smoke on the water

I shouldn't still be up - I should have tried to be more efficient with the things I needed to get done tonight so that I could have gone to bed two hours ago. But I'm in Iowa, catching up with my parents and catching up on some fine CBS programming (the season finale of 'The Good Wife' was particularly enjoyable), and I didn't sleep much last night, so I suppose productivity was too much to be expected of me.

This morning's travel was totally smooth and utterly uneventful, with two half-empty flights that were both on time, and a layover in Minneapolis between them that gave me enough time to eat a tasty breakfast. The only downer was that both flights were so short that I couldn't really pull out my laptop and write, but I suppose that's okay. When I got into Des Moines, I got my rental car and ran over to Aunt B's, since I had shipped some books to her for the conference I'm going to on Wednesday so that they wouldn't get smoky at my parents' house. We had lunch at one of her favorite Mexican restaurants, which I really liked even if it was sans margarita because a) I had to drive and b) even I don't drink at noon on a Sunday (well, unless it's mimosas, or white wine, or...who am I kidding).

Then I came home, arriving in time to sit on the back porch for a couple of hours and discuss the mini cows. My dad and I went in to town to see my grandmother, who as v. v. surprised to see me (in her defense, they hadn't told her I was coming, but she probably wouldn't have remembered anyway). She's in good health and spirits, though, so at least there's that. Then we came home, had supper (ribeyes and baked potatoes, supper of champions) and watched CBS (naturally). And eventually I came downstairs, freshened up, and then took care of one quick (or should have been quick) email for the day job + finalizing the handout for the workshop I'm part of later this week.

And now, I really must sleep; I'm working from home for the day job tomorrow, so I need to get up at a reasonable hour and get cracking. Goodnight!