Tony's Rockin' Friday Night Surprise

Christy bought me a great surprise just after we moved to St. Louis. I've been waiting about two months for Richard Nader's Solid Gold Doo Wop Concert. I got to hear such great hits as:

The Drifters featuring Charlie Thomas:

"This Magic Moment"

"Up On The Roof"

"There Goes My Baby"

"Save The Last Dance For Me"

"Under The Boardwalk"

Jay Siegel and the Tokens:

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

"One Fine Day"

Gene Chandler:

"Duke of Earl"

"Stand by Me"

"Rockin' Robin"

Terry Johnson's Flamingos:

"I Only Have Eyes For You"

Shirley Alston Reeves original lead singer of The Shirelles:

"Mama Said"....there'd be days like this

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"

"Soldier Boy".....not to be confused with "Soulja Boy".....there was no Superman

The night ended with everyone on stage singing "Goodnight Sweetheart."

I found the medic station humerous. I don't think they were concerned about gunshot wounds or stabbings. Probably just making sure nobody had a heart attack or ran out of oxygen. We were by far the youngest people in attendance.....unless you count the consession stand girls. I mentioned to Christy I wanted to go b/c this was a last chance opportunity type of thing. I can now say I saw "The Drifters" live. How awesome is that?! Ok, well most of them were dead, but the lead singer was still there. It counts. That was a great Friday night. I don't even know if New Kids on the Block can top this one. Joey Joe's got his work cut out for him. - TONY

Pretty Orchid

Tony bought me the orchid during his first couple of weeks here in St. Louis so that I could enjoy flowers in my office. When he bought it, it only had a few small blooms on it, but it's full now with nine blooms and three more about to open! It's absolutely gorgeous and when the sun hits it, its petals shimmer. I love orchids!

Sugar misses his friend

Ever since Leo was returned to the pond in Lafayette Square Park, Sugar has missed his friend. Anytime the door to the second bathroom is open, he wanders in and jumps up on the side of the bathtub to search for Leo. Last night, he took it a step further and jumped into the tub to look for his buddy!

Y-U-M-M-Y!!!

This past Saturday, we had the joy of attending the annual St. Louis LSU Alumni Association Crawfish Boil! We had a great time! Tony laughed at Jean and I for also enjoying the hot dogs, but hey, they were some darn good hot dogs! In addition to crawfish and hot dogs, they also had the small potatoes and corn on the cob with a live band and lots of purple and gold! We met a few new LSU fans, made fun of those wearing Florida jerseys, and just had an amazing time. Can't wait for next year!

Dining with the puppies

I'm continually amazed by just how dog friendly the city of St. Louis is. There are multiple dog parks not to mention that dogs are welcome at most restaurants that have outdoor seating. We were able to treat Tucker and Sugar to a trip to the front patio of Chava's. Chava's is a Mexican restaurant here in Soulard that has quickly become one of our favorite places to dine. The wait staff all know us and start setting up our favorite table when they see us parking across the street. Yes, we do realize how sad that is! Anyway, we decided to forgo our favorite table in order to bring the puppies with us. They had a great time!

After Chava's, we decided to head to Lafayette Square Park for a walk around the park and to feed the ducks. We brought the extra tortilla chips from Chava's. Turns out, ducks are not such a big fan of tortilla chips! Plus they sink quickly. We did see the baby goslings again, plus there were four baby ducks as well. The baby ducks stayed out in the middle of the pond, so we weren't able to see them very well.

The pictures are of Sugar at Chava's and of the small pond in Lafayette Square Park.

Movies in Style

Last night, we went to see Angels and Demons at the Moolah Theatre here in St. Louis. The movie was fantastic, but we have definitely found a new theatre to frequent! The seating is still stadium style, but it's all leather couches, leather love seats, or leather club chairs! Plus you have little tables on each side that you can even move around if need be. There's also a full bar, lounge area with a pool table, and a bowling alley! It's located in a gorgeous old building right across the street from SLU's campus that underwent a $17 million renovation a few years ago to transform it. We're loving the result! The only downside is that the theatre only has one screen, so they only play one movie at a time.

SLU's Graduation

On Saturday, Tony and I attended our first Saint Louis University graduation. Mainly because I wanted to see Greg Mortenson speak. He is the author of one of my all-time favorite books - Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace. Three Cups of Tea is without a doubt the most inspirational book that I've ever read. If you can read it without crying at least once, you deserve a medal. Anyway, he was this year's commencement speaker and he definitely did not disappoint! He is not a natural public speaker and even after all these years of doing it, you can still tell. With that being said, his story is so special that his nervousness just makes it all that more endearing. With a little bit of money and a whole lot of determination, Mortenson can truly say that he has changed the world for the better. Because of him, 28,000 students (18,000 of those girls) have been educated in some of the poorest regions of the world. What a legacy...

The rest of graduation was great as well. There were a few cute and touching moments. When Parks College of Engineering, Aviation, and Technology was asked to stand to have their degrees conferred on them, they all threw paper airplanes. After Father Biondi (the President) conferred the medical degrees on the new doctors, those receiving nursing degrees all stood and applauded the doctors. When it was the nurses turn, the doctors reciprocated. When the College of Philosophy and Letters was asked to stand..... two lone male students stood! They got a very rousing round of applause and laughter from the full Chaifetz Arena! Father also amended his normal "Sons and Daughters of Saint Louis University" to just "Sons of Saint Louis University!"

Graduation did more than just entertain me though. It reminded me that I want to go back to school. And that it's time for me to do so. Good thing that I set up a meeting with an advisor from the business graduate school for this week!

Tetris Records

The old NES is back up and running! For those who don't know, that means Nintendo Entertainment System. Microsoft who? Playstation what? I'm talking about old school gaming in all it's 8-bit glory. After beating Super Mario Brothers, I stuck in the original Tetris. I'm still addicted to this day. I love my big screen portable tetris game, but it can't beat the blinding colors that make your eyes water after not blinking for 2 hours. After watching "King of Kong" a few months ago, I decided to look up the high scores for Tetris on NES. Twingalaxies.com is the official gaming score keeper for the Guinness Book of Records. After brushing some dust off of my two button controler (Remember the days of simplicity?), I got the #8 & #9 spots on the all time high scores. I'm pretty sure I can get # 2 if I tried for more than an hour. My scores are unofficial b/c I have to record the games on tape to send in so they can verify. Then I can order a tee-shirt and official certificate! My mom always said Nintendo was going to rot my brain and make me blind. Several prescriptions later, I have decided she was right about the blind part, but all that hard work and practice has finally paid off. Look at me now mom! Your the mother of a top ten gamer. Could you be more proud?

A Trip to the Park to Visit the Ducks

This evening, we decided to meet up with Tucker at the duck pond in Lafayette Square Park since we'll be seeing nothing but rain and hail the next couple of days. Sugar was extremely excited to take a trip to the park! And as always, he was very excited to see the ducks! Tony and I would love to take him off his leash one day just to see if he'd really jump into the pond after them. He always goes nuts trying to get to them when they get close to the edge! We also saw four little baby goslings. They were so cute eating the little bread pieces! The last picture is how Sugar looked as we left the park. He definitely had a great time, but he couldn't wait to get back to his water bowl at home!

More pictures from the zoo

We were able to see the tiger habitat while we were on the train. It's no Mike, but then again, there's only one Mike the Tiger! If you look closely at the first picture, there are two tigers laying side by side spooning. The one in the back has a front paw on the others head and a hind leg wrapped around the other. You may have to click on the picture and enlarge it to see. I have to say that it's about the cutest thing that I've ever seen!

St. Louis Zoo

So, last Saturday we spent the day at Grant's Farm so this Saturday we decided to check out the zoo. The zoo here is completely free to the public and it's located inside Forest Park. The park is the largest here in St. Louis and is actually larger than Central Park if that gives you an idea of the size of it. All I can say is that it was completely and totally packed!! Both of the huge zoo parking lots were full, so we drove around for half an hour or so looking for a parking spot in the park itself. We ended up finally finding a spot about a mile and a half from the zoo. So, we walked back to the zoo. We ended up doing a lot of the attractions at the zoo - the train, the sea lion show, the 3-D movie, etc. We also enjoyed lunch on the balcony of the Lakeside Cafe so that we could view the lake and feed the ducks while we ate. We'll be returning soon (possibly next Saturday) so that we can see more of the animals. We were there for five hours and only had time to see a few once we finished up with the other fun stuff!

If we ever figure out to add video to the blog, we'll definitely include some of the video from the sea lion show. It was so cute! They had three sea lions - two girls named Elaine (19 years old) and Rosie (7 years old) and a male named Alex. Alex is 17 years old and weighs just over 600 pounds. He was huge!

Isn't the little baby monkey in the first picture precious?!?

Afterwards, we came home and enjoyed dinner on our rooftop deck. All in all, it was a great day!

The Clydesdales

And now for the crown jewel of Grant's Farm - the Budweiser Clydesdales! They actually had three baby ones out on the farm while we were there, but they were never up close to the fence to get good pictures. The males were housed in a stable and trust me, there was no doubt that they were males. I'll spare you the gross and disturbing pictures that Tony took...

I also included the picture of Tony at the bar when we were in the Town Square.

The Wagons of Grant's Farm

This is only a few of them, but there were approximately twenty different wagons in there. They were really beautiful! Even the room where they were housed were gorgeous. Tony, of course, had to have a picture with the most famous Budweiser wagon!

The Animals of Grant's Farm

Since the blog limits your photos to five per post, I'm going to have to split this into a few posts.

The next pictures are of some of the other animals found at Grant's Farm including Miss Budweiser - the donkey that appears in their commercials. There is also a picture of the swans and their nest. As we were walking up, a woman had leaned over the fence to take a picture of them with her camera phone and one of the swans grabbed it out of her hand! A zookeeper had to be called to retrieve the phone. The swan was only protecting her 'little" egg though!

The pictures of Tony feeding the animals were quite a source of discontent! I kept snapping the pictures just after they took the food out of Tony's hand, so there were multiple takes!

A Trip to Grant's Farm

A week ago, Tony and I spent our Saturday at Grant's Farm. Grant's Farm was originally owned by Ulysses S. Grant. Him and his new bride received the 80 acres of land as a wedding present in 1848. In 1855, Grant began building the four-room, two-story cabin that sits on the land. It took only three days to complete! In 1907, the land was purchased by August Busch Sr and is now open free to the public. Zagat actually rates it as the seventh best family attraction in the U.S. All I can say is that we had a blast! It's easily my favorite thing that we've done so far here in St. Louis. Also, and what it's best known for, it's home to one of only two breeding grounds for the famous Budweiser Clydesdale's.

When you first arrive at Grant's Farm, you come to a cute old-fashioned train station where you board the train. The train takes you all around the property and you see a variety of things including Grant's original log cabin, Texas longhorns, buffalo, etc. The land itself is filled with lakes and small ponds and is absolutely gorgeous. The train ride takes approximately twenty minutes and then it drops you off in an area where there is a small zoo. They have miniature horses, elephants, a variety of birds, giraffes, etc. The first thing that we did was go watch the elephant show that was just beginning. It was adorable! It was entitled Man vs. the Elephant and the trainer asked a variety of multiple choice elephant questions to three little kids. The winner got to move on to the next round. The two little kids that did not win were then set up in an area in front of the elephant for their parents to take pictures. Unbeknownst to them, the trainer had given the elephant a bucket of water to dip his trunk into and then sprayed the little kids with water! The little boy thought that it was great, but the little girl completely freaked out! It was adorable! We also learned that an elephant can relax all of the muscles in his trunk and stretch his trunk out eighteen feet! It was kind of neat to watch!

After the elephant show, we then walked around to see all of the animals and then ventured over to the town square area. It's so cute! Along the sides there is a room where one of every carriage that Budweiser has ever used is stored, a small stable area, and then the Budweiser bar where every visitor is welcome to two free beers. Inside the quad area is a large fountain and tables for everyone to sit and drink. Once we finished eating lunch, we caught the train back to the station and then walked across the street to view the Clydesdales.

I had to use a picture of Grant's Cabin from the website, because Tony was too busy looking at the fences which were made from old Civil War guns to take a picture of it!