Kirk blAug

Since moving here, to the St. Louis area, I have probably had pizza for about 50% of the meals I have eaten. Not all of these times have been pizza in the St. Louis style, but many have. St. Louis style is super thin yeast free crust and the use of Provel cheese, then cut into squares instead of slices. Provel is a fusion of provolone, Swiss, and white Cheddar cheeses that was developed by a St. Louis firm called Costa Grocery in the 1950s. In my humble opinion, it is the best cheese anyone could put on a pizza. It is a little more stringy than mozzarella that is typically used on pizza. It is not widely available outside the St. Louis area. The thin crust is cracker like in consistency which reminds me of a lavash. I have enjoyed St. Louis pizza several sources. The frozen pizza option comes from Dogtown Pizza and tastes really great for a frozen pizza. For delivery, I have been enjoying Imo's Pizza . Several sit down restaurants I have visited have offered St. Louis style pizza.

Yesterday was the birthday of our dog, Sunny. Our tradition with our dogs on their birthdays is to get them a cheeseburger and fries. We typically got this special treat from Runza , but with no Runza restaurant anywhere within at least a four hour drive, I settled for the fast food restaurant nearest our house. This was McDonalds . I do not go to McDonalds very often. My taste buds just do not agree with it. I have gotten a Happy Meal for Jupiter from there before, however. The time that I did, they had two classifications of toys. When they asked me which sex my child was. I queried as to the strange nature of asking such a question before providing me with a lunch for my son. They responded by informing me that they needed to know if they should give me a girls toy or a boys toy. I stated that there is no such thing, but knowing that it was not the employees decision to attribute gender to toys, I also told them that Jupiter was a boy so that they could get on with the rest of the p

When I was young my parents followed a tradition which I imagine was passed down to them from their parents who received the tradition from their parents before them and so on for a generation or two before them. I am of course talking about the yearly tradition of deceiving their gullible offspring with myths of a jolly man who lives at the North Pole. I fell for it. They were fairly elaborate to the point of even having a man dressed up as a Santa come to the front door one year. This of course sparked my suspicion a little. Why the front door and not the chimney? Though I do not remember what it was, a satisfactory explanation was given and I continued to believe in it. Eventually I did finally figure it all out, mostly through ridicule from schoolmates and my 3rd grade teacher for still believing it. I did not take the news well. I did not understand that my parents, who regularly told me that lying is wrong and makes Jesus cry, would keep up such an elaborate and ultimately pointl

This scene in How The Grinch Stole Christmas has always bugged me. I can not figure out how the Grinch ended up with a three dimensional suit by cutting one two dimensional piece of cloth. I remember back to one of the first times that I watched the show thinking, "What?!? But... that just does not work!" Perhaps back in 1966 kids were not so intuitive with things like this. Maybe they really thought that a tailor could take a piece of cloth such as this and make something that would cover both back and front of a body. Perhaps the Grinch cut another piece for the hat and coat off camera. I do not know what Chuck Jones and Ted Geisel were thinking, but it still bugs me every time I see it.

I was going to write something today, but then I got sidetracked and played with iMovie instead. Enjoy!

Tsunami and I like to communicate. He is two months old so he cannot actually talk yet. He also does not have very good control of his hands and arms yet, so no sign language either. Of course he knows how to cry when he needs something, but what about when he just wants to chat? Tsunami has mastered the use of his tongue for chatting. The other day Chris was sticking her tongue out at him and he mimicked it. Ever since then, whenever I walk by him he sticks his tongue out at me. Then I reply by sticking mine out at him. We go back and forth like that for awhile. It is usually a pretty good chat. Some consider sticking a tongue out at someone to be a rude gesture, but when Tsunami does it all I feel is love.

I have been wanting to go up to the top of the Gateway Arch since the first few times I visited St. Louis a few years ago. Unfortunately for me, no one wanted to go with me. Something about a cramped pod experience that they did not care to relive. I would have gone alone once, but on that particular occasion it was a weekend and there were patrons lined up far outside the security gate and I was not going to imposition my wife and in-laws to wait for me to wait in line. I ended up having to wait until I lived here to go. I thought that a Monday morning would be my best chance to get to the top without waiting in too many lines, and I was right. This morning I asked Jupiter if he would go up with me since no one else wanted to. He said he would, perhaps not knowing what I was talking about but excited about going on a ride, and so we went. On our way up Jupiter and I were the only ones in the pod. It was far from cramped for just the two of us. It looked like something from the future