Tag: iowa

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Road trip 2010


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Last week as I chatted with my newly discovered cousin, Beth, I pulled up Google Maps to get a better idea of where she is geographically. Specifically, I wondered how far she lived from my sister, Mardy. It didn’t take long before I realized that a killer road trip could be devised. My first pass at possible destinations yielded this list (see Glossary if you don’t know any of these names):

  1. Portland: Our home.
  2. San Francisco: Home to Uncle Ralph, Aunt Carol and cousins David and Danielle.
  3. Moreno Valley: Home to Maridee, Steve, Trisha and Michael.
  4. Phoenix: Home to Michelle, Ric, Xander and Wil.
  5. Albuquerque: Home to Jan and Tom.
  6. Austin: One of America’s music capitols. Need to find worthy venues to visit here.
  7. Houston: Home to TQ, Tina’s grandfather.
  8. New Orleans: Another of America’s music capitols. Will probably need a couple of days here. Any suggestions for family friendly spots?
  9. Pensacola: Home to Beth and her family.
  10. Jacksonville: Home to Mike, Micah and his family.
  11. Savannah: Home to Mardy, Steve, Barrett and Kendrick & his family. We should spend at least three days here.
  12. Charleston: My old stomping grounds and historic southern city.
  13. Washington, D.C.: Our nations capitol. We would want to spend more than one day here visiting monuments and historical curiosities.
  14. Philadelphia: A natural follow-up to a visit to D.C.
  15. New York: The boys have a long list of places they want to visit here so this might also take a few days.
  16. Cleveland: Home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  17. Madison: My cousins Dee and Jon live near here.
  18. Riceville: My little hometown where my 25th class reunion will be held in 2010.
  19. Colorado Springs: Tina’s cousins, Natians and Kelly live nearby.
  20. Salt Lake City: Much maligned but beautiful city.
  21. Portland: Our home.

Continue reading “Road trip 2010”

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Christmas Plans for Iowans

If you are free on any of the last days of December, I strongly urge you to go see House of Large Sizes at a venue near you. HoLS is the best Iowa band ever and one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Here’s the four concerts they have scheduled for late December:

  • December 28: Iowa City
  • December 29: Des Moines
  • December 30: Minneapolis
  • December 31: Cedar Falls

Seriously, this band rock like nobody’s business. Go see them!

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Syracuse at Iowa

Tivo has a great feature called “wishlist” that helps you find shows that match the criteria you provide. I have one wishlist that shows me any upcoming programs with the word “Iowa” in the title or description. This lets me keep abreast of of my beloved Hawkeyes during basketball and football seasons (the only sports that really matter). How delighted I was to find that DirecTV had added a channel called the Big Ten Network to their line up and that the Hawkeyes would be playing Syracuse there Saturday night and they will be visiting a special place to Aegis the senior care center.

This was the first Hawkeye football game I’ve seen this season. Here’s a few thoughts I had during the game:

  • This quarterback, Jake Christensen, had a terrible first quarter. Just when I was about to write he was throwing high or behind his receiver every time, he threw a perfect pass to his tight end for the first touchdown of the game. Despite that, he still threw some pretty ugly passes throughout the pass and his receivers saved his ass a few times.
  • I love the “jailbreak screen” play. Along with the full-court press from the Tom Davis basketball years, it’s among my favorite Iowa plays. When they do it right, it’s so unexpected and takes place in the middle of the field.
  • It’s hard to believe both Sims and Young are still in the backfield. It seems like they’ve been playing for this team for many years. Let’s just assume they are seniors and they are playing legally.
  • Sure enough, Christensen overthrew his receiver in the second quarter and it resulted in an interception. Is he this inconsistent all the time?
  • Come third quarter my interest has waned. I suppose I’ll skim the fourth quarter since the scrubs will be playing for the rest of the game.
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Pictures from Iowa

The long weekend gave me some time to catch up on a few things including flipping through some pictures I took in Iowa and Minnesota. You can check them out here.

Update 9/4: This morning I discovered a bunch of pictures that I had not gone through yet. I’ll update the gallery with those soon.

Update 9/5: I added more photos and re-arranged the ones that were there. Some photos are missing captions but it’s mostly done.

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Vital Statistics

Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed last week: 0
Cobs of corn eaten: 12 (approximate)
Aches & pains: none
Current reading:: Metal Cowboy by Joe Kurmaskie
Recent weather: hot, cold, wet, dry (no lightning or thunder)
Recently accomplished: picked and shucked corn, skeet shooting, swimming at Lake Hendricks, water park supervision, visited with various relatives, camping, shopping at Cabella’s
Upcoming To Do: return rental car, shopping at Mall of America, airplane to Portland, drive home from Seattle

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In Iowa for the next 10 Days

In a few minutes, I’ll go jump on the Max which will take me to the Gateway Transit Center where I’m meeting Tina and the boys. From there, we’ll drive to SeaTac where we’ll hop a plane for Minneapolis. The plane gets to Mineapolis around 2 am. After we gather our bags, we’ll take a cab to a nearby hotel where we’ll sack out until about 10. My sister and her family will meet us at hour hotel at 11 and then we’ll continue our journey to my hometown, Riceville, IA.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 1544
Weight lost: 50 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 6
Hours billed last week: 45.5
Aches & pains: sciatic, ankle (slightly yesterday)
Current reading:: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Recent listening: Playlists for Iowa
Recent viewing: Countdown, Gilmore Girls, The Newshour, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show
Recent playing: Pangea Arcade
Recently accomplished: Fixed boomtube, new litter for cat boxes, trimmed and mowed front lawn, cleared Tivo schedule for vacation, pulled blackberries, packing, confirmed and finalized travel plans, tried to fix Thomas’ computer, burned numerous gift CDs, paid bills, recorded movie for Mindy
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, sift through inbox, post office, call Colleen/Kurt, bank deposit, fix Thomas’ computer, drop bike off at Bike Gallery

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Help Pick The Next Book

I expect to finish reading Dandelion Wine this week. After that I’ll be starting one of these books:

 

 

(Click for a larger version)

 

 

Have you read any of these books? Heard anything great about one? Please leave a comment with a recommendation for the next book for me to read. I’ll be taking this book with me on vacation to Iowa next week.