Planned Parenthood Book Sale weekend

It has been two weekends since HRH joined CaDiva, The Mom and I on a weekend. First HRH had a head cold and then she had to work. So the last time we got to play was a cold and rainy weekend at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Above, you can just barely make out the wind turbine against the gray damp sky.

We started that weekend with the little hrh at Home Plate Diner.

The food was very tasty and welcoming on such a dreary day. I regretted ordering the patty sausages with my omelette. They tasted wonderful but my old GI Buddy was back in town. Upper GI that is. Regardless of my temporary amnesia regarding my digestive system I enjoyed the meal and would go back there any time.

They have a seriously family friendly attitude. Little hrh was in a fine mood until just before we entered the diner. But she had started a tiny tantrum as we approached the table. We weren't even seated before the server showed up with a Barbie doll and a My Little Pony to distract the little terror...excuse me, I meant the little hrh.

We all enjoyed the joking and teasing between the servers and customers but we laughed out loud when we realized it was a customer who was offering us a coffee refill. I'm going to guess the rule is, if you want coffee you can get it yourself but you have to offer it to everyone else too.

We went across the street after brunch and dropped the Mom, HRH, and the little hrh off at the book sale while CaDiva and I found parking. I have been going to the book sale since it was in the Ag Bldg (aka the old 4 H building if you are old enough to remember) and the parking is much improved over the years. But we are wienies and didn't want to park in the back forty  And why should we when CaDiva can parallel park like she invented the concept. It is really quite sexy to watch, I should film it and load a video here.  I could probably charge people to watch it.

We got out of the book sale on Saturday only $50 light. And we only dropped another 40 or 50 bucks on Sunday but that was a half-price day. And you really can't count the $30 we spent on Monday because that was 75% off day and we delivered over 35 books at the Mom's house that day. She is pretty much set until the spring sale.


We tried out the children's consignment sale but I wasn't really impressed. I did find a cutie pair of boots for the little hrh. They light up and looked adorable on her. And we did find a Christmas or Birthday present for her too. I'll explain later how grotesquely unfair it is to give anyone a birthday so close to Christmas.

Well, like always I started this too late and I need to get off to bed. I will give you an Dunkin' Donuts update tomorrow if I get home from work at a decent hour.

Leaf Peeping in the Midwest

And I looked it up, it is so too a phrase. Although I'll admit it is a silly one. I have been leaf peeping for two weeks now and am just amazed at the Autumn we are sharing this year. Maybe it was the drought or the late cold snap in the spring, but the colors this year are more of an earthy, warm, welcome than a cacophonous inferno.

The autumn colors are coming slowly, leaving many trees a half and half event.

I took The Mother home from the hospital on Sunday traveling the long way around so that she could see some of the changes she missed while she was confined this last week. I tried to talk CaDiva into coming with me on Monday but she was busy baking the thank-you cookies and such. This is when I discovered leaf peeping is definitely not a solitary activity.

I tooled around in the old Bonneville from Windsor Heights to River Bend and saw some magnificent sights but pulling over in traffic at a high enough elevation to snag the pictures I wanted was not easy. Texting and Driving is bad, Drinking and Driving is worst, but Peeping and Driving is definitely difficult.

After delivering the aforementioned thank-you baked goods, CaDiva suggested we make our semi-annual ice cream run to the south. The air was sweet and warm. the sun was shining and even though the kitten hadn't been fed we took off.


Now before you go all PETA-nuts on me, there was food in the house and it was in her dish. But this particular feline does not consider food in her dish to mean she has been fed. She believes, and doesn't know why we can't understand, food in her dish has previously been rejected and is beneath her consideration. But she is also species-confused, given that she will beg like a Labrador for salmon and brie shortly after flopping on her back and demanding a tummy rub. So I tend to disregard many of her more persnickety traits. OK  yes, I see the irony in the comparison to a canine when she never begs for anything that costs less than $12.00 a pound.  But I digress.



Even the reds are more of a burgundy this year. In every meaning of the word, they are warming and rich without being overly sweet.


This particular shot was from the "lake" at Lakeside Casino. You should know in Iowa we can have casinos on land owned by the Native American's or bodies of water. No one said how long the body of water had to be there before you can put a Casino on top of it.










In case you didn't read the blogs about Ragbrai and still thought Iowa was flat I wanted to share this gently rolling hill for your consideration.



Autumn in Iowa is also not just trees changing colors.

And just one or two parting pictures that made my vacation worth the time and energy.

The Raccoon River - yes the same one that was party to the flood of '93. So when we say we are having a drought...we ain't just whistling 76 Trombones.


OK, yes, sometimes we are showy even in Iowa. 

I'm hungry. Is there a Casino anywhere near here?

Today was the first day of my vacation. I haven't actually been to work since Thursday. The Mother sprang another leak and Herself allowed me time to stay with her at the hospital and still take my vacation this week. I can't count Monday as vacation because The Mother had a home health care representative scheduled to to follow up on her hospital stay.

However, today CaDiva had a great idea to deliver Thank-you baked goods to the hospital staff followed by a leaf-peeping and ice cream run.

I have been planning an autumnal blog so this suited me very well. During the run to Eagleville, we found the Happy Apple Orchard. It was closed but we quickly made plans to visit it this weekend. We checked out some scenic by-passes and took lots of pictures I'll share later. On the way home we realized the gas tank and our bellies were riding on the bottom half so we decided to make one last pit stop.

The only problem is between Bethany, Missouri and West Des Moines, Iowa, there just aren't that many places to stop for a sit down meal. Oh, there are Casey's General Stores every dozen miles or so. However, I may have mentioned that I already ate my lifetime allowance of Casey's food during our Ragbrai trip.

Fortunately Osceola has a fine dining establishment known as Lakeside Casino. It used to be Terribles. The Casino was Terribles not the dining establishment. Truth be told we only ate there once before so I can't say it wasn't Terribles. As I recall it was more mediocre than Terribles.

The restaurant wasn't opened until 4:00 PM. This wasn't as bad as the orchard. I mean it wasn't as if we had to wait until the weekend but we had to find some way to kill 20 minutes. Conveniently, the Casino restaurant was attached to a floating structure filled with slot machines. What with the $30.00 of free play Lakeside gave me us for being new players with e-mail and cell phones and $2.50 applied to the penny slots, we filled the time waiting for the restaurant to open.

We ordered the buffet because it was a Casino and that is the law. We paid $12.00 a piece for an all-you-care-to-eat buffet of Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and American fare. They also had salad and dessert stations. The American choices consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and waxed beans, except chicken was on the Chinese station along with the fried calamari and scallops with the shrimp scampi. And no way would I list bread sticks, cheesy polenta, or pork loin with pineapple as Mexican.

I really enjoyed the scampi and the pork but I don't think I would pay $12.00 for such a narrow selection.