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.
Thursday, September 1. I traveled to Kansas City and back with Linda R. to pick up Mike’s niece, Joey (short for Josephine). Joey and her mother live with Mike’s sister and there have been several health issues in the house. Mike and Linda offered to watch Joey for a couple of weeks to let them “have a break”. We picked up Joey and were about three blocks from her home when she asked, “Are we there yet?” I laughed and gave her the same answer I gave my kids, “Ten more miles!”. She asked again a couple of minutes later and I thought it was going to be a long trip. A few minutes later she was asleep and didn’t wake up until we reached Des Moines. While we were driving home Debbie and Mikki were shopping for clothes and incidentals like “sippy” cups. Debbie gathered up some toys and other items we had around for the grandchildren. It was a well-executed operation. The outcome and has been very good for Joey as well as giving them a break in Kansas City.
Saturday, September 3. Debbie and I hit the garage sale circuit again. No big bargains were found. That night we went to Michael and Daniel Edwards for an open house/lawn party. I played several volleyball games and have the empty Tylenol bottles to prove it. It was very reminiscent of family and friend gatherings from my youth.
Sunday, September 4. We met the Robinsons and Mays at Principal Park for an Iowa Cubs game. There were a few ceremonies and performances in honor of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The paid attendance was announced at over 8,000 but I doubt if there were over 2,000 actually there. Mike M., Eileen and Linda kept score, something I haven’t done since my days in Tiger Stadium over 35 years ago.
After the game, we went home to our second “First Sunday” family event. Mikki and Aimee were already there watching Joey. Katie, Chris, and the kids rolled in soon after. Bill called Katie from work when everyone was either gone or about to leave so he missed the event. Mike and Linda were there with Joey.
Monday, September 5. It was a nice holiday weekend. Busy yet not rushed. Debbie and I have been fighting allergies/colds for a few days. I was much worse than Debbie but finally starting to feel okay today.We heard from Deb K. that Dan and Bonnie have sold their house already. Ray, Deb and Eve are planning to move to Michigan in September.We went to the Rivas homestead for the family birthday party. The sole birthday was Nick’s and it was his 21st birthday. It was the Rivas clan, Donna, Mikki, Aimee and us with enormous amounts of leftover cake.Mikki received grades from her summer courses and has moved her GPA up above 3.7, another indication she has found her happy place. She is now full time with West Des Moines schools and we can tell she loves the work.
September 7. We had our Bridgewood Parks Homeowners association meeting at the clubhouse. There were over 50 people there and that was without a potluck. I ran a tight meeting and got through the agenda in less than an hour.
September 9. Friday afternoon was the IT Departments Golf Outing. There were over 60 golfers and were able to get a shotgun start. I started out with some good shots and faded in the middle. Finally, a member of my foursome reminded me to keep my head down and I started driving the ball again. I am sure these clubs have never been used to their potential after Jack but I do enjoy using them a few times a year.I had to leave the golf outing with three holes to go to pick up Debbie and then head to the Iowa State Fairgrounds. GuideOne had been contacted by the Polk County Health Department for four volunteers to help with an expected planeload of refugees from New Orleans. The TV had been showing pictures of the set up in the Varied Industry building on the fairgrounds. There was provision for 1,000 people including a few acres of cots.We arrived at the fairgrounds and checked in at the security area to get tagged. We walked the few blocks to the Varied Industry building. This is the same building where I saw the President on the day before the 2004 election.We noticed a large number of campers and RV’s in the parking lots around the building. What an amazing response: so many resources put together in just a few days. Then we started noticing dogs around many of the RVs. If there wasn’t a dog there was an empty kennel. As we went in the southeast entrance of the building it was clear what was going on- a dog show was in full swing. The sea of cots had been replaced with thousands of dogs and their owners along with several show arenas. It was a surreal transformation of the space.We spotted some state troopers and National Guard troops in the office area of the building and entered into a much different world from the dog show. There were rooms set up for FEMA, the Red Cross and Polk County Health Department. We checked in at Polk County and started to wait with about 75 other people for word on if Iowa was to receive another group. Earlier that day a small planeload of 20 had been processed through this system.Time started to drag so Debbie and I went out to walk through the dog show. It was like being on the set of the movie “Best in Show”, a great spoof of this kind of spectacle. We learned to be very careful where we stepped as there was much liquid on the floor oozing from some cages. The juxtaposition of the purpose that brought us there (to help the refugees that were left with nothing) to the dogs (with the best in food, health care, and transportation) was enough to make me wonder incessantly about the inane priorities many people have in their lives.It didn’t take long to walk the entire dog show and we went back to the staging area. There was a couple from New Orleans there. They had driven to Des Moines and had been directed to this processing center. They were a middle-aged couple that looked dirty, tired and stunned. He had some blood stains on his shirt but we never did hear their story. After a few papers were filled out they were escorted to a hospital for evaluation and treatment. Eventually, they would be placed in a local hotel.About 8:00 it was announced that no more people were coming to Iowa and we could go home. We were put on a call list just in case they needed us over the next few weeks.
September 10. Linda Robinson’s sister Carolyn from Ohio was visiting. While Mike stayed home and watched a football game (something to do with a school called Ohio State) we went up to Jordan Creek Town Center and quickly settled on PF Changs for dinner. There was no waiting and we were offered a seat outdoors that we took. It was a great evening; good food, good conversation, and a walk around the lake and mall after dinner.Meanwhile back at our home, Mikki was watching Joey. Mikki has a steady and firm approach with kids but her real secret is they get 100% of her attention and respond well to it.September 11. We picked up Mikki then Aimee then David. Our first stop was Applebees by Southridge Mall. While David and the girls ate lunch I ran next door the used CD/DVD store. Next stop was the Des Moines Zoo. The weather was perfect and the zoo had very few people so there were no crowds. We rode the train, fed the goat and fish, watched the giraffes and the monkeys. And of course, we had to check out the big cats for David. We had a big treat watching a Siberian Tiger move around inside as we watched him from only inches away through the glass. These animals are incredibly big and powerful so we were hoping the glass was up to its task. David was having a good day. He was interacted with us, listened to instructions and generally just had a good time.
September 12. The IT Department at work had planned a car wash last Friday to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief. It was rescheduled due to rain. I volunteered and was assigned to the first shift. We got a rhythm going and were knocking out the cars pretty quick. We raised $1,074 dollars!I wore my hiking clothes that are quick drying and very comfortable. This has become somewhat of a new obsession: finding these clothes at clearance prices. The brands include Columbia, Royal Robins, North Face and Woolrich. My best finds have been off-season clearance sales at Dillards and Scheels.
September 14 Merge has decided to move to Des Moines. She will move next spring but the search is on for a garden home in our Bridgewood subdivision. These are really nice homes on one level with vaulted ceilings and an expansive great room design. Some are less than a block from our home.I had a CPCU board meeting at the Iowa Farm Bureau while Debbie attended the IAGDM meeting to give her auditor’s report to the group. Their speaker that night was the mayor of Des Moines, Frank Cownie. Debbie was impressed with his frankness about the situation in New Orleans.
September 16. Mikki came over to go for a walk and next thing you know Mikki, Debbie and I had walked 3 miles.
September 17. Saturday was a clean, laundry, and “honey-do” day. I ended up on the roof to investigate why the dryer was not drying very efficiently. Turns out the vent top was jammed with lint. As soon as I removed a screw that held in a screen an enormous amount of lint came flying out. The air flow immediately increased and dryer was returned to normal operation.One of David’s new adult tricycles is assembled, adjusted and ready to be delivered while the other one is about 75% complete. Getting to him will be a hassle-this is when I miss my truck and van.Debbie and I went to the 6:00 service, and just when I was about to write off the sermon as one of Pastor Mike’s least effective sermons, he ran a clip from Les Misérables on the big screens. Game, set, match!Deb and Ray have found a house to rent in Detroit. I will get a link to the multi-listing posted here soon. They, along with Eve, plan to be moved back to Motown by the end of October.September 18. Debbie and I picked up Allison and Jackson around 11:00 and went to the Art Fair in Valley Junction. We did not find anything that we could not live without. We fed the kids and headed home so Allison could take a nap.Later that afternoon, Aimee, Mikki, Mike and Linda Robinson and their grand-niece Joey came over. The kids play together well, giving the Robinsons a brief respite from Hurricane Joey. Mikki and Aimee were quick to jump in to keep Joey directed and temper tantrum free.Debbie and I fed the crew. The menu was roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, corn on the cob, salad, melon, and grapes. A pleasant time was had by all.I hosted a homeowners association board meeting at my home that night while Saint Debbie drove the kids home.
September 20. We drove to Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis, to attend Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) Institute. I needed the class to maintain my designation and Debbie needed to pass the test to get closer to earning her designation. It was the Commercial Casualty Institute considered by many to be the most difficult of the five institutes. I bought a lot of computer magazines to read during the class while Debbie planned to listen, learn and study in order to pass the test on Saturday.We traded off on the driving and made our obligatory stop at Cabela’s and an outlet mall, both near Owatonna, MN. We found nothing that we needed and nothing we wanted. We rolled into town in the early evening and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. I bought a portable DVD player but was unable to use it on their TV. Their goal was to get the guest to buy movies, i.e., fee income. After ripping us off for many years on long distance charges and internet access, the “hospitality” industry is always looking for new sources, e.g. the $2.50 bottle of water on the dresser.After we unpacked our stuff from our high tech luggage (thank you Eagle Creek) we went to the half-price bookstore in Minneapolis. After a little backtracking, we found an Olive Garden and had dinner.
September 21. We got to the meeting room early enough to get prime seating in the back row. It was a large class with over 120 people spread out in a crescent-shaped room. There were three large flat screen televisions on the set at three angles to give all a view of the screen. It didn’t work as well as a projector and a screen. The curriculum covered basic legal principles related to liability and contract law along with a review of the major liability contacts sold by insurance companies, e.g., commercial general liability, workers comp, business auto, umbrella, etc.We had an early Mexican dinner that night at Chevy’s. It was overpriced and the food was mediocre at best. We went back to the room so Debbie could study while I got us connected to the Internet and check e-mail.
September 22. Day two of the Institute. I was running low on reading material. Debbie had to spend most of the evening in study. We went to the uptown area of Minneapolis to a couple of used music DVD stores. We noticed a storm was coming in. After we left the second store the wind had picked up to the point it was blowing items around in the street. We heard tornado sirens as we went to the car a quickly turned on the radio. The worst of the weather was just a few miles to the north and west of us.
September 23. I went on a journey to the Half Price Book Store northeast of St Paul while Debbie used the afternoon to study. Then we went to IKEA to look at the cool furniture and cleaver displays and had dinner in their low-cost cafeteria. The cafeteria is low priced like a lot of casinos and is intended to attract and keep shoppers in the store. IKEA sits in the parking lot of the Mall of America (insert yawn here) but we did not go to the mall this trip.
September 24. I went on a journey to the Half Price Book Store in Apple Valley while Debbie took the test. On the way back to the motel I called Harriette (Mathers) Petersen, an old friend from high school that lives in St Paul to see if we could get together with her and her family.Debbie and I drove over after the test. Harriett is doing better than when we saw her a few years ago. She has some health issues but she is getting treatment and is in good spirits. Her husband Chris is still in the paper shredding business and their son Raphael is now seven years old. He reminds me of my nephew Danny Krasicky at the same age. Raphael is really into Lego’s so we quickly bonded.
We had lunch at Cafe Latte which is in a quaint part of St Paul. The neighborhood was like Valley Junction meets the Kansas City Plaza. Cafe Latte was a soup, salad and sandwich shop and the food was good. After lunch, we went to Chris’s art studio. He paints oil paintings and we bought one before we left the studio. For dinner we got pizza and ate at their house. We played a game of Clue after dinner with Raphael.Harriett said she would visit us in Des Moines.
September 25. We decided to pass on the Renaissance Festival so we could sleep in, have breakfast at the motel and drive home. Neither of us has been to a renaissance festival so it must not be that important to us. I am allergic to narcissism and I fear a major episode after attending one. Debbie, who always calls a spade a spade, would probably notice a lot of shovels.It rained most of the way home which kept me behind the wheel. The trip went by quickly while we listened to a book on tape called “He’s Just Not That Into You”. Every woman should read or listen to this book.We stopped in Ames to go to Hastings Book Store. This store sells new and used merchandise. College towns (or near a campus) are always the best place for used CD, DVDs, and movies. My theory is it is because the students are using somebody else’s money or student loans to subsidize their lifestyle these items are easily purchased and disposed of for pennies on the dollar.We decided to eat dinner before getting home so we stopped at Culvers on Jordan Creek Parkway, about 2 miles from home. We rolled into the garage with full bellies and it was good to be home. We unloaded and unpacked in our typical hyper-speed and the house was back to normal and laundry was in process before we went to bed.
September 26. A chill out day from the trip. Debbie went out to find curtains for the living room and we prepared the half bath on the main level for painting.We got an e-mail from Ray Krasicky with contact details about their impending move to Michigan. Here is a copy of his message:We are on the move again. This time, back to Southeastern Michigan – for the last time. This moving stuff is tough! Eve (my mother) and I are coming back to Troy, MI by November 1, 2005. Deb will be staying in Arizona for the home sales, final closing and wrapping up of loose ends prior to her returning to Michigan – I anticipate this being in February or March of 2006. This was a complete reversal of roles from the move we made in 1999 to California. Merge (my mother in law) is remaining in AZ for a few months longer. Sometime this Spring, she too will sell her house and move to Des Moines, IA. Much closer than remaining in Casa Grande, AZ, but not as close as the last couple moves. She too will be buying a home in the Greater Des Moines area. Getting the families together for holidays will be more assured than they are at present. We leased a house in Troy – a northern suburb of Detroit, MI for those who live out of state. This lease will give us time to:1) Get the AZ houses sold (money helps), 2) Time to look for a house in an area we want to live in, 3) Do any repairs/updates to that new house and 4) Give me time to find a job in Michigan. The address of the house is: 2051 Saxony Dr. Saxony Dr. is north of Square Lake Rd and east of John R. Rd. Troy, MI 48085 (248)879-2037 – Home # – this number will be valid after 10/7/05. We have cell phones – we are keeping (by the force of Cingular) our AZ numbers until July of 2006 when my contract comes up. The numbers are: Ray – 520-450-2475 Deb – 520-450-2489 Eve – 520-450-2584 My Cox e-mail address will be turned off in a couple weeks – my new e-mail address for now is: krasicky@gmail.com Please start sending all e-mail to that address. I would appreciate it. That is about it. Please keep this message and I know we will be talking in the future. My best to you. Ray
September 27. Debbie painted the bathroom while I went into the office for a meeting. We went to JC Penney’s to get the curtains and rods that Debbie selected on Monday.
September 28. I installed a garbage disposer while Debbie applied a second coat of paint to the bathroom walls. In the afternoon we picked up Bill, had lunch and took him back to the Y. That evening Debbie went with Mikki to the mall to use her gift certificates at Chico’s and Coldwater Creek while I went to an architecture committee meeting for Bridgewood.The garbage disposer was to replace the cheap 3/8 hp unit the builder put in the house (It was not properly grounded either). We did not upgrade the disposer because the builder wanted hundreds of dollars. I figured we would get three or four years out of the cheap unit and it was starting to fail at three years. The new unit is 3/4 hp and I bought it on sale for $90. Note that I did not buy the “Tim the Tool Man Taylor” 5 hp model!
September 29. The Robinson’s invited us over for a party because Joey was returning to Kansas City on Saturday. We picked up Jackson and Allison and drove to their condo. The kids had McDonald's and the adults ate one of Linda’s famous pork roasts. Mikki really wanted to see Joey before she left but had to go to class that night.September 30. Katie was feeling sick so I picked up Jackson at his pre-school. By the time I got him home, Chris was there. We decided to go to the book sale at the fairgrounds with the kids to give Katie some quiet time. The sale had started last Friday and the books were pretty much picked over but Allison found a book and Chris found a few paperbacks. We went to the Five and Dinner and spent a lot of time before, during and after dinner distracting Allison to keep her happy.
October 2005Saturday, October 1. There was a quarterly Homestead Family meeting that we attended. We strapped on one of the 3-wheeled bikes we bought for David to the top of the Saturn VUE. David got a kick out of seeing a bike on top of the car. After the meeting, we picked up Bill and the four of us went to McDonald's then to the Cat-N-Around Cat Show at the state fairgrounds. We didn’t stay long at the show but 30 minutes was long enough for David. We took him home and after that took Bill home. We went grocery shopping for “First Sunday” and finally we went home to chill.
Sunday, October 2. This was our 3rd “First Sunday” where we have a standing invitation to the kids to get together at our home for a meal. The theme this month was Mexican and the time was moved up to noon so we could go to a birthday party for Joey Rivas. After lunch, we tried unsuccessfully to get Allison to take a nap before going to the party.Tuesday, October 4. There was a Bridgewood Parks board meeting at our home. We covered a lot of issues and the meeting was productive. I let them know I would run for the board again.
Wednesday, October 5. There was a homeowners association meeting and potluck at the clubhouse. Our attendance was down to about 30. The variety of food was better than the last potluck. No big issues from the group.Thursday, October 6. I went to lunch with Debbie, one of her employees (Mark Burch) and a marketing rep (Wayne Robertson) from RZ and Associates, a key market for CGA. This is the guy that was going to take us out to lunch when we were in Minneapolis but had to cancel after the storm.Debbie and I went to the visitation for Bud Tilton. Bud was the retired CFO of GuideOne and was one of the first employees of the company. Bud had retired in 1990 and his health wasn’t good even before he retired. We saw a few retirees we hadn’t seen for a while, Max Vail, Phil Vanderhal, Annette Roth, Chad Hensley to name a few.
Friday, October 7. I went to Bud Tilton’s funeral. I saw Ron Wilson there along with most of the people that had been to the visitation. That night Debbie and I watched the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice. This was about 6 hours long and it kept us up past midnight. We both enjoyed the movie.
Saturday, October 8. I spent a couple of hours walking the neighborhood to review the mowing and to discuss plans for snow removal with Charlie our lawn guy and our neighbor Jim Mooradian. We picked up Bill and went to an “establishment” called Orlando’s to watch a friend from work whose band was performing that night. His name is Ben Williams and the band is Sage. They are Grateful Dead meets Phish. One of those “its a small world” stories: Ben grew up in Visalia and knew the Lewis brothers. Luis and Ronna met us there. Debbie and Ronna wanted to visit so badly that they were talking during the sets even though it nearly impossible to hear. We about died on the second-hand smoke. This was not the kind of place where you asked for the non-smoking section. However, the pizza was great and the music was even better.
Sunday, October 9. Ray called just after 9:00 and told us he was already in Iowa. We were expecting him between 1 and 3 but this would put him at our house around noon. I called Bill and told him I needed to either pick him up now or after 1:00 and he chose the former. I drove downtown to get him while Debbie finished the paper, got dressed and tidied up the house.Ray rolled in just afternoon with a big truck and a car trailer on the back. We found a place where he could park the rig. He looked surprisingly well considering the journey.We quickly settled on PF Chang’s for lunch and walked there (yes walked-it was only 4 blocks and the weather was perfect). We went into the restaurant and got on the list to be seated (15-minute wait) and before our eyes had adjusted to the lower light levels this person came up to me saying “Hello Uncle Bob”. It was Tiffany Conroy–what a small world! I don’t think I would have recognized her. Her hair is long with a tight curl and it has a reddish color too. But the most significant change is she has lost a lot of weight. She looks great. She is excited about finishing school next spring and moving back to Des Moines to her own apartment.Mikki and Aimee were waiting for us when we walked home and met Ray. Chris, Katie and the kids came over and we had a good old-fashioned Conroy spaghetti and meatballs dinner that evening. Ray got to bed at a reasonable time since he had two more days of driving ahead of him.
Monday, October 10. Ray got an early start on the road. He followed us to the Perkins by I-80 where we stopped to have breakfast. This was after letting the diesel engine warm up for 20 minutes or so. Ray said he was getting at least 7 miles to the gallon which I thought was pretty good considering the weight. I remember cars in the 60’s that didn’t do any better.I got a call from Syd Vanderlinden. He was back into town and missed Bud’s funeral. He reminded me that the retiree’s luncheon was today and invited me to join him which I did. I sat between Bob Meyers and Syd. I got to visit with Jim and Kay Bottenfield and a little with Max Vail. Amy Plymat was at our table too.We picked the kids up after work and brought them to our house. Allison was tired and fell asleep in the car. Jackson wanted to play with the “Little People” set and by the time I got it out, Allison wanted to play with it too. Debbie and I tag-teamed playing with the kids while preparing dinner. Dinner was the leftovers from last night so it wasn’t too difficult. (We could use a second microwave.)A little after 7:00 we loaded up the car and went to pick up Bill. We gave have a ride home then took the kids home. I fell asleep on the way home so it was fortunate that Debbie was driving.
Thursday, October 20. Today was the day to start taking the pills and drinking the fluids to clean out my system for a colonoscopy. I had only heard horror stories of how awful tasting the liquid was required in the “old days”. Apparently, the pills were a newer method, and while the experience was just slightly above miserable, it was not as bad as others had warned me about.
Friday, October 21. We arrived at the medical center at 6:45 am. I checked in and was almost immediately called back. I was led to a small examining room and given a couple of hospital gowns to wear. The instructions were to put one on the front and one on the back to keep warm. Seems like they could make one that covered a whole body. I was given a plastic bag for my clothes. I tied my shoes to the bag and the nurse that it was cleaver and showed some other nurses.A nurse started an IV and shortly after that Debbie was escorted back. We didn’t visit long before I was on the move to a procedure room.Debbie and I said our goodbyes as we passed by the exit to the waiting area. When we moved into a common hall outside the procedure room the nurse stopped and acted confused. Nothing was posted as it was supposed to be on the dry erase board that was used to assign doctors and patients to the appropriate room. Seconds later a duty nurse came out from an office and filled in the board.Fairly confident that I was in the right room I tried to relax as the nurse continued to prep me and the room. The doctor arrived about 10 minutes later, introduced himself, asked me to roll to my left side and next thing I know I am next to Debbie in recovery. I had no sense of time and it seems like we were in the car just a few minutes later but hours had passed since the procedure began. Debbie said I refused to take the elevator and almost fell down the stairs on the way to the car. I went to bed and sleep most the day and into the night. By Saturday felt like I was back to normal. The good news was no need for a follow up for 10 years!
Saturday, October 22. Ray was back in town for his second run through Iowa. Chef Robert with the assistance of his lovely sidekick Debbie prepared a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, Noodles, stuffing and various sides. Along with the family, we had Mike and Linda over for dinner. They know Ray from the Colorado trips and Ray is one of Mike’s official Flunkies.
October 27. Debbie and I both left work early to get ready for the Paul McCartney concert. Debbie and Ronna consulted with each other on what to wear. Luis and I just took our chances.We picked up Luis and Ronna at their home and drove a few miles to Mustard’s in Windsor Heights for dinner. Originally we thought about eating downtown, but there really are not that many places to eat down there (not enough for a large concert crowd) and we were too small of a group to get reservations. Mustard’s was a great choice. We enjoyed the pizza, sandwiches, and fries.Luis had a plate of deep-fried sugarcoated dough balls for dessert. I tried one and recalled eating something similar when I was a kid. In fact, I may have considered them a food group when I was younger. I think we used the dinner roll dough that came in tubes from the dairy case and dropped them into a giant deep fat fryer that had a permanent place on the countertop. I assumed every home in America owned one. As an adult, I had a Fry Daddy under the sink that came out for an occasional feast of homemade fries made with a waffle cut – the kind you can get a Chic-Fil-A. My eating habits have greatly improved as I have aged and there is nothing in our home that is intended to deep fry food. But in an emergency, I am sure I could improvise!After dinner, Luis guided us through some urban back roads to a parking lot owned by his employer, Allied Insurance. We were able to use his pass to park only two blocks from the Arena. Our ticket package was worth the extra expense. We had VIP entrance passes, which allowed us to avoid at least an hour in line. Our tour souvenir was a black nylon bag with the tour logo embroidered on the outside. The bag can be used as a briefcase or a laptop computer case.Then we were dumped into the hallway that wraps around the arena with the concession stands. What a mess, there were too many people. No wait, the people were exactly what the arena was designed for, it was the hallway that was too small of an area. An obvious compromise was made to control cost when the hallways were designed.We took the first doorway that led to the floor and started to run into friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Our seats were great-about 12 rows back from the stage and in the middle section.Wow! What a concert. The sound quality was first class and the set was unbelievable with screens that went from the stage to the ceiling. The Live and Let Die set included pyrotechnics that covered the entire set in flame. Sir Paul McCartney and band played for over three hours non-stop. Paul never left the stage.The playlist was 38 songs long and included pre-Beatles, Beatles, solo work, Wings and 3 songs from his new album, Chaos and Creation. Our favorites were Hey Jude, Yesterday, Drive My Car, Fine Line and Let It Be. Other observations include the noticeable absence of the marijuana cloud that permeated the Wells Fargo Arena during the Black Crowes/Tom Petty concert.We had predetermined that none of the boorish rock concert behavior of the audience would take away from the experience. Apparently, some people can’t go a couple of hours without beer and made numerous trips before and during the concert to get a beer and then to visit the bathroom.We had a group next to us that could have been extras from the TV show Roseanne. They were from Waterloo and acted like they were in a honky-tonk bar. The guys were wearing clothes acquired at various Jimmy Buffet concerts and their women were decked in their finest barmaid clothes that exposed oversized tattoos. They wore excessive amounts of costume jewelry.Of course, the beer was spilled and we stood on beer-soaked floors during most of the concert. Both Debbie and I smelled vomit near the end of the concert. Since we expected this and, in fact, it was far better than we expected, we didn’t let it affect our enjoyment of the concert.Sir Paul promised to return to Des Moines again. If not, Debbie and I plan to travel to see him on his next tour.
October 28. Bill and I helped Luis put in a brick patio in his backyard. The project went well. He had it staked out and had 40 bags of sand along with the bricks. We spread the sand then screened it to get it to the right level. We all felt a sense of accomplishment when the first course was laid, enough to go to Taco Bell for lunch. It took about 4 hours and a trip to Menards to get 10 more bags or sand to finish the job. Bill hung out with us the rest of the day. We went to Z’Marik’s for dinner then to Jordan Creek. Bill and I got haircuts and we all walked the mall a few times. We stopped at Wal-Mart so Bill could get some groceries.
October 29. The Wickett Poker Tour was back in action. I went to the ring game at 3:00 PM. There were 7 of us in the ring game and we played until 6:30. I was never ahead and greatly recovered in one hand near the end. In the first tournament game, I finished 10 which was good enough to get me in the top 10 for the year. I skipped the second tournament and got home just after 11:00 pm.
October 30. We went to The Lane’s to go Trick or Treating with the kids. Allison was a cute little dinosaur and Jackson was Anakin Skywalker, complete with lightsaber. We walked for many blocks and finally made it to Tanya’s. Tanya was the little girl that appeared in our sandbox back in 1981 in Carlisle. Her mom worked days and her dad worked nights and was supposed to be watching her but she was often at our house. She is the girl I pulled out the house fire in 1989 just before the move to California.
November 2005November 4. Debbie had lunch with Debbie Pedrick and Marilyn Paul.
November 5. Dan and Rick Conroy arrived with a big truck, a trailer hauling a pickup (Rick’s truck), another pickup (Dan’s driven by Rick) and a dog named Billy. I sent him down the street to the same place Ray parked his two trucks. I wondered if the neighbors were curious about these fleet of trucks passing through the neighborhood. We were low key as they were tired. Bill spent the night at our house too.
November 6. Chris, Katie and the kids along with Mikki and Aimee were at our home most of the day. It was “First Sunday” and we made a big batch of chili and had cold cuts too. The poker chips were dusted off and there was a poker game that went on for hours. Julie and John Conroy came over later in the day. I took pictures of the cousins together. It had been over 14 years since these four had been together!
November 7. We were up early to see Dan and Rick off to Michigan. They were planning to drive to Joliet, get a room and drive the pickup to downtown Chicago. As soon as they left I hurried to a hotel where an agent, Gordon Johnson was staying. I had a consulting gig with him to put together a business plan for a start-up church insurance agency based in northern California. I got there right on time and drove him to the Home Office. I immediately liked the guy and knew we would have a productive time. He was new to insurance but was a former church administrator so he knew the market and had great business sense. Debbie took us, along with Al Socarras, to dinner as a CGA business event. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and once again neither Debbie or I ordered the cheesecake (too many Weight Watcher Points!).
November 8. Picked up Gordon Johnson again. We had a productive day. We got his 10-year plan into writing and did a SWOT analysis. He was a good student and I continued to pile information into him. Debbie and I took him to Z’Marik’s (our neighborhood noodle bowl place) for dinner.
November 9. Took Gordon Johnson to the Home Office. He had appointments all day with people throughout the building. I went to a CPCU board meeting at Farm Bureau and came back to the office to make sure he had a ride back to the hotel. Nobody had invited him to dinner that night so Debbie and I took him to El Rodeo.
November 10. The big CPCU I-day event was downtown at the Embassy Suites. The traffic was a little backed up where three lanes cut to two but once past there it was smooth sailing. The meeting was well attended by over 200 people and the program was great. I got back to the office in time to go to a bowling event for the IT department. I rolled a 134 and a 168. That night Debbie and I went to Jackson’s martial arts class to watch him do his moves.
November 12. Debbie got up early on a Saturday to have her hair done and to go shopping. This was her second appointment with Al and she is very pleased with his work. Her hair was layered and the color is now stable. She went shopping with Mikki. Meantime, bill and I worked around the yard cleaning up branches that were covering a bike path and shoveled out a drainage ditch behind the house. Bill went to church with us at Hope and seemed to enjoy it.
November 14. Debbie had lunch with Ronna. Ronna came over to the GuideOne office which was a great choice since the food is free. I went to the Val Air Ballroom and bought 8 tickets for our New Years Eve dinner and dance. The headliner this year is Paul Revere and the Raiders.
November 15. The first big storm of the season blew in and the poker game has been canceled. With poker in our blood, Don Page and I went to Prairie Meadows and played for a few hours. We both lost and about the same amount. Debbie decided she didn’t want to scramble to get to Omaha for the class and then have to be able to take a test on Friday. Now we have a dilemma – do we go to work or take the time off as a vacation? We pondered this for about 2.3 milliseconds and opted for the vacation time.
November 16. Chill out day number one. I read “Freakonomics” and Debbie finished “Blessings” by Anna Quindlin. What a relaxing day. We got few telephones calls since most thought that we out of town. I worked on the 2005 picture collage a little, we made use of the whirlpool bath. For dinner we planned on a pizza from “Nick and Willie’s” but we got there a few minutes after it closed. Not to worry- on to Jordan Creek Mall with its dozens of eating options. Debbie went to subway and I got a sandwich from the Chic-Fil-A that opened last month in the food court. We walked the mall a little and headed home for a movie. Debbie picked “The Five People You Meet In Heaven”. It was okay- the acting and overall quality of the movie was much higher than I expected.
November 17. Chill out day number two. Road trip to Ames, Iowa to visit used CD and DVD stores near the ISU campus. This was the substitute for the few free days I was going to have in Omaha while Debbie was in class or studying. Our latest obsession is to collect the top 100 selling albums of each decade for the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. We already have quite a few on the list for the 60’s and 70’s thanks to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel. This top 100 quest has given us some more items to search for and may expand our musical taste a little although I doubt that we will become rap fans. Four stores later we ended the day’s search with 17 CDs to add to the collection.We stopped at Hickory Park Barbeque in Ames for a late lunch but the wait to even get your name on the waiting list was too long for us. Instead, we stopped in Ankeny on the way home and ate a new Mexican restaurant. I picked the move and selected “The Notebook”- one of our favorite movies.
November 18. Chill out day number three. Today was the opening day for “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. We went to a 10:30 am matinee (about 75 others in the theatre). Great movie! Much darker and scarier than the earlier Harry Potter movies. The screenplay was superb, the acting excellent and the special effects were brilliant! We shared a Subway then went back to the theatre for another matinee. We watched “Shopgirl” a movie written, produced and starring Steve Martin. After the movie, we went to the winter concert and fireworks at the mall. We made homemade chicken fajitas then Debbie demolished me in a game of Scrabble.
November 19. Chill out day number four. Debbie started tackling the laundry (she enjoys it!) and I got back to work on the 2005 picture collage. The college is the fifth in a series of annual collections of pictures, ticket stubs, and other items to document our memories for the year. The college is not as detailed as the journal in the movie “The Notebook” but maybe just as useful. Besides, we have this blog too.It had seemed to us that we had not been traveling as much this year but we have been to Kansas City, Phoenix, Omaha, New York City and three trips to Minneapolis. I guess we were missing the mountains.Katie and Chris brought Jackson and Allison over so we could watch them while they went out. Their “date” did not go as planned. The restaurants were packed and the lines for Harry Potter were long just for the opportunity to buy tickets. Allison was fussy most of the night but when she got her way she was okay. Jackson spelled out most of the words in a pack of vocabulary flashcards. His five-day-a-week preschool has been very beneficial and he is making great academic progress.
November 20. Transition day number one. The chill out days are over and we are getting back to the normal routine. We picked David up and went to a few stores and then to lunch at Culvers. Visits with David continue to be pleasant as his behaviors are under control and he listens well. Sunday night is reserved for Gray’s Anatomy a show that both Debbie and I like to watch. It has replaced “Judging Amy” as our only must-see TV.
Thursday, November 24, 2005 Thanksgiving Day was at our house again. I prepared a traditional turkey dinner and each family brought a side dish or two. We had a nice day together. Later Linda Robinson, Mike’s sister Marion and her daughter Libby and Libby’s daughter Joey joined us. Mike was in Ohio at his mother's house.
Friday, November 25, 2005, The Shopping Adventure. I suggested to Debbie that we go out early and witness the craziness as people go after the early bird specials. To my surprise, she agreed. We got up shortly after 4:00 am dressed and went to the Wal-Mart in Windsor Heights. We entered the store at 4:45 and quickly assessed that we would need to split up if we were to have a chance for the specials. Debbie went back to where the camera and computers were. I hung out by a pallet of LCD TVs. Debbie was able to get a camera (a Christmas present for Chris and Katie) but tickets for the computers had been given out to people that had been in line for over 8 hours. I got a TV and a DVD recorder. We met up in the middle of the store but the isles were so packed with people and merchandise we were unable to actually get next to each other. We agreed to meet at the register and checked out in a short time.Our next stop was next door at Sam’s Club. Nothing caught our eye and we were out of there in just a few minutes.Our next stop was Younkers at Merle Hay Mall. Debbie was checking out some jewelry specials while I went looking for a set of kitchen knives. We both were successful and I brought the knives to the jewelry department for a quick checkout.Next was Sears for a few tools I wanted that were in the add. Very crowded but we got the tools then headed to less crowded men’s department for checkout.Our next planned stop was the Clive Menard’s but as we could see the parking lot from a distance it was a total nightmare. Completely full dozens of cars circling for a spot, cars parked just about anywhere. Chris reported later that the same scenario played out at his store in Des Moines.We moved on to the new Target in the West Glens shopping center. Not at all crowded and we picked up a few specials.Down the road, we went to Best Buy at the Jordan Creek Town Center. We got a great picture printer for Debbie and I got a 1 gig flash drive for $22.Time for breakfast but Camille’s didn’t open until 8:00 and it was still only 7:45. We went home and I made a big breakfast for the two of us. After breakfast, we went back to bed for 3 hours.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005. We went to the Homestead to pick up Poinsettias. We took David out to dinner.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005. We had Allison and Jackson over. We really enjoy spending time with them!
December 2005Thursday, December 01, 2005 Our master association held a Christmas party in the Bridgewood clubhouse. Debbie and I were among the youngest of the 100+ people there. We chit-chatted, ate a whole lot of food that was not good for us then sang Christmas carols.
Saturday, December 03, 2005 This was Allison’s 2nd birthday. We combined it with our First Sunday dinner so Mikki and Aimee were both there too. Allison enjoyed opening her gifts. We had pizza from Costco and Katie brought a small cake.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005 Board meeting more on this later
Saturday, December 10, 2005. Debbie had an 8:00am hair appointment. Her new hairdresser, Al, does a great job with her hair. We had a conflict with giving gifts at the Blessing Bin/ Good Samaritan to the family we help along with the Rivas’ and David’s Christmas party. Of course, we went to David’s Christmas party after dropping off the gifts we bought at Ronna’s. Mikki and Aimee came with us to David’s party.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005. Debbie and I went to the IAGDM Holiday Meeting. It was at Christopher’s in Beaverdale. This is one of the oldest and finest restaurants in Des Moines. We sat next to Marilyn Paul and the Lussems. Marilyn has her hands full caring for her aging parents. Ted Lussem received yet another award during the meeting.
Thursday, December 15, 2005.Debbie and I stopped at an open house for Smart Management, our property management company for Bridgewood Parks. We have another “Iowa is a small town” story. It turns out that Marilyn the accountant at Smart Management has been best good friends with Joyce Edwards a co-worker at GuideOne since high school. Joyce is the mother of Michael Edwards who started with CGA 10 years ago. Small world!
Saturday, December 17, 2005. after numerous attempts to find a common time for this meeting we met at noon at my house. The meeting was cordial and productive. I agreed to be president one more year.
Sunday, December 18, 2005. Mikki and Nate to the airport. They left for central Florida to spend two weeks with Nate’s mother, stepfather, and half-sister.
Monday, December 19, 2005. Jackson’s preschool held their Christmas play at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale. There were several hundred parents, grandparents, and siblings at the event. They sang several songs and the Christmas story was done as a PowerPoint narrative with pictures of the children dressed in traditional nativity scene clothing. Jackson was cast as Joseph and played to the camera (as usual). We got a DVD of the event if anyone wants to see it.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005. We picked up the kids after work and went to IHOP to eat while Katie and Chris went to see Harry Potter. It was kid’s night at the IHOP and there was a somewhat annoying guy going around to the kids making balloons. Allison was a bit fussy at dinner but quickly settled into a good mood. This I HOP, while only a few years old, is already quite dirty. The nearby Perkins is just as bad. In fact, all of the IHOPs, Perkins and Village Inns in Des Moines are quite dirty. Is this a common trait of the breakfast restaurants?On to the Jolly Holiday Lights display at Water Works Park. Jackson and Debbie had been to this in the past but for Allison and me it was a new experience. It was pretty cool with dozens of display spread out over a couple of miles. In the end, there was an ice sculpture garden with over 60 tons of sculpted ice. It was a nice experience and the kids enjoyed it.We took the kids to our home as they were spending the night. We had an enjoyable and quiet evening and they both went to sleep at their normal times.
Thursday, December 22, 2005 Rise and shine with the kids! Wow, they both slept through the night. This was the first time since Allison arrived on the scene. This is a good development as Debbie and I are getting too old to get up several times during the night and still function well the next day.We started the day with a big breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon. Then we got down to the serious business of playing. It was a train day. The Lego train set and a small mountain of Legos were deployed in the sunroom. The other train set was assembled in the living room. This is the train set that comes with a microphone that allows a child to start or stop the train with voice commands. Jackson played with it for many hours when he was younger but he outgrew it last year. Allison enjoyed playing with it and Jackson found himself drawn back to it sometimes to help Allison and other times to take control.Aimee came over in the afternoon and Debbie, Aimee and Jackson made and decorated Christmas cookies while Allison took a nap. I was running an errand for Linda Robinson but got back in time to sample the cookies. We dropped the kids off with Chris at 4:00. Went to see Kong
Friday, December 23, 2005. I picked Bill up and we went downtown to the courthouse to pay off his overdue traffic ticket. Next stop was the DOT to get his license reinstated. Later that day Debbie and I dropped off a digital camera we bought for Katie and Chris with them so they could take it to Sioux City. Then we headed to Donna’s for Ronna’s birthday party. It was the traditional spaghetti and meatballs dinner. There was enough food for all!
Saturday, December 24, 2005. Christmas Eve services at Lutheran Church of Hope were amazing. Bill, Donna, Debbie, and I went together. As we got into the parking lot a friend from work who was directing traffic and advised us that the sanctuary was already full and we should head to the chapel. Turns out the chapel filled, the gymnasium filled and a large classroom -probably over 2,000 people. This was just 1 of 8 services being held for Christmas Eve! It was an outstanding sermon-Pastor Mike is a true phenomenon.
Sunday, December 25, 2005. Christmas Day 2005. This was the 5th Christmas for Debbie and me. The time is flying by too fast.We heard from Katie in the morning from Sioux City. Chris is feeling better but Jackson seems to have come down with a cold. Katie thought that only Allison got a good night’s sleep. They are staying one more night in Sioux City before coming home. We will have Christmas with them and Mikki and Nate on January 15.Mikki called and sounded a little homesick. In case she likes it too much down there we plan to talk a lot about hurricanes in front of her throughout 2006.I picked up Bill downtown and we went on out to The Homestead to get David. David was ready to go including his medications for the next 24 hours. When we got back home Bill watched David while I made a batch of my salsa. Debbie had everything else ready to go for the noon kickoff.Then Ronna called at 11:25. They would be late, in fact, they were just having showers and getting dressed. Donna called at 11:55 and said she would be late. Aimee didn’t call but was 20 minutes late and the first to arrive.We got a call from Merge and Deb. I was careful not to inquire about the weather. That open our gifts as instructed on Christmas day. Merge was gifted with many meals from Red Lobster. We gave Deb the 9th and final season of Little House on the Prairie. She said it included a comprehensive book about the series and the people in the show. I still have the eight season here as it is unclear if she has it or not. This will be something to investigate after she moves to Michigan and settles into a (more) permanent living arrangement. (Do nomads use the term “home”?) Merge is planning to stay in Arizona for now.We kicked it off late but everyone appeared to have a good time. We played several games: Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture versions 1 and 2 on DVD, Family Feud on DVD and Catch Phrase.During the day Mikki called and was passed around. Sharon called from Durango and was subjected to the same treatment.The party ended around midnight. David, no slave to etiquette, found a cozy place on the living room couch long before everyone left. Debbie had covered him with a down filled comforter and he looked content enough to spend the night there. I did wake him however and led him to the futon in the extra bedroom we call the toy room. He slept through the night without a peep.
Monday, December 26, 2005. I was the first one up but not by much as David came upstairs before I finished reading the paper. I started making a breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes and, bacon. David enjoyed the food which brings joy to the heart of a cook. Debbie “I’ll just have a piece of toast” joined us in time to watch the food disappear. We took David home than went back home to clean up the place after all of the recent company.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005. It was back to work. After work, we watched the kids for a few hours. I picked them up and Debbie got him shortly from work. We made them dinner and had just settled down to play when Chris came to pick them up. Just as Chris arrived Bill called with the results of the test he took with the Army.We called Bill back after Chris and the kids left. Bill scored high on his exam (no surprise) and will have many opportunities available to him. He will find out next week what will be offered and when he will start.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005. Another stop at the Half-Price Bookstore to look for more CDs on the buy list while the sale was still on. Debbie and went up to the clubhouse and exercised then went home and played cards and dominoes.
Thursday, December 29, 2005. I went to the movies with Mike Robinson, Bill Conroy, and Ryan while Debbie went shopping with Aimee. I picked up the boys early and we went to P F Changs for dinner. Mike met us at home and went to see Munich. Great movie based on a tragic story.
Saturday, December 31, 2005, Another New Years at the Val-Air Ballroom and, as always, a lot of fun. The same group, the Conroys, the Mays, the Burdettes and the Robinsons did our lemming like return to the ballroom and shuffled on the dance floor after gorging on the great food catered by Christiani’s VIP Catering Service, LTD. (deja vu all over again) The featured band was Paul Revere and the Raiders.
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.
Thursday, September 1. I traveled to Kansas City and back with Linda R. to pick up Mike’s niece, Joey (short for Josephine). Joey and her mother live with Mike’s sister and there have been several health issues in the house. Mike and Linda offered to watch Joey for a couple of weeks to let them “have a break”. We picked up Joey and were about three blocks from her home when she asked, “Are we there yet?” I laughed and gave her the same answer I gave my kids, “Ten more miles!”. She asked again a couple of minutes later and I thought it was going to be a long trip. A few minutes later she was asleep and didn’t wake up until we reached Des Moines. While we were driving home Debbie and Mikki were shopping for clothes and incidentals like “sippy” cups. Debbie gathered up some toys and other items we had around for the grandchildren. It was a well-executed operation. The outcome and has been very good for Joey as well as giving them a break in Kansas City.
Saturday, September 3. Debbie and I hit the garage sale circuit again. No big bargains were found. That night we went to Michael and Daniel Edwards for an open house/lawn party. I played several volleyball games and have the empty Tylenol bottles to prove it. It was very reminiscent of family and friend gatherings from my youth.
Sunday, September 4. We met the Robinsons and Mays at Principal Park for an Iowa Cubs game. There were a few ceremonies and performances in honor of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The paid attendance was announced at over 8,000 but I doubt if there were over 2,000 actually there. Mike M., Eileen and Linda kept score, something I haven’t done since my days in Tiger Stadium over 35 years ago.
After the game, we went home to our second “First Sunday” family event. Mikki and Aimee were already there watching Joey. Katie, Chris, and the kids rolled in soon after. Bill called Katie from work when everyone was either gone or about to leave so he missed the event. Mike and Linda were there with Joey.
Monday, September 5. It was a nice holiday weekend. Busy yet not rushed. Debbie and I have been fighting allergies/colds for a few days. I was much worse than Debbie but finally starting to feel okay today.
We heard from Deb K. that Dan and Bonnie have sold their house already. Ray, Deb and Eve are planning to move to Michigan in September.
We went to the Rivas homestead for the family birthday party. The sole birthday was Nick’s and it was his 21st birthday. It was the Rivas clan, Donna, Mikki, Aimee and us with enormous amounts of leftover cake.
Mikki received grades from her summer courses and has moved her GPA up above 3.7, another indication she has found her happy place. She is now full time with West Des Moines schools and we can tell she loves the work.
September 7. We had our Bridgewood Parks Homeowners association meeting at the clubhouse. There were over 50 people there and that was without a potluck. I ran a tight meeting and got through the agenda in less than an hour.
September 9. Friday afternoon was the IT Departments Golf Outing. There were over 60 golfers and were able to get a shotgun start. I started out with some good shots and faded in the middle. Finally, a member of my foursome reminded me to keep my head down and I started driving the ball again. I am sure these clubs have never been used to their potential after Jack but I do enjoy using them a few times a year.
I had to leave the golf outing with three holes to go to pick up Debbie and then head to the Iowa State Fairgrounds. GuideOne had been contacted by the Polk County Health Department for four volunteers to help with an expected planeload of refugees from New Orleans. The TV had been showing pictures of the set up in the Varied Industry building on the fairgrounds. There was provision for 1,000 people including a few acres of cots.
We arrived at the fairgrounds and checked in at the security area to get tagged. We walked the few blocks to the Varied Industry building. This is the same building where I saw the President on the day before the 2004 election.
We noticed a large number of campers and RV’s in the parking lots around the building. What an amazing response: so many resources put together in just a few days. Then we started noticing dogs around many of the RVs. If there wasn’t a dog there was an empty kennel. As we went in the southeast entrance of the building it was clear what was going on- a dog show was in full swing. The sea of cots had been replaced with thousands of dogs and their owners along with several show arenas. It was a surreal transformation of the space.
We spotted some state troopers and National Guard troops in the office area of the building and entered into a much different world from the dog show. There were rooms set up for FEMA, the Red Cross and Polk County Health Department. We checked in at Polk County and started to wait with about 75 other people for word on if Iowa was to receive another group. Earlier that day a small planeload of 20 had been processed through this system.
Time started to drag so Debbie and I went out to walk through the dog show. It was like being on the set of the movie “Best in Show”, a great spoof of this kind of spectacle. We learned to be very careful where we stepped as there was much liquid on the floor oozing from some cages. The juxtaposition of the purpose that brought us there (to help the refugees that were left with nothing) to the dogs (with the best in food, health care, and transportation) was enough to make me wonder incessantly about the inane priorities many people have in their lives.
It didn’t take long to walk the entire dog show and we went back to the staging area. There was a couple from New Orleans there. They had driven to Des Moines and had been directed to this processing center. They were a middle-aged couple that looked dirty, tired and stunned. He had some blood stains on his shirt but we never did hear their story. After a few papers were filled out they were escorted to a hospital for evaluation and treatment. Eventually, they would be placed in a local hotel.
About 8:00 it was announced that no more people were coming to Iowa and we could go home. We were put on a call list just in case they needed us over the next few weeks.
September 10. Linda Robinson’s sister Carolyn from Ohio was visiting. While Mike stayed home and watched a football game (something to do with a school called Ohio State) we went up to Jordan Creek Town Center and quickly settled on PF Changs for dinner. There was no waiting and we were offered a seat outdoors that we took. It was a great evening; good food, good conversation, and a walk around the lake and mall after dinner.
Meanwhile back at our home, Mikki was watching Joey. Mikki has a steady and firm approach with kids but her real secret is they get 100% of her attention and respond well to it.
September 11. We picked up Mikki then Aimee then David. Our first stop was Applebees by Southridge Mall. While David and the girls ate lunch I ran next door the used CD/DVD store. Next stop was the Des Moines Zoo. The weather was perfect and the zoo had very few people so there were no crowds. We rode the train, fed the goat and fish, watched the giraffes and the monkeys. And of course, we had to check out the big cats for David. We had a big treat watching a Siberian Tiger move around inside as we watched him from only inches away through the glass. These animals are incredibly big and powerful so we were hoping the glass was up to its task. David was having a good day. He was interacted with us, listened to instructions and generally just had a good time.
September 12. The IT Department at work had planned a car wash last Friday to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief. It was rescheduled due to rain. I volunteered and was assigned to the first shift. We got a rhythm going and were knocking out the cars pretty quick. We raised $1,074 dollars!
I wore my hiking clothes that are quick drying and very comfortable. This has become somewhat of a new obsession: finding these clothes at clearance prices. The brands include Columbia, Royal Robins, North Face and Woolrich. My best finds have been off-season clearance sales at Dillards and Scheels.
September 14 Merge has decided to move to Des Moines. She will move next spring but the search is on for a garden home in our Bridgewood subdivision. These are really nice homes on one level with vaulted ceilings and an expansive great room design. Some are less than a block from our home.
I had a CPCU board meeting at the Iowa Farm Bureau while Debbie attended the IAGDM meeting to give her auditor’s report to the group. Their speaker that night was the mayor of Des Moines, Frank Cownie. Debbie was impressed with his frankness about the situation in New Orleans.
September 16. Mikki came over to go for a walk and next thing you know Mikki, Debbie and I had walked 3 miles.
September 17. Saturday was a clean, laundry, and “honey-do” day. I ended up on the roof to investigate why the dryer was not drying very efficiently. Turns out the vent top was jammed with lint. As soon as I removed a screw that held in a screen an enormous amount of lint came flying out. The air flow immediately increased and dryer was returned to normal operation.
One of David’s new adult tricycles is assembled, adjusted and ready to be delivered while the other one is about 75% complete. Getting to him will be a hassle-this is when I miss my truck and van.
Debbie and I went to the 6:00 service, and just when I was about to write off the sermon as one of Pastor Mike’s least effective sermons, he ran a clip from Les Misérables on the big screens. Game, set, match!
Deb and Ray have found a house to rent in Detroit. I will get a link to the multi-listing posted here soon. They, along with Eve, plan to be moved back to Motown by the end of October.
September 18. Debbie and I picked up Allison and Jackson around 11:00 and went to the Art Fair in Valley Junction. We did not find anything that we could not live without. We fed the kids and headed home so Allison could take a nap.
Later that afternoon, Aimee, Mikki, Mike and Linda Robinson and their grand-niece Joey came over. The kids play together well, giving the Robinsons a brief respite from Hurricane Joey. Mikki and Aimee were quick to jump in to keep Joey directed and temper tantrum free.
Debbie and I fed the crew. The menu was roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, corn on the cob, salad, melon, and grapes. A pleasant time was had by all.
I hosted a homeowners association board meeting at my home that night while Saint Debbie drove the kids home.
September 20. We drove to Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis, to attend Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) Institute. I needed the class to maintain my designation and Debbie needed to pass the test to get closer to earning her designation. It was the Commercial Casualty Institute considered by many to be the most difficult of the five institutes. I bought a lot of computer magazines to read during the class while Debbie planned to listen, learn and study in order to pass the test on Saturday.
We traded off on the driving and made our obligatory stop at Cabela’s and an outlet mall, both near Owatonna, MN. We found nothing that we needed and nothing we wanted. We rolled into town in the early evening and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. I bought a portable DVD player but was unable to use it on their TV. Their goal was to get the guest to buy movies, i.e., fee income. After ripping us off for many years on long distance charges and internet access, the “hospitality” industry is always looking for new sources, e.g. the $2.50 bottle of water on the dresser.
After we unpacked our stuff from our high tech luggage (thank you Eagle Creek) we went to the half-price bookstore in Minneapolis. After a little backtracking, we found an Olive Garden and had dinner.
September 21. We got to the meeting room early enough to get prime seating in the back row. It was a large class with over 120 people spread out in a crescent-shaped room. There were three large flat screen televisions on the set at three angles to give all a view of the screen. It didn’t work as well as a projector and a screen. The curriculum covered basic legal principles related to liability and contract law along with a review of the major liability contacts sold by insurance companies, e.g., commercial general liability, workers comp, business auto, umbrella, etc.
We had an early Mexican dinner that night at Chevy’s. It was overpriced and the food was mediocre at best. We went back to the room so Debbie could study while I got us connected to the Internet and check e-mail.
September 22. Day two of the Institute. I was running low on reading material. Debbie had to spend most of the evening in study. We went to the uptown area of Minneapolis to a couple of used music DVD stores. We noticed a storm was coming in. After we left the second store the wind had picked up to the point it was blowing items around in the street. We heard tornado sirens as we went to the car a quickly turned on the radio. The worst of the weather was just a few miles to the north and west of us.
September 23. I went on a journey to the Half Price Book Store northeast of St Paul while Debbie used the afternoon to study. Then we went to IKEA to look at the cool furniture and cleaver displays and had dinner in their low-cost cafeteria. The cafeteria is low priced like a lot of casinos and is intended to attract and keep shoppers in the store. IKEA sits in the parking lot of the Mall of America (insert yawn here) but we did not go to the mall this trip.
September 24. I went on a journey to the Half Price Book Store in Apple Valley while Debbie took the test. On the way back to the motel I called Harriette (Mathers) Petersen, an old friend from high school that lives in St Paul to see if we could get together with her and her family.
Debbie and I drove over after the test. Harriett is doing better than when we saw her a few years ago. She has some health issues but she is getting treatment and is in good spirits. Her husband Chris is still in the paper shredding business and their son Raphael is now seven years old. He reminds me of my nephew Danny Krasicky at the same age. Raphael is really into Lego’s so we quickly bonded.
We had lunch at Cafe Latte which is in a quaint part of St Paul. The neighborhood was like Valley Junction meets the Kansas City Plaza. Cafe Latte was a soup, salad and sandwich shop and the food was good. After lunch, we went to Chris’s art studio. He paints oil paintings and we bought one before we left the studio. For dinner we got pizza and ate at their house. We played a game of Clue after dinner with Raphael.Harriett said she would visit us in Des Moines.
September 25. We decided to pass on the Renaissance Festival so we could sleep in, have breakfast at the motel and drive home. Neither of us has been to a renaissance festival so it must not be that important to us. I am allergic to narcissism and I fear a major episode after attending one. Debbie, who always calls a spade a spade, would probably notice a lot of shovels.
It rained most of the way home which kept me behind the wheel. The trip went by quickly while we listened to a book on tape called “He’s Just Not That Into You”. Every woman should read or listen to this book.
We stopped in Ames to go to Hastings Book Store. This store sells new and used merchandise. College towns (or near a campus) are always the best place for used CD, DVDs, and movies. My theory is it is because the students are using somebody else’s money or student loans to subsidize their lifestyle these items are easily purchased and disposed of for pennies on the dollar.
We decided to eat dinner before getting home so we stopped at Culvers on Jordan Creek Parkway, about 2 miles from home. We rolled into the garage with full bellies and it was good to be home. We unloaded and unpacked in our typical hyper-speed and the house was back to normal and laundry was in process before we went to bed.
September 26. A chill out day from the trip. Debbie went out to find curtains for the living room and we prepared the half bath on the main level for painting.
We got an e-mail from Ray Krasicky with contact details about their impending move to Michigan. Here is a copy of his message:
We are on the move again. This time, back to Southeastern Michigan – for the last time. This moving stuff is tough! Eve (my mother) and I are coming back to Troy, MI by November 1, 2005. Deb will be staying in Arizona for the home sales, final closing and wrapping up of loose ends prior to her returning to Michigan – I anticipate this being in February or March of 2006. This was a complete reversal of roles from the move we made in 1999 to California. Merge (my mother in law) is remaining in AZ for a few months longer. Sometime this Spring, she too will sell her house and move to Des Moines, IA. Much closer than remaining in Casa Grande, AZ, but not as close as the last couple moves. She too will be buying a home in the Greater Des Moines area. Getting the families together for holidays will be more assured than they are at present. We leased a house in Troy – a northern suburb of Detroit, MI for those who live out of state. This lease will give us time to:1) Get the AZ houses sold (money helps), 2) Time to look for a house in an area we want to live in, 3) Do any repairs/updates to that new house and 4) Give me time to find a job in Michigan. The address of the house is: 2051 Saxony Dr. Saxony Dr. is north of Square Lake Rd and east of John R. Rd. Troy, MI 48085 (248)879-2037 – Home # – this number will be valid after 10/7/05. We have cell phones – we are keeping (by the force of Cingular) our AZ numbers until July of 2006 when my contract comes up. The numbers are: Ray – 520-450-2475 Deb – 520-450-2489 Eve – 520-450-2584 My Cox e-mail address will be turned off in a couple weeks – my new e-mail address for now is: krasicky@gmail.com Please start sending all e-mail to that address. I would appreciate it. That is about it. Please keep this message and I know we will be talking in the future. My best to you. Ray
September 27. Debbie painted the bathroom while I went into the office for a meeting. We went to JC Penney’s to get the curtains and rods that Debbie selected on Monday.
September 28. I installed a garbage disposer while Debbie applied a second coat of paint to the bathroom walls. In the afternoon we picked up Bill, had lunch and took him back to the Y. That evening Debbie went with Mikki to the mall to use her gift certificates at Chico’s and Coldwater Creek while I went to an architecture committee meeting for Bridgewood.
The garbage disposer was to replace the cheap 3/8 hp unit the builder put in the house (It was not properly grounded either). We did not upgrade the disposer because the builder wanted hundreds of dollars. I figured we would get three or four years out of the cheap unit and it was starting to fail at three years. The new unit is 3/4 hp and I bought it on sale for $90. Note that I did not buy the “Tim the Tool Man Taylor” 5 hp model!
September 29. The Robinson’s invited us over for a party because Joey was returning to Kansas City on Saturday. We picked up Jackson and Allison and drove to their condo. The kids had McDonald's and the adults ate one of Linda’s famous pork roasts. Mikki really wanted to see Joey before she left but had to go to class that night.
September 30. Katie was feeling sick so I picked up Jackson at his pre-school. By the time I got him home, Chris was there. We decided to go to the book sale at the fairgrounds with the kids to give Katie some quiet time. The sale had started last Friday and the books were pretty much picked over but Allison found a book and Chris found a few paperbacks. We went to the Five and Dinner and spent a lot of time before, during and after dinner distracting Allison to keep her happy.
October 2005
Saturday, October 1. There was a quarterly Homestead Family meeting that we attended. We strapped on one of the 3-wheeled bikes we bought for David to the top of the Saturn VUE. David got a kick out of seeing a bike on top of the car. After the meeting, we picked up Bill and the four of us went to McDonald's then to the Cat-N-Around Cat Show at the state fairgrounds. We didn’t stay long at the show but 30 minutes was long enough for David. We took him home and after that took Bill home. We went grocery shopping for “First Sunday” and finally we went home to chill.
Sunday, October 2. This was our 3rd “First Sunday” where we have a standing invitation to the kids to get together at our home for a meal. The theme this month was Mexican and the time was moved up to noon so we could go to a birthday party for Joey Rivas. After lunch, we tried unsuccessfully to get Allison to take a nap before going to the party.
Tuesday, October 4. There was a Bridgewood Parks board meeting at our home. We covered a lot of issues and the meeting was productive. I let them know I would run for the board again.
Wednesday, October 5. There was a homeowners association meeting and potluck at the clubhouse. Our attendance was down to about 30. The variety of food was better than the last potluck. No big issues from the group.
Thursday, October 6. I went to lunch with Debbie, one of her employees (Mark Burch) and a marketing rep (Wayne Robertson) from RZ and Associates, a key market for CGA. This is the guy that was going to take us out to lunch when we were in Minneapolis but had to cancel after the storm.
Debbie and I went to the visitation for Bud Tilton. Bud was the retired CFO of GuideOne and was one of the first employees of the company. Bud had retired in 1990 and his health wasn’t good even before he retired. We saw a few retirees we hadn’t seen for a while, Max Vail, Phil Vanderhal, Annette Roth, Chad Hensley to name a few.
Friday, October 7. I went to Bud Tilton’s funeral. I saw Ron Wilson there along with most of the people that had been to the visitation. That night Debbie and I watched the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice. This was about 6 hours long and it kept us up past midnight. We both enjoyed the movie.
Saturday, October 8. I spent a couple of hours walking the neighborhood to review the mowing and to discuss plans for snow removal with Charlie our lawn guy and our neighbor Jim Mooradian. We picked up Bill and went to an “establishment” called Orlando’s to watch a friend from work whose band was performing that night. His name is Ben Williams and the band is Sage. They are Grateful Dead meets Phish. One of those “its a small world” stories: Ben grew up in Visalia and knew the Lewis brothers. Luis and Ronna met us there. Debbie and Ronna wanted to visit so badly that they were talking during the sets even though it nearly impossible to hear. We about died on the second-hand smoke. This was not the kind of place where you asked for the non-smoking section. However, the pizza was great and the music was even better.
Sunday, October 9. Ray called just after 9:00 and told us he was already in Iowa. We were expecting him between 1 and 3 but this would put him at our house around noon. I called Bill and told him I needed to either pick him up now or after 1:00 and he chose the former. I drove downtown to get him while Debbie finished the paper, got dressed and tidied up the house.
Ray rolled in just afternoon with a big truck and a car trailer on the back. We found a place where he could park the rig. He looked surprisingly well considering the journey.
We quickly settled on PF Chang’s for lunch and walked there (yes walked-it was only 4 blocks and the weather was perfect). We went into the restaurant and got on the list to be seated (15-minute wait) and before our eyes had adjusted to the lower light levels this person came up to me saying “Hello Uncle Bob”. It was Tiffany Conroy–what a small world! I don’t think I would have recognized her. Her hair is long with a tight curl and it has a reddish color too. But the most significant change is she has lost a lot of weight. She looks great. She is excited about finishing school next spring and moving back to Des Moines to her own apartment.
Mikki and Aimee were waiting for us when we walked home and met Ray. Chris, Katie and the kids came over and we had a good old-fashioned Conroy spaghetti and meatballs dinner that evening. Ray got to bed at a reasonable time since he had two more days of driving ahead of him.
Monday, October 10. Ray got an early start on the road. He followed us to the Perkins by I-80 where we stopped to have breakfast. This was after letting the diesel engine warm up for 20 minutes or so. Ray said he was getting at least 7 miles to the gallon which I thought was pretty good considering the weight. I remember cars in the 60’s that didn’t do any better.
I got a call from Syd Vanderlinden. He was back into town and missed Bud’s funeral. He reminded me that the retiree’s luncheon was today and invited me to join him which I did. I sat between Bob Meyers and Syd. I got to visit with Jim and Kay Bottenfield and a little with Max Vail. Amy Plymat was at our table too.
We picked the kids up after work and brought them to our house. Allison was tired and fell asleep in the car. Jackson wanted to play with the “Little People” set and by the time I got it out, Allison wanted to play with it too. Debbie and I tag-teamed playing with the kids while preparing dinner. Dinner was the leftovers from last night so it wasn’t too difficult. (We could use a second microwave.)
A little after 7:00 we loaded up the car and went to pick up Bill. We gave have a ride home then took the kids home. I fell asleep on the way home so it was fortunate that Debbie was driving.
Thursday, October 20. Today was the day to start taking the pills and drinking the fluids to clean out my system for a colonoscopy. I had only heard horror stories of how awful tasting the liquid was required in the “old days”. Apparently, the pills were a newer method, and while the experience was just slightly above miserable, it was not as bad as others had warned me about.
Friday, October 21. We arrived at the medical center at 6:45 am. I checked in and was almost immediately called back. I was led to a small examining room and given a couple of hospital gowns to wear. The instructions were to put one on the front and one on the back to keep warm. Seems like they could make one that covered a whole body. I was given a plastic bag for my clothes. I tied my shoes to the bag and the nurse that it was cleaver and showed some other nurses.
A nurse started an IV and shortly after that Debbie was escorted back. We didn’t visit long before I was on the move to a procedure room.
Debbie and I said our goodbyes as we passed by the exit to the waiting area. When we moved into a common hall outside the procedure room the nurse stopped and acted confused. Nothing was posted as it was supposed to be on the dry erase board that was used to assign doctors and patients to the appropriate room. Seconds later a duty nurse came out from an office and filled in the board.
Fairly confident that I was in the right room I tried to relax as the nurse continued to prep me and the room. The doctor arrived about 10 minutes later, introduced himself, asked me to roll to my left side and next thing I know I am next to Debbie in recovery. I had no sense of time and it seems like we were in the car just a few minutes later but hours had passed since the procedure began. Debbie said I refused to take the elevator and almost fell down the stairs on the way to the car. I went to bed and sleep most the day and into the night. By Saturday felt like I was back to normal. The good news was no need for a follow up for 10 years!
Saturday, October 22. Ray was back in town for his second run through Iowa. Chef Robert with the assistance of his lovely sidekick Debbie prepared a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, Noodles, stuffing and various sides. Along with the family, we had Mike and Linda over for dinner. They know Ray from the Colorado trips and Ray is one of Mike’s official Flunkies.
October 27. Debbie and I both left work early to get ready for the Paul McCartney concert. Debbie and Ronna consulted with each other on what to wear. Luis and I just took our chances.
We picked up Luis and Ronna at their home and drove a few miles to Mustard’s in Windsor Heights for dinner. Originally we thought about eating downtown, but there really are not that many places to eat down there (not enough for a large concert crowd) and we were too small of a group to get reservations. Mustard’s was a great choice. We enjoyed the pizza, sandwiches, and fries.
Luis had a plate of deep-fried sugarcoated dough balls for dessert. I tried one and recalled eating something similar when I was a kid. In fact, I may have considered them a food group when I was younger. I think we used the dinner roll dough that came in tubes from the dairy case and dropped them into a giant deep fat fryer that had a permanent place on the countertop. I assumed every home in America owned one. As an adult, I had a Fry Daddy under the sink that came out for an occasional feast of homemade fries made with a waffle cut – the kind you can get a Chic-Fil-A. My eating habits have greatly improved as I have aged and there is nothing in our home that is intended to deep fry food. But in an emergency, I am sure I could improvise!
After dinner, Luis guided us through some urban back roads to a parking lot owned by his employer, Allied Insurance. We were able to use his pass to park only two blocks from the Arena. Our ticket package was worth the extra expense. We had VIP entrance passes, which allowed us to avoid at least an hour in line. Our tour souvenir was a black nylon bag with the tour logo embroidered on the outside. The bag can be used as a briefcase or a laptop computer case.
Then we were dumped into the hallway that wraps around the arena with the concession stands. What a mess, there were too many people. No wait, the people were exactly what the arena was designed for, it was the hallway that was too small of an area. An obvious compromise was made to control cost when the hallways were designed.
We took the first doorway that led to the floor and started to run into friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Our seats were great-about 12 rows back from the stage and in the middle section.
Wow! What a concert. The sound quality was first class and the set was unbelievable with screens that went from the stage to the ceiling. The Live and Let Die set included pyrotechnics that covered the entire set in flame. Sir Paul McCartney and band played for over three hours non-stop. Paul never left the stage.
The playlist was 38 songs long and included pre-Beatles, Beatles, solo work, Wings and 3 songs from his new album, Chaos and Creation. Our favorites were Hey Jude, Yesterday, Drive My Car, Fine Line and Let It Be. Other observations include the noticeable absence of the marijuana cloud that permeated the Wells Fargo Arena during the Black Crowes/Tom Petty concert.
We had predetermined that none of the boorish rock concert behavior of the audience would take away from the experience. Apparently, some people can’t go a couple of hours without beer and made numerous trips before and during the concert to get a beer and then to visit the bathroom.
We had a group next to us that could have been extras from the TV show Roseanne. They were from Waterloo and acted like they were in a honky-tonk bar. The guys were wearing clothes acquired at various Jimmy Buffet concerts and their women were decked in their finest barmaid clothes that exposed oversized tattoos. They wore excessive amounts of costume jewelry.
Of course, the beer was spilled and we stood on beer-soaked floors during most of the concert. Both Debbie and I smelled vomit near the end of the concert. Since we expected this and, in fact, it was far better than we expected, we didn’t let it affect our enjoyment of the concert.
Sir Paul promised to return to Des Moines again. If not, Debbie and I plan to travel to see him on his next tour.
October 28. Bill and I helped Luis put in a brick patio in his backyard. The project went well. He had it staked out and had 40 bags of sand along with the bricks. We spread the sand then screened it to get it to the right level. We all felt a sense of accomplishment when the first course was laid, enough to go to Taco Bell for lunch. It took about 4 hours and a trip to Menards to get 10 more bags or sand to finish the job. Bill hung out with us the rest of the day. We went to Z’Marik’s for dinner then to Jordan Creek. Bill and I got haircuts and we all walked the mall a few times. We stopped at Wal-Mart so Bill could get some groceries.
October 29. The Wickett Poker Tour was back in action. I went to the ring game at 3:00 PM. There were 7 of us in the ring game and we played until 6:30. I was never ahead and greatly recovered in one hand near the end. In the first tournament game, I finished 10 which was good enough to get me in the top 10 for the year. I skipped the second tournament and got home just after 11:00 pm.
October 30. We went to The Lane’s to go Trick or Treating with the kids. Allison was a cute little dinosaur and Jackson was Anakin Skywalker, complete with lightsaber. We walked for many blocks and finally made it to Tanya’s. Tanya was the little girl that appeared in our sandbox back in 1981 in Carlisle. Her mom worked days and her dad worked nights and was supposed to be watching her but she was often at our house. She is the girl I pulled out the house fire in 1989 just before the move to California.
November 2005
November 4. Debbie had lunch with Debbie Pedrick and Marilyn Paul.
November 5. Dan and Rick Conroy arrived with a big truck, a trailer hauling a pickup (Rick’s truck), another pickup (Dan’s driven by Rick) and a dog named Billy. I sent him down the street to the same place Ray parked his two trucks. I wondered if the neighbors were curious about these fleet of trucks passing through the neighborhood. We were low key as they were tired. Bill spent the night at our house too.
November 6. Chris, Katie and the kids along with Mikki and Aimee were at our home most of the day. It was “First Sunday” and we made a big batch of chili and had cold cuts too. The poker chips were dusted off and there was a poker game that went on for hours. Julie and John Conroy came over later in the day. I took pictures of the cousins together. It had been over 14 years since these four had been together!
November 7. We were up early to see Dan and Rick off to Michigan. They were planning to drive to Joliet, get a room and drive the pickup to downtown Chicago. As soon as they left I hurried to a hotel where an agent, Gordon Johnson was staying. I had a consulting gig with him to put together a business plan for a start-up church insurance agency based in northern California. I got there right on time and drove him to the Home Office. I immediately liked the guy and knew we would have a productive time. He was new to insurance but was a former church administrator so he knew the market and had great business sense. Debbie took us, along with Al Socarras, to dinner as a CGA business event. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and once again neither Debbie or I ordered the cheesecake (too many Weight Watcher Points!).
November 8. Picked up Gordon Johnson again. We had a productive day. We got his 10-year plan into writing and did a SWOT analysis. He was a good student and I continued to pile information into him. Debbie and I took him to Z’Marik’s (our neighborhood noodle bowl place) for dinner.
November 9. Took Gordon Johnson to the Home Office. He had appointments all day with people throughout the building. I went to a CPCU board meeting at Farm Bureau and came back to the office to make sure he had a ride back to the hotel. Nobody had invited him to dinner that night so Debbie and I took him to El Rodeo.
November 10. The big CPCU I-day event was downtown at the Embassy Suites. The traffic was a little backed up where three lanes cut to two but once past there it was smooth sailing. The meeting was well attended by over 200 people and the program was great. I got back to the office in time to go to a bowling event for the IT department. I rolled a 134 and a 168. That night Debbie and I went to Jackson’s martial arts class to watch him do his moves.
November 12. Debbie got up early on a Saturday to have her hair done and to go shopping. This was her second appointment with Al and she is very pleased with his work. Her hair was layered and the color is now stable. She went shopping with Mikki. Meantime, bill and I worked around the yard cleaning up branches that were covering a bike path and shoveled out a drainage ditch behind the house. Bill went to church with us at Hope and seemed to enjoy it.
November 14. Debbie had lunch with Ronna. Ronna came over to the GuideOne office which was a great choice since the food is free. I went to the Val Air Ballroom and bought 8 tickets for our New Years Eve dinner and dance. The headliner this year is Paul Revere and the Raiders.
November 15. The first big storm of the season blew in and the poker game has been canceled. With poker in our blood, Don Page and I went to Prairie Meadows and played for a few hours. We both lost and about the same amount. Debbie decided she didn’t want to scramble to get to Omaha for the class and then have to be able to take a test on Friday. Now we have a dilemma – do we go to work or take the time off as a vacation? We pondered this for about 2.3 milliseconds and opted for the vacation time.
November 16. Chill out day number one. I read “Freakonomics” and Debbie finished “Blessings” by Anna Quindlin. What a relaxing day. We got few telephones calls since most thought that we out of town. I worked on the 2005 picture collage a little, we made use of the whirlpool bath. For dinner we planned on a pizza from “Nick and Willie’s” but we got there a few minutes after it closed. Not to worry- on to Jordan Creek Mall with its dozens of eating options. Debbie went to subway and I got a sandwich from the Chic-Fil-A that opened last month in the food court. We walked the mall a little and headed home for a movie. Debbie picked “The Five People You Meet In Heaven”. It was okay- the acting and overall quality of the movie was much higher than I expected.
November 17. Chill out day number two. Road trip to Ames, Iowa to visit used CD and DVD stores near the ISU campus. This was the substitute for the few free days I was going to have in Omaha while Debbie was in class or studying. Our latest obsession is to collect the top 100 selling albums of each decade for the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. We already have quite a few on the list for the 60’s and 70’s thanks to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel. This top 100 quest has given us some more items to search for and may expand our musical taste a little although I doubt that we will become rap fans. Four stores later we ended the day’s search with 17 CDs to add to the collection.
We stopped at Hickory Park Barbeque in Ames for a late lunch but the wait to even get your name on the waiting list was too long for us. Instead, we stopped in Ankeny on the way home and ate a new Mexican restaurant. I picked the move and selected “The Notebook”- one of our favorite movies.
November 18. Chill out day number three. Today was the opening day for “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. We went to a 10:30 am matinee (about 75 others in the theatre). Great movie! Much darker and scarier than the earlier Harry Potter movies. The screenplay was superb, the acting excellent and the special effects were brilliant! We shared a Subway then went back to the theatre for another matinee. We watched “Shopgirl” a movie written, produced and starring Steve Martin. After the movie, we went to the winter concert and fireworks at the mall. We made homemade chicken fajitas then Debbie demolished me in a game of Scrabble.
November 19. Chill out day number four. Debbie started tackling the laundry (she enjoys it!) and I got back to work on the 2005 picture collage. The college is the fifth in a series of annual collections of pictures, ticket stubs, and other items to document our memories for the year. The college is not as detailed as the journal in the movie “The Notebook” but maybe just as useful. Besides, we have this blog too.
It had seemed to us that we had not been traveling as much this year but we have been to Kansas City, Phoenix, Omaha, New York City and three trips to Minneapolis. I guess we were missing the mountains.
Katie and Chris brought Jackson and Allison over so we could watch them while they went out. Their “date” did not go as planned. The restaurants were packed and the lines for Harry Potter were long just for the opportunity to buy tickets. Allison was fussy most of the night but when she got her way she was okay. Jackson spelled out most of the words in a pack of vocabulary flashcards. His five-day-a-week preschool has been very beneficial and he is making great academic progress.
November 20. Transition day number one. The chill out days are over and we are getting back to the normal routine. We picked David up and went to a few stores and then to lunch at Culvers. Visits with David continue to be pleasant as his behaviors are under control and he listens well. Sunday night is reserved for Gray’s Anatomy a show that both Debbie and I like to watch. It has replaced “Judging Amy” as our only must-see TV.
Thursday, November 24, 2005 Thanksgiving Day was at our house again. I prepared a traditional turkey dinner and each family brought a side dish or two. We had a nice day together. Later Linda Robinson, Mike’s sister Marion and her daughter Libby and Libby’s daughter Joey joined us. Mike was in Ohio at his mother's house.
Friday, November 25, 2005, The Shopping Adventure. I suggested to Debbie that we go out early and witness the craziness as people go after the early bird specials. To my surprise, she agreed. We got up shortly after 4:00 am dressed and went to the Wal-Mart in Windsor Heights. We entered the store at 4:45 and quickly assessed that we would need to split up if we were to have a chance for the specials. Debbie went back to where the camera and computers were. I hung out by a pallet of LCD TVs. Debbie was able to get a camera (a Christmas present for Chris and Katie) but tickets for the computers had been given out to people that had been in line for over 8 hours. I got a TV and a DVD recorder. We met up in the middle of the store but the isles were so packed with people and merchandise we were unable to actually get next to each other. We agreed to meet at the register and checked out in a short time.
Our next stop was next door at Sam’s Club. Nothing caught our eye and we were out of there in just a few minutes.
Our next stop was Younkers at Merle Hay Mall. Debbie was checking out some jewelry specials while I went looking for a set of kitchen knives. We both were successful and I brought the knives to the jewelry department for a quick checkout.
Next was Sears for a few tools I wanted that were in the add. Very crowded but we got the tools then headed to less crowded men’s department for checkout.
Our next planned stop was the Clive Menard’s but as we could see the parking lot from a distance it was a total nightmare. Completely full dozens of cars circling for a spot, cars parked just about anywhere. Chris reported later that the same scenario played out at his store in Des Moines.
We moved on to the new Target in the West Glens shopping center. Not at all crowded and we picked up a few specials.
Down the road, we went to Best Buy at the Jordan Creek Town Center. We got a great picture printer for Debbie and I got a 1 gig flash drive for $22.
Time for breakfast but Camille’s didn’t open until 8:00 and it was still only 7:45. We went home and I made a big breakfast for the two of us. After breakfast, we went back to bed for 3 hours.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005. We went to the Homestead to pick up Poinsettias. We took David out to dinner.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005. We had Allison and Jackson over. We really enjoy spending time with them!
December 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005 Our master association held a Christmas party in the Bridgewood clubhouse. Debbie and I were among the youngest of the 100+ people there. We chit-chatted, ate a whole lot of food that was not good for us then sang Christmas carols.
Saturday, December 03, 2005 This was Allison’s 2nd birthday. We combined it with our First Sunday dinner so Mikki and Aimee were both there too. Allison enjoyed opening her gifts. We had pizza from Costco and Katie brought a small cake.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005 Board meeting more on this later
Saturday, December 10, 2005. Debbie had an 8:00am hair appointment. Her new hairdresser, Al, does a great job with her hair. We had a conflict with giving gifts at the Blessing Bin/ Good Samaritan to the family we help along with the Rivas’ and David’s Christmas party. Of course, we went to David’s Christmas party after dropping off the gifts we bought at Ronna’s. Mikki and Aimee came with us to David’s party.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005. Debbie and I went to the IAGDM Holiday Meeting. It was at Christopher’s in Beaverdale. This is one of the oldest and finest restaurants in Des Moines. We sat next to Marilyn Paul and the Lussems. Marilyn has her hands full caring for her aging parents. Ted Lussem received yet another award during the meeting.
Thursday, December 15, 2005.Debbie and I stopped at an open house for Smart Management, our property management company for Bridgewood Parks. We have another “Iowa is a small town” story. It turns out that Marilyn the accountant at Smart Management has been best good friends with Joyce Edwards a co-worker at GuideOne since high school. Joyce is the mother of Michael Edwards who started with CGA 10 years ago. Small world!
Saturday, December 17, 2005. after numerous attempts to find a common time for this meeting we met at noon at my house. The meeting was cordial and productive. I agreed to be president one more year.
Sunday, December 18, 2005. Mikki and Nate to the airport. They left for central Florida to spend two weeks with Nate’s mother, stepfather, and half-sister.
Monday, December 19, 2005. Jackson’s preschool held their Christmas play at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale. There were several hundred parents, grandparents, and siblings at the event. They sang several songs and the Christmas story was done as a PowerPoint narrative with pictures of the children dressed in traditional nativity scene clothing. Jackson was cast as Joseph and played to the camera (as usual). We got a DVD of the event if anyone wants to see it.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005. We picked up the kids after work and went to IHOP to eat while Katie and Chris went to see Harry Potter. It was kid’s night at the IHOP and there was a somewhat annoying guy going around to the kids making balloons. Allison was a bit fussy at dinner but quickly settled into a good mood. This I HOP, while only a few years old, is already quite dirty. The nearby Perkins is just as bad. In fact, all of the IHOPs, Perkins and Village Inns in Des Moines are quite dirty. Is this a common trait of the breakfast restaurants?
On to the Jolly Holiday Lights display at Water Works Park. Jackson and Debbie had been to this in the past but for Allison and me it was a new experience. It was pretty cool with dozens of display spread out over a couple of miles. In the end, there was an ice sculpture garden with over 60 tons of sculpted ice. It was a nice experience and the kids enjoyed it.
We took the kids to our home as they were spending the night. We had an enjoyable and quiet evening and they both went to sleep at their normal times.
Thursday, December 22, 2005 Rise and shine with the kids! Wow, they both slept through the night. This was the first time since Allison arrived on the scene. This is a good development as Debbie and I are getting too old to get up several times during the night and still function well the next day.
We started the day with a big breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon. Then we got down to the serious business of playing. It was a train day. The Lego train set and a small mountain of Legos were deployed in the sunroom. The other train set was assembled in the living room. This is the train set that comes with a microphone that allows a child to start or stop the train with voice commands. Jackson played with it for many hours when he was younger but he outgrew it last year. Allison enjoyed playing with it and Jackson found himself drawn back to it sometimes to help Allison and other times to take control.
Aimee came over in the afternoon and Debbie, Aimee and Jackson made and decorated Christmas cookies while Allison took a nap. I was running an errand for Linda Robinson but got back in time to sample the cookies. We dropped the kids off with Chris at 4:00. Went to see Kong
Friday, December 23, 2005. I picked Bill up and we went downtown to the courthouse to pay off his overdue traffic ticket. Next stop was the DOT to get his license reinstated. Later that day Debbie and I dropped off a digital camera we bought for Katie and Chris with them so they could take it to Sioux City. Then we headed to Donna’s for Ronna’s birthday party. It was the traditional spaghetti and meatballs dinner. There was enough food for all!
Saturday, December 24, 2005. Christmas Eve services at Lutheran Church of Hope were amazing. Bill, Donna, Debbie, and I went together. As we got into the parking lot a friend from work who was directing traffic and advised us that the sanctuary was already full and we should head to the chapel. Turns out the chapel filled, the gymnasium filled and a large classroom -probably over 2,000 people. This was just 1 of 8 services being held for Christmas Eve! It was an outstanding sermon-Pastor Mike is a true phenomenon.
Sunday, December 25, 2005. Christmas Day 2005. This was the 5th Christmas for Debbie and me. The time is flying by too fast.
We heard from Katie in the morning from Sioux City. Chris is feeling better but Jackson seems to have come down with a cold. Katie thought that only Allison got a good night’s sleep. They are staying one more night in Sioux City before coming home. We will have Christmas with them and Mikki and Nate on January 15.
Mikki called and sounded a little homesick. In case she likes it too much down there we plan to talk a lot about hurricanes in front of her throughout 2006.
I picked up Bill downtown and we went on out to The Homestead to get David. David was ready to go including his medications for the next 24 hours. When we got back home Bill watched David while I made a batch of my salsa. Debbie had everything else ready to go for the noon kickoff.
Then Ronna called at 11:25. They would be late, in fact, they were just having showers and getting dressed. Donna called at 11:55 and said she would be late. Aimee didn’t call but was 20 minutes late and the first to arrive.
We got a call from Merge and Deb. I was careful not to inquire about the weather. That open our gifts as instructed on Christmas day. Merge was gifted with many meals from Red Lobster. We gave Deb the 9th and final season of Little House on the Prairie. She said it included a comprehensive book about the series and the people in the show. I still have the eight season here as it is unclear if she has it or not. This will be something to investigate after she moves to Michigan and settles into a (more) permanent living arrangement. (Do nomads use the term “home”?) Merge is planning to stay in Arizona for now.
We kicked it off late but everyone appeared to have a good time. We played several games: Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture versions 1 and 2 on DVD, Family Feud on DVD and Catch Phrase.
During the day Mikki called and was passed around. Sharon called from Durango and was subjected to the same treatment.
The party ended around midnight. David, no slave to etiquette, found a cozy place on the living room couch long before everyone left. Debbie had covered him with a down filled comforter and he looked content enough to spend the night there. I did wake him however and led him to the futon in the extra bedroom we call the toy room. He slept through the night without a peep.
Monday, December 26, 2005. I was the first one up but not by much as David came upstairs before I finished reading the paper. I started making a breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes and, bacon. David enjoyed the food which brings joy to the heart of a cook. Debbie “I’ll just have a piece of toast” joined us in time to watch the food disappear. We took David home than went back home to clean up the place after all of the recent company.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005. It was back to work. After work, we watched the kids for a few hours. I picked them up and Debbie got him shortly from work. We made them dinner and had just settled down to play when Chris came to pick them up. Just as Chris arrived Bill called with the results of the test he took with the Army.
We called Bill back after Chris and the kids left. Bill scored high on his exam (no surprise) and will have many opportunities available to him. He will find out next week what will be offered and when he will start.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005. Another stop at the Half-Price Bookstore to look for more CDs on the buy list while the sale was still on. Debbie and went up to the clubhouse and exercised then went home and played cards and dominoes.
Thursday, December 29, 2005. I went to the movies with Mike Robinson, Bill Conroy, and Ryan while Debbie went shopping with Aimee. I picked up the boys early and we went to P F Changs for dinner. Mike met us at home and went to see Munich. Great movie based on a tragic story.
Saturday, December 31, 2005, Another New Years at the Val-Air Ballroom and, as always, a lot of fun. The same group, the Conroys, the Mays, the Burdettes and the Robinsons did our lemming like return to the ballroom and shuffled on the dance floor after gorging on the great food catered by Christiani’s VIP Catering Service, LTD. (deja vu all over again) The featured band was Paul Revere and the Raiders.
