Sheep Guarding Llama

This morning Dominica and I drove down to meet up with her parents halfway between Dallas and Houston so that we could pick up the girls. They’ve been down with their cousins all week getting their last taste of summer.

We met up a Buc-ees and had just enough time to use the restrooms before they arrived to meet us.

So much of the day was just driving to and from getting the kids.  They were happy with how quickly the ride went by.

So mid-afternoon we got back to the house.  And it was mostly a day of hanging out with the kids.  We are all exhausted after Dominica’s birthday party weekend and the girls having a week playing with their cousins.

Luciana is nearly able to swim at this point and Liesl has become quite the mermaid able to swim underwater all over the place.

For dinner tonight we got Fuzzy Tacos, which we have discovered has a location much closer to us than we had realized.  We no longer have to go way up Josey to get to one, there is one at Midway right on Trinity Mills!  We will be going there more often, now.  Liesl tried a bean and cheese burrito and thought that it was okay, but nothing she really cared for.  She is not big into either beans or cheese.  She tried a bite of my fish tempura burrito, though, and she loved it!  She says that she wants to get that the next time that we get Fuzzy Tacos.

We started Dominica’s birthday party day with apple fritters.  I did not have one, but boy did they ever look good.  That’s exactly what an apple fritter should look like.  They really know how to do donuts, including fritters, in Texas.

Everyone had one, but me.  I’m trying so hard to be good on this diet.  It is not easy with this kind of stuff going on all of the time.

We decided that since we are so close to the Grassy Knoll and where JFK was assassinated that we should take the moment to check it out.  We never do things in downtown Dallas so this is a neat chance to see some things.  It is hard to remember that the places that you see on television are often right here.

We started by walking down the historic district through Founder’s Square where the city of Dallas began.  There is some neat Dallas history stuff down there and some nice monuments downtown.

It is only three blocks or so to the place where Kennedy was assassinated.  There is a small crowd there all of the time and an X on the road where it happened, which you can just see in the picture.  There were some people selling tourist stuff there, something that is pretty unusual in Dallas given what a completely non-touristy city it is.  Which is one of the things that I like about Dallas, no one visits it.

We thought about going through the Six Floor Museum, but the cost was very high and it’s not a subject worthy of much study.  It is just neat to see where it happened.

For a late lunch, we ordered delivery in from a pizza place in downtown Dallas called Tutta’s which we had seen last night on the Food Network.  It was pretty wild that we never, ever see television like that and the one time that we do, it is for a pizza place just two blocks from where we are.  We figured that it was fate and we had to try it.  So we did and it was pretty good.  Of course, I did not try the pizza, I just had a salad, but the salad was good and everyone else really liked their pizza.

Dinner was tacos.  Kat and I went out and brought tacos back for everyone.  We ready about Salsa Limon which is supposed to be the best tacos in town and had to try them.  And, lo and behold, they might be.  They were amazing tacos.

It was a good food day, and a cool day of exploring some local Dallas history.

This is our last day without the kids.  We head down towards Houston sometime in the morning to meet up with Dominica’s parents to pick Liesl and Luciana up.  School starts for them again on Monday, this was their last farewell to summer, swimming, and cousins.  They are ready to come home, though.  They miss us and they like to get some quiet time that never happens when they are down in Houston with all of the family.  They are so used to getting lots and lots of quiet time to themselves that being around people continuously is just not something that they are conditioned for.

Friday.  It is Dominica’s birthday weekend.  She doesn’t really turn forty (eek, don’t say that) for four days, but the kids are away this week in Houston with the family so we are hanging out around Dallas which we never get to do with the kids to celebrate her birthday.

I had a busy work morning, but that is pretty typical.

Paul, Kat, Dominica, and I all went downtown and did Dominica’s birthday dinner at Revenna right downtown which was really nice.  Dominica’s highlight from dinner, though, was that they had genuine canoli just like in Italy.  They wouldn’t tell her their source, though.  It was definitely the right choice for a birthday dinner, though.

This evening we went out to a club downtown and did some dancing to a 90s and 2000s cover band that was actually really good.  We had a good time and the music selection was a lot of fun.

Thursday.  It was a busy day without much time to keep up on my logs.  I had tons of work to do to get ready to be able to go out this weekend and not have to spend the weekend working, if at all possible.  We are all going to be celebrating Dominica’s birthday this weekend and I am trying to have the time free.  So that is where I have been, just head down working all day.  The kids are not around, so no reason to spend time even in the evening not working to be with them.

For food today, it was nothing but fresh fruit and steamed veggies for me.

Wednesday. Another busy day.  Lots to do with the kids gone and the weekend coming up for Dominica’s birthday outing.  So my week is mostly working long days to get as much done as possible before the kids come up on Sunday or Monday.  We aren’t sure exactly when they are coming back, yet.  But they have to be home by Monday afternoon so that is the latest.