avablog

When I went to search my blog for mention of this sandwich, I noticed that I’ve deleted my search bar.  Note to self:  Reinstate search bar. Fortunately, the tastiness of this sandwich can bear many mentions.  It’s served by a restaurant here in town called Devotay, and their menu describes the dish thusly: Wildlife Lakes  […]

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I spent a couple minutes packing up some books today, one of which turned out to be my high school yearbook. It was hidden at the back of a bookcase, sitting sideways behind the more palatable reading material. “Why don’t you get rid of that?” Leah asked. That wouldn’t actually pain me too greatly, but […]

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I just got back from a show at our local theater that was absolutely awesome.  Area piano guru and Steinway artist Dan Knight performed a review of Bill Evans tunes.  Dan played only one original tune, but he’s a hell of an artist in his own right. And did I mention that Dan played our […]

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It’s like things are picking up steam, and I know it, but I’m not willing to confront it.  I have this silly idea that somehow, some way, everything is going to get done with the move and the new house on time and on budget.  Go ahead.  Laugh if you want.  On the Internet, no […]

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I keep saying that to myself, over and over, but the number doesn’t sound any smaller. EDIT:We chose the Blindsgalore double cell cellular shades, cordless.  There was a promotion on until yesterday that got us 20% off an order of $400 or more, and we ended up saving about $450 on the 20 shades we […]

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My dwarf irises. I know “dwarf” isn’t the politically correct term these days, but flowers don’t have ears. Yes, yes. Nothing’s stopping me from planting irises at the new house, and I just might. But I’ll still miss these plants.  I could transplant them, but they seem so happy there.  There’s enough transplanting going on […]

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Every spring for the last couple years, we’ve gotten sweet eating ants in our kitchen.  They invade for a couple weeks and then, after getting a bellyfull of the Terro I put down everywhere, disappear.  Whether they actually die or just start doing something else away from our kitchen, I don’t know. I was looking […]

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Ava was in bed with us this morning about 6:30 as we were getting ready to roll out of bed.  She was just kind of playing around and chatting to us and to herself about nothing in particular.  Then, out of nowhere, she rolled towards Leah and said, “You have sweet nipples.” Leah broke into […]

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I was reading a blog post yesterday by an EMT who was describing the consequences of not wearing seatbelts.  He went into some detail about the various things that happen to a body when it goes from moving, say, 40 m.p.h. to 0 m.p.h in the space of a second.  There were obvious things, like […]

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Poom Poom shipped Ava a kite a couple weeks ago, and we’ve been waiting for a warm(ish), breezy day to give it a go. Today was the day. It wasn’t just a good day to fly a kite. It was an awesome day to fly a kite. Near perfect. Ava’s kite is a little ladybug […]

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I was sitting at my desk today when the phone rang.  I’d barely said “hello” before I heard Ava’s sweet little voice say, “Hi!  I went poop in the potty!”

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Leah and I have very different taste in music.  This Friday, my brother and I are meeting Kevin up in Decorah for a Kurt Elling show. I understand that Kurt is not to everyone’s liking.  So be it.  I don’t listen to much Top 40.  I’m looking forward to the show.  Leah recently got us […]

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Mark always swears that, for one disconcerting moment, he thought the surgeon had pulled a miniature version of my father from my abdomen during Ava’s delivery on September 17, 2004. He says that Ava looked just like her “Poom Poom” (the name my father actually WANTS Ava to call him) in those first few seconds […]

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We’re in Grand Island, NE, this evening.  I’m going to refrain some saying anything about Grand Island, other than that the restaurant we ate at this evening screwed me on the number of “drummies” that were supposed to be in my order of hot wings.  But it was a microbrewery, surprisingly enough, and their beers […]

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I almost forgot to write this down, but it’s a biggie. When we were at the Holiday Inn Express in North Platte on the way out, Ava and I took a dip in the pool. We’d been promising her she could go swimming, and there were times on the drive when it was the only […]

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So much for the Icebox of the Nation.  The high in Fraser today is going to be 51.  In Iowa City?  Thirty-six.  Looks like it’ll warm up a bit before we get back, but not a whole lot.  Spring.  Feh.  Go figure.

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In case any of my loyal readers are curious about where we’re staying this week, here’s a link to info about Fraser, CO, co-claimant to the title of The Nation’s Icebox. It’s been very nice while we’ve been here.  Mostly sunny, highs in the lower 50s.  Yesterday was a bit windy, but today’s much calmer.  […]

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