02/16/09

Valentine’s Day isn’t one of the biggest holidays at the Lambert’s but we did do some celebrating by going to the church for dinner. The Youth group was sponsoring a dinner to make some money for their projects.  One of the adults did the cooking but the youth waited tables and cleaned up afterwards.  Dinner was really good – the appetizers were brueschetta and stuffed mushrooms, with a main course of lasagna, green beans and breadsticks. Dessert was a choice of cheesecake, chocolate cake or carrot cake.  I chose the carrot cake - it’s one of the few non-chocolate things I really love.  They drew names for door prizes – I got a scented candle and Randy won some bottle of herbal hair conditioner.  Plus everyone got chocolate-covered strawberries at the end.  So it was a really nice evening. 

Randy also got me a box of chocolates, which I am trying to make last at least one week – we’ll see how that goes.

We bought a new car.  I loved my Camary but there were several reasons why we got rid of it.  It was 9 years old and it had 143,000 miles but the biggest reason is that we cannot tow it behind the RV.  We needed something we can tow, and we wanted something big enough to fit the bikes in.  We had been looking at Jeep Comanches and Jeep Commanders.  We found a 2006 Commander Jeep with about 28,000 miles on it.  It’s cherry red with a grey interior and it’s in great condition.  It’s bigger to drive than the Camary, but not too big.  We both really like it and we got a great deal.  If anyone wants to buy a car, now is the time to do it!  It is definitely a buyer’s market now.

02/16/09

Theresa and Tom came to visit us on Thursday evening. Theresa is laid-off (she knew that was coming, it was a temporary job) and Tom’s work has been cut down to 4 days. That’s not good for their budget, but it does give them some time to visit us! Thursday after dinner we played with the Wii that Randy got for Christmas. We’re not too bad at bowling, but I sure can’t golf! Saturday we had breakfast at Café on the Square, then spent the whole day at the big RV show. It’s an annual event held at the America’s Center. The Center is large enough to get lots of RV’s inside on display – it’s probably about as big as a football field, but it’s all indoors. Theresa and Tom looked at 5^th Wheel RVs a lot – those are the kind you hook up to a truck and pull.  There are some really nice designs, and the prices are great right now. Just like cars, the demand for RVs is low so the RV dealers are willing to price low. But Theresa and Tom are not at the point where they want to buy one yet, they’re just looking. Randy and I looked at the new Class A RVs – those are the ones you drive, like we already have. Neither of us were impressed with the new ones. So for now we will keep the one we have, and continue to customize it.   

After looking in RVs all day we were really hungry so we went to a Mexican restaurant called El Maguey. Unfortunately we had to wait about a half hour but it was worth it. I hadn’t been there before, but I would sure go back.

Sunday after church I spent some time with my friend Dezina. They recently adopted 3 puppies, so we played with the dogs a lot. Dezina is doing much better at losing weight than I am. She had a stomach by-pass a year ago and has lost a lot of weight, so now she is working at getting toned up.

A man in the Bethalto area leased our restaurant building to open a BBQ restaurant. He signed a two-year lease, but we hope he does well and decides to buy the building.

Randy’s birthday will be on Saturday – at this point our plans are to meet some friends at a local restaurant called Shaffley’s.    

We are continuing to discuss RVs – we might be interested in a 5^th Wheel RV.  If the living space and the motor were separate, it might be easier to maintain.  It’s a bit of a pain that when anything goes wrong, we have to take the whole RV in to get it looked at.  If we got a 5^th wheel, we would have to trade our new Jeep for a truck to pull the RV, so there are a lot of things to be considered.  We’re in no hurry, so we’ll probably just look around for awhile.

I’m still re-arranging our books and stuff, trying to fit everything in.  By now I am sure we have enough room in the RV, but we are not using it as efficiently as we could.

Randy is still working most evenings and all weekend with Aaron, but that might change. He’s thinking about looking for a job in the food industry; as long as we are still in St. Louis he will continue working, and as long as he’s working, he might as well be working in a restaurant.

Our retirement fund doesn’t look like we will get to leave for awhile. My heart was set on traveling and seeing the country while we are healthy enough to get around and enjoy it. That is what we sold our house for, and got rid of all of our things for. And although Randy is still healthy, we are both aware that his family history doesn’t include longevity. Last week we went to the visitation of a friend from church – he was only 42 years old, with a wife and 2 small sons. That makes you think about things – none of us know how long we are going to be here, so putting off the things you want to do doesn’t make much sense.

02/10/09 Visits from Family

We had a pretty busy weekend here.  Randy’s brother and sister-in-law Lonnie and Chris came to visit Thursday.  They are both retired; they took a month off to tour around the country, and stopped by on their way back home.  They have a nice pull-behind camper and they travel with their dog – I think she’s part pit bull and part Great Dane.  She is the biggest and friendliest dog you’ve ever seen.  

Thursday for dinner we went to Guido’s, on the Hill.  We had an amazing dinner – most of us ordered pasta, and we had fried artichoke hearts for an appetizer.  It was just great – Lonnie said it might have been the best meal he ever had!

When Randy shows someone around St. Louis, the focus is mostly on food. So we took them to a couple of bakeries, got some pastries and then went to a shop on Lafayette Square for coffee. We sat at a picnic table in the square and enjoyed pastries and coffee. The weather cooperated – it was just cool enough to need a jacket. Lafayette Square is famous for its Victorian houses, so we did some sight-seeing there. I don’t know what we did for lunch – at this point all the food events merge together. I know we went to a meat market and went to a couple of Randy’s favorite stores. 

Theresa and Tom also drove down in Friday and stayed with us. They brought their 18-month grand-daughter with them. She’s is a lovely baby – well-behaved and very friendly. We drove out to Global Foods, which offers groceries that appeal to several different nationalities. They have a section for India, Turkey, Korea, Britain, Spain, Bosnia, etc – just about everything. For dinner we went to a near-by barbecue place that Randy and I often eat at.

Saturday we went to Soulards for fresh fruit, then to a meat market where they offer lots of samples. Afterwards we went to Carl’s deli for lunch, where they make the best pastrami sandwiches imaginable.  At that point Lonnie declared he was done eating for the week!  So we went to the St. Louis history museum; Randy and I had not visited it before, so it was new to all of us.  They have a permanent display about the 1904 World’s Fair and one about Charles Lindberg. Afterwards we sat around the RV park talking. Eventually Theresa and Tom needed to go home, so we went out with them for a light dinner to a place called the Chocolate Bar.  We had appetizers of baked brie with apples, bacon and nuts, and a small pizza. Then everyone ordered desserts – mine was a chocolate bread pudding with chocolate sauce.  

Lonnie and Chris left very early Sunday morning before I was up.  Now we’re enjoying a break in the winter weather here.  It’s supposed to get near 70 – I don’t know if it will make it that far, but it’s pretty nice.  All the snow is about gone, and we turned the heater off.