Springfield/Tulsa

Finally the trip proper is underway. We headed out Memorial day after a great brunch with Mom and Dad to Springfield. We had tried camping in Springfield last summer and it was awful, so we just got a cheap hotel. After getting the pups settled and having a chance to get cleaned up, we were off to the Springfield Cardinals vs. the San Antonio Missions. It was a great game, the Cards were ahead and then (as has been the Cardinals way this year) they gave up the lead and were trailing 4-3 right into the bottom of the 9th when miraculously Colby Rasmus hit a home run to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the 10th, some nice fundamental baseball won the game! Final score - 5-4 Cards. We had a much better time in Springfield this year than last!








Next stop - Tulsa Oklahoma. It was only 3 hours of driving, so we weren't in a hurry to get out of town, we had a nice vacation at the Waffle House, some place we really only eat on our summer trips, but it wouldn't be the same without it! It was a nice drive to Tulsa and we found the Keystone state park just in time for the sky to open up and POUR on us (again, in Pete's Pix, there are some fun shots of rain, the dog's reaction to the rain and the ducks mocking us by enjoying the rain). Luckily it only lasted about 20 minutes and we set up camp with a beautiful view of the lake and the rest of the evening was lovely. Pete beat me 2 out of three games of cribbage and a hand of phase 10 and the cardinals lost to the Rockys... again.
We had luckily checked the paper and discovered that we were in for a day game at the Tulsa Drillers (vs. Midland Rock Hounds) It was another good game in the Texas League. The Drillers won 5-3 and we had a blast sittling behind a group of guys who were clearly professional baseball hecklers, everything from "21 is a girl's number" to "We didn't know Victoria's Secret sold bats" They even had t-shirts printed up indicating that the first base coach sucked. Again, even though it was supposed to rain, we only got a little spitting before it turned into a perfect day for baseball.

Next stop - Oklahoma City and the Red Hawks.

Mr. & Mrs. Jeremy Schlensker

Thursday night after the game, Pete and I headed out to Troy IL to stay with Pete's sister Patty and her Fiance Jeremy. The wedding was less than 48 hours away and they were in full remodel mode on their house, there was plenty of last minute things to do before people showed up for the wedding. Patty and I and her friend Jen had a girls-night out Thursday while Pete and Jeremy worked on pulling flooring up in the hall way
Friday was an endless day of last-minute errands and construction work followed by an endless evening of cleaning at the end of which there was a railing added to the upper level. Because of all the rain we weren't able to mow the grass in the back yard for this garden wedding, so made the decision to move it into the house. We were tired, but we kept working until almost 3 in the mornig!

Finally the big day - we overslept, this did not help the frantic level! At noon, there was still as shop vac in the room where the ceremony was going to be and a saw in the room where the food would be set up. We were working hard. Patty and I had our nails done and Patty was having her hair done while I was helping load chairs in and trying not to chip my nails! We were all forced to call it done (and it looked great!) so that we could get dressed and get ready for the ceremony now only about 30 minutes away. At about 2:10, with the house PACKED with family and friends, Patty walked down the aisle with Dad and everyone was given away by their parents and kids and it was a beautiful wedding. No one even noticed that the backdrop was dry wall and the chairs were on sub floor!

All the rain we were promised never arrived, so we set up the tables in the front yard and had a reception of tasty Pork steaks, BBQ chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs salads fruit and corn. It was good food and a lot of fun.

Now Patty and Jeremy are married and have created their own little Brady Bunch with thier children Chandra, Daniel, Dominc, Brenden, Emily and Madison. Hopefully they can take a day or two to rest before they jump back in to their remodeling!

That's a Winner

We started our vacation with two games at Busch Stadium - The Cardinals won both of them! completing the second sweep of the season against the Pittsburg Pirates. After meeting Pete's sister Mary Jo and nephew Evan for lunch, we wandered around LaFaette square park and enjoyed the sun and the scenery. Pete took lots of pictures, gearing up to be the photographer for Patty's wedding this weekend. (SEE PETE'S PIX FOR COMPLETE PARK AND BALLGAME PICTURES). Then we relaxed a little before heading off to the Old Neighborhood and Carusos for dinner. Finally! Busch Stadium to see a winner.

Thursday we weren't sure if we could get tickets to the ball game, but we were able to get some in the upper deck and with our AAA discount, they were only $8! Better than some minor league games! It was great to see a couple of winners from our struggling Cards this year.

Weekend in Detroit

So Pete went to Detroit without me and they had a pretty good time. He got to see our soon-to-be nephew Daniel in 3 of his hockey tournament games and see the Cardinals play the Tigers. It wasn't a good game for the Cardinals, but Pete said it was a pretty field that must have been very influential in the design of our own new Busch Stadium.

Only 2 days until vacation and only 6 days until Patty's Wedding. Lots of fun!

See Pete's Pix (link to the right) for all of the Detroit pictures.

Dirty (happy) Dogs

Another adventure in the dog park! It was a beautiful day and the water level has gone down so we headed off to the park. Pete is taking pictures for Patty's wedding, so he wanted to practice and make sure that his canon is in good working order. We thought the pups would enjoy the excercize. I guess we should have realized that our little darlings would seek out the mud!


But as usual, they had a blast, we got a nice walk (if a little muddy) and Pete got some good pictures!

The Twist

Pete and I watch a lot of Bravo TV - Project Runway, Top Design Sheer Genius etc. and for everyone who watches those shows, you know there's always a twist in the challenge. I got my twist last weekend when because of a family tragedy Regina was forced to leave Lady Day unexpectedly and at 4:00 in the afternoon before our 7:30p performance. We cancelled Thursday night's show, and because Regina is who she is, she gave us the name of a friend of hers who had done the show, and supposedly knew it inside and out.

After about 5 hours on the phone Thursday night jump ahead to Friday night at 9:30, Thomasina Taylor Petrus arrived at the Rep and we rehearsed until midnight, Saturday we got together around 10:30a and worked until 3p and then at 4:30 (a little less than 48 hours from receiving her first phone call from the Rep) she opened as Lady Day.

Audience was re-scheduled into shows, Ricky and I re-wrote light cues, Will tried to keep one eye on the script while he tried to keep up with a whole new style of Billie! and Kristen restructured the entire drink service to be minimally distracting to a new actress. It was great!

We're all thinking of Regina and miss her a lot, but she took care of us when she sent us Thomasina. No elimination this challenge!

First Cardinal Game of the Season

We got to our first Cards game against the Brewers Monday night. Too bad it was a stinker of a game (for Cardinals Fans, we lost 7-1) and under sad circumstances (untimely death of our pitcher Josh Hancock).

But it's good to see our boys in action. And we had great seats. My friend Kristen's Brother works for the Brewers coordinating all of the on field pre-game activities and dealing with the out of town media. He got us tickets and we went to the game with Kristen and our friend Will (piano player for Lady Day). It was a good time even if we lost. We'll see the game again on Wednesday afternoon, maybe the ship will be a little closer to righted by then.

I love the pictures that I can take with this new (October) camera. Great close-ups.

We finally got Will to McBob's Pub after the game to try the city's best Corned Beef! And as an added bonus, play with Kristen OUTSIDE of the Cabaret! Lots of fun.