Tag Archives: Marilyn (CSJ)

2014/06/28 (S) CSJ Gallery

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Here are a few photos from the leadership installation ceremony for the St. Louis Province of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph – Carondelet.  Click each thumbnail to see the full image.  Most of the photos are 400 pixels maximum dimension although a few are as large as 600 pixels.

2014/06/28 (S) CSJ Leadership Installation

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We are all gathered for Marilyn’s installation ceremony as a member of Leadership Team and the Director for the St. Louis Province of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph – Carondelet.  The CSJs are an order of Roman Catholic nuns that originated in LePuy France in 1648 and came to the St. Louis, Missouri area in 1836 to set up a school for the deaf.  The St. Louis Province is one of four that makes up the current Federation of CSJ’s in the U. S. The St. Louis Province has sisters in 18 states, South America and Africa.

The ceremony was today at 2 PM CDT at the Motherhouse in south St. Louis.  It was both a celebration of the service rendered by the current leadership team over the last six years and a call to leadership of the new team.  It was not a mass but it was certainly a religious ceremony, planned and executed by the Sisters in accordance with the principles and traditions of their order.  I have posted pictures from the event in a separate Gallery post with today’s date.

There was a reception following the ceremony after which Marilyn gave us a tour of some “public” parts of the building, including her new office.  By then it was time to head to the TreeHouse where we had a 5:00 PM dinner reservation for 10 people.  Mike had to work today and was not able to attend the celebration or dinner, so we ended up with nine: Marilyn, Linda H., Ron and Mary, Clayton, Judy and her daughter Mary, and finally Linda and me.  Judy is Marilyn, Ron, and Linda’s cousin.  Marilyn had selected this restaurant for several reasons.  For one, she and Linda were familiar with it as it is only a few miles from the two hospital complexes where they worked (Linda still does).  It was also convenient to the CSJ – Carondelet Motherhouse.  But mostly they selected it because it was a very good vegetarian restaurant with lots of vegan dishes and options.

We ordered the last four of the special salad of the day and shared them.  The ingredients were very fresh and very tasty.  Linda had the “beef bourguignon” stew and I had the “jambalaya” as did several other people.  Both were made with seitan (a wheat gluten product) and both were excellent.  The TreeHouse makes their own seitan and vegan cheeses.  Since I was driving I had a Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic).  It came out of a can, but it was also very good.  For dessert Linda had a vegan cheesecake and I had a vegan ginger/pear crisp.  Both of them were disappointing; definitely not on par with the salads and entrees.  Those who had the chocolate desserts said they were excellent, although not quite as good as Linda’s chilled double-chocolate torte that she made Thursday evening and served after dinner on Friday.

After dinner we exchanged contact information with Judy, Mary, and Clayton, said our farewells, and drove back to Linda and Marilyn’s house.  We relaxed and chatted until the effect of the long wonderful day finally settled in.  We said our good nights and farewells with Ron, Mary, and Linda before they drifted off to bed as we would likely be gone in the morning before they arose.

 

2014/06/27 (F) Family Finances

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Linda H. was up very early to go to work.  We would not have heard her get up and leave if not for the three dogs, which make quite a ruckus anytime someone comes or goes from the house.  Marilyn, Linda, and I got up a few hours later and had toast and coffee for breakfast.  I worked at my computer until 9:30 AM when we had to get ready to leave for an 11 AM appointment with our financial advisor.

We have worked with John Christensen for at least a decade.  We first met John at A. G. Edwards when my parents’ stockbroker decided to leave and John was assigned to handle their accounts.  We liked him right away and ended up moving all of accounts there, including accounts for our children.  My sister and Marilyn eventually opened accounts with John as well.  A. G. Edwards was an excellent local brokerage that unfortunately got absorbed by Wachovia.  Wachovia ultimately failed and the remnants were acquired by Wells Fargo Advisors.  John and his administrative assistant, Maggie Smith, had an opportunity to move to a new office being opened by Stifel-Nicholas in O’Fallon, Missouri and our family moved all of our business to S-N along with them.

We usually manage to make at least one trip to the St. Louis area each year, often around this time, and we always try to arrange a meeting with John if our schedules permit.  We arrived at 11AM, talked for an hour and then walked to Bristol’s for lunch.  Maggie joined us, which was great.  We have interacted with her for as long as we have worked with John, but do not know her as well on a personal level.  We got to know her a little better today.  Linda and I both had a grilled vegetable platter with asparagus, mushrooms, red and green bell peppers, and sliced green tomatoes.  They were some of the best restaurant vegetables we have ever had.

We returned to John’s office around 1:00 PM and spent another couple hours going over reports, plans, and projections before finely making a few decisions about our portfolio.  All told we were there for four hours.  I don’t know if that’s typical for financial advisors, but we appreciate that John has extensive reports prepared when we arrive, has already developed recommendations, and takes the time to go over everything with us.  Most of our financial interactions are easily handled by phone and secure e-mail during the year so having our financial advisor three states away is not a problem, especially as John and Maggie are real people with whom we have a real, face-to-face, relationship.

By the time we left the afternoon rush hour was well under way.  St. Louis is a midwest city with east coast ties.  Normal business hours here are 8 AM to 4 PM which corresponds to 9 AM to 5 PM in New York.  Kansas City, Missouri, only 240 miles west of St. Louis on the Kansas border, is a decidedly more western city, and the southern part of the state, which borders Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, is decidedly southern.  We fought our way back to Illinois through stop-and-go traffic and by the time we got back to Glen Carbon Ron and Mary had arrived from Pennsylvania.  Linda H. got home from work not long after we arrived and Mike and Clayton arrived not long after that.  They live and work in St. Louis area.  Linda, Marilyn, and Ron are siblings and Mike is their nephew.  Their other nephew, Rick, was unable to attend.  Marilyn had spent the afternoon making vegan Sloppy Joe’s.  For dinner we had a nice summer meal of green salad, Sloppy Joe’s, and chips, followed by Linda’s vegan double chocolate torte, accompanied by white and red wines.

By the time we finished dinner, wine, and conversation we had all had a long day.  For us it was a day of family finances and family.  When we finally went to bed we did not even watch an episode of Doc Martin.  As an aside, today was the SLAARC pre-setup for the ARRL Field Day event.  The main setup will be tomorrow morning and the operating event begins at 2 PM EDT.  It is the single largest, and most public, amateur (ham) radio event of the year.  We are missing it for the second year in a row because family comes first.

 

2014/06/26 (R) Westward Ho

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We were up by 6 AM and started loading the car for our trip to St. Louis, Missouri.  Breakfast consisted of a banana and orange/grapefruit juice to wash down a pill and a vitamin.  We had planned to leave at 8 AM (EDT) in order to arrive in Glen Carbon, Illinois around 4 PM (CDT). We had the car loaded and the house secured by 7 AM and decided to hit the road.  We took Golf Club Road over to Latson Road and stopped at Teeko’s to pick up coffee and a couple of bagels.  A short distance south from there put us at the new Latson Road interchange on I-96 where we headed west towards Lansing.

We picked up I-69 at the southwest corner of Lansing and headed south-southwest towards Indiana.  About half way to the border we crossed I-94.  From that point on our route was one we have driven many times in the car over the last 38 years.  We stayed on I-69 to the northeast corner of Indianapolis and then continued down the east side of the metropolitan area until we got to I-70.  We took I-70 through the heart of the city and out the southwest corner.  From there we continued on I-70 westbound all the way to the Glen Carbon/ Edwardsville, Illinois exit.  In spite of our morning coffee stop, several stops at rest areas, and a stop for food and gasoline, we arrived in Glen Carbon at 3:35 PM CDT.  As we did not expect anyone to be home until 4 PM we drove into Edwardsville and stopped at Walgreen’s ad Walmart.

Linda eventually exchanged text messages with her sister, Marilyn, who let us know that she was home from work.  We were there not long after 4 PM and had our welcome greetings with Marilyn and the three dogs.  We unloaded our car, got everything situated in our room, and settled in for a chat while we waited for Linda H., who owns the house, to get home from work.  She eventually did and we had more greetings and more talk.  By 6:30 PM everyone realized they were hungry and we went out to dinner at the Pasta House restaurant in Edwardsville.  Linda and I had a veggie pizza without cheese.  The crust was thin and a bit crispy, the way we like it, and the pizza was loaded with lots of good vegetables but not too much sauce, also the way we like it.  We both had a small garden salad to go with the pizza and it was all very good.

When we got back from dinner we got the wireless networking turned on and our various devices connected and working.  We settled in for more conversation in the kitchen while Linda made her vegan double chocolate torte which we will have for dessert with dinner tomorrow night.  Eventually everyone was tired and retreated to their respective bedrooms.  We watched another episode of Doc Martin before turning off the lights.

 

2014/05/03 (S) Ham It Up

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Today started with breakfast out and felt like we were finally starting to get back into the flow.  We drove to South Lyon for the Saturday morning breakfast gathering of our South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club, as we do almost every Saturday morning when we at the house.  Steve (N8AR) gave me a lead on someone who might be willing to build our pole barn.  After breakfast we returned home and I walked Linda through the project I discussed yesterday with Steve for redoing the rear basement walkout retaining walls, drainage, and yard grading.

I worked on our blog and Linda worked on lunch preparations while we awaited the arrival of our daughter and son-in-law.  They have had Linda’s Honda Civic Hybrid since December and were returning it, so they drove two cars.  Linda got to visit with them in late February / early March, but I had not seen them since mid December.  We had a nice lunch of mixed greens salad and vegan Sloppy Joe’s with sweet gherkin pickles on the side.  Fresh strawberries and carrot cake cookies provided a sweet ending to the meal.  We had a nice visit.

Steve from Village Landscaping Development stopped by with a brochure, business card, and the project proposal written up on a more official estimating form.  We will take a few days to think about, but it’s a very good proposal and I am 99% certain we will hire him to do this work.  It would be nice to get it done in late May to early June, between The SKP Escapade and the GLAMARAMA rallies, but it may not be dry enough by then.  If not, it will have to wait until early July after we return from the installation ceremonies for Linda’s sister who is assuming one of the top leadership positions in the St. Louis Province of the Congregation (Sisters) of St. Joseph.

A little later Phil Jarrel, from Best Precision Grading, came by to take a second look at the site preparation and grading work for the pole barn.  We walked the site and agreed that I could/should change the orientation of the building just a bit from where it is currently staked.  We also discussed how to make sure the barn was located behind the front line of the house and talked through the permitting and construction process.  He did not have any builders to recommend, but he did recommend a concrete contractor for the pit and floor.

We did quite a few construction projects at the previous house over the years but the pole barn involves elements that are new to me, and I now have to deal with a Township for a land use permit and the County for building and grading permits.  I am fairly set on the size, location, and basic design/materials, but we not have settled on a builder or materials supplier.  Consequently, we still do not have an accurate total cost estimate.  Until everything is in place, and the cost is known, nothing can move forward.  Meanwhile, the days keep flipping over on the calendar.