Patriotic(?) Flag Butt

Flag sales doubled in 1988 when George H. Bush’s election campaign made it a major party sound bite, only to disappear from his agenda once he was elected.  Besides, the fact that the flag sales increase reflect the unintended consequences that flag burning actually promotes flag patriotism.  I’d wager a single documented case of flag burning has got to be good for sales of tens-of-thousands of flags to an inspired citizenry who chose to confront the American hating, anarchist, pinko, terrorists who would do such a thing, by sticking flags on poles outside their front door.  I don’t see what that does to the flag burner but it does encourage the Jones's to get one too so as not to appear less loyal to the country by not having a flag prominently displayed.  Either way, I’m certain that the Chinese can make as many of the Star Spangled Banners as we desire to comfort ourselves in this manner.

Personally I’m not advocating flag burning as a form of expression, any more than I would advocate mistreatment of the Koran.  Both are hateful and hurtful acts to groups of people that in the absence of police protection, would certainly get you an ass kicking from the faithful at the very least.  However, I am filled with great pride to live in a land where every “idiot” has a right to say what they think and believe, even if it’s asinine and mean spirited (that even applies to the regular commentators on Fox TV and AM talk radio).

Perhaps one of the philosophers that inspired our founding fathers to risk it all (Voltaire) said it best in “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”  The whole flag burning discussion brings to mind a quote from one of our foundering fathers that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” - Samuel Johnson 7 April 1775.  Perhaps even more applicable is Ambrose Bierce’s refinement from The Devil’s Dictionary: “In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel.  With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first.”

PS> Can you tell I had flight delays both coming and going on a recent trip of over 15 hours, so I had way too much time to write and got a bit goofy?

Jane and the P&G Blues

While we’re grumping, where did Jane’s princess fixation come from?  Except for a Snow White doll (a gift), we haven’t exposed her to such things.  We haven’t read any princess books and there haven’t been any princesses in the movies she’s watched.  There are princesses on the Fractured Fairy Tale segments of Bullwinkle, but we can’t see how that would foster princess envy in any way.  Never-the-less, it’s seeped in.  Hopefully it will prove harmless.  Still, we’re frequently amazed at the depth of Jane’s natural inclination towards such girly things, in absence of any clear cultural influences in this regard at home.  It looks like we can chalk up another mark for nature on the nature versus nurture debate.

Time Out for Cate

As the summer begins, Cate has reached the stage of coming back at her older sister whenever Jane takes something from her while her parent’s attention is turned elsewhere or abuses her in other ways.  It was hard not to take some happy pride when Cate yanked Jane’s hair in response to a sibling assault, even if it earned her one of her first time outs.  At first, Cate hadn’t quite figured out that Time Out was a reason to be unhappy.  Typically she’d sit on a counter stool, happily talking to herself.  Jane did the same thing at first but it quickly passed for both of them.  Still it’s kind of cute.  Subsequently Cate’s favorite form of retribution became biting.  This was in no small part  due to it’s effectiveness in stopping Jane from what she was doing, which frequently involved her holding Cate’s arms.  Although not condoned, every time it has occurred, it appears that Jane instigated the situation (or the Blame Jane theory, which sounds vaguely similar to the part of the Sage Sibling "motto" in regards to “Blame Bethany”).

How Ya Gonna Keep Down on the Farm

…after they see how it works?  In Mid-July, the Indy cousins came in for a visit and on Friday, we (Bethany, Randy and Gramy) took the gang to the Purina Mills Farm in Gray Summit.  Admission is free and you can see and pet a number of farm animals.  Besides being fun, we thought it would be educational and a good use of all the animal sound knowledge they gained their from their library books (one out of 4 new born books is focused on teaching the important life skills of imitating various domesticated mammals and poultry).  The center piece activity was spending about 30 minutes waiting and witnessing a cow being milked.  The milker did a thorough job of sanitizing the utter before starting but the “dirt” caked on the heifer’s rear end was more organic in origin (fortunately none of the kids realized this).

 

Watching the cow milking demonstration at Purina Farms

The gang enjoyed seeing all the critters and petting the bunnies but the tractor pedal cars and tunnel maze in the hay loft section of the barn held their interest more. The biggest hit with the kids was the dog show, where 3 dogs jumped through hoops and shot hoops.  For the next week the kids would repeat the chant of encouragement to the hoop dunking golden retriever “Go Sandy, Go Sandy, Go Sandy”. There were no exhibits on the final purpose of the pigs, chickens and cattle, so they haven’t decided to become vegetarians (yet….hee…hee…hee! Did I say that out loud? – Randy).

Family Road Trip/Working Vacation/Smuggling Expedition

Randy had a one-day site visit for work on the Outer Banks of North Carolina (Nags Head Bombing Target), which was reason enough for our second family road trip in a month.  On the way out we visited family (i.e. crashed at their houses) in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.  A visit with the Indy Sages was much appreciated by the girls who delighted in assisting their cousins disperse every toy they have throughout the house.  Children are definitely entropic.  We watched the five toddlers for the evening while eating Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake pizza (it’s fabulous in case you haven’t tried it yet).  The next couple days we over-ran the Ciccone household in Ben Avon Pittsburgh.  As usual we stayed up way too late every night talking.  We had a great time but it’s not clear if we’ll be welcomed back any time soon after Bethany's adjustment of the shower head, resulted in it raining through the kitchen light fixture on the ceiling below.

Katie, Don, Jane, Bethany and Cate enjoying the summer evening

Jane and Cate are all set for a wagon ride courtesy of Dad at Katie and Don's house

Jane helping Randy blow out candles on his birthday pizza

En route we passed through the Washingtons (PA and DC).  At Washpa, we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Bethany’s Alma matter (Washington and Jefferson College) and a State Liquor store.  Actually the later represented a significant motive for taking the trip: stocking up on some of our favorite items not available in St. Louis:  Yuengling’s Black and Tan, Genesee Cream Ale (for Gramy) and pickled eggs.  At other places we stocked up on Skyline Chili and got in our annual IKEA fix (we scored a few cases of Schaefer Light on out trip to Texas a month ago).  Given the quantities, we were probably technically breaking a few laws about interstate transport of alcohol.  We think the vernacular for this is SMUGGLING, which makes it sound exciting and dangerous, though we doubt even an overzealous DA would elevate our activities to such a notorious level (even if we were running for public office).  Still we had fun, likening ourselves to Bo and Luke Duke screaming down the back roads of America transporting their Uncle Jesse’s ‘shine.  We didn’t think welding the doors closed, having a horn playing “Dixie” or a Confederate Battle Flag painted on the roof was our style though but Randy did consider painting the Bill of Rights on the roof (It’s about rights, not righteousness!) but you know how far that got.

Cate Bethany and Jane at W&J

Randy and Jane with a few cases of beer and pickled eggs in WashPa

We spent a few days in Portsmouth area of Hampton Roads, which was the closet metropolitan area to Nags Head target which was the official purpose of the trip.  This allowed us a visit to the nearby Virginia Beach.  The weather was terrific but the allure of VB must be a function of accessibility to locations within a few hundred miles, because we couldn’t see where it compared favorably to any of the Florida beaches we’ve visited in the past.  We didn’t so much swim as allow the waves to crash in over us.  The pounding of the waves pretty much left only sand on the beach, so there was no shell collecting.  Also since the waves were so forceful, they carried large amounts of sand with them, which clung underneath our suits with a surprising vengeance.  Once was enough, and we stuck to the pool afterwards.

Cate Bethany and Jane at Virginia Beach

Bethany and Jane at Virginia Beach

Randy and a concerned Cate enjoying (?) the waves at Virginia Beach

We tried to keep our drives to less than 300 miles to not over tax the girl’s patience in the van.  On the last day we went for broke and did the 515 miles from Charleston, WV to Webster Groves in 1 day.  Still we had to break out the nursery rhyme CD a couple of times to all sing “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in order to calm Cate down.  Other musical selections found less favorable ears in the back row.  While listening to the Carpenter’s “We’ve Only Just Begun”, Jane let us know in no uncertain terms that she would prefer some thing else (“NOT THAT ONE!  NOT THAT ONE!  NOT THAT ONE!  MARY POPPINS!).  Bethany replied, “Jane you shouldn’t be so picky”.  Upon thinking on it some, we took this as another clear indication that the common standard parents curse (You should have children just like you), had indeed taken affect from our parent’s previous thoughts 30+ years earlier.

Happy Jane in car seat	Happy Cate in car seat

Jane's 3rd Birthday

At the beginning of August, we celebrated Jane’s third birthday.

Jane at 3

A few days earlier we, (joined also by Aunt Rhonda and Nana, who was out of town on her actual birthday as tradition holds) went to Chevy’s and Jane got the ice cream, staff singing, and sombrero treatment.

Bethany and Cate at Chevy's

On her birthday Bethany made Jane the traditional Sage Castle cake (now in its third generation!).   Randy’s helpful suggestions about making a Hershey’s Kiss tossing catapult to go along with it went no where.  The St. Louis Sage Clan turned out in force for the festivities (and complementary beer and pizza).  The next day, we went to the Magic House, Fortel’s Pizza and Ted Drewe’s as Randy’s fraternity brothers Mike Mall and Anthony Holmes and his family (Lesha, Alex and Amanda) came in for a one day visit.  Jane was a little disappointed to return to a non-Jane focused reality on Sunday night.

Jane, Bethany and the 3rd generational Castle Cake

Mike, Anthony, Lesha, Alex, Amanda, Martha, Bethany, Cate and Jane enjoying their frozen custard treats

Randy and Cate playing in the sand box at Magic House

Wall Party in Indianapolis

The last weekend in August, we traveled to Indianapolis for the third time since Memorial Day weekend.  We availed ourselves of the Indy Sage’s hospitality again arriving on Friday and the oldest cousins had a slumber party.

Cousin Slumber party

We had a lazy Saturday morning around the house reading stories and playing with the kids.

Randy reading to Lloyd, Jane and Katie

We followed this with a very pleasant walk along the former railroad right-of-way to Broad Ripple and the Central Canal to feed the ducks and have some coffee.  However, the real reason for our road trip was to attend the annual Wall Party.

Jenny, Justin, Jane, Lloyd, Cate, Katie and Bethany along the Broad Ripple Canal

What’s a Wall Party you ask?   Well it started out as a themed drinking party by the 3 roommates that anchored our former Sunday Dinner Group (Kathy, Rebecca and Traci).  The party took it’s inspiration from a St. Louis bar, Milo’s-on-the-Hill, where if you drank 8 mixed drinks pictured on the one of the walls, you could sign you name to the walls of the bar.  It was a rite of passage of sorts for the recently legal youth of St. Louis beginning in the 1970s.  Given the mixed drink costs at the bar and the DUI potential (more like probability), it was decided to replicate the theme at a location where everyone could crash afterwards, expand the drink choices to drink categories and reduce the number of drinks to 6 (not that this had much influence on sobriety).  The first few years were rousing successes with much merriment and silliness. As people finished their doctorial work at Wash. U. and moved on to other places, the party transformed into a reunion event but with a continued emphasis on drinking.  Things began to mature, albeit only a bit in 2003, when we brought a one year old.  By 2005, three couples with children and another expecting, the numbers of the people drinking “a Wall” to those not was about even (and no one seriously considered doing 2 walls, although someone who will go nameless, made some noise in this regard).  Still a good time seemed to be had by all, and with some coercion the group constructed a human pyramid, as was the tradition in the past.

Wall Party Pyramid Top: Rebecca and Natalie Middle: Traci, Dave?, Felix, Bob, Bill and Christine Bottom: Bethany, Randy, Alex, Mark and Elka

Here’s a list of the past Wall parties a best as we could come up with
1996 University City (Kathy, Rebecca and Traci’s apartment)
1997 University City (Kathy, Rebecca and Traci’s apartment)
1998 University City (Kathy, Rebecca and Natalie’s apartment) – T-shirt Wall
1999 University City (Kathy, Rebecca and Natalie’s apartment) – Duck Wall
2000 November Chapel Hill, NC (Traci’s)
2001 Chapel Hill, NC (Traci’s)
2002 Chapel Hill, NC (Traci’s)
2003 August Bethlehem, PA (Kathy and Alex’s)
2004 August St. Louis, MO (Bob’s)
2005 August 27 Indianapolis (Bill and Rebecca’s)
and next year: 2006 August St. Louis/Webster Groves (Randy and Bethany’s)

Jane joins the ranks of Academia

On 1 September, Jane began her first day of pre-school.  She’s enrolled in the half-day program on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Bristol Early Childhood Education Center in Webster Groves.  She’s in the same classroom as her friend and neighbor Adeline Liss.  Jane was very proud of her lavender backpack with her name on it (placed in clear disregard of the anti-child kidnapping hysteria advice).  She really enjoyed it and and has come home singing all sorts of NEW songs and has interestingly new ways of saying things...  After her third day in pre-school, we had an outbreak of "pink eye" in both girls.  We’re sure this will be the first of many tests of their immune systems that come with school/actvity enrollment.

Jane dressed and ready for her first day at preschool

Micah and Tiffany's Wedding in Chicago

As soon as Jane got out of her first day in pre-school, we traveled to Chicago (actually the suburbs of Lombard) for the wedding of the last Sage Sibling, Micah to Tiffany Slack.  We got there a day ahead of the pack to do some touristy stuff before all the FFF over Labor Day weekend.  On Friday we drove down town to visit the city’s most popular tourist destination: the Navy Pier.  We rode the Ferris Wheel and the carousel there and had a pretty good time.  However, we figured we spent at least $55 after parking, ride fees and tolls, which seemed a bit steep.  The Shedd Aquarium, Art Institute and/or Field Museum would certainly have been more but probably would have been the better value.  We followed this with a visit to Superdawg Drive In at Milwaukee and Devon for lunch (it was featured on a PBS documentary on hot dogs).  Bethany had the signature hot dog and thought it about the best she ever had but it still didn’t make a hot dog lover out of her.  Randy thought the fish sandwich was better than average.

Jane, Cate and Bethany on Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

Jane rides a frog on the carousel at Navy Pier

That evening Randy joined the guys for a White Sox / Tigers baseball game to mark Micah’s 2nd to last night as a bachelor.  Randy’s inquiries into whether local custom dictated the “laking” of the groom to baptize him into his new life went unanswered but the gang did have beers at the game and the groom was christened with a mullet as part of mullet night at the park, which has to be at least as good (and not as likely as to stink someone’s car up with a wet inebriated bachelor).

Mullet Micah hugs Brother Van

Saturday morning was the wedding rehearsal, followed by a luncheon hosted by the Sages at the Weber Grill Restaurant (home to the 2nd largest Weber Grill in the World).  As per Sage Family tradition, they serenaded the couple with a song for the occasion.  It’s as follows to the tune of the Beatles’ song “OB-LA-DI”:

Micah was the youngest of the 5 Sage kids
Went to Dayton in the Year-2-K
There he studied business, went to football games
And on Sundays he was singing with the choir.

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, Micah’s happy
The Sage Family will grow by one.

Tiff’ny was the oldest of the Slack siblings
Growing up in Chi-town, Illinois
Studying math at Dayton, learning how to teach
Didn’t know that’d be the place she’d find her Man.

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, Micah’s happy
The Sage Family will grow by one.

In a couple of months they would road-trip to St. Lou
(Go Cardinals~go Cardinals~go Cardinals)
Met his fam’ly, had some Sage pizza
Watched the Cardinals s-weep the Cubs.
(HA-HA-HA-HA)

Happy now the time has come for getting hitched
The showers and the parties all are done
Next they say “I DO” in front of God and guests
And with an open bar it’s time to have some fun.

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, they’re so happy
The Sage Family will grow by one.

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, We’re so happy
The Sage Family will grow by one.

Solo: So if you want some fun,
ALL: Be glad our song is done!

That evening there was a Notre Dame game on national TV, which inspired another Sage gathering, this time at the hotel’s party room with delivered deep-dish pizza.  The non-ND faithful found plenty to talk about beyond the confines of the party room and their absence was barely noted.

Sunday was the big day.  The cousins had a pool party in morning followed by Cate getting her first haircut courtesy of her mother. Fortunately there wasn't enough there for a mullet.

Bethany gives Cate her first hair cut with help from Aunt Katie

Micah and Tiffany exchanged vows at the New Hope Community Church in Villa Park.  Bethany read the Old Testament reading (Genesis 2:18-25, The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him…"), not that Randy got to hear any of it--  Cate started making noise fairly early on and we moved to the rear of the church, where cousins Lloyd and Justin had already moved.  Well, realizing that playtime in the back with your cousins is infinitely more fun than a ceremony, before it was all over Jane figured it out too.  But we all did get to blow bubbles over the newlyweds.

The Happy Newlyweds through bubbles

The Curtis Family

After we finally found the reception hall (we thought we were getting a little close to Wisconsin there for awhile), we had an enjoyable evening of eating, drinking and dancing.  In closing we like to say that: “Micah and Tiffany, we love you guys and wish you the best of everything in the world.  UNFORGETTABLE, that’s what you are!"

Tiffany, Randy and Micah

Bethany and Aunt Katie toast the evening

Portion of the Sage Tribe Patrick, Rosemary, Alvan, Amy, Justin, Jenny and Cousin Katie Kevin & Jan Fuller, Don Ciccone and Erin Sage are in the background

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