Heading back home to Cedar Rapids, IA on Sunday May 4th for two weeks for work. The first week will be for some training, but I finagled a few things and arranged to work in-office for the following week.

It will be nice to see the family for a bit, and hang out at a few of my old favorites. Looking forward to going to a restaurant/bar called Leonardo's. It's a great little place that has been there for 40 years. Has highback red pleather booths with padded black pleather walls. Huge neon "L" out front and the entryway has a clear red dome with flashing lights at the base. Almost everyone mistakes it for a topless bar or something along those lines when I first take them there. But... they literally have the best pizza in town, along with some of the least watered down drinks as far as restaurants go. Nothing fancy about the menu, and in fact it as mostly remained unchanged for all that time. That really tells you something about a restaurant!

Flip side of that is a place called Winefred's. The BEST high-class place in Cedar Rapids, hands down. I almost always get the beef tenderloin. Always perfectly prepared and so tender you don't even need a knife to cut through the 3 " piece of meat. Just pull it apart with the fork and it almost melts in your mouth.... actually still trying to work out a 'guest' to go with me the night that I go to this place. Wish I could afford to go more than once in those two weeks....

Funny that I have been in Charlotte, NC for 6 months now and I really don't miss much from Cedar Rapids, where I have lived my whole life. Just shows how much it was time for a move from the familiar to the unknown.

Hopefully I will take a few pictures of the trip. I tend to not really take too many pictures. Something I will try and adjust. Not that there is that much exciting to see in Cedar Rapids...

Got a few friends that I plan on visiting, but friends or so-called-friends were probably the biggest reason I decided to finally move. You can only be used and abused and taken advantage of by people for so long before you just have to wash your hands of them.

If anyone has any requests for pictures or what-not, let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.