Since this is the last official weekend here in St. Louis I imagine we should be writing some kind of ode to St. Louis post.  Not sure on that.  I have a last “St. Louis Screw” post already in my head.  Can’t decide if we should leave on a positive note or not.

Maybe we could talk about the barber today.  At age 62-ish he told me he still loved the interaction with the “folks, even the ass holes.”  He said you would be amazed at all the people that come through his store that vent about work, etc.  His philosophy has to been to make every interaction entertaining.  Sounds like a good one to have.

We’re visiting Senor Pique one last time tonight.  This certainly has to be one of the highlights of being here.  It’s not just the food or the people but the opportunity to have something familiar and comfortable.  It’s nice to hang out with others that can’t answer the “what high school did you go to?” question.

We’re in limbo on our last concert here in St. Louis too.  Yes, I was awakened this morning by Tracey who couldn’t find our DMB tickets.  She thinks she shredded them with some old bills or something.  We’re praying they can be replaced or found before Wednesday.  If not we have tickets to four other shows.

Packers come Monday.  Trucker comes Tuesday.  We close on the house Thursday and hit the highway right after.  The kitties have arrangements until we get into our new place later this month.  Tracey and the girls also are planning some time with family.

Maybe in the morning we’ll feel more like looking back on our time.  For now we say so long with a big hello to our future.

Hasta…

It’s a good time to be in St. Louis.  It’s not too hot.  As a matter of fact the weather has been great.  Mostly sunny with just one or two rain showers.  Temperatures have been in the lower 80′s at the most.  All the plants have come to life.  I’m happy to see the crab apple tree bloom again.  We got in our first grass cutting of the year too.

This also means allergies kicked in.  I spent the first week enjoying the weather so much that all the pollen floating around overwhelmed me several days ago.  A last minute dash to a specialist provided me a new war chest that seems to be working.  We were able to get out again yesterday for grilling and such.

Thought we would post some pictures (taken with the new android phone) of our shenanigans over the last two weeks.  Although there appears to be lots of recreation, trust me there was plenty of work done from home.  One thing about being one hour back from the east coast is that it doesn’t seem like you stop work for anything.  We did find time to live the Lou large though:

We did plenty of outdoor cooking and I know I’ve gained 7-10 pounds as a result.  But hey, its the LAN in the Lou. We don’t shy away from hot fires on the patio.  It’s hard to resist the grass fed beef at Whole Foods.  We did burgers one night with 1/2 chuck and 1/2 round that were out of this world.  The leftovers made for great lunches for me at home.  The New York strip steaks were a splurge.  We haven’t had grilled steaks in some time.  Well actually the last time I was home in March we did a giant sirloin, but that doesn’t quite compare to strip steaks.

Since our trip to Vegas in February we’ve been on a Bobby Flay kick.  We had the chance to eat at his restaurant in Ceasar’s Palace, Mesa Grill.  Got to tell ya… that place was tight!  Great service, food – the real deal.  (Don’t ask me about the margaritas.) So a little of the Bobby Flay brand rubbed off.  We worked a couple of his recipes this week: Butterflied Cuban Styled Porkchops and Fish Tacos with red cabbage slaw and tomato avocado salsa.

I got to tell ya, the fish tacos rock.  The recipe calls for mahi mahi but we used fresh halibut as it was what the market had.  Tracey made the slaw.  Taylor made the salsa and I have to say it’s the salsa that really works this dish and if I were you I really would make it fresh.  The serano peppers kicked it up nicely, kind of a hot bite after the bite if that makes sense.  And the dish paired nicely with our first Oberon’s of the year.

And speaking of beers, yes we do like our craft brew.  We tried a couple of new ones while here at home.  Schlafly’s Dry-Hopped APAwas on tap at Dewey’s so we enjoyed a few pints with pizza.  Timmay had been wanting me to try Bridgeport’s IPA.  I tried both the Hop Czar Imperial IPA and the regular IPA.  I’m a fan of the regular IPA, no doubt.  It was clean and fresh.  Try it if you can find it.

The cats certainly enjoy me being home and I realized these guys are pretty smart.  For instance they know I get up early and will feed them, so they act as a natural alarm clock if I sleep too late.  They know I hate being pestered when I’m in the middle of working and they know little tricks and gimmicks will result in snacks.  I’ve been in the, excuse me, dog house for the mid-day snacks.

We had the patio open to the cats for the first week of good weather up until my allergies kicked in.  All the cats shared the space being quite the good example of getting along.  As the week kicked in they started to settle into their normal routines and find the sweet spots.  There was lots of afternoon napping in the sun.

We head back to Richmond this coming week for 10 straight days of work and little recreation.  Maybe we’ll find some time for a walk or two down the canal if our allergies hold up.  Until then we wish you many spring flowers.  Cheers!

Grandmother Feary would sit and gaze at the many birds outside her sitting room window in the New Hampshire winter munching on seed and suet.  She kept a bird watching book by her side.  Her children took up the cause.  Years ago Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of North America was a valued gift by our Aunt who also happens to gaze upon the countless wild birds out of her kitchen and den in the Allegheny hills of West Virginia.

So it was natural when we got out to St. Louis that we set up some feeders around HQ.  There are feeders just off the deck outside the master bedroom.  There is a feeder (during the summer) in the side yard in view of the patio – and not too far from the BBQ.  There is a feeder now with bird bath off our kitchen.  And they are all active when suet and feed are in full effect.

One of our holiday surprises was the Nothern Flicker Woodpecker.  I recall years ago being astonished to see one lone NF on the suet off the back deck.  The birds are just a tad smaller than a blue jay, a fairly large back yard bird as compared to a Wren or Cardinal.  We saw the bird just once and never again. I remember marking the Field Guide just so I wouldn’t forget one of them dropped by.

This year Tracey called down to the bar, “Tom, come quick.  You have to see these birds.”  I moved quickly only to be warned that a slow entry to the kitchen was necessary so as not to frighten the birds just outside the window.  As I entered, I noted several of these larger birds zipping by the front yard to and from the Red Maple where I had hung suet earlier in the month.  I couldn’t quite recall where I had seen these birds before so I grabbed the trusty Guide.

Wha-la!  The Northern Flicker.  But there wasn’t just one.  There were four of these woodpeckers all taking turns at the suet on Christmas Day as snow rained down from the sky.  I managed to snap a couple of shots out the front kitchen window before the battery died in the camera.  I cursed.  Then spent the weekend playing IT man to get these pictures off the camera into a PC that could handle the driver (another blog post to trump Panovec’s sad attempt at home IT humility).

At any route… A couple of shots to share that we managed to catch of our Northern Flickers on Christmas Day:

No Flickers just above in the last picture but a woodpecker and wren none the less sharing the booty.

Chirp.  Chirp!