The Curtis Clan - Summer 2012
Summer Solstice to Fall Equinox
SUMMER CAMP
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Camp Lakewood
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On the first Sunday of summer 2012, we dropped the girls off at the YMCA’s Camp Lakewood for a week of overnight camp for them and a week of date nights for mom and dad. While the girls enjoyed archery, swimming, nature class, campfires, learning dumb songs, eating without utensils and the like, we went to the movies three times, had adults dinner and cocktails and desert with neighbors. Bethany also repainted the dining room, which was long past due. I think the whole family agrees that the week of summer camp is one of our favorite weeks of the year and look forward it coming again next year.
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Cate at Fork-free spaghetti night
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Bethany repainting the dining room
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HEAT WAVE
The only down side was the triple digit heat wave that settled in starting on Wednesday for ten straight days (June 27- July 7) of 100+ temps where we set eight daily high-temperature records and had the hottest day in 58 years at 108 degrees. Did just enough yard work outside one afternoon to REALLY appreciate and having a job and life that didn’t require being outside. On the 9th day, one of our AC units went out but at least we had the second one and could retreat into the basement and the parts of the house it covered. We were glad to pay the overtime up charge to come out and fix it on Saturday. The $14 part was 10% of the overall cost but no complaints. Another heat related failure had to do with one the Sidekick’s tire where the front tire split apart leaving a tire “gator” flapping much like the tire scraps the fly off of semis and litter the Interstate. Thank goodness, it didn’t fail on the highway but only on the mile and quarter drive to Metrolink, (it was too hot for Randy to walk there for work. Stinky sweat is fashion and hygiene faux pas even among engineers).
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Sidekick tire gator
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4th of July Parade
For the 2nd year in a row the girls school participated in the WG 4th of July Parade and Randy served as the chairman. Mostly we did the same thing of having each family carry a giant 37 inch Dolphin Balloon and passed out Dolphin Stickers as give-aways (remember the time before sticker, candy were required and the $ was spent on the actual float?). We could not get a convertible to haul water and pick up any over tired / heated kids in so we used Randy’s Margarita colored Sidekick (when the world gives you limes, make margaritas?). By tossing our canoe on top, we made it a waterless float and decorated it with a bunch of WPA era, See America posters of the National Parks. It was sturdy enough for the girls to sit in while home but “I” decided that it would be best not to have anyone ride it in the parade, since the parade marshals would have likely pooh-poohed it as unsafe as well as other parents (one mother in particular ?).
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Jane and Caate ready to See America
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And just for proof, here’s a picture of Bethany driving my car AND smiling (though we know you can always fake it for a short time).
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Bethany drives in the parade
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If you’re interested in any of the WPA era, See America posters of the National Parks, we decorated the canoe with, check out the Ranger of the Lost Art, which is reproducing them (and creating new ones in the same 1930s style): http://www.rangerdoug.com/posters
We made the parade highlight reel on the Webster Kirkwood Times web page http://www.websterkirkwoodtimes.com/
Or better YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=94wtKgaEvfo It's 9:13 minutes long and we're at 7:25-:750
It s not a Vast Cultural Wasteland if You’re Selective
We finished watching the Star Wars series with the girls and have been happily having light saber conversations and Jedi references nearly daily since starting the series in May. Randy also introduced them to “Leave it to Beaver” on Netflix and joys of the child centered plot, where the parents weren’t nincompoops. It has to rank right up there with the Cosby Show as quality sitcom for kids and adults. We also continued indoctrinating the children with cinema classics that were age appropriate including Cat Ballou, Hugo, A Hard Day’s Night, and Holiday Inn. Bethany and Randy caught up with quality TV on DVD (Band of Brothers, the C Word season 2, Doc Martin season 5) and rediscovered the joy of watching an Amy Sherman-Palladino production with Bunheads on ABC Family (via internet). Its’ not just the rapid-fire dialogue, funky cultural references and former Gilmore Girls cast members that make it our favorite show of the season, but its most of it.
Innsbrook
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Innsbrook Sage tribe
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For the fourth year in a row, we rented an A-Frame with the better part of the Sage tribe at Innsbrook for an extended weekend in July. It was several days of hanging out with the kids / cousins playing on the tire swing and LOTS of swimming. The Sages took over most of the pool with a game of catch and child tossing sprinkled with some competitive cannon balling. New this year we took the kids hunting for golf balls in the rough (Uncle Patrick is exceptionally good at this), which the kids enjoyed as least as much as the actual golf lessons from Gral. This was also the start of the nearly 2 months of near weekly gatherings of the Sage tribe to celebrate summer birthdays that occur through mid-August. It’s feast or famine with Sage FFF.
| Adults at the dining table |
Gral's brithday cake with grandkids |
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Jane and Cate licking beaters with Gramy
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| Randy pushing (or pulling?) Jane on the tire swing |
Henry enjoyed the tire swing too |
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| Justin and Lloyd being launched for the big catch |
Air Cate going high for the catch |
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Maria, Elisabeth and Bethany enjoying a night out in late July
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South Florida
A year ago, Marriot Vacation sold up 5 days and four nights at one of their resort for $120, which seemed like a bargain even if we had to sit through the 2-hour spiel on the joys of the new and improved time-share program, which we were not going to purchase. The original intent was to use this for a fun spring break outing but we dithered in booking it, so summer time it was. The resort we booked was the Marriott Ocean Pointe on Singer Island in Palm Beach Shores
Even though this lies over 11,500 miles away we did not fly but instead drove (but if you are reading this, you know us well enough to have already come to that conclusion). On the trip down, we made a short stop at Metropolis, IL to poise with Superman and visit the Superman store and museum across the street. Not a destination but worth a 30 minute side trip along the way. We hit rain in Kentucky and were quite pleased having not experienced any rain in months to speak of. We actually had rain nearly every day for a period of time during the week away and grew to think of this happily as a rain-cation, having gone so long without any back in St. Louis. As is typical the girls quickly got bored and decided they were hungry within an hour of getting in the car, which gave rise to the second most annoying child in a car lament behind “Are we there yet?”; I’m hungry to ever rising levels of starvation with each passing mile. Fed up, we told them they had to wait until 11 until getting a snack and would incur a two-minute penalty for time they whine about being hungry. Jane last about 2 minutes before incurring a 6 minute delay but Cate waited patiently without saying a word for 35 minutes in order to get a snack at exactly 11 am. She can be very determined and focused at times. Is it warped that we take pleasure at making sport of their whininess?
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Super Curti at Metropolis, IL Truth, Justice and the American Way
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We made it to Atlanta that evening and enjoyed some Mellow Mushroom Pizza near our Vinings hotel. Happily, the London Summer Olympics coincided with our trip providing an easy and agreeable way to spend the evening in the cramped hotel room before sleeping. The hazards of travel included luggage from each member of our party. Randy found the largest one by stubbing and breaking his right ring toe on the first night (with the lights on). Very annoying but not immobilizing and fortunately he could wear sandals for most of the next while it was at its swollen worse.
Randy scheduled a short work field trip in North Florida on Monday so we stopped in Jacksonville for a short driving day. We took a route through Georgia that did not have cell service for more than an hour, which we didn’t think was still possible for such a long distance. The route was along the Okefenokee Swamp for much of the time. Getting to Jacksonville early, we had enough time for an adult shopping spree at the East Cost Dillard’s clearance outlet buying stuff for 20% of original costs (Randy went plaid shirt wild).
On Monday while Randy hobbled through a WWII Jungle Warfare test area near the banana spider and mosquito Mecca of the Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuge, Bethany and the girls had a leisurely morning a visit to Sweet! By Holly Cupcakes & Frozen Yogurt. We got to Palm Shores in the dark after driving through a frog chocker of a storm down I-95.
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Holly Cupcakes & Frozen Yogurt
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The beach at the Marriott was only OK being very narrow, having a steep incline and a less than scenic jetty. Hassling with the super hot mid morning sands, umbrella and crowds made us question the point. It seemed easier and more enjoyable to hang out at the pool while reading novels and letting the girls splash in the pool. Of course, this raised the question why we travelled 2400 miles to only enjoy a really nice hotel pool (it did have palm trees, which you can get at the Frontenac Hilton…)
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Randy Cate and Jane at Everglades National Park
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On Wednesday, Randy and the girls made the trip south to Everglades National Park while Bethany had a day by herself. Thankfully, the girls didn’t know enough to complain that it took nearly 4 hours to get there. Because the toll stations didn’t accept cash (Really!), Randy attempted to get there on toll free routes before giving up and spending $50 a Sun Pass toll road gadget. That along with some Little Debbie snacks and letting the girls buy $5 Barbies made most things all right. We drove the main route through the park from Florida City to Flamingo. Flamingo still looks kind of sad seven years after the double hurricanes whammies of Katrina and Wilma in 2005 gave it a beating. Not that we’re arguing with the wisdom of the NPS not to rush in rebuilding on the edge of the continent. The high triple digit temperatures made hiking on the trails unpleasant for any length of time and with the broken toe, Randy wasn’t going to coerce the girls too much. All were happy to see an alligator and turtles in the wild and poise with only a brass panther but we were disappointed not to see any manatees.
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Randy Cate and Jane at Biscayne National Park
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We made a quick visit to Biscayne NP afterwards being inspired to punch the ticket of visiting another NP and getting another Junior Ranger Badge. Biscayne NP has a great visitor center and the ranger was an unexpected treasure of helpfulness and gentle coercion for the girls to get more from the experience than they first desired. We didn’t really get to appreciate the wonders of this marine park since it was too late in the day to get a boat ride (plus there was the 130 miles back to the hotel on the Interstate corridor that all the traffic in the Miami/Lauderdale/Palm Beach traveled).
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Jane Jr Ranger (Cate refused to wear the hat so no picture for her)
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Our last day Thursday was a day of no agenda except for having to listen to the time-share deal and telling them no. It helped that in our mind the dialogue kept echoing David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. Doing nothing the rest of the day was a welcome respite and we enjoyed the beach a bit at twilight without the heat and crowds. There were lots of sea turtles nesting location with “Do not disturb” signs but we didn’t see any turtles.
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Randy and Bethany at Palm Shores
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That night at about nine, we had the excitement of a fire drill, the result of some pranksters that got us out of bed standing around in the street while the fire department made sure all was OK. We were back inside and most of us had drifted off to sleep when 45 minutes later it happened again. This girl’s previous anxiety of the potential hazard was replaced with tired annoyance at the pranksters. It was a pretty moonlit night though.
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Moonlight Cate
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On the way back, we took the Ronald Regan Turnpike (the Florida Turnpike) up through Orlando before it reached I-75. It struck us as ironic that this State government route named after the uber-Republican of the 1980s, strictly controlled commerce along the way (concession restaurants and gas stations). The freeway turned into the free market expression of various eateries, souvenirs and legalized adult vice once it became the Federal Interstate. The irony is kind of up there with the Regan Building in DC housing the EPA. That night it was fun to watch while Cate and Jane play Olympics in the 25-meter pool lap pool at a Fairfield in Atlanta having been inspired by a week of nightly watching. They both decided to join the swim club next summer, with Cate further convinced she would join the dive team (we’ll see if the enthusiasm lasts that long).
Jane at 10
Jane turned ten the day after we got back. She celebrated by finally getting her ears pierced after asking about it for at least the last 5 years. She hasn’t gotten to enjoy changing them out everyday yet with all the ones she got as presents because of the “rule” of leaving the starters ones in her ears for 2 months. Jane remains careful and likes having rules and certainly wants others to follow them, choosing to follow them herself most of the time. As a “preteen” (a term she was quick to embrace and refer to herself as), she has begun to express more reservations about her parent’s judgment and authority, which we’re taking as a warm up for the coming insurgence of the full teen Jane in a few years. So far, she remains very respectful to her teachers and others, saving her worse behavior for her family.
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Happy Birthday to Jane
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Jane loves to read and it is her favorite pastime except for playing with her sister. This summer she started the Little House series, knocked out the novelizations of Star Wars 1 & 2 while waiting until we allowed her to pick up the Harry Potter series. She likes to make crafts out of yarn, paper and whatever else she could get her hands on and we are the recipients of artistic endeavors. She is cuddly, affectionate, and frequently very sweet. She balances this out with moments of nastiness, typically directed at her sister/best friend. Sibling love.
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Jane Shark Bane at Biscayne
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Her tastes in clothes tend to remains conservative, and she is content with her knit collared shirts and khaki shorts/skorts and pants for school. Like all parents, we’re continually, surprised that the lovely dress or the new pants we just got her, she has already outgrown. Fortunately, Cate can always get some use out of it.
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Jane and her dad at Palm Shores
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Jane discovered the telephone along with her classmates as school started back up, mostly to discuss homework but sometimes it appears more social than not (boys have called). Other than that, there is no noticeable interest in boys, though we’re not ones to tease the girls about that sort of thing. If she’s like either of us, she would never dream of telling us unless absolutely necessary.
School's Starts in Summer
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Jane and Cate set to start 3rd and 4th grade
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School started on Tuesday 14 August, and everyone was happy for the return to the routine and rhythm. Cate started 3rd grade with Mrs. Buckman and Jane started 4th with Mrs. Gibson. It looks to be another great year. Jane turned in her violin for cello this year in the strings program and Cate is taking up violin. They both continue to enjoy piano with lessons on Friday. Our biggest news of August came two days later.
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School Picture Day
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Paws Across the Tuxedo Or Gussie joins the Curti tribe
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Gussie
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We weren’t in any hurry to adopt another pet after a rather tough first half of 2012 for dogs at the Curtis household (Maddie passed away just after Christmas following a couple years of increasing doggy dementia/ Alzheimer's and the tragedy of Lilly becoming paralyzed in Mid May). While cleaning out the pantry before school started back up, Bethany and the girls came across about 30 pounds of leftover dog food from Lilly that they decided to donate to the local shelter, which is the APA in Brentwood for us. When dropping it off, they faced the avenue of adoptable dogs in cages. Gone are the days of cute little mutts with the waggley tales and instead they were greeted by a gauntlet of barking pit bull mixes, that scared the be-Jesus out of them. This dog “mix” is the essentially the rule any more as the Humane Society and the County Shelter have a similar adoption pool based on the web pages we saw to our disappointment having adopted 4 out of our 5 pets as adults from the Humane Society. We’re speculating that it has to do with pit bulls being considered the toughest dog currently, which appeals to the type of guy that wants a dog as tough as he is (or thinks he is). Further stereotyping macho-luddites, we imagine that because they wouldn’t consider getting a vasectomy, he’s against having his dog ‘nads cut off too, thus creating more of them. There doesn’t appear to be an explanation for cats, as the shelters have plenty of them as well, albeit none that are scary.
Not wanting to leave a lingering negative impression with our impressionable youth, Bethany decided to check out the place her brother Van (and Gwen) got their beagle a few years back: Posh Puppies Rescue (www.poshpuppiesrescue.org). PPR specializes in small dog cast offs from breeders, sort of a factory seconds store for the infamous Missouri puppy mills. A woman founded PPR after discovering and struggling to adopt a very ill pure breed pug that was due to be euthanized as it was unadoptable from the pet shops. She brought him back to health and vowed to do what she could to avoid the needless euthanizing of the less than perfect pups. What constitutes the huddled masses of puppies yearning to be free? Puppies not purchased from commercial breeders by the pet shops because they were too big, too small, wrong color, wrong sex, off specification, physical defect of some sort (none noticeable by any but the breed purists), not the “dog-du-jour" when presented for sale or were past their "shelf life" for pet stores (i.e. evidently 12 weeks can be too old). Anyway, PPR has a selection of pure breed puppies and boutique mixes such as a Bea-Rat (miniature beagle/rat terrier mix) or the Cockerpoo (Cocker Spaniel/Poodle mix). In keeping with Randy’s motto of “Nothing but the 2nd best for us Curtises’” and an un-comfortableness of having a pit bull (yes we’re sure some of them are very sweet), this sounded like our kind of place.
Anyway, late Saturday while Randy was at work, the girls became smitten with a 10-week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, that was one of a litter of six that was up for adoption. As PPR is only open for adoptions Thursday – Saturday, we had to wait until Thursday for Randy to see the dog and give his approval.
In that time we did some internet information gathering and it didn’t take long to find out the CKCS breed has most every quality we were looking for in a dog: friendly, affectionate, sweet, playful, good with children and other animals, calm, eager to please, good lap dog, etc. Yeah!!!
On the down side, we also found out that the CKCS are exceptionally prone to a serious genetic heart problem (mitral valve disease) which frequently causes early death (5-10 years). Supposedly, nearly all Cavaliers eventually suffer from disease. Given that the whole litter was put up for adoption, this did not bode well. PPR did not reveal the reasoning for the dogs being placed for adoption, if they knew.
After some discussion, we decided that it wasn’t the dogs fault she had bad genes and she deserved to live as much as a well-breed one. Stir in that when we went back to both look at her, it was Bethany’s Birthday, there was little chance of us no coming home with her (besides she was so cute). So we took home our little 6 pounds of love.
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Bethany's birthday present and the girls who made the cake
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Gussie?
Actually, Hermione Augusta Curtis, and Gussie for short (also Gussie Girl).
Why? In case there was any doubt, Hermione is for our favorite smarty-pants from Gryffindor. Gussie has a nice St. Louis vibe beginning with Auguste Chouteau one of the two founders of the city and the city’s favorite beer baron August "Gussie" Anheuser Busch, Jr. While we have no love for August II or IV, Gussie appears responsible for instituting all the good will for the family in the community: making A-B into the largest brewery in the world as company chairman, buying the Cardinals in 1953 and wanting a winner; making the Clydesdales the Budweiser icon, Grant’s farm and the brewery tour. As for Auggie III and IV…well there won’t be any Auggie Doggies in the Curti tribe. There’s also getting her in August thing. In regards to the pure meaning of the name: Gussie is "one choice; great, magnificent; royal staff; staff of the gods". Well.
Life With Gussie - Kiss, kiss, bite
It has been a month and we are still quite smitten with our puppy. Like all puppies, she likes to chew on everything particularly human flesh. When ignoring the bones, toys and rawhide chips, her favorites appear to be any wrapper or paper she gets a hold of, shoes and especially the pad under the area rug in the living room. When tired after a walk around the long block, she is very sweet and is a good companion for watching TV or reading. When energized, she tends to gladly give a few kisses followed by a bit to the hand, arm nose or anything else’s she gets her jaws around. Maybe our memories have faded but her teeth seem far sharper and needle like than our past puppies (a velociraptor comes to mind). She also seem less dissuaded from the trick of shoving whatever she’s biting into (i.e. hand) back into her mouth which hurts like heck and worked on our past puppies (and children) after doing it only a couple of times. Not Gussie, she is…resilient. There are times that the tired joke that she probably thinks her name is “Bad Dog” or “Noooo” seems all too appropriate.
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Guss-ciraptor
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Crate training is going well and she past messing in her crate. The rest of potty training is going OK and based on what the literature says but is certainly not the snap it was with Maddie or Darcy. Having a great dog in such a regard can lure one into thinking that the person deserves most of the credit. We are less convinced about our skills now.
| Clean cut Randy and Gussie |
Puppies? We don't need no stinking puppies? |
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Gussie also doesn’t have her sea legs when riding in the car. Even the 1 ½ mile trip from the vet proved too much her after getting her last oral deworming (at least the vet gave us a replacement dose to administer at home gratis). With her last set of shots just a week shy of her 4-month birthday, Gussie weighed 12.3 lbs. This means she has gained 6.2 pounds in the 5 weeks we’ve had her, which puts her on a pace to be very big for a CKCS (maybe that was her breeder “defect”).
In late August, Bethany started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’ Stone to the girls (and Dad). Jane had already finished the book last year but Cate’s skills aren’t quite up to the task yet and we didn’t want to let them watch the movie until they had the chance to imagine it on their own. Bethany is doing a terrific job with the voices and we all look forward to the next chapter. Listening to it brings out many nuggets that passed by underappreciated. “Naughty naughty you'll get caughty, caughty!” from Peeves became a catch phrase for the girls when trying to convince the other not to do something naughty.
On Sunday, 26 August, we made our first visit to the annual Festival of Nations in Tower Give Park. What fun! We really enjoyed the Ethiopian injera (spongy bread) with lentils (except Jane), getting a second helping. The eggplant & potato burani from Sameem was also a hit for the omnivores. Jane, the starch-a-vore, scarfed down all the Afghan bread that had no sauce on it. All that, local musicians and belly dancing? A great afternoon.
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Enjoying the food at Festival of Nations
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Challenge Nation Team 44 Erin Boyle, Kristin hill and Kristen Denbow
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