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Right in time for Christmas, I started work as a technology support specialist at St Louis University High today I was officially offered the job last Monday and spent a couple of afternoon’s at the end of the week in the school starting to learn more about the technology department and try to find my way around the buildings. I’m glad to be staying within education, and looking forward working as part of a team again and having more interactions with students.

Working at SLUH meant I would be traveling in a different direction to work than Bethany, and working slightly different hours too. One of Bethany’s friends has a brother who works for the Bommarito auto group, a pretty big dealership in the St Louis area. We got a good deal on this 2004 Ford Escape XLT which lets us throw Kenai in the trunk and keep the back seat clear of dog hair:

It’s really nice to drive, so now we get to fight over who takes what car And if you need a car around St Louis, get in touch with Craig Gaby at Bomarrito Honda just off I270 + N. Lindbergh!

Christmas is only a few days away now – we’re heading up Bethany’s parents in Iowa for a long weekend. Nikki also got flights booked for her and Dan as well as my parents to come over in June for our wedding, so really looking forward to that. Mam + dad are going to spend a little under two weeks around St Louis too, so will have plenty of time after the wedding to spend together too.

On Saturday night, we headed out to the All American Sports Mall for some roller derby action. The Arch Rival Roller Girls is roller derby league comprised of four local and two travel teams. One of Bethany’s colleagues plays for ‘The Stunt Devils’ local team, as well as the ‘Saint Lunachix’ travel team.

We watched the first half from up on the balcony to try and figure out how things worked, then headed down on the floor for the 2nd half to cheer on Mighty Mighty Boston, here on the left:

It was cool to be able to get pretty close to the action, and there was certainly a whole lot of bumpin’ and bangin’ going on, along with more than a few tumbles:

I guess like with hockey, not only do you have to pretty good at playing the game, you pretty much have to be a natural at skating too:

It really was a team game – here’s Mighty Mighty Boston getting a little help from one of her teammates whilst keeping the opposing team’s jammer behind:

Unfortunately, ‘Rebel Skate Alliance’ won the bout by 3 points, with the game staying really close for the last 20 minutes. It was still fun to watch, especially since it had been so close and engaging.

Photographing indoors at an event like this was a different challenge, and I was definitely casting a wishful eye over the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L-IS I saw another photographer wielding. I struggled to get much below 1600 ISO even with the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS I have, so I was left quite noisy shots at times. But, hopefully next time I’ll be able to do a little better, as although I’ve been good, I don’t think Santa is bringing me a 70-200mm f2.8L this year

Been in a photography funk since leaving Alaska, so forced myself outside with my camera this afternoon. There’s plenty to photograph around St Louis, just not too many sled dogs, mountains, glaciers, etc. And given England lately, also no snow here. Yet.

I wandered around East Riverfront and the Eads Bridge, where half way across the Mississippi River you walk over the state line between Illinois and back into Missouri:

The Gateway Arch dominates the downtown St Louis area, and somehow we haven’t actually gotten down there yet. Barge traffic up and down the Mississippi River carries crops from farmlands all across the Mid-West, including this one passing the Arch as the sun was setting:

The downtown St Louis skyline itself is something pretty cool on the few times we’ve driven across the Poplar Street Bridge come back from the Illinois side, and definitely something I’d like to get back to photograph. This shot at dusk is still pretty cool though:

There’s more photographs from a couple of little outings around St Louis on this flickr set such as the Sunnen MetroLink station right by our house in Maplewood:

Hopefully I’ll be a little better at keeping things more up to date on here too. We’re settled here in St Louis, Kenai is getting on for 6 1/2 months old now and has slept through a couple of long car rides back up to Bethany’s folks in Iowa and played with his cousin Samson for long weekends, and Ace, our Maine Coon cat also about 6 months plays with Kenai pretty much like he’s a dog too. Which helps them keep each other company I guess. Fall semester at college is nearly over and I’ve done a couple of LIFE weekend classes at Eden Seminary which have been good too. Doesn’t feel like December 1st after the past few winters of seeing snow around the end of September and it being around until May time! I might even end up getting one of those job things before the year’s out too.