Life in Woodson Terrace

This is day five of the Renaud Empire in exile. Or maybe we could call it Operation Expand Our Borders. Or maybe we could just say day five of “vacation” in the “Renaud Empire Southeast.”

However you look at it, things are going fairly well.

The girls like the rental home. It’s bigger than our own place, with lots of room to play. I have seen them use a hall closet as if it were a little playhouse. Yesterday Jadzia and Ludi were out in the fenced backyard playing by themselves. Jadzia found an empty birds nest on the ground under some shrubs, which she thought was really cool.

We have visited the nearby park twice. It’s just a quick walk, and the girls really love it.

At this point, our main inconveniences have been:

* Getting Channel 9 (KETC) on the TV. We don’t watch a lot of live TV, but when we do it is usually PBS. But KETC just wouldn’t come in. Yesterday I had a breakthrough and I hope we have figured it out. (it involved rearranging all the living room furniture).

* No Internet for a week. AT&T can’t get us going any faster than that. My old dialup took less than an hour to start, and Charter can get you going the same day. But AT&T still has by far the best price for broadband, so I guess I’ll wait.

* no dishwasher.

* missing kitchen tools. We’ve bought a few and pretty much have most of the essentials now.

As far as the Renaud Empire headquarters home goes, we are in waiting mode. We have been meeting with the contractor and an architect, and hope to have plans ready soon. Ferguson has to review them before they will let us even begin demolition. It could be 2-3 weeks away, which is frustrating. But we’ve got to keep our eyes on the end result, which will be a greatly improved house. That keeps us motivated.

Star Trek requires a lot of explanation

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a busy day. In the morning I …

* Dropped Jadzia off at preschool

* Took Ludi with me for my chiropractor appointment

* Came back to preschool to watch Jadzia’s class perform a “play” about a pumpkin.

While we were waiting for lunch, I decided to watch a Star Trek episode (since it was my birthday) and let the girls see it.

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It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood

!http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/t4_misterrogers_quiz.jpg!:http://interact.stltoday.com/mds/entertainment/html/3040

Today I posted my second multimedia project for stltoday.com. It’s a “trivia quiz”:http://interact.stltoday.com/mds/entertainment/html/3040 about Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

The show has always had a special resonance for me. Long after I had stopped watching it, bits of it remained strongly in my memory.

Continue reading “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood”