The Colonel's Forum

Let me cut straight to it.  Tony de Movellan throws one helluva Christmas party.  It may be the only Christmas related thing I look forward to each year.  Technically, it's Ella's office Christmas party, but this thing is so far from any stereotypical office Christmas party that you wouldn't believe it.  Some people at this thing I only see once a year, but they're all Realtors so they all remember me!  Tony and his wife Barbara always pick a wonderful meal (roast pork this year) and buy a few cases of good Spanish wine.  Tony actually apologized to me this year because he forgot to specify the vintage and they gave him "this awful '05 stuff."  Yeah Tony - people were complaining all night about the junky Spanish wine you were serving.  He then proceeded to break out a bottle of the '04 for me to sample, which was significantly better, but lets keep in mind that the 5% of invitees in the "oenophile" category were happy regardless.   Bob and D

I'm noticing a trend in Des Moines weather. URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 414 AM CST MON DEC 8 2008 ...WINTER STORM CONDITIONS LATE TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY TUESDAY... .LOW PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTH CENTRAL PLAINS AND MOVE ACROSS CENTRAL MISSOURI AND THROUGH THE OHIO VALLEY TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. THE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE A MODERATE TO HEAVY AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION ACROSS CENTRAL IOWA. THE SNOW WILL BEGIN LATE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS NORTHERN IOWA AND CONTINUE INTO TUESDAY MORNING. FARTHER SOUTH THE PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN AS RAIN BEFORE THE TRANSITION TO SNOW...WITH A BRIEF PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN POSSIBLE DURING THE TRANSITION. INCREASING NORTH TO NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCED VISIBILITY AND GREATLY HAMPER TRAVEL CONDITIONS LATER TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. EXPECT THE BLOWING SNOW TO CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS EVEN AFTER THE SNOW ENDS TUESDAY AFTERNOON. Sounds like another great week t

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 610 AM CST WED DEC 3 2008 ...WINTER WEATHER EXPECTED TODAY... .A STRONG UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO CENTRAL IOWA TODAY. SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP OVER NORTHWEST IOWA AND WILL GRADUALLY INTENSIFY AS IT MOVES INTO CENTRAL IOWA THIS MORNING. SNOW WILL THEN INCREASE OVER SOUTH CENTRAL IOWA BY MID TO LATE MORNING. IN ADDITION... NORTHWEST WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH CAUSING BLOWING SNOW. This is what I woke up to today. Obviously, I'm still working in Des Moines. It's actually a really nice town, but the weather here is awful. Thankfully there is a massive system of sky-walks downtown that connect all the major buildings. Most importantly, they connect the Marriott where I'm staying to the Principal offices where I work. Nice. The city of Lexington is after me again for yet another piece of fence that's apparently mine and is definitely falling down. We fixed o