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

"Always get married in the morning."

"Always get married in the morning.  That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted the whole day."

Ha!  That from the recently departed Mickey Rooney, who was married 8 times during his 93-year life.  Of course I know who he was, but I was never a big fan.  The childhood actor's heyday was long before I was born, and in his later years he was a successful Broadway actor, a medium I never much cared for.  Still, based on his wit, I think I like him.  :)  RIP Mickey.

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Something a bit more thought provoking:  I saw one of those "The seven most..." lists on the internet, so of course I had to read it.  (I'm a real sucker for those.)  This one was about the seven wealthiest present or former NFL players, and includes names like Joe Montana, John Elway, and Brett Favre.  Number one was Roger Staubach, worth $600M.

Roger was / is a very stand up guy, a former Naval Academy scholar-athlete who played for the Dallas Cowboys back in the 1970's.  But his money didn't come so much from football, but from real estate.  While he was still playing he worked in the off-season learning the commercial real estate business.  

After he retired from football he started his own company, hired some sharp people, and thrived.  A few years ago he sold his business for $640M, and now I learned that at that time he only owned 12% of his company.  Over the years he had given the other 88% equity interest to his employees.  

It just goes to show that you can be a good guy, reward and acknowledge those around you, and still get rich yourself.  It's such a nice contrast from those who want to pay their employees coins while they're raking off mega-millions of dollars for themselves.

Which leads to this segue:  I don't understand greed.  I know it's one of the seven deadly sins and all that, but I don't get it.  Why do some people go to the lengths they do to acquire as much as they do?

I mean, I love smoked sausage.  We had some for dinner last night.  If I was more affluent I'd have a freezer with a dozen rings of sausage in it.  And if I somehow hit the financial mother lode, I'd have a thousand rings of sausage.  And if I won the lottery, I'd own 10,000,000 rings of sausage. 

Wait....what?  Why would I do that?  It would be more than I could ever eat in 10 lifetimes.  What's the point?  Why do some people stiff others just so they can put another billion dollars in the bank, along with the other billions they already have?  Does the concept of "doing good" ever cross their mind?  With a few exceptions, I'm thinking not.  

I certainly believe in enjoying the fruits of your labor, but at some point it just gets ridiculous.  I don't understand greed.

S

I love living here!

Being iced in for most of 3 days means you have waaaay too much free time on your hands to play on the internet.  I spent much of mine on Google Earth, zipping around the globe from the Swiss Alps to the beaches of New Zealand and Oz.

I've commented here before about my neighborhood and our nearby baseball park, our mall, and all the hundred-plus (no joke!) restaurants just a short drive away.  Courtesy of Google Earth, here's what it looks like:

1....This field is where the Dallas Cowboys, the pride of the National Felon Football League, will build their new headquarters and 12,000-seat domed practice field.  It's supposed to open in 2015.

ME....This is our humble abode.  We're on the 3rd floor in a very comfortable apartment with a nice balcony.  I'm looking forward to being out there in the Spring, watching the thunderstorms rolling in from the west.  Just south is a park with a winding (man-made) stream and several ponds that Luke claims as his.  (The ducks dispute that.)

2....This is the Dr. Pepper StarCenter, a public ice rink where the Dallas Stars also practice, and the Frisco Conference Center, a mini-convention venue.

3....This is Dr. Pepper Ballpark where our Texas Ranger's Frisco RoughRiders AA minor league team plays.  I enjoy their first-class fireworks show after every Friday night home game. 

4....This is Stonebriar Mall, one of the largest in the Metroplex.  In addition to the usual better stores they have a 16-screen (?) United Artist theatre.  It also has a huge parking lot where more than a few donuts have been cut during icy weather.  Just sayin'.  ;)

5....Here is the north Texas IKEA.  The first few times I went there I hated it.  Now I've learned my way around and it's actually a fun place to visit.

6....This is where K works.  It's 1.6 miles from home, door to door.

O....These are all mid-rise (4-10 story) office park campuses.  The number of new ones being built right this minute is amazing, but because the highway infrastructure is already in place, traffic is very manageable.

R....retail.  A huge retail district has sprung up for blocks all around the mall.  If you have a tough time controlling your credit card spending, this could be a dangerous place to live.  Ouch!

DNT....the Dallas North Tollway goes north to ? and south straight to downtown Dallas (26 miles +/-).

SRT....the Sam Rayburn Tollway goes northeast to Bonham, TX (home of the legendary former Speaker of the House) and southwest to DFW International Airport (25 miles +/-) and then on to downtown Foat Wuth (50 miles +/-).

All these toll roads take a....umm...."toll" on my wallet.  I probably spend $1,000 a year for the privilege of risking life and limb daily at 80 mph.

PRESTON road....miles and miles of stores and RESTAURANTS!  I once tried to count all the eateries on or within a few blocks of Preston, but gave up at 100.  

The main residential areas of Frisco are a mile or so farther north.  The homes are huge and uber-expensive, and the owners are uber-snooty, too.  By mutual agreement with the residents, we never go there. 

That's home.  All in all it's a pretty great place to live.  :)

S 

Wow! Nice Bling. Sorry about your penis.

I just heard that a friend of mine recently went to Northpark Mall to pick up a few things.  He parked in the lot and went inside, forgetting that he had left two Dallas Cowboys tickets on the passenger seat in plain sight. He came back a half hour later to find the side window bashed in, broken glass was everywhere, and there on the seat....were FOUR Dallas Cowboys tickets.  :)

Today's big breaking news:  The Jonas Brothers are splitting up.  I wonder if I should wear shorts or jeans today?  Oh, look....a bunny. 

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While I don't have a horse in this race....I'm not Catholic....I must say I really like their new Pope, Francis.  Here he is, one of the most powerful men in the world, yet he eschews all the trappings of royalty available to him.  He passed on the opulent living quarters previous Pope's have enjoyed, the Wizard of Oz red shoes, the fancy gold bobbles, etc.  He just seems like a genuinely nice guy, the kind of pal you'd like to have over to share a few (blessed) beers and maybe watch some college football on a Saturday afternoon.

I'm rarely if ever impressed by Bling.  Back in my airshow days when a rich pilot would fly in his million dollar P-51 or similar and we'd get him safely parked and chocked, we'd greet him and say, "Wow!  Nice plane....sorry about your penis."

One of the most interesting men I've ever known was the uncle of a friend of mine.  (This was before Dos Equis Man.)  He lived in Houston in the same house he'd lived in for 25 years, drove a 5-year-old Olds 98, and wore comfortable, well-broken-in clothes.  He would invite us down to stay in his (very modest) beach house on Galveston Island and take us all out fishing.  Later we'd have a crab boil and sit around afterwards where he could talk intelligently about any topic we'd throw at him.  We tried to trip him up, but he bested us every time.  He was just an all-around brilliant, fun, pleasant, down-to-earth guy.

We knew he was financially comfortable....he and his brother had an oil pipeline related business....but it was only when he passed away that we found out exactly how well off he was.  Turns out his financial statement had more zeros to the left of the decimal point than any of us could even fathom.

I often think, when I win the lottery....that's it.  I often think of that.  But when I do, what would I buy? A few modest things maybe, some travel, but I don't really want much more than what I have now.  I just bought some new jeans, I have every color T-shirt LL Bean offers, and I just put new synthetic oil in my car.  

I am getting a new iPhone soon, but I'm going for the black one.  The gold one is just too Blingy.  :)

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

Sports cheating? Who'd have thunk it?

Looks like another scandal is brewing in the Olympics.  No, it has nothing to do with doping, the usual athletic sin.  This time it has to do with cheating on the test for Olympians to go on to become judges in their sport.  That would be the ever-popular sport of wrestling....no, wait, they don't have wrestling in the Olympics any more.  This time it involves the high-stakes sport of "dancin' around with a ribbon on a stick".

*gasp*  So you mean previous great Olympic "rhythmic gymnasts" like 'ol....umm....what's-her-name....the one featured on the Wheaties box....what's that you say?....she wasn't on a Wheaties box?  Wheaties said they'd never heard of rhythmic gymnastics?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand how ribbon waving made it into the Olympics.  If that's such a big-deal sport, why then not marble shooting, or hula hooping, or horseshoes?

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Speaking of sports, professional football is inching it's way back into the news....who's not yet signed a contract, who's still nursing injuries, etc.  On this morning's local news their informal poll-of-the-day was "How far do you think the Dallas Cowboys will go this year?"

8% said "the Superbowl" (obviously delusional)

17% said "the playoffs"  (only slightly less delusional)

77% said "are the Mavericks playing yet?"

Ha!  Take THAT Jerry Jones!  (Cowboy's owner)  *Brooklyn raspberry*

By my math that equals 102%  (Sorta like Chicago election vote counting, huh?  ;)

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Gotta come out of retirement to play CEO again today.  Adios, y'all.  Enjoy your weekend.

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....