Posted 11:53 AM by Mike
Back from a short vacation from Iowa. It's starting to feel more and more like home and definately a place we are considering when I'm sending resumes out.

Despite the gas prices, we took the new vehicle, 2003 Dodge Durango, down to Iowa. It only had 380 miles on it so it needed to be broken in sometime. It rides really well. So well in fact that it led to my first ever ticket for speeding. We were in Iowa just outside of New Hampton. I was keeping pace with the vehicle in front of me from a distance. He nailed me instead. Oh well. I was speeding do I accept it. I've dodged the bullet far too long. Ticket was only $60 so I wasn't too upset.

Rolled into Muscatine after 11:00 pm on Wednesday. My trip was made when I had called Mike's house to tell him we would be late and he should go to bed since he had to work. Much to my suprise, he wasn't there. He was out shooting pool with my cousin Jason. Turns out his boss decided to let him have Thursday and Friday off. Mike had called me the night before we left to tell us that he wasn't able to get time off. That brought a big smile to my face.

Thursday, while Kristin was off racking up the miles on my new truck :) , Mike and I went for lunch where my cousin Jason works. We told him to head on over after his shift because we were going to go shoot pool at a new pool hall. Well, three hours of pool and coutless pitchers of Budweiser later, we came home for some college football on TV and of course...more beers. Needless to say when Kristin got back we were all feeling no pain!

Friday was kind of a lazy day. Kristin, Mike, and I ate lunch at our favorite Tex Mex place in Muscatine. After that we kind of hung out until later that night when Mike and I went over to my cousin Mitchell's sophmore football game. It was a monster blowout as they were up 51-0 at half-time! Afterwards, we took the wives out for pizza (the scale on Monday confirmed all of this eating out was not good for me!)

Saturday we got up early to head to Iowa City for the 11:00am kickoff of the Iowa-Ball St. game at Kinnick Stadium. Monster blowout here two as the Hawkeyes were up 49-0 at halftime. I didn't care though as it was a blast! Outdoor, on-campus stadiums definately have much better atmosphere. Hopefully the Gophers get one approved soon. Even though it was Ball St., the place was just electric before the game. They love their Hawks down there!

We visited with my aunt that night and just hung out the rest of the night. Sunday we got up and left to head home. It was a fun trip. I probably won't be going down until my cousin Mike (Uncle Mike's son) graduates in May so I wanted to have a lot of fun for the short time we were there.

Basement continues to come along. Almost ready to start wiring. Will continue to update my progress. I don't have any before pictures like my brother-in-law (most excellent job by the way!), but I will have plenty of after pictures when done.

The Streak is now over! FSU finally beat the Univerisity of Miami on Labor Day. It wasn't pretty, but they came out on top 10-7. The Nole's defense swarmed all night. Freshmen QB's struggled a lot, but there were playing against one of the toughest defenses in the country. We will see how they do the next couple of weeks against lessor competition.

Only 26 more days until the drop of the puck on October 5th (Mario's 40th birthday as well!). Our first lamaze class is that night too so I will have to record Sid the Kid's debut.