Friday, August 22, 2008

HAPPY FRIDAY

Happy Friday, everyone!! I'm sure this calls for a song (and perhaps a dance as well), but I will spare all of you the agony of my singing. I must admit, however, that I can cut a mean rug if I get a hankerin'. Anyway, as I've hinted, Amy and I did make an impromptu visit to the City of St. Louis, MO last weekend. Like all of my plans, this was going to be a really easy, fast trip. Interestingly it wasn't to be.

Amy and I caught the first flight to St. Louis on Saturday morning. Just positive that we were going to be back in the evening, we locked Maggie away in her Pet Taxi and off we went. One thing leads to another .. woman on skates .. priest bearing Jesus .. penguins .. ah yes airport.

When we arrive at our gate there seems to be some upset people. And of course the flight is now oversold! Now bear in mind I asked the specific question prior to embarkation: "Is there a possibility of getting bumped when we get to St. Louis?" "Of course not, Mr. Norton. There is plenty of room. Go, and have fun!" came the resounding reply. Who knows what happened, but we were not leaving Missouri for anything on Saturday night.

Normally we would take this in stride and enjoy the wonderful surprise overnight stay at the local Holiday Inn using Priority Club points (ever the frugal one). But wait! Ah yes - Maggie! Sudden stress overcomes us. What will we do? I called every single friend I have who might be in Houston to see if they could go and rescue our poor dog. Nothing doing. Nobody was answering.

We have some of the nicest neighbors you would ever like to meet. There is one old man (who likes to lecture me about everything from lawn care to automobile operating techniques) that would do anything for us. But, alas, I don't have his number. I don't have phone numbers for anyone in our entire neighborhood.

So Amy and I get to the hotel and decide that we will search tax records to get the last names of our neighbors and then use switchboard.com to find their phone numbers. Wouldn't you know it? No one in our neighborhood has land lines. Not a one of them. Eeks!!! Just when we thought there was going to be no hope, we had a stroke of luck. Someone I left a message with called back and within moments was on his way to our house to rescue Maggie. Thank you, Chad!!!

Now on to the City. Since I'm now a blogger, I am always looking to capture funny moments in my observations so that I can share them with you. We no more than got off the train, and there it was - the perfect photo opportunity.


She is on roller skates - four wheels each. OH YES SHE IS!!! (We're hoping you'll hear Mary Murphy's voice in your head as you read that last statement - "Oh yes she is!") We were quite some distance away from this roller-skating mama (Thank God for telephoto lenses!); however, I do believe that she saw me snap the photo given the look on her face and the direction she is looking relative to her direction of travel. Oh well, it was worth it. How fun! Although I thought that actual roller skates had been eradicated from the planet with the invention of in-line skates.

So off we go to the zoo. We had a wonderful time (the details of which I won't bore you with, as we have all been to the zoo before). Amy and I particularly like this one though because of the way their exhibits are laid out. When possible, there are no cages. They have zoo keepers at nearly every exhibit to answer questions, and the best part is it's free! For your viewing pleasure, I have loaded a video of our photos from the trip. It's at the bottom of the post. Moving on...

Despite being bumped from our flight, there was some good news at the airport. Another great photo opportunity! I've mentioned before about the nun on one of my flights that was carrying a three-foot statue of Mary (the mother of Jesus) with her. It had its own zip-up Mary Cozy. Periodically, she would take it out, look at it and then put it back. I find that great fun! But I believe it was topped last weekend in St. Louis. Here we have a priest dressed in long robes with a bead belt.

He is busily looking for something in his large bag. As he was digging through the bag, he needed to remove a few items to make rummaging easier. If you look closely, you can see one of the items that was removed. It's just to the left, and it has a loin cloth. Let's take a closer look.



Yes -- there is no doubt about it. That is a Jesus on a cross - a really big Jesus on a really big cross - at least 24" tall. For fear of a public debate, I didn't share with this member of the clergy that Jesus isn't actually on the cross anymore. But this guy certainly believes that the bigger the Jesus on a cross, the safer he will be in the friendly skies. I was raised attending a Catholic church, so I kind of understand some of the stuff they do. But bringing such large relics on flights is really very funny to me. Is there a Catholic guide, I wonder? It must read something like "For journeys more than 1,000 miles take at least a two-foot Jesus. Between 1,000 and 1,500 miles take a very large Mary, and for over 1,500 bring whatever you can find that is at least three feet tall."


Anyway, lots of fun! Please have a safe and fun weekend. We'll chat later.


-Steve

4 comments:

Valerie said...

You two crazy kids always know how to have fun! The roller skating mama is a smart one -- at my 30th b-day party last year at the roller rink they allowed strollers, and let me tell you, that is a work-out. A very good work-out. And the priest -- did he have to buy a separate seat for his good buddy Jesus? Surely that didn't fit in the overhead bin?

Amy, you look super cute in your dress in the pictures!

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha, ha, ha.....so funny...
I read your blog quite often and I would like to see you respond to some of the comments!! Pretty please ???

Adaptive Design, Inc. said...

steve - what's up bro - got your comment from our xanga site - yeah, if you noticed, our last post was in 2006. great to hear from you! glad to see you and amy are doing well.

just fyi, here are the more recent links to our stuff now:
my blog:
http://adaptive-design.blogspot.com

my business website
http://www.adaptive-design.com

facebook
http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1206078759

alright, great to hear from you.

by the way, i tried to get to shannon's blog, but i have to be invited - how do i do that?

Happily Ever After said...

Valerie - We didn't actually get to board the flight with the priest who was toting the giant Jesus, so we're unsure as to how he handled the situation. However, concerning the nun with the massive Mary, she put Mary under the seat in front of her until we had taken off. (It was a tight fit, but she made it work.) However, once we were airborne, the sister picked up her massive Mary and cuddled the statute until she had to be stowed again for landing. Fortunately, she had a Mary cozy to protect it while stowed.

Another funny thing concerning this nun, in case anyone is still reading, is that later in the flight she went into the lav. However, she failed to lock the door. We were on a 777, and she was in the lav in the middle of the plane. Along came a man who reached out and flung the door open wide (quite unnecessary). There she sat. Poor thing! You can't believe the apologies this man uttered. After all, she's a nun! It was hilarious! Although, thank God, we were able to keep our giggles to low chuckles rather than all-out belly laughs. It's still one of our favorite flight tales.

This particular sister gave us much reason for laughter during the whole four-hour flight.