Oktoberfest in St. Charles

Lucy the Dog

This is Lucy.
I don't know what kind of dog she is but she is very lovable.

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Lucy lives with a best friend of mine.
She used to be a basement dog but now she is an upstairs dog.
I don't know if she likes getting baths
but her fur feels like silk afterward.
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And I'd have to say
she likes a good tummy rub too!

RAMS GAME DAY 3: Rams @ Cardinals

UPDATE WEEK 3: (W 16-14)

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3:15 game today
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Marc Bulger and Kurt Warner
used to both play for the St. Louis Rams.

Sorry Kurt, but I hope that the Rams win today!

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Well, we won but it was a really strange game!
Next week we play the Detroit Lions who have quite a few ex-Rams.

Willow and my leopard boot.....

I found Willow playing with the shoelaces on my boot.
I guess it wore her out!
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She looks so relaxed -- although I don't know how
using a boot for a pillow
could possibly be comfortable!
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And a Happy First Day of Autumn!!!!!

Willow's love of hats.....

Willow has loved my hats since she first came to live with us as a kitten.
Of course then she could still fit in my hat.

Mom's Sauce Pot Meatballs

My mother gave me this recipe called "Mom's Sauce Pot Meatballs". I have been wanting to make it since last week and something else kept happening. So today is the day!!!!! Hope it is as good as I remember -- just kidding, after all it is from my mom!

The ingredients are:

1 package of dry onion soup mix
1 1/4 cups of water
2 (8 oz.) cans of tomato sauce
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
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In a deep thick saucepan, bring to a boil: soup mix, water and 1 1/2 cans of tomato sauce. Simmer covered for 10 minutes. Mix ground beef, seasonings, parsley and the other 1/2 can of tomato sauce in a large bowl.


Shape into 16 meatballs and.....

place in the sauce.....

Simmer gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes and turning occasionally.
Serve over hot noodles, spaghetti or rice.

Serves 4

RAMS GAME DAY 2: Rams @ 49ers

UPDATE WEEK 2: (L 20-13)

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No game until 3:00 today since they are on the West Coast.
China Cat is anxiously waiting (while watching for squirrels in the back yard) for the pre-game to start with Joe, Terry, Howie and Jimmy.
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Well, I don't know what to say about this game except.....
Let's beat the Cardinals next week!!!!!!

What Cats Do Best.....

9/11/01

Five years ago today.....

RAMS GAME DAY 1: Broncos @ Rams

UPDATE WEEK 1: (W 18-10)

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I can't wait for the game to start. I just hope I'll be happy at 3:00!
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Willow was not thrilled with me helping her get ready for the game.
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She was happy when I took the Rams bandana from around her neck!

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And, as you can see, Willow was ecstatic when the Rams beat the Broncos!!!!!

OK, maybe that was me!!!!!

Time for Another Festival

This weekend is Manchester Homecoming in, of course, Manchester! We have a lot of festivals in the St. Louis area and the Fall ones are just beginning. I consider September and October to be the time for Fall Festivals. Then November and December are the Christmas Festivals. Therefore, (since we go to most of them) with any luck, my Christmas shopping should be almost done by the end of the Festivals! I'll have some pictures later.....

Baking Muffins!

I started baking muffins last week and continued baking this week....

These were Banana Muffins with fresh Blueberries baking in them.




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And here they are ready to come out of the oven.


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They were great with a cup of tea!


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I also made Pumpkin-Apple Muffins. That just seemed very Fall-like!

Wednesday is Pizza Night!

We always have pizza on Wednesday nights.
This is Bob's Deluxe from Fortels
and it is loaded with:
Sausage, Pepperoni, Mushroom, Green Pepper and Onion.

Summer is unofficially over!

We haven't closed our pool yet.

But the highs are now only in the low 80's so...

there's not much swimming going on!
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We do, however still have tomatoes growing by the pool. They are hanging from the light post in plastic bags. RDG grew flowers last year in these vertical bags and thought they would be great for tomatoes. When they were in the ground last year, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits -- I don't know who exactly ate them before we could!

Happy Labor Day!

They had the Labor Day Parade downtown today, however we did not attend this year. After all the excitement of the Air Show yesterday we didn't feel like going downtown for a 9:00 AM Parade -- although we usually do go to any parades in the area.

St. Louis has quite a lot to do for the Labor Day Weekend: a Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden, a Blues Festival (the Big Muddy Blues Festival) downtown on The Landing, the aforementioned St. Louis County Fair and Air Show at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, and new this year is a Hip Hop Festival. I think that covers all of the Big Festivals for this 3-day weekend. Definitely plenty to do if you want to do something!

St. Louis County Fair & Air Show

Today we are going to the 15th annual St. Louis County Fair & Air Show. So, no pictures until we come back! But here is a link to their website:

http://www.stlcofair.org/

We're back and the air show was great! The planes go by so fast it's hard to get good pictures. Plus I just have my little digital camera -- some photographers we saw had those huge cameras with the lenses sticking out at least a foot!

But anyway, here's a stationary picture of the Turner Classic Movies plane which is a DC-3 named "Rose". The rest of the planes were harder to photograph!
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The Turner Classic Movies' Air Show Tour also brought along their giant LED screen. After the air show, which was from 12:30 to 3:30, the crowd was invited to watch "Casablanca" airing (pardon the pun!) at 6:00 PM.

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The fair also had various music groups playing every night such as, the Gin Blossoms, Erin Bode, Bob Kuban Brass and the Fabulous Motown Revue.

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First up was the USAF T-6A Texan II Demo team with Heritage Flight.

The Heritage program was established in 1997 to commemorate the Air Force's 50th anniversary.

Rams Cat

Willow is ready for the Rams season to begin. She only hopes that the pre-season really doesn't count, like everybody says. That is why you find her here sleeping through those final three losing pre-season games.

GO RAMS!!!!!

Cat in the Bag

Willow cannot ever resist going in and examining any bag that she finds in the house -- even when there is already trash in it! Luckily I was just throwing away junk mail and receipts!


She gets so excited and crawls in all the way to the bottom, rolls around and looks out like no one can see her in there. Yea, right!

Fruit for Breakfast

Last week I thought that I would start out the day with a very healthy fruit breakfast, something that I rarely do!

So, I began slicing up a white peach that I found at the grocery store. I was there with my MIL the other day and she was buying some white peaches. I had never heard of "white" peaches before so thought that now was the time to try them!

Then I cut up 5 strawberries and added a handful of blueberries and half of a handful of mixed nuts (pistachios, almond and cashews) to the bowl. To top it off, I added some flax seeds that I keep in the freezer. I usually grind them up to put on top of oatmeal but it's too hot for oatmeal right now.

As you can see, my fruity breakfast was good to the last spoonful!!!!!

New Chair

We have a new chair to take to parades, air shows, picnics, etc.

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However, the cats believe, incorrectly, that the new chair belongs to them!

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China Cat immediately appropriated the chair for herself.
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Naturally, Willow decided that if China liked that spot then Willow needed to have it for herself.

Although it did take quite some time to figure out what would be exactly the best way to recline. So she had to check it out from all sides, not to mention a bit of paw action trying to fluff it up for maximum comfort!
So, after China Cat left, Willow really didn't take too long to settle in either.....

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You can tell from Willow's eyes that she will not be giving up the new chair any time soon.....