Scored a fair amount of geek stuff for my birthday this year: both Futurama DVD sets; a bunch of books (About a Boy, Aristotle's Poetics, the new Chicago Manual of Style, and The Best Recipe; and a 5GB iPod. Not a bad birthday at all.
We took a weekend trip out to Iowa for Maddy's eighth birthday, stopped in Mt Vernon, where we had a pizza at Pizza Palace (I forgot all about the popularity of the taco pizza in Iowa), and ventured onto the Cornell campus. Things were locked up pretty tight, unlike previous years where we've been able to sneak into a building or two. They've ripped up much of the sidewalks from the The Commons to College Hall and reaplced it with pavers, which resemble giant driveways from some home show on HGTV. Odd, but nice.
Iowa City (actually Coralville) has a passable Childrens' Museum, which is part of a newer mall. The museum is right next to an ice rink. The kids were more interested in waching the Zamboni do its thing than people skating or playing hockey.