I came across a little garden shop in a remote section of south city. This small, old Chinese man behind the counter sold me these "special" daffodil bulbs, claiming they possessed some ancient magic. As I thoughtfully gazed at them, I heard a clap of thunder and the old man was gone. I took them home and planted them in the front yard. Months later, the morning after a full moon, I went to pick up the paper, I noticed the bulbs had sprouted. All seemed normal at first, but when I arrived home from work today, I discovered they had grown to something John refers to as "Rothian Proportions." As this photograph clearly shows, they have reached nearly 12 feet in height. I fear they will soon take over the whole neighborhood, and eventually block out the sun. If this leads to the extinction of all mankind, all I can say is that I'm sorry.

Here in Your Bedroom

We now have a tv in our bedroom. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be watching on it in there. This is the only time I have had a tv in my bedroom, except in my dorm room, which was my living room, bedroom, kitchen, and office all in one tiny room that I shared with Tammy. We turn it on in the morning, so we don't have to walk all the way out to the living room.(?) We turn it on at night, two minutes before we go to sleep. I am totally against falling asleep in front of it. I tried to watch it one evening after work, but Java just sat outside the door and howled. Plus, I felt so isolated in there.

What do you watch on your tv in your bedroom?

Website My Dad Should Never See

John found this website today about Sex Offenders. You can put in whatever name you like, and whatever zip code you like, and it will give you a list of sex offenders that match. There are quite a few in my zip code, a statistic I'm sure my dad would not approve of. At least he's never said he thinks he will get shot outside of our house. I am happy to say that there are many more Mooney's on the list than Hoffmeister's. Plus, McRee Town is in our zip code.

I think this website will come in handy the next time we are interviewing people at the winery, or for any of my single friends to check out their current beau. Not too many girls' names on this list.

This website definitely gives me the creeps.

Speaking of the creeps, I saw a car crash this morning, and the lady was all bloody, laying on the road, not moving. Made me cry.

T.D.'s Diagnoses

You're never going to believe this one. Two years ago, when we took Tony Danza in to be declawed and neutered, they FORGOT to neuter him. I'm totally mystified by that one. We took T.D. to the vet today, and that's what he told us. Don't worry, we PAID for the neutering, two years ago. This explains a lot, including his ginormous head, his missing hair on his tail, his balls that look a lot bigger than the other three cats' balls, and his spraying last week. He is neutered now, the vet did it for free (what a nice guy.) Officially it wasn't free since we paid for it two years ago. He looks so sad now, and he is totally out of it, he can't even walk, so we decided to keep him in his pet carrier for a little while.

Word of advice: Don't go to the Affton Vet Clinic on Gravois.

John plays this game on the computer called Pingu, where you hit a penguin with a bat, and the penguin says "whee!" and you see how far he went.

The Grizzly was in the water, playing with a ball.

John's favorite is the Polar Bear. He was playing with a stick.

The Zoo

On Monday, I had a meeting at the Zoo concerning an event that they have every other year that we pour wine at called Zoofari. It's a fun event. Two years ago they had KC and the Sunshine band, and this year they are having the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies. John is on spring break this week, so he went to the meeting too. Afterwards, we walked around the Zoo a little. It was chilly, but the animals loved it. I know every time someone goes to the Zoo, they come back with pictures, and all the pictures are the same, how many time can you look at pictures of a rhinoceros's butt? I did have a good time taking pictures, and thought I'd share.

Another noteworthy thing to say in this post, is that my cousin, Heather had her first baby today, a son (no name that I know of yet.) He was 8 lbs, 3 oz, and she was in labor 35 hours. Is that humanly possible? Anywho, congrats Heath and G.

It's Official

As of the next school year, John will be teaching at Ste. Genevieve Junior and High Schools. He interviewed for the job a couple weeks ago, and the superintendant and principle recommended to the school board last night that they hire John for the band director position. The school board accepted. He will be teaching 6-12 grade band, plus jazz band, and marching band. He is excited because Ste. Gen has a football team, and he will be able to write a show for halftime, and be a part of the Friday night football madness that so many schools have. Bayless does not have football.

Tonight while dad was talking to one of our employees on the phone, the other guy said he heard on the local radio that John was hired. News travels SO fast in Ste. Gen.

Patience

In one week from today, we can drink John's beer. We have waited for two weeks, seems like an eternity. We have tasted one, merely for research purposes. =) Come to me, March 28th, make me wait no more. (delirious from lack of beer.)

We conquered you, you little toilet paper holder. We won!

Before

House Project

Anyone who has been to our house in the past two months or more has probably noticed that our toilet paper dispenser in our bathroom came out of the wall. The soap dispenser fell off the wall, and that was so easy to fix, we decided to fix the t.p. holder too, because it was cracked, and ugly. This project took much longer because when we took the old one off, it left a huge hole in our wall. The patching cement had to be put on in 1/4 inch increments, so it took forever. I am happy to say that this weekend, we finally finished it (John did all the work, I just like saying 'we.') I am trying to post pictures, but the picture adding aspect of this blog seems to be messed up, or really, really slow. I know you're just dying to see pictures of our toilet paper, I won't disappoint you. =)

Small Town

The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small
They use small words-
but not me
I'm smarter than that
I worked it out
I've been stretching my mouth
To let those big words come right out

Big Time- Peter Gabriel

Update

I just found this article on a cat website saying that the cat will never mark it's territory to make the owner mad, he does it because he feels stressed, or the litter box isn't clean, or he doesn't like where the litter box is. It says I should wash the litter box every other day. Do people really wash their cats' litter box every other day? Then it says you should never scold your cat for marking his territory, that just makes him more stressed. =( It also says you should take your cat to the vet, there might be something wrong with him he's trying to tell you.

Poor Tony Danza.

On a good note, he doesn't seem too scared of me, so maybe he forgot how mean I was to him.

Looks like I have some kitty litter cleaning to do (YUM!), and looks like T.D. is going to the vet.

Cold Hard Reason #1 Not to Have Kids

There are lots of reasons not to have kids, I'm not that excited about going through labor, or THE IV!, I'm not that into pastel baby clothes and diaper bags, John and I get along really well, and a baby will definently change our relationship, etc. Mostly, though, lately, I haven't been talking about not having babies. I have been talking and contimplating having babies. I am even taking prenatal vitamins, which is the first real step for me in this baby making journey. Last night I experienced something that set me back into "I don't want to be a mom" thoughts.

Let me preface this by saying I know a lot of you are going to think this is stupid, it has to do with a cat, not a baby. You can not compare raising a child to owning a cat. One of my favorite conversations with John's dad, David, was about just this. He had mentioned a time or two that he hates when people call their pets "baby," and call themselves "mommy" or "daddy." The next time we went down there, I mentioned that I thought this was o.k., and he went off, and got all fired up, and I just laughed because I had found one of his buttons. =) He is always trying to talk about stuff he knows we don't want to talk about, and I was happy to turn it back on him, just for once.

Last night John and I are sitting in the living room watching House, and Tony Danza peed in the fireplace. John saw him do it. So, I got up to catch him, and he jumped up into his favorite part of the cat tree, where I usually stand and scratch him and love on him. He didn't even know he did anything wrong. He thought I was going to give him attention. I picked him up, took him back to the fireplace, rubbed his nose in it, scolded him, yelled at him, slapped him a time or two (call Social Services) and he ran away. I went downstairs to switch the laundry, he was down there, and I yelled at him again, then I brought the laundry up, and unexpectedly started crying. John just stared at me. I was trying to tell him what I thought I was crying about, because it surprised me that I was crying too. Finally, I told him I was sad I had to scold him, because he didn't even know he did anything wrong. John said, that's why we have to help him see what he did wrong, so he doesn't do it again. I told him I don't want to be a mom. I don't want to be in this position ever again. It made me so sad.

I guess this is how parents who don't discipline their kids feel?

Send Help

Desperately Seeking Good Advice for Filling out My NCAA Bracket. Comment Immediately.

St. Louis Wind Symphony

John plays in a musical group called the St. Louis Wind Symphony. Yesterday was the last concert he will probably play in. It is fun for him, but they don't get paid, and it takes up a fair amount of time. It was a great opportunity for John, and the music they play is really beautiful. The Mizzou Symphonic Wind Ensemble band played too. It was interesting to hear how the two bands sound so different. Our good friend, Mike Knight was in town for the performance too, so it was nice to see him.

See John in the back with his tuba?

March in March

Today was the St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown. Our friends, the Sutters, are part of the Irish Arts, and thier daughters, Sally and Jill dance, and play Irish instruments. Sally is in college now, so she didn't dance, but Jill did. I love the "riverdance" style of dancing, it just gives me the chills. The Bayless Marching Bronchos were there also, and they did a mighty fine job. I just love downtown. Even though it isn't as beautiful as other cities' downtown, I love the energy and the feel of being part of something so busy.

Now we are spending our Saturday night at home, John is making a pizza, and we rented The Big Bounce. Our life is pretty good. =)

Jill

Home Show

I got roped into volunteering for the Home and Garden Show, at the Ste. Gen booth. I brought along Sara and John. They told me we had to wear French Colonial Outfits, and we did( John did not.) It kind of sucked, but we got lots of attention. We passed out many Ste. Genevieve brochures, and sent lots of people to the winery. Sara felt much more comfortable in her outfit than I did in mine.

The best part about the show was the Friskies cat team. We saw the cats on the Friskies commercials, and they did lots of tricks, like play basketball. =) Sara even won a free box of cat food.

Don't make fun, or we'll get Medieval on your ass.

Open Invitation

The Bayless Marching Bronchos, under the direction of John Mooney will be in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown St. Louis this Saturday, March12, starting at noon. I will be there, wearing green and drinking either coffee or green beer, depending on how I'm feeling(and what we do Friday night.) This will be the last time you can see John direct this band. =)

FYI: The cell phone is lost, and I cancelled my Verizon account, and will be opening a Cingular account soon. The point is, don't call the cell phone, because we can't answer it. =) You have to call our home number, which is unlisted, and I'm not going to post it here, so if you need it, and don't have it, you'll have to ask someone, or email me.

If You Don't Have An Opinion, Get One

I don't think Ms. Menard had American Idol in mind when she said that freshman year, but nonetheless, I put her advice to work last night. (The truth is, I hated Ms. Menard, but I do remember her saying this.) We watch American Idol, and I don't really like it. How can you like a show that has Gene Simmons and Paul Anka as guest judges? Last night I decided that if we are going to watch it, I was going to vote. So, even though John says I'm a big nerd, I voted for Anthony Federov, Nikko Smith and Anwar Robinson. How many other shows can you interact with in this way? They need a Survivor where the public votes off the competitors. I would be ALL OVER that. =)

Bottling Again

We bottled the beer tonight. Come over in 21 days, and taste our Bavarian Dunkelweisen. It's supposed to taste like a Paulaner Hefeweisen, dark but not too dark, with hints of bananas and cloves. Sounds good to me.

Brew Day

John thought it was time to bottle, so he racked the beer out of the carboy into the bucket that has a spigot at the bottom so he can easily fill his bottles. After checking the specific gravity, he realized the beer is not finished with the primary fermentation, so it will finish fermenting in this bucket, the "Ale Pail." I am just hoping it can be out of the bedroom from now on. Amanda brought up the fact that last year, our heating bill was outrageous, so we sat in our house everynight at 60 degrees with blankets and sweatshirts. Now we are on budgeting billing, and we did some insulating, so our heating bill isn't so bad. Last year, we couldn't even heat ourselves, and this year we heat the beer. =(

This is looking into the carboy after we racked the beer out of it. These are the settlings left at the bottom.

Cleaning EVERYTHING

Siphoning (in winemaking we call this racking)

Liquid Bananas

John the Umpire

John is taking a softball umpire test this morning. It's fun to think about. He knows so much about sports, might as well put it to use. Plus, I keep thinking, he'll be an excellent coach for our kids (whenever they appear) because he'll know all the rules. I'm pretty sure he knows all the rules now, but there might be a few obscure ones out there. Don't get in his face, though, he'll be sure to kick you out of the game. Surburban softball dads beware!

He's so Regal.

Get out your buff, it's time to watch Survivor!

It's All About Hannah

Saturday was my niece Hannah's 7th birthday. We all got together on Sunday at Joe and Amanda's house. When I arrived, I was the first one there, and the kids were ready for guests, and happy that the party was beginning. I claimed I was the best aunt ever, because I was there first. Moments later I realized I forgot Hannah's present. Oh how quickly one can go from the best aunt ever to the worst. =(

7 Candles

Hannah