The Zoo is closed

Actually, it wasn't closed, but every time someone says let's go to the zoo, I always say "the zoo is closed." I guess I get that from the movie Jerry Maguire. There is one scene where he is talking to the kid and they are going back and forth about stupid facts, then the kid says "let's go to the zoo"and because it is like midnight, Jerry says "the ------- zoo is closed" and it always makes me laugh when he say it. So we were trying to figure out a cheap way to kill a few hours in St. Louis before we left for the conference and Erin said, lets go to the zoo. I said, the zoo is closed. She said no it isn't and then I had to explain it. She hasn't see the movie, so she didn't find it as funny as I did. Anyway, the zoo is free, so that worked out nice. It is a pretty cool zoo too. I would go back. Here are some pics that I took.

This is the only bear that we saw. A couple were hiding and the polar bear recently passed away.

Penguins all running around

Except for these two who took it upon themselves to hit the buffet line early.

Some flamingos

Chimpanzees were having a great time flying around.

This one was having a snack and wouldn't share with anyone

This one actually had a leaf and was doing some housework.

This one was having a salad and kind of supervising the rest of the family making sure they were not causing trouble.

Taking a nap and doing nothing (typical of cats, even the big ones)

Different breed, same result.

I guess some things never change. Cats like to do nothing and sleep. Big or small. Doesn't matter. Don't get me wrong, I like cats, but I prefer dogs.

Mexican Beaded Lizard, one of only two types of poisonous lizards in the world. The Gila Monster is the other. Some say Komodo dragon, but the sign at the zoo said these two and google said the komodo and mexican beaded are like cousins.

Big snake

Giving the turtles a bath, then they went right back in the mud.

There was a monkey sitting in the corner. We figured he must have been in time out for not behaving.

Gateway to the West

One afternoon while we were waiting for our conference to start, Erin and I met up with one of her friends from high school and spent a few hours enjoying the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. This encompasses The Gateway Arch, The Old Courthouse, a museum and 2 movie theaters that are actually under the Arch. The museum is where I learned about Take Me Out To The Ballgame that I wrote about in the last blog.

This blog is going to mostly talk about the Arch. Erin said it was 630 feet high, as well as 630 feet from leg to leg. When we were driving to it, I didn't think it looked that high, so I said it wasn't 630 feet, and then when we got closer, I told her I believed it, but it for sure wasn't 630 feet from leg to leg. She called me Doubting Thomas, which actually is a good nickname for me, so I decided to step it off. If one of my steps is approximately 3 feet, it should have taken me 210 steps from leg to leg. So after 210 steps I was standing just about exactly in the middle of the opposite leg. Adjust a little for smaller or bigger steps, and you get the 630 feet that she was positive it was. Go figure.

Overall it was really cool. The weather was perfect, I told everyone we brought it from El Paso and they owed us, and one lady actually paid up. We were at a country store after the conference in Illinois and I told the cashier I brought the weather and I should get a free muffin, so she asked if I had been there before, I told her no, so she said wait and brought me a blueberry muffin. It was great. Enjoy the pics and look for a few more blogs soon.

Walking up to the arch from the park. That is when I decided it was that tall.

I was still thinking about that distance.

Erin was pondering how high the Mississippi was

Standing under the Arch with the Old Courthouse in the background

I had to hold up the flagpole so the river didn't take it away.

Zoomed in on the observation deck windows

Getting into the little bubble car for the ride to the top. If you know Erin, you will know how small the door is. I had to crawl into it. :)

Erin made sure to point out the elevation

Overlooking the Mississippi into Illinois

Cool shot of the Arch shadow into the river.

Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play

Barge going down the river

Those are people laying in the grass

See, I zoomed in.

See, it really doesn't look like 630 feet.

There was like 12 inches of rain in October (more than we get in a year) and the Mississippi was flowing a little high. This is a sidewalk by the river.

Cool shadow of the Arch in a building when we were heading back to Erin's for my first honest to goodness home cooked (albeit early) Thanksgiving dinner in like 15 years. Thanks Barb. :)

They had some bonnets for sale in the levee mercantile. I wanted Erin to get this pink one for the summer construction season to keep the sun out of her eyes. If you can't find me, she probably hid the body after killing me for putting this picture on here.

Who knew

We went to the Gateway Arch the other day and in the museum part they had a small room about how St. Louis is the gateway to the west for baseball as well. Lots of old school photos and memorabilia, but the best thing was the full lyrics to the song sang at every baseball game played every year. I took a picture of them, you may have to click on the picture to see a larger version, but here they are typed out as well.

Katie Casey was baseball mad.

Had the fever and had it bad;

Just to root for the hometown crew,

Ev'ry sou Katie blew.

On a Saturday, her young beau,

Called to see if she'd like to go,

To see a show but Miss Kate said,

"No, I'll tell you what you can do,"

"Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,

I don't care if I never get back,

Let me root, root, root for the home team,

If they don't win it's a shame.

For it's one, two, three strikes, your out

At the old ball game."

Katie Casey saw all the games,

Knew the players by their first names.

Told the umpire he was wrong,

All alone, good and strong.

When the score was just two to two,

Katie Casey knew what to do,

Just to cheer up the boys she knew,

She made the gang sing this song.

"Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,

I don't care if I never get back,

Let me root, root, root for the home team,

If they don't win it's a shame.

For it's one, two, three strikes, your out

At the old ball game."

Lyrics by Jack Norworth, 1908

The lyrics to the whole song.

Queremos Ver, Queremos Ver

Another copy and paste from Erin. Thanks again. I like it when we do the same exact thing. Saves me a lot of time. We wanna see! We wanna see! We wanna see Jesus lifted high! I feel like that song was playing on Rosy's boom box ALL week as Erin and I worked with the 4th and final MOST Ministries team of the year to hold eyeglass clinics at San Lucas and Cristo Rey. It works though, huh? I also thought it was pretty fitting that the whole service on Sunday the 24th was themed around the story of Jesus healing the blind man. I didn't notice that at the San Pablo English service; I only made the connection after I heard it in Spanish. We started off the week by going to church at San Lucas on Sunday, making sure we were there early to set up. That didn't turn out to be very difficult, since Mexico's Daylight Savings Time began a week earlier than ours. That meant it was always an hour earlier there so we left when we normally do for services and got there with a little over an hour to spare. It also meant that we could sleep in a little later than normal all week since in order to start the clinics at 9:00 am and have a little bit of prep time, we didn't have to leave until around 8:30 when we were in Anapra and more like 9:00 once we moved to Cristo Rey. Apparently the rest of the world forgot about the change though, because the bridge line to get back on Sunday was crazy long, like 2ish hours. Judging by Monday morning as you'll see below, I was afraid it was going to be a theme...but I guess everyone remembered to change their clocks by later in the week!

The line to get IN to Mexico on Monday morning.

I guess she likes her new sunglasses because that is the BEST smile!

These 2 were very interested in whatever it was we were doing...they kept peeking their heads through the door. I guess they eventually worked up the courage to come inside.

Heidi at the testing table.

Debbie (the group's only RN) with Pedro as her interpreter at the nurse station.

The final station--evangelism. This was SOOOO cool! I don't really remember it being like this in Chihuahua, but maybe because it was kind of a slow week (481 people total), Javier, Rosy, and Pastor Martinez were able to sit down and have entire conversations about the Bible with almost EVERY person that came through our doors.

Arthur (one of the interpreters that Rosy found for us) attempting to figure out this guy's presciption...his eyesight was REALLY bad. It wound up being like 10 something, I don't remember if it was - or +.

Arthur was also super-excited about teaching the eye chart to the waiting crowds. It talked about the anatomy of the eye, various eye diseases and conditions, and foods and behaviors that promote good eye health.

Jose Angel, our optician friend. He saw the report about the clinic on the news (yes, we were on the news again), and came to see what he could do. We were packing up at San Lucas when he stopped by, but we told him we'd be at Cristo Rey the next 2 days, and he showed up ready to work with his tools of the trade and everything. Lois asked him if he was a Christian and he said he believes in God but isn't very serious about it, he just likes to help people.

Pastor Martinez got some new shades!

Fernando, Erin, and Pastor Martinez. She is wearing Don's jacked because it was freezing that day! Not really, it was like 55 degrees, but it was one of those days where it got progressively cooler, so she had taken her pullover off. Later on it started pouring and a cold front blew through, which deterred a lot of people from coming. We saw something like 124 people on Wednesday, 96 of which were before lunch.

Lois is a movie star :)

While at Cristo Rey, we had the opportunity to witness first-hand something I had only heard about at a recent staff meeting: Cristo Rey's efforts to generate some revenue for the church by opening a little thrift store and charging for a hot meal every day at lunchtime.

The group happily helped support the endeavor by having gorditas on Wednesday and chile rellenos on Thursday instead of ham and cheese or PB & J!

I am not getting soft!!!!!

Okay, so there isn't a lot of stuff going on right now that I can blog about. I will put one up about the first annual golf tournament once I have all the information, and usually I steal Erin's blogs when we do the same thing, so I took some advice and put up an original one. Basically it is some pictures of me and my El Paso family. All of us that work in the office are close knit and I have "adopted" some of their kids as my "nieces". So here are the pics, enjoy them, but don't call me soft. :) Have a great day.

Erin, Viviana, Camila

Viviana and I at Chuck E Cheese

Viviana again

Playing with Viviana when her mom needed a baby break

again.