Meals from the Heartland

I've signed up to help package meals for the Meals from the Heartland program which will be at HyVee Hall in Des Moines the week of Sept. 1-9. If you'd like to join me, here is the website. Be sure and watch the video.

Art Show

I got accepted into the Crossroads Art Showcase which will be held later this year in Des Moines. Watch for more details to come.

Sleep Deprevation

Between the Olympics, bringing work home from the office and planning my next vacation-- sleep has been lacking at my house. And what about Shawn Johnson!! She is awesome and of course a native of my city.

I did the fair

Just got back from an afternoon at the Iowa State Fair. Exhausting yet fun as usual. This year I discovered a few new things I never knew existed or perhaps they haven't been there before?
Also ran into 5 people that I knew. That has never happened--especially with a daily attendance of around 100,000 people.

Top 10 things I did:
1. saw the winner of the "biggest pigeon contest"
2. watched a woman make "art" from barbed wire
3. ate Indian fry bread
4. saw an old refurbished "beach" jeep that looked like a toy I used to play with as a kid
5. watched a "one-woman band" perform in Pioneer Hall
6. toured the usual animal barns
7. signed up for an estimate for getting new gutters put on my home
8. looked at the baby animals that had just been born
9. cast my vote for president at the WHO-TV booth by putting a kernel of corn into a pint jar
10. looked over the fantastic photos and artwork in the Cultural Building.

Took the bus from the State Capitol to the fairgrounds as I do most every year. The afternoon was topped off with a screaming baby on the bus. Was especially long as we had to wait for a train to pass also. Was a relief to get home!!

It's a Miracle?

I should have had my camera with me today. Bought gas for ONLY $3.33/gallon. Would have liked to have a photo of that sign. Then I got home and found I had received my notice for this year's property taxes. My taxes had gone down by $200/year!! Of course, last year my accessed value of my home went down by $5,000 even though I had just spent $12,000 in renovations!

Question also: Why is it then that as I visited the grocery store this afternoon, two of my favorite store-brand products had each gone up in price by about 40 cents? That is a big jump in a couple of weeks. Perhaps they will go back down as the gas did??

ArtFest

George and I participated as art vendors in our first Art Show. There were about 25 artists present. It was a hot day with a breeze that at times burst into gigantic gusts that blew my pieces off their stands. We met a number of interesting artists and visitors and I collected quite a few tidbits regarding art shows, should we decide to do another one.

After paying for rented tables, sacks, gas, etc. I think we might have broken even with the few sales that we had. The crowd definitely was not large. I don't believe it was very well advertised. It was the 1st Art Show this group had put on before. Overall, though I had a good experience, learned a lot and had some interest in my work. I was disappointed though that I had to miss my yearly family reunion. There's always next year!