Thanksgiving Pregnancy Bomb Drop

Today was the big day of our Thanksgiving pregnancy reveal. We'd been hiding for so long that I wanted everything to go smoothly, and I'd say it pretty much did.

We don't have Bud Select out west, as it is brewed for the Lou.

I set up a tripod with my phone on it to take a family photo, took a few, then I pretended like there was an issue and went to "check the camera". I then set it to video mode to capture everyone's reactions.

Lydia brought out a couple of pies she decorated and then all hell broke loose.

She ordered some custom paper plates to go with the set. There was some small confusion as to whether we were having twins since there were two pies. Luckily that was not the case. While we had already chosen the name Ernesto John we decided to keep that under our hat until he was born. Since it was a family name we were pretty set on our decision and so didn't really need or want anyone else's input on the matter. Plus I thought it would be fun to retain another little secret mystery since we let this huge one out of our grasp.

Lydia could finally stop hiding her little baby bump. That was nice.

Raisin Cane's is pretty much our go-to family meal these days. I do not know how my family made their gigantic Thanksgiving feasts for 40 people and I do not wish to know.

Lydia's brother Austin even made an appearance once he heard the big news.

Our friends Viry and Lolo made a later appearance and so got a little aftershock reveal. This is fun, I should have secret pregnancies more often.

I met up with Seago at the best restaurant in St. Louis: Bulrush. I gave him the distinct honor of telling him about the troll in person before letting loose the dogs of war on social media. It's funny these days everyone is running their own amateur public relations agency.

We then went to work eating our set menu while my phone caught actual fire with all of the lovely texts and messages from well wishers. This fun acorn dish contained honey roasted parsnip and pawpaw chile.

goat and caviar? What the hell do these titles even mean?

Venison and mushroom

collard greens and potato mousse.

Chef Rob Connoley was on hand as always to talk about the dishes and do some banter. He is such an interesting person that I wish I could hang out with him socially. It sounds like he goes out and forages a lot of the ingredients personally. We talked a bit about the movie "The Menu" which involves a fancy restaurant visit that goes awry and I encouraged him to go see it.

walleye and pumpkin

chestnut mousse and sorghum cake

For some after dinner drinks we go weird with it and headed to Clayton's Cafe Napoli. It was a breath of fresh air from going to Soulard or something for the 500th time. The clientele was a fun mix of fancy people and trashy people. Several who thought they were one were actually the other. The night ended with Seago throwing up all over the wall outside the Hi-Pointe Theatre which I consider a big win.

Goodbye Molina

I started off my day going to a Cardinals game with Seago. It's a special time to go a Cardinals game because big deals Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina are both about to retire.

St. Louis sadly doesn't seem to be cool enough to have the Amazon Go walk in-walk out concessions technology but they do have something... less cool? It's essentially self checkout but you put your purchases on a magical counter without scanning them.

My big purchase of the whole trip was a Molina jersey. I never had a real pro sports jersey of any kind until like a week ago and now I have two! La dee dah. It's easy to forget that the St. Louis sun will murder you so I was thankful to have my spare shirt to survive.

Brewed for the Lou!

Whenever Pujols or Yadi was up to bat everyone would stand up, clap, and generally go nuts. It was fun.

I spent most of my life being pretty broke so I think I extra appreciate my current moderate success in the softwares and the computers/internets. Plus working on the west coast and then buying things in the midwest means pretty much everything is on sale. We had decent tickets, long story short.

There was some definite Yadi worship going on in the gift shops. I am reminded of the giant Yadi mural we saw at a baseball stadium in Puerto Rico. This guy is going to have a cult here pretty soon.

There was a situation with meeting my friend Julien for drinks. I think I must have sent out an invite via email which did not pose an issue. But to Julien, who's email I do not have, I sent a screenshot. Well... it said pacific time and he did not notice that. Long story short he arrived hours early to the party. Like some sort of French soldier though, he waited anyway, Intense.

We met at one of my favorite breweries in town, Earthbound. They have all kinds of crazy flavors which I appreciate. We finally settled down with a beer and there was sort of a block party thing going on next door which added some ambience. At some point the music stopped and strangely enough local US Congresswoman Cori Bush stepped up to the mic and started giving a speech. Ok, so far so good. Then at parts she started getting choked up... it was a wake. My poor friend sat here for hours to listen to some guy's funeral.

Later on we met up with some friends for food at the Golden Hoosier. This was a place that I feel like opened up right before covid and I never got a chance to visit. I thought it sounded cool, and I was correct. The decor and the refreshments are all very fun and stylized.

The patio was national park themed, complete with like Smokey Bear signage. 

The interior had a lot of weird stuff going on, including a large collection of animal heads. Lana is a brain doctor and I'm pretty sure I saw her licking her lips at all of those delicious heads to experiment on.

I assure you that it is never my intention to go to McGurk's, especially when I went there yesterday. But there is a certain element that is inescapably drawn to this hive of scum and villainy. I had to inform these gentlemen that Elon is a turd, and somehow I ended up with a 21st birthday sash. I drive a hard bargain or something.

I then ended up at some girl who I don't know's house.

It must have been cold in there because some of the guests were borrowing this girl's coats to wear. I didn't want to feel left out.

I'm not sure what but I'm certain that it was accomplished.