Trick or treat...or trick...

Never again will I attempt to plan a hike at a Texas State Park. It was a beautiful day and I told Chris I would plan a hike around Dallas. So, I searched out the parks within an hours drive and came across Lake Tawakoni. I came across this picture on their website and thought cool...they have trees...something seriously lacking in the great outdoors of Texas.

Now, what I should have been thinking was, those are spiderwebs...why is that tree covered in spiderwebs? However, I was excited to be hiking in trees and never gave a second thought to spiders.

What the *#@!&$% kind of trail is this?!!!

So, we drove an hour to the great looking park. Lots of wooded areas, great Lake views, and hiking trails. We ate our apples we packed for a snack then ventured into the great outdoors. Within minutes Chris was trapped in a spiderweb, which prompted him to let out his Homer Simpson yelp. ( you know the one!) I just laughed and continued on, a little bit surprised that there were so many spiderwebs. We hiked and Chris was getting seriously pissed, stopping ever other minute and asking me if there were any spiders in his hair. No spiders, just sticky fibers. I joked that it was usually me wanting to turn back at which he replied that this was no regular hike. At the next turn in the path I again hear the H.S. yelp followed by "oh God, you've got a spider on you!!!" At that exact moment (I was leading the way at this point) I had spotted the largest cobweb in history complete with a giant black fuzzy spider the size of my head (well maybe really the size of a nickle, but the thing was huge!). I looked down and sure enough there was a big spider on ME! Chris freaks out and backs away saying "I'm getting out of here!" I brush off the spider and decide it's a good idea to turn back as the black burly one wasn't going to let us go any farther. So ended our hike. To add insult to injury, we pass a lady on our way out and she asked, "did you see any spiders, are they bad?" We told her to not even try it (although she came prepared with her pants tucked into her socks and a hoodie cinched tightly around her face.)

Ugh! Are we ever going to enjoy this weather and get out and hike!

Song of the Day: "Sleeping Lessons'' by The Shins

Bill Cosby on Dentists

An old classic, but worth sharing b/c we saw this skit in person and thought it was great...well mostly Chris thought it was great, for obvious reasons.

Infrared Action

In case you haven't read our past entries lately, our weather continues to rock! The weather.com 10 day forecast calls for sunny days, with highs in the lows 70's and 10% humidity.

So as luck would have it on a beautiful friday afternoon in Dallas, I got out of my CE course (on all things..."digital photography in the dental office") early and decided to explore some of the Turtle Creek park area by bike, and with a camera in hand (well not really in hand, but in backpack, then on tripod).

Eager to try out my relatively new and unused Hoya IR 72 infrared filter, I figured I'd experiment and see what I could come up with. Below are the spooky results...

Spoke too soon

Ok, I may have spoke too soon when I said read it and weep in regards to our weather. We ended up having another beautiful day yesterday, only to wake up this morning to find out that we had our high for the day at midnight last night. A high of 56 I might add. Here I am, nursing my sunburn and wearing sweat pants and slippers. What gives? I could hardly bring myself to workout this morning (it's a block walk to the gym) and probably wouldn't have ventured out if Chris didn't drop me at the door. Did I mention it was also raining? The walk back was quite a shock to the system since I was sweaty, hot and tired, only to walk out into 30 mile per hour winds and rain. Needless to say...I ran all the way home. Now, to resist turning on the heat...

Song of the day: "Life in Rain" by Remy Zero

A ride through the neighborhood

What can we say, another beautiful day was had here in the DFW Metroplex. Almost zero humidity, with highs in the low to mid 80's, a steady breeze, and not a cloud in the sky...could you possibly ask for better weather?

We thought not, and so decided to get up early this morning to get a workout in and go out to our favorite breakfast joint before heading outside for most of the remainder of the day.

While we're aware that we've been pretty harsh on Dallas' less than appealing weather since we've moved down here, we feel it's our responsibility to make sure we give it it's proper due when it is nice.

After breakfast, Chris finally got a pic of his favorite gay/lesbian poster in the neighborhood, which you can look at below. Chris' only regret is that the local lesbians don't more accurately resemble the ones portrayed in the poster.

Is a comment really needed here?

After Chris' photo frenzy was over, we headed out for a bike ride on the local Katy Trail. Chris has ventured onto this trail at night, but had yet to see it during the day. It's literally a 3-5 min. bike ride from our front door, so it was nice to not have to hook up the bike rack to get to the trail. The trail (a converted railbed) takes you through the Uptown area of Dallas and through Highland Park, the extremely posh area of north Dallas (think old oil money).

1) The Katy Trail 2) Random picture of Chris' bike while stopping for a water-break

After heading north until the trail ended, we rode through some of the monstrosity residences that could easily be mistaken for churches, and then again headed south on the trail. The southern most tip of the trail ends on the west-end of downtown in a newly renovated area called Victory Park. Victory Park consists of a few architecturally striking buildings, among them the new W hotel, and the American Airlines Center (complete with moving stadium-size flatscreens that play music videos and short artsy videos as they move around you in the courtyard).


1) AA center and W to the left, Reunion Tower to the right 2) View to downtown from Victory Park

3 & 4) Statuetes in Victory Park...even the statues have implants!


5) A woman walking a dog with a Superman costume...typical in our neck of the woods

We then decided to head back home before the sun hit it's peak so we could soak up some rays by the pool. We figured we should probably try to work on a bit of a tan so that we don't completely get fried when we head down to Cancun in November for Ryan and Megan's wedding. Safe to say, Chris got pretty badly toasted.

So that was our Sunday...we hope all is well with everyone else.

Browsing for a place to live

Ever since we left Iowa City and came to Dallas, we have endlessly discussed what type of place we would ultimately like to settle in. Knowing that Dallas was a mere yearlong stop, we've contemplated where our next step will be (although Chris has done most of the contemplation).

Iowa City was basically our home for 9 years, and we became pretty comfortable with the area, made lots of lasting friendships, and came away with many great memories...you could say we were settled.

But now we're looking for that next phase in our life, where we ultimately would like to live, work, have kids...you know, all that adult type stuff. Our basic problem is this...we can't make up our minds!

Endless hours have been devoted to sites like Money.com to look at what different areas of the country have to offer. We've even taken exams on the web to evaluate what cities, based on our likes/dislikes, would suit us.

Chris loves what the northwest has to offer in terms of scenery and recreation, but Emily's convinced that she'd be on SSRI's the rest of her life due to the rain. The midwest of course offers us the ability to be close to friends and family, a huge plus, but we feel like there would be little in the way of new experiences for us. And then of course there is the east coast, Emily's favorite.

So what's a midwest couple in Dallas to do? We figured if we couldn't seem to figure it out on our own, that maybe we could enlist the help of our wide readership to help clarify our decision. So newly added to the blog on the right you'll find an unbiased poll where Chris & Emily give you, the reader, the option to weigh in on the dilemma. See how much trust we put in you guys?

Let us know what you think...

Read it and weep

So, for those of you in the great midwest region, or wherever you may live, let us reflect on the fact that we live in Texas. Dallas, oh glorious place of glorious places. Why you may ask? Because it is October 20th and we have temps in the high 80's. Yes, we went to the pool today, basking in the wonderful sun in the middle of October. No coats for us, no sweaters, not even jeans. No, we are wearing bathing suits. And sweating. Oh yes, there are good things about Texas (albeit just one...well two if you consider Central Market). And the best thing is that people that are from here consider this cold, so no one else is out enjoying this perfect weather. They feel, and I quote, that "it's damn cold." So, occasionally we have something good to say about Texas and you read it here. Bring on winter with it's low's in the 30's and 40's! As Mr. Burns would say, "eeexxcellent."


Song of the day: "Videotape" by Radiohead

Why Grandma Shouldn't Skydive

Some of you may have already seen this, but it makes an excellent case for implant retained dentures!

Cooler Weather!

Well, while the upper midwest is finally starting to feel the chilling effects of fall, things are definitely looking up weather wise in our neck of the woods. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past week, with daytime temps in the mid 80's (sans humidity), and evening temps in the upper 60's. Not that this beautiful "fall" Texas weather has convinced us otherwise into wanting to stay here past this year, but it has definitely come as a welcome break from the mid to upper 90's that was common for the past few months since we moved down here. The past few days we have actually turned the air conditioning off in favor of the cooler weather outside, imagine that!

So we figured with our newfound coolfront, that we'd try to get outside and enjoy some fresh air. Last weekend we had planned on bike riding the Trinity River Trail in Fort Worth, but unfortunately it rained most of the weekend...pretty rare in Texas.

This weekend ended up being a fairly short one for both of us...on Saturday Chris attended a CE course, and Emily worked overtime (apparently she felt at a loss for things to do without Chris) to help chip away at our impending credit card bill due to our recent plethora of plane ticket purchases.

Sunday found us a little bit tired from the long week, but we decided to venture back to Fort Worth and check out the bike trail. After getting a new inner tube for Emily's bike, we drove the hour long drive to Fort Worth and enjoyed a light bikeride along the river. We both regretted not bringing the camera on the ride to include more pics for the blog, as there were some great views of the city from the park, so we figure we'll have to head back there again and bring the camera along.

Still going strong at 18 years...what a babe magnet!

After getting back to Dallas and watching the rest of the Cowboy's game, we met up with one of Chris' fellow residents and his wife for a mexican fiesta at Uncle Julio's, our newfound favorite mexican restaurant.

So all in all a short weekend, and not to mention Iowa ended up defeating Illinois, so at least Iowa's football season hasn't been a total disaster (well, pretty much). Hopefully they can at least pull out a victory against Northwestern so that Vamsi can't laugh at Iowa two years in a row, but I wouldn't count on it the way they're playing so far.

A drizzly weekend

Well...this weekend we had planned on heading back to the Fort Worth area to do some bike riding, but as the weather would have it, there was intermittent drizzle and rain most of the weekend (unusual for the area), which deterred us from our original plans.

Friday night we got a call from one of Chris' Iowa dental alum Rachel Hardinger, saying that she was going to be in Dallas for the Texas vs. Oklahoma game (which makes the Iowa vs. Iowa State rivalry look paltry). Rachel had a vested interest in the game, as she's a first year orthodontic resident at Oklahoma U. So Saturday evening we met up with her and a few of her fellow residents for some Mexican and headed out to a local club downtown for some post-dinner beer drinking. (As an aside, valet parking was $20 just to get into the club, then $10 cover - and we hadn't even had a beer yet). A great evening was had by all, even for hanging out with a bunch of orthodontists.

Sunday found us heading to the suburb of Richardson, TX for the Cottonwood Art Festival. Chris had found an ad for it in the newspaper, and figured since the weather was so sketchy that this might be a decent alternative. We had pretty low expectations heading into it, so it was a great surprise when we finally arrived at the fair, because it turned out to be one of the best fine art fests that either of us had been to. There were hundreds of artists, and we were shocked by how many artists had traveled from the coasts just to attend. At any rate, we found some work we really enjoyed, which made us wish we actually had some disposable income. Some of our favorites are linked below.

Hopefully next weekend the weather will cooperate and we'll get out for some bike riding...

http://www.seanfitzgerald.com/ (take some time on this site, and read the artists' bio)

http://www.bigtreestudio.com/

http://www.rebeccavillarrealphotography.com/

http://www.sondrawampler.com/

http://www.cheryltoh.com/ (Emily liked this artist)

http://www.chrisdahlquist.com/

http://www.wansstudio.com/