God hates me and so I'm in Iowa

You know things are pretty fucked up when the best news you've had all week comes from Fish!

Well, if things had gone according to plan I would be in warm Austin, TX right now drinking a margarita on the patio of Eddie V's with a couple of hot Harriettes. Tomorrow I'd be eating some kickass sushi at Chon Som and on Friday I'd be kickin' back in the Carousel listening to the sounds of the Mad Cowboys -- getting my Lone Star fix and trying to sneak a beer from the bar without Stella catching me. On Sunday I would be doing the second annual Chuck Norris Hash. Big if.

But god hates me and so I'm in Iowa. Let me tell you about Iowa these days; Iowa City is a bi-polar mess of slush soup by day and ice obstacle course by night. When you walk out the door in the morning you don't know if you're going to fill your shoes with ice water or slip and fall on your ass. The choices kinda suck but the suspense keeps things interesting.

All the more reason to head south, right? Unfortunately, wrong. You see as it turns out there are three flu viruses out this year. I already caught one of them for Christmas so I should be home free -- but this weekend I managed to catch another one. For those of you who haven't ventured north of the Mason-Dixon line, let me just tell you that you haven't really lived until you've walked a hyper German Shepard through an ice storm at midnight with a fever of 103. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Rebecca just had foot surgery last week so there's only one dog walker in the family.

Boo hoo for me. I'll stop bitching now, it's not really that bad. Besides, Fish shot me some good apple news yesterday and next week I'll be in Austin where the only ice I touch will be when I reach into the beer cooler.

On-On!