Happy Memorial Day!

Hi Friends. I hope you're all enjoying your extended weekend. We've been trying to wind down from a busy couple of months by taking a local vacation. We decided to view Iowa City from a visitor's perspective and visited a bunch of places we had yet to see. We dined at Takanami which had surprisingly delicious sushi and even better sakitinis. We also visited the graduate school art building which is a massive structure inspired by Picasso's guitar sculpture. It was fun sneaking about the empty building and taking in the mixed elements of steel, wood, & water. It invoked a feeling I hadn't had since visiting the Kunst museum in Austria oh so many years ago. Something like a mixture of vertigo and interdimensional de ja vu...makes my knees go numb.

We alos visited the local vinyl store and made a few purchases: Dungeon, an early Frances Jobeam, and the latest Bonnie Prince Billy. Good times.

The three of us even painted coffee mugs at the local Fired-Up store. Even better than the coffee mugs was the fact that the owner had Milo rockin out on his ducimer and ukilele-- which was quite impressive too.

We took time to see Indiana Jones and Prince Caspian as well. Loved Indiana Jones...it was my dad's favorite series so how could I not love it? I even enjoyed the cheesy parts. Don't want to give anything away, though, so I'll stop there. Had a difficult time staying awake during Prince Caspian...but the popcorn was good.

Been quite busy keeping the dog occupied. He's just the sort of sweetness that I needed in my life. I need to get the camera out and start recording things...but I've been saying that for years about Milo!!

I even got through "Water for Elephants" last week. I think that's the first book I've read from front to back in about three years. It wasn't bad...but I couldn't help wishing for more circus and less pretentiousness.

I've also been honing my cooking skills...latest endeavor was a tempeh jumbalaya. Wow...it changed my life! Perfect meal to make on Sunday and take to work all week. Full of protein and veggies. Throw in a side of Planter's NutTricous Energy Mix with chocolate covered soybeans and sesame sticks and afternoon sleepy times are a thing of the past.

So, that's probably more than you wanted to know...but it's been awhile since I've had a chance to sit down and write. I've got to get back to the political haikus. Those are such fun!

Stay dry and enjoy your weekend.

J