God. I'm totally on edge today.

The thunder and lightning going on outside today is totally weird. It's not normal thunder (BOOM, rumbble) it's this nuclear war sounding (BOOM, ripple) thing. And it just has me on edge right now.

Our 150+ year old Elm tree took one for the team last Friday. During the massive Friday thunderstorm, it got hit. Now it has a Harry Potter scar, I shit you not, running down one of the main branches. Only 10 feet from our Bedroom of the Present.

Scary.

Thankfully, the weather was clear for most of our Iowa Weekend. It was, however, quite the humid heat.

On Friday, I got into work at 7:40 -- only because I left at half time of the World Cup game -- and consequently got to leave at 11:40.

I set up a whole cover story with Lindsay about having to stay later than normal, and I'd see her at home around 12:45.

At 11:40, I hopped in my car and ripped off to Bloomington, a good half hour away. I made it in 20 minutes. I was speeeding and taking funky routes on hunches and it all paid off masterfully.

I arrived at Wixon Jewelers and picked up Lindsay's engagement ring. Now, I know I complain a lot about negative customer service experiences all the time here, it's what I do -- complain, but America, let me tell you something, Wixon Jewelers bent over backwards for me. They sized Lindsay's ring overnight. Their normal wait for that sort of thing is 1 week. And they did it in about 12 hours just to make me, the customer, happy. So if you need any jewelry, please, try Wixon Jewelers in Bloomington, MN. They rock.

Okay back to the story. Lindsay's ring in hand, I sped off to our house. Rainy day, me zooming in and out of traffic and speeding, just excited as hell to give the ring to Lindsay. All the funky routes and little hunches all paid off again. I got home very quickly. The entire drive to and from Bloomington, I was going over and over with little speeches that I could say when I gave her the ring. I finally came up with one that was pretty decent.

I pulled into the garage right after Lindsay.

I had previously told her the ring wouldn't be ready until this Thursday... and then I had it with me.

And now she has her ring. And we're both very very very happy about the whole thing.

Iowa, as a whole, was pretty fun. Ames has changed a lot since the last time we've hit the bars there. It seems a lot more white male macho-er and more greek than I remember. I think it's probably always been like that, but I've been away from it for so long that it's even more glaring now. There was also about a 10-1 guy/girl ratio, too, which I do remember from when I was there. I don't miss that.

Yesterday, driving back was nice. Lins and I took our time, stopped a few times and were propelled back up by a vicious tailwind. We only used a half tank of gas. Normally that'd be at least a 3/4 tank. Woo hoo! Wind Power! Boom!

Thanks for stopping by!
Eric