Domestic Geek

I had a pretty decent day today. Of course, the worst day of vacation is still better than the best day at work. LOL

I decided to wander around St. Louis today. I was going to visit the Daniel Boone home, but it cost $12. Unfortunatley, I'm kind of poor. I'm saving the money to either ride over the arch or take a riverboat tour. I wanted to go to Grant's Farm where they keep the Budweiser Clydesdales, but they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I ended up just wandering around. I found a really neat art supply/scrapbooking store. I wish they had something like that in Denver. They had a LOT of stuff. I also found a cool scrapbook store called For Keeps Sakes. The lady there was really nice and suggested I go see the historic courthouse where Lincoln spoke often and some other things around town that are free. I'll probably do that tomorrow. Marcus and I are going to do the arch thing tomorrow, too.

We were just watching the news and see that several tornados hit the eastern part of the Denver metro area today. Nifty.

Marcus and I went to Hardees for lunch. We were hoping it was like the Hardees that used to be in Colorado (roast beef Arby's-like sandwiches). It was actually a Carl's Junior. *sigh* After thinking about it, I remembered the old Hardees in Colorado Springs on Garden of the Gods was now a Carl's. Oh, well. The decor in it was pretty cool. It looked like a diner. Pictures will be posted later.

We got dinner from a place called Steak 'n Shake and brought it back tot he hotel so we could watch CSI: Miami. It was pretty yummy. They have these half and half shakes. You pick two of your favorite shake flavors and they come in the same cup.

Since the St. Louis Cardinals are in the baseball playoffs, the town here is going nuts. They had some kind of rally today under the arch and I was listening to the radio broadcast of it when I was driving to pick Marcus up from work. It was weird hearing Wayne Hagen (former voice of the Colorado Rockies) talk about another team. The funny thing about listening to St. Louis radio is the traffic reports. They kept talking about heavy traffic and the sad thing was that their "bad" traffic is still way better than our "good" traffic. It was funny.

Speaking of funny, do you know that there are bible factory outlet stores? We saw that on a billboard coming in last night. That's too much.

I'm really tired, so I think I'll hit the hay.

Howdy, all, from St. Louis! After a late start yesterday morning, we made it to St. Louis about 11 pm central time. Mapquest directions to the hotel were wrong (which totally sucked) and we got a tiny bit lost. Oh, well, we made it. I'll get the street system figured out just in time to leave! We've got complimentary high speed internet here at the hotel, so I'll post more later. This hotel is really nice. It's one of those extended stay suite things, so we've got a kitchenette and a sitting area. The bed was pretty comfy,too. So, we've got to go get breakfast and figure out how to get Marcus to work.

Current mood: excited
So, not trying to get myself too excited about my Tennessee trip, but things are looking good.

The bad part about this trip was that neither Marcus' nor my car was going to survive the trip. He was going to have to pay for a rental and was looking at compacts to get us there cheap. Wasn't really looking forward to 2200+ miles round trip in a tiny car. Also, Marcus was saying that there probably wouldn't be a lot of time for off the path exploring like I like to do. Plus the new module at school starts next week and I didn't want to miss even more classes. I was seriously contemplating not going.

It turns out that I only have one class the next ten weeks (one night - Wed), so I spoke with that teacher and she doesn't think me missing the first class will be that big of a deal. Also, with the way my back feels and as much as I absolutely HATE my manager right now, a week off of work will be great. It's going to be a strain financially (I'll be on a major eBay selling spree when I get back), but WTH, I need a break!

Anyway, Marcus calls two nights ago with what I thought would be bad news regarding the trip as deduced from the tone of his voice. His work needs someone Monday/Tuesday at the St. Louis store and since he's going to be close to the area, he offered to go. In return, they'd pay for our rental car and three night's hotel stay (and not a Motel 6, even) in St. Louis. That's awesome! I've never been to St. Louis and even if I can't find anywhere cool to go, two whole days of rest and relaxation! I'll only need to take one more day off from work than I originally intended. Big deal, just more work for asshole manager to do. *maniacal giggle*

So, any suggestions on things I must see in St. Louis?

Current mood: puzzled
So, I had an interesting realization as I was showering. It seems that every year that ends in a 4 is a really sucky year for me. This year has totally sucked ass. 1994 was the year Marcus and I moved to Colorado Springs and were really poor, my car got repo'd (that's OK as it was broken anyway), I had to sell my plasma to eat, I broke my saxophone and that was the last time I played, etc. 1984 was the year my grandmother died, I got mono and missed six weeks of school and all-state band tryouts. Weird, huh? I can't remember major things that happened in 1974, so Dad (I know you're reading this), help me out. What happened to us in '74? Years that end in 9 seem to be the next worst. So, basically, every year at five year intervals has major suckiness in it. Does that happen to anyone else?

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