i can't see the thief that lives inside of your head

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Iowa. During my <4 days there, I managed to see my entire family, with the exception of my cousin Moriah. As mentioned earlier, I had dinner on Friday w/my dad's siblings, their significant others, and my cousin Andrew. Saturday, my mom's sister came up from St. Louis with her husband, Eli, and Jordan (Mo had to work), and so we celebrated a belated Christmas with them, my sister, and her three kids over supper at a restaurant in Centerville (the same one where Katie's wedding reception was, actually). They also came over for most of the afternoon on Sunday, leaving around the same time that my brother went back to Ames. Today, I woke up, packed, had lunch w/my parents and my grandmother at our favorite dive tavern in the back of the American Legion hall, and then my parents took me to the airport and waved me off. Oh, the only other 'family member' I didn't get to see was my grandmother's peacock, who died on Saturday morning. It was amazing that the peacock survived as long as it did; we reckon it was at least fifteen years old, based on the last time that any of us can remember any peacock hatchlings, and it's been living alone on my grandmother's farm since before my grandfather died. That means it survived through the snows and heatwaves of Iowa without any companionship for at least five years. Anyway, my father and brother dug a four-foot deep hole and buried it, and thus ends our family's line of peacocks (although you can bet that one of us will end up buying some nostalgically in the future).

The weekend was fast, efficient, and effective as far as seeing maximum family with minimum time expenditure. It was also fast, efficient, and effective as far as injecting me with as much Anderson/Erickson Dairy products, since I ate a ton of french-onion dip and also scored some cottage cheese. Mmm. That, plus the baby back ribs, the prime rib, the maidrites (aka loose meat sandwiches), the country-fried steak, and the delicious cheeseburger (with deepfried cheese balls on the side) pretty much topped me up on midwestern food for awhile, so I will probably be content eating salads at work for the next couple of weeks at least.

Now, I'm back in California, and I should really sleep--I have a conference call at seven tomorrow morning, which should be illegal the morning after a long weekend, but there's not much I can do about it. This is going to be a helluva week, considering that I have an all-day offsite Wednesday from 7am to 10pm, plans Thursday night, tentative plans Friday night, and a class at Stanford all day Saturday. Wish me luck!

But finally, to Ritu - are you going to get my money from Admiral Sandecker?