A Time For Everything

For lack of planning and something better to post about...let's remember some things, shall we?

Just gonna scroll through the collection of images I've amassed over the years and pick some experiences to remember...

During Sonshine's first year in band, they played on the steps of the Texas Capital. DD and I ended up making a run down there to see / listen to them. On the way back home we took a quick detour to visit the football field in Pflugerville where scenes from the hit show Friday Night Lights were filmed...

* * * * *

As band mom for many years, I coordinated the provision of dinner for the band on game nights.

My turn...

* * * * *

A rare sighting (in pictures, anyway) of the beautiful Darling Daughter (aka DD). This was taken many moons at the Fort Worth Zoo one lovely fall day.

* * * * *

During my trip to Nashville with Dan back in 2019 (??) so that I could meet Mike Rowe--which I did, btw--I went on a walking tour of the city which included a trip to the original Grand Ol' Opry building.

.

See...

* * * * *

Back when I was participating on the BBC Sherlock fandom online, I attended the 221B Con in Atlanta.

* * * * *

Me in Red Rock Amphitheater in Boulder at the conclusion of my first time at GRL which was in Denver that year.

* * * * *

My first Dallas Stars Season Ticket Holder event...meeting players at Six Flags. This is Tyler Sequin.

* * * * *

And a final ode to the Lake House...hope your new owners are appreciating you...

As for you, dear friends, hope you have a great weekend. Get some rest.

I've been taking Rascal to the dog park for a couple of months now and he really looks forward to it. Or so it seems. As soon as I get out the special red string bag that holds dog-park essentials, he starts trilling and prancing around. One I get the harness out, which he'd rather not wear, but doesn't fight me about, he knows we're going. And he whines all the way there.

There aren't always other dogs there since it's been so hot, but sometimes there are. The whole point of the endeavor is to keep him socialized with other dogs. And he seems to enjoy the interactions...

Whole lotta butt-sniffin' going on, of course...

Just a few weeks ago when we went, there were no other dogs, but he got adventurous without me--I stayed in the shade...

On the other side of that fence, is the big-dog yard, where there are almost always dogs despite the heat.

I'm hoping--expecting--that once the weather breaks, there will be more dogs and Rascal can really have some fun.

After 15- 20- 30- minutes of running around, heat and other-dog-attendance depending, we head home. And he's quiet in the car. The first time I took him, he slept most of the rest of the day. These days he's a bit more acclimated and not prone to napping all day in recovery, but he's definitely ready for bed when the time comes.

Sadly for Rascal, no dog park visit next weekend as I'll be out of town for the holiday. Hope you enjoy your three-day break from laboring. :0) See you next week.

The office office, that is....

Today, the day this posts, I'm in my home office, having taken a day off my day job to work on personal stuff. Namely my online pattern store, FanStitches.com. You can visit if you want, but it's a hot mess right now.

I had a day off two weeks ago as well and while I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped--things tend to take longer than we anticipate--I still got enough done that I was happy with my progress. Let's hope today is as productive.

I'm still learning how to navigate Word Press and its block editor as well the ins and outs of the site theme and how it combines different types of data and widgets to create dynamic site pages. I've shied away from learning WordPress for long enough for various reasons, but no more.

I can and I will figure the systems out.

Along with learning the mechanics of the website, I need to gather my pattern ideas, figure out the best way to organize them, and then put together project plans and timelines.

My other order of business is writers group stuff. I have a few things I've been putting off, but I cannae any longer.

Hope you have as productive a day today as I plan to. And here's to a relaxing weekend.

 Image courtesy IMGBIN.

Mark your calendars for Thursday August 24th -- just a few days hence -- for National Burger Day!

The first burger-like creations date back to the 1st Century AD in Rome. I won't bore you with the details; you can read about them here if you're so inclined.

Let's talk about how we like our burgers prepared...

I personally like my patty well done, and I like lettuce, pickles, and ketchup on them. Oh and thinly sliced red onions on occasion.

There's a local burger chain where you can get couple of burgers with some not-the-usual toppings. My choice from Burger Street is the Olive Burger topped with...green olives. They also offer a Chili Cheeseburger topped not only with chili, but also with Fritos--which should make that a Frito Pie Burger in my opinion. :0)

Most of the time, I eat burgers without buns because, most of the time, we make burgers at home rather than get them from fast food or order them at restaurants, and I occasionally like to douse my patty with a serving of Bush's Baked Beans and a dash of A-1 Sauce.

Now I do gotta say my favorite buns are Mrs Baird's large seeded buns, although i don't splurge on them very often. But maybe I should do more often because life is short.

Share your favorite burger place or your favorite way of assembling your burger in the comments if you like.

Oh--I happen to have burgers in my freezer...I guess I know when we're having them!!

Have a great week.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

About four months ago (April of 2023) I came across this book in the online library and immediately borrowed it.

I fell in love with this book. It was chock full of emotion and jam-packed with the internal narrative of each character that really fed that emotional resonance.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that it'd been made into a full-length movie. I looked forward to plopping myself into my recliner and really enjoying this film.

However, knowing a screenwriter, I've learned that it's harder than it looks to convert a book to a screenplay to a movie script.

While I enjoyed the movie, it didn't bring me near the satisfaction as the book did when I reached the end.

I might have chosen different scenes from the book to showcase the characters' journeys, but I'd have to re-read the book to make that determination--and I just might because I enjoyed the book that much.

But it's well worth a watch if male/male romance is up your alley. And FYI, it's rated R for a sex scene. And while it isn't super explicit in my opinion--in that doesn't show the body parts--it's still very clear what's going on and who's doing what to whom. But for all that I think it's well done.

Image courtesy IMGBIN.

As the title says, there's been a whole lotta building going on in my neck of the woods.

It started several months ago with the refurbishing of one of those computer technician schools into a Rocketship Elementary School. That's been really fun to watch.

We went from this:

South side...

View from the west to the space in the U of the building...

View of the east / front side...

To this:

This appears to be an indoor playground & possible assembly center...and located where the parking lot was between arms of the building.

That dome building is just to the left of this view--in fact that curved walkway follows the curve of the building wall...

And the south view of building showing off the new paint job.

The construction on the school is juuust about done. They're doing the final cleanup outside, and teachers have been inside for a couple of weeks now, getting ready for the upcoming school year.

It's really exciting, and I can't wait to see the little kids enjoying this new facility within the next few weeks to a month.

* * * * *

And then, maybe a month and a half, two months ago, a hotel started getting built over by my local Home Depot. Which was fine. I don't know yet what chain...

And then, maybe three weeks ago, they started clearing the land between the hotel and the corner of the highway interchange....

At this point I have no idea what's going in there. It's too small of a property to be a Buc-ee's. >>wink, wink<< The question is...will it be a gas station or will it be fast food or a restaurant--that could be nice--or just general retail. Only time will tell. I'll keep you posted.

We went from this:

The hotel is being built where the aqua blob is...

This is the old view from the pink X in the picture above.

This is the original view from the aqua X in the picture above.

To this:

Interim view now from the pink X...

Interim view now from the pink X...

Interim view from the aqua X...<.p>

The land sculpting of this property continues apace although I still have no clue what's going in there. For sure it's not a single building, business, etc because they're building different levels. Two for sure, possibly three.

It's certainly interesting to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out and what new food chain or business finds a home there.

Hope you had a great weekend and here's to a great week.

This guy is my favorite hockey player. You regulars probably know that. :0)

By all accounts he's a fantastic human being as well as being one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

I'd love to meet him some day, somehow and get a picture taken with him. (I might need to Photoshop an image and put it on my vision board!)

For now, I'm happy to wish him happy birthday with this little Sidney Crosby appreciation post.

Hope you're having a great day, Sid--one filled with family, friends, and fun.

Have a great week!

National Sunflower Day is the first Saturday of August.

So it turns out that I've loved sunflowers for longer than I realized. The "bouquet" above, in that vase, has been a fixture in my bedroom since we lived in Nebraska. We moved to Texas in 1999... That's a long time.

I'm sure I don't have to explain why anyone is drawn to them...part of it is the name. Sun. I love the sun, and sunlight and vitamin D is vital to everyone's health and well being. Now I get that some of us love it more than others.

I read the "National Sunflower Day" write up, and I would encourage you to go read it for yourself, but here are a few amazing take aways:

• On average, one sunflower can produce up to 2,000 sunflower seeds per head.
• Some archaeologists believe sunflowers may have been cultivated by Native Americans before corn was.
• A sunflower head can be bigger than your own.

And here's an article directly from North Dakota's Tourism site

DD and I are thinking of planting sunflowers around the birdbath to help provide some natural shade for the birds as well to brighten up the yard. I'll have to research the best time to plant them, but my guess is spring...

Hope your week is going well so far. We're on the downhill slope.

Take care and have a great weekend.