How 'Bout Them Cowboys

About a week ago, I finally used my groupon for a VIP tour of Cowboys Stadium here in Arlington. When I moved to Texas (and Arlington), it didn't have a roof yet and was very much a 'rough' structure in the process of being built. Now it is a $1.2 billion stadium that is going to host the next SuperBowl!

Here's a shot of the inside - the people on the field are other tour-goers, playing on the field.

And the line to get your picture taken on the big star on the 50-yard line. In the old Texas Stadium, there was a hole in the roof. The theory was that God wanted to be able to look down on his Cowboys playing. Now in the new stadium, there is a HUGE MASSIVE video screen that blocks God's view of the field and the big star........so they actually had a big star put on the top of the video screen so that from the air, God can still see his Cowboys' star!

Here's a shot of the video screen. It's a retractable roof and the screen is water proof, so it can be raining in on it and it wouldn't matter - amazing! It's the largest screen in the world and it weighs 1.2 million pounds, if I remember correctly. It is the equivalent of 7 stories high!!

These next 2 shots show how massive the screen is compared to everything else. It's just something you have to see in person - incredible.

The stadium is absolutely beautiful! They even put in granite for the countertops around the club levels - no expense was spared.

And now on to the field....

These folks are starting their daughter out early, crawling to the big star on the 50-yard line.....

The end zone looks about the same as the old Texas Stadium...

Picture-taking on the big star!

They even had people selling footballs down on the field, so that you could play with your friends while on the tour. I'm sure they were a fortune, of course.

This was a HUGE sign in one of the concourse stairwells....

And this pretty display was in the Cotton Bowl offices, which are housed in Cowboys Stadium. They are helmets 'on a path to Heaven' or something - that was kind of hokey, but whatever...

And here I am in the press/interview room - just off of the Cowboys locker room....

Their pro-shop was insanely big, bright and busy! I liked a lot of the shirts, but I'm not really a huge Cowboys fan yet and the prices were through the roof, of course....I wanted to get this shirt, though - loved it:

Sort of a hippie version....Peace Love and the Dallas Cowboys....

Crazy big store!

OK Cowboys, I know you have an ego, but REALLY?!

Train Tracks

I'm a history junkie, so I thought this was really interesting - ENJOY!

Railroad Tracks

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses)

Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.

The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

Thankful Thursday

1. My Entertainment book arriving in the mail

Lately, I have just become very adverse to paying full price for anything. I figure that if there are discounts to be had, that just means that you can do more things if you are doing each one for cheaper than you have to. I got my 2010-2011 Entertainment book in the mail and I'm excited for the savings and adventures in the next year! The book is $30 and I can make that back using 2 coupons (1 for Billy Bob's and 1 for the rodeo in Ft. Worth). After that, it's just free money sitting there!

2. Having a dog that will sleep as long as I want on weekend mornings

I'm so very lucky that I have a dog that will adjust to my lifestyle. This wasn't always the case. When I was living in Ohio, I worked a VERY weird schedule - I might work a 20-hour day and get home at 2am and then get back up at 7am for another grueling day there.....or I might be able to sleep in the next day. It was all very random - depended on events that I was running. Anyway, Maggie's sleep patterns got all screwed up because of this and she wasn't the best about adjusting to whatever I was doing (I don't blame her!).

Well, now that she is 6 years old, she has mellowed out a bit and she'll pretty much roll with anything at this point. AND she lets herself out for potty through the doggy door in the kitchen if she wakes up before me and has to go......and then she runs back upstairs and hops back in bed with me. PRICELESS!

3. The reassurance that God has always come through for me....not necessarily in my time, but it always happens

There have been times in my life where/when I have felt that God abandoned me, forgot about me and didn't care about me. I even feel that way sometimes now, but I have to keep going back to the simple fact that God has ALWAYS given me what I needed, and seen me through to the other side of some tough things. He has provided for me in so many ways - fantastic friends, a house, the best dog ever, great parents who raised me, a college education, a good job, etc. Whenever I am down or doubting, I remind myself of how much I have to be thankful for and that God always keeps his promises.....even if He takes a while to reveal the plan.

4. Putting great memories on the wall

I posted pics the other day of my new collage frames that are donning the walls in my house now. I guess I never realized how great it is to have those pictures up and visible as I go about my daily life. Sometimes it's almost subconscious - just a split second of seeing a picture out of the corner of your eye.....but I believe that my heart sees the memories EVERY time.

5. My favorite pen

I will just go ahead and admit it right now - I'm a junkie for cool office supplies, and especially good pens. We all have a few crappy pens around - they work some of the time, or they are a Fine point when I like Medium, or they are ugly. But when I find a pen that I love, I cling to it like it's a prized possession - no one can borrow my favorite pens! I know, I'm a huge dork.....I just can't help it!

My True Love

I am currently reading "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (and I saw the movie last weekend when I was only 1/2 way through the book) and I saw a quote in the first couple chapters that just hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like she was talking about me - exactly how I feel about my love for travel and seeing new things!

Here it is:

"Traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to - I just don't care." ~Eat Pray Love (Elizabeth Gilbert) - Page 41

Maybe it's because I don't have a family of my own that I am drawn to travel and adventures as much as I am......but I really do think that it has always been a part of me, especially since I studied/traveled abroad in Spain and Europe. That was such an exciting, exhilarating experience - something that no one can take away from me - even if I lost everything else in my life. Those memories are forever mine and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

I just honestly don't "get" the people who are content to just do laundry, cleaning and a trip to Applebee's every weekend. That's really not a vacation or a break - it's just more of the mundane tasks of life. I know those things are necessary and I do them myself all the time - sometimes I do ONLY those things on a given weekend.

But after a little while, I just start getting agitated and restless and I stop and ask myself what is wrong with me! 9 times out of 10 it's that I haven't been on an adventure out out of town in a while. I haven't felt ALIVE for a while - and I need that. It's like pinching yourself to see if you are still conscious.

Presidential Ranger

Well, during our Rangers/Yankees game, I happened to look down at the Owner's Seats right next to the Rangers dugout to see if Nolan Ryan was sitting in them....but they were empty.

However, later on, I looked again......and who did I see? Yep - former president George W. Bush and Laura Bush! Since he was once the owner of the team (in the 90's, I think), I guess he gets special privileges or is friends with Nolan or whatever.

Anyway, here they are! (Dubya is leaning forward in the light blue short-sleeved shirt and Laura is right next to him)

I thought (my friend) Laura was going to die when she saw them (she is a HUGE Dubya fan). Here they are talking to friends.....

And within a minute or two, I became a voyeur and just couldn't stop watching them. It's weird to think that the former leader of the free world was just sitting right there watching a baseball game!

Lookin' up - foul ball!

Gettin' intense........

Now he's chillaxin'......

They were right to the left of the Rangers dugout, but I didn't see the Secret Service anywhere. I know that they try to stay out of the way and may be dressed in plain clothes, but I never saw anyone guarding him....

Cheering for his team!

And of course, the announcers recognized him and no one booed them. HURRAY! God Bless Texas.

Pointing at something.......

Throughout the game (that was 4 HOURS LONG), he got more and more relaxed....

For some reason, I was obsessed with watching them, even though they were just quietly watching the game. And then in the 9th inning, I glanced down to their seats and they were gone.

Night Ranger

Last week, Laura invited me to see a Rangers/Yankees game with her family that was in town from Connecticut. Laura's Dad is in town for 11 days and they are going to a bunch of games, but I just went to this one. His name is Tom (I call him Big Tom) and he's born-and-raised Bronx New Yorker. Love it! Needless to say, Laura and her family were cheering for the Yankees, but I stayed true to my new home and cheered for the fabulous Texas Rangers!

Here's a shot of the Ballpark in Arlington - from our seats: (Cindy, none of these are stock photos - just an FYI...heehee):

We were behind home plate on the 3rd level. As I trekked up to our level, I noticed some great views from the concourse. Here is a shot of Cowboys Stadium from the ballpark!

And if you look the other way, you will see Six Flags Over Texas! (PS - Who thought this whole area up? Parking is a cluster when there's a lot going on!)

Now THAT'S teamwork! Wettin' everything down right before the game.....The temps were right around 105 that day with a heat index of higher than that. I didn't think I would make it through the game, but I sat there for the entire 4-HOUR GAME! It lasted until 11pm - crazy. But it was worth it - a lot of fun!

I thought this Medical Center billboard thing was cute - with the baseball!

Here's the dugout - I wish they would've worn their red shirts that night, but I suppose white is cooler....

And here are the Yankees....

Having a little pow wow before the official start of the game......

Here's A-Rod.....

And Derek Jeter......

And this is Young hitting a home run for the Rangers!!!

Rangers pitchers pimpin' in the bullpen.....

Look at the sea of red Rangers fans! I love their choice of colors - red and blue. It's patriotic AND awesome to wear. And actually there were a LOT of Yankees fans there that night - like a LOT. Oh, and that's Laura's brother on the far left of the picture.

It was a packed house that night.....

Here's Laura and I, sweating our brains out. We don't look that bad for it being 100+ degrees, eh?

Derek Jeter swings.....

And Derek Jeter misses - STRIKE OUT!

I think the Rangers switched out pitchers a million times....

Well, there's a cool surprise tomorrow - someone special was at the game the same night we were! Stay tuned......