Go ahead Jerry. Say it. I dare ya....say it.

There might actually be a silver lining to the offensive words uttered by that nut-job owner of the LA Lakers Clippers.  There are probably sports fans everywhere hoping and praying the unpopular owner of their team will say something stupid, too, and get the old heave-ho.  Top 'o my list would be Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

While I'm not a professional football fan I might actually watch* a Cowboys game instead of Celebrity Ironing or Pimp My Hoveround if I knew Jerry Jones was being held incommunicado somewhere far, far away....such as on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay.  It's fun to think about, sort of like it's fun to think about winning the lottery.

Hang on friends.  The weekend is almost here.  :)

S

*Just kidding.  I'm not gonna watch 'em.

Art shows and food trucks....Life Is Good!

My second favorite time of the year after Autumn (football season, cooler weather) is this too-brief anomaly known as "Spring".  It's that tiny little gap between blah winter and hotter 'n hell summer when all the artsy types bring their cool stuff out to art shows for the rest of us to admire (and hopefully buy).  

Last weekend we found a new show, this one in Deep Ellum. 

 This is a seedy area of Dallas just east of downtown that has become a magnet for all the bohemian types in town. 

Lots of bars....

 ....and tattoo parlors and little hole-in-the-wall clubs buried deep in the alleys

....and some really talented artists.

Down a six-block stretch they set up their stalls, and young and old alike showed up to admire their talents.  The people-watching was phenomenal.  Wanna know where all the old hippies went?  I found 'em.  :)

This weeks art show couldn't have been any more opposite....suffice it to say the Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Foat Wuth was classy with a capital K.

 

 It was a judged show, meaning only the best of the best (as chosen by judges) were invited to participate.

 

This was apparently judged tops in the "carved horns and old bottle caps" category.  (Hey, it's Fort Worth.  Cowboy hats and boots are still considered de rigueur.)

I must hand it to our cousins to the west....they have fixed up their downtown and made it a true fun destination with....

 Little urban oasis scattered around  

The Bass Performance Center

Impromptu "guy juggling fire while riding unicycle" venue

Quiet little sidewalk bistros

And they're apparently much more open minded than I would have thought, too, as evidenced by this topiary  commemorating....umm....mans' desire to do unnatural things to animals?

 

  I was even inspired to try my hand at creative photography.  *Look ma....I'm an artiste!*

The one piece of art that impressed me the most was this "kinetic sculpture" by Jeffrey Zachmann.  To truly appreciate it you have to see all the moving pieces working together.  Just click on any one of the pieces shown on his website here and you'll see for yourself how hypnotizing they can be.

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After all that we went back towards home, stopping in at the Frisco Food Truck Expo (or whatever they called it).

I almost went Italian, but passed because I was sorta scared of where it might be in my digestive system when it exploded.

Instead I had a coupla sliders from Easy Slider.  They were awesome!  Angus beef, grilled jalapenos and onions, barbecue sauce and....oh yeah....BACON!

Apparently the Dallas Cowboys souvenir shop on wheels sold out of Jerry Jones Voodoo dolls early as I didn't see even one patron buy anything the whole time we were there.  *snicker*

That was our weekend(s).  Hope you had a good one, too.   :)

S

Living the good life

This morning it was 65 degrees with a slight breeze and lots of sunshine.  Yesterday's rain cleaned the air and it smells wonderful.  I put on sweats and sat on my 3rd floor terrace and enjoyed my little bottle of Fourbucks frappuccino and watched Luke the Wonderdog watching the other dogs parading by him below.  Life is good.

While most of my contemporaries might look down on the idea of apartment living after decades of home ownership, for me this is bliss.  Not too much, not too little.  Juuuuust right.  And in this price range my neighbors are all mature, quiet, often middle aged or even empty nesters like me.  My to-do list for today reads....not a damn thing.  Same as it was last weekend, and the same as it will be next weekend.

One view of our 21' x 37' Great Room.

We live in Frisco, a far-northern Dallas suburb known for it's citizenry walking around with their noses shoved up into the stratosphere.  The main residential area of town where all the snooties live in their huge mansions is several miles north of where I am.  My neighbors are more down to earth, though, many of them engineers and managers and such working at all the high tech firms surrounding me.

I must give K credit....her insistence on a terrace was spot on.  Ours is just large enough for a couple of nice chairs and 2 small tables, which is perfectly adequate.  There is some traffic noise at certain hours, but from the inside we hear nothing.  I actually like watching the traffic....there are lots of cool cars here.  Our view looking northwest to northeast:

That open field is where Dallas Cowboy's owner Jerry Jones will soon build his tribute to himself.

New office parks are going up everywhere.

AT&T and T-Mobil both have large campuses nearby.

Lots of hotels are nearby, too, I suppose to accommodate all the techies brought in to work on special projects.

Less than a mile east is a HUGE shopping mall, just south are lots more "apartment homes" and condos, and west is a very large high-rise office park.  The Dallas North Tollway one block west connects me straight to the airport (W)  and downtown (S).  Two floors below is a "salon and spa".  And apparently no one ever cooks at home judging by the fact there are literally a hundred nice restaurants within a 2 mile radius.

Now that we're moved in and settled (again), I must say I think I've found where I'm meant to be.*  :)

S

* Unless I win the lottery.  Then you'll find me in Colorado, zip code TBD.

Thinking outside the box

Want to put your town on the map?  Don't have the funds to build a new Disney theme park or a NASCAR race track?  Not to worry.  Just follow the lead of Deer Trail, Colorado.  This small town (550 ppl) east of Denver will vote October 8 on whether to issue permits to hunt drones.

The idea started out as one man's symbolic protest against a "surveillance society", but quickly morphed into a plan (?) for the town to pull in tourism....and revenue.

"What do you want to do for a summer vacation this year, dear?  Take the kids to Disney World again?  Maybe the beach?  Or how about we leave the little urchins with your mom and just the two of us take a cruise?"

"Oh, I dunno, Earl.  I'm tired of the 'same 'ol thing'.  I was kinda thinking we could go to Deer Trail, CO, just east of Denver, and plink us some drones."

If the voters approve, the town would issue drone hunting licenses for $25, good for one year.  "They'll sell like hot-cakes.  It could be a huge moneymaker for the town", according to resident Phillip Steel who drafted the ordinance.  

The town would also offer a $100 bounty for shooters who brought in downed-drone debris.  Never mind that the only guns "hunters" would be allowed to use would be shotguns, making hitting the high-flying drones (30,000') a "long shot".  *Pardon the pun.*

And just FYI....gubment drones can be fitted out with ordinance that enables them to shoot back.  That ought to add to the "thrill of the hunt".  ;)

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Big changes for fans who attend NFL games this year....they will no longer be able to bring into the stadiums backpacks, fanny packs, small coolers, seat cushions, even women's purses will be banned, all in the name of security.  

On our local (Dallas) news this morning they asked whether these new rules "would deter you from going to see a Cowboy's game?"  Responders to the poll said "yes" by a 71-19 margin, the other 10% asking "why would I want to go see the Cowboys?"

That personally wouldn't deter me.  The fact that Jerry Jones would also be "in the House"....THAT would deter me.

Three cheers for Friday!  :)

S

Well, there goes the neighborhood

My city, Frisco-on-the-Plains, TX, not to be confused with 'Frisco-by-the-Bay, CA, convened a City Council meeting last night to put the finishing touches on a deal that will bring the Dallas Cowboys training facility and *drum roll please* "World Headquarters" here.  And by "here" I mean just across the street from me.  

Right behind those trees, just a 5-minute walk from mi casa, is where "America's Felons" (formerly known as "America's Team") will check-in during the season.  

I wonder if they'll call it a "practice field" or an "exercise yard"?

Da 'Boys.

Here they are posing for a recent team picture.

"Stick 'em up!"

As Cowboys owner Jerry Jones never does anything all on his dime, I'm anxious to see how much he extorted from the city to make this deal happen. 

Late EDIT:  It was announced this will be a $115M project, with public money accounting for $85M of it.  The upside....the city will retain ownership of the 12,000-seat domed stadium/practice field, with local schools able to use it on Friday and Saturday nights for high school football games.

I would personally be much more impressed if the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders would move their practice facility here.  ;)

S

"Fun and frivolity in beautiful....

....Dallas"?  No, this isn't an April Fool's promotion.  April is no where near that foolish.  What brought this to mind was an ad I saw on TV this morning inviting people to vacation in Denver.

Denver?  My experience with Denver is it's where the plane lands and you pick up your rent-a-car before you head west to the mountains. Of course there are a few things of interest to see and some fine steakhouses there, but that would make for a mighty short vacation.  Am I missing something?

Dallas, on the other hand, is making a more believable pitch in their "Come to Dallas" TV spots.  Screw seeing the sights and having fun.  Leave your cameras and flip-flops at home.  Our C of C and their PR machine are inviting business people to visit Dallas and make money.  That's pretty much it.  Come here, wheel and deal, pack your suitcases with fresh Dallas cash, and go home.  

Sure, you can drop off the kids at Six Flags and some of your winnings at Needless Markup...er...Neiman Marcus, take a picture at the Kennedy assassination site and see The House In the Field from the opening scene of Dallas.  Oh, and drive by The House That Jerry Built (the "house" being Cowboy Stadium, and the "Jerry" being Jerry Jones.)  Just be advised to NOT mention his name in anything but a demeaning tone or you'll likely be pounded into the ground, Jerry being that unpopular here.

Nope, Dallas is where you make money.  That's what we do.  You wanna make a lot of money, you come to Dallas.  You wanna have fun, you fly into Denver, rent a car, and drive west.

Now, get to work.  Go smear black shoe polish all over the black toilet seats in the office rest room.  Have some fun...it's April Fools Day.  Just don't do that in Dallas.  We're too busy doin' deals.    ;)

S

Score!

This morning K said she wanted some donuts.  As it's been years since we had any, I was all for it.  She said there is a place not far away called Kolache Heaven everyone raves about.  I found it, but all they have are kolaches.  When I was a kid we called 'em "pigs in a blanket".  They were nothing special then and they're still nothing special today.  There's a Dunkin Donuts not far away, but they make pretty crappy donuts IMO, plus now that Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones has bought up all the DD franchises around here, that's just another reason to keep on driving.  


I was looking for a cop...no joke...to ask him where to get good donuts, but I couldn't find one.  I finally stumbled across a little hole-in-the-wall place in old downtown Frisco run by Orientals.  Not to sound racist, but if you want good donuts, find a donut place run by Orientals.  They make the BEST!  See....