My Mom, Rob, and I were once again all up at 10am this morning. After showering and getting ready we headed out. Our first stop was the bank where my Mom got some cash out. I noticed something weird. Well, at least I thought it was weird - apparently it's normal for these parts. In order to get cash out of the bank, my Mom made a check out to "Cash" and gave it to the bank so that they would give her money. That's just so odd to me because I'm used to popping a card into the ATM. Guess things are done differently out in the land of no ATMs.

After the bank we stopped at Culver's for lunch and then once again headed to the dentist's office in Dubuque. Today I was up first. I went in for a clean and check. The cleaning was rather quick and the only buildup I had anywhere was between my lower front teeth. Everything else was clean. I had no cavities and no gingivitis. I did, however, have one problem that I can't do much about because it's genetic. My gums are receding. My Mom has that problem as well. Unfortunately, for someone my age my gums are receding rather badly. So, down the road (but not anytime soon), I'm going to need some rather nasty gum surgery or my teeth will start getting loose. Oh well, at least I'm cavity free which means no drilling. The dentist ran me through the causes of gum recession. Brushing with a toothbrush that's not "soft" (I only use soft ones), grinding your teeth in your sleep (which I don't do), clenching your teeth (which I don't do), or anything that would cause severe trauma to the gums and make them shrink back. Since I don't have any of these triggers and because my Mom's gums are majorly receding he thinks it's genetic. Grr.

When I was done with my clean and check (which was only about fifteen minutes long because there wasn't much cleaning needed) Rob headed back to get the rest of his cavities fixed. He got two smaller ones filled today and ended up having more novocaine. Because the cavities were on the top this time he wasn't drooling and slurring his words when he came out. However, his nose was numb and he couldn't tell if it was running or not. I'm just happy that all of his dental problems are now fixed. We won't have to worry about cleaning or fixing his cavities again anytime super soon. So, we come out to relax on vacation and end up spending two days at the dentist. Not normal vacation behavior, but something we both needed to do. And since this dentist has our records and neither of us has a dentist in LA we figured it was best to do while we were out here.

After the dentist trip we stopped at a "feed and seed" store so my Mom could pick up some cat food. Apparently it's the only place anywhere near her that sells the Wellness brand of cat food. We then headed to the Dubuque Humane Society. We looked at animals and I *SO* wanted a little female (11 weeks old) black kitten. She kept trying to get through the glass to me and kept rubbing up against the glass. She and I had an instant connection. Unfortunately, Rob and I can't have more than two cats in our apartment and even if we could it would probably kill me to have three because of my allergies. Before we left my Mom made a nice donation to the place. She rocks. It's a very cool non-kill shelter.

From there we headed back to the mall where I picked up my sunglasses from LensCrafters and picked up some necessities at the drug store. After that we headed to downtown Dubuque so that I could look for Claddagh rings at an Irish shop. They had some very cool ones, but once again nothing was in my size (and everything was way overpriced). So, we headed back to Galena for dinner.

We ate at a place called Fried Green Tomatoes. It's an Italian restaurant and serves the titled dish as an appetizer. The food there was amazing. Definitely a place to go back to the next time Rob and I are out here. After dinner we made a quick stop at the gift shop in the Irish Cottage for me to give one more look at the rings there. Lo and behold I ended up finding a really cool one. It's a very tasteful Claddagh ring (in my size) done in 10k yellow gold. They had a lot of silver ones in, but my skin oil (for some odd reason) ends up eating right through the metal in anything silver. So, my rings need to be gold or platinum so that the bands don't erode away. Before I could even get over to the cash register, Rob was already checking out with it. He didn't have to get it for me (and I think he knows that), but because of the significance of a Claddagh ring (and because the one I used to have that eroded away was from him) he ended up getting it for me. I swear, sometimes he really does treat me too well.

Once he had gotten me the ring we headed back to my Mom's place and got into our lounge-around-the-house clothes. We're doing some laundry and watching some TV and I'm doing my usual computer check on my Mom's laptop. Tomorrow I think we're heading out on a lake. Nice.

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