Thoughts from flyover country

• Are you even allowed to purchase a pickup truck in a color other than red in Nebraska? I mean, if you walked into a dealership and wanted to see, say, a white or a blue pickup, would they even have one? Do buyers of red pickups get to join an exclusive “red pickup in Nebraska” club? Is there a discount? A tax break? Do red pickup owners go around and haze owners of silver pickups?
• Wow, they grow everything in Iowa! Corn, soybeans, windmills. Looks like it’s going to be a great windmill year! They’re growing big and strong; lots of promise in those windmills. Can’t wait to see what harvest looks like!
• To the douchebag truckers on I-80 who were playing “let’s get side-by-side on the highway and slow 20 mph below the speed limit”: you are total pricks. If you’re that bored driving a large and potentially dangerous vehicle, spring for Sirius/XM and listen to Howard Stern or something. But that was juvenile and stupid…and we especially hated you because we were the ones with the hungry kids who had to pee. Thanks ever so much.
• Tide To Go is a miracle potion. I’m pretty sure it can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and create world peace. It certainly saved my blue jeans after a day in the MomVan.
• The economy really is in a jam (really, Jen, watching 24 hour news didn’t make that clear?). We passed an outlet mall today, on a Saturday, less than 2 weeks before Christmas…and the place was nearly empty. That ain’t good.
• P.F.Chang’s is my new BFF. The chain has a gluten-free menu, so we were able to have dinner here in Des Moines without worry. And it was darned tasty, too. Hey, if A ate shrimp, it must have been good. And he drank half my decaf ginger peach tea. Hot tea. Come to think of it…who is this kid and where is my son???

Tomorrow we head off to Chicago with a long-promised stop at Chicago Legoland if the boys continue to behave (they’re about to blow it farting around falling asleep). Hopefully we can stay ahead of the storm on our tail and get to my parents’ before it gets bad.