Happy Halloween

BOO!!! Did I scare you? Are you all ready for the big haunting night? or do you really care? Josh and I have been so busy lately that last night we finally were able to carve our pumpkins. Picking the design was the hard part this year. We were able to find some nice pumpkins at Hy-Vee. Since they are not sold by weight I made sure mine was one of the largest they had.

When it came time to decide on a pattern I was out of ideas. We did the Red Sox and the Hawks last year, the Cubs sucked it up this year, so it would be the easiest to do a pattern or just a normal ol jack-o-lantern face. The search was on to find our pattern books and carving tools. Of course we could not find them, I think there are with my missing yearbooks.

So Josh was on the hunt for a pattern book, he found one and after supper at about 10 pm we started the carving process. I told you we have been busy, and this was the only time we had. We do have to wait til almost Halloween to carve them anyway becuase the squirrels think we are leaving them food when we set our pumpkins out, but this was late.

So we scraped the goo and seperated the seeds out. I try to roast the seeds, every year they taste a little different. So I got the seeds into the oven so I didn't have to roast them until 2 am. Then it was time to transfer the patterns on to the pumpkin, that was not easy, and they were not easy to see once they were transfered. So we managed to carve out the patterns and viola, we had 2 carved pumpkins and it was just shy of midnight.

Kona was experiencing her first Halloween. She thought the pumpkins were food, so she started eating some of the goo and started chewing on some of the seeds. It was hard to keep her away, she always has to put her nose into things to see what is going on. Halen on the other hand took the opportunity to go sleep somewhere away from the action. We do have both extremes for pets.

Happy Halloween everyone. Stay safe!!

NKOTB

So this past weekend Amber, my friend Jen and I road tripped to Chicago. We went to catch up with the past. That is right, the New Kids on the Block have reunited and are on tour. The nearest concert was in Chicago. So we pilled in the car and headed off to the concert. We had a hotel room close to the venue. We just needed to find a place to eat, but with 23908423908 women in town for the concert it was a struggle. Amber used her charm and got us into the nearby Chili's restuarant, where we had this waiter "from" jamaica. He kept saying Jyour Welcome, it got old fast. We scarfed down supper and headed over to the concert. We were surprised to find that Natasha Beddingfield opened for them, she was good.

It was then time for the concert. Lets just say that I was a huge fan when I was 12 and they had no problem making me feel like I was 12 again. These are grown men pushing 40ish that still dance and sing together. GOOD TIMES!!! Becuase of camera restrictions, and the bulk of my camera I did not sneak my camera in. However if you go to youtube.com and type in NKOTB + 10/24/08 you can find many performances from the show. The venue also served Mai Tais, it was great!

The next day we hoped the public transportation system to downtown Chicago for some shopping. When ever you have to take public transportation it is alwys interesting. It took over an hour to get downtown. We were near O'hare airport. We also ran into a homeless lady who decided to use the train as her toilet.

After a draining day of shopping and getting free candy courtesy of Chicago mayor Daley, we decided to take the trek back to the car and come home. It was a good time in Chicago, it is so close, nice to visit, nice to come home.

However this is a super busy time of the year, trying to get a million things done before it gets too cold. We need to rake our leaves so they can be picked up by the city on the curb, however it was super windy on Sunday, so we only got a few of those done. Got all myplants moved inside, then moved in the patio furniture, and cleaned up the garage. In the mean time I have been given a butt load (yes that is the technical term) of green tomatoes. The family really likes them pickled. So far I have about 50 jars done, it is a lot of work and consumes a lot of time. Thanks to Jolene for helping me. I am even experimenting with some jalepeno batches.

That brings me up to tonight, where I need to finish raking the leaves becuase they are scheduled to come tomorrow, more tomatoes to can and need to carve my monsterous pumpkin ( i have no idea what to make) I need more time. Good thing we turn our clocks back this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, Josh and I are traveling to Champaign, IL to go to the Iowa football game. Josh has also been busy, he got a substate football game to ref this year, in amongst all the meetings and scheduling high school basketball games.

84 cents!!!

WTF!! Ok so now my refill mug cost 84 cents to fill at Casey's, the price jumped from 73 cents. I guess this is a sign to stop drinking my beloved fountain pop. Or is it a sign to start drinking that new 64 calorie beer? Drinking at work, maybe?

back in the Gutt!

Hey all!! I am writing to you from Guttenberg. The weather has been super nice, haven't seen the weather report, so maybe it will be nice for the week.

On Friday night Josh reffed his usual high school football game, but afterwards was asked to ref the Rusty Toolbox game at the Iowa Hawkeye practice bubble. The toolbox game is between the managers and trainers from Iowa and Wisconsin. Iowa pulled out the win 7-6.

Then it was time for the game on Saturday. My friend Kate was in town for the weekend so she joined me for the Hawkeye victory. We also caught up with some other friends this weekend, it was a good time.

I am now running for 30 minutes, man I am tired, any one a massuese out there??

Well hope everyone is doing fine, we are fine. I left the dogs with Josh so he will be kept busy. I should be back home tomorrow.

register to vote!

Hey all, are you registered to vote? In Iowa the deadline is October 24th. I wont tell you who you should vote for, but I can tell you that you need to register. Check with the deadlines in your state, I know some have already passed. Which means if you are not registered, I don't want to hear you whining about who is elected.

In other news the project for a new lockmaster house at Lock and Dam #10 in Guttenberg was completed, and now you can go observe barges and pleasure craft locking through. or in other words the entertainment in Guttenberg has doubled. Every once in a while a big paddle wheel type boat come through.

It's Fall

So this past weekend I traveled up to Guttenberg, to do a little work. It was also peak leaf looking weekend. I have been working in the bathroom to our room #2. It had some dated wallpaper, time for it to go, who ever thought wallpaper was the thing to do should be shot! Saturday I ripped off the wallpaper and cleaned off the glue on the walls. On Sunday I got out the primer and painted the ceiling and walls twice and cleaned motel rooms. I also helped with a minor flooding incident in the basement of the motel. The water heater was leaking, and needs to be fixed, anyone know a good plumber? Today I put on a coat of ceiling paint, did some caulking, went running and rented a room. I am sooooooo tired, i need a nap!

On the running front, I am up to running 28 minutes without stopping, 3 times a week, soon I move to 30 minutes. I have registered for my 5k, so just have to keep up the training. I am slow, but I can do it!

Josh is busy cheering on the Red Sox in the ALCS, things are not looking so good I think the series is tied at one game a piece and as I right this the sox are losing game 3. So everyone lets cheer, the cubs aren't in it, so who else you want to cheer for?

Hope all is well with everyone!

Another Plane Crash

WOW a third plane crash in Iowa city in as many months. This is crazy, I think there hasn't been a crash in some 20 years before now, and then 3. This crash happened just north of the runway, and the pilot was injured and taken to the hospital, no word on his condition. From the pictures it appears that the plane was just hundreds of feet from crashing into people's living rooms. No word on the cause of the crash either. Information can be found at http://www.kcrg.com/ or http://www.press-citizen.com/.

In happier news, the Red Sox won last night and are on their way to the next level the ALCS. GO SOX!! I wasn't sure if my ears could take the screaming due to another lose, however I should have been more prepared for the screaming due to the win.

Happy Birthday!

Well this is a belated birthday wish to Josh. He turned the big 2-8 on Saturday October 4th. The big day was celebrated by watching the hawks at the Ariliner downtown (thanks to the waitress for adding a few extra olives to my drink), however the hawks managed to lose another one, ARGH! On a side note birthday cake is so underrated, who needs a birthday to eat cake, it is soo yummy!!

In other sports related news, the Cubs will not be winning the world series, big bummer there, maybe next year right? Maybe 101 years is lucky? The Red Sox are still in the hunt, they still have to win one more game before they go to the next level. They lost in a 12 inning game last night, not so great. I was discussing the statistics of games played at Fenway Park, and how they probably hold the stat for most games played after midnight, in the last few falls all I remember watching late at night is the Red Sox. Hopefully they can pull out a win and get closer to the world series. I know the neighbors would thank us, Josh gets a little worked up yelling at the tv.

Well hope all are having a great start to the work week. The temps seem to be nice and fall like. Kind of warm today, think there is some rain in the near future.

Happy Belated Brithday to Josh!

Lucky

We have been busy in the past few days. On Tuesday night we went to Old Chicago. In June they took on 6 feet of floodwater, and they reopened. We had to go check it out. Their kitchen is open until midnight, so it is great to have them back again. They also serve Dr. Pepper in their fountain pop selection, as you all know how much I love my fountain pop. They also pride themselves in their 110 beers, that is what Josh likes.

Wednesday at noon I took the dogs out to my parents house. Kona and Soda (my parent's dog) still have to learn to get along. Well all went well, (despite the fear in kona's stance in the picture)Kona ran around in circles while Soda tried to chase her, it was a good time. Kona and Halen managed to roll in some stinky animal or something, lets just say it wasn't a pleasant ride back to town. Kona, the stinkiest got a make shift bath at work with some dish soap.

While I was at home I picked up, er borrowed some apples. They have an apple tree that has a couple types of apples on the one tree. A few years back one limb fell off the apple tree, however that limb grows a more red type of apple, and the other side of the tree grows a larger greener type of apple. They are both delicious. Anyway I took some apples home to make some apple pie cake, I made 3 batches. That stuff is sooo good and soo yummy, thanks to Kate's mom for the recipe.

Now the part you have all been waiting for, my lucky streak. Well a few weeks back I was notified that I was a winner of a $500 gas gift card. Just like anything else I was skeptical, but the source was legitimate, so I followed up on it. This past summer I entered some of my 12304802938 pictures in an online contest "hit the road sweepstakes." The contest was to post pictures of places you have been in the USA, I posted a few from our vacations, and viola I am a winner. So yesterday when I came home to check the mail, i had a note to go to the post office to pick up a registered letter. I picked up the letter and it is my $500 in gas gift cards, so it is true. This is the best prize ever. The only down side is that it is for Shell gas, the nearest one is in Davenport or Cedar Rapids. I will have to go on a road trip to get my free gas, oh well it is free!! In other lucky news I won $0.25 on a pull tab the other day too, or I won my investment back.