This weekend a friend I've known since middle school came to town, so I showed him and his girlfriend around the great town of St. Louis. Unfortunately, it's winter, so there's not much to do here that doesn't involve frostbite. Part of his grand tour (which also included the casino boats where I lost $40 to the cruel seductress Blackjack), included the Arch.

Normally when folks come to town I let them go up the arch on their own, but somehow I was talked into joining them for the trip up. It's bad enough that I'm afraid of heights, but it's even worse when the thing raising you up in the air is the size and shape of a washing machine with a sketchy wooden door.

Despite the horrible noise it made as it ascended, I did manage to make it to the top, where I enjoyed the view out the windows as I saw it from the middle of the hallway.

The other excitement this weekend was the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Despite a slow start, it turned out to be a great game featuring solid rushing, great passing, and frontal nudity. My money is on MTV planning Justin's little "rip off", the whole thing just seemed a little too staged. If someone was going to get naked, though, I would have preferred Jessica Simpson over Janet Jackson.