COMING UP IN FEBRUARY!
Isn't January just the longest month?  It's not just that it's physically long (31 days!); it also feels long, arriving as it does on the coat-tails of the busy and festive holiday season. All of a sudden you have a house to clean up, a tree to take down and either recycle or pack away, extra food to throw out ("it can't still be any good"), maybe some gifts to return or exchange (or put away), and no holidays on the foreseeable horizon, unless you are lucky enough to get Martin Luther King, Jr.'s or George Washington's birthday off.  On January 2, Valentine's Day is still a month and a half away, and Memorial Day is, well, you don't even want to think about it.  And on top of all that, it's cold. It's bitterly cold.  This year it was cold and snowy.

Well, dear readers, we have finally arrived at the end of this month.  We survived another January in St. Louis. Personally, I tried to fill it with some fun indoor things, including a symphony concert, some movies, indoor motorcycle racing on ice, a great book (Sara Paretsky's "Critical Mass"), a presentation on fun travel locations and ideas by Gig Gwin at the Kirkwood Library, a trivia night, and last weekend we went to the St. Louis Auto Show, which is a perfect way to spend a cold Saturday (except for the wind-whipping walk from the parking garage, during which I thought, wow, in a few months, baseball season opens and these downtown walks will be so much more pleasant).

February doesn't promise to be any warmer, but at least it will be shorter, and it does bring some fun things with it, including:
~ The end of the football season (some of us football spouses can be heard to heave a collective sigh) and the Superbowl game, this Sunday, February 2. We have pizza, hot wings, and gooey butter cake on the menu at our house (calorie-watching suspended for the day).
~ Open registration for parks & recreation programs, including the pool and tennis courts, swimming & tennis classes, summer softball, and summer camps for kids: Monday, February 3.
~ Valentine's Day, the best excuse anybody ever invented to buy flowers and candy for your loved ones.  (I have already procured my daughter's card and box of candy; now I just need to ship them to Seattle. How about you?)
~ The Olympics, which open next Friday, February 7.
~ The Kirkwood-DesPeres Area Chamber of Commerce's 68th Annual Installation and Awards Gala on Friday, February 7.  The Chamber staff always does a GREAT job with this fun event.  Congratulations to the Chamber on its long history of supporting area businessses, and best wishes to the new leadership!
~ The new Stan Musial bridge over the Mississippi, which opens February 9 (see schedule above) and which I would have sworn wasn't supposed to open for another year.
~ Mardi Gras festivities in Soulard, including next weekend's Snowman Softball Tournament and a bunch of other stuff, culminating in the Big Parade on March 1.Track down your beads!  Click here for a comprehensive schedule.

We still have a ways to go to Opening Day (April 7), but at least we can now put January firmly behind us.  When it is this cold for this many consecutive days (wasn't that 50-degree day on Sunday, and that glorious sunset, photo right, a nice reprieve?), it may be hard to keep in mind that at most, we really only get about four months of this stuff. Spring and Fall in St. Louis are not to be missed, and while it can get unbearably hot and humid in the summer, the pools are open, the grills are hot, the Cardinals are winning, and there's enough going on that we sometimes don't even notice it. Plus, we have the best sunsets on the planet. So take that, Florida!

I hope you have a great weekend and that your team wins this Sunday (I guess I'm rooting for Seattle!). Stay warm, and see you next Thursday!

Beth von Behren, Happenings Editor