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.