Friday night, the Maplewood business district had their Arts and Eats Walk. We walked around taking in the sights and sampling some of the food stuffs too. Anne knew everyone there, or at least everyone there seemed to know her. We eventually ended up at Las Palmas for some Mexican. Anne and I both wanted a margarita. We then made the mistake of ordering a pitcher of margaritas. I thought the waiter said that a pitcher was the price of three margaritas, plus you get another one, essentially free. Since Anne and I were both ordering one already, it seemed cheaper to order a pitcher that way we could both have a second one, for one half off. What came instead was a full pitcher, plus two full glasses of margaritas. It was way more than we could handle. After dinner, there was still plenty of margarita left. The waiter tried to get us to take go cups, but we both had already had enough.

At Las Palmas we caught the end of the Brewer’s defeat of the Diamondbacks and the only run scored in what would eventually become the Cardinal’s 1-0 victory over the Phillies. The Card’s win was a serious nail-bitter, one that I could not bear to watch. If I had tried, I would have nibbled my nails down to the second knuckle. Those of you that have seen my hands know that I am not joking. Chris Carpenter, the Cardinal starter, went the distance and pitched a three-hit shutout. He actually threw for 28 outs. A Philly batter made it to first base, after striking out, when the catcher dropped the ball. Now we face the Brewers. It will be a battle of the suds. I expect Saint Louis to institute drug testing for Miller products this week. It is high time an end is put to that sort of high life. I’m glad to see that the Tigers advanced too, and I wish them well against Texas.

Saturday, we drove out to Gray Summit and the Shaw Nature Reserve, for some birding. I should say that we have enjoyed an almost two-week period of uninterrupted crystal clear blue skies and balmy, but not too hot and not too cold temperatures. It is almost like living in SoCal, but cheaper. The Shaw Nature Reserve is part of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. In the 19th century, when coal was king, its smog was also killing all of the trees in the city of Saint Louis. Henry Shaw, the garden’s founder, bought land in Gray Summit, as an insurance policy for his garden. The Flying Wild Festival was featured. With kid’s activities and a guided walk, it seemed like an interesting event. It was actually a little bit too tame for me, but I did enjoy walking around the reserve. It is like the gardens, but bigger and cut to a rougher hew. The high point of the festival was the release back into the wild of a Red-Tailed hawk. The folks down the road at the World Bird Sanctuary brought the pictured rehabilitated parolee to the party.