Wednesday, October 30, 2019

STARS WIN AGAIN FINALLY




It was a much needed win--talks of firings have been rumbling around the fan base and those were staved off for now.

Our goal scorers minus one:  (images courtesy Dallas Stars)

 ROOPE HINTZ

ALEXANDER RADULOV
scored a hat trick
(three goals in a game)


TYLER SEGUIN

Joe Pavelski also scored a goal...

DD and I thought about leaving after the second period, but Rads scored a goal in the last few minutes, so we stuck around and thank goodness we did.

Hope you're having a great week... Catch you on Friday.


Friday, October 25, 2019

STARS WIN!


What better way to end the week with a third win in a row!






For maybe the first time ever, I attended a Stars game without my daughter--although she was there with other friends. I was there with an author friend from the conference I just attended. While she lives in Pittsburgh, her family is here in the DFW Metroplex and she's a Stars fan.

My friend got a puck from one of our star players, Tyler Seguin, probably for wearing a jersey of his from way back when he played in Europe during one of the NHL's lockouts. That was super cool to see. And now I want to try to solicit a puck from my man, Roman Polak, once he's back on the ice. His sternum was cracked in game one during a collision with the boards, so I've been missing him a lot. And, to be honest, so has the team...

So happy Friday friends. Have a great weekend.


Wednesday, October 23, 2019

The things I did in Albuquerque...


Aside from attend the conference of course.

As I mentioned last week or the week before, I wanted to go on the Sandia Peak Tramway and so I did.

The top of the tramway sits at 10,378 ft. above sea level. I'm not one for heights--I mean being on the solid ground of the mountain was fine, but the dangling from a few inches of cable to get there part was a little nerve racking. But you're reading this, so that means I survived the trip. :0)

Here are some pictures.

Going up...


See that little brown dot in the low center? That's the shadow of the tram car!




The view to the east of the Sandia Mountains...


The view to the west of the Sandia Mountains, basically Albuquerque and surrounding communities down there.



The view going down...


Sandia Peak was Thursday afternoon after the book signing. On Saturday morning, I went to see some petroglyphs. It was a gorgeous morning with a gorgeous blue sky, a fresh breeze, and good friends.

And just FYI--my camera's phone does none of these places justice.



You can't really tell in the photo, but the contrast of the yellow flowers and the green foliage against the dark rocks was spectacular.


 Gorgeous blue sky!

Various critter tracks...

And those were my two adventures into the surrounds of Albuquerque.

One thing I found amusing during my drive into and out of New Mexico were the signs along the highway (where there were no cities and therefor no bars) that continually asked people to report drunk driving. (Not that drunk driving is amusing of course.)

Hope your week is going well. Catch you on Friday.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Conference Time...


The conference was busy and fun and here I am at one of the author book signings...




The main doors were just to my left, so I got a good spot. This is my view of the rest of the room...




And for a nice change of pace, ballrooms with windows...!




Going to these things is always a marketing-learning opportunity. How are other authors presenting their books? What kinds of swag do they offer? How do they present themselves? I made a few notes.

Next year's con will be in St. Louis. I was hoping it was someplace too far away and that I didn't want to go to, but then they had to pick a city I could drive to again (it's 10.5 hours) and more compellingly--a city with a hockey team. The home of this year's Stanley Cup champions, no less. So I guess I'm going.

The question becomes--do I want to be a featured author rather than just a supporting author. The difference is about $100 and two additional opportunities to get in front of potential new readers. I have until February when registration opens to decide...

Hope you've had a great weekend. I did. I'll share pics of my adventures around Albuquerque on Wednesday...



Friday, October 18, 2019

Road Trip


Day 2 of the Great Albuquerque Road Trip...(Wednesday)

After enjoying the hotel breakfast, Pauline and stopped to see the Cadillac Ranch on our way out of Amarillo:





You just walk up, take a look, add your mark if you like, take pictures and head out. It was fun to see.

A little farther west, we hit the geo-mathematical mid-point of Route 66--not that we traveled the whole thing, but it a neat thing, so we stopped.





And then we arrived safe and sound in Albuquerque mid-afternoon.

Have a great weekend and I'll share more next week once I'm home.


Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Fort Worth Stockyards...


As I mentioned on Facebook yesterday, if you follow me there, in the twenty years I've lived in Fort Worth, I've never made a trip to the Stockyards.



But when you have a friend visiting Cowtown from across the Pond what more fitting place is there to go?

We had delicious brisket tacos from Riscky's Barbecue, checked out the Stockyards Collection and Museum in the old Exchange Building, and then caught the "cattle drive."

Brisket tacos:

 


Fort Worth's humble beginnings: the layout of the original fort.





The "cattle drive":



Have a great rest of your week.



Monday, October 14, 2019

Not long now...




My conference roomie, Pauline, arrived safely from London and she brought me this lovely hockey rubber duck to add to my collection of runner ducks! She also brought some British chocolate. Mmm, was it tasty.

Yesterday, we toured the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas--dedicated to all things JFK assassination. It was my second time going, although I had the headphones/audio tour guide this time. After the museum, we trekked a couple blocks over to view the JFK Memorial.

Today is final prep day and tomorrow we ride.

Wednesday I should have some images of our stop in Amarillo!!

Have a great week.


Friday, October 11, 2019

Albuquerque bound...


Sandia Peak Tramway 
(image from https://sandia-peak-tramway.business.site/)

I'm thinking of this as an excursion while in New Mexico. I'm not keen on heights, but it looks fabulous.

The countdown is really on now...five days until departure day and I'm making good progress with the various levels or preparation.

What various levels of preparation are you talking about Jen? You're going to be gone for a week.

Well, I have to make sure the office can function without me and I have to make sure all the bills are paid through the day I come back. Payday also happens the day I leave, so I have to create those to leave with the bossman to hand out, as well as make sure the money to cover them is in place.

My roommate for the conference is from the UK, and she's coming in a few days early so as to take advantage of cheaper air fare rates--but that means I have to get the guest room clean and ready and I had to tackle that bathtub issue because that really was embarrassing.

I also have to make sure DH has enough clean clothes and food to get him through the week as well as grocery shop in advance for the week of my return so I don't have to worry about having food in the house. We'll only be missing fresh salad stuff. 

And then there's me...just general packing as well as prepping for the book signing.

My book signing kit is just about put together--one last thing to go into it when I get home from work today. 

All that's left is general packing and I've already started gathering some of the extraneous stuff. 

So on schedule and ready to go!!

Have a great weekend.



Monday, October 7, 2019

The clock is ticking down...


Six day until my friend from the UK arrives, eight until we leave for Albuquerque.

It's definitely time to get my butt in gear and get things finalized for the trip. Yikes...

I have no pictures, but this past weekend, I re-caulked my bathtub. That included cleaning out the old stuff, cleaning the tile and tub and then replacing the caulk. It looks so much better now. Why didn't I do that long ago...? Mostly because I wanted to paint the tile rather than just re-caulk, but as I mentioned before, that whole project would be cost and labor intensive.

I have my lists ready so now it's time to start checking things off...

On another note--FALL has arrived!!! It was 62* this morning when I let the dog out.

Hope you had a great weekend!!


Wednesday, October 2, 2019

The Stars at Night, Are Big and Bright...


Monday evening was the Season Ticket Holder Event at the Dallas Zoo. It's an annual opportunity for season ticket holders to get picture or autographs with the players.

Here is me with my favorite Star... Roman Polak.




I got his signature on the poster I took the game last Saturday that elicited a smile. And he remembered me. :0)




As for the rest of the players, they either signed the event flyer or one of my season tickets if there was one with their image on it.Sadly, as I mentioned previously, not every player got his likeness on a ticket although there were enough tickets to do so.


Anyway, the girls and I had a blast, although DD and I were aching by the time we got back to the car from all the walking around.

Have a great rest of your week. Catch you on Friday.