Hi(owa)lights

Some higlights (and concomitant downsides) from the weekend in Iowa:

1. Finishing my first NYT Sunday crossword puzzle all by myself. (Downside: doing it while my flight to Iowa was delayed for three and a half hours and we sat in the terminal, then on the plane, then back in the terminal, then on the runway...)

2. Sharing a room with my sister, who, when she said "mmmmaaaarrrrrrrgh" in her sleep in the middle of the night, I shreiked so badly that I scared her into silence. (Downside: being mocked furiously the next morning for being the sleep-chatty one, as I apparently said to her, "that's ok, just write it on the napkin and I'll get it from you in the morning." (???))

3. Getting my hair done by the cutest four-and-three-quarter-year-old on either side of the Missippi. (Downside? Going out in public with that hairdo. Secondary downside? Forgetting that I'm allergic to the grass in my uncle's back yard, where said hairdo was accomplished. Itchyitchyitchyitchy!!)

4. At a dinner party in my uncle's honor, starting a chant among all children under 5 that "FROSTING IS THE BEST PART! FROSTING IS THE BEST PART!" (Downside: being climbed on repeatedly and farted on more than once. Secondary downside? Worrying that if the kids ran around too much, frosting would be the part on my lap.)

5. Catching my uncle in his final recital as a Professor of Music at Iowa State University. (Downside: watching far too many people (including my father) doze through too much of the concert. I blame the eighteen TONS of cake we were forced to eat over two days.)

6. Eating eighteen tons of cake. (downside: trying to fit into my pants today.)

7. Driving past a regular Iowa gas station, and getting a shot of their gas pump:
(Downside: not getting to drive past this one, which Polly says she's actually seen in real life)

8. Getting a brand spanking new laptop computer with tech help from the techiest of tech gurus! (Downside: staying up until all hours of the night transfering my old hard drive onto the new one... and then getting up three and a half hours later to come home. Where there's no cake. Or kids who love me...)