November is a great time to go to Fiesta Texas!

So Steffi turns - omg - 19 this week. Where did the time go? How much longer can I stay 29 when she is well past halfway to that number herself?

Because Stef's birthday is on a Tuesday we decided to celebrate on Saturday by going to Fiesta Texas. Duncan and I drove down to pick up Steffi in her apartment and got there exactly as the GPS planned at 11:29 a.m. We did a quick inspection of her digs and set off for the theme park, which is about 7 minutes from her school. We got rock star parking when we got there. Not surprisingly, November doesn't have the same crowds as July at this park. Immediately we jumped on the Boomerang. First it drags you backwards up a very steep incline and then you wait and wait and wait. And then whoosh, you drop at a million miles an hour and go around curves and upside down several times. And then you do it again from the other side. Anyway, the kids dragged me on this one, but it was fun.

The next ride was the Rattler, an ancient looking wooden roller coaster that everyone (except me) loves. I sat this one out, but allowed my own children to risk their lives on it. I watched it sway while they were riding it and looked closely for some sort of metal reinforcements on the structure. Whew - they survived!

After the Rattler we made our way to Superman, my favorite roller coaster where they got this really great picture of us that I had to buy. That is pure joy on our faces.

Another roller coaster they went on was the Poltergeist. They advised me not to ride this one because it has too many turns and I would lose my lunch which we hadn't even eaten yet. That was enough to persuade me to just take pictures.

After this wild ride, we had lunch and then did something they used to love when they were kids and didn't have their own real cars. Yes we rode the Texas Speedway!

Duncan went solo, mostly because his legs are too long for anyone else to get in the car with him.

Steffi and I went together and I let Steffi drive. She had trouble keeping the car going straight, but with my coaching she made it successfully around the track. :)

Duncan was honking at us but our horn was broken and we couldn't honk back.

On our way to the next ride, we found what looks like the place where Santa will be sitting one of these days so we posed for potential Christmas card photos. If we go with this one, I'll obviously have to crop the rafters out of the photo. Looks just like we're at the north pole, doesn't it?

At the end of the afternoon we went back to Steffi's apartment and tried our best to set off the fire alarm by lighting all 19 candles at once.

Duncan and I sang our best off key version of Happy Birthday with me singing the original sweet loving words competing with Duncan's version: "you smell like a monkey and look like one too"

You'll have to read Steffi's blog about our dinner adventures. Let's just say that we should've put our name on the list at the first place and waited and we would have been done sooner than we were trying to find a shorter list. The economy, at least for the restaurant business, must be just fine down in San Antonio!

Happy early birthday, Stef!!

A bunny story

I keep seeing a bunny in the same general area as I drive out of the neighborhood. It reminds me of the bunnies we had a few years ago. It struck me this evening when I saw "him" again that he might be a great, great, great, great, great grand bunny of our original bunnies. You ask how that could be? Well, here is the story. We started off with 2 "female" bunnies

and kept them in a pen in the backyard where they could hop around and enjoy the fresh air, burrow in the hay and poop as much as they wanted. At least, this was what we observed for the first several months.

Soon we discovered that the pet shop really couldn't tell the difference between male and female. We didn't realize what was going on, but thought they were just very clever when they dug out an underground den. It turned out that they had their babies down there and one day we looked in and saw several young bunnies hopping around inside the pen. That is how we found out the pet shop had been wrong. All of a sudden we had 7 or more baby bunnies. They were sooooo cute! And were really pretty colors too.

But then they had more bunnies. And then more. Pretty soon we had a LOT of bunnies. We couldn't give them away fast enough. One of the friends who took some of the bunnies lived in our neighborhood. We helped them build an outdoor pen, and of course, they soon had many more bunnies too. On 4th of July, we took a wagon full of bunnies in the neighborhood parade and came home with none of them. Hehehehe - that was my plan!

Watching the bunnies create their underground den was fascinating. We never really knew how many there were at any time. They must have continued to extend their underground tunnels because one day we noticed that there was a hole outside the pen. Then our bunnies were free. It was really interesting because they would leave their pen in the evening and hop all around the backyard eating fresh grass. Then they would go back to their pen. Anyway, the bunnies at the friend's house did the same thing and also eventually got free.

I realized this evening that the bunny I keep seeing is along the street near the friend's house looks like our original pets. Pretty cool to think he may be a descendent of one of ours.

47-3

If you hadn't guessed already, I was in NY city on Friday evening (had that delicious egg cream for breakfast Saturday a.m.) and then drove down to the "shore" to Lavallette. The real purpose of this trip was to go to the Jets game today.

You can see from the color of the sky that it was a perfect weather day for football. Well, almost perfect, it was a bit chilly for me. But that's because I have become used to the Texas heat and have less tolerance to cold than these New Yorkers. Mike and his brothers have season tickets to the Jets games and I got to use one of them. The seats are in the upper deck but right around the 50 yard line so the view was excellent.

In two years they will open a new stadium right next to the old one. Can you believe that as cold as it gets here, they are not building a roof on the new stadium? Seems pretty crazy to me to build a whole new stadium when there is not much wrong with the old stadium and not make it weather proof. Oh well, they didn't ask me.

Here's what you can see of the new stadium from inside the old one. Looks a lot like the Austin skyline! LOL

Before the game Jimmy set up a tent and a grill and tables and chairs and began cooking a stream of food from the time we arrived until it was time to go into the game. So all this eating and drinking required to "tailgate" began around 8:30. I resisted until 9:15 having my first beer. Ugh. Here are Mike and Peter chomping on some chicken wings.

And the usual tailgate games were played for high stakes.
There were exactly 4 port-o-potties to serve the entire tailgating population. After about 9:30 you really didn't want to go in any of them. Here is an intersting sign that I saw while waiting in line - it says "NO PARKING ON GRASS." Hmmm. Isn't that grass where these cars are parked?

Around 12:15 we started in to the stadium for a 1:00 kickoff.

Like the UT Longhorns (but without any smoke or video effects so it is much lamer) the Jets run out of the tunnel onto the field. My task was to capture Brett Favre when he came out. Unlike the others who strolled out and waved to their adoring fans, Brett sprinted out so fast that I could hardly catch a picture, but I think that is him below about to run into the flags.

This is the first play of what was to be a momentous and historical game for the Jets. They scored a touchdown on their first possession.

Before we knew it, it was 10 - 0.

By halftime, the score was Jets 40, Rams 3. The second half wasn't nearly as exciting, but still a lot of fun. The final score was 47-3, but it would have been higher for the Jets if they hadn't decided to be good sports and not score any more. Really, they were pretty classy (unlike other teams), they put their 2nd stringers in and didn't run it up at the end. By the end, we were like the only fans left in the stadium though. Many left when it was halftime, the rest left at the end of the 3rd quarter. We stayed until 2 minutes left. This was the greatest margin of victory EVER for the Jets and it was very cool being there.

Where to next?

I love flying Frontier Airlines. Not for the particularly nice planes (they are pretty shabby) or the frequently traveler program, which isn't bad but I think they forgot to put mine in the system for this trip or even the free back-of-the-seat TVs. No, I do not like them for any of those logical reasons. I like them because they have absolutely adorable cuddly animal pictures painted on the tails and wing tips. I'm a sucker for those Southwest Air planes that are painted like Shamu too. If I could fly Shamu all the time, I might even pay extra. I paused at the window and tried to guess which animal I would be flying next. But before that is revealed to you, I will also tell you that the extra special treat of flying Frontier from Denver is that the terminal has a very unique shop. One that I think is brilliant but haven't found in any other airport. Yes, it is a popcorn shop. Fresh. Kettle, plain, cheese, caramel & nuts.

After purchasing some popcorn for my 3 1/2 hour trip, I moving-sidewalked my way to my gate. Passing this very tempting one....

and then arriving at my gate to be greeted with the notice that the flight would be leaving 35 minutes late due to a mandatory air traffic hold on the east coast. But at least my plane was there. There is nothing worse than getting to the gate and then having to wonder if the equipment will show up.

My plane was the cougar. Appropriate, huh?! Hopefully most of you will not agree! The crew had named the cougar something like Sam and they kept referring to plane by that name. It just added to the adorableness of this airline. I had wanted to get a photo of the really cool Denver airport so my Mom could see it. I am not sure she ever got to travel to the "new" Denver airport. Not even sure if she went to the old one, Stapleton, but she might have. Isn't it beautiful how they have created an airport in the image of the Rocky Mountains? I just love it.

I still haven't told you where I was going, other than it would take 3 1/2 hours to get there. Check out this gorgeous view while the sun was setting to the west. Did I mention I was in the very last seat in the very last row of the plane? So wherever I was going I would be the last to arrive but would not have to wait as long for my luggage as the people in first class. So there. And they lied about leaving 35 minutes late - it was actually about an hour and twenty minutes late. While on the plane I did watch good old afternoon TV, including Oprah, Judge Judy and the Obama press conference.

Here is a clue as to where I landed. This was available at the diner around the corner. It is called an "egg cream." And it is not anything like a Cadbury Creme Egg, nor does it have egg in it, but is very delicious.

And now your final clue.

So there you have it. More tomorrow about our adventures here.

Where am I?

I started the little map thing off to the side to see where you are. Now it is your turn to guess where I am.

Okay, the picture is not much of a clue, other than I took a plane to get here. Here's another hint - I was on the right side of the plane but the view from the left side would have been more interesting.

Sorry I haven't taken any more photos so there is not much to go on.

Okay, give up?

I am in Colorado. Boulder to be exact. My colleagues are promising that if I stayed for the weekend, I would wake up Monday and it would be a SNOW day! That would be really fun, but I'm leaving tomorrow. And now you can guess where that will be.....

See you there!!

The Sign Says What?

Sunday night Mike and I went out to dinner with a local artist, Daryl Howard, and her husband, Owen. It was really a fun evening with interesting conversation, great food and several wonderful wines. Not surprising, they have this really fabulous artsy house out in the country near Dripping Springs with a cat, 3 dogs and 14 longhorns. They are looking to sell a few of the recent longhorn offspring...so if you know anyone looking for a longhorn for themselves or as a great gift for their favorite UT fan, let me know and I'll put you in touch with them. Because it was All Souls Day yesterday Daryl had made us something special to wear. I am not sure if this was supposed to protect us from something or if it was decorative, but both Mike and I happily wore ours draped around our necks out to dinner.


Back to the artist. Not only is she an artist, she also collects other art and eclectic things. Ever hear of Stanley Marsh or the Cadillac Ranch? Surely you've heard of the man who semi-buries cadillacs as an art form out in west Texas? Well, that is Mr Marsh and he also has created a series of really interesting signs - like 200 of them. He even calls them eccentric. They say things like "Road Does Not End"

or Blue Period, which is a life size sign on their Dripping Springs property. People contacted Jane Grieg, the "answer lady," who used to have a column in the Statesman newspaper, to find out what this sign meant! Check out the link in the word "signs" above for more examples. If you were driving, what would you do when you saw this sign?

This morning I met Duncan at the car place where his truck is being repaired and as soon as he got in my car he declared that he was starving! So instead of dropping him off at his office right away we detoured to the Krispy Kreme place up on 183. It was our lucky day and the donut sign was lit - meaning they just happened to be making fresh donuts and we would get free samples! There is nothing better in this world than a fresh right off the conveyer belt Krispy Kreme.

After snarfing down our free donuts, I purchased him two more to fill him up.

Duncan was going to stay with me for the evening and when I picked him up, I got to see his office where he does all of his computer stuff. It is functional but is in desperate need for some color other than gray. Duncan is wearing his usual black and white, but this IS a color photo below.

Besides being colorless, it is the most paper-less cubicle I have ever seen. He had one yellow sticky - with guess what? - passwords on it! At least they looked like passwords to me. LOL.

Duncan has lots of fun electronic toys. This is a little device that he and his boss, Rick, take turns hiding in each others offices as a prank. It makes chirping sounds at random intervals. Enough to drive you crazy but not frequently enough so you can find where it is hidden.

And this is some sort of fancy touch pad and magic pen for doing graphics work. He's got a great set up there. Now if I can just find something colorful for him to put in his space....

Happy Halloween!

It was a perfect day for Halloween yesterday - bright clear skies for most of the day and unseasonably warm weather for trick-r-treating. We had the neighborhood party on our cul-de-sac this year, which meant I would actually have trick-r-treaters as they left the party and walked down the hill. On years when the party is somewhere else, most kids decide against walking up my hill and I end up with many leftover bags of candy. This year I almost ran out of candy!

With Steffi home for the afternoon I volunteered us to run a fishing booth at the party. We made this years ago for a Halloween party at our church and we've used it at other parties over the years too. It was a big hit yesterday. The "fish" were glow necklaces and bracelets (good for kids running around in the dark!) and some other candy. Besides our booth there was a balloon guy and a magician (declared extremely "cute" by the girls) and tons of food.

Kerry Lynn has on a pair of spooky orange contact lenses. Duncan has blue ones that I haven't seen on him yet and Steffi got a pair of purple cat eyes which she got home too late to try on. Later in the evening Kerry Lynn and her friends went to a party as different kinds of beer. I thougth this was a really cute idea for costumes - she and another girl were Dos seXXies, another friend went as a Shiner with a black eye (get it?!), a guy went as a German beer and there were other clever beer costumes, too.

Tonight is the big game between UT and Texas Tech, both undefeated. Other than watching the game tonight, I am not sure what the rest of the weekend holds.

Do you realize that there are only 54 days until Christmas?!