Meanwhile, Eight Years Later...

Mood: Content (just got back from a mini-vacation and celebrating my 8th wedding anniversary with the hubs!)

On Tv: Chopped (love what they give these chefs to work with - here's some hotdogs, liver, dried cranberries and dandelion greens - now make me a tasty dessert!)

Hubs and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on September 7th. In honor of this stunning accomplishment (seriously - his packrat tendencies and my OCD tendencies should have really created an ultimate death match situation far before now), we decided to take a small vacation to the St. Louis area and, for once, the vacation Gods smiled and we were allowed to (mostly) enjoy our days off!

First? We went to the Arch in St. Louis. Hubs has been before but I have not. I seriously underestimated two things.

1. Just how TALL the Arch really is.
2. Just how terrified of heights I really am (for the record? Terrified doesn't even begin to cover it.)  

Dude. That? Is tall. Props to hubs for doing the vertical pan to get it all in one picture because it was way more massive than I imagined. Also? Had no idea that there was a museum, shopping and other fun stuff under the arch...well, not under the arch but under the ground under the arch. Amazing. Really.

At first, I was all "no way am I going up to the top of that thing" and really that was a very smart initial reaction. I am a big baby. I make no bones about it and one of the things that I'm most terrified of is heights. Well...not so much heights as the potential for falling from them.

Then? I was all "I'm brave and I'm not going to allow my fears to limit my life experiences! I'm going up to the top of the arch!" So now I can say that, on this trip, I added to my list of life experiences : Going to the top of the Arch and Having a panic attack at a major National Monument. Go me!

Oh, and for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of going to the top of the Arch? You go up in a "pod". The pod is tiny, they cram up to 5 people in each one and it jerks and tilts as it makes its way up to the top of the Arch. I may have gotten a jump start on my panic attack in the pod on the way up. I may or may not have mentioned my fear that we were going to die.

                   Scary, tiny pod of doom ---------->


After we survived the Arch (and the resulting panic attack) we headed over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch. Hubs raved on it, friends have raved on it and now I see why. The atmosphere was amazingly classy and romantic without being too over the top. The food was incredible and I tried an Italian Cream Soda. Quite possibly my favorite new drink of all time. Seriously, how did I not know about these and their amazingly creamy goodness?

The next day we *I* was all geared up to spend the day at the Grant Farm. It's a living history farm with all kinds of animals, historical demonstrations, A Deer Park, the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and all kinds of other fun and "squeee" worthy stuff. The best part? It was all free except for a nominal $11.00 parking fee. I was practically bouncing with excitement.

Thanks to my trusty smart phone GPS app we found the place easily enough but I was immediately concerned when I noted that the parking lot was completely deserted. The place was absolutely empty. Normally that would have made me happy but I realized there was no way that a place like this would be completely empty if it were, in fact, open.

Suddenly I had that sinking feeling that Clark Griswold must have felt when he arrived at Walley World

Unfortunately, there was no giant moose for me to punch. Why are there never giant mooses to punch when you need one???
Apparently the farm is only open on weekends after Labor Day. Well played Vacation Gods, well played.



Hubs and I quickly regrouped and decided to check out the St. Louis Zoo.

You guys? I got to play with stingrays. Baby stingrays, giant stingrays, black stingrays, gray stingrays...it was epically epic. I'm usually not a fan of touching wildlife of any kind and stingrays, well, they killed the crocodile hunter and he was pretty bad ass so normally I wouldn't even think of putting my hand in a tank of these things...but for some odd reason I really, really wanted to. And I LOVED it!

Oh, and ladies, try not to be too jealous but I have one more picture to share. My anniversary gift from my loving hubs:

 Some women get jewelry, some women get showered with priceless gems. I get a ceramic pig with a tiara and a tutu and it's absolutely perfect proving that my hubs "gets" me. :)

It's Not Time to Panic Yet!

Mood: Irritated (Seriously, I had a great blog post all written and my computer flaked and now? It's gone)

What I'm Watching: King of the Hill (I tell you what!)

For those of you who don't know, I live in central Illinois. It's a place where ice, snow and freezing temperatures are as common in the winter as corn, soybeans and road construction are in the summer. Currently we're under a winter weather warning calling for 7 - 12" of snow, high winds and sub zero temps. Honestly? I'm totally aware of the complete suckage factor involved here. Shoveling snow, slipping on the ice and scraping my car windows are definitely NOT a few of my favorite things. However, having lived here my entire life, I've come to accept them as inevitable like death, taxes and bad tv talk shows (Maury, I'm totally looking at you here).

So, I have to admit complete confusion when other people treat any forecast for more than a dusting of snow as a cause for complete panic. People? We live in an area where this weather is not unusual. We have snow plows and salt trucks to handle the situation. There is no need to rush out in a blind panic to strip the stores of every last bit of milk, bread and toilet paper. It's a snowstorm, not the end of the freaking world.

Also, if you're out driving in the sucky snowy weather, please drive carefully. You may think you can drive 70 mph in this weather but let me assure you, you can't. While I don't necessarily care if you run your idiot self into the ditch (and you will), I'm going to be incredibly ticked if you take me along with you. Seriously. Ticked.

And, for those of you who don't live in an area blessed with the kind of snow we can get here, I've thoughtfully provided pictures from last winter for your snowy enjoyment.

This is the window of our old aparment that has snow drifted halfway up it. We got a few more inches after this picture was taken but it gives you an idea.

This is a picture of an ice storm we had last January. Can't really tell from this pic but there's about two inches of solid ice covering everything. Still? We managed to get out and about so still no need to panic folks!