It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. A few days ago a friend of mine sent me an article on Hermann MO suggesting I should visit. An excellent idea! However I did visit Hermann last year for Oktoberfest. I realized I had never posted any photos from Hermann, so here are a few from the day that I was there. Not sure yet if I will go again this year or not. Definitely will go someplace for Oktoberfest, maybe Hermann, maybe someplace else. Anyway, here are the photos. I hope you enjoy them, Hermann is a cute little town.
Aug 212010
Jul 082010
Yesterday a friend of mine passed through town on the way to vacation and stopped over for the evening. So we went out for the evening and went to the Arch downtown and then to the Hard Rock cafe for dinner. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable evening, even though I only got to see my friend for a few hours. Now, being the super-intelligent guy that I am, I left my camera at home on the coffee table, so I had to take these pictures with the camera in my phone. Surprisingly, they turned out fairly good! 
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- The Arch
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- Looking up from underneath the arch
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- A view of downtown from the arch
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- Another view of downtown
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- Looking straight down from the arch
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- Busch stadium, home of the cardinals
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- A view of the Mississippi
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- Another view of the Mississipi
Jul 052010
Here are some photos from my 4th of July weekend. Some are of fireworks I shot off while visiting my mothers. Others are from the 75th Anniversary of the Lion’s Club fireworks display in her home town (Rolla, Mo.) Hope you enjoy them.
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- Lava Lamp
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- Standard Cone Fountain
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- Another Fountain Firework
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- Tank Turret Spinning
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- Tank Sparks
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- A large fountiain
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
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- 75th Fireworks Show
Jun 112010
Not sure why I’m posting this other than I feel like it. I talked to an old friend of mine who I haven’t spoken to in quite a while. Don’t you hate how you have friends, lose touch for a little while only to find out so much has changed? Seems like that happens to me a lot. In some cases I haven’t talked to friends in a while to find out that while I was busy doing whatever it is I do they had gone and had one or two kids since the last time I talked. But most of the time it seems like in the interim time, rough times have fallen upon my friends. In a way it makes me kind of sad since I wasn’t there to help them through those issues. On the other hand, it gives me a pretty good perspective on my life as well.
Sometimes I get lost in the problems I have in my life, which are somewhat run of the mill. I’ve been very sick, lost my job, lost a lot of things. But then I hear about what my friends have gone through and it makes me realize that my problems probably aren’t as bad as I think they are. For example, I found out my friend I haven’t talked to in a while, his wife had a heart attack at age 34. That’s hard to take in. She’s all right now from what I gather. I was at work when he called to catch up and I couldn’t talk very long. I’m hoping to catch up more this weekend. The heart attack in this case was caused by a congenital problem. So it was unexpected. Another friend of mine, his wife had a stroke at age 25. Two other friends of mine when I had not talked to them for a while had been married, had children and gotten divorced.
All of this makes my little problems seem very inconsequential. I guess the point I’m getting at is that life can pass you by before you know it and it is best to live it while you can. All of my friends had these problems that were much worse than mine, they all got through it and are stronger in the end for it. So I would say this to others: If you are feeling like your life is rough, talk to others. You may find out things are not as bad as they seem, and if you persevere you will come out better in the end. Life is full of ups and downs and here’s hoping that you have many more ups than downs.
May 292010
Was planning on going to the zoo today. So we got into the car and drove over to Forest Park where the zoo is. Well it appears I made a huge mistake by not checking the schedule for things going on in Forest Park. I did check the zoo schedule and didn’t even think about the park. Well long story short, we got there and there was some sort of charity walk or run going on. Probably 5000 people at the park. All roads near the zoo were a parking lot and we couldn’t even get close to it. So decided to give up on it for this weekend. Maybe I’ll try again next weekend. I hear the zoo here is pretty good so I’ll definitely have to try to go again soon. On the flip side, forest park looked like a wonderful place even if it was way overcrowded today. Oh well, live and learn.
Went to the Global Market food store instead and bought some interesting treats and a few good beers for tonight. Then out to lunch and hung out at the mall for a little bit. Mostly went to the mall to get some bubble tea. May sound strange if you have never had it, but they are delicious fruit drinks with large tapioca in them. I had strawberry yogurt and it was quite tasty.
So I’m driving home today in the usual terrible St. Louis traffic (left work 10 minutes late and paid for it) Anyway I ended riding next to this rather interesting car. It was a 1980′s or early 90′s cadillac, grey with a soft top. Had 22 inch rims with the usual 1″ thick tires. What made it interesting was the fact that the owner had apparently taken a blow torch to the passenger and driver side doors and removed their door handles. He then replaced them with metal plates that he had welded into place, making it pretty much impossible to open the car doors from the outside. Gee I wonder what business he was in?
I created this category mainly so I could have a place to post things I find curious or amusing as I experience life. Posts here will just be about things that I see and may or may not have any real point to them. But if they make you laugh or smile then maybe it is worth it. I figure I would start with two items today.
The other day I was heading to work. I go up this 4 lane blvd and turn on to the interstate. At the interstate intersection is a double left lane turn. I always get in the far left to make it easy. I found it amusing that the lady driving the car in front of me got in the left turn lane as well. When the light changed we all started to make our turns onto the interstate. But halfway through the intersection, she decides to turn on her left blinker. Seriously? Made me wonder what she was thinking about since it was obvious she was going left from being in the left turn lane for over 30 seconds… Eh, it made me laugh a bit.
The second item might be more of a rant. Every few days I fill up my car on the way to work. I usually stop at a BP station, mostly because it is convenient (even though I’m not sure I want to keep stopping there given the situation in the gulf) Anyway, I usually pay with a credit card at the pump. When I first starting using credit cards at the pump, the pump always ask questions, tells me the amount and finishes by saying thank you for buying at whatever station I’m at. These days, however all the pumps are now programmed to not even say thank you. Even if it is an inanimate object, I still liked it when it said thank you at the end. Our world is already too full of people and things that don’t say thank you. Why can’t we have a pre-programmed gas pump that at least attempts it? I mean come on, it’s just one line of code….. I guess they are more interested in me buying a car wash on a rainy day than saying thank you for spending my $40 at their pump. Lets hope as the economy improves, so do company and people’s manners.
So my mother came to visit today, mostly so we could upgrade her and my cell phones. Got myself a nice Samsung Moment android phone. All I can say about my mothers is that it is red… After that we did a little shopping and went to eat at Red Robin. Banzai burger for the win!! After that I took her to Faust park near my apartment. Mostly I wanted to go see the park as I had not been to it and was not sure what all was there. I pass by it every day on the way to work so I figured why not. They have an enclosed garden and one day I saw a statue of a butterfly outside so I figured it might have something to do with butterflies. Lo and behold I was right. Here’s a pic of the statue:
Turns out Faust park has a rather large butterfly enclosure. So after looking around the park for a few minutes we decided to go in. First few exhibits were a bunch of bugs, the type you see eating corpses in the movies and what not. Needless to say my mother didn’t want to stick around for those…. So we went into the butterfly enclosure. First thought: Damn it’s hot in here! My glasses and camera both fogged up immediately. Very hot say 90 and very humid in there. But butterflies everywhere. The enclosure was probably 100 x 150 x 50 feet and full of lush vegetation and mini waterfalls. I’d guess there were several thousand butterflies floating around in there. I’m not expert on butterflies so don’t ask me what each species is when you see the pictures. I haven’t a clue. They are just pretty little things. Most of the time I tried to catch them when they had landed on a leaf, feeding tray, or even a guys head. Catching them while in flight proved to be very difficult. Butterfly flight paths are very erratic. We spent about 20 minutes looking at the various butterflies. That was about all I could take of the heat, then we left.
After that we went to the gift shop then drove around the park. Turns out the park has the home of a governor of the state of Missouri from 1808 to 1825. There’s also a large children play area and a fully enclosed merry go round. There are also a lot of trails around the park to go see various things. We were there probably a total of 1.5 hours. I’ll have to go back again on another weekend and look around some more. So without further ado, here are a few butterfly photos for your enjoyment!
I have no clue who the guy is in the picture above. Mostly took it cause the butterfly had just landed on him and he was freaking out a bit!
Last picture is a family of ducks who happened to be wading by while we were on our way to the car. BTW you can click on any picture to see a larger one. Hope you enjoy them!
Apr 222010
Do you ever have one of those weeks where by all accounts you are having a great week, yet it seems nothing good is happening at all? It would appear that I am having such a week. I won’t bore you with the details. Just seems like my week should be feeling a whole lot better than it is. Maybe it’s because close friends of mine are having a tough week. Maybe it’s cause I keep getting news that I am expecting but don’t want to hear. Or maybe it’s just because I keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Who knows.
I can’t even get Papa John’s to get my pizza order right these days. Ordered some buffalo wings with my pizza and got barbeque wings. To make matter worse ,the pepperoncini’s were bad and I made the mistake of biting into one. Kind of tainted the rest of the meal. I think I’m going to have to stop ordering papa john’s here in missouri. They all seem to be mistake prone. At least they didn’t screw up my cinnapie!
On the bright side, at least my best friend can still make me laugh without trying. He forgot today is the day Avatar came out on DVD and Blu-Ray (Got my copy already) Of course I had to rub it in that he forgot it was today and now he’s out running around looking to get his copy. It’s nice to get a little excited about something every once in a while!
Well all I can say about this week is that thank goodness there is only one more day. I’m hoping next week will be a little more enjoyable.
Apr 182010
So this weekend I went to Tulsa, OK to spend some time with a friend of mine. Previously I had only driven through Tulsa, and that was only once when I was 10 years old. Needless to say, the weather did not cooperate and it rained all weekend. So spent most of the time and the aquarium, restaurant, or casino. I was hoping to see more of the town, but just wasn’t to be. What I did see was interesting including riverside walk, the downtown area, and a few other places. On the bright side, it gave me a nice break from my regular schedule and got me out of town for a few days. So here are a few pics from the trip, mostly from the Oklahoma Aquarium (http://www.okaquarium.org/) (figures fishies in a tank are photogenic)
As the kid standing next to me said: “It’s full of Nemo’s!!”
Anenome’s make for a surreal scene
A friend of mine has a thing for Jellyfish, so I’m including a few photos I took of them for her.
Last of the jellyfish photos (for now anyway)
A couple of Lion Fish just Hanging out
A potbelly seahorse
A Parrot fish and yes in real life he looks like a parrot.
More Anenomes
I forget the name of this fish (I just want to call him Sad Fish) But he’s very silver and very narrow when you look at him face on.
As I get more time to process the rest of the photos I took I may post some more. But that’s about it for this time around. Hope you liked the photos.
