LIVE on the Levee

Elizabeth and I went to Live on the Levee on Friday night. There was some good, some bad, and some awesome fireworks.

Friday night's shows were Sister Hazel and Better than Ezra. We didn't end up seeing Sister Hazel because we were searching for food...we walked down to the arch, realized that the supposed "good" food was up on "Eat's Bridge" and walked all the way back up to the Eads Bridge only to find out that the food up there wasn't any better than the food sold down by the riverfront. St. Louis, don't advertise a big thing happening on the bridge if it's really the same as the riverfront, and seriously, I spent the whole night watching traffic crawl over the Poplar Street Bridge, would it have made more sense just to keep the Eads bridge open for commuters??

We found ourselves a seat on the stairs overlooking the riverfront in time to see Better than Ezra take the stage. We were almost to the top of the stairs, thinking that we were far enough back not to have our ears blasted with loud speakers....wrong! If they'd turned the speakers down just a little we would have been able to hear the words to the songs! They did have a sign-language interperter which was really cool to watch. She really got into the music, and the signs were beautiful flowing to the music.

After a few songs we headed to the other side of the arch and sat and talked where we could hear each other without screaming. We headed back over to the arch when the fireworks started. The fireworks were awesome! I've never seen such a good show!

So all in all, Live on the Levee is not a bad idea, but it needed some tweeking to get people to come back - especially in the "Eat's Bridge" vs the riverfront. We walked about 4 miles total throughout the evening.

Professional Wedding Photos!

Our professional pictures are in! There are 765 photos total, and some really great shots!

You can view all the pictures online by following the directions below:
• Go to http://www.eventpix.com
• when entering the site, log on as a "guest"
• enter photographer name: Kuhlmann
• session name: Heinz-Kyle Wedding
• password: hk_G_60 (case sensitive)
• the pictures will remain online through September 12th, 2006

The photos are by Brent Kuhlmann Photography.

I Love Fireworks!!!

I got to see three fireworks shows this year. On Sunday night I went to Webster Groves with Liz, and watched their pre-preview fireworks show. It was a great show, quite a display. We were really close to the action (close enough for me to end up holding a crying baby who was scared to death of the fireworks, while his mommy took pictures of the fireworks - however she did get some really good pictures). Then we put the baby on some carnival rides - the little cars and boats that go around in a circle, a little kiddy train that goes around on a little track, and the carousal. By the end of the night he was waving to us as he went around in a circle on the ride. It was a fun night getting out of the house and doing something different.

Monday night Gimlet and I accidentally ran into the Twin Oaks fireworks display while going to get ice cream at fritz's. We enjoyed frozen custard and watched an impressive show for a town so small.

Tonight we went to see the Manchester fireworks. I brought along our digital camera to try my had at shooting pictures of fireworks (the best one is the one I put on this blog entry). It's a lot harder than it looks. It's hard to know when to hit the shutter button because while the firework looks neat when you hit the button, by the time the picture is shot, the firework is gone. The Manchester fireworks display left something to be desired. The show was really short and they shot the fireworks really slow. Just one at a time and waited until the sky was completely empty to send up another one. Finally right before the finale they started sending up two at a time. I think we'll try Ballwin's fireworks next year. We could see their show way off in the distance and it started before Manchesters, and ended after. Oh well, at least the rain held off during the show.

New Car (soon)!!!

So...I might be getting a new car soon!!!!! This is pretty exciting. My current car (1994 Nissan Sentra) is getting a bit too old for my driving habits...taking short cuts thru the ghetto, driving to Chicago for a weekend, etc. Not to mention that the A/C is current not working, the plates are expired and it failed the emissions test not once but twice.

My husband and I went to test drive cars for me today. We drove a new Honda Civic and a new Nissan Sentra. The Civic was a nice car, but the styling is just a little too "space age" for me. Both Gimlet and I agreed that we liked the Civic from the steering wheel back, but disliked the front end of the car (picture here). The dash could be in its own zip code, and you can't even see the hood of the car from the drivers seat. Makes parking a bit of a challenge when you can't see where the front of the car stops.

The 2006 Nissan Sentra was almost identical to the Sentra that I currently drive. There were a couple of improvements, but for the most part, it was just a newer, more expensive version of my car.

After exploring new cars, we ventured to Huey's Honda and took a peak at a 2004 Honda Civic (completely different styling from the new ones). I love it. It is black, has just over 24 thousand miles, and could be mine in just a couple days. Here's a picture:

Could you pass the U.S. citizenship test?

Could you pass the U.S. citizenship test? Try it here for free!

I got an 80% on it, missed 4 of the 20 questions. Three of the four I just flat out didn't know, and the fourth I didn't read close enough.

Friendship

So I joined myspace last week. For those of you who don't know, it's a website where you can connect with past and present friends and post pictures, blog entries (that only those on your myspace friend list can read), leave comments, and meet new people. I joined mostly because several of my friends and co-workers were on it and wouldn't stop talking about it.

I am up to 24 friends on my myspace friend list now. All of which are people I know. The interesting thing is that I found my best friend from 2nd grade on myspace. I was excited and immediately sent her an add friend request. She accepted, and then sent me a message asking who I was. I was taken back, I just assumed that she'd remember my name even tho we haven't talked since that time and I had no idea where she ended up (she moved away from Columbia). Through a couple more messages I learned that she aparently had a very tramatic childhood and since has blocked memories of her past.

Just so that you know, if you are reading this and aren't friends with me anymore that I haven't forgotten you. Whether we had a fight, you moved away, I moved away, or something else came between us, I still remember you. I often think of friends that I've lost and wonder what I could have done to prevent our friendship from being broken off. I wonder if I'd worked harder if we'd still be friends, and if we were still friends would I still be in the same place in my life.

To all my friends, I hope that we'll always be friends, I hope that nothing comes between us that we can't work out, that no matter where you or I are living, that we stay in touch. I love and care about each of my friends dearly, and I hope that you guys love and care about me just as much.

You should have seen me at the toga party...

The second installment of the Tidy Cats Crumble-free Journey is up! This time they have travelled to Greece. Check it out!

Wedding Wrap-up

It's the blog post you've all been waiting for, ranting, raving and complaining about various wedding vendors that we worked with for our wedding. Each place we worked with has the name, website and a star rating (one is worst, five is best).

Bridal Connections *****
I can't say enough good things about Bridal Connections. I went there on a whim because the shop I was going to go to was already closed when we got there. They had the perfect dress, and their staff is excellent. The manager knew my name by the time the wedding came around. I bought my dress there, had the alterations there (the alterations were expensive but looked great). We also rented the tuxes for the guys from Bridal Connections (Jim's Formalwear). I strongly recommend Bridal Connections!

David's Bridal *
We got the bridesmaid dresses from David's Bridal. They were a pain in the ass from the beginning, but I thought that it would be ok because each girl could try on their actual sized dress instead of going by measurements for sizing, and some of the girls could get their dresses from ebay since David's Bridal is a national chain. They were a pain from the beginning to the end. We could never get a sales person's attention when we were there, they didn't have all the sizes in stock (even when we called ahead to make sure that they did), they misplaced dresses that were ordered, messed up alterations on all 3 of the girls who went in to have their dresses altered, the list goes on and on. Bottom line is, don't buy from David's Bridal.

Complete Music *****
We hired Complete Music to do the DJ service at the reception. The DJ we got played exactly want I wanted and had just the right amount of involvement in the event. They were priced below some of the independent DJs and we were guaranteed someone for the night even if our scheduled DJ had gotten sick. I would recommend Complete Music to anyone.

Champagne Limousines *****
Champagne Limousines was wonderful to us. We booked just a month before the ceremony and they were able to get us in. The driver was very friendly and courtious, and knew his way around the city. However, we visited 2 other limo rental places that we were not pleased with at all. Affordable Limousine Service brought a beat up old limo to show us and quoted us a price of much higher than Champagne ended up being. Gem Transportation wouldn't take appointments to see their limos, and even when Tom told them we'd be at their place by 6, they left at least 5 minutes early because the place was all locked up when we got there at 5:55.

Favazza Florist *****
The flowers were wonderful, reasonably priced, and the store owner came to the church to get the coursages and boutineers pined on correctly and see that we got the ceremony off without a hitch! She even stayed late one night to meet with us and go over our flower selections.

Brent Kuhlmann Photography *****
This rating is pending recieving our final photographs, but I have no doubt that they will be wonderful. Brent was great to work with from our first meeting to the wedding day. He went over everything in detail to make sure he knew what was going to go on throughout the day. He started at our house taking shots of us getting dressed. Then off to the church for the ceremony, forest park for more pictures and he stayed the entire time at the reception.

Four Points Sheraton/Holiday Inn ***
This is a hard rating for me, as I really liked the facilities and the food, but there were a couple things that happened during the reception that upset me. First, they changed the name of the hotel 2 days before our reception and didn't call us to let us know. All our guests were going to be looking for the Four Points Sheration, but the building now said Holiday Inn. Tom found out when he went to go drop off the favors and pay the final amount at the hotel two days before. Also, during the ceremony there were children running around the hotel, in and out of our room, dropping gum and candy into our card box on the gift table. We also had 2 strange men come into the reception for who knows what reason other than they were acting very strange and shouldn't have been there.

Majestic Travel **
The travel agents at Majestic Travel were very nice, however our honeymoon was not as nice as we expected. They did not prepare us well for going to another country (i.e. it's all inclusive except bring ones to tip the guys loading your luggage onto the bus at the airport). We probably could have booked the trip online just as well.

The Name Change Game

I just want to let everyone know...when giving a check as a wedding gift...make the check out to either one or the other of the two getting married, or to the bride and groom using the brides maiden name. It is a pain in the butt to get your name changed, meanwhile, you have a pile of checks that you cannot cash because they are made out to the new name which doesn't legally exist yet.

A St. Louis Survey

An StL survey (it's just like those email surveys that come around every once in a while only specifically for St. Louisans) .

1.) What is your favorite Ice Cream Place? We go to Fritz's a lot, everyone loves Ted Drews but I've only been there once.

2.) Favorite concert seen at UMB Bank Pavillion ( Riverport) -- I've only seen 2 concerts there...Summer Jam 2002 (headliner P. Diddy) and the Goo Goo Dolls. Both were good.

3.)Would you rather go to the Dome, Savvis Center, or Busch Stadium? Busch Stadium...mostly because I can stand baseball more than hockey or football

4.)Favorite Bar? The Venice Cafe is cool, but I'd have to go for any bar that my friends are at with me.

5.)Favorite Place to eat in the Loop? Blueberry Hill

6.) Favorite Fast food? I don't really eat fast food...but occationally I get a craving for McDonalds fries.

7.)Would you rather go to the Zoo, Science Center, or the City Museum? Holy cow...I can't make a choice here! I love them all! If I have to choose one I guess the zoo.

8.) Have you ever been to the balloon races in Forest Park? Seen the balloons...but at the balloon glow the night before. I've seen the races over Gimlet's grandma's house tho!

9.) Would you rather go to the Muny or the Fox? Well the fox, but the free seats at the muny are quite tempting for some shows.

10.) Favorite Mall in STL? Galleria, then West County

11.) Have you ever been to Grants Farm? Yes...I love to feed the goats there!

12.)Favorite time of year to go to Six Flags? I usually end up going there during Fright Fest, which is pretty cool, but I'll take any time.

13.) Favorite casino to go to? Never been.

14.)Did you ever go to Incahoots or Liquid? nope....

15.) Did you ever see Sesame Street on Ice at the old Kiel Center? that would be a NO

16.) Ballwin Days or Manchester Days? Never been to either...but since I live in Ballwin I'll go with the Ballwin Days.

17.) Favorite Pizza Place? Papa John's, by the way...I HATE Imos!

18.)Favorite Place to watch fireworks? Downtown over the river!!!

19.) Best part of the VP Fair? Hello! Fireworks

20.)What High school did you go to? Hickman High School in Columbia, MO

21.) Favorite place to see a movie? I hardly ever see movies...so...any place without annoying teenagers and decent seating

22.) Best Sub place? Quiznos or Penn Station

23.) Would rather eat on the Hill or the Old Spaghetti Factory? The Hill because it's personal

24.) Chilli Cook off in West Port Plaza or The Taste of Clayton? Never been to either

25.) Mickey's Car Wash or Waterway? I wash my car at home (or sometimes Gimlet washes it)

26.) Would you rather go Ice skating in Forest Park or go look at Christmas Lights at Jellystone Park? Ice skating...but I've never been to see the Christmas Lights at Jellystone...

27.) What hospital were you born in? Boone Hospital in Columbia, MO

28.) Have you ever been inside the Arch? of course...hello...what else do you do when you visit St. Louis as a tourist. The last time was spring break my sophomore year...1999

29.) What radio stations are programed in your car? Y98, The River, The Arch, Z107

30.) If you could bring back one thing to STL what would it be? UM......geez I don't know...

Wedding Guestbook Highlights!

For those of you who attended our wedding reception, you know that each guest found a guestbook page to fill out at their seat. Many of our guests did indeed fill these out, and here are the highlights on the prediction part:

Number of kids we will have (65 responses):















Years until we have our first kid (within 1 year, within 2 yrs...):

That's king zinger to you!

Check out the NEW Tidy Cats adventure!
Tidy Cats® Tidy Lock™ Crumble-Free Journey

Welcome Sully

We picked up our new chinny yesterday in Kansas City. His name is Sully, he's a 6 year old standard gray male chinchilla. He's kind of freaked out by his new home. After we put him in his new cage it took him a few minutes and then he started running up and down the ramps. He even checked out the leaping ledge in the cage. He's not sure about the wheel yet. He's fascinated by it, but he doesn't get how to use it yet. He kept running down and putting his paws on the wheel and then it'd start turning and he'd run back upstairs in the cage away from it.

Sully checking out the chew toys in his new cage.

Sully found the leaping ledge to be very interesting.

Finding a nice spot to sleep in his new box.

KFC ... let us build your dream home!

Quite a unique pair don't you think?
Billboard seen along hwy 70 between St. Louis and Columbia.

Motorola Pebl Pond

Check out the Motorola Pebl Pond

So I'm not one to really care much about brands, but this is a pretty cool website. The Motorola Pebl phone looks like a Pebble...it's pretty cool, we looked at it at T Mobile when we got our new phones last month. On the brand website there is a virtual pond and you can write something on a pebble and throw it into the pond. Then you can go check out what other people have written on their pebbles as well. It doesn't say, but aparently you can not use numbers on the pebbles, because I tried to write "17 days until the wedding" and it showed up as "days until the wedding."

I found out about this website in an article I just read in Ad Week (April 17 issue, rating interactive agencies). The Pebl pond was created by the interactive agency FCBi (which also does those dumb "Above the Influence" commercials - their overall rating was a B- from Ad Week, but hey...they made one good site. Besides the fact that their website homepage calls out "Breaking News" dated 2003...).

The end of 7th heaven....or is it?

***Caution major spoilers do not read if you have not seen the "last" episode of 7th Heaven***

As you all know, my favorite TV show ever is 7th Heaven. I've been watching it religously since it began back in 1996. I got the chance to watch the "final" episode of 7th Heaven last night, and I have to say, I think they did a decent job ending the show. Of course it was silly and unrealistic, but it was still my show, and I didn't leave the show thinking, I can't believe they did that like I often do when TV shows end.

Anyway, so I read this morning that 7th Heaven may have 13 more episodes. This is probably a bad idea. The actors are taking pay cuts, they won't be into the show, the plots will probably be stupid...

So for those of you who care...here is the scoop on the final episode:

• Simon and Rose decide to postpone the wedding
• Matt and Sarah surprise everyone by showing up at the wedding and with the news that Sarah is pregnant with twin boys
• Lucy and Kevin are shocked to hear this because they are also having twin boys
• Carlos shows up with out Mary, but blurts out at the end that he and Mary are back together and that Mary is also pregnant - with twin girls
• Sandy shows up at the very end with her baby (and no Martin) and tells Simon that they need to talk...
  

Review: Goodbye Alice in Wonderland

I picked up Jewel's 6th album last week (it came out May 2) and I've been listening to it non-stop. It's called Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, and I love it. I was really skeptical at first because her last album left much to be desired. This one is great. More upbeat than her much loved first album (Pieces of You), but still containing those personal songs that we've come to expect from Jewel.

I actually saw Jewel in person at the River Lounge courtsey of 101.1 the River the Friday before the album was released. She performed 3 songs, 2 from the new album (Again and again, and Goodbye Alice in Wonderland) and everyone's favorite, Foolish Games, from her first album. She has an amazing voice and is much better in person than recorded on an album. If you get a chance you should check her out!

My favorite song on the album is Goodbye Alice in Wonderland...

So goodbye Alice in Wonderland / Goodbye yellow brick road / There is a difference between dreaming and pretending / I did not find paradise / It was only a reflection of my lonely mind searching / For what was missing in my life

Dreaming is a good thing cause it brings new things to life / Pretending is an ending that perpetuates a lie / Forgetting what you are / Seeing for what you've been told / And growing up is not the absence of dreaming / It's being able to understand the difference between the ones you can hold / And the ones that you've been sold

Congratulations Hickman High School...I think

Journal lists Hickman in high school ranking

Newsweek magazine has named Hickman High School as one of the top 1,000 school in the United States.

Hickman took the 971st spot. Public schools were ranked by a formula based on the number of advanced placement tests taken by all students in 2004 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Newsweek named Jefferson County High School in Irondale, Ala., as the nation’s top school.

Well, I feel special having gone to the 971 best high school in the country. Too bad the rating is based on AP scores, and not any of the numerous other qualities that make a school good or bad. It seems to me that such things as graduation rate, teacher quality, Average GPA, number who go onto college, rates of violence, overall student satisfaction of the school would make for a better accurate rating.

St. Louis ranked 18th 'smart place' to live

St. Louis ranked 18th among nation's 'smart places' to live

I just read that St. Louis has been ranked #18 in the Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's top 50 "Smart Places to Live." Aparently this survey ranked the cost of living, homes, crime (Funny, because just a few months ago, in a different survey, St. Louis was ranked the second most dangerous city in the country), health care, climate, environment and education.

Three other Missouri cities also made the cut: Kansas City came in sixth, Columbia 24th and Jefferson City 35th.

I wonder what cities were considered, and whether it was the "city" of St. Louis or the entire St. Louis metropolitian area that was judged to be a "smart place" to live. Also interesting is the size of St. Louis vs. the size of Columbia for example...

Sandals Grande Ocho Rios

We booked our honeymoon yesterday with Majestic Travel in St. Peters. They were very helpful in helping us pick out where we should go and finding us flights and accomodations, expecially because we are booking so close to the wedding. We attended a "Sandals Night" where they went through all of the different Sandals resorts and showed pictures and explained the atmosphere of the resorts. We ended up picking the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios Beach and Villa Resort in Jamaica. We'll be spending our honeymoon week in a private hut with swimming pool behind, and of course enjoying the ocean as well.

Wedding Flowers

On Monday night we ordered the flowers for the wedding. The picture here is the bouquet that I picked out for myself. The bridesmaids will have bouquets of white roses with some babies breath and greenery. The Groomsmen will have one white rose in their boutonnieres. We are getting a nice flower arrangement to go in front of the alter at the church. We also ordered small corsages and boutonnieres for the mothers/fathers and grandmothers/grandfathers. The flowers are from Favazza Florist, on Natural Bridge just down the street from the church.

Engagement Announcement

Our engagement announcement appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune today. Click here to view it. I'm disappointed that they didn't include our engagement photo in the online announcement, but it's on this blog post so you still get to see it if you haven't already.

4-20

Today is the anniversery of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. I knew it wouldn't take long for me to find something relating to the incident in the news today, and here it is Police: MySpace foils school shooting. Sometimes I wonder whether all the media coverage of school shootings causes more to happen. I also wonder how parents are not aware that their teenager is building bombs and sawing off shot guns in the basement or garage. As this day passes, let us pray for the 13 students and teachers whose lives were taken from them on this day seven years ago.

I remember 4/20/1999 very well. I was in 10th grade at a school with over 2,000 students. In the days and weeks that followed rumers about copy cat shootings were ran like wildfire around school. Talks of hit lists, specific days to skip school and where in the school it would happen were common. A couple weeks after Columbine, I was in the library during 4th hour researching for a class, when the lights go out. As you can imagine, chaos errupted. We were in the library and the lights went out at almost the exact same time of day as the Columbine incident. Turns out that there was an accident on the street by our school and a car hit an electric pole which caused the school to lose power. Luckly there were no incidents of violence in our school that year or any of the following two years that I was a student there.

Click Here!

Check out the first (hopfully of many) infuz internet commercials! The commercial is an extension of the print ad above which will appear in the magazine Ad Week for the next several months. In case you're wondering, I made the magazine that the actor is using in the film.

Watch the Click Here film now!

Signs of Easter

Check it out! A bird has made her nest on the corner of our house, so we'll get to see some baby birds this spring! I named her Mama Bird. I don't know how long she's been there (just noticed her Easter Sunday night) but we should have some baby birds sometime in the next week or so! Gimlet found this website with pictures of baby birds. I can't believe how fast baby birds grow! Spring is such an exciting time - baby animals, new green leaves on the trees, flowers...

Hardee's

Hardee's has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I especially love their morning cinnamon rolls, and their hot ham and cheese sandwich. We always stopped at Hardees to get cinnamon on our way to Chicago and Peoria to visit my grandparents as a child. My sister works at Hardees. Hardees is nice because they don't have the typical menu that other burger fast food places have. Hardee's has now entered their third logo redesign.






Logo #1: Wilbur Hardee opened his first walk-up stand in Greenville, NC, in 1960. I don't know when this particular logo was actually adopted. It looks pretty 1970s/1980s to me. It's the Hardee's logo that I remember for years growing up.








Logo #2: In 1997, Carl Karcher Enterprises (who owned the Carl's Jr. fast food restaurants in California) purchased the Hardee's chain. After a market test in Peoria, IL (which I remember very well - we were shocked to find Hardee's had changed names!) and Oklahoma City failed with the Carl's Jr. renameing, the entire Hardee's franchise was converted to "Star Hardee's" with a new logo which matched that of Carl's Jr. When the star first came out I thought it was the most ridiculus design for a hamburger chain. I mean, what the heck does a smiling star have to do with Hardee's. Then I learned that it was part of Carl's Jr. logo.









Logo #3: In late 2005, St. Louis area Hardee's coupled with Red burrito to offer mexican food along with their regular menu. This spurred a new logo redesign for Hardees. So will this logo stick? It's an interesting concept for a fast food restaurant - using the scripty font. They kept the star however. I don't know know whether this logo is going to be a nationwide change or only a St. Louis area change.

Chinchilla Heaven

It feels really stupid to be posting about something silly after the post about Teddy. We miss him a lot. I hope that he's a happy chinchilla who gets all the treats his heart could desire and gets to come out and play whenever he wants to. I really thought he was going to come home to us from the vet.

:,(

In memory of Teddy

We lost Mr. Ted this morning. We took him into the vet on Thursday morning, because he lost a lot of weight, wasn't eating or pooping. They kept him at the vet, but he passed away this morning. They said he had fatty liver disease. We don't know how old he was...I hope he lived a long chinchilla life.

Teddy enjoyed playing in the cardboard castle and begging for treats. He especially liked prunes. Teddy fatherred at least 8 children (including Fipsy, Schmoopy, Chip, Pepper, Ducky and Pokey).

Really Bored?

Really Bored? Check out this game. The point is to keep the tennis ball in the air by continually clicking on it. Harder then it looks. My highest score is 20.

The two month mark...

We've made it to the two month mark. In 61 days Tom and I will be tying the knot. My current to-do list has only 7 huge, gigantic, time consuming things to do on it now...

• Update the gift registries
• Choose and book the limo
• Choose and order the flowers
• Meet with a travel agent, choose and book honeymoon destination
• Choose hair and makeup artists, schedule practice runthrus and book wedding date with them
  
• Get the wedding dress fitted
• Place engagement announcements in newspapers