Mountford_and_Mackville's Xanga

Couple of family pictures from Thanksgiving

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:22:44 GMT

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:21:55 GMT

Wednesday night, Ric and I met with a group of friends from college. We haven't seen most of these folks in 10 years, and some of them maybe not since graduation. And most of them are the same way with respect to each other. Pretty sad considering most of 'em are St. Louis residents, and have been ever since college, or maybe went away to grad school / med school for a few years and then came back.

Anyway, it was really good to catch up. One of the guys was in town from CA where he works for Pixar - we always knew he'd have the most interesting, or most exotic, life. He was in a bar band at Mississippi nights for a while after college, and we all spent a fair bit of time there... He also toured with Jimmy Buffet for a while as a roadie or some such. Loves his work at Pixar but it's cute to watch him pull out the pictures of his 4yo twin daughters and talk about them.

Some of these guys I remember mostly from the amount of time they spent playing cards in the In Town Students lounge, or from parties attended and .. beverages... consumed. When we got together, the talk was of work, and kids, and dishes being prepared for Thanksgiving and such... I think maybe there were half a dozen alcoholic beverages consumed, total, among all of us, and the last of us left at about 9 pm.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:52:21 GMT

Seems like most of the personal stuff I've seen online today (blogs, message boards, and similar) is polarized to one of the following extremes regarding Obama's win:

1) He's the next thing to the anti-Christ

2) He's the next thing to a Messiah

(I'm in neither of those camps.)

I am, however, irked by some of the local issues that did or didn't pass here in St. Louis...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:00:13 GMT

The youthful offender has a job and seems to have made a turn-around in attitude - no more obvious lies or deviousness about where he's been or who he's been with.

David has completed his program at Job Corps in Indiana and it sounds like he will be going to Job Corps in NJ to become Microsoft Certified - an excellent fit for his interests and abilities, we think, and a neat opportunity for him. He'll be close to East Coast big cities, and he'll be able to get around because there is - gasp - accessible public transportation there! I think it will be a great experience and a big help in the growing up department - plus he'll have a skill that will earn him a comfortable living wage when he's done.

Mary's talking about enrolling in Job Corps in St. Louis. We'll see if it goes that far, but it would at least be a safe environment, with accountability and encouragement for her to get her GED, hopefully followed by job training. We keep telling her "six months of good behavior and accountability" before we'll talk about her moving home - this could be a good start on that.

On a lighter note, Pete could never wear a lot of David and Henry's hand-me-downs because they were "slim" sizes. Pete wasn't heavy, but he's never been a skinny guy, either. Until now. He is about 5'9" (or he was a month ago - it could have changed again by now!) and I'm buying him 30 / 32 pants - and there's still room at the waistline. Henry needed black pants for work the other night, so I told him to borrow Pete's new pants I bought him for orchestra concerts. They're the same inseam as Henry wears - but they were too tight for Henry. This cracks me up - that Pete is taller and thinner than David and Henry. We always knew he'd be taller - but thinner?? It's going to be entertaining when David and Mary come home at Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:27:12 GMT

One 17 yo. One skipped band competition. Zero driver's license.

One set of parents gone for the day.

One joyride.

$1700 in damage to my car.

Eight stories about how it happened.

Two visits and a phone call from the police.

One visit to the friend's house who supposedly caused the damage but didn't, and one confession. (Priceless.)

One visit to the girlfriend's house, who wasn't involved, and one face-to-face confession to the girlfriend's large father, who deserved to know. (Priceless. Really priceless.)

One new job, coming up, at minimum wage. Zero soccer or other extr-curricular activities until the debt is paid. Plenty of walking to work for exercise.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:35:33 GMT

Flooding expect in St. Louis and surrounding areas as all the rainfall, runoff, and flash flood waters make their way into the major waterways:

                                FLD LATEST              7AM FORECAST
LOCATION                STG OBS STG   09/16 09/17 09/18 09/19 09/20

MISSISSIPPI RIVER
   LOUISIANA             15   18.7           18.7   17.3   15.3   13.3   12.6
CLARKSVILLE        24   25              29.1   29.3   27.7   25.7   23.0   20.6
WINFIELD LD          25    26               28.2   29.4   28.8   27.3   24.2   20.8
  ALTON LD 26 TW   21   24.3            29.2   31.8   31.9   30.4   26.6
ST. LOUIS                30    30.6             36.8   39.8   39.6   37.8   33.8

Not looking good... level was 19.5 before the rain hit... already over flood stage downtown.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:55:11 GMT

Remnants of Ike passed thru St. Louis last night and dumped 4-6" of rain overnight, causing flash flooding. This road is just outside our subdivision.

The bike trail we ride on regularly is in the first picture below, just to the right of the big white utility poles. Looks good for biking, huh? The next two pictures are taken from approximately the same place. #2 is our subdivision pool, which was actually just drained/winterized a week ago. #3 is the little ball field at the same place.

Thwarted at every turn

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:28:34 GMT

I got up this morning with good intentions of accomplishing some tasks, but so far it's not going well.

I thought I'd mow the back lawn, but it was misting when I opened the door, and the grass was way too wet to mow.

No problem; yesterday I'd sanded boards for new video shelves. I'll stain them today.

No stain. It must be up at the farm, because I know we had a lot left from the last project.

OK, well, maybe I'll tackle the kitchen shelf organizers I've been wanting to get done. I'd been waiting for Ric to precision-drill the holes for the supports, because I'm not such a "precision" person and I didn't want to mess it up, but what the heck, I want it done, so I'll just do it.

No drill bits. Or none that I can find. Gah.

OK, forget it, maybe I'll just put together my old homemade, trusty cardboard dividers that look pretty red-neck-y but are very functional... no tape. (These are dividers to separate things like cutting boards, cookie sheets, cake pans, shallow frying pans, etc., that are always a mess unless neatly separated.)

Ric and the boys spent the night at the farm to get some things done, so although Ric might know where some of these things are, or Finder Boy might be able to find them, they're not here to help.

Guess I'll have to chill and read the paper or something...

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:02:31 GMT

Kathleen's Homemade Granola

2 cups Fiber One cereal (original flavor)

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup pecan pieces (about the same size as the oats)

2 T honey (more to taste)

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 250F. Grease a 9x13 pan lightly.

Warm the honey in microwave so it's thinner and easier to pour. Add vanilla.

Mix Fiber One cereal, pecans, and oats in pan. Pour honey-vanilla mixture over dry ingredients in a thin stream. Mix lightly. Bake at 250 for ~ 20 minutes or until cereal is as crisp as you like it. Mix every 10 minutes.

I have a serious sweet tooth, and I think the Fiber One cereal tastes like eating twigs, so even though it has lots of good stuff in it, no way I'm going to eat it as is. Like this, however, it's a great breakfast or snack, and ALL of the kids love it too. In fact, when it's baking, they all come wandering into the kitchen wanting to know what kind of cookies I'm baking.

(I think it would make a pretty good soccer snack, too...)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:25:48 GMT

Monday the last of the "kids" go back to school, Liz at Maryville, and Allen at Rolla, I mean Missouri S&T. (what do they think they're doing, changing the university's name?) Another change in routines...

We are finished drywalling Liz's basement bedroom and she applied primer last night. When she finishes painting, we'll see about carpeting, get her moved in, and reclaim the guest room on the main floor - which may become guest room/office, we're not sure.

Henry and Pete have soccer practice after school every day and Henry has marching band before school every day. Then there are football games, parades, and other performances...

We still have a few things to figure and work on at the new house in terms of organization and making life easier (couple of lights to hang, video shelves to build and install, some kitchen organizers to build.

In the process of this move I've achieved a couple of long-held goals.

I finally convinced Ric to wear a helmet for bicycling.

I converted everyone to whole grain bread. (Ric was anti-wheat bread for years but he finally gave in.)

I made a pact with Ric and we are not buying soda or chips on a routine basis. Occasionally we'll get a little bit for a weekend treat, but not enough to last longer than that. Or we'll get more if we're having a party. Next I'm going to work on healthier cereals...