The Curtis Clan - Winter 2015
Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox
|
Happy Hour at Steak and Shake
|
|
On the first day of Winter 2015, Bethany and Randy celebrated their 15th Anniversary together (First Date), with our standard and favorite type of outing: diner and a movie (i.e. Monday All You Can Eat special at Pasta House and “Wild”). Earlier, Bethany took the girls to Steak and Shake for a Happy Hour shake after school. Life is good!
Christmas 2014
|
The Curti on Christmas Eve
|
|
Winter also starts with Christmas Break for the girls (and Randy taking the rest of his use or loose vacation). The days off gave us plenty of time to visit with family and friends over two weeks. For Christmas the girls gave Randy a Big Book of Coupons consisting mostly ALLOWING him to pick a movie, including westerns, to watch with them without complaining. Our Christmas dinner was a simple meal of Toasted Raviolis shared with Nancy at Manor Grove (that’s what she wanted!).
| Cate and Jane a the top of the stairs on Christmas Morning |
Pepper enjoying Gussie's new bed and vice-versa Well not so much |
|
|
Later we celebrated with the St. Peter’s Sages and the main Sage tribe.
|
Sage Siblings (+1) and their stockings
|
|
|
Sage Cousins anticipating the gift exchange
|
|
New Year’s Eve was a low key affair with the family staying home and watching TV. Over the holidays we all got the flu knocking us out for a couple a days, although not at the same time. Fortunately the girls have gotten old enough they can mostly take of themselves, which means laying on the sofa watching Netflix, cuddling a dog or two with an occasional moan. After 11 years, Randy finally got around to grouting the kitchen tiles but it was hardly noticeable so that doesn’t really count as home improvement does it?
January
Cate started the New Year off with a new look getting her hair cut and finally getting her ears pierced. The sassy look suits her and her personality. The ear piercing was delayed 9 months after her 10th birthday until she finally succumbed to her parent’s edict that her room needed to be a minimal level of clean and stay that way for more than a week. The theory was that she needed to show that she was responsible enough to perform the hygiene required of pierced ears, particularly the first couple months. Stubborn refusal to budge on this on both side lasted longer than either side expected. Is there any question what condition her room was in shortly thereafter?
|
Cate new hair cut and pierced ears
|
|
In mid-January, Jane and Cate both played in the Webster Groves Strings Pop Concert at the High School. As before, the large ensemble really makes a positive difference in the sound over singular mediocrity.
|
Cate and Jane poise togehter before thier concert
|
|
| Cate waiting to tune her bass |
Jane is ready with her cello |
|
|
Mid-January warm weather allowed us to enjoy some time hiking a bit around Castlewood State Park. Cate and Jane emulate Dr. Seuss’s Zax standoff on a fallen log.
|
Cate and Jane Zaxing on a log at Castlewood
|
|
It was another quarter of cinema indoctrination as the family movie watching included: the Back to the Future trilogy; West Side Story; Goldfinger; Funny Face; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner & The Quiet Man(at the Hi Pointe). With Bethany gone for an evening, Randy and the girls watched the Howard Hawks classic Western: Red River. Beforehand Randy looked forward to the scene of John Wayne tossing the young Matt into the water to teach him how to swim, having Matt curse him as he’s flaying about in the water, to have Wayne remark to Walter Brennan: “He’ll do” as he walked away. However it was all in his mind. While the line is in the film; the swimming lesson comes from a different Wayne film where he helpfully coaches the lad in the water. The B&W scene is as vivid most any other film clip in his mind but it never existed at least from what one can tell from Google. Amazing the imperfection of memory, or at least Randy’s.
|
Sleeping dogs laying in the sun
|
|
Science Fair 2015
We considered forgoing the Science Fair this year. While running the experiments can be fun, writing it up is a drag even though we know "the only difference between Science and screwing around is writing it down."- Adam Savage Mythbusters. In mid-February, Jane had a sleep over with friends and with some inspiration / prompting / arm twisting, the next morning they helped her repeat the Mentos and Diet Coke science fair experiment on a very cold morning.
| Mentos in 2L Diet Coke |
Morning Science team after a sleepover and before their fingers got freezy |
|
|
Not a winning experiment but a fun one that earned her the orange participation ribbon (of shame…if we were that sort of parents).
|
Jane and her Science Fair Display and ribbon
|
|
February
By this point, Gussie and Pepper were in the habit of sleeping together in the sun, which was probably a function of being cold as much as puppy camaraderie. Actually it was chilly enough in the house where fuzzy warm dogs were sought after most of the time when lounging on the couch watching TV. The winter of 2015 was a cold winter here in the heartland, where a warm coat with a hood, gloves and flannel lined pants on a sub-zero mornings was very much appreciated while briefly waiting for the Metro to arrive and whisk one away to work.
|
Jane knoodling with the dogs for warmth
|
|
At the suggestion of a few co-workers, Randy attended a retirement seminar at work which provided some clarity on what the long term plan should be. As a result his current Plan A Retirement Date is: 31 July 2025 – ten years, 5 months and 12 days to go. Now that it’s in writing it will be interesting to see if it holds true. Lots of thing can change in a decade.
At the end of February, Randy made a trip out to Monterey, CA to see his Dad and celebrate his 80th birthday (His Dad’s, not Randy’s). It was a pleasant trip to visit Ron and Gaye and it allowed Randy to interview his Dad about his family and himself before dinner. This winter, he spent a few evenings and couple weekend days on Ancestry.com after a family member was willing to share their account. An interesting exercise in many ways but after going back a few generations, they became little more than names without any context or story. Another indication that that which is not written down is forgotten (a major reason for this blog). Anyway, before returning home, Randy was able to hang out with Jake in San Francisco before catching a morning flight home.
| Ater his 80th B-Day, Ron and Randy |
Randy at Pacific Grove shoreline trail |
|
|
|
Meanwhile Bethany and the girls took in a SLU women’s basketball game at the Chafetez Center
|
|
|
Jane, Cate and Emma "screwing around" at the Science Center (i.e. they weren't writing it down)
|
|
The next weekend it was Bethany’s turn to leave the family behind by attending the annual Women’s Wellness Weekend at Trout Lodge, where she and Lisa Liss once again conducted a well received Bonco session (Yes there is no real comparison between Potosi and Monterey/SF so Randy clearly owes her). They got a pretty good snow while there that almost made them stay an extra day but not quite.
|
Lisa, Bethany and Elisabeth arrive back from the wine tour at the Women's Wellness Weekend at Trout Lodge
|
|
The 5 inches of snow at home allowed for some fun walks with Gussie and Pepper around the block (Dogs get so excited the snow). Jane and Cate made the pilgrimage to sled down Suicide Hill and remaining injury free from doing so. The girls were cute but not so much as in the past as evidence by their being ignored by the Post Dispatch photographer who had pictures of the younger kids at Suicide Hill at the same time posted on the front page of the next day.
|
Jane, Cate and the dogs enjoying the snow
|
|
| The girls are pumpd to hit the slope |
Jane & Cate set for a tandem start |
|
|
March
Winter delivered its last harsh punch and by the first weekend in March, one could enjoy being outside without jacket for the first time in too long.
|
Cate reading in the redbud
|
|
|
Napping inside still had its place though
|
|
In mid-March, Nancy’s old Columbia Saloon cronies once again organized a jazz concert for her with Pat Joyce at the piano at Manor Grove. It was an afternoon of joy for her, her pals and her colleagues at MG.
|
Nancy enjoying the Pat Joyce concert at MG
|
|
We didn’t go on any trips for spring break but with the weather so nice; Randy took the girls to Pere Marquette State Park for an impromptu camping trip, following another Townie Sage Brunch. As it was a Sunday before the season officially started, we had the tent camp all to ourselves and did not have to pay for the privilege either.
|
Cooking red beans and rice for dinner at Pere Marquete SP
|
|
We were joined by one of Cate’s classmates and her dad, Emma and Kelly Hendricks, who provided pleasant conversation around the campfire to the wee hours of the night. With no agenda on a fabulous spring day, we all lingered at Pere Marquette until after 5 pm the following day, enjoying lunch at the lodge and playing games in the great hall.
|
Jane Cate and Emma toasting bagels Monday morning
|
|
|
Playing babby eagles at the museum
|
|
|
The girls at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
|
|
With the end of winter, Jane officially starting to babysit as she watched Cousin Joseph while Van and Gwen joined us for the last play of the season at the STL Rep: Vanya and Sasha, and Masha and Spike.