Here are some old blogs from the archives. A note that might help make more sense of these posts: The primary audience was my mother. She was living in Arizona and this was before she was on Facebook. My sister Deb or Mom’s neighbors would print the posts for her to read. Also, note that none of the links from the original posts are active.
April 2005
April 15. We had a great time in AZ. Merge and Pete have promised to visit Iowa this summer while Deb K. is still on the fence. Now what to do with the DVDs and CDs?? We visited the Biosphere 2 on this trip. It was interesting but I still am not sure why anyone built it!
Debbie and I have rescheduled our New York City trip until June. Too much going on and too many people moving in May. We are waiting for Merge and Deb K to commit to a trip back to Des Moines in July and then we will schedule the rest of our vacation time.
April 18. We watched Grease at the DM Civic Center. The “we” included Debbie and me along with Mikki, Aimee, Donna and Mike G. The movie is a long-time favorite of Debbie and her girls. Mike and I actually enjoyed the show too!
April 25. We scored Paul McCartney tickets for his first ever Des Moines concert! The tickets are on the main floor. Don’t ask what they cost. We are going with Luis and Ronna. Luis was able to get them through a special arrangement at work. The seats are to be in rows 5-20 on the main floor. We get special parking and entrance passes along with a laminated ticket and tour “souvenir”. Wow!
Bad movie alert: We tried to watch “Finding Neverland” but bailed out after 30 minutes. See The Notebook instead.
April 28. We just saw our 3rd Rockapella concert in 3 years. I guess that makes us groupies. We enjoy their music and the show continues to get better. The new group members are very talented and the group really clicks.
Our first foray to Joe’s Crab Shack. The occasion was Mikki and Nate’s birthday dinner. Debbie and I ordered chicken. After dinner we watched Aimee perform the obligatory YMCA dance with the wait staff.
April 30. The living room and dining room have been painted. Debbie and I settled on two shades of earth tones (don’t call it brown!). We have so many nooks and crannies and had different shades used in various places in both rooms. The effect turned out to be much more subtle that we envisioned. The shifting shadow and light caused by cloud-filtered sunlight through the numerous windows are more intense than our shading scheme. This is not to say we do not like the results. The finished product is nice and it has given us a strong feeling of ownership. It is more than ownership-we feel at home.
May 2005
May 2. I was planning to call my Mom, sister and both brothers last weekend and didn’t call anyone. On Saturday Debbie and I helped Mike and Linda get ready for an open house and then I went to the Wickett Poker Tournament. (I did not finish in the money but I did play better than in previous tournaments.) On Sunday we finished putting our house back together from the painting then kept Mike and Linda busy while their realtor handled the open house.
May 8. We had Jackson and Allison for the weekend. Neither of the kids got sick (!) but my allergies kicked in so I was a semi-basket case all weekend.
We had a Mother’s Day picnic at the Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines and it was fun. It was 80 and very windy but no rain. Debbie reserved a shelter but with the strong winds, it wouldn’t have done much good in the event of horizontal rain. Luis and I were responsible for the food so we ordered a 6-foot party sub from Hy-Vee and a couple of pies from Bakers Square. I made coleslaw salad and salsa, Luis made brownies and Mikki kicked in pasta salad and some bizarre pastry made with cheese and sour cream that everyone except moi enjoyed. Missing in action were Nate (at his grandmother's), Nick (baseball in Muscatine) and Katie and Chris (on a getaway weekend in Omaha). Bill picked up David at the Homestead and kept an eye on him the whole day. It is nice to have the old Bill back!
I heard from two old friends this week. Harriette and Lori.
Harriette is still in St Paul. She has been very ill but seems to be doing better now. Over 6 years ago she adopted a little boy from Central America (his name is Raphael) and he is now 7 years old. Her phone number is (651) 645-5523. She is not on email.
Katie reconnected with Lori (Simon) Desrosier last week and Lori sent me an e-mail. We have promised to keep in touch better than we have. Her email is john.simon090@sympatico.ca . Also, she mentioned that both Tim and Larry have moved so I will try to track them down.
May 15. Debbie and I came in like the cavalry and helped finish off Donna’s packing. She wisely has “2 Men and a Truck” moving the big stuff although they are sending 3 men because of the piano.
In the meantime, Aimee has moved into her new flat in Valley Junction. It took a bit of elbow grease to get it acceptable but it is clean at this point in time. Debbie and have been trying to recover from the physical work –seems to take longer every year. Next up is helping Mike and Linda move over Memorial Day weekend.
After a few frustrating attempts to order tickets online from the new Iowa Events Center, I was successful. There are many poor websites on the internet and this is one of them. However, we now have 4 tickets to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and The Black Crowes on July 18. We are going with Mike and Linda, although I don’t think Linda knows this yet. This is the first (or one of the first) concerts in the new arena and Mike wanted to go there before the county put in slot machines.
May 22. Mike and Linda sold their acreage the first day it was on the market. They are condo bound! Their beautiful new home is on a golf course and Mike has already volunteered to mow the course while doing Forrest Gump impersonations using his Elmer Fudd voice.
Saturday night we went to the Pedrick’s and had a nice evening with Bill and Debbie and with Doug and Donna Jackson. It has been over 5 years since our CGA days together! Good food, pleasant conversation, and a couple of movies. (sometimes I feel like I am writing the social column in a small town newspaper) Bill P. has installed built-in surround sound in several rooms and also has a ceiling mounted projector and screen. The wiring was cleverly channeled through crown moldings. He designed the component cabinet to be able to be wheeled out for wiring access. Wiring a multi-component system takes a bit of effort to get it right. I know I have spent a lot of time on ours too.
On Sunday, We met Bill, Chris, Katie and the kids for Bill’s family birthday dinner at Garcia’s. Ole!
May 19. I finished the initial website for the Iowa Insurance Hall of Fame. The group likes the direction, and at the big dinner at Drake University, my work projected on a big screen above the podium. Then about 5 minutes before the induction ceremony I was asked to demo the site to the audience of about 150 people. Good thing I like the attention!
I played a round of golf with the IT department. Last year we were out of town during these events so I had not golfed since 2003. It actually was fun but there is no danger of me getting the “golf bug”. It seems like an incredible waste of precious time. After the golf outing I picked up Bill then Debbie and I took him to see Stars Wars III. Great film–ties the storyline together and the special effects were amazing.
May 31. The last weekend in May was a busy holiday weekend: Friday night we watched Jackson and Allison while their parents saw the new Star Wars movie. Chris and Katie gave it two thumbs up.
On Saturday the Robinson’s loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly (Pleasant Hills that is: golf course, walking paths, condo lifestyle–but no movie stars). It will be hard to identify their vehicles without the usual coating of mud and gravel dust. Debbie and I helped out for a few hours Saturday morning. Their boys along with Bill Conroy and Mike Burdette were on top of things when we left. Then Debbie and I went to a wedding (for one of Debbie’s employees) in Oskaloosa with a reception in Pella (this is where they make Pella windows). On the way home, we stopped at the Robinson’s and became their first official guests.
On Sunday we went to Drake University for Amanda’s graduation from Valley High School and Luis and Ronna had a family barbeque at their home. High school graduations are a BIG DEAL in Iowa–I will write about them in a future blog.
Monday morning we met Donna, Luis, and Ronna at the cemetery. As is the family tradition, Debbie brought daisies and Ronna brought peonies. Not much work to cleaning up the graves since we replaced the overgrown shrubs with mugho pines a few years ago. Afterward, Debbie and I picked up David and took him to the Blank Park Zoo. David has been “out of it” the last few months–not very connected but we had a good outing with him nonetheless. Debbie noticed his shoes were too big. Turns out he was wearing shoes that that belonged to somebody else and they were 3 sizes too big for him. We stopped at Wal-Mart and bought him size 7 1/2 W (with Velcro). Add in a grilled cheese and fries at Culvers–David had a pretty good day. We sent Bonnie a birthday card. She will get it late but at least we are getting the cards out this year.
June 2005
June 1. Our monthly association town hall meeting was held on Wednesday, June 1 at the clubhouse. We still have a lot of start-up issues to tackle but the committees are digging into them. Sometimes I want to jump in and do things just to get them done but, older and wiser, I know it is best to let the process work and keep more people involved and connected.
June 3. On Friday we picked up Jackson and Allison and along with Aimee and Isabella, we went to Pizza Hut. We all had a great time and there was plenty to take home for another meal. We forgot Allison’s sippy cup there but I don’t think Katie has missed it yet. Since we had to take the pizza home to the fridge we went to Jordan Creek Town Center and let the kids run semi-wild in the play area.
June 4. Debbie and I drove Mikki to her teacher’s competency exams in Indianola at Simpson College. While she was testing we went looking for an air-conditioner for Aimee’s apartment. we bought two smaller units but ended up taking them back to the store because the wiring in the apartment was wrong. Turns out she needs a 220 volt unit in the living room that can fit in a smaller opening. We bought her a window mounted fan that is reversible she can exhaust the air and cool off the apartment at night.
June 5. We had a family birthday party for Debbie. Donna hosted the gang at her new condo. The layout of the condo is great and there was plenty of room for all. This is a new experience for Mike G and he seemed up to the challenge. I actually surprised Debbie with another Sticks plaque and some collectible glasses with hand-painted daisies from an antique store in Valley Junction. Later that day I hosted a board of directors meeting and Debbie went to the office to work on financials. We both have been really busy at work so the trip to New York later this week is much anticipated. We are staying on the upper west side in the Hotel on the Ave. If you have seen the movie “You’ve Got Mail” we will be in the middle of the locations used in the move, e.g., Zabars, H&H bagels, Riverside Park and Cafe Lalo. We have a list of things to do (in a spreadsheet of course) but the top of the agenda is to relax and take our time.
Friday, June 17. We made it back from NYC in one piece. We got there on Thursday, June 9th and left Tuesday, June 14th. We stayed on the Upper West Side at the “On the Ave Hotel”, 77th and Broadway. Nearby was Zabars, H&H Bagels, Starbucks, Gray’s Papaya, Verdi Square and the Cafe Lalo (all featured in the movie You’ve Got Mail). We were always on the move and in just a few days we walked 47.61 miles, took 12 subway rides, 1 bus ride, and 3 cabs. We went to the American Museum of Natural History (including the Hayden Planetarium), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The USS Intrepid (with a Concorde and SR-71), took a boat cruise around Manhattan, rode to the top of the Empire State Building, made several trips into Central Park, Times Square, Ground Zero, Fox and Friends (we were on TV a lot), Stand Up New York (comedy club) and saw Late Night with David Letterman (it was the taping for Friday’s show and we got a bonus when they re-taped the monologue and top 10 list to add the late breaking Michael Jackson acquittal). While in NYC we saw Nicole Kidman, Mark Wahlberg, Juan Pablo Montoya, Holly Clegg, Brian McKnight. Debbie got Brian McKnight’s autograph. Too much to put in one post so we will type up our travel journal and link it along with some pictures.
June 18. We were planning to watch Jackson and Allison on Saturday morning June 18th while Katie held a garage sale at her house. We ended up watching them a little earlier than planned as we got a phone call from Katie at 3:00 am asking us to get Jackson and Allison ASAP because she needed to get Chris to the hospital. He had been sick for a few days and had gotten worse. We picked up the kids at 3:30 am and brought them to our house. They went back to bed without incident. Chris received an examination in the emergency room. He was re-hydrated via an IV and given some medicine for nausea and pain. Based on the follow-up exams he may have an ulcer and will need to make changes to his diet.
Later that day we went to Robinson’s new house for dinner. Linda’s sister Mary was in town along with her friend Gretchen. The Burdettes were there along with a solo Mike May as Eileen was out of town that day. We had a great time. It was nice to see Mike and Linda entertaining in their new place. We settled on two social events prior to New Years: a Cubs game (Mays to organize) and A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor concert at the Iowa State Fair (Conroys to organize).
June 19. On Father’s day, we had a cookout at our home with Mikki, Aimee, David, Katie and the kids. (Bill has been AWOL for a few weeks.) Everyone had a good time. We ended up in the front yard just hanging out. It was nice to see the families blending together. Katie took David home as we had Mike and Linda coming over in the late afternoon.
Our ultimate destination with the Robinsons was our annual trip to the Des Moines Homebuilders show to gawk at what we expected to be overbuilt and pretentious houses. We were not disappointed. The show was in a subdivision among subdivisions in Waukee located in what recently was a field among fields where sod was grown (as in no trees). The surrounding housing is a mix of apartments and entry-level townhomes along with single-family homes that would sell in the mid 200’s and into the 300’s. The show homes are over 6,000 sq ft finished and since they were on average sized lots and burdened by excessive “ginger breading” it did make the houses look “Great Gatsbyish”. They were listed at $600,000 up to $1,200,000–big prices in Des Moines (and decent starter home prices in California). Nonetheless, we enjoyed exploring the little nuances of the house plans, e.g., indoor basketball courts, sunken home theaters, and my favorite; a hidden poker room accessed by pulling on a switch hidden in a bookcase a-la-Batman. Debbie seemed to be inspired by the simple but effective window treatments in a few of the houses.
Friday, June 24. We went to David’s annual program review. He had a good year and the team made a few minor changes to his program. We took him over to Mike’s (just a couple miles down the road from The Homestead). David appeared to be disoriented by the change but seeing Zeke the cat gave him a target for his anxiety. We fed him at the McDonalds and took him home in time for dinner. We drove to Katie’s to get the kids but due to some unfortunate communication issue Katie, Chris, and the kids had already left to go to dinner. After waiting 45 minutes in the driveway (can anyone see me waiting patiently for 45 minutes?) Katie did call us and we went home to finish preparations for the garage sale.
Saturday, June 25. In preparation for the homeowners association-approved garage sale event, we have been going through closets and our ubiquitous 12-gallon plastic storage boxes with the flip lids. We did not have much stuff for a garage sale due to “Bob & Debbie’s 3 Rules for Uncluttered Living”:
Rule 1. If it hasn’t been used in four seasons and it is not an heirloom or has sentimental value: gift it, sell it, or toss it.
Rule 2. All items have a specific and unique place in space and time where they belong. If not: gift it, sell it or toss it.
Rule 3. Do not bring anything home unless it has a predetermined place in space and time.
Fortunately, with “consignments” from Katie and Mikki we were able to fill more than a few tables. The tedious tethering to the tables was a task that fell mainly to Debbie and Aimee, while I went around to the neighbors in my best hyper kibitzing mode.
Other news in my head:
This week I reformatted over 200 pictures for the website and posted them this week. The reformatting cut the size of the pictures down to 50k to 125k making them quicker to open but still with enough detail to be useful. There are many from the NYC trip and the 2003 archives. I plan to do 2004 archives and even some older years like 2001.
Katie just called and they are near Chicago on their way to Windsor, Ontario. They are staying with her cousin Jennifer for several nights.
That night at the big poker tournament I came in 3rd in the first tournament and I won the second tournament, I didn’t have many good hands but I played what I got very well!
Sunday afternoon June 26. We went to Mikki’s apartment and picked her and Aimee up in the VUE. Our immediate goal was to transverse the south bypass, ignoring the Carlisle exit, and then on to the University exit in Pleasant Hill to pick up Linda. (Mike was in Ohio for a family visit.) Our destination was the art show at the state fairgrounds and, if time and energy permitted, the “fancy schmancy” art show downtown. We were able to do both shows, with Linda and Debbie making small purchases at the first show. We followed up with dinner at the Okoboji Grill near Linda’s home. Aimee was able to order off the child’s menu.