First Report Back

I'll be getting together a little post on Loren's dad, later. The memorial service went well and as always happens with the Hoyt clan, visiting together was a tremendous encouragement. And hey, I finally got to meet "the other Nancy" :-) who has personally restocked my supplies of Diet Cherry Coke and Dove's Dark Chocolates, not to mention many wonderful goodies for the kids. (and an African Violet :-D

Yes, Nancy Hoyt, you are in the will.

A very huge thank you to all who prayed for travel safety and gave generous gifts to help us with gas and other expenses.

All of these were a tremendous blessing to our family.
________________

We arrived back to snow on the ground...Oh cruel, CRUEL Iowa!
In the right foreground a Killdeer can be spied, quite possibly rather confused...


'Tis a bitter pill, but one that should soon melt with the 60 degree temps promised for early next week.

(And indeed, after lunch green grass could clearly be seen, retaking its April habitat)



All the chill'uns left at home survived quite well while we were gone. There was even some cleaning done in my absence prompting my usual comment, "Wow. I should really go away more often."

Everyone was pretty wiped out by the time we arrived home. Loren, from driving all the way back from Tennessee and one particular person who (like myself) found the snow depressing, especially with garden plans in the offing.

Nolan and Trevor had been sleeping most of the way back from Ardith's house, but Trevor woke up enough to stumble into the computer room, sit down and start fumbling with his mouse before Kendra caught him and reminded the young computer wizard it was bedtime.

Apparently the thought of resuming his communion with "Treh-joh Gahl-wux-y" was the underlying strength which sustained this five-year-old throughout the long hours of road travel.

Breaking News---Besides Dove's Dark Chocolates and my crossword puzzle book, I've discovered another source of epicurean delight...

Pringles Spicy Guacamole Chips

Folks, this is pert-near the best chip in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD !

And you know I would never exaggerate.

I couldn't find it on the Pringles website, so perhaps it's being test-marketed in our area, Iowa being a bastion of high-toned consumer taste.

Anyway, these chips go especially well with Diet Cherry Coke. In fact, the one almost begs for the other. PLUS, NO TRANS FAT. That should allay any worries of the health-conscious.

So go out and purchase a gross or two. And I would be curious as to whether these are available in all areas of the states (nay, the world) or just in happnin' kinda places like lil' ol' Iowa.

Continuing with my disjointed theme, let me mention a wonderful book I picked up at the Waterloo Goodwill store, The Dilbert Principle As in, hard-back.

*grins*

This is my latest bathroom reading material. I figure, if you have to be in a small enclosed place that contains the equipment for monotonous daily ablutions as WELL as that horrid liar of a bathroom scale, you might as well have a little fun.

Just today I ran across a particularly funny cartoon...

...as well as a great quote,

"Many dolts will try to impede your brilliant plans. You can minimize their collective resistance through a process called 'getting buy-ins.' This involves collecting the opinions of people who care about a decision, acting interested, then pretending that your plan is a direct reflection of what the majority of people want.

This might sound silly, but if you compare it to the alternatives it's the only practical solution. You can't accommodate a hundred different opinions, and you can't ignore them. All you can do is provide people with the illusion that they participated in the decision. For some reason, that's enough to make people happy. This is the basis for all democracies."

(As well as non-profit groups, churches and families, heh, heh)

*knock, knock*

"Becky? I need to take a shower...are you about done in there?"

"Oh...right. Gimme a minute, I'm almost done with this chapter..."

(See, people who don't laugh a lot, can feel like crying all the time)
 

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