Mansard a Manhattan

This sad mansard is in the super cute City of St. Louis border neighborhood of Elldendale. I met my mom and her husband at Piccadilly's for lunch to pick up my older daughters. Piccadilly's is a nice little place, by the way. Service is a little slow, but it's a pleasant wait. Food is good. Beer is cold. Ellendale is the neighborhood east of McLains, the dive bar at Big Bend and Oxford.

I'm a little embarrassed that until today I did not know this little cute neighborhood was in the city. I always assumed it was Maplewood. I grew up in Brentwood and Webster Groves and drove down Big Bend 10,000 times and never, ever knew the city of St. Louis was so close.

That brings up another topic. I was talking to a city friend who explained some people she knew in the county (mostly far west county and St. Charles) refused to come to the city. I've never, ever encountered that with my Webster/Kirkwood/Glendale/Rock Hill/Brentwood/Ladue friends. I think the city and the inner portions of the county share a lot of attributes: big trees, pretty houses, neat neighbords, gridded streets and railroads.

Mansard Bleu

It's blue. It's a mansard. 'Nuff said.

Say, that reminds me. I watched Ocean's 13 last night and 'Nuff Said was the game promoted by the Bernie Mac's (RIP) character Frank Catton.

And "say, that reminds me" is straight from Raising Arizona.

So, now you know some favorite movies around our house.

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. D. Beck for the photograph.

Mansartment

Apartment building in Evanston, IL, courtesy of Dan. Isn't Dan great? Do you need some video of Dan to put a face with a name? Here you go:

Hermann

This is a nice corner in Hermann, Missouri. Three story commercial building, mansard roof, iron cresting. Nice window detail. I think it was built in the 1880's.

For those who do not know, Herman is a lovely little German town featuring many picturesque wineries. We went there a lot in college and law school, usually in the back of a big yellow school bus.

Today I went to Hermann for work so I drove myself and didn't drink at all. Whole town looked very different. Hermann, by the way, has some great little antique stores.

Graffiti- I'm cute!

This is a trash container on the Lafayette side of Lafayette Park installed when I still lived on Mississippi, perhaps 8 years ago. Almost as soon as this receptacle went in, someone wrote "your cute" [sic] on it. I so badly want to add an apostrophe so it reads "you're cute." I do appreciate the kind words and I am glad the message is still there. Quite motivating- running Lafayette Park (4 laps = 3.5 miles) and reading that I'm cute.

What is French for "Drunk guy threw my flower pot in the street"?

I must be a magnet for this stuff (or, more likely, my house is on a busy-ish street and also near a bus stop). Police knocked on the door. "Did you call 911?" Nope. Not me.

"Ma'am, please step outside." At this point I assume I'm in trouble for bad parallel parking or, even worse, that there's a warrant out for my arrest due a technical error or something.

Nothing like that. Turns out a drunk guy picked up my freshly potted geranium and threw it at a bus. There was a news crew in the area which captured the episode on film. The crew also called the police.

The police asked if I wanted to press charges. I eventually said yes, not because I felt like a victim or anything, but because my perfectly matched flower pots were unmatched and I now had to go back to the flower store for more geraniums, an unnecessary waste of my very precious time. Stupid drunk.