Weekending - September 15, 2017

This blog post looks a lot different than I thought it would.  Friday morning I was downright giddy about the epic weekend we had in store!  My friend Linda was coming in from Kansas City and we were headed to the U2 concert on Saturday night.  Then on Sunday night Eric and I were joining our friends Larry and Debbie for the Ed Sheehan concert.  Neither of these concerts happened.

You see, Friday morning the verdict from the Anthony Lamar Smith case was delivered and found the police officer innocent of the murder charges brought against him.  Protesting ensued, followed by agitators reeking havoc on our city causing the cancellation of many events happening in St. Louis this weekend.  It's all so sad.

As much as I love living in a country where we can feel free to express our opinions openly by protesting, I'm equally embarrassed by the individuals who take it way too far and destroy personal property and businesses.  Hence, the term "agitators" has been added to our vocabulary over the weekend.

Let me get off my soapbox and tell you what I did do this weekend ~

My friend Carol popped in my house this week and decorated it for Fall.  I had been slow to jump on the fact that Summer was winding down and Carol saved the day by working her magic at my house. Her work is always exquisite and now I'm totally embracing Fall!

Friday night Linda rolled into town just in time for us go to dinner.  We picked someplace close to my house.  Peel was our choice and it was delicious!  We enjoyed an appetizer, salad, wings and pizza before topping it off with ice cream from Dairy Queen and calling it a night.

We were up before the sun on Saturday with a single purpose on our minds - the Joya Popup Sale in the Central West End!  The first 25 people in line were going to be rewarded with a free goody bag and we were not going to miss out on that action.  You are looking at numbers 1, 2, and 3 in line right here.

After our retail therapy (and getting some GREAT deals), we headed to the theater to see Home Again with Reese Witherspoon.  Now, by this time we had learned that U2 was cancelled so my view on the movie might be reflected in my review, but all three of us agreed that this movie never really took off.  It's a cute little film that I would rate 3.5 out of 5.  You can definitely wait to see this after it comes out on video.  When you truly have nothing else to do.

Ian met us for lunch at Club Taco, where we could drown our sorrows about the concert.  But in reality, there wasn't enough alcohol in St. Louis to take away the sting of us not seeing U2!  Thanks, Club Taco, for at least having great margaritas.  Linda went with mango and I stuck with my favorite watermelon basil.

We parted ways with Ian and Kayla and decided we needed some more retail therapy.  So to the outlet malls we went!  We shopped for a bit and each now have more pairs of shoes to load into our closets.  Thank goodness we had to leave to pick up my friends Sherri and John from the airport or the shopping frenzy could have gotten ugly!

Since we were supposed to be listening to live music on Saturday night, we thought it only appropriate to still so do.  There's a winery in Belleville (The Weingarten) that had live music so we hung out there for a bit.  

Linda headed back to KC around noon on Sunday and we left the house around the same time.  My nephew, Liam, was celebrating his 2nd birthday on Sunday and we didn't want to miss his Paw Prints birthday party!

Seeing Liam and my other nephews and niece always makes things right in the world and puts a smile on my face.

The weekend was capped off with a little craft project.  A friend of mine from work said the words I love to hear - Can you please help me with something? and of course the answer was YES!!  She had done all the cutting, but needed some help putting cupcake toppers together for her daughter's 1st birthday party.  I  think they turned out pretty darn cute.

As disappointed as I was about my weekend plans totally changing, I'm even more sad for the innocent store owners who are having to replace their windows and remove the graffiti left behind by the agitators.  Please say a little prayer for them that this behavior stops and our city can recover.

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

B Loved Boston

Over the Moon

Hello Monday