Due to a quick decision early this week, I ended up going down to Omaha on Thursday to hang out with Laura for a while. We got dinner on campus, went for a walk, and did other typical hang-out things. On Friday, she had to get up for class, so I got to sleep another two hours... After which we got up and went to the mall for lunch and shopping. While shopping, which was LOTS of fun, we somehow figured out that instead of me leaving Omaha to go to Tulip Time, I could bring Laura too, since she's never seen Pella's annual festivities. Plus, my aunt from Pittsburgh was there, and we wanted to say hello. So, very excited, we finished shopping and left for the land of tulips. We got to Pella too late to do anything but watch OLD home videos from 1990 with my family... Quite hilarious to see how we acted back then. I told my dad we should get a DVD burner and digitize all of that stuff... putting select bits on my web site. The next day, Laura and I went down to the Pella town square to spend money, eat crap, and see things. Tulip Time was Tulip Time, but I enjoyed it. The crafts were especially interesting... It seems like that section has grown. It seemed pretty busy on Saturday as well. The weather certainly was agreeable. Not too cold, not too hot. Dutch Tacos own! $2 for a tortilla with Pella bologna, "special sauce", and various veggies. Yummy yummy. I've never had them before, because I just assumed Dutch Taco was the same as walking taco (i.e. bag of Doritos with cheese and meat thrown in). But no! Much better! Laura and I got to see two parades: one Saturday afternoon, and the final one later that evening. During the night parade, we got plates of Poffertjes (sp?), which are little dutch pancakes with melted butter and powdered sugar. So good! I want more. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with her this weekend, unlike Ben and Chris who like to abandon me. ;) Unfortunately, I had to take her home this morning. Even worse, the weather is so nasty right now. Black clouds and pouring rain all of the way from Pella to Omaha. In Des Moines, hail started bouncing off of my windshield. To make matters worse, a huge black SUV kept tailgating me, when I was going 70 miles per hour! If something were to happen and I would have slammed on my brakes, there's no way he would have avoided hitting me. Bleh. Speaking of SUVs, I dreamed recently that I won a gameshow and was awarded a HUGE, black, domestic SUV. When I woke up, I was rather disappointed. Jewel's new single is horrible. God-awful, even. She's turned from nice country yodeler into Aguilera.