I am extremely busy so just gonna go over the highlights. I tailgated bright and early at 7AM for MU’s first game vs Illinois on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We got the same spot as last year but no rain so it was pretty awesome. We grilled some great food, had some adult beverages, and hung out with a bunch of friends that I do not always get to see. Overall an awesome time. Some of us went to my place to watch the game while others went to the game. MU of course won and we reconvened at Over Under for some post game celebration. I had dinner at Ozzies afterwards and was in bed by 10AM.

I went to Sugar Creek winery on Sunday with my girlfriend, her sister, and her brother-in-law. Apparently everyone else had the same idea on a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Fortunately, we were able to score this awesome tent (the only one there) after sweating in the sun for an hour. We felt like we were kings. The wine was good but the place was definitely understaffed since it took 30 mins to an hour to get a bottle of wine at the single counter they had going. Still a great time.

I had another jammed pack weekend last week. I watched The Lovely Bones which was actually very good. Even though I knew the plot of the story, I did not know how it would play out so it was good. Peter Jackson did an awesome job. The movie was actually a little trippy. I went to a friends garage sale on Saturday morning and hung out at his house for a while then hit up a couples shower. Sunday was the big day of the annual Scott Air Show I have gone to the last 3 years. We normally go on Saturday but Sunday was just as fun. We took the metrolink there and basically saw every flight. We even got to see the Blue Angels which apparently havent flown at Scott in like 20 years. The show was awesome. We made a surprise stop at the Casino Queen for a $12 buffet. All I can say to my eating friends is that we need to hit this up again. They had an Asian, Italian, American and other kinds of foods. I stuffed myself silly.

I had to regretfully switch “brick and motor” banks today after Commerce Bank changed their minimum requirements for a checking account several months ago. First off, I did not even notice that there was a change until I receive a $7 service charge last month. Who reads those notification letters of changes anyway? Commerce said they made the change back in April so no clue why I wasn’t charged other months.  The new rule is “the account has to have at least one $500.00 direct deposit each month or a combined balance of $1,500.00 in checking, savings and money market accounts.” Most would hit this with the direct deposits but I do not since this is not my primary checking account since I switched to an online ING account which gets a lot more interest in my savings and earns interest in my checking with no minimum balance. I went into a branch today to find out that all their accounts had this minimum requirement. I told the bank rep I wanted to cancel it and did so. I thought I was going to do Bank of America but they have a $1000 minimum so I ended up with US Bank (which has an ATM 3 blocks away from my condo) so it is super nice. US Bank has a zero minimum balance on their Free Checking account.

I partially understand why Commerce could target a user like me because I was basically using that account to cash checks then transfer it to my other online account. What I am not sure of is low income people who can not hit the $1000 minimum and not have the ability to have a direct deposit pay check. I could be crazy but I would think that would be a lot of people.

I had been using Commerce Bank since I was 17 so I been a customer for 13 years. Sad to see them go since I knew where all the ATM’s were in St Louis.