Part II of Corn, Corn and MORE Corn!

There is an ice cream chain in Rock Island, IL called Whitey's. Furry Husband LOVES Whitey's and it was our goal to eat Whitey's ice cream at least once if not more each day we were in Rock Island visiting Illinois Ma.

Now that I think of it - it's kind of a funny name for an ice cream chain. Where I grew up in Omaha, we went to either Goodrich or Dairy Queen. In Ft. Collins there are a couple chains - Cold Stone Creamery, a local place called Walrus Ice Cream... so Whitey's? Is it cuz the cream you use to make ice cream is white? Or are there other social implications going on here??

Reguardless - not much gets in the way of me and food, especially ice cream. We did manage to eat Whitey's each day we were in IL. We even gots the pictures to prove it. We met Furry Husband's buddy Uncle Mikey, Uncle Mickey's wife Diane and their son Zach - otherwise known as Zach-Bob one day for ice cream.

Uncle Mikey - Furry Husband has called him Uncle Mikey since high school, even tho' he is not Furry Husband's Uncle, cuz, well, Mikey's sister had a baby! geez. Isn't it obvious??

Zach-Bob looking really thrilled to be there will all us geezers, Furry Husband, Illinois Ma and Diane.

We LOVE Zach-Bob!!Furry Husband and Illinois Ma

MMMMM - Whitey's Ice cream!!!

We asked Illinois Ma to tell us what she'd like to do while we were there - things she wouldn't normally do or things we could help her do while we were around. She wanted to go to cemetaries to visit family. Furry Husband's 11 yr old niece wanted to tag a long. (An ll yr old WANTING to be stuck in a car with 3 old people to go visit cemetaries?? Is that child right in the head?? Seriously.) While at the cemetary, we did see family.... but Illinois Ma also pointed out old boyfriends. "Oh, I dated that guy over there!" "And I think I dated this guy here..."

There were really old headstones from 1800s. Many in German or Dutch (shhhh - don't tell anyone, I don't really know the difference)

The 11 yr old neice, Tia, who just can't be right in the head to want to hang with us in cemetaries.

We also visited Furry Husband's buddy, Jeff. Jeff is the program manager at a local t.v. station where he directs the 5 pm and 10 pm news programs. We got a behind the scenes tour - got some pix taken on the set and sat in the program room to watch it all go down. It was pretty cool - all the "mic 1 - now open mic 2" "cut to camera 3" "watch the lead in..." "run the clip" It is VERY busy behind the scenes of your local news!

We told Illinois Ma to stay up and watch cuz she might see us - Jeff had them pan to the production room on the credits where we all waved. We called to ask if she'd seen us - she had gone to BED! Wha?? Illinois Ma! We had our 2 seconds of fame and you WENT TO BED???

Me sitting on the set for "The Paula Sands Show". Furry husband told me Illinois Ma would LOVE this picture cuz she simply LOVES Paula Sands. Right. Shows you how much Furry Husband knows. We showed Illinois Ma this picture, first of all had to tell her it was the Paula Sands set only to be told she hates that woman and finds her completely annoying!




The funny thing to me about this news set? The chairs we are sitting on are regular office chairs that roll around. There are 2 steps leading up to the stage where these chairs and this desk are. There is a lip all the way around the stage to prevent chairs from rolling backward off the stage and down the 2 steps. You know that had to have happened to someone at some point and they had to build a lip to prevent it from happening again....that makes me laugh!

Jeff's fists clenched in rage - "the next person who misses the cue for camera 3 dammit is gonna meet my fists o' fury!"

After the news cast, we went to an angry hippie brew pub. I didn't see any angry hippies personally, but one of the camera guys plays drums in a band. His band had played last weekend and he said the place was crawling with angry hippies. I'll take his word for it. The beer was cold and tasty and we talked it up with the graphics, camera and field reporter people.

I told Jeff our next stop when we left IL was my high school reunion. It came up that I'd gone to an all girls catholic school called Mercy. He asked me if there would be any girls there that Furry Husband would go gaga over.

Uhhhh - hello? Jeff? He is with ME. He goes gaga over ME. S'ok. No offense taken. I'm sure Jeff has some warped image of an all girls school filled with giggling, scantily clad girls having pillow fights in the halls.

I spent one morning with Illinois Ma while Furry Husband played disc golf with Jeff. Illinois Ma and I pulled all her family quilts out of the closet. I heard the stories behind the quilts, who made them, the quilts her Mom made that she helped with, the quilt she got on her wedding day from her Grandmother... the quilts she's made. They were all beautiful - the time and effort going into them and the people who made them - not to mention the different fabrics and patterns. Then we laid out the quilt squares she and I have been making, (we are making a mom-in-law, daughter-in-law quilt) we decided on the border/sashes and went to a fabric store to buy what will make up the rest of the quilt top. I told her that I'd keep it a few months and then send it to her for a few months so we can both use it and admire it.

It was a short visit but a good one. She was really happy we came and we both enjoyed our time with her as well. And I did not see another ga-zillapede the entire time, so yeah, that one from our first night MUST'VE followed us in!