First thing, I got a call from the guy from MidAmerican Energy to state for certain that they will not be putting a telephone pole in my side yard. They did, however, move the hookup on the side of the house up and over about 4 feet.

Then, when I plugged in my iPod Touch into my car charger, it picked up some email from my dad which said:

Last evening Isaac went before the district board of review for his Eagle rank in Scouts. He successfully passed this last hurdle in achieving the rank. He is now officially an Eagle Scout. It will be some time before the paperwork is processed on the national level and we get the information back from them. We do not yet know when his Eagle Court of Honor will be held.

So a big props to my youngest brother Isaac!

Early in the afternoon I got an email from my co-worker Keith who linked me to a blog post and then I went and found the James Beard Semi-finalist announcement (pdf). Des Moines is well represented with: Django (best new restaurant), George Formaro (Centro) (best chef Midwest), Enosh Kelly (Bistro Montage) (best chef Midwest), and last but not least Steve Logsdon (Basil Prosperi's Lucca) (best chef Midwest). The only one I can't speak to is Bistro Montage, which I haven't been to. Quite well deserved. Brings more attention to our growing restaurant industry here.

I then got another email from the VP of Communications announcing that Iowa Health System Maintains High Credit Rating and Stable Outlook, meaning that Moody's has kept the system's Aa3 bond rating. I don't really know what all that means, however, I know that if the bond rating were lower it would be more expensive for IHS to borrow money in the future, which means that we would be able to do less as time goes by. I've heard that many health organizations are getting downgraded in this tough financial period. What it means for me directly as an employee there, is still unclear, but it's good for IHS, which means I'm less in doubt of my employment in the future.

I got home, made a call to my car loan servicer to confirm that yes indeed my car loan is paid off as of last week (6 payments early) and I'll be getting my title in the next few weeks. I've also bumped up the payment of our credit card debt buy a good 34%. And now that my car is paid of, I have, per my agreement with my wife, permission to get an iPhone, now I just have to wait for the next version of it (my iPod touch already uses 19 gigs (between apps, music, photos and etc, which is bigger then capacity of the most expensive iPhone).