St Louis Auto Show

I couldn’t believe that it had been a year since the auto show was last in St Louis. This is the largest new automobile event in the St Louis area & featured more than 600 new cars, trucks, SUVs, & concept vehicles from over 30 manufacturers. Since the show is held in the America’s Center & Edward Jones Dome (both of which are just across from the office), I spent a few hours looking around one evening after work.

Before heading into the show halls, I went across to the Toyota Trucks Off Road On Site Adventure. This was located in the parking lot at the main entrance to the Edward Jones Dome (7th Street and Convention Plaza) & was filled with 1000 tons of dirt & 20 tons of gravel to make an off-road course. I drove a new Toyota Tundra pickup over the specially built course that included moguls, logs, sand pits, berms, a hill climb (with blind descent), teeter totter (which was really difficult to get the vehicles to balance on), & frame twister.

The Dodge area was at the entrance to the show, with the Challenger concept taking pride of place amongst the Chargers, Nitros, & Rams. The Challenger concept looked even better in real life than in photos & Dodge confirmed that the production version will be on sale by 2008. With a 6.1L V8 Hemi engine & knockout styling, it looks like the Ford Mustang’s days as being the king of retro cool are numbered!

There were plenty of other vehicles at the show worth looking at. Ford had their Edge crossover SUV, the California Special & convertible Shelby Mustangs, the new Focus, facelifted 500, & new Escape. GMC & Chevrolet had their new pick-ups & SUVs on display, as well as the performance versions of the HSR, Impala, Cobalt, & the Corvette Z06.

Other US manufacturers included Pontiac, Buick, Saturn, Mercury, & Lincoln. Lincoln have been trying to update their image & although their vehicles are based upon the equivalent Ford vehicle (much like Mercury), their styling is spot on. If I couldn’t afford a Dodge ram SRT-10, or Roush F150 pickup (I can’t!), I’d happy own a Lincoln Mark LT truck. This has a huge chrome grill that looks really imposing & the interior is all leather with a real quality finish.

Ice Ice Baby The Remix

When we returned to St Louis after our Christmas vacation to the UK, the weather had been very mild with several record-breaking warm temperatures across most of the Midwest and Eastern U.S. & Canada. The last thing we were expecting was another ice storm, but the warm weather didn’t last & a cold front from the Artic sagged across most of North America, resulting in very cold temperatures. A deep trough in the jet stream favored a more active weather pattern & waves of low pressure started to develop over the Gulf of Mexico.

There were a number of waves to this winter storm, with about 1-2 inches of ice being deposited on everything around St Louis, although this time we didn’t get any snow. Similarly to the last ice storm there were a number of downed power lines & at the peak of the storm, a total of 330,000 Ameren UE customers in Missouri were without power. We were really lucky again as our power stayed on throughout all the waves of this storm.

Parent’s Night At Poms

Beth successfully completed another semester at cheerleading & we went to see her receive her trophy at parent’s night. Previously, Beth had completed her tryout to see whether she was good enough to move up to the next level & it was at this event that she found out that she had passed – good job Beth!

Kingston Town

Since we have been in the US, Beth’s Auntie Debbie moved to Kingston, or rather to give it its full name, The London Borough of Kingston-Upon-Thames. She invited us over so that we could see her new home.

Kingston was built at the first crossing point of the river Thames upstream from London Bridge and there is still a bridge on the original site. Central Kingston is predominantly a busy retail centre with shops generally being towards the upper retail sector with a good mixture of familiar High Street chains and more select boutiques.

As Deb’s flat (apartment) isn’t very far from Central Kingston, we decided that we would take a walk along the Thames & do some shopping. As we got to the end of the road that Debs lives in, we saw David Spinx, walking towards us. He is the actor who plays Keith Miller in Eastenders. He didn’t look any different to when he is on TV & Debs mentioned that her & Gary (Debs partner) often saw him as he doesn’t live very far from their flats.

The Thames at Kingston was surprisingly narrow compared to what I am used to in central London. As we made our way to Market Place (which still has a daily market) we went through a recently developed riverside area that included all very ‘cosmo’ (i.e. expensive) looking bars, restaurants & living accommodation. The main indoor shopping mall is split over four levels & includes a large variety of shops. There is also a more traditional pedestrianized High Street area that includes one of the more unusual sights in Kingston, the ‘Out of Order’ sculpture by David March. This comprises several disused red telephone boxes that have been tipped on their sides in a pattern resembling dominos.

‘Christmas’ at ‘Home’

We took another short vacation to the UK over the Christmas break to catch up with family & friends. Although we were back for a few days longer than in the Summer, we were still hard pushed to see everyone that we wanted to & there were some people & places that we unfortunately didn’t get time to see.

It’s Christmassss!

Mary & Tony kindly invited us to their house for Christmas. We weren’t due to fly back to the UK until Boxing Day & so otherwise would have spent Christmas Day on our own. Most of their family was there & everyone made us feel really welcome.

Christmas dinner was slightly different to what we were used to, since turkey is the traditional Thanksgiving meal & so tends not to be served at Christmas. Tony had prepared smoked Beef Tenderloin & Mary did Roast Ham with a sweet glaze. This was accompanied with potatoes in a mushroom soup sauce, sprouts, beans, sweetcorn, & fresh rolls. Desert included home-made mint chocolate cake &, as usual, everything tasted really good.

We all got really nice presents. Cheryl got a pearl necklace that Mary had made (she used to have a jewelry business) & some scrapbooking stuff, I got a set of technical drawing pens, & Beth got an amazing decorated egg. Mary said that this was the only egg that she had decorated as a present this year. It was painted pink with pink sparkly glitter in a scroll pattern over the lower part of the egg & was mounted on a glass stand. The opening to the egg was framed with purple ‘jewels’ & pearls, & the inside was painted a glittery light teal colour with a picture of an angel on the ‘back’ wall.

Christmas Lights

This year there seemed to be even more Christmas lights on practically every house in our sub-division & just about everywhere else we went. There were also a couple of displays nearby that are put on every year with 1 million plus lights. These organized displays charge you to drive through the display, with the proceeds going to charity.

Cheryl & Beth went to look at a really cool, free, display, at house local to us in Fenton with Sherri, Jordan & Emily. This was about a mile from our house & I’m surprised that the rest of the street wasn’t in darkness due to the power drain from the number of lighted displays! – I wouldn’t want to be them when they get their January electric bill! The owners have been doing this for 14 years & it is in memory of one of their friends. They allow you to walk around their entire property so that you can see all the displays.

Mad Hair Day

Beth’s school recently had a ‘Mad hair’ day. Beth’s was probably the maddest hair there & she got lots of cool comments. Cheryl was volunteering at the school that day & practically all of the children were asking her if she would do their hair like Beth’s!

Christmas Reception

As with last year, there were a number of festive events organized at work. These included a Christmas decoration competition, which included some of the maddest decorations I have ever seen in an office. The bridge department turned a cubicle into a ‘winter wonderland’ complete with a handmade bridge, snowscape (including a tunnel & village) & a vintage train set. There were the usual selection of Christmas lights & tinsel, & the planning department turned their entire area into a Victorian, English street setting.

The building landlords organized a festive breakfast, & our office had their Christmas reception at the Noonday Club on the 40th floor of the Metropolitan building. One Metropolitan Square was completed in 1989 & is 593 feet tall (181 metres) which makes it the tallest building in St Louis (& the second tallest building in Missouri behind One Kansas City Place in Kansas City). However, 'The Met' is not the tallest structure in St Louis, as nothing is allowed to be taller than the Gateway Arch.

Poms Competition

Beth took part in a local poms competition held in West County, which was the local heat to determine which teams progressed to the regional competition held in Kansas City.

Even though we got there early, there was already a long queue for registration that extended out from the school where the event was being held. Things had been gradually getting back to normal after the ice storm, but there was still a good 3-4 inches of snow/ice on the ground & the temperatures were still cold, so most of the cheerleaders weren’t happy about waiting out in the cold.

Sherri was helping out with the event & her children Emily & Jordan were both also in the competition, with Emily being in the same team as Beth. Sherri’s Mum, Barb, & Husband, Steve, kindly saved us front row seats so we got a really good view of the performances by the teams. Each team did a cheer, which was their own unique chant (without music), & then they did a dance routine to music, which also included some ‘stunts’. Beth did really well & her team came in third place.

Emma’s Birthday

Beth’s friend Emma who lives over the road from us had her birthday party at ‘Bounce U’. This is an indoor play center that contains a number of rooms with inflatable play equipment, including an assault course, a boxing ‘ring’, a tug-o-war arena, & a huge slide. After finishing at Bounce U, the girls all crammed into a limo & went to a hotel with an indoor swimming pool near the at Six-Flags Theme Park, for a slumber party. Cheryl stayed the night to help look after the girls, so I spent my first night ‘home-alone’ since Cheryl & Beth moved to the US – boo! Still the party was great & I managed to get the house tidy before I had to pick Cheryl & Beth up :-)

Ice Ice Baby

We have now experienced our first Ice Storm. A very powerful early season winter storm produced significant amounts of snow and ice across much of the middle of the US on November 30th & December 1st. Over a foot of snow fell from Oklahoma to southeastern Wisconsin, including reports of ‘thundersnow’, but we were lucky & only got about 4 inches. However, we didn’t escape the ice with accumulations of sleet & freezing rain greater than 2 inches.

Ice storms can be one of the most devastating forms of winter weather & occur when freezing rain (rain that has been supercooled) freezes upon contact with cold surfaces & coats everything with a layer of ice.

Freezing rain develops when snow falls through a layer of warm air deep enough for the snow to completely melt & become rain. As the rain falls, it passes through a thin layer of cold air just above the ground surface & cools to a temperature below freezing. However, since the cold layer is so thin, the drops do not have time to freeze & so are classified as being supercooled. Their temperature is below freezing point but they don’t freeze until they strike the ground, parked cars, road signs, power lines, tree branches, etc.

Sleet had been falling since mid-morning & although there were plenty of snow-ploughs & gritters trying to keep the roads clear, the drive home was still treacherous. Luckily, most of the freezing rain & snow fell overnight, with just about everything looking ‘Christmas card picturesque’ the next morning.

The trees & power lines were continually creaking under the weight of the accumulated ice, with a lot of these having been downed due to the additional loading caused by the ice. At one time over 500,000 households & businesses were without power throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan Area & central Illinois.

It’s Raining Potatoes!

On a previous visit to Tony’s & Mary’s house, Tony showed me his collection of guns & rifles that he had restored. This time when we went over there Tony’s son-in-law, Mike had brought over his new hunting rifle & potato cannon.

The hunting rifle wasn’t quite working properly, but I still managed to get a couple of shots with it, managing to shoot a bucket a good 25 ft across Tony’s garden. The potato cannon was a great laugh. Mike is a plumber & had made the cannon himself out of PVC drainpipe. It is a really simple design with a chamber that is filled with hairspray (or any other flammable aerosol) which is sealed at one end with the potato & the other end with a screw in boss. A barbecue lighter inserted into the fuel chamber is used to ignite the hairspray (or other fuel) & the potato shoots out of the cannon – smart! Angie, Mike’s wife was sent out to get some more ammo & bought the potato stock from the local shop! Best results were achieved when we cut the potatoes in half, with these going a good 200 ft +.

One of Tony’s friends had brought over his Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum hand gun, so we all had a go with this in Tony’s shooting range. There was quite a bit of kick-back accompanied by large yellow flames when firing. Although this wasn’t the quite the same model as used by Clint Eastwood, I still couldn’t get the image of ‘Dirty Harry’ out of my head when firing it!

To round off the testosterone filled afternoon, we all let a few rounds go from Tony’s AK47 assault rifle. We were shooting at an old lawnmower that was probably at least 50 yds away, yet still the bullets were penetrating through the engine block, the two doors that the lawnmower was stood against, & then embedding themselves in the ground behind. This was a relatively safe environment to use these weapons, with Tony being very conscientious about keeping everyone safe. I couldn’t possibly imagine using these weapons against anything living, but there was something rather satisfying about watching the scrap lawnmower gradually being turned into a colander!

Beth’s Famous!

We visited the Fenton Municipal Center with Sherri & her children, Emily & Jordan, to watch the Christmas lights being turned on. This was a free event that included a carol service & a visit from Santa. The children all got a free goodie bag & there was hot chocolate & muffins for the adults (also all free).

Beth, Emily & Jordan met up with some of their other friends there & I got them to stand in front of the lighted Reindeer & sleigh display between City Hall & the library. Just as the children were about to run off, a woman came over & asked if she could take a photo as well as she thought that it would make a nice festive picture. It turned out that she was a reporter for the local paper & within a couple of weeks the picture had been published & Beth was famous!

Beth’s Surprise Birthday Present

Cheryl thought that it would be nice for Beth to have a pet here in the US as she had been missing our cat, Cleo, who was being looked after in the UK. She had been looking on the Internet at pets for adoption from rescue centers & found a rabbit on the Missouri House Rabbit Society website that she thought would be ideal. They had an upcoming open day at the Missouri Humane Society so we went along to have a look at the rabbit.

As we were talking to some of the volunteers, Beth started stroking a black & white Dutch Bunny that was up for adoption. This was a really scared looking, unnamed rabbit that had apparently been cowering in the back of its cage with no-one being able to coax him out. As soon as Beth reached in & started to stroke it, the bunny came forward to the front of the cage & just let Beth stroke him, much to the surprise of the volunteers.

So it looked like we had found our bunny, or rather he had found us. Beth wanted to take him home there & then, but we wanted to surprise her for her birthday so to make her feel better she was allowed to name him. She called him cookie, since he was black & white & so looked a bit like an Oreo cookie.
The House Rabbit Society makes sure that the adopted rabbits are in good health before they are allowed to go home with their new ‘parents’. Although Beth’s Birthday was rapidly approaching, it looked like there would be enough time for Cookie to visit the vets for his health check & to be spayed before & still be here to surprise Beth when she woke up on her birthday. Unfortunately, he needed some extra tests to make sure that he was OK & so he didn’t come ‘home’ until a couple of day after Beth’s Birthday. She was still really excited to have Cookie & is doing a great job at being a ‘bunny mummy’!

Beth's Birthday Party

Beth invited her friends to her birthday party at Woody's Cafe. This is part of the Life Christian Church which is a few miles away from us along Hwy 30. The cafe is really cool, & is often where Cheryl & Beth have ended up during the car shows held in the church parking lot during the year, whilst I look at all the musclecars & hot rods. This doesn't look at all like a traditional UK church &, if it wasn't for the signs outside, it looks just like a large office/warehouse/school complex.

Beth's party included four huge 'St Louis style' pizzas, unlimited soft drinks, & a game of ten-pin bowling in one of the four full-size bowling lanes at the cafe. There is also a large inside climbing area (like Imagine in Ashford), arcade games, pool & air-hockey tables, & a massive projector-style TV.

There were about 15 of Beth's friends there & they all had a really good time. They all liked her cake which we had ordered the previous evening at the local Dierbergs supermarket. Not only did it taste & look good, but it was individually hand-iced & included a toy for Beth.

Probably the biggest difference from Beth's previous parties was that after the food she had to sit on a chair & open the presents that all her friends gave her. She received lots of really nice presents & the volume of the screams from the girls were a good indication as to how 'cool' that particular present was.

Beth's Birthday

Since moving to the US, Beth had been asking to get her ears pierced. We told her that if she still wanted them done at her Birthday, then she could have this as a present from Cheryl & I. Beth was certain that she still wanted them pierced, so we took her to Libby Lu's at the Galleria shooping Mall.

Libby Lu's is a pink & sparkly girls shop for little princesses with Daddy's that have lots of money! Actually, it is pretty cool for Beth as it has all the sort of things that she didn't actually really realize she needed until she looked around. Everything is pink or glittery, & when Beth walks into the shop she sprinkled with 'magic' gliter dust by the greeter & told to make a wish.

Beth chose sparkly flower earrings that had her birthstone in the middle. She had both ears pierced at once (which was good since it meant that she couldn't get upset about having the second one done) & she didn't cry at all. Although she looked a bit uncomfortable at first her earrings looked pretty & really suited her.

We had already planned to take Beth to the Bear Factory so that she could get her birthday present from her Aunty Debbie, & this soon took her mind off her probably tender ears. Since 'Happy Feet' had just been released & we were due to go & see it at the cinema as part of the next JAG social event, Beth chose to make a baby Mumble penguin.

My Girls Birthdays

The end of the year is quite a busy time for birthdays, with mine in the middle of October & Cheryl's & Beth's within 3 days of each other in November.

One of Cheryl's favourite local restaurants is Bandanas. If you have your birthday there, you get a free Bandana. Also, the fact that it is your birthday is anounced over their PA system to the whole restaurant. Luckily for Cheryl the PA system wasn't working so much to her amusement she managed to eat her birthday meal in 'secret'.

Although Cheryl & Beth had a joint birthday meal at Banadanas, Beth really wanted to go to the Pasta House for her birthday meal. Like we discovered when I had my birthday meal there, she got her meal for free, had a huge slice of strawberry cheesecake covered in cream & with a candle. She also had all the waiters & waitresses singing the Pasta House's own take on 'Happy Birthday' to her.