Wednesday, July 09, 2008

House Pics!


The "Back House"


The front house with walkway to back house


Me at work!


View out my office window. Those are Tibetan prayer flags, not my laundry.

Work is busy; really busy. Over the 4th of July week, I was out, so I'm catching up on that. Plus, being a short week, lots got crammed in to those 4 days. Add to that the fact that I am also doing the media searching this week (first time in 3 weeks) and setting up everything here, it's no wonder I feel a bit manic!

Donnie and I grilled out. Noting like German brats. Yesterday (Tues.) we drove over the bridge to Marquette and MacGregor IA. MacGregor is pretty neat (Marquette is just really small. They do have Eagle's Landing Winery which will make anyone back in Portland laugh, but they work with what they've got. Also an antique's mall which we'll have to check out on a Saturday sometime. We also had a beer at the bar and cafe.)

Anyway, MacGregor is the quintessential river town: touristy (so it has restaurants, bars, antique shops etc.) but also a working small town with a post office, library etc. We walked past a bed and breakfast that was saved from falling into disrepair by a couple of puppeteers in the 1970s who put whimsical doors on the caves in the bluff behind the building.
















We walked past the Old Man River microbrewery, but it was closed. We were trying to figure out why (they just opened in Oct!) when a portly retired gent who had just gotten out of his car told us they were closed on Tuesday. But his bar, the Pocket City Pub, was open! So we went over there with him.

It was just us and the bartender in there but it was pretty nice to chat with them. He grew up in Nebraska and had bought the bar as a turnkey operation for something to do when he retired (from what I can't remember). Turns out Iowa just went smoke free in bars over 4th of July weekend. He was saying that he didn't smoke, but he didn't feel it was right that his bartender had to go outside when she wanted a cigarette. But none of his regulars had given him any trouble about it yet. There was a sign on the wall that said "The smoking ban is not health related, it is a social constraint on your liberties. If it were for heath reasons, then cigarettes themselves should be banned." Which makes sense to me.

Also, the back patio abuts the bluffs and when you walk out, you can barely see the sky; just a big limestone rock wall. Donnie went out there, then detoured to the men's room when he came back in. The owner saw him and said, "...he goes and uses my bathroom? He was just outside, why didn't he just go out there?" He also made a comment when Donnie ordered a PBR that he was tapping into his private stash.

Okay, sorry, this post has gone on long enough! I just got my 35mm pics back from the trip, so look for them tomorrow!

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