has there been a murder?

Craig was in top form tonight. He mentioned Des Moines -- someone from Des Moines wrote in, and he said 'I've been to Des Moines! What a lovely place, full of delicious....people.' Apparently he either couldn't remember what he ate in Des Moines, or hated the food as much as he hated the hotel he stayed in (which was much maligned by his opening act). Then, he had an awesome skit in which he dressed up as Jessica Fletcher and someone else dressed up as Sherlock Holmes; I was laughing out loud, particularly every time he said 'Has there been a murder?!' in his ridiculous high-pitched voice. And his main guest was James McAvoy, who was also v. funny. I can't wait to have my TiVo back so that I can watch Craig at a reasonable hour instead of staying up late to see him!

I did not accomplish as much as I intended today. Michael and I had lunch with Gram Wampler at the local tavern, and then came home with the initial intention of him going to Des Moines and me starting to pack up my room. However, it stormed most of last night and rained most of today, adding another couple of inches to already-waterlogged soil (water is standing in the fields and this year's crops are pretty much a wash in this area). So Michael didn't want to go to Des Moines, I couldn't drive my car through the yard around back to start loading it, Mom couldn't run errands, and Dad couldn't work on the landscaping. We ended up playing Rail Baron again, which took seven hours; it was fun, but not as fun as yesterday. That's probably because yesterday I lost respectably, whereas today I lost horribly; I was so far behind throughout the game (due to a series of disastrous money-losing trips early on that destroyed my ability to build a solid train network) that it was hard to get fired up and competitive. Michael won again, which was good for him, I suppose :)

After Rail Baron, I took care of a few things, and then we had supper -- Mom made tenderloins, which is one of the quintessential Iowa foods that I'm really going to miss. You haven't lived unless you've had a great Iowa tenderloin (no dirty jokes here! I mean the tenderized, breaded, fried pork loin, usually pounded out so thin that it's twice the size of the bun). Then I ran into town to buy ice (starting two deer when I walked out the door, and only seeing four or five more on the trip), came home, and did some work -- print directions and hotel confirmations for my trip, answering emails, etc.

Tomorrow I really must accomplish a lot; I only have three days left in Iowa. Isn't that tragic?