The Curtis Clan - Fall 2013
Fall Equinox to Winter Solstice
Wedding Anniversary 12
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12th Anniversary at Tivoli
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The fall solstice coincides with our Wedding Anniversary. To celebrate 12 years of wedded bliss, my bride and I spent the afternoon sans children in the U-City loop having beers at Blueberry Hill and seeing an excellent independent film: Short Term 12 at the Tivoli where we met 14 years ago. A terrific afternoon remembering why we got together in the first place.
Fall Camping at Pulltite
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Loaded up and taking the girls out of school
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As is our ritual, during the last weekend of September, we made our annual camping trip. We pulled the girls out of school at lunch on Friday and headed southwest. For the second year in a row we went to the Pulltite campground on the Current River in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. For lunch we noshed at the all-you-can-eat buffet at the Pizza Inn in Salem, which could be a new tradition. We set up two tents again this year letting the girls have their independence 10 feet away within a 40 mil fortress of solitude. We were all pleased with extra space and I don’t think we’ll go back to all 4 of us sharing a tent again.
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Entering the NPS Ozark National Scenic Riverways
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The others in out group included the fulcrum of the trip Uncle Charlie and JoAnne Stocker; our Columbia friends Anthony and Alex Holmes, Bob, Elisabeth, Pat, Annie and Mickey Rollo, Carol and Bill. Bill is our pyro-in-chief and finder of the hollow logs that creates the amazing and truly unforgettable camp fires whose flames were amped up even higher with the a year’s supply of soda and beer boxes.
| Jane and Cate around the campfire |
Jane and Cate Scmoring at the Hollow Log |
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| Annual meeting of the Beneficent and Pyroific Order of Hollow Logs (BPOHL) |
A bearded Randy enjoying the campfire |
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For the float trip on Saturday, Cate and I shared our canoe with Jane going solo in the kayak, paddling the whole way from Aker’s Ferry to Pultite (10 miles). After Jane’s Camp Lakewood kayak session last summer, she had her heart set on going by kayak. She was pretty tired at the end but tuck it out. Bethany and Elisabeth continue their habit of lunching and antiquing in the surrounding area.
| Randy, Jane and Cate break for Lunch |
Cate in Cave Spring |
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That evening and trough the night the rains came (a real frog choker). Than goodness for the Easy Up canopy keeping our gear dry (mostly). We were sure we would get two soaked girls crawling into our tent to be high and dry on the queen sized inflatable boat. Fortunately, the rain stopped Sunday morning allowing us to dry out and pack up before heading home.
| Drying out on Sunday morning |
Bethany and Jane enjoying breakfast (Cate has her doubts) |
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Driving home, the canoe on the roof and its straps made a deafening sound once we reached the speed limit of 60+ mph. In no mood to do 55 all the way back home, not to mention the agitation of the sound, we stopped looking for loose straps. Finding none, Bethany noted that the canoe seemed to be sitting further back than before and suggested shifting it forward some. Randy rolled his eyes, mumbling his questions about how that could possibly be the source of the noise but moved the canoe a foot forward on the Sienna having no better ideas. Needless to say, Bethany’s suggestion instantly solved the problem. A happy and interesting science (and marital) teaching moment.
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The Curti at Pulltite (packed up and ready to go home)
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Cate's The Blazing Banyan Tree
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Fall 2013 also saw us increasingly trust the girls to be home alone for growing lengths of time, to the point of us leaving them while we went to the Rep. Some of this was due to Nancy no longer being able to watch them after her stroke but it was heading that direction anyway as Jane is a very responsible 11 year old and Cate is mostly responsible.
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Dog Shaming Gussie
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October is always a pleasant time in Missouri with the beautiful fall colors and pleasant temperatures, calling us to enjoy the outdoors. During the second week of October, Randy had some of his college buddies (Jake and Brad) fly in for a visit prior to a weekend reunion of Rolla Pi Kapps from the 1980s, promoted as Wild Man Weekend (though with over half of us with security clearances, the wild was much subdued). It was a great weekend of swearing, drinking, laughter, immaturity and friendship. Their coming in from opposites coasts was the nicest of the 50th birthday presents I received.
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Brad, Anthony, Steve and Jake posing in front of a Hot ride
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On the 15 of October, we shared Nancy’s 75th Birthday with her at Manor Grove. It’s was a rough seven months since her surgery in March but we’re still very glad to have her around.
Halloween
The peak fall colors came a few weeks later than normal, hitting about Halloween this year. Both girls had argued for months after last Halloween as to who would get to be the smart, logical, brave and rule reliant wizard Hermione from Harry Potter series. Both Jane and Cate have been very into the books and movies this last year and a half and they considered the character of Hermione the ideal. However, once Cate discovered a kindred spirit in the Luna Lovegood character in book 5, Order of the Phoenix, she changed her mind. Arguably, Luna is the anti-Hermione, while Luna’s likely to "believe 10 impossible things before breakfast". So Jane had Hermione all to herself but was less interested in the prize when she didn’t have to fight and best her sister for it. Add to that Jane choosing a pair of circular black frame glasses, just like Harry’s, and she decided to go as the boy wizard instead.
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Two of Dumbledore's Army Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood
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Halloween evening started inauspiciously with Jane sporting a serious belly-ache from eating pizza (2 slices), doughnuts, cupcakes, cookies and candy at her 5th grade class party at the end of the day. Evidently the school tradition is letting the 5th graders chose the menu without adult supervision ruining their mojo or limiting their junk food intake (we weren’t on that committee). Hopefully this is a lesson learned about More’s Law (“If some’s good, More’s better” which always starts out well but almost always ends up an inverted U” shaped curve of diminishing to negative returns.)
| Hedwig (Sydney) Harry (Jane) & Luna (Cate) |
WGCS Trunk or Treat - Bethany and Randy |
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Randy happily took the girls Trick or Treating in the heavy cold drizzle with an insistence that I go with them. After all, how many more times will they want a parent with them? Fortunately their costumes lent themselves to dressing warmly. Cate stayed in character as Luna saying how much she liked the drizzle, the colors of the leaves in the streetlights and other oddities and hardships. Jane bellyached. Their riddles:
Jane’s use a Harry Potter nerd riddle that only a couple of the neighbors had any idea what it meant: Why was Snape in the middle of the road? So you couldn’t decide which side he was on.
Cate used one of her Dad’s favorite’s riddles which was in keeping with Luna’s character and understandable by a general audience: What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back? A stick.
| Dad and the girls before Trick or Treating |
Corporal Randolph Agarn |
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Election Day - Hannibal or Bust
The Tuesday after Halloween, 5 November, the school district gave everyone the day off on the off chance there would be an election in a non-election year. Going along with the wisdom of the WGSD calendar committee, Randy took the day off to join in a road trip adventure with the few of the girl’s classmates. Plan A for the day was Elephant Rocks but it got rained out. After some negotiations, we chose Plan D: Hannibal. It was a rainy, scenic drive to Samuel Clemens boyhood home up highway 79.
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Tom and Huck Statue with group of WGCS students
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On the way up, we stopped in a Clarksville to check out Locks and Dam 24 but the small tribe of kids cooped up in cars had little interest in learning anything, greatly disappointing the Corps of Engineer employee that saw it as a great learning opportunity.
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Randy corraling two for a picture at Lock and Dam 24
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Once in Hannibal and fed, the group decided to skip the $11 a person museum but took advantage of the outdoor photo ops at the fence and on the hilltop overlook as it had stopped raining. A nice trip.
| Jane and Cate "painting" Tom's fence |
Cate, Li and Jane from Mississippi River Overook |
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9 November and peak of leaf peeping in Webster Groves
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Randy: “Last night I dreamed of a cruise and not surprisingly, Charo had a small part in it.”
Sage FFF Cruise 2013
In mid-November, Randy and Bethany went on their third Princess cruise ostensibly in celebration of Randy’s 50th Birthday (and Van’s 40th) but that was merely Bethany’s excuse to suggest going again with the Sage tribe (us, Amy, Alvan, Van, Gwen, Ginny, Rosemary, Patrick, Barry, Clarice, Erin and “boyfriend” Abe filling in for Tyler, who first year in teaching didn’t allow for a week off during the school year).
On Friday, 15 November we flew down the day before to Houston to make sure we were there well in time for the Saturday afternoon boarding.
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The Va-Ca doesn't start until the booze is bought... (Houston booze run was for several rooms not just us)
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Brother Van, Gwen and Ginny joined us later that night at the hotel and we all left in the morning with lots of time to spare. All our early preparations were for naught as fog delayed the landing of our boat by 4 hours which threw off, debarking and reboarding at least an equal amount. The fog SANFU wasn’t helped that this was the third boarding from the new Houston cruise terminal either.
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At Houston Hobby waiting for Cruise shuttle to arrive (Second in a long day of waiting in multiple queues, at least 7)
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Hanging out at a cruise terminal at the end of miles of scenic petro-chemical complex and nothing else held little charm, so Princess arranged for tiny busses to schlep us to the Kemah Boardwalk for a couple hours to get something to eat. We were thankful for the immediate gratification of chips and salsa at Cadillac’s restaurant at a much delayed lunch and the magic of alcohol to ease our frustrations. It also helped to have the good humor of others in the annoying situation, particularly when it appears that the busses weren’t there to take us or the other folks back to the boat (“The last bus will leave at 4 pm, so make sure you’re there”). Tall boys in the 100+ person line helped as did father Alvan, who with Amy was doing a back-to-back trip was already on the boat, nagging Princess on the inside to pick us up. His guidance text to us while in Kemah: “Stay relatively sober or TSA won’t let you on the ship.”
Once aboard, we had a short time to dress for dinner and partake in the mandatory safety drill before joining the rest of our party for the regular formal dinner which was a couple hours late. The annoyances of the afternoon melted away as the company shared their trials and the meal progressed.
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Bethany and Randy at the abandon ship drill (after the Contra Costa, Randy stayed awake this time)
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Our first days was “At Sea”, which meant settling into the routine of eating, reading, eating, reading, napping, reading, eating, intermixed with socializing. Obviously reading was a main objective of Randy’s trip. Plan A was finally reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace and I had packed a 2+ pound recommended translation in both English (translated Russian) and French (not translated except in footnotes). I grew fatigued with the weight both literally and figuratively of the text, switching to a free version Bethany loaded on my Nook. Unfortunately the freebie version translation lost much of the richness of the prose even in the French translations which my limited French identified as overly simplistic. Anyway I switched to the library e-books also loaded on the Nook, starting with the Devil in the White City. I settled in on the Promenade deck in a shady spot. Upon reflections, I realized that my fascination with Promenade was a much a function of the sound of the water as being in out in the open looking at the water.
| Sages at first formal night at sea |
Randy and Bethany at dinner |
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Our delay in leaving Saturday delayed our arrival onto the island of Cozumel on Monday, which had the negative effect of canceling our planned trip to the Mayan ruins along the shoreline at Talum, along with all the other main land excursions. Since there were Mayan ruins at each stopped, we didn’t consider this a big deal and figured we’d explore the sanitized, protectorate stores at the cruise terminal at Cozumel along with the rest of the Sage clan. This turned out to be fortuitous as after an hour, Randy fell ill with stomach flu like symptoms and spent the rest of the day in the cabin, sleeping, reading and moaning.
| Randy and Bethany all smiles disembarking in Cozumel |
FFF Shopping in "Cozumel" (Gwen doesn't look a day over 22 weeks) |
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Four Amigos in Cozumel (fifth amigo is moaning back in the cabin)
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On Tuesday, we arrived at the island of Roatan, Honduras which was a planned beach day, which everyone agreed was one of their favorite shore days except Randy who missed the beach, choosing to stay within easy sprinting distance of a bathroom all day. He did get to start a second book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. He also made it to dinner, so it was clear he was on the mend.
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Rrrrrrr we disembarking at Hounduras? (Yes but for Randy only about 20 minutes)
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| What's wrong with this sunset picture of our Cruise ship? |
Dinning at the big table after visiting Roatan Island |
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Wednesday brought us to Belize. Bethany got up at 6 am and talked her way on to an unclaimed seat to the Lamanai Mayan Ruins with the Mangrove River Cruise along with her dad, who had secured one of the last slots on the tour.
| Bethany at Lamanai Mayan Ruins |
Tour guide making friends with a tarantula |
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Randy was not feeling up to it that early in the day but did join the core of the group on the Belize City outing. We took a $25 trolley tour of Belize City, including a stop at a very small scale rum factory and past a catholic church. Belize is a VERY poor community with no clear signs of any wealth. The evening brought a faux Manilow entertainer we liked more than expected and a screening of Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in The Heat.
| Belkins at the rummery |
Belkins on the tour trolley |
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The entire Sage Cruise Crew
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| Bethany and Randy at dinner |
Don't know what happened to the rest of the guys but not sure I care |
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By Thursday Randy was back to normal as we were back At Sea and he started his third book of the trip, the very funny memoir: “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened”. We played Pounce with Rosemary, Clarice and Abe; who beat us both but not as badly as if Erin was playing too.
Friday was our last day At Sea and also Finish-All-You-Booze Day which made for a lively dinner at the small table with Van and Randy challenging each other to order extra courses on lobster tail night and then extra desserts (Baked Alaska, apple pie, and Rhubarb ice cream).
| Bethany taking care of the champagne |
Bethany and Randy at the last supper |
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Saturday brought us back to the USA, Houston and reality brought further in to a gloomy perspective through the rainy, cold grey skis past the petrochemical plants to the airports. The trip seemed too short but it was nice to see how much the girls and Gussie missed us when we returned to home. So what did we do with the girls with all the normal extended care-giver’s going with us? We hired one of Randy’s 20 something co-workers who did some nanny-ing on the side (similar to Bethany gig’s a decade or so ago). It worked out very well and the girls were sad to see her go home.
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Cate and Jane suffering the neglect of their parents at Fitz's with Anne Ruger on Friday when we left
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The next day, Randy taught Jane and Cate how to play poker with a bag full of pennies. They particularly enjoyed the wild card games: Jokers, One-eyed jacks and kings; Dr. Pepper, etc. but did want to get carried away (Tens or Better Wild). A couple weeks later an additional game day of Clue was fun.
Thanksgiving Weekend
On Thursday we made the fixings (mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, cranberries) to Nancy at Manor Grove meeting Rhonda and Doug who made a Tur-duc-en and croissants. Nancy was quite happy and ate a very hardy meal. They were worried that the vegetarian Cate wouldn’t have anything to eat but she was fine with all the sides. Jane however only managed a few croissants.
On Friday, the girls both wanted Dad to take them Black Friday Shopping. Jane had gone a couple times in the past as she is an early, up at 6 riser, so doing 5:30 wasn’t a stretch. Cate had always chosen sleep but felt like she was missing out and wanted to go too. The bustle wasn’t the same with the stores beginning their door busters the night before which we weren’t going to do and we weren’t in need of any big ticket items. At Best Buy we got a Blu-Ray with Netflix Wi-Fi player for upstairs, the only thing we kind of needed. We walked next door to Sports Authority, got a $10 free coupon which allowed Cate to buy 6 arrows for $2.17 less than one arrow would normally cost (the store had more employees than customers). Lastly we went to Five and Below for fancy Duct Tape and rainbow band deals that the girls wanted.
That afternoon, Randy joined Van to fry a couple Turkey Twins on a sunny afternoon. It was great fun and the possible start of a new tradition. Making a snack of the necks and wings at the start was a winner and a nice complement to beer.
We bought our fried bounty to share with the rest of the tribe at Amy and Alvan’s Sage-giving feast with the whole gang. A pleasant and vibrant evening with the top line going to 4 year old Henry Shaw saying what he’s thankful for: My Mama and my Daddy
Crowd: What about your brother George?
Henry: Noooo!
Saturday morning brought the realization that we shared more than dinner on Friday as the oldest three Indy Sages were hit with the stomach flu overnight including Katie who had a sleep over with us. We canceled additional family plans for the weekend hoping to avoid it ourselves but on Sunday it took down the girls and Bethany on Monday. Randy escaped this bought of the flu.
Sailfish Swimteam
During the fall, Jane continued swimming with the Webster-Kirkwood-Brentwood Sailfish at the three YMCAs. She practiced twice a week after school and was regularly swimming a mile at a time by the end of the fall. At her first “home” meet at Meramec College on Saturday, December 07, 2013 she competed in the 11-12 year category for the 50 yard Freestyle (45.98), 50 yard Backstroke (57.01) and in a 200 Yard Freestyle Relay (2:42.09). Not Olympic times but we’re proud of her.
| Jane doing 50 yards of freestyle |
Bethany working at the swim meet refugee camp in the gym |
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This meet was also one of our required “volunteer” sessions but being a timekeeper at the balmy pool instead being inactive for hours in the very cold refugee shelter in the gym was a blessing. Randy was certain it wouldn’t have taken much Tom Sawyer charm to sell the privilege of warmth if to no one else but Bethany but soldiered on as a time keeper for a couple-few hours. We got to the meet at 12 for warm-ups and left about 5 but there was still another couple hours left for others. We are not feeling the need to add timed meets unless Jane gets serious.
Van's 40th B-Day
We celebrated brother Van’s 40th Birthday with the Sage tribe and his and Gwen’s friends. Breaking with recent tradition, Bethany and Randy closed down party as the last to leave at about 1:30 (White Russians and helping cleanup the food (aka eat the last of it): beef tenderloin with horseradish, beef spadeini; fruit salad, beef rapped asparagus, Rich and Charlie’s Salad and cubed potatoes. We were all asked to bring in a memorable picture or poem for him. This is the one Randy wrote based on events at the end of the evening (but it was an oft repeated act in the past based on the tales of others):
Van Sage has a mole as big as a prune
When questioned about this birth mark festoon
He’ll set down his glass
And showed you his ass
Which is preferable to viewing the back of the moon
| Sages at Van's 40th |
See no evil, Speak no evil, Sign no evil? |
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Concerts
Early December also brought music concerts. The WGCS 3-5 grade had their Winter Choral Concert: Children of the World including the girls introducing the Welsh Song Suop Gan; There was also Israel: Chiri biri bim; Italy Ma Bella Bimba and the more familiar tunes from Canada: Alouette and USA: Medley of Famous Folks including Did you ever hear tell of Sweet Betsy from Pike?, which had decidedly different lyrics when Randy sang it in the basement of the Gamma Lambda chapter house. Also not exactly a Holiday concert like the public schools used to do four decades ago.
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WGCS Winter Concert Jane is middle left and Cate is extreme right top)
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That weekend brought the girls 5th piano recital with nothing but Holiday Carols played and sung by 4 to 12 year olds. Jane played “Silent Night”, Cate played “Holly Jolly Christmas” and together they sang “White Christmas” as a duet. They weren’t the smiling showmen hams of some of the other talent but it was a pleasant, albeit long (2 hours) concert. The last concert was Cate’s String’s Violin Concert at Hudson, a modest affair only for the parents of the aspiring musicians.
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Jane and Cate singing "White Christmas"
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Snow
Mid December 2013 brought a week plus of snow, ice and cold. The girls and Gussie had a great time playing in the snow and taking walks in the Winter Wonderland.
| Cate and Gussie |
Jane and Gussie |
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602 Tuxedo - December 2013
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The snow and ice was also present for Bethany and Randy joining a group in St. Louis’s first Hot Chocolate 15K/5K run or walk on Sunday, December 15. We did the walk with Elisabeth (17 min 46 sec / mile pace), leaving the running of the 15k to Rosemary Maria and Hannah on a 20 degree morning. Elisabeth found a couple of dropped race numbers letting us have an additional chocolate bowls at the end which was bonus chocolatey goodness.
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Hot Chocolate Run-Walk
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We ended the fall quarter by attending the Hi-Pointe’s annual screening of White Christmas, which was sold off and set a modern day attendance record, which we took to mean it was the most people anyone remembered having in the joint. Also during the fall we watched the following as a movies family: Despicable Me 2; 3 Stooges “Punch Drunks” (Randy and the girls only); Star Trek Wrath of Kahn; She Wore A Yellow Ribbon; Clue, Holiday Inn; The Princess Bride and It’s a Wonderful Life at the Hi Pointe as well.
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Wishing You All Things Wonderful
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