.....Jiggety Jog

I decided to write tonight instead of reading before bed. The combo of being on vacation and either exercising at night or totally vegging out at night has left little time for blogging.

Reflections of our trip to St. Louis:
Hit a storm in Kansas that detoured us off the interstate for about 40 miles. Took us 4 hours to do that 40 miles. There was a 30 car pile up so I guess it was good we weren't there. On the "glass half full" side, we saw a beautiful sunset over the Kansas River that we would've missed on the interstate and we got the scenic tour of Manhattan and Wamego Kansas. Pretty little towns, all covered in snow and decorated for Christmas. Saw a Ron Paul yard sign in Wamego. Crazy.

Saw "The Golden Compass" and "National Treasure" while we were there. Both pretty good. Not great, but fun vacation movies.

Tried a new restaurant called "The Iron Barley". It's down in the neighborhood I grew up in. 'Round the corner from my Grandma Hudson's house. Annette took us there the first time I ate there. She's from North St. Louis and didn't get that even though The Iron Barley is in the 'hood, it's my 'hood so I wasn't scared none. The second time I ate there was with Marilyn and Danny. It's their 'hood, too. Marilyn's parents still live there. Danny is our brother from another mother so we can tease him mercilessly about his new girlfriend. She called him while we were eating and he mistakenly told her we were at The Iron Skillet, which is a truck stop. We had this dessert that had a strawberry habanero sauce. It was really good in a freeky way.

It was good to see and visit with everyone. Becky has photos of the Great Cookie Extravaganza of 2007 on her blog. My parents are both in pretty good health. My mom is losing some memory, but nothing too extreme as far as I can tell. Missed my niece, Emily, as she was in Europe spending Christmas with her boyfriend who is studying over there. The link to his blog is on Becky's.

We did stop in Lawrence on the way home to meet Dhyana's boyfriend. Photos of him on her blog. He's a nice boy. Kinda shy, but that's ok with me. He likes "Lost" and we spent the evening watching his DVDs of the first season. Dhyana might have to keep him.

On the drive home, we saw a pick-up truck that was all Ron Pauled out. Big signs on poles attached to the truck bed, signs on the tailgate and on both sides. Don took a photo with his phone. If he ever downloads it, I'll post it. Crazy.

So home again, home again....