Car Hunting

Spent some of the weekend trawling around a couple of local 'classic' car dealers. Both were in Illinios, one about 10 minutes from St Louis & the other about a 45 minute drive away.

The first dealer (Gateway Classics) had all the cars indoors. There was a wide selection of vehicles (including a Mini), all of which were OK, but nothing really grabbed my attention. There was a really nice, original Dodge Charger that was immaculate but at $16k it was far too expensive for me.

Country Classic Cars had both inside & outside displays. Quite a few of the cars outside required restoration, however, there were some really nice cars indoors that seemed to be realistically priced & in excellent condition. They also had a really good selection with 500+ cars on display.

I found a really nice car that I fell in love with, but it was a bit outside my price range (shame). It is a 1969 Galaxie XL fastback with a rebuilt 390ci big block V8. It needed a bit of work compared to some of the other cars, but I really liked it. Guess it's time to get a loan!

We are the champions (almost)

Went to another work organised event this weekend. This time it was a trivia night. I was on a team with Jim, Todd, & Bruce from work, Bruce's wife, & a few of Jim's friends.

Obviously, most of the questions were American, but I did know a few of the answers on the TV rounds. When the Beatles round came up, being English it was decided that I would know all the answers (which of course I did - not!).

Still, we came 2nd & the cash prize was enough to cover the entry fee, so it made a cheap night out. Snacks, beer, & soda was provided & Todd also brought some really nice cooked bread (like a really thick, soft, pizza base) that had herbs on top. He also provided olive oil for dipping the bread in - thanks Todd!

After the event, a few of us went back to Sally's appartment & spent a few hours just hanging out.

As well as organising the event, Sally was also chief photographer, so I'll add some photos hopefully after Sally has e-mailed them to me.

St Patricks Day

Last Friday was St Patricks Day. The guys in the US usually do a pretty good job of having a party to celebrate, with this year being no different. There was a work organised 'happy hour' at an Irish pub called Nick's which is on Manchester Road. Quite a few of us headed off straight after work, but I could only stay for a couple of hours as I had also been invited to a St Patrick's Day/customer appreciation party by Colette, who was the estate agent that I bought my house through.

Incredibles on Ice

Watched the Incredibles on Ice at the Savvis Centre during the week. Phil & Steve got tickets for the company box & as they had more then they needed I went along as well. This time the real bonus was that there was a parking ticket as well. This meant that I was able to park in the carpark next to the centre in the suite parking area. It took me all of 30 seconds to walk from the car to the box - result!

The show was quite good, but was obviously biased towards children. So, being a big kid I had a great time. The storyline was basically that the Parrs went on holiday to Disneyworld in Florida & ended up saving Mickey & Minnie from a robotic copy of Syndrome (if you don't know what I'm going on about then watch the film). To keep the action going there was plenty of ice skating with a reasonable amount of pyrotechnics/light shows towards the end of the show.

Go Blues!

I went to a St Louis Blues game on Monday night with some of the guys from work. This was in the company box &, as clients were present, it meant there was food as well (chilli & hotdogs - v.good).

The game was quite exciting with the view from the box being really good. The last time I went to a Blues game it was quite difficult to see what was going on even though we were sat in a really good position. I thought that the view wouldn't be as good as the box is at the end of the 'pitch' but it was actually better & so made it easier to follow the game.

The game went into overtime with the Blues eventually winning, but not until it took the referees about 5 minutes to decide whether their goal should be allowed.

During the break there was the usual entertainment, which this time consisted of people in 'Zorb' type balls racing on the ice to win a prize. Most of the time they stayed on their feet, but as soon as they tried to change direction they ended up on their bums - hillarious!

Tornado Spotting

With the onset of the servere weather season (i.e. Tornado Season) here in the US, I thought it would be a good idea to find out a bit more about the types of weather likely to occur & what to do when there is severe weather. A quick search on the internet lead me to the SKYWARN programme which monitors & sends out severe weather alerts & runs free training sessions to teach you how to spot severe weather & report it to increase the accuracy of weather reports.

The US has a network of Doppler radar stations that monitors weather conditions & uses a warning system of watches & warnings. There is a network of outdoor sirens that sound an alarm in the event of severe weather. Severe weather watches that mean you should keep an eye on the weather & be aware of the conditions & that severe weather may develop. If these change to a warning then it means that you should take action immediately. In the case of a tornado warning for your county, you are advised to move down to the basement of your property. Most of the local TV channels show the warnings & watches in effect & continually interupt programmes with weather bulletins. I have an internet connection set up that shows the current weather radar maps & weather alerts.

The training course I went on took place at the Queeny Park recreation centre & lasted a day. The morning session was mainly about how storms develop, their anatomy, & the characteristics that distinguish a severe weather event from 'normal' bad weather. The afternoon was more of the same really. So now I know what a 'supercell' is, how tornadoes are formed, & what do do in the event of severe weather.

World of Wheels

Went to the World of Wheels 'Autorama' car show today with Brad from work. The show was at the America's Centre which is the conference/event centre linked to the Edward Jones Dome. The layout was similar to that for the recent St Louis Auto Show, but this time the dome wasn't used.

There was a good variety of vehicles on show, including, a seriously detailed, completely airbrushed semi (truck) which apparently took 1800 hours to prepare & 2000 hours to paint - mad!! There was a large variety of custom chopper bikes, restored muscle cars, hot rods, customs, pickups, drag racers, sit on lawn mowers(!) & a formula 1 speedboat. As well as all the highly detailed cars, there were also a number of 'rat rods' which are styled specifically to keep rust & dents, etc as this shows the patina & age of the vehicles.

There were a number of trade stands & companies that build hot rods & customs. This is where the show really differed from those in the UK as whilst there were alot of cars built by individuals there were alot of companies with cars that they built on display.

It was lucky that there weren't really any cars for sale otherwise I would have quite happily financed myself up to my eyeballs to buy some of these gorgeous vehicles!