Memorial Day weekend

What a long weekend!
My friend Angela came in from Cali to visit. I admit I had some trepidation about the whole trip.

First there was the fact that I never know what to show people to do in Dallas
and
Second I had not seen her in almost ten years.

It's funny, we figured out that we worked together in Cville for about 2 years and haven't seen each other in almost 10. We've kept in touch through emails and phone calls, but just never connected a trip together.

I think part of the reason, was what I was going through during that stage of my life. And after talking this weekend, it seems it was a dark time for both of us, so maybe we helped each other out more than we each think.

Most of the trip seemed to revolve around food. We took her Saturday night to the Brazillian steak house Master Grill (two thumbs up). Afterwards we toodled around Firewheel Mall and ended up having coffee and shopping in Barnes & Noble.

Sunday Robely and Angela went shopping up at the outlet mall, while I stayed home and tallied reports for my Bloodbowl league. Angela wanted Tex-Mex so we tried to go to Dos Banderas downtown, but they shut early on Sunday, so we ended up at Cristina's Mexican Restaurant in Firewheel (also two thumbs up). After dinner we gave her a driving tour of downtown Dallas, which she seemed to enjoy, but her Robely both were wiped out from shopping.

Monday we decided to head up to Durant for the casino (excuse me- Choctaw Entertainment Center). They had a new Star Wars bingo machine. While I was throwing my money away Robely and Angela found some Indian dancing to watch. This made Angela happy, as she had hoped to see "real Indians" at the casino. I guess Robely isn't real enough or something. The two of them also had a blast at the visitor center, planning a future touristy trek through Oklahoma. Come late afternoon we headed back to the Messoplex and stopped for ice cream at Braum's (I swear Robely must get paid to advertise for them!) and dinner at Texas Land Cattle (quickly dropping on my list of places to eat). They also had me stop at the outlet mall so they could do some more shopping and insisted that I get something. (I ended up with two nice shirts from Casual Male- snazzy)

Tuesday was back to work for me, while Robely and Angela went downtown to visit shopping Mecca- Neimann Marcus. They also ran around and did some touristy things. A sad but true point was that Robely took Angela to the JFK memorial and Angela knew nothing about any of it. Oh the folly of youth! I thought everyone had seen Oliver Stone's JFK at least. Well at least Robely provided some edu-macation for her trip. We were kind of undecided for dinner thinking BBQ was about the only thing we left out of the Texas fare. But I think we were pretty much colon stuffed full of meat at this point. So I made the executive decision of Razzoo's (a local Cajun chain). It was adequate, but Angela didn't seem to thrilled (actually she seemed scared) by the place.

After dinner we headed back to the house and Angela and I poured some brandy and really talked. It was a good talk, and sort of a shame it took me three days to open up to this point. And they kept me up too late discussing and saying our goodbyes (luckily Robely took her to the airport at 6 in the morning). So it turned out to be a great trip and look forward to doing it again.

She ran screaming, "Wildflower".....

So for our anniversary this year, Robely and I decided to start the weekend off at the 15th annual Wildflower Festival in Richardson. Tons of bands, foods and a great festival atmosphere.
The original plan was to meet up with some friends from work and go see John Waite and Eddie Money, but upon our arrival I finally looked at the program and changed my mind.

We found great seats off one of the "side stages" and settled in for Fastball, Soul Asylum and Better Than Ezra. Now don't get me wrong, John Waite and Eddie Money are great, but I was in a more rocking mood.

Wonderful shows, and Robely kicked back in her portable easy chair with a couple of Bacardi Mojitos. I think we'll have to mark the calendar for next year.....
Robely wants to go back tomorrow for the Pink Floyd laser show, but we'll see how those mojitos feel in the morning.

Penal Regiment

I just finished reading, The Last True story I'll Ever Tell and was kind of shocked. I had heard an interview with the author before, which led me to the book. What I found shocking was the conditions that these National Guardsman had to put up with and the red tape because they were not considered "professional soldiers". In addition, the length of stay, that outnumbered those of the "professional soldiers" sort of sent my mind reeling. Even now, we here in the media of National Guardsman that have been abroad longer than originally stated.
Another problem that worries me is prison overcrowding. The Dallas County prisons have failed the last three state inspections and their main solution to fix the problem? Release some of the inmates.

Now I think I have come up with a solution that has precedents in history. Let's offer those in prison the chance to enlist! We know the armed forces have been lowering their standards in order to meet recruiting goals, so why not send recruiters into the prisons?
Currently prisoners are a drain on society and produce little benefit other than cleaner roads.

However, if we were to allow these men and women the chance to really earn their keep and excercise their patriotism, we might see some positive results. Prisoners could be given the chance to work off their sentence in the armed forces (special penal battalions or regiments) and in the process, hopefully gain useful skills and socialization. An added bonus would be to transfer the economic strain of prisoners upkeep from the states to the federal government.

I'm not speaking a carte blanche amnesty. The recruiters would still have a say over who is allowed in and they would still be required to pass the standard admittance procedures. Whether to arm them or use them as support personnel is best left up to the joint chiefs.

We've already got gangs going into the military, let's give the rest of the prisoners a chance.

another wtf moment

I'm not sure what to say about this one....
From KXMB CBS12
Canadians Want To Put Big Foot On The Endangered Species List
May 7 2007 12:00AM
http://sayanythingblog.com/index.php

Crazy Canucks...

The reason Bigfoot is not often seen is not just because he is shy, but also because he is an endangered species, according to a Canadian MP.

Mike Lake has called for the Sasquatch to be protected under Canada’s species at risk act, alongside Blue Whales, Whooping Cranes and Red Mulberry trees.

His petition, which has been signed by more than 500 of his constituents and will be presented to parliament this week, reads: “The debate over their (Bigfoot’s) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing. Therefore, the petitioners request the House of Commons to establish immediate, comprehensive legislation to affect immediate protection of Bigfoot.”

Sounds sort of like the global warming situation to me. Anthropogenic global warming is a hypothesis, at best, with so many holes and loose ends that we don’t know if the globe is getting warmer because of GMC Yukons or simply because we’ve been exiting an ice age for the past 10,000 years or so. Yet still the global warming zealots want all sorts of legislation based on the idea that a) global warming is absolutely caused by human activity and b) any sort of changes to our activity can stop it.

It’s madness.

Groannnn

Dork Tower, Monday, April 23