things that make an old man happy

a platter of warm zappadan cookies, a mug of hot cocoa, and a happy little orphan who'll help me eat them, for starters...

and then a trip to iowa city, where i was able to spend not nearly enough time with some really dear friends, old and new. the leflers [ken and lu] hosted a holiday party at their extremely dog-friendly home. this entire lifetime of mine has been spent torn among the many places and friends who share my heart and my happiness. i really love my iowa city buddies, and it makes me sad that i am not able to spend as much time with them as i'd like. despite all the grief we in des moines give them, the iowa city folks really do have an extremely large and tight cycle-social culture, one which we in des moines would benefit by mimicking more closely. watch this space for photos of my brief trip there as i have more time to post them. but a special thanks to jim and lisa, kenny and lu, gpickle and cody [thanks for the coffee, cody!], and to darcy, with whom i finally had the chance to talk and get to know.

other things that make me happy: on gpickle's blog, there is a discussion about a certain pair of lime green shoes, seen below on ira, wearing bollenbaugh's old cannonball helmet. rumor has it that ira will be coming back next year to prevent anyone else having a shot at winning transiowa again.

and finally, there's pete's annual discussion about evil people who try--with apparent success--to ruin his christmas. but the heart-warming thing is that they're having it without me! and it's going quite well, thank you very much.

and seriously, i enjoy reading it.

happy holidays, all.