The kids are not so thrilled either that I decided to be a slave driver today. We have chores to get done to ready for my guest on Wednesday, and I also want to get the tree up today (it was supposed to go up yesterday and didn't--too much else going on with the kids being out and about). They may not like it, but it needs to get done, and hey, there's no school to interfere with helping me! Of course in talking to Liisa today, we have great weather compared to what they have: she said it was like ten below when we talked with a significantly lower windchill, her car battery was totally dead, and her driver's door was frozen shut (she fortunately left the passenger door unlocked so they could open it). They also had three inches of new snow to shovel, and yeah, schools opened on time, with no delays... Reminds me of the old joke: "temperature is 500 degrees below zero, hell has frozen over, and MN school will start 2 hours late!" Having lived there for 40+ years, I know this to be true!
With Eric being off this past weekend, we had a fun day, he and I, on Saturday. We took the Metro (train) to Lambert Airport (St Louis' airport) so that I could find my way there and back over the next few days, and saw the city sites from the train. That was so much fun, and I was surprised by how much I actually recognized as we rode past! One blight on my day was when we were at the airport. I checked with the ticketing agent for American Airlines as to the feasibility of my getting a gate pass to escort Rei back to the boarding area when he flies out on Saturday and found out that they charge an additional $100 each way for unaccompanied minors. IF he were 15 he could fly with no problems (heck, according to their policies online he could even take babies as young as 5 days old with him for no extra charge!) but, being 5 months away from 15, he has to pay this additional fee so that they "provide someone to watch over him from start to finish" (I thought that was MY job as a parent!). So now I have to come up with an additional $200 for him to go home for Christmas... I have it, it was just earmarked for other things, and I am NOT happy about it. It is not clearly listed on their website--you really have to search to find it, and it seems ridiculous to me. IF he were somehow mentally disabled, or was younger than 13 I could see it, and I would think they would have it clearly marked somewhere... Oh well. 5 months from now it will be a moot point. It's just for that price, we could have bought a ticket for me too, and if I were going with him, then we wouldn't have flown, we would have driven... Grrrrrr!
Anyhow, back to our fun: we decided to get off at Union Station and do some exploring and shopping. I was so impressed about how lovely a space it was, and was sad to see how few shops there actually were there, some of which were going out of business at the end of the year. The area is spacious, it's right on the metro, and seems like it would be prime retail space, but it was so dead when we were there that it was disappointing. We did get a few Christmas presents at a couple of shops that were open, and that was rewarding, and there was a place called "The Fudgery" that was a lot of fun: they make the fudge right in front of you with a lot of "audience participation". We ended up buying a few "treats" for just us... (shhhhh don't tell the kids!). We then had a nice dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and headed back for the train. All in all we were gone about 8 hours, and we had so much fun! Yesterday the kids made a similar trip to Union Station (that would be Brie, Cliff, Rei, Aurora, Patrick, Kimmie, and Ryan) on the Metro so that they could explore and some other gifts could get purchased. Eric and I had a lovely quiet household! I think Rei was a bit disappointed I wouldn't let him and his friends travel unattended on the train (so I'm overprotective!) but as Eric backed me, it was all good. They had fun.
I had to take my sewing machine in for servicing on Tuesday, and when I called Friday they hadn't gotten to it yet. Saturday morning they called and said it was fixed: all it needed was a new fuse. $7 for the fuse, and $25 for them to take it apart to check. They think the fuse getting ready to blow was what was giving me the error messages last weekend, as it sewed fine for them when they tried it after resetting it. Liisa offered me her condolences that it wasn't broken beyond all repair, as I have been eyeing an upgraded model (one that connects directly to a PC rather than using expensive, dedicated memory cards for patterns for the embroidery functions). Given I bought it 10 years ago now, it has certainly paid for itself, and when I bought it it was one step below the most state of the art model (which at that time cost almost $1000 more); The current state of the art machine, by Janome, is $8,000. I am not thinking I will see one of those for a loooooonnnggg time! As long as mine is running, I am happy. Got three things for sure to sew up before Saturday, as well as some other projects on the back burner.
As promised, here are a few pictures from when Liisa and Jesse were in town:
The kids at the bowling alley, after having driven all night long and glad to have safely arrived...
At the Army National Guard Christmas Party with Brianne... Rei always has to be a clown (although generally Brie and Cliff aren't much better for photos--heehee).
The Arch as seen from below it (it was a coolish, almost cold, blustery day, and there were minimal crowds around so we got right in and out to see what we wanted to see!)
One of many views of downtown from the top of the Arch--I loved the reflections of the clouds in the buildings!
The kids and me at 630 feet: Patrick, Me, Jesse, Liisa, Aurora, Reimond, Brianne, and Cliff.
It was sad Eric couldn't be there with us, but he needed his "beauty sleep", and cranky cops are NOT pleasant to be around... It was a fun and memorable weekend!
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