snow

first snow for the year

License plates...

One thing that is kind of unique is the sheer number of personalized/vanity plates you see here. It seems to be in much higher proportion than other places. *
The vast majority of the plates are the special Iowa State ones with many variations of
ISU love/support and reflections on the mascot, Cy-bird.
Often when I'm out or walking through the parking lot, I take note of how many vanity plates I see; and how high that proportion is to non-vanity plates. Also I like to see what things people come up with and what this might say about the particular person who requested such a plate.

Yesterday I saw the following:
SCHLTZ



* I haven't done any actual analysis of the comparison of these proportions.

seen

On the back of a truck: decal/sticker
nativity scene with camel, wise men, etc.
and
Calvin urinating


how to interpret this???

the Io- way

Not to get too political here but this week's election results are pretty drastic. First the state
reverts back to uber-conservative governor. Secondly the state makes major news for voting
to not retain its 3 state supreme court justices, allegedly in reaction to their "activism".
Even though in a recent poll, mentioned here in DM Register:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090921/NEWS10/909210321/Iowa-Poll-Iowans-evenly-divided-on-gay-marriage-ban

92% of people polled "say gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives."

But apparently people were convinced by some major campaigning of conservative groups
to vote not to retain these justices anyway.
Of course not retaining these judges doesn't immediately lead to overturning the law
allowing same-sex marriage but I guess this is the direction people hope it will go.

Yay Iowa for proving it's not actually too progressive.

as opposed to things you might expect (2):

corn mazes

things you might not expect to see...in central Iowa

a cricket match: Iowa State v. University of Iowa

sedaris and stuff

Well, writer/satirist David Sedaris was here yesterday and gave a great reading & performance
to what appeared to be possibly a sold-out or at least very packed auditorium at ISU. Good to know there are lots of fans in the area.

In other news, when you walk through the food court in the student union bldg, the first smell you are assaulted with is extreme saltiness, or maybe it is actually MSG, from the "Sad" Panda aka well actually I can't remember what it's actually called, maybe Panda Express- it's your generic mediocre fast-food Chinese-American style. I always call it Sad Panda though. They must use an awful lot of MSG because it's a hugely overpowering smell.
Unless you enter from the other direction and then the first smell is that yucky unappetizing yeasty smell of subway.
Neither of these do anything but suppress your appetite.

interaction effects...

Yesterday I was walking around my neighborhood, looking for interesting things to take pictures of. I stopped in front of the house of crap (previously mentioned here:)

http://amazingcornacopia.blogspot.com/2010/05/house-of-crap-iii.html

and here:

http://amazingcornacopia.blogspot.com/2010/04/house-of-crap-ii.html

Well I was standing right in front of his house with my camera and the owner was in the doorway. He asked if I wanted to take a picture- I couldn't explain my fascination with the strange collection of junk he keeps on his front lawn & driveway and how his front door is strange too, with old newspaper taped on part of it. Then he asked if I wanted to take a picture of him! I said, sure, but then he acted like he was just kidding and said I should take a picture of the beautiful fall leaves. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was black & white film.
I really did want to take a picture of his lawn though!

other oddities...

I saw a girl riding her bike in boots- like those knee high leather boots with a heel!
That seems like it would be difficult.

as opposed to things you might expect:

People, on average, are pretty polite here. I would say almost always people (both men & women) hold the door open for you and people often say thank you if you do the same. Okay well almost all of my "research" is confined to the population of ISU students but in general, people seem pretty mannerly. I don't know how this would compare to other cities/towns/regions. Would the average level of politeness be higher or lower?
People also play cornhole a lot. Like it is everywhere. And in general, eat pork.
Seriously. I would say pork is way bigger than corn.

Someday I will have something more profound to say. Today is not that day however.

things you might not expect...

On Sunday I walked downtown to go to the library and remembered it was the day for the art festival. So I decided to check that out and was pleasantly surprised to see it actually was a
"real" festival with a very respectable sized crowd. We've been to a few things downtown, including the alleged art walk, which were just kind of lackluster and not very well attended and just seemed sort of depressing in general. But this was a nice art festival, the usual kind of arts and vendors, you know, ceramics and jewelry and photos. There were a lot of people and 2 different
groups of musicians and lots of food booths too. After I had walked around and looked at everything, I was going to walk back home. But approximately one block from downtown are the train tracks and I could see there was a train, or really multiple trains (freight) barreling down the line, so it would probably take a while til that was finished. I was standing at the corner, debating for a few minutes, whether I should just mill about there while waiting for the train, or go look at the art some more. I must have looked more lost than I'd thought, because after a couple minutes I saw a woman approaching me, with a sort of determined, purposeful look on her face. She was handing me something, at first I assumed it would be some sort of coupon or advertisement for one of the local stores, but instead she hands me a card, and says something like this "I want to give you this chant that will help you release your greatest inner potential". The card has a flower on the front, and it says "The Key to Unlocking Your Highest Potential" It also says Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.
Okay well the internets tell me this is called the Lotus Sutra, and is a Buddhist meditation.
I think the woman said a few more things to me, although none of it was about Buddhism or anything specific. The back of the card says Buddhism for Modern Living and gives a website.
I have to say that was unexpected... i wouldn't expect too many Buddhists in Ames but who knows... I wasn't sure what to say to her, since I don't know that much about them but it didn't actually seem like she was interested in having a conversation, just telling me about meditation, I think.

the rut of all problems..

the teaching assistant for my class says the word root as rut. As in, now we are going to find the
square rut of the variance. It's odd, because it's the only word I've noticed that is pronounced differently. I wonder where he's from. Actually I think he might be from Iowa, maybe northeast. I don't know if that is some regionalism though. I have noticed there are some differences in pronunciations here, especially with vowels. But that might be more of a Minnesota/Wisconsin factor, as many people I've met here are actually from those places. Two regional words here:
pop (not too surprising) and occasionally sack (instead of bag). Like at some store, do you want a sack for that?
I can't remember any other new words right now. Dialects and accents are pretty interesting though.

Man vs. speed gun

Observed today:
Periodically law enforcement here put up one of those speed gun type devices- you know it has a big screen and tells you how fast you were going as you approach. I take it they do this in areas where people commonly drive too fast, hoping if you see how much you are violating the speed limit, you'll mend your ways.
A few times I have seen this on one side of the main street here, I'm guessing because people tend to drive too quickly and come speeding through the curve in the road. There are often buses, both school buses for kids and Cyride, the public bus, stopping on this road; and there was a Boys and Girls Club, before it got flooded.

Today the radar speed gun was on the OTHER side of the road, just up from the bus stop. As I was walking over to the stop to wait for the bus, I saw 2 guys: one was running down the street & the other watching (yes, Dumb and Dumber here) to see if the radar gun would pick up his running speed! Um aside from the fact that they are now RUNNING in the road, into oncoming traffic, which seems a little bit of a bad idea, I kind of don't think that these speed guns actually measure PEOPLE speed.
I'm not entirely sure of this but I get that feeling. Plus this explanation on How Stuff works website tells me, " A laser speed gun shoots a very short burst of infrared laser light and then waits for it to reflect off the vehicle. "
I could be wrong on this. But anyway... running in the middle of a busy road to try to see if it will measure your running speed, just doesn't seem like the safest or sanest idea.

Good things, bad things about small town life:

Good thing:
Our extremely friendly & conscientious mail carrier. He brings packages up to our apartment.
He's very pleasant. He just handed me some stuff and said he will be back, because he has a large package in his truck that he'll need to come back for. He said it's like 2 feet tall. I have no idea what this is. Could it be that robot I wished for? The bathroom scrubbing, coffee-making one?
That would be nice.

In contrast the Fed Ex person came up the stairs and didn't even knock on the door and just left some package outside the door!

Bad thing:
Excessive hyper-interest/absorption in college football. Seriously. I thought people couldn't take football MORE seriously or passionately than Pgh'ers and yet I was wrong.

bear...

I'm not sure this deserves a post without an accompanying picture but to be honest, I haven't been daring enough to snap a picture of someone's front lawn. On one of the streets on the walk to downtown- I couldn't actually say which one because I don't really pay attention to the street names. But on the corner house, a while ago, we noticed the bear. At first it was placed prominently out on the front lawn, near the edge of the lawn by the sidewalk. It's a sculpture/metal (?) or maybe ceramic black bear- maybe one foot tall, maybe a little larger. Yes a bear. And on its head it wears a pair of mens' underwear. The briefs kind (in white). I'm not making this up (why would I????) Soooooo... on the walk to town we pass bear with underwear.
Periodically the bear is moved to a different location- it was on a different spot on the lawn and then moved to the area closer to the front door.

I don't know anything else about it. Except it's a bear with a pair of underwear on its head.

toasty sandwiches and bear with underwear

One thing that only marginally has to do with Ames but it does since it was sparked by a local location of a chain store. There is a certain sub type place that has toasty sandwiches that is nearby, like within 10 minutes walking distance. It's okay as far as fast-food type places go and the sandwiches are fairly good and not greasy. I can't get past the smell associated with subway- the overpowering yeast/bread/something smell that envelops you when you walk by the outside of the store is a pretty big appetite suppressant for me. So I couldn't even tell you if their food is okay or not because I haven't eaten there is years. But quiznos is okay and doesn't have any sort of overpowering odor. So we would sometimes stop there for a quick bite to eat; plus they often had coupons and all in all, it was fine. When we would go there, we'd get the little buy 6, get one free card punched. My husband was very on top of keeping track of this, hoping to redeem it for a free sandwich. So imagine our surprise when we saw the place was closing. Too bad, we thought. Not only would we lose out on one of the few decent quick places to grab food but he wouldn't be able to get his duly-earned free sandwich.
After a couple months we saw that the store was going to re-open in the same location, under new management. When we went there and tried to redeem the free sub, the person working there told us they weren't able to honor the "free" sub cards because people had been buying up the stickers on the internet (?) and then fraudulently claiming they had bought the necessary amount to get their freebie. The manager confirmed this.
I suggested to Cory that he should write a letter to the corporate headquarters - I figured at best we'd get a coupon for a free sandwich and at worst, just waste the postage.
A week or so ago we get a package slip from the mail carrier, saying we have a piece of certified mail - from Quiznos! I go to the P.O. to pick this up- it's an envelope with $5.50 in postage!
This turns out to be a gift card.
Now does anyone want to guess how much this gift card is for, bearing in mind that the company paid $5.50 to mail it via certified mail?

Anyone...?


.... $5.00!

hahhahhahhahah

Bowling at MU

So in an effort to expand our horizons or at least try to give some support to the university, we tried to utilize the bowling alley at the student center. They do a lot of advertising for it and had promoted the fact that the lanes were completely re-done over the summer. There is a pretty good bowling alley with a lot of lanes and some video games and pool in the "newer" part of town, but figured this one was worth trying. Also the games are only $1.00 each.
Problem is well...the lanes are completely warped! I don't know what their resurfacing or renovations entailed but bowling here was quite a challenge. Also pins would get stuck in the gutters! Then if you did get a gutter ball, your ball could knock out pins from other frames. It was crazy. Also the scoring mechanism kept mis-firing or misreading- it would give you pins when you hadn't gotten any or not give you ones. At one point all the lanes shut off and had to be re-set. The young guy working there didn't seem terribly concerned or interested, he looked like all he wanted to do was close up shop and get home already. He also informed us that we could really only bowl until 9:45, even though they are open til 10, b/c it would take him 15 minutes or so to clean up everything and close up.
So needless to say, not that eager to go back, even for $1.00 bowling.

aggression twd cycle

Well good to know people are hostile toward cyclists everywhere, in case I thought it was just large cities. Someone leaned out of their car (SUV) window to tell me that I had missed a stop sign, which I don't think is true. People are mean to bike riders and it always puts me on edge. I pay a lot of attention to traffic and where cars are, b/c I know most drivers aren't that alert or concerned. So that put me in a bad mood.
But on the plus side when I was leaving the food co-op, there was a little girl eating grilled sweet corn, that they were grilling today, who was completely fascinated by bicycles. It was pretty funny.

misc. ramblings...

Well, in case anybody actually reads this... the stores in dwtn Ames are open to the unheard of hour of 8 pm on Thursday nights! Wow. Can you believe that? Sounds scandalous. I love it.
The cupcake girl's store is still open so we will see how she fares. I tried a different cupcake which was good but it was a "premium" cupcake and thus priced accordingly ($2.00 + tax). That is really too much for a cupcake. It was pretty good though.
When we returned to post-floodsville, we "met" one of our "neighbors". Well by neighbor I mean someone who lives on the next street over, in an actual house. We must have walked by his house a thousand times, because it is the route we take when walking anywhere; to downtown, to Hyvee, etc. Often he is outside - his house is right on the corner. I think a few times he said Hello to me when I was walking myself.
So imagine my surprise though when totally out of the blue we're walking by and this neighbor calls over to us: "OH you guys are back. I was wondering if you were okay with the flooding." I guess he has noticed us walking by his house for the past year or so. Either we're the rare youngish people who walk anywhere (?) or he is just very observant and/or spends a lot of time outside his house? He was pretty friendly and introduced himself and told us these were the worst floods he had seen in 30 years.
He seems like a pretty okay guy and it's nice to have some connection to people in your neighborhood.
Okay well time to get going since the repairs are still underway and that means there is going to be hammering all day long. I have to give the repair people and our landlords credit, they are right on top of the situation and making very speedy repairs.

bark management fails...

our neighbor obviously has not mastered it. I saw the UPS delivery person standing outside her door for a full 2 minutes, listening to barking, while waiting for her to answer the door.

Also I saw someone coming out of the next building wearing a contamination suit? Should I be concerned?

life here on the flood plains

here is a photo of what the apartment complex looked like in the midst of the flooding last week-
Ames had a major flood and water main break

the first floor of the building had 30" of water, all the appliances were ruined/pulled out, drywall knocked down, carpets pulled up.

Granny's secret Kool aid habit and free food for me?

On Saturday at the hy-vee- Yes, this IS where many odd and interesting things happen...got in line behind this granny who was buying about $50 worth of Kool aid, all in individual little packets. Who knows why...Unfortunately the cashier was ringing up each one individually, although I'm sure there is some way to ring up multiples of the same flavor at once. That's one of those times you get in line thinking the person before you only has a few items and it will be quicker than scanning all the items yourself. Whoops. I think the packets were on some mega-sale, b/c they looked to be about 12 cents each, although I have no idea how much Kool aid is normally. She spent quite a bit of money on her total purchase though, and a lot of that on the kool aid....
Before when i stopped to buy a bagel, the guy working there gave it to me for free! I'd like to say it was due to my incredible charm or nice smile but I think he was just disgruntled, since he said, just take it, I don't feel like taking my gloves off to ring you up. But free bagel for me, so it's win-win.

Aliens on the bus and other things

Yesterday noticed there is a strange series of signs on the bus- this is under the "what you cannot do on the bus"- there are these little pictures to try to illustrate for you, or maybe for people who don't know English. 3 of the symbols make some sense: no eating, no music, no skateboards and then the last, is literally of a hot air balloon. Can't figure that one out. I will try to get a picture of it though.

mysteries of the universe, part 1.

You can't buy parsnips if you try to go through the self-check out line at the grocery store-

they don't have one of those little pictures on the select your produce screen- weird?! You can of course purchase parsnips, I suppose we have always gone through the checker check-out lines and the cashier types in the code for it. But if you are trying to do the self-check out, we found out they don't have a listing for it. Does no one buy parsnips?

They're probably looking at us like we're such troublemakers...freaks... buying parsnips, bringing their own bags, crazy...

Also I tried these unsulphured dried mangoes I got at the co-op and they were gross! :( How sad...they smelled fairly gross, oddly like cheese, and didn't taste good at all! I love mangoes and I used to buy these delicious dried mangoes at the co-op in Pgh, they sold them in the bulk bin. I bought these unsulphured ones at the co-op here in a package and they really were awful. Anyone know why? I don't know anything about the fruit-drying process but why were these so yucky? They didn't even taste remotely like mangoes... Sigh I guess eating FRESH mangoes right off the tree last summer in Tobago really spoils you.

signs

Follow-up:
The pawn shop took that sign down!
There is still a smaller one in the window that says the same thing.

Weird...

a common dilemma

What to do with your extra textbooks and guns:

iowa pride

This is nice to see-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/fashion/weddings/04VOWS.html?ref=weddings

(you have to go down about 3/4 of the page) and see the wedding ceremony details.

cupcakes and combobulating

Well in an effort to try to support local, independent business, I did get a cupcake from the new cupcake place. I really hope the rest of her cafe/deli brings in a lot of business b/c I wasn't all that impressed and for $1.79 per cupcake, well I'd hope they'd be some serious cupcakes! Instead it was about the size of the palm of my hand!! C'mon, really? My hands aren't that big so you know that is a pretty bad deal!
In the Milwaukee airport after you pass the security screening, there is a "Recombobulation" Area.
I'm serious, this is really what it's called. Makes sense, right, after getting all your things in a disarray and un-shoeing, etc. you may very well be discombobulated and thus need to
re-combobulate. Except I'm pretty sure recombobulate is not an actual word, at least not per the
Merriam Webster collegiate dictionary, both 11th edition and online. B/c well, combobulate is not a verb? Or is it? If anyone wants to shed light here, please feel free. I'm not trying to question the
grammatical sense of the T S A or anything, I swear.

bats candy

The other night on our walk downtown, saw what appears to be a baby bat on the ground.

I tried to take a picture but it didn't come out very well.

In the apartment complex two over from ours, which faces the actual street, in their parking lot, there are some guys who just hang out in their car a lot. The other night one was actually sitting in the car window, like on the ledge of it, like something out of Dukes of Hazard. Meanwhile...

There is a new "upscale" cupcake place opening in downtown... let's see how long it lasts. Somehow I'm not seeing skeleton-like Main Street with it's odd combination of pawn shops, the VFW, karate studio, bars, and tax prep place, as the best place for $2.00 cupcakes. But we'll see. Downtown is strange. It has, I think, 4 jewelry stores, which seems a lot for such a small place, several places to get a hair cut, and I think 2 or 3 shoe stores.

Sorry this is sort of random. Oh but the proprietor of the new cupcake place is a girl who has not ever run a business or done commercial baking. She does have a degree in welding though. We'll see.

bunny

this is one of the neighborhood bunnies:

he is a pretty calm bunny

Bark management

sometimes these little gems just fall right into your lap...

In the billing statement for the electric (since it comes from the city)-

"In Ames, dogs are allowed to bark a little -but not a lot- while outside. "

Oh good, thank YOU for clarifying that! But please, could we quantify "a little"- and could

someone tell my neighbors about this standard of conduct?

It continues with these words of wisdom " Every urban dog owner needs to have control of his dog's "off" switch". OH the OFF switch, well now why didn't anyone ever just say that. Does this work for crying infants and loud-mouth drunks too?

I do appreciate this earlier bit though, so poetic... "Explosive bursts of barking dogs quickly sours the healing benefits of fresh air, sunshine, and bird song".

In case you want further suggestions on how to remedy your canine's behavior, you can get information about "bark control programs"- huh, don't those people know about the OFF switch?

Sometimes, it's really just too much.

cats on a leash, part ii

Yes, you saw that coming, didn't you? Unfortunately no pictures or video available. Yesterday the two people took their cats out again, on leashes. This time they decided it would be really clever or amusing maybe? to let or encourage the cats to CLIMB up a tree, still with the leash on! I don't understand! Luckily no other pet owners decided to take their dogs out at that moment, so there were no pet altercations.

Phew!

Impatient people and people who like their jobs

One of the more popular vehicles here is the Ford F-150. I hope that doesn't come across as some plug or anything but really a lot of people here drive trucks, a lot of people drive big trucks, and many people drive F-150's or greater. There are also some really impatient drivers. I have to say I wasn't as familiar w/truck drivers before as I am now.
The other night when we were driving home, we were stopped for a train crossing. This can take up to 5 minutes, depending on the length of the freight train, how many cars there are, etc. Apparently this proved to be just TOO Much for one driver (of an F-150)- after a couple minutes waiting, he just could not tolerate it any longer! He tore off, driving over the curb to take a detour through town to avoid the rest of the wait! It's rough, isn't it. Being expected to wait for the train to finish crossing like everybody else. Now I'm not saying F-150's equal more impatient drivers... but...there does seem to be a correlation there.

On the other hand, the people who work at the Farmer's Market are sooo friendly and chatty. Maybe it's because they know they are stuck there all day but they really are outgoing and sociable and seem appreciative of your business. Any time you go in, no matter what you buy, they are super nice.
As is the woman at the post office! She seems to truly like her job.

A History of Corn?

Here is the mural that is hanging at the Post Office:

Achtung, segway!

So one of the silliest things I've seen is anybody riding a segway. They just look like the most ridiculous things and anyone who rides one in turn, looks pretty absurd. In the urban metropolis that is downtown Ames, there are community safety officers (perhaps this is just a fancy title for parking cops or meter maids) who patrol the area to give out parking tickets ON SEGWAYS.
Now nothing inspires a sense of authority, and reminds me of Arrested Development, like a guy zipping around on a segway. Never mind that the thing only goes about 3 mph and the entire dwtn is about 8 blocks long.
These guys mean business and they patrol the street looking for cars that have overstayed the time limit to zip over to on their segway and give a ticket to. We witnessed TWO cars being ticketed on Tuesday by officer segway himself. One was an old guy in the bar we were sitting in and he went out to the car to discover his ticket. He looked kind of annoyed but he must have been relatively calm since officer segway sped away with a smile on his face. I think the tickets aren't for very much, maybe just a few dollars.

house of crap, iii

Today he moved one of the pickup trucks (now parked on the lawn), to make room for the dumpster. Maybe he really is remodeling for Britney.
http://amazingcornacopia.blogspot.com/2010/04/house-of-crap-ii.html

Also, saw a baby bunny & two other bunnies.

crazy daisies

Also, crazy daisies refers to daisies which are dyed artificial colors- ie. bright purple, green
* when you are looking at the sign advertising Crazy Daisies at Flowerama.
They are also on sale. But upon looking at them, I'd say fluorescent green & purples look pretty weird for flowers.
Call me a purist, but I will take the natural looking flowers.

Cats on the loose?

Submitted for your amusement:
Right outside our WINDOW--

Dude, What were you thinking?

The response of Bob, the banker, upon learning we had been out of town for VEISHA (an ISU festival). You may recall previous Bob conversations here:

previous visit

We were in the bank & decided to say hello to our friendly Iowan banker. Of course he had no idea who we were, and thus we probably confused him by greeting him as if he was a friend. To his credit, he covered well and acted as if, in fact, he did know us and we were old pals, just stopping in to say hello. Previously Bob had extolled the virtues of The State Fair, Duluth, Minnesota and the Living History Museum. Well we did see the State Fair and the other two are up in the air.
We asked him what kind of attractions and amusements were in store for the summer & spring
and he seemed shocked and honestly, a bit put off that we had not been there during VEISHA.
I'm not sure what the deal is with it, other than it is an annual festival at the university that has concerts and a parade. Also sometimes riots.Bob talked of the "international" food segment as being a highlight; however I feel a bit dubious about this since it looks like one of the vendors offers:
Smoked Turkey Drumsticks, Turkey Breast Sandwiches, Turkey Bacon Wraps, Breaded Turkey Tenderloins, Turkey Kabob, Pork Chop on a Stick, Walking Taco, Hamburger, Hot dog, Corn dog, Brats, Curly Fries, Chili Cheese Fries, Cheese Balls, Nachos, Chips, Funnel Cakes, Slushes, Breakfast Food.

While these do sound like Iowan delicacies, I'm not truly sure how "international" they are...

more mascot advertising

What is it with people waving signs and/or dressed as mascots/logos advertising for places? Is this common everywhere?
Yesterday there was a bear holding a sign for the Village Inn, advertising their *free pie Wednesday promotion.

it isn't actually free, it's free with any purchase...

anger management

I forgot to say that a few weeks ago I witnessed a man v. shopping cart in the Hy-vee parking lot.
The man was right by his parked car, which was not parked that far from the store. Instead of walking either back to the area in the store entrance or maybe 15 feet away to one of those cart collection areas, he was frantically attempting to ram the cart on the small grass island thing next to his parking spot. It's one of those moments that you think, is it really worth getting this upset over and how much extra energy and time would it take for you just to PUSH the cart over to where the rest of the carts are? Seriously. It takes more energy to try to shove the cart over concrete/onto grass/gravel and wedge it there. This guy looked pretty aggravated. Maybe he had to get home to watch Nascar. Who knows.
Then after that was the guy RUNNING from the parking lot to Jo-ann's, the fabric store, at 10 til 9. Glue gun emergency! The funny thing is it wasn't about to close. I checked the hours. Maybe he was desperately in need of a new sewing pattern.

bike pics

up from Madrid, IA to Huxley, IA:

when you need videos and some color?

In Huxley, IA:

House of Crap, ii

It's hard to really describe what I call, the Crap House. Mainly it's the front of the house which is a bit run-down and the collection of junk the owner stores in front of it. I pass by it often enough- since I have noticed it, the owner keeps: two very beat up looking trucks, and then on his lawn, an assortment of odds and ends. Of particular note, the cab top of a truck holds center court on the lawn. Under it, a pair of boots ( I think), one of those gallon plastic jugs you'd buy of spring water, and some assorted other items. His front door has some random newspaper cutouts on various parts. It isn't the worst house on the block (or the best). I'm pretty sure I have run into the owner on at least two different occasions (and now a third). If there was a way I could discreetly take a picture of his house I would try.
The first time I was in front of his house and he was riding his bike and when he noticed me, he said, I'm just riding to my house because I live there. Or something to that effect.
The other time he was also on his bike but a few blocks away, in which he told me it was a beautiful day not to get run over.

When we saw the crap house guy again, we were actually across the street from his house, admiring some birds. He was at the curb, by a vehicle, talking to someone. For some reason he saw us across the street and called over, (No joke), that he was getting ready for Britney Spears. That did seem like a non-sequitur. Then he elaborated by saying he was fixing up his house so it had greater curb appeal. I'm not sure how this related to Britney Spears, other than maybe she will be in Iowa and will want to stop by his house? Sometimes it's best not to question these things.

Odd things always seem to happen though, don't they?

Meatless tacos

Spring has Sprung, Liberty Man persists, and one fish, bad fish

Well, in case everyone wanted weather updates, Spring has returned to us, thankfully. It took a brief siesta there, went into hiding, hit us with last-minute cold snap & snow, but then returned, in full-standing to real honest Spring weather. It's such a relief and such an oddity, it's like you'd forgotten what grass looks like under those snow piles for the last 4 months and what it's like to go outside and not freeze.
In downtown, the Liberty Tax man still walks his beat. Up and down Main Street. I really have to wonder how effective this advertising campaign is. Is someone just meandering around downtown, perhaps on their lunch break, thinking, huh, I was going to do my taxes MYSELF but that Liberty Man makes a compelling argument for using a tax service. When I see him in his Statue of Liberty get-up, I want to go there and have someone do my taxes for me.

On to the fish... bought some cod at the local supermarket, which in previous experiences has been very tasty. And without opening it up and immediate refrigeration, it turned rank and spoiled, before eating/preparing it! What's up with that? Fortunately the store was eager to make amends and take it back and return the money spent. Maybe it swam up the Skunk River...

Lousy Smarch Weather

Well in the course of a day and a half, it's gone from 55 deg. to 22 and snowing!

So much for Spring thaw.

chicken

To add to the previous post, today I saw a chicken advertising for Jiffy Lube.

And all the SNOW has melted.

Yay Spring thaw.

randonmess

Maybe it's the country air or who knows what, but today a woman at the bus stop asked me if I was going to Ames High School. Um, what??!?? I had no idea I could still pass for 18 years old.
She seemed very surprised to find out I was headed to the university and was in fact, almost 35 years old. Who knows...maybe it's the hat, maybe it's the country air we've been breathing.

Also there are a lot of advertisements with people holding signs here. It's strange. Downtown there is a guy who advertises for an insurance company wearing a statue of Liberty costume- trust me, he looks like he pretty much hates his life. Oh right, it's for Liberty Mutual. Well sorry to rip on them but their advertising strategy is pretty bad, that guy looks like he wants to punch things. Granted a lot of the time he's been out there with his sign it's like 20 degrees out and stuff...Not really ideal conditions. Also there was a young guy advertising for little caeser's pizza...who knew they even still existed...

Okay I swear there was a point to all this. Um it's sort of spring here... not really but snow has actually melted and you can see grass again. You can now also see all the spots/layers where my lame neighbors let their dogs go and didn't pick up after them! Yay, good times...

swans gone wild...

Today I saw the two ISU swans, hanging out by the side of the Memorial Union! What were they doing there??? How did they get there? My internet sources led me to believe they were safe and warm for the winter, staying inside. But apparently not. They have been out on the lake all winter. Why they got out today and crossed the street is beyond me.
Maybe it is a sign of spring.

"Do these really look like the actions of a man whose had all he can eat?"

*Lionel Hutz, The Simpsons

What do you do after Plans A & B fail and you are looking for someplace to eat on a Friday night?
You've had to rule out the more sane & desirable options because apparently everyone is going out to eat at your favorite spots on Friday evening and everyplace, INCLUDING the King Buffet is mobbed.
King Buffet, for reference, is in the strip mall, in between Radio Shack and Subway. There's also a dilapidated looking Aldi's (although maybe it's just the poor lighting), a Staples, and *the* movie theater. Well the non-discount movie theater. So it's a happening spot.
Now, no joke this buffet is also MOBBED. There's a line the second you get inside the door and chaos inside. Apparently you also have to get a sticky little plastic card that has a number on it, which the people running/seating may or may not call.
I feel kind of mixed about buffets, because while the variety aspect of it appeals to me, the all you can eat/unlimited trips doesn't really do much for me, and generally winds up being a bit of a rip-off. But for many people, I'm guessing, the all-you can eat is definitely a big part of the appeal. Never mind if it's all you can eat of a pretty mediocre quality, it's the quantity that counts here.

But anyhow, I digress... I'm always up for trying something new and this is one place we had not been yet. So we get our table and go up to take a look at this buffet... I should mention this is allegedly a Chinese buffet. There are some nominally Chinese looking dishes and one entire salad bar thing that is filled with the following: macaroons, cookies, huge vats of 2 different colored Jellos, pudding, strawberries and whipped cream, giant bowls of canned fruit, potato salad, cheesecake, olives, and here the final odd pairing, next to each other, sushi rolls and tiramasu. I should add, as part of the "allure" of the King Buffet you get all you can eat of these delectables, a drink, and ice cream (there's a soft serve machine!).
I'm not sure about a Chinese buffet which also has toast and bacon bits, but okay.
The middle bar has some more standard fare, although I do relish that there are donuts in the middle of the General Tso chicken and lo mein. Very interesting.
Also of note, the "baccon with scallops', which actually appeared to contain crab legs. And the "musse" dish, which randomly had mussels. I was a little leery though of their seafood. I did try some rather bland & tasteless breaded fried shrimp.
The food was okay but nothing spectacular. What's more interesting is merely observing the scene at King Buffet. The place was absolutely packed, families, students, kids, your everyday Ames people. The servers/workers were efficiently seating and clearing tables, bringing over your check and fortune cookies when you appeared near done. My fortune read: "The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to choose from"
I don't know if that was somehow relevant to this experience...
As we left, I see the lucky cat, his front paw frantically swinging up and down... I think he's saying, Your luck's about to change...
Or maybe eat at your own peril...Hard to say.

the mall and glove love

Des Moines has lots of stores and lots of shopping malls and we went to the malliest mall of them all, the Jordan Creek Towne Center. Don't let that pseudo-quaint sounding name fool you, it's no strip mall. It's actually a pretty impressive mall- not that I'm much of a mall expert but apparently it's on the top 25 biggest in the country. Right below Pittsburgh Mills mall-
So yay for consumerism. I was pretty impressed though, it's a pretty spiffy mall with every imaginable chain store and a multiplex movie and all that jazz. If you walked in there, you would pretty much forget you were in the midwest and only a scant 45 minutes away from small town Ames. Not to disparage Ames... it has a pretty substandard mall though. So anyway, if anyone happens to find themselves in W. Des Moines sometime and wants the full-on mall experience, I would say, head over to Jordan Creek and you won't feel let down.
At this mall I acquired some new double layer, extra insulated gloves, which I am pretty excited about, for their potential to keep my fingers from freezing and feeling numb. While I am starting to get used to that, warding off hypothermia always seems like a worthwhile goal. They remind me of my extra thick bike gloves but they have actual fingers, instead of weird claw like mittens.

the broiler and seeing estelle g etty

Apparently, she is still here and living in Ames or nearby. The actress of Golden Girls fame.
Saw a woman who could have been her, having dinner at The Broiler. I wish I could have subtly taken pictures to convey the essence of this restaurant. It's out in the middle of nowhere, I think it is sort of going for upscale family dining but it's menu is more Ponderosa/Sizzler, minus the all you can eat salad bar. It's funny because it was mostly familyish but the bar and accompanying decor of beer advertisements signs for Miller and Bud Lite, sort of ruined that sentiment by making it seem more frat house/dorm room decor. Weird. So first the staff seemed rather frazzled, guess they were busier than anticipated. Everyone must have their fish fry and 6 oz top sirloin. Interestingly they had not only the standard deep fried mozzarella cheese but also accompanied by cheddar. Huh. I've never seen fried cheddar before. Well anyhow... the food was pretty mediocre but the overall experience was entertaining enough to justify going there. First three different people said oh just a minute, we'll help you. The one guy said he would clear a table off but if we wanted to sit down RIGHT then we could sit at the bar. Um, okay, yeh, we can't wait 3 minutes. Maybe they have some demanding customers.
Then the guy who waited on us said he was the waiter, bartender, bus boy. Lol. He apologized profusely for bringing me a glass of water with a bug in it. He assured me the 2nd glass was entirely bug free.
Then while observing the other patrons, I noticed the family group with the woman who was the dead ringer for Estelle. Amusingly at this multi-generational gathering, it was Estelle's cell phone that rang at dinner! And she stopped eating to answer it!
Anyway...I'm not really sure what theme this restaurant is going for.

Snow tubing in Boone

What's the thing to do when it's miserably cold outside? Why, go snow tubing and stand around outside for long periods of time, of course!
Keeping that in mind, we went to:
http://www.sevenoaksrec.com/snowtube.html

Seven Oaks Recreation in nearby Boone, IA to try snow tubing... Except for it being mightily cold and near frozen hands, it is sort of fun. You get towed up to the top of a pretty steep hill- seriously, this is also a ski/snowboard run- then a cranky guy pulls your tow thing off the line and kerplunks you down in tube. Then you get to line up and either try sitting down in tube or laying down it, and go flying down the slope! Going down sitting down results in you twirling around and revolving, such that you wind up going down half the slope backward. Sort of fun and yet vaguely terrifying at the same time, since after all, you're basically in some silly plastic tube, with no real way of stopping. Then at the bottom you stop/crash into a hay bale or another tuber. Good times! When you're done, you stand up, brush yourself off, and get back in the line to do it all again!

Happy times...

I stopped at Target and the older man who was the cashier was downright jolly!
I never thought I would use those two words (cashier and jolly) in the same sentence.
He really was upbeat.

when is spring

cold... when you have to chip off ice from the INSIDE of your car windshield...

freezing mist turns to freezing rain

Well, that is fun. Now the odd freezing mist turned to freezing rain and FROZEN sheets on the sidewalks and parking lots. Goody!

Here are some odd things I observed:
Today on the bus, a guy boarded the bus wearing SANDALS (I'm not even kidding)
Did he not see the above memo? It's cold (though slightly warmer than previous days) and the ground is a mess of ice, slush, and snowy-slush puddles.
Weird. Another young man got on the bus with no coat, nor gloves or hat. Apparently these people are under the delusion that they are not in the Midwest in the middle of winter???

Also this has nothing to do with it, but note to girl sitting next to me, listening to her i-pod:
If your music is loud enough such that I can distinctly make out what song you're listening to ("Rebel Rebel"), I think you MAY be listening too loudly.

Seriously...

the mists of Ames

There is something called "freezing mist". Or at least I think that is what it is. If not, it should be called this. Right now it is very foggy and gray and the snow has frozen to all the trees. It is pretty unique looking. The foggy and gray tone has almost this otherworld-ly aura to it. It's interesting to see this icy/snow frozen to tree branches. But, I like having sunlight so this is also pretty dreary looking. Let's hope it passes soon.

Warm

It's been an absolutely lovely and refreshing 34 degrees outside the last two days, along with being sunny. It's been so long since I've felt warm, it really is a nice change of pace. So yay for that global warming crap... just kidding... maybe it is just the "normal" temperature and we were dipping pretty low below normal for the last week or so.
So big old YAY for normal, humane temps again!

Strange murals, Part I

I find this mural quite strange. It's on the side of a building in downtown Ames:
What does it mean? Why do the shrubs have faces? Very odd...

New year and new definitions

I've now come up with the phrase (or maybe it wasn't me); Iowa cold.
As compared to "just" cold.

Tonight the low is predicted to be: -17 degrees.

Happy 2010 all...