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/

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