I went out to Wal Mart this morning to pick up a couple of items, I think everyone in town had the same idea.  The carts were almost all gone, the aisles were packed.  Fortunately all I needed were a couple of things that I could pick up quickly and leave. 

It is snowing again, not heavy, just continual.  The light powder that will blow away if we get any wind at all.  We hope it clears out before tomorrow.  We don't want anything to mess up Dondino and Donnas show.

I've packed some eBay stuff and have it ready to go out Monday morning.  Amazing how people buy some of the stuff I have.  I bought a pitcher at the sale the other day that just sold for over $40.  I had researched it before I went to the sale so was willing to pay quite a bit to get it, I didn't have to pay much so it was a nice profit.  Most of the things that I had listed sold or are selling.  I'm telling them, in the invoice, that if they want to receive them before the first week in January they have to pay by tomorrow afternoon so I can get it out for the postal lady.  At least this way, if they don't pay right away, they won't be mad that it isn't shipped until we get home.

I've been wrapping Christmas gifts too, have just a couple left and then they are done.  We may leave for DM early tomorrow so we can stop in Williamsburg, there is something that we need to pick up there.

The girls will be together tonight for the Christmas party at Cyn and Drews, it should be a blast for them.

 

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This may be Iowa's last hurrah as the first state to hold a caucus since the battle to be first has spread to so many other states.  Having them on January 3 is crazy, it's a full 9 months prior to the actual election.  The only advantage is that it will lessen the number of candidates running commercials and slamming everyone else.

Today the news is that Clinton is losing her strength in the first 4 states.  Obama is gaining and so is Edwards, but it appears that the media wonkas think that Obama is the one that will give her the greatest deal of difficulty.  We listened to the democrat debate in Iowa on the way home last night.  It was actually rather interesting to listen to them "politely" tell each other how wrong they were on the issues.  What a bunch of crap…nothing they say will actually be worth the breath they used once the election is over.  It will be politics as usual, unless, but some turn of fate we actually get one of the "outsiders" in, Huckelbee or Obama as the President.  I don't believe either of them are as brainwashed into the Washington mindset yet.  There may be hope there. 

The very thought of not having to listen to Clinton and her lying, BS, mouth anymore would be too nice to believe.  I just don't believe that there are people that truly don't realize what a lier she is…or if she's not a lier, then how totally stupid she is.  All going back to the Clinton matrimonial problems when she said that Bill didn't have a relationship with Monica.  Either she was lying through her teeth or she was too stupid to know that her husband was getting his rocks off with another woman (again.)  Either way, she's not someone I want in the White House.  I assume the rest are not much better at telling the truth then she is but at least they stay off the TV in such an obvious manner.

Thompson just never caught up, he probably won't survive the primary races and the caucus.  Biden, and a whole slew of others will be gone too, hard to raise money for a campaign when the numbers are so bad.

We went to Burlington and finished our shopping today while Jim was showing the house.  We are now done except for the things that we will shop for with the girls and kids when we are in Tucson.  So nice to be done. 

It was fun to go with Greg today.  We made comments on different outfits (and no, I didn't buy any more cloths!!) but some were really pretty, others….not so much!  Then it was off to Diamond Dave's for nachos, needed to keep up the tradition.  Called Cyn while we were there just so she could be jealous!

The trees had the sun glistening off the ice and making them still look like ice trees, so beautiful.  Although I hate the cold, I must admit that the ice is beautiful.  Since the wind wasn't blowing today it wasn't so cold, it was actually quite pretty.

We are going to dinner with John and Bert at the Button Factory in Muscatine later today.  We have never been there, in fact, until they mentioned it we had never heard of it!  Sounds fun though.

While we were in Burlington we went into this new shop in the mall that had some neat things, like gooseberry jelly for Bob, get him some every year at Old Thresher's and didn't this year so it was nice to find it.  Also got something for Alan, he may get a kick out of it, we'll see.

Darn, just thought about a gift we still have to pick up.  We forgot to get the soccer ball…ok, will do that shortly!  I also need more wrapping paper so have to go anyway.

Think I'll bake some more cookies tomorrow, sounds like a good idea to me since all of those I made are in the freezer. 

 

Sometimes we think that there isn't anything new that will make us just stop and look at something because of it's beauty, but that certainly didn't happen to us on Wednesday night when we were going back to the hotel from dinner with friends.  The trees along the road by the hotel just made such a beautiful sight that we stopped, took some pictures and ahhh'd at the wonderful affect that the ice had on these rather "ugly" trees.  How beautiful!

Then we drove another 50 ft down the road and took this one…

It truly was a wonderland of ice.  The wind was not blowing, things were still and beautiful.  Today it is all melting away, which is not a bad thing, but certainly won't be as beautiful as it was last night.  Just wanted to share these with you.

Ok, so it is December in Iowa and the rain is coming down, freezing the moment it hits anything.  The car was a sheet of ice this morning, probably about 1/2 inch thick and it is still raining.  Southeast Iowa is supposed to get the freezing rain beginning at noon.  Gail, at the hotel, said that it was raining there but that the worst was projected to hit around noon.  At least it isn't as bad as it is in OK or MO, we still have power to most of the state and hopefully it will stay that way.

The one good thing is that it is happening this week and not next week when we are planning to leave.  Really don't treasure the thought of driving on ice!

I've been giving some thought to how long we are going to be gone, we'll be at Bobbi's for about 4 days and then at Cyn's for perhaps 4 days.  That's enough.  Now if we decide to stay a little longer we will go to a hotel, the the Ramada on Tanque Verde or something.  Not going to wear out our welcome at Cyn and Drew's, they probably have plans for New Years…didn't ask :)  Just think we need to be out of the way.

We are looking forward to the drive.  We need to get a couple of audio books to listen to and we'll be set.  Going to get them at noon today, a trip to Barnes and Nobel…neat!  Love to go there.

I hope the flights are ok for tomorrow morning when Cyn is due to fly out.  I haven't heard whether MPLS is supposed to get hit with some of the ice or not.

Barnes and Nobel was a success.  We now have enough audio books to make the trip go quickly.  We will need to be home by the 3rd due to caucases.  I nearly forgot that the date had been moved up so early.  For pete's sake, how silly it is to battle about it, but I do understand that desire to retain the placement in the national game and to keep the money flow in Iowa, but really, would Iowa die without it?  I doubt it, although it is fun to have all the wannabes in the state blabbering about what a great change they will bring to the country.  Now I ask you, does the President really have the clout to "change the country?"  Ummmm, no, the real power isn't tied to that office, the power for making change really is with the house and senate but no one pays much attention to the people that are elected to those seats.  Just look at the criminal records and the ethical problems of a great number of those we place in the seats of Congress.  Either that or they are so old or so Washington brainwashed that they wouldn't know what is good for the country, just themselves.  Let's tax the citizens some more so we can talk about how we are helping people (straight to the poor house the moorons).  Not that I have an opinion!

I hope Cyn makes her flight and all is good.  I tried to call but there wasn't any answer.  It was 7 degrees there at 6 pm according to the weatherman.  Poor girl!

Tomororw night is dinner with the gang.  That will be fun.

 

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Today I packed eBay stuff and then decided it was really necessary to bake some sugar cookies, tonight I will decorate them.  I decided to give cookies to a couple of people and then take the rest with us to AZ…yes Bobbi, there will be cookies for Christmas…not a lot of them, but some.

We are supposed to get freezing rain tonight.  If we do we may be late going to DM tomorrow, not willing to drive for 5 1/2 hours again when if we wait just a little while the crews will be out and the roads will be cleared.  We will just have to wait and see what the weather does tonight.

Cyn called before she left Tucson, now I'm waiting for her to call from MPLS, she has a 4 hour layover so she will have lots of time to kill.  4 hours in MPLS is a long time, there isn't that much to see at that airport but that's the way it worked out for her.  Going to International Falls doesn't give her a lot of options on flights and she sure as the world didn't need to drive it, it would take as long as flying and it's hard to tell what the roads would be like and it's night.  Hopefully she slept on the plane, spending the weekend sick doesn't bode well for traveling today.

Ham is in the oven, I'll make a salad and that will be dinner tonight.  Don't need more than that for sure.

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The weather this morning was ok so we took off for Frytown and the Yoder auction.  I didn't think I would get much but actually did and we didn't stay until the end.  The weather was supposed to get nasty this afternoon (which is hasn't yet anyway) so we didn't want to stay too long, it's quite a distance from here to Frytown.  Frytown is up by Iowa City.

As soon as we got home I listed all the stuff so that it has a chance to sell before we leave for AZ.  Thursday night I listed everything that we had gotten in Des Moines so I'm current.  We won't be going to the auction on Wed. night in Des Moines. 

Yesterday was baking day, I did a bunch of cookies to take along this week to DM and some to freeze to take along to AZ.  It was kind of fun to spend the day in the kitchen and make them.  It has been quite a while since I've done that.

Shawn and Kenny were supposed to come over today but they didn't, suppose they forgot and I didn't call them.  Decided I really didn't care if they came or not and I know that Greg didn't care.  He slept in his chair for a couple of hours.  I could now, after all the listing I'm kinda sleepy myself.

Cyn has been sick, hope she feels better today.  It would be nasty to have to leave for the coldest place in the US and not feel good!  She's off to International Falls, Mn tomorrow.  Poor kid!!

We are going to have to hit the mall this week.  We planned to last week but schedules got messed up, pleasantly, so we didn't make it.  Probably will on Monday night after work.