I was always envious of the kids whose brown bags folded over nicely. My dad packed my lunch and that bag was always so full I had to football carry it to the cafeteria.

Are you referring to the man-eating crocodiles?

I think both have been on ABC Family lately. I know A League of Their Own has been, and I am pretty sure I caught the tail end of Beetlejuice on there last week. I forget that I love Beetlejuice, because every time I think about watching it, I grab The Burbs instead.

Have you had it before? I love that stuff. It has cream cheese frosting swirled into it! It's like wizardry. Most cake ice creams I've had don't master the frosting part. It's just cake in ice cream. But the B&J's is frostingy too. Mmmmm.

I have tried to do cucumbers for the last two years, and it has never turned out for me. I can grow them, but they taste terrible, because St. Louis is so freaking hot and I can't water them enough and they end up tasting bitter. How do you keep them hydrated?

The other day when I went to plant my new tomato plants I discovered that the chaos of last year (my stakes failed and everything collapsed, making a mound of tangled tomato plants and resulting in a number of lost tomatoes in the garden) has now resulted in about 10 already growing tomato plants. So that's pretty…

I am feeling like a terrible pet parent, because I have this ridiculous boot on my foot for my fractured heel and I can't walk my Wallace very far at all. We had been used to 2-3 mile walks most days and now we're hobbling around the block. He's been doubling up on daycare, and I've taken him to the snowcone place for…

I first encountered The Mountain Goats when I saw that they were in the lineup for Lollapalooza a few years back. I like to be prepared for shows, and started listening and haven't stopped. I think I feel a kinship with Darnielle, and recognize a spirit in his songs that really moves me in a way that I haven't been in…

My mom asked me not long ago what passage from the Bible the 13.1 and 26.2 stickers referred to.

Awesome! Saturday is my Wallace's Gotcha Day — four years. Best thing I ever did. My dad says that Wallace and I both won the lottery, and I think that's probably true. He was languishing in a shelter where he had hookworms and giardia, and the other dogs in his kennel weren't letting him eat. He was 35 pounds when I…

When I bought my house I had just one tree and was fairly happy with that, after growing up raking leaves every other day all fall. Last Thursday, I called the County because the one tree in my yard was in the right of way, and it had a bunch of dead branches that they needed to get rid of. On Monday my neighbor…

We had a separate 6th grade center for all the kids in the district. It was the worst. I don't think I know a single person with a positive story out of that place.

Colin Sweeney's overexaggerated frowny face while Alicia was testifying was magnificent. I must have watched that ten times.

Seriously, it's like Channel 5 decided 15 years or so ago to make the Cardinals the leading story on the news as many days of the 365 as they could and everyone ran with it. I do not remember this Cards craziness pre-McGwire I only use it for good, like wearing jeans and a Cardinals shirt to work on a non-Friday…

I feel your pain. I Iive in St. Louis, and we get the Missouri ads and the Illinois ads, so I get to be equally annoyed by Republicans and Democrats. And half of them assume they are only being showed in areas where the viewers will see them on the ballots (somewhat understandably, I suppose) and don't even say where…

I read an interview with the Kings (I think) that they figured out a better way to use Leguizamo, so he is still guesting, just not as Castro.

I have a holly bush/tree right by my front door that has been vexing me since move-in day four years ago. I have been meaning to trim it or remove it for a long time, and have never quite gotten there for one reason or another, but now I have reached a point where I think it is dead. Both it and its companion have…

She wrote a pretty interesting article on her experience the other day. http://www.stltoday.com/ent…

My grandfather surprise asked me to do the blessing at Thanksgiving this year, and my sister is still mad that I didn't just launch into the Pledge of Allegiance a la Aunt Bethany. It would have been better than what my flustered mind came up with which was essentially a panicked Johnny Appleseed song.