Deep Thoughts and Funky Pants



Our former loft on East Court is looking good!

I took a couple walks today - giving me a chance to ponder. It's what I do! When I walked by our former loft I considered our wonderful time this past winter/spring. Paul and I got to live together there 3 months, trying new restaurants and bars each night. But mostly we just enjoyed living together along with our little black weiner doggy.

I wondered...could my trying time with my shoulder be payment for that? I considered that carefully - then rejected the idea. Illness is not payback for something good that's happened, or a curse for something bad we've done. Nobody sick deserves it.

That said - I told myself, I must learn lessons from all the good things and the bad things that happen to me in life. When our baby Patrick died, that's the one thing that helped me heal - knowing that going forward I was going to be a better person because of that little guy.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this painful episode in my life is, but I'll figure it out - and will be better in the future for it.

Geese caused me to cross the road - they didn't ask me why

Pablo made yet another trip to DSM today. I'm such a magnet the guy just can't stay away! Plus he'd scheduled an oil change for his Subaru - a mere 1 day after mine. Ramsey loves us.

And he needed to get his bike tire fixed and pick up a few things for his September Elk hunting trip to Colorado. I know...that trip is weeks away, but the guy is so excited he's like, well Amy used to be when it was time to get school supplies. I swear she couldn't sleep the night before shopping for new notebooks, pencils, crayolas and the like. Tonight Paul was picking up things like MREs (meals ready to eat) and gas for the cookstove he purchased. Maybe he'll start putting his name on everything with sharpies next, like Amy did on each and every crayon.

I'm glad Paul has a hobby he's so into. He's been working out really hard so he's in good shape for this fall's hunt near Aspen. This year 3 guys are going with him - they met last Friday night to plan. That's when he really started getting fired up about the trip.

I met him at Jordan Creek, entering through the upper level of Younkers. That's near the Young Women's section. As I entered I overheard a mom with a teen in tow. Or was it the other way around - the mom was kinda following the teen girl who was about 16. The mom spied some animal print looking legging kinda jeans and said, "These are funky!" trying to attract the daughter's attention.

I thought to myself. "Self - that was you 10 years ago with Amy - and oh honey, you shouldn't say funky to your teen daughter." The daughter ignored mom and kept shopping, certainly cringing but hiding it well since Mom had the purse strings. She'll save snotty for another day...

It was nice to have an evening with Paul. We ate outside Panera. Even though it was hot, it wasn't too bad in the shade. We sat and chatted, enjoying each other's company.

DSM Farmer's Market

After a fun evening Friday night at the Lobby (the bar was celebrating the first anniversary of opening. They had a DJ and food, and cosmos), Pablo and I got up early and headed to the Farmer's Market in DSM. We were on a mission to find something for the Lefebvre's lawn. (We're heading to Denver and Vail Memorial Weekend - can't wait to see Amy and my sis and Bolder) And we needed a breakfast burrito fix.
I'd gotten a lawn poker (a welded design you can poke into your lawn) for Cindo last fall for Christmas...alas we forgot to pack it, and it sat in our garage all winter. And became rusty, I discovered when we cleaned the garage last weekend. So it became my lawn poker - a cute hummingbird!

Bomb Squad

Paul and I decided to park near the loft we recently spent 3 months in - for sentimental and clean getaway reasons. We discovered they'd closed the Court Avenue Bridge for a Public Services Fair - the City of DSM was showing off all their equipment, including the one near and dear to me, the garbage truck. Semi celeb Bill Stowe was there. Next police were out in full force with all their mobile units, helicopters, bomb squads. Pretty cool!

Baby Patrick rode in one similar to this

The crowd behind Paul is slowly growing - some people don't like the dogs, but I love seeing them

The rooster rocks in the wind - so ugly it's cute!

Right when we crossed the bridge we found the vendor we were looking for, and we bought a cool metal rooster for the Lefebvre yard. I won't let my sis forget she's an Iowa native! It was only 8:30 a.m. but the crowd was already large! We made a beeline for the burrito area.

Burrito Tent

The burritos are done by a family from Prescott, Iowa which is near Creston. I think they've put several people through college on money made from this endeavor. But it's got to be hard work setting up to sell burritos May through October every Saturday.

We stood in line behind Jeff Angelo, former State Senator and Crestonite and his wife Tara. Though the line was fairly long it moved right along, because those farmboys (and girls) have the set up down to an art. When we got to the cash register and the woman taking orders said, "Are you from Creston? Goldsmith, right? Leslie?" Wow - I didn't know her - but she's a Prescott person and her husband, Craig Mittag works at the New Advertiser. She must have recognized me from my newspaper column writing days - when my photo was in the paper. (In the small world department - we saw her again that night at a high school grad party in Creston...). The burrito was marvy!

Later we split a Dutch Letter...

The other things that caught my eye on this excursion...

Chocolate dipped bacon

$10 all you can drink?? game on...next time perhaps.

Mixed feelings

View of the Capitol from our building

I've got mixed feelings about our living situation. I work in DSM. Paul has a temp position in town, so we've taken a "place" - a loft in the East Village near both of our jobs. We'll be there through mid April. Living together full time for the first time in three years.

Though I admit it's been a bit of an adjustment. I'm finding I love it too much. I'm being spoiled. Last week on our way back to DSM, I spoke of the "South Place" and the loft. Like Creston was the south of France or something. Paul said - it IS on a lake - Lake McKinley, the pond-sized lake you can see from our house.

We love our neighborhood in Creston, and the people who live in it. As I write this, Paul is driving off in our neighbor, Bill Taylor's Chevy truck with brush from our yard. Taylors aren't home but they left their keys so Paul could run brush to the city yard waste site. Taylors also watch our house and cat when we're on vacation. Joni (Bill's wife) refuses to allow us to pay their daughter Jenna for this service. (I'm sure it's really Joni who is the one doing the job most of the time). We try to provide local gift certificates to show our gratitude.

Jim Anthony scoops our driveway with his blade after snowstorms - all for Hooters gift cards (he says he loves the wings..., right Jim). All the other neighbors are good peeps too. No troublemakers with Harleys or barking dogs.

Our house last fall...

Plus we love our Creston friends like family - without much of the drama. They've been through it all with us. The good, the bad, the crazy knuckleheaded stuff. Fun. Oh the times we've had!

But I'd love having my honey with me full time. It's not an option at this point...the position he's staffing is a temp one. The guy he is replacing is itching to get back to his real job! Alas...the feds aren't going to keep paying for us to have a 2nd home in the big city.

When we got back to the loft last Monday, both of us (and even Odie) felt like we were kinda "home" there too. Sure - my fave chair isn't there. And Odie can't run out the front door to potty. There's no place for Paul to putz around. And the light in the bathroom sucks - for all of my personal makeup routine (all 5 minutes). And the bird next door continues to gargle, coo, roar - whatever that noise is...

But it's so nice being together. For the little stuff. Groceries, library visits and surgery. Yeah - I have that elbow surgery next week and it will be really convenient living in town for medical stuff. Our search of the perfect wings/neighborhood food/bar has been fun too. It was quite distracting one day at work last week - trying to decide just which establishment we should try out that evening.

It's like riding the roller coaster. I'm trying to enjoy the ride and not think about the end. Because when this ride is over, Paul and I are lining up for another ride! We're not sure what it will be - or how fun, but we'll be on it together.

On a ferry ride - NYC. We look a little like we're in pain

Stubborn Wienie

Another Monday, a bit more snow. This one was slick as snot, according to those who had to commute longer than 3 minutes. That's about what my current commute is. Love it.

Back to the snow. Of course the sidewalk outside the loft hadn't been scooped, so Odie rebelled at the thought of tinkling first thing this a.m. when Paul took her out. It was still snowing right along, so we let it go.

At 11 a.m. , I had an appointment to see the arm surgeon again - after my MRI. I was glad to have the trusty Subaru driving to WDM for my appointment - the snow was still falling and roads were a bit treacherous.

The MRI turned up a nice shot of the blob in my elbow. Of course they still aren't quite sure what that lump is, but we agreed it needs to come out. I'm hoping it's the cause of the pain I'm feeling. Dr. Kallemeier says it could be a benign tumor on a nerve. Yay. (not) Anyway she's going to remove the little bastard on the 28th.

I was in a hurry when I came back (since the doc was running behind and I didn't get back until nearly 1 PM), but I realized I needed to run by the loft to take Odie out. Didn't want the little pooch to explode. I carefully scooped a path to her normal tinkling area, and clipped her on her leash for a quick jaunt out. She wasn't having it. I was angry. It reminded me of the days of having toddlers - totally unreasonable. All she had to do was squat quickly. But no! Argh!

I dragged her back upstairs and was very crabby with her. She got no treat. That's right - you heard me. After work - it was more of the same. Except I bumped my head on the metal railing for the stairs for our loft before taking Odie out - for nothing. Thank goodness when Paul came home she finally did the deed. I was tired of being mad at her.

I hope the winter clears up - I can't take much more of this stubborn wienie stuff!

Warbler

Late afternoon sun - cool loft shadows

It's very strange sharing walls with strangers once again. After all it's been 26+ years since we last lived in a place that housed more than one family.

Our last apartment was in Osage, Iowa - in a house we shared with an elderly woman. Not elderly like me. More like 80+. She listened to the television really loud. One night, I was afraid she'd "gone to the big house in the sky" because I woke up in the middle of the night and the TV was still going. The old gal usually turned in early. But she must have just fallen asleep with the thing on, cuz I heard her the next day up and about.

Odie with new dolly

When we moved to Creston, we bought our first house - and had to worry about neighbor's yards instead of shared walls. So living in a loft in the East Village of DSM has brought back memories of apartments past! I won't even get into some of the things I heard through college apartment bedroom walls...

The bird?? is on the other side of that wall...

In this building, we can hear the neighbors - despite the pretty good insulation. Like the "thing" next door. We first heard it during last week's Super Bowl - when I asked Paul to turn down the sound on the TV so I could listen to the strange noise. A lion? Of course not. Paul says it's a bird that those are pigeon-like warbles or cooing. It's very sporadic - only going on for an hour or so in the evening. Thank goodness!

There is a standard poodle across the hall that barks periodically - especially when Odie runs by. Neighbors nearby play music loudly on weekends at night. I guess they're not lame early to-bed weekend peeps like we are.

We're settling into the sounds of our new temporary digs. Not sure I'll get used to the damn bird though.

Jud and Kara stopped by today on their way back to Missouri from a visit to Ames. So we showed off the new joint and went back Baby Boomers for a late breakfast. Then we took a quick walk down Locust Street to see the neighborhood before they hit the road. It's fun to introduce people to our temp neighborhood!

East Court Ave

Will be our new part-time address starting early in February. Paul and I took a look at the two lofts coming available in a couple weeks, and though I liked the smaller one better we decided to go with the bigger one. Why?

Small world department - the guy in the Broncos jacket is from Mallard and knows Diana McKim.

• It's available earlier
• There is a workout room
• The bedroom is a separate room
• It has a small deck
• There are grassy areas to walk Odie around the place

Those reasons trumped the selection of the smaller place. This loft is just three blocks from Paul's office, and about six from mine. The Court Avenue establishments on the West Side of the river are just three blocks away. The East Village stuff around the same distance. We'll be livin' large!