One of a kind

This is from another neighbor K. She found this in Des Moines Iowa. That poor exposed front door with just an overhang of brown siding to shield its owners from the elements.

Recurrent Glan tai infection

More from neighbor Kent. He is a Glan tai expert.   I still think glan tai sounds like a systemic lymph disorder. 

Look at the rounded window cut-outs from the roof. Not sure I've seen that decorative feature. 

Four Corners

Yes, four corners.  Not the four corners of the American southwest, but the four corners of St. Louis County bad mansard apartment buildings.  All four corners of the intersection of Bennington Place and Page are mansard apartments. Happy bad mansard livin' y'all.  

Mississippi Mud Cafe

I had lunch at the Mississippi mud café in new Madrid Missouri. Good food and a great orange and white tile floor. Definitely worth the trip off highway 55. Not to be confused wiith the also outstanding Mississippi mud house off Highway 55 in St. Louis

An evening in 63104's best mansard

Last weekend we had a fabulous dinner at the Magic Chef Mansion, the mother of all mansards in St. Louis.  Back up 7 months to April at our school auction.  A group of five couples agreed to bid on an evening of dinner and drinks at the Magic Chef Mansion.  Another group of school parents would be putting on the event by donating their "time, talent and treasure" to cook, decorate and serve an amazing meal.

We set a budget for our maximum bid.  The budget was blown about five bids in.  The final purchase price was such a large amount for a school auction bid that I needed an installment plan to pay for our share.

And yet after the meal I kind of feel like we didn't pay enough for the meal.  Amazing.  Fabulous.  We had beer and wine paired with each course and then voted on the winner.  See below for the results which show the awesomeness of the meal and the boozy expertise of our school parents.  Scallops, Oysters, Chateaubriand, Lobster, Cheeses.  Stuff I'd be too cheap or scared to order off a restaurant menu.

My moment of pride came when we were getting a tour of the mansion.  The gracious owner said the word "mansard" and the room when silent and everyone looked at me.  Can you say proud?  I was.

Course #1 - went to the wine pairing Chablis with oysters

Course #2 - beer was the victor with the black pumpkin ale

Course #3 - Riesling paired nicely with our lovely salad

Course #4 - a bit of an upset, but the lobster paired with Hefe Weizen received more votes than the cabernet with the chataebriand

Course #5 - it was a tie between the Chimay and the port wine paired with the brioche bread pudding.

Mansard tissue box

Mansard cookie jar

Field trip bad mansard sighting

While on a field trip to the old courthouse last week some astute fifth-graders pointed to this picture and told me it was a bad mansard. Not really a mansard said the architect mom also on the field trip. Close enough. I think this qualifies as a mansard.  And how great is it that a bunch of 10 year olds see this and know to call me over?

Sedalia's comic and anime store

Pretty cool storefront in the old town square.  Sorry for the poor quality. 

Glan Tai bad mansard

It's great to have good neighbors. They watch your kids and have backyard parties and get your mail when you're on vacation. They also scout bad mansards when they are out and about. 

My neighbor Kent found this mansard out in West County in the Glan Tai subdivision.   Sounds kind of like a disease of the lymph system. I kind of actually like this house. It looks somewhat modern even though it is still a bad mansard.

Off ballas road

If I had a dollar for every mansard like this off Ballas road I'd have about $30. 

Ballas road free association:

1.  Kay has been going to various high school nights and sat in on a Visitation Academy presentation. Girl, I don't think so. We need someone to bankroll that kind of tuition 

2. I've spent too much time on ballas road seeing medical professionals 

3.  My friend Janet lives off ballas road. She's kayaking along side her husband who is doing a 12 mile ocean swim. 

More from our vacation to Florida. Whataburger. Whata bad mansard. 

1/2 way there; living on a prayer

This was sent by my friend Patrick. He writes, "Somebody took the time to repair the middle with new materials and left the sides falling apart slate."

Replacements bad mansard

If you're a Replacements fan like me, you'll enjoy this clip.  If you are a bad mansard fan, you'll like the familiar roofline that makes a couple of cameos in this story.  My favorite Replacements song is I Will Dare.

Enjoy!

Miracle Mansard

We've just returned from out summer vacation.  We took a short trip to Seagrove, Florida with an overnight stop in Nashville and a day trip to Mary Ester, Florida to visit some of my husband's Southern kin.

They live on Highway 98 but it is called the Miracle Strip Parkway  in Mary Ester (near Destin).  And would you look at this flea market "D'e France" [sic] mansard on said Miracle Strip Parkway.   Aqua, columns, D'e France.  What's not to love?  It's a miracle of design.  

It was nice catching up with John's 2nd cousin and his wife and kids.  There was cold beer, burgers, boat riding and the required dock jumping into the Gulf Intracoastal waterway.  Nothing like bonding with distant cousins by burying them in sand.   

Methodist mansard

This is the Webster Hills United Methodist church fellowship hall building. It may technically be in Glendale.  It mirrors the mansard style of the original group of structures across Berry Road. I think this was built about 15 years ago. I remember I was in law school and living off Woodlawn avenue during construction. 

Some other bits of trivia about the intersection of Berry and Lockwood:

I received my first speeding ticket near there circa 1988. I paid it. STUPID. Don't ever pay tickets. They add points to your driving record and make your insurance costs go up. Get a lawyer to help you amend the ticket to a non moving. Non moving = no points. 

My first boyfriend lived on Edwin, not far from that corner. 

My mom almost bought her first house on parkland avenue in 1983. Instead she chose a sensible house in Webster Groves. Back then interest rates were around 16%. Imagine how different my life would have been growing up there. Not different bad, but just different. 

Naked bike ride

Does it make us bad parents that we let our kids watch the naked bike ride? It was dark and really hard to see anything especially from the angle from the stairs.  In This picture you can see Gus doubled over laughing. Little Mimi kept yelling at the naked bike riders that they needed to put on a helmet. I guess she didn't realize most of them needed clothes too.

Wisconsin trip

In June we took a weekend trip to Madison, Wisconsin for a lacrosse tournament.  Kay's team,  St. Louis Elite, did respectably on this trip playing against some really good teams from across the midwest. They even received the Sportsmanship award.  I guess in lacrosse that means you didn't try to tomahawk a girl's shins or whack her in the face.  St. Louis has a budding lacrosse scene.  Kay learned to play lacrosse in CYC- we are lucky at St. Margaret's to have a great girls lacrosse coach, one of just 6 parishes to even have lacrosse as a CYC sport.  

Added bonus on the Madison trip- saw my childhood BFF for dinner, Gus got a hair cut at the Great Clips in Fitchburg and I saw this Red Apple Enterprises mansard on the road.

Sunday morning in Soulard

Still for sale

These mansards have been on the real estate market for quite some time.  I featured the Brentwood Boulevard and Big Bend buildings in 2009 and again in 2009.

Softball mansard

 Back in 2009 I reminisced about this little street off Old Warson Road in the Rock Hill/Brentwood/Ladue triangle (I made that up).  It is adjacent to Stroup Field where I played softball as a girl.  With the entry of our parish and many others into the South Central CYC district I now find my daughter playing there too.

This mansard is the mirror twin of the house I featured in 2009.  The girls below are Audrey and friends.  These girls are good at many sports, but I tease that they are really good at sports they can play at age 30 while drinking beer:  volleyball, bocce ball and softball.

I can get there from here

 Monday found me making the three hour trip to Sedalia.  Saw those REM worthy giant hay roll bale things.  Also drove around downtown Sedalia looking for a perfect mansard.  It was challenging.  There were plenty of buildings from the late 1800's but very few featuring my favorite roof.  But there was one- Charlotte's Antiques.  More like a mansard roof affixed to a warehouse.

Did you know I also love transoms?  Here's a great old-technology-meets-new-technology picture of a Pettis County Courthouse transom- in use!  But the flatscreen tv was turned off.

The Pettis County courthouse is one of the most nicely restored courthouses in the state.  Beautiful.  But you know what?  The original courthouse that burned down was a giant mansard.  Click here for more information.

Mansard storage hut

In the middle of a swath of grass is this utility mansard.  Thanks Richard for convincing your wife to take this picture on your way to Small and Solo Firm conference in Branson, Missouri.

I'm always driving around our fine state of Missouri for work.  Name the city- I've probably been there (or pretty close) or had a roommate from there (I had roomies from Carthage, Joplin, Windsor) . Whenever I'm on road trips in Missouri I always think of this song and video by REM.  Missouri has plenty of its own hay bales and peanuts and watermelon and weird motels:

Summer treat mansard

A mansard styled snow cone stand.  How about that.  Something about this picture screams hot steamy sticky smelly pavement.  I don't remember this stand from last summer.  Near Landsdowne and the Murdoch Cut-off.  Does it not crack you up there is a street named Murdoch Cut-off?

Miss Ohio!

Collecting more mansards around the country.  Thanks Richard S for these gems in Akron, Ohio!  Whenever I get a new mansard I imagine the state being read in the Miss USA parade of states.  Miss Ohio!

Let's kick it back to 1983with some vintage Miss USA and Bob Barker.  Back in 1983 I was 12, the same age as my oldest daughter. I look at the photo's of myself and think of how ugly my hair and clothes were.  Ugh; I think I feel a little better.  Check this out- if these ladies are the best styled in the USA it can be logically concluded it was a bad time for clothes and hair and everyone around me was ugly too.

Herculeaneum

I usually like to keep the pictures on bad mansard seasonal.  So clearly this picture is out of place in May with the snow on the ground.  I am determined to get 4 posts up for May so a snowy picture is that best I have.

 I took the picture on my way to take a deposition in Jefferson County.  It was a weird deposition.  I've been deposing people for 16 years and not once, not EVER, have I ever been in the middle of a deposition and had the other attorney out in the hallway doing push ups.  His client had no clue because he was behind her.  But I was asking questions to the deponent while her attorney was doing a full fledged calisthenic work out.  Pretty bad.  Just like this mansard on the outer road.

Sullivan

It's been a busy Memorial Day weekend.  Not a bad-busy but a "drinking beer at the pool" and "cleaning the laundry room" kind of busy.

These pictures are from spring break a few months back.  We went on the Meramec Cavern tour.  Cheesy awesome!  That's kind of become my thing- force the family to check out a cave when we vacation near home.  I highly recommend a trip to the Do Kum Inn diner near Meramec Cavern at 44 near the Sullivan exit.  Good food.  I had some great fried catfish.  And lookie there!  It's a bad motel abandoned mansard!

Yes, Mimi's clothes are woefully matched.  I really don't care too much what she wears, if it isn't obvious.  The girls fortunately do care and usually take the time to dress her right.

Girl Scout camping trip

Sorry for my absence from tending bad mansard. I took my daughters' Girl Scout Troops to Camp Cedarledge for the weekend.  I think it was a success, especially since it was our first troop camping trip.  4th grade seems so late to start camping but it took us that long to get someone certified to take us.  You just can't tell the Girl Scouts, "oh hey- I'd like to go camping..." and get a camp site.  Someone has to be Girl Scout camp certified which usually takes an entire weekend.  Two of our dads did the "fast track" program and even that took an entire day plus prerequisite online coursework.

I kind of knew what I was getting myself into.  I went to Cedarledge every summer and advanced through the WIT program to eventually work at Cedarledge as a wrangler for a summer.  I also went to Bridgett's blog South City Musings and did a search on "Cedarledge" and looked at her experiences and tips for success.  

We lucked out with the weather.  Cold at night which kept girls in their sleeping bags and made the fires that much more enjoyable. Sunny during the day.  No rain.  19 juniors, 1 Daisy, 1 Brownie, 6 cadettes (Friday night only).  5 men who slept in pop-up tents at the bottom of the hill.  5 moms.  I thought that would be way too many adults but it was great having that many hands with us being at the corral at different times all morning.

Cadettes were a big hit.  4th graders idolized them.  6th grade girls are so blase about Girl Scouting but they had a great time, helped out with cooking and made it back to St. Louis for their soccer games in time.  I let them cram in one tent which was a good idea.  No one felt left out and they may have just bonded a little bit.  And I didn't see anything in the rules that you couldn't put 6 girls in a tent.  

Things I did right- kept the girls in their patrols for everything.  Divided the cooking work amongst patrols and asked parents to send everything else like snacks, beef jerky, etc.  We lucked out because our 8th grade troop is disbanding upon graduation and handed down all their camp gear including some really nice skillets and Dutch ovens.  

Things I did wrong- letting the girls serve themselves at a taco bar (stupid- they wasted a ton of meat) and not giving parents better instructions for when to drop off/pick up (there was that one kid at the end, "who's picking you up?) and I should have sprayed girls more frequently for ticks (ticks were everywhere). I should have warned the girls how chilly it would get at night.  Many of them would have benefited from another blanket or hat.  

No more talky.  Pictures are better.

You know what would have made this adult time better?  A case of beer.  Alas, against Girl Scout rules. 

Some dress up in the cadette tent

cooking scrambled eggs in plastic bag

cutest tagalongs ever

The Milkshakes and Purple Pancakes patrols 

nice fire ring at Skyview.  Bring your own guitar playing Jesuit school English teacher.  

South City bluebirds represent.

we did a fun Mother's Day craft with leaves and photo reactive paper.  The crazy lady is me; thanks to Kristin M for organizing!

cadettes cook corn

Awesomeness patrol