redeeming my morning; or, a post about my days in Iowa

I *did* try to volunteer this morning. Honest. I got up early. I showered. I put on scrubs. I sweated on the Red Line. And, they weren't open. Yeeaaah. Monthly Thursday morning staff meeting. Sipping my frappiccino, I decided it wasn't worth it to go back to bed. I've been uploading my pictures from the weekend, so I actually did something productive with my caffeinated morning.

I left Saturday afternoon to spend a few days in Iowa with Merdie and her BFF L. L lives in the town where she grew up, population roughly 1,000. That's smalltown living to this city kid, and it was nearly a 3-hour drive to the house from Omaha, which is the closest major airport. We hung out in Omaha on Saturday night, eating at Spaghetti Works and shopping in the Old Market district. Merdie was cat-sitting, so I helped a little on Saturday and Sunday nights. (And by "help," I mean I got to sleep in the tempurpedic bed in the upstairs bedroom with the upstairs cats to keep them company. It's a tough life, kids. Sunday, we drove up to the Lakes. I met L's mom on the way up when we stopped to drop off the pug-a-lug Lucy, my new BFF.



Monday, L and I dropped Merdie off at her adjunct teaching gig at one of the local community colleges and went to see "Ocean's Thirteen," which was fun. After we picked up Merdie, we headed home, sending Meride off to do her grading while L and I cooked and did stuff around the house. Tuesday, Merdie headed back out to teach while L and I were complete lazy bums, spending the day with Discovery's "Dirty Jobs." It's so awesome.



Besides that, I watched a lot of Food Network stuff, which is par for the course when you spend time with Merdie. Tuesday night's dinner was back up at the Lakes, before which I cracked my head racing into the car in the pouring rain. I didn't even get a bump, folks, as evidence of my injury. Boo. After a major Advil drugging, Merdie and I lit cheese on fire.



For her birthday, I brought her some Kaseri cheese to make saganaki, and we did a fine job of it for our first try--it tasted great! I flew back yesterday after a glutonous buffet lunch at the Ameristar casino in Council Bluffs.

Honestly, most of my pictures are of L's pug Lucy. She was my pal. We played a LOT. When we were in Omaha, L bought a door mat that says "Dog is Nuts." It's completely accurate.

And now, good people, I must go resume my obsessive watching of "Judging Amy."