All Dressed Up For...

....leaf raking.

Mmmm...Chili-Cheese Dip...

One of the most delectable foods ever created...I enjoyed some during my department's "food day" in memory of my late boss. This past Monday marked one year since his tragic passing.

A Hot Pockets Sub (meatballs and mozzarella), smothered...

I contributed a batch of Duncan Hines' best "Blueberry Streusel" muffins which were received very well, indeed!

Suburban Fringe: Here's the single most disgusting thing to ever happen, ever...

Bob Rybarczyk's "Suburban Fringe" column this week on Stltoday.com is really disgusting and gross, but such is life with kids, sometimes, right? IT REALLY HAPPENED...parents of children will feel his pain. Read on, if you dare:

Here's the single most disgusting thing to ever happen, ever

I hope I never did this to my folks!

Sweet!

One great bit of news arrived in the mail yesterday. It was my annual escrow statement from my mortgage company. Usually they have to tell me that there was a shortage and would I like to make it up monthly or all at once? Well, this time around there was an overage! There was a nice little refund check attached to the statement. I switched my home insurance carrier last spring which resulted in a substantial savings in annual premiums from my old carrier. As in $200 less per year. That savings, coupled with lower than expected real estate taxes gave me the refund. My monthly payment will lower by $21 next year, as well. (I have a fixed-rate but the it got adjusted for lower taxes and insurance.)

The Roar Is Officially Restored...

Let's hear it for ol' Mizzou! After way, way too many years of bad football, they have played themselves into the Big 12 conference championship. This week's victim was previously undefeated Kansas. The two schools' bitter rivalry is well-documented and it made for a great atmohspere at Arrowhead Stadium in "neutral" Kansas City. In front of over 80,000 fans, MU outplayed KU and held off their furious late-game rally to win the game 36-28. MU's record is now 11-1 and they are officially in uncharted territory.

Next up is Oklahoma, who beat us earlier in the season. Even if we lose, we'll be in a BCS bowl on New Year's Day for sure.

What a season!

Home Again...

Chili and I are back from the Bootheel. I put 373 miles on my car on this trip. We drove down Friday morning to Malden, where I dropped off Chili at my grandparents' house to spend the day. I brought Chili's doggie bed-pillow with us and plopped it down on the sunporch, hoping she'd take the hint. She did just that, as I found her there when I returned several hours later. She behaved herself nicely while I ate dinner with my Dad's family in Risco, MO. My aunt and uncle recently moved to a newer home next door to their old one and it is a very nice house indeed. I enjoyed catching up with my cousins C & T whom I hadn't seen since last Christmas. My cousin T has changed jobs and is advancing in his career in airport management.

The topics of conversation at Matlock holiday dinners can be at once enlightening and entertaining. Yesterday was no exception. Somehow we started talking about the sprinkling of tiny farm towns that dot the landscape of the Bootheel of Missouri. It turns out that the town of Canalou, MO, off U.S. Highway 60 is a town with only an entrance road, no exit road. If you somehow stumble on the town, you have to turn around on the same road you came in in order to leave it. My dad related the story of Penermon, MO which I didn't quite understand so I won't repeat it here. He made us all laugh by telling an allegedly true story about a house in that village that had an old-fashioned floor furnace. Some USDA inspectors had reason to be in that house at some point and during their visit found the occupants roasting a goat on the grate of the floor furnace. Um, OK.

My Aunt E. brought some issues of The Singing News, the official journal of Southern Gospel music. I read through them at length and was surprised at how many SG groups there are traveling the country. I guess I didn't realize that at all. I think someone who read my jazz magazine would react the same way.

Chili had much fun running around outside and getting lots of lovin' from all of us. I know my Papaw's spirits were lifted a bit just having her around. I made myself useful by sweeping off their driveway this morning before I left.

My mom and I had a nice visit with the Cook family on our way out of town. The entire "herd" (as Kmom put it) was present at their house - Cooks In Kansas and their greyhound Marsha (who didn't mind meeting Chili), along with sister Whitney and her baby Sammy.

Chili must have really tired herself out during this trip - she rested with her head on the center console armrest in my car almost the entire trip home. She's been dragging since we got home as well.

I Am Thankful...

For several things that begin with the letter "F" and other things;

Faith, Family, Friends, Food, Famous Amos cookies, my house, my job, my car, and my brown dog named Chili.

......................

Thanksgiving Day 2007 was a comfortable, pleasant experience. It was a small gathering at my parents' house in Festus. Just them, me, and the bro/sis-in-law/niece-still-in-the-oven for dinner. MY dad smoked the turkey in my brother's new smoker and it turned out very well. We all stuffed ourselves appropriately then sprawled out on any nearby couch or chair. Chili behaved herself for the most part. She did get some turkey.

As we were all leaving this evening, my dad remarked that he'd had a "perfect day." His turkey was great, he got to play with his grand-dog, he had all of us around, and he even got to see a little football on the big screen TV with the surround-sound hooked up again. It had been down since being moved around during the re-decorating of their basement. My dad and bro and I collaborated to hook up the speakers and get everything in working order.

We waxed nostalgic briefly, as an old Bell & Howell 8mm film projector was hauled out and turned on for a little stroll down memory lane. We managed to see two short films of my brother and me as children before the projector's ancient light bulb gave out. What else to do but hop on the Internet and order up a new one from Amazon.com? Who knew you could still find one?

Now I must go pack for a short trip down to the Bootheel to do Thanksgiving with my Dad's family in the bustling metropolis of Risco, MO. Chili will be traveling with me but she will be spending the day with the grandparents in Malden.

Even Superman Has Baggage...

This photo accompanied a story about Thanksgiving travel on STLtoday.com . Superman's kid flies commercial, who knew?

Actual caption: Peyton Benfield, 7, of Warrenton, flew home (aboard an airplane, of course) from Los Angeles with his mother Dawnetta Benfield Monday at Lambert Airport. Peyton has been living in Los Angeles since September and acting in commercials.
(Robert Cohen/P-D)

A Tale Of Two Sales Reps...

This JUST happened -

I was vacuuming spilled toner from a printer in our advertising sales reps' work area and overheard the following exchange:

Young and Hip Leggy Blonde Sales Rep: Oh, how I wish the holidays were over. The thought of seeing my family makes me cringe!

Young and Hip Brunette Sales Rep: "I don't wish the holidays were over; I'm makin' money!"

I smiled to myself....

Golden Girl...

I raked leaves on Saturday so Chili got to lounge around and watch me work. Thankfully, she's not the type to sneak up from behind and leap into leaf piles. She truly is a pretty dog.

Something got her attention here.

Hike!...

One of the advantages of not working Fridays is that Chili and I can take off for an impromptu hike in the woods:

No, we didn't hike 7 miles, but we did knock out 2 or 3.

we squeezed through this culvert under some railroad tracks to take a shortcut to my favorite part of the trail.

I thought this was an interesting picture. I sat down and leaned back on my backpack, then pointed my camera straight up. It looks like arms reaching to the sky.

Into The Arbor...

More here

What The Dog And I Did Yesterday...

We took advantage of the nice weather and enjoyed the great outdoors for a few hours. First stop was Emmeneger Nature Park, a scenic patch of woods near the junction of I-270 and I-44 in the city of Kirkwood. Late in the afternoon we explored Greentree Park, on the Meramec River a few miles north. Chili was really in her element and I know she enjoyed the hikes.

You've Just Entered.....THE TWILIGHT ZONE!!!!!

Ok, the Mizzou Tigers, Illinois Fighting Illini, and St. Louis Rams all won football games on the SAME WEEKEND. I can barely wrap my head around that, folks...can't remember the last time that happened.

What's more:

- the Tigers improved to 9-1 for the first time in forever and the national championship is almostalmost within our grasp, unthinkable even a year ago.

- the Fighting Illini toppled the #1-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, stopping their 28-game regular-season win streak. This was their first victory over a #1 team since 1956, I believe. They'll likely be playing football on New Year's Day next year; unthinkable even a year ago.

- the Rams beat the Saints today to gain their FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON. That stopped a winning streak the Saints had going. Sweet was this victory for D-coach Jim Haslett because he formerly coached the Saints. They found themselves in the fourth quarter, though, nearly squandering their sizable lead.

a remarkable weekend of football, indeed.

Interesting Perspective On The Hollywood Writers Strike...

The P-D's Op-Ed page features Colleen Carroll Campbell as a guest columnist every Thursday. Ms. Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She is also a Catholic who writes from a distinctly conservative point of view on a liberal editorial page. I knew her briefly when she was a P-D writer and reporter earlier in her career.

She wrote about the writers' strike going on in Hollywood this week. I really liked her approach to the subject and it's worth a read:

Maybe Hollywood viewers should strike, too

"Toking" With Lawrence Welk...

Be sure and watch all the way to the end....The Welkster was definitely the squarest of the square.

Clouds...

This was the what the sky looked like when I was leaving work just after 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

Tag. I'm It, Sort Of...

Rules: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged. (I was tagged by 4 Of Clubbs' Brooke) I don't have 8 people to link to but here are the 8 random things about myself:

1. I am writing this while Chili is chomping noisily on a bone on the rug behind me.

2. I just got back from my workout at the YMCA.

3. I applied a weather-sealer to my driveway last weekend, just in time for winter.

4. I am feeling sad that my grandpa's health is worsening and I am praying he is able to hold on through Christmas.

5. I wish I could find my cordless phone. It disappeared over the weekend and I can't find it anywhere.

6. I am glad my bro and sis-in-law were able to get away for their second anniversary.

7. I love the smell of fall.

8. I don't get the appeal of "The Office." I just don't get it. Am I missing something?

In The "Dog"house...

Well, folks, he had a good run. Duane "Dog" Chapman, everyone's favorite reality-show bounty hunter, has managed to blow up his career. He fell victim to the curse of the "n" word. That magic word that is a guaranteed career-killer. His son taped a phone conversation between him and daddy Dog in which daddy Dog said the magic word repeatedly. The National Enquirer bought the tape and predictably, it's all over television and the Internet. The A&E network which aired his show has suspended production of the Dog's show, of course.

Is it over for the Dog? Can he recover from this? Does anyone out there care?