Pie

Why yes, I do love apple pie -- and I do love gift cards! I'd rather eat my pie with a fork and a la mode, though. Also, I would like the pie to be slightly warm. Could I just sit off to the side and eat a piece of pie slowly, and then take the rest home to eat later? Does that go against the spirit of the contest? I think if I play my cards right, I could get a free apple pie out of this.

Saturdays

There are few things in life that I look forward to more than Saturday mornings with Roland. In fact, I can't think of anything I enjoy more. Here's our typical routine:

1. Sleep in, usually until about 9:30am, and then slowly work our way out of bed over the next half hour.

2. COFFEE. Right now, we're enjoying Whole Foods' Red Sea blend. We brew half a pot to get us going, and then start on breakfast.

3. The main course is usually an oven pancake (3 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 cup milk). Sometimes we mix it up with crepes or pancakes. I'm in charge of slicing the fruit.

4. Over breakfast, we read the WSJ weekend edition (thanks for the subscription, dad-in-law!). Roland reads the news, and I read the "Personal Journal" section, which usually has articles about vacations and home decorating.

After breakfast, anything goes. We often relax for most of the day and just enjoy being with each other, but sometimes we do venture out in the world. This weekend, for instance, we checked out the Cottonwood Art Festival in Richardson. It was about 50 degrees (super chilly for TX!), and we really enjoyed the cooler weather and the chance to wear jackets.

So...I didn't actually take any pictures of the art (it was all crazy expensive and the booths were too crowded), but we did enjoy a giant $4 soft pretzel, meet some cute fluffy dogs, and visit the tree I planted for my mom back in April.

I wish every day could start off as a Saturday morning.

Super Exciting Ceiling Fan Dismantling!

Guys, I know this is not the most exciting topic ever, but for the past two years we've had a problem. A clunky, 30-year-old, near-useless fan on our bedroom ceiling. It wasn't hooked up to any switch (I'm telling you, whoever did the electrical wiring in this house did not read the manual first), and it was a huge hassle to turn on. Even after hitting two buttons 7 feet in the air AND pulling the chain, it would only get going to about the speed of a snail. Also, it was extremely wobbly. In short, it did us no good and was mostly just a dust-attracting eyesore.

I guess I could explain step-by-step how we dismantled it, but it's pretty straightforward. First the blades, then the base.

It was a mess up there. We couldn't figure out why they didn't want it hooked up to a switch on the wall. Anyway, at this point we jaunted over to our neighborhood Lowes and considered replacing the fan with a ceiling light. Unfortunately, because there's no dedicated switch, our choices were limited to the two models of light fixtures with a pull chain. And they were ugly. Not ceiling-fan-ugly, but not attractive. In the end, we decided to spend $2.56 for a cover and…voilà! It's like it was never there.

Now we have a box full of fan blades and a motor for bulk trash. We've already seen a couple of 'pickers' making the rounds in our neighborhood looking for any 'valuable' trash out by the curb, so we're guessing our fan won't be out there too long.

I Hate Ponies: Reason #2

Just kidding, this isn't really another post about how I hate ponies (but I still do). This weekend we actually braved the 104 degree heat for 20 minutes to go visit the Mustangs of Las Colinas. It's purportedly the largest equestrian sculpture in the world (according to Wikipedia). Of the two "largest in the world" wonders I've seen, it's a tough call on which takes the cake: equestrian statue or basket?

These are just bronze statues, not real mustangs. 

Even though this is a fake horse, it still looked at me bloodthirstily.

Obligatory horse-whisperer pics.

R didn't like the way this pony was smirking at us, so he tried to push it into the water.

Hot, hot, hot

It's hot in Texas. No surprise, but I haven't gotten used to it. This will be my 5th August here, and it's still shockingly bad every day.

Is it horrible that my first thought upon seeing this weather forecast was "Yes! Can't wait 'til it's only 99 on Monday!"?

Between the heat, the Olympics, and the looming threat of West Nile (Dallas is apparently the epicenter of the outbreak this year - something terrible like 7 deaths), we haven't gone outside much for the past couple of weeks. There's been a lot of couch-lounging, ice water-drinking, and AC blasting, which is all great and relaxing until you start feeling like a sack of potatoes. We're definitely looking forward to the weather cooling down a bit, but in TX that could still be months away. Sigh.

Great Instructions!

Stop pondering wood & cinder blocks, Question Mark Man! We’re trying to mount our TV on the wall. Let’s focus on that, okay? There is no need to be confused about these unrelated objects.

Also, who are the two guys walking across the bottom of the page? This wall mounting kit did not come with giant beach balls labeled “2A” and “2B.”

And why are there no words on these instructions? Maybe we shouldn’t have bought the cheapest kit ($30). There are probably words on the $60 version’s instructions.

Oh, and finally this is the most fancy western Fry's I've ever seen. Look at these longhorns!

Topping Out

And then the mama tree said to the baby tree,

“Get down here before you fall! The top of a building is no place for a tree.”

They're building a huge new apartment complex/parking garage at Preston & NW Hwy, and I couldn't figure out why there was a tree on top of the construction site. Roland suggested that it might be part of a ceremony called "Topping Out."