Children & Random Cheap Shit

After the previous night's Dark Horse power hour, I had a bit of a headache.  Erica was in worse shape.  But being the dedicated and lovely people we are, we were off to Lil Reggie's birthday party at Fun Run in Liberty.  I'd post a link, except I never want to go there again.
In my mind it was going to be like TunnelTown used to be.  I say used to be, because as far as I know the only one left around here is in Lee's Summit, and that might as well be the opposite end of the earth.  If you don't know what Tunnel Town is, you must have had an awful childhood.  It's basically a building full of a maze of tunnels, and rope bridges, and all of the fun things that come with tunnel playgrounds.  It was not uncommon to find a small child in there sobbing because they could see their parent through the porthole but not get to them.  Pussies.
ANYWAY, in reality it was a strip mall space full of inflatables.  You know what I'm talking about, shit like this.  There was also a 'town', which some poor sap built from plywood and labeled with Sharpies.  In the town was a jail, a fire station, and a Build-a-Bear-esque shop which I believe they called a 'pet store' but I could be wrong on that one.  Apparently there was an arcade on the other side, but I didn't venture that far.  They had a snack bar, and the people who worked at it were all assholes.  I didn't go to the bathroom there either, but I was told by hungover/pukey Erica that the toilet didn't work.  When she went to tell an employee they said "Great."  ALL OF THIS FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF $7.50/child!  If I didn't have such lukewarm feelings toward children, I believe I'd buy a large metal building and fill it full of those eyesores and only charge $6.50. I should probably say here that I'm sure the place is lovely if you have children.  I just don't think it measures up to Jungle Jim's Playland from the days of my youth - yeah, you remember that?!  Apparently there is still one in Utah - luuuuckies.

Birthday Boy (:

After dropping Erica off at Union Station and a failed attempt to visit the WWI Memorial, Mom and I went to Red X.  Now there's a link worth posting.  Red X is the kind of place that you have to set aside an entire day if you really want to experience it all.  It's a store, sort of.  It's almost like a combination liquor store/discount grocery/flea market/hardware store.  They have an area of weird off-brand shit, where I found a genuine BADGER toothbrush, they have an area of cheap t-shirts, lots of groceries, tobacco products, a huge liquor selection, and it's also where bells go to die.  I probably should have taken a picture of them to demonstrate what I mean...It just seems like every time a bell (we're talking large bells, church bells & such I assume) around town is no longer going to be put to use they drag it over to Red X, where there are at least a dozen large bells outside.  I wonder if there's a story behind that.

They also have fun house mirrors.

Babies Everywhere!

This > Flowers

Sara and Alicia both had their babies yesterday, and Melanie had hers Saturday, and Andy's cousin and his wife (Kaleb & Stephanie) had theirs today...there are apparently a lot of people getting it on in early March.

There is no aphrodisiac quite like green beer. As a Rolla student, I can say that for certain. And all of this concrete evidence only backs me up.

Instead of getting Sara flowers when we visited her, we got her this chocolate bouquet. THAT'll get rid of the post-partum acne!! (I don't even know if you get acne after you have a baby, I just made that up.)

Sooo....

Welcome:

Charlie Liam

Alexandra Ann

Jackson Dennis

:)

#23

I feel like this post should be about Alicia simply because it's number 23. I did not take a picture of her on October 13th, though. I did, however, miss her on this day. I know because I miss her every day! And especially right after I see her! Being so far from my best friend doesn't suit me very well. I am beyond excited for Baby Gronlicia, and I will love it even if it looks like a freaky little alien. Unconditional love. I learned it from 2 Pac.

Moving along...

Andy's First Homebrew!

On this day, Andy & I drank a quart of his Octoberfest beer. It was delicious! I don't know how to speak Beerspeak, but I can wing it... It had a lot of body, and finished both bitter & sweet. I think it weighs in roughly at 7.5% alcohol content, but it's an easy drink. I liked it a lot, and plan to consume a lot more of it at our Hermann kickoff dinner next Wednesday.

When I said we drank a quart of it, it sure sounded like a lot. We just each had a pint. That sounds like so much less. Isn't it funny how that works sometimes? 60 minutes sounds way longer than an hour - 5,280 feet sounds like an eternity, not a mile... Huh.

Saturday in tha Lou

Guess what! You're getting 2 pictures AGAIN! I'm feeling generous of late.

The Arch, as we wait in construction traffic

In the morning, Erica and I woke up and headed to Springfield, IL for Alicia's baby shower. It was really nice, at an adorable cafe/bakery place, with just 2 games. I won BOTH of them, whoop whoop! But they gave the 2nd place girl the prize the second time. In any case, I got a supercool Starbucks travel coffee mug, and a pumpkin cookie cutter and some caramel apple taffy. Pretty rockin'. After the shower, it was back to St. Peters for the Edwards' wedding reception. Traffic delayed us about 45 minutes, but it all worked out just fine.

We had a wonderful time at the reception. Photo booth ftw, most definitely. Dancing like the wacky inflatable arm-waving tube man was also excellent.

There's not much I love more than hanging out with Rolla folk, and this weekend was chock full of it. Happy feelings.

Day eleven!

Friday we got to enjoy a nice evening at home. It seemed like it had been a while since we were at home relaxing, just the 2 of us. After beer tasting, we just went straight home and Andy made us a wonderful steak dinner.

Then I went to work assembling this:

I'm waiting for some ModPodge to arrive so I can affix it all to the canvas, but I made this for a friend's baby's nursery. I'm going to make another one that is more boy-friendly, since they aren't finding out the sex until it's born. I can't decide if I like it or if I think it's too busy, but everyone I've asked says it's cute so I'm trusting them. Now I just need to trust USPS to get everything to me before Saturday!!!