August 15th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Finally got yesterday's pic
to sync up from my phone

Good morning from Dallas, well technically Arlington – day two.

Oh was my hubby a happy, happy boy yesterday, well until 2:30 that is, but I’ll get to that in a moment. As I told you, we went on our guided tour of AT&T stadium. As you know, I am not, still am not, nor will I ever be, a Dallas Cowboys fan. However, I am a big enough person to admit, I did enjoy the stadium. The place is impressive, but then again, when you spend 1.2 billion – that is not a misprint, that is billion with a “B” – dollars, how could it not be?

The final bill for the place was double the initial budget. Now, and I’m sure like many of you, I have gone over budget on projects. It happens, but I know if I have a $100 budget for something, and I end up spending $120, a mere $20, I’m not happy with myself. I couldn’t even imagine blowing my budget by $600,000,000.00. Dang that’s a lot of zeroes!

Our tour guide Daniel

Our tour guide yesterday was Daniel, and he did a fabulous job. He was really funny and informative. We saw a few other tours while we were going through the stadium, and they did not look like they were having nearly as much fun as we were.

Happy Boy!

I promise I will not bore you with all the stats on the stadium, but I do want to give you one fun fact. Did you know the Statue of Liberty, base and all, could sit on the star in the middle of the field, and the roof would be able to close over the raised torch, and there would still be room to spare? Pretty impressive.

Our tour started at eleven, and officially ended a little after one. We were then left to our own devises. We could stay on the field as long as we wanted, so I took a few photos and then we made our way to the pro shop. (My son and his girlfriend gave my hubby a gift certificate to the pro shop for his birthday.) My hubby was like a kid in the candy store again, but he did good. He only went over budget by $12 and most of that was tax.

We finally leave the pro shop a little after two. It was 103 yesterday, so there was no way we were going to be able to hop right in the black interior car and drive away, not after it was baking in the hot Texas sun for almost four hours. So we opened up all the doors so it could air out a bit.

New Chevy Impala

While the car was cooling down, my husband spotted a brand new Chevy Impala parked in the next row. He thought it looked cool, so he went over to check it out. As he was walking around the car, he stepped off of the curb, his ankle folded under him, and he went down on all fours.

DANGER:
Step away from the curb!

Now by us, storm drains are covered by a grate, and are, for the most part, level with the road. Not the ones at AT&T Stadium. The ones there are similar to the one in this photo, no grate, just back sloped, and all open. I’m not saying they are better or worse than the ones we have at home, but at least the ones we have at home are clearly recognizable. You would think the curb above the drain would be painted, so people would notice them and prepare themselves to take a longer step to avoid the drain.

So there he was, on the ground, and I’m thinking there’s no way I’m going to be able to get him to the car by myself. I get him swiveled around so he at least sitting on the curb, and I go for help. Within in minutes, this huge teddy bear of a man, Ricky, comes walking towards us. (AT&T Stadium staff is courteous and attentive, my hat’s off to them.) Ricky starts asking questions to ascertain if my husband is okay, and starts filling out the accident report, or he tried to. His pen wouldn’t work and he ended up messing up the card he was supposed to fill out.

While we were talking, my hubby managed to stand up and start to put a little tentative pressure on his ankle. Then he gingerly picked his way the ten yards or so over to our car and leans back against it for some support. He’s uncomfortable, but it was nowhere near as bad as he initially thought, so when asked if he wanted medical attention, he said no, we’ll just ice it and wrap it up when we got back to the hotel.

YUCK!

At this point, a second guy arrived to see if we needed any more help. Ricky tells him he needs to go in to the office and fill out the paperwork. The new guy goes to hand Ricky a new card, to which Ricky tells him to fill out while he goes in the office. Before Ricky walks away, my husband pushes away from the car so he could take a few more steps – he’s from the “walk it off” generation – and there, on the back taillight where my husband was leaning, was this huge green sticky blob.

I told my husband to freeze, and I went to check the back of his pants. Sure enough, there was a matching green sticky blob on the back of his shorts, not on his butt, but just above the pockets. I guess when he pulled himself up onto the curb, he must have scraped up gum (or whatever the green goop was). If it was gum, then someone had several pieces in his mouth at one time. I’m telling you, the blob was really big.

Anyway, after the initial chuckles and comments as to how my husband’s day was going, Ricky left to go to the office, and I took the incident card from the other guy so I could fill it out for him. It had all the usual things you would expect, name, address, phone number, date, time of incident, etc.; but then I get down to the printed yes and no question portion of the card. Was there alcohol involved? Was the person ejected from the game? Was the person banned from the stadium? Was the person arrested? Good grief! Just a little insight to what these guys have to deal with on game days. God bless them!

I can't believe I found a picture
of Ricky!

After fifteen minutes or so, Ricky comes back, and bless his heart, with him he has a wad of paper towels so I can clean off my husband’s shorts and the car, plus a plastic bag to put over the seat just in case I can’t get the goop off the shorts (I couldn’t). What a thoughtful guy! He hands us his card and tells us to call if we need anything, and I said depending on how my husband’s ankle is on Saturday, he may need help getting to our seats. I was teasing, but Ricky said to just call if he does, and he’ll get it taken care of. Again, what a sweet man.

We shake hands, say goodbye, and I drive across the street to Wal*Mart. Run in, grab two different sized ace bandages, then I get my hubby back to our room, get his foot propped up on the ottoman, and a bag of ice to keep the swelling down. Later in the afternoon he was able to go down to the pool, and then we went out to dinner last night – I said I could just pick up some curb-side to go, but he insisted on going out. Okay, he’s the boss.

We went to this Cajun seafood restaurant called Razzoo’s, about twenty minutes from our hotel. It was alright. I wanted crawfish. I hadn’t had them since I was a kid and I wanted my hubby to try them. Razzoo’s was the only place we could find that served them, and I was a little – no scratch that – a lot disappointed that all they had was fried crawfish tails. I was looking forward to a boiled heaping mound of them. Everything was tasty, but after the fried tails, the fried okra, and the spicy stuffed fish, my tummy was not too happy; and I’m pretty sure the two big glasses of sweet tea at seven o’clock at night is the reason I didn’t fall asleep until 12:30 and was up by 3:30 this morning. It’s going to be a LONG day.

On a more positive note, my cousin Debbie called me yesterday, and we will be spending all day Sunday together. I’m so excited, I haven’t seen her in over thirty years. We’re leaving early in the morning to make the three and a half hour drive out to her place in Austin. She offered for us to spend Sunday night at her place so we didn’t need to drive back after the long day. I didn’t want to impose, so I respectfully declined.

I was chatting with Courtney here at the front desk of our hotel, and told her what our plans were. She told me I do not want to be driving from Austin to Dallas on a Sunday night. It’s kinda like driving in Sunday night shore traffic back home. Hmmm… I may be rethinking my cousin’s kind offer. My husband said we should pack a bag, just in case.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

The wind gently rustled through the trees…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

August 14th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Greetings from the Lone Star State! Our plane was delayed by forty-five minutes yesterday because of some problem at the Las Vegas airport. Yup, you are not losing your mind, we did fly out of Philly. It’s amazing how things snowball. We were supposed to depart at 12:15, but we didn’t leave until 1:00. We landed at 4:00 instead of 2:36. I can only imagine how far behind schedule the next flight was, and I feel bad for anyone who had a connecting flight!

We got our rental car, and were pleasantly surprised with the Toyota Corolla. We were supposed to get a tiny Hyundai. We got to the hotel in fifteen minutes or so, and checked in. When we got to our room, it had a funky smell and the bathroom wasn’t really clean, so I trekked back down to the front desk and complained. Immediately I was given a new room. This time the room was clean and smelled fine, but our bathroom makes a weird noise and the shower is dripping. We’ve also had an issue with the toilet already. I was assured all of the problems will be addressed while we are out today.

Even though it was before five o’clock central time, my hubby and I were starving. The Danish and coffee at the airport did not cut it. So, we asked “where’s good?”, and we were directed across the street to Boston’s. We were not disappointed. The magazine in our hotel had a coupon for a free appetizer, and with it we got beef tips wrapped in bacon. There were 8 good sized chunks of meat – big enough to cut in half in order to chew.

They were yummy, and quite honestly, filling. I only picked at my dinner, which was yummy too. Even my husband wrapped up half of his dinner, and he doesn’t usually leave any leftovers.

After that, as I said we would, we headed over to Wal*Mart, which is right across the street from AT&T Stadium. Good grief, that place looks like a space ship landed – AND IT’S HUGE. Holy Crow! We did some damage at Wal*Mart. I picked up some Christmas gifts, and my hubby got a grey Cowboys shirt, in hopes there would be some players there today to sign it for him.

After our shopping run, we came back to the hotel and decided to go for a dip. Ready for this? It was actually chilly when you came up out of the water. How does that happen when it’s still in the 90s??

You would not believe how noisy it is out by the pool. Since we are so close to the airport, you’ve got all the planes flying overhead. You add that to the highways running all around us and Six Flags over Texas practically in our back yard, and it doesn’t make for a peaceful swim. This Six Flags is a little strange. The Six Flags by us is set way back from any civilization. Here, it’s smack dab in the middle of everything. There are highways running all around it. You can hear folks screaming from the rides. Heaven knows there’s enough land in Texas where they could have picked a less congested area to put the park.

We have an 11:00 tour of AT&T Stadium scheduled, so I need to go grab some grub and go hop in the shower. I hope you have an amazing day, and happy writing!

(The internet connection here at the hotel is for the birds, so I'm having trouble getting my photos to sync from my phone. I'll post the pictures I took as soon as I can get it to work.)

Your Next Challenge is:

Use the following three in a story: A Garden Hose, A Cantaloupe, Wasps.

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

September 6th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

 

It’s 4:00 am and my son and his girlfriend should be here in the next half hour, so I don’t know if I will get my entire blog done by then, but I’m going to give it a try.

For my son’s birthday, his girlfriend got him tickets to the opening day game of the Giant’s vs. the Cowboys at the AT&T stadium…in Arlington, Texas. I am driving them to Philly so they can catch their flight to Dallas. It is a REALLY great gift, one I had hoped to be able to get my husband someday, but haven’t been able to afford yet, so it’s still on my “to do” list.

 

I took my daughter and two of her friends around the high school yesterday so they could try and map out their class schedule, but I fear my daughter is even more confused now then she was before. Technically the school was closed yesterday, which meant certain doors were locked, so we needed to find different routes than when her sister and another friend showed her around. I think we will be headed back there later today to try it again.

 

I also stopped by our local library yesterday to speak to the director about starting a weekly writing/critique group similar to the one I attend in Princeton, but he wasn’t in, so I didn’t get that accomplished either. All in all, not a very productive day. I hate wasting time, but I guess sometimes it is unavoidable.

 

Today when I return from the airport, I will be making an old German dish my husband’s Nana used to make when she was alive. I only make this once a year because 1 – it’s when the plums are in season, and 2 – it is very labor intensive. Basically it is an Italian plumb dumpling. You make a potato dough, roll the plum in sugar and place it in the dough, boil it in chicken broth, then fry it up in bread crumbs. It is served hot with powdered sugar on top, but it is still considered a meal and not a dessert. I know that sounds a little unappealing to many of you, but trust me, they are quite good.

 

OK, right to the challenge or I’ll have no chance at getting it done before they arrive.

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following three words: Licorice, Crystal & Cake.

 

Mom’s coming over for her birthday dinner and I wanted to make her a special cake this year instead of a store bought one. I decided to bring out an old favorite which had been a big hit in the past. It’s a square cake, so when it’s frosted in white, it looks like a box. I then take licorice and fashion a bow around the box and then add nonpareils and when it’s finished, it looks like a Birthday present all served up on a crystal platter. The presentation is lovely, but since everyone has seen it before, it won’t be such a big surprise…until they cut into that is…

 

 

 

Short and sweet today, but I’m under a time constraint. Oh, by the way, true story. The photos are the actual cake I made my mom a few years ago. Hope you have a great day and happy writing!

  

Your Next Challenge is:

 

What did you say?

  

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.