Scott In Iowa

ALL GOOD THINGS...

2009-08-23T14:22:00.007-06:00

That's what they say, anyway...all good things must come to an end. Does this always have to be true?

For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, I'm sure you know about my partner, Andrew (thebuxstophere). We'd been together for almost 7 years. That good thing came to an end this week. We'd been having our issues for a while, but were taking steps to work on those. (or so I thought)

Now, I could sit here and rant all day about the reasons and circumstance around our breakup, but this isn't really the place for that. Besides, why would I bore all of you with our trivial problems.

Instead, I want to focus on the good that we had. I've spent some time being angry and trying to sort through the emotions that go along with a breakup and while I'm just in the beginning stages of all that, I've come to realize that being angry really doesn't serve anyone well and while it is a necessary emotion, truly is a waste of energy if not dealt with and then let go of.

I met Andrew in November of 2002. Sitting across that table from him, having dinner on our first date, I couldn't help but think, "how could I be so lucky?" This guy sort of just popped into my life just 1 week before in an internet chat room. When I first saw his picture, I was immediately taken buy his charming good looks. The olive skin and the dark brown eyes were certainly "my type". As our chats went on through that week, we made plans to meet and have dinner.

That was the beginning of what I feel was some of the best years of my life. We traveled together, we shared so much of our lives with one another. I met and developed a wonderful bond with his family. Though they were spread all the way across the country, his sister, Monica in New Jersey and his parents in Washington state, we all came together, usually a couple of times a year and had a wonderful time together. I was welcomed into the family right from the very start.

My family welcomed Andrew in different ways, but they welcomed him just the same. I'll never forget my Mom's words to me a few days after Andrew had dinner with my family for the first time. "he's a good eater." You see, that's what's important to my Mom. She raised a large family and the biggest compliment you could pay her is to sit down at her table and eat like you're hungry and then take seconds. She was pleased.
Later, when I shared my Mom's comment with Andrew, he wasn't really sure how to take it. We had a good laugh over it, but I think he understands what she meant.

Over the years we gave to each other in different ways. Andrew was always a very generous person with me. He would surprise me with vacations, concert tickets and even just little day trips to places he knew I'd like.
I gave to him in my own ways as well. Being raised with the father I have, I learned a lot of things about car maintenance, home improvement and basically just doing things for yourself rather than hiring it done. Over the years of doing things like that I got pretty good at it and that was one of the ways I gave to Andrew. Fixing his broken dryer when he was ready to haul it to the curb, replacing windows in his house, painting, fence building, kitchen remodels, wiring and basic home repair and upgrades. A lot of those things were done while we were living together, so I guess you could argue that they were actually done for both of us, but I like to think that they did mean something to him.

I guess my point is, we gave to each other in a lot of ways that were sincere and thoughtful - the way it should be in a relationship.

Unfortunately, issues that started out as minor were allowed to go unresolved between us and grew into larger problems to the point where they just couldn't be fixed. I feel truly saddened and regretful about that. We both share equally in letting things go unresolved and I hope we have both learned from our mistakes and won't repeat them in future relationships.

I've learned a lot from Andrew and I know he has learned a lot from me. Am I sad by our breakup? Of course, but I know the process of healing has to take place for both of us and after we've had our recovery time, I think we'll both look back at the past 7 years as a wonderful and very valuable experience for us both that neither of us will ever forget.

The one thing I am regretful of is the fact that due to circumstances around the end of our relationship, we will never be able to be friends or even speak to each other again for reasons we are both aware of.

So, as this long and uncomfortable process begins for me, I really want to thank a few very good friends for their emotional support and for just being there when they are needed most. They know who they are. Though they live across the country and while I can't physically feel their hugs, I know they are there and I can feel them emotionally.

Must all good things end? No. ALL good things do not end. Some do, but not all. Things that end are always replaced by the beginning of something else. Sometimes it's just difficult and takes a while to see it.

WHATCHU 'TALKIN' 'BOUT, WILLIS?

2009-07-16T16:24:00.003-06:00

Nope. Sorry.

It will ALWAYS be the Sears Tower.

I MAY BE ALL THUMBS...

2009-07-05T15:47:00.004-06:00

...but at least they are a little green.

Aren't they cute? And such a deal - buy two get one free!

These will grow to about 10-15 feet high and won't they look great with white Christmas lights?
We still plan to plant something smaller with a square or roundish shape alternating in between these. That will also help hide the ugly gas meters. Any suggestions?? This is the East side of the house so it gets full sun from morning to around 1-2 pm.

Here it is from another angle:Let's hear some ideas for the spaces in between...

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH...

2009-06-20T12:57:00.006-06:00

JOE.MY.GOD.

I read his blog everyday. It's where I get a lot of my news from the gay/political front. I've been reading Joe's blog for about 3 years now and I have read his PRIDE month re-post every June for those 3 years. It's a very inspiring post that makes me stop and think every year. I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who needs to be stopped at least once a year and reminded to be less judgmental of some of my fellow gay people out there who have been more visible in the community than I have; The people who have been fighting for our rights for years and have succeeded in reaching many milestones toward equal rights for the GLBT community.

If you already check Joe's blog everyday like so many do, you've likely already read it. In fact, you've likely read it several times. I won't re-print it here, but please go to Joe's site and read his annual PRIDE post. It's well worth the few minutes it takes to read it and hopefully you'll use it as a little reminder as well, to be less judging of people because of the clothes they wear, the color of their skin or hair, or how flamboyant they may be.

Oh, and happy PRIDE month, everyone!

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY...

2009-06-08T21:17:00.022-06:00

Friday, June 13th, 2008 is a day I'll never forget. The Cedar River crested here, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at around 7am at over 31 feet above flood stage. Thousands of homes and businesses were already under water, which had been rising at a rate of 2 inches per hour over the past 24 hours. In the days prior, the city kept increasing the mandatory evacuation areas, spreading farther and farther out from the river because the water kept rising and no one really knew how high it was going to get.
Thousands of homes and hundreds of downtown businesses were destroyed.
A year later, a lot of people are still not settled back into homes. Many are still living in FEMA trailers and some still living with friends or relatives. Still others moved away after losing everything, to start new. For months after the flooding the post office had temporary mailboxes set up in a few locations around the city so the people whose homes were destroyed could still get their mail. Many of the people getting mail at these temp locations never picked up any mail. It was just assumed that they had moved away. No one really knows where, they just disappeared.
A few days prior to the river cresting, I and many others were sent home from work because one by one, the roads in and out of Cedar Rapids were being closed to all traffic due to the water. I remember driving home that afternoon around 2 pm and thinking, "it can't get much worse than this because if it does, there will be no way to get in or out of town". Well, it did get much worse. Just hours after I went home that day, this is what the highway that I drove home on looked like:

This is normally dry land, no river, no bridge, just dry land. When I took this road home the water was lapping at the sides of the road. It was like driving across an island. Little did I know it would end up this deep!
By the morning of June 13th the only road still open was Interstate 380 which runs north and south through the middle of Cedar Rapids and it was only open to the north. Southbound was closed.

This photo is of Mays Island which is an island in the river where our city hall, county courthouse and county jail are located. You can barely see the tops of the railings on the 3 bridges that cross the island. In the distance you can see the I-380 bridge, the only bridge that remained open during the flooding. This is the only way you could get from one side of Cedar Rapids to the other for several days. If that bridge had closed, it would have meant about a 2 hour drive to get from the north side of Cedar Rapids to the south side.

A few shots of downtown during the worst:

This one was taken from one of the many skywalks that connect buildings downtown. This is actually 4 blocks from where the river usually runs:

Among the casualties was a railroad bridge that had been standing for about 100 years. Here are before and after shots of that bridge:

The power of the rushing water was unbelievable. They had loaded the bridge with rail cars containing sand and rock in an effort to keep it in place. Even the immense weight didn't save the bridge from being taken out by the power of the water. Imagine what it did to many of the homes that sat along the river. Even a year later there are still neighborhoods where homes are moved completely off their foundations and garages are smashed up against houses.

Another example of how powerful the rushing water was:

A mile or so up river from the downtown area is a marina where people had boathouses docked. The high water broke many of them free and they floated downstream until they got caught on another railroad bridge just north of downtown. Since the flood last year, the city has banned any new boathouses on the river and has given owners a deadline to have them taken off the river. As you might imagine, this was not a very popular decision to the owners who have spent thousands of dollars and put in many hours of hard work into these.

The good news:

Today, being the one year anniversary of this disaster, there are several celebrations taking place in Cedar Rapids and other surrounding communities that were also effected by the flooding. Some people are slowly able to get back into their homes if they were lucky enough for FEMA to deem them safe to go back into. Thousands of homes were coded unsafe and will have to be torn down. Most of those homes still sit, but progress is beginning to be made.
At this point 80% of the businesses are back open downtown and many others are still working on their buildings preparing to reopen.
Some businesses have relocated to other parts of the city.

One success story is our favorite restaurant downtown called Zins. It had been open less than a year before they were forced to evacuate two days before the river reached it's crest. The flood waters, then destroyed everything inside the historic red brick building they were in.
I heard yesterday, that Zins opened back up on Thursday at 4:15pm. One year to the exact minute that they closed and sandbagged their doors in hopes of keeping the flood waters out. I can't wait to go back and show our support.

At the risk of sounding overly sentimental and mushy, even a year later my eyes still well up when I see videos and pictures of the devastation that the flood caused. I grew up in this city and know it very well and remember so many places that simply don't exist anymore.
It still boggles my mind to imagine how many people were effected by this disaster. In September Andrew and I moved into our new condo while others were still being built around us. As we meet new neighbors, we're finding that a lot of the people who live around us now, lost everything in the flood and these units were being built at just the right time for them. They are the lucky ones who were able to afford to move to a new place. Many people weren't as fortunate and are still in FEMA trailers or living with friends or relatives. But people are slowly getting back on their feet and Cedar Rapids is coming back. It will still be a long time before the reminders of the devastation can no longer be seen, but little by little, improvements are being made.
Here are a few more before and afters to show how far we've come:

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE...

2009-06-07T07:44:00.004-06:00

...And why does my head hurt so bad??

LITERAL VIDEO...

2009-05-30T07:06:00.001-06:00

I saw this on Joe My God's blog this morning.
Totally hilarious!

NORTH CAROLINA AND PAINTING...

2009-05-22T16:29:00.018-06:00

What do these two things have to do with one another, you ask? Well, nothing, except while we were in North Carolina there was a bit of painting being done here at home.

First, our vacation to Asheville, NC.

We got to Asheville on Saturday and our friends Phil and Terry picked us up at the airport. Now, I'd never been to North Carolina or anywhere near there for that matter, so I wasn't sure what to expect. You hear of the 'back-woods', 'hillbilly' folk that are reported to be in those parts, so I was a little apprehensive when I got off the plane and entered the airport to see this:
Yes, that's right. Front porch rocking chairs in the freaking airport terminal! I heard banjos begin to play in my head and fought my urge to turn around, get back on the plane and claim I'd made a terrible mistake and they needed to take me back home. Now.

Seriously, our experience in Asheville was great. A beautiful town surrounded by the Blue Ridge and Great Smokey Mountains. Asheville itself is a fairly diverse college town with tons of charm and character.
On the first day there we took a trolley tour around Asheville and learned a little about the area and it's history.
Almost the entire second day was spent at the amazing Biltmore Estate.

This place was unreal. It was hard to imagine having the cash at age 28 to build the largest single family home in America. The house was finished in 1895 and at 175,000 square feet, it's still the largest, privately owned home in this country. It was built by George Vanderbilt for himself and his mother to live in. She died a year after it was completed so this enormous house was all for just one person until he met his wife-to-be a few years later. Heck, I'd marry him just to get to live there! Walking through the house took most of the afternoon. The tour is self guided, which I thought was nice. It allowed time to take it all in and read about each room as you walk through it.

The next day we drove up into the mountains to take in some of the most beautiful scenery.

The water in this mountain stream was so clear, you could see right to the bottom even in the parts that were more than a few feet deep.This is Chimney Rock. You can go all the way up onto the rock where you see the flag, but there was no way I was going up there. I can't stand looking down to the ground from my second floor windows, so standing at the edge of a damn rock, precariously perched the way that is was just something I did not feel the need to do.I thought it looked like a big penis standing there. No one else seemed to think that. I know I have a dirty mind, but biggie size the picture, you'll see what I mean.

After that we went back into Asheville for lunch and then headed in the other direction and took the Blue Ridge Parkway up into the mountains for some views of nature that are totally unspoiled by people. This road took us up to a place called Craggy Gardens. I never did really understand what was implied by the name. There were no gardens. just great views looking out over the mountains at an altitude of about 5000 ft.

I was rather nervous on the drive up the mountain. I was sitting on the passenger side of the car and for most of the trip I was looking down at 1000 foot drops within a few feet of the road. I didn't like that part very much. The drive back down was much better.

It was a great trip and great fun with friends. Now I'm trying to talk them into meeting us in Chicago at some point so we can show them around our favorite part of the Midwest.

Before we left, we found a painter and picked colors and arranged for him to start on painting the entire inside of the house. Check back to my previous post for before shots. Here are the after shots.At this point only the bedrooms and bathrooms are done.

More to come as the place finally gets some color!

VACATION AND A SPLASH OF COLOR...

2009-05-15T09:10:00.004-06:00

We're heading out this afternoon to drop off the dog and drive to Minneapolis where we're staying overnight with a friend and then to the airport tomorrow morning for an early flight to Asheville, North Carolina.
We're meeting up with a couple of friends there for several days of seeing the sights of Asheville and the surrounding Blue Ridge mountains. Should be a lot of fun. I promise to bring back pictures and bore you all with my vacation slide show.

While we're gone...

Do you remember these plain, white walls here at home that I've whined about previously?

Well, stay tuned!

VALIDATION...

2009-04-14T08:26:00.006-06:00

I'm home from work today, feeling a little under the weather. Nasty sinus infection that I felt coming on a few days ago. I waited until my doctor's office opened this morning and called to see if I could get in today. The receptionist told me that my doctor had no openings today, but if I gave her my phone number she would talk to the doctor and see if he was willing to work through the lunch hour and see me. Within 10 minutes my phone rang. Yes, he would see me today at 12:15 if that worked for me. Wow! Did I just time warp back into the 1950's?? I've always liked my doctor. He's very personable, easy to talk to and never makes me feel uncomfortable talking about anything. I'm guessing part of that might be that he's actually younger than I am! He's probably in his mid-thirties and very cool. A doctor's visit always feels more like stopping in for a conversation with a friend than a trip to an assembly line in a medical factory.

Anyway, as I'm sitting here waiting to go to my appointment, I'm downloading stuff to put on my Zune. I ran across this Youtube short film and decided to watch it. I know, it's 16 minutes long, but trust me, you'll be a better person for watching it. It's really touching and made me forget about my pounding head, and sinus pressure...for about 16 minutes.

My favorite line in the film... "you PAID for parking?...for ME?"

FOR OUR VIEWING PLEASURE...

2009-04-11T21:21:00.012-06:00

Andrew had the day off on Friday. When I got home from work I discovered this in the family room. A new 42" Vizio flat panel TV.

We'd been talking about upgrading the clunky 8 year old TV we had. It weighed what seemed like 100 pounds and took up so much space in the room. The picture was fine and it worked great, but, how nice it would be to have a new, big screen, flat panel that we could hang on the wall.
So, Saturday morning I got to work. I had all of the tools necessary to complete the job; flat panel TV mounting kit, screwdriver, socket wrench set, cordless drill, level, measuring tape and stud finder. (Hehe, how do you think I found Andrew?)

The first step was to attach the brackets to the back of the TV. This was amazingly simple. Four bolts and this step was completed.

We figured if we're going to go to the trouble of mounting it to the wall, we might as well put in the extra effort to hide the cables and power cord. In order to accomplish this I had to install an electrical outlet in the wall directly behind where the TV would be mounted. This was as simple as it possibly could have been since there was already an outlet in the wall near the floor just behind the TV stand. All I had to do was install an electrical box in the wall directly above the existing outlet where the TV would hang and then run the wires from there to the existing outlet. Then there was the cable TV cord and the cords that connected the TV to the TiVo and the DVD system. In order to hide those, I installed electrical boxes behind the TV and near the floor and fished the cables and wires inside the wall from the top down to the bottom where they could be connected to the components without being seen. This was probably the most difficult part and I was a little nervous cutting holes into our 6 month old drywall.

Next, was the wall bracket that the TV would hang from. I had to locate the studs behind the drywall and predrill into them to accept the four lag bolts that attached the bracket to the wall. The size of those bolts seemed to be a little overkill to me since the TV really doesn't weigh that much. But, better to be safe than sorry I guess. So after measuring, drilling and leveling the bracket, I screwed in the bolts and the TV was ready to mount.

We made all of the connections, turned the power back on and I kept my fingers crossed as I hit the power button on the remote.

I have to say, this was a much easier task than I had imagined it would be. And look Ma, no cords!

FLASHER!...

2009-04-02T11:26:00.002-06:00

READER OPINION POLL...

2009-03-23T11:46:00.002-06:00

Would I look good in this, or would it just make me look fat?

A STUPID MISTAKE...

2009-02-24T20:21:00.004-06:00

How ironic that just after posting about "making our house our home", I would inadvertently do something to almost send it all up in smoke. Literally.

Last Tuesday evening Andrew and I spend most of the evening in the family room, downstairs relaxing and watching a few shows that we had saved on TiVo. As I do regularly, I lit a few candles before I sat down to watch TV. One of the candles was in a glass vase filled with wine bottle corks and the pillar candle was nestled down into the center to hold it in place. I'd seen candles like these in the wine shop that we go to regularly and I knew I could make one for far less than the $40.00 that they were priced at in the store. So a few years ago I bought a clear, glass vase, a candle and took my bag of corks out of the cupboard that I'd been saving for ages. (I knew I'd find the perfect use for them someday.

Anyway, fast forward to last week. The candle had burned down a little too far, I suppose and should have been replaced. I lit it and we went on with our evening. The next day at noon I left work to come home for lunch. As soon as I opened the garage and got out of my car, I heard a strange beeping sound. I opened the door into the kitchen and was hit with a cloud of smoke.
The entire house was filled with smoke and the most awful stench. The dog was hiding somewhere and the smoke alarms were blasting. My first thought was to check the kitchen. Nothing there. I looked down the stairs into the family room and through the smoke I could see the reflection of orange, flickering flames. I ran down the stairs and rounded the corner to see the glass vase had exploded and was in flames a foot high and blackened, burning corks all over the top of the table and on the floor. I was in a panic and couldn't think of what to do at first. I finally got my wits about me and ran back upstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and filled it with water. I swear it took FOREVER for that bowl to fill with water! As I was standing there waiting for the bowl to fill, with my cell phone in my hand, my mind was reeling with thoughts on whether or not I should just call 911 right now or try and put it out myself.
I ran back to the fire with the water and dumped it on the vase. It put out the worst of the flames but at that point the top of the wooden table had begun to burn from the corks and wax covered pieces of glass that landed on it when the vase had exploded from the heat.
I ran back to the kitchen and got more water and put out the rest but not in time for the tabletop to be destroyed and the carpet burned in several spots.
I figured I'd better take some pictures for insurance purposes after the fire had been put out.

The dog was obviously terrified because he didn't come out until the fire was out and I was back in the kitchen. The poor thing probably had no idea what was going on with all the noise of the alarms and all the smoke.
I can't describe how lucky I feel that I came home from lunch when I did. The time I leave for lunch varies every day from noon to 12:30 and sometimes later. If I'd left work just ten minutes later I would have come home to the entire house in flames.
Now, almost a week later, the insurance adjuster has been here and a cleaning service that specializes in after fire clean-up. has spent two days here. Today the furnace ducts were all cleaned out. The next step is the carpet replacement. The carpet in the entire downstairs will be replaced and the walls painted to get rid of the last of the soot. The air ionizer thing that they ran all weekend took care of the smell in the rest of the house.

I think we'll be using our battery operated, flameless candles a little more from now on.

MAKING IT OUR OWN...

2009-02-13T21:05:00.008-06:00

BEFORE:

Plain, boring, recessed can lights over the breakfast bar.

AFTER:

New pendant lights.

BEFORE:

Plain, cabinets with no knobs.

AFTER:

Yay! Knobs.

We've finally begun doing a few minor things around the house to put some of us into it.
Now, to convince him to let me do something about these plain, white walls! UGH!

HOW DID THEY KNOW...

2009-01-31T09:36:00.012-06:00

You Should Drive a Black Car

You're the type of driver who's totally dominant and even a bit aggressive.

You see the road as a "dog eat dog" world... and you're not about to get eaten!

You like to drive a vehicle that conveys power. Big engine. Big price tag.

You rule the road - and you like everyone to know it.

What Color Car Should You Drive?

While I'm not proud of the description of what kind of driver I am, they pretty much got it right. I'm still puzzled as to how they got the color of car right. There must be some science to this since black is the only color of car I have driven for the past 10 years. The last 5 cars I have owned have been black with the exception of the hot little drop top I had for a couple of years. However, it was my second car at the time and my primary car was a black Jeep Grand Cherokee. Take the quiz and see how accurate this is for you.

TYPICAL SUNDAY...

2009-01-11T10:23:00.008-06:00

This is how I enjoy spending at least one morning of the weekend.

This morning I woke up around 8:30 after tossing and turning most of the night. Not sure what's up with that. Looked out the bedroom window to see yet another few inches of snow had fallen overnight. Grrr!!! Andrew was up and out of the house by 4:30am since he had to work this morning which means I'll have a nice quiet morning by myself and then he'll be home early this afternoon.
The regular morning ritual for me is to make coffee right away. Kinda gets my blood flowing as well as fighting off the potential headache from lack of caffeine. Hey, I could be addicted to worse things.
While I'm standing in the kitchen making coffee, I take a few minutes to clean up from last nights dinner. I always hate it when there are a few things left over that we don't wash in the dishwasher. At least this morning it was only a couple of knives.

Coffees done and I'm just starting a new book that my friend Phil from North Carolina sent to me. Nothing better than a good book to read while enjoying my steaming cup of addiction on a quiet Sunday morning alone. Yeah, I admit, I do drink alone. Hey, admitting a problem is the first step, right? -Shout out to to Phil - thanks for sending the book!
Read a chapter and then decided to go check my regular blogs. Nothing much new here since I checked last. Oh well, I can't complain - the time in between my posts are tending to be not exactly short.

Bailey's usual spot while I'm at the computer. Silly dog. I think he thinks he's actually on my lap when he really only has his head resting on my leg.

Time to throw in a load of laundry. I tend to put off the laundry until I'm down to the clothes that I really don't want to wear and the only clean underwear left are the ones that are much to tight to be comfy in. This weekend I'm actually getting a head start on it before it gets unmanageable.
A couple of eggs and some toast sounds good this morning. A daring departure from my regular morning bowl of oatmeal. (the kind you actually cook on the stove, not that crappy instant stuff) Yeah, I tend to live on the wild side on the weekends.
Well, that's how my Sunday morning started out. How's yours?

HOUSEHOLD HINT #27...

2008-12-30T18:56:00.003-06:00

Never vacuum when you're mad. You could damage your valuable antiques.

OH, NO...

2008-11-22T10:25:00.003-06:00

Down to only one bottle! What to do, what to do?!

MY BLOGBIRTHDAY...

2008-11-08T07:29:00.002-06:00

I just realized that November 5th was my 2 year blog birthday.
Hmmm, doesn't seem like that long.
My posts have definitely slowed down a bit since then, but I'm still here!

I VOTED...

2008-11-04T12:37:00.002-06:00

BUMMER...

2008-11-01T12:22:00.003-06:00

4bags of Halloween candy waiting by the door, candles burning in the pumpkins, porch light on and home with nothing better to do but pass out candy to all the cute little kids.

Not one trick-or-treater all evening.

...but our jack-o-lanterns were cute!

AN OLD SOUL...

2008-10-11T14:31:00.004-06:00

Well, we're moved in and fairly settled here. A brand new townhouse/condo. A new neighborhood, lush green grass, perfect landscaping, a huge yard for Bailey to run in, new carpet throughout, all new appliances, that familiar smell of new construction everywhere and a nice deck to enjoy that we always wished for at the old house.

So, why am I not overwhelmed with happiness?

The old house had it's issues. Low water pressure, a roof that was ready to need replacement, electrical outlets that were not grounded and needed to be updated and it was built in 1958 and was showing it's age.
Since moving into it in 2005, Andrew and I had done a ton of work and updating to it. A new kitchen, new kitchen and dining room flooring, new paint and wallpaper inside, landscaping outside, new water heater, new water softener, upstairs bathroom update and new doors and windows. When we left it was ten times the house we moved into and I think that is precisely why it felt like "home" to me. I have some sort of need to put something into my home. I don't just mean my possessions. What I've come to realize, is that in order for me to feel like I'm "home" I need to put some of me into my home. I think what that boils down to is good, old fashioned sweat and blood. I certainly put enough of both of those into the old house.

You see, I am a firm believer in a house having a "soul". Some of you will know exactly what I mean and others will click to the next blog at this point. For those of you remaining, I have lived in new houses as well as old ones. My first house was built in 1927 and had more charm in it's coat closet than you'll find in any new home built today. That house had a soul I could feel the very day I moved in. It had a history before me that it's walls knew all about. I lived there for eight years and over that period of time it's walls revealed a few pieces of that history to me. Like the day I discovered faint writing in pencil on the walls of the garage attic. Apparently, in the 1940's the family that lived there had a couple of teenage sons who kept a billiards table in the upstairs attic of the garage. The faint pencil markings were the scores recorded by date of their games with friends. I remember most of those dates were from 1942 and 1943. Another secret that those walls revealed was discovered when I tore out the walls when remodeling the upstairs bathroom. Hidden behind the 75 year old lath and plaster was a wooden box with "Barnette's Appliance Store" stenciled on the side. After doing some research, I located old records that showed the first owners of that home were the Barnette's who had owned a local appliance store. The box was apparently the crate that a fixture or something had been unpacked from and thrown inside that wall before it was closed up and plastered. I think that will always remain my favorite house because of the soul it had right from the start.

My next home was one that I built brand new in 1998. I remember thinking that as soon as I moved in I wouldn't have to do anything except enjoy my new surroundings in a big, brand new house. Well, that thought was proven wrong on move in day. All white walls and no window coverings. I had my work cut out for me already. But after several months of curtain and blind installation, painting, wallpapering and landscaping, it was already feeling like home. I had put some of "me" into it.

After that I moved to a few other houses where I did various other construction projects or remodeling that made them "my home" and they all revealed a different, but special feeling to me while living in them that I refer to as soul.

Here I sit in this house now. White walls. New carpet with no stains yet. not a scratch in the mouldings. That "new house smell". Everything works perfectly, as it should. The dog seems content. We've been here about six weeks now and things are in place for the most part. We've spent the past two weeks getting things hung on the walls and Home Depot finally got the new blinds installed on the windows a couple of days ago.

I'm sure in time we'll put some manual labor into painting to warm the place up and I will begin to inject some "soul" into this place. Until then, all I've done is hit my thumb with the hammer while pounding a nail into the wall to hang a picture. Maybe that's a start.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG...

2008-08-30T08:02:00.005-06:00

we're winding down our final days in this house. We move out on Tuesday, Sept 2nd.

I haven't mentioned much at all here in my blog about this move until now. It's been a fairly stressful and bumpy ride over the past few months and it has just not been something I've wanted to address here.

The house went up for sale when there was talk of a promotion for Andrew that would have meant a move out of state. To get a head start on that, the house went on the market. We sort of anticipated at least a 1-2 month period of open houses, scheduled viewings and finally an offer. Well, it was less than two weeks and there was an offer and the house was sold. It was bought by a family who had lost everything in the floods here in June. I suppose the timing of the flooding and the house going on the market around the same time was bound to result in a quick sale with so many people losing their homes to the horrific flood waters.

So, here we sat for the better part of two months wondering where we'd be moving to. Then, with changing company decisions and a lot of restructuring, the pending promotion didn't happen.

Unfortunately, for the same reason our house sold so quickly, we were left with the nearly impossible task of finding another place to move to. Rentals were being snapped up as soon as they were available and anything left over was way over-priced. Landlords were cashing in on flood victims' misfortune. On top of that, we have a 60lb dog to throw into the mix. Ever tried renting a place that allows large dogs?

So, until about 10 days ago we had no idea where we were moving to and the closing date on this house was approaching fast. Ever heard of stress??

Then Andrew found a new townhouse/condo that was nearly finished. What luck! 3 full, finished levels, a fireplace, deck and a huge yard for Bailey to run in. Plus, "condo" means no more mowing or snow shoveling! YAY! So, instead of renting, a new home was purchased.

So, last weekend we held a last minute garage sale to get rid of all of our accumulated junk and several pieces of large furniture that we would no longer need or wouldn't fit in the new place. At this point I think we're ready for the move and everything we have will have a spot in the new house. The truck will be picked up today and we'll spend the entire 3 day weekend packing and loading the truck. By Tuesday around noon we'll get possession of the condo and will start moving in. My back is already dreading this.

Stay tuned...I'll update later and probably have some pictures of the new place to share.

Wish us luck!

Update: The stress continues...We went to pick up the 27 ft truck on Saturday that we'd had reserved for more than a week. Andrew even called the day before just to confirm our reservation. We got there to pick it up and, you guessed it, no truck. Apparently the people who had rented it in the few days prior, had not returned it. So, with no other choice in the matter, we left with the 16 ft truck. Now we have to load and unload the truck twice instead of making one trip and being done with it.
To top that off, we can't get into the condo until the closing which can't happen until the building inspection is done and certificate of occupancy is handed over. At this point we're now looking at closing not taking place until 4pm Tuesday. The truck is due back by 5pm. Looks like that's not going to happen so we're looking at another day of truck rental. In the mean time, the buyers' realtor is hounding us to hand over possession of this house by 8am Tuesday. NOT.
We started the process of packing and loading the truck 3 days ahead of time so we would not get to move-in day and have to work till midnight getting all of our stuff moved. Now that we have to load and unload the truck twice, it looks like it's going to be almost midnight on Tuesday until we'll have everything done.
So, it's Monday and here we are with 75% of our house packed on to the truck just sitting in front of the house. We slept on an air mattress last night and tossed and turned all night and woke with nagging back aches. Tonight we're going to a hotel.

God, moving sucks!

JUST ABOUT SUMS IT UP...

2008-08-24T21:39:00.002-06:00

I was reading an article written by Jay Leno the other day, talking about the quality of American cars compared to those from other countries. He wrote one paragraph that made me stop and say, "Yes! That's exactly how I have felt for years!"

Since I can't find the article again, I'm paraphrasing here, but this conveys the general idea:

European auto makers are in business to build cars that are of high quality and are fun to drive. That's why they make money.
Japanese auto makers are in business to build cars that are extremely reliable and fuel efficient. That's why they make money.
American auto makers are in business to make money. So they build cars.

I couldn't have said it any better myself.

A MEME SOUNDED LIKE A GOOD IDEA...

2008-08-16T09:38:00.003-06:00

My friend Matt posted this on his blog today and since I'm just sitting here catching up on emails and blogs today, I decided to throw in my 2 cents...

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes, and it's very low carb!
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No
3. Do you own a gun? No
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I've never been to Sonic. Drive past one all the time, but never stopped.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Only with sauer kraut. I actually prefer brats.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? Not really a Christmas movie, but I'd have to say Auntie Mame for it's Christmas scene. It always makes me cry.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee!
9. Can you do push ups? Yes.
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? Probably my silver and gold ring that I bought in Chicago and wear everyday. Aside from a watch, I don't wear much jewelry.
12. Do you have A.D.D.? Nope.
13. What's one trait you dislike about yourself? I can't think of the word for it, but I tend to ignore problems, hoping they will just go away.
14. Middle name? Ivan. Hey, no laughing!
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I have to start packing. Why is my daughter not out of bed yet. I need to pee.
16. Name 3 things you bought yesterday: A salad for lunch. a bottled water. Another month in the house.
17. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Wine, coffee, vodka.
18. Current worry? Where am I going to move to?
19. Current hate right now? Cicadas. The damn things make noise day and night in our trees.
20. Favorite place to be? Chicago.
21. How did you bring in the New Year? Woke up Andrew from the sofa and we went to bed.
22. Where would you like to go? I'd love to visit Maine again.
23. Name three people who will complete this: Hmmm... I'm not sending it to anyone, so probably no one.
24. Do you own slippers? Yes – but I only wear them in the winter.
25. What shirt are you wearing? A white, Mast General Store T-shirt that my friend, Phil sent to me after one of his trips to Asheville, NC.
26. What year would you go back in time to? Would love to go back to 1994 and see my grandfather again.
29. Would you be a pirate? No-I look silly in an eye patch.
30. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever is playing on the radio at the time.
31. Favorite girl's name: Robin - my little girl's name
32. Favorite boy's name: Jeremy - my not so little boy's name.
33. What's in your pocket right now? A little pocket lint.
34. Last thing that made you laugh? Watching an episode of Little Britain with Andrew on his Ipod.
35. Best Halloween costume? My Boy George costume from the late 80's.
36. Worst injury you've ever had? Five-stitches in my right index finger from a broken wine bottle.
37. Do you love where you live? I'm happy where I live but I'd also like to experience living in other places too.
38. How many TVs do you have in your house? Two.
39. Who is your loudest friend? Probably Jody at work. You can hear her talking on the phone all over the office.
40. How many dogs do you have? One. He just seems like two at times.
41. Does someone have a crush on you? Not that I'm aware of. There is that new girl at work who stares at me all the time though.
42. What is your favorite book(s)? I really enjoy Augusten burroughs' books.
43. What is your favorite candy? Peanut M&M's.
44. Favorite Sports Team? Sports? I'm a bit stumped on that one.
45. Your favorite meal: I love so many things...hard to answer.
46. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping.
47. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Oh my God, I have to start packing.

CLEVELAND ROCKS...

2008-08-09T15:08:00.008-06:00

Got back on Wednesday from a trip to Cleveland. For Christmas last year, I gave my 15 year old son, Jeremy a trip to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. I had no idea we would spend over 6 hours there! That place is amazing! It's definitely a must see if you find yourself in Cleveland. Not really a lot of other reasons to go to Cleveland other than that, but it was really a nice city.

From home it was a 10 hour drive. Normally I wouldn't consider driving on a trip that far, but with airfare as high as it is lately, it was the sensible option. Flying would have also meant renting a car so that would have just added to the expense. I was very excited by the great gas mileage I got with my VW Passat.

Does the fact that this excites me make me a nerd?

Yup, I averaged 30 mpg for the trip. The best I could ever do with the Jetta was about 26mpg and that was a smaller car. Must be the turbo engine in the Passat.We also toured the USS COD, a WWII submarine that is docked near the Rock Hall on Lake Erie. It was pretty interesting. I learned one thing by touring this sub...I'm never signing up to serve on one. I can't imagine living for weeks at a time in quarters that are that tight. I'd go insane.

We stopped overnight in Chicago on the way home and saw the Blue Man Group. I'd seen them a year or so ago and I had forgotten what a great show that is. We stayed in chinatown just south of the Loop and took the train to dinner downtown and to the theater. I also learned another thing...I'm never staying in Chinatown again. That was an experience for another post.

TIME FOR A CHANGE...

2008-07-26T14:51:00.015-06:00

Well, actually a few changes.

Some of you that have been following my blog for the past year or so probably know how in love with my Volkswagen Jetta I was. Yup, I said was. When I bought the Jetta brand spankin' new in February 2005, I actually looked at a few Passats. They were just a bit out of my price range at the time. I had wanted another Passat ever since I had one for a year back in 2001. But that had been a company car that was only mine for use for a year. The lease car policy with that company was 3 years or 50,000 miles and you got a new car. Well, covering the geographic area that I covered then required quite a bit of driving so after 12 months it was time for a new car.

Anyway...

For probably the past year I've been scanning the car ads for the perfect Passat. Not too old, not too many miles, had to be black and have all the creature comforts that my Jetta had and maybe a few more.
Well, I finally found it.ain't she purty? And my oh my, does she drive nice. Just enough bigger than the Jetta so when people need to ride in the back seat they don't have to fold their legs up into their chests to fit. Plenty of room in this back seat.

Shortly after I'd bought it, I took it in for an oil change since I didn't know how long it had been since it's last one. I was shocked when the mechanic presented me with a bill for $70.00 for an oil change! The same place had always charged me about $30.00 for the Jetta. Well, as I found out, not quite the same thing. The Passat has a turbo charged engine. Because of the high heat generated by the turbo charger, it requires fully synthetic motor oil. I had no idea that synthetic motor oil was so expensive. Now, I've changed the oil in my cars before. In fact up until about 10 years ago, I'd always changed my own oil. But then when I started driving leased cars because of the job I had, the maintenance was taken care of at no charge to me. I kinda liked that and got used to it. Since then I kinda like the idea of just paying someone else to do it.
That is, until I was handed the $70.00 oil change bill.

This time I decided to save a little money and do it myself. Heck, I'm perfectly capable and I know what I'm doing. Plus, the air filter and cabin filter were both due for a change too and that would have added another $30-$40 to the oil change.
So, I bought the filters, oil and oil filter, drove the car up onto the ramps and went to work. The first thing I tackled was the air filter.
Took one look under the hood and headed inside to check the internet for where the heck the air filter is on a 2005 Passat with a 1.8L turbo engine.
As it turns out, it's hiding under this mass of hoses and plastic that you see here. Right there, left side of the picture....see it? No? Neither did I.
After removing several clips, a couple of screws and a flexible air hose thingy, I found it.
Here it is peeking out from under something that has a bunch of hoses connected to it.
Ok, there. That's replaced. Now to get all this put back together the way I found it.
Now it's time to tackle the cabin air filter. This is the filter that purifies the air that enters the inside of the car through the heater and air conditioning. Here is where that is supposed to be:
After pulling apart a few more plastic pieces, I found it. There it is! Ha! That was easier than I thought!
New filter. Now I'll be breathing easier and maybe I won't have to smell the dead animals I pass on the road anymore! Yay!Now time to change the oil.

Got my stuff!Who knew you had to take an entire piece of the underside of the car off just change the oil?? Jeesh!First, I had to drain the old oil. Locate the drain plug. Check. Find the proper size wrench. Check. Now, loosen the plug. Che...ummm. Wow, I can't get this thing loose. Where is my hammer? Check. Drain plug is out and oil is running into the bucket. Ok, now what am I going to do with 5 quarts of used motor oil?
Next, locate the oil filter. Look up from the underside of the car. Hmmm. Stand up, look down from the top. Ok, there it is. Not sure how I'm going to reach it, but at least I found it.
See the round, white thing with the red print on it? That's the oil filter.Here's the new filter all installed. The new one is orange.Fast forward another hour. Got the filter off and the new filter on. scratched up my arms trying to reach down into the engine compartment to change the oil filter, burnt my fingers on the hot oil draining from the oil plug but it's finally done. The new oil is in and I don't have any leaks. Now, re-attach the panel from under the car and put all the tools away.

After suffering painful scratches to my arms, covered with grease from my finger tips to my elbows, about 2 hours of my precious Saturday off work, I've decided that it will be MUCH easier to part with that $70.00 next time my oil needs changing.

But, I still LOVE my Passat.

YEAH, I CAN COOK...

2008-07-08T17:15:00.007-06:00

Can you guess what I can cook by the ingredients you see here? Hey, no scrolling!

Every once in a while I get the urge to make something amazingly decadent. The mood struck on Sunday.

We had spent Friday and Saturday at my friend Mary Jean's house in Lincoln, Nebraska, celebrating the 4th. It was a great party at her house on Capitol Beach Lake in Lincoln, complete with jet skiing, good food, great people, amazing fireworks and plenty of beverages. (if you catch my drift)

After eating out all weekend, I felt like making something really good at home. This urge usually hits while I'm watching a cooking show of some sort. I watched and it did.

Quatro fromage lasagna.
("Four Cheese" if I must translate) If I were going to make something that called for $70.00 worth of ingredients and most of my afternoon to prepare, we HAD to invite guests. After a few text messages, Sue agreed to make the 1 hour drive to dinner. Kyle declined. (see what you missed, Kyle!?)

Sue and Andrew stood by indulging in their beverages while I slaved over a hot oven creating my masterpiece. I apologize if I sound a bit smug when it comes to my creation here, but all I have to say is, ya shoulda' been here to try it! I think everyone orgasmed a little as they took the first bite.
I served it with the traditional garlic bread that you must have with lasagna and a simple salad of assorted greens with a red wine vinegar and shallot dressing.Rather purty if I do say so, myself.

THIS IS DETERMINATION...

2008-06-22T13:13:00.003-06:00

Cleaning up flood damage in downtown Cedar Rapids from Richard Pratt on Vimeo.

The devastation that the floods left behind is unbelievable. I feel so bad for the residents and small business owners that lost everything. This poor woman who owns a catering company just realizes that her 1 year anniversary of starting her business is the very day she is being interviewed about what she is going to do now. How ironic and sad.

Driving through the city now, you see nothing but mountains of debris that is being hauled out of the buildings. The entire first floor of every building in a 400 square block radius has to be gutted right down to the bare framing and rebuilt. The streets are lined with trucks from flood cleanup and renovation companies from all over the country.

FLOOD 2008...

2008-06-12T15:44:00.007-06:00

This is an image of Mays Island in the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids yesterday. In the photo you can see the 1st avenue, 2nd avenue and 3rd avenue bridges that all cross the island.

Today this is what the island and the bridges look like.The flooding that is going on in Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities all along the Cedar River in eastern Iowa is historic. We all thought the flood that happened here in 1993 were bad. They were nothing in comparison to today and the river isn't expected to crest until Friday morning at around 7am.

As of 5pm today, the only way to cross the river in Cedar Rapids is Interstate 380 which goes through downtown above the dam which is approximately from where the photo above was taken.
I was one of many who were sent home early from work today because as the day progressed, they kept closing bridges all over the city, limiting the ability for a lot of people to get home.

This was a railroad bridge that was loaded with rail cars that were loaded with sand and rock in hope of keeping the bridge in place. But at about 10am this morning the 105 year old bridge couldn't withstand the force of the water any longer and was completely destroyed. So now, most of the bridge and rail cars are in the river.

Kind of a surrealistic day today.

Update:
It's Saturday morning and the river finally crested yesterday around noon at about 32 feet above flood stage. It actually got worse than the pictures you see above. At this point there is one way out of town and that is Interstate 380 going north. They have close all other access into and out of the city yesterday because water is over all of the roads except to the north. As I drove over the interstate bridge to go to work yesterday morning, I just wanted to cry. You just can't imagine all of the homes that are completely destroyed and will likely have to be torn down. Only rooftops can be seen on most of them. At last report that I heard, more than 483 square blocks of Cedar Rapids are under water.

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH DOG...

2008-05-31T20:30:00.002-06:00

...At least, that's what he thinks.

And, yes, that's his stool. One must have the proper tools for the job.

NO MORE MUD POODLES...

2008-05-31T14:05:00.005-06:00

Before.
After.Yes, we call them "mud poodles" because whenever there is mud, a certain poodle will find it and track it into the house.

Over the past 3 years the grass all along the back side of the house has become worn bare by Bailey. See, poodles apparently feel severely abused when put outside by themselves. Every time we put him outside he does his business right away and runs back to the door to be let in. If he is left out, he runs to the windows that you see in the pictures and stands in front of which ever one he can see someone in an attempt to capture our attention and remind us that he is, God forbid, STILL outside. ALONE! So, over the past few years he had worn this area down to dirt patches. It was time to do something about it because when we would use the garden hose or when it rained, this area became a giant muddy mess. And, when Bailey had to go out, where would he run to? Yup, right into the mud.

So, after several hours of backbreaking work and 1 ton of river rock, all fixed now!

YEAH, I CAN BE PRETTY HANDY AROUND THE HOUSE...

2008-05-26T17:08:00.005-06:00

For the past several months I've complained that the water heater is dying. Andrew mostly ignored me. You see, the shower he uses daily had one of those crappy, low flow shower heads that barely got you wet enough to wash all the way down to your feet. The shower that I use has a great shower head that claims to be low flow but sure doesn't feel like it. Anyway, Everyday when I began my shower, the water felt nice and hot, but by the time I'd get lathered up I'd have to turn the cold down a little and the hot up a little. By the time I started to wash my hair I'd have to adjust again, and so on. By the end of my shower I'd have the cold water turned all the way off and the hot water full on and I was still standing in barely warm water. Irritating.

After many discussions and having him shower a few times in the shower that I normally use, he agreed that we needed to do something. Mind you, he would never verbally admit it, but all of a sudden one day a new water heater turned up in a box on the family room floor.

We had been discussing what kind of water heater to replace the old one with. The one that was there was a standard, natural gas, 40 gallon monster that was 5 feet tall and about 18 inches in diameter. It took up a huge amount of valuable space in the utility room that we could really use for storage. As he does with most major purchases, Andrew researched it to death. After several months of discussing and research, we came up with this:A tankless, natural gas, highly energy efficient water heater. And, the best thing about it, you NEVER run out of hot water. No, wait, the BEST thing about it is the huge amount of floor space we freed up by not replacing it with the same old 40 gallon tank style water heater. This one mounts on the wall and now we have all that space to use for other things.

Actually, these tankless water heaters have been very popular in Europe for years but are just becoming more popular in the U.S. I'm not sure why it's taken the U.S. so long to introduce these to the general public. They make so much more sense than maintaining an entire 40 gallon tank of water at 120 degrees or hotter 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. With the tankless types, you turn on your hot water faucet and the flow of water through the unit turns on the burner and heats the water to your desired temperature instantly. When you shut of the water, the unit shuts off. I'm really excited to see how much we can save on our natural gas bill!

And, yes, I installed it all myself. I was so proud of myself, I then installed the new water softener right next to it.Yeah, I'm told I'm pretty handy to have around the house. :-)

YUM...

2008-05-26T06:54:00.001-06:00

What's a Memorial Day weekend without a dessert made with fresh strawberries?

YUP, REALLY...

2008-05-19T17:14:00.004-06:00

So, we got home last Friday evening to find the Rachel Ray garbage bowl in the 3 season room next to our back door. Our friend, Sue had struck again.

Remember, in my last post, when I said "people will buy ANYTHING"? Well, I should have known. Sue already owned one. AND, after reading my post about the stupid Rachel Ray garbage bowl, she thought we needed one too. Go figure.

Surprise #2 for this week...

I came home, walked into the kitchen to see this...
Andrew was in the kitchen, making fish tacos for dinner and USING the garbage bowl! It just goes against all of my principles. I don't know why, except...it's just so stupid! People with a plethora of bowls already in their cupboards will go out and buy a "special" bowl just for putting their kitchen waste in while cooking, just because it has Rachel Ray's name on it. Gaaaaahhhh!!!!

Thanks Sue. We love it!

REALLY?!...

2008-05-11T13:11:00.004-06:00

Last weekend when we were in Pella, Iowa for the annual tulip festival, we went into a kitchen store to look around. We normally can't walk by one without stopping.

Now, I know Food Network and HGTV cooking shows are all the rage and I admit, I love them too. I actually do like watching Rachel Ray's cooking show and we TiVo her network show everyday and watch it when she has an interesting guest on. But Rachel Ray tends to really bug me sometimes with her "bubbleyness" and her silly garbage bowl. I've always scoffed at it when she mentions it on her show. What the hell is wrong with a kitchen garbage can? Why do I have to use a "garbage bowl" just because Rachel Ray tells me I should?

So, as we were browsing through the kitchen store last weekend, we saw the bowl pictured above. And, sadly, yes it said "Rachel Ray garbage bowl". You've got to be F****** kidding me! People will buy ANYTHING.

Note to all you unimaginative, Food Network chef wanna be's: Reach into your cupboard, pull out a bowl and call it a garbage bowl. Really, you can wash it later and use it to put food in again. Do you honestly need to buy a bowl, specifically to put your cooking garbage in??

TULIP TIME...

2008-05-04T17:23:00.010-06:00

What a gorgeous day we had today! 70 degrees and sunshine. A perfect day to take a drive to Pella, Iowa to enjoy the final day of the annual tulip festival. ...if only today had actually been the final day of the annual tulip festival.

I must have mis-read the schedule that said this year's festivities were to be May 1st, 2nd & 3rd. I think I assumed that was going to be a Friday, Saturday and Sunday when I read it and made our plans about a month ago. Since we couldn't go on Saturday, I figured we would just spend our Sunday walking amongst the beautiful, multicolored tulips which were in full bloom, and sampling some mouthwatering dutch baked goods from the bakery on the town square.

This morning at about 9am Andrew, Robin and I packed a picnic lunch and started out on our 2 hour trek to Pella. As you can see, Robin was pretty excited about going. Here's a picture of Robin in the backseat of Andrew's new car as we're heading into Pella.

A short few hours later we rolled into Pella. This park, complete with windmill is right on Main street as you drive into Pella from the North.
Being a town with a strong Dutch history, You'll see a windmill at every turn through town.
This is the visitor's information center in the town square.And this is the largest, working Dutch windmill in the United States. Right in downtown Pella, Iowa. 135 feet to the top.Even with very few of the shops open and the street vendors all gone home, we still had a great day. We enjoyed our picnic lunch sitting on the benches in this wonderful little alleyway we found just a half block from the town square.After our picnic lunch, we headed over to this ice cream shop that we saw on our way into town earlier. (Well, we didn't get any of the goodies from the CLOSED bakery. Jeesh) By the way, does anyone know how to pronounce the name of this place?
I'll leave you with a few shots of some of Pella's beautiful buildings. I tend to take a lot of pictures of architecture because that's what really interests me.
Enjoy.

TODAY'S CHUCKLE...

2008-05-04T07:07:00.002-06:00

I know the feeling.

TODAY'S CHUCKLE...

2008-05-01T21:05:00.003-06:00

I know the feeling!

BEAUTIFUL...

2008-04-27T21:03:00.005-06:00

Just back from another weekend in Chicago. This one was fairly short. We left Saturday morning about 8am and got home Sunday at 4pm. The only actual reason for this trip was the fact that we had tickets to see Margaret Cho in her current "Beautiful" tour. Two words for this show: Dangerously hilarious! Dangerous because you just might bust a gut laughing so hard.

I've been to see Margaret in her past four tours. Starting with "I'm The One That I Want". ITOTIW was also hilarious. I don't think I stopped laughing through the entire 2 hour show. It was 2001 and the decision to see that show was made fairly last minute and shows within driving distance of Iowa were already sold out or dates had past. So, we got tickets to Austin, Texas and her show there. The most awesome part was that not only did we get tickets to her show, but just for asking, we got passes to meet Margaret after the show as well.

Fast forward a couple of years and she announced another tour. "Notorious C.H.O." This time we got tickets to her Chicago performance and backstage passes, once again, just for asking to meet her after the show. Both times she was very sweet and seemed genuinely interested in talking with us. Sad to say however, but Notorious C.H.O. was not as funny as her first tour. We were certainly entertained but we just didn't feel like it was as funny.

Here we are with Margaret after the show in 2003.

Then in 2004 Margaret began her "Revolution" tour. Again, we got tickets right away to her Chicago performance. This time we had seats so close to the stage that we could see all of her priceless facial expressions that make her show so funny without having to watch the video screens. This time we left the show actually disappointed. Her shtick seemed overly rehearsed and really not funny. I thought she had possibly reached the end of her career as a comedian and that this might be her last tour. She seemed to have run out of funny material. So, this year when her "Beautiful" tour was announced, I really struggled with ordering tickets. I did anyway, hoping that Margaret had had enough time between tours to come up with some funny new stuff. And, boy did she ever! Just as raunchy and no-limits as before, maybe even more.

We left the theater on Saturday night very pleased that we went.
Check out Margaret's web site for her upcoming dates for "Beautiful". If she is scheduled anywhere near your area, by all means go! You won't be sorry.

As a special treat, Liam Sullivan of "Kelly" fame was the opening act. He treated us to a song by "Cousin Susan" and a couple of videos as well as two songs by "Kelly" live. What a hoot.

YUP, STILL HERE...

2008-04-26T06:07:00.001-06:00

Ok, off to Chicago for the weekend.

I promise to post something when I get back...

Stay tuned.

SOME PEOPLE ARE SO LUCKY...

2008-03-15T06:01:00.003-06:00

Oh, to live a life of luxury...

I think we'll file this one under WTF?!

PUKEY, PUKEY...

2008-03-04T10:46:00.003-06:00

It's been 4 weeks now. I'm still sick.

A month ago I had what I thought was a flu bug. I missed two days of work and thought I was done with it. Well, 4 weeks later I still feel like I'm going to puke everyday. The nausea comes and goes and some days are better than others. Today I had to leave work again after only being there for two hours.
My doctor did an entire blood work-up and sent me to have abdominal x-rays. Neither of which showed anything. I talked to the doctor's office today and he is now scheduling me for a CAT scan of my abdomen this week. If that turns up nothing, he will refer me to a specialist.

I'm not sure how much longer I can live with this feeling that I'm going to toss my cookies several times a day, 7 days a week. I haven't felt hungry for the past month. I eat only because it's meal time and then I can't eat very much. Someone actually asked me at work this morning if I'd lost weight. While that's really flattering and all, I can think of much better ways to do it.

Sorry the blog has suffered because of this. As soon as I'm feeling better I'm sure I will have lots to post about.
I have some things in the works that will make for some good posts.

Until then, don't give up on me! I'm still here.

IT'S TRUE, MARY HAS MOVED TO TOWN...

2008-02-17T13:18:00.003-06:00

I was a bit skeptical when I read my friend, Tom's post about a new Hamburger Mary's opening in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. All of the others are located in much larger cities or areas with much larger gay populations. You can find Hamburger Mary's in places like San Fransisco, Palm Springs and West Hollywood. But to my surprise, it's true! Mary has moved in to Iowa.

Andrew and I were heading to Home Depot last weekend and decided to check out the location that was advertised on the website to see if there actually was a building under construction. Much to our surprise, there was a building. It even had a "Hamburger Mary's" sign on it, AND it was open! Huh? The first I'd heard of it was on Tom's blog. We'd seen no advertising leading up to it's opening.

We'll definitely check it out and give it a try. Having never eaten at a Hamburger Mary's, I don't really know what the menu is like. If it's good I'll support it. But, I must say, if it's not, the fact that it's a gay owned and markets to the LGBT community probably won't be enough for me to go back. Although, for those reasons, I do hope it is good and does well.

If any of you have been there before, give me a heads-up on what you think about it.

HE'S GONNA KILL ME FOR THIS...

2008-02-03T09:26:00.000-06:00

I'm not really sure what his fascination for this thing is. Apparently his Mom had one as he was growing up.

For me, a plain old box grater works just great and when you're finished with it you just toss it into the dishwasher. No mess, no fussing with taking it all apart just to clean it. Plus, by the time you take this thing out of the cupboard, search through the utensil drawer for the correct blade, assemble all the parts, plug it in, cut the cheese into blocks small enough to fit into the hopper, then begin grating the cheese, I could have the cheese all grated and the box grater into the dishwasher. Job done.

about two years ago he decided life without one of these electric chopper/grater things like his Mom has would just not be worth living. So, he searched eBay until he found it. Exactly like his Mom's. Circa 1972. Oh my God, it was even in it's original box! (Proof that no one actually uses these things.) Fast forward about 6 days and it had come home and had it's own special place in one of our lower kitchen cabinets.

Last night we made tacos for dinner. What do you usually have with tacos? Grated cheese. I chopped the tomatos, (he actually let me use one of the new Wustof knives I got him for Christmas. nice!) and got the grater out of the drawer and began grating the cheese. He turned from the stove where he was frying the hamburger and saw what I was doing and said, "you just will not use the Moulinex, will you?" Huh? Truthfully, it never even crossed my mind.

Now, I like my modern conveniences probably more than most other people I know. If there is a gadget that makes a task easier and more fun, I'm all over it. But, If it creates more work than doing the task manually, I can't be bothered.

One example in our house is the dishwasher. I will pack every dirty kitchen item from the can opener to the giant stock pot into it. If there is a dishwasher available, I don't do dishes by hand. I hate doing dishes. Andrew thinks that's silly. He'll wash all the pans by hand because they just take up too much space in the dishwasher, whereas if I have to run the dishwasher twice in one day, I'm totally cool with that.

Oh well, if it makes you happy, sweetheart, use your Moulinex everyday if you like. But If I'm doing the clean up, it's going into the dishwasher.

INTERNET SHOPPING...

2008-01-25T18:45:00.000-06:00

I'm totally getting this...

The bastards will never get away again!

1/31/37 - 1/19/08

2008-01-20T11:49:00.000-06:00

Sadly, Suzanne Pleshette died Saturday of respiratory failure. She had battled lung cancer since 2006.
I've been a fan of hers since I was a kid. I grew up with and loved many of the Disney movies she starred in. "The Shaggy D.A." (1976) "Blackbeard's Ghost" (1968) "The Ugly Dachshund" (1966) as well as Alfred Hitchcock's classic "The Birds", among countless other movies and television shows since the 1950's.
She also appeared in several episodes of "Will And Grace".
And, who could ever forget her surprise appearance in the final episode of "The Bob Newhart Show". What a shocker THAT was!

What a wonderful actress.

MAYBE I SHOULD MOVE...

2008-01-13T13:43:00.000-06:00

You Belong in London

You belong in London, but you belong in many cities... Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sidney. You fit in almost anywhere.

And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

What European City Do You Belong In?

For some reason I was kinda thinking Paris would be the advised city. Although, I DO like both curry and Shakespeare. Heck, I can find both of those in the city I already live in. Maybe London should be on my list of places to visit.

Thanks to Michael over at Manhattan Chowder for the idea.

THIS TIME I ESCAPED...

2008-01-08T21:15:00.000-06:00

It was an average daily commute to work...until I got within 100 yards from my parking lot.

By the grace of God, or whomever, I escaped what could have been a disaster. I shook for an hour after it happened.

The street that runs in front of the building I work in is a four lane street. The speed limit is 40 mph. I came to a stop to wait for oncoming traffic so I could make my left turn into the parking lot. I noticed the car behind me, a gold Ford Taurus come to a stop waiting for me to make my turn. Apparently he got impatient waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear and darted out from behind me, into the right lane to go around me. What he didn't notice was a car already in that lane traveling at the 40 mph speed limit. I heard the crash right next to me and turned to see the Ford sailing through the air sideways right past my passenger windows! His car couldn't have missed hitting me by more than a foot!

Here's the link to the story that the local newspaper published online this morning. The at fault driver obviously lied about what happened because he reported that he swerved to miss a car turning ONTO the street in front of him. That's not true. He was stopped behind me and swerved out around me because he was impatient.

I'm updating my life insurance policy.

BREAK OUT YOUR EVOO...

2008-01-01T19:18:00.000-06:00

Ok guys, Rachel Ray is now my favorite chef on television. How could you not love her after this...

BEAUTY IN THE BEAST...

2007-12-15T15:59:00.000-06:00

After the ice storms this past week all the leafless trees looked like they were made of crystal. Absolutely beautiful.
But the downside to that beauty was the power outages that were caused by those weighted-down branches breaking under the weight of all the ice and falling on power lines.

Andrew was off work by 1:30pm on Wednesday and my office closed at 1:00pm and sent everyone home because of the impending weather. Ice storms had been forecasted for a huge portion of Iowa. We made it home at about the same time and were enjoying an afternoon at home together when the power flashed a few times and then everything went dark and silent. Isn't it amazing how much noise is going on all around you in your home that you don't notice until the power goes out? The constant hum of the computer, the heating system, the refrigerator and various other things we hear in the background everyday but we just become used to.

Silence.

I think the first words to break that sudden silence were "Shit. Now what?"
Without power, there would be no heat. We don't have a fireplace in this house, so that was not an option. It was about 30 degrees outside and our house was built in 1958 when natural gas was cheap and insulation was something that wasn't used in much abundance. I knew there was little or no insulation in this house from many of the remodel projects I've done here. After a couple of hours, it was becoming dark. We have a lot of candles in our house because we like the ambiance of them and we use them all the time. we had plenty of light throughout the house with all of the candles lit, but they weren't doing much to help with warmth.
About dinnertime we decided the best thing to do was go out. We both were in the mood for Mexican so we headed for our favorite place. Closed. Fine, we went a little further to our next choice. Closed. What's with the Mexicans in this town?? They've never seen a little snow and ice? Our next option was open so we went in, had dinner and more than a few margaritas. Hey, if we were going to have to brave the cold all night, we might as well utilize as many methods as possible to stay warm!
We got back home around 9:00pm and the power was back on and the house was warm again. We were the lucky ones. Some parts of town were without power for almost 3 days.
This was the only tree limb casualty we had in our yard. Oh well, it will make some good fuel for the outdoor fire pit next spring.

GALENA...

2007-12-09T09:24:00.000-06:00

Andrew and I had a great time last weekend. Our friend Sue gave us a certificate toward a hotel room at the Main Street Inn and a dinner at a great Italian restaurant in Galena, Illinois. Last weekend was the perfect time to use them.
Galena is an old, historic town in western Illinois just across the river from Dubuque, Iowa. It has become a very touristy little village with locally owned shops and restaurants where we love to go during the holiday season when the entire downtown is decorated for Christmas. A perfect place to do some Christmas shopping for really cool, handmade crafts and one-of-a-kind things.
We set out on Saturday morning just as a major winter storm hit. We had ice, snow and freezing cold temperatures. We had to stop every 10 miles or so to clear the windshield of ice so we could see where we were going. Crazy, maybe, but darn it, we had plans and there was no way we were going to let a little weather spoil our planned weekend. The usual 1-1/2 hour drive took us almost 2-1/2 hours but we made it just fine and without incident.
The hotel was in a very old building and was sort of a bed and breakfast. The owners were very nice and went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable.Here is a picture of our room and a couple of views out the windows looking down Main street and up the hill at some of the old, Victorian homes and buildings that fill the town.The winter storm kept a lot of people away for the weekend, so it was actually nice to not have to push through the usual crowds of shoppers this time of year in Galena. Sure, we had to trudge through some snow and make our way down slippery sidewalks most of the weekend, but it was worth it to not have the crowds to battle. We felt like we had the entire town to ourselves.
Dinner at Vinny Vanucchi's was amazing. Here's a picture looking up at the restaurant from the street below.
By the time we were ready to leave on Sunday, the roads had all been cleared and we got back home safely. We'd spent way too much money, ate way too much food and goodies but we had a wonderful time.
Thanks Sue!

THANK YOU KEITH OLBERMANN...

2007-12-07T23:14:00.000-06:00

"You sir, have no business being president!"

FUCKING LIAR...

2007-12-04T22:36:00.001-06:00

Honestly, did anyone watch our president's press conference this morning on the NIE report and NOT see right through his bold faced lies?? C'mon, the body language alone spoke volumes.
I apologize to anyone offended by my language here, but watching this press conference made my blood boil.

If this wasn't enough to convince everyone to get out and vote in 2008, I'm not sure anything will be.

CARS...

2007-11-28T23:44:00.001-06:00

I got my driver's permit at age 14. That was in 1979. That same year my parents bought a brand new 1979 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon. The old one was the one pictured to the left. It became my first car when I turned 16. Wow! Lucky me! Actually, I was lucky. Many of my friends didn't even have a car, let alone have one given to them at 16 years old. I was finally free from having to ride the school bus every morning. I was free to leave the school during my study halls and lunch breaks. Free to go out with my friends on Friday nights. Free to haul around my younger sister and two younger brothers to all of the places they needed to go. Looking back, it was the least I could do for my parents. After all, they DID give me a car.
The big brown boat of a car sat for the 2 years between the time they bought the new car till I got my license. In that time the fuel gauge quit working so every time I went somewhere I had to poke a long stick into the gas tank to see how much gas was in it. I could only fill the tank with enough gas to read about 6 inches on the stick, otherwise it would leak out onto the ground because of the rusted hole about half way up on the side of the tank. The memory of that car that stands out most in my mind is the smell of the inside. Gasoline mixed with the smell of raw pizza toppings. I got my first job at Happy Joe's Pizza when I turned 16. After getting off work in the evening, I'd toss my sausage and pizza sauce smeared apron into the back seat and didn't take it out till my next shift several days later. Funny how you never forget things like that.

My next car was this one. A 1966 Plymouth Fury III. I was DONE with driving that stupid station wagon. My Grandparents had bought the Plymouth from some friends of theirs who had bought it new in 1966. I'd made a deal with my Grandfather. I'd pay him fifty dollars every two weeks on payday until I had the entire $600.00 paid off. A sweet deal! This car had only 66,000 original miles on it and was in near perfect condition. It even still had the original spare tire in the trunk! Luckily, I never had to use that spare tire. After sitting in the trunk for the better part of 17 years, I doubt it would have gotten me far if I'd needed it. That car was dripping with chrome inside and out. I was so proud of that car. It was the first car I'd bought and I bought it on my own. I remember polishing till I could see myself in every square inch of the paint and chrome.

No matter what car I own at any point throughout the rest of my life, this one will always be my favorite. My 1969 Camaro. (Yeah, I may have been a bit of a motor head back then) I will never forget the day I got it. It was May 16th, 1983. Graduation day from high school. School had always been a challenge for me. I hated it. Getting good grades required a real effort on my part mostly due to my non-interest in school. My parents tried everything to help me including promising me a car if I would just graduate high school on time. That promise was made to me when I was in 6th grade and was never mentioned again. I'd completely forgotten all about it. Fast forward to that day in 1983. We were back home from the ceremonies where I'd received my diploma. My parents had invited the entire extended family for a graduation party. I was standing in the front yard with my parents greeting people as they arrived when I noticed this car turn into the driveway and park. I noticed for two reasons, obviously the car was AWESOME and I'd recognized every person who had arrived so far except this middle aged woman driving this totally rad car that looked like it should have been driven by someone much younger and likely male. I watched with my parents as she walked up the driveway toward us. My eyes must have grown to the size of dinner plates when she reached her hand toward my Dad and dropped the keys into his. I was in shock and all I can remember saying was "No, no, no way!" The memory of that promise made to me so many years before came back to me and hit me like a tidal wave. Any other 17 year old guy would have been paralyzed with embarrassment, standing there in front of everyone in his huge, extended family crying and hugging his parents, but I didn't care.
I drove that car for several years. That car caused me more trouble, mechanically, than any other car I've owned, but I didn't care. I loved it. When it finally had reached the point where driving it daily just got to be financially to much, it was time to get a more reliable and efficient car. I still couldn't bear to let it go. My grandfather owned a farm with several outbuildings. He agreed to let me store it there until I had the time and money to get it out again and restore it. That was my plan. 4 or 5 years later I was buying my first house. I really needed to come up with some money to help out with closing costs and the one thing I owned that was worth anything was my Camaro. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to bring myself to do. I had to resign myself to the fact that life goes on and it was really unlikely that I would ever find the time and extra money to put into that car. It was time to let it go. I sold it for $3000.00. Even after being stored for so many years and in less than desirable condition at that point. It helped a little knowing that the car went to a guy who loved old Camaros as much as I loved that one. He picked it up and hauled it home to begin the restoration process that I'd always imagined I would do.
Today those cars are very popular with car enthusiasts and very rare. It makes me cringe with regret when I see them for sale for anywhere from $15,000-$25,000 today.
My memories, however, of that car and that day will remain priceless to me.

CHRISTMASTIME AGAIN...

2007-11-25T15:47:00.001-06:00

Andrew and I went to the tree farm on Friday to find the perfect tree for the living room this year.
I think we found it.

What would Christmas be without Christmas poodles?

FREAKY, LIKE IN ABU GHRAIB...

2007-11-25T11:23:00.000-06:00

FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY...

2007-11-15T06:15:00.000-06:00

November 22nd, 2002. Little did I know then, that I would be sitting here 5 years later in our family room writing this. At the time, I lived in Cedar Rapids, he lived in Waterloo. 60 miles apart. Andrew and I had chatted online every day for a week or so. I knew one thing; I wanted to meet this guy to see if he was as sweet in person as he seemed online.
This is the picture I was looking at as we chatted that week. Who wouldn't have wanted to meet this guy??

The first date was planned. He would drive down to my house and we would go out for an Italian dinner. ( I know, I know, the whole garlic thing)
He got to my house on schedule and when I met him at the front door I couldn't have been more nervous. He was perfect! Oh my God, this guy is WAY out of my league. My thoughts were, "Are my online pictures really THAT much better than I look in person, or does this guy just feel sorry for me?"

He was wearing a short sleeved, light blue, button-down shirt that fit him perfectly. The light blue against his tanned, olive skin was dreamy. The sleeves were just long enough that the tattoo on his right arm could just peek out as he took off his jacket and handed it to me. (Only later did I find out that the tattoo around his left ankle was the one that would really turn me on) I think we sat down to chat and had a glass of wine before we left to go eat. After dinner we came back to my house. I built a fire in the fireplace and we sat on the sofa and talked and had another glass of wine or two.

Since then there have been many trips together, many holidays spent together, a few moves to different houses and several more Italian dinners. I can't even begin to count all of the times that I've been surprised with plane tickets, show tickets and planned road trips in the past 5 years. He has such a knack for that. I can never keep a secret that well. He always figures it out when I have something planned to surprise him.

5 years.

Wow. In some ways I can't believe it's been that long, in other ways it seems like forever.
Is he still that same sweet guy I met online? Yeah, but even better than I could have imagined then. Sure, we have our little spats and there are times when he still thinks about killing me in my sleep. (Oh, he's told me so.)

The traditional gift for a 5 year anniversary is wood. *snicker*
What the heck do you give someone as a gift that is both made of wood and romantic? I've given this a lot of thought but I've come up with nothing. I already gave him two tickets to see Evanescence in concert on November 29th. Of course that's kind of for both of us but he is the one who REALLY wants to see them again so I guess that counts as a gift. Wait, the tickets are paper. Paper is a form of wood, right? Ok, maybe that's a stretch.

I wouldn't trade the past 5 years for anything.
Happy anniversary, babe! I love you.

BIRTHDAY DINNER...

2007-11-12T21:59:00.000-06:00

Sunday evening Andrew, Kyle and I celebrated our friend Sue's birthday. Remember last year when we celebrated Sue's birthday?? We kept the vodka away from her this year.

Andrew made a wonderful pot roast with home made gravy and mashed potatoes.

Bailey thinks he's a lap dog.

SATURDAY BREAKFAST...

2007-11-10T09:14:00.000-06:00

Guess what I'm making for breakfast this morning?Mmmmmm.........Happy kids.

When asked "who makes the world's best french toast?" Naturally, they both pointed to me. (Mouths were too full to speak)

GENIUS???

2007-11-10T06:54:00.000-06:00

Apparently the company I keep is a little more distinguished than I'd imagined...

Get a Cash Advance

(Thanks to Rick at Palm Springs Savant for the link.)

OH MY GOD, THEY'RE EVERYWHERE...

2007-10-28T08:46:00.000-06:00

I guess it time to start thinking about getting one.

(Thanks to somethingawful.com for the pic.)

WHAT'S ON YOUR FRIDGE...?

2007-10-21T09:53:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Todd from Postcardsfromhell'skitchen for the idea...

Our fridge door contains mostly souvenir magnets from trips we've taken along with a calendar and a pad for grocery lists and a pen. (biggie-size to see where we've been)

So...what's on YOUR fridge?

THANKS...

2007-10-14T20:36:00.000-06:00

If you hadn't noticed, I added a ton of links to my blog just over there on the right.

I've been blogging for just about 1 year now. Over this past year I've added more and more of my favorite blogs that I keep up with daily, to "my favorites". I got to thinking about it and I figured since these blogs have kept me entertained daily for so many months now, I should thank each of them in my own little way. So, today I decided I at least owe them a link on my blog. So,
Thanks to all of you listed here and I hope I've kept a few of you as entertained as you've kept me.

Keep up the great work!

THE REVEAL...

2007-09-29T18:50:00.001-06:00

Well, it's finally done. I finished on Wednesday night at about 11:30pm. By 6:30 pm the next day we had a house full of guests. Whew! just in time.

Here's the tour...This is the entry at the front door. This is a view from the entry looking upstairs.Here is the living room....and another view of the living room.We put in the new kitchen about a year and a half ago and we still have a some trim to put up around the cabinets but, at least the walls are done now.The hallway off the kitchen.

I'm taking a break from painting for a while.

NOW, WHERE DID I PUT THAT VALIUM???

2007-09-22T12:00:00.000-06:00

Oh my GOD!!!
I'm going freaking crazy!
When your wall color contrasts this much with your trim color it's soooo tedious to cut around the trim!
I'm so glad I have the entire weekend to do this!

A VERY BRADY BATHROOM...

2007-09-21T20:45:00.000-06:00

To keep you all entertained until I reveal the completed painting project...

As promised in my last post, this is what our upstairs bathroom looked like when we first moved in.Needless to say, it no longer looks like this. It's been through a minor facelift for now. the walls are painted and wallpapered (with a much more tasteful pattern) and the toilet has been replaced and a new oak medicine cabinet and light fixture have been installed. Still on the list of improvements for this bathroom are the window removal and a new tub and shower as well as a new sink and cabinet. However, the downstairs bathroom is most likely on the list ahead of this one. It's not as bad as the Brady bathroom above, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

PAINTING THE TOWN...

2007-09-17T09:37:00.000-06:00

...Well, I'll just start with the house for now. Believe me, it's an undertaking that I misjudged. But, I think it will all be worth it once it's done and everything is put back in place and stuff back on the walls.
We're just so sick of white walls. The previous owners had the entire inside of the house painted white in an apparent attempt to sell faster, I'm guessing. It's been two years since we moved in and we're still living with white walls in 90 percent of the house. Of course there were many other things that had to be done before we painted. The entire kitchen had to be gutted and replaced, some windows needed to be replaced and new flooring in the dining room, kitchen and entry. Oh, and the upstairs "Brady Bunch" bathroom had to go just to get the theme song out of our heads every morning when we brushed our teeth! Remind me later and I'll post a fun little pic of THAT.
I always do this. I intend to take "before" pictures before I start a project and then remember part way into it. So, once again, here are my before pictures kinda sorta before but not really.

The living room with the first coat on the trim and a little paint slathered on the wall just to see what it's going to look like because we're impatient.

We're still unsure of the color. The paint chip looked fabulous in the store but on the wall...hmmmmm. Well, after spending more than $200.00 on paint, we'll get used to it. Actually I have more faith than Andrew does. After the furniture is put back and the stuff back on the walls, I'm sure it's going to look great.

A closer look at that wall color.

The first coat on the trim in the entry. you can see a little bit of the unpainted trim on the stairs leading up. Oh, and add a new front door to that list of completed projects so far too.

...and, of course, Poodles ALWAYS have to get into the act too. He loves to help.

POSSIBLE FUTURE HOMETOWNS...

2007-09-12T04:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, Let's travel away from Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a while and discuss a few places, one or more of which Scott will call home one day...
Thanks to my friend and fellow Cedar Rapidian, Tom, I decided to share with you all, the places I want to live one day. Of course, these are places I've been and love. I'm sure there are many other places out there that I would love just as much and enjoy calling "home". These are a few places I know I would like to live:

Chicago

This is the only place in the Midwest I truly would love to move to. I'm sure many of you are well aware of my love affair with Chicago after reading many of my previous posts. Andrew and I have spent many weekends exploring the "Windy City", taking in the sights, sampling food from favorite local restaurants, shopping the "Magnificent Mile" and frequenting the restaurants and bars of "Boystown".

If and when Chicago becomes my home, I don't think I'd want to live in the suburbs. Right in the city, where we could walk to most things we need would be where I'd want to be. I know, the winters would suck but there is just something about Chicago that I fell in love with many years ago when I made my first trip in the family station wagon with my parents. I believe that was 1979 and I've never stopped going back to get another and another taste of the sights, the architecture, the smells, the food and the all-around Midwest but large city attitude. My love for Chicago is difficult to put into words. It's just a feeling I have when I'm there and the sadness I feel when I leave.

Bar Harbor, Maine

When I say "Bar Harbor" I actually mean the general Mount Desert Island area. It wouldn't have to be Bar Harbor, but any of the surrounding small towns along the coast of Maine. It's the "outdoorsy" part of me that wants to live here. Hiking in Acadia National Park, walking the rocky beaches of the North Atlantic, seeing the quaint, old lighthouses that dot the coastline or just standing on the docks and watching the salty sea captains bring their lobster boats in at the end of the day to unload their catch. One of my favorite times of year is Autumn when the leaves are turning, the air is cool and crisp but the sun is still shining brightly in a blue sky. This is what I think of when I think of Maine. I can't imagine any place more beautiful in the Autumn. I guess it's the nature lover part of me that loves Maine. My time spent in Maine several years ago was a June vacation. A very expensive vacation spent staying in bed and breakfasts and traveling the coast taking in the sights and a 35 mile trip out to sea to see finback whales (up to 80 feet long) surfacing right next to our 45 foot boat. Wow, talk about feeling small! I know daily living is not the same as vacationing, but I did fall in love with the nature that you feel like you're surrounded by even in the middle of town. Living here, I know I'd still need my frequent get-away to a large city at times. As beautiful as Maine is, I do know it has it's share of "backwoods" attitude and culture that can be charming, but I'm sure it would get old. So, maybe just a summer place in Maine...

Seattle

My first trip to Seattle was only about 3 years ago. I've now been there three times and have learned more about Seattle and Washington State each time I've been there. I have been very fortunate that each of my trips to Washington have been during gorgeous weather. Perfect temperatures, little or no rain and clear enough on most occasions to see Mt Ranier. I do know, however that this is not typical of the Seattle area throughout the entire year. While the temperature does, for the most part, stay warm enough to not blanket the area with days upon days of frigid snow, I think, for me, it would be just enough snow that I wouldn't miss it having grown up in Iowa where winter is all about snow and below freezing temps for three to four months. In my opinion, that sucks. The only thing about Seattle that makes me hesitate is the winter months of very little sun and dizzily skies. I'm just not sure how I would endure that. I guess I'll need to spend some winter time there before I make my decision.

Palm springs, CA

I've visited Palm Springs four times and I've loved it every time. Many people don't feel the way I do about this, but I love the heat. (Very low humidity. Seriously, it DOES make a difference) On my first trip to Palm Springs I took one of the jeep tours into the desert where is was about 110 degrees in the shade. That's where I first fell in love with the desert Southwest. I think the desert is beautiful. How awesome to be 4-wheeling through the hot, dry desert and then, out of nowhere, suddenly come upon an oasis of water, green plants and palm trees in a small spot where an underground spring has made it's way to the surface.
Palm springs has been know as "the playground of the stars". Beginning in the 1930's Hollywood stars would spend time in Palm Springs as a get-away from busy Los Angeles. Palm Springs still has many seasonal homes that belong to Hollywood stars young and old.
Surrounded by some of the most scenic mountains, Palm Springs is my idea of shear beauty. The fact that from Palm Springs, you can make a short trip into the mountains to ski one day and then a few hours in the opposite direction is the beach, make this place, in my opinion, the perfect place to live. For a really great blog where you will find lots of stuff about Palm Springs (as well as tons of entertainment) check out Rick Rockhill's blog "Palm Springs Savant".

Ok, now I've chosen three corners of the United States and one place in the Midwest. I refuse to even consider the remaining corner. I've been there, nice place to visit, I have no desire to live there.

Where I'll end up, I still don't really know. Now, off to buy that lottery ticket that surely will afford me a home in each of these places!

MY HOME TOWN...

2007-09-06T21:18:00.001-06:00

Growing up and living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has had it advantages. However, as soon as I am able, I will move away.
If not for my two children I would be long gone already but for now I need to be here for them. My travels to different parts of two countries over the past 10 years have me convinced of two things: #1 I'm fortunate to have grown up in Cedar Rapids. And, #2: I can't wait to move to somewhere else.
Don't get me wrong. I love Cedar Rapids and it will always be my "home". I'm sure you all understand what I mean. No matter where you're from and where you've ended up, your home town will always feel like home. (For most of us, I think)
So, for now this post is dedicated to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and many of the good things about it.
To start off, Cedar Rapids has been home to many famous persons from history and also the not so distant past. Artist Grant Wood, The Wright Brothers, Historian and journalist William Shirer, writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and more recently, actors Ron Livingston, Elijah Wood and Ashton Kutcher. For a fairly large listing of other famous people from Cedar Rapids click here.
We're also very proud to be the home of many large and very successful companies as well. Quaker Oats Co., Archer Daniels Midland, Rockwell Collins Aviation headquarters, and 5 Cargill plants.
Cedar Rapids is also home to 3 local colleges:

Mt Mercy College

Coe College

Kirkwood Community College.

One bit of trivia that I have always found interesting is that Cedar Rapids and Paris, France are the only two cities on earth whose government buildings are located on an island. (Ok, so maybe not as fascinating to most of you, but I always thought it was cool)

This ariel photo of downtown Cedar Rapids shows City Hall and the Linn County Courthouse buildings on Mays Island.

Cedar Rapids also is home to a fairly large Czech population. Why they settled here, I have no clue, but we have a really cool "Czech Village" downtown area with great restaurants, bars, museums and bakeries! Yum!

Our city has a nickname; "The city of five seasons". Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall and a fifth one to enjoy them all. Gag! I can't think of anything more corny and stupid. Oh, wait, there is this...

The tree of five seasons

Yeah, don't ask. We have no idea either.

If there is one thing in this city that I am proud of, it's the Cedar Rapids Art Museum. Pictured here:It houses fantastic pieces by famous artists Grant Wood and Marvin Cone among others.
Well worth a visit.

So, next time any of you are flying over Iowa, be sure and look down over Cedar Rapids and wave to us. Heck, you might even get glimpse of the tree of five seasons if you're lucky! Check your map, it's right there on the corner of First street and First Avenue, downtown. you can't miss it. It's the gleaming, stainless steel piece of who knows what, currently serving as the worlds most expensive pigeon condo. Now THAT'S high rise luxury!

NOTABLE HOMES OF CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA

2007-08-26T19:11:00.000-06:00

After visiting Craidarroch Castle in Victoria B.C. and learning it's history earlier this month, it got me thinking about some houses closer to home. I set out early in the evening on Sunday and snapped some pictures of a few locally historic homes in my hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After all it was a beautiful evening and perfect weather for a drive in the convertible.My first stop was in front of Brucemore. This home was built in 1884 by the Sinclair family as a summer home. In 1906, the Sinclaires negotiated a house trade with the Douglas family of Cedar Rapids. In 1924, the eldest Douglas daughter married Howard Hall, a local wealthy owner of two large businesses. During their ownership, Margaret and Howard Hall entertained several famous guests such as Presidents Herbert Hoover and Harry Truman. Howard actually kept a couple of pet lions that roamed the 26 acre property until 1971 when he died. I've actually spoken to residents of the neighborhood who grew up hearing the lion's roars daily. Howard died in 1971 and Margaret continued living at Brucemore until her death in 1981. At the time of her death Margaret bequeathed Brucemore to the National Trust For Historic Preservation for use as a historic site and community cultural center.My second stop was at the Armstong mansion, named for the original owners. I wasn't able to find much historic information on this home except that in was built sometime in the late 1800's and several years later was divided in half, right down the center and moved by horse and wagon about 2 miles to it's current location. I've been inside this house and there is absolutely no visible evidence that it was ever in two pieces except for the peak of the 3rd floor ballroom ceiling that has a small crack running the entire length. What an amazing feat that must have been to successfully move this enormous home without the use of modern motorized trucks and equipment! This is the only house out of the four I've featured here that still remains a private home.My third stop was Averill House. I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing about this house except it was built in the late 1800's and was placed on the National Historic Register in 1978. It is now used as offices for a local law firm.My last stop was just down the street from Averill House at what is now Turner Mortuary. This is the home that the Douglas family and the Sinclair family swapped for Brucemore. What I find most intriguing about this home is that famous artist, Grant Wood spent a good part of his life living in and around Cedar Rapids and lived in the second floor of the carriage house behind this home. He actually painted many of his famous pieces while living here.

Cedar Rapids once had many, many more beautiful, large mansions that were torn down in the 1950's and 60's in the name of "progress". Many of these were in areas that became undesirable to live in, were divided up into apartments, then eventually torn down. Cedar Rapids, Iowa may be a rather small Midwestern city of roughly 150,000, but it is certainly not without it's interesting history and notable places. I think I'll do a few more posts about Cedar Rapids in the near future.

RAV 4 ROVER...

2007-08-19T09:14:00.000-06:00

You learn something new everyday. Little did I know, until a few weeks ago, Washington State is the first state in the country to pass the dog driving law. K-9s all over the northwest are now taking advantage of this new privilege. As proof to my friends back here in the midwest, I snapped this picture while walking the streets of Bellingham, Washington a few weeks ago. I caught this pooch waiting at a stop light to make a left-hand turn. I must admit, as I watched him make his turn and continue down the street toward Petco, he actually seemed to be a better driver than...dare I say it...most of the women I know.

A GREAT VACATION...

2007-08-14T20:26:00.000-06:00

We got back home on Sunday evening from an absolutely fabulous vacation. What more could we ask for, a couple of great cities, the sea, fun family and friends and more than enough fantastic food.

The first several hours of our trip was spent in Las Vegas...just because it was sorta on the way. This time we stayed just one night and in the downtown area on Fremont street.

This was the view from our hotel room in Vegas.

We left Vegas on Saturday morning and headed to Bellingham, Washington.

I was more than a little worried about the runway being long enough for our plane as we were descending toward the Bellingham International Airport.

But, alas, we survived the landing and Andrew's Aunt Stacy and Uncle Joe were kind enough to pick us up and take us the short drive to Lummi Island to Andrew's parent's house.

Here we are on the ferry on our way to the island.

Here's Randy and Laura's beautiful home on Lummi Island.

And the view from their living room window during sunset one evening.

One of the highlights of our trip was the day cruise to Victoria, B.C. We left from the Bellingham harbor on Tuesday morning and set off on the three hour ferry ride, cruising through the San Juan Islands to Victoria. Our ferry is the one with the yellow roof.

Here's where we crossed the International boundary between the U.S. and Canada. If you look closely, you can actually see the dotted line they painted on top of the water that marks the boundary.

...And here's the view that met us as we entered the Port of Victoria. The beautiful Empress Hotel.

And this is a view of the harbor that we arrived at.

We had a great lunch at a nice little place right on the harbor then we made the several block trek to Craigdarroch Castle. (check out the link for a Flickr page of great photos)For some history on Craigdarroch click here.Here's a picture I took from the top floor of the touret looking out.

The 3 hour trip back to Bellingham seemed like minutes due to the wonderful buffet dinner that was prepared and served to us on the boat. Here's Andrew and his Mom, Laura in line at the buffet.

Shortly after dinner our captain spotted a pod of Orca whales in the distance. He slowed the boat and cut the engines and we all watched for about 20 minutes as the whales made their way past.The pictures never do justice to how awesome it is to whale-watch.(yeah, I know. the date is screwed up on my camera)

Andrew and I spent a few days hanging out in Seattle as well. We've always wanted to do the underground tour of Seattle so we took this opportunity to go.Here's a picture from underground, looking up through one of the many "skylights" that is actually cut into the sidewalks above. Kinda creepy, huh?

Since we were in Seattle, how could we pass up the opportunity to meet up with and have a relaxing Saturday brunch with Matt and his partner Scott? Two of our favorite blog friends! What a couple of great guys! They took us to a great little restaurant called The Five Spot in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood of Seattle. We had such a great time visiting, we didn't want to leave. After we left the restaurant Scott and Matt showed us where to get some amazing pictures of Seattle from high up on the hill. Here are the four of us posing for our waiter.To prove we really were in Seattle, here we are with the Space Needle in the background.

As you can see, we really packed a lot into this vacation. The 10 days just seemed to fly by in an instant.
Now the planning starts for the next trip...anyone have any suggestions on where to go next?

VACATION...

2007-08-08T09:16:00.000-06:00

So far what a great vacation! Andrew and I left Iowa on Friday evening Aug. 3rd and spent one night in Las Vegas. It was a quick little stay, but nice to finally see the older downtown area of Las Vegas. On Saturday morning we headed back to the airport for the second leg of our trip to Bellingham, Washington then on to Lummi Island.

On Tuesday morning we caught the Victoria Star ferry from Bellingham to Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island. It was a 3 hour tour, a three hour tour... sit right back and hear a tale, a tale of a frightful trip...
Ok, sorry the theme to Gilligan's Island had been running through my mind ever since I read about this cruise. Seriously, it was a really nice and relaxing day. Victoria is very beautiful with flowers blooming everywhere. I will follow up with lots of pictures of the trip as soon as I get home and can download all of my pictures onto my computer.
The return trip was a dinner cruise serving salmon and chicken. Full bar the entire trip! Yay! We even stopped at one point when the captain saw the dorsal fins of a pod of Orca whales. I took lots of pictures as they surfaced but the pictures never do justice to actually being there. It was only the second time I'd ever seen whales in their natural habitat. The first was in Maine in 1995. I was on a 45 foot whale watching boat out of Bar Harbor with 75 foot long fin whales surfacing right next to the boat. THAT was an amazing (and a little scary) experience!
So far our vacation has been wonderful. Tomorrow we head to Seattle to spend a couple of days sightseeing there and have a couple of dinners with Andrew's family on Thursday and Friday, then on Saturday, we get to meet fellow bloggers Matterdays and his partner Scootersville for brunch! That will be fun!
Signing off for now...more updates later!

I LAUGHED...HARD...

2007-07-21T22:18:00.000-06:00

Grandpa and Grandma go ghost riding.

WHAT'S A GUY GOTTA DO?...

2007-07-21T08:04:00.000-06:00

I woke up so stiff this morning!

However, I didn't even get a compliment from the other side of the bed.

(Seen on a greeting card at First at First Avenue Wine House, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I thought it was funny. I had to post it.)

WE'RE ADOPTING...

2007-07-14T16:32:00.000-06:00

She's 12 years old, but still very small. A black Asian who has lived in Florida her entire life, soon moving in with us in Iowa.

Seriously, have you ever seen anything more cute? As most of my readers will remember, I used to have one just like her. Mine was red and a 1994. I still regret the day I sold it.

You can just imagine my shock when Andrew instant messaged me at work a few days ago and told me that he bought it and that he had to fly to Florida to pick it up next week. It's a 22 hour drive to West Palm Beach, Florida to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has his one way ticket purchased and has to leave home Thursday morning the 19th at 3:30am to catch his flight. As soon as he gets to West Palm Beach, the dealership will pick him up, finalize paperwork and he'll be on the road back to Iowa. This is where the problem lies. I don't really like the idea of him driving by himself for 9 or 10 hours after having been up since 3:00am. I would go with him so we could split the driving, but I have no additional vacation time from work with our trip to Seattle coming up in August and we already have too many people off this week anyway. So, it looks like he'll be making the trip himself. He already checked into having the car shipped here, but that turned out to be cost prohibitive. It's less than half to fly there and drive it back.

So, now the discussions of the "baby's" room have begun. The garage is only big enough for two cars so this one will have to sleep outside. We have discussed adding an additional concrete parking space next to the driveway on one side. Of course we'll need to shop for some nice, warm P.J.'s so she won't get too cold during those typical Iowa winter nights.

JUST PLAIN SAD...

2007-07-07T08:06:00.001-06:00

I sat with my mouth open in disbelief as I watched this video. These people are actually laughing about not being able to remember the simplest details of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Even worse...the video is labeled "funny answers to 9/11 questions".

What ever happened to "we will never forget"????

Where were you at about 9am EST on September 11th 2001? How could anyone forget?

I was in Omaha, Nebraska on business. I had just stepped out of the shower and was getting ready to leave for my first meeting of the day when my cell phone rang. It was my now, ex-partner calling me from home and telling me to turn on the TV. I sat down on the bed watching in disbelief just as the second plane hit the WTC. The rest of that day was so surreal to me. I went to a couple of meetings I had scheduled for that day but as soon as I saw Air force One fly over my head, escorted by fighter jets, then heard the news that the president was landing at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, I headed for home. Would you have wanted to be anywhere near the leader of the free world, a likely target, when all of this was taking place?

SUMMER VACATION...

2007-06-24T08:51:00.001-06:00

The tickets are purchased and I'm getting really excited about our summer vacation this year. We're heading to Washington State to visit Andrew's parents for about a week.
With flights being so freaking expensive now, we did some in depth research before booking. We were pretty flexible with our travel days, but we didn't want to fly any of the "red eye" flights that you find so many of when flying from Cedar Rapids to Seattle. Another thing that played into our research was that if we fly into Seattle, his parents end up spending 4 hours in the car just to pick us up. They live about 2 hours north of Seattle on Lummi Island, just minutes from Bellingham by ferry. Trying to save them the time and save us the expense of a rental car, we looked into flights into Bellingham. $1,200.00 each round trip. Ha! NOT!
Then, remembering our last vacation to Las Vegas in April for Andrew's birthday, I suggested we look into Allegiant Airlines. They fly direct from Cedar Rapids to Las Vegas and I knew that they also fly direct from Bellingham, WA to Las Vegas. After some searching, we came up with the perfect plan! We leave Friday evening Aug. 3rd and spend 1 night in Las Vegas, then catch a morning flight from Vegas to Bellingham on the 4th. Perfect! (and cheap)
We save his parents hours in the car and we get a night in Vegas! The flight home will be perfect as well. We fly from Bellingham to Vegas, two hour layover in the airport, then home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. By then we'll be completely out of money, I'm sure, so we won't want to spend any time in Vegas on the way home.

When we've gone to Vegas before, we've always stayed on the strip. This time we decided it would be fun to see the older, downtown area of Vegas. So, we got a much less expensive room right on Fremont street downtown. It will be fun to see "old Las Vegas" for a change.

I'll be sure and take lots of pictures while on our trip. Those will be good for several posts when we get back, I'm sure.

I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD BOY...

2007-06-22T05:37:00.000-06:00

Mingle² - Online Dating

QUICK UPDATE...

2007-06-20T05:55:00.001-06:00

My baby is still broken.

I absolutely HATE driving my car when she looks less than perfect. I know it embarrasses her, not to mention I really need an oil change but I can't get one till it's fixed and the hood will open.

I've decided to wait until the first full week in August to send her into the shop. That's when Andrew and I will be jetting off to the beautiful Seattle area to spend a week lounging on Lummii Island. We'll be visiting his parents and family.
That way, I won't have to pay for a rental car while she is being repaired.

I just hope I can make it through the next several weeks of limping my baby back and forth to work, hoping nothing more falls off along the way.

BUMPER SNICKER...

2007-06-14T16:46:00.000-06:00

On the way home from work today I saw a funny bumper sticker...

"Silence is Golden...But duct tape is silver."

After reading this does it make anyone else think of the bodies you've carried in your trunks?...No?...just me?...mmmmkay.

TEXT, TEXT, TEXT...

2007-06-13T20:50:00.000-06:00

My last 10 sent text messages:
1. Lunch.
2. kiss
3. kiss
4. Great brats!
5. yeah, big kiss and lunch too.
6. Tardy!
7. Lunch
8. Where are you?
9. OK, see you at home.
10.Why in CF?

My last 10 received text messages:
1. Hi
2. Kiss?
3. Switching coffee displays.
4.Better if you come home, I think.
5. Leaving Cedar Falls
6. May not make it on time
7. You!
8. I'll get your markout
9. Thanks mister
10.Sure!

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

2007-06-12T23:02:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Seething Mom for this video. What a beautiful voice!

LEISURELY SATURDAY...

2007-06-02T17:52:00.000-06:00

Andrew and I spent a relaxing afternoon Saturday in Amana, Iowa. Amana is one of seven small villages settled by German immigrants in 1855. Now it's a very touristy area with shops and restaurants serving authentic German fare in a family style dining atmosphere. Amana is also the home of Amana appliance maker recently purchased by Maytag.

Our first stop was the Millstream Brewing Company where we sampled a few beers and then sat on their patio and enjoyed a delicious Pale Ale.

After that we headed across the street to see the Amana Woolen Mills and store, where wool blankets and other items are still made on giant looms that you can watch run during business hours.

We then walked a block or so to the Amana Furniture Store and Clock Shop. The quality and craftsmanship are unmatched. We drooled over the enormous grandfather clocks with their glass-smooth finishes and beautiful chimes. I love to stand in the clock shop and hear all the clocks chiming, one after another. It's fun to hear one begin to chime and try to follow the sound and find which one it's coming from before it stops chiming.

After we left the clock and furniture shop we headed a block over to the Colony Inn, my favorite restaurant in the Amana Colonies. I've been going to this restaurant since I was a kid.
The Colony Inn is an old hotel from the 1800's that was converted to a restaurant decades ago and has been serving family style meals ever since. I knew I recognized our waitress and asked her how long she had been working there. She told us she'd been there 18 years. I then asked her about a certain waitress who had been employed there since I was a child. She had red hair and a thick German accent. I figured she had retired some time ago since she was old as far back as I could remember. I'm not sure how long she had been waitressing there, but I know it had to be close to 40 years because I remember looking for her each time my parents took me there. She intrigued me with her accent, her firey-red hair and the attitude to go along with it. Laurie, our waitress told us that her name was Marie and she had just passed away a couple of years ago after living in a care center in one of the Amana Colonies. In fact Laurie's daughter had become very close to Marie in her final years, visiting her often. Laurie told us that Marie had lost her husband just a few months prior to her passing and if you are buried in the Amana Colonies, you are buried in chronological order of when you die, not in a grave site of your own choosing. As it turned out, Marie was the very next person, after her own husband, to die and be buried in Amana. So she was, ironically, buried right next to her husband. How appropriate.

After lunch we walked the main street and stopped in to several shops that looked interesting, including a couple of wineries. The problem with Iowa wineries is that the wines made locally are mostly sweet because this climate is more suitable to berries and fruits. We really prefer the red grape wines to sweeter dessert-type wines.

On the way home we saw this full rainbow. I happened to have the camera in the car, so I snapped a few pictures of it.

Saturday evening, our friend Patty met us at our house and we went out for a great steak dinner at one of those grill-it-yourself steak places. I think it's fun to stand by the grill cooking your giant slab of beef with a 24oz beer in your hand. We got our waitress to snap this pic of us.

It was a great Saturday doing the things we love to do...mostly eat, shop and drink beer and wine. How could it get any better?

WE HAD A BAD DAY...

2007-06-01T15:52:00.001-06:00

Raining, wet roads, stupid women slamming on their brakes for GREEN lights. WTF?!?!
Of course, it was my fault. I rear ended her. Of course, she was driving an enormous Ford Expedition so her bumper was so high it totally missed my bumper so my grill and headlight took the impact. Who NEEDS a vehicle that big? NO ONE.

I'm just mad mostly at myself for being in a hurry and following too close. I know it was my fault, but I just need to blow off steam.

So, now in addition to the scratch, which I still haven't fixed, I now have a broken headlight, grill and buckled hood. I can't even get the hood open so I won't know exactly how much damage is on the inside till it goes into the shop to be repaired.

The initial estimate made by Progressive, my insurance company, came in at just under $1800.00. I'm planning to get another estimate as well by the actual body shop that will do the work.

It happened on my lunch hour so I took the rest of the afternoon off to get estimates and insurance calls taken care of. Not exactly the way I like to spend a Friday afternoon off work.

3 DAY WEEKEND...

2007-05-26T10:31:00.000-06:00

What are my plans for my 3-day weekend?

Certainly NOT what the photo above would have you believe...

Folding all of the laundry that Andrew did over the past week.
Blog a little.
Clean the house.
Cut the grass.
Power wash the siding on the house.
Blog a little.
Spend time with my kids.
Plant flowers in a couple more outdoor planters.
Blog a little.
Grocery shopping.
Get all of my bills paid.
Blog a little.
Come up with a fabulous menu idea for dinner Sunday evening.
Oh, and blog a little.

Don't tell me what you all are planning for your weekend. It will just make me jealous. Although, Andrew and I and a couple of friends are planning a weekend in Chicago for "A taste of Chicago" festival at the end of June. The hotel room is booked and my tummy is getting really excited about it!

OMG! I LOVE the spell-check addition that Blogger.com added! Finally!

TAGGED...

2007-05-25T20:20:00.000-06:00

Well, my fellow Jetta driving, blog friend, Matterdays tagged me with a meme.

Matt thinks this is a way to make me post on my blog because it's been so long since my last one. He may be right, but my cheeky, Brit blog friend Darth is not allowed to read this because he didn't ask nicely. (I'm gonna tag him anyway...so he'll get his)

Post a similar post like this one and add a link back to the person who tagged you.
* List down 5 reasons why you blog about the things you blog on your blog.
* Choose your 5 tag ‘victims’ and tag them nicely :)
* Write a comment on their blog letting them know that you tagged them.

The instructions are to list 5 reasons why I blog...

1. One reason I blog is because I absolutely LOVE reading other people's blogs. I'm not sure if I have a little voyeur in me or I just hope others think I'm as interesting as I think they are. Either way...I'm addicted.

2. I like talking about myself. I think it's human nature. Where else can the average Joe talk about themselves to an audience of potentially millions?

3. I enjoy writing and attempting to create posts that will make people laugh. Not all of my posts are meant to be humorous, but I do have fun writing the ones that are.

4. I love the interaction with people from all over the world. What better way to meet new people than to start with blogging? You can learn a lot about people from reading their blogs.

5. ...and the biggest reason I blog... It REALLY makes my day when I'm sitting at work and check my personal email and find that someone has commented on my blog! I can hardly contain my excitement!

Now that I have completed my assignment, I'm tagging the following fellow bloggers:

Andrew from Thebuxstophere
Darth from How Great is Cake?
Tom from Don't Cry In My Snack-N-Cake (Wow, 2 bloggers with "cake" in their titles)
Sue from Suds Sagas
Spider from The Bloggers Book Club

YAAAYY, SPRING...

2007-05-13T14:04:00.000-06:00

Buying gift certificates to the local nursery for Mother's Day got me in the mood to get some flowers planted. This is my start. Now I only have a couple more planters to do and then we're set for a summer of forgetting to water them till they look like they will never come back to life. Seems like they always do.

LIFE IN THE MIDWEST...

2007-05-10T22:15:00.000-06:00

I was surfing MSN today during a lull in the activity at work and ran across these satellite photos of the small town of Greensburg, Kansas before and after the tornado last Friday evening leveled about 90% of the town. I'd heard of the story and that the entire town was virtually destroyed, but I hadn't really put it in perspective till I saw these photos. Here is another site with some amazing pictures of what this storm did.

This tornado was deemed an F5. The highest rating on the Fujita scale.

Having lived in the midwest my entire life, I knock on wood when I say I have never seen a tornado, nor do I ever hope to see one. I've seen and experienced many storms that had spawned tornados in fairly close proximity to me, but I've never witnessed an actual tornado on the ground. The closest Ive come to seeing one was just a few years ago. I was out mowing my lawn, hoping to get it finished before the rain started. Severe storms were forcasted for the afternoon so I was keeping a close eye on the sky as I finished the lawn. Just as I was putting the mower back in the garage, I stood in the front yard and watched the storm clouds passing over-head. They were actually spinning and dipping slightly as if small tornados were trying to form and make their way to the ground. Listening to the weather reports just minutes after seeing that, I learned that these clouds had actually devoloped minor tonados as they headed east from where I was.

I can't imagine how devastating it would be to lose everything you own and possibly people you know, to a storm like this. My heart goes out to the people of Greensburg, Kansas as they deal with this tragedy.

FLY ON THE WALL...

2007-05-07T22:35:00.000-06:00

Andrew: So, do you think more home burglaries happen at night or daytime?

Me: I don't know, I guess probably during the day when most people aren't home.

Andrew: Well then why do you worry so much about locking all the doors and windows at night?

Me: I'm not sure. Maybe that's more for MY protection.

Andrew: What, are you afraid of being gang-raped or something?

Me: Oh no, THAT I would actually enjoy.

Andrew: *rolls eyes*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDREW...

2007-04-28T11:55:00.000-06:00

Monday, April 23rd marked Andrew's 30th birthday and if you know Andrew's family, milestone (or any other) birthdays are celebrated with reckless abandon. As a birthday gift, his parents, Randy and Laura treated us all to a 4-1/2 day trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Monica, Andrew's sister planned and organized the trip and kept us busily entertained the entire time.

Have you all heard of the new skywalk that just opened on the west side of the Grand Canyon? A glass floor cantilevered out over the edge, 4000 feet off the canyon floor. Is that insane, or what? I really didn't think I'd be able to do it. I'm terrified of heights. (but I love roller coasters...go figure) The skywalk is located on the west rim of the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai (pronounced 'Wall-a-pie') Indian reservation. To get there, you must travel 18 miles off paved roads on the absolute worst gravel road across the desert you can imagine. We were only able to drive 15-25 miles per hour for the entire 18 miles. The views, however, were some of the most beautiful desert scenery you can imagine. We even stopped along the way and photographed a coyote we saw trotting across the rocks. Check out this video to see all the things we did and saw while there.

Monday was spent at the Grand Canyon so we celebrated his birthday on Tuesday. Monica had made reservations for dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant inside New York New York hotel where we stayed.

After dinner we went to Harrah's to see Rita Rudner's comedy show. What a hoot! She's a very funny lady!

We all had a wonderful time together and headed back home on Wednesday totally exhausted.

As we headed for the airport on Wednesday afternoon, the temp in Las Vegas was 86 marvelous degrees! Imagine the shock to our bodies as we landed back in Cedar Rapids, Iowa wearing shorts, polo shirts and flip-flops, where it was 49 degrees and raining!

GOODBYE, SANJAYA...

2007-04-20T05:31:00.000-06:00

I couldn't stand him from the beggining. He should have never made it this far. The fact that he lasted this long is an obvious farce.

...but, gosh... after seeing him voted off...wasn't it kinda sad?

WARNING...

2007-04-17T05:40:00.000-06:00

Suave Roasted vanilla and sugar shampoo tastes NOTHING like vanilla or sugar...

Discuss.

NOW THAT'S A GAY CAR...

2007-04-13T17:06:00.000-06:00

Ok, so as a sequel to my last post...

The reason I was a little offended by my car being the number 1 gay guy car (according to The Car Guys on NPR) probably had something to do with the fact that I always get crap from Andrew about my car being so "gay". I don't know why he thinks that but apparently other people think it too. It all started when I first met him. I drove the car you see pictured above- a '94 red Honda Civic Del Sol. I put up with relentless teasing from him about my "chick" car. I admit, it was a rather gay looking car for a guy to be driving, but oh, what fun that car was! I am so sorry that I ever got rid of it, but times were a little tougher then and it was the right thing to do. In my defense, however, at the same time I had the Del Sol, my second car was a black Jeep Grand Cherokee. Now you don't get a lot more masculine that THAT.

IS YOUR CAR GAY?...

2007-04-12T22:24:00.000-06:00

Ok, I have always thought that chances are very good that when you see a Subaru Outback there is a lesbian behind the wheel. But, now the Car Talk guys from NPR have proven me right. Check out this link to the gayest guy cars and gayest girl cars.

Now for the part that shocked me... I clicked on the 'gay guy cars' and read through till the end. When I clicked on the #1 gay guy car I almost fell off my chair! That's MY car! I take serious offense to that! What do they mean, my Jetta is the #1 gay guy car!?!? It is NOT! Humph.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME...

2007-04-09T20:34:00.000-06:00

Friday, April 6th was my birthday and I celebrated with a 3 day weekend full of activities! It's been a long time since I enjoyed my birthday as much as I did this year.

Andrew gave me a certificate for a one hour, full body massage for Valentine's day so I made an appointment for Friday, my birthday, since I had the day off from work. I spent the morning just lounging at home having coffee, relaxing and catching up on a few shows that TiVo has been saving for me. At 1:00pm I made the five minute drive to "All Good Things" where I had my massage. When I left I was so relaxed and mentally "out of it" that I almost felt drunk. In fact, I was parked on the street and on my way to my car I stepped right out into traffic without even thinking about it. I was lucky to have narrowly escaped being mowed down by a passing car. My mind was still lying on that massage table.

Later Friday evening our friend Sue came over and the three of us went to First Avenue Wine House for a blind wine tasting. I discovered that unless you're a true wine enthusiast, it's really difficult to guess most wines by taste alone. Aside from a few of the obvious wines like Merlot and Pinot Noir, my taster was usless. I actually went thinking I would be better at identifying wines than I was. We had a great time and around 7:30pm we headed back to our house for a wonderful dinner that Andrew had prepared earlier. Barbequed pork ribs, wild rice salad and deviled eggs. ...and, of course, more wine and cocktails.

Satruday morning Andrew was up by 6am packing for our weekend trip to chicago. His gift to me was tickets to see the Blue Man Group in Chicago on Saturday night preceeded by dinner at a fantastic Tapas restaurant, Cafe Iberico. In addition to that, tucked into my birthday card was also two tickets to tour Robie House in Hyde Park, a newly opened house designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright from 1908-1910. I was so excited about this I could hardly wait! The house is only in it's fifth year of being completely restored. They estimate that it will be an 8+ year renovation costing millions. Because the restoration is obviously not yet completed, it actually added a lot of interest for me, being able to see how the house was designed and constructed and the pain-staking process in which it is being brought back, very slowly, to it's original beauty.

Even after surprising me with all of this, he still held one more surprise for me. He purposely held back telling me where we were staying while in Chicago. We got into downtown around noon and parked in a garage just off of north Michigan Ave. I figured this was fairly close to where we were staying because he said we'de be leaving the car here overnight. We did a little shopping and around 3pm we walked back to the car to collect our luggage and go check into the hotel. I wondered where we were staying and asked a couple of times, but he'd never answer, he just said "you'll see soon". In just the couple of blocks we walked, we passed a few hotels that I was sure he was going to turn and walk into at any moment, but we just passed on by. We crossed to the East side of Michigan Avenue and we turned South toward the river. At that point I figured we were headed to the Hyatt Regency on East Wacker Dr. where we have stayed a few times before. Nope. Better. Just as we approached the enormous, polished brass, revolving doors of the Hotel Intercontinental, he turned and led us in. "Holy crap", you've got to be kidding. Just for fun, I'd checked out this hotel online while booking for previous trips to Chicago, always hoping to maybe find a deal on a broom closet that they might be able let me curl up in.
We checked into our room on the 18th floor of the historic tower and unpacked our things. This was truly a treat. So many ameneties we just don't get from hotels that we normally stay in; an enormous room with a king size bed with down comforter and pillows, 400 thread count egyptian cotton sheets, embroidered, silk draperies and bathrooms with polished marble on every surface. I never wanted to leave.

Blue Man Group was a blast! I'd been wanting to see it for a long time. I know this show is playing in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Boston and London, so if you are near any of these places, don't miss it!

So, that was my birthday weekend. I was pretty spoiled and it was a lot more difficult than usual to go back to work on Monday. Once again, Andrew outdid himself making my birthday special. Thanks babe, you're the best!

AMERICAN GIRL...

2007-03-21T21:11:00.000-06:00

Robin cashed-in her Christmas present on Sunday and Monday this week. On Christmas morning she opened her gift box to find a gift certificate to the American Girl store in Chicago and a "coupon" good for one free weekend in Chicago with Dad.

Robin has one American Girl doll she calls Riley. Isn't it wrong that a new outfit for a doll costs more than a new outfit for the little girl who owns it? I'm assuming that most of you reading this blog have never set foot in an American Girl store and possibly have no idea what "American Girl" actually is. Dolls. Dolls that every little girl between the ages of 5 and 14 think they need to collect. Dolls that cost upwards of $100.00 each. Dolls who have their own store that little girls and their mothers flock to in order to dispense of fist-fulls of cash on new outfits, hair styling and medical attention... FOR THE DOLL! Oh, and lunch or dinner if you get hungry and have an extra pocket stuffed with cash that is just burning a hole. I've never seen anything like it. I had to go find an out-of-the-way bench to sit on in an effort to stay out of the way of the the zombie-like mothers and daughters pushing their way through the crowds to get to the checkout lines with their arms full of boxes.

...anyway, I survived that and the rest of our trip was fantastic!

We arrived in Chicago at about 11:00am Sunday morning via I-290/Congress Parkway. We headed straight for North Michigan Ave to find parking, have a quick lunch and begin our shopping spree. After a yummy lunch at Big Bowl on East Ohio St. We headed for the American Girl store. After spending more than enough time there (for Dad) we hit a few more stores and then decided we should go check into our hotel. We walked about 6 blocks to East Wacker Dr where we checked into the hotel. We were upgraded to a suite without even asking. I guess because it was a Sunday and they had the extra rooms available. Whatever the reason, it was a very pleasant surprise. We settled in, unpacked our things and rested for a bit before heading out to dinner. It had already been a long day with the 3 1/2 hour drive and then shopping the Magnificent Mile.

1492 Tapas Bar was the destination for dinner. Robin is always eager to try new things to eat, unlike her brother who won't think of touching food that he's never heard of. We had a fantastic dinner and after a stop at Starbucks for a nightcap, we got back to the hotel around 10:00pm to rest up for the next day of shopping and sightseeing.

On Monday we did a little more shopping and then headed for Millennium Park to do some ice skating. We got there, took a few pictures and headed over to the ice rink only to find that we were 1 day late. Sunday had been the last day that the ice skating rink was open for the season. Robin was disappointed for a minute until I turned around and noticed the Sears Tower looming in the distance. "Robin, since we can't ice skate today, how about heading to the 103rd floor of the Sears tower"? She instantly forgot about the ice skating and said "really? Yeah"! So off we headed down Jackson St. The views were great because of the nice, clear day. By the time we reached ground level again, it was getting on in the afternoon so we decided to, once again say goodbye to Chicago and headed toward home. I know Robin really enjoyed her weekend. I lost count of how many times she thanked me in the car on the way home.

I'd like to take my son, Jeremy somewhere this summer but I'm having a really hard time trying to come up with a trip that he would enjoy with Dad. Where the heck do you take a 14 year old that he would enjoy going to with his Dad? I suppose, at that age it's just not cool to hang with your Dad anymore.

SCRATCH -N-DENT...'cept no dent...yet

2007-03-15T17:53:00.000-06:00

It's been 2 years and one month. I got my baby brand new. I've kept her clean, oil changed regularly, tires inflated to the exact PSI, fluid levels full and always garaged. Yes, I admit, I drive like an asshole at times, but I know she likes that. She loves the excitemnet of getting me to work on time when I've spent a little too much time blogging in the morning before leaving the house. I truly believe the love affair is mutual. She's sleek, shiny, handles like a true German machine and loves to pretend she's back home on the autobahn, cruising with her sunroof open and CD player blasting something with a colorful dance beat on a hot, sunny summer day.

Ok, she's only a Jetta, but she has great aspirations for when she grows up.

With it being obvious how I feel about her, you can just imagine how I felt when I walked up to get in during my lunch break one day two weeks ago and saw the scratch. Someone had keyed my baby! I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive that it happened in the parking lot at work. This actually made me feel even worse...to think that someone I work with may have done this. It almost had to be someone who works there because the parking lot is very remote from any streets. She was parked in a lot that only employees park in and there would never be anyone just walking by. it's just too far from anything else and right next to the building. With over 200 people employeed where I work, there are many I don't know who work on the factory floor, and likely don't know me. For now I prefer to believe it was one of them. As far as I know, I have no enemies at all, at work or otherwise. I just don't want to believe it could have been someone who knows me.

I felt sick. The scratch starts at the front fender, inches from the headlight and goes all the way to the back fender and ends just above the tire. This was obviously intentional. There is even a break in the scratch where the sideview mirror sticks out. Then it starts again on the door and continues back.

I know she can be fixed but at a cost to me. In an effort to keep my insurance rates low, I set my deductible at $500.00 when I took out the policy. The repair estimate came in at $1200.00! Her entire driver's side has to be repainted for the job to be done right. I owe her that much, don't I? She's been so good to me. I know she feels scarred and ugly when she goes out now. I'm sure other cars...newer ones, probably look at her and sneer now. "She's damaged goods, showing her age." I'm sure that's what they are saying as she rolls past them. Bitches.

This will not make me love her any less. In fact, to try and help cheer her up, I'll be taking her to Chicago this weekend. My 10 year old daughter, Robin and I have had a "daddy/daughter" weekend in Chicago planned since Christmas. So, Friday after work I'm treating Jetta to a new set of tires and on Sunday morning she and I and Robin are hitting the freeway and not stopping till we see the beautiful Chicago skyline ahead. By then, I'm sure I'll be ready for another Starbucks and we'll both need to use the potty.

See you all when we return!