I promised to regale you with tales of my weekend in Dallas for Devon’s birthday – and I shall not disappoint. I drove to Little Rock to meet up with Devon and Niki and continued on to Dallas to stay with Andrew. Andrew lives in the cutest little apartment near downtown – and we all piled in with he and his dog Toby for a few days.

We got to Dallas around lunch time on Saturday and headed to the aquarium/zoo/terrarium.  It brought back memories of our NWA adventures at the Gentry Safari. 

One of our favorite moments was when we encountered this sloth.

Devon was trying her best to look “sloth-like” while posing with the sloth. Until the sloth’s handler (nametag reading “Sloth Whisperer”) came to rescue the sloth and take him away for a break… from being a sloth…

Andrew posing with the flamingos.

In the Shark Tunnel:

That night we met up with Devon’s cousin and his wife at the Bavarian Grill – which I highly recommend to anyone traveling to/thru Dallas. I ate something called Rahm Schnitzel for dinner and we had a sampler of various “wursts”. It was awesome.

There was a little man serenading us with an accordion.

And since it was Devon’s birthday weekend – our waitress played “Happy Birthday” with different-toned bells. It was quite the experience.

The night of the Rahm Schnitzel, we went out to The Round Up for a drink and wouldn’t you know it – I ran into someone I know from Fayetteville. Oddly enough, this was only the second time I’d been to The Round Up and BOTH times I’ve run into people I know… And even MORE ironic, is that the person I saw this weekend was WITH ME when I was last in Dallas at that bar. Weird…

On my way home – I managed to snap a photo of this sign on the side of the road just outside Conway.

Seriously.

In other news – today was my 2 year anniversary at Saatchi & Saatchi X. Yah!

If I could write a letter to me
And send it back in time to myself at 17
First I’d prove it’s me by saying look under your bed
There’s a Skoal can and a Playboy no one else would know you hid
And then I’d say I know it’s tough
When you break up after seven months
And yeah I know you really liked her and it just don’t seem fair
All I can say is pain like that is fast and it’s rare

And oh you got so much going for you going right
But I know at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night
She wasn’t right for you
And still you feel like there’s a knife sticking out of your back
And you’re wondering if you’ll survive
You’ll make it through this and you’ll see
You’re still around to write this letter to me

At the stop sign at Tomlinson and Eighth
Always stop completely don’t just tap your breaks
And when you get a date with Bridgett make sure the tank is full
On second thought forget it that one turns out kinda cool
Each and every time you have a fight
Just assume you’re wrong and dad is right
And you should really thank Mrs. Brinkman
She spent so much extra time
It’s like she sees the diamond underneath
And she’s polishin’ you ’til you shine

And oh you got so much going for you going right
But I know at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night
Tonight’s the bonfire rally
But you’re staying home instead because if you fail Algebra
Mom and dad will kill you dead
Trust me you’ll squeak by and get a C
And you’re still around to write this letter to me

You’ve got so much up ahead
You’ll make new friends
You should see your kids and wife
And I’d end by saying have no fear
These are nowhere near the best years of your life

I guess I’ll see you in the mirror
When you’re a grown man
P.S. go hug Aunt Rita every chance you can

And oh you got so much going for you going right
But I know at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night
I wish you’d study Spanish
I wish you’d take a typing class
I wish you wouldn’t worry, let it be
I’d say have a little faith and you’ll see

If I could write a letter to me
To me

Oh my gosh! I completely neglected to recount my weekend for you! And it’s not because it wasn’t a blast — when, in fact, it was so much fun.

Mom and Laura drove up from SA and met us (Becky, Jeff, Sarah) in LR on Friday night. Laura couldn’t see – due to Lasek surgery that morning – which we all garnished a little too much entertainment from over the course of the weekend. Saturday we knocked around town doing some shopping and we met up with Devon and family for lunch at The Purple Cow. After that we got some rest before we made our way to Alltel Arena to see King George!

Mom and Dad got tickets for the rest of us for Christmas – and though Jeff and Mom had both seen him before – I hadn’t! I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’m probably among a very few people who wanted to hear “Baby Blue” that night — but he did sing “Amarillo By Morning”, “The Chair”, “The Cowboy Rides Away”, and “Ocean Front Property” and gave an amazing concert. None of us really cared for his opening acts — Sarah Johns and Little Big Town, but I appreciate him giving the little people a chance.

Sunday morning we all trekked to Fayetteville to gear up for the Hog game that afternoon. After we moved 11 times to that we were still near enough the court to see, yet far away from anyone standing up in front of Mom… we got to watch a fairly exciting game. The Hogs managed to win it in overtime – which seems to rarely happen in basketball – and considering Laura was half-blind – everyone had a good time.

Sadly, no pictures from this weekend. I have a few of George, but they did not turn out that well – so I’ll just let you feast your eyes on the one above.

Ross has been passive-aggressively heckling me from her blog about my sporadic posting, so I’ll try to step it up. I will be gone again this weekend with Devon and Andrew in Dallas so maybe I’ll have some fun stories/pics to share when I get back. Happy Wednesday!

I heard something of interest on the radio this morning on my way to work. A listener wrote a letter to the DJs of this particular station about his daughter and her being in trouble at school. I’ll paraphrase – but you’ll get the idea.

“Dear DJ: I was born and raised above the Mason-Dixon line, but still consider myself to have very good manners. Since I have moved to Arkansas, I notice that most young people and children address adults and people of authority by “maam” or “sir”. I have not taught my young daughter to do this as this is not something that is as common where I am from and I don’t consider it necessary in order to have good manners. People I have encountered here in Arkansas, and in particular her grade school teachers, disagree with me. She has been reprimanded on several occasions while at school when she answers simply “yes” instead of “yes maam” or “yes sir”. And there have also been several occasions in which adults have corrected her – in my presence. My daughter is otherwise very polite and I not only disagree that the addition of “maam” and “sir” to her vocabulary makes or breaks her manners, but I also think it is far less polite for an adult to correct a child while in the presence of the child’s parents – no matter what the crime. What do you think?”

I, obviously, have an opinion. As do I believe that there is more than one issue here. I would love your thoughts.

I have been on an unacceptably long xanga-hiatus. And I am sorry. I have several updates for you and will try to make this entry entertaining and informative enough to keep your attention yet concise enough not to lose it. We’ll see.

The week before Christmas I made my first of what would be THREE trips to Texas in eight days. I went to Dallas with my team from work — and entered more individual Wal-Marts in 2 days than most people enter in a lifetime. Did store-checks all the way to Dallas (approx 8 hours) and back (approx 9 hours). Long few days, but I learned a lot about my new business (Iams) and got to stay at a Gaylord Hotel where I watched Monday Night Football on a TV measuring 57 by 15 feet. Seriously.

The weekend before Christmas Becky and I traveled to San Antonio to see #3 graduate from college.

It was such a fun day — and Laura was honored by her class and the faculty with an award for her service and leadership outside of her studies over the past few years. Congratulations! She was playing the ever-popular role of an unemployed college graduate for a few days, but now has a job at a SA hospital for the next few months before she leaves for the Peace Corps in April. Keep up with her HERE. (Mom – I purposely excluded my account of the Alamo Blue Star vigil. Maybe next year I’ll have something better to report.)

The next day I flew back to Arkansas to spend a few days with the Hoods for Christmas. No one let me break out Scene It? this year (they learn quickly!), but we did play plenty of Taboo, Catchphrase, and other such fun. This was also the beginning of the week of food… Sadly, no pictures. I need to work on that.

Christmas day Jeff and I drove BACK to San Antonio for Martin family Christmas.  It was a hard day without everyone that should have been there, but we had a nice day.

I wish I could say I had a picture of everyone in a funny hat… Becky and Laura are the lucky ones.

Wednesday morning Laura insisted that we go “hiking” to “test out” her new boots — reference above photo. I agreed to go “hiking” with the guarantee that I wouldn’t so much be “hiking” rather more like ”walking”.  

It was a little windy.

And that night we went to a Spurs game courtesy of Tom and Erika — and had a good time watching “the boys” win. 

Afterwards we got to hang out with some real live locals – a.k.a. friends of Becky and Laura.

And Thursday night Mom and Dad took everyone to Fiesta Texas where Laura made her musical debut as “the bell” in Silver Bells.

A few more pics from the day at Six Flags…

Those last few are of an arcade that distracted us on our way from one Christmas music show to the next at Fiesta Texas. Becky and Jeff were cheating playing a basketball game, then Jeff challenged (and beat) me in Skeeball.

All so that we could accumulate enough tickets to win this for Laura. Rafiki became part of our entourage for the remainder of the evening. He thoroughly enjoyed the mariachis.

A good few days were had by all. Santa Claus was good to us. And we got home in time to see the basketball Hogs play ULM and the football Hogs play in the Cotton Bowl.  

I realize this has been nothing but a play-by-play of my last few weeks– but I know all you really want is photos anyway… I’ll see what I can do to conjure up a riveting post by the end of the week. No promises.