Happy 15th Birthday Nick!

Nicky turned 15 yesterday. We celebrated with lasagne, garlic bread, salad and chocolate butter cake with fudge frosting and vanilla ice cream. Nick was pleased with his presents. He got $5 and some books from my parents, $ from Grandpa and Grandma H, and bubble gum, a Rube Goldberg book, and I am Legend dvd from us. Tomorrow night my parents are going with us to Hu Hot to continue the celebration. Wednesday is shrimp night. The kids were disappointed last time we went because it wasn't shrimp night. Nick is working his way through their posted recipes of graduating hotness.

In the picture on the previous post in the middle right side of the photo - that cement corner - the water was ABOVE that this weekend! The river crested at 17.96'. I think it's normally around 6 or 7'. We made the front page of the area paper.

We had a fabulous Saturday. We went to see Saltimbanco by Cirque du Soleil. It was awesome! It was the absolute coolest thing I have ever seen! (And I've seen some pretty cool things!) We were sitting with our mouths hanging open the entire time. We had fantastic seats too! We were in the 2nd row of the first balcony. It was perfect. It was worth ever penny we spent. I would see it again in a heartbeat! Now I want to go to Vegas so I can see their productions out there. I cannot recommend this show more highly.

After the show we had dinner at a new restaurant called Zin's. It's a tapas restaurant (though in Iowa they call it "small plates")(which may be because every time we say we went to a tapas restaurant people think we said "Topless" restaurant). It was very fancy. They took our coats when we got there. We didn't have reservations. I didn't think we'd need them at 5:45! We were able to sit and eat at the bar though.

We started with the calamari which was ok. Then we had the quail. It was very yummy when you ate a bit of all of it - quail, stuffing, and the delish sweet potato strips with maple. I usually hate sweet potato. Then we had the pot roast with the potato knish. We finished with the lobster cheesecake. It was like a cold lobster quiche. There were two of them. We inhaled them! I had signed up for their email so we had a free dessert. We took the Blueberry Choux cake. It was pretty yummy too! Oh, the chef also prepared an "amuse bouche" for everyone to try. It was goat cheese and garlic on toast with an apple chutney. I adore goat cheese! We had some drinks, too. It was a wonder wonder day!

My husband was complaining

that I hadn't updated my blog. So here goes. In the past two days we've received close to 5" of rain. Places north of here (in our watershed) have received closer to 7. The water is rising - and rushing - as you can see.

Francis is not real excited about the noise. Yesterday morning it was 70 degrees. Today we have a windchill factor again!

I got a $5 rebate yesterday so I bought myself Bon Jovi's LOST HIGHWAY on itunes! Love it!!

Whoa!

Our town is currently flooding. The water is less than a block away. It won't get to us though. Plus being on a slope helps. Francis and I went for our walk this morning to look at the water. Where we walked yesterday is no more.

It's back!

Deadlist Catch has returned! Love it!

Are you kidding me?

We got our usually amount of groceries last Friday night. It was over $200! Plus that's without any meat. Kurt and I were discussing it this morning so he looked at our YTD spending compared with this time last year. We're spending 20% more! Our fuel cost is 50% more.

That's Awesome!

I'm watching the NBC Nightly news. They had an item about 6 Masai warriors running in the London marathon. They ran in their tribal outfits. They normally run for days to protect their cattle. One warrior when asked to compare the two marathons said, "This will be easy. There are no lions to fight off!"

Done!

I finally got our New York trip scrapbook done! I started it at the crop in November; continued it at the crop a few weeks ago; and finished it on Monday. Whew!

Sprucin' Things Up

We're fixing some things around here. Today the plumbing guys came and put in a new kitchen faucet and a bathroom light/fan. They cleaned up after themselves, too! Also they rewired the bathroom so we have less of a fire risk and replaced the sink trap since it had a crack and was leaking. Once again - gotta love small towns!

I have pictures from our Schera's adventure but I don't want to deal with uploading them to the computer. While it should be easier with the new camera since it hooks in via USB I don't find that it is which leads me to have less pictures posted.

I took a practice NHA test today and I scored 83%. I'm going to study everyday from 1230-330 minimum. The advice I'm getting it to keep taking the practice tests until I score 100% every time.

African food feast

Saturday night Kurt, the kids, mom, Aunt Jan and I went to Schera's in Elkader for dinner. Their website suggested making reservations which was totally unnecessary. We sat over looking the Turkey River and historic stone bridge. We had the Algerian combo platter for an app. It consisted of Samosas which are triangles of dough filled with a spiced chicken or vegetable mixture, then fried;Bourek which is Seasoned ground beef rolled in phyllo dough, and fried; and Za'atar. Za'atar (a flavorful mixture of thyme and sumac) mixed with olive oil, spread on pita bread, topped with feta cheese then baked until crisp. The first two were good. The Za'atar makes me think I don't need to go to Algeria anytime soon. The aunt ordered (and shared with us all) - Cade. It's Chickpea flour mixed with spices, egg and water, and baked to a custard consistency. Served with a basket of bread and harissa, a Tunisian hot sauce. Nick slathered on the harissa. He and the aunt were the only fans of cade. The kids chose the tortellini, the aunt and I had the tilapia, Kurt selected the tuna, scallop, and shrimp over couscous while mom had the couscous with chicken and beef skewers with roasted veggies. It was a fun experience, but I don't think we'll be repeating it anytime soon. I was impressed the kids tried everything and almost acted their ages. However, their table manners and social skills still have a way to go.

Elkader was named after an Algerian who was for freedom and free thought. Elkader is named in his honor. The restaurant is run by a native Iowa and his boyfriend who is of Algerian descent. Elkader is very scenic. Tourist traffic should help them I would think.

On the way home we spotted a bald eagle nest and tons of deer.