I had a pretty tumultuous start to the day, health-wise but I’m feeling a little better. We spent the night in Iowa City last night and are back in John’s hometown – what I like to refer to as “Anytown, USA”.

(from Seinfeld)
George: What-what are you doing?
Kramer: Oh, I’m putting up Frank’s screen door. This beauty’s got a little life in her yet.
Jerry: What do you need it for?
Kramer: (Closing door) The cool evening breezes of Anytown, USA. Let’s see how this baby closes. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patty: (Surveying Kramer’s hall patio ) What is this?
Jerry: (Knocking on Kramer’s door) Anytown, U.S.A. Hello? Is Kramer home? Oh, hey.
Kramer: (Spraying his flowers) Hello, neighbor.
Jerry: Boy, those azaleas are really coming in nicely.
Kramer: Oh, you gotta mulch. You’ve got to.
Jerry: You barbecuing tonight?
Kramer: (Ringing his wind chimes) Right after the fireworks.

Those who know me, know that I have a thing for small towns even though I’ve never lived in one. People from small towns on the other hand, might think I’m a little crazy for longing for a slower pace, sipping lemonade on the front porch and being on a first name basis with the woman at the post office. John and I had our wedding photo in the local paper so I’m pretty sure walking around “downtown” tomorrow some people might recognize us, or at least John… maybe even as that Bollwitt boy that moved to Canada.

This evening it started snowing, dropping down to 2 celcius, which is quite the departure from the 25 degrees two days ago. It’s supposed to clear by tomorrow afternoon and here’s hoping roads are clear for our 2 hour drive to the airport on Friday. I wish we had more time here, it makes me sad to think about leaving already. With John’s new job he won’t have vacation time again until next year so maybe we’ll be back for Thanksgiving 2008. Honestly, it can’t come soon enough.

The guys who brought us social media rooftop bbq’s in Gastown, Bryght, have now been acquired by the the primo Drupal site, blog and podcast deliverers, Raincity Studios.

This global-mega-hyper-conglomorate melds together the two single most important companies in Vancouver when it comes to web 2.0, imho.

This morning’s news release states:

The deal took flight while Scales and Kris Krug, now-former-President of Bryght, were in China
scouting a new office location in Shanghai when they decided their companies’ complementary services could be enhanced by joining forces. Krug, the newly appointed President of the new company, saw the growth potential saying, “By joining Raincity Studios, we can capture market leadership by responding quickly to the unmet demand for Drupal development services worldwide while also offering an increased service roster to our existing growing client base.”

I personally hold those guys mainly responsible for the thriving geek activity around here. Aside from meetups, face time, chats and friendship being built, there is also truly a sense of community (see: our crimebusters work re: Workspace‘s computer theft incident or Vancouver.FreeTheNet.ca wireless mesh project). You now, aside from all the professional things they do like working on projects for clients like SPIN Magazine, Ozzy, and The Grateful Dead – to name a few.

Also, big things are to come very soon from a Miss604.com/Raincity Studio collaboration, which I’m very excited about. All the best to these individuals and their companies in this new venture.

(Read more coverage on the Raincity Site)

There’s a lot I never knew about Iowa. First off, it’s not famous for its potatoes – that’s Idaho. Second, it’s not as flat as everyone thinks.

You wouldn’t know it if I didn’t tell ya (okay maybe you might) but that famous painting of the farmer and his less than enthused wife called American Gothic was by Grant Wood, of Iowa. After learning this, I looked up more Grant Wood artwork which consists of simple landscapes that are uniquely American in charm.

Grant Wood

Driving north from Missouri I got to experience the scenery of Central and Eastern Iowa. By sunset the entire sky was pink until it met the rolling hills that were all shades of green and brown. Little white houses sat at higher elevations like lookouts over the fields, and they were always surrounded by groves of trees who have already lost their leaves for the season.

Grant Wood

We rolled into John’s hometown under cover for pea-soup fog and headed right over to the youth centre to watch his nephews play a basketball game. Today we’re going into Iowa City, where John lived before moving out to Vancouver. Hopefully we’ll have time to stop by his old radio station, do some shopping, and see some friends who may still be a bit bitter that he left for “Canada, and a girl”.

Photos from the trip can be viewed in my Flickr set.

I have a song by Phil Ayoub stuck in my head as we pull into the rest stop on I-35 North. This morning we had breakfast in Kansas City and enjoyed some chorizo, eggs, beans and tortillas prepared by John’s great aunt and grandma. We just entered Iowa from Missouri on our way to John’s home town. It’s a beautiful sunny day and the hills and rivers I can see along the rolling landscape are pretty breathtaking. Sitting in the car, soaking up the free wifi and 26 degree celcius heat I thought I’d post some more photos from our journey.

You know when I say “Vancouver” I mean Metro Vancouver and surrounding townships right?

Who doesn’t a love a good ol’ parade? This year Aldergrove will be hosting the “Light Up Parade” on the evening of December 8th, down Fraser Highway.

What: Light Up Parade
When: Saturday December 8, 2007 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Downtown Aldergrove, Township of Langley

Before the parade there will be a Santa Show at the Elk’s Hall, you can also enter a contest by decorating your house, or swing by the #3 Firehall to donate to a good cause through the “Fire and Ice” campaign.