Cops Love My Infiniti JX35

Do you recall when I got pulled over in my new Infiniti JX35?  I'm still a little salty about that suburbia speed trap.  I had to send the "City" of Southlake $200.  Last week on the way to my parents' house for Thanksgiving my husband got pulled over while driving my car.  We were loaded down with luggage, coolers, and the kids.

The nice Dallas officer scolded my husband for speeding.  (My husband may or may not have been going 60 MPH in a 40 MPH zone.) The nice Dallas officer told us that he doesn't want us to get into a wreck before Thanksgiving, and then he let my husband off with a warning.  I love Dallas officers.  They're so logical, unlike the police force in the "City" of Southlake.

Yes, I get stopped for speeding in my new car, and I get a ticket.  I'm not a winner.

Yes, my husband gets stopped for speeding in my new car, and he gets a warning.  He's a winner.

Our driving patterns have not changed.  Our car has changed.  It's not like I purchased a red sports car.  I purchased the cushy people moving crossover in black, but we've been stopped for speeding two times in less than 30 days.  Interesting?  I think so.

Happy Birthday Poppy

My mother took the family out to dinner at P.F. Chang's to celebrate my father's birth.  Our nieces stole the show from the birthday boy, because these girls are sensational.  Although, Paxten would not smile for the camera.  She told me "no" when I asked her to smile.  She's two.  Presley gave us a big smile.  She's as smart as she is beautiful.  Family time is so special.  We had my 82 year old grandfather all the way down to our nieces at the dinner table.  Just think of when my grandfather was the youngster at the family dinner table- the timeline of life.   At the family dinner table the roles remain, grandfather, mother, son, granddaughter, but the people move through the roles.  One day, if we're blessed, I hope to hold the grandfather role at the family dinner table.

My husband and I really need a baby.  My husband's sister just gave birth to our second nephew, Henry, but she won't let us adopt him.  I told her we'd pay top dollar, and we'd wait for her to finish breast feeding, but she still declined.

Shoe Shine

I always travel with my dirtiest pair of boots, because the best shoe shines are to be had at the DFW airport.  The man shining my boots had been working at the airport for 20+ years.  Only once has a younger person shined my shoes.  Most shoe shiners are older gentlemen.  What if I outlive them?  Who will shine our boots?  I think the same about furniture reupholsters.  Have you ever seen a young person work as a reupholster?  We need to get our boots shined and our furniture reupholstered before this generation of craftsmen die out.

Meet Me in Las Vegas

We took last week off from work.  My husband was at school, and I met him in Las Vegas where we celebrated with 12 of our college friends the birth of one of our post-college friends.  In Las Vegas we stayed at The Cosmopolitan, which was designed to be condos but after the great recession it was repackaged as a hotel.  We had a nice large room with a balcony.  I highly recommend this hotel.

We flew back to Dallas just in time for Thanksgiving.  It's a treat to spend an entire week with my husband.  It's a rare treat.  We both travel, travel, travel in our careers, and my husband is gone every other weekend for school.   We never see each other enough, which keeps things fresh.

Thanksgiving Feast

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?  We did.  My parents hosted and my husband's parents joined us, which was something extra to be thankful for.  Who else gets to spend Thanksgiving with both sets of parents?  (We live a charmed life.) I forgot to take pictures of the dessert table, which was my favorite part of the meal.  I ate pecan pie, mud pie, cherry pie, and peanut butter pie.  The yoga gods punished me this weekend for being such a fatty on Thanksgiving.

Hello Again

My grandmother died in October of 2011- over a year has past.  My grandfather had not been to the dry cleaners since her death.  He went for the first time last week.  They still had some of her things- a few blouses, a couple of pairs of white pants.  My grandmother always loved white pants.  She thought they were cooler.  My grandmother did not like to be hot.

My grandfather, not really knowing what to do with those items, gave them to my mother.  I saw them hanging in my mother's closest.  I recognized my grandmother's clothes.  In some ways I feel like it's my grandmother saying hello from wherever you go when you die.

The memories of my grandmother dying of cancer have faded in my mind, thank goodness, and now I can more easily remember the healthy times of her life.  Her death makes me realize that life is short.  As a 32 year old man I feel like I'm running out of time.  The clock is ticking. I have yet to accomplish my goals.  I must seize the day!

I love you Peaches.

YETI Love

My parents are having a great year in their small business.  To celebrate their achievement, they sent my husband an unexpected gift at an unexpected time.  My husband has been working full-time and going to school full-time and I think my parents also wanted to send him some extra love. They sent him a UT Longhorn YETI cooler, which is every man's dream ice chest!  (Yes, gay men love YETI's too!)

It touched me because my father sent this handwritten note along with the gift to my husband.

"Dear [My Husband's Name],

We love you. Enjoy!

[My parents' names]"

To see my parents love and cherish my husband is a gift to me.  So much love!  Love it.

I Miss Jimmy, Still

I've stayed loyal to my boycott of HBO's Boardwalk Empire.  I haven't watched a single episode this third season, and when I'm flipping through the HBO channels I curse Nucky Thompson for killing Jimmy Darmody last year.  Jimmy was the tortured soul of the series, and I wanted him to battle through his hardships of home life and the war and succeed.   I wanted Jimmy to win.

I want to know...

...do you think I could get a free trip to Israel?  I wasn't born Jewish in this life, but maybe in a previous life?  I have Jewish friends.  Jewish people get one free trip to Israel.  It's their birthright.  My husband will be working in Israel in December, and I want to go along, but a trip to Israel is expensive.

...do you think I'd get a first class ticket to hell if I told "Birthright Israel" that I need a free trip to Israel?

Incredible

In the past, it's been incredibly frustrating when the majority must vote to give a minority rights.  How could we win?  That all changed on Tuesday.  (God bless America!)

Washington state has approved gay marriage, joining Maine and Maryland as the first states to pass same-sex marriage by popular vote.  

This makes my heart beat with happiness.  For the first time, heteros have approved to give homos equal rights.  It's beautiful.  It's incredible. We finally won a popular vote.  We didn't have to rely on the courts to protect us (the minority)!

Happy Veterans Day

To All the Military Veterans:

Thank you for your service to the country.  Thank you for the sacrifices you've made on behalf of our country.  Thank you.

A Stunned Oklahoma

Hip, hip, hooray!  Four more years!  I am thrilled that President Barack Obama was elected to four more years.  I cannot say the same for my clients in western Oklahoma.  My Tuesday was difficult as the only pro-Obama man in the office.  Apparently all the Republicans thought  Romney had the momentum on Tuesday.  They expected to win the popular vote and they thought they would also win the White House.  They did neither.  Romney lost all but one swing state, and he lost the popular vote too.  On Wednesday my client's Controller was wearing all black as a sign of mourning. The entire office was stunned.  They really believe that Obama is captaining the ship of ruination.  They also don't understand how the rest of the country doesn't agree with them that Obama is evil.  So misguided.

I was mostly quiet on Wednesday, but I did have a big smile on my face.  I felt something similar when anti-gay, pro-war Bush was reelected to a second term in 2004.  It's tough.

Of course I'm still smiling.  I'll be smiling for the next four years too!

Sweet Horseradish Chips

Readers of this blog know I have a hankering for sweet pickles with a horseradish bite.  I love the "horsey pickles" from Bolsa, which are bread and butter pickles with horseradish seasoning added in along the way.  I've even experimented with making my own.  Currently, I'm devouring my most recent Central Market discovery- sweet horseradish chips!  Go buy some.  Go eat some.  They are delicious!

My husband doesn't like pickles and he doesn't like horseradish, which means I don't have any household competition.  I do live a charmed life.

Me and My Girls

Do you know what's five hours of bliss?  The time I spent with my nieces and my cousin this weekend.  We left my husband at home studying, and my cousin Addisyn and I took the girls to the Flight Museum at Love Field airport, to the nice playgrounds in Highland Park, and then we joined my brother and his wife for a Hibachi dinner and post dinner ice cream.

Goodbye Kathleen's Sky Diner

We enjoyed Kathleen's Sky Diner on Lovers Lane, but it closed abruptly a few weeks ago.  They had been in business at that spot since 1988.  Wow.  The restaurant business must be incredibly difficult.  Yes, the service was a bit slow at times, but the food was interesting, fresh, and delicious.  I hope they husband and wife duo will find a way to open another concept, soon.  Come to Lakewood!

Life goes on...

Go Vote

Don't forget to vote, and before you do you should read this:  500 reasons to vote against Mitt Romney and for Barack Obama by Georgia Logothetis.

My favorites from the list of 500:

10. You can't trust Mitt Romney on Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
11. You can't trust Mitt Romney on civil unions.
12. You can't trust Mitt Romney on marriage equality.
13. You can't trust Mitt Romney on gay adoption.
194. Paul Ryan voted to ban same-sex marriage.
195. He voted to ban adoption by gay couples.
196. He voted against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Morning Crisis

Our coffee pot was accidentally broken!  For me and my caffeine addiction this is a problem.  A real problem.  Luckily, my husband pulled this stove top espresso maker out of the cabinet to make the morning brew.  This was a gift many years ago from our Polish-American friend Julia.  She thought everyone needed one of these, and she was correct!

Open Letter

Dear Sergeant Dunn (Badge # 185) Of The Southlake Texas Police,

1. You suck.
2. I would hardly call 45 MPH speeding.  I'm pretty sure I can snow ski faster than that, and I'm certain wildebeests can run faster than 45 MPH.  Why don't you go to the plains of Africa and hand out citations to the "speeding" wildebeests?
3. YOU suck.
4. You also suspiciously asked if my address was correct on my drivers licenses BEFORE you started writing my citation- is this how you treat all guests to your town?  Suburbia is so annoying.  What happened to: "Hey visitor, did you know we've created a 30 MPH speed trap on Carroll Boulevard even though every other street in this area is 45 MPH?  Please slow down, and have a nice day"?  Where's the friendly reminder Sergeant Dunn?!? You KNOW I don't live in your town!
5. You SUCK.
6. Why were you surprised when I didn't give you my phone number? You were writing me a ticket!  I don't want my phone number in your suburbia database.  What idiot gives a police officer their phone number while he's writing them a ticket? Next time, don't write me a ticket, and I might give you my phone number.  Might.  Finally, "To protect and serve" is not your police motto; the Southlake police motto is "to give our out of town guests $175 tickets for not driving 30 MPH in our our speed traps so we can pay for our fancy Tahoe police car."
7. YOU SUCK!  

Sincerely,

Me

Blues for Willadean

Go see the independent film, Blues for Willadean, which was written and directed by our friend Del Shores.  It's playing at the Angelica in Dallas this week only.  We watched the film with Del and it was very well received by the audience; plus they had a Q&A session with some of the cast after the show.  You feel for his characters, and especially Willadean's isolated existence.  This film has been called a Texas tragedy, but it also offers hope...it's never too late to change your life.

Here's what the internets said about the film:

"This movie explores the hidden emotions, shame, and secrecy of battered women, while also offering hope, healing and truth. A delicate blend of frightened humor and pain, it delves right into the heart of abuse from all sides: the abuser, the abused, and the powerless bystander. It is the story of Willadean Winkler, the wife of a blue collar truck driver, as she attempts to escape the abusive prison he has built for her. With the help of her only friend, LaSonia, who lives in the trailer next door and the musical encouragement of the specter of a mystical Blues Singer, Willadean fights to break the cycle of the sick dance between the abuser and the abused."