Reconnecting with Bobbie and Jeff

My grandfather was a gentleman farmer. Wallace Bullock used some of the proceeds of his job selling children's clothing across Iowa to purchase several small farms around Atlantic. I remember riding with him in his Volkswagon bug (a real farmer's vehicle...) to visit his tenant farmers. We'd smell the hogs (before confinements) and scrunch up our noses. Bubba (our name for our granddad) would say, "That's the smell of money"!

That is not the way our friend Jeff McFee, a cattle farmer work it. He's a real farmer, often working 7 days a week, rain or shine, hot or cold. This year Bobbie and Jeff had a vacation in September and when they got back it was harvest time. He's been running ever since. I'm glad he took some time off to hang out with us.

Paul and I started out yesterday fairly early at our fave breakfast place, the Waveland for sustenance for the day. We had lot of errands to run. We arrived home to watch the Cyclones get their injury-ridden tails whipped. Prior to the game, Paul dug out Christmas lights for the front and back of our town home.

Clark Griswold, Jr.

During the game, to distract myself, I heaped ornaments on the dainty Christmas Tree in our living room. Bobbie and Jeff arrived later in the afternoon after a bit of shopping. It had been many weeks since we'd seen the two of them so we had a lot of catching up to do.

I'd made reservations at Ohana Steakhouse. It is a Teppanyaki cooking house - where they cook on a big hot griddle in front of you. It's fun to watch and we had a good chef - he was quite intelligent and witty. And a good cook! My scallops with lemon sauce were delish.

Bobbie and Jeff check out the veggies

  It was a fun night with our longtime pals. We retired back to our place...and all had a hard time keeping our eyes open while the evening football game played out.

On Sunday we attended the ISU Women's game against Stony Brook University, thanks to free tickets from McFee's daughter Kristina. We met their other daughter Kim for lunch at the new Wallaby's. There I ran into my high school classmate Jeff Becker and wife Sharon with their son. Small world department. We made fun of Roger Underwood. haha

The Cyclones made the game closer than it should have been - but pulled it out in the end. Phew! One place we couldn't go this weekend was the best dive around - the Locust Tap. It's out of commission, shut down by the health department. I have high hopes that all problems will be remedied by the slumlord soon!

Health update: the shoulder continues to improve, I continue to take Methimazole to block the thyroid - I will have another blood test soon to see how the hormones are doing. I feel much better than I did prior to being diagnosed. Graves Disease is a journey and I'm now a warrior on that path.