Recently...

Against all odds, my backyard Redbud tree bloomed out. It lost a big chunk last fall when the remnants of Hurricane Ike marched through the Midwest.

Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears @ The Pageant last Friday night. Two horns, drums, Black Joe himself in the middle on vocals, lead ax, and harp plus bass and rhythm guitar.

Chili-dog spied a cat one day last week. A black one, no less. I'm grateful for a backyard with a fence and a dog that does not jump it.

Two Postscripts To One Tragedy...

This year's Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. My employer received word that it was a finalist (but not the winner) in the category of breaking news reporting, for its coverage of the mass shootings in Kirkwood in February, 2008.

In a related story, Suburban Journals reporter Todd Smith, who was in the room that tragic night and took a bullet in the hand, was recently laid off.

Strange, strange times I'm living in...

The Big Three-Five...

The Big Three-Five....not as significant as The Big Three-Oh or The Big Four-Oh, admittedly, but that is what I am tonight. 11:55 a.m. marked the beginning of my 35th year on this good earth. At that time, I was in my nearby Borders store picking through their racks of 1/2 price CDs.

(Borders is beginning their retreat from the CD business, folks...some stores are eliminating CDs altogether and others are just reducing stock...get them while the getting's good! I picked up John Prine's classic 1971 self-titled album and John Coltrane's classic 1962 album of ballads. SCORE! I think I'll return tomorrow...)

So after lunch, Chili-dog and I headed out for a hike in the warm sunshine. We covered around 3 or 4 miles, I think. I met my parents at Tucker's Place for dinner tonight. What better way to celebrate a birthday than wtih a $20 steak? My filet mignon was cooked perfectly and was accompanied by a giant baked potato. My mom baked me a strawberry cake which all of us enjoyed a la mode at my house afterwards.

Kweranga...

Recently, my friend (and P-D photojournalist) Elie Gardner traveled to Africa to witness the wedding of a former P-D colleague. She created a really nice slideshow of it here:

Kweranga

What Did We Do Before YouTube?...

Regular followers of this blog wll recall that last Thanksgiving Day, I posted the lyrics to the song "Thankful Boys and Girls" by Billy Crockett. Well, tonight someone named Jeremy Fern was nice enough to leave a comment that pointed me to his own performance of the song. Check it out:



Not bad!

Quick Shout-Out...

to my mama--she makes the best potato salad I'll ever taste, bar none. She modestly claims to put in it "not even half of what it should be made with" (roughly paraphrased), but this blogger doesn't care. It's the best.

And yes, I did tell her so after lunch yesterday.

Her Easter lunch was really simple yesterday - just baked ham, potato salad, green beans and bread. oh, and the deviled eggs...OH the deviled eggs.

and my late Mamaw's famous Strawberry Dream Cake for dessert. I did almost make myself sick, as per usual. Couldn't help but think of joyous Easter dinners past at the red brick house just around the bend west of Malden, MO.


(and I was sent home with copious leftovers. I'll be hamming it up for several days this week.)

He Did It Again!...

The Moon Man did it again! I was driving home from the Y last night and was listening to the Cardinals baseball game in the car. The Cardinals were on the wrong end of a 7-4 score and were trying to rally in the 9th inning. Busch Stadium organist Ernie Hayes did his thing to rally the crowd and broadcaster Mike Shannon noted that Hayes was "working those pearly gates."

I don't know what he was even trying to say there. I can only speculate that he was trying to refer to the white organ keys somehow?

Old Friends...

I attended the wedding of a couple of old friends last evening. I had been looking forward to this occasion ever since I received the invitation in the mail. They are both really fun people whom I'm blessed to be friends with. The groom is a transplanted Texan whom I got to know through the young adults bible class we both attended. The bride and I attended the same church for several years. The three of us have many mutual friends and I figured on seeing a lot of them at the wedding.

Their wedding and reception last night was a really fun night of joyful celebration. I caught up with many people whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Some are expecting children, one is engaged to be married. There was a great buffet dinner and the usual wedding cake afterwards. A DJ spun the tunes for dancing the night away. I did, yes, I did dance a little. When The Commodores' "Brick House" comes on, my body just has to move, people. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.

New Kitchen Pictures

I promised some pictures of my kitchen with the new blinds installed. So here they are.

The last picture includes my 2 favorite sources of reading material: Jazz Times magazine and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

This finally completes the renovation project which began around this time in 2005. This is what I started with:

Complete history of the project is here.

One Year Ago Today....

He left us.

I still think of him. A couple of his old uniform shirts hang in my closet. The miracle of genetics helps people see him in my face, at least I think so. My pal Chili-dog reminds me of him.

It is said that time is a healer. I think of the period leading up to this time last year in relation to where I am now and I think that statement is accurate.


Is it any coincidence I chose today to cut my grass for the first time this year?

Of course not.

Say WHAT???...

The baseball season hasn't even started for real yet and longtime Cardinals radio color man (and he's REALLY colorful) Mike Shannon is already in mid-season form. To wit: The Cardinals are playing two exhibitions against their Memphis minor league team this weekend. During tonight's game, Mike remarked that two players had reached base "via the Annie Oakley."

WHAT??

I couldn't believe my ears as I pulled into the YMCA parking lot! What the heck was he talking about?

Turns out he wasn't kidding. From the Baseball Lingo blog:

"Annie Oakley is a base on balls or a WALK.

Complimentary tickets to the theater or to sporting events have traditionally been punched with holes to designate that the tickets are free. During the late 1800s, these freebies were called "Annie Oakleys" in honor of the famous riflewoman whose feats included shooting holes in small cards. Baseball observers quickly adapted "Annie Oakley" to mean a base on balls, which was and still is also known as a "free ticket" or "free pass" to first base."

I'd never heard that term used before tonight. Thanks, Moon Man!

Snips and Snails and...

puppy dog tails!

Dude Got Fired By The Government...

GM CEO Wagoner forced out as part of gov't plan

can't tell me THAT doesn't bruise the ol' ego...

Paging Mr. Chambers...

"If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious."

My Utmost For His Highest (updated)
March 29.

Oh, Really?...

BITHLO, Fla. (AP) - Authorities said a man threw a Molotov cocktail at his neighbor's trailer, but the wind shifted and set fire to two cars, a pickup and a travel trailer in the man's own yard. The Florida Highway Patrol reported that a 51-year-old man got into a fight with his neighbor on Tuesday night and threw the makeshift gasoline bomb.

Authorities believe alcohol was involved.

The man faces multiple charges, including arson. He was being held at the Orange County Jail.

---

Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com

sometimes the stories just write themselves...

Pass The Vicodin, Please...

Lance Armstrong Gets Plate, 12 Screws in Injured Collarbone

OUCH!

A Shoe-In...

Near the end of the Missouri/Marquette game today, a Marquette player was out of bounds making a routine in-bounds pass. He accidentally stepped partially in-bounds before making said pass, thus committing a violation that gave Missouri the ball, and the ballgame. The CBS sports color commentator said it best:

"If he'd been wearing size 11 shoes instead of size 13s, that wouldn't have been a problem."

Mizzou heads to Glendale, AZ for a "Sweet 16" matchup with Memphis next weekend. They'll likely get run over but let's hear it for them, anyway. They've set a new school record for wins in a season, won the conference tournament and advanced deep into the NCAA Tournament. They've come a very long way from the days of Quin Snyder and the infamous Ricky Clemons Affair.

P.S. - did you know there's such a place as Richard Stockton College? Seriously. It's in New Jersey. Their basketball team lost the NCAA D-III men's basketball championship to our own Washington University Bears yesterday. Tip o' the hat to Wash U. coach Mark Edwards for building a real D-III powerhouse.

P.P.S. - Can you guess who Richard Stockton was? Without consulting Wikipedia or your encyclopedia set?

Toon-ed In...

Pearls Before Swine

Calvin and Hobbes

Lyrical...

I discovered a new old tune while checking out some of Brazilian superstar Milton Nascimento's early albums on Allmusic.com earlier this week. "O Trem Azul" is the third song on his 1972 masterpiece collaboration with Lô Borges, "Clube da Esquina." I immediately iTunes'd it and slapped it on my iPod along wtih a couple of his other hits. I have been listening to it over and over all week. The tune and lyrics are so hauntingly beautiful and deep and I just love them. Here they are, translated from the Portuguese:

"O Trem Azul" (Blue Train)
Lô Borges/Ronaldo Bastos

Things that come sometimes
And we forget to say
Phrases in the wind
Now and then come to remind
Of things that have remained
For a long time to be said
In the wind a song (whispered by the wind)
A love song wants to fly, fly

You take the blue train
The sun on your head
The sun takes the blue train
With you in my head
The sun on your head
.................

You can really visualize those lyrics. Someone who is sad (blue) over the ending of a relationship. Thinking about things they didn't say, forgot to say. The wind reminds him of these things when it should be sending love songsto their lover. Perhaps they're riding a train, with the bright sun shining ironically on them, and it reminds them of happier, sunnier times.

I found a clip of Antonio Carlos Jobim performing the song on his album "Antonio Brasileiro" Hear it here : "O Trem Azul"

Seriously!!...

who would open a sno-cone stand in the middle of March? Some poor souls chose this weekend to hold the grand-opening of their sno-cone trailer in the parking lot of the strip mall down the street. I've passed by there several times this weekend and let's just say folks aren't exactly lined up around the block.