The Curtis Clan - Summer 2019
Summer Solstice to Fall Equinox
Summer 2019 started on 21 June with most of the Curti in Juneau, AK to be joined by Bethany a week and a half later as recounted elsewhere:
2019 ALCAN Roadtrip Part 2 (Days 11 Dawon City - 23 Juneau)
2019 ALCAN Roadtrip Part 3 (Days 24 Juneau - 38 WG & summation)
Back Home Again in Missouri
| Bethany, Lisa L and Laura B at Riverport a couple days after returning home |
Sheryl Crow (along with Heart) |
|
|
On Thursday, July 18th, Randy and the girls went to the annual Wall Party (23rd). The oddly named party began was inspired by Milo’s on the Hill (STL Italian neighborhood) where one got to write their name on the wall of the bar after consuming six very different drinks over the course of an evening. It has become a de-facto reunion for the Wash U School of Medicine PhD in Biology program beginning in 1993, The core group were the Sunday Dinner Group Randy was part of for about a decade. Seeing old friends and feeling how quickly everyone feel into an easy happy discussion is always a comforting feeling. Most of the group has kids now and Cate and Jane had a fine time with the other older kids. Being serenading by the kids belting out the entire album of TMBG Here Comes Science brought a collective moment of joy to the parents who had loved Flood and the cherished TMBG’s album extoling the fun and wonder of science and were touched that their peers had raised kids with a similar love. Nurture does make a difference.
| Dinner Group Make Your Own Burritos |
Nerd card games |
|
|
FFF – Sage 50th Wedding Anniversary Edition
The next day we left town for FFF – Sage 50th Wedding Anniversary Edition at Innsbrook outside of St. Louis. Friday saw a gradual meeting of the Sage tribe disbursed over three chalets. There were established dinner gatherings but lots of semi-planned time to visit in small groups, kids go to the pool, play games, journal and nap.
| Uno at VanGwenJoe's Chalet |
Card sharks on day 2 |
|
|
|
Girl Cousins just want to have fun
|
|
Saturday night was the main event of the 50th Wedding Celebration for Amy and Alvan. The Sunday pickleball tournament was fun with no serious injuries.
|
Amy, Alvan and children
|
|
|
Amy & Alvan Sage Tribe
|
|
| Amy and Alvan Sage Quiz Serious concentration |
and less focused concentration |
|
|
|
50th Anniversary Wedding Cake
|
|
By Monday, over half the clan had left to return to the real world and it was down to just a handful of us. The 4-month-old kitten that had been meowing across the lake from VanGwenJoe’s since Friday, swam across while the Shaws were fishing and adopted the family. The Shaw and Curtis kids were quite smitten with the cat they named Skippy as he ate moths and food, they “accidently” dropped on the deck. We very likely would have it if Randy were a believer in God and signs, playing the Birthday present cat for Dad card (he misses Bert and Brazil regularly). As it turned out, the folks at the stable knew of someone looking for a cat and comfort was restored.
|
Cate cat
|
|
|
Grand Slam Breakfast at Dennys for Randy's Birthday
|
|
On Monday, 29 July, Bethany took Randy to see one of his favorite musicals Paint Your Wagon at the Muny. The Muny updated Lerner and Lowe’s 1951 follow up to Brigadoon, differing it from the earlier updating for the film version in 1969. The Clint Eastwood / Lee Marvin film version is the one Randy saw when it came out and got further attached to in late high school buying the soundtrack literally listening to over a hundred times the following years. The Muny World Premiere revision tweaked portions of the plot and lyrics that his over familiarity with the material made disconcerting. None of the story versions are perfect and they are products of the time they were made, which is OK. Still every time they sang: “Gotta a dream man? Gotta a song? Paint Your Wagon and come along” it felt wrong. There’s not an apparent rhythmic reason why “Gotta a dream boy?” sounds better but “man” sounds wrong.
|
At the Muny's Paint Your Wagon with the Lisses
|
|
|
Cate enjoying her Grandfather's Sebring
|
|
Jane's 17th Birthday
We celebrated Jane’s 17th Birthday Party with the Sage tribe with a disco theme inspired by ABBA’s Dancing Queen, Only 17. Jane sparkles both figuratively and literally. She makes her parents proud every day.
|
Jane sparkling at 17
|
|
| With surprise lillies |
Making a wish |
|
|
A couple days later Jane choose to skip a screening of Buster Keaston in Sherlock Jr at the 3rd Baptist Church which meant missing out on a IKEA trip. Yes Randy likes to reward those who agree to humor his cinephile hobby and torment those who don’t.
|
Lingonberry juice, mac & cheese, Texas Toast and curried veggie balls!
|
|
|
Jane and Pepper great dad at Sunnen Metrolink
|
|
School starts
On 13 August, Jane and Cate begin their Junior and Sophomore years at WGHS.
|
1st day of school 2019
|
|
Bethany's August
|
Bethany at her desk
|
|
|
Birthday pizza at Pie Guy
|
|
Following dinner at Pie Guy Pizza, Bethany used her birthday card to get us all to watch the cheesy but comforting Cutting Edge rom-com about the mismatched hockey player turned figure skater. The female lead had more than a passing resemblance to a young B.
On 22 August 2019, Bethany’s Godfather Father Mark E. Brennen (Amy and Aunt Kattie’s cousin) was installed as Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, which she was happy to attend along with and allowed her time to visit W&J and visit friends and family in the area.
|
Bethany at WnJ (with only a single "tower" of knowledge exposed)
|
|
Multi instances of thankfulness for having the internet to readily find people experiencing the same problem and providing a solution (e.g., using an upscale coffee pot at a rental house, quelling a squeaky dryer at home). Troubleshooting the strobe light problem with the master bedroom ceiling fan light after buying replacement light switches, turned out to be a Hunter wattage limiter to prevent using “too much energy” required by law written before LEDs rendered the idea obsolete. Bypassing was the easy, straight forward solution. Thanks Internet!
7320 Goff Avenue - Sold!
On Tuesday, 27 August, following the staging and picture taking the listing for the sale of 7320 Goff Ave went live and it would sell within a day. The sale wasn’t without its share of excitement and drama. The night the listing went live, we lowered the dining room lamp original to the house that had been tied up so as not to bonk you head when walking beneath it. The plastic insulation for the wiring disintegrated and immediately shorted out that entire overhead lighting circuit for all the rooms and trigging more work for the electrician. An hour after that minor crisis at 10 pm we received an offer to buy the house at full asking price ($220,000). While nice we already had several showings scheduled for the next day. Wednesday, was a roll coaster of a day with five bids coming in the first 24 hours it was first offered. The bidding war that flourished as was made all the more interesting as we were at WGHS Open House as the later bids came in with escalation clauses. Like a crescendo of the concert, we ended getting considerably more for the house than we asked ($231,000 or 5% over).
|
Goff Sold Fast
|
|
| Living room and dinning room |
Dinning room |
|
|
| Kitcien |
Master Bedroom |
|
|
|
Living room and foyer
|
|
The next month would offer multiple other “thrills” like the buyer requesting the sewer line under the basement floor be replaced or lined before the scheduled closing in a couple weeks, which necessitated scrambling for plumbing and bids. After we expressed the challenge of doing this in the allotted time, the Buyer’s real estate Agent proffered the name of someone who could do it the next day at 80% of the first bid. The multiple red flags of this offer led us to do a simple Google search of the proffered name, who turned out to be a convicted felon related to plumbing work in the past. Mind you the buyers’ agent wrote the language in the purchase contract requiring a “licensed plumber” perform the sewer repairs and camera verification inspection. We’re sure you don’t get to keep your license after a work-related felony. Tier agent was surprised when we didn't jump at the opportunity to save money and get it done in a day. Any wonder where real estate agents/developers are known for sleaze and bunkum?
|
Jane and Cate blooging from the Chbring
|
|
Despite all the work and relief that the extra house burden would be lifted it was hard not to feel waves of melancholy picking up the last load of stuff from Goff in advance of the pending sale. Several life times of memories.
September
|
BOGO Cheese Curds for dinner at DQ
|
|
On Thursday, September 12th, we were among the first in St. Louis to see the Downton Abbey movie, catching it 2 weeks before the general release at the Hi-Pointe with the family. At the end of July, we got the girls hooked with the first episode in advance of the coming film due in September.
|
Downton Abbey movie at the Hi-Pointe
|
|
Other post-dinner movie/tv story bonding included: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; The Best Years of Our Lives (the film that beat It’s a Wonderful Life for the Best Picture Oscar); Good Boys (rudely funny but forgettable); Good Omens; Britany Runs a Marathon; Broadchurch Seasons 1-3; and Se7en. The girls treated their cousin Lucy to a screening of the Disney animated Cinderella arguing that kids should know Bippty-Boppity-Boo.
|
Treating Lucy to big screen Disney
|
|
The human body and the white blood cells are wonderous albeit a little gross but I'm very happy today for them. My right pinkie got impaled by a piece of a stick that Bethany and I could not dig out later that day. Four days later while reducing the swelling...squeezing the pus, out pops the remains of the twig. Very satisfying.
|
Wood be GONE!
|
|
|
Dogs LOVE convertibles
|
|
Our children are not growing up in the world that their parents and it is frequently difficult to clearly get the differences in their world view, hopes, dreams and fears and ours. The imagery in the Back-To-School Essentials PSA by Sandy Hook Promise released in mid-September brought the ominous and pervasive school fears that they have known all their years home more forcibly than many words. The casual cynicism might seem there to lighten the tone but it captures our daughters’ attitudes that are that aren’t different than their peers. This has been their truth. In a similar vein, on Friday 21 September, Jane and Cate along with several hundred classmates at WGHS and millions(?) of kids worldwide participated in walkout/strike urging adults to take action on climate change.
| Cate's Climate Protest sign |
Jane and Zoey on the walkout |
|
|
Unlike most years where our Wedding Anniversary starts Fall, this year it ended Summer. Although a bit early, we recalled the Saturday of Fall Equinox 18 years earlier when we ceremoniously united our fortunes together. Ba-Dee-Ya!
On Sunday, the 22, we attended the STL Pizza Square Festival on the hill (Berra Park) and getting done before the rains came and continued Day Drinking at Cousin Hugo’s.
| STL Pizza Square Festival |
At Cousin Hugos |
|
|
