Aug 31st, 2010 | Food, Fun, St Louis, life | No Comments
This weekend was a damn fine weekend to live in St Louis. Chris had his fake football draft all day Saturday. I was going to work in the garden because it is a hot mess that I have a lot of shame over, but then I succumbed to peer pressure, as I so often do, and headed to LouFest.
LouFest is an unfortunately-named first-year music festival held in St Louis’s crown jewel, Forest Park, where Chris and I got married. The lineup was impressive (She&Him, Broken Social Scene, Lucero, Built to Spill, Jeff Tweedy), but not packed with bands we actively follow and love. Normally, we would have totally been down for going both days, but we ultimately decided not to spend the money on two-day passes for both of us. It seemed like my entire Twitter feed was going, though, and Friday I just decided to go for it and told my boy Mike D. that I was going to join him on Saturday. → continue reading
Aug 27th, 2010 | Food, Fun, St Louis, life, work | 4 Comments
I started a new part-time gig at a local kitchen shop that also offers cooking classes. All I do is prep the kitchens for classes, assist chefs who are teaching, and clean up during and after the classes. It’s a sweet gig for several reasons: → continue reading
Aug 19th, 2010 | St Louis, bloggety stuff, life | 7 Comments
Thank you to everyone who commented on my questioning Catholicism post. For the most part, things stayed respectful and I appreciate everyone who shared their personal stories. You guys rock. For the sake of fairness, the Christians are next, because I just watched Waiting for Armageddon and that noise will stop you dead in your tracks. My friend Christine e-mailed me and said, “You know who I feel bad for in the whole Catholic scam…Jesus. That dude has a lot of fucked up shit happening in his name and he’s not even around to be like, “Hey. Don’t do that. Thanks, bro.” And that’s how I feel about Waiting for Armageddon, but with the Christians. It’s on Netflix Watch Instantly if you want to prepare yourself for my eventual rant. I was raised Lutheran, which is totally Catholic-lite and not really into fear-based end-times chatter, but I’ve read some of the Left Behind books (shut it, I was in high school/early college) and so I have opinions, and they involve Kirk Cameron. → continue reading
Aug 17th, 2010 | St Louis, family, life | 30 Comments
So my friend is getting married in the Catholic church, and, as part of the activities you have to complete in order to do so, she had to go to a natural family planning class. If you don’t live in the Catholic Capitol of the US, like I do, you might not know that NFP is like the Catholic version of birth control. You can google it if you want more details.
ANYWAY, apparently the class at this particular parish is led by a nice married couple who asked the class what were the three ways a couple could avoid conception. According to the people teaching the class on the sexin’, those methods are: → continue reading
Jun 30th, 2010 | St Louis, bloggety stuff | 9 Comments
So, remember when meeting someone you met online was, like, kind of sketchy and possibly dangerous? And there was a distinct possibility that the person you were meeting would either be a teenaged LARPer or Chris Hansen? 
Life’s really not like that anymore, unless you’re the idiot STILL trying to pick up 16-year olds in chat rooms, in which case, you get what you deserve when you find out that 16-year old tartlet is really a paunchy cop. → continue reading
Apr 6th, 2010 | Fun, St Louis, family, life, pop culture | No Comments
The 5th Annual Backyard Trivia Night
Saturday, May 22nd
Kegs tapped at 6, trivia starts at 7
Teams between 2-8 people
$10/person; includes all the crappy keg beer you can drink
(although we may get one craft keg if we have enough interested)
Cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place teams based on pot
Mulligans: $5 each or 3/$10
Bring your own tables and chairs (what do you think this is, the VFW?)
Dice game AKA CLR. Bring $1 bills
Anticipating record crowds. No, seriously. SERIOUSLY. RSVP below to ensure room for your team.
RSVP or questions? E-mail kbestoliver (at) yahoo (dot) com
Mar 29th, 2010 | St Louis, education, life, work | 8 Comments
The charter school is coming along exactly as planned (insert evil mustache-twirling maniacal laughs). A few weeks ago, we had our review for the first of two planning grants. This involved submitting the first incantation of our business plan, as well as an in-person interview where our four founding members defended said proposal in front of a group of people. It also involved me squeezing into “business attire” that I didn’t exactly try on before I bought it and consequently ended up feeling like Joan Holloway.
→ continue reading
Mar 23rd, 2010 | Fun, Sporty, St Louis | 2 Comments
Last year I joined one of Chris’s fake baseball leagues and deemed the exercise worthy of repetition this season. I will participate in the same league with Chris’s friends and some of their ladies, and I put together my own league made up of all friends from Twitter. Last year, my draft strategy was pick hot dudes, Iowans, and people with interesting names or stories, and I did pretty well. This year, I paid attention to stats because I wanted to have a balanced team and last year I had no speed. I GOT SPEED NOW, BITCHES. Stolen bases err’where. My only other strategies were to try to pick up people who did well for me last year, get at least one Cardinal (Carp), keep my boy Dan Haren, and avoid Cubs (wasn’t able to). → continue reading
Feb 24th, 2010 | Food, Fun, St Louis, Uncategorized, feminism, good deeds | 2 Comments
***Cross-posted at Food Blog Mafia
Recently I joined the new Young Professionals board for Safe Connections. If you aren’t familiar with Safe Connections:
As the oldest and largest locally-founded agency serving abused women and teens in the St. Louis region, Safe Connections is essential core of resources and support for survivors of violence. Safe Connections is the only agency providing integrated services for women who have been victimized by domestic violence, sexual assault, rape and/or childhood sexual abuse. (from Safe Connections’ About Us)
Safe Connections provides vital services for women and teens in the area who are survivors of violence, and their work is an area where the need for help is almost always greater than what they can provide. The Young Professionals is a new group formed by Safe Connections to gain volunteers and supporters in the 21-40 age group who can help Safe Connections expand their mission and services.
We’re hosting a happy hour to raise awareness about and gain membership for Safe Connections and our Young Professionals group. This event will be held at Pi in the Central West End on Wednesday, March 3, from 5-7. Chris Sommers, who owns Pi, is also a member of the Young Professionals group, and Pi will be offering half-price appetizers and drink specials for those in attendance. You should come. You need no reason to go to Pi and have a cocktail on a Wednesday, and this gives you free reign to claim it as your good deed for the day or week should you see fit.
Domestic violence is an issue that does not discriminate based on race, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, or religion. I’d love to see you guys come out, particularly my lady-blogger friends.
Feb 4th, 2010 | Food, Garden, St Louis, Uncategorized, education, life, work | 8 Comments
The Bad News (because I’d rather get it out of the way first):
When I left my job helping unqualified people become underwhelming teachers (I KID, at least five of them were competent. Ashley, you’re one of them), I went to work with a friend, helping her with the small business she owned. When I started working with her, we set a three-month trial period, at the end of which either of us could withdraw from the arrangement, no hard feelings. Unfortunately, due to a really crappy economy, she really couldn’t afford to keep me after three and a half months, which I expected. Therefore, as of Friday, I have no substantive incoming coming in regularly.
Which kind of sucks. → continue reading
