respublica

A rebuttal

The other day the New York Times published an essay on the opinion page written by a east coast transplant to St. Louis in which she described her initial bewilderment about this city and then her transformation into loving it.

This received a lot of attention around here and yesterday the Riverfront Times published a rebuttal titled: 10 Reasons St. Louis Hates Outsiders. This was the most unfunny, poorly written thing I've seen in a long time which is too bad, a better writer or a writer who took his/her time, could have made an iconic column out of this.

Yesterday saw 96 degrees

An unwelcome glimpse at summer yesterday. Here's Ferdie after his after dinner walk.

Thankfully that hot air did not hang around, today will be much better.

Circle Slash

I love the sense of humor that pops up here at Concordia Seminary. 

From a distance this looked like a no smoking sign but get closer and you see it.

May have to break down and buy an ice cream maker

This is a confession. While not ordinarily an ice cream fanatic, I don't want ice cream anytime of the day or night and am pretty rigid about flavors, I have become somewhat addicted to dark chocolate ice cream and look forward to 5 or 6 spoonfuls of it a couple hours after dinner. I first discovered the amazingness of dark chocolate ice cream when Sheer Bliss showed up in a few local grocery stores. Then those grocery stores abruptly stopped carrying it. Oh woe. After trial and error trying other brands of dark chocolate I found Haagen Dazs had a nearly perfect version and it's one of their 'classic flavors". It only comes in pints and all the St. Louis grocery chains had it, not all stores in their chains but many. 

Now all of a sudden none of the locals have it anymore and it seems impossible to believe. The dark chocolate Haagen Dazs always seemed to sell before the rest. I even accosted the Schnuck's Haagen Dazs supplier when I came across him in the Richmond Center Schnucks and asked what has happened to the dark chocolate. He said he would look into it and if he had any, he'd put them next to the vanilla. Well, he didn't. Find any. He said he was the Haagen Dazs person for this area so I'm on the lookout for him to ask why St. Louis won't be able to buy this flavor anymore. I also asked the manager of the Schnuck's in Frontenac why it was no longer being sold and he said he'd check and get back to me.  He didn't. What is it about St. Louis? This is true of Dierburgs and Straubs although Straubs seems to have few dark chocolates left in their back freezer but they won't be replenished. 

If the same guy is in charge of that company's ice cream for this area, it's doubtful we'll see it anymore. I'd just like to know why. It's not as though they don't stock dozens of flavors as well as added, like the Triscuit people, new stuff like too many types of Haagen Dazs Gelato. 

All this has made me start looking up ways to make my own dark chocolate ice cream which means getting an ice cream maker and I'm not ready for that. I feel like Christi of Love From the Oven felt some time back.

"I’m not sure why I don’t.  I think it’s probably because most of the recipes have a lot of steps, and I have a seriously short attention span which tunes out after step seven of almost anything.  Well that and the fact that seeing the amount of cream that goes into ice cream is a bit mind boggling."

Maybe I should try tweeting Schnucks and Dierburgs about this before I go and spend money on something that probably won't work well for me. 

Taking a fireworks test

Seems there is a new law in Belleville which requires people to show proof they have taken a 15 minute fireworks safety class and pass a test before they are allowed to purchase fireworks. The story does not say they must have taken this class in order to shoot them off, however. Does this mean residents of Belleville will more likely go over to outstate Missouri and buy their fireworks at one of the roadside stands?

Best cities in Illinois for young families

A study by Nerdwallet (not as silly a site as the name would imply) did a study on which Illinois cities were best for young families. They looked to answer 3 questions: 1. Does the town have good public schools, 2. Can you afford to live there, and 3. Is the town growing and prospering?

The metro east has the top two of the ten Illinois cities listed, Edwardsville and O'Fallon. When you beat out Chicago suburbs for top spots, that has to make you feel good. These two are followed in order by Charleston, Grayslake, New Lenox, Geneva, Huntley, Downers Grove, Elmhurst, and Orland Park.

I certainly can believe Elmhurst since I grew up right next door to that town, but I'd question if it answers "Can you afford to live there" especially if you are a young family. But anyway..

Kudos to the Metro East.

Yep

Via Paul McCain

Food question

Are there really that many people who like mandarin oranges to justify so many recipes which include them?

Sod down

Got the sod, drove it to Collinsville, laid it, watered it and here it is. Still need maybe two more pieces to fill in where the sod did not reach the edges.

Still work to do back there but it looks so much better. Much more room without all that ivy and butterfly bush mess.

Even all those rocks are gone! Yay.

Call for hours

We've finished preparing a 40 square foot area of the backyard in Collinsville, worked all weekend tearing out butterfly bushes and pulling out miles of English Ivy. Then we worked up the soil. Now all we need is sod. I have to say all that work really makes the yard look bigger and it opens up our periferal vision. Before, that corner was just so crowded it made things seem messy and suffocating, which it was.

Today my plan is to get sod and the only place I know of that reliably has it is a nursery in south St. Louis, but when to go? I need to get there fairly early since there are many things on the agenda today. So I went to their website to see when they open and found this notice: Call for Hours.  I mean, seriously, what business does this? Shouldn't hours of operation be one of the main points on a business website? I do not plan to call, I've been in nurseries where things are busy enough that it takes some time before anyone answers. I'm guessing 10 and going with that.