Somewhere back in there my MP3 player's hard drive went out. I use it a lot. 30 GB of music on a 40 GB player. But it turns out you can replace those hard drives, and the music was replacable. With a bigger one. So now I have a 60 GB player. Which comes in handy on those long trips.
Ummm, what else, what else? Our grandson -- who is seriously the cutest baby I have ever seen... ever... we get to babysit him fairly often, and we're always ready to do it.He's a big boy, wearing 6-9 month clothes at 4.5 months. But both of his parents have significant stature, so that's not surprising. We get to spend time with Brian and Kristin quite a bit, and we're very happy that they live so close and we have the opportunity.
A couple of weekends ago we went to visit Kevin and Angela, whom we hadn't seen in a while, in St. Louis. We saw the house they're living in for the first time. It's small, but it's such a cool old house. The dogs were happy to see us, but I'm pretty sure they're happy to see anyone. I wonder if Mia really remembers us - couple of years ago we had her for a couple of months because Kevin couldn't have her where he was living.
We went to an REI store, where ... stun! I didn't buy anything. Vicki bought a couple of things for Angela and for Kevin. She's such a mom. Can't help herself. We also went to Trader Joes -- which neither of us had ever been to. It was pretty cool. And of course we had to pick up some Three Buck Chuck there. So we have plenty of wine now for the fall season. And I got a couple of special release ales that came in champagne style bottles as well. A quick stop at Ted Drewes for that famous St. Louis frozen custard filled us up pretty well, so we headed back to their house for a few hours before hitting Shlafley's Bottleworks for dinner.
We had appetizers, and they'd just released their pumpkin ale. I'm a big fan of pumpkin ales. It was really good. They released it to distributors a couple of days later and I grabbed a couple of six packs when we got back to Columbia.
Went to Ryan and Kristie's for Labor day. Brian and Trenton came along. Kristin had to work. We had a brat & hamburger grill-out and enjoyed some time on their deck and lake. Went down to The Man Cave and checked out the firearms and camping equipment, talked about safes and all kinds of guy stuff. Finished off the evening with a nice cigar on the deck, and headed back home.
About halfway home, the AC in Vicki's car suddenly went out. The estimate on that's $1,000 to $1,600 -- wow. At least half of it will be labor. But I ain't doin' it, so I'm payin' for the labor.
It's cooled off this week between a cold front and the remnants of Hurricane Gustav. It is September. Temperatures start falling in earnest in about 5 weeks, according to some research I did back in grad school ... not that it won't fall some between now and then.
My car gave me a little scare... the day we took Vicki's car in to get the AC system checked, I was getting a "whap-whap-whap-whap-whap" noise every time I coasted to a stop and had the clutch pushed in. But after driving 10 minutes on rain soaked roads yesterday, it stopped. So I'm thinking it was some mud gluing something to the drive shaft and now it's gone.
And that about catches you up.
Hey Stranger!!! Just thought I'd pop in and see what you guys are up to these days. Trenton is a doll!! I just love babies with those super chubby, heavy cheeks. Too cute!
ReplyDeleteIs that possible to go to REI and NOT buy ANYTHING???? :) Last time we went there we walked out for around $750. Ouch! But we love the Yakima box and rack. Well worth the money!
Three Buck Chuck? I would make fun of you, but I think we had such a bottle a few months back.... :)
Sorry about Vicki's A/C. That stinks! BUT at least it wasn't July! :)
Hope you guys are well! We may actually be in your neck of the woods in a few weeks. I'll jet ya and email.
MO