#100

This is our 100th post! Surprisingly, we've been writing this blog for over a year now. I would say we're still going strong, but it has been a little while since the last real post. It's time for an update. Unfortunately, we keep forgetting to grab the camera, so the pictures will be a little thin today. It is a quiet Sunday night in Iowa. I spent part of the afternoon cleaning out the garage. One half of our two-car garage has been serving as storage since we moved in. Back then, by the time we got our our stuff moved from Salt Lake City into storage, then into this house, we were exhausted. We left a pile of boxes and random items in half of the garage and called it good. Since then, the pile has grown slightly bigger and even more unruly, and been a bit embarassing when the neighbors look in the garage door. My goal is to get it cleared out, and to push our broken-down pickup into one side of the garage. After that, I can try to fix it in a nice, clean indoor space. I made a lot of progress today, and as a bonus, found a box with a bunch of CDs I had thought were long gone. I have been busy ripping them onto the computer tonight, and filling up my Zune with almost-forgotten music. The last couple weeks have been pretty uneventful. A week ago Saturday, we had some absolutely spectacular weather. We went to Big Creek Lake to play disc golf, and had an absolute blast. I used to play a lot of disc golf, and Sarah and I played a bit when we were first married. When Asher was a baby, though, we stopped doing it a lot. Now that he is older, it has become a perfect activity for us. It's free, outdoors, and at a relaxed pace. Asher loves throwing the discs! Iowa has a really good variety of top-notch disc golf courses, and they are nowhere near as crowded as the places we used to play. We still have several nearby courses we haven't tried yet. this picture from last Saturday at Big Creek is one of my favorites ever, but Sarah took it on her phone and emailed it, so it's really grainy. Yesterday (another Saturday), steady snow fell all day, although it barely accumulated at all. We were grateful to have that rather than the flooding up north, or the huge blizzard down in the Southern Plains. Despite the snow, we went to the duckpond and the zoo. The zoo was fun, and we, of course, had it all to ourselves. In keeping with my tradition of odd llama encounters, I was petting one, and put it's nose right on mine. I had one second to think this was odd, when the thing suddenly pulled back a few inches and spit right between my eyes. My eyes, eyebrows, and forehead were covered with some kind of nasty llama goo, foul smelling and full of tiny bits of hay. Today was a beautiful, crystal-clear day. We went to early church, then drove all the way to Pella, Iowa. Pella, as I've mentioned before, is a town that is like a little mini-version of Holland in Iowa. It has a huge windmill in the middle of town, a canal and one of those European town clocks with the little carved people that come out and move around. It is the hometown of Wyatt Earp and Utah Jazz small forward Kyle Korver (Go Jazz!) The town square is surrounded by Dutch-style buildings, including Dutch butcher shops and bakeries, all of which are closed on Sundays. That was OK, since wanted to eat at a very good Chinese buffet we had tried before. After a huge lunch, we took a little walk through downtown. There was more snow in Pella than here, and Asher was busy splashing in puddles, running through the snow, and jumping in the slush. On the way back, we checked out some campgrounds for an upcoming weekend trip, and I climbed the observation tower at Lake Red Rock again. It was such a clear day that I could see a huge part of the state. I could see the tallest skyscraper in Des Moines, 50 miles away. It's rare to be able to see that far in Iowa, because of the rolling hills. It's amazing to see 360 degrees of unbroken distant horizon, and that much sky. It's almost a bit unnerving for someone who comes from a mountainous part of the country. I have roasted two of the types of coffee I received from Sweet Maria's (see last post). I tried the Brazil Ipanema first. It was just OK, but I think it would be nice roasted a little darker than what I did. I also tried the Guatemalan, I can't remember what kind that one was. That was delicious, very mild and almost chocolatey, with a little hint of lemon at the end. I'll try that one roasted a little darker as well. On the BBQ front, I have started to contact some of the contests I'd like to judge this year. Hopefully, I can try a couple new ones, but I don't know which contests I judged last year that I would pass on this year. There are only so many weekends in the summer, and I want to save a few to go out of town.