St. Louis’ Gateway Arch turns 40

Article here

I think I have been up in the Arch about half a dozen times. The view is great. Elevator ride to the top is a bit scary though. Especially for a 5 year old kid.

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-KaChunk!
Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-KaChunk!
Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-KaChunk!

Additional info here and here

Luftburg

While reading this post over at IAF, I reminded of a job I used to have as “Bouncy-Castle guy” in the greater-Chicago area. I was working as production assistant for an events/party company. I usually just set up the Sound and light equipment and stood by to make sure everything ran smoothly.
Occasionaly we would provide a huge inflatable Winnie the Pooh that the kids could jump around inside of. Sometimes I had to be responsible for setting it up. This entailed moving a huge rolled up lump across the field, unfolding it and hooking up the fan and gas powered generator. Damn that thing was heavy. It wasn’t much fun in the middle of the summer either, but for $20 an hour, it was worth it.
The worst part about it was that parents just left their evil little hellspawn kids with me and expected me to be the babysitter while they went off and got drunk.

Hey Mister, he hit me!

So?

Ah, good times. Good times. Of course if it were my own niece, I would have to regulate. You need a time-out mister?!

Been Caught Stealing

M’s purse got stolen while she was at a private party in a bar last night. She is fairly certain who did it and canceled the cards and outgoing calls from her cell phone as soon as she discovered it was gone. Some obnoxious drunk that couldn’t take a hint was hitting on her and her friends and was finally told in no uncertain terms to sit elsewhere. As he left he walked out with her purse. M didn’t notice till a few moments later. The bar staff said he wasn’t invited but that they regularly threw him out.

To cut a really long story short she located the phone via her service provider’s website that triangulates the phone’s location using the cell towers. We spent about half an hour with two plainclothes officers from Lüneburg Polizei at 4 am sneaking through a small residential area while dialing the stolen phone from my phone and trying to hear the ring through the walls and windows. Unfortunately we didn’t catch the guy but M knows what he looks and where he hangs out. Too bad. I was hoping for some beatdowns served up by the LGPD.

Unfortunately her keys were in there and we only have one extra set, mine. And for some reason, getting copies of keys in Germany, which in America takes 5 minutes, will take about 4 weeks. Sometimes it seems like small niches of the service industry are designed to fuck with people who need them the most.

We were surprised by how anxious the police were to help out. Maybe it was a slow night.

Mopey the Gnome

I wish I had this when I was living with my roommate Trey.

Simply pull the pin, yell an emphatic “fire in the hole” and lob the grenade into the sleeper’s room. After ten seconds a very annoying and piercingly loud noise (there are three volume settings) will blast out from the alarm.