Dogsitting and Good Food!

My mom's health is improving all the time now and she is back to work this school year. She still has to take a lot of medication but thanks to the doctors at Barnes, her life is slowly getting back to normal. So.......my parents got a new puppy the day after Labor Day. Their previous dog died back in May, during a time when my mom was at a low with her health. His name was Oscar and he was 13 years old. He had a good life but it's still hard to say goodbye to a great pet. The new puppy's name is Rusty. Both are miniature dachshunds. We got to babysit Rusty this past weekend while my parents were away for 2 days/1 night. What a cutie he is! We just love him! This little face is just irresistable!

On Saturday night, I ate dinner at the Top of the St. Louis Riverfront (Millennium Hotel) with three girlfriends. We had been planning this dinner for quite a while now and it was really nice. We were there for 3.5 hours and the time went by quickly. It gave each course time to settle before the next arrived and it gave us good, quality time to visit with each other. We are all moms of young children and a night like that is certainly welcome once in a while! We rotated a little over 2 times so we got to see the entire St. Louis skyline from all 360 degrees. I had goat cheese and mushroom strudel as an appetizer, field greens for my salad, a steak with garlic butter sauce for my dinner, and the three of us shared black and white cheesecake for dessert. Yumm-O!

The St. Louis Riverfront is under water right now because of Hurricane Ike. If you are not familiar with St. Louis, you may not know what you are looking at here, but this is the south leg of the Gateway Arch and as you can see, the water is pretty high on the trees in the background.....almost to the leaves! The road that runs along the riverfront is completely under water right now, for the 3rd time this season.