I tried to buy black and gold ribbon at Wal-Mart on Tuesday night and they had absolutely none. All the other colors were still neatly in the ribbon racks, but the black and gold slots were completely empty.
Its like the night before Christmas around Iowa City today. You know, if your Christmas celebrations had an ESPN GameDay crew and 500 journalists showing up in your living room. There are supposedly 200 photographers credentialed for the sidelines! I don’t think they’ll all fit on our sidelines… someone’s going to end up with a receiver in their lap.
I need to run a few errands after work (my hair dryer decided today was a good day to die) and then catch up with whatever kids are already in town. I know Jenniffer & Donor are heading into town tonight. In addition to the roasting of “Jim Tressel” tomorrow at the Kinnick Culinary Society tailgate, I have a breakfast invitation to Doogie’s tailgate.
What to wear? The weather looks nice, but its going to be chilly at 8am and 11pm. Of course I bought a new black Iowa shirt earlier in the week before I knew it was “Be Bold, Wear Gold” weekend. Oh well, I have enough gold shirts to muddle through.
If you’re going to be at the game tomorrow, hope to see you. Otherwise, we’ll miss you! Be sure to get your butts in front of a tv tomorrow night and GO HAWKS!!
Since I last checked in things have gotten busy with the onset of football season. I’m going to attempt to do a text and photo bulleted-list update. Let’s see how edited I can make this:
- Friends with children: I went to my friend Natalie’s baby shower at the end of August. She’s having her first daughter in October, possibly on my birthday. I got to catch up with all my girls from Ankeny that I’ve known since high school. It was great to see where they are all at with their lives. Natalie was the lucky friend for whom I managed to finish her baby blanket before her baby was born.
Look, she’s still pregnant and has the blanket!
I’ve seen the Roethler clan a lot lately and I’m starting to accumulate a lot of pictures of the fabulously cute Lindsey (shown here with a bit of Jerry):
Speaking of Jerry (and Sara)… last but not least, I had the priviledge of meeting (but not yet holding) the beautiful Antalya Gwendolyn Steele on Friday. Congrats to J&S! What a lucky girl Antalya is. (shown here with Diane):
- Hawkeye football: I’ve managed to survive the first three games of the season. My mom and I are adjusting to having new people around our seats in the stadium. The opening season game v. Montana was just a lovely day at the newly historic Kinnick stadium. I got my proper first-game sunburn and peeled twice. I watched the Syracuse game with the Rothlers and the Steeles in North Liberty. Lindsey is cute and Domino is still hyper and that all that needs to be said about that game. Heart attack much? Iowa v. Iowa State was this past weekend. As the weather went so went the Iowa play. It started out dark and overcast and then after halftime the sun came out and we beat the Cyclones into submission and all was right in the world again. Here’s a fuzzy camera phone picture from the end:
- Where I’m at this week: I’m currently in Chicago at my friend Scott’s apartment downtown. Here’s the view out his window:
I’ve been here since Sunday night. I’m attending a week-long class for work and he’s been gracious enough to take me in for the week. After my class on Monday I went to the Apple Store and bought a new iPod and then we went out for Ethiopian food. I had a sampler platter of chicken, beef, lamb, and spinach. I really liked it, especially the beef. Tuesday night we managed to win part of the daily raffle for tickets for ‘Wicked.’ For $25 a piece, we got 3rd row tickets on the left hand side of the stage. We had a slightly blocked view of the back of the stage, but for $25 they were more than worth it. I can see why its such a popular musical and I’d totally see it again. It was great to see the actors close up and see all their facial expressions. Tonight we had dinner at a cute French/American place. They had Pimms cups! The food was fine, but I was much more excited about the drink. Tomorrow we’re going to see King Tut. I’m so excited! There will be a ton of photos, assuming they allow photography.
That’s all for the moment. Hope you’re having a good week.
by Matilde Asensi
I’m not sure how I ended up checking The Last Cato out from the library. I had a note in the back of the little notebook I carry around with a book-reading possibilities list about it from somewhere. It was listed as similar to The Da Vinci Code which is only true on a very high level. There was a search to find a religious relic and a lot about the Catholic church, but that is where the similarities end.
The main character is a nun who works in the Vatican archives as a researcher/restorer of artifacts and relics. From that background she gets swept up with a captain of the Swiss Guard and another researcher from Egypt in pursuit of a relic of the cross that Christ was crucified on (supposedly… who can say where these relics really came from?). In order to find what they need they find themselves playing the role of Dante from The Divine Comedy and facing the seven trials of purgatory. (Side note: this is the second book in the last year that I’ve read that used Dante as the basis for the plot, maybe its time I read the original.)
The book is by Matilde Asensi, a Spanish author, and this is her first book translated into English. The one aspect of the book that I found might have been lost in translation is the fact that Spain is a Catholic country and I am not Catholic. I’m fairly familiar with the Catholic church since many of my friends and family are, but while many things were explained in the book, there seemed to be an assumption on the part of the reader that they would understand certain things. Such as the titles of people in the church hierarchy, different festivals, or things about saints and relics. It didn’t really detract from my reading, but it just felt like I might be missing out on some additional level of understanding.
Not that this was a terribly deep book. The obligatory there-are-two-guys-and-one-girl-there-will-be-some-romantic-entanglement plot line was pretty obvious even when the author tried to throw you off for a bit. The very end of the book was a bit predictable, however the end of the search was not what I was expecting at all. It was very fantastic in the “fantastic voyages” sense.
I found it to be an entertaining read.
