Gender and Kraken Lack of Talent Revealed

Ultrasounds are fun because I get to see what's going on in there with the alleged Troll.

Very annoyingly the ultrasounds show as video but all they give you to take home are still pictures. I was going to just hold my phone up to the screen to take video but got scolded. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

I was so mad about that I started researching private ultrasound places that aren't scared of the exciting advances that have taken place in audio visual formats in the last 40 years.

We also picked up the baby's gender from a different office that does blood work. We didn't want to know the Troll's gender until we got genetic testing and some other testing done. I wanted to make sure it was a human baby and not like a rabbit or alligator or whatever. I'm not a doctor but I assume these things happen.

When we opened the envelope it was revealed that we weren't having a Troll at all but a baby boy named Ernie! What a relief. Ernesto is my great grandfather who left Italy for America, and I've been learning a lot about his life over the past few years while preparing my application for Italian citizenship. If everything goes according to plan Baby Ernie will be getting Italian citizenship too, so I thought naming them the same thing would be a fun source of future confusion.

Lydia suspiciously picked a hospital that is walking distance to her favorite ice cream place. What a coincidence. Salt & Straw had some very weird flavors on deck to celebrate Halloween.

Don Bugito’s Creepy Crawly Critters featured "chocolate-covered crickets and toffee-brittle mealworms."

Ernie has a lot of forest fires to look forward to.

At night we headed to Climate Pledge Arena where even some of the hardest working employees end up getting fired. Essentially my rule at this point is to go to every game in Seattle that features a St. Louis team.

The Seattle Kraken's opening show thing has evolved quite a bit since last season. There's even a neon tentacle thing that lowers from the ceiling.

 Recently retired Sue Bird was in attendance with her fiance Megan Rapinoe.

Ultimately St. Louis prevailed and sent the Seattle bums packing. Sad.

There's one less troll in my life now, but I'll always have Buoy.

St. Louis Blues Destroy Canada

Joel scored some Blues tickets from work and shared them with his bestest friends. So classy.

This was the first Blues match I'd been to since we won the Stanley Cup last season, so it was extra exciting.

The bad guys today were the Edmonton Oilers. On a related note I learned that Edmonton is a city in Alberta, Canada. Who knew? O Canada!

We brought Seago as well. Questionable decision in hindsight.

Speaking of decisions we wish we could take back, President* Trump was impeached today.

Louie was festively dressed.

This sweater is like the best investment of all time. I bought it at Goodwill Outlet for like 25 cents. 

Schnucks soulja boy reporting for duty.

Despite their oiliness, the Canadians were unable to escape STL justice, and were vanquished.

We Wanted the Cup!

We had lunch at the new hotness: Balkan Treat Box.

Fun fact: St. Louis has the largest Bosnian population outside of Europe.

They were having a little mini beer tasting festival at Randall's. My favorite was Jucifer by Church Street out of Itasca, Illinois. Mostly just because it had a cool name.

We were doing a little downtown strolling when we bumped into this big fella just sitting in a parking space like it belonged there.

"Experimental Pod 1 (XP-1) is our historic first-generation vehicle, akin to the Wright Brothers' Flyer which ushered in a new transportation age over a hundred years ago. At our hyperloop test site in the Nevada desert, XP-1 reached record-breaking speeds of 240 mph over just 545 yards of track. XP-1 combines a carbon fiber shell around a custom built levitating chassis, which has more in common with a Formula 1 race car chassis than a train undercarriage, as it is optimized for weight, strength, and stability. It is the only vehicle on earth which has been at the epicenter of hundreds of hyperloop tests, setting the foundation for the future of transportation."

I keep hearing St. Louis - Kansas City is on the short list for possible hyperloop routes. That will be awesome because it will help those poor souls in KC evacuate faster.

We visited the Arch. It's still there.

So the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup. I went to the arena the day of, I went to the victory parade, and now I kept seeing pictures of Lord Stanley circulating around town. Each team member apparently got one day to take the cup home, eat spaghetti out of it, put their baby in it, and take it to bars for fans to play with. I figured the cup and I were both circulating enough that we'd bump into each other eventually. When I read that cup time was almost over though, I decided to be a bit proactive. I found this good @stlcuptracker Twitter account that allowed me to stalk the cup all over town. When the cup was rumored to make an appearance at Soulard bar Hammerstones, I hatched a plan. The plan... was to go to Soulard bar Hammerstones.

I think that a lot of people thought that the cup would be set up inside on a little stage where local bands play. Luckily we chose to sit outside instead.

When I heard rumblings that it was arriving I went outside to greet it. Even the police providing security for the event were taking pictures.

I thought it was classy that the cup handler was wearing gloves. Either that or he just knows how many dirtbags have touched it with their greasy mitts.

We were lucky that we got a decent spot in line. Many of the people in line would not be getting a picture today. It was here for a very limited time.

Nailed it!

On the way out we admired the cupmobile a bit and then headed home. Mission accomplished!