Rusty with our ducky friends

Last weekend at the ISU vs. Baylor football game, our friends Joan and Greg Weis came by our tailgate prior to the game. Twice! The second time they had son Ben and his girlfriend Laura in tow. By then Ben's classmate, our little baby boy Judson was at our tailgate along with about 15 of his buddies and his gf Kara.

We hadn't seen Greg and Joan in, well forever! It was so fun to catch up. Back in Creston all those years ago, we didn't know them until Jud and Ben began playing all fashions of sports together. Baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Ben was the quiet but deadly type. A linebacker with an attitude!

When we first met the Weises, Greg was in veterinarian school. He was a non-traditional student - someone who went to school in his late 30's. Wife Joan, a nurse, held down the family fort with their fam of 3 boys during the week. He was home from Ames on weekends.

We often carpooled to sports games the boys played in along with Lucy Hyde and Jim. So it was in the back seat of our Jeep and in the bleachers where we got to know Joan. After Greg graduated (woohoo!) and started a vet practice in the Creston area we got to know him better too. Great people. Odie loves Joan - and moans in delight when she see her. Odie a good judge of character you know.

At the football game last Saturday, Paul pressed Joan for a dinner date we've been talking about since we moved away from Creston - nearly two years ago. We'd been planning to meet with Weises and another couple, Ginny and Wayne Lents, at the Rusty Duck (oops - I just typed Dick by mistake...funny) in Dexter. It's partway between DSM and Creston and is always packed due to good food.

Joan put the date together and we were on! Pablo and I arrived about in Dexter at 6:45 p.m. and Ginny and Wayne walked in shortly after. We've known the Lents fam even longer than Weises because their boys Kevin and Jason attended St. Malachy with our children. Jason is Jud's classmate and he too played sports - sticking with football and soccer all the way through high school. Ginny is a Chicago girl who married a SW Iowa farmer. The stories she tells of adjusting to farm life are hilarious. What  a trooper!

Joan and Greg arrived late due to...you guessed it. A vet call. We had a lovely time catching up on what is new. They're all grandparents and are enjoying that to the hilt!  NOT. It was really enjoyable to hang out with these fab couples. Paul got caught up on farmer talk with Wayne. He truly misses that stuff. Before leaving we talked about a repeat performance. We can't let these friendships go...

BTW - Saturday a.m., on the first day Paul was in the timber for the 2014 bow season he took a doe. So we'll have deer summer sausage and jerky made in Bedford, IA. By that hottie Zeb! Zeb's Smokehouse. 

Shoulder update. Physical Therapy was rough - it was measurement day - making sure I don't slip back from full extension of the arm.
Maybe I like it at 168 degrees. Did they ever think of that?
#painsucks

You can take the people out of Creston...

but then you just run into more Creston people wherever you go...

To celebrate Valentine's Day with our honeys, Bobbie set up a night out at the Rusty Duck in Dexter. We'd been there once before, last year and had a good meal. It's a bit of a drive - the first exit past Stuart. For me, yawn, another drive towards DM. But it goes by quickly when I have a nice cocktail in my hand and am chatting it up with good friends. We ended up with a couple carloads - Eckhoffs with Higgins and Bobbie and Jeff with us.

Paul niftily avoided a deer south of Stuart. It was on the shoulder of the road. I just know, had I been driving it would have thought harder about dodging out onto the road! Dexter is a tiny burg, known previously to me only for Drew's Chocolates. My daddy used to buy them for our fam as he had a sales account in Dexter (probably some tiny department store that sold it all - from seed corn to lingerie..).

The restaurant is not large, and it was full when we got there. Bobbie had invited my roomie Joan and her hubbie Billy - and they had scrounged up bar tables for us all whilst we awaited our table. Good thing too because it took a while. I had a nice vodka tonic while I waited - no small town drink, they didn't just slap some vodka into flat tonic. They knew to include a lime. (One might take these things for granted, but I've been in small bars before where they don't even have citrus fruit!).

While we waited, two other groups came in with Crestonites. Ty and Peggy Rogers with Billy Stewart and his wife. Also Lori Vicker - don't know her married name. I worked with her at FNB when we first moved to town. Billy saw a guy he knew from Anita. Then, while we ate we saw a group from Earlham - including Scott Driscoll who is married to Melissa Winterstein. They live in Earlham now but are moving to Creston after the school year. Yes, Iowa is a small world!

I ate a delightful Orange Roughy. Good food! We got home by 11 PM - tried to meet up with McKims, who had gone with a group to Waterfront Market in DSM. But they picked Macksburg and we picked their house. So we missed connections - by the time they got home we were in our jammies...prolly a good thing no more liquor for us!

I got my honey a Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Champs T-Shirt for Val day - along with some chocolates. Jud texted me last night for advice on what to get Kara. I decided a dozen roses would be good - and a nice card. Every girl should get a dozen roses sometime from her honey. Not every year - especially on expected occasions like Val Day. But on the first one - a guy should do that! I'm pleased Jud consulted me.

Fun night out with good friends. Who says small town people don't have options!