Rams Game - With A Bonus

Went to the Rams-Cardinals game with my business partner and his family yesterday...had an absolute blast and it doesn't even matter that the the Rams suck!

Our seats were really nose-bleed so about halfway through the first quarter, we went to sit in a block of seats about 10 rows from the field. Those were really good seats, but unfortunately most of the action was on the OTHER 10 yard line...so, we didn't get to see much other than that which was on the jumbotron.

But, I've always wanted to get up close and personal with the "D-Fence" guy...and low-and-behold, once we sat down there he was, about 20 feet away. AWESOME... I'm sure I got on national TV.

Now, comes the fun part. St. Louis quarterbacks are known for their calm demeanor and Mark Bulger is the calmest of them all. So...when the star quarterback begins to call out his team mates as "slackers", well, it gets some notice. Not like it was back in the day with Curt Warner, Marshall Faulk and crew and the "Greatest Show on Turf".

But, all things must pass and as in every ski patrol run, there's the lift up the hill, the effortless run down the glades and then the slog over to the lift for the return...hey, that's pretty poetic.

So, the reason we were even there in the first place is because of my business partner David. He's an amazing fellow for so many reasons and the latest reason is his volunteering as a teacher at the Lift For Life Academy in downtown St. Louis. He developed a curriculum and has now taught it for several semesters...the curriculum is about computers.

It's very cool, so much so that the Rams have honored him with a Community Volunteer Award, which comes with a $2000 grant from the Rams Foundation to the sponsoring organization (LFL). He's now starting to work with other organizations throughout the city to bring this type of program to their groups; as I said, an amazing guy.

But that's not the best part. About 3 months ago, he received a letter from one of the students in a previous class telling him that because of the class, she was switching her career choice from nursing to computers. She even went as far as to apply to one of the Career High Schools in St. Louis and on her acceptance letter the Admissions Committee indicated that they wished there were more students with her type of background and career preparation (read that, computer skills) coming to their school. David was, deservedly, proud!

To say I'm proud to be his partner, and more importantly his friend, is a significant understatement...this is one amazing guy. Too bad he doesn't ski, yet. But, I've been working on his two sons "Hey, you guys ready to go skiing?" They're all fired up, I can't wait.

So, David's getting this award and during the pre-game he gets his mug up on the JumboTron...had to take a picture. Which one is he . ? . you ask? Well, there's only 4 people and 1 guy...right, he's farthest from the Bud Light bottle...which is a darned rare thing for him!

So, here's some pics. My favorite? The one of me,taking a picture of David, taking a picture of his son Ben with allthe Cheerleaders...You don't know how lucky you are young man.

In 15 years, you'll be the envy of your friends. I can't wait to see Ben's wife's reaction to this picture at their wedding reception in a couple of decades...man, that's going to be fun!!!

But of course, Ben's biggest cheerleader is his Mom...Randi. Such a sweetie. I've never really spent any time with her, in her "mom" role. She's really good with her sons and reminds me so much of the way Sheri (my amazing wife and mother to our 2 daughters) is. Caring, concerned, perhaps a bit edgy, totally cool, smart as a tack and really enjoyable to be around. While David and either Ben or Adam were on the field, Randi, one son and I were in the stands hooping and hollering it up!
Randi had a big time career with several of the hotels in St. Louis and now she's got this amazing job where she gets to take all of the concierge's in St. Louis to various events, restaurants, concerts and all that. It's one of those jobs that you'd read about in a magazine article; "The Coolest Job on Earth", or something like that. The name of the company is a big secret, owned by some pretty heavy hitters so I'm not sure what it is...all I know is that Randi knows everyone and more importantly, everyone knows her.

She's alot like David that way. Rarely do we ever go anywhere that David doesn't get approached by someone. He reminds me of my father-in-law, Mel Loewenstein. Same type of guys, everyone loves them and amazingly effective in what they do.

I've always marveled at the way David and Randi's relationship works. I'm priviledged to hear how they talk with each other, working together, truly loving each other. It makes me try harder in my relationship with Sheri.

I had fun with them.

Finally, and as a complete surprise to me, one of our clients was featured on the scoreboard right next to the JumboTron. We're so priviledged to get to work with some amazing people, it's great when they pop-up in the most unexpected places. Oh, try the Brooklyn-Style, it's fabulous.

OK, this posting didn't really have anything to do with ski patrolling, or skiing, or anything along those lines so, here's a picture of one of my two amazing daughter's; she's my youngest daughter with her brand new Spy goggles. She had to pay a heep of cash for those things... Over the Christmas Break, Katie and Sheri are headed to California to see what west coast softball is all about. She's been invited to try out for 4 different 18U-Gold teams. Katie rocks and she's going to find out if she's "got it" enough to play Pac10 softball. I think she does, but, I'm biased.

OK, that's it for now. As always, comments below and email: skipatrollerstl@yahoo.com if you want to let me know anything.