Friday Night with the Js

Dave and I spent an enjoyable Friday night with our friends, Devin and Jimmy, and their children. (Dave and I refer to them collectively by their last name, but to protect their identity in this sick and twisted world, I'll just call them the Js.)

Devin called last week about getting together for a belated celebration of Dave's birthday. We met at their home afterwork and piled into their suburban to head to a favorite local Tex Mex restaurant. After riding in my lap for an hour for our plane ride viewing Christmas lights last month, Landon has decided I'm alright and insisted that I sit next to him instead of his mother. Devin and Jimmy are regulars at the restaurant and were greeted by the servers and managers as we arrived. Jimmy ordered a HUGE maragarita for three of us to share, mentioning that it should be placed in front of Dave since we were celebrating his birthday. We had a great dinner and were quite surprised when the waitstaff approached Dave with an equally HUGE red sombrero and a piece of tres leches cake as they sang to him. Devin, who also blogs (and got me started), was disappointed not to have her camera on hand to capture the red hue of Dave's face, which matched the sombrero.

After dinner, we went back to their house to visit for a bit. Dave and I really feel like family with them, which was apparent last night. When I was offered something to drink by Jimmy, who was then distracted by something, I went right over and fixed my own glass of water. A few minutes later, Dave decided the dinner, cake, and brownies were getting to him, so he put his feet up on the sofa to rest. It's fantastic to have such great friends close by!

Snow Day

I awoke this morning to hear something about school closings on the radio. That's enough to perk you right up. I lay there debating in my head, do I want to go to school or not.

It would be nice to stay home and tidy up the house after my guests had left--they weren't messy, but I do need to wash towels (they did offer, but what kind of hostess would I be?). I haven't really put purchases made over the weekend away, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded. I could get a lot done if I stayed home.

But on the other hand, I have some things I really need to get done at work. Things I didn't bring home with me. Things I couldn't bring home with me. We have field testing next week on Wednesday and Thursday. I've got to get ready for that. And, if we have a day off now, then our nice four-day Easter weekend is shot.

So, I got up washed my face, fixed my hair, fed Mason, and put on some water in the tea kettle for hot chocolate. I kept the radio on in the bedroom and the TV on in the living room. No mention of a school cancellation for my district was mentioned. So, I finished getting ready and came upstairs for the camera. I almost logged onto the website to check for closing, but decided I might as well get headed to work.

This is what Dave's truck and the driveway looked like when I was leaving for work at 7 am.

So, I did. It's pretty outside with the snow dusting the ground and continuing to fall. As I drove closer to school, I heard that 450+ districts are closed today. My heart sank. I'd driven all this way (yes, about 10 whole miles), and we might not be having school. As I approached the other high school in our district, I noticed not one car in the parking lot. I pulled in and called my friends whose children attend school in the district. Reagan, who's in sixth grade, answered the phone and politely replied, "No ma'am" to my inquiry about school. She and I lamented the loss of a 4-day weekend in April before I hung up and headed home. (I did sit in the parking lot and wonder if I should drive the next two miles to work and stay for a bit to get something done, but I decided I should really probably come home.)

Trying to make the best of my ignorance, I enjoyed the snow-covered scenery on my drive home. I made a mental list of things I could do while at home today. I crept along at 25 miles per hour. It was a nice leisurely drive. Though the highway has three lanes, only one was being used. That's a good thing, since I slid just a bit coming down a hill about half a mile before I had to exit the highway. I pulled the car into low gear and steered through the slip. Had there been a car to my left I would have hit it, as I was going sideways for a bit. When I was straightened up and driving again I thought, "That was kind of fun," so maybe there is a bit of adventure-seeking in my personality.

Now I'm home. I've put in a load of laundry, gathered up some trash, and worked on the blog. I'm wondering if Dave will get home tonight. He's already quite angry about this whole business trip that he's on. (That would be an entire different post from which we'll spare you.)

I'll post some snow pictures when I'm brave enough to go outside to take some. (Where's Jennifer when I need her?)

The snow has now turned to drizzle. I ran out and took a picture a few minutes ago. I should have taken one earlier. The yard was a bit whiter around 9 this morning.

Last Day in Dallas

The cold weather continued on the girls' last day in Dallas. We were lazy in getting up since it was cold. We watched the news and weather to decide what it might be fit to do on such a cold day.

Dave had to fly to Milwaukee on business Monday; his 8 am flight got cancelled. He was rebooked on a 5pm flight from Love Field, which is further from us than DFW International.

While I dropped Dave off at Love, everyone else headed to Sam Moon. I met up with them there. We had a great time shopping for purses, wallets, necklaces, earrings, head bands, luggage, and even hair pieces! After that it was off to Ross for a bit before looking for a good steak dinner.

I guess I still have some learning to do. I could have sworn there is a Texas Land & Cattle Company in Lewisville. If there is, we didn't find it. We decided then to go to Grapevine to eat at Traildust. Jennifer had requested Traildust earlier in the trip, then amended her request to a good steak. Since we were in two cars, I lead the way to Grapevine while Jen followed in my mom's car. I went right to where Traildust was, so I thought. It seems it's now another restaurant. We drove through the parking lots of all of the restaurants in that area--no Traildust. So, we consulted again and decided to try Saltgrass, another Texas-based steak house. Off we went. Since it was a bit after 6 pm, I decided to avoid the highway and drive through town to the restaurant. That was great except that I turned one road too soon and wound up taking everyone to a north freight entrance for DFW. Finally, we got headed in the right direction and arrived at Saltgrass for dinner. Well, at least they got to see a lot of Grapevine in the dark.

With the road conditions as they were, the girls decided to leave my house at 6am instead of 3 or 4 am. (Good call. . . ) They got back to my mom's a bit after 9pm last night. It was great to have them visit! Y'all come back--when it's warm!

Cold Weather Comes to Texas

What are the odds that my family would visit Texas during an ice storm? (Well, actually, this has happened twice. Last February Bob and Judy came out the last weekend in February when we had sleet. So maybe the odds are pretty good . . . )

The weather has been a bit of a hinderance on our site seeing. With the potential for slippery roads, we haven't ventured far on Saturday or Sunday. We spent a few hours each afternoon shopping at Grapevine Mills. Funny that it took two days to get through the mall.

Who knows what Monday will bring.

Southfork

Since it's beginning, we've all been Dallas fans. Friday nights were planned around the airing of the show. I remember spending a few Friday nights at Granny's eating chips and green onion dip while watching The Dukes of Hazard followed by Dallas. After the Duke boys went off the air, we watched Dallas and then Falcon Crest.

Needless to say, we had to go to Southfork to see the where the show was filmed. When we got there, we learned that the exterior shots were filmed at the ranch, but the interior shots were filmed on a sound stage in California.




The interior of the home has been staged to pay tribute to various members of the Ewing family. Here we are in the living room at the fireplace under Jock's painting.
From left to right: Jennifer, Miranda, Sandra, Stephanie, Martha












We roamed through the house and grounds. We had lunch at Miss Ellie's Porch Deli and saw Jock's Lincoln.
















Actually, this was my second trip to Southfork. I had visited over Thanksgiving with Bob and Judy, my father-in-law and mother in-law. The weather was nicer then.

Girls Weekend

One of the advantages of living out of state and away from your family is that they have a fun place to come visit. One disadvantage is that everyone always talks about coming, but few actually come. Some of my family finally made it out to see us this weekend.

My mom, my aunt Martha, and two of my cousins, Jennifer and Stephanie, got up in the middle of the night to drive out to visit us for a long weekend. They left Georgia in the wee hours of the morning Thursday and arrived around dinner time that evening.

Poor Dave--the female population has increased 400%!

Pictured here are Martha, Stephanie, and my mom, Sandra.

A Cabin with a View

Here are two pictures from the cabin we stayed in during our fishing trip to Broken Bow.













What I wouldn't give for a year-round view like that.

Trout Fishing

We started by waking up at 5 am, before the alarm went off at 5:30. Funny how Dave can wake up (and get up) all on his own when fishing is involved.

We followed the guide, Ethan, to the first stretch along the river. The guide gave Dave some pointers before taking me back upstream to fish. Ethan showed me how to bait my hook with salmon eggs--that was super easy. I told him I knew how to tie a hook on with a clinch knot; we joked about their being a test over knots at 4:30. He showed me where to cast and stood by to take the first trout that I caught off of my hook, demonstrating how not to harm the fish. After pointing out another place to fish, he set off to check on Dave.

And then the panic began to set in me. I'm not used to taking my own fish off of the hook. I'm afraid I'm going to hurt the fish--as if hooking them in the first place didn't hurt. Ethan did leave me with a pair of clippers so that I could cut the line off of any fish that I couldn't extract the hook from. My instructions were not to grab the fish too tightly and not to make them bleed. Do you know how hard it is to remove a hook when you're not supposed to hold the fish too tighty? So, when I caught the next trout, I tried to get the hook out, while I gingerly held him not wanting to hurt him. But, I ended up cutting the line and leaving the hook in the fish. Dave assures me that the hook will work itself out or the fish will be caught soon by someone else. But, I still don't feel good about this.

So, now I have to tie that clinch knot to get another hook on my line. I dig a hook from the Skoal can of hooks and sinkers Ethan left with me. Luckily, there was a log just behind where I was fishing so I could sit down while I attempted to tie my knot. It was a pitiful knot. I quickly decided that my knot tying test would be a performance based assessment. My first knot was ok. I put on two bright red salmon eggs and casted. Immediately, I had another little trout on the line. I reeled him in and again tried to get the hook out. This one was hooked in the lip, so I did manage to get it out and release the trout. Two more salmon eggs, another cast that didn't go where I meant for it to go, another bite. I reeled the fish in, but after assessing the position of the hook on the bottom of the mouth and trying to get it out for a few minutes, I decided to cut this hook before I hurt this fish. I sat down to tie my next knot. Another pitiful, bunched up knot was the result. At this point I was tying on the tiniest hooks I had. My reasoning was tiny hook, tiny fish. I finished up, put on two salmon eggs and casted again not where I wanted to. Another bite. This time as I reeled the fish in, something beautiful happened. My pitiful knot didn't hold!! I didn't have to try to get the hook out of the fish. Then and there, I decided my ugly knots would be the best thing to happen to me this morning.

Ethan rescued the fish from my hooks when he whistled to me from downstream. I walked down and sampled the next fishing hole. He laughed at my pitiful knot and showed me his method of tying on a hook--three loops around then three loops through. I put on two salmon eggs and caught another trout. This one was a wild trout; Ethan showed me the difference in the tails of the fish. Hatchery trout have tails that are more rounded from the concrete in the hatchery. The natural trout spawned in the stream have more pointed tails. (Could I really tell the difference? Nope. I'd need to seem the side-by-side. But it sounds impressive, right?)

We caught up with Dave. Dave and I posed for a picture before moving on to a second area.
Here Ethan taught Dave to mend line when fishing in waters of different currents and to steeple cast. I played with my salmon eggs and caught nothing. My lack of success didn't bode well for this fishin' hole, so we were off for our last stop of the morning. Ethan showed Dave a few other places to fish during the afternoon and on Sunday morning.

And Then There Was One. . .

No McLaren vacation is without a hiccup. . .

To get ready for this fishing extravagana weekend, Dave and I spent two evenings purchasing breathable stocking foot waders and felt soled wading boots for me. We got up Saturday morning and fished for about 4 hours with a guide. After lunch at Sonic, we went back to the cabin for a nap. To keep the inside of the cabin clean, we removed our waders and boots on the porch. Dave moved our waders inside where he hung them to dry. Our boots were left on the porch overlooking the river.
A bit after laying on the sofas for a nap, we heard footsteps on the boardwalk outside. We presumed that it was the owner of the cabin who lives in the adjacent "Captain's Quarters." An hour or so later, Dave was rested up and ready for fishing round two. I was trying to decide if I was going to finish my nap or go fish, when Dave went out on the porch to gear up. He stuck his head back in the door to tell me, "We have a bit of a problem. One of your boots is gone."
When we returned from fishing, the blue heeler two houses up had chased the car. Putting two and two together, we decided those "footsteps" weren't human, but kanine. I got up and put on my shoes to help Dave walk around to find my boot. We walked for 20 minutes--nothing. We talked to the owners' of the blue heeler who knew nothing. We met a beagle two cabins down, who was still in his chewing age--a pink flip-flop in his yard told the story. But no boot was discovered.
We talked to the owner of the cabin who immediately suspected the blue heeler. I've asked her to mail me the boot if it turns up. I had four good hours of fishing in those boots. Guess I'll be buying another pair.

Happy Birthday, Dave

Dave celebrated his 30th birthday doing what he likes best--fishing. This weekend was part one of his two fishing weekends. We drove up to Broken Bow, Oklahoma, Friday after work to relax in a cabin on the Lower Mountain Fork River. We got up early Saturday morning to meet our fishing guide, Ethan, at Beaver's Bend Park. We fished until lunchtime, then traversed back to our cabin to open birthday gifts and take a nap. Dave went back to fish in the afternoon. Instead of dinner out, Dave picked up a pizza on the way back. After pizza, we had birthday cake.