Scenery before and after shopping in Mason City!

Morning over Little Wall Lake near Jewell, Iowa.



I actually took these two (below) pictures while we were driving home from shopping. They didn't turn out too bad!

Trader Joe's opened closer to home!!

Friday, a Trader Joe's finally opened in Iowa in West Des Moines (about 75 miles one way from our house), and we had planned to get there by mid-morning. Some plans have a way of not working out. Here's the huge parking lot and inside it was just as crazy when we arrived LATE in the afternoon!

Since it was the first morning the temperature got below the 20 degree mark (since we've had the new furnace-thing), the brand new, expensive furnace did not work!!! So, we called the furnace man and he arrived fairly soon, but then spent the next two hours trying to figure out WHY the furnace did not work.

The furnace man had apparently done something wrong in the 'configuration' of the thermostat and the electric back-up heater (which only kicks on under 20 degrees).
We now have heat (and a few items from Trader Joe's)! Hopefully next time it won't be quite as crazy!

Beautiful sunsets...and Gracie being a bully.

There have been some really spectacular sunsets lately, and I tried to catch one the other evening. (You can click on any picture to make it bigger.)

These two pictures were only taken minutes apart, but this camera doesn't do the scenery justice. (My niece has borrowed my 'good' slr camera for her college photography class, and I think it would do a better job capturing the true colors of the sky.)

Here's Gracie pouncing on her twin brother, Georgy, for no apparent reason! It's a 19-second video.