Wednesday
It's Wednesday, I thought it was time for an update. To pick up from last time, the carpet was eventually installed in the apartment, but not in time for me to get to the Shrine. I rescheduled that for Wednesday morning.
Tuesday I had a shorter day than expected. My usually-cancels student has canceled for several weeks ahead, now, waiting until she has more time or something. I don't think she's going to get more time.
The event at the Shrine on Thursday was fun. It was hot up there, but the kids were entertained, and we didn't have to go quite as long as I first thought. Rene was there with his camera, though, and it did yield some images like this one, though:
Mom and Mike arrived that evening. They stayed in a hotel in south county, so I went down there to hang out for a while, and then we went to dinner at El Paisano in Arnold. Never thought I would take guests from out of town to dinner in Arnold. I headed back and hung out for a while waiting for zinniz, whose flight back home was no only delayed, but canceled, and then uncanceled. It was weird, and we finally got home a little after 1am.
Friday morning I took Mom and Mike over to Cahokia Mounds. As we went over the river, she said the same thing Carrie always says, as we pass the Cahokia exit: "I thought the mounds were in Cahokia." They're not, they're in Collinsville. From there we went back home, picked up Carrie and got lunch at Onesto, and then drove out to the World Bird Sanctuary, where we had to twice find shelter from sudden thunderstorms. The last time we went out there it rained on us. At least this time it was warm.
In the evening we let them go do their own thing since we needed to be at Craft Alliance for the opening of the student show. Carrie had two pieces again this year. She won the wood category, of course. In fact, one of the CA people more or less told us that not long after arriving. We didn't get to stay for the awards, however, because we had to go see our last opera of the season. It was 27, an opera about Gertrude Stein. Like many of their modern operas, it was well performed, just weird. The music wasn't weird this time, but the story, what there was of one, at least. Also, it rained on the day of every opera performance we went to this year.
Saturday we lounged a bit. Mom and Mike came over and purchased lots of wood things, or Mike purchased them for Mom. She didn't want to spend any money. After that we headed out again in the SUV, this time north towards Alton. We visited the confluence park, which was nice, except the confluency part was a bit under water because of high river levels. From there we visited Fast Eddie's for cheap shrimp, hamburgers and beer. Too bad that place is so far away. After that we drove over to Grafton and Pere Marquette. We took the ferry across at Grafton, and after a drive home, that was pretty much the day with them.
Saturday evening we went to beebers house because Rachel and her parents were there. We had a good time and ate some excellent steak.
Sunday was Lansin's last Sunday at Third. I picked out two piano/organ duets for the Prelude and Postlude. Nancy put the Prelude at a point where people would hear it, and she asked the choir to sit back down for the Postlude. On top of that, Greg suggested everybody would want to sit down for the Postlude. For campy pieces of music that didn't require a lot of work, people were really impressed. I think it's mainly that they were just paying attention. She's gone, but we don't have a replacement, yet. I'm playing for the choir tonight, which makes it a long evening, but my lessons are all moved to the afternoon, so I've had some time to get out and ride on the bike a little bit today. I went down to the casino to find out about that trail along the river that I can see bikes on. Turns out you get onto it way down at Jefferson Barracks, and when you get up to the casino, it ends at a big barrier that says Trail Ends. They don't have a way to get over or under the railroad there. Getting on and off the trail at the casino meant doing some off-roading.
This week is Fourth of July. Yay for three-day weekend. We'll be going out to Eureka on Friday as in previous years. Maybe this time we can launch the Chinese lanterns I bought two years ago.
Tuesday I had a shorter day than expected. My usually-cancels student has canceled for several weeks ahead, now, waiting until she has more time or something. I don't think she's going to get more time.
The event at the Shrine on Thursday was fun. It was hot up there, but the kids were entertained, and we didn't have to go quite as long as I first thought. Rene was there with his camera, though, and it did yield some images like this one, though:
Mom and Mike arrived that evening. They stayed in a hotel in south county, so I went down there to hang out for a while, and then we went to dinner at El Paisano in Arnold. Never thought I would take guests from out of town to dinner in Arnold. I headed back and hung out for a while waiting for zinniz, whose flight back home was no only delayed, but canceled, and then uncanceled. It was weird, and we finally got home a little after 1am.
Friday morning I took Mom and Mike over to Cahokia Mounds. As we went over the river, she said the same thing Carrie always says, as we pass the Cahokia exit: "I thought the mounds were in Cahokia." They're not, they're in Collinsville. From there we went back home, picked up Carrie and got lunch at Onesto, and then drove out to the World Bird Sanctuary, where we had to twice find shelter from sudden thunderstorms. The last time we went out there it rained on us. At least this time it was warm.
In the evening we let them go do their own thing since we needed to be at Craft Alliance for the opening of the student show. Carrie had two pieces again this year. She won the wood category, of course. In fact, one of the CA people more or less told us that not long after arriving. We didn't get to stay for the awards, however, because we had to go see our last opera of the season. It was 27, an opera about Gertrude Stein. Like many of their modern operas, it was well performed, just weird. The music wasn't weird this time, but the story, what there was of one, at least. Also, it rained on the day of every opera performance we went to this year.
Saturday we lounged a bit. Mom and Mike came over and purchased lots of wood things, or Mike purchased them for Mom. She didn't want to spend any money. After that we headed out again in the SUV, this time north towards Alton. We visited the confluence park, which was nice, except the confluency part was a bit under water because of high river levels. From there we visited Fast Eddie's for cheap shrimp, hamburgers and beer. Too bad that place is so far away. After that we drove over to Grafton and Pere Marquette. We took the ferry across at Grafton, and after a drive home, that was pretty much the day with them.
Saturday evening we went to beebers house because Rachel and her parents were there. We had a good time and ate some excellent steak.
Sunday was Lansin's last Sunday at Third. I picked out two piano/organ duets for the Prelude and Postlude. Nancy put the Prelude at a point where people would hear it, and she asked the choir to sit back down for the Postlude. On top of that, Greg suggested everybody would want to sit down for the Postlude. For campy pieces of music that didn't require a lot of work, people were really impressed. I think it's mainly that they were just paying attention. She's gone, but we don't have a replacement, yet. I'm playing for the choir tonight, which makes it a long evening, but my lessons are all moved to the afternoon, so I've had some time to get out and ride on the bike a little bit today. I went down to the casino to find out about that trail along the river that I can see bikes on. Turns out you get onto it way down at Jefferson Barracks, and when you get up to the casino, it ends at a big barrier that says Trail Ends. They don't have a way to get over or under the railroad there. Getting on and off the trail at the casino meant doing some off-roading.
This week is Fourth of July. Yay for three-day weekend. We'll be going out to Eureka on Friday as in previous years. Maybe this time we can launch the Chinese lanterns I bought two years ago.