Ecuadorian???

On Saturday, Hitle---oh, I mean the Leader---decided that we were going to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch (because nothing say Arkansas like Mexican food), but it turned out that she was wrong - the restaurant was Ecuadorian.

Now, this was a little scary for me since I'm a pretty basic (some would say picky) eater and I was a little afraid of a Ecuadorian restaurant in Arkansas. Well, it was basically the same types of foods as Mexican, but with some different spices. I actually liked the food, but can I just say that it is REALLY annoying to spend over 2 hours in a restaurant because you are in a group of 14 people ordering?? I suppose that's my impatience coming through.......

Fall Folliage in Arkansas

I survived my first trip outside of Texas since I moved down here in March - and coincidentally, I took the same freeway (I-30) out of Texas that I took into Texas when moving from Ohio! While I did have a nice time seeing fall folliage, beautiful hills/mountains and authentic hot springs (the water is SUPER HOT), I will NEVER go on a trip with 13 strangers (one of them being the leader who I will affectionately call HITLER) again. I will spare you all the details, but I'll just leave it at "It was a big 'cluster' with LOTS of unnecessary drama and poor planning."

NOTE TO SELF: The next time you feel the need to take a little weekend trip - please do yourself a favor and go (a) by yourself, (b) with someone you know and can travel with, or (c) with less than 13 people. You will thank yourself later for it!

Here are some pics from my trip:

This is a fabulous rock outcrop that was in the parking lot next to where we had lunch - gorgeous!

Isn't this a fabulous sunset shot over a lake/hill?? I got it at the end of the day on Saturday with my little point-and-shoot digital camera - I was amazed at the quality!

I got the sunset shot by climbing down this little hill to the bottom and then there it was when I looked to the right!

Patriotic Critters

I thought these pictures were sweet - this squirrel is showing more pride in our country than a lot of people who are financial benefiting from being here, but choose to wave another country's flag here!

Look at this adorable puppy taking a nap under a soldier's hat and gun. I love when fragile humanity is found in such rough conditions!

Skating on Thin Ice

This is called Plaza of the Americas (in Dallas) - it was gorgeous inside. There were a few restaurants on the main floor and a big ice skating rink! Gotta love the zamboni!

Do I need to lose a few teeth first???

Well, in a few hours I'll be entering the great state of Arkansas for my fall folliage trip to Hot Springs. It's a whole new adventure out of my comfort zone since I was designated one of the carpool drivers and I have to pick up 3 other people who I've never met! Oh well - I figure I moved down here and didn't know a soul, so this can't be that bad!

I'm really excited about the trip because the leaf/folliage reports say that this is going to be the best weekend (peak, as they call it) for the leaves changing colors. We are also going to go sightseeing in the town of Hot Springs, shopping and also some of us made reservations to get "The Works" package at a local spa - $60 for a 20 min. bath in the hot springs, a 20 min. massage and 20 min. hot towel wrap. I can't wait!

I hope you all have a great weekend and I will post pics of my adventures next week.

PS - I'm super excited because my Mom is arriving on Tuesday night - for a 2-day visit! (And she's bringing my childhood toys - I'm sooooo looking forward to playing with my old Legos.)

Dallas oddities

Here is the tallest building in Dallas (I'm not sure what it's called - didn't catch that in the tour!) It was very pretty and the second picture is of the same building, but it's taken inside of a red sculpture that sits next to the building. It's intended to give you that weird straight-up view when you go inside the rings of the sculpture and look up. CREEPY, but very COOL!

One other neat thing that we saw in Dallas was this bar/club that has a pool that juts out into thin air!

More Thanksgiving

These are more pics at Thanksgiving Square (see previous blog posting from this morning). This was one of the coolest water features I've seen - I could've stood there and watched it all day long. It was a pool at the top, then dropped down into a triangle-shaped slope with raised stones in it to disrupt the water's fall. It them emptied into the point of the triangle. How peaceful and pretty! A little bit of solace in a busy city downtown area.....

Early Thanksgiving

In downtown Dallas, there is a plaza/park named Thanksgiving Square. There are neat waterfalls, buildings, sidewalks and sculptures there. The highlight is a chapel that is in the shape of a big tall spiral (below).

These are views of the chapel from the inside, looking straight up (we laid on benches to get these shots). It was gorgeous! I just couldn't believe how beautiful all of that stained glass was! And you would never guess that such beauty was hiding in that big white cement spiral building!

More Dallas Highlights...

Some more interesting things I saw on my Dallas walking tour:

This pic is a saying on the front of the Dallas Morning News newspaper building - I found it to be a great commitment to reporting the news in an unbiased, objective way........but how rare it actually is done. The media is soooooo skewed!

This next one is a very unusual sculpture that looks like a screw in a metal ring, but if you look closely, the edge of the screw is sitting on the round 'track' and it actually rotates around that ring - taking 24 hours to do one whole revolution. We actually put a stick on the track to see if it would move the stick and it did! So depending on what time of day you visit the sculpture, the screw will be in a different position around the circle. It was sooo cool!

We stopped at a place called the Press Box Grill for lunch and this sign was above the doorway into the bathrooms area. I thought it was hilarious so I took a picture. What's sad is that it's probably an actual sign that was posted in some seedy hotel at a port somewhere. hahaha

HOT DOG!!

Well, the day has arrived that Maggie officially became 'that dog'. The hot dog costume arrived in the mail and I put it on her immediately.....

........and immediately she tried to get out of it. But I got a really big laugh out of it!!!

Go out and vote - even the otters are doing it!

At SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, Opie, an Asian small-clawed otter, takes voting seriously in this Nov. 3, 2008 photo. Casting a ballot for his favorite meal, he encourages everyone to go out and vote this election day.

Tour de Dallas

On Saturday, I took a walking tour of downtown Dallas and I learned a LOT! The weather was gorgeous and we got to see a lot of things that you normally wouldn't just run into while downtown.

Here are a few highlights of the tour:

This is Reunion Tower - a unique feature of the Dallas skyline at night. It's a lit-up ball and there's a restaurant and observation deck at the top. It's all closed for rennovation until sometime in 2009 - so I'm looking forward to going to the top next year.

Here's a close-up of the ball at the top of the tower:

This is the main newspaper in Dallas - The Dallas Morning News. (Abby - I thought you would find this interesting since it used to be one of your clients!)

Here's some proof that leaves actually turn brown and fall of trees here - some of the FIRST evidence of this. I really really really miss the pretty colors and crisp nights, raking leaves and that smell of fall.

And this demonstration was kind of weird - and I'm assuming it's because of the election coming up. It was a pick-up truck that pulled up to a JFK memorial plaza with a trailer behind it, containing big stone tablets with the 10 commandments etched in them, as well as a replica of the Liberty Bell. He set up some sound equipment and started playing his guitar. For the 10 minutes we stood there, he played patriotic songs and spoke about Americans losing their values from what the Founding Fathers intended.

Shaking in my boots

OK - when I moved to north Texas, I knew that I was entering 'Tornado Alley', but I didn't realize that I was moving to 'Earthquake Central'! On Halloween, there were two earthquakes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (one in Irving where I work, and one in Grand Prairie which is the next suburb over to the east of my house). One of them was a 2.5 magnitude and the other one was a 3.0 magnitude! My friend Erin said that she woke up when the Irving one happened and she thought it was thunder, but it wasn't raining. Aaagghhh! Scary! I guess it's only appropriate that it happened on Halloween!

Here's the full article!

Minor Earthquakes Shake N. Texas
Last Edited: Friday, 31 Oct 2008, 9:24 AM CDT
Created: Friday, 31 Oct 2008, 6:24 AM CDT

DALLAS -- -- Several minor earthquakes gave some Texas and Oklahoma residents an early Halloween scare, but no injuries or damage were reported.

A 2.5-magnitude quake at 11:25 p.m. Thursday near Grand Prairie started a series of other small earthquakes in that Dallas suburb, followed by a 3.0-magnitude quake at 12:01 a.m. Friday in nearby Irving, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Irving police received 911 calls from about 25 people saying they had felt the quakes, but there were no reports of injuries or damage, Officer David Tull said Friday morning.

A 3.1 quake was reported about 11:30 a.m. Thursday near McCloud, Okla., some 180 miles north of the Dallas area, with no reports of injuries or damage, according to the USGS.

Although researchers are not sure if a fault line runs along that area, they consider the earthquakes in the two states to be separate events because they occurred so far apart in distance and time, said USGS geophysicist Jessica Sigala.

"Texas sees earthquakes every once in awhile, so it's very new to us even," Sigala said. "We hope we'll figure out exactly where and why this happened. East of the Rocky Mountains, fault lines are hard to distinguish because earthquakes don't happen as often."

The U.S. Geological Survey has been able to determine fault lines -- such as the San Andreas Fault in California, the most quake-prone state in the continental U.S. -- usually after earthquakes occur, Sigala said.

Although Texas is better known for its hurricanes and tornados, some earthquakes have shaken the state since the late 1800s, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The most recent quake in Texas was in April, shaking a city south of San Antonio with a 3.7 magnitude.

Seven minor earthquakes were recorded in Amarillo in 2000, and another minor one hit that Panhandle city in 2002.

Sun & Moon

This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point.

A scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy God at work at the North Pole.

And, you also see the sun below the moon . An amazing photo and not one easily duplicated.

While Claire was here, we spent an entire day in Fort Worth and we started that day in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. It was a gorgeous 80-degree sunny day and we were so impressed with the gardens! Admission was free and they did a beautiful job. There was even a wedding going on that day too.

Here are some pics:

Here's a pic of me playing in a fake log - trying to be a kid again! I don't ever want to grow up!

Amen!