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First off, congratulations Matt and Grace! Matt Clancy (a friend from Harwood) and Grace Thommandru .… doesn’t matter her name is Clancy now, got hitched this last weekend at the First United Methodist Church in Iowa City. I and a few other ex-Harwoodians made the trek down to the land of Herkey the Turkey to attend. There was enough family there that we weren’t a huge part of the crowd but few enough that we did actually get to see Matt and Grace at the reception.

The reception was held out at a place called “The Barn.” The name is a little misleading as “the Barn” is actually 4 circular non-traditional “Barns.” The oldest one I’m sure was once used for it’s intended purposes the newer three were built within the last 10 years and seem to mainly be there for events like this. The night was a tad warm but I think that everyone managed. They had Italian and Indian food for dinner and it was all fantastic, I was just disappointed that there wasn’t enough non for everyone.

As the title of this post suggests I didn’t just witness a wedding in Iowa City. Turns out that the Iowa City Jazz Fest was this weekend. I met up with a few friends downtown for lunch before the wedding and we were able to take advantage of some of the great street vendors that were around thanks to the Jazz fest, not to mention the musical setting to the meal.

I topped the weekend in Iowa City off with a stop at my cousin Vanessa’s new house. It’s one side of a duplex but it’s really spacious, especially for just the two of them + Max their dog. Max is (in theory) a Lab/Chow mix so he isn’t a tiny dog (~60 lbs.) and he’s enjoying the yard that they now have. The downstairs still has a large Herkey on one wall, but Vanessa says that it will be leaving as soon as she gets the energy together to paint over it. I was encouraged to tell Mom about it though so her Cyclone pride would drive her into a frenzy, hopefully resulting in the wall being painted without Vanessa having to lift a finger.

My last stop before leaving home ended up being West Des Moines. I met up with some of my Dad’s family and had dinner. My Aunt Tara got me a car tool kit which I was informed includes a “Life Hammer” that I needed to make sure that I would keep in the glove compartment. If I were to drive into a lake anytime soon and it was in the trunk than I would be up a river without a paddle….. or in a lake without a lifehammer…. For those who don’t know, I didn’t, a life hammer is a small plastic/metal hammer that you can use to break a window in a situation where you are trapped inside the car, they’re often on busses as well. I promised to put it in the glove compartment, and I have, so not to worry, if you are with me in the car and I drive into a body of water you will be able to smash a window and swim to safety.

Since I’m not typing about a traumatic experience of loosing my new car (more on that shortly) I obviously didn’t need it the rest of the way back to Ames.

Update: Fixed Grace’s last name, apparently she wasn’t changing, the minister got it wrong. Not my fault.  Although I do seem to be having problems with last names and weddings.