Ahh, the good 'ol days

I saw this on the front page of USA Today online this morning.  It's a picture of a stalwart Communist Party supporter with a picture of her idol, Vladimir Lenin, at yesterday's May Day parade in Moscow.

Talk about living in the past!  It's sad that anyone could look at those Cold War times and think of them as "the good 'ol days".  I suppose as long as there are still Rooskies of her generation alive Lenin's ghost will still haunt us.

How old do you reckon she is?  60's?  70's?  (30's?  Russian women sometimes don't age well, you know.)

What is it about those times that still excites them so?

Memories of the pleasant days spent shopping with friends?
 

 The cool cars?

 

Maybe the fun "Green Acres" country lifestyle so many enjoyed?

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I remember a few years ago I was at a bookstore on a Friday evening and stumbled on to an author who was doing a "book reading".  He was an American who had been living in Paris, Fraaaaace for years.  I overheard a Q&A query:  "What do you see as a difference today between Americans and the French?"

He said that if you talk to an older American today he/she will more than likely be a conservative Republican.  If you talk to a Frenchman of the same generation he/she will likely be an unreconstructed Communist.  Old habits die hard I guess.

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Yea weekend!  Tomorrow: Cars and Coffee, then the Cottonwood Arts Festival.  I'm thinking I'll have some tired but happy feet by tomorrow evening.  :)

S 

Just kickin' back....

For once I have nothing bad to say about our Texas weather.  Nothing at all.  Right now it's perfect!  Saturday was one of those Chamber of Commerce days where promises of....well....anything wouldn't be enough to coax you back inside.

Yesterday was the first arts festival of the year, and as luck would have it it was just a couple miles up the road from us in beautiful downtown Frisco.

It wasn't a big show at all, nor was it even a judged show, but it was a show.  And as we haven't been to one in 6 months,  I'll take it.  The morning began sweater cool, but it quickly warmed up into the low 70's.  Here is K holding Luke the Wonder Dog, who for a while became an unwitting therapy dog. 

All day long people were trooping over to visit with K and The Lukester.  Pay attention single guys....little dogs are a chick magnet!  (Don't worry, I had them both on a short leash  :)

The setting was our downtown City Hall plaza.  This little country (?) town has blossomed in just a decade from this...

....to this.  

Fifteen years ago our city fathers hustled themselves a giant shopping mall, which is today the city's sales-tax-producing cash cow, enabling us to build ourselves monuments like this opulent City Hall / Library complex.  (Unfortunately many of our residents have let their heads grow to match our city hall's proportions, too.)

We didn't buy anything because the things that appealed to me / us all cost up into four figures.  Ouch!  Instead we pooled our liquid assets and drove over to Hook, Line, and Sinker for some....umm....

....liquid assets.  And some shrimp, catfish, hush puppies, and fries, too.

In the coming weeks we have more art shows in Deep Ellum, Southlake, Foat Wuth, and Cottonwood.  And I'll probably sneak in a Cars and Coffee, also.  

Springtime in Texas is pretty sweet.  Just wish it could last longer.  :)

S

A fun couple 'o days

Yesterday afternoon K and I attended the First Annual Ft. Worth Music Festival.  What began as an awful experience ended up to be a lot of fun.  What a cluster f__k!  We had VIP tickets which promised us comfortable lawn-furniture-style seating with our own air conditioned rest rooms and a private refreshment vendor.  Turns out the VIP section was WAY off to one side....there was actually General Admission lawn seating between us and the stage.  Our private restrooms were 3 porta-potties and our lawn furniture seating was just cheap folding chairs. 

We felt like $75 per ticket for that was totally out of reason.  Many of us complained to the event organizers and they very graciously apologized and told us to contact them via email and they would refund our money.  We will, but we'll ask that they just charge us for General Admission instead as we did stay the evening.

But then we got to looking around and decided it wasn't that bad.  The weather was gorgeous, the crowd wasn't too large, and the music was very good.  The best food truck had hot dogs, but at least they were gourmet hot dogs.  (Chili, New York, or Chicago style.)

Finally our favorite band came on stage:  The Marsha Ball Band.  Here's "Long, Tall, Marsha Ball" herself. ^  (Guess what kind of beer we drank? )

That girl can flat tear up a keyboard!  WOW!

Apparently this airship driver was a Marsha Ball fan, too.

All in all, things turned out great.  The beer was cold, my Chicago-style dog was filling, the music was rockin', and my date for the evening was just amazing.  (Thanks for a wonderful b-day present, Lover.  ;)

Then there was the one that almost slipped under our radar:  Today was the Cottonwood Arts Festival in Richardson.  Fortunately we are on the mailing list for one of the participating artists and his mailer reminded us.  

We were there shortly after it opened this morning at 9.  In contrast to the Foat Wuth event of the previous night, this was the most organized, efficient affair I've ever attended. Kudos to them.  And the weather?  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE AUTUMN?  

Even the normally sun-averse K enjoyed catching a few rays.  After all that, a grandson's soccer game (their play reminded me of watching a knocked-over ant farm) and now home for some college football on TV.  What a nice weekend.  :)  

S

Fun weekend ahead

To most people the weekend means Saturday and Sunday, but MY weekend starts today. Yes, I do have to work today, but the fun ahead is almost close enough to smell, so I'm just gonna whistle my way through Friday, too.

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting my friend Neil at the monthly Cars and Coffee get together. Last month there were nearly a thousand interesting cars there, a real petrolhead's nirvana:

After that I'll swing by home and pick up the lovely and talented K, and we're headed to the Cottonwood Arts Festival. It's close to home, free, and actually one of the better ones around. Somewhere along the way we'll have lunch, too. I'm thinking 'Junk Food on a Stick'.

Sunday is strickly for R&R, that is if I don't have to go to work for a few minutes. I think I'm going to conveniently "lose" my phone for the day. *wink*

I'll share car pics on Saturday and Art Fest pics on Sunday, if anyone is interested.

What do you have planned?

S