Happy New Year’s Eve from Iowa!

We just returned from dining at a Machine Shed restaurant.  It was not overly busy and had good service by a guy in coveralls.  We both had steaks and they were really good.  One of the better steaks I’ve had in the past year.  Would like to check them out for breakfast sometime.

This morning we went to Homemakers furniture in search for some lamps for our bedside tables.  This is the store we purchased most of our furniture at back in September.  I like them because they carry a wide range of items.  From cheap “flat box” furniture to expensive name brands.  We spent 15 minutes checking out their lighting department not finding anything exactly right.  We then went upstairs to their bedroom furniture area to see what they had in the bedroom displays.  After wandering through all of the displays we went back to look at several specific ones..  We wanted something tall enough to work well for reading in bed.  Idea is to have the light shining down unto the book and not throw shadows.  Found a set of tall chrome colored ones with white square fabric shades that we both liked.  They were $49.00 each so worked with our budget. Salesman confirmed they were in stock – so we paid for them on the sales floor.

We then decided to look at coffee tables since we are still using a big cardboard box.  The box is ghetto fabulous and easy to move when I want to play a Kinect game.  We spent an hour wandering around the display floor and just could not find exactly what we wanted.  Found a few that would have worked except they could not be moved easily.  One almost fell apart when we attempted.  One that looked like an old trunk would have worked, but was way too expensive.  We got out of the mood to shop for furniture so left without one.

Next we drove back to the customer pickup area.  We gave our order number to a clerk via a microphone (like ordering fast food), then we get assigned to a parking spot by number.  In 5 minutes a guy came out and put the box with the lamps in the back seat of the Jeep.  In 10 minutes we were back home.

Started putting the lamps together in the living room and discovered a part was missing.  There was only one of the round metal pieces that holds the shade above the light bulbs.  So could only assemble one of them.  Another odd thing is that there were extra parts in the box for a gold lamp.

So called Homemakers back and they confirmed they had another set of lamps and that I needed to go back to customer service.  No big deal.  Went back, showed them what was missing, signed some paperwork, went out to the warehouse and after waiting for 10 minutes a guy came to help me.  He opened up another box of identical lamps and obtained the missing part from it.

Made it back home, got them assembled and setup in the bedroom.  All is good.  Here is pic of the one on my side of the bed:

New lamp - guess it looks ok...

The on/off switch for the lamp is on the cord – will be a pain the locate it each evening.  Tomorrow going to run to Home Depot and obtain two touch switches and incandescent bulbs for it.  The switches will make it so I just need to touch the lamp base to turn the light on and off.  Only down side is that the switches do not work with the CFL light bulbs.

Anyway….

One of my New Year’s Eve traditions is to watch the “Dinner for One” video.  The video is a tradition for people in some European countries like Denmark and Germany. I like how nostalgic it is. Seems like it gets better each year…

Hope everyone has had a great 2011 and we all have a happy and prosperous 2012. Should be an interesting year with the Mayan calendar predictions of doom, presidential election, John graduating college next fall and obtaining a job in his new profession. Can’t wait to see how it all ends up….

Greetings from West Des Moines, IA….

Received a call from John around noon – he is on his way back home.  Should make it here around 8pm.  I’m sure he will be happy to be back after spending a week in Wisconsin.  He has some Christmas gifts waiting for him that my parents sent along.

Prince is patently waiting for John's arrival..

Work has been more hectic this week then expected.  Continue to work on help desk issues along with end of the year tasks that I normally don’t handle.  I’ve meet lots of new and interesting people working with other departments on issues.  Will be glad when this week is done.  Knowing that I will be going to a conference in Florida in a few weeks helps keep me in a good mood

Went ice skating downtown for a few hours last night.  The rink was really crowded and the ice was really crappy.  It was like skating in two inches of snow because of top layer of ice being shaved off by all the skaters.  Could not practice too much because there was no space.  Oh well…. did not cost me anything because I had a free pass from taking lessons.  The next round of lessons starts in two weeks.

Not much else going on.  Going to do my weekly chores of vacuuming the apartment buildings hallways and cleaning the windows.  Want the place to look nice for John’s arrival.

Greetings from a cool day in Iowa..

The weather has been pretty good for this time of the year – highs in the lower 40′s and lows around freezing.  Would like it to stay cold enough for the ground to stay frozen and not be muddy.

Had a nice Christmas with my parents at their farm outside of Thomson, IL.  Arrived there on Friday evening.  The drive was not too bad – took me around 4 hours with one stop for fuel.  Mom made oyster soup and it was yummy.  I believe it is just milk, butter and oysters with salt/pepper.

Mom's tree

On Christmas Eve they had a full house with my brother Deven’s family coming over.  Was fun to see them again.  Nephews Jet and Scout are getting to a fun age where they can both talk and play.  Was cute to see how they liked to eat pickles and cookies more then the ham dinner.  We spent a few hours playing with their new toys.  Jet did a good job at putting together the Lego kits with just a little help from me.

On Christmas I accidentally slept in until 8:30am, so we did not get to opening presents any too early.  The nephews must have worn me out.  Received lots of nice gifts – my  two favorites are a grey hoodie that has “IOWA” stitched on front and a sandwich press for making panini type sandwiches.

Then Mom had a trip to Clinton, IA planned for us to tour the George M. Curtis Mansion.  It is owned by the Woman’s club and they ran the tours as a fund raiser.  We had a nice lady from the club give us the tour of the place.  She brought us from room to room on the three levels and pointed out all of the nice woodwork, Tiffany light fixtures, stained glass windows and fireplaces.  She explained that Mr. Curtis was a lumber baron back when logs were floated down the Mississippi River from Wisconsin.  He was also a politician – served two terms as US Representative for Iowa.  There were many different styles of wood work throughout the home, perhaps to show off the different styles he sold?   The third level was once an open dance floor, but is now divided into rooms.  The Woman’s club rents out sleeping rooms – mostly to preachers at local churches.  They rented some out to college aged kids, but they partied too much for them.  The mansion is also rented out for receptions, dinners and parties.

Outside the mansion

One of the 8 fireplaces in the home - was just massive.

Another fireplace

And yet another fireplace - this one in the front foyer.

Mom and Dad

Part of the reason for going to Clinton was to take a drive in their new car.  They finally replaced their 11 year old mini-van with a Buick Enclave.  Here’s mom posing next to it:

Pretty sporty....

After the tour we went back home and I helped them with some of their Christmas presents.  One of their gifts was an iPad – so got it configured for their wifi, then got them started using it to surf the web, purchase/play music and switching to the different apps.  Then spent time getting a new multi-functional printer to work with Dad’s computer.  All went well.

On Monday morning I spent time with Dad going over plans for a trip they would like to take.  Last year they took the Amtrak train to Portland, OR when we were there.  They enjoyed it so much that they want to plan another Amtrak trip.  This time will probably be to the Southwest/Las Vegas area.  Still working out the details.  It takes some patience to coordinate train schedules with tours, buses, hotels and etc.

I got the Jeep all loaded up and headed home by 1:45pm.  Taking I-80 across was fine, but got a bit backed up getting into Des Moines.  Ran into some rain about an hour from home. Glad it was only rain and no ice/snow.   Made it to the apartment building by 5:30pm.  Did not stop for fuel on the way back – so made good time.  Listening to Christmas music on the satellite radio made the time go by quickly.

The apartment and Prince were fine.  Having one of the neighbor kids come in to feed, water and play with him worked well.  Prince was a little naughty because he decided to pee pee in his cat bed we moved to the living room.  I put it in the washing machine with a cup of pine sol and laundry detergent and it is back to being usable.

So what about John?  He spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with his family in the Appleton, WI area.  He then drove to Milwaukee in the afternoon and get checked into the hotel with no problem.

Yesterday he conducted some sort of audit of the trucking company – making sure important paperwork was being kept up and etc.  Today he is conducting training sessions for the dispatchers and office people.  There’s lots of state and federal regulation of the trucking industry that is not easy to keep up with.  He prepared the presentation last week when he got done with his school work/exams.

Tomorrow he is going to stop by the Devry campus in Milwaukee to talk with his advisors in person once.  His school work will start up again next week.  Believe he is taking a computer networking and a project management classes.  He is still a straight A student and on the deans list.

Was back to work for me today.  Had taken my work computer to my parents just in case the weather got back – so spent 10 minutes getting it all setup at my desk.  I’m “on call” this week so dealing with all of the problems users report to the development team I’m on.  Also having to deal with tasks that need to be done before the new year starts – like making sure different applications have the bank holidays entered for 2012, making sure there is a new archive database in place and other fun things…

Also working on finishing an application that reports how long it took for someone to respond to an email sent to a support mailbox.  Will probably be used by managers to see how effective their team is at dealing with them.  Then have some documentation for a new project that I would like to have done before the end of the week.

Been dealing with a headache most of the day.  Think I’m going through a mini-caffine withdrawal from the really good Starbucks creme brule coffee mom made over Christmas.  Thought I would be fine if I had it with food, but not sleeping well and dealing with headache is telling my otherwise…

Not much else going on.  I miss John, the apartment is way too quiet without him.  I even missed hearing Star Trek Next Generation playing on the TV – but not quite enough to turn it on myself  He will probably be back Thursday or Friday… depending on how things go for him in Milwaukee…

I’m off to take the garbage out, make some supper and relax a bit… Would like to go ice skating later on, but will need my headache to go away first…

Merry Christmas!

Derek, John and Prince

Greetings from a chilly evening in Iowa…

Just got back from my last ice skating lesson this year. The temps were a bit cooler then the past week with a breeze. This week we worked on different cross over skating techniques – both forward and backwards. Have really enjoyed taking lessons again – so will sign up for the next batch starting right way in January.

Was a bit stiff skating at first because John took me skating yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. He sat rink side playing with his iPad while I went around the rink for 45 minutes. The rink was very crowded so had a difficult time practicing too many moves. Was all I could do at time to not run into skaters falling down around me. Was in the upper 40′s so many skaters just had on sweaters with no coat.

Next we went to Zombie Burger for supper. John complained to them via email about our last visit and we received a $25.00 gift card from them. Our return visit was better. We got seated right away, but it took 10 minutes for our no personality waitress to take our order. The food took 15 minutes to arrive, but was good. I had a “Project Nemisis” sandwich ( breaded portobello, lettuce, tomato, onion, American cheese, mayo, cheddar cheese sauce) with a side of fries. The mushroom had an odd texture, but was tasty. Would go back again, but will probably try their take out side where you order at a counter instead of having table service.

My Christmas shopping is officially done. John got into the spirit of Christmas and went shopping for me today. He want to the Jordan Creek Mall and said it was will god awful busy – even on a Monday morning. My guess is that many people have this week off of work and also wanted to finish up…. It was very nice of him to go for me…

Wrapping gifts...

No Christmas tree this year - just a "Christmas Radio"

I have a full week of work. My guess is that they may have us leave work a few hours early on Friday….. Today I received lots of meeting cancelations so my calendar is almost empty. Not complaining because I’m getting lots of my smaller projects done. By the end of the week I should be in a really good place to start the new year with fresh new projects to work on.

Next week I will be “on call” for our department. I don’t expect there to be many people working – so hoping to end the year with as little drama as possible. Management made sure to let me know that I should call people at home if something occurs that I’m not able to deal with. Sure hope I don’t need to do that….

There is not much else going on. Tomorrow evening we are meeting Troy and Don for supper in Ankeny, IA – about 1/2 way for both of us. In parting, here is a neat old Tom and Jerry Christmas cartoon from 1942:

Greetings from a warm winter weekend in West Des Moines…

Temps have been getting into the mid-40′s the last few days.  It is nice that the furnace does not run much during the day.  All of the snow outside has melted making it easy to get around for Christmas shopping.

This has been an expensive week for us.  John picked up the Jeep at the dealership on Thursday and the bill came to $2,400.  They determined that water had gotten into wiring harness and caused corrosion.  The dealership said it would take two days to receive the new harness from the distribution hub in Milwaukee, WI.  John was able to work some magic and get the part next day.  Guess it pays the know the right people

On Friday John went out to get his Christmas shopping done.  He went early enough to beat most of the crowds.  Now I have the fun part of wrapping all of them.  Have most of my shopping done and all adorned with paper, bows and ribbons….  Will go out for a few last minute items later today – more for a reason to go do something

Found a cute vintage video from the 1950′s on archive.org that explains how to have your husband buy you a new kitchen:

My ice skating lessons are going well. Last week we continued working on different turning techniques and ways to stop. I really like having the lessons outside in the brisk air. Been working on my mohawk turns and they are coming along. Can do the basic mechanics of the turn so now working on making it more fluid and effortless. Will come in time, I guess… Like how the instructor has us do everything using our “good foot”, and then again using our “lesser foot”. She says that all skaters favor one foot over the other for most advanced moves and tries to get us out of our comfort zone.

Have been doing the Kinect: Your Shape Fitness Evolved program on the Xbox 360. It does a good job of working the muscle groups in my legs/back that I also use while ice skating. The basic exercise routines it has me do are getting easier so it has started to incorporate more advanced moves like the sumo lunge, double kick-back and etc. Still burn around 300 calories each time I do it. Have burned around 4,200 calories so far. Plan to keep at it until I start to ride my bike in the spring.

Things at work are starting to slow down for the holiday season. Many of my coworkers have been with the bank a long time – so they take several weeks off at the end of the year. We are also under a “code freeze” where no new programming can be moved into production until next year. I still have several large projects that I’m working on – so I have no lack of anything to work on.

Prince likes to help me program

This morning John gave Prince a bath. Prince was not having it and made sounds I didn’t think he was capable of making. Now he is all fluffy and smells like Paul Mitchell Tea Tree shampoo.

After cleaning our pussy, we went to Denny’s for breakfast, then next door to Menards.  Right now Denny’s the is our favorite breakfast place.  It is clean, good service and the food is decent. Village Inn had too many stinky old people (really stinky….), Drake Diner is way too busy, the retro diner by the Vally West mall did not have very good food…  I miss going to Sweet Betty’s in Oregon… Could go for their Sophia’s Omelet (Bacon, spinach, tomato, onion, olives, feta cheese and mixed cheese) right now…. Will have to make due with Denny’s bacon avocado breakfast burrito….

At Menards we purchased some weather stripping for the front apartment door.  The existing weather seals were falling apart and letting in lots of cold air.  We then obtained stuff to clean exterior windows without needing to get ladder out.  Ended up with large bucket, window washing fluid, hand squeegee and a telescoping squeegee.  Having clean windows makes the apartment building look much nicer.  The crank out windows make it impossible to clean from the inside….

Not much else going on…  Going to make a pumpkin pie in a few minutes, then head out shopping….  In parting, here is one of my favorite holiday videos on You Tube:

Greetings from a cool winter day in Iowa…

We just waddled home from a yummy meal at China Garden.  They are located a few blocks away from the apartment, so decided to give them a try.  Food was good – I enjoyed pot stickers as an appetizer, then main dish was hot braised pork.  It had the just the right amount of hotness for my taste.  Only downside was the slow service at first.  We had to wait 10 minutes for the phone to stop ringing with take out orders for the waitress to make it over to us….

Fish tank by our table at China Garden

This afternoon I went downtown ice skating for 90 minutes.  When I first arrive the rink was a bit crowded and the ice was not in great condition.  Then 15 minutes later, the zamboni came out and conditioned the ice.  With the temps still below freezing the ice quickly froze to a nice smooth surface.  Quite a few people left while the zamboni was doing its thing – so afterwards had great ice and not very crowded conditions.  Practiced doing the mohawk turns a bit.  I’m able to them, but not very well.  Hope the instructor at my lesson(s) tomorrow evening (Monday) can show me how to improve.

At the ice rink - it's cold out...

The ice rink this afternoon...

View of the Des Moines river downtown

While I was skating, John applied a coat of polyurethane to the stair railings we stained yesterday.  The wood looks pretty decent now.  He also decided to lightly stain and put some polyurethane on your kitchen table.  Our dinner ware started to scratch the surface and we have been using placemats.  Hoping the polyurethane will help keep the scratches down.

Table with leaf in and fresh coat of polyurethane

I went grocery shopping on the way home from skating.  Purchased lots of groceries, but the total bill only came to $106.00.  Had $11.00 in store coupons that helped – along with 2 liter bottles of 7-up still on sale for 79 cents.  Buying more “ingredients” and less pre made “heat and eat” foods is helping us spend less.

Did no know that John did the polyurethane until I got some with the groceries.  Table was still tacky – hence us eating out tonight..

Last evening Mike J. came for an evening visit.  He now lives in Iowa City now with his partner Mike C.  Mike C. is doing his medical residency there.  Was cool to show him the apartment building and to chat about how things are going in Iowa.

We then went downtown to check out the new Zombie Burger restaurant.  It is located in the trendy East Village area, a few blocks away from the skating rink.  We arrived and they looked busy.  We were advised there would be a 30 to 40 minutes wait.  We stuck around – was no big deal – gave a chance to check out the zombie paintings on the wall and get the vibe of the place.

We finally got seated and checked out the menu.  They had lots of odd burgers – the one I went with had deef fried macaroni and cheese things instead of buns.  John went with one that had prosciutto ham on it.  Mike had one with buns that were like grilled cheese sandwiches top and bottom.  To top things off I ordered a mixed drink that resembled a Cosmo and we ordered some deep fried cheese curds – like any good Wisconsin boys would .

The food was fine – except… my drink came in a martini glass that had lipstick on it (no it was not mine).  No big deal – waiter got me another one.  Then the cheese curds came out – they smelled and tasted nasty. It was like the oil they were deep fried in was too hot or rancid.  We sent them back, but the next batch was just as nasty – so the waiter did not charge us for them.  When the burgers arrived, John though my burger looked more to his liking then the one he ordered – so we switched.  I ended up with the one with prosciutto on it.

Mike J. at Zombie Burger...

It was kinda a mixed experience for us.  I could still smell the burnt grease from the cheese curds on my clothes on the way home.  I would give them a try again sometime… but not on a really busy Saturday night….

Before I forget.  The Jeep Liberty decided to not start for us on Saturday morning.  John spent 45 minutes running through the things that worked in the past to no avail.  He ended up calling a dealership and having it towed in.  They will not be able to look at it until Tuesday, so we rented a car from them.  We are tooling around town in a silver Dodge Avenger.  It’s fine, but I don’t like how low you sit and how the windshield is not very tall.  For $36.00 a day it will work out.  Hope the repair bill on the Jeep is not too bad….

So…  The last posting had several comments asking how I’m liking apartment living -v- RV living.  It is kinda a mixed bag for me.

I like having a my own desk and not having to constantly setup/put away my computer.  Now that I work from home my desk is “were I work” – so in the evening during the week and on weekends I don’t particularly like sitting at it.  Makes me feel like I’m back at work.

I like have a large king sized bed that I can stretch out in.  I don’t like the mattress we purchased.  I can feel John move around and it feels lumpy already.  I miss the air bed in the RV that I can dial in the exact firmness setting that I like.  When we have the cash I want to order a king size air bed .

I like have a “real kitchen” again with full size appliances, room to keep more grocery items on hand, dishwasher and a large refrigerator.  I don’t like the old kitchen cabinets and how old the appliances are.  The cabinets are not falling apart, but I don’t have a nice place to store our 30 bottles of spices and our crappy Walmart cookware does not store away nicely.  Have some here – some there.

It is great having a full size washer and dryer in the apartment.  I don’t need to wear “work cloths” while working at home – so our laundry is down to 2 or 3 loads a week.  The washer and dryer are older, but they work well.  Would like to replace them with stackable washer/dryer combo to take up less space.

It is nice that we don’t have to occupy the same room all the time.  John can be in the office and I can be in the living room watching TV and not bothering him.  We do miss not having a TV by our computers.  We got into the habit of having the TV on while working or doing school work.  We are thinking about putting one in the office…. sometime….

Like being able to decorate the apartment to my liking.  Don’t like John telling me what I can and can’t do.  Going to stop listening to him…

It is cool being able to have more stuff.  Can have more clothes, few more pairs of shoes and not have to worry as much about if we have room for it.  Wish we did have a garage or storage shed for things we need to maintain the apartment building – ladders, tools, paint cans and lawn care items.

Living in a multi-family dwelling is fine.  I actually like the fact that you hear people coming and going and making noise now and then.  Makes the place seem more interesting and less boring.

The thing I miss the most is not being around people more.  I miss playing cards or bingo at the campgrounds.  Miss going up to the club house and working on a puzzle while listing to karaoke.  Miss having other campers and full time RV’ers around to do things with.  We are starting to meet a few people in Des Moines, but there is still room for improvement.  So looking forward to Spring so we can go camping with Troy/Don, Dave/Mitch and other friends….  Sit around a campfire and chat the evening away….

Greetings from our snow covered apartment in West Des Moines, IA….

Last evening it suddenly snowed enough to leave an inch and a half of the white stuff.  The temperatures have been below freezing since Monday so expecting it to stick around for a bit.

My right toe is back to normal – the gout medication worked quickly.  I’m finishing up the prescription drugs and making sure to take my cherry, celery and ester-c supplements daily.  Glad I went and saw a doctor right away.

On Monday night I was able to start taking ice skating lessons downtown at Brenton Plaza.  My toe was not 100%, but was good enough to put skates on.  It was like 19 out and windy, but went anyway.  My class had three adults in it.  One who could skate well (like me), and one who was a beginner.  The instructor did a great job of accommodating the different skill levels.  Most of the things she went over was review for me, but enjoyed it all the same.  We moved around enough to keep us warm.

After the lesson was done went inside to change out of the skates.  Instructor said she only had one student in her next class and that I could also attend the second class for an additional $5.00.  So paid and went to the second class.  Was cool to have an entire hour of instruction.  She has me working on doing “Mohawk Turns“.

I did not have to work today.  Used up my last vacation day from work.  Needed to use it before the end of the year, and they asked me not to take it too close to Christmas.  So just randomly picked today.

Decided to work on a project that I have been wanting to get done – removing burn marks from the stair railings outside our apartment door.  It looked like someone (kids?) took a lighter and made two large burn areas.  Looks like this was done a long time ago – probably not by current tenants.  The burn marks did not look too deep so decided to obtain a palm sander and sand them away.

Went to Menard’s and found a palm sander for $14.95.  It had a wedge shaped sanding area that looked like it would get into smaller areas.  Also purchased a paint brush and some light oak stain with polyurethane in it.

Went back and started sanding the burn marks off the railing.  The larger of the two burn marks was not very deep and came off easily.  The smaller one was a bit deeper and took me 10 minutes to sand it away.  Then sanded the remainder of the railing surface so the stain would soak in evenly.

John checked out the can of stain I obtained and thought the light oak color was too light.  He also noticed that the railing was missing some little wooden caps that go in holes where screws are located.  Ended up going back to Menard’s and exchanging the stain for a darker oak color.  Was able to find the little wooden caps and some glue for them after wandering around the store for 20 minutes.

Got back and John applied the stain to the sanded areas and the color matched well.  I then went back with a rag and wiped off the excess stain.  In 30 minutes we were all done.  Hard part was cleaning the stain off of my hands – they are still a bit brown.  Good job to have done.

All done - no burn marks.

Been doing the Kinect workout system all week and I’m sore.  Been doing lots of stretching and cardio moves.  Each evening I do enough fitness games and personal training exercises to burn 300 calories.  Can really feel it in my legs and arms.

John has been working on finishing up his two classes.  He has a final exam tomorrow morning (Saturday) so I will need to leave and find something to do for a few hours.  Will probably go ice skating and shopping.

Not much else going on.  Going to order pizza for supper from Northern Lights Pizza.  Have a coupon.  Not ordered from them before so hoping for the best.

Greetings from West Des Moines, IA…

The weather has been a mixed bag the last few days.  Thursday afternoon it started to snow in the afternoon.  It was warm enough it did not stick to the ground at first, but by morning we had a light dusting. It was kinda pretty:

Looking out the front windows at the snow.

Then on Saturday it rained most of the day.  Temps got down to the mid 20′s so the wet ground turned into an icy mess.  We made sure to put salt down on the stairs and sidewalks before heading to bed, and then again when we woke up.

John continues to not feel his best.  He complains about having a sore throat and bad headache.  He’s been drinking primarily diet soda with no caffeine in it – so the headache may be from caffeine withdrawal.  Purchased some some “fully leaded” Coke to see if it helps him through it a bit.

Then I had a bit of a blow on Saturday morning.  Woke up at 2:00am to my right toe throbbing.  My gout is back.  Not good.  It has been over a year since my last attack. During the last month I stopped taking the cherry extract, celery and ester-C supplements that I had taken the previous year.  I ran out and could not find a place close – so just went without.  I blame my complacency on the attack – along with eating shrimp this past week.  On Saturday I downed a quart of pure black cherry juice and took some tylenol, but did not help.  Also found a “Vitamin Shoppe” a few miles away with the supplements I need.  They are similar to Vitamin World that I went to in Portland, but I think their prices are a bit cheaper.  Only downside is that they are close to the Jordan Creek Mall – so getting there through the holiday shopping traffic was a headache.  My throbbing toe gave me enough incentive to deal with it.

Woke up this morning with no improvement – my toe was still swollen and throbbing. Went online and found a DoctorsNow walk-in care clinic that opened at noon.  Went in, signed the necessary paperwork then waited 30 minutes to see a doctor.  He looked at my toe – said “yep – you have gout” and prescribed me some medicine – Vicodin, Indomethacin and Colchicine.  The Vicodin and Indomethacin I’ve had before.  Believe the indomethacin puts me in a vile mood and the Vicodin makes my tummy queasy.  Have not taken the colchicine before, but it is supposed to help remove the crystals that have formed in my toe.  Hope it works quickly. Only downside to the DoctorsNow clinic is that I was charged $155.00 for the office visit.  Seems a bit expensive.

After taking all the medicine it did make me feel crappy – so I laid down and watched TV for a few hours.  Watched several episodes of Income Property that I had recorded from HGTV.  Like to watch the host transform crappy old apartments and basements into shiny happy rentals.  Wish I had the budget these homeowners have to fix up our place.

This evening I felt well enough to get grocery shopping done for the week.  The three recipes I’m going with with are:  Crescent-Topped Cheeseburger Casserole, Quick & Super Easy Chicken & Dumplings and Poverty Meal.  The ‘Poverty Meal’ is a repeat from last week – going to try it again using different type of tomatoes in hope that John will like it better.

I’m starting to get a nice pantry put together with many of the staples these recipes needed.  Grocery shopping cost about half of what I spent last week.

Not much else else going on.  Going to take it easy the remainder of the evening as I take the next round of medication.

Greetings from a cold evening in Iowa.

The weather has been consistent the past week – highs in the lower 40′s, lows in the mid 20′s with no snow.  Been enjoying living in a ‘real house’ this winter – keeps me a bit removed from the weather.  When you live in a RV, you are just inches away from the outside conditions.

Sunday was our 14th anniversary.  We exchanged cards and dined out at the Americana Restaurant that evening.  We had a lunch there a month ago when we went to the courthouse to apply for the homeowners exemption and enjoyed it.  This time I ordered the Oscar a la Americana – “Center cut prime beef filet, Seared crab cake, Asparagus slaw, Smoked Cheddar mash, Brown butter hollandaise”.  It came as a trendy stack of food that you disassemble.  It was delish and a lovely way to celebrate the 14 years we have been together.  Wonder what we will be doing 14 years from now in 2025?

It was nice to get back to work on Monday, but my laptop problems continue.  Been spending the last three days rebooting almost hourly because of various updates being pushed to it.  Then yesterday my development software (Domino Designer) started to crash randomly.  So several help desk calls later they are completely removing the Lotus software from my laptop (done) and reloading it (not done).  Leaving my work laptop on in hopes that it will be done by morning.  Sigh….

Last Sunday I decided that I should do more cooking.  We have been eating lots of “heat and eat” items that are not the best for us (lots of salt and fat) and I’m getting tired of them.  Decided that perhaps some single skillet/pan/dish recipes would work out well to ease me back into the real world of cooking.  They are not exactly “health food”, but have much less salt and preservatives then things like frozen microwave lasagna.

Went online and found three recipes for this week: Poverty Meal, Spanish Chicken & Rice Bake and Baked Shrimp.  Printed them out, put a check mark next to all of the ingredients we had on hand and went grocery shopping.  Had no problem – found everything I needed.

Monday I did the Poverty Meal.  My skillet was not quite large enough – ended up dumping it into larger pot.  Ended up being a two-pot meal I guess.  John tolerated but did not like the stewed tomatoes in it and picked them out.  Will use different type of tomatoes next time.

Tuesday I did the Spanish Chicken & Rice Bake. Was easy to make, except the lid on the casserole dish moved up and down while baking causing some of the liquid to spill out onto the floor of the oven.  John tolerated it but does not like chicken unless it comes in a breaded nugget or patty.

Tonight I did the Baked Shrimp and served it with linguine.  I made half of it with tomato like the recipe called for, and the other half without for John.  He liked this the best of the three.  Will probably make all three of them again sometime, with some “John friendly” modifications.

Next week will repeat one of the recipes and find two new ones.  Perhaps I will find one to do in the pressure cooker.

Yesterday the Kinect for the XBox arrived.  I did not tell John that I ordered it, so he was less then thrilled – but he did get it all hooked up for me.  Ordered it with my iPhone on Thanksgiving morning while driving to Rockford, IL.  Amazon.com had it for $99.00 in a bundle that included two additional games.  Also ordered the Fitness Evolved 2012 game.  Have two main reasons for ordering it – fitness and entertainment.

Did the Fitness Evolved program last night and it kicked my ass.  After following the training session and doing some of the fitness games I was a sweaty mess.  Good indication that it will do me some good.  It is cool how the Kinect does not have a controller you use – it senses your body and the movements it makes with a camera.  So while doing the various exercises it will tell you how to correct your posture and to get back into rhythm with the instructor.  Plan on following along with the training plan nightly.  Will be interesting to see if I get any results from it – besides scaring Prince.

The Fitness Evolved instructor on the left is easy on the eyes

John has not been feeling very well this week.  It started with a sore throat and has progressed to the full fledged “I don’t feel good”.  He’s been resting more during the day and taking some medicine but continues to do his school work.  He has just a few more weeks left in this semester so the work is getting more involved.

Prince helping John with his school work

Today one of the downstairs tenants let us know that their shower is having issues.  It has a single valve shower control that is leaking and the drain is slow. John decided not to mess with it and to call a plumber who will arrive tomorrow morning at 9:30am.  Not sure if he will be able to snake out the slow drain.  If not will have to call in a Roto-Rooter type of service in.  The plumbing problems suck, but glad they let us know so it can be fixed before it causes additional problems/damage.

My solution for fixing a slow drain is to pour white vinegar down it.  Keep pouring as much down until it backs up.  Keep doing this for 30 minutes and then follow it with a pot of boiling water.  Vinegar softens the gunk and the hot water flushes it away.  Assume the problem downstairs is more severe then what my remedy could fix.

I’m off to do the fitness program, try some of the Kinect games, watch TV and be nice to John