spelunk-ish

maquoketa caves state park has a network of 16 caves connected by trails and a lot of folks come prepared--with grubby clothes, kneepads and headlamps--to wriggle through the smaller ones with one or two foot ceilings. we were up for a less messy and claustrophobia-inducing experience, so we hauled along the giant mag-lite to get a better look from a distance. of course, you can walk through a few of the caves and one of them (aptly called dancehall) actually used to be a venue for dances with live music. the caves also used to have stalactites and stalagmites...until people stole them! me and rob under the natural bridge.
the natural bridge in all its natural glory.

check out the face on that tree!

here are rob and betsy with their cousins mark and sarah (who used to live near maquoketa) at the state park back in the day. i didn't shrink this one for the upload, so you can click on it for more detail. rob has a good, serious explorer pose going on, but betsy is clearly none too impressed.

say "muh-COKE-it-uh"

when i first moved to iowa, i had no idea how to pronounce "maquoketa." i thought maybe it was "mac-wo-KEY-tuh," but that is completely wrong. as it turns out, maquoketa is a lovely little town and we spent this past weekend there with my parents, celebrating my successful defense. rob and i had initially intended to visit maquoketa caves state park over memorial day weekend, but we didn't move on a campsite reservation soon enough and had to change our plans. it was nice to be able to make up for that trip with our stay at squiers manor. here it is... the front porch swing was a nice place to spend some time on saturday morning before heading out to see the sights.
squiers manor is owned by antique dealers virl and kathy and every room is filled with beautiful old furniture as well as cool details like decorative door hinges......and this stained glass window at the end of the second floor hallway.
caves and grapes in an upcoming post...

defense day

you might have read on betsy's blog that i successfully defended my doctoral dissertation last week. i brought our camera to the big event but was a little distracted (justifiably, i think) and didn't get any shots at the graduate college. i can feel your disappointment at not being able to see the thrilling callan conference room for yourself.

my friend and fellow anthropology Ph.D., jackie, was kind enough to trek to iowa city from ames for the day and we went out to dinner with her that evening. because it was my choice, i decided that we should try soleil's solar living cafe in coralville. soleil, the chef, is congolese and cooks up african/caribbean/french/mediterranean inspired cuisine. we had fried plantains in a spicy sauce as an appetizer, jackie and i each had makoua chicken and rob had the tanzanian fish. my entree looked and tasted a lot like domoda, my favorite gambian dish, a kind of tomato-y, peanut-y stew (find recipes from former peace corps volunteers here--one gives ingredient quantities by cost in dalasis, the gambian currency. not too practical for american shoppers, but fun!).soleil's also sells a plethora of spiritual texts written by omraam mikhael aivanhov, which you can see behind us. one website i found about him and his teachings says that in 1986 he traveled in the invisible world. from what i can tell, i think he died that year. so, same difference? anyway, the food was great.
do i look any different as a doctor?

wizzo

here's what we found on our fridge when we came home from wisconsin...

check out this post on betsy's blog for further explanation of how rob received his very own autographed headshot of wizzo, star of television (in case you can't read the small print).

you remember wizzo, don't you? he was the orange-skinned, pseudo-middle eastern, kinda creepy wizard/magician on the bozo show who would say "nooney nooney noo!" and wave his mystical magic pendant over things. maybe he even appeared in some of your childhood nightmares?

when i was in grade school, my girl scout troop participated in a traditional rite of passage for chicagoland youth--a field trip to a taping of the show (little did i know, kids all around the country were watching chicago's bozo on WGN). i don't remember much about being there in person, but i do recall watching the tape later and being irked that we were all waving with abandon at the wrong camera. i'm also sure that as much as i coveted the loot that could be won playing the grand prize game--the play-at-home version (bozo buckets--by cadaco!), a year's supply of archway cookies, and of course the schwinn bicycle and the brand...new...crisp ...fif...tee...dol...lar...bill in bucket number seven!--i was secretly terrified that bozo's computer (that is, the bozo-puter. i kid you not.) would spit out my name and i'd have to go on stage and actually attempt to win those prizes.

these days, you might just see wizzo incognito (sans wizard make-up, way less scary) as marshall brodien, cruising around chicago in his benz or endorsing his own line of magic tricks (by cadaco!).