St. Louis Art Fair

What a great trip to the midwest!! The Noodlemans and I took the Mega Bus to St. Louis on Friday morning as planned and arrived there around noon. From Union Station, we rode the Metro Link train out to Clayton. The art fair is actually held in Clayton, MO, a suburb just to the west of St. Louis.
  The hotel had my room ready early so we dumped the luggage and rode the train over to Brentwood shopping center and found the Trader Joe's after walking the Bataan death march it seemed. It was pretty warm on Friday and the humidity was awful. But being the bunch of big kids we are, we survived and bought snacks and wine for our stay.
  On the way back to the Metro Link station we found the short cut so the walk wasn't as far. There was a little Asian restaurant near the station where we had a late lunch. And it was very YUMMY!!
  Back on the train, we looked at the sky and saw the predicted thunderstorms rolling in. We got back to the hotel just in time, too. Thunder, lightening, buckets of rain, the works! The weather people on tv were reporting tornadoes in the outlying counties, kind of scary. The art fair was scheduled to open at 5 pm, but was canceled for Friday evening. Once the rain let up around 9 pm, we ventured out to a sushi place half a block away from the hotel and Mr. Noodleman ordered a roll that was served on FIRE!! Too cool...it is called the "Oh My God" roll. For good reason, I might add.
   Saturday we awoke to a perfect day to be outside. High temps in the mid 70's, sunny and breezy. Lots of beautiful things to look at and purchase. Great music.Yummy food from local eateries and the most amazing people watching two judgmental women (Mrs. Noodleman and I) could ask for.
  We took a break in the late afternoon, then went back for more art and music. Earlier we made reservations at the primo Italian joint near the hotel, so at 8 pm we were shoveling more good food into our gobs. Even though we had walked all day and a half, I think we took in way more calories than we burned off.
   Sunday we headed out to catch the Mega Bus back at Union Station. We had a little time to kill there so we got to see some of the scenery there. Back on the bus and back to the real world--boohoo....now I have to starve myself to regain my svelte figure.

Union Station interior

Jazz band on the Main Stage

Union Station exterior

Mega Bus pit stop at Boomland

   I have had one hell of a birthday celebration so far and it is not over.

Tech update

Tried out the Skull Candy earbuds and they just weren't what I liked. So I am still using the ones that came with the Ipod. I do love having music while I walk, makes it so much better and the weird internal dancing is helping me stay loose. I unconsciously move my shoulders and keep my head up with the music going.
  When I'm at the house (and driving around) I listen to all that nasty rock'n'roll on Sirius radio. Deep Tracks is the fave station for me. Life is good.

21st Century calling

So last week I went to breakfast with my son and we also had a little retail therapy at the bookstore and electronics store. We both wound up with ipods, I got the Touch and he got the Classic. I'd been thinking about having one since before Xmas and decided to treat myself since I didn't get myself anything "big" for that pesky winter holiday in December, or the one from last week. It is really a wonderful thing and has enhanced my walking experience greatly.
   Or course, there were some issues with the earbuds and my tiny delicate ears, so today, after perusing the sale ads in the newspaper, I bought some nifty Skullcandy ear thingies. They were a smokin' hot deal, so if they don't live up to my expectations, I won't feel too cheated. They have three sizes of little rubber bumpers (?) and seemed okay when I stuck them in my head for a minute. But the real test will be on the road.
  It is so nice to have my favorite music come along with me for my 4 miles of exercise. My mood is elevated when I'm back home and I think I loosen up too, because my upper back isn't stiff after walking anymore. And I'm very careful not to be singing along when I approach other walkers/runners. That would be embarrassing.
  The other thing I like about it is I can check to see if I have any new email (when I'm in a wifi zone, anyway) before I go to the trouble of logging onto my laptop and I can check the weather report in a jiffy. Another part I like is that I was able to set up the ipod almost by myself, the email part, and only had to get help for the music downloading. It is good to have patient children.

I'm going all 21st century

My son came by today to bring me a portable hard drive and showed me how to put music on my computer. I didn't even know I could do that. Right now I'm listening to Brian Eno and David Byrne's "My Life In the Bush of Ghosts", one of my all time favorite albums. Life is good. I've spent the better part of the last week in the dungeon, er, basement with the deconstructed screen printing. My red dye is acting up though and I've gotten some very unpredictable results, but nothing I can't save by over dyeing or over printing. I received an invitation to be in a gallery in October so I've busied myself making book covers. Photos later. The postcard workshop has inspired me to make some more to have available to sell at the gallery, too. I mailed one to myself to prove they could go through the post office, but when it came today it wasn't even postmarked and the stamp has not been canceled. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. I'm going to remail it.
   The new theme for the online challenge is "Music" (queue Twilight Zone music) how appropriate for today now that my computer has a song to sing. I have no clue how to interpret this theme. The others came to me so fast and I had the quilts constructed in my head right away.  And the other quilts had symptoms of the problems I've been dealing with this past year. Music never figured into any of that crap except as an escape from the anxiety. Hmmmmm.....I smell an inspiration. Oh my, the song playing now is titled "Jezebel" where can I go with this???