Saturday night......sitting trying to figure things out

Well I missed my normal blog time this morning.  Curtis and I were in Iowa City after a concert night with The Fez and our friends Kristin and Eugene Johnston.  So here I am at 930 on Saturday night, writing this post.  Don't forget to Spring Forward with your clocks tonight.  I have set mine, let's see if the phone will do it by its self.

First off, I had a BIG surprise this week.  Curtis and I have been talking about me getting my own laptop so I don't have to steal one of his business laptops to do my school work.  But I hadn't really looked at any thing seriously because it has worked so far for me to use his.  But dance season is starting and he will have them out of the house every weekend so I really needed to get serious about this.  I LOVE my iPhone and I LOVE my iPad so I have been saying that I want to go all in and get an Apple computer.  I have looked at the MacBook at the Apple store and love it, but didn't think I could justify the expense.  Well, my resourceful hubby (Mr. Tech even though we had a struggle with that today) found a refurbished one on line for less than what we would likely have purchased a PC laptop.  SO.....I GOT A MACBOOK AIR.  I forgot how different the operating system was than a PC and it is taking me a bit to get used to it.  A friend suggested I get the book MacBook Air for Dummies and get to reading, but so far I am stumbling my way through it.  All that is important to me right now is word (got that loaded), Skype (got that going), Facebook (that was easy), and my blog (and here we are).  So this is the first post with the Mac.  YEAH!  And THANK YOU Mr. Tech (aka - HUBBY) for getting me this amazing present.  You are awesome.

This week was amazingly beautiful weather wise.  I saw many big fat Robins and the grass by our deck I swear is turning green.  We had a our first 70 degree day this week and I, as you can see, attempted to take a picture of the thermometer in the van on Wednesday,  Not something I would recommend doing when traveling 70 on the interstate on the way home.  As you can tell, my photographer skills are not good this way.   But keep that weather coming.

Last night we ventured to Iowa City after work with our friends Kristin and Eugene.  Thanks to Eugene for chauffeuring us in his brand new car.  It is a beautiful ride and I could get in a lot of trouble with law enforcement with that nice little Benzie.  That's why God makes me drive a little Cobalt I think.

Any way ... The Fez is the band that our friend Saul Lubaroff plays saxophone in.  They are a Steely Dan tribute band and Mr. Lubaroff has assembled the most talented musicians and vocalists I have ever seen.  They are amazing.  I was impressed when we saw them at People's Court here in Des Moines and I am even more impressed last night.  They are a 16 member band and each person has such talent.  I can't even begin to tell you.  Check out Fez Facebook Page at that link.

You can also go to YouTube and do a search for The Fez Iowa City and you can watch a couple of their songs.  I tried to upload some video that I took, but NO LUCK -- still learning remember?

After the concert we needed to find some food.  The band started at 8:00 and didn't finish until 10:45.  We didn't have time between checking in to our hotel and getting to the show to eat....so we hoped to find someplace open.  Lucky for us the kitchen at Bo James closed at 11:00 -- we just made it under the wire for Burger Baskets at 11:00 at night.  They were good, but I don't like to eat that late.  So....was preparing for a few weird dreams with cooked cow in my stomach.  By that time we old folks were getting tired.  You couldn't tell it by the "posing" boys, but we were.



After our late night meal, we headed back to the Sheraton (MOST COMFORTABLE BED EVER!! - Seriously IT WAS) and about 5:30 am this morning, the alarm in the hall way starts going off.  We are not sure if it is a fire or what, but the "recorded" voice is calmly telling us their is a "guest safety alert" and that we need to vacate immediately.  It is in the hallway so it is muffled and confusing.  Curtis was getting ready to get dressed in street clothes and make me leave the comfort of our room.  I was hesitant as you might guess.  So then, another "recorded" voice comes on.  This time in a speaker in our room.  It tells us that there is a "guest safety alert" and to stand by for further instructions (or something to that affect).  Thank God we didn't have to leave our rooms.  This repeated about three or four times and then yet another "recorded" voice tells us that it is "all clear" and that we should "resume our previous activities".  This made me giggle a bit before I fell back to sleep.  Hopefully most every one's previous activities at 5:30 in the morning were sleeping, but it is a hotel and it is Iowa City.   So who knows?

After we woke up (again) it was time to pack up and head back to Ankeny.  But not before we stopped at the Blue Bird Diner.   This place has now become a landmark on Market street in Iowa City and it was well worth the 20ish minute wait.  It is a very small hole in the wall type place with many great reviews on FourSquare and Yelp raving about the food.  I ordered the Huevos Rancheros.  And what sold me was the Polenta base and smothered in Green Verde sauce with Smoked Pork all on the top.  It was so very yummy!  This picture will not convince you of that, but trust me.  YUMMOOOO!!!!!  I will be eating there AGAIN.

So back to Ankeny.  Home by 1:00 pm.  Was an eventful weekend so far, but not over yet.  As soon as we dumped our stuff, we loaded up the van to head back to Des Moines for some errands and things that we needed (groceries, etc).  Our first stop was going to be Home Makers Furniture.  I needed to order the table that was going to go in the entry way.  Last time I checked it was on back order until end of April, so wanted to get a deposit down so I could get one of the first ones when it came in.  I walk to it and there is a CLEARANCE tag on the silly thing - about 40% off.  The clerk looks it up in their trusty computer and what do you know:  They are not going to get it any more.  It is discontinued.  I can have the floor model for that clearance price.  So....I snatched it up.  Needs a bit of scratch repair, but I can do that with some Old English Furniture Polish.  So they wrapped it up and I took it home.  Now garage sales this Spring for some colorful vases, bowls, and other assorted decor for this room.

Our next project was trying to get a television signal from an antenna to the "new" spot for the television in the family room.  Went to Lowes to pick up an exterior antenna and the supplies needed to get it going.    Got all that, headed to CostCo (BUSY AS HECK TODAY) and back home.  Started working on the antenna project.  BIG FAIL!  It works when we have the TV connected to it directly, but when we try to run the signal through the existing coax cable NADA.  Was very frustrating for my techie hubby.  We will try again tomorrow with maybe a different plan.  We will have to see.  I can't imagine what the neighbors were saying when I had the small flat screen TV sitting on the A/C unit flipping through channels while Curtis is not he ladder trying to adjust the antenna.  I am sure we are topic of conversation.  They are probably saying things like -- Why don't they just get a dish????  Great question!

All in all a great week and weekend so far:  Live Music, an early morning confusion at the hotel, an amazing breakfast, and GREAT FRIENDS!

Have a great week all and stay tuned.  PAINTING NEXT WEEKEND!