NBC-10-Philadelphia-kimwolterman

Last night was the office party. We went to the Moolah Bowl on Lindell for eating, drinking and bowling - not necessarily a winning combination, at least for my bowling game. The building is beautiful and contains a standard size (if there is such a thing any more) movie theater on the upper level, as well as a tiny theater that has couches and lounging chairs to sit on while you watch the show. In the lower level is the bowling alley, which was closed until 10:30 p.m. for our party. We had a really good time at the party, but I feel like I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone since you kind of had to stick around your bowling lane for when your turn came up. But it was fun nonetheless.

At 10:30 the doors opened and the local crowd came in to drink and/or bowl. It was definitely time for us to leave. I'm sure they were looking at Jim and me, wondering who let the old people in! We got out of there around 11:00 and came back to our car to find a nasty surprise. We had gotten a parking ticket! And so had all the other employees parked at the angled parking directly in front of the Moolah. I looked around for any kind of signage that would indicate we should not park there, and I didn't see any. One of the other employees noted that it was down about 10 cars or so from where I had parked. Not nice, St. Louis City police! If you are going to make the parking spaces in front of businesses permit parking only, then have the courtesy to post signage so we stand a chance of knowing this fact. It amazes me that with the city being in decline (not to mention the #1 murder capital in the US) they would do something like this. I can guarantee that we will have our next event in the county where employees can park by the venue for free.

Are you listening, Mayor Slay?

My husband is appearing in Night Court tonight in Washington, MO. One of his motorcycle riding buddies will be right there with him. A few weeks ago on a rather dreary cold Saturday (sounds like everyday lately!) three of the guys went out for a ride. Following lunch in Washington, Steve needed to fuel up. The two Jims followed him through an array of construction cones to an opening allowing entry into the gas station on a major Washington thoroughfare. Following the fill-up, Jim D zipped through the cones back onto the roadway, while my Jim and Steve hesitated, trying to determine the correct way to leave the station in light of the road construction. There was, of course, no signage to help drivers out. In the meantime a police cruiser pulled up behind Jim and Steve and blasted them with his bruuuuute, bruuuuute, bruuuuute horn, which they took as an indication to get out of his way. They pulled out onto the road and he immediately pulled them over. He issued them both tickets for making an illegal turn onto the road, and demanded that they call Jim D back so he could get a ticket as well. They refused to contact Jim D, but as he handed them their tickets the cop told them they could fight them in court if they wanted to. After all, there was no sign saying they couldn't exit they way they did. Doesn't that sound like entrapment? The cop probably sat in that lot writing tickets all day long, knowing that most people will just pay them and not take the time out to appear in court.

In fact Jim had pretty much decided to just pay the ticket since his record is clean. But he talked to another riding buddy of his who is a cop in Kansas, and he advised Jim to fight it. First of all it is the principle of the matter, but second of all if Jim were to get pulled over again for some reason, and another ticket is already on his record he would be much more likely to get a ticket than be given a warning. So tonight he and Steve will be in court. Here comes da judge!