2007 in review

Some key events in 2007:

February: We welcomed a new furry friend into our home. Chili came to us from the humane society, and is the friendliest chinchilla we’ve ever met.

March: Started a new job as a web designer at American Express Incentive Services

April: Sadly, we lost our friend Sully in April.

June: Our first wedding anniversary (wow the year went fast!) which we celebrated quietly by tasting year-old wedding cake and having our picture taken at the same stone bridge in Forest Park where our wedding photos were taken.

September: We took a 12 day road trip to Yellowstone National Park at the beginning of September. It was the perfect time of year to experience the park, as the weather had not yet turned, but the park was not as crowded as it is in the summertime.

October: Tom started a new job at the beginning of October as a contractor.

So, as we wrap up the last couple hours of 2007, I wish all of my family and friends a wonderful, safe, prosperous and happy New Year.

Midnight: 1990-2007

My parents kitty, Midnight, passed away sometime last week while they were out of town visiting relatives. They knew it was probably good-bye when they left as she couldn't eat solid food, only could drink water.

We got her when I was in 1st grade, and we celebrated many of her birthdays (August 13). We got her from the Central Missouri Humaine Society when she was a little 8 month old kitten. We picked out her name in the car on the way home - I suggested Midnight and everyone loved it immediately. She was an outside cat and would roam around the woods surrounding our home at her leisure but always came back home when it was time to eat. She'd usually meet me about half way down the driveway when I was in high school since I was the first one home in the afternoons and she was ready to be fed. In recent years she discovered her love of Whisker Lickin's cat treats after I started bringing them home for her when we'd come to visit every few months.

She lived a long life and I'm sure she's enjoying galloping around kitty heaven with all the other kitties who have passed before her.

Merry Christmas!!!

Old School Fipsy

From this little picture comes......ASCII Fipsy......

courtesy of www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic/

First snow of the season

Obviously these people don't live in unincorporated St. Louis county....only 7% rated "it was pretty poor" and 5% rated "it was terrible."

My street/subdivision is a mess. I slid turning onto the highway 44 outer road. Yesterday when I was shoveling snow in the driveway a salt truck/snow plow went by and didn't even have his plow down on the pavement and wasn't leaving a salt trail behind him.

Snow is only "fun" when it means you get a bonus day off of work.

Vincent Linnebur, 1933-2007

Published Sunday, December 2, 2007 in the Columbia Daily Tribune
A follow up to my blog post from March 20, 2007

The Rev. Vincent Anthony Linnebur, 73, died on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007, at Boone Hospital Center.

At his request, a private family prayer service will be held at a later date.

He was born Dec. 4, 1933, in Tipton, the son of Edward and Leona Kramer Linnebur. He had four brothers and six sisters.

He attended St. Andrew’s Elementary School. In 1948, he entered St. John’s Seminary in Kansas City, where he graduated in 1954. He then entered the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, where he was ordained into the priesthood on May 21, 1960. His first appointment in the Diocese of Jefferson City was as an instructor and director of students at St. Thomas Seminary in Hannibal.

In 1963, he went to Peru to work in the missions of the Jefferson City Diocese. He worked in Nazca and San Juan until 1975, when he returned to the United States and became pastor in Perry and Paris until 1978. He then became pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Columbia until 1984. He then studied at the University of Missouri, earning a master’s degree in social work in 1987. He worked as a counselor at Positive Motivation and Charter Hospital until being employed by the state of Missouri as director of the Moniteau County Counseling Center in California, Mo. He retired from state employment in 1994. He then lived in Columbia and Tipton.

Online condolences may be left for the Rev. Linnebur’s family at www.heartlandcremation.com.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Heartland Cremation & Burial Society of Columbia, 442-7850.

For gosh sake people...one holiday at a time!

News Flash....

Just because all of the stores have their holiday merchandise out and are playing Christmas carols doesn't mean that you have to too. At least wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating.

There is a house I drive by on my way home from work that has had their Christmas lights on outside their house for the last week or so, and today when I left work, the building I work in had all the Christmas lights on outside.

It drives me nuts that everyone is so focused on the holidays before they even get here.

"Don't Get Stuck"

That's metrolink/metro bus's new slogan. They are trying to get people to ride metrolink or buses instead of driving when hwy 40 is closed for construction.

Just for the heck of it, I typed in our home address and my work address in their tripfinder feature to see what it would come up with. Keep in mind that my usual morning commute is 5.52 miles and takes 15-20 minutes.

Here are the options that metro's tripfinder provided:

My Birthday (week)

My birthday is my favorite holiday - and everyone made my 25th a good one!

Tuesday:
Tom let me open one of my presents early - We Love Katamari game for PlayStation 2.

Wednesday:
Technically it was Thursday (12:15 am), but it was before I went to bed on Wednesday...Tom gave me another present - Desperate Housewives Season 3 on DVD.

Thursday:
Tom had a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to me at work. After work we we to Build A Bear where I made the Playful Polar Bear - which just so happened to arrive in stores on my birthday, November 1. I also got a red sweater for the polar bear to wear.

Friday:
Some friends joined me at Chevy's for a birthday dinner, and one friend told them it was my birthday so they sang and brought one of the huge sombrero out. I got lots of cool gifts from friends - a littlest pet shop monkey and a 10 pack of lots of pets (including a chinchilla), a frog photo album, and Cherry Pie scented lotion from B&BW.

Saturday:
We had dinner with Tom's parents and Grandmother. I got Big Brain Academy - Wii Degree and Crash of the Titans game for the DS. Plus some cash from his Grandma.

I also got birthday cards from my aunt and uncle Joanie and Terry, and my Grandma Heinz, and a friend from college - Joe. My parents also sent a card but are apparently "too poor" to give me any present....either that or my mother figures that I'm "rich" enough to buy my self a birthday present. It's the principle of it really, I wasn't expecting anything extravagant from them...

THANKS EVERYONE!!! I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Halloween

Tom and my pumpkins


Haunted Forest that I built at my work for the Halloween decorating contest.
(Mine won by a landslide!)

Teddy Bears

I've started making Teddy Bears for Victory Junction Gang Camp, a camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. These are children who cannot attend a traditional summer camp because of their medical needs.

Each camper gets a hand-made teddy bear that they get to take home. Victory Junction relies on donations of these bears, and have plans to serve almost 2,000 campers this coming year - that's 2,000 hand-made teddy bears that they will need.

If you're interested in making some bears, let me know and I'll get you all the details.

Site of the Day: Create your own kaleidescope

Check out the link below. You create your own kaleidescope by drawing in the big box and then it shows it in kaleidescope form on the right side in the small circle.

http://www.zefrank.com/dtoy_vs_byokal/index.html

Day 11: Salina, KS to St. Louis, MO

Ike boyhood home

Today was the last day of our vacation. We stopped in Abilene, KS to see the Eisenhower Presidential Library. It was really interesting, much more so than I thought.

Eisenhower Wedding Cake

After the library, we headed toward Missouri, stopped to visit my family in Columbia for dinner and finally made it home around midnight. The doodles were really excited to have us home and all had to come out and play so it was about 2 am when we finally went to bed.

Day 10: Denver, CO to Salina, KS

Today we made a stop in Denver at the Hammond's Candy Factory where we got to watch sugar sticks and lolly pops being made (almost entirely by hand in the same manner they were made when the company opened in 1920. We got to sample several candies and then stocked up on handmade candy in their gift shop as well.

People making lolly pops (notice the mirrors toward the top of the photo,
you can see what they are working on in them)

I wanted to visit the United States Mint in Denver, but as luck would have it, the mint is closed to public tours for construction during the month of September. I've since learned that this is a family curse on my husband's side, as any time anyone in their family was in Denver the mint has been closed to tours for one reason or another.

We headed east down highway 70 from Denver and into Kansas. We stopped at a place called "Prairie Dog Town" which I thought would be similar to the prairie dog place in South Dakota...boy was I wrong. The place had all kinds of animals - rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, buffalo, coyotes, fox, chickens, goats, sheep, cows, pigs - but the animals were living in despicable conditions. The goats had some sort of respiratory infection as they were all coughing - and children were being encouraged to pet these poor sick animals. The coyotes were in a cage enclosure that was probably 10 x 10 feet in diameter and were walking around it in circles. Worst of all was a "pond" at the back of the property full of ducks and geese which was mostly just a mud hole with garbage in it. It smelled awful and I could see an old tire and plastic bag in the water. It was also probably a breeding ground for misquotes as the water was just sitting there and green with algae. I plan to write the Kansas congressmen to alert them of the conditions of this place even though there will probably be nothing done to help these poor animals.

The last stop of the day was the Cathedral of the Plains which was the largest catholic church built west of the Mississippi river at the time of its construction (1909). It's located right off hwy 70 in Victoria, KS.

Cathedral of the Plains

Day 9: Rock Springs, WY to Denver, CO

Our vacation is wearing down - I can tell by the fact that I only took 4 photos today (and 2 were the same shot)!

We mostly just drove today, east across Wyoming. There's nothing along hwy 80 in Wyoming. Once we got to Colorado we had a bit more fun. First stop was the visitor center in Fort Collins where we picked up our free Colorado t-shirts. Yes, they were free. Colorado is running an internet promotion this year where you request your shirt on their website and then when you actually arrive in Colorado you can pick up your shirt from a visitor center. I chose the "I'd rather be in a gallery" and Tom got the "tight loops and tight lines" shirt. They are really good quality shirts too!

After the visitor center we took a tour of the New Belgium brewery, also located in Fort Collins. The tour was really quite impressive - even from a non-beer drinker like myself. They even gave free beer samples (you got to choose 4 of their 10 beers to sample). Tom and I chose different beers and while I tasted all 8 we had samples of, Tom finished them. Needless to say, I did the driving from Fort Collins to Denver.

Tom posing by the New Belgium Brewery Sign

Once in Denver we met my cousin Allison and her boyfriend RJ for dinner. We had a good time catching up and hanging out.

We checked into a Super 8 in Westminster, CO (just outside of Denver) around 11 pm. We asked for a no smoking room, went upstairs to our room and upon opening the door were hit with a stench of cigarette smoke. Upon further inspection, the carpet even had cigarette burns in it even though they had tacked a "no smoking" sign to the door, they had not made any changes to the formerly smoking room (it had probably smoking for many years). Tom went back to the front desk and asked for a different room. They gave him one, which smelled much better......until Tom folded back the bed blankets. There was hair in the bed. Not just one hair, but several hairs. We went back to the front desk and told them we could not stay in their hotel and proceeded to go across the street to the Fairfield Inn where we had a restful night sleep.

Day 8: Yellowstone to Rock Springs, WY

Today we headed out of the South Yellowstone entrance and into Grand Tetons National Park. We had some rain and wintery mix while entering the park. The park had a very different landscape from Yellowstone, and would have been really pretty had the sky not been filled with gray clouds.

Jackson Lake at Grand Tetons National Park

We got to see Jenny Lake which I was pretty excited about (obviously). It was pretty as the clouds started to clear up. They do a boat ride across it that we'll have to do next time we're in the area, too cold and cloudy this time!

Jenny Lake at Grand Tetons National Park

See more pictures by clicking here.

Day 7: Yellowstone

Mammoth Hot Springs

On our third day in Yellowstone we began at Mammoth Hot Springs, which weren't very exciting because they were dry. They looked a lot like ice or cave formations.

Mommy Buffalo and Baby Buffalo

We saw a lot of animals today, including deer, lots and lots of buffalo (crossing the road), a coyote and a brown bear. The bear we saw in Lamar Valley through the scope of a bear watcher. He was laying down on a gravel bar in a stream (too far away for pictures though).

We saw Tower Falls and then the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. The canyon was gorgeous. It would have been neat to hike down to the brink of the lower falls, but the guide book said not to attempt if you have "heart, lung or other health problems" and since Tom and I both have Asthma we decided to pass on that one.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Lower Falls

See more pictures from today by clicking here.

Day 6: Yellowstone

Today we went back to the Old Faithful area first and took a tour of the original Old Faithful Inn. The tour was really quite fascinating – for example, the building was constructed to be the same height as the surrounding trees, and the front is asymmetrical because nature isn’t symmetrical. There are 2 extra windows on the left side of the front (when you are looking towards it) that are nothing but windows – no rooms behind them. They built the entire inn in only 1 year because they wanted to get tourists in it as fast as they could – and they built it all from materials found in the park – stone and wood.


Next we explored the Black Sand Basin, the Biscuit Basin, and the Midway Geyser Basin. Then we drove Firehole Canyon Drive and saw the Firehole Falls. We also saw Gibbon Falls and walked a trail at the Artists Paintpots and decided to call it a day with the walking as our feet were both telling us it was time to sit down.


I got to see a bear today though! We were driving along in the forest and suddenly came upon a bunch of vehicles stopped in the middle of the road, not knowing why we eventually worked our way around them and I saw they were watching a bear chew on a stick not far from the side of the road. We weren’t able to take a picture, but hopefully we’ll see another bear before we leave the park.

See more pictures by clicking here.

Day 5: Yellowstone

Wow, Yellowstone is amazing – like nothing I’ve ever seen before! I cannot really describe it in words but I managed to capture some amazing photos.

We entered Yellowstone through the East entrance. We had a bit of rain on the drive into the park, and some grey skies, but by the end of the day the sky was a brilliant blue. One of the first curves we went around there was a car stopped on the side of the road and there was a buffalo looking in the windows! We stopped behind them and watched the buffalo cross the road in front of us.

Buffalo crossing the road in front of us

We walked around the Grand Thumb Geyser Basin, where we got our first glimpse of geysers, and also some Elk. After checking into our room for the night (lodge at Grant Village) we headed up to the Old Faithful area, (stopping at Kepler Falls along the way) where we walked around some of the Upper Geyser Basin and watched Old Faithful erupt.

a geyser in the West Thumb Geyser Basin

Old Faithful

Our room at the lodge was shared with a furry friend whom I named “Wally.” We had a squirrel spend the night inside one of the walls! He scratched and chewed on the drywall for much of the night and finally made his way back out the roof vent. We were probably the only people in the park used to hearing the noise of an animal pulling off strips of drywall (thanks to Fipsy and friends). We called the office and they sent a maintenance man out to our room who basically told us the squirrel would find his way out eventually.

For more pictures click here.

Day 4: Rapid City, SD to Cody, WY

And I thought that yesterday was a long day.....we didn't get into Cody, WY and our Super 8 motel until almost midnight. (hense the fact that I'm posting this in the morning instead of last night!)

We checked out Presidents Park in the Black Hills. This is a really neat park if you get a chance to see it. It's really off the beaten path, and it took a lot longer to get to than I thought it would. The park features sculpted busts of all 42 presidents of the United States, standing among the trees, 20 feet tall each. My favorite part was the differences in dress from the beginning to modern day. The early presidents were depicted wearing bow ties and then later regular ties. All the ties had some sort of texture to them, it would have been interesting to see where the inspiration for the ties came from. George W. Bush's tie had a republican elephant pattern on it.

Tom and Lincoln, Jenny and FDR at the President's Park

Next we drove for a bit and visited Devils Tower National Monument. We sat through a ranger presentation on climbing the tower which was pretty interesting in itself. The fastest someone ever climbed the tower was in 18 minutes! We took to the trail around the monument (which turned out to be a lot longer than we thought it was) and got to see some climbers up on the tower.

Devils Tower National Monument

After the Devils Tower we headed toward Cody, WY - slowly but surely. We ran into a rain storm while going over the rocky mountains. It also happened to be at dusk which made for a bad combination - darkness, rain and wildlife. It was kind of funny - after we got through the mountains we stopped at a McDonalds and were pouring over the WY map when two other couples came in also inspecting their maps.

After a stressful final hour and a half of driving (and wildlife crossing the road - deer, raccoon, lots and lots of bunnies and even a few mice) we made it to Cody, WY.

You can view more pictures by clicking here.

We visit Yellowstone today!!! We may not have internet access while we are in Yellowstone so it may be a few days before I post again.

Day 3: The Black Hills

We started the day at Mount Rushmore National Monument. I really enjoyed seeing this landmark in person - very cool. We walked the presidential trail from which you can see the sculpture from different angles, and checked out the visitor center.

Mount Rushmore

The next stop was the Crazy Horse memorial. I had no idea that they had been working on it for 50 years already! The monument is HUGE, in fact it's not a carving in a mountain like Mount Rushmore, it's a mountain being carved into a figure in the round - meaning it will be carved on all sides. The 4 faces of Mount Rushmore fit into the HEAD of Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse Monument
(scale model in foreground, mountain in background)

The third stop was Custer State Park. The park features an abundance of all sorts of wildlife and we saw deer, pronghorn, turkey, buffalo, prairie dogs, and burro.

Buffalo at Custer State Park

We returned to Mount Rushmore for their evening lighting ceremony at the end of the day.

Mount Rushmore lit up at night

Check out more pictures by clicking here.

Day 2: Sioux Falls, SD to Rapid City, SD

Today we headed west on highway 90 across South Dakota. The first stop was the Porter Sculpture Park. This park is just in the middle of some farm fields. When we arrived we were greeted by the artist and what I think was his father. The artist gave us a quick overview of his work and sent us on our way. The park highlight is a huge bull head. Apparently his next project is going to be a huge horse. The work is bizarre and somewhat disturbing, but interesting none the less. He's even got hand painted signs describing the work.

Bull head sculpture at Porter Sculpture Park

Next we visited the Mitchell, SD Corn Palace. There wasn't much to see, as they had already started taking down the 2007 display and constructing the 2008 one. It's an interesting concept I guess - putting corn on a building - but I don't really get it.

Corn Palace

The third stop today was a rest area along hwy 90 that overlooks the Missouri river. This was the 4th time that we crossed the river since we left home yesterday morning.

Next we got to feed (wild) prairie dogs at this little tourist stop just outside the Badlands National Park. You paid the guy who owns the land $.50 and got a small bag of peanuts to feed the prairie dogs. They weren't too interested but I did get one little guy to take 2 peanuts out of my hand. The place also features a huge concrete prairie dog....

Feeding the Prairie Dog

Badlands National Park was next. We went to the Painted Desert two years ago so the landscape here was familiar. There was a neat sunset that we got to watch, but overall nothing too special, just more of the same. However we did get to see a bunch of wild prairie dogs running around a field. We also saw rabbits and deer in the park.

Badlands National Park

After the Badlands we checked out Wall Drug. I knew after 300 miles of bad billboards that they place would stink, and of course it did. Really not much point to stop here except to say that you did - but Tom got a free bumper sticker so he was happy.

We ended the day in Rapid City, SD. We'll be checking out Mount Rushmore tomorrow!

See more pictures from today by clicking here.

Day 1: St. Louis to Sioux Falls, South Dakota

We left around 10 am this morning on our road trip, stopping briefly in CoMo to drop stuff off with family, then off across the rest of Missouri, up north through St. Joseph and into Iowa.

Believe it or not, there is a state worse than Illinois to travel through - Iowa. I should have known when we entered the state and were greeted by orange construction cones...

The state is boring as heck and when we tried to take a break at the Louis and Clark monument but somehow passed it without knowing it. We were watching for signs - but apparently Iowa isn't as sign obsessed as Missouri and didn't bother to mark it even though it was on their road map. Their rest areas claimed to offer wireless internet, but I couldn't get past their tourist page when I tried to log on.

We did stop and visit Trinity Heights in Sioux City, IA. I'm glad we saw something in this dumb state! Trinity Heights was actually really cool. It's a park (for lack of a better word) featuring a 30 foot statue of Mary and one of Jesus. The statues are very well done and impressive as you can imagine. Inside the visitor center is a life-size wood carving of the last supper. (Photo: Me standing beside the 30 foot statue of Mary)

Finally we made it to South Dakota and are spending the night at a Best Western in Sioux Falls. We have lots of cool things on the agenda for tomorrow...stay tuned!

You can see more pictures from today by clicking here.

Dumb A$$ Dish Network

Dish Network sent us a broken "replacement" DVR to replace the one that wouldn't record correctly. Only the one they sent us wouldn't even connect to the satellite, let alone record.

Who hates Charter Cable?

I saw this banner ad on stltoday.com this morning, and being one of MANY who hate Charter Cable, I just had to share it. Click on the image to see it bigger. It shows 2 screenshots from the banner ad, the first one is at the beginning, then they pull back and you see the whole voodoo doll and the text "switch to DirectTV today" comes on. Funny Funny.

The best part is that it's not a point.roll or bad boy banner ad where the ad covers up part of the page content like so many of stltoday.com's banner ads are anymore.

Fire at "the rock" church

The photo above is a striking shot from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, taken at the height of a 5 alarm fire at St. Alphonsus "Rock" Catholic Church last Thursday night. The 135-year-old church is a fixture on North Grand. I've attended mass here a couple of times, and I really feel for the congregation.

Given that the church is located in a sketchy part of north St. Louis, you wouldn't think that they would attract people from all over the metropolitan area, but their faith and dedication to their church really is inspiring. It is one of the largest African American churches in the area - but you don't notice that walking in, you notice their excitement and welcoming attitudes
towards everyone - white, black, visitor or not.

Mass at the rock is generally 2 hours long with a strong gospel choir, and passionate homilies. The kiss of peace lasts 20-30 minutes because everyone wants to shake hands (and/or hug) with everyone else.

They are going to rebuild, but say it may it may take awhile for it to be complete.

Please remember the St. Alphonsus "Rock" congregation in your thoughts and prayers.

Miracle Girls

A year ago I posted about the Herrin twins - 4 year old twins in Utah who were conjoined and shared several organs, mainly a kidney, liver, and large intestine, a pelvis and two legs between the two of them.

The girls are doing AWESOME! Watch the video they put together showing the girls at birth through now.

Simpsonize Me

You upload your picture and it creates a simpsons character out of your image. Beware though, it's busy a lot and you can't get on it to make your character.
http://simpsonizeme.com/

The Simpsons Movie Premiere Contest

The Simpsons Movie Premiere Contest

14 Springfields around the country submitted videos explaining why the premiere of the upcoming Simpsons movie should be in their town. I've watched them all....and have to say, I could do better than most of these videos!

Florida was the worst, closely followed by Colorado. My home state, Missouri, presented an interesting concept but having the whole movie about "not" wanting the movie premiere kind of defeated the purpose. At the end they should have had someone run in and tell everyone that they were supposed to want it or something... I think Kentucky has the best cinematography.

I have a hard time deciding whether to vote Missouri because it's my home state or Kentucky because they had the best video....

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

We're almost there - the moment many of us have been waiting for - the release of the 7th (and last) Harry Potter book. Everyone has their predictions of who will live and who will die and we'll know very soon.

I saw a very interesting article today about the security measures Scholastic has been taking to ensure that no one gets an advanced copy and that we all get to experience that magical moment when we begin reading the book with no spoilers in mind. Completely innocent as the article states.

Harry Potter and the Sinister Spoilers