The Curtis Clan - Winter 2024
Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox
Holiday 2023 FFF (Forced Family Fun)
On the Winter Solstice, Randy was the name of the day at Serendipity so of course the Curti went except for Cate who was spending the evening with friends.
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Name of the day visit to Serendipity
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The next day was the 24th Anniversary of Bethany and Randy's first date, which we learned is known as Teeny, Tiny Christmas in Norway (22 December). This pleased us to no end. As a family we went to the Rep to It's a Wonderful Life Radio Hour. It was an interesting retelling of the well-known story; not better than the film but a different version, making for a slightly fresher telling.
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Teeny, Tiny Christmas at the Rep (note: doesn't the dark building in the background look spooky? Wrong holiday.)
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This year's annual viewing of White Christmas occurred on the big screen at the Hi-Pointe with the whole family, followed by picking up some Pointers Pizzas take out to watch more holidays films at home (Single All the Way).
| Curti behind the Hi-Pointe |
With the White Christmas poster |
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Curti on Christmas Eve 2023
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Christmas Eve was extra warm (66 degree), enticing us to enjoy the day and take out the convertible for a spin. The holidays tradition kicked in with watching the Holy Redemer children's Christmas Eve pageant on YouTube from the comfort of our house. Afterwards, we departed for Amy and Alvan's, having a rollicking good time doing the same things we always done: eating tomato or chicken soup, singing carols from five decade old song sheets and closing with Alvan's reading of the gospel. No pics of the full gathering but one of Gramy and the Townie Caper Elf.
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With Gramy and her North Pole visitor
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The girls and dogs hung up their stockings and we got to bed before 11 pm. Excellent Christmas Eve.
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The girls and dogs ready to hang their stocckings for Santa
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Christmas was a lazy day at home with the parents making the girls still wait at the top of the stairs with the dogs before heading downstairs to see what Santa had brought them. Cinnamin rolls for breakfast, spinach lasagna for dinner and holiday movies throughout the day.
Sage FFF continued on Boxing Day evening was at St. Peters Sages which was lots of fun during the rob your neighbor game and visiting with the extended Sage clan (another night of no group pictures, feeling shame). When we got home, we spent an hour helping Cate shoot her 4 Days of Sagemas bit from 1 am to 2. Caffeine made it possible for dad to participate but this last-minute filming of Cate's bit the last three years is not his idea of a great idea for a family tradition.
Cousin Katie joined stayed with us as the 6 Indy Sages spread over 4 townie house holds. The next morning we did an inpromptu plumbing lesson as the Curti girls demonstrated how to replace the toilet bowl float.
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Cas managing the simple plumbing lesson practical
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There was no FFF plan on Wednesday, December 27 and after much phone text kibitzing, Van offered his home for some unplanned hanging out with dinner coming from Pasta House family meals, Papa John's pizza and plenty of beers. Before the food got there, everyone crowded into the kitchen drinking beers, swapping stories and abuse was an unexpected treat. The older grandkids/nibblings/cousins coming into their own as people and joining in as part of the family was fun.
| Crowding around the kitcien table |
because there wasn't any other rooms in the house? |
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Bringing out the Lightening Reaction electric shock zapping game testing ones' reflexes, concentration, and speed was fun for the immature too.
Lightening because that's what the holidays are all about?
(Cas completed dominated the zapping game and was undefeated. Randy, well, somebody had to loose.)
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Gramy and Jane share a moment
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The last day of FFF Sagemas was on Thursday at the Casa Curti. Many people enjoyed the pork tenderloin cooked perfectly to the American National Pork Board guidance. Others refused following the Mid-20th Century Mid-America edict against pink meat in all forms (besides can you trust a pseudo-vegetarian to cook meat?).
The ninth edition of the 13 days of Sagemas was arguably the best as multiple families rose to the challenge of being creative and there were multiple standout bits. Although biased, we think the girls bits were the best: Jane's 2 shots of Fireball with special guest Gramy and Cate's 4 Melted Snowmen. The outtakes were also a treat.
| Jane - 2 shots of Fireball |
Cas - 4 melted snowmen |
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The videos came be found here:
13 Days of Sagemas - 2023 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2022 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2021 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2020 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2019 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2018 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2017 Edition
13 Days of Sagemas - 2016 Edition - URL is private as of 8 Nov
13 Days of Sagemas - 2015 Edition - URL is private as of 8 Nov
In a similar vein,
Mele Kalikimaka by sung by Jane and Cate Curtis - 2012 Edition
The initial screening of the edited 13 Days of Sagemas video segued into Jane's presentation on her IQP trip to Switzerland. Her Grandfather Alvan requested a presentation, and she got her parents blessing with a stipulation that she should keep it SHORT to avoid the experiences of past family slides shows, particularly the one on Gaudy's Basilica Sagrada Familia in Barcelona that lasted nearly as long as the travelers actual visit to the church.
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Sage Tribe before presentations
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With 114 slides, there was little chance of Jane's presentation being the 20-minute program envisioned (complete 11mb pdf slideshow on Google Docs).
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Janes IQP Presentation - Slide 1 of way too many
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Immediately it became a game as the gathered collectively chose key words (e.g., train) and a camera pose (her extended arm, fishbowl lens selfie) to drink to along with the impromptu jeering of her unfriendly teammate (Isabella - Booo). Jane was a great sport during the mountain of abuse heaped on her as it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to run through it all. It was more fun than it sounds but it bodes poorly if this is the new norm. Also to be fair, it took less time than all the A. Sages vacation slides did.
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The group cheering Jane's use of one of the magic words
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With Sagemas complete, we all got up early the next day to road trip to Pittsburgh to hang out with Katie and Don for a couple-few days. As usual it was low on activities but high on snacking drinking and late-night chatting, even when it wasn't New Years eve.
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Welcoming in the New Year in Pittsburgh
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New Year 2024
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A light snow on Tuxedo
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We only had a few days back home with the whole gang and Bethany insisted we had to take the family Christmas card picture on the last full day while Jane was home (her personal rule is we can't look at other people's cards they sent us until ours are in the mail). We chose the Hawken House as our backdrop again, followed by a lunch at Llwellyn's. The "of age" portion of the family had multiple beers (Green Dragons-mmmm) resulting in Cas driving us back home to watch two silly movies on Netflix as a family: Holidate and The Outlaws
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2023 Holiday Card
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Curti at Llwellyn's
(Arguablly a more fun Curti image than the card)
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Randy Googled himself in early January and was tickled to see that the first thing that popped up for "Randal Curtis" is the Simpson's parody of George Lucas. He certainly coud do worse being confused for others and do if you look further down the search page (obits and a guilty verdict for juvenile molestation). It's not bad to be slightly hard to stalk because of the common names.
Randal Curtis in the Simpson Universe
(George Lucas parody)
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Let's Go Blues
The second Tuesday of the New Year, Randy got a few discount tickets to the Blues hockey game going with Todd and Britt. We caught up with dinner beforehand at the Train Wreck and it was like old times with a $5 pint of Schlafly Pale Ale and a shrimp basket. The game was a different story. The Kiel Center always feels like going to a new city as it seems so much has changed from season ticket days at the Arena which ended in 1994:
* you need the Blues app to buy anything like a $10 Bud Light can.
* pre-recorded "Let's get excited" music though there was some spirited live rink organ interludes but too few and far between for all tastes.
* slow fancy National Anthem singer instead of everyone singing along (the Eagle Scouts and I sang it)
* skating cheerleaders scraping the ice a few times a period because why not?
* longer 18-minute breaks between periods to accommodate a peewee scrimmage but then needing two Zambonis to finish on time.
* most everyone wearing a jersey, with it bordering on being a uniform, although a variety of styles and decades were embraced.
* narrow seats and needing opera glasses to read the distant score boards.
The last one was clearly an indication that perhaps Randy is the one that changed most of all.
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Todd, Brit, & Randy
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Curti Cart stable expands by 1
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Inside Bethany's Buick Encore
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On Friday, 12 January, we took Cas to the airport and put her on a Southwest flight back to Wichita and were back home before 9. Wondering what we were going to do for the four-day MLK weekend, we decided to look at Buicks to confirm the Encore was still the car Bethany wanted after our comparison shopping in the fall. Some internet searching later, we determined that Dave Sinclair Buick had her coveted color combination: "Ocean Blue" exterior with "Whisper Beige" interior. Add in 1.9% financing, 10% of MSRP and $750 bonus cash for owning a newer non-GM car and there wasn't much doubt we were buying it from the moment we walked in. Besides, at sixty Randy can't really argue he's not old enough to drive a Buick anymore.
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Bethany's Beautiful Blue Buick
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Driving home, it occurred to us there we could drop off the Kia Soul to Cas right away as we had nothing going on that weekend (she had already asked to buy it from us). Cas and Bethany had tepid enthusiasm indicative of their preferences for planning well in advance, but given the weather forecast of an arctic cold front coming in quickly, this was much rational caution as reluctance to except an impulsive offer. Our Saturday, Winter Road trip skated close to a bad idea a few times during the 7 hour drive to Wichita particularly for a couple of hours on either side of Kansas City with reduced visibility, flurries, strong wind gusts and crazy low temperatures. Thankfully it was too cold for the snow to stick to the road. Having a car was going to dramatically changed Cas's mind set about getting about at school and why not start the semester on the right foot.
| The Encore and Kia side by side |
Snowscape on our WSU Roadtrip |
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Cas's Kia Soul outside her apartment
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Sunday was a very cold day with outside temps of -4 through the Flint Hills. We had lunch with the Holmes in Columbia and Anthony shared his tale of seeing the Chief's playoff game the night before at Arrowhead (windchill of -27) when tickets were as low at $25 (They would go on to repeat as Super Bowl champs).
Late January
In late January, several square feet of the dining room ceiling fell in clearly indicating the 20-year-old roof had failed significantly clearly indicating we ignored earlier clues. Repairs would include removal of four times the initial damage to get to solid ceiling. Of course, Randy was in DC for a 2-week work trip at the archives leaving Bethany home to deal with the mess and anxiety alone.
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Dining Room Ceiling failure
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Randy "consoled" himself by wandering around the Smithsonian Natural History Museum over the weekend until his legs gave out after soaking up the mammal and fossil rooms and the meteor and rock rooms. All were much better than he recalled from 30 years earlier while at Staff College. The display of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) rock outcrop from the Denver Basin was moving and a bit confusing as they changed the name of the K-T boundary to Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (moment of mass extinction that wiped out over 75% of Earth's species, including non-avian dinosaurs).
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Dinosaur Bones !
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Randy and his reserach team outside NARA College Park
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Who wants a vitamin?
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February
February began with our National Ice Cream for Breakfast trip to Serendipity. There was a line in the cold outside the door but it's not the same without the girls and not being in Old Orchard.
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Ice Cream for Breakfast 2024
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Florida in February
The following week, Bethany flew to Tampa to spend 10 days with Amy and Alvan at the Villages in Florida. She was joined by her Aunt Katie and sister Rosemary for the first few days for a Lonsway Women February Fete. After she returned home Bethany let her parents spoil her for the rest of the week which included a day trip to Silver Springs. A great winter get away that will likely be repeated in the future.
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At the Square ready for the band to play
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Rosemary and Bethany
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Alvan, Amy and Bethany at home
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Bethany and Amy at Silver Springs
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Polar Plunge?
For Chinese New Year (February 10), Randy did a Polar Plunge in the Meramec River while making the 10-mile float from Onondaga to Blue Springs. Saying it this way sounds way better than he took an unintended swim while telling a story and not paying attention to the eddy current when the split Meramec rejoins itself at Bob's Creek and he plopped in. Charlie and Gary were a bit unnerved but after a minute or two when his heart didn't stop, they figured he probably wasn't going to die, especially with a dry bag of clothes. A borrowed a pair of spare gloves was a huge gift and on the next winter float Randy will bring the neoprene gloves he ALREADY owns but didn't think to bring along. Doah!
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Meramec River with Bob creek entering in from the south
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The next Saturday, we made a dinner date pilgrimage with the Lisses to Monte Bello in Lemay. Local self-described Pizza Connoisseurs named it the best STL pizza and arguably the oldest version, as the restaurant was established in 1950. Entering the basement location with its inch diameter galvanized pipe handrails from the gravel parking lot was like walking into a time machine to a pizzeria of Randy's childhood with fractured floor tiling and few other updates it was a throwback treat. The hand rolled; irregular shaped pizza served on a rectangular cookie sheet pan was magic. It didn't include Provel, but we didn't notice it's absence. The chocolate Toasted raviolis with strawberry sauce were even BETTER. A new favorite!
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With the Lisses at Monte Bellos
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| Pizza Joy |
Monte Bellos Specials |
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The next week was another dinning out treat with neighbors as we joined the Kenndey's and the Burks at Cyrano's. The evening was topped off with flaming fruit (cherries jubilee) with alcohol because extravagant deserts are best shared.
| With the Burks and Kennedys |
Cyrano's Flaming Dessert |
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On the last Saturday of February, Randy joined a few of his college buddies (Chris Steger, Anthony Holmes and Rob Stitt) for a workday at the fraternity house. It was the second half of a room rehab after the ceiling and floor were trashed from a leaky pipe. It was a good day of camaraderie with guys getting stuff done with an excellent lunch and dinner (catfish platter at the Tater).
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Pi Kapp work day with the gang
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Between Cand D terms, Jane and her buddies Stephanie and Eric booked some cheap tickets to Iceland and spent a number of days there. Nice pictures but no details until she provides them.
| Jane with a glacier |
Jane, Steph, & Eric with glacier |
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| Jane, Steph, and Eric with Iceland waterfall |
Jane Iceland rainbow |
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An early March trip to DC for work allowed Randy the opportunity to make the long overdue visit to the AFI at Silver Springs. How could he pass up a chance to see his name sake Randolph Scott on a giant 1960s era screen in one of his better offerings: Ride Lonesome. Better than expected particularly the scenery on a huge screen (there was a reason why this genre was so popular for so long). The AFI had a professor provide a well-done intro to the film, discussing Director Boetticher and Producer Brown whom Scott made his best films with ("Ranown" production).
| Outside the Silver Springs AFI |
With the Randolph Scott poster |
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Cas's Springbreak
Cas came home for his spring break and her parents did their best to spoil her celebrating her birthday early or at least as much as she would let us. There was a visit to her favorite restaurant Himalayan Hut, than a 314 / Pi Day trip to Monte Bello's ($3.14 off each pizza). She wasn't as smitten with the pizza, but she did request the extra chocolate toasted ravioli. We ended her visit with a trip to the zoo and DQ Blizzards and sundaes that evening.
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Cas with Gussie
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The Curtri at the zoo
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After we saw Cas off, we drove to Washington MO to pick up a used exercise bike, so of course we stopped by Cowan's for pie and a look at the Missouri River. We also visited Nobilis Winery in Augusta and the Weldon Springs FUDS / FUSRAP site visitors center on the way home.
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Grabbing some pie for lunch at Cowans in WashMo
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