I love my jammies.

“What do you want to do this weekend,” I asked my happy little Austrian Snickerdoodle, Dagmar. “We could go to the park. Or we could go to Le Mars on Sunday to watch the Mighty Mighty Packers beat the woeful Kansas City Chefs. Or we could…”

“Or ve could stay home.”

I looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“Quit looking at me,” she said. “Stop staring.”

“What do you mean, ‘stay home?’ We could go ride our bicycles on the trails,” I continued. “Or we could go watch a band. Or we could…”

“Ve will stay home.”

I looked at her again. She coughed. I put my hands on my hips and prepared to get stentorian. She coughed again, and sniffled, staring at me, waiting. You know, she looked decidedly peaked. Kinda pale, with a sniffle around the edges. I deflated. “Oh,” I said. “You’re not feeling well.” I’m smart that way. I can tell these things.

So we’re staying home.

And, you know, I’m kinda looking forward to it… There are no photos to take, no meetings to attend, no fund raisers to plan, the shopping is done. There is no reason for me to leave the house this weekend at all, unless I need to make an emergency Ny-Quill run or something. All I have to do this weekend is catch up on household errands (which translates into updating web sites and categorizing photos, along with laundry) and pay attention to my beloved vife.

You know, forget the household errands.

City Elections

For the first time in over 50 years Sioux City is going to elect a Mayor this fall. Since the 1950s we’ve been going with some odd system where one of the City Council members gets appointed Mayor by the other City Council members in some sort of slimy political-insider love-fest. It was a system that produced odd results from time to time. But now we get to elect someone of our very own choosing!

So who’s running? Well, most of the City Council members threw their hat into the ring, feeling, evidently, that it’s their birthright as City Council members to hold the Mayoral post. Eleven percent of the registered voters in the city turned out to vote in the primary, so now we’re down to two finalists.

Current City Council member Brent Hoffman is going against political outsider Mike Hobart. I’m voting for Hobart. Not for any mystical political reason, but rather because I think the city has been headed the wrong direction lately. So I’m voting for the guy who wasn’t there when bad decisions were made.

There is one City Council position open this election cycle as well. Incumbent Jason Geary is being challenged by Aaron Rochester. Again, I have no idea what their political leanings are, but I’m voting for Rochester — simply because I’d like to see change in my neighborhood.

If you want change, vote for Hobart and Rochester next Tuesday.

Art at it’s Finest

I doodle sometimes when I’m on the phone. The other day I started doodling a duck. But, really, it looked more like a nice horsey than a duck, so I put a tail on it and called it a horse. A few minutes later someone walked past. “Nice rocket ship,” they said.

Have I mentioned I’m the Art Director at the print shop? How sad is that?