Odds & Ends: Soup, Grant's Farm, Real Estate

This post is about a lot of random things. I'm writing it while finishing up this amazing Potato Leek Soup I made last night. Healthy? Probably not. Delicious? Ridiculously so. This is the fourth batch of soup I've made in a week. Last weekend for an impromptu dinner party I made vegan Creamy Cashew Butternut Squash Soup and cobbled together a ham, bean, and kale soup from several different recipes. Last night was the potato soup and chili for a couple from the neighborhood. Winter. Soup. It's what I do.

Saturday I attended a presentation for Grantwood Village residents by Dr. Jeffrey P. Bonner, President and CEO of the St. Louis Zoo. It was a standing room only crowd, probably 100 in attendance. He talked about the zoo's vision for Grant's Farm should the current litigation favor those from the Busch family who want to sell to the zoo. Trudy Busch Valentine gave a heartfelt message at the end. The overall tone of those in attendance seemed to support the zoo proposal with an overwhelming caveat that very close attention be given to traffic, parking, and attendance numbers. It really seems like the best option for keeping the original intent and spirit of Grant's Farm while providing needed improvements. I'm hopeful and excited.

I haven't talked a lot on my blog about my new job, which I started in August. I am now an Operations & Marketing Manager for a small real estate team with a local boutique real estate firm. I am loving every minute of it. I'm learning all kinds of new things, it satisfies the house-geek in me, I'm directly involved in building something really cool, and my teammates are progressive, smart, and fun people to be around. I am looking forward to 2016 with this crew.