143.August 11

Decorah, IA

I am sitting in Oneota Cafe just after I purchased this lovely journal. I am having an egg-cheeseburger to celebrate he eve of my birthday's eve.

1993

Callistoga, CA

We are currently enjoying breakfast in bed at a Spa Hotel in Callistoga, CA. We will have a mud/mineral bath in a few minutes, and then go to a few more wineries and a petrified forest before heading over to the coast tonight. We had an amazing time at Hearst Castle, and the drive there was spectacular. Our stay in Santa Cruz was delightful, and then a late afternoon tasting at Peju winery was quite delicious and fun. We must be off. I'm posting pictures today.

2009

Roundhouse Retreat, Bluffton, IA

We had more arrivals today: Laurel, Jacob, and Zahida showed up after 18:00. We prepared a lovely meal. Rachel and I spent the morning in Spring Grove at Marcia's Boutique deciding what her hair style would be for the wedding, and Kathrine stopped by with boxes of photo books so we could decided what we want out of our wedding photo sessions. We decided on a package, and were very please with her previous works. Then, though the heat was evicerating, we went to our home and packed more things to bring to the Round-House and to hotel for the wedding. We cleaned a bit, but decided that we would get a hotel room in Decorah for Laurel and Katjusa when we all move to Decorah for the wedding. Romy and Sam spent their day at Seed Savers taking a tour. Romy made dinner for all of us, chicken and wonderful accoutrements.

We had a wonderful evening, with the exception that we played Rock Band on PS3 using microphones, and I embarrassed myself by getting the highest score without knowing any of the words to the song that I was singing. I played some shooter games and went to sleep. We tried out some shocking laser tag, and were running around the place as fast as can be, taking some of the best pictures of all time.

2010

I woke up in Decorah and studied Python for an hour until others rose. Christina is taking a course, and I loaned her my book on the programming language, which I have yet to read. I road the motorcycle home, and mowed the lawn. I spent the afternoon cleaning for Rachel's arrival. After a few hours discussing what she's been up to, we went out for a drink with a bunch of friends at the Corner. Rachel stayed on for 3 hours more than me, since I snuck out with Abe and went home to eat dinner. I made BBQ pork chops, and waited for Rachel, though realizing that she would never come home, I ate mine, watching "Flashpoint", my favourite Canadian Cop Show. I cut her's into small slices, and she ate it when she finally came home.

2012

After wiping them down with towels, we brought the cabinets in from the trailer, which we had parked in the rain near the basement the day before. We made raspberry pancakes from Saundy's yard for breakfast, and then got ready to ride to Decorah with Sharon and Llew for the annual family birthday party in August and Chris's birthday. After getting back home, we went to the old house and assembled my birthday present, a Stanley Bostich air compressor and brad nailer and started putting up our new tin ceiling tiles. It looked gorgeous by the time we finished with half of them.

2013