Hubbudy Hubbudy

This evening Emily and I went over to Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall to see Bill Cosby. We were both surprised when he said that he was 70 years old. Seems like it was just yesterday that we were watching him on TV when he was a lot younger (but then again so were we). We had a great time, and found particular humor in this 15 minute bit he did about going to the dentist and having "smoke" come out of his mouth. Guess you'd have to have been there, but trust us, it was funny.

Next weekend we're going to try and head back to Fort Worth to do some biking on the Trinity Parkway, which is a large park that follows the Trinity River that runs near the downtown area- we'll try to post some pics from our ride.

A parkbench in Louisville

This past sunday and monday I found myself in Louisville, KY at an interview for a position in their graduate Endodontic residency program (no yeh or neh as of current). I decided that the evening before I'd head downtown to the health-sciences campus and just take a walk around, and get a feel for the campus. After walking around for a while, and not really seeing anything of interest, I decided to sit down, relax a bit, and then give Emily a call and check-in, when something from out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

This something happened to be a modest fall-colored leaf, a leaf that most of us would probably step on or walk right by ordinarily, especially those of you still in the Midwest, as it is a more than common occurrence this time of year. However, since moving down here to Dallas, I've come to realize that this will probably be my first fall without the customary fall colors...according to one of my fellow residents, basically the leaves down here just turn brown, dry up, and fall off...kind of depressing if you ask me.

So it was at this point that I realized that this one solitary leaf was most likely going to be my only exposure, my only connection to the fact that elsewhere in the country, fall was beginning...and so I sat for about 20 minutes, without anyone complaining about how many photos I was taking of the same subject, and studied the leaf, and it was great. I know, small pleasures, but what can I say...it was just great to see a fall leaf.

Balloon Frenzy

This last weekend, prior to Chris' departure to Louisville Sunday for an interview, found us heading to a well to do suburban area north of Dallas called Plano, TX. Again, one of Chris' patients instructed Chris that there was a great hot air balloon festival that took place annually in this town, and was worthy of a visit. So we decided to check it out, partly because we really had nothing else too exciting planned, and also because we had never really been able to witness a hot air balloon take off and land, let alone many at the same time, so to Plano we headed. After sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour (apparently this balloon shin dig is pretty popular), we finally parked about a mile from the park where the balloons were to take off. We hiked in, and ended up having a great time. The balloons took off at around 7PM, after which time at 8PM they landed and had a "glowing" fest where all the balloons fired their engines at the same time at dusk to light up. We thought it was pretty cool, and we captured some pics for your viewing pleasure....

The Energizer Bunny becomes erect...

The bottom of the basket says "Hi Mom"

Ahhh....the Afterglow....

Grapefest...minus the grapes

A few weeks ago we heard about a "wine festival" called Grapefest in Grapevine TX. So, in order to escape the Gay Pride Parade down the street from us (wish we were joking), we packed up and drove to this acclaimed wine festival. After parking and walking 6 blocks to the entrance, Emily had the sensation that she was entering the Iowa State Fair rather than a wine festival. We paid $8 per person just to enter. Our senses we overwhelmed with the smells of giant grilled turkey legs, funnel cakes and corn dogs. But where was the wine? We walked for 15 minutes before we came upon the first "tasting." For $4.50 (or in terms of festival currency, 9 tickets) we purchased a small glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from an unknown Texas winemaker. Had it not been for the fact that it had been sitting out on the shelf all day in 95+ heat, it may not have been so bad, however, the heat had nearly boiled the wine so that when it first touched our lips we thought our taste buds had liquefied. Needless to say, we moved on. We found several more winery tasting venues, this time in actual buildings. But the 20+ minute wait for one taste wasn't worth it to us so we decided we'd take a rain check and come back when the festival wasn't in full swing. But, at least we now know there are some wineries around and plenty of (indoor) tasting rooms to explore. Who would have thought Texas would make wine? Guess there is one good thing about Texas.

"Grapefest" in a town aptly called Grapevine, TX (check out the banner text)

Flooding of Lake Grapevine from all the summer rains, the lake is +12 ft., which apparently doesn't stop the locals from eating out at the flooded picnic shelters! We had a good laugh out of that.

As a side note, we found a really great Arts district in Texas. We had heard about the DADA art counsel from one of Chris' patients who happens to be an artist herself, and that they were putting on an arts festival Saturday only. We checked it out and it was definitely one of the highlights of our time here so far. Lots of great galleries, wine etc to be had in just one small area of Dallas known as the Design District. We're talking about 50+ galleries in just a few short blocks. Of course now we just need to start saving for the $600 map of Iowa circa 1864 that Chris wants...


Song of the day: "Bouncing off Clouds" by Tori Amos

Downtown Dallas Pics

Now that the weather is finally cooling off a bit, (by that we mean low 90's) we ventured out this weekend to photograph some areas of downtown Dallas for all of you to see. As time permits in the next few weeks we're going to try to get more images of our immediate neighborhood, but at least this is a start...

Song of the day: "If you were here" by Cary Brothers

Here kitty kitty...

We have a homeless cat who lives at the door to our apartment club house. I have named him Yogi. This cat is part bear (hence the name). You will find out shortly why. Yogi first endeared himself to me as I left the gym last Saturday morning. I walked out the door and this cute little cat stood up (he likes to lay on the carpet next to the door) and proceeded to rub himself against my leg. I reached down and petted him, causing him to make dough of the carpet. I went back inside and asked our apartment agent if he was someone's pet and he said that the cat must have been at some point since he's so tame. He said little kitty kitty had been out there for a few days, always ready to greet someone coming or going. So, I went home and told Chris to check out the cat when he went to work out. Well, needless to say, he wanted to save the little guy from hustling on the streets. Chris was fearful he'd get in with the wrong crowd of wild cats that live across the street in an abandoned building. So, that evening I was dragged back up the street to the clubhouse to feed the cat MY can of tuna. We left him that evening to slumber on the carpet with thoughts that we would call the shelters on Sunday to try and get him in. Sunday comes and Yogi still remains, although this morning the cat runs from me as I try to pet it and won't allow us to get within 5 feet. Obviously someone hurt him last night. This solidifies Chris' resolve to save little kitty kitty. I was unable to find an empty shelter so we decided to take him in ourselves. Yes, I agreed to adopt a cat. So, we prepared ourselves by going to Target and gathering the necessary supplies, including flea shampoo since kitty kitty had a nasty itch. We stopped with the car on the way home and tempted the cat to get close to us with the food. Now, at this point I'm thinking this might not be a good idea since Yogi won't come close easily, but Chris would not be deterred. So, once he seemed nice and comfortable....I attempted the kitty scoop. I picked him up (lovingly of course) and proceeded to attempt to get him in the car. This is when Yogi turned into a bear. His claws came out and tore chunks of flesh from my arm. I yell to Chris "open the door" and then "gently" toss Yogi into the back seat. At what appeared to be superkitty speed, the kitty kitty jumped at the passenger window, bounced off, flew (yes flew) past me, ran across the street and joined ranks with the wild cats behind a junked out car. Now, nice little kitty kitty continues to live on the street living the hustler life. We kept the bag of food we bought and returned the other goodies. Chris still feels bad (despite my arm missing pieces) and feeds the little bastard. Good luck kitty.


Song of the day: "Vagabond" by Unkle Bob

Bruce & Tina Play House

Well, Sunday evening, after finally getting home from our second weekend in a row of delayed flights, I got a call from none other than Bruce, saying that indeed, and I quote, "Tina went and got herself knocked up." Always quick to blame Tina for his mishaps, Bruce dropped the bomb that he and Tina are 4 months pregnant. A link to their official announcement can be found here.

Some of you may remember Bruce from our wedding...not a pretty sight.

We figured a momentous event, or should I say announcement, deserved a separate entry. In that vain, both Emily and I want to give them our best wishes, and sincerely hope that their child doesn't resemble Bruce (see above for evidence).

Planes, Trains, and Weddings

Yes, we do still exist in the land of Texas...for those few of you that actually are still checking in from time to time here, we've been pretty busy lately. Since the weekends serve as are our main "blogging" time, and we've been out of town the last few weekends, we haven't had much time to keep the site updated. Our apologies! The past few weekends were spent either at an airport, on a plane, traveling to and from a wedding by car, or attending a wedding. The bulk of the time however was spent at a handful of airports. The first wedding we attending was Jeff and Marcy Russell (Chris' cousin). To better understand the experience let us present a time line...

Emily: Got up nice and early Friday morning. Ran some errands, happy to have plenty of time to spare before heading to DFW for her 10:00am flight. Arrived at the remote parking around 7:55, walked 10 minutes to the pick up site and was shuttled to the airport (current time 8:10.) Did the kiosk check in and was perplexed to see that her boarding time was 8:20. Come to find out she read the arrival time as the departure time and now had to book it to catch her flight (which then included a rush through 1st class security and a race down the terminal). Made the flight to the layover in Kansas City, only to be told after sitting there for an hour and a half that the plane she was to depart on had a broken navigation part that would need to be flown in from none other than DFW. Fast forward 3 hours, part fixed, boarded plane, part broke...yes...again! ...again fixed and arrived in Chicago nearly 5 hours late. On trip back to Dallas, flight late 45 minutes leaving Chicago, resulting in narrowly making layover in Tulsa. Arrived back home on time.

Chris: Worked all day on nasty teeth, drove an hour in rush hour traffic (current temp. outside=102F, no air conditioning in car) to DFW and parked in express parking because remote was full. Took timely shuttle to airport and breezed through security with plenty of time to spare before his 7:55pm departure. Overhead announcement states that the plane that he was to take has a flat tire and they need approx 15-30 minutes to fix it. An hour later, still looking for replacement...only to cancel the flight! He was able to get a red-eye in the morning and was even upgraded to 1st class (he flirted with the booking agent). Finally arrived a day late and with only 2 hours to spare until we were to leave for the wedding. On the flight back, arrived with plenty of time (again) and ended up with a 5 hour delay which was blamed (this time) on Newark, NJ. (funny...that's what they told Emily as to why her flight out was delayed...hmmm...) Chris, who was to leave 15 minutes before Emily and arrive home 3 hours before, ended up arriving a 1/2 hr after Emily. Home sweet home.

Who says you can't make the best of a layover?

Finally the weekend began. We drove to Rockford, IL with Chris' parents for the wedding. It was beautiful and well done and quite possibly served the best Italian beef ever in the history of Italian beef at the reception. Lots of family time had by all.

The newlyweds...

1) One happy family 2) Seems like we were just at one of these recently... 3) Who's the growing boy? 4) Anya pulls a fast one on Emily

A snippet of what has kept the romance over the years for this couple

Sunday we left bright and early for Middleton, WI. For those of you wondering where we might end up one of these days, if still in the Midwest... we're seriously considering this great "suburb" of Madison. We heard about it from Money magazine as it was rated the best place to live this year. We surveyed neighborhoods, hospitals, parks and the cities themselves and loved what we saw. Only drawback...winter! More family time spent grilling in Middleton...can you tell how much fun we were having?

In summary of the weekend. Great time spent with family...horrible time for travel.

And 5 days later....we tried our hand at flying again...this time to Zach and Amanda Dannenbring's wedding in Sioux City, IA.

Saturday morning we got up at 4:30am to make it to the airport early enough for our 8:00am flight. (yes...we know...completely unnecessary to get there so early, but Emily was fearful of missing the flight) Surprisingly...no problems with this flight!!! However, our ride to the wedding was with Chris' dental friend Nathan and his girlfriend Stephanie who were driving from Denver, CO. So, although we had no technical layovers, we ended up at the airport for 5 hours anyway. But, at least this one was planned and we had plenty of reading materials. We had a great trip to Sioux City catching up with them. While Nathan was excited to see us, he wasn't too happy about the bugs that littered his brand new Honda CR-V...however Chris could relate to this mentality. We made it to the wedding with 5 minutes to spare, and had a great time that evening. Their wedding was unique in that they had the ceremony in the Sioux City Arts Center downtown. It was beautiful and well planned out. Another great reception followed but most of all we had a great time catching up with friends. And of course dancing...

1) The Dannenbrings 2) Zach & Nathan with Chris 3) Emily and Stefanie laugh at Chris' dance moves 4) A happy couple the next morning at Perkins 5) Nathan after 5 beers

Sunday, we headed back to Omaha at 10am to catch the return flight. This wasn't until 3:20pm, but the time was well spent waiting because Emily's family drove from Des Moines to meet Chris & Emily for lunch and spend some time catching up before we had to check in. This was an unexpected bonus since it was planned last minute on Saturday during the 5 hour wait. Yippee!

However, our elation regarding the great weekend was suddenly put to a halt...you guessed it...our flight back to Dallas was delayed 3 hours! Dallas apparently was deluged by storms and flights were halted in and out of DFW. But, we made it home safely, albeit late.