominated play throughout the match. A successful penalty kick by Vitor Dias in the 60th minute--after he was brought down by the Rochester goalkeeper in the penalty area--made it 2-0. Six minutes late, CITY2 was down a man after Ezra Armstrong got his second yellow card of the match. Rochester made an effort to get back into the match but could not score. CITY2 ran out 2-0 winners.

After the match, CITY2 players came towards the supporter section to acknowledge the St. Louligans and their efforts. We then walked back to the garage for a post-game party. I stayed around for a bit before going home. It was a long day for me.

It was a great night for St. Louis soccer. I am looking forward to more in the MLS NEXT pro season. After a couple of road matches, CITY2 hosts Tacoma on 10 April, also at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.

Later.

Websites of Entities Referenced in this Post:

Saint Louis University Athletics: Saint Louis University - Official Athletics Website (slubillikens.com)

St. Louis CITY SC 2: CITY 2 (stlcitysc.com)

MLS NEXT Pro: The Official Home of MLS NEXT Pro | MLSNEXTPro.com

St. Louligans: Saint Louligans – Supporting Soccer in the St. Louis Area – St. Louligans – Supporting St. Louis Soccer (stlouligans.com)

 

Saturday in Kansas City: 2022 KC CON and a Beer

Early yesterday morning (12 March), I drove to Kansas City, Missouri. This trip to was attend KC CON, a scale modeling contest co-hosted by IPMS/Great Plains and IPMS/KC AMPS. After driving for nearly 4 hours (including a fuel stop, a stop to stretch out, and a traffic slowdown in Independence, Missouri), I arrived at the show venue, the First Church of the Nazarene.

After going through registration, I placed my sole contest entry--a 1:720 scale USS Alabama--in the Naval category. I then began to make the rounds, admiring and photographing the contest models, chatting with people I know, browsing among the vendors, and buying raffle tickets.

At Noon, I attended a pizza lunch with the other contest judges, where we had a briefing from the chief judge and received our category assignments. Our judges worked all categories except Armor That category is judged by Armor Modeling and Preservation Society (AMPS) rules, which evaluates each entry by set criteria, rather than against the competition as is the case with IPMS contests. My two teammates and I judged Mecha, Space, Science-Fiction. My model did not place in Naval.

I did buy one small kit from a vendor, won a kit and a book from the raffles, and got two kits and two magazines from the free giveaway table. I don't have any figures on attendees and entries, but it looked good in both areas to me.

After saying my goodbyes, I drove to The Blue Line, a hockey themed bar by the Kansas City Public Market just north of Downtown Kansas City. It was recommended to me by my Enterprise colleague Hannah Adams, whose fiancée's family owns the place. I had a beer at the bar--Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat--while admiring the scene. It was crowded, but everyone was in good spirits. Several college basketball conference tournament games were on the televisions, a cover band was playing, and there was hockey memorabilia decorating the place. After the beer, I paid for it and began going home. I stopped in a Kansas City area McDonald's for dinner to go, then ate it in the car as I drove home, arriving later than night. I covered 539.9 miles (868.9 km) on the trip.

I slept well last night, despite losing one hour due to the changeover to Daylight Saving Time overnight. Today, I got my hair cut at Great Clips near South County Center, then died my hair with Just For Men. Back to work tomorrow morning.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

IPMS/Great Plains: Untitled Page (ipmsgreatplains.org)

IPMS/KC AMPS: KCAMPS

First Church of the Nazarene: KC First Church of the Nazarene | Welcome (kcfc.org)

Armor Modeling and Preservation Society: Home - Armor Modeling & Preservation Society (amps-armor.org)

International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA: IPMS/USA Home Page | By Modelers... For Modelers (ipmsusa.org)

The Blue Line: Hockey Bar | Kansas City, MO | The Blue Line (thebluelinekc.com)

Great Clips: Haircuts for Men, Women, & Kids | Great Clips Hair Salons

Just For Men: Just For Men: Hair Color For Men | Beard Dye | Gray Reduction

Snow and Cold in Town

Last Tuesday night (1 February), it started to sleet here in Metro St. Louis. It was followed the next day by slight snow fall at first. By early Thursday morning (3 February), it got heavier. Snowfall here got to around 6 inches (0.15 m), while temperatures went down to 10 degrees F (-12 degrees C). 

I was able to shovel snow off half of the driveway, but my manager advised me not to drive to work on Thursday with the rough road conditions. Thus, I stayed home that day. This gave me time to work on finishing a ship model for this month's IPMS/Gateway meeting.

Friday morning, I made it to work, where I helped my colleagues to dig our vehicles out of the snow. Business was understandably light, but things went well.

Yesterday, I finished clearing snow off our driveway and the walkway in front of our house. After those chores, I stayed inside, watching the NHL All Star Game on TV and working some more on my ship model.

This morning, the roads were good as I drove to Olympia Athletics & Events Centre in St. Charles to referee SLYSA futsal games. Today was the last day of the 2021-22 season. I worked four girls matches as scheduled, but then stayed to do a boys game that I didn't know was added to my schedule until that morning. Fortunately, all the matches went well.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

Enterprise Rent-a-Car: Rental Cars at Low, Affordable Rates | Enterprise Rent-A-Car

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

National Hockey League:Official Site of the National Hockey League | NHL.com

Olympia Athletics & Events Centre: Olympia Athletics Events

St. Louis Youth Soccer Association: Home - St Louis Youth Soccer (slysa.org)

 

Hosting Two Brothers

Last Sunday (23 January), my mother and I welcomed my brothers Rick and Brian for a few days. Brian arrived at St. Louis Lambert International Airport first late Sunday morning, flying in from New York. Rick arrived a few minutes later from Charleston, South Carolina, via Chicago. I picked them up from the airport and drove them home.

They mostly spent time at home while I was away at work Monday and Tuesday. Rick and Brian helped mom around the house and visited with friends in town. Last night, Rick and mom went to AT&T to get hardware for DirecTV Streaming, with intent to replace Spectrum for TV and internet service. My brothers helped set up the TVs in the house. While the upstairs TVs (family room and mom's bedroom) worked fine, mine in the basement bedroom didn't. 

This morning, AT&T service came to work on the internet service. They tweaked the wiring going into the house and installed a new 5G modem. With this in place, my TV worked better and our wireless internet (for laptops and smart phones) went much smoother. (For me, this also meant I could send items from my laptop to the printer without having to get offline to use the printer's Wi-Fi connection, as had been the case in recent weeks.) Our landline phones should be transferred from Spectrum to AT&T in the coming two weeks.

After posing for pictures, Brian took Rick to the airport to fly back to Charleston. After lunch with a friend, Brian came back here. Late this afternoon, I drove Brian to the airport for him to fly back to New York. It was good for my mom and I having my brothers home, if only for a few days.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

St. Louis Lambert International Airport: St. Louis Lambert International Airport (flystl.com)

AT&T: AT&T Official Site - Unlimited Data Plans, Internet Service, & TV (att.com)

DirecTV: TV (directv.com)

Spectrum: Charter Spectrum® Official - Internet, Cable TV, and Phone Service

Kicking it with St. Louligans vs AOSTL

Yesterday morning (8 January), I and others braved the chilly weather to come to World Wide Technology Soccer Park. It was time for the annual Winter Classic Charity Soccer Match between the St. Louligans (a local soccer supporter group I am in) and the St. Louis Chapter of the American Outlaws (supporter group for US National teams).

Arriving at the Soccer Park, I first gave young volunteers some canned food I bought at Schnucks this past week. They were being donated to the St. Louis Area Foodbank, which helps food insecure people in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. After parking my car, I then entered the lobby to get warm.

As more of us participants gathered, I headed onto the field to begin warming up. It was approximately 25 degrees F (-4 degrees C) at kick off time. After jogging a bit and kicking the ball around with several fellow St. Louligans, I stretched my legs muscles. With that, I was ready to play.

We were playing 30-minute halves, with free substitutions. I was not a starter (good!) but came in for two shifts in each half at a defender. The players were refreshed with beer donated by Urban Chestnut Brewing Company. I had a can each of Big Shark Grapefruit Radler and Thrales, a Russian Imperial Stout. It was my first time with both beers, and I liked them quite a bit.

I didn't get any touches of the ball with my feet while on the pitch but got a touch each with my forehead and my rear end, blocking American Outlaws shots towards the St. Louligans goal. Not having done much running in recent weeks made me rather winded in a hurry. Still, it was fun to be out there.

(Sarah Robertson of the St. Louligans took the four above action shots of yours truly. These were downloaded from the St. Louligans Public Group Page on Facebook.)

The match ended up a 3-3 draw, but the real winner was the St. Louis Area Foodbank. We raised enough food and household supplies to fill 17 barrels to overflowing and an eighteenth was about half full. Additionally, over $3100 of money was raised by the St. Louligans and American Outlaws for the foodbank. A cold, but fun time was had by all. I even took some home extra Urban Chestnut beers after the game.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

World Wide Technology Soccer Park: St. Louis Scott Gallagher — Club Soccer in Saint Louis (slsgsoccer.com)

St. Louligans: Saint Louligans – Supporting Soccer in the St. Louis Area – St. Louligans – Supporting St. Louis Soccer (stlouligans.com)

The American Outlaws: American Outlaws (theamericanoutlaws.com)

St. Louis Area Foodbank: St. Louis Area Foodbank | Member of Feeding America (stlfoodbank.org)

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company: Urban Chestnut Brewing Company

New Year 2022

The New Year of 2022 began at last weekend, with the stroke of Midnight on Friday 31 December/Saturday 1 January. It was all low key for my mom and I. Work ended early for me, and after making a shopping trip, came home for dinner. I was actually in bed when Midnight came, so I just slept through the beginning of 2022.

I was home all day yesterday, watching various programs on TV. They included the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California (which I had attended in person in 1992), and some documentaries on various channels. I also set up my account on IPMS/USA's new online membership and event system, which went online that morning. It should make it much easier for everyone to sign up for society membership and national convention registration.

That night, mom and I watched the Discover NHL Winter Classic, in which the St. Louis Blues played the Minnesota Wild in Minneapolis. It was a cold night for an outdoor hockey game, the temperatures ranging from -5 Fahrenheit (-21 Celsius) at face off to -10 Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius) at the end. and wind chills reaching -20 Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius). Mom and I were happy, as the Blues won the game 6-4.

Home again today, with freezing conditions outside. Started work on this month's The Arch Scaler News for IPMS/Gateway. I am trying some new ideas for the newsletter, especially moving the club officer's directory from the back to the second page and adding pictures of these officers. The club meets next on 18 January, with the annual Swap & Sell and Kit Auction.

Back to work in the morning. Should have plenty to keep me occupied.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

Tournament of Roses: Tournament of Roses

IPMS/USA: IPMS/USA Home Page | By Modelers... For Modelers (ipmsusa.org)

Discover: Rewards Credit Card - Cash Back Credit Card | Discover

NHL: Official Site of the National Hockey League | NHL.com

St. Louis Blues: Official St. Louis Blues Website | NHL.com

Minnesota Wild: Official Minnesota Wild Website | NHL.com

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

Christmas 2021

Entering this past week, I didn't feel much Christmas spirit. Uncertainty about the future and my present situation had me feeling low. A few friends tried to cheer me up. We'll see how that goes.

Last Tuesday night (21 December), I went to the monthly IPMS/Gateway meeting at the Affton Elks Lodge. We had voting for next year's club officers and for this year's Stroup Award (Member of the Year). I was reelected President by acclamation, as no one else was nominated for the post. I am happy to serve another year as club president. The Stroup Award will be presented at next month's meeting. I am one of the three nominees for that honor.

We also had a buffet dinner, with entrees from Smokee Mo's BBQ and sides provided by club officers. (I brought some cupcakes from Schnucks.) We also had the annual Recognition Contest, in which we had to guess the war movie from the theme music. I got 20 of 23 correct for the best score of the night and earned a $10 gift card from Schaefer's Hobby Shop.

Finally, we had the big kit raffle, in which all members had a chance to win a model kit. With my winning ticket, I selected a kit of the German battleship Tirpitz.

After the rental branch closed early on Christmas Eve (24 December), I drove to Super Smoker's BBQ in Affton to pick up a Christmas Eve dinner my brother Doug ordered for my mom and me. It was delicious, featuring sliced turkey, green beans, and potatoes. 

Up the next morning, my mom and I went to the Christmas tree set up in our living room to open some presents. I bought mom a pair of slippers, which she greatly appreciated. I received from mom and my brother Rick several books, including five from Rick's employer, the History Press. I also received a book I ordered from the National Museum of the United States Air Force's gift shop about the XB-35 and YB-49 flying wing bombers, and a large book with maps of key battles over the centuries.

Midday today, I was at Olympia Athletics & Events Centre in St. Charles to referee St. Louis Youth Soccer Association (SLYSA) futsal matches. These three matches were with under 9 boys' teams, and I worked them solo. I had not refereed futsal in about two years and was concerned I would be rusty, but fortunately all the matches went well. I hope to work some more futsal matches in the season, which runs until early February.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:

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

Affton Elks Lodge 2635: Elks.org :: Lodge #2635 Contact Us

Smokee Mo's BBQ: Smokee Mo's St Louis BBQ Restaurant - Best Meat & Vegan BBQ (smokeemosstlouisbbq.com)

Schnucks: Home | Schnucks

Schaefer's Hobby Shop: Schaefer's Hobby Shop - Arts, Crafts, Beads, & R/C | Schaefers (schaeferhobby.com)

Super Smokers BBQ: BBQ + Cajun | Affton St. Louis | Super Smokers’ Newest Location

The History Press-Arcadia Publishing: The History Press (arcadiapublishing.com)

The Air Force Museum Store: The Air Force Museum Store Air Force Museum Store

Olympia Athletics & Events Centre: Olympia Athletics Events

St. Louis Youth Soccer Association: Home - St Louis Youth Soccer (slysa.org)