Pink

Since October features a lot of pink for breast cancer awareness, I present to you a pink trimmed bad mansard on the near north side.

October is a month of crazy parties, school events, neighborhood events, festivals, Halloween, birthdays, soccer, volleyball and camping.  I have been tired, over committed and frequently hungover.  But at least I can see the end in sight.

November will be  my purifying month- I will clean my mind, body and house.  Exercise, church, clean eating, clean the house,  etc.  And I will clean up bad mansard starting with the overly large header pic and getting some good pics.

Tres froid

Very cold!  Certainly I am not the only one who's every noticed how cold the corner of 8th and Olive is.  I've worked downtown since 1995 and it seems that corner has always been about 10 degrees cooler than the streets around it.  Why?  Some kind of cooling or ventilation system from the Paul Brown , Frisco or Laclede Gas Building?  The sewers?  Or a ghost.

Here is a picture of my husband John.  Last week we went on a tour of the Schlafly taproom.  But that's not when this picture was taken.  It was about an hour later when then tornado sirens went off and the folks in the restaurant were evacuated to the Schlafly basement, including a wedding party. Pretty good emergency location.

Back to mansards later this weekend.

Where has the été gone?

Where has the summer gone? I've neglected poor badmansard. I've been busy elsewhere. Since I last posted: 4th of July madness, put the dog to sleep, soccer practices, orthodontist appointment, pastoral transition party (aka meet the new priest), work!, grown-up Pinewood Derby party, Mimi's 3rd birthday, my brother's family in town, sold a car seat and hopefully a stroller on Craigslist (totally annoying process), a little shopping, a kid with swimmer's ear, hosted an overnight, took audrey to a birthday party, a traveling husband, movies, and OMG! it's so hot I can barely focus on the next few days.

Speaking of hot and miserable. This mansard sit across 7th from the leveled Burger King on Park/7th (in my best Craig T. Nelson voice from Poltergeist, "you left the bodies and you only moved the headstones!). Click here if my joke makes no sense to you.

Sometimes I leave my van home with the babysitter and have my husband drive me to work. When it's time to leave work, I pack my purse and things in a backpack and run home from Met Square to Soulard pretty much down 7th to Russell and further to my house. Only about 2.7 miles but it is a terrible run. Hot because there is no shade, dirty, Cardinals traffic, pedestrians, 100 pavement changes, hobos, panhandlers, 18 wheelers, broken sidewalks, glass, human feces, some clothes and noise. This mansard and the lovely Sts. Peter and Paul church were the only attractive things I saw.

Attention!

Attention Hoosiers, Hipsters, Cardinals Party People. Kilroys, just south of Busch stadium, is a bad mansard. I don't know who patronizes Kilroys and thus my blanket greeting.

The mansard roof also blends into highway 55 in the background and one cannot even really tell where the parking lot starts and patio seating begins.

Dime a Douzain

Quiz:  Mid-County or downtown?  Time's up, put down your stylo.  Totally ugly.  At 23rd and Pine (I think- I could be off a block or two).

Sans Mansard, part deux

This poor mansard is missing its rear.  And roof.  Corner of Olive and 22nd.

A Perfect Mansard

Old Post Office, downtown St. Louis.  Photo taken from my parking spot in the 7th Street Garage.  The OPO was recently renovated and now houses part of Webster University and the Court of Appeals*, amongst other bit-nesses.  My favorite place inside is the "express" library.  The staff is super nice and they always have a good selection of fiction, cookbooks and kids' literature.

When I fist started at my firm the OPO housed the Social Security Office.   Nightmare.

*Of note, I have a 100% win rate with the Court of Appeals.  disclaimer- I've only argued in the COTA twice.