Awesome Neighbors

John and I have lots of good neighbors. Two of our favorite neighbors are Ricky and Kelly. They are genuinely nice people, and they invite us over.

Ricky is an accomplished home brewer with a five tap system in the basement. He makes delicious beer...and cider and bread and sake and tonic. This morning he stopped over with a pint fore me to try of his new rum raisin cider. It was by far the best cider I have ever had.

John & I will be having Ricky and Kelly over soon, but we will be serving them store bought beverages. We'll just go overboard with homemade baked goods.

Summer

I've been very busy lately. Too busy to blog. I'm going to try to catch up over the next few weeks. For now I'll leave you with a photo of one of my favorite parts of summer: sitting on a patio hanging out with John.

Happy Hour with Mark

This is my friend and co-worker Mark. He is a great guy to work with. He's funny, answers my questions, and doesn't mind when I swear when telling him a story. He's also a UNI fan, so he's all around good people.

Mark is a Major in the National Guard. When the latest group of Guard members was sent orders to go to Afghanistan he didn't get the call. He got the call to provide support. He's on active duty for a few months. I'm glad he's not headed overseas, but I sure do miss him.

There are three people on my team in Des Moines. Rand and I are left with only each other to talk to face to face about projects. Rand is also the only person by me that I can talk to from my desk. I drink a lot of coffee. I talk a lot. I'm pretty sure Rand misses Mark as much as I do.

Jim joined us for happy hour too. Jim used to be on my team, but moved over to Property soon after I joined. I don't think it had anything to do with me, but he sure does drink a lot of beer when I'm around.

Dinner with Ivy and Hot Toddy

Last night I met Ivy and Hot Toddy on the roof of Tally's for dinner and drinks.

Ivy and Hot Toddy used to work together, and we decided that the three of us should start hanging out together.

We have a date for the first Sunday of the fair. I know we'll have a wonderful time.

I think I would have a good time anywhere with the two of them.

Saturday Morning Knitting

This morning was very stormy. Farmer's Market was cancelled due to the weather. It was the perfect morning to sit at a coffee shop knitting.

So that's what I did. I met Ivy for a few hours of knitting and chatting. She leaves for a week in London in a few weeks, so it was nice to catch up with her before she goes. Unfortunately it isn't possible to read her shirt in this photo, it says "London the Sioux Falls of Europe".

Flying Mango

In between BBQs this weekend John and I managed to find time to go out for BBQ at Flying Mango, one of our favorite restaurants. Flying Mango is about 5 blocks from my house on Hickman. It has great food and impeccable service. It's always a treat to go there.

John loves the hot sauce there, as you can see from the photo. He seems to like BBQ best when he's sweating. It is fun for me, as I get to sit back and watch him suffer.

How I Became A Pirate

For Conor & Ellie's birthday John and I got them tickets to How I Became A Pirate and took them out to dinner. The play was a lot of fun. How can you go wrong with a pirate musical? We even got autographs after the show.

Conor got to pick the restaurant, so we went to Tally's where you can sit on the roof. After eating big burgers and fries we headed to Snookies Malt Shop for some ice cream. It was a very fun time.

Red Headed UNI Graduate Knitting Club

Last Saturday I spent the morning at Grounds for Celebration with a new group. It's the red headed UNI graduate knitting club. Sure, there are only three members, but I still think it's impressive.

It was a great time. I can't believe Amanda and Ivy hadn't met before. I'm looking forward to getting together with them again, and not just because I think we need t shirts.

Knitting with Ivy

This morning I met my friend Ivy for coffee and knitting at Grounds for Celebration. Ivy and I went to grad school together, so we both appreciate being able to sit still for a few hours and talk without discussing a case study. We were able to talk about our love of spreadsheets - she has one for holiday baking that tracks the recipes she makes and the ingredients used. She also works with Hot Toddy, further proving my theory that Des Moines is a really small town.

It was such a relaxing way to start the day. On a gloomy and cold day it is so nice to sit by a fire, drink coffee, and knit the morning away.

My Bike Paid Off

You may remember that I bought a bike last March. I started a spreadsheet to track my cost per hour of the bike. My goal was to get the cost per hour below $14 within two years. Why $14? Because you can rent a road bike for $14 an hour in Des Moines. Why two years? Because Beaverdale has some great patios, so Hot Toddy and I sometimes decide to visit one of those instead of riding...but I digress.

Today I met my goal. My cost per hour is now below $14 an hour. I think this is justification for buying all sorts of new fun bike stuff.

Fall Fest Parade

This morning was the Fall Fest parade. It is my favorite parade. Ann and I went to Jamie's house to watch it. We had the best seats. We were two blocks from the start so no one had run out of candy and everyone was excited to throw it out.

Sebastian and Violet had their buckets ready and couldn't wait to get some candy and see the floats.

I think their favorite part of the parade was Dale the Beaver. They are president and vice president of his fan club.

They are both fans of any animal mascot in a costume.

Halfway through the parade their buckets were so full they had trouble lifting them.

One of my favorite parts of the parade was the motorized cooler.

By the end of the parade both Violet and Sebastian had filled their candy buckets and their Easter baskets. Jamie said she may not have to buy Halloween candy this year, she has enough parade candy to hand out to the entire neighborhood.

After the parade we headed over to Tricia and Neal's for a BBQ. We ran into Justin who was happy to find Boulevard.

Not a bad way to start a Saturday. I hope the afternoon can live up to the precedent set by this morning.

Fall Fest Fireworks

Tonight is the night I have been waiting for. After months of anticipation I put up the caution tape and yelled at teenagers to stay behind the tape (coincidentally tonight was also the night that I discovered that teenagers think I'm a bitch [and that is the nice teenagers. I won't even type what the others say]). Tonight was the kick off of Beaverdale Fall Fest. I started the festival by taping off the fireworks area with Ann. It wasn't that exciting, but it was much more difficult than I had imagined. Without her strength I never would have got the poles in the ground. She also made it much more fun.

After roping off the area I went to visit Jamie. She was busy discussing the bouncy house with Violet, so we didn't get much of a chance to talk. No worries, the parade goes past her house so we're sitting in her yard tomorrow.

When the fireworks started I had the best seat in the house. If you are yelled at by teenagers they let you watch them set off the fireworks with the people that set off the fireworks. It was so cool words cannot begin to describe it. I guess I will have to work on some sort of interpretive dance that explains it all.

After the fireworks we wandered around for a bit. After a while we decided to just sit down at Christopher's to avoid the teenagers (could this blog post make me sound any older? Seriously.). They developed a special drink for fall fest: the blue beaver. It. was. delicious. We had a great time, but with Hot Toddy, Ann, Stimmel, and me in the mix, how could you not? Hot Toddy & Stimmel even agreed to pop their collars for a few pictures.

Tally's

Ah. The weekend. A long weekend at that. I decided to spend my evening trying to unwind and get ready for a weekend filled with a trip home to Cedar Falls, hiking Browns Woods, and cleaning my house.

Prior to unwinding I needed to meet with Ann so I could talk with her about her dogsitting duties this weekend. Luckily Cooper is an easy dog to care for, so after 5 minutes of explanation we decided it would be best to go have a cocktail on the roof bar at Tally's (formerly B&B).

Tally's is pretty much the same as B&B, but their drinks are about $1 more each. A little expensive, but if you're only going for one it really doesn't make much of a difference. After a $5 margaritas we headed home. It was great talking to her and catching up. I'm really enjoying her being back in Iowa. I can't say Tally's will be my #1 choice when heading out in Beaverdale, but it does make the top 5.

Hot Toddy at B&B

Tonight Hot Toddy and I finally had a chance to catch up. We hadn't hung out since my graduation party. We were going to go for a ride, but decided that we would get more talking done over dinner.

The weather was amazing so we opted for a patio in Beaverdale. We gave B&B a shot. B&B has a great rooftop patio. You get a bit of a view of Beaverdale and you get to feel cool, because you're sitting on a roof. Unfortunately, their food is usually pretty blah. Tonight we decided to go with the build a quesedilla option, and it paid off. Who knew that black beans, shrimp, and jalapenos would make a tasty combo?

Most of the evening wasn't spent eating the quesedilla. Much of it was spent laughing at catching up with each other. We had a great time catching up, sharing stories, and laughing our way into the evening.

Don't worry, I won't skip riding two days in a row. I'm headed to Cumming tomorrow night, and Hot Toddy will be joining me.

Beaverdale Live

Last Saturday night was Beaverdale Live, a street party in my neighborhood with a couple of bands. I had a lot of fun at it last year so this year I volunteered to sell beer tickets. I'm glad I volunteered, as I was there early enough to pick up some free Beaverdale Live coozies. I also got two free beers and a Miller Lite t-shirt (if you're really nice to me you can borrow my shirt). I was working the shift with two women I work with on the fall festival committee, so it gave us a chance to come up with ideas for the next Beaverdale event.

There's always a good showing at Beaverdale events. We were a little worried, as it was the same weekend as WineFest & Pride. Luckily the nice weather drew the crowds out. Monica and Andrew stopped by, and Justin even came from the South Side (He likes to see how the other half live).

Towards the end of the night Stimmel got cold enough to wear my sweatshirt. I was a little chilly, but it was totally worth it to have him wear a sweatshirt with my name on the back. It opened it up for all sorts of jokes about how I like to make him wear it so the ladies know he's mine.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.   I usually make it to St. Paul to march in the parade, but I wasn't able to go this year.  Luckily I was able to keep busy here in Des Moines.

Most of my friends had to work, but Zack was able to meet me for lunch at F&O's before he went in to work.  Some pizza and NTN trivia got the day started off right.

After lunch I got my hair cut and went for a quick ride.  Later I met up with Stimmel, Ellen, and Justin for some St. Patrick's Day beers.

We met at Good Sons, a place in Beaverdale that opened up this winter.  It was my first trip there.  I wasn't a fan of their paninis or their lack of a beer list, but I do love the chalkboard tables.