Sheep Guarding Llama

First thing this morning I got up, showered and hit the road to drive down to Buffalo, Texas to meet up with Francesca and Bennie so that we could pick up Madeline and Emily from them as they are going to be staying with us for the whole week.

I made great time on the drive and I was glad to have a little down time in which to do nothing whatsoever except to listen to the radio.  I need some real drive time from time to time and often I end up going a lot time with none and then having to drive way, way too much all at once.

There was a small wildfire in Rice, Texas right on the side of the highway.  There was a ranch on fire.  Trees, fence, fields all burning.  There was so much smoke that we had a momentary “grey out” as you drove past it.

I was making a bit better time, speeds averaging eighty to ninety easily with people passing me easily doing over one hundred miles per hour, than Francesca who was having issues getting up to sixty five miles per hour.  So we ended up deciding that it would make more sense to meet farther south down at Buc-ee’s rather than in Buffalo.

I ended up driving past Buffalo, Texas right as Francesca and family arrived at Buc-ee’s.  So next time we will try to meet in between the two.  Buffalo is halfway from Dallas to Houston but we live pretty much right in Dallas but the Grices actually live way down in Galveston so the halfway point between the big cities is not actually a useful halfway point for us.

So the Grices waited about half an hour before I arrived.  We fueled up and grabbed lunch at Buc-ee’s.  I won’t do that again, though.  The line is crazy and while the food is good it is so hectic to eat there that it is quite unpleasant and there is no where to go to eat unless you go and sit in your car which is not what I wanted to do with my sub.  In the middle of the night it is fine there but during the day I will not make the mistake of going there again.  We had a really hard time getting fuel too because we sat for a good ten minutes before we realized that no one was getting fuel and that the entire fueling station area had turned into a parking lot.  None of the cars had people in them and no one was coming and going from those vehicles.  Grrrrr…

On the drive back north the girls and I stopped in at Exit 164 to hit the Dairy Queen there for Blizzards.  It is a very hot day – continuing north Texas’ almost record setting heat streak.

Dominica spent the day cleaning around the apartment.  We are in our best shape that we have been in a very long time.

It was pretty late in the day by the time that we got back to the apartment in Irving.  Liesl was very, very excited to see us.  She loves her cousins.

We spent the evening just relaxing around the apartment.  I played Oblivion for a while and Emily hung out with me watching me play.  She thought that the game was a lot of fun and enjoyed following the story aspects of it.  I am pretty far along in the game at this point but there are still short story arcs to be followed that are interesting on their own.

Francesca has been playing Fable II this past week after I told her about it when she was at our place a week or so ago.  She borrowed it from Joe and just loves it.  We knew that she would.  It is an amazing game.

I actually got to sleep in this morning, it was awesome.  I did a little work but mostly spent the morning relaxing.

We were hungry for breakfast so once I was finally up and moving I drove up the street to Panera Bread and picked up a very late breakfast for us around eleven.  Panera has some of the most excellent breakfast sandwiches around.  They also have good pastries and coffee, so you really can’t go wrong there.

We ate breakfast and I played a little Oblivion while Liesl took her afternoon nap.  Once she woke up we got ready as quickly as we could and headed on over to the Pierces’ for their anniversary part that started at four.  It was around five when we finally arrived.  I’d call it fashionably late but when you have a toddler fashionable kind of goes out the window.

Liesl had a great time at the party.  She just loves any type of party.  She was the only child there but she did very well considering.  She only got really upset once and that was when the two kitties who were there decided that playing with Liesl was a bad idea and ran away to hide from her.  She was quite upset that the cats were not interested in playing with her.

The party was awesome, a really good group of people.  We had a lot of fun hanging out.  We stayed for about four hours which was all that Liesl could handle.  She was heading towards a meltdown when we went to leave.  We made it out before she actually got upset but just barely.  We are learning the signs and learning to just pack up and go immediately when she gets tired and starts showing the signs of being unhappy.

Tomorrow I am driving down to pick up Madeline and Emily.  They are going to be staying with us for the week.  Other than that, no real plans for tomorrow.  Dominica will be home all day.

Up early again, I’ve been very good about that this week, and in to the office.  I was in by seven thirty – exceptionally good for a Friday which always means that I will be working late.

It is still hot here.  I heard from John at work that today we tied the second longest streak of temperatures being above one hundred degrees and there is no end in sight.  I’ve tried to reference this and can’t find exactly where this applies.  We are definitely on a very long streak but it appears that for the DFW as a whole (or maybe for measuring from the airport) we are high on the streak list but not to the top yet.  We have no end in sight, though, so heading towards a record of some sort is definitely a possibility.

I’m impressed that I am handling the hot weather with such casualness considering that it is a level of heat knocking most Texans off of their feet.

For lunch today John and I went out to Rockfish.  We haven’t been there is a while.  It was very good.  I got takeout for Dominica and dropped it off at the apartment for her.

After work I came home and just played a little Oblivion before heading off to an early bed time.  I’ve been going to bed very early all week.  Tomorrow I will be relaxing a bit and then heading to the Pierce’s for their anniversary party tomorrow afternoon.

In case you missed in, the US State Department took some heat for turning down a passport application as the Chinese-American applying for the passport was too yellow (or at least in the photograph.)  The State Department claimed that they meant that the photograph was skewed too yellow but there is no colour whatsoever in the picture apart from the man’s skin so on what basis the State Department had to determine what the proper amount of yellow in his skin would be is anyone’s guess.  Apparently they don’t believe that the grass is really greener in California either but Katy Perry insists that it is true.

I was in to the office very early today getting in around seven.  I’m trying to get back to this being my normal schedule.  If I can get out of the house before Liesl wakes up I get out in half of the time and she does not get all upset by my leaving.  Once she is awake going to work becomes rather traumatic.

The morning went fine.  I stayed late at work before going home for lunch today because I had a late telephone call that I needed to be on.

I had a very productive call this afternoon.  I am helping a NAS vendor understand their market.  I do a bit of market analysis these days which is pretty interesting.  It is a nice break from what I normally do.

Back to work this afternoon.  Nothing much to report.  Played a little Oblivion this evening.  Watching a little House Hunters International which gets Dominica excited about potentially moving to Europe.  So we watch them whenever possible.

Last night was pretty rough.  Liesl woke up in her room very early and was on the floor (we don’t think she fell, just got out of bed and fell asleep there) and was very unhappy.  So she came into our room and was awake for a very long time.  She was having fun reading the letters on her new Dora the Explorer pillow cover.  She knows several letters now like E, A and Y.

I probably only got three or four hours of sleep last night, at best, before getting up at five forty five this morning so that I could get ready and get into the office nice and early.  I left the apartment just before seven.  It was actually decently cool outside.

I was in the office nice and early which gave me some time to get caught up with things.  It was very warm in the office this morning, though, which was annoying.  Between the crazy hot garage and the crazy hot office it takes forever to just cool down.  It was at least an hour sitting in the office before I was comfortable.  Normally it is just five minutes.

My new Blackberry Curve 8820 arrived at the office today.  This is my first model with the joystick or touchpad instead of the trackball.  It will take me a while to get used to it.  This one is black like my Tour so that will be a bit more confusing than my older Curve.  At the moment, I have six Blackberry devices!  I have my two current ones (Tour and 8820), then I have my order Curve and Min’s 8830 Worldphone plus Liesl’s Pearl and the old style Blackberry that I keep in a drawer for no good reason.  I have no idea why I got this new one but the one big plus of it is that it shares a power adapter with my Tour so now I do not have to keep two different adapters when traveling.  That had gotten to be a really big pain.

I went home for lunch and made some phone calls.  That did not take nearly as long as I had anticipated so I got to play Oblivion for just a little bit.  Dominica made scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast and Morningstar bacon for lunch.

After work this evening it was off to pasta night at La Cima.  Liesl was in a poor mood this evening so Dominica decided that they should not go.  I would have stayed in this evening but we had a meeting at the club tonight so I needed to be there.  Maggie was driving in from Fort Worth as well.

I was running late when I got over to La Cima but Brian and Maggie were already there.  We hung out having cocktails for a while waiting for the rest of our party to arrive.  There were some awesome happy hour snacks out tonight including a tomato basil pesto whip on bread and goat cheese whip on bread and spinach puff pastry.  Yummy.

We waited about forty minutes in the lounge and eventually gave up on the people with whom we were meeting showing up.  No emails, no calls, nothing.  So we headed on in to the dining room.

Tonight’s pasta was chipotle cream.  It was very good although all of the cream sauces are very similar.  Mixing things up even with just a vodka sauce once a month would be a welcomed change.

We left La Cima at around nine thirty.  We never heard anything from the people with whom we were supposed to be meeting.  It seemed awfully strange that no one ever reached out to us in any capacity just to let us know that they could not make it.  Hopefully there has not been a car accident, which several people suggested might have happened.

Liesl was still awake when I got home.  We got to hang out for half an hour or so before she went to bed.  She is really enjoying having her own room.  She has a place to do everything on her own and her very own big girl bed.  She can come and go as she pleases but everything is sized for her.  It really helps to contain the mess in the house as well.

Pretty much as soon as Liesl went to bed I was off to sleep myself.  I was so tired at dinner that I had felt like falling asleep right there on the table.  I have no idea why I am so tired today.  It just really hit me all of a sudden at dinner.  Completely worn out.

Dominica only stayed up a little while longer than me.  Liesl is getting up earlier in the morning now that she is sleeping in her own room so staying up late is not really an option for us anymore.  Dominica is often tempted to stay up late because she can play Lego Harry Potter on the PS3 after Liesl goes to bed.  My game, Oblivion, is on the PS3 in Liesl’s room, though, so I can only play it when she is awake so my available time to play is much more limited.  That is handy, though, as it guarantees that I am not tempted to stay up all night playing it.