Last night we went to see School of Rock. I had really not heard anything about this movie, but my husband said he had seen very good reviews, and I am usually up for going out anytime he suggests it, so after supper we headed up to our local theater. After all, for $4 a person, most movies are worth seeing.

When we got there, the first thing I noticed was that the entire junior high seemed to be in the ticket line, and not one adult was with them. Now, I like the junior high kids very much. I enjoy subbing there. On the other hand, I was not so sure I wanted to sit in a theater full of them or that a movie that would entice all of them into the theater was going to be my kind of show. Nevertheless, we bought tickets. (I wanted some popcorn. They use real butter.)

We chose aisle seats on the left side and were not surprised that the row behind us and the row in front of us remained vacant. What self respecting 14 year old wants to sit with 2 teachers? I have to say, though, that the kids were very well behaved and the theater was very quiet. I did not see one flying object and was pleased not to have to cut candy or gum out of my hair.

The premise of the movie is that a rock musician poses as a substitute teacher and accepts a long term sub to earn rent money. Now, this thought is a little offensive to anyone who really teaches, because teaching is not so easy that just anyone who walks in off the street can do it. However, as the film developed, the faux teacher was shown to be a likeable fellow, and both he and the students benefited from the relationship between them.

My husband and I were interested to note that the lifestyle of rock bands was not portrayed as particularly glamorous. There were many very realistic scenes demonstrating the rather mundane nature of off-stage time. We’ve spent some time with bands and have observed that much of their time is spent waiting for various things, sometimes in uncomfortable conditions.

This movie is funny and heartwarming, and although the ending is very predictable, it would have been a huge disappointment if it had ended any other way. We watched quite a bit of it out of focus, which did not seem to bother the kids. One of the charms of a small town theater is that they do not attend to details like screen image.

On the way out, we had to plough through the mass of kids waiting to be picked up. Junior high students can’t drive, you know. We made it safely to our car and were home in about 2 minutes – another perk of small town life!
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Four years ago, I promised myself that I would not drive out of town to work anymore. This year, I broke that promise and am, at least temporarily, making the 25 mile drive to St. Peter to teach each afternoon. I am not sure that the money I make justifies the cost of driving, especially since I am only paid for 4 hours. If I was not doing this, I could sub and be paid for full days, although I would not be guaranteed a specific number of days. I only have one month left of the class I am teaching, and then I will have to decide if I will accept the next class if it is offered to me. I enjoy teaching the class, so it is a tough decision.

In the meantime, I am suffering the frustrations of driving that I had all but forgotten. You know the ones – the cars that pull up to stop signs and sit there waiting as if there is a law that says they cannot proceed until a car actually passes on the through road, or the drivers who slow down to 30 miles an hour because they know the speed limit is going to be reduced from 55 to 30 in another 4 miles and they want to be sure they are ready for it.

Thursday evening, as I was coming home from the class I teach in the town next to us, I was speeding, which is normal for me. In spite of the fact that I was exceeding the speed limit, the car behind me pulled out and started to pass. That’s not particularly unusual. I have decided that there is no speed you can travel that is so fast that the car behind you will not pass. However, in this case, there was a car in the oncoming lane of this 2 way highway. At first, I slowed down to make it easier for the guy behind me to get around me and back into our lane, but it became apparent that this was not going to be enough, and that he was going to hit the oncoming car head-on. The driver in the other lane was making no move to slow down or pull over, so I pulled off the road onto the shoulder, the passing car pulled back into our lane (mostly – he did not have time to get completely back) and the oncoming car whizzed by. There we were, lined up three across on a 2 lane road for those brief seconds. I am amazed at the stupidity of drivers who create these situations! For an instant, I actually contemplated just letting these 2 cars collide, but I did not want to be responsible for the death and dismemberment of the drivers, and I knew that I would be involved in the accident, so it seemed like a pretty bad choice. I sure could have used a state trooper on the scene, though!

In Search of a Good $5 Steak

About 45 minutes away from us, there is an orchard that advertises a $5 steak dinner on Friday evenings. We decided to make the trek up there and check it out. We were meeting some friends and were the first to arrive, so we took the opportunity to look around. Since it’s an orchard, and since it’s October, they are in the height of the apple harvest. By going up a short flight of stairs, it is possible to look down on the cleaning and sorting area:

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If you can read the sign near the center of the photo, you see that it says Minne Mexico in honor of the folks who work there. In this room each day, thousands of apples are washed, dried, buffed, and sorted for size and quality. On our way down the stairs, we met our friends Walt and MaryLu. They were busy looking around for us, but their search was confined to the lower level, so MaryLu was surprised to look up and see us.

Besides the apples, the orchard has a petting zoo with goats, sheep, cows, ponies, and ducks. They also have bins full of fall veggies. Here you see hundreds of yummy squash in assorted sizes and varieties:

And some large flat red pumpkins! I had never seen red pumpkins before.

Other offerings included regular pumpkins, mini pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn – anything your little heart desired to fill your tummy or decorate your home for fall.

We did not explore long though, because we were hungry and wanted to get to the steaks. We really did not know what to expect. $5 is a pretty amazing price for a steak dinner, so we would not have been surprised to discover that we needed a microscope to find it on the plate. The steaks were cooked to order on a grill in an outdoor stand:

The meal came with mashed potatoes and corn. There was no Sommelier to assist us in selecting a fine wine to accompany our meal, but I guess for $5, you can’t have everything. We settled for Coke instead. While we were waiting for the grill to do its work, we enjoyed this sunset view:

I think trees in black sillouette against a beautiful sunset are absolutely breathtaking!

There is an outdoor eating area and it was actually warm enough to have eaten there, but we opted for a table inside next to the fireplace.

The steaks were a full 8 ounces and were nice and tender. We ordered them medium rare and they were actually a little rarer than that, which did not bother me, but everyone else decided that they would order medium next time. The potatoes were instant and slightly watery and the corn was good but ordinary. For 5 bucks it was a darned good meal, though!

While we ate, we were treated to live music. The orchard always has someone providing music inside. Usually, it is polkas. but on Friday evening this gentleman was performing country music. I particularly enjoyed his version of Ghost Riders in the Sky, which is a favorite of mine. He also sang several of Johnny Cash’s hits as a tribute.

Dan had dessert from the bakery. They have a large variety of apple delicacies all baked fresh on the premises daily. Along with the pastry, we bought a pumpkin (regular), some squash, and some apple bread to take home. On our way out, I popped into the apple tasting room to snap a quick picture. The room was empty because the public areas were closing down for the night, but you can see the table with apples set out so that customers can cut off a piece and taste each variety before deciding what kind to purchase.

It was a fun evening. Maybe next time we will try the $5 pork chop dinner. I hope it’s not rare!

If you have not read The DaVinci Code, I recommend it highly, especially if you enjoy mysteries. I am about 20% of the way into it and find it difficult to put it down to get anything else done!

xTools!!!

I have to eat my words. Actually, with enough whipped cream, they are not all that bad. I have commented on several blogs that the xtools do not work for me because I have a mac. In the past, that has always been true. Now, it seems, I do have at least some xtools. I have not had a chance to compare to what is available on a PC, but it is nice to have what is here. In the past, I have had to write the HTML code for everything I do, including creating links to pictures I have uploaded to Xanga. Now I get a code to copy and past into my blog, which is a big improvement! I did have to write the code for the size and color of my titles, but I have border colors now. which is a treat. I have background colors, too, which I will have to try out sometime.

Beautiful Minnesota Autumn!!
Speaking of pictures, I thought you might enjoy seeing the fall colors that I enjoy on my way to St. Peter every day.

The day I took these pics, it was rather hazy because of dust in the air. We have quite a drought going on and with the farmers doing fall plowing, the least breeze causes an impressive dust storm. I think you can get an idea of how really beautiful this is, though. Because of the lack of rain this year, we were predicted to have no fall colors and an early loss of leaves. As you can see, the colors came anyway, but the leaves are falling rapidly.

This is the road I drive:

This is a very rural road and that is what my entire 25 mile drive is like. Some days I do not see another vehicle. If I do, it is likely to be a farm implement of some kind, probably going very slowly and quite possibly so wide that it blocks both lanes of the road. Heaven forbid that a car should approach from the other direction! I can remember having a friend from California in my car while I was driving a similar road a few years ago and having her remark that it would be better as soon as we got to the freeway. Surprise! No freeways around here! We are lucky to have this road.

I find the drive quite peaceful – a good time to think about many things. Thinking is a good thing. It’s exercise for the brain and relaxation for the soul, so such opportunities are to be treasured.

I am still having an awful time adjusting to my new schedule, so I have not been blogging or visiting much. I am going to try to make some visits in the morning.

The Incongruities of Life

We have a train track that runs through our town. It carries mostly trains hauling kaolin from the western part of the state or canned goods from the canning factory. The track has been recently renovated so that trains can actually move at more than 5 mph. To protect the local citizens from collisions with the trains, the city put up stop signs where the tracks cross city streets. One of these crossings is on a street which eventually runs out of town becoming the road you see above, so it is a relatively busy street. When you approach this crossing from the south, trees planted along the track prevent you from being able to see a train until you are on the tracks. Because you have stopped, you are going slowly enough at that point that you would have plenty of time to get a good look at the train and possibly wave good-bye to the engineer before you were hit. I wonder if anyone really looked at the intersection when the signs were put up!

It’s been a busy week!  I am having trouble adjusting to my new teaching schedule, but I think I am going to enjoy the class I am teaching, and it is only 8 weeks, so I should be able to survive.  I don’t know how many of you really understand teaching schedules, but most k-12 teachers, in our area anyway, teach the equivalent of 5 50 or 55 minute (250 to 275 minutes or 4 1/6 to 4 7/12 hours) classes or 6 40 or 45 minute classes (240 to 270 minutes or 4 to 4 1/2 hours) of what is called “face to face” time each day – time with students actually sitting in the classroom.  The rest of the day is taken up by a study hall or other type of supervision, lunch,  and prep.

In Adult Basic Education, all time is supposed to be face to face time.  That is, I should have students in front of me the whole time I am at work.  It doesn’t always work that way because sometimes students do not show up, but generally I am teaching 100% of my scheduled time and all prep has to be outside of that time.  My new class runs 4 hours per day 5 days per week, and the students do come.  That means I have 240 minutes of face to face time every day.  I also have 6 hours of other scheduled classes, giving me an additional 360 minutes per week.  In effect, it is more than a full time load for half time pay at a very low rate with no benefits.

Why do I do that?  I really enjoy teaching.  The adult students with whom I work are really great.  They need someone to help them and they appreciate the help they get.  It’s very rewarding.

I learned long ago that there are some things about jobs that are more important than money.  Satisfaction is one of them.  It’s true that if we did not have my husband’s income, I could not afford this job, but I am lucky that that is not the case.

This particular class covers job seeking skills and health career exploration.  I have 2 students who are not from the United States, so we have been spending some time discussing cultural variations and how they affect jobs.  Both of the foreign students come from countries with high rates of poverty and political unrest.  Neither of them can go home, even for a visit, because that would be dangerous.  Both still have family in their native countries.  Talking to them is a real education for me and for the other students.  We are so fortunate in the US, and we forget that so much of the time!

One of the foreign students is taking his citizenship exam in a few days.  We talked a little about what it means to become a citizen of a new country and why someone would or would not choose to do that.  I think this fellow is going to be a great citizen.  He is certainly enthusiastic.

I spent most of the time today testing the students.  I still have one more test to give, but I think I will wait until next week.  Testing is tiring for the students.  Tomorrow, we will begin to look at the characteristics that are needed to work in health care.  I have an interesting Native American personality profile to do with them.  I think they will enjoy discussing it.  Then we will be talking about ethics.

By the end of the course, each student will have a well written resume’, a prototype for a cover letter, and will hopefully be prepared to do a good interview.  I am anxious to see how many of them find jobs.  From my observations of them in the first couple of days, I think they will all be successful.

Sunday Musings

Our priest really gave a great sermon this morning. He usually gives great sermons, often I feel as if he is talking right to me, but today’s was even better than most.

His topic was religion – DUH! He’s a priest and it was church – but it was not specifically OUR religion and what we are supposed to believe. It was diverse religions and what we can learn from them. His premise was that religion is not a competition. It is not necessary for all of us to see things the same way. We have many ideologies, even within Christianity, and when you consider the diversity of religions within the world, the potential for learning and growing is immense.

Father Jerry stated that all religions have 2 common teachings: 1) That we should treat others as we would like to be treated, and 2) That there is a Higher Power. Beyond that, religions tend to fit the needs and the cultures of the people who espouse them, which is entirely appropriate. Even within Christianity, practices vary according to culture. What we need to do is appreciate and learn from the differences in order to reach a greater understanding and appreciation of truth, not try to argue dogma in an effort to prove our own faith superior.

It made a lot of sense to me. In fact, there are many areas of life where I would like to see this principle applied.

The Wisdom of the Funnies

Have you ever read the funnies on Sunday morning and thought to yourself, “This cartoonist is really saying something pretty profound?” It happens to me all the time, and this morning I was impressed with the messages of several of the strips in our Sunday paper.

Cathy had a good commentary about the lines in women’s restrooms. Now, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. I hate being stuck in the restroom line while my male companions buzz in and out of the men’s room. Once I actually met a woman in the ladies’ room line who told me that she had met her best friend in a similar line. I had a hard time picturing that kind of bonding happening while you wait for a stall to open up, but, then, I was there long enough to have that conversation with her. Yes. I would like to teach a class for architects on lavatory design!

Arlo and Janis hit close to home, too. It seems that Arlo started a home repair project in 1999, took a little break, and had not returned to it. I was just amazed that it took 4 years for Janis to ask him about it! I am a much quicker nag than that! I certainly admire her restraint!

Dennis the Menace’s mother had a great approach to car repair. When her car started making an unusual noise, she just turned up the radio and drowned it out. Now, there’s a useful maintenance tip!

Crankshaft spoke to the eternal youth in all of us when he was daydreaming about squirting a neighbor girl with a hose during his youth, and then turned the hose on the same female, now his elderly neighbor. I’m with him. I don’t ever want to grow up! Nurture your inner child!

Dilbert, who is Dan’s hero, had a great strip about open and honest communication in the workplace. It went something like this:

Pointy haired boss: “I have the results of the employee morale survey. The number one issue is ‘not enough open and honest communication from management.’ Well, Okay, I’m willing to give it a try.

“Management is looting the company while hiding the fact that we are in a death spiral.”

Pointy haird boss to female employee: “Whenever you talk, I think about my fishing lures until the noise stops.”

Pointy haired boss to group: “When I see an employee suffer, It excites me in ways I don’t understand.”

Pointy haired boss to bald employee: “On nine separate occasions, I’ve fired bald guys because I thought they were you.”

Pointy haired boss to group: “If this doesn’t work for you, let me know on the next employee morale survey.”

And the moral of the story? A little honesty goes farther than you want it to sometimes!

Roll Out the Welcome Mat!

Go over and say hi to twoberry. He’s not really new to Xanga, but he has just started blogging and would like to make some Xanga friends.

Saturday With Our Friends

Some very dear friends came to spend the day with us on Saturday. The men spent a considerable portion of the time watching sports on TV, which was fine, because it gave us women a chance to catch up. Female talk is better when kept between the girls!

At one point, the husbands disappeared into the computer room. Soon we discovered that they were doing price checks on a trip to Hawaii that we are planning in about a year. We are all looking forward to the trip, but it is being planned by someone else, so it was interesting that they chose to do research.

In the middle of the afternoon, we had a wine, cheese and fruit snack and played a couple of games of SkipBo. Then MaryLu said she had been wanting to buy some apples, so we piled into the car and headed to Minnesota Harvest Orchards. As soon as we arrived there, I realized that I should have brought the camera. The place is a big party. It’s a huge apple orchard, and of course now they are at the height of the fall harvest. They have a sales and tasting room, where you can sample the various varieties available and purchase bags of apples. There are also indoor and outdoor restaurants and a bake shop. Each restaurant has live music. Inside they are always playing polkas. Outside they had country western. There’s a petting zoo for the kids (or for me) and a pony ride, so it’s really a family destination and you can easily spend several hours there. We talked about going back some evening for steaks from the outdoor barbecue. If we do, I will bring along the camera and take some pictures.

When we got home from the orchard, I cooked the Yakitori that I had marinating in the refrigerator, and we had supper. Then it was more sports for the men and more talk and a brisk walk for the women so that we could find room for dessert. About 10:00 p.m., we had good-bye hugs all around. It was a grand day!

Xangaversary

My first Xangaversary came and went and I did not notice it! I knew it was around this time, but I rarely look at my public preview, so I don’t see my membership date very often. Anyway, it has been a great year!

Well, things do get better.  I straightened things out with my friend.  That is the beauty of real friendship.  There is always a willingness to understand and forgive.  I am fortunate to have many wonderful true friends.

Next week I am starting to teach a new class.  It is called Work Wise and covers job seeking skills and career exploration in the health care field.  It is exciting to me because it is the first time I have had an opportunity to teach in my area of certification for several years.

The class meets from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. in a town about 25 miles from here.  It puts me back to the same number of Adult Basic Ed hours I had before the budget cuts last spring, but because it is 5 days a week, I will not be able to sub and I will have transportation costs, so I will not be money ahead.  In fact, I will probably be in the hole.  It may lead to other opportunitites though, so it is a gamble I am going to take.  I think sometimes you just have to jump in there and see what happens.

My best friend called yesterday and said that she and her husband have developed a conflict for Sunday, so they are coming Saturday instead.  I told her that I had planned on Saturday as my cleaning day so she cannot expect a clean house, but I know that that does not matter to her.  That is another great thing about real friends – they accept you as you are – or your house as it is.  This particular friend and her husband are such easy guests to have because they know where everything is in my house, so they will get whatever they need or want and I do not have to worry about remembering to offer things to them.  They will get their own soft drinks, snacks, and coffee, and they will even make coffee if I don’t.  I am keeping my eyes and ears open for events in the area that we could attend, but if I do not come up with anything, we will just hang out and play games.  In any case, we will have a great time.

Did you ever have one of those amazingly, astoundingly bad days? Of course you did. And I had one today.

I woke up feeling bad over something I had been dreaming about. I had something happen (in real life, not just in the dream) that was mildly embarrassing to me. It came on top of one of those situations in which friends seemed to have to decide between me and someone else, and I seemed to have come up with a whopping zero, so I was feeling pretty low and then I got knocked even lower. I am sure many of you can identify with that. Anyway, I was pretty far down.

Because of all that, for no good reason, I trashed a friend who did not deserve it. I am pretty sure that friendship will survive, but I am certainly not proud of myself for doing it. I did try to explain/apologize, but I feel like it was a woefully feeble effort, and I just hate being a feeb, if you know what I mean. My own stupidity and ineptitude really impresses me sometimes!

Some days I just really should be locked away and not allowed to interact with other people in any way. Fortunately, those days are fewer than they used to be.

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On a happier note, go say hi to harrowjet and welcome her to Xanga. She has just started blogging and is doing a great job already!

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More good news (I am trying to be positive here, folks!) – the Twinks (better known as the Minnesota Twins) continue to make progress towards the pennant.

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A bright spot on the horizon – my best friend and her husband are coming to spend the day with us on Sunday. That is always a good time.

Back by Popular Demand

Jess took a picture of the dust ruffle I made for Jacob’s crib. You have to peek through the crib bars to see it – that is kind of the way crib dust ruffles are. It is very tailored, because Jake is a boy. The crib is the one our daughter’s kids used (Jake is our son’s son). Our kids are very sentimental about having their kids use the same baby things.

And here is Jake with his bear. He looks like he does not quite know what is going on. That is pretty normal for a 7 week old.

I think that is probably our son Andy holding Jake and the bear.

Minnesota Tidbits
A Minnesota woman was attacked in her home by an adult female black bear. Although the woman was bitten several times, she was able to scare off the bear by grabbing its snout, shaking it vigorously, and yelling. “NO!! Get out of my house!” The startled bear left.

Minnesota State workers will be voting on whether to accept the State’s contract offfer or to strike. Governor Pawlenty went public on WCCO radio to state that the conflict was over a reduction in health care coverage and salary and to plead the financial situation of the State as the reason for the State’s position. Isn’t that an unfair bargaining technique?

Caesar’s Palace has announced its intent to go into the Mall of America with a casino. Governor Pawlenty has steadfastly refused to add a casino to the existing State owned race track at Canterbury Park, stating that he did not want to go into competition with the Native American casinos. All the money from a casino at Canterbury Park would have gone into the State treasury to help solve the budget problems. Where will Caesar’s Palace money go? Are the owners of Caesar’s Palace Minnesota Native Americans?

The Minnesota Twins look like they could win the penant race. I am not particularly interested in sports, but even I think that would be a great thing!

Our Day Today

We are heading to our daughter’s house, where the “guys” – my husband, son-in-law and two year old grandson – will watch the Vikings while the “girls” – my daughter, five year old grand daughter, and I will go shopping.

I have mentioned before that we live in a very small town. When your town is small enough, the post office does not have to deliver your mail, you have to go get it, so that is a daily activity for me. When it is nice out, I usually ride my bike on my errands, so yesterday I set off to pedal uptown.

It’s actually a good thing for our town that we do not get our mail delivered. Having to pick up mail brings almost everyone uptown every day, so it keeps our business district alive. Many people meet for coffee at the bakery or at one of the restaurants. The bank is right next door to the post office, so it’s easy for folks to stop in there. We did not have a drive through at the bank until just a couple of years ago, probably because everyone was out of their cars to go into the post office anyway, so we did not need one.

Across the street from the post office there is sort of a mini department store. I do not do a lot of shopping in there because they do not carry the clothing brands I prefer, but it is a handy place to pick up a quick gift, and they carry a few toys, a few household items, cards and wrapping paper, fabric, thread, buttons, and craft items. It’s your best shot at being able to find what you need without driving out of town, and it is wonderful for people who cannot drive out of town for one reason or another.

On the same block, we have a shoe store and a drug store. Down the street a couple of blocks there is a hardware store. We also have a movie theater, a bakery, four restaurants, and two flower shops – quite a lot for a town of 2000 people, especially since we are only 55 miles from Minneapolis. And I think we can thank our lack of mail delivery for it. As long as everyone is uptown getting their mail, they might as well stop in and browse a bit, and browsing leads to purchases.

I enjoy my excursion to retrieve the mail every day. I nearly always see people I know. Yesterday, as I was coming out of the post office, I saw Barb, the woman who gave us our black cat. She asks about him every now and then. I also saw Ron, the fellow who built our house. He looked at my bike and asked if I was “saving gas.” That’s a pretty long conversation for Ron. He is more of a toe in the dirt kind of guy, but a darned good builder.

Yesterday was a particularly nice day to be out on a bike. It was sunny and warm, not hot, with only a slight breeze. They are predicting an early fall for us with very little fall color because it has been so dry, but these trees were doing their best to give us a color display:

On my way home, I decided to stop and see if I could get corn at the canning factory one last time. I had checked the evening before, but the factory was not running. I think the pack must be almost over and they only have one shift now. During the height of the season, they run 24 hours a day.

I was not disappointed, as I saw several of these trucks rolling in:

And the factory looked like this:

The trucks dump their loads in the area you see, and the corn is taken up into the building on those big conveyors. Then something magical happens to it, and it comes out in cans. Are you attached to a particular brand? Just let the factory know, and they will slap that label on for you. In the meantime, the cans are graded by quality and stored unlabeled. The workers will tell you what grade they are packing that day if you ask when you buy corn.

The system for purchasing corn here is interesting. Every hour or two, this cart is filled with freshly arrived corn and pulled over under this shelter:

The sign is difficult to read, but it says “Fresh Sweet Corn Here, $2.00 Per Dozen.” Can’t beat that price! All you have to do is bring a bag, pick out your corn, and fill it up! Then you pay here:

That’s right – it’s an honor system. Nobody watches it. That means you pay your money and you take your corn – or you don’t. Anybody can have corn, whether they can afford it or not. A good small town system. That red truck in the picture belongs to a man who was getting corn at the same time I was. We both figured that this would be our last corn of the season, and we both said we were going to miss it.

The canning factory has migrant farm workers who come every year to help with the pea pack and stay for the corn pack. They live right across the parking lot in these buildings:

Those are the migrants’ cars parked by the camp. The camp itself does not look like much, but it’s my understanding that it is one of the nicer migrant camps. Our canning factory is good to the migrant workers and we get many of the same ones back each year.

This year, one of the migrants was flying an American flag on his cabin. That’s unusual. Some of the migrants are from Texas and some are from Mexico. Most of them do not speak English. No matter where they are from, most of them feel the tie to their Mexican roots. I wondered if this flag had anything to do with 9-11 and with the war. Anyway, I interpreted it as a sign of support and was touched by the gesture.

Well, that’s my little daily trip uptown. Thanks for going with me. By the way, the corn was delicious!