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The house is empty again. Even Jim and the dog are over at SWT right now. After a houseful of people and nonstop activity the last five days, it is nice and quiet here. Maybe too quiet.

Andy and Megan flew in last Wednesday morning, and after picking them up at the airport we drove to Pappy's to attempt to get some barbecue. Ever since Andy saw this restaurant on "Man Versus Food", he has been dying to go there. I dropped him and Megan off at the line forming outside the door and went to find a place to park. Before I even got out of the car, they were back at my door saying that a lady had come out of the restaurant advising that there were at least 100 people waiting inside for a table! Not having the time or the inclination to wait in the rain for that long, we went to Seamus McDaniels in Dogtown instead. We got home in time for us to let the dog out, then Jim and Andy went to Union Station to pick up Katie from the MegaBus stop. Megan and I waited at home for JoEllen and Bruce to arrive. Oh, and their dog, Casey.

We had a nice supper and then played Sequence for awhile. Thursday was non-stop action preparing the turkey and all the fixings, and then JoEllen and Bruce headed back home to Kansas City since she had to work the next day. On Friday morning Megan's mom, dad and two brothers drove over from Indiana to spend the day with us. The guys all went to Cabellas and the gals stayed here and got caught up. We ordered pizzas, watched some football and some of the group played Euchre for a bit before the Englert's had to leave. Friday night Jim and I went to the Webster Groves State Championship game at the Jones Dome (where Webster was beaten by a phenomenal Kansas City area football team), Andy went to the Casino Queen, and Katie and Megan hung out at the house.

Saturday Jim, Andy, Megan and I went to the botanical garden to see the train show while Katie did homework, then we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for supper. Katie went back to Chicago on the train this morning, and we dropped Andy and Megan at the airport this afternoon. As soon as Jim gets back from the office we are going to the gym to see if we can undo some of the damage of five days worth of company. More than the bird was stuffed this holiday!

Down the street from me lives a woman who is 95 years old and living once again in the house she was born in. It's a fun story in and of itself as she (I'll call her V) is living with her 85 year old boyfriend (I'll call him D), who actually owns the house now. I was thinking that it would be really interesting to interview her to talk about what it was like growing up in Webster Groves. After all, she probably knew the Morton family who built my house. They lived here until 1938. I understand my neighbor's mind is very sharp, even if her body is failing her. And she loves to talk!

I was trying to figure out how to go about seeing if she would mind answering some questions for me. Well, yesterday while walking the dog I saw the boyfriend (tee, hee!) talking to his next door neighbor, whom I do know. Always one to try to answer when opportunity is knocking, I hurried up my friend's driveway to introduce myself. As I explained why I was interested in speaking with V, D quickly expressed that V would love to talk to me. She loves discussing old times. As she feels best in the afternoons, we agreed that I would just come over one day after Thanksgiving around 1:00. After D went back to working in his yard, my friend said, "You're going to write about this, aren't you?" It ends up that she knows a lot about the neighborhood as well, and she had some suggestions about other elderly people that I should interview before it's too late.

So I may be on to my next book idea. We'll see how this first interview goes.

Last night we went to see the play "High" at the Repertory Theatre. I didn't know much about the play other than the fact that it starred Kathleen Turner and involved a young man with a drug addiction. Oh - and it was listed as being for mature audiences. I try not to talk to other people who have seen plays I am going to, and I don't read reviews because I so infrequently agree with them once I see the play (or a movie, for that matter). It was tricky with this one because lots of people were excited to have Turner in town, and our tickets are the last night's show. This play was actually written by a man who has a drug addiction, but who has been clean for 3 years now. There are predictions that it will head to Broadway, and I can see that happening.

There are only 3 actors in the play - a nun (played by Turner), a priest (Michael Berresse) and the young man (Evan Jonigkeit). While the subject matter is serious, there were some surprisingly funny moments in the play. The set was clever yet somber and didn't detract from the play. All 3 of the actors were excellent, with Jonigkeit doing an exceedingly credible job of portraying a drug addict. It was pretty obvious that Turner was not feeling well as she coughed a lot during the production. But she hung in there, and looked very relieved when her last line was delivered. The play has some interesting twists, and is definitely thought provoking. I "High"ly recommend it.

This afternoon I gave a presentation on composting to a class of 25 4th graders in Cahokia, Illinois. My niece's daughter is in the class, and she had been bragging to her teacher about her aunt and uncle who own a composting facility. As the class has just finished discussing microbes and how they help to break things down, the teacher thought it would be perfect to have me come in and talk to the class. Normally I would just discuss the composting process, but Cordelia had told them I would be bringing my "trash" along, so I modified the program a bit to include recycling.

I talk to the students about the different kinds of landfills and recycling centers available, and then each gets to pick a piece of trash out of my garbage bag. They then have to decide which of the centers that I talked about would accept the "trash". They don't always get the category right, but at the end of the day the point is that of all the pounds of trash I brought along, nothing had to go to the sanitary landfill. It all could be recycled in one way or another.

From there I talk about backyard composting, and then expand on what we do at a commercial composting center. I have large photographs showing them the equipment we use as well as some of the places around town that have used our compost. But by far their favorite part of the presentation is when I bring out our worms so we can talk about vermicomposting. Kids love worms! We have a stacking vermicompost bin at our house, so I have to remove some of the worms and their compost and place them in my traveling worm bin. Everyone was allowed to come up and gently pick up worms if they so desired. Surprisingly most of the kids were game. And my favorite part is when the kids finally figure out that they have their hands in worm poop. Priceless!

But they were great, and I think they enjoyed talking about recycling and composting. And maybe a few will take something home from today and make some positive changes in their own lives.

Thursday was my 55th birthday, and I had sort of thought about my blog post for the day. But then, as we know, shit happens (or compost happens as we say in our business). At 7:15 that morning I received a phone call from the compost center telling me that during the night someone stole one of our semi trucks and two of our walking floor trailers. Really? How does that happen? So the morning was spent talking with insurance companies, the police, etc.

Then good news came in the form of a phone call from an alert truck company owner who saw our truck parked across the street from his business in north St. Louis city. He put a call into his dispatch with our DOT number, and found out that we are the owners. He then called our facility with the location of the truck. Our guys call the St. Louis city police to check on it. Here's the interesting part - there was a flat bed trailer hooked to the back of the truck, and it had a large spool of stainless steel on it. Not our stuff! It ends up that this trailer and metal were stolen Sunday night from a business in Illinois. Weird...but he got his trailer back and we got our tractor back. So I did get a decent birthday present after all, which is great because then Jim and I headed off to boot camp for our usual Thursday night torture...I mean, workout.

Friday we drove down to Branson to be with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew for the weekend. On the way down I got a call from our site manager who told me that the two walking floor trailers had been located and were in East St. Louis. They had been found in the parking lot of the Casino Queen, and their security had them towed because they didn't belong there. They are now impounded as they are part of a crime spree where trailers are being stolen and sold for the scrap aluminum. I have to dig out a lot of documentation before they will release them to us on Monday. But all's well that ends well, and this ended very well for us.

So I have been able to relax and enjoy our stay down in Branson, where the weather is fantastic and so is the company. Double nickels might not be so bad after all!

On Saturday I attended the first ever Show Me the Blog conference. I first heard of it through a posting on Twitter, appropriately enough. At the time there wasn't much information about the meeting on the internet, but as it was the last day to qualify for the early registration fee I went with my gut and signed up anyway. Am I ever glad that I did! Danyelle Little (thecubiclechick.com) put together a fantastic program. On Friday evening conference attendees and speakers gathered in the space of St. Louis Coworking on the 11th floor of the Shell Building downtown. Coworking is an interesting new concept, offering desk space (or just space to hang out) to entrepreneurs looking to get out of their home offices. It was great to be able to meet some people before the conference, and to be able to see what Coworking has to offer.

Saturday the room at the Maryland Heights Community Center was packed and humming with energy. Throughout the day we learned the secrets of successful bloggers on how to have a blog that is fun, profitable and interesting without sacrificing who we are as creators of the blog. The recurring theme seemed to be "Keep it real". The entire day was fantastic, and I very much enjoyed meeting all of the other bloggers and hearing about their stories. It was so odd to be in a room where everyone was constantly on their smart phones and/or laptops. What would normally seem rude in a conference was in fact encouraged. Attendees were tweeting about the speakers (and some awesome boots!) and the contacts they were making, so others who couldn't attend sort of felt like they were there. How cool is that?

So kudos to Danyelle and the other great people who helped her as she walked out on a limb to bring a conference of this magnitude to St. Louis. Can't wait for the next one!

The painters arrived as promised on Thursday morning and began their prep work while I ran out to pick up the paint. I wanted to make sure I purchased the right finish for the woodwork and walls, so I waited to consult with the painters. After all, Porter Paint is just down the block from us. Jim assured the painters I would be back within a half hour with the paint. I joked that if I was not back within 15 minutes, they should call the cops. Famous last words... Off I went without my cell phone because, gee, Porter is right around the corner. I arrived at the paint store only to be told that someone had come in yesterday and purchased ALL of their cans of the woodwork paint that I needed. Seriously? It's white paint, dude, how can you be all out? He graciously called the closest store to see if they had a gallon for me. So off I headed north towards Clayton in rush hour traffic. With no phone to call the painters and let them know I would be delayed.

At the Clayton store I waited in line (of course there was no one else at the Webster store when I was there), and gave the gal the yellow paint can while telling her that they were holding the white paint for me. She looked at the yellow can and said that it would be 20 minutes for her to come up with the formula as their numbering system had changed. I bought the yellow paint from them a couple of years ago for the conservatory. I told her I couldn't wait an extra 20 minutes as I have 2 painters at my house standing around with their thumbs up their butts since they didn't have the paint I needed in the Webster store. I asked her to find an existing paint that came close to the same color and I'd just go with that. It didn't need to match exactly.

Once back with the paint the job went smoothly and the painters were done by 1:00. Friday Jim grabbed one of the young guys from his office and they went to pick up the bed and mattresses. They got it all set up in no time, and I put on all the new bedding. The room looks great, and now I have to ask myself if we made the room too comfortable. Will the company ever want to leave?