Open For Business - George Strait Style!

Earlier this month, the massive, crazy expensive, and very beautiful Cowboys Stadium opened its doors for business just a few miles north of my house in Arlington! The first event was a George Strait concert for 60,000 fans. I soooooo wish I could've gone - it would've been such a fabulous show and I love King George!

This gets me in the mood for some FOOTBALL!!!

Dallas Cowboys open new stadium

ARLINGTON, Texas, June 7 (UPI) --

More than 60,000 Texas football and country music fans have inaugurated the new $1.1 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, team officials say.

A concert by country music star George Strait Saturday was the first event for the retractable roof stadium, which will become the NFL team's new home in the upcoming season, replacing Texas Stadium in nearby Irving, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported.

Fans gawked at the expansive facility's giant video boards while Cowboys owner Jerry Jones signed autographs from his owners box on the 50-yard line, accompanied by former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, the newspaper said.

The stadium's roof was opened before the concert, giving fans an opportunity to see the massive structure in action.

"It's a culmination of a lot of hard work," Jerry Jones Jr., the Cowboys owner's son, told reporters. "Our biggest challenge for this project was to meet our fans' expectations. Walking around, I see a lot of smiles."

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck told the Star-Telegram the stadium "will be a wonder of the world."

Copyright 2009 by United Press InternationalAll Rights Reserved.

Holy Toledo!

It's official - in about a month and a half, I'll be flying back to Ohio for the first time since I moved from Toledo down to Texas in March 2008! I bought my flight recently and I am already making a list of people I would love to see, places I want to visit, and restaurants I need to go. I miss my Toledo friends so much and it was so hard to leave them last spring to fulfill my dream of living in Texas. I just wish I could convince all of them to move down here!

Here are some highlights that I want to fit in on my trip:

The best Mexican food restaurant on the planet - El Camino Real in West Toledo!!! I miss my El Camino margaritas and the 5-hour happy hours with work friends!

I need to visit my old neighborhood - The Old West End. I loved those huge beautiful houses!

Hopefully I'll have time for a Mudhens game at Fifth Third Field - that is an AWESOME ballpark and it probably won't be 110 degree heat index like in Texas!

And of course, I will need to visit downtown Toledo and the SeaGate Convention Centre where I used to work...

I'm also going to drive out to Fremont, OH to visit my good friend Barb and her husband, Mike. We're going to play by the pool and drink pina coladas!

I'm sure the trip back to Ohio will be emotional for me, but I am very much looking forward to being reunited with good friends and hitting my favorite spots in Toledo. I have a lot of mixed feelings about certain aspects of my life in Ohio, but this trip is going to be designed to hit the highlights, the good stuff and the fabulous friends I made there!

Better in Bulk

One thing that I think is just nasty and gross is RAW MEAT. ICK. It's just so barbaric and the texture is disgusting. Not to mention the whole e coli and salmonella thing. However, I am not a vegetarian and I enjoy eating and cooking with meat. So therein lies a dilemma.....I want to eat it, but I don't want to touch it in order to cook it. Hmmmm......

So I use a technique that I watched my Mom use all the while I was growing up - cooking meat in bulk and then freezing it in individual containers for reheating later. I can remember waking up on a Saturday morning to the smell of hamburger being browned. Not exactly the normal smell on a Saturday morning, but it was normal to us because from time to time, Mom would buy many pounds of raw hamburger and put them all in a big pot on the stove with chopped up celery and onions. She would cook this entire pot of hamburger and drain off the grease and then freeze all of it in 1-pound 'batches' in Tupperware. When she wanted to make spaghetti one day, she would just take one of the 1-pound containers of hamburger and thaw it out and then dump it in the sauce - all done! Very quick and easy meal preparation after working all day. What a smart lady Carol is!

Anyway, I adopted that method a long time ago, not so much for the ease factor, but rather for the fact that I hated touching the raw meat, so if I just bought a ton of it and browned it all at once, then I only have to touch raw meat ONCE for all of those meals! This also works for chicken. I will buy a bunch of packages of boneless, skinless chicken breast and then bake them in the oven on 2 big pans and then freeze each piece in a ziploc bag for a future meal. I only have to deal with raw chicken ONE time and I get about 20 meals out of it!

Reasons for Change

I saw a quote on a friend's Facebook the other day and it really hit me:


People often change for two reasons: either you've learned enough that you want to change or you've been hurt enough that you need to.


I thought this quote was extra profound and also very true. I have found myself changing for both of those reasons. I think that the key here is: are you changing for the better or for the worse? Again, I feel that I have done both!

I used to resist change as if it were the plague coming to get me. Now that I have lived through some MAJOR changes in my life - both ones that I chose and ones that were chosen for me, I suppose I'm USED to change? I think I have grown a LOT because now I am starting to become a person who SEEKS out change....and that was never my nature as a child.

From my earliest memories, I have had a love for routines, stability, the 'known' things in my life. When things would change, I would just be in a panic and feel like the rug was pulled out from underneath me. Now that I have had some BIG doses of change in life (both good and bad), I have learned that I can roll with changes and I don't have to panic.....it could even be FUN! Perhaps I'm finally 'coming out of my shell' and am going to be very daring in my thirties.....ya never know!

Glenn LIVE (but not really)

On June 4th, I went to my local movie theater at the Parks Mall here in Arlington to see my hero, Glenn Beck, do a live simulcast of his Common Sense Comedy Tour from Kansas City, MO. It was a 2-hour comedy/political/American history type show and all of that fabulous Glenn commentary that is dripping in humorous sarcasm. LOVED IT!!!!

It was a very weird experience because there was an intermission in the show, so everyone got up in the dark theater (they didn't bring up the lights) and started milling around....very weird. And the audience (me included) clapped and commented during all of the times where the live audience in Kansas City did - just like we were there. I secretly think Glenn could hear the clapping from all 400+ theaters that were showing this live feed!

He talked about everyday common sense stuff, lots of politcal stuff, economic stuff, etc. with that crazy, wacky, sarcasm style that Glenn is known for. The theater was packed (I barely found a seat!) and it was a lively crowd of my fellow conservatives (NOT necessarily Republicans - but definitely conservatives...there is a BIG difference).

I need to buy his new book REALLY BAD - gotta get my fix of Glenn!

Improvising

OK, I know I am impatient, but when that impatience mixes with a 'brain lapse', that is a dangerous combo. Last year, my friend Shauna went to a 'home sales party' for a company that makes decals that are for your walls - pretty sayings and artwork. She emailed me the link to their catalog and told me to pick one out as a housewarming gift when I moved down here. How sweet of her and there were so many SUPER CUTE sayings!


I decided on "Peace - Be Still" for my bedroom wall. She ordered it and had it shipped to my house. YAY! I loved it! OK, here's where it goes south......


From Day 1 in my house last April, I had all white walls and I KNEW for SURE that I would be painting (or hiring someone to paint) all of the walls once I got settled. My plan was to set aside the decal until I had painted my bedroom, then I would put it up and think of my friend Shauna every time I looked at it. Great plan, right?


Well, my impatience set in during a moment of (brain)weakness and I decided to put up the decal one day. You would think that I would remember that there was a reason that I was waiting to put it up.....OH NO! I was so enthralled with getting this up on my wall, so when Allison visited in July of last year, we measured and put it up. It wasn't until later that I realized my folly......I put the decal up on the WHITE wall that I planned to PAINT! UGH!


So I had to improvise when I actually went to paint my wall - I went out and bought a black frame (no glass or matting - just the frame) and decided to paint around the area and then "frame" the decal on the wall in WHITE. It wasn't my first choice of how to handle this decal, but now that it's done, I kind of like it this way!

Playing with the Breakers

Last week, I really outdid myself - I installed a programmable thermostat by myself! I will admit, I did call my friend Katie to get advice from her husband Steve who is an electrician, but it only took one 10-minute phone call and the instruction manual!

Since my house had the Model-T thermostat from when the house was built (1985 - ya know, the one with the little matchstick thing marking the temperature and you just nudge it one way or the other to adjust the temp - very primitive), I thought it was time to get a new one that I could program, as to save money on the high energy bills with this crazy summer heat (but actually, my winter heating bills were higher than the summer cooling bills - go figure!).

Anyway, I bought the thermostat (it was on sale at Lowe's - just when I was thinking about buying one - must be a sign) and it took about 5 days of psyching myself up to actually cut the breaker and do it. I really should've done it about a month ago when it was not hot yet since you have to shut off the breakers to the A/C unit in order to install it.....which means that for every minute you cannot figure out the new thermostat's wiring, it's a minute that the house is getting hotter. I tried to get all of my materials, tools and resources together before I hit that breaker, but once I did, the pressure was on!

I took off the old thermostat and found a convoluded mess of wires and screws with weird letters next to them. They weren't in a nice neat little labeled row like the new thermostat....NO - they were all over the place! I am convinced that you should have to have some sort of surgical license to install thermostats. I felt like I was playing the game "Operation"!

Anyway, after a nervous call to Steve when I was confused on some of the wires, I figured everything out and re-wired everything in the new thermostat. Then it was the big moment........I flipped the breakers back on.......and then I had to hit the "ON" switch on the thermostat and pray that the unit kicked on (I knew it would start right away because the house was heating up and it surely had some cooling work to do!).

MAGIC - it kicked on immediately with some wonderful cold air! YES!!! Another home improvement victory for the novice! That's just one more notch in my toolbelt!

I'm seriously going to start hiring myself out pretty soon here.......

Shakespeare in the 21st Century

OH, HOW COOL WOULD THIS BE?! I'm not even a Shakespeare fan, really, but this would be so neat. I just LOVE Europe!!

ROME – An Italian soccer player is the first person to marry under the balcony where, legend has it, Romeo wooed Juliet.

Verona Mayor Flavio Tosi conducted Monday's wedding between Luca Ceccarelli, who plays for Hellas Verona, and his Juliet — girlfriend Irene Lanforti — in the 14th-century Casa di Giulietta, or House of Juliet.

The idea is part of a campaign by Verona, where William Shakespeare set his tale of star-crossed lovers, to foster its image as a romantic city.

The House of Juliet is one of the top tourist spots in a city that draws about 1.2 million visitors annually. The building belonged to the Cappello family, traditionally identified with the Capulets, leading to the folklore that the model for Shakespeare's fictional character once lived there.

12 New Commandments

1. Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

2. Make the best of your circumstances. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with gladness of life. The trick is to make laughter outweigh the tears.

3. Don't take yourself too seriously. Don't think that somehow you should be protected from misfortune that befalls other people.

4. You can't please everybody. Don't let criticism worry you.

5. Don't let your neighbor set your standards. Be yourself.

6. Do the things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.

7. Never borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than real ones.

8. Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish jealousy. Avoid people who make you unhappy.

9. Have many interests. If you can't travel, read about new places.

10. Don't hold postmortems. Don't spend your time brooding over sorrows or mistakes. Don't be one who never gets over things.

11. Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.

12. Keep busy at something. A busy person never has time to be unhappy.

Being Understood

Recently I saw this quote on a friend's Facebook page:

"One of the greatest feelings in the world is feeling that you are truly understood by another person."

I think it is SO true and I think we are ALL longing to be understood - by friends, family members, spouses, co-workers, and strangers.

I think this quote struck a chord with me because I feel misunderstood sometimes. Because I am not the 'center-of-attention-loud' person, that can be construed as stuck-up, shy, or just that I don't have much to say......which couldn't be farther from the truth!

I also am wondering if it's possible to find a man to share my life with that will truly 'get' me....because now looking back on my marriage, I honestly don't think my ex-husband really 'got' me. We were together about 8 years, so I think we were 'comfortable' and 'familiar', but I don't think he ever really figured out what I was all about. I think that if I get married again, I am going to have to feel like that person truly understands WHO I am and WHAT makes me tick. And I want to know those very same things about him. I think this level of understanding happens over time, which is probably why I am so against people getting married shortly after meeting or a very short dating life before engagement, etc. I just don't think you can truly know someone, with all of their quirks, habits, dreams, etc. over a short period of time.

Thoughts???

Southern Pride

I saw this sticker on a car that I strangely seem to be parking near several days this week at work. I don't know who the owner of the car is (could be someone I work with, could be a total stranger), but I just thought it was funny.

Southern pride is big down here (well, so is "Texas pride" specifically) and you even see the confederate flag from time to time. This usually conjures up for me an image of all-things-redneck and I immediately think of slavery, the Civil War and racism - all negative connections to that flag. However, down here it is a symbol of southern pride in general and some folks use the confederate flag to convey that. I'm not sure if they just don't realize that northerners and probably even a majority of southerners don't think of warm-fuzzy-pride-in-your-area-of-the-country when they see the confederate flag.....or if they just don't care what anyone else thinks.....I guess it's all about perception.....

Taller, Please!

Yesterday I went down to our office building's cafe/deli to get lunch....I decided to get a salad from the salad bar. However, while making my salad, I experienced one of the annoyances for tall people. I am 5'8" tall without shoes and with any sort of heel, I am about 5'10" or so. That is pretty tall for a woman, but pretty average for men.

Anyway, salad bars are clearly made for shorter people and, of course, built with the sneeze guard (or whatever they call it now) for obvious health reasons and I am totally for that. However....for those of us that are tall, it becomes a contortion act in order to reach the tongs/buckets in the back of the one-sided salad bar when that glass sneeze-guard is in the way. My arms are only SO long! Plus, then you are reaching way into the salad bar and usually there are spills near the front of the salad bar, so you are leaning into spills. And then your purse falls off your shoulder and that shakes your arm, which causes you to spill something while reaching in the back of the salad bar for the shredded carrots! UGH!

To salad bar equipment manufacturers: Please make them taller! We as a people are getting taller and shoes are being made with a lot higher heels, so get with the program!

Who's with me?!

No Smiles?!

I saw this article on the Internet last week and while I normally would've been shaking my head, I actually experienced this when I renewed my passport about a year and a half ago. I went to JC Penney to get my new passport photo taken and I started to smile for the camera and the photographer stopped me and told me I couldn't smile....the government doesn't want me to smile. How cliche.......I guess there's a good reason - preventing FRAUD. How sad........

Four states adopt 'no-smiles' policy for driver's licenses

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

Stopping driver's license fraud is no laughing matter: Four states are ordering people to wipe the grins off their faces in their license photos.

"Neutral facial expressions" are required at departments of motor vehicles (DMVs) in Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia. That means you can't smile, or smile very much. Other states may follow.

The serious poses are urged by DMVs that have installed high-tech software that compares a new license photo with others that have already been shot. When a new photo seems to match an existing one, the software sends alarms that someone may be trying to assume another driver's identity.

But there's a wrinkle in the technology: a person's grin. Face-recognition software can fail to match two photos of the same person if facial expressions differ in each photo, says Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor Takeo Kanade.

Dull expressions "make the comparison process more accurate," says Karen Chappell, deputy commissioner of the Virginia DMV, whose no-smile policy took effect in March.

Elaine Mullen of Great Falls, Va., bristled at the policy while renewing her license until she heard the reasoning. "It's probably safer from a national-security point of view," she says.

Arkansas, Indiana and Nevada allow slight smiles. "You just can't grin really large," Arkansas driver services chief Tonie Shields says.

A total of 31 states do computerized matching of driver's license photos and three others are considering it, says the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Most say their software matches faces regardless of expressions. "People can smile here in Pennsylvania," state Transportation Department spokesman Craig Yetter says.

In Illinois, photo matching has stopped 6,000 people from getting fraudulent licenses since the technology was launched in 1999, says Beth Langen, the state head of Drivers Services.

Contributing: Drew FitzGerald, Marisol Bello

Cajun Ghosts

As a continuation of yesterday's post, here is the REAL reason April and I trekked down to Waxahachie (south of DFW)....to go to The Catfish Plantation restaurant with a Meetup group that we both belong to!


It's a Cajun restaurant that specializes in....you guessed it....catfish. YUCK. I don't like seafood, fish or really anything super spicy....so I had to choose between the 3 chicken meals. But I really wasn't going down there for the food.


It is rumored (and proven?) that this restaurant is haunted by several friendly ghosts - former inhabitants of the house. The owners who turned this old house into The Catfish Plantation about 20 years ago have even brought in many paranormal groups and professionals to document the 'activity'. We didn't hear/see any ghosts while we were there, but that's probably because we were very loud, obnoxious and crazy!



There were about 10 of us and the only person I had met before was April. Almost all were native Texans, but there were 2 ladies from New Orleans and man, they had the accents to prove it! It was AWESOME! I felt like I was in a cross between the Ya Ya Sisterhood and Steel Magnolias in this beautiful old turn-of-the-century southern home eating Cajun food. The ladies were sassy, funny and loud - it was JUST what I needed! I don't remember the last time I laughed that much and that hard.


We are going to plan a trip to an old plantation in Louisiana (the 2 Louisiana girls are going to be the resident experts on the trip - they know all the good places to go). I'm totally stoked because I have never been to Louisiana and I really want to go! ROAD TRIP!


PS - No ghost sightings when we were there, but the long hallway back to the bathroom was kind of creepy.........