Happy Birthday Mary!

We have this little "tradition" going where I work where we all go to lunch on someones birthday and treat them to a free meal. The birthday person gets to choose where we eat. Our very special September birthday lady is Mary.

Mary's actual birthday was last Sunday. But, we all got together for lunch on Tuesday to wish her well. Mary chose this fabulous restaurant called East Wind. The photo above is all of us looking festive at the table. That's Mary, there on the left in the navy top.

We went sort of on the late side, so we had the place virtually to ourselves shortly after the meal began. The acoustics in the place were conducive to actually carrying on a conversation the length of the table, so it was nice to catch up with everyone and to toast Mary all at the same time.

Cheers, Mary, and here's to many more Happy Birthdays!

Dinner with Uncle Jim

Uncle Jim and S

Monday night, we had a special treat to have dinner with one of my relatives. Of course, we have dinner with S's relatives all the time. They all live here and we see them regularly. But, since my family lives a bit further away, getting to visit with one of them is very special.

My Uncle Jim - my dad's younger brother - was in town on business. He was staying in Grapevine, so S and I headed out that way to visit with him. We had some barbecue and caught up on what he was doing in town, how his family is, where he's traveling next, what sort of gigs his band is doing, and much more. It was really nice he took time out of his work schedule to visit with us. It was also nice to visit with him one on one. When we go to Indiana, there are so many people to see, we rarely get around to everyone we want to see and then even when we do, there is rarely time to just visit one on one and really catch up.

Thanks, Uncle Jim, for dinner, and for sharing your evening with us!

Ft Worth on a Fall Day

For those of you not from these parts, you probably think of this part of the world as Dallas-Ft. Worth because of the airport. Sort of like Minneapolis-St. Paul, I guess. But, Dallas and Ft. Worth are about 30-40 minutes apart from downtown to downtown, and worlds apart in many ways. Dallas is much larger and cosmopolitan, Ft. Worth coins itself the "gateway to the West". Dallas has many great museums, places to go and things to see. But, Ft. Worth, being that they have one family that sees to it the city gets what it needs, has amassed a wonderful collection of museums, a world class zoo, the world famous stockyards, etc. There's a lot to see there too.

The Kimbell Art Museum is hosting an exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, and I wanted to take that in before it was gone. Southern Living Magazine also built one of their "Idea Homes" in Ft. Worth this year. And, there is this fabulous Mexican restaurant over there with a beautiful patio that goes on for days, perfect to eat at when the weather is as it has been in the past few weeks. So, I set out to find someone to drive to Ft. Worth with me to make a day of it.

My mother-in-law was the only one who took the bait, so we set the date for last Saturday and headed out across the prairie early in the day to beat the crowds.

First stop - Kimbell Art Museum

Of course, this is the only photo I have of this stop since you can't take photos of the art. But, the exhibit was nice. I will say, however, I was not impressed with the audio tour. I am normally I big proponent of the audio tour, because it gives you information that you can't fit on that little placard next to the art. And, the more you know about something, the more engaging it is, I think. But this audio tour would be for one painting in a room of paintings, and didn't talk at all about how the paintings or artists related to one another. And, the talk about the one piece of art on the audio tour was so in depth you felt as if you were hogging the space in front of that painting from others to listen to the whole thing. It also caused sort of a "traffic jam" around that piece of art in each room. I think a good audio tour helps you understand why certain paintings are in a exhibition side by side, helps move you through the exhibit and teaches you a little more than you might have known going in. I thought this was was pretty lame.

The exhibition, however, was not lame. There were several well known impressionist works I've seen in textbooks or on birthday cards hundreds of time hanging on a wall right in front of me. That was really cool. It was also interesting to see the scale of some of the well known works - you have no idea the size of the original at times. One really funny thing - one of the Renoirs in the exhibit hung in my mother's living room when I was a child. Well, not the real one, of course, but a reproduction of it. There it was, as big as day, in its original form. That was pretty cool.

Second stop - Southern Living Idea House

We went to the museum first, because it opened an hour earlier, and we thought if we got there around opening time we could miss some of the crowds. That was a good bet - we did miss a larger crowd that had assembled by the time we left. Similarly, we arrived at the idea house close to the time it opened. This also turned out to be a good bet. It, too, was more crowded when we left.

Generally speaking, I was less impressed with this idea house than one we saw a few years ago in Frisco. That house was larger and more "tricked out". But this house had a coziness to it - a livability that was nice. And, I have a lot of photos of the house because, well, you could photograph it. So I did.

The front walk and entry door. (And, my mother-in-law leading the way.)


From the kitchen into the main living area.


The chandelier in the main living area.


The main living area from above.


I thought this chair in the main living area looked comfy.


This was on the large kitchen island. I just thought it was nice.


Another little bauble I thought was nice - this time an urn next to the sink.

Check out those countertops - yes, that's right, that is completely expensive but totally impractical limestone for the countertops. Pretty, but no thank you.

I did think this backsplash was nice around the stove.

I didn't get a picture of the coolest thing in the kitchen though - it was a microwave oven that was a pull out drawer! Cool. Very cool.

Looking out the back door towards the back yard.


Out the main living area doors to the beautiful covered patio.

Then, we headed into the master bedroom and bath with huge closet. Here are the highlights.

Across from the bed, a secretary and pretty needlepoint chair.

The use of needlepoint in the house was interesting. I'm thinking its a trend we'll see around these parts for a few years. They had some vintage needlepoint pillows framed on a wall, some needlepoint accents in the main living area, etc.

Then, off the bathroom came the closet. I need this closet, don't you think?

Mirrored at one end - there we are standing at the other end.


All this closet space made me a little maniacal...we'll call this, "Self Portrait in Awe"

Oddly placed mirror at the other end - where you can check out only your bottom half.
There's my bottom half.

Then, we headed to the upstairs part of the house.

One of the cool mod art posters in the jack and jill bathroom upstairs.


The upstairs hallway that went between bedrooms and an upstairs media room and laundry.


And, the best part of the upstairs - this grand terrace off the media room.


Another shot of this great upper level terrace.

All in all, it was a lovely walk through a pretty house that raised some money for charity. After the tour of the house, we headed north to Joe T's, arriving right at noon, right before the rush.

When you walk into the Joe T's patio, this is what you see.


This was the view to the right of our table.

And, this was the view to the left. At least in this photo you can see its really a restaurant!

The food is good the margaritas are even better, and the atmosphere is priceless. If you live in Dallas and can give me even one patio this good, please do. I want to go there. Dallas has crappy patios - I can think of a couple decent ones, but generally they are right next to where the cars are whizzing by and you get to smell the exhaust. Or they are so small there is no place to ever sit. Or, they are full of smokers. Or, they just don't exist. So, you know, Joe T's in Ft. Worth, in my opinion is wonderful.

Let's take another look at that patio for a second, shall we?

The top of that beautiful tree in the photo above.

A lovely walkway down to another area of the large patio.


Don't you just want to walk on down there?

It was a great day in Ft. Worth. Thanks for sharing it with me!

A Special Anniversary

John, Jennifer and baby Jack

One of S's oldest and dearest friends, John, celebrated a very important anniversary at the end of last week. One year ago last Friday, he received a double lung transplant. He has cystic fibrosis and had been waiting on the transplant list for what seemed like a very long time for a new set of lungs.

S and John became friends back in the 2nd grade. They both liked the same girl - Sara - and used to race to her house after school trying to beat the other one there. Where is Sara now I wonder... anyway I digress - they were in band in high school together, were in each others weddings and have shared many memories together. Since he's been married, we've enjoyed spending time with him and Jennifer as couples and with their little guy since he came around.

Before the new lungs, John had to go in and out of the hospital for treatment, was on oxygen and really couldn't breathe. After the lung transplant, he is finally able to go back to living a "normal" life.

John and his whole family are some of the nicest, most genuine people you'll ever meet. So, we, along with lots and lots of other people, prayed a long time for those lungs to come his way. And, finally, about a year ago, they did. Since that time, he's regained his strength and recently found a new career to go with his new lease on life.

Saturday night, John and Jennifer had some family and friends get together to celebrate this milestone. What a wonderful gathering it was to celebrate with such good friends in their even better fortune. If John were writing this, he would tell you to please keep his donor's family in your prayers for all they may have experienced in this past year as well.

John's mom, good friend, JB's wife, and sister


S with JB...


...and his son

Grandpa showing off his new gadget to the grand kids


Catching up with more friends


Jack, taking in a few steps and admiring the greenery

John on the right taking in some cousin conversation

Jennifer and John's aunt, catching up

The whole crew together

Thank you for including us on your special day, and to you and your family for being such special friends. Here's to so many more anniversaries just like this one!

Provenance

I work for a performing arts organization. Normally, when working in and around artists backstage, I'm so busy dealing with whatever is going on that there isn't time to take photos backstage. And, its sort of an unwritten rule that you don't ask for photos/autographs when you're trying to get work done.

But, last spring we had a date with Willie Nelson. When they showed up at the hall, they announced they would like to borrow an air compressor. They played a rodeo the night before, and they needed the compressor to "blow off" the dust from the rodeo off their equipment. My co-worker called me to see if I could bring S's air compressor in. I was coming in for the later part of the day, and its a well known fact that S has a tool for everything, so it was a pretty normal thing for her to call me to ask me to bring something like this.

So, I called S and asked him if he minded if I took his air compressor to work. He said, "Sure, just get Willie to sign it." This was his way of joking, knowing I would never ask for a signature.

But, as the day went on, Willie's manager set out a table to place items from all sorts of people for Willie to sign on the way back to his bus after the show. Photos and record albums, mostly, and a couple of guitars littered the table. They came from fans, other performers, etc. So, I thought, what the heck - I'll put S's air compressor on the table.

Willie signing other people's memorabilia.

His manager asked what it was and if we wanted Willie to sign it - I said, sure if he will, my husband would be thrilled. So, after the show, here comes Willie. He signs everything on the table with a black sharpie - including the air compressor, but with a silver paint pen. I shot the photo below with my camera phone of him signing the device.

Willie signing the air compressor.

When Willie signed the compressor, he said, "I signed an aerator once before, but never an air compressor - this is the first one." Then, he ambled out the door and back to his magical bus.

I told S that if Willie happened to sign that compressor, we had to agree it wouldn't in any way change the ability of the compressor to be used as a tool. He said fine. But, somehow, I don't think its been used since said signing. So, that photo is our provenance, so to speak, that this actually happened. And, this is our little brush with a Texas Legend.

Dogwood

I know I recently did that entire tree post. But, in May of this year, I took several photos of the dogwood tree in front of my mother's house. So, I decided I'd post those separately. I might do another post on Muir Woods as well. I've got tons of cool photos from there, and not all of the trees. I know - some of you are thinking - maybe the pet posts weren't that bad...on to this tree:

Dogwood in my mother's front yard in Indiana, May 2008.

Dogwoods have always been a favorite tree of mine. They are slow growth trees and so beautiful in the spring of the year. I was very excited, when we moved to this house, that we had a dogwood tree in the yard.

Our dogwood tree, late spring 2008.

Of course, in Texas the blooms on the dogwoods come in March. Our dogwood is a white flowering tree, and by the size of it, somewhere between 30-50 years old. Our dogwood does not like how hot it gets here in the summer here. I don't know if this is an issue its always had or its just an issue now that its a very old tree. No matter how much we water it, its leaves turn brown before the summer is up. Every year, I think we've certainly lost that tree. But, so far, every year it comes back in bloom. I realized as I was trying to write this post that I don't have any photos of the tree in bloom. If it makes it back for another spring, I'll definitely get some photos of my dogwood in bloom.

The house I grew up in also had a dogwood tree that we planted in the north side yard. I remember posing next to it at Easter, before prom, etc. It was a nice backdrop, I guess.

Now, back to my mother's current dogwood. By the time I was there on Mother's Day weekend in May, she said its flowers were starting to decline. I still thought the blooms were very nice. Let's drill down and see a little more of this tree, shall we?

I mean, I guess I can see the blooms curling up a bit on the edges. But, they are still beautiful to me.


Thanks, Mom, for sharing your dogwood with me.