STL Free For All

Did you know that no matter how hot it seems, it has to be really, really blazing to actually fry an egg on the sidewalk?  We’ve been experimenting with eggs and frying pans and Plexiglas and aluminum foil this summer, and we’ve yet to successfully fry an egg on our sidewalk, sizzling-hot though it may seem.  We’ve been reading up on the Internet about techniques and tricks, but it seems to come down to this:  The temp needs to be above 95 degrees and the UV index needs to be very high … like today, when the temp will be in the mid-90s and the UV index will be 9.

Tomorrow, the quasi-official Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk Day, should also be prime egg-frying weather.  And for more similarly useless-but-fun data, check out the calendar on the HiCards homepage, where everything from Amelia Earhart to caviar gets its day in July.

All my friends know that I’m a wimp when it comes to St. Louis heat. I try to be good-natured about it, but really, it’s hard to laugh when sweat is dripping off the ends of your hair, trickling down the back of your underwear and pooling in your bra. My North Dakota-bred sweat glands just can’t reprogram themselves!

Consequently, instead of doing much-needed yard work, I’d rather surf the Web in the coolness of my office, which is how I found a couple random, useful sites I thought I’d share in lieu of an event — because really, who wants to even venture outdoors today???

• Epicurious, the Conde Nast site affiliated with Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, caters to a fairly upscale market, so I was pleasantly surprised to find its list of 25 budget-friendly ideas for cooking and shopping.
• Soles United is a new arm of Crocs dedicated to recycling its proprietary material into new shoes for needy areas of the world. You buy a pair, they donate a pair.
• This may not be the right time of year for planting, but it’s definitely a good time to make “seed bombs,” a mix of native seeds, compost, clay and water that can be dropped later this fall into urban spots in need of flowers. For specific instructions and advice on other guerilla gardening methods, check out this site from the U.K.
• And while we’re breaking rules, I want to throw in the idea of urban golf. I think St. Louis would be perfect for this, but I’m having a little trouble convincing my neighbors.

I read this week that fewer Americans are playing in the great outdoors — 18 to 25 percent fewer than in the 1980s, depending on the activity (those studied included hunting, fishing, camping and trips to national and state parks).  The only category that was up, according to the study published last winter in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was day hikes, and increase was very slight (from once every 12.5 years to once every 10 years).  The authors’ contention was not that we’ve grown lazy in the past 20 years, but that we’re losing touch with nature.  And it’s not only Americans; they also studied trends in Japan and Spain and found much the same result. That, they say, could have implications for conservation and environmental policy in the future. For details, read this link to Scientific American.

So in light of this, I’d like to share a few snapshots from our trip to the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois two weeks ago.  We camped three of the nights and “decompressed” with nights in motels bookending the trip.  It was a great experience all around, and although it wasn’t technically free — we stayed at the Lake Glendale campground, where rates start at $12 for a single campsite without electricity — we saved money over a hotel and eating in restaurants.  Heck, even if your idea of cooking over a campfire is heating water to add to the packaged meals at REI (and I can vouch that some of them are pretty tasty and worth the $6-a-bag price for the  sake of convenience).

A big perk to staying at Lake Glendale is that there are two nice swimming areas close by:  the lake’s own beach and a nearby state park with a swimming pool.  We spent quite a bit of time at each, which had the benefit of wearing the kids out to the point where they crashed in the tent at night instead of spending an hour treating it like a bouncy house (which is what I had expected they’d do).  The only two pieces of equipment I consider essential for camping are a good-quality tent and and air mattress.  Especially in summer, it’s totally unnecessary to have sleeping bags.  I’d read online that the national forest won’t allow campers to bring in their own firewood, so we arrived without any only to find that the campground was out and there was only one other place nearby to stock up.  But other facilities (toilets and showers) were widely available and in good condition.

Many other moms have since told met there’s no way they’d ever go camping with little kids, but I found that in some ways it was easier to have young kids who didn’t stress out about “washing” with baby wipes before bed or hauling water 50 feet from the nearest hydrant.  To them, it was all a big game.  It reminds me of another study I read recently, that if kids aren’t exposed to the great outdoors before age 11, they’re much less likely to adapt and embrace the experience.

Have I mentioned here before that M. has been a self-proclaimed vegetarian since age 3? He actually has disdained meat all his life, but we threw in the towel when he came home from preschool with the revelation that some of the kids and one of the teachers choose not to eat meat. He even had a word for them: vegetarians. That’s what I am! he proclaimed.

I’m fine with it most of the time, but we tend to grill several times a week in the summer — steaks or chicken or meaty kabobs or hamburgers — and he usually winds up supping on a few pieces of cheese from the pack that we’re using to top the burgers. But last year we came up with a menu that includes him and still manages to please the rest of us. And it keeps me out away from the oven and the stove, which can’t be overrated!

Grilled Cheese

Prepare your favorite bread and filling, then toss the sandwiches on a grill brushed with oil (you do have a silicone basting brush, right??? They’re indispensable for grilling!) to achieve golden-brown deliciousness. They cook fairly quickly on our gas grill, less than five minutes per side, so you’ll probably want to do the corn first.

Microwaved Corn on the Cob

My mom showed me this trick: Shuck the outer couple layers of husk from each ear, leaving the kernels protected by at least one husk on all sides. Cut off the top bit of silk just to the top of the cob; don’t worry about the rest. Put four large or six small ears in the microwave at a time and nuke them four minutes per ear for large or three minutes per ear for small. When the timer beeps they should be slightly soft to the touch. Let them cool briefly (or use your silicone gloves and work while they’re hot for best results) and shuck them the rest of the way; the silk should come off easily too. Salt or butter to taste.

Grilled Peaches

I can attest that this year’s peach crop is on farmstands and ready to go — we bought a peck last week in southern Illinois and enjoyed every drip of juicy goodness.  They’re superb on the grill: Cut each peach in half and grill it cut-side down for a couple of minutes, just until it’s starting to brown. Turn it over and fill the indent from the pit with brown sugar. When it melts, the peach is ready to be served.

Grilled Banana Split

If you’re looking for a more impressive dessert, try this recipe for Grilled Banana Splits from Midwest Living. It calls for fresh pineapple, and that’s important — canned won’t work as well. Buy one of those handy corers from Bed, Bath and Beyond ($9.99) and the kids will clamor over themselves to help you with it.  Grilled pineapple is extremely versatile — try it with whipped cream and shortcake too.

Frozen Red Grapes

Some say these should be a dessert, akin to sorbet, but I like to have them as an appetizer because they cool the kids down but don’t fill their tummies right before supper. About.com has instructions here; it omits the step of dipping them in powdered sugar if you’re serving them as a dessert.

So there you have it — and easy, kid-friendly, vegetarian meal with no stove time!

Technically today’s featured activity isn’t free, but trust me, you can get cups and powdered mix for less than 5 bucks.  Along with ice from the freezer, a hand-painted sign on the flap from an old cardboard box, and that unused fold-up table from the attic, you’re good to go.

I did not expect to have much fun when M. wanted to set up a lemonade stand on a 90-plus-degree day.  The idea has been percolating in his little brain since he saw a stand on TV a few weeks ago, and I’d run out of excuses for putting it off.  I thought I was golden when yesterday started off rainy, but when the sun broke through the clouds, I agreed to the whole scheme and started lettering our sign so M. could paint it.  That paint was not yet dry when S. went off for a nap and M. and I hit the street corner (as we learned when one of our first customers leaned up against that still-wet sign!  Luckily it was a neighbor girl who accepted a turn behind the counter as restitution for her laundry bill).

To my utter surprise, the stand was lots of fun.  M. was delighted to call out and wave at passing cars, whether or not they stopped.  Everyone waved back, at least, which is fun for any kid.  He had wanted to give the lemonade away; I insisted on a sale. We settled for a very small fee (25 cents for a small cup, 50 for a large).  I stocked an empty lemonade mix container with quarters, not realizing that almost none of his customers would accept change back for their purchases.

We were lucky to have a primo location:  on the corner of two busy-but-not-dangerous streets where there probably had not been a stand for 15 years, and where a scraggy elm gave us enough shade to stay relatively comfortable during the heat of the day.  We sold out of lemonade after about two hours, just when the after-work traffic was starting to pick up, so perhaps next time we’ll go out later.  However, I enjoyed the entire two hours, both the commotion when we were busy and the lulls when we were not, during which M. and I had some great conversations about his “business” and about the people we’d met.

Through a weird coincidence, the two most recent books I’ve read are Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  Both are by scientists (a psychologist and a computer scientist, respectively) and both are about achieving happiness.  The first is a specific how-to guide complete with highly structured quizzes and empirical evidence; the second is a what-worked-for-me series of essays packed with anecdotes.  One is relatively old, recently reprinted; the other is brand new, flashing from every library and bookstore display shelf.

Different as they were, I liked them both.  I was inspired to think hard about the premises behind positive psychology (which sounded initially like a crock), and I was prodded to think about whether I could summon the courage to face M. and S. with happiness when I knew I only had a few months to live.  Finally, I realized that all the ridiculous things I do from day to day, like trying all day to fry a stinkin’ egg on a sidewalk using a pan and a sheet of Plexiglas, are worth it.

Tomorrow we have to repeat an experiment:  M. and I are counting the number of cars of various colors that pass our house during 15-minute periods, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon during “rush hour” on our street.  Our first attempt was dashed when we accidentally left the morning’s results out during a rainstorm.  Lesson learned:  Don’t write valuable data in washable marker.  As we cleaned up the mess and I found myself consciously using techniques from Learned Optimism to help M. overcome his disappointment, I remembered something Pausch wrote about his family’s many experiments and random wagers, and I felt like maybe this random coincidence in books was no accident.

I just called a neighbor to see if her two kids could come over to play in the sprinkler on this 90-plus-degree afternoon, but it turns out they were at the zoo.  THE ZOO!  The last time M. was at the zoo on a summer’s afternoon he made his poor grandmother lug him around because it was too hot to walk — and that was on a moderate day, not a scorcher.

If you must go to the zoo, I have a better idea:  Go during the first hour that the zoo is open, 8 to 9 a.m.  Not only is it much more pleasant temp-wise, but some of the attractions that normally charge admission are free: Dinoroarus, the children’s zoo and the carousel.  Plus, at that hour you’ll get a primo parking spot either on the street (also free) or in the lot ($10 for nonmembers).

For details on the early-bird freebies, visit the zoo’s homepage or call 781.0900.  It also has info on which of the attractions are free for the under-2 crowd.

I have a fairly well organized list of upcoming topics for this blog, but sometimes I completely miss something I’d meant to write about … like Saturday’s Worldwide D&D Game Day. It was a huge event for Dungeons and Dragons players, with at least five local shops participating (if you’re still interested in finding out more, there’s a link here). So I blew that one! However, I’m consoling myself with the rationalization that true gamers knew about it already, and those who didn’t would probably benefit more from beginning on a smaller scale, like at the D&D and other role-playing events Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at AnImagination in the Mills Mall or in South County. (The company’s main page is under construction, but the event link works.) Another mall store, Game Nite in South County Center, hosts role-playing and gaming events throughout the week. (To find the weekly schedule, click on the link under the Community Menu.)

For those who prefer facing their opponents over a board, Game Nite sponsors the St. Louis Boardgames Meetup group and hosts some of the organization’s events. Had I been on top of my game, I’d have also known about the Geekway to the West Boardgaming Convention this past weekend. I learned of it from the homepage of Gamer Ground, a store up on St. Charles Rock Road that also hosts weekly board and role-playing game sessions.

Kids who’re less into role playing and more into figuring out the ins and outs of computer programming might enjoy the following game, which comes on a recommendation from the Geek Dad blog over at Wired.com: Hackerteen, Vol. I: Internet Blackout. Their writer says it’s great for “encouraging ethical hacking on the part of kids too little to actually script.” If they’re old enough to actually script, you might have to find other means of ensuring that what they’re up to on the computer this summer is ethical!

We finally made it to the Missouri Botanical Garden to see the Niki exhibit.  (”See” is the operative word, because really only a few of the sculptures are open for frolicking, and it drives me a little nuts to see parents ignoring the “do not touch” signs while I’m trying to explain to my own kids why they can’t play there.)  The boys’ favorite pieces were the guardian lions, which were perfect for both 5-year-olds and 2-year-olds at different levels.  M. and S. always have a blast at the garden, but today was particularly fun because the weather was perfect for running around — not too hot, not too cold, not raining!!

Did you happen to hear we got FOUR INCHES of rain over the weekend?  If you’re keeping track, we’re now at around 28 inches for the year, about 12 1/2 above normal.

Because I love free, we entered the garden just before noon to take advantage of the free admission for city/county residents Wednesday mornings (the deal is in effect Saturday mornings too).  I didn’t realize it applied to the whole group, but I was happy that not only did I get in free and the kids get in free because they’re under five, but the two other adults in our party got in free too.  Whoopee!  That made the prices at the cafe seem a little less stiff when we indulged in lunch there.

All adults are free to the children’s garden too, as is S. because he’s not 2 yet, so for $3 total we spent a wonderful two hours chasing all around the garden.  It’s really beautiful this year — the newly planted look is gone, probably thanks in part to all the rain.  We saw quite a few adults without kids exploring the new areas too, which I thought was nice.

It wasn’t quite warm enough for me to let the kids get soaked in the water play sprinklers, and the garden hadn’t turned on the pop jets yet.  However, I’m fully expecting Friday to be our big, breakthrough all-the-water-you-can-handle day.  We’ll most likely go to Tower Grove Park, because those fountains and pop jets have been on since May 1.  I also swear that I saw water in the wading pool Saturday when I was at the farmers’ market, but the homepage says it doesn’t open until June 14.  I forgot to call and check it out during business hours today, but if you want to know for sure before you go, try this number:  314.771.2679.

But I digress — I meant to add that tonight is the first of the botanical garden’s late-evening hours:  Admission is free on Wednesdays from 5 to 8 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day.  The children’s garden has free admission for kids from 5 to 7 p.m.  Next week (June 4), the Whitaker Music Festival kicks off with Erin Bode at 7:30 p.m., and it runs through Aug. 13 — but one need not picnic at the concert area to experience a lovely Wednesday evening at the garden.

I recently noticed a tiny ad for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission’s online coupons, and after exploring the site a little, I found a treasure trove.  Ted Drewes, the Magic House, the Science Center, the Zoo, the Butterfly House and more classic summertime institutions offer either 2-for-1 admission or discounts on tickets and merchandise.  That particular document is a .pdf, so you can print out only the page(s) you need.  A few of the savings, like the $10 off on Cardinals tickets in June and $5 off in July, are redeemable online.

And speaking of the Cardinals, as I was buying tickets at the window last week, the cashier reminded me that the very topmost seats in the stadium have children’s pricing, as do the standing-room-only tickets.  It’s a good deal — roughly a third the price of an adult ticket — and for kids who don’t care how close they are to the field, it’s definitely the way to go.  To see where they’re at, visit the team’s homepage and magnify the seating chart.

Another money-saving deal of which I was only peripherally aware is the St. Louis Family Attractions card.  It’s available at Schnucks, Dierbergs and Shop N’ Save, but there’s also an online version that includes savings on hotels, Amtrak tickets, restaurants, museums, and more.  You’ll definitely find at least a couple of places to use it, especially if your summer travel plans are shrinking due to the cost of gas and airline tickets.