I'll bet he woulda driven a monster truck...

Well, like I said yesterday, Ma came up this weekend to see Miss Savannah, and she stayed the night with us.  Didn't do much last night, except for do a little catching up, then went to bed.  This morning we got up early (Jenny got up to go to work and I just couldn't go back to sleep), so we got ready and went up to good ol' Bread Co., one of Ma's favorite places in the world.  We like to just grab a little bite to eat and sit in the comfy chairs in front of the fireplace.  The chairs were so comfy, in fact, that someone fell asleep.  I'm not naming any names, but his initials start with "Dave Harris".  I just kinda closed my eyes for a second to rest them, and next thing I knew I heard some little old lady say something about "well that young man sure looks comfortable".  I looked at the time, and it was about 35 minutes later!  D'oh!

Anyway, after that we decided to go to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.  I hadn't been there in almost 10 years, since they had the Miles Davis exhibit.  I didn't realize all of the stuff they had in there - had we had time, we could have spent the entire day there!  What we did go see, though, was "Treasures Of Napoleon".   I tell you what, I've forgotten most of my history of 18th and 19th century France, so it was pretty interesting to read about Napoleon's life and just what went on in that time period.  There was a lot of artwork - I think he wanted everyone in France to have their own personal painting of him looking like he was a Roman emperor!  It was also really interesting to see how he changed physically throughout the years.  By the end, in the paintings and drawings, you could really tell that the two decades of war had definitely taken a toll on him.  He just looked like a beaten and broken man.  

After he was exiled to St. Helena, he spent the rest of his days gardening, reading, and dictating his memoirs, all of which completely drove him mad, because he's one of those guys who always had to be on the go doing something!  Ma and I both commented that we'd like to read those memoirs, as, lo and behold, I found it on these here internets!  If you're gonna read it, I suggest you clear your calendar for a while - there are 4 huge volumes, covering everything from his birth to 20 years after his death, when his body was moved from the unmarked grave on St. Helena to his final resting place on the banks of the Seine River in Paris, where he wanted to be buried "among the people of France, whom he loved". 

Today's stroke is a crimson, for two reasons: it was the color of the robe Ol' Nappy (as Ma called him) wore during his coronation, and also, something I haven't talked about at all this evening - for my Oklahoma Sooners, who are playing the big "Bedlam" game against Oklahoma State right now - this is gonna be a great game!  Sooners are up 7-0 in the first, but there's a lot of game left, and OSU has the #1 offense in the nation!  Hopefully they'll fare better than Mr. Bonaparte!