Ames 2.0

or.."if you build it..."

Apparently Ames has made some upgrades in the last several months. One of the sketchy aka
"stabbin cabins" bars downtown closed and one of the others was totally renovated & looks pretty respectable now. The crappy, claustrophobic antique store closed. Another store is expanding and remodeling. And amazingly, Ames now has a wine bar! Apparently (and oddly enough) it is also
the ONLY one in the state. We stopped to check it out and talk with the owners the other day.
So maybe things are looking up for our fair city...

almost caused an upset...

...as a busload of elderly shoppers from the Green Hills retirement home disembarked at Hyvee supermarket today... they were all coming into the entrance/exit vestibule with their shopping carts, as I was trying to exit...
In other local news, we went to our first "All you can eat" pancake breakfast... I always feel like
the next line here should be that lawyer in the episode of The Simpsons who says..."Do these really look like the actions of a MAN WHOSE HAD ALL HE CAN EAT?"... I actually don't remember why there was a trial going on in that episode, except Homer was on trial for some reason. Something about an all you can eat seafood dinner.

weather, roller derby girls, liberty tax, cooter-rama

Still pretty cold here, despite it officially being spring. It snowed this week. Not much rain though, the car is still dirty.
It doesn't really look like spring yet. I saw a cardinal in the backyard, on the far fence. He didn't come close though and didn't want to go near the bird feeder.
We are still snubbed by most of the birds.
We saw the Des Moines Derby Dames; they lost against the Old Capitol City Roller Girls.
Roller derby is weird. First we wound up sitting on the floor of a crowded "events center" but it really looked more like a school gym or something. That gets uncomfortable after about half an hour. The periods or whatever they're called are like 30 min long but they stop a lot sometimes- thus my boredom. But also maybe because I couldn't keep straight who was supposed to be doing what, the "jammers" or the "scorers" or whatever they were called. Mostly it was just some pretty aggressive gals skating around, knocking into each other. I guess they are used to getting knocked down but it didn't look all that fun to me.
I had previously thought that being a character advertisement or whatever it's really called, someone who stands outside in costume advertising for this or that business must be one of the crappiest jobs ever- boring and you have to stand out there in any weather conditions. Seriously, I've seen the guy advertising for Pizza Hut when it's really hot outside & the people outside when it's plenty cold, and assumed they must be pretty miserable. But the other day I saw a girl dressed in the Liberty Tax costume, ie. like Statue of Liberty, and she was smiling and seemed to be having a great old time.
So who knows...