It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the space shuttle!

Well, since I picked on my youngest brother here after he drank fly juice, I suppose it's only fair to share some love with my eldest brother as well. So, allow me to share with you the story of the Space Shuttle and its legal sale in the state of Missouri:

It's Wednesday night and the casino down the street from the farm is having crab-legs on the buffet. Since my daddy has never met a crustacean he doesn't like and since Aaron and I were wanting to see the casino, we decided to go for dinner. On the way there I was sitting up front chatting with dad while my poor husband suffered in the back seat with my brothers. As daddy and I were discussing plans for the 4th we hear my brother pipe up from the back: "Oh yeah! Hey dad! What happened with all those fireworks we bought?"

My dad simply answered with "Check your pronoun, 'bro'. I don't think *we* bought any!"

My genius brother missed the point that he should have used "you" in place of "we" and continued to argue that yes, they really had all bought fireworks. In an effort to further clarify this point, I asked him, "'Brother'? Which of all these fireworks did you personally buy?"

His answer, "You know, the ones that make loud noise, go up in the air, then explode!" I deadpanned back, "Oh? You mean the space shuttle?" Continuing in his pattern of missing the point, he answered, "Yeah, that one! That's the one I bought!"

It took him until half-way through dinner to figure out why we were all laughing. The worst part? Four hours driving through the state of Missouri on the way home and I forgot to stop off at a fireworks stand to purchase a shuttle all my own.

Fly Goo

In a wonderful example of object lessons:

After letting the dogs in and out this morning, we had a few flies flitting about the kitchen. My youngest brother decided to go after them with the flyswatter. As he was smashing down the swatter with all his strength, my step-mother was telling him that it was not required to swing that hard, and warning him that he might damage something. Just as he opened his mouth to ask, Why?", he hit a fly. Because he was swinging so hard, the bug exploded; spraying into his open mouth and all over his glasses. My step-mother's response (after she wiped away the tears and could stop laughing): Do you still need me to answer that?

Iowa

Following a ten hour trip in the car, the hubby, the puppies, and I all arrived in Iowa just as everyone was waking up for the day. While the parents did work and the kids had dentist and doctors appointments, Aaron and I caught a long nap. We then met everyone for lunch at my favorite diner on the planet.

I'm not sure what makes the Hamburg Inn 2 (http://www.hamburginn.com/) in Iowa City, IA so special, it's just got that perfect mix of food, people, and atmosphere. Afterwards, we wandered through campus and the Ped. Mall. We browsed through a fantabulous gourmet food supply shop and sniffed at the more than we make in a year bottles of truffle oils, wines, and aged basalmics. We browsed through a handful of galleries and exchanged contact info with a few owners. There was one gallery that really impressed us with their eye for selection and the multiple styles and genres of their artists. They have a digital submission process and do their selections by jury. The owner was a really cool guy who took our info and made sure to give us a few of his cards, urging us to give his name to our artists, YAY! The more time I spend working with SIACO, the more I think we're actually going to not only pull this off, but we're going to do very well with it! We also learned about corporate ordering through Dick Blick (they give special discounts to non-profits) and have an Apple employee getting in touch with corporate to determine if they will do the same. We wanted to check out the studios and galleries at the University but unfortunately, they're all still flooded.

Grandma Freda and her friend from the senior citizen's home came by for dinner. Aaron made an incredible stir-fried cole slaw and dad BBQ'ed all sorts of dead animal products out on the grill. After that, we headed to bed early.

Today we think we're going to go check out the Amana Colonies (at least the ones that are still above water) and possibly Kalona (if it's re-open yet).

To-Do:

Aaron is off to work for the day and as soon as he gets home, we're headed to Iowa to visit my dad and the family. Things to do before we head out:

• Do laundry for the trip
• Bake cookies
• Pack suitcase for Aaron & I
• Pack the puppy stuff into their bag
• Pack books, electronics, and entertainment into laptop bag & backpack
• Pack snacks and drinks into cooler
• Clean out the car
• Load puppy crate, bags, cooler, and maps into car
• Load people and puppies into the car
• Get on the road

I'm fairly excited for the trip. It's always great seeing my dad, but this will be the first time I've seen their farm, so that will make it extra exciting!