to central iowa and back again

rob has been in boone, IA all week for a suffocatingly boring IDOT workshop (don't call it "the concrete college of knowledge." he is so over that joke.), so oscar had to be my proxy valentine. we took advantage of the unseasonably fabulous 60-degrees-and-sunshine weather iowa city had on tuesday and took a second walk in hickory hill park (the site of our wedding brunch, right). the creek is still opaque and murky with ice and everything that will green up remains straw-colored--i know that the thawing and new growth will take a few months, but spring really felt right around the corner that afternoon. oscar always looks happiest to me when he's panting and "smiling" after a good, long ramble. that was his valentine's gift.

i met up with rob yesterday in ames, where i stayed the night at our friend jackie's house. she's recently undertaken an new project called smiling stone soup, an upstart publishing imprint for books, photos and CDs. i now have a copy of her lovely first volume, path of joy and i'm looking forward to reading it. the three of us had dinner at stomping grounds, a coffee shop/restaurant with a liquor license; it's what iowa city's java house(s) would be if they hired a chef and let you have a beer while you studied. over coffee this morning, i enjoyed the view of jackie's numerous bird feeders through her kitchen's french doors--she even has a little heated bird bath. oscar, the ever-vigilant terrier, tends to keep feathered friends out of our backyard. maybe it's time to re-hang the feeder that used to be on our tree in front...

on my way home, i stopped in west des moines to see brandy, a grad school friend who's also getting her PhD in anthropology. she and her husband mike have two rambunctious australian cattle dog mix pups (tugging at left), one of which knocked brandy over at the dog park a few weeks ago and broke her wrist (they also have two cats who tolerate the dogs). she has assured me that this is not a ploy to get a few months off from dissertation writing, and that it's really no fun at all to have to rely on your husband to put your hair in a ponytail.

it'll be great to have my little happy family all back under one roof tomorrow!