25 December 2009
For the first time in my life, despite having lived in such places as Germany, Utah & Indiana, I woke up on this Christmas day to a world that was coated in a thin white blanket. This is the first time that North Texas was treated to a White Christmas since 1926. But, true to the weather in North Texas, it didn’t stay cold enough long enough to actually stay white. By 13:00 all the snow you see in this photo

was gone. And, poof, just like that the white Christmas came to a melty conclusion.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 December 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Auto, Did not fire

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24 December 2009
I went grocery shopping today for meatloaf makings, ending up at Albertsons because the Kroger parking lot was over-stuffed. After the trip to the store, I headed to fill up with gas and, because it was there & open and MB was in Dallas at Beading Dreams, I stopped in at No Frills for a quick beer with some friends. While I was at No Frills, the wintery wind turned into a full-blown snow storm. As soon as there was a brief abatement of the damn near horizontal flurries, I headed home. I put the dogs out for a quick romp around the yard, then brought them back in out of the cold & wet, towelled them off, and made them lay down while I took this photo:

That’s Cormac with his head raised, while ‘Tia is on level with me. Marita Beth may have her cat, but she willingly shares these two wonderful companions with me.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 December 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Auto, Fired, Red-eye reduction

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23 December 2009
Marita Beth & I went to the Rahr Brewery after I got out of work today. The Wednesday night trips to the Rahr, while of necessity less frequent than the Saturday trips, are absolutely delightful. They serve up a different selection of beers on Wednesdays – the more limited ones generally – and the crowd is considerably smaller. Since the brewery is only open from 5 – 7 on Wednesdays, it’s a smaller crowd I’m sure due to the timing of the average work day. This time around, because of the holidays, it was crowded, very crowded. We also met a number of friends there which made for an ultimately delightful event. We made plans, all of us, to head to the Flying Saucer immediately after the Rahr closed and continued the carousing. Eventually, Marita Beth & I felt it was time to leave, so we made our way into the lovely night that was downtown Ft. Worth. We walked around briefly and while looking at one of the buildings we were offered an impromptu tour by a passer-by.

We spent the next 30 minutes being regaled with tales of Ft. Worth history by this gentlemen who refused my offer of buying him a drink. We did tip him as generously as our cash-light wallets would allow.
It was wonderful.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 December 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 320
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

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22 December 2009
A new t-shirt design for the PubGuys. Marita Beth is quite fond of this one, and I think it’s growing on me. My only frustration is that I don’t have the ability to buy a bunch of shirts in bulk and keep them on hand. Because of the lack of funds, I’ve chosen a couple of print-on-demand services that allow me to offer the designs for sale without actually keeping them on hand. The profit on these shirts is minimal, but the PubGuys do make some money per shirt.

So, until the PubGuys get out of our equipment-related debt, I fear this is the only way to get a much-desired PubGuys shirt.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 December 2009)

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21 December 2009
My boss is taking an extended vacation, as are many of my co-workers, while the year winds down. She casually mentioned that her tree would likely die while she was gone and that she’d just replace it with a fake tree when she returned. I offered to take care of it in her absence, so I now have an adopted ficus on my desk in my cube. It seems to be thriving after being essentially on the brink of death. I have hopes that I can truly bring it back to health.

I expect when she returns, I will keep the tree as she has “no emotional attachment” to it. Therefore, I need a name for him (definitely a him). Open to suggestions.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 December 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

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20 December 2009
After the exhaustions of yesterday and the social nicieties that such a day requires, we chose to stay at home despite several invitations out. We did nothing, and it was delightful. Marita Beth’s cat, Artemis, came and joined her for a large chunk of the day.

I say, “Marita Beth’s cat” because Artemis truly is that. The only time the cat even deigns to acknowledge me is during the rare times that Marita Beth has left the house for several days and Artemis is in desperate need of human furniture. That’s it. The rest of the time, Artemis is Marita Beth’s beautiful, but slightly neurotic familiar. I wouldn’t trade her.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 December 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

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20 December 2009

This is the sight that greeted Kyle when he went into the kitchen this morning to pour our coffee.

In our wonderul walk through Cowtown yesterday, we encountered a delightful little store that sells spices and teas of all types. They even blend some of their own stuff. It reminded me of a “mom and pop” version of the big Penzey’s Spice store that we visited once in Minneapolis. We sniffed the contents of many jars and settled on buying a smoked salt, some bloody mary spices, and a little bag of mulling spices. Then, at the check-wrap, I spotted fresh catnip! Artemis loves catnip, and it’s been a long time since I gave her any, so that went home with us, too.

When we got home, I filled her little cloth bag I made her years ago, with a dose of the new catnip, and she was happy! She entertained us for quite a while. In fact, I ended up removing the little bag from the knob in the bedroom where it normally hangs, because I didn’t want her to have too much all at once. I hung the bag way up high across the hall, where I knew she could not get to it. She calmed down, and we went to bed.

Unfortunately, I had unwittingly left the little bag of catnip—about half of what we bought—on the kitchen counter.

Now, not only is the kitchen counter a forbidden cat zone, but I had thought the cat was closed in the bedroom with us. Apparently, not.
The poor, half-wit catnip addict had had herself such a good ole’ high during the night, that she currently has quite the little rugburn on her forehead from rolling and rubbing in the stuff she spread all over the throw rug in the kitchen.

There is a little bit of kitty-drug left that I have careful placed in a top kitchen drawer, and we’ll save for someday down the road. After her fur all grows back!

~MB

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19 December 2009

Both Kyle and I are transplants to Texas. We make little attempt to conceal the fact that we would rather live elsewhere. But, our current attachment to our local friends, and Kyle to his job, and seventeen years of accumulating stuff, all have us pretty well settled here for at least the next few years. And, truth be told, there are far worse places to live!

In fact, both Kyle and I have a bit of a clandestine love affair with Fort Worh. We enjoy downtown Fort Worth, we attend events there whenever possible, and we tend to prefer Fort Worth sports teams to Dallas ones. We love the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, and it stands to reason that we love Fort Worth’s northside, affectionately known as “Cowtown.”

So, today, in a wonderful, romantic attempt to give me a bit of a Yule holiday celebration, my husband took me to Cowtown. We’ve done this before during December, and it’s always a fabulous experience. We started our outing with a trip to the Rahr Brewery and a couple of pints of their yummy Winter Warmer. Then, a couple of quick errands and we were northside-bound. We walked and shopped, and visited one of our favourite little spots—a Texas wine-tasting room. We each tasted an assortment of tasty wines, and we enjoyed chatting with the young man who now owns the store. We left there and continued our walk up Exchange Street, finally ending up at The Love Shack for a delicious burger in the charming outdoor beer garden right next door to the White Elephant Saloon. By the time we finished there, most of the stores were closed and we were cold. We took a few photographs of the pretty holiday lights on our way out, including my photo today of the old Swift Headquarters building. When the northside area first experienced its rebirth, this beautiful building saw new life as a Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. In fact, in 1984, I held my rehearsal dinner there, the night before I married Roger. The restaurant closed a number of years ago, and the last couple of times we were in the area, it was under a major renovation. Today, it seems completely finished, and much-loved. We believe it to be the new home of a City of Fort Worth administration office of some kind. Whatever is inside, on the outside it’s a beautiful addition to the Christmas spirit in Cowtown.

Thanks, Kyle, for a perfect day.

~MB

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19 December 2009
Several days ago, I conceived a plan that I kept secret from my wife. I was going to take her to the Cowtown Stockyards in Ft. Worth after breakfast at Old South and make a day of it. We did this several years ago and had a marvelous time; I wished to repeat that.
My plans were immediately thrown into disarray when Marita Beth woke me up with the words, “are we going to Rahr today?” I’m flexible. Sure. We can go to the Rahr right after breakfast at Old South and then on to the stockyards. Right. It took her a while to get dressed, sufficiently long that Old South was ruled out, so the new plan was Whataburger, Rahr, Stockyards. I’m flexible, I can do this. So, we had Whataburger, then Rahr which always means good beer, and a slight detour to a garage sale where I bought 25 Stephen King books (20 hardcover, 5 paperback) for $16. During our stay at Rahr, Marita Beth made friends with a cute little TCU chick wearing a TCU santa hat. So, the new plan was: Whataburger, Rahr, Albertsons (to get a Santa hat) then finally, the stockyards – and Marita Beth still remained none the wiser. Albertsons no longer had any Santa hats (of course). So, the plan got modified…again. Did I mention I’m flexible? A quick trip over to the TCU bookstore confirmed that they, too, were out of the Santa hats and that last-minute shoppers at college bookstores are rude, rude, rude. Now, we’re considerably behind the schedule I’d set, and I’m put off by the rude people, so when MB asked for another detour to Montgomery Street, I told her “no.” My flexibility only goes so far. We did eventually arrive at the Stockyards, and as the last time, we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Between the beer, the wine and the kick-ass cheeseburger at the Love Shack, we whiled away the remainder of the day. By the time we were cold enough to head back to the car, we were well & truly knackered and ready to go home. A marvelous day. Good thing I’m flexible.

This is a photo of the old tracks and cobblestones that ran through the area.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 20 December 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 6.6 mm
ISO Speed: 250
Exposure Bias: +2/3 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

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18 December 2009
We went to Bryan’s birthday party at Big Shots tonight. The PubGuys have recorded at Big Shots before, but it was a pleasure to just arrive, sit, drink & eat with no equipment in front of me. Happy Birthday, Bryan!

I took four photos while there, but all of them are so bad I didn’t even keep them, much less publish them. So, when we got home, I was still in need of a photo. Berecyntia (‘Tia) willing obliged when I placed her Kong on my laptop table and she, in true Border Collie fashion fixated on it.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 20 December 2009)

Watching:
Hull at Arsenal (replay)
0 – 3 at 85:00 minutes

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

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