St. Louis is Dangerous

Yes, we know St. Louis is the "most dangerous city in America." I can't write about the whole incident right now, but there was gun fire outside of our apartment related to an armed robbery. You can see the crime scene from the same perspective that Nick witnessed the crime. You can see where the police made Nick wait (by the stop sign) in case they had any more questions. We're all OK. No one was shot. We keep our doors locked.

Thursday

Petition for Canine Companionship

Vincent has been asking various people to buy him a dog for Christmas. The most heart-felt pleas have been left on Jo Ellen's answering machine. If you believe this young, sweet, charismatic boy should be allowed to have a dog; a dog to love, to play with, to have as a friend, then leave your name in comments as signing this petition. Let the boy get a dog. Better yet, let the boy get a four-year-old dog, Caesar.

**The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of the blogger's spouse.***

And the Cookie Award goes to . . .

The annual St. Mary's 4ICU cookie competition was today. After a lot of anticipation and trash-talking, there was a total upset. A dark horse won the competition: Nicholas Johnson was declared the grand champion of the cookie-off. Since the rules stated that anyone may participate, I invited Nick to Join us. A couple of participants had backed out, and I wanted a healthy level of participation to make it a real competition. Nick's entry would flesh things out a bit.

As the scores were tallied on a spreadsheet, I was certain that I had conquered the competition. I was a bit surprised, but pleasantly so, when the final cookie's score came through: Nick's cookies had the highest average score, 4.06, with my cookies coming in second at 4.03. His award ribbon reads, "Grand Champion," so he has now requested he be referred to as "Nicholas Grand Cookie Champion" Johnson. He will also accept "Grand Champion" for short.

My cookie entry was my family's traditional Michael Jackson cookies, made with dutch processed cocoa.

Nick made Sarah Page's cookie recipe, posted as a comment to my previous blog entry regarding the cookie competition. He called his cookies "Santa Hats," which are sprayed with canned whipped cream just prior to eating.

For the record, Nick's extra points came in appearance, not taste. Although his cookies were delicious, nothing tops the marshmallowy goodness of the Michael Jackson cookie.

Happy Birthday Katie!

Only this is not her cake. And she's 24 today, not 30. This isn't her future cake either. But happy birthday Katie! Everyone be sure to call Katie to get on her list today.

Phone on the fritz

My cell phone, which I just paid to have a new antenna in last week, is currently having some "interesting" functional issues. I have found that once I take out the battery to reset it, as long as I don't close it, it will probably work. I've taped the earpiece to the new $15 antenna to attempt to remind myself not to close the phone when a conversation is over. If you are trying to call me, not that anyone besides my mom does, try leaving a message or calling Nick's phone if you don't get me on the first try.