To me it look like a leprechaun to me...

"Who else seen the leprechaun say 'yeah'..."
Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!!!

As it Stands Today

Our yard is a hot mess! Between the fire, torrential rains, trucks driving on the lawn and the jack-hammering and repouring of our porch, walk and driveway our yard looks like a historic marker along the Oregon Trail.

Today we started work on the front yard. There was still a lot of construction debris and broken glass along the front of our house, but we raked out as much as we could and threw it in the trash. We also cleaned up the two flower beds (a bit) and raked up 7 lawn-bags of dead grass and leaves. Our yard still needs a LOT of attention, but it's a start.

Pre Saint Paddy's Day Parade

Josh and I met up with his parents this morning and drove downtown for the 40th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Louis. We parked in my building and walked two blocks South to Kiener Plaza. We had a pretty good spot from which to watch the parade, but the parade was spaced out more than usual and didn't seem as exciting as in past years. Regardless, we had a great time and even saw Josh's friend Paul (who rode his bike downtown from south city).



We spotted a few guys that we recognized in the parade. Warren, a firefighter friend of Josh and Paul; as well as some kids from Josh's Gaelic Football team, who represented the St. Louis Hurling Club.

Once the parade was nearing the end, we decided to beat the crowd and hit the road. We tried to hit up Crown Candy Kitchen for lunch but they were packed as usual. Instead, we went over to Chuck-A-Burger on the Rock Road. This was Carol and Darrel's first visit to the landmark, so we treated them to lunch for their anniversary (which is this Monday, the 16th).

Monk Seals in Action!

Not that kind of action!

As I mentioned in a post waaaay back when we were in Kauai, Josh got some great footage of 2 monk seals as they approached the shore from the water and made their way up on to the beach. I finally edited out most of the excess junk; i.e. dumb lady within 3 feet of the seals and Josh's extreme zoom shots.

Have a look!

Martha Stewart as a Model?

Yes! I had never heard that Martha Stewart had once been a model until today. As I was checking out Annie Kevans paintings online, I came across a gallery of "Beauty Queens" and saw this:



The caption read: Martha Stewart modeling as Veronica Lake

Surely this isn't the Martha Stewart...

But it was! As a teenager, Martha had modeled for several publications and department stores, and had even starred in a television commercial for Life Buoy Soap.



What else has Martha done that I am not aware of??? I discovered that she had won a partial scholarship to study art and architectural history at Barnard College in New York City; that she began her career as a stockbroker; and in 1961 Glamour Magazine named her as one of America's "Best Dressed College Girls".

Slowly, I am finding Martha to be more and more badass. You may disagree with me if you want, but she's hardcore, knows how to cook, and has 2 French Bulldogs.

Kitay and Turtles...

...what more could you ask for?

I quickly threw together a little footage from our snorkeling adventures in Kauai. I've dropped some David Kitay in for audio relief but otherwise I've let the turtles command the stage.



A tidbit on Kitay. Josh and I fell in love with his score for "Art School Confidential". In fact we loved it so much that when we discovered there would not be a soundtrack for the film, we wrote David personally expressing to him how amazing his work was. We told him how we wished we could have used one of the pieces for our wedding but without the soundtrack, we were going to be Kitayless on our special day. Months later, we got a burned cd in the mail from David's manager with a thank you note for the inspiring words.

I walked down the aisle to one of the tracks and shortly thereafter, we received another letter in the mail thanking us; this time from David Kitay himself.

palm prē

I was at the Hart's First Annual Trivia Night this past Saturday when I first learned of the new Palm Pre due out soon! One of my table-mates was talking about how much he loves his iPhone when I felt obliged to stand up for my Windows-based HTC Touch. I love my phone. Don't get me wrong, the iPhones are pretty flippin' killer, but I'm get annoyed with all the pompous antics from the iPhone cult.

Jeff mentioned that Palm was getting ready to launch their new internet-connected multimedia smartphone which uses the proprietary palm web0S Linus -based operating system and has a physical qwerty keyboard that discreetly slides open.

I guess it was Sunday night when I remembered to research this new phone, and as quick as the browser opened palm's homepage I was in love with the palm prē. Luckily for me, Sprint will be carrying this phone and I have an inside source at the company who is going to notify me as soon as they hit the shelves. I don't usually dork out on new technologies or cd's releases, but I really want this phone!